The 3D Printer.....some assemble required

So ya during the trip to new york I got to see first hand a 3d printer for personal use. Even though this was the only thing somewhat similar to what I wanted to do, as a 3D modeler I thought this was a very cool idea. So basically these guys in New York created a compact size 3D printer that is kind of pricey right now at around $700 a pop, but expect the price to go down some. You do have to assemble it yourself which is kind of a pain especially when attaching the wires and motor to it. However the end result look really good in my opinion.

link to website will go here


Pics:
Video:

Color Comp

Here is what my Home page will pretty much look like. This is however not the final version I want to do so more to it and add some other parts to it. Also there will be motion in the back ground, smoke and gears turning. I also plan to animate my logo a little. I also have a little more things in the artwork pages and I like to get the video screen and other thing held up by something instead of just floating in the air.

Wireframes

These are my wireframes for my home page and my project page.

Home page:

trying to keep it with very few things on the page other then the demo reel because that is what I want them to see first. I may add my email under my name, also I'm still considering if I will hide the links to they roll over them with the mouse.


Project/art work Page:

This is the art work page where you will view the work, video, and/or sculpture if it has one. The bar on the side will be the thumbnails which when you scroll will be dropped on top/ or take away by a crane. The ones on the bottom will just disappear into the ground, there will also be a lever or crank that when clicked when show info on the piece and links to the video/image/or sculpture.

Finalized Logo, Colors, font

Color:

I couldn't get this images into Kuler so I'll show some images. I basically going for a steam punk look on my site so the colors will be different shades of brown, rust color reds, metal grays, light blacks, and a broze color. The reason I'm going this way is because I like the unique build tech which can have both a mess of tech and nature, like the spider bot below.

Fonts:
The fonts above I'm planning to use for my resume for sure, however I'm not sure if I want to go with a different font family for my site. I like these fonts cause there very solid and just some how seems to go with my 3D models.

Logos:
I have two logos I want to go with the first is my original box with my initals in it. The box is like a building box which is kind of what 3D modeling is building, theres also a modeling style that I use from time to time called box modeling. This is a quick render of what it kind of looks like the B's would be in wire frames.
The next was trying to go with my site which is gears and steampunk like thing with my initals on top, I also was playing on having them move. For a logo on paper it would just be the gears in black outline, with my intials in white.

The Creepy Cool Art of Alex CF

An artist by the name of Alex creates some very cool yet very creepy 3D art. His art deals with horrors and monsters, like vampires, Lycans (werewolf's), experimental creatures, monsters from other dimensions and so on. His art on it's own is great but in most descriptions he gives a back story, I'm not sure if he made them up himself or got it from someone else but those story's behind the piece really make the piece even more compeling. So if you have a curiosity of the wierd and creepy then vist his site and check it out.

A word of warning to all you who visit his site......you may not want to look as these alone.....you may never be seen again.....

The Art of Alex CF

Schematic

Home Page














This is the home page all that will be on here is my name, logo, links to other pages, and my demo reel.

content page














This page is for my work it will have a wide viewing area. The info on each piece will be hidden until an easy noticeable tab is clicked, showing the info about that piece. The bar of the very bottom is where u can select different images of videos. The scrolling bar in between the viewer and nav bar is a scrolling bar used to fast forward through video and when images are on it will scroll to show different angles, wire frames and more on that piece.

Site map

Site Map:

Content

These are the work I have to show as of now:

Death Race Car
date: November 08
Medium: Computer 3D
Process: Images, 3D Model

GroG Model
date: 2006
Medium: Computer 3D
Process: Sketch, Clay Model, 3D Model

BadAxe low poly model
date: October 08
Medium: Computer 3D
Process: Sketch, 3D Model

Broad legged Sword DotHack Weapon
date: February 05
Medium: Computer 3D
Process: Images, Model

I will add more as well as images when I get them.

Finalish concepts

Here is what I have as of now:

Fonts:






This is the font family I've like more then anything else. I still trying to work out a text for the information text. The main text gives the feel of solid mass that seems a little blocky, like hard surface model. The next shows the curviness of a model found in smooth surface models. The last is still a work in progress and I'm looking for some that is a combination of them both.

Colors:


I'm still looking for other colors but one that will appear will be some gray tones, white, or black. I'm looking to add some color, not a very bright color but something to keep the viewers attention on the site.


