Antonio Flores' 3D Art Blog

2012-01-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've last updated the blog. I've enrolled in an art school with the hopes of boosting my artistic ability and I've been doing quite well. It's been crazy busy and a lot of hard work, but I'm making progress. Woot!

In other news, I'm updating the blog to also show off some of my class work. More on that below:

A 3D illustration and infographic of how games loose their value over time in relation to trade-ins. It's a bit selective as I chose some recent popular titles with some older ones to flesh out the poster.

Made with Blender 2.6x w/built in raytracer render engine, forget which
Clean up in Photoshop CS5
Type and layout in InDesign CS5
Box Art textures from the ever helpful NeoGaf Custom Cover Art forum thread

Also, since the original was this MASSIVE 11x17 300dpi image, I decided to shrink it down

Heels stuck request

2010-12-02T23:54:00.000-05:00

Quick request from a frequent Sticky-Site visitor who goes by the name sticky-sims2. Also added some elements to make it look more compelling. ;)

Back... Somewhat...

2010-12-01T15:20:00.000-05:00

Phew.... it's been one hell of a rough couple of months.

First, my desktop stopped working due to a bad power supply, then my laptop suffered a similar fate. Now, thanks to a great friend of mine, I have some new parts to build another turbo charged computer; I'm just waiting to get the memory replaced as one of them didn't work. :( Blargh!

So, for the time being, I've managed to get the new power supply hooked up to my aging desktop, making sure to get it updated and back online. While this is very helpful to allowing me to get away from my sister's computer, it's still very underpowered when compared to my laptop or even the new desktop (via simulated tests). That also means no renders for a little while longer, but it also affords me to continue practicing my drawing skills. ^_^

Anyway, that's pretty much it. Later!

3D Medusa update

2010-09-27T05:13:00.001-04:00

Not too major of an update for some, but an update none the less. I, finally, got off my butt and made some textures for the tattoos that adorn Medusa's arms and added some makeup to her face, then made some test renders with varied lighting to see how things worked out in LuxRender v0.8. So far, so good! Now, I need to correct some of the clothing materials so that her outfit doesn't appear to be solid black and maybe do some more adjustments with her hair.

So, enjoy the test renders. ^_^

Summer OC Matchup 2010 DA Submission

2010-09-04T20:22:00.001-04:00

Not much to this one, just something I worked on for a group OC art swap/trade. Sadly, I was pretty late with getting it done. >_<

You can also download, or checkout, the high res version on DA.

In other news, I'm still working out the problems I'm having with the outfit and character from my previous blog posts.

Minor update

2010-08-29T07:45:00.003-04:00

As the title suggests, a minor update of how things are working out for Sanctioned's character Storm. I also started working on the hair again, but put it on pause until I can first get the character's outfit looking and working properly.

Looking at it now, it appears that I may need to soften the breast area for sure.

Went back and took some wireframe shots:

It's been a while

2010-07-05T13:03:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone, I figured I'd update a couple of people on the progress I'm making for projects. Well, one of the many anyway.

A fully custom character by me for Sanctioned on DA! First time working on something like this outside of Poser, especially for rigging for animation. That took forever! Any who, check out the work in progress shots below. There isn't much at the moment, other than Sanctioned's character and the "meh" hair, but I really consider it progress! ^_^

Textures are off at the moment due to testing. That and the lighting. >_<

This last one was actually what I started with when I used the curves tool to set it up. If I can get it to make a solid object, I may go back and use it instead.

Blog Redesign!

2010-05-31T04:26:00.005-04:00

Thanks to my buddy, The Path, I've managed to get a much brighter looking and "feeling" blog. Thanks for the much better logo! ^v^

With that said, I hope to update my blog in the near future!

Medusa WIP 17

2010-02-11T20:00:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been a few months since I've really posted any further work on this particular project. Needless to say, I've been experimenting more and more in Blender and less in Poser 6/7, mainly as both versions of Poser seem to hate the outfit I made and using it as dynamic clothing seems to make things worse. So, I've decided to move back to Blender and I'm in the middle of re-rigging Miki 2 for animation and general posing. Not too much of a problem there as setting up bones in Blender is a hell of a lot easier than it is in Poser.

But, my problem seems to step from using clothing physics on the outfit I made. After a couple of tests, it seems that the outfit does using clothing physics in Blender gives much better performance and is easier to manipulate than it ever seemed to be in Poser; but, for whatever reason, it seems that I can't get the outfit to collide and animate against the model I'm using. I'd ask for help here on the forums, but considering the general lack of interest from here, or any other place I post about this project, I honestly doubt I'll get any.

So, in short, more tests and, eventually, I'll call this finished and move on to another project.

Oy...

2010-01-20T03:32:00.002-05:00

Not really so much of a problem with the @HOME app for the PS3, but some observations of texture and joint issues for characters that show a lot of skin. Ignore this if you don't use @Home on your PS3. ;)

Cement Lover's request WIP 01

2009-12-31T00:49:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm not dead; thanks for asking.

Any who, I've started working on another scene, which is part of Cement Lover's request. Should have it done soon after I setup a couple things in the scene you see above.

Medusa WIP 16 update

2009-12-23T23:44:00.003-05:00

Small update with experimental lights using Lux Render 0.6.1. It seems to fix some of the problems I was having and performs better than it was.

Medusa WIP 16

2009-12-21T22:31:00.003-05:00

Minor updates, just adding some fullsized renders to the blog. I'm still experimenting with the vector arrows as lights. It works, but I think I need to set them as real objects and not duplicated ones as Lux Render seems to have issues with them.

