Tiny Paper Cars App

So I finally finished my Paper Cars App, ie. the advert I explained in my previous post, using the iphone and cars. First time using After Effects. I am real proud of myself :)

Follow the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW9yGbhCYM8

Hope you like!

Officially a Visual Effects & Concept Design student @StaffsUni :D

Hey everybody :)

I'm terribly sorry that I have been away, but as I said in my previous post, I was awaiting a response from Staffordshire University to study the subject of my dreams!

And guess who got accepted?? :D

So I am writing this post in the cosy town of Stoke On Trent :) Yipppeeeee! 

At the moment, I am modelling the iPhone 5 for a project. 

So of course, I haven't textured it yet, but that's what it looks like so far :) 

Before this, basically on the first day, we were given the project of modelling the Delorean from Back To The Future, and after that, two other vehicles.
Now I have modeled a vehicle before, my beloved Chevrolet Camaro. I modeled that beauty like a pro! But it took quite some time. So when I heard we had to model 3 vehicles in one week, I was like, "are you crazy?!". Then the tutor surprised me and told us we're doing it paper-craft style. 

Paper-craft means modeling a cube with a few indents, taking a .jpeg and "pasting" it onto your model. It is as simple as it sounds. Here's my Delorean: 

Do you see what I mean when I say I "pasted" the picture on there?

Below is the paper-craft version of my baby:

The other vehicle I did was Ratchet the medic from Transformers.

In my curriculum, we are expected to do both 2D and 3D work for two years and the third year, we get to specialize. I however, already know I want to do 3D. I cannot draw well, so I don't like it very much. I am more of a 3D-orientated person. But hey, I was told by my tutor, that it's helpful to know all sides to the pipeline, pre-production, production and post-production.

I can't wait to start learning about Nuke and After Effects! The things one is capable of doing in that program is amazing and I cannot wait to show off some of my skills :)

I love the UK. I miss my family though. A lot. But I keep busy to keep my mind off of home and hopefully the days will go by faster and I get to see them again.

While I'm here, I really want to tour Manchester again. It is one of, if not thee most, beautiful city in the UK! I must see it again!

Anyway, that's all I have to say/show for now. When my 2D skills start to excel, only then will I post up pictures of what I've done lol. Don't want to embarrass myself now.

Ciao.

Two games.. Mid&End Year Project.. F.O.D

During my one-year G.A.M.E course at FriendsOfDesign, I managed to successfully complete two games using Blender, Photoshop and Unity 3D. They might not be insanely cool, but given the circumstances, I did a damn good job; even if I do say so myself :)

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Before moving on and seeing screenshots of my games, I thought I'd show you the first project I did during my IT Programming year. As you can see, it's a temperature converter website. The mathematics that went into the whole conversion was quite something, but I managed to get it right. I'm cool like that. Cool, get it? :)

This right here is my Final Art Painting Exam for matric. The project was "Who Do You Think You Are?". So since my dad is Greek and my mom, South African; It's only fitting that I add both European and African aspects. I know the Colosseum is Roman, not Greek, but the idea and grounds for material was inspired by the Greeks. Booyah! Plus. it's awesome, like me! :)

"Looking Deeper" - Inspired by Hitchcock's 'Rear Window'(left) & just a simple Man vs. Beast(right)

My first painting done in the first year of high school. Titled "City Life".

I am a HUGE Batman fan! Greatest superhero of all time! Superman can suck it! Amped for Man of Steel though :P
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Jungle Ryder

The start screen to my first game. A car game I had finished in just two weeks. One circuit to finish in a race-against-time. I did this cover in the last 5 minutes lol, hence.

My car has two machine guns attached on the front to shoot rocks out of the way. I have health, therefore, avoid the fire puddles. A race-against-time hence LapTime. I have a speedometer too :)

I have the soundtrack of a guy laughing in the background, it's hilarious!

I got the highest mark in my class for my first game, 100%! Yip, I'm awesome!

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The start screen to my second game and end-of-year project, of which I received 78% for. Proud? Yes, I am :)

Next, a few in-game screenshots

What I wanted my in-game screen to look like, had I been given more time, and a lot more knowledge, but hey, it'll come. Soon I will be one of the greatest! Btw, I designed everything on this screen in Photoshop with the help of tutorial videos :)

My Loading screen :) Made in Photoshop. A pleasure.