Two Concepts:
1. Builder: basically it was an Idea to have a character repersent the site and keep things looking consistent. The site it self would have a mechcanic feel with metal, rust, copper, ect. The character I was thinking of was a cartoon bot, which would also go with the site look as well. Te main reason I like this idea was because since I'm learning flash and found some very cool portfolios that have a character throughout the site, it be a cool idea for interactivity and fun. I also thought up a good loading sequence for loading pages were the bot turns a crank and the loading percentage show going up above it, or something alone those lines.

2. Maya layout: This one was baisclly taking the layout of the program I use to create the models as a layout for the site it's self. Buttons that would be use to change to other projects, and if I could get a way to do a turn around in flash with the use of the mouse. The demo reel would appear in a window that repersents the render screen which can be close at any point.

what the program layout looks like:

concepts for my portfolio

Well for one I want to have some very fun interactivity on my site, I saw this portfolio site on Chelsey's blog and I found it fun and cool.

www.sir-patroclo.com
It was very entertaining even just just rolling over the buttons to hear the sound, it seem to be able to create a little music tone rolling over different button with the mouse. It maybe a little to kidding or fun for a 3D modeler but if I were to add my flash or animation at some point it be great to have something like that. Also it never hurts to have something fun even for a model portfolio.

www.cgmesh.com
The thing I like about his site besides it given me an example of a modeler site was that his demo reel was very easy to find on his page. However what I would like to do is I would have my demo reel on the front page or at least the page after the intro page. I like to use a similar screen shot set up as well, very easy to navigate but maybe I would add a way to view many angle of the same piece.

As for the actual look of the site for like colors and the like the only idea I had as of now is similar to those who have realworld looks. Like the site made to look like a desk top. I was thinking of doing something like that but with a Maya program on a computer screen.

concepts:

must have elements for portfolio

Here are some of my must have elements for my portfolio:
-demo reel
-contact info
-resume
-Bio (maybe)
-Individual Screens of work at different angles
-Video segments for each piece
-maybe some how to do stuff later on

Resume Updated

This is a updated version of my resume, a lot of the changes were trying to look for a good design. The logo is just a simple example of what I may want to use as a brand name. The lines that are throughout this is to represent modeling edges. Also I'm a little worried about what this will look like printed so I may change the colors as well.

More about my Work

The Work: GroG
This was a character that was going to be in an animated short film, set in a fantasy world. It was a group project where I worked with 3 others to produce the short. It was design by the team then I had to make a finalize sketch of it and model it for use in the animated short.

Here is the process I went through to get to the 3d modeled character. I first did a finalized sketch just to get a good visual idea of the creature. Also before I did that I had to study some things, since the head was taken to look like an elephant skull I had to look into what they look like from all angles and see how to work that into my character.

Next I did a sculpture of the creature in clay to get a 3d look of the creature, I added protruding spikes from its back to make it more creepy.I added chain cuffs as well to add that it may have been imprisoned once and escaped. However once I got to the actual 3D modeling of it in Maya I decided to change some things. first I got rid of the chain cuffs because they seem to interfere with the bend in the wrist when rigged. I also changed the mass in the middle of the character because it was to top heavy and unrealistic, also put a little more mass in the feet and legs to give it more stability.

Color schemes....possible

The first one I made was just a starting point of the basic most color scheme I could do. Most of my images have no color in them so it's going to be some what close to a gray scale scheme.

This one I made and kind of like cause although its still a lot like gray scale it's has a little bit of blue tone in it.

This has he same blue tone in it but with darker gray scale colors. Gives a more solid look to the whole scheme.

Well after 3 schemes of just grayish scale colors I wanted to add one with some color. Since I had a blue like tone I decided to add a blue color didn't want a vary rich in value blue so it wouldn't over power the other colors.

This is the last scheme and it is basicly the same as the last but I added a black to it for a more darker like scheme. The black maybe need to be a little lighter to make it work out a little more.

Categorization

Well for my sites categories I would have to consider if I'm going to be putting animation as well as modeling on it, however if just for models here is what my categories might be:
-Models-
-High Poly-
-Hard Surfaces-
-Smooth Surfaces-
-Low Poly-
-Hard Surfaces-
-Smooth Surfaces-

If I were to put animation on there and maybe my flash stuff it would be something like this:
-Models-
-High Poly-
-Hard Surfaces-
-Smooth Surfaces-
-Low Poly-
-Hard Surfaces-
-Smooth Surfaces-
-Animation-
-Flash-
-Maya-

Highlighted Work

The work I like to put into my portfolio:

The model of the car from the Movie Death Race, I think it came out best out of most of my work and unlike others look less time. Shows off that I can do quality work in a short period of time.