2009-12-20T23:03:00.005-05:00

Minor update, if anyone is still watching...

I went and modeled the armbands and I am also experimenting with Lux Render for better rendering results. Next, I'm going to model a more accurate snake from the Soul Eater series that the character uses.

Also, I got an update for one of the game characters I wrote up for that long winded RPG I've been working on. 1 (technically 3, if you include Maya and Rad) full designs done, several more to go.

Benisato Dress release!

2009-12-16T02:47:00.003-05:00

It's not much, but I managed to pack together an outfit I made recently for other Poser users to play with. More info can be seen on it over at My DA Gallery or on my ShareCG Page.

Other than that, not much else to report. Well, other than my Lux Render experiments which are still in process.

Medusa WIP 13?

2009-12-08T23:46:00.005-05:00

Well, I'm still going at it, trying to better refine the render. This time, I exported everything from Poser back into Blender, then used an external rendering app named LuxRender for betting lighting and overall render finish. The end result that you see above took 33 hours to do. Oy!

For the most part, many of the materials and textures I had used previously for Medusa Final v.2 were not imported into Blender, which leaves me having to recreate them manually twice -- once for Blender and once for LuxRender as they don't seem to communicate properly amongst one another. The other odd thing I noticed is that while LuxRender takes forever to get a scene rendered, it took almost the same length of time to render this particular image (initially 14 hours or so) as it did with Poser 7 and it did not scream at me for somehow passing the theoretical memory limit as it used much less memory. Though, if I passed my installed memory for any reason, the LuxRender UI would crash as it loaded the scene. I guess I should report that to the devs. :shrug:

Anyway, depending on how much my modeling skills come to be in the near future, I may as well go ahead and replace Miki 2 with a custom model of Medusa. For now, I'm going to end up just modeling my own custom snake like the one she has in the series.

So, I'm still working on it, and hope to have some better results in the future!

Medusa Final v.2

2009-12-02T18:11:00.003-05:00

Version two of the previous render, now with better hair, textures (hair only) and lighting. Also added some effects in Photoshop.

Well, I went back and redid the ponytail and textures for it using Kozaburo's messy Jessi v1 hair textures, then spliced it to match the same hair. I also ended up reworking the hood to to cover the parts that were exposed or coming through. Other than that, better lighing and snake textures.

Medusa Outfit Final... Somewhat WIP 11

2009-11-29T23:35:00.005-05:00

Well, I've finally managed to get the outfit to a point where it moves decently enough not to destroy the collar and the hood! WOOT! I stayed up almost two days trying to figure out where I was going wrong in Poser 7's cloth room and the book did not help very much. If there's one thing that needs work, it's the manual to the software. Oy...

Anyway, I had to adjust the collar, buttons, and hood to be constrained portions of the mesh since they were always in contact with either the hair or Miki2's head. While I lost some minor detail with the hood not moving a great deal, it kept it from messing up everything in the area and looking like it went through a meat grinder when it touched the hair. I also did the same thing for the thigh portion of the mesh as it saved a TON of time to calculate the dynamic mesh deformations. The tail was set as a soft decoration with the tip being included in the calculations so it wouldn't make contact with anything else.

The hair... well, not much has changed a great deal with the hair other than I managed to use the above techniques to make it move to match the bends of Miki2's body and to come over the outfit without making part of it explode. Later, I hope to have the hair fixed in a manner that looks faithful to the original character's hair. Though, the same could be said about making a fully original piece and render that entirely in Blender.

Let's see... other than that, there are some texture changes for her nails to match up the original character, eye color was altered, and two snakes were added from www.most-digital-creations.com for their Shadow Serpent object as it saved me some time in creating another mesh (I'll have to make a better one that's actually specific to the series though) with altered textures. I wished I could have added Medusa's vector arrows to better show her as a character, but I ran out of time and was really too tired to draw up additional textures. Maybe later... or next time. XD

Anyway, I think that's it for this one. Time for me to get back on schedule.

Medusa Outfit WIP 10

2009-11-27T05:36:00.002-05:00

Well, I found out what was keeping the outfit from working as a dynamic cloth in Poser, mainly the lack of polygons and trying to add parts of it as constrained groups during the simulation tests. Though, I can't seem to keep the buttons from turning into malleable cloth like the rest of the outfit, so I may end up having to separate them to keep them from moving. Also added the finger and toe nail textures to Miki 2.

Other notes: Seems as if no matter what setting I have enabled during the cloth simulation, the hood tends to go through the collar from time to time. On the other hand, since they are all pretty much the same color, it's barely noticeable. The hair textures are pretty much botched and need to be redone along with the UVs. Also, I need to choose a pose that does not force the hood to move so it stays in place and have it collide with the hair so it covers it as well. Oddly enough, doing that tends to result in many ugly messes as it touches the hair mesh, so I'm not sure what to do to cover the area. I also noticed that since the mesh was also colliding with the floor, it seemed to have pushed through her knee, but it was hard to tell prior to creating the render. Oy... I'll need to adjust the post to avoid that in the future.

Next up, better texture maps for the hair and either some of Medusa's tattoos for the arms or some sort of snake prop with dots!

Medusa Outfit WIP 09

2009-11-25T07:14:00.003-05:00

Well... I finished the outfit and figured out what I had done wrong with the UV textures without help. Sigh...

