Moving On | Building a House | Personal Project

Since handing in my last project, I've come to realise that I'm interested in making environments, sets and assets. As my project is in the complete opposite direction I no longer feel that I can use it in a showreel. Instead, I'm going to be spending my summer creating a number of sets that I feel can show off my talents in an area that I'm intrested in.

I have been making a house from scratch trying to include as many intricate features as possible. The kitchen is one of the rooms I've worked on the most so far but I hope to work on the other rooms and get them kitted out soon. It took around 7 hours to completely cover the house in skirting boards, light switches and plug sockets...

View from the front porch. The glass is coming out black for some unknown reason but I'm hoping it will improve as more assets are added inside.

The kitchen so far with 2 human models to show scale.

View of the kitchen without the people.

View from the dining room so far. Most of the textures seen are only temporary.

Birds-eye-view of some of the rooms so far.

Broken Column Test | Personal Work

This summer I plan on developing my skills for environments and set pieces. This is a quick broken column test for a potential project I'm planning on the idea of discovering Atlantis.

For those interested, to get this marble texture, it's an Arnold Surface shader with the Clay preset merged with a yellow colour on top. The specular is turned up slightly for that new shiny marble effect.

Rome | CAA Abroad | Photo In a Photo | Personal Work

27th February - 3rd March 2017. CAA's field trip abroad to Rome. It was great fun for me to return to a country that I haven't seen since I was about age 10. I spent most of the trip piecing my old memories of Rome together with the version of Rome that I saw before me. Most of it I remembered, some of it came back to me as we walked past places. 

For example, where I knelt in the road to take a picture of the archway is where I was almost hit by a bus last time I was in Rome. I knew I should take a picture there but I didn't remember why until my dad told me later that evening on Skype.

I remembered the Trevi Fountain but there was no Burger King opposite like I remembered to give you that harsh slap of old vs new.

I remembered the Colosseum, but not the armed guards and there was definitely not any of the barriers at the Sistine Chapel. 

I remembered the Egyptian Obelisks that we walked past - especially at Piazza Del Popolo. It was all vaguely familiar but at the same time, things had changed.

Before we went to Rome I set myself a mini project to do while out there - to find some of the locations that either my parents had been to in 1989 or I had been to in 2006. I wanted to match the old with the new. In most cases it was simply impossible to get the correct angle to take the photo due to new barriers or crowds but I think I did a pretty good job. I only managed to get 6 photos of the 10 I hoped for but I still think it's pretty impressive to see the difference. 

The Basilicas at Piazza Del Popolo now sports scaffolding and billboards. The Spanish Steps have huge advertisement boards. The Vatican City and Colosseum now feature barriers and fences. The only place that seemed unchanged was the Trevi Fountain. 

On the trip I managed to take over 500 photos so these are just a sample of some of the photos I amassed while out there. 

Photo in a Photo.

Group photos are always necessary.

'Our Brad in Rome'

Roman Forum

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Campfire Under The Stars | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

Continuing on with my own personal project of landscapes, I thought I would try to combine a starry night with a natural background. I think I have managed to get a nice depth to the mountain this time with the light and dark tones, and doesn't have an airbrushed feel. I added in a camping ground and two people snuggled on a log to give more focus to the the piece and help add depth to the foreground.

Starry Night Sky Over the Mountains | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

Continuing into my personal project of landscapes and skyscapes, this time I tried a silhouette of a tree line with a mountain behind and a galaxy night sky. The tree line works well and was quite easy to layer up after creating 5 different tree shapes to add depth. The mountain was a lot harder to paint than I first thought it would be and instead  of opting for a more realistic look, I opted for a tonal approach to it. I think this worked well and was a great first attempt but looks a little too blurred and unfinished. The sky was fun to paint and I think I'm getting the hang of painting a blended and tonal sky, I'm just not happy with the 'stars' as they look a little bit like snow to me. This will definitely need more experimenting with. This was a good attempt but I think I will revisit this in the future and tweak certain aspects of it.

A Cloudy Sunrise | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

Continuing on from my previous post, I've tried to keep with the theme of landscape art/skyscapes. I've been pushing my colour picking and blending to create a cloudy sunrise. Layering the clouds proved quite difficult. Adding depth to the piece also proved a challenge but I'm hoping that I've cracked it now!

In this image, I have attempted to blend colours with the blurred brush and smudging tool. I found that this worked brilliantly for the clouds but the sky itself needed a bit more persuading with this method. I also used several of the colour effects to heighten the sense that the sun is beaming through some of the clouds.

Sunset | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

For a while I've been considering testing my landscape drawing skills as well as my colour picking and blending. I loved creating a sunrise look during the 'What If Metropolis' project and thought a great way to see my improvement from a year's worth of photoshop lessons was to start was a tropical style sunset/sunrise. 

I can already tell that I've become a lot more confident with brush strokes and I'm no longer feathering basic lines. My colour picking and blending has also come a long way and helped to create what I think is a gorgeous sky. The composition of the trees was also a lot easier to create and I definitely think this is a strong start to what I hope will become an ongoing project of my own.

Adventures in Lanzarote

In June I travelled to Lanzarote for a holiday. Unfortunately I forgot to pack a sketchbook (I'd left it on my bed - oops!) Instead I used the next best thing I had available - NAPKINS! I took some gorgeous shots of the island and I would definitely recommend it to everyone! I warn you it is a very windy island and it is very easy to get sunburnt there!

Lampost and flower bed. The Volcanic Green Lake El Golfo

2 of the many hundreds of cactus varieties that I found on the island

View of the Volcanic Green lake El Golfo and the view behind (this was a volcano that has since corroded into the sea so one side is open and the lake exists in what once was the crater) 

Some of the Volcanoes inside the Timanfaya National Park

Laurel and Hardy Edit | Photoshop | Personal Work

Original Image

Final Edit

My dad asked me to edit this photo of his friends as a joke and make them look like they were in a Laurel and Hardy scene. It was a fun edit to do and I hear it has now been framed and given to them. UPDATE: Its now hanging on the wall in their office!)

Arthur Christmas | Photoshop | Work in Progress | Personal Work | From Script to Screen

After doing my like for like storyboard, I found that Arthur was a really nice character to draw. This is the start of a drawing that I have done of him. I'm planning to finish this later but I'm definitely proud of this work so far.

Santa (with directions from a 4yr old) | Personal Work | Timed | Photoshop

Originally this started out as a drawing challenge for myself but with a 4 year old jabbering in my ear it became a quick time challenge with his art direction. 

It HAD to look like it was snowing, with a RED hat and coat and a BIG beard... Oh and we NEEDED Santa's name written on it too. Alll under 4 minutes as he was getting impatient...

I'll redo this challenge again later when he's not next to me so I draw without him poking the screen or grabbing the pen or making silly noises....