Sunday, October 2, 2011

Circuitree

As usual, school work has completely engulfed me.  Thankfully, I am managing to keep up with the work, but I am on the urge of falling at any moment.  Oscar, Rhiannon, and I finished our Circuitree project a week and a half ago.  I figured it was appropriate to share the finished product on my personal blog.  For our project, I designed, modeled, rigged, and animated the worm virus in Maya.  To read more about the project, you can check out my blog for my studio:










worm texture

rig composed of spline IK chain with additional bones


Demo of Project









Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Immersive Environment Design

Task: Design an immersive environment with a body interface
Theme: Visible/Invisible
Project: Projection to HMD 


Concept: User logs into computer and runs a program.  The program contains a virus.  The user will run an anti-virus software.  The user now takes the form of the anti-virus software, more importantly Spybot.  The user is plunged into a forest-like maze where the user is left to disinfect the environment and find the source of the virus.  



This is my first studio project of the semester for VIST 405.  My partners are Oscar Camorlinga and Rhiannon Martinez.  Our original idea was to have a Trojan virus. After thorough discussion, we decided to change the Trojan virus to a Worm.  The Trojan, though easily recognizable, is stereotypical, obvious, and cliche.  It is often used as a symbol of computer viruses.  The Worm is more suitable for our environment.  Here is a concept sketch of the Worm:



Sunday, August 21, 2011

Max

For several years, I have painted or drawn portraits of family and friend's dogs, usually those beloved pets who have recently passed.  My best friend, Bethany, lost her German Shepherd, Max, last month.  I figured it was time to do a portrait of Max as a late birthday present for Bethany.

The best reference of Max was a 4X6 inch picture provided from Bethany's family, so I was unable to enlarge the painting an extensive amount (8X10).  This was my first watercolor painting.  Though I am a rookie, I would like to experiment with watercolor in the near future.  

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ink Boy


When I studied abroad in Germany this past spring, I worked on my final studio project with Oscar.  Our project was to create a portal to another world.  The purpose of the project was mainly to get compositing experience.  Oscar and I plan to finish the project in the fall.  Here is a short description, a few frames of our animation, along with the unfinished animation:


Live action: Our character aimlessly walks amongst a path while observing everything but the ground he walks on.  On the path, he falls into a ink puddle (portal). 

Animation: He is then transformed into Ink Boy!  Ink Boy enters a world of blank canvas where he is left to discover. 




Several of my friends and I played with the idea of ordering a customized Ink Boy plush, but it was too expensive.  Last night, I received a package from Oscar.  He handmade an Ink Boy plush!  It was quite a rewarding feeling to actually see and have my own character as a tangible object.  He stands at about 9 inches and has beans in each of his limbs, providing a good weight to the plush.  





Wednesday, August 3, 2011

88 Keys

I started this project three years ago.  Typical of me, I immediately got distracted and fell into another project.  I recently found the Vans in my closet and decided it was time to finish.  It isn't perfect, but finally complete.  My infatuation for the piano is immense, I couldn't help myself.








Sunday, July 24, 2011

Okamiden

I have been playing Okamiden on the Nintendo DS lately. I played the original Okami on the Wii, so I couldn't pass up the sequel. Though I miss having Issun as a sidekick, Okamiden does a great job introducing new characters to partner up with Chibiterasu. I decided to draw Chibi with my favorite partner, Kagu. My first attempt was with markers and ink. I really wanted to try out my Yarka watercolor set, especially since I do not have much experience with them. Plus, it would be a great addition to the authenticity. For the second attempt, I fixed some issues from the previous drawing and had fun painting.





Friday, July 22, 2011

Dog Day Afternoon

On Wednesday afternoon, I traveled to College Station to stay the night with a couple of friends.  I decided to transport some of my belongings to my new house as well.  My roommate, Lizzy, is currently training a five month old red goldendoodle, Sampson.  He is in the Aggie Guide-Dogs & Service Dogs (AGS) puppy raising program.


Aggie Guide-Dogs & Service-Dogs (AGS) is a student-run organization at Texas A&M University that began in 1997.  AGS' purpose is to educate about, fundraise for, and promote the training and use of service dogs and to increase awareness about how these animals help the individuals with disabilities who use them.


The main goal of AGS is to train puppies to become service dogs.  With the help of Puppy Raisers, puppies learn how to obey and behave in public places, as well as commands unique to service dogs.  AGS members also provide services to the community via education and therapy-dog programs.


I have been in AGS since my freshman year at Texas A&M University.  I was on my way to become a puppy raiser until I got accepted into the Department of Visualization the summer of 2009.  After experiencing two summer studios and a technical drawing class, it was evident I would not have time to train and raise a puppy.  Even so, I still manage to take part by taking pictures at AGS' socializations, meetings, and events.  I have been dubbed the unofficial photographer.  Here are some of my favorite pictures I have taken through my journey with AGS:



   


































































I accompanied Lizzy, Brianna, Ariel, and their dogs to the dog park.  Brianna is training Bentley, a five month old cream goldendoodle, and Ariel is training Duke, a year old black labradoodle.  Fortunately, I had my camera to record the mayhem.




For more information on AGS: Aggie Guide-Dogs & Service-Dogs















Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Color Schemes






Here are various color schemes for my character.  And these aren't even all of them!  I think I did over thirty color schemes, but I still couldn't decide on one.  Thanks to friend's input and my own personal preference, I have decided on the sea green color scheme.  All of the schemes were found from kuler