Game props I designed :)

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3D Modelling, UV Unwrapping, Weight-Painting, Texturing, Rigging... Blender 3D

Modeling Athena

This was my early stages of modeling a female figure without the use of a drawing/sketch, to see just how accurate I could picture it. The model is definitely not 100% but I didnt do so bad. Perfectly shaped boobs, if you ask me. I was going to model her as an alien with another set of arms, pretty much like Four-Arms from Ben 10. But then I spent like a whole day on just her boobs, then I figured she had to be human. I don't really enjoy modeling, much less drawing, humans. I prefer cars, tables, chairs, buildings, etc. Inanimate objects, so to say. Although, I happen to know some inanimate human beings, but let's not dwell off topic :)

Now once the model is complete, on comes a job that can get quite annoying. It's called weight-painting, and as you can see, something is wrong with Athena over here. Unless she is handicapped in some way, her hips are not supposed to move out of proportion like that. So weight-painting fixes this problem. You use the circle to paint over the problem area. Everytime you move the model, a different problem pops up and you 'paint' it correctly again :)

Over here, I am fixing her shoulders, which is always a problem in weight-painting. No matter what the model looks like, joints/hinges will always be a problem to fix. And from experience, I've always had trouble with shoulders, they always seem to dislocate. Oh well.

This job is actually done before weight-painting. It's called rigging. You really gotta know your Biology when rigging, because it's basically adding bones and joints to the body(model). Unless you're like me, and appreciate the awesome people all over the world who provide us with cool videos and tutorials to learn from; because then knowing which bone is which, is not really as important. It takes a bit of getting use to, but once you complete it, you'll be really proud of yourself. I know I was. I know I am :)

As a beginner, I wasn't really good at texturing, I mean she looks like a carrot, but I'm getting better :)

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My Chevy

Now onto something I thoroughly enjoyed modeling, my Chevrolet Camaro. When my teacher stepped in and said, "Okay guys, this week we're modeling any mode of transport", I was instantly excited by the idea. Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking, why didn't I model a plane, jet or some sort of spacecraft..believe me, I was considering it. But I thought, how much cooler would it be if I modeled my favourite car. Taking in the fact that everything that is modelled is started with a cube. I was really proud of myself when I completed this. It looks awesome!

The 'image' on the left is the process of UV Unwrapping. Although the name is quite self-explanatory, I'll explain what it is anyway. You start off by inspecting your model for any errors, or parts you don't like and want to alter. Because once you begin this process, there is no turning back. So this UV unwrapping process is basically slicing your model into different pieces in order to texture it. It was a bit hard for me to understand at first, but I found it easier to draw it on a piece of paper first and see how to cut from there. If you look at the unwrap, you can easily see the different parts of the car and how it is textured/coloured and how it comes together. The image is then exported as a JPEG and you use Photoshop to paint.

If you want your model to move, you have to give it some bones. So of course I wanted my Chevy to move around a bit and be animated to reverse and do some donuts. Rigging it was pretty easy. The only hard part is remembering the link between the bones and which one would be the 'parent' and which one would be the 'child' to that 'parent'.

And this is the end product. The final rendered image. Not bad. I'd drive that :)

 

So I know the quality of the picture is not so great. But I ended up modding the car with my favourite colour and energy drink labeling :)

 

Ninja Granny + Oil Heaven- Project 1 - GDD

Simple drawn characters - before.

Painted/Photoshopped characters - after.

Main Menu screen example for Oil Heaven.

Button examples

This was of course made in Photoshop. Some are my own, simple drawings and the rest are different pictures taken from the internet, put together.

Flow chart - this right here is the most essential part of creating a GDD (Game Design Document). It takes you step by step through the motion of the menus and the role each button plays and how they link.

My (example) game screen. Within the GDD, it was quite useful to be able to create such examples, as some people are more visual/practical then theoretical.

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So despite the lovely example pictures above, the games were never really designed. Although, when I do design it, you know, in my spare time (coz I'm awesome like that), it'd be fun and easy games for kids :)