My GroG model, which is a model I created all the way through; also a good one o show my process. I have the finalized sketch I did, the Clay model I did and the 3D version as well.

My Game Character BadAxe, that way I could show I can do low polygon models as well, and texture a little. I believe I have drawings of this as well.

I would also Like to put some of the weapon models in as well since I don't have a lot of stuff model wise to work with.

If I can I like to put some of the animations I did as well, like my Cat With Ball short, or some stuff from animation 1.

My Work = Audience

Being a student and most of my work was made because it was what was asked of me from instructors I'm not sure if at the place they are now would call out to my target Audience, they seem to be very close to but still need some work. Depending on what I'm looking to do lets say get a job making 3D for games, I redo some of my low rez modeling stuff and work on the texture some. My car model could use a little more detail for realism as well as some texture. Also a good way to show off the way I modeled or the part that went into this is doing what I wrote about in another post using a take-apart. Basically taking the model and pulling certien parts up coser to view and maybe showing the mesh.

Target Audience

To find out all about my target audience I checked out two sites, I hadn't decided what I go for the 3D work for either games or movies so I checked out a site for both.

www.twoanimators.com
This is a very local animation studio founded in early 2001 and they work mostly in Flash they do very little in 3D, however we both would have very similar in the line of audience. They had clients from big companies, ad agencies and government organizations to small businesses and even other animation studios. They animated a 2D video from the song "The Monster is Loose" by Meat Loafs during his tour. The two main guys are Tom and Joe Costantini; they are the co-founders of the studio. They people at the studio seem very fun a laid back but still with some years under there belt. The work is wacky and fun and yet some is more serious and all of it is entertaining.

www.echelon-software.com
A game company in Queens New York are a pretty new company out in the industry. They are currently working with others on there own game called Black Powder|Red Earth. There Clients are more then likely under a NDA so instead I looked at some of the comments posted on a game review site which did a documentary on them. The people of course were mostly gamers, ones who look for great detail and look as close to real as can be.

Various Formats

Here is my list order of the various formats I would need to use for my portfolio.

Personal Website-This is a must for me well for any digital artist. It's a great place for those who get my name from other places to go and view and come back to when every they need to.

DVD- This would be the easiest way for me to take my portfolio around with me and bring to clients or anyone who can help me get a job.

CD's- This would be another option from the DVD and might be a little easier on the wallet.

Email- A little less professional but a quick, easy, and fast way to get out my resume.

Laptop- Good to carry around a lot of work and if I have a good enough laptop I can even bring my software with me to show ones who work in such programs themselves, however it still a little less professional then a DVD or CD.

Mini CD's- It didn't seem as if this kind of media applied to my work but if I could find a way to use it I would just to have the option.

Zip Disks- I don't see much need for these since no ones uses them any more.

self assessment checklist

1. Educational experience in my profession:
Certificate or Associate degree

2. Educational experience in a related or supporting profession:
Painting, Drawing, or other art fundamentals
Video and/or animation
Graphic design
3D modeling or rendering

3. Work experience withing a related or supporting profession:
none at the moment

4. I have software training in:
Photoshop and related imaging software
2D illustration program
Flash or other interation/animation program
Web design software
3D or animation programs
Video software

documentation

To start I really like the idea of doing a time lapse though it would have to be on a later project don't really have the time or software/hardware for that. I also would like to have pictures of the actually things I created, for example the car I made was from a movie so it actually exist in the real world and I like to show that with my model to demonstrate that I can create almost perfect replicas to the real thing.

I also would like to do both screen shots and a turntable video on my models, as well as show sketches and sculptures, anything that can show my process. I may also like to do a rip apart animations on some things, meaning I show each piece of the model separately so they can see all the detail of each piece.

Unifying Element

Well Most of my work is on Maya or is 3D related, and my 2D sketches as well as my 3D sculptures go toward my creations in 3D. Going even further most of my 3D is modeling, though I like to get into animation as well. To go even further I create mostly hard surface models instead of smooth surface ones. That means more thing like cars, buildings, cites, lights, ect., and less character models. I may just go with hard surface models and maybe throw one smooth surface one just so I can show I can do more then just hard surface models.