Anyway, this is pretty much the finished model. I found that the UV map was altered by mistake when I went to add a texture to a newly edited section on her outfit and Blender went crazy and shifted the points. I ended up having to rework each section's UV maps, materials, and textures to get everything working. The next problem is that this is the render from within Poser 7 and it doesn't import the model and display it like it does in Blender; which is why it looks a bit rough. Then again, on export, the total filesize for the .obj files are only... around a total of 150kb give or take. They're pretty small, and in being so they do not work at all in Poser 7's cloth room. I guess it needs more polygons now.

So... until I can figure out how to get the clothes to move like cloth, this might as well be the last batch of work in progress shots. And I still need to make the hair transparent mapped so it doesn't look like it's one solid piece.

Medusa Outfit WIP 08

2009-11-23T14:45:00.004-05:00

Well, this is the latest work in progress for the Medusa Gorgon outfit I've been working on. Yeah, it's been a while and I know I've been slow with it, but meh...

Anyway, I moved the tail up to the appropriated length, changed the hair and tweaked the hood. For the most part, I'm almost done; but, when I was working on the UV mapping for the textures, the entire UV map somehow moved or removed itself and left the parts that I needed textured -- the button and hood -- ended misaligned or the textures no longer show up as I had intended for them. Does anyone know what I did wrong and how to fix it? I ask as whatever happened, it's keeping me from resetting the UV texture mapping or even seeing the vertecies while trying to edit them in the UV editor window. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Medusa Outfit WIP 07

2009-11-18T02:39:00.004-05:00

After trying diligently and loosing a ton of time with the hair, I said screw it and modeled only the parts that will be visible after I finish working on her hood.

Oy...

Also started working on her hair textures. Sadly, I thought it would be harder to do.

Medusa Outfit WIP 06

2009-11-10T04:49:00.003-05:00

Redid her hair again, this time with a better reference.

Medusa Outfit WIP 05

2009-11-09T05:26:00.004-05:00

More work done. This time, I went ahead and redid the hair using flat polygon extrusions instead of a full out box look that was not working. Not sure if it looks much better at this point, but I did manage to get the UV's setup and might experiment with the hair textures sometime later.

Medusa Outfit WIP 04

2009-11-07T20:12:00.002-05:00

Well, this is the 4th TIME I've tried to submit this work in progress submission to DA, but it doesn't seem to want to take! I don't know what the hell is going on, but I'll try again. Pisses me off that it took that long to do. Anyway...

I've started on Medusa's hair, obviously prior to creating her hood and morph. For the most part, it's proving to be a bit more difficult to do than I had initially realized and finding a decent hair modeling tutorial for blender, or ANY modeling app, has also proved to be difficult. So, I've went ahead and started working on it the same way I've already done, extruding and moving the verticies into position. It seems that it's working, but I don't know. I'll let you guys be the judge of that.

So, what do you think? :? And does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed?

Medusa Outfit WIP 03

2009-11-07T03:14:00.004-05:00

Relatively minor update, with a collar and buttons! Next up, Medusa's hair, then the hood!

Medusa Outfit WIP 02

2009-11-06T19:44:00.003-05:00

Added the tail! Though, it looks like it's a bit low.

Also added better lighting to so it would be easier to see her tail.

Medusa Outfit WIP 01

2009-11-05T18:29:00.003-05:00

Well, I've made some progress in redoing the outfit for Medusa. At this point, I have her clothing down and I just need to work on her collar and hood. After that, I need to figure out how to get her hair done.

And the color I set on the base outfit is so I can see if there were any areas of poke through that were hard to identify when everything was colored the same shade of gray. So, don't worry about that!

I guess I should test to see if it works in Poser 7 before doing anything. :lol:

Any feedback on this and what I'm doing would be VERY helpful! ;)

Modeling updates

2009-09-15T08:14:00.004-04:00

As you can see, I've gotten off my lazy bum to create something I had been planning for months! What's odd is that it's actually much better looking after I finished tweaking it in ZBrush, but Poser hates the rigging on it. Meh... I'm still trying to figure out where I messed up in regards to that, but at least I've made progress. Though, what's also silly is that Blender crashed out on me at least a dozen times when I tried to do things related to the underlying model, such as hiding it or using a higher subdivision setting. If anything else, those crashes reinforced several aspects of basic computer use: SAVE, and SAVE OFTEN! If I had headed those words more carefully, it wouldn't have taken me several hours to redo and fix things I had already done! But, I digress.

So, that's it for this update! Later!

Been a while

2009-07-31T05:24:00.002-04:00

Ugh... seems like my text editor is conspiring against me! I couldn't even get the original text typed up before it crashed on me while spell checking the document. Major loss, so I'll just retype it to the best of my memory.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've posted much of anything here on my personal blog; two months to be exact. I've also had a thought that no one so much as glimpses at any of my pages (blog, personal website, and DA account), so I don't imagine there being much, if any, sort of response to this depressing drivel.

Moving on - no updates to any of my projects, image requests, or game project. Yup, that's right, no updates! This is really due to nothing more than me either being lazy or depressed, or a combination of both. Plus, everything I've attempted to do lately doesn't work out or has been lost when my external hard drive died - did get a working replacement though. Not that I expect anyone to care... no one reads this anyway.

Did post a couple of images on DA, Sticky-Site and QS Fans a while ago. They're not much and are not related to any of my projects, but you can expect to see them at the end of this posting. Hope whoever reads this enjoys them!

I'm still unemployed as ever and, as a result, have considered taking commissions to fill the money gap. The idea is/was to do some images for people with Poser or do photography shoots for people in my area. The Poser portion seems pretty straight forward and with a nice overhead; but, being that I have yet to sell any of my prints for photography in nearly ten years, I'm having my doubts about photography. Plus, I have yet to really do a photo spread for anyone. So, that entire idea is pretty much up in the are at the moment, but if people are willing to pay, then I could give it a shot.

