Yoshi Basic Shapes in Photoshop

 For this assignment we had to redesign one of the 12 original Super Smash Bros. characters as basic shapes, rendering the forms in Photoshop. I sketched each shape and used a simple airbrush to create the shading. I feel I went too complicated with my initial design, not allowing for space between the various shapes, and putting a bit more detail into the design than others, but I wanted to brush up on my drawing skills, since I have not made art in this style for quite some time. I'm happy with the final design and I think I was able to give Yoshi his usual personality.

2D and 3D Sprites in Unreal

 For our first assignment we had to create beveled blocks in Maya and export them to Unreal, where we recreated retro characters in engine. For the 2D character, I chose Wheel Gator from Mega Man X2, one of my favorite games with some of my favorite character designs.

This process was definitely repetitive, and it didn't help that I had to use a trackpad to create this design, but eventually I got into a rhythm and laid out each color efficiently, getting much more comfortable with the interface.

Next I created a 3D character, choosing the Met enemy from the original Mega Man games. I was surprised how many blocks it took to translate such a simple design into 3D. I had to get much more comfortable with grouping and material editing to efficiently copy each layer of the round design, iterating as I went to ensure the original shape was translated correctly.

Next, through a basic introduction to blueprinting and level sequencing, I created some video renders of the final design, trying to show off the dimensions of the character.

I definitely should have budgeted my time better so I could create a cool scene for the Met to exist in, but I'm pleased with the final design.

Personal 3D Work

 Quad Robot

Hello everyone. Welcome to my new blog, which I have started as a student of FIEA in Cohort 20. I'd like to start off with some of my previous work from my portfolio.

This project remains one of my favorites. The process of making this quadruped robot was quite loose, making up details and mechanics as I went. I had to learn complex rigging techniques to get the segmented parts of the robot moving correctly. Then I created my own texture maps for the first time and created bump maps to give the robot realistic scratches and wear.

Sun and Moon

Luna

Sol

This pair was created for Global Game Jam 2021. It was fun going through the entire creative process for two characters. Modeling, rigging, and animating them, including crafting the hair and clothing. In the end I spent more than half the time limit for the game jam just creating the characters, and had very little time to program the game. Still it was a very rewarding experience.

Bellerophon

This character was created for a potential future project, meant to be the ancient Greek hero, Bellerophon. It was one of my first forays into 3D sculpting. It seemed that my years as a 2D artist helped a lot, as crafting the character's facial features came quite naturally, though I struggled to get it working smoothly with a facial rig. The hair was another monster altogether, as creating a clean, slicked back style proved to be a challenge. And I learned the hard way how hair can impact render times if not modeled conservatively.

This project I made on kind of an impulse. I had applied to FIEA already, but felt I did not have enough texture and shader work on my portfolio, so I created this guy in about two days. I envisioned him as an enemy type that Bellerophon would face off against. I used a lot of tutorials to create the lava effect and rock models, but I'm happy with how striking the final design is. The character rig is quite loose, with individual rocks meant to slide around to form poses and facial expressions.