Futurepoly project

Hello everyone!  So I believe I mentioned at some point before that I was going to start some classes at Futurepoly in May.   If I didn't then, well, I finished up the classes in early August just before I moved to Michigan.  The classes were excellent and I'm incredibly happy that I took them -- I learned so much from Jason Stokes and Thomas Scholes.  Having feedback and learning tips from industry veteran artists like them was more helpful than I thought it would be and I'm pretty excited about the project I began working on for the class.

So this new project (yes, another one -- all projects listed in this blog will be revisited someday) has certainly come a long way.  I've been slowly working on it since I started my classes back in late May and it will become a great portfolio piece eventually.  It will probably take me about a year (working on it part time) to finish it completely.  I broke down the environment like Katie taught me and did some paint overs in Photoshop to get a feel for what I'd need.

Original concept by Hethe Srodawa:




I did a blockout in Unreal to get a sense of size and scale:






This is usually the point where I just pick something and start working on it until it gets difficult and then I pick something else, work on it, get stuck, etc., etc.  But this time I was able to choose things that we were going over in class and I instead learned 3DS Max with in class projects while tailoring the lessons to my own assets.  The main project of the class was to work on a building and so I attacked it with the idea that I was going to build it in modular pieces and use them to build structures in the concept.  I found a building that I liked and one Jason thought would be a great reference:



And my current progress to date is:






And the modular pieces it's created from:



So there it is as of today.  There was a lot of learning and steps involved to be sure, but I haven't kept meticulous screenshots this time around because I was focused on learning.  I'll add some more as I continue with the project.  Be warned though, I will probably update this blog with another project as I'm now in Michigan and there isn't much call for 3D environment artists out here -- I'm gonna have to change gears a bit and focus on creating things the industry out here wants; mostly cars and ad banners, yay.  But anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week!