And, what of my IT troubleshooting, repair, and administration job you ask? Well, it's not so much a job as it is a once in a blue moon deal that people seem to call me up for. Hardly, if ever, do I have any jobs constantly lined up to make a decent income to be considered self-employed. Seems that when I finish, everything is working in such a way that I never get a callback unless it's catastrophic; which is good and bad. You obviously know what it's bad, but the good thing is that I did great work. :) And apparently, having that much experience seems to be a problem in getting a more permanent job anywhere in the town I live in.
Which leads into my other recent problem: getting, but not getting a job selling stuff. Sure, I was called out of the blue due to posting my job information on Career Builder; but, it seems that my resume is probably telling employers that I'm overqualified for many jobs. Case and point with the call I received a couple of weeks ago, this marketing company needed people to fill a position that sells computers for HP. Sure, the job is right up my alley, great part-time hours per week, and with nice pay; yet, even after being pretty much guaranteed a job with this company, I somehow managed to not get it. When I pressed the issue to see what made them think this way, all I got from the recruiter was another guy had more experience since he was already doing the same thing for another company. Okay..? Somehow you want to say that makes sense; but, at the same time, I have salesman experience and an in depth knowledge of computers and how to fix them. Another clue that I should have picked up before was during my interview, the guy mentioned under his breath that I had a LOT of computer experience. AT first, I figured it was a good thing to be acknowledged for and, yet, here I am still unemployed! So, I figure that they were thinking that I would want more money for what I know - which is true, since I did ask about it during the interview - and they went with the cheaper choice. Oh yay... So happy that seems to be working out for them! *Heavy sarcasm*

And so, I'm also playing in a closed beta online MMO which has a pretty wacky NDA contract. Can't say much more than that, other than my computer is totally under spec for the game; but, I do my best to inform the developers what's good and bad about the game. I only wished I could afford a better rig to play it on. Sigh... and a better internet connection.

So... other than that, nothing else has been done! I'm a total loser... :(

Anyway, enjoy these images!

Two variations of the same character, only one has a real photo backdrop! These were posted at DA and the later at QSfans.
This last one is actually a re-render of an old piece, not that anyone has seen it anyway. <_<>_> Posted at Sticky-Site.

Ugh... Now Playing part 2

2009-05-27T02:50:00.001-04:00

Well, in my previous post, I mentioned that I had a massive hard drive failure with my external. As it now stands, I got a replacement back from Seagate less than a week ago and guess what happened; IT DIED on Memorial Day! Kind of poetic when you think about it.

Yup, it died when I decided to write data to it, giving me a cyclic redundancy error with the application I was using to download data to the drive. Not thinking too much about it (I initially thought that the drive somehow became over heated. WRONG!) I then fired up the software that came with the drive to see if there were any actual errors with the drive and to see if it could fix any of them. Turns out that it had some sort of fault when it was on part of the night as I attempted to download the data in question (around 250+ megs apparently) and the software couldn't do squat about it and blasted the error message stating that it needed to go back to its mothership for repairs/replacement.

As I sat there, miffed over the entire set of events with this blasted drive, I couldn't help but to wonder why this sort of craziness happened. Turns out on Seagate's own support forums and at this blog dating back as far as August 2007 (just about 1 year before I purchased the drive), there have been multiple problems with these drives and others under the same line of FreeAgent products. So, this made me think of why, why in the hell would the drive be built in such a way as to force it to keelover due to heating and cooling problems when making the case properly in the first place would alleviate most of the problems? And, why would Seagate also use a drive in these units that, according to their own acknowledgement, has faulty firmware that can disable the entire drive?

These sorts of questions and issues bothered me greatly as I made plans to somehow get Seagate on the phone the next day (well, this past Tuesday anyway). I even wondered about the reliability of the next drive that they would send me to replace the replacement!

So, after a lengthy call to their tech support and warranty department, they agreed to have it mailed back for a replacement, free of charge. That last bit made me cautious since their website generally states there is normally a charge for shipping, but thankfully that was free as well. I just need to get a shipment label printed and have UPS pick it up.

Now, this time I just hope that the damned thing will work as advertised and for more than 8 months!

In other news...

Deviant Art still does not work properly for me after nearly 2 months of issues. The DA admins claim my ISP and/or cache memory in my browsers are to blame for my misfortune and T-Mobile states that the site should load up unless the site is a severe bandwidth hog. Technically, T-Mobile is correct in that assessment since DA has all sorts of random ads, flash, images, web code, and etc. that had problems with my connection up until recently. Though, in my defense, I had enough sense to have an ad/flash/script blocker installed on Firefox to taper off some of that; though, it no longer matters since the site refuses to load for me anymore.

To make matters worse, Google Chrome 2.0 and IE 7 have the same issues and they don't have any plugins that block the ads or craptastic scripts DA spams to through my connection. So, I'm thinking they updated or changed some portion of their web coding and it borks my connection (and maybe others) with it's dial-up bandwidth. Just don't tell the DA admins that, since they could give a fly fuck about users in my situation.

So, without further a due, I might as well begin posting my next several project updates here and on my Fur Affinity page as I'm able. Screw DA and their incompetent customer assistance. I'm just glad I'm not paying for additional services at that site, I'd be even more livid!

Now playing...