Hard Surface Models

My art process

What everyone else is doing

I check out other personal and/or company portfolios of other fields to see if I could get any other ideas for my own. I looked at a lot of design sites, and one thing that was a familiar thing was there was a continuous theme. Here are some that stuck out:
www.joshtilton.com
www.kavoon.com
www.madebysofa.com
www.simpleart.com.ua

I also like the last one a lot for that desktop site, I like to incorporate a 3D program layout screen for a web page idea. Some of the content that was seen throughout all of these sites and portfolios was; there work, contact information, previous employers, and a short part on who they are and why they do what they do. I really like some of the flash designer sites, very fun interactive stuff which I really like to put into my own site. Whats better then something fun to play with as you look at someones work. Here are some of the better ones:
www.andyfoulds.co.uk
www.flashtownworld.com
www.sixfootcreative.com

Whats out there

Well I was asked to research how other people in my field display there work. While researching I found that some have there work on there own websites like these examples.
www.adamdorman.com
www.cgmesh.com
The First one had a html setup while the other seem to use flash, whixh I found looked a lot better in my opinion. Also the first one I didn't see a demo reel while the second did and was easily noticeable. Some show there work on there site but also gave links to other art hosting sites.
www.0nd.org
This portfolio site was ok but the one he had on CGsociety look a lot more organized. It also had a network on it to other people so not only could he get a job but he could get someone else one as well. After looking at a couple of sites I looked to see what I could fined on youtube.com and there were a good amount of them. Just searching for "3D model" got a 1,000 results and just "3d reel" almost got 12,000 results. I tried "3D animation" to see if I get more or less and with over 9,000 results it was no contest. Although they had this on a place like youtube they did have links or atleast put there urls to there sites, here are some of the ones that caught my eye.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
I also checked out Vimeo to see if I got more or less then youtube, and I didn't get as many but they look a lot more professional which was nice but I would think that some post in both, the more places you can display your work the better

Portfolio Skills

I have some skills in 3D modeling which I could use to create a website look; buttons layout ect. I can use my 3D animation skills to create transactions between pages, I'm also learning flash which I can use to make some 2D interactive things.

I so have video editing skills using final cup pro and after effects, so I can do some cool thing to show off my work on my portfolio site. I still remember some of my dreamweaver creation stuff to make a basic layout, I would need to relearn some things. I also have some drawing skills to add a more hand made kind of design around my portfolio.

Cheers

Keep it in the Family

These are my two font family's, there still a work in progress:

Animation Family:Modeling Family:

or

These are still works in progress but these are a starting part.

WIP

The work that I wanted to put in my portfolio that needs the most work would have to be, BadAxe which is my game character model.

The reason I picked this one is because I need to redo most if not all the textures or at least finalize them more. Also I need to put some more edges in some places as well as smooth shade some parts. I also need to redo the turntable moive and maybe change the display piece to give it some extra zing.

Logos a Gogo

Most of my logos I'm trying to do in 3D so I didn't think about doing sketches, I don't have all of them yet but these are the ones I did:

My initials designs:

wire frame BB

Wire frame BB 2

Twisted Design

those are the ones I got done the others I'm still trying to get an idea for them.

Vimeo Video

This is the video I picked out on Vimeo, it deals with animation instead of modeling, what I'm looking to get into. However I'm really into animation right now so I thought I do one on that:


Animation from Hugo on Vimeo.

I really liked his animations, they were very smooth flowing with little quarks to enhance it even more. Some things he may have done different, all of his animations are 3D except for one 2D animation which was a loop. First it was inserted into another animation and it wasn't very long, so he may want to more it to the beginning and make it a little longer or just take it out all together.

Also he cut some animation and inputed others which was a little offputting so maybe if he didn't put anothing animation in the middel of another it would be a little better. All in all he has some awsome animation work.

A Brand Identity

1. My first idea for a brand identity is using my initials BB.

2. My next idea was ti to one of my initials and have a design around it.

3. Something done in 3D either my name or a cool design.

4. A studio type name like "Twisted Productions" or "Punk Studios"

5. Same as 4 but using my initials like "Bad Boy Productions" and have the B's stand out more

I like to use something that uses both my name, what I like, and my type of art form. I like to get all this into a brand identity that stand out and makes sure that anyone who sees it can say "oh I now that guy he does some cool work".

