Air Traffic Control Room - Support Structures

Window Dividers from the outside.


Window dividers from the inside.


Roof support beams from up above.


Roof support beams from inside.


Window divider High poly from Autodesk Maya.


Roof Support Beam High poly from Autodesk Maya.


Finished modeling the Dividers for the curved windows, as well as the main support structures to hold up the roof.

Improved the lighting too. Tried to make it so the shadows didn't look so dark.

Up next will be the roof and a section of the central pillar.

Air Traffic Control Room - Second Floor Walls and Ceilings

Second Floor Wall


Second Floor Ceiling


Second Floor Wall Endsection


Second Floor Ceiling Endsection


Second Floor Glass Windows

Alrighty, Added some modular wall, glass, and ceiling meshes for the second floor. Also created some unique meshes that will connect the cylindrical room to a hallway.

I also wanted to get rid of the 2048 texture I was using for the two floor meshes on the second floor. The original 1024 texture was too blurry, so I decided to use a 2048 texture instead. I then realized that a 2048 texture was pretty costly memory wise, and re-arranged some UV's and split the meshes making up the second floor on to two 1024 textures.

The underside of the second floor ceiling is noticeable blurry which bugs me, but the ceiling will eventually be covered with an ventilation system.

Up next is some support-like beams to keep the windows in place.

Air Traffic Control Room - Adding Color

I Thought it might be wise to start adding some color, even If it's just flat colors under an occlusion map.

I went on and textured the center bottom floor just because I've never properly created metal textures in the past, and knew the practice would be good for me.

The purple you see on the center floor mesh is a reflection of a skydome I found in UDK. I figured out how to get nice chrome reflections working in the material editor and incorporated it with the diamond plating on the mesh (Don't worry, my diamond plating Isn't actually purple).

Also, I've been trying to keep the colors constant with the meshes that are seen the most (such as the floors and walls). Here's the color pallet I've been using:



I'm sure some colors are likely to change as the project goes on, but I'm pretty comfortable with so far.

Air Traffic Control Room - Stairs Railing

The above picture is just showing a work in progress of the railing (the modular pieces of the stairs, as well as the curved railing around the grate). I'll occasionally throw in an unfinished version of a model into UDK to make sore things are correct before I finish the model.







Safety first, amiright?

Here's the railing for the stairs, as well as the guard rail for the second floor.

I'm pretty proud of myself for how they all came out. I wanted to make sure the aesthetics of the balusters matched the rest of the theme of the room.

The only thing I didn't like was how I wasn't able to make the railing to the stairs more modular. There were a few pieces I could only use once, but I was able to re-use assets.

I think I'll start texturing some things now (I've actually already started) just to get some color into the scene.

Air Traffic Control room - Second Floor Grate

Here's the grate. I'll have to put some sort of support beam underneath it so I doesn't look like it's just hanging off of the second floor.

You can also see a work in progress of a railing in the top picture.

Air Traffic Control Room - Second Floor

The second floor.

Making the second floor asset was easy, making the one with the opening; not so much.

I hated modeling the opening because It was the first asset I realized I could only use once. I also got the size of the hole wrong the first time and had to re-model it.

It's done though, and Imported into UDK.

Currently I'm working on a grate that will border the second floor.

Air Traffic Control Room - Stairs

Up next comes the stairs. I had to makes sure I got the number of steps correct in order to use the asset twice.

I also created a platform area to put at the top and bottom of the stairs.

Air Traffic Control Room - First Floor Walls

After creating the floors, I began working on the first floor wall assets.

I wanted to have a curved wall, but knew it would be difficult to make the high poly curved as well. I decided to make the High Poly that would match up to a flat mesh, and then transfered the UV coordinates to a curved mesh. It worked out pretty nicely.

I also used the same method for a wall with and opening

Air Traffic Control Room - First Floor

The first actual assets I worked on were the floor pieces for the first floor.

Since I never really sketched out what the prevalent aesthetic would be for this project, I kind of just winged it when working on the floors. Luckily it turned out really nicely, and I've been basing everything on the floor aesthetic (that being metal paneling, bolts, and indents).

I started with the outer floor and worked towards the center. There are 5 total floor assets in total, including the two floor covers for the middle floor.

I'm hoping to be able to put wires and other small things underneath the floors so you can see them when the covers are not covering them.

Air Traffic Control Room - Blockout

After sketching some concepts, I went and did a block-out in UDK, something I never did fully in the original project. When I was happy with the blockout, I brought it into Maya and blocked it out some more.

I then went back to UDK and converted all the BSP into blocking volumes. This allowed me to import in some of the more complex models from Maya without needing to create custom collision for the assets.