2009-05-09T17:48:00.006-04:00

Once again, I've managed to neglect my blog... It seems to be a growing habit when I should at least update more than once a month, but I digress.

Anyway, updated the header with a temporary image of one of my favorite characters, Whip from The King of Fighters '99 - XI. It does not seem like much, but I'm attempting to alter my little piece of space to something that fits more of my style and not be so damned awkward looking. Hopefully, I'll have an image of something I'm working on in her place, but until then, Whip will be there to stay.

In other news, Deviant Art has once again become the bane of my existence as it refuses to let me check my messages and view any of the artwork and associated artists I have on my watch list. I don't know what sort of beef they have with T-Mobile and slow connections, but they've somehow managed to keep pissing me off with their antics. So, if I ever get around to finishing any work that may be post worthy, they will all be posted here or on Sticky-Site until further notice. That or my other websites, which also need some updating. Bleh...

And for those that did not already know, my external hard drive, with just about everything I've gathered for the last several years - anime (Soul Eater just finished! T_T), games, music (had a ton of game music) , movies, porn, etc. - took quite a hit this past Monday. I was over my brother's home trying to get some updates and finish some downloads for anime along with playing some games on his high definition tv when his silly dog decided to play dash! through the area my equipment was occupying. Needless to say, the dog managed to snag one of the wires to the external drive and send it crashing to the floor. I attempted to rescusitate the drive (lol, sounds so silly now that I think about it. There was no way in hell I could have done it.) to retrieve my data from it, but it was all for naught. And to make matters worse, Seagate would send me a new drive for free (so they say), but charge over $1,700 to recover any data from it. I assume that figure is based on how much actual data the drive can hold, which in my gloriously messed up case is 500 Gigabtyes, and how much time and effort they can somehow manage to squeeze out of my pockets to do anything. Obviously, being broke and unemployeed, I said fuck it and sent it off for a new one. I just hope I can get another one back in exchange.
Sigh... And the thought of tracking down and downloading everything again makes me feel ill to my stomach whenever I think about it. I'll manage somehow.

I'm also trying to keep my spirits up by not thinking about it... Ugh, and it's not working too well.

Oh... and here's a sneak peek on what else I'm trying to work on. It's really nothing more than screen capture of a character I've fallen head over heels for, but you should get the idea of where I'd like the final product to look like! Enjoy!

It's been a while

2009-04-24T10:26:00.005-04:00

Yup, it's been several months since I've last posted anything here on my journal. Most of you have probably forgotten about me, and some may have not. Either way, it doesn't really matter, as I'm here now and giving updates.

First off, I've had my birthday and I'm currently 27 years old. Woo... I don't feel much different, but I am older and approaching 30.

Second, my family and I have moved out of our previous residence to one that's much, MUCH more livable and secure. The downside is that during the moving process, I've found that I'm in terrible shape and have begun a pretty brutal workout regimen to at least begin feeling better and stronger. So far, it's working! I just need to get my walk in sometime this afternoon.

Third, my plans in the game design space have been put on hold for the time being. Yeah, yeah, I know what I've said before; but, I've come to the sad realization that most people are not willing to help out someone in my position, regardless of how interesting the concept may be. Plus, I have yet to get any headway on the game engine needed to play the game in the manner I've envisioned.
So, for now, the super large scope game will be placed on hold and a simpler, already planned out game will take it's place until more work can be done with it. Once I've nailed down a couple of specifics, I'm going to get some characters designed and playing with the idea for it. More details to come!

Oh, lastly, I've come to the conclusion that it's best that I at least try to finish some of my outstanding requests and trades that I've somehow accumulated over the years. Some of them are really simple - which may be the reason they were skipped over, lol - and some require some real planning to get right. So, I'm going to be posting quite a few things over in my Deviant Art page and here on my blog as I finish them.

Next, I'm in the process of writing out a short sinking and sticky story/comic. You can see where it's going based off the initial render that sparked the idea below. Enjoy!

ARR! Thar be UPDATES!

2009-02-03T12:26:00.007-05:00

I needed to get that out of my system! LOL

Anyway, I'm just letting everyone know what I'm still alive and still working on my projects, hence the quirky title. In this update, I'm posting a work in progress shot of what I'm currently modeling, in this case it's a dress for a request. Obviously, if the file name stays the same as it was while on my computer, you may have a hint at who the dress will end up being for and what it should end up looking like when everything is all said and done. Still need to get the hair done though. I'm not too sure if I'll upload it to my DA account page since it's fairly early in the modeling process, but as it currently stands, it's not a bad start.
Odd thing about modeling this outfit though - it's so much easier to do it in Shade (currently Shade 7.12 LE I believe) with the open/closed curves tool than with other applications I have installed. Really odd, but at the same time so much easier! Now, I just need to worry about how the rest will look like...

Oh, and for those that don't know and still care, my birthday is this Friday! I'll be 27!

Any who, that's it for this update. Stay tuned!

Ugh... slow going

2008-12-20T13:01:00.002-05:00

Well, it's another update here on my blog. There's nothing much to report at the moment... I've been sick for a while so several things were left on the back burner. Meh.

Anyway, for some quick updates... The game's progress is, again, stalled. Most of that is actually based on the lack of artwork for the characters and the like. My buddy, who was originally doing some character designs for Rad, has been busy and has not had time to update the rest of his look. I guess, it's not much of a problem, but it does slow things down quite a bit when I was hoping to be getting somewhere. I guess it's a good time for me to start drawing again in the hopes of getting some work done; whenever that happens.