My Work...Monster Car

Well the work that will more then likely be going with me to look for a job or get into a 4 year school is my model of a Mustang from the Movie Death Race.


I used a picture with out the textures I had on it, was a little too dark to see. Well the good stuff is modeling wise it is finished, I would have to go in and add some edges to the armor plated parts so they don't look extremely hard edged. I also would like to model some stuff for the undercarriage for some more realism. The biggest thing would be some textures on it that atleast make it look more beat up and worn down.

Other then that the rest would be to get some better shot of it from a lot of places. Work on lighting it better, as well as making a better turntable clip of it.

HW assignment ...ya

We were asked to find other blogs that deal with are selected field and add them to a blog roll. Then we had to blog about are discoveries, I'm not to sure what I need to write about but here goes nothing. I had a hard time finding the blogs themselves and some are more like fan blogs from Pixar and others. Some are all around animation, both 3D and 2D as well as 3D clay/motion stop animation. All in all though there were some very unique techniques and ideas on some of the blogs.

Cheers

A little Brainstorming

List 5 things that you love to do:
~Video games, Movies, Learning about new tech, Art, Looking at others art

List 5 things that you hate to do:
~Homework, Working at Shoprite, Yard work, Stay up all night, Waking up really early

List 5 things you are proud of in your life
~My art, My grades, My experiences, living on my own in Florida, The career I've chosen.

List 5 things you are good at
~ Working in Maya, Video games, Working on the computer, managing my spending, being organized.

List 5 things that make you unique
~ Lived in Hawaii for 6 years, I like to collect all kinds of things, have to set 2 alarms to wake up, I sometimes just lay back and look up at the sky, I doodle a lot mostly of nothing but what I'm thinking of at the moment

List 5 adjectives that describe you
~ Friendly, Shy, Quiet, Calm, Helpful

List 5 adjectives that describe your work
~ Dark, Funny, Odd, Different, Crazy

List 5 topics your work deals with
~Movies, Video games, Comics, Current Subjects, Everyday things

List the media you use in your work
~Computers, Cameras, Video cameras, Clay, Drawing and coloring tools

List the colors that you use most often
~Mostly gray, Solid colors

List 5 emotions your work conjures
~ Happiness, Fear, Uneasiness, Excitement, Laughter

List the titles of the work you would like to highlight, if you don't have titles, come up with them
now
~ DR: Frankenstein's Monster, Mr. Bones, BadAxe, Grog, Bad City Streets

List 5 adjectives to describe the kind of company you'll work for
~ New, Friendly, Easygoing, Important, Sturdy (economy wise)

List 5 adjectives to describe the kind of boss you'd like to have
~ Friendly, Cheerful, Funny, Fair, Helpful

List 5 things you will have to do for your job
~ Sketch ideas, make textures, Rig character for moment, Create Models in 3D software, Animate

List 5 words describing your industry
~ Fun, Amazing, Fast, New, Vast

List the reasons your job exists
~ To entertain people, To train people, To test something before actually doing it, To teach people

A Year of Awesomeness

Well as with my last movies coming out post the least super bowl that happen last sunday there came a flood of trailers for upcoming movie. Heres the ones I've found as of today:

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
From the comics,television show,action figures, and so on; comes the movie.
Video: Here
Website: Here

Fast & Furious 4
Part 4 of the Fast & Furious movie franchise.
Video: Here
Website: Here

X-Man Origins: Wolverine
The story of Wolverine before he became an X-Man.
Video: Here
Website: Here

2012
2012 is a movie that shows what people believe that in this year the world goes into chaos. The end of everything.
Video: Here
Website: Here

Cheers

My Rough Resume

Objective:
To use my skills and experiences in the creative field and to advance my own skills to the next level.