Air Traffic Control Room - Concept Sketches

I'm posting this now, but this was started back in June (June 6th to be exact. I've been time tracking everything).

The above concepts were very quick sketches of the general shape of the environment. The basic design hasn't changed much from the original. Here's some more

-Futuristic theme: has lots technologically advanced devices and equipment. Lots of metal.
-Circular Design: I wanted to stay away from the square modular and see what curved modular was like (I've found out it's slightly more difficult).
-Assets must be as modular as possible: make sure you can use something more than once!
-Three levels: bottom floor, second floor, and third floor.
-First floor: has large center console with several screens to monitor aircraft.
-Second floor: has windows to see the aircraft, transparent HUD computers near windows.
-Third floor: access to roof.
-Outside: Going to cross that bridge when we get there...
-Fill rest of area with small futuristic things things.

Far from an Art Guide I know, but I think I'll do that for the next environment.

Improving The Portfolio: New Project

Well now, looks like getting a job in the industry right out of school didn't work out so well...

But hey, guess that means I just have to work harder to get known.

I realized from the get-go that trying to get a job in the industry would be difficult knowing I didn't have any completed 3D environments to show off (seeing as how there's always a need for 3D Environment artists).

When applying I was limited to positions like 3D Prop Artist or General 3D Artist positions. I knew that If I were to get anywhere, I'd have to start creating really awesome environments to increase the chances of me getting hired.

So, I've actually already started an Environment which some might find familiar. It's a re-design of the Air Traffic Control Room project I created when in school. I thought it would be beneficial to work on an environment that was still in my head instead of creating something new.

For anyone who is actually viewing this, I'll keep this updated as best I can.

And, for the sake of having some sort of media on every post, here's a picture of my Nerf Gun in UDK mobile on my iPod Touch. Hopefully I can add more simple 3D models to it to show them off at Game Conferences (if I ever get chances to go of course)

Portfolio

Portfolio
EGD415 – Senior Portfolio: Art & Animation
Spring 2011 – Second Semester, Senior Year.



The Senior Portfolio class is exactly what you’d expect it to be. This class helped everyone gather their past projects to tune up and make presentable for a portfolio.

It was also a class every student had to pass in order to graduate. The class requirements consisted of these:
-A website to show off your work
-A Demoreel to present at Senior Show
-Business cards
-A resume
-A list of 20 or more potential employers.

My web development class paid off a lot, seeing as how I created my whole website from scratch. Here’s what it looks like: www.evanburrill.com

I’m pretty sure I handed in everything I should have, so I believe I should be graduating soon.

Job search Ho!

Carnero

Senior Team Project II
EGD410 – Senior Team Project II – Team Jealous Giraffe
Spring 2011 – Second Semester, Senior Year.
Position on the team: Artist



Like I had mentioned before, my original team didn’t get green lit and I had joined up with Team Jealous Giraffe to work on Carnero. The team was a lot bigger than Machina’s, and demanded a lot more work as well. The project had its ups and downs, but I was still able to get portfolio work out of it.

My role on the team was to pump out as many assets as I could, then hand them off to our lead artist to texture. This involved me doing 3 animated enemy robots and several environmental art assets.

Above is a trailer that Bryan and Keith created to be presented at our senior team show.

Team Members:

Producer - Alison Seffels
Lead Designer -Bryan O'Hara
Designer - Cory Livingston
Designer - Tom Triplet
Designer - Craig Ellsworth
Lead Programmer - Steve Beaulieu
Programmer -Chris Cheng
Lead Artist - Keith Tatarczuk
Artist - Eric Nardo
Artist - Me
Sound Artist/Voice Talent - Buzz Ambroseno
Sound Artist - William David John
Sound Artist -Logan Dwight
Quality Assurance - Justin Loomis
Quality Assurance - Chris Ferguson

Maverick N-Strike Nerf gun

Maverick N-Strike Nerf gun
Spring break
Spring 2011, Month of March



I decided to stay in Vermont for spring break instead of going back home to see if I could churn out a good portfolio piece. Not the best way I wanted to spend spring break, but I got something of value out of it.

It was fun project, although it did get agitating. Some of the geometry on the gun is more complex that one would think. It was nice actually owning the gun though, seeing as how I could inspect it with my own eyes when my reference pictures failed me.

This was also a project where I edited a lot of info in the normal map. There were lots of small details in the gun that wouldn’t make sense doing in Maya, so I’d copy and paste certain areas of the normal map and edit them in other sections.

I wanted to see if I could create the gun in a week, but I really only got the high poly and low poly done during that milestone. Whenever I had free time, I’d work on unwrapping, baking, and texturing it to a presentable state. I also time tracked it so I could get a better understanding of how long it takes to model something like that. Hopefully this will allow me to give better time estimates to future employers.