Next, I'm still working on chem-halo's trade picture and the associated 3D model. Getting sick slowed down that process, plus, I'm having trouble making the structure the way I want it.

Also, I've re-read Baha's story for the request images he's asking for. I really think the first images is off the mark and it too will need to be redone.

So, that's it for updates. If there's any artists out there that would like to assist me in the design process for my game, just let me know!

It's December!

2008-12-02T10:22:00.001-05:00

Woah, it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated my blog. Gah! I need to get on the ball.

Anyway, obviously, Thanksgiving has come and gone. On my end, it was a pretty decent day; my brother and his fiance came over and ate with us, then we all ended up playing Monopoly. Needless to say, the night ended on a pretty decent note, but my sister ended up winning the game. lol

In other actual news, the game project is still underway. I received another sketch of Rad from Shin-Kensou wearing his armor, but it needs to be updated to fit his personality and overall ability. Other than that, I've been trying to construct the world and areas that I'd want the game to take place in, but in Neverwinter's game engine Aurora, it appears to not want to do the same sort of things I'm trying to do. If things don't pan out as expected, I will more than likely end up modeling the zones by hand, then possibly export them back into the game engine. IF that doesn't work, then I'll just use Blender's internal engine.

And in a previous entry, I posted a finished work that's part of a trade with chem-halo. What I ended up failing to notice was that the other scenes I had rendered in the set DO NOT WORK! I say this since after looking at them for several hours while trying to post-edit them in the same manner as before, and not getting the same results. Plus, I realized that while it was on topic for what he asked for, it doesn't really work out properly. So, to make a much longer explanation short, I've begun working on a different image with a new 3D model that I'm working on to fits the scene better. It's about 70% complete and only needs a couple of details and textures before I can import it into Poser 6 to finish the scene itself. When that's all done, then my portion of the trade will be done! WHOOT!

And man... I really need to update my profile image. The one that's there just doesn't work for me.

Another project update!

2008-11-13T08:47:00.002-05:00

It's not much, but thanks to another online buddy of mine, Shin-Kensou, work on some character concepts have been produced! This one in particular is of Rad, with a mustache! lol

What I've decided, with the prompting on Shin-Kensou, is to make a smaller project that uses some of the characters in a way to explain their past, or their reason for being part of the story. As it currently stands, Rad is the furthest along in character development, and yes some of his information that I had previously posted here has changed. The next step will be to get some further in progress shots of him and finally get started on some plotline for him and a 3D model worked up.

I know it isn't a very large deal to many people, but work on my game project is finally underway!

Yay! Updates!

2008-11-13T08:28:00.006-05:00

YES! UPDATES and a portion of my projects on the way to completion! For chem-halo, the first in part of our image trade! Look above to see it n full. You can also view what he drew as part of our trade.

Project Update

2008-11-02T22:37:00.003-05:00

It's more of a small update really.

Anyway, I finally got Neverwinter Nights up and running, and I even managed to get my hands on the community expansion kit. Thankfully, the patches and other software were easier to install than they were to get. Ugh... I really need to get some high speed connection again.

Other than that, the tool set appears to be simple enough to at least plan around what goes where in the game world, and even easier to see if it looks alright before you setup the module. Thank goodness building landscapes are not as brutal as I expected them to be. At least not yet anyway. lol All I'd need to worry about would be making sure the scene at least closely matches what I'm working on.

The characters on the other hand are going to be more of an issue since the game has a weird way of generating characters that suit the ones I'm designing. Plus, it's not like the original game was designed with Asian flair to begin with, so costumes and looks may take a backseat until the next stage of the game is in progress. That, or I'll need to invest in Neverwinter Nights 2, maybe even Dragon Age when it comes out. I'll worry about that another time since that means extra money I don't possess at the moment.

So, besides all of the fun time to be had on this project, it looks like everything is proceeding full steam ahead! Expect some future posts relating to character profile updates, looks, envrionments and enemies as things progress further.

Moving Along...

2008-10-26T20:14:00.005-04:00

I know, I know... I promised to update the blog in a more timely fashion; but, I just haven't done so as of late. BLARGH!

I've also been putting off other things, such as the requests, art trades, and game projects due to my unstable mood. I know I should not be doing things this way, but I have no idea on how to bring myself out of this rut. All I can do is move on and hope things get better.

Aside from that, I've updated the art trade I've been working on! They're test renders for the most part, but it shows that I'm on the right track. If nothing else, it's been keeping my spirits up just working on it. So, without any further delay, take a look at the 3 shots below.

So, when it's finished, it should prove to be an interesting image, or set of images.

Next, I previously stated that I would be building my game project using the Blender Game engine, which is part of the recent version of Blender. I've been thinking hard about that and may experiment with either Blender or Neverwinter Night's Aurora game building engine. The case of using NWN's game building engine would allow me to test out the branching storyline I want to create for the finished product, get a general view of where and how the game world would look like, and even test out some of the gameplay elements in a similar regards to how RPG Maker XP does. Granted, I haven't booted up NWN in a couple of years; but it does give me a reason to reload it on my laptop. lol! Plus, I've been playing Bioware's Jade Empire for the past week or so and how found a new found appreciation for how the developers craft their stories. That, and I've read in a recent Game Informer that their next game, Dragon Age, used the same game builder for a similar purpose of fleshing out the story for that game. It makes sense, so that may be a possible route for me to take.

So, I think this is it for the time being and I'll make another post soon!

Later!

Meh...

2008-10-17T00:26:00.001-04:00

Well, it's been a while since my last posting. I'm still getting used to posting more than every few months and about anything other than stuff for Deviant Art, but I digress.

