Keeping Busy

This past week i have been working on a few separate projects. I have joined a few other artists to form a small team intent on creating a animated short. Right now we are in the very early stages of getting things rolling, so progress is really slow. Our main focus at this point is to develop the story and art direction.

To keep my self busy, practicing and having fun, I have started working on another character. With this character i am continuing to try and widen my range of style. I started with a vague idea about deep space explorer with a present day spelunker look. I am aiming for a caricatured style similar to 'Borderlands' without the toon shader look. Here is the current scuplt. the end product i am shooting for is a mesh with around 4k tris using one 1024 map set (diffuse, Normal and spec map).

I have been working to buff my portfolio and get rid of all the older images that just didn't quite reflect my current skill set. During this house cleaning, I decided to try and pick up a few more skills and programs to learn.


First off, 8Monkey Labs Marmoset Engine Toolbag. This tool is great for accurate real time rendering of game assets. It takes a little getting used to, but once I got a feel for it, I would say that the simplicity of use makes it one of the best ways to render your work without having to set up a scene for mental ray or other renderers. This here is a screencap taken in realtime:

I have also been busy trying to learn the basics of Unity. My whole purpose behind learning Unity was to be able to show art samples in a realtime environment - an environment that the viewer can manipulate. That way the viewer is not limited to just a few pre-chosen pictures and angles. Now the viewer can move around the art and view it from all sides.

I set up a basic Turntable scene built for drag and drop turntable building. Thus, whenever have something to show, all i have to do is drag it into Unity and drop it into the scene. I publish it, upload it, and it is ready for viewing. Here is an example: http://mattbeckman-3d.com/TurnTable.html

My first Animation

Recently i have been going over all my old files looking for things to save, and things to get rid of. I came across my very first animation. I made this animation in my spare hours when i was in Iraq. At the time, i only intended to make it for fun, and for the poeple in my unit. Many of the jokes are inside jokes, but somehow, many people understand them.

After leaving Iraq and getting out of the army, I later found out that this little video had made the rounds through many different untis, and even private security forces. I always intended to finish what i had started, but i no longer feel the way i did when i first made it. Trying to finish now might kill what makes people like it...

I made this movie using Adobe photoshop 6, Windows movie maker, and audacity sound editor. I hand animated each frame. It took me 3 months.

Wizard Oz Mini

I decided to enter the Wizard of Oz mini challenge on GameArtisans. The challenge is to redesign one of the characters using 4k tri or less with 1024 texture maps. I chose to remake the Lollipop Guild, but might have some trouble keeping it under 4k tris. So far i am just getting a base character together. I am trying to style my version in the Fable style of the street kids...

Zbrush Head sketching

Today, I decided to take a break from working on my house and decided to practice some zbrush. I worked on creating some head sketches, starting with the initial polySphere and working in the shapes. I focused on the large shapes and avoided getting into too much fine detail.

House work

After working as a character artist for a few years, my skills as in environment art were neglected. To add, I have been working on creating art for realtime rendering, i.e. games. To get back into environments and creating good looking art i decided to create my own house in maya (my own, as in the one I live in). I started out trying to be really conservative with poly's but didn't like the result I was getting. My end goal is to have something close to photorealism.

Here are a couple WIPs:

Yes, my house is painted orange. For now...

This is my new worKlog

This is my worKlog. Not a Blog. Blog sounds like something you do in the bathroom. What I am going to log here is the work process of my digital art. Though some may say that it too belongs in the bathroom, I'll put it here for now.

-matt