Education:
Collage of Southern Maryland (fall 2003-spring 2004)

Full Sail: Real World Education (2004-2006)
-Major in Computer Animation

Mercer County Community Collage (2006-2009)
-Digital Media Arts
-Concentration in: 3-D Animation
-Dean's List (Spring & Fall 07/Spring & Fall 08)

Work Experience:
Summer Recreation Program (summer 2002)
-Volunteer work

Eastern Performance Cycles (2003)
-Experience working with others in teams to complete a job
-Experience in complete work by a set due date

Shopright Supermarket (06-current)
-Working with costumers
-Maintaining a clean environment
-Being able to work in multiple department when needed
-Trained new employees

Lab Assistant at Mercer Community Collage (spring 2009)
-Give help to others having trouble with programs
-Working with other students to help finish there projects

Software Experience:
-Maya
-Shake
-Photoshop
-Final Cut Pro
-After Effects
-Dreamweaver
-Microsoft Office

Hardware Experience:
-Mac OS
-Windows
-Wacom Tablet
-Cameras
-Video Cameras

All about the Work

Most of the work I have done has been in modeling, I have done both High and low polygon models. I've also created both hard surface models and soft surface models, I have made environments and characters. Some of my models that I created at the collage I'm at was show in a quarterly review done by the teachers to promote the work that is done in there class. I have done work in teams and we were able to make production quality animation. I've also done animations as well but I'm still trying to work on improving my skills in that.

I have been working in flash as well which has been helping me with my 3d animation as well. I have done some film and video editing skills as well, which would come in handy for an internship or maybe an entry-level job starting point. My compositing skills are at mid level so I can do a lot of simpler not really difficult composites to help out. I have skills in 2d art programs as well as some drawing and painting skills.

Cheers

Transformer Fans......ROLL OUT!!!!

Well if anyone was watching the super bowl on sunday they got a little taste of whats to come in the next Transformers movie: Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. It's directed by Michal Bay and is coming out June 26 this year. If you didn't see it here it is, enjoy and don't forget to check out the site for more. Oh and one last thing check back here to check out what else is coming out this year to theaters.



heres the official site

Cheers

Getting the Foot in the Door

As I stated in my last post I had trouble finding an entry level job in my field but I can discuss some of the ones asked for in a couple of the jobs I did find. A lot of the jobs asked for a few years of experience in the field, some only a degree in said field. Some of the gaming jobs openings ask that you could give them a name of a shipped game on the market that you had a hand in the creation of.

As for what tools or programs they ask the ones appliying know dealt with more then just one type of 3d software. Maya, 3D Max, Lightwave, and Mudbox all create 3d creations in and most are owned by the same company but they still require you have experience or master in each one. They also asked for skills in other programs like photoshop and composite software. So I need to work on a lot more so I can get a running start in this career.

Cheers

Getting Out There

I had a lot of difficulty finding an entry level job in any 3D artist field. I search almost all the job finder sites we were given but pretty much all the jobs I found were Mid-level jobs or higher, most requiring a bachelor or 4 years experience in the field. Some jobs didn't really specific what level of experience was needed other then the requirements

While I was looking for en entry-level job I came across a lot of autoCAD jobs that asked for 3D modeling experience. However it also asked for engineering degrees and experience along with it. You seem to needed on top of the autoCAD program and modeling skills, lots of draftsman type experience as well.

Here is one of the entry level autoCAD drafter jobs I found.

Cheers

experience +1

My work experience is not that expanded I learned a lot from a couple of simpler jobs which started back when I was still in middle school. I've work with many people through the years, mostly I was working at a Harley-Davidson repair shop and a auto repair shop as well. Those jobs gave me a lot of experience in team work, everyone who worked there worked as a time, so one guy fixing this part while another work on another part but they still had to work and talk to one another to repair the problem.

Other then working there I also did some volunteer work about when I was in high school, basically working with kids in a summer camp they held at one of the nearby schools. I got a lot of listening and patience skills while I was there. After a couple of years I found myself here and got a new job, working at a deli counter in a local store. There I got a lot of experience dealing with people or customers, I also got some problem solving experience.

All these skills that I've collected over those years will all help when I finally get the job I really want. The most important one dealing with a 3D artist is being able to work in teams, as well as working well with the other people in that team. As for experience in this field itself most has been in what I've been learning in school. I have worked in Maya almost 3 0r 4 years and though I seem to improve slowly I got a lot better and faster then 2 or 3 years ago. I also got the chance to meet people from all kinds of game companies and animation studios and have them talk about there job and what it takes to make it in this industry.

Cheers

Dare to Compare

Well I looked for jobs on three different sites so that I could compare the experience. The ones I choose were; Game Jobs, Highend Careers, and Craigslist. I did a search on all of them using the same job title I did for the last career searching assignment, 3D modeler, and these are my findings.