I've started rewriting some of the character information, mainly for visual descriptions and personality. Reasons being fairly obvious, if I want to hand off this data to an artist, then they would have the necessary information to create the look from my description of them. Granted, I did this already to some degree; but, looking back at the notes, the information on those characters were not fully fleshed out. That, and my buddy is thinking of helping out by drawing them. I'm still wondering about that since he's working on a couple of other projects right now. Meh...
Also, I've given some thought on changing my first iteration of game to that of Blender's built in Game Engine. That way, all of the character models and environments are completed in 3D, and I can actually have a playable test for others to work with. Upside, if I can get Blender to compile and work under the PS3 Linux environment, I can even test everything out there as well. Downside, it locks down some of the work to that piece of software and all of the programming involved will be handled via Python and not C+/C++, like I eventually want it to. I guess it could be good or bad, depending on what's all involved in making everything work in Blender and what the final product could end up being like. I guess I'll work that out as I go.

In further news, I've worked out some further details for the art trade I'm working on for chem-halo. The test render is unsuitable at the moment to be posted here, yet I'll most likely have an updated one sometime this week. So far, so good; even chem-halo's half of the trade looks great! I just hope that I can upload the finished copy to Deviant Art when it's finished. The site is still giving me grief. Ugh!

Enough about that. I guess, this blog is currently over until next time.

Later!

Putting Around

2008-10-10T06:14:00.000-04:00

Well, another time, another post.

It's been a couple of days since I've last posted anything of importance. I still haven't fleshed anything out for the other characters, nor have I done much of anything but loaf around the house. And Deviant Art is still messing with me on my home connection. So uploading and responding to anything of importance will have to wait until I go somewhere else. With that, I can see that all of this is pretty depressing, so I'll move on.

I drew a mock up of what I'd hope will be an enemy for the first zone the group goes to. Judging from the looks of it, it's not going to be the first one they meet; it looks pretty strong and may end up being a sub boss of sorts. I'm still working on it and after some cleanup, I just may go ahead and scan it. Meh.

I also had my friend, Tallgeeseneo, take a look at some of my earlier written works and some of the story material for the game. For whatever reason, he seems to think that they are written out, more or less, like comic pages. I think I asked him by what he meant, only to receive a comment pretty much telling me that the way I write sets his imagination up to view the story in they way a comic book does. I guess the way I describe they setting, people, and their reactions seems a bit strict, to some degree. I think he even mentioned that I needed to write more along the lines of the way I talk. I wanted to laugh on this as I think he doesn't realize that I DO talk that way! Then again, I have loosened up over the years, just not too much. If you want to check out what I'm referring to, you can visit my old, but sometimes updated, website or use the link of the right... Whenever I manage to get time to set it up. lol!
Anyway, if my friend is correct though, it should still be helpful to me to fully envision the story and location, not to mention the characters. I'm still reeling on the fact that I'll need to add a ton of non player characters with varying things to say and do during the game. Gah! The madness! And, this only becomes more complicated when I think of adding AI on top to complicate things! *Smacks self* I'll worry about that later... <_<>_> -.-;

Any who, that's all for this merry update! Take care!

Projects Update

2008-10-06T01:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm not to sure if this is an update. It's more of a what's happening... I guess.

First off, obviously, I'm currently revising some of the characters, their actions, and etc. so they don't clash and outshine one another. The reasoning behind it came from a discussion I had with a buddy of mine about one of the character's event scenes being fairly cooler and more interesting during that event than in most of the game. I concede that; and, as a result, will retool how each of them work together and separately from one another. Silly enough, the whole process is not so far off that this would take very long to do. It's just a small tweak, if anything. I'm also playing around with other names for Salaria; her name currently feels like how one would say Malaria. Ack!
The other issue that I'm currently working on (and after a talk with my friend again) are expanding the characters in a similar pattern with Rad. In writing him, I somehow managed to work out a ton of stuff specific to him and then neglecting the other characters, namely the main one Maya. I guess she should be more of a newbie to the world, rather than know it all, or something to that effect, and is capable of growing as the story progresses. Technically, all the characters will grow and change over time, but none to the extent of the main character, as it should be.

I'm still working on other projects such as the Poser renderings. I'm not totally sure why I'm stalling with them; but, for whatever reason, I will get them done. ARGH!
I'm also trying to figure out how to redo my blog page. Ah, I may make a picture or something, I'm not too sure. Maybe a logo for the game, whenever I get around to naming it.

I guess that's it. This isn't much of an update, but meh. I'm still trying to figure out what to post here since I'm fairly new to this and I'd hate to ruin everyone's opinion of the game with TMI (to much information) and loads of promises that I may not be able to deliver on. It would be great to get more reactions from people on this, but I figure this will not be the case.

Later!

A Small List of Characters

2008-10-01T16:46:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone, it's me again, posting another small update on some of my projects over on my side of the globe. Today, as if the title has not already give that away, are a small sampling of characters that are going to be available for play. There's a good chance that most of these characters will change quite a bit through the process, not to mention once I get the overall look for them some things could be tweaked visually as well. Oh yeah, majority of these characters have, at one time, come from a Chinese styled monestary that has yet to be named. I'm still working on it and will update this blog as appropriate. And away we go!

