SHIPS: Illustration and Song Video

Whoop, time for an update. This one's a little different because I'm going to include a video of me drumming (Wow, who knew I don't only sit in front of the computer...? =P). But first, another illustration work:

This is one of the illustrations I did for an upcoming book for young adults called "SHIPS". This specific illustration won't be used in the final book because the author wanted to decrease the number of drawings, so I'm showing off here. =P Though I kind of cringe looking at this drawing... Working on this project has made me realize just how sad my drawing skills are. Anyhow, for more information about the book, visit the website(WIP), also linked on the right side under "SHIPS".

Next is a video of me playing drums for a song called "Creator of All" inspired by a character in SHIPS. The song was written entirely by the author of the book. My drumming is not anything to boast about (and I mess up a couple of times), but it was fun playing a great song on a nicely sounding drum set with musicians who actually know what they're doing. Make sure to change the quality to 480p since Youtube doesn't provide an option to embed in that resolution.

Now, if you viewed that without noting that the camera angle from behind the two guitarists was from another take, then I must've done a pretty good job. =P
The video itself looks pretty simple, but it actually took a while to get it looking and sounding like this. I had to learn a whole new software to edit the audio (called "Audacity") mainly because the recording wasn't the best (everything was recorded using one microphone). I tweaked the audio (and actually cut and extended very small portions of it) to make it more "perfect". Then I went through a process of using Windows Movie Maker (which I initially chose to use because the expensive After Effects refuses to play audio back with the video on demand), then using After Effects (because the exported video from Windows Movie Maker had problems due to a weird source video), and also using a video converting software called Format Factory (which actually became integral for me to finish this video because that weird source video still caused problems when exporting with After Effects). Whew.

Adieu for now. =)

Children's Book Illustration: The Wolf and the Lamb

I was looking through some of my old stuff the other day and decided I'll upload this. It was a project to reinterpret and illustrate a story for children. Mine was one of Aesop's Fables called "The Wolf and the Lamb". Enjoy. =)

3D Human Head (and Glasses)

Hola, chicos. I think it's time for me to update. =P Some of you know that I've been working on modeling my brother's head, but I didn't have any decent renders to show until now. I think I've spent a little over 30 hours on this project, and for now, I'm calling it "done" because I have other projects to work on. =/ I'm fairly content at how my first human head turned out, so hope you enjoy it... First off, it's the ambient occlusion render of the smoothed head geometry:


Next, the unwrapped UV and the painted texture, along with the wireframes:


My brother also wears glasses. I decided to model it thinking it would only take me 2 hours at max to get all the details down... it took me over 8. -.-;; Please look at all the little pieces that I painfully modeled. =P


The final rendered images with my reference pictures for... reference. =)


And this last one's just for fun... I decided to place my bald brother at the Bryce Canyon. I think it looks kind of real...?


Thanks for visiting. I guess I might as well say my turkey holiday greeting now since I'm sure I won't be updating until December... So Happy Thanksgiving and Feliz Navidad! =P

Floating Glass Ball

Another update with 3D stuff. I should really get busy building and sharpening my skills in 3D modeling. This was a scene basically to test textures and lighting. Yeah, it's nothing fancy, but I wish I had a glass ball like that... That'd be cool. =)