Unearthly Challenge 3: Last bits of modeling for me

Made some extra set pieces for the scene. Now I can spend some time baking these down and pushing it through to the game. Then I will be moving over to be dedicated engine guy. Who's excited..this guy!

Unearthly Challenge 3: More Detail Work

Some more detail work. Its pretty close to what we need. Some more geo additions and tweaks will come soon!

Unearthly Challenge 3: Redesign and Detail Work

Had to do a redesign because what I had before just wasn't fitting into the world that we are creating for this challenge. This design is more in tuned with what Liz and Nate are doing and I'm going to really try to finish the detail work ASAP so I can start baking and moving onto more of the level. Here are some WIPs

Unearthly Challenge 3: Shapes and Composition

Working out some more things with the crew. Here's what I have!

This is more or less the feel of what we are going for.

Right now I am currently working on the Hero building that is seen in the center of the composition. Still some more work to be done. But it is coming along.

Also I forgot to add this in the last post here is the link to the forum if anyone one of you would like to keep up to date and see what Liz and Nate are up to on this piece as well. 

3DTotal Thread

http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?p=958407#post958407

Unearthly Challenge 3: It begins

Next updates for the next couple months will be about UEC3 hosted by many awesome 3d sites. here is the link.
http://www.gameartisans.org/challenges/uc/3/2013-rules.php

I am part of a three person team, "Team Velocity"
Team Members are Myself
LizK - http://www.kirbyhasaportfolio.com/
NateGregory - http://www.nategregory.com/

Our theme is Gravity

Here is the first block out done by LizK and myself

Published x2

It's an honor to be published again. This time it was a making of my Jet Turbine. Once again thank you to 3D Creative and 3D Total for shining a light on this guy. It means the world.

Thing a Week Project 12 Part 03: Natural Selection Power Supply

Finally had some time to get back on this beast. Here are some more pieces I'm building for the scene.

Slight Delay

Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy writing for a magazine on a making of for one of my pieces. I never realized how hard and how man drafts you have to do. So I will be back making more art for you to look at soon. Thank you for checking in and for your patience.

Thing a Week Project 12 Part 02: Natural Selection Power Supply

Been working on a bunch of parts I can kit bash together for the main power part in the back area (the main hero piece). I have a lot more things to build but here's a render of what I currently have piece wise.

Thing a Week Project 12 Part 01: Natural Selection Power Supply

back again with a new project. Work has been intense and has really been picking up since we have been announced; it was Halo for the Xbox One, so I'm trying to make a couple big scenes before we the reality of intense work weeks and crunch time come up the corner. So right now I started blocking out a new scene inspired by Borderlands 2 Natural Selection Annex. I loved the overall feel of it so I took some elements of it by then decided to make it sort of a power generating station that is taking from earth's natural energy. So mixing some borderlands with some sci-fi and trying to add some elements I've been looking at such has jet engines and submarines and mixing it into a big old pile of awesome. Here are the block in shots.

Published

Howdy everyone!
     It's been over a month. Sorry for the lack of updates, work has been intense and lots of cool things are coming down the line and some big news will be coming to E3. Also I have been catching up with games and burying myself in art books, art tutorials and art techniques. So after a few more personal matters to attend to I will be coming back with a new piece that I'm very excited to start working on.

Also I have been very lucky and happy to announce that I have hit one of my career goals and that is to be featured in a 3D Magazine. I am honored to be shown in this months 3D Creative magazine from the UK. I have attached the picture for you all to take a look at. Also I have rebuilt my actual website that I send up to clients and studios. (www.timdiaz3d.com) Give that a look as well. Once again thank you for checking back to my blog and sorry for the lack of updates but I will have new things to show soon!

Here is the cover!

and take a look at that sweet turbine!

Thing a Week Project 11 Part 05: The Machine Room

Got some great advice from a lot of my friends/co-workers and thank you all for checking out my stuff and sending me your thoughts and ideas. No lies, I'm glad you all are trying to get me to up my game more and more. Anyway so I put in as many suggestions as I could but time was against me like always so I got it to a great stopping point and send it into KeyShot for some awesome render passes then sent it into photoshop to comp it together and add some slight post and color correction.

A few things I updated, I fixed the wiring, removed some odd looking pieces, added subtle normals to my textures and made sculpted some areas to get just that much more detail.

