So I’ve basically gotten all I want to get out of my previous zombie UDK project. I’ve been milling on it too long and needed to branch out and get portfolio pieces underway. I’ll finish with some nice renders of my scene and officially put the lid on that project.

   Starting the new year, the retro sci-fi style suddenly made a mark on me. You know what I’m talking about. Basically what people in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s imagined the future would look like. These designs featured lots of bold and exaggerated shapes. It’s probably the same reason why I think the 1971 Stingray Corvette is one of the most interesting looking cars. The organic, smooth shapes add to the silhouette of the vehicle.

   After thinking about this style, the first pieces of tech that flashed into my mind was the helmet and jetpack from The Rocketeer. So here is my WIP of the helmet from The Rocketeer. I have finished the high poly and plan on starting the low poly soon. I’ll post the finished helmet once it’s done and start work on the jetpack soon after!

   So for the past several weeks, I’ve been learning UDK as much as possible while creating an environment of a concept that has been rattling around in my mind. It all stems from the question “What does the world look like to a zombie?” 

   My idea is that the world is a calm, serene place for a zombie. It’s simple. They want brains and that is their only motivation. Since that is their goal, I think that the world would lack detail and clarity. The only object with detail would be the glowing brain. Of course this would help draw their attention to it.

   This is still a WIP, but here are some screenshots of my progress. I hope to add more once more on the environment is finished. I’ve learned so much about UDK already, and that’s good for a solid foundation. There is still much more to learn.

   Occasionally I get the urge to do actual graphic design. It’s few and far between, but I like how these icons turned out. The home screen isn’t mine because I’m not sure how to easily take a screenshot with an android phone. So I just superimposed my icons on a blank home screen.

   I’ve been enjoying dark backgrounds with light text/icons lately. The Tron-ish style also appeals to me. So I combined my current interests into these icons. Just wanted to share how they turned out (even though they were really simple to do). 

   I know that I shouldn’t let these little distractions take me away from my UDK scene, but sometimes it’s good to get an idea out of your system. 

Driving through the night, heading back home. Quick sketch of the road before me.

Finished up some more head shots. Eventually I’d like to get the awesome Rokinon 85mm lens for taking better portraits. The Nikon 35mm prime is nice, though I worry that features are too distorted. (I usually stay a few feet back and crop closer to hopefully negate the wide lens).

For some reason, I always have weird creature ideas in my head. So I’ll try to do some quick concepts whenever they pop up. Plus it gives me sketching practice as I try to increase my speed.

   So I’ve been spending my free time tackling this recently. It’s an old photograph that my grandma gave me to restore. It has my grandpa in it and the other members of the military group he was in.

   As you can see, the photo was not in the best condition originally. It was kept folded up in a duffel bag that my grandpa carried around. Usually my first steps to restoring a photograph involve color correcting. Old photos tend to fade, distort in color, and age in a variety of ways. I try to correct for the improper color so I can “peel” back the layers of time to get a better visual to the original condition.

   Once I bring some of the original color back into the photo, I continue by doing a light once-over to take out minor imperfections. This can be dirt, hair, small scratches, or random dots that appear. This step is probably the easiest but also the most mind-numbing. I usually stick to the healing brush, though tend to wander into the clone brush at times. Once this step is done, I can really see the breadth of what I’m about to undertake.

   All that I’m left with now are the large tears and major blemishes. For this image, there were a few people who had parts of the photo peeled off to expose some of the paper underneath. This made it difficult because there was barely a base to go back to for reference. Having a Wacom tablet really makes this process faster. It involved more creating than what I’m usually used to when restoring a photo.

   After painting in the lost details, I simply recreated the background layer and did some final, minor color corrections. All that’s left is to print it out and see how well I did. I’m sure my grandma will be happy with the results and chalk it up to some magic power I possess. 

I went to the wedding of James and Vanessa a couple months ago and just got around to editing the footage. I really enjoy these quick, small videos. I feel like the emotions/feel I wanted to get across come out better this way. Mostly it was an exercise is creating tighter, faster edits with the music. Also I enjoy cutting video together when the music is already in my head. I was thinking about how I wanted to edit this for a couple weeks until I heard this song. Then I finished the whole thing in two nights. Sometimes you just have to wait until the pieces all come together.

Even though I posted about this before, the video was taken down to have Foley and new music inserted. The short was scored by Blake Robinson, and his youtube channel has much more music for your ears. Again, this was shot as test footage, and cleaned up to make this little short. Enjoy!

I love some of the characteristics that were hit upon that makes video games stand out from most other artwork. Especially the discussion of forced interaction with an audience and how it reinforces the narrative. I’ve always enjoyed street art and installations for this same reason. To be able to engage with the audience in their environment creates a compelling experience.