Rigging Artist Job Requirements

I always used to see these types of job postings when I was younger online, but I never understood much of the 3D artists lexicon. It's refreshing to go through them now and know exactly how well you can paint weights. It seems like most rigging opportunities are coming from California and other nearby cities, meaning we may need to think about travel locations before we graduate. 

I first noticed a detailed and intricate list of requirements from a company called 'KABAM!' who are stationed in California. Compared to how terse or vague many of the postings I've seen far, it gives you an idea what different companies expect from you even if the pay is similar. They talk a great deal of how you should be prepared for things to go wrong, and the importance of working as a team with others in different fields than your own. One thing I found comforting was that they required a fair amount of other qualifications, like shading/sculpting/modeling. It made me appreciate how well Full Sail tries to prepare you for pursuing multiple career paths.

One of the postings that caught my eye was a posting from Blizzard Entertainment. The first sentence of their job description immediately warns you of the complex skills you're expected to have. We have had a strong emphasis on biped characters in our modeling/rigging classes so far, but when it comes to fantasy and sci-fi enterprises you have no idea what monster you'll have to create. The thought of having to rig something drawn completely from someones imagination is quite daunting, but I think you would learn a great deal in the process. The bar for recruitment at their company is just as intimidating, requiring work from other game companies and a compelling portfolio. I imagine it would take many years after graduation, but it's important to have goals that you work towards even after landing a place in the industry. 

Visual Development - CGA366

This class presented us with pre-made objects, and gradually introduced the setting up of lights, creating UV maps, and finally applying textures through Mila materials. At each step, we were given a reference to follow, although we were allowed some artistic freedom near the end in which textures we chose. 

The first project we were given was to line up different objects exactly as they were in the reference. It required some tedious adjustments and test renders, but the more important process was to create lights. They not only required specific intensities to match the slight hints of color, they also had to be placed in the appropriate spot. This was largely a trial-by-fire process, but it impressed upon me how important the building blocks of your scene are to the final product. 

Our next project involved taking the Scraper and Pulley objects from the scene and creating UV maps to fit in this 0-1 space. This wasn't too difficult because I had prior experience, but the next step involved applying textures to the UV maps and finding our own references. It primarily involved the use of Photoshop, which was grueling and complicated at first. I was soon introduced to many useful tools and immediately learned how useful they would be in my classes going forward.

Here is the result from the above work. We used Maya's 'Mila Material' found in the Hypershade to create a diffuse layer for the textures to appear. Unfortunately, it also required the use of a glossy layer which I struggled with. Glossy layers help to control what type of material you want the object to look like, from glass to metal or diamonds, and it also controls how it reacts to light. It was a slow process to understand how all the different 'nodes' inside the Hypershade interacted with each other.

Here is the final result. The coins were given a metallic appearance, the bottle was revamped into a realistic glass bottle, and the wall was adorned with various stickers and layers of dirt. All of this was possible through the use of the Mila material. My most important takeaway from this class was that you had to create imperfections to have a believable result. A wall in real life isn't completely smooth, it has a small layer of bumps on it, and you may find areas where the paint wore off, or someone was moving furniture and made a large gash tearing the paint away. These are the little imperfections you have to apply for your materials, your characters, and your environments in order for people to accept it as real. 

Portfolio III - Animation Projects - Pushing and Running!

This is a translated run I worked on for my Portfolio III class:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qud_cHQIxHk&feature=youtu.be

This is an animation to show weight and character emotion for my Portfolio III class: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aeadov0dwZY&feature=youtu.be

Portfolio I - Modeling a Room from Reference

This was the result of my Portfolio I class at Full Sail. I chose a reference photo and had to recreate it in Maya.

My experience with 3D: Animation

Up until this recent month I have only ever worked with building objects and characters in Maya. This month gave me the opportunity to expand my skills to animation, from a simple ball to a complex 3D character. The final project required us to use a pre-existing rig to create a walk cycle and a simple action. I struggled with the usage of the graph editor, but enjoyed the process of creating personality and telling stories through emotion. 

This may appear to be a simple 2D-animated story, but it required heavy usage of the Maya graph editor. I could see the story in my head, but my limited understanding of the technical aspects led to some awful looking animation! I used the move, rotate, and size tools to give the two characters some personality, but the greatest challenge was applying animation principles to the scene. Thankfully, I requested help from my instructors and tutors, allowing me to turn in an A+ project! 

Props in Progress for Student driven RPG Game

I was approached recently by a number of students who wanted to pool their talents and make their own game. I've always wanted to do this, but the prospect of building hundreds upon hundreds of assets is daunting. Here are some of the low-detail objects I imagine our game might use. This is a great exercise because I would never learn how to make some of these objects otherwise.