First I start with Game Jobs, It was easy enough to navigate through although I didn't much care for the sites look to much. As for the job searching itself I looked for 3d modeler and got one or two that actually dealt with just modeling but the rest were like teaching job and game review. Also every time I tried to enter another search it added to the old search beacuse I didn't know it but you have to clear the search from the other times. I then tried the Job Type tab and found 2 job listings for designer/modeler but when I clicked it to checked it out I only got one, which was an internship that didn't seem to involve any modeling at all.
Game Jobs Search

Next I'll compare Highend Careers, I actually really liked this site a lot and it was easy to navigate as well as it game me jobs that I was actually looking for. However this was a site made for people that do 3D work so anyone looking for jobs in TV or film would have a tough time with this site. There were a buch of ways to do a search; by industry, by software, or by Location. I would most likely use this site to search for a job when I start looking for a job.
Highend Career Search

The last one I did was Craigslist, I didn't care for the layout at all the navigation was a little weird to me. During the job search I only found two jobs for freelance modelers and they were for the same job in which the project was already almost 20 days in.
Craigslist Search

If I had to choose between these three sites to look for a job I would go with Highend Careers, mostly cause it seem to have more jobs that I'd be interested in.

Cheers

Tools of the Trade

The tools a 3D artist needs are mostly found on a single piece of important hardware, the computer; Mac and/or PC. Some other hardware that maybe used are; a wacom tablet, and a laptop (for working at home or in another location without a computer). There are lots of software programs 3d artist use, I'll go through the ones I've used myself; Maya (3d program), Photoshop (textures), Shake (compositor), After Effects( another compositor), Final Cut Pro (Mac compositor), Zbrush (3D program).

Other then all those which are computer base programs I would also use many 2D tools, Sketchbooks, drawing and coloring pencils, drawing and coloring pens, and paints. These are most of the tools a 3D artist uses there are more but these are the ones I mostly use.

Cheers

Time for a "Short" Break

hey all,

Since most of my post have been school stuff only I thought I make one about something everyone likes to do from time to time, watch some videos. Theses are two of the animated shorts that made it into Siggraph '08 which I got to see first hand when they showed them at an art school in New York. These were two of my favorites, but there were many more which sadly I couldn't fit them all on here, so hope you enjoy the ones I did.

Cheers

Mauvais Rôle


Our Wonderful Nature

Going for the Gold

Here are some of the Industry's I like to work for:

Pixar - 3D animation Studio

Dreamworks - 3D animation Studio- look under Company then select Careers

Activision - Game Company

Rockstar - Game Company

Blue Sky - 3D animation Studio

The Right Questions

1. What software do you know/ have some experience?

• Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Shake, Final Cup Pro, After Effects, Zbrush, Dreamweaver, Flash, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel.

2.What creative skills and talents do you have?

• Drawing
• Painting
• Sculpture

3.What are you favorite things?

• Movies
  
• Video Games
  
• All things Tech

4.What are you interested in?

• Many of the same things as in question 3

5.What are you passionate about?

• All things 3D, when I'm not creating stuff or thinking of new stuff to create I'm either looking at others 3D art online, watching 3D movies (Pixar stuff etc...), or playing video games which I find myself looking at the characters and surrounding environment then actually playing the game.

6.What do you HATE, can't stand or despise?

• People who trash others work without a reason why, like not giving helpful incite or advice but just saying it sucks.
• People who complain all the time, or those who complain about nothing.
  

The Hunt for a Job

First is what I was looking for and that was a job in computer animation, I started with 3D artist and got a few but not enough so I narrowed it to 3D Modeler. The reason I was looking for this job is because I like to take my 2D drawings and turn them into 3D models and in time make them come to life, in a way. I've always like watching 3D animations done by big time studios like Pixar, but also enjoyed watching people’s personal created shorts. All that made me want to become a 3D artist even more.

As for job hunting I went with 3D modeler and used Monster.com, I tried game jobs and a couple others but didn't come up with the required amount. Only Monster gave me enough. However as stated above I had tried with 3D artist but came up with only two jobs so I had to change it to something more specific. Some of the jobs however ask you to do more than just model, like have some Photoshop skills and such. The site itself was pretty easy to navigate, there was the ability if you create an account to save job listings and such. All in all I will most likely be putting my resume up on monster when I go looking for a job.

3D Modeler findings

Cheers

Getting Started

This is a preview post to test my blogger out.


Cheers