The week.

This week has been all around strange for me. I was sick three days, started a new job, and now have the prospect of getting a second (which I really hope I do), and on top of that have been trying to stretch myself as an artist in my spare time. With only monday and today actually counting for real days (when I haven’t been ill and immobilized) not much has gotten done other than a lot of reading and thinking. In that reading and thinking bit I’ve been searching out and finding tutorials to help me become a better environment artist and found some very helpful articles and  forum threads. In light of that below is my most recent render of my building scene which only needs two more objects (one is modeled and ready for texture the other is going to be from the ground up) to be complete. You’ll notice in this update that a good amount has changed and some objects have been taken out or moved (that’s because they just didn’t seem to really fit or became unnecessary).

So there you have it. I’ve been planning my next project (or series of smaller projects) out during the week and I’m excited to finish this and move on. My next project is going to start as a collection of scifi game props and will eventually become a kind of hangar scene. I’ll be exploring modular building materials (like walls, doors, ceilings and floors which I did in this project with the sidewalk, windows and props but not the building itself) as well as using ZBrush to do high res details on my hard surface models (like crates, walls, doors, machines, etc.).

In other news, I’ve been playing a game of d20 Modern (like d&d but set in the present to near-future) with some friends and been acting as game master. It’s been incredibly rewarding and this last wednesday was our third session which went spectacularly. It’s been a blast to sculpt the game and its systems on the fly in response to my players, and to be able to see them do some crazy, awesome and unexpected things in the game. In light of that, I’ve been thinking about doing a short 2.5D side scroller with one or two friends, as well as been throwing the idea of doing a small mod for Left 4 Dead or Unreal III. All up in the air, especially with my newly fluid schedule of work.

Some of you know I’m in a band, and we have several shows over the next couple months. When I know dates, I’ll post them here. We’ll also be recording soon (we hope) and so we should have a nice EP to hand out/sell.

That’s about all for now, but in the next month or so I’ll be posting a (relatively) long narrative about a very extraordinary weekend I recently had, so stay tuned for that.