It's time to move on for now; like always, I like where its at at the moment and maybe one day I'll return but here's what I have. Thanks for checking it out.

Thing a Week Project 11 Part 04: The Machine Room

So the modeling is more or less done, there's just a few things I want to address and a couple pieces; mostly the floor, I want to throw in Zbrush to give it that extra push. After that I can start my texturing pass and then render it up for the last bits of pretty. Here's a sum up of work for tonight.

As I mentioned I more or less got the modeling done but when I was "finished" I rendered it out in 3ds Max and stared at this shot for about 6 minutes.

I hated it. The walls weren't there, I wanted something with more flair but also not too taxing so this scene wouldn't become a noisy mess. That's the worse when its so busy its just hard to focus but then I remembered some stuff I modeled from a couple months ago.

I placed them in and saw it was still a little eh so I modeled up a few things and got this

I added some breaks into the walls and added more fidelity to the panels and pipes and I really started loving this scene. So I through it in Keyshot 4 for some quick higher res passes and made this.

So with that I have a better view of whats going on with shaders. So now; like I mentioned, just have to remodel and adjust a few things, get some real textures on it and work on final renders. Hoping to have something cool to show tomorrow or Friday. Like always thanks agin to any who check out my blog!

Thing a Week Project 11 Part 03: The Machine Room

So I started hammering out details of the room and placing a lot of the pieces I created and started kitbashing all around the room. Needs some work; obviously, but what I did notice as I was placing objects and moving them into certain positions I was giving myself an overwhelming feeling. Which is actually something that I want to achieve in this piece. You see the wires and devices and just the overall messiness which gives the viewer something to think about. What the hell happened? Why is the room so beaten and broken? What caused this building to be abandoned? Once I get more details (and clean up some of the clutter for just flow sake) and start texturing I can get the history behind it all and get another strong piece that tells a story. Here's the WIP shots for tonight.

Thing a Week Project 11 Part 02: The Machine Room

Been busy with you know, work, life, work and life so I FINALLY got a nice night to work on my own stuff again. So I realized the majority of the concept was boxes, boxes get kinda boring so I'm working on building a bunch of engine and mecha parts to shove all over this room to give it more life and a history. Here's a few pieces of what I have so far and as a plus I can add this stuff to my kitbash for later use.  

So like I said, not too much to report but hey, another day or so, I'll have a crap load of new pieces. 0.0

Thing a Week Project 11: The Machine Room

Some of these projects are going to start dragging a little longer because of me learning a bunch of new programs to help step up my game and I'm trying to take on bigger challenges. So my newest project is from the concept called "The Machine Room" I loved the feel and atmosphere of it so I HAD to make it. Got a block in I am happy with it. So here is what I have so far. Now i can start the high poly and adding a bunch of bells and whistles. YAY!

Last touch ups and moving on

Here's my new spider crane render. Added some normals for the dings and scratches, added a very simple environment and re-rendered it in Keyshot. Okay, NOW......I'm moving onto something else

UPDATE: Its with great honor that I have received the 3DTotal Excellence Award for this image, so it will now be proudly shown in the corner.

Render Tests For the Good

Been re-rendering like crazy the last few days, here some WIP shots.

Render Methods and Tests

So I've been bouncing back and forth on a few projects this week. Its been a few days without a big update so in the mean time here is a car that you may have seen on my portfolio before.

Yeah...the model itself is pretty good. But the render is okay (a "meh" really) at best. It was cool at the time, that time was a couple years ago, maybe it wasn't even cool then. Anyway, been learning some techniques and trying out some new software. A take a look at the new improved render.

Big difference right? This is HDRI lighting in Keyshot, using custom materials I whipped up and some light changes and a bunch of render adjustments and bam, AAA quality right there. Same car model from 3Ds Max but a new "coat of paint." I like this one a lot and it may make it back onto the main portfolio site. Sorry for the lack of updates so for those who are checking it out. Here you go! 

Thing A Week: Project 10 Part 01 (The Hangar/Lab)

Starting a new project this week, Got a sweet concept from a good friend of mine. Here is the block out I have done with some rough camera angles.

Thing A Week: Project 9 Part 04 (Spider Crane)

Like always, calling it done for now. May go back one day to add more, redo some things, etc etc. but I like where it's at. Thanks for checking it out.