Sunday, October 12, 2008

My Art (&) Profile

Nothing huge here i suppose,Just a bunch of 3d art that i created and create during my so called spare time.

Here is a sample of my 3d Art which i made some time back.I basically had a rough idea for a factory workshop.Got some references from the internet and started to model this with a current gen (or last gen) console spec in mind.This involved creating instances of geometry, as i planned that way;to reuse a lot of geometry and, textures.
Then, i lit and rendered this in Maya, nothing special as you can see,just basic spot,point and area lights and a clean Maya software render. I also wanted a nice bright day light bloom coming from the right side window panes. For this i added area lights,and then added a box fog effect in Maya.
All the textures were kept minimal and moderately sized,mostly like 256x256.


I work as an Art lead in a leading game development company in India.As a part of my daily job,i work with a team of artists,assigning tasks,assisting and providing artistic & technical support to them,training the team,client side communication and so on.So things are really tight and challenging and i should say i absolutely love what I'm doing now.It gives me total satisfaction.Nothing like doing what you love!.
I play a lot of games,when i say lot,i absolutely mean it,I believe that i have a fair knowledge of various games,developers and platforms.It gives me immense pleasure of knowing all these.

The very recent game that i enjoyed playing was my all time favorite GTA 4 and Gears of war 2.I played it on the xbox 360,and i should say that,they were simply awesome and is a perfect example of "How a technology coupled with great art is used to convey a story and immerse the player".

Here is a old 3d work of mine,inspired from a 3dtotal model.I managed to model,texture,light and render this in under 8 hours(at a stretch),as a part of my own speed modeling test.


For my 3d Works,I use tools like 3ds Max(my favorite),maya(occasional),Mudbox,zbrush,photoshop,
MentalRay(Rocks!),Vray.


I really use a lot of "3d max" for my work,as it quickly allows me to pre-viz some thing,just like a use a piece of paper and a pencil.I do a lot of Environment modeling and RTT(Render to texture) for generating Normal maps,ambient occlusion maps,light maps etc.
In some way you could call me as a Max native,but i don't really stick to a single software,as i always advice to my team mates.A lot of times i manage multiple software.They are just tools,the way i see them and learn them.
I also study and do a lot of game/level designs,for this i work on tools like,Source- sdk hammer editor,Unreal-Ed.I'm a strict believer of the End product,ie the actual game,So i never stop with any 3d software.I always try to push my limits and expand my knowledge on various platforms.
I'm also regular user of forums like Polycount.com Beyond unreal valve developer community and so on.I would recommend any artist stepping into the industry,to go through the above sites as they all give immense exposure as to what game art and its effective usage is all about.

Here's a render of "Snub pistol";inspired from the game "Gears of War".Here,i just created the diffuse map,as i was more keen on the pace of the modeling as a part of my speed modeling tests.To be frank i never completed this one,as i had other works to bother at that time.But still i thought this one is pretty decent to share.
The polycount is around 2500 tris with a 1024 diffuse texture.
"You could call this as a fan art".



I have always been a big prince of Persia fan,i love the entire franchise.Its best known for wonderful art direction in all the levels of the game.
I tried a stylish rendition of a Reception area from the Sands of time.Here, i kind of tried to lay more emphasis on the lighting to achieve a distinct mood. I kept the fires very simple and gave a glow using the video post feature in 3ds max.I just created the diffuse texture pass and tiled most of em across.
The whole render was kept very simple using the standard lights and the scan line render.


Here is one of my render in 3ds max,Mental Ray.Here i chose an environment HDRI image and used it mainly for the reflections over the car. I modeled the road and the side cliff,just the U turn part.Since i planned this very well,i knew what i wanted to create,including the lighting mood,camera angle,posture of the cars in action.



The following scene was also done in 3ds max mental ray.Here i wanted a dramatic crash scenario of the cars,where one car was supposed be flying in the air,way too damaged.I modeled the damaged state in one of the cars and modeled and textured the terrain and the rubles and composted the smoke effect in photoshop.For the lighting,i used a mental ray physical sun and sky with 3d motion blur.



I also love exploring the technical side of Art ,which also helps me in my actual job,as i can provide technical solutions to my team.
I just love creating architectural models,game environments,lighting and rendering them.

This is another Render i took in 3ds max.Here i did the lighting,shading and the rendering part.
I would have to thank my colleagues and good friends of mine Somu and Arun for the character and the vehicles respectively. I created the terrain,debris and their textures.I integrated the character,vehicles into the scene, duplicated and posed them for the kind of feel i needed and same for the vehicles and the chopper in the background.
Then i had to use a lot of lights to achieve what you see in the image.There was a strong need for a rim or edge lighting on the characters and a bright specular light on top of them to indicate a overhead passing by of a chopper.


This is a 3d environment which i created some time back. Here i just wanted to create a cargo train yard level for my maps. This one is a render from maya.


OTHER SKILL SETS:
Apart from the above,I can very well do,

Character setup
Level designing using Unreal-Ed,Hammer editor
Hard surface modeling(as a part of my environment creations)

The workflow, i follow in creating most of the Art assets is,
  • Plan out the particular model and its importance in the level.
  • Gather the best and most references for it as possible.
  • Start with a mid poly model to high poly model with out worrying much on the loops and topology,rather concentrating on the overall details.
  • Model the lowpoly over the high poly so that i exactly know where and where not to place details.
  • Layout the UVs on the lowpoly,and process the high poly by projecting it and get all the required maps like Normal,AO etc.
  • Layout the second channel UVs if required (needed for the lightmaps).
  • Gather photograph textures and complete the necessary texture maps in photoshop.
  • Check the asset in real time using the DX shader in 3ds max viewport.
  • Export the asset to the game engine.

I always recommend the above workflow to my fellow team mates and other artists.