Iron Nokana Model

This is the Iron Nokana from Metal Slug. The aim of this project was to do a high detail model with a little environment to accompany it. Everything worked out decently which was good, but I didn't learn to much. This was more of an exercise of my skills to keep myself sharp. The follow up to this project will be to cut back on the detail and get a better texture that will add it back. When I return the plan is to get this to a usable game model poly count limit. Cutting back on the geometry will be easy but my texture work will take a lot of time until it's passable.

Z Brush Envoirment

This was another experiment for me, trying to make an environment with Z Brush. This video is what inspired me.


Putting together the Gazeebo worked out fine since it's composed up of many similar parts. That was the easy part, however getting an island and other such parts of an environment was a bit more difficult. The good news is that I learned how to make my own custom alpha for brushes, which will come in very handy later on. I might return to this idea, but not this exact project.

Low Poly / Modular Envoirnment

This project was a bit more experimental for me than my normal work. The plan was to make a distant environment that used as few textures as possible while also using the least amount of detail possible. While part of it worked, the rest didn't come together to well. What I learned is that I should make the tile-able texture first, then UV my objects, which will allow me to easier match up edges and get the scale correct.

As a follow up, I'd like to try to make a more detailed environment matching this one, and see how close I can get the low poly to match it at a distance.

King Knight

This is the glamorous and glorious King Knight from Shovel Knight. This was mainly to get back into the swing of working on something each week and getting it done. Sadly, I couldn't get this finished Friday, but here it is now. The good news is that this guy didn't take to long to make, mainly from lack of major details and with him being so smooth. Took near 12 hours to complete. Will be working on the rest of the Order of No Quarter soon.

Boat Cave Grave: Learning Curve

After working with the concept and blocking out a starting scene for this environment, I've learned a few things going forward to put in with my next project. I need to be quicker in blocking out. I've already put in to much detail with the boats and especially with the mountain. I need to pull away from individual detail and focus on the area as a whole first. With at least 10-11 hours on this, I don't feel I've gotten that far. The good news is that I feel I found a better idea with the ending area, I know what parts of the ships I need to model and to ignore the rest, and after working out a general idea, I understand how I want this to flow.

Next part is to model out the ships in a bit more detail and then adjust the cavern walls, angle, and size. After they're done, work on figuring out how I can build the city in a modular fashion. Looking at pictures of Mesa Verde, my new inspiration, it should be easy to cut it down into a bunch of simple shapes.

Then, depending on how long I've worked on everything, figure out what needs the most work, and refine. What I want to have above all else is to have every area crafted in such a way that'll pull the player through it by interest.

3D Blocking of BoatCaveGrave

So here is my quick blocking of the envoirnmenmt I'm making. At this time, all work in Maya has taken between 3-5 hours and I feel that is probably too long. Even with these simple shapes, I could of just used cubes, so in the future I need to think less about what I'm making in small pieces and focus on the whole picture. This is seen where I changed the city area. There is it is all very simple shapes and getting that took less than 30 minutes.

More Concept for Boat Cave Grave

Some more concept art done. Almost done with all of it. Just working on ideas on how the character would move over the ships. As well, I reworked the idea of the city to look more like Mesa Verde than some random Greek / Roman buildings. I feel it makes more sense and looks more unique. Finally, this puts my total time on concept work around six hours.

Values for Boat Grave Cave

Just took a few concept images into photoshop to layer over black > white to add some better value.

Concept Art for Boat Grave Cave

These are sketches of my first environment. The idea is to start with a normal cave that becomes something more mystical.