Maya Naress - This is obviously going to be the main character of the group. During and after a brief tutorial, she's playable throughout most of the game. I say this as the plan is to let the other playable characters take her place at certain plot moments where it makes sense to do so. Sadly, she's also the only character that has a preliminary visual mockup available. Not that I hate it or anything, I just believe it needs to be changed before I can actually say "it's her," if you know what I mean. A visual of what I am talking about can be seen here. More details on her backstory, abilities, and etc when finalized or properly typed up.
Salaria Tesmit - This character is the second one to be introduced in the game and will be playable only until after the first dungeon/adventure area. She's also going to be the first candidate to a name change as I just realized that her name rimes with Malaria. lol That and her last name is that of a character from Final Fantasy 8. Sad how things just click when you are reading the lengthly notes you wrote a couple of days ago. Saltes, the nickname I made up for her may be a better alternative and a new last name.
Besides that, she's to be Maya's close friend and, usually, a walking tome of info, especially in the area of archeology and of things that make no sense to anyone. Also, she's a part-time instructor at the monestary that they both attend, or attended. More on this later.
Sarin Tao Ming - She's to be your semi sterotypical prodigy. I say semi only in the regards that she does not always appear to be that way and for good reason. She is the best friend of the next character, Eneko, since they were children and are often seen together while out adventuring. The plan for them to meet up with Maya is to introduce them while one, or both of them, are in a predictament thanks to Sarin gettin in over her head. Once again, more on this later.
Eneko Matashi - My ninja girl, who has also trained in the way of the monk arts at the same monestary that my three previous characters have. Best friends with Sarin since childhood and her ever frequent adventure companion. She's also to be a bit more careful than Sarin and tries to keep her out of trouble, when possible. Obviously, when Maya meets up with them, things did not end up well. Work in progress...
Radderic "Rad" Yanis - He's techincally the third character to be introduced in the game and only becomes playable after an event or dungeon/adventure area. He's supposed to be a "Jack of all trades, master of some" type of character, but if anything, he's to be more of my mouthpiece on the way RPG's are made and some of the silly, random crap that majority of them force you to do while playing them. For this reason, he is extremely aware of his environment, story/plot elements, and other random things in the game; often to guide the player to a different line of thinking or action, rather than to force a linear approach. Think of him as a walking, talking walkthrough, with a very sarcastic view of things.

Well, that's all I have for the moment; the rest is being cleaned and typed up inbetween other things in my life. If I get a chance, I also plan to draw out the characters on my own, until I can find an artist interested in helping out. This may take a while, but like I said previously, I have plenty of time at the moment.

Oh, and if anyone is waiting on a request or trade via DeviantArt, I am letting you know that I cannot get into my account from home to check my messages. It appears that DA does not like my dial-up connection and until DA fixes it on their end, I'll just post updates here on my blog.

Till my next post, take care!

Random Musings

2008-09-29T03:13:00.002-04:00

Well, I don't a whole lot to talk about here. Never been much of one to post a blog. lol

Aside from that, I will be using this blog to report the status of some of my projects. Some of them are requests to create images via renderings in Poser, an art trade, and a video game project!

On the side with the image projects:

one set is partially done or should I say 1 of 4 are done. The characters have been created and properly textured, I just need to setup the rest of the actions to accommodate the request itself. Bleh! I think I'm just being lazy or depressed since I could have done it sooner.
The second request requires a rendering of a female centaur caught up in an odd situation. I believe it's more on the bondage side of things, but I'll need to finish some tests to see how to make one from scratch or via DAZ's V4 and their Millennium Horse. Some sort of weird morph may be in order.
An art trade with a gifted artist, you can see his web page on Deviant Art. This one is really intriguing as the request is along the lines of some of my older works; which is VERY cool to begin with. Also, I've finished about half of it (look just below for a sample) or so. I think all that's left is the need to work on a character and add SLIME! BWAHAHA! *cough* Anyway, so that's on it's way.

On the side for my other projects:

GAMES! Well, playing some of the ones that I have yet to finish are on my to do list as well. I just have WAY to many to list here at a time. So, next game up is probably Shin Megami Tensi: Nocturne and Person 3/FES. Awesome games and great study material, especially Nocturne for it's ways of using the story and game play elements to change varying outcomes with your enemies and random encounters.
My video game project! Technically, it's #1 on this list, but they are both related since I'm in the process of making a Role Playing Game (RPG) in a similar vein. Well, to some degree anyway. What I really am shooting for is something close to Kingdom Hearts as for game play and Jade Empire, or Mass Effect, for story and/or branching process. The reason for this is I want a more combat focused rpg with a great story. I'm not knocking the great stuff that has come out over the years, but I feel that the standard way of rpg gaming needs a boost, or change of pace. Granted, the test run of the game I'm working on is planned for a 2 dimensional version to workout various areas of the game, like characters, enemies, plot, overall story, and so forth; it's the goal I want to reach with making this game. And, in another journal posting on Deviant Art here, the game and story development will more than likely be done solely by me. It's not because I am some sort of arrogant bastard that wants to alienate people, it's due to people usually not wanting to work with me. A wide variety of reasons can be given, but at the end of the day, I'm usually alone on how to approach the idea. I'd love to work with other people, and I may, or should, be contracting out some of the character and enemy artwork with some artists that do commissions. It sounds silly to suggest this line of thinking, but who the hell is going to do any work for someone that's usually broke or for free? The answer is that NO ONE really will! The same will be said for the music, which I may just pull out my sister's digital synthesiser and make something usable or contract out for. Meh... not much else to say about this, until my next posting. That should contain some sneak peeks on some of the characters.

So, that's all I think I have for the moment. Like I said about, be on the lookout for some upcoming details on some of the characters for my game project and the other things I'm working on.

Till next time, I'm out!
Ayane Matrix