Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Research: Artist Roadmap

 

Projecting Out Past Graduation


Questions:


1. If you could project out past graduation, what is your overall career goal? 


  • Would you like to work in AAA game development. 

  • Would you prefer a midsize team? 

  • Would you like a smaller team? 

  • Would you like to be on an Indy team? 

  • Would you like to work for a simulation company?

  • Would you like to work in the theme park industry?

Right now I’m leading towards simulation and immersive experience. After that though, my overall goal
is to eventually teach after having some experience in the industry. I would preferably be a college professor,
but am open to considering other options as well. 

2. If you could project out into starting your career, what sounds the most appealing to you? 


  • Would you like to work as a Character Artist?

  • Would you like to work as an Environment Artist?

  • Would you like to work as a Hard Surface Artist?

  • Would you like to work as a Weapons/Prop Artist?

  • Would you like to work as an Vehicle Artist?

  • Would you like to work as an Lighter?

Environment, hard surface, and lighting sound the most appealing to me right now.
I like creating environments that evoke a certain emotion from the viewer.
This usually involves lighting as the final step towards creating a more immersive and moody atmosphere. 

3. What are some of the top companies that you are interested in working for? 


  • EA, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Iron Galaxy, ect.  

Universal, AOA, GO2 Production are a few I have researched. I would love to stick to companies in the area
because I like Orlando and want to be close to my family. If I had to move, I would go the environment route
and look into companies in Texas like Bethesda and iD Software.

Monday, October 27, 2025

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Common Art: Dorothy Must Die F Stage

First Pass Lighting
I wanted to make the mask feel as though it had glowing eyes. I chose to use warm lighting for that to emulate some of the references I used. I like how the main character is rim lit from certain angles. I also wanted the more dim or distant areas to have an unnerving green light to still pay homage to the feeling of the Emerald City. 
Initial lighting with LD's materials
 Adjusting the lighting in the SunMoonDaySequence Actor was more laborious than I imagined it would be. First I went into the Post-Process Volume and turned off auto-exposure, which created a funhouse effect with all the LD's lights. I decided to delete all LD lights and re-do them from scratch. I wanted the environment to feel more sinister. I focused on creating areas cast in blue shadows. I had to adjust the exposure of the directional light as well as its color. Then I re-did the fog and added a bit of a green cast to it. 



Creating Proxy Matte Grey Material
Creating a proxy glass material involved a bit of research. I had to make sure the IOR was the right value, among other things. It took some iterating to make it look passable, but I still have some work to do with it. 





Proxy Mask Wireframe
Proxy Mask Arnold Render
Camera Matching While Modeling in Maya
Perforce Directory

Reference Board for OZ's Mask / Face





3D Art Final: Cannon

Final Render in Unreal Artistic Render in Unreal Iray (Substance) Render of Textures Wireframe Rendered in Arnold (Final Tri Count 12500) Wi...