1911.2.O Tail no. 104

1911.2.O Tail no. 104, as delivered in April 10th 1913, to FAOO Vasilyevna, the first to engage in aerial combat in the Great War.

Aside from changes I made to reflect going from prototype to production model, there are a few mistakes I caught which I'll have to go fix on the prototype. Going to Ikkicon for NYE's weekend, should be fun. Last week in Austin, still working on the Heron. Hope 2012 will be great, and not the end of the world. ;)

Heron WIP

This project has me shifting my hours to something more inline with how "normal people" live their lives - regular business hours. I can still go home whenever I want, and catch a nap if I don't have any other plans, so I'm not quite there. Anyways, just WIP on the APRD heron, showing my model, hand painted texture and rig. There's plenty of work left, but I think I just might be happy with where I'm at before I pack up and leave for Berkeley, hoping the weather favors me as I plan to take my time and see the sights. :)

1911.2.1 No. 002

The first flying prototype, loaned to the to Army Air Observation Branch on September 23rd 1911, for operational evaluations.

1911.2.1 Top View

Finally, the last orthographic view for the 1911.2.1 Prototype. Well, sort of. For one thing, those wings came out really fat. Since I've been tweaking the other views as I went along, I may go back to this one as well and address that.

1911.2.1 Front View

Front view of my jet powered biplane prototype. These take so long, especially now that I have to make sure everything aligns with what I have already established. Taking that into account, I think it'll end up in my portfolio, even thought I'm not quite sure it fits. After I'm done with the top view, then the fun really starts - production models with appropriate modifications and camouflage and markings all around. :)

1911.2.1 Side View

I'm deviating from the path I planned to take with my personal projects, the hazard of not having a boss hovering over my shoulder. At least I'm having fun, right. It'll be good to have more illustrator work in my portfolio, and what first started as a pain in the ass turned into a blast (what a difference a day makes.) I made some changes to the earlier illustration to make it more plausible and give me some room for future growth. Poor tail wheel will get burned off, but at least the engine won't scrape on the tarmac as bad. That's why you need prototypes ;D

Zeppelins and 3D

We have a winner for the Austin Parks and Recreation. I'm a little surprised they chose the heron. Fun shape through. :)

Before I started working on the bird, I practiced with this case fan. Blender still feels awkward, and I haven't even touched anything outside modeling. I'll have to figure out lighting, textures and cameras at the very least, with things like rigging, animation and particles bonuses if I have the time.

On the personal side, I've been having fun with zeppelins/blimps for the past couple of sketch nights, and thought I would do a few more digitally.

As I was working on them, I started thinking I should do something interesting with the planes of this universe, and strapping jet engines on wooden biplanes seemed like it would be fun. This is the 1911.2.1 prototype, seen in pre-war "bean pattern." (Can you tell I have further plans for this? ;) )

ANSC Trade Counter Front Rev. 1

Finally got critique on these cards, which I kept at the back of my mind, but had to open and take a look to remember what she was commenting on. No.2 one, with 1 at a close second. I agree with the choice, I think the art nouveau style fits well with the concept, and would be a good challenge. I'm already seeing things I want to change, and I will work on the back as well.

I'm also going to sneak into the Susanna Dickinson museum in the mornings. My sketches are still being passed around and reviewed, but I need to familiarize myself with the idiosyncrasies of Blender.

Austin bird sketches

A few cartoon birds, all Austin area natives (I hope :D ) Preliminary sketches for a 3D model I plan to do for Austin Parks & Recreation, to be featured in their publication. I hope I finish it before I leave to Berkeley, CA, as I'm working on their computer. It'll be great to have more published work in my portfolio, and showcase more of my 3D skills. I'll keep you posted.

Song Bird

Started digging deeper into designing aliens for my game concept, I thought a good first contact would be an alien that could heal, and doing it with sound would be an interesting concept. This reminded me of how barn owl use their face as satellite dishes, and I took it from there. The healing aspect then changed to buff/debuff using songs on one skill branch, while the other will turn these aliens into skilled night fighters. I started sketching adult-sized aliens at sketch night, and took the concept I liked into Photoshop only remember I wanted to go super deformed. I also decided I would call my game "Star Voices" as there will be many playable species, each with their own voice, as well as for the democracy system which will give each played a voice on global game concerns, such as alien diplomacy or research options.

Chibi Vector SMG

This interesting SMG design by KRISS USA gets the cute treatment. It would be an unlocked weapon, once a soldier specializes. It's an idea I'm still toying around with. I may base it on weapon experience: Use the pistol long enough, and the new class will unlock. Another path would be to lock at a set of requirements a solider would have to perform, such as a certain number of kills, hit percentage, or damage taken.

Chibi M4 Carbine

Another in the series. This and the Beretta are the weapons you would start with in my game.

Productively procrastinating.

Social X-Com Sidearms

It's been way too long since I've last posted. Been to Israel and back, stayed at a motel for 6 nights, did some horse studies. I really want to do the interior forge thing, but I'm hitting such a block with it, so I've been diverting some attention to the social (think facebook) X-Com concept I had. Here are some gun silhouettes, just to generate some ideas. I don't think these quite hit the spot, as I want to make it cute, but they get the juices flowing. I need to name this thing. Don't want to be stepping on any intellectual property toes.

Alien thumbnails

Jumping ahead of myself and into a new project I've been thinking about (art to which I posted somewhere, possibly on Sketchaton) It's a social version of X-Com, where you can fight TBS battles with your friends, trade soldiers and play mini-games to increase attributes, game cash and collect cool items, all on facebook. I'll get back to the forge thing when I get back to Austin, but in the mean time I'm constructively procrastinating ;)

Room 260

A slice of the interior of my room in Studio 6 Midtown Austin. It served it's purpose as a place to stay for the past 4 months, but it's time to move on to better things. I'll be flying to Israel in less than 12 hours, leaving my Intuos behind. I'll be back in 2 weeks.

Forge thumbnails

Moving forward with the forge design, trying to see what sort of cool shapes I can come up with, even though they may not be practical.

I'm flying back to Israel this Wednesday to attend my brother's wedding (and serve as chauffeur, hurray!) Hopefully immigration won't stop me at the airport on my return trip to Austin in 2 weeks.

Forge study

Realizing interiors are probably my weakest point, I set out to design a medieval forge to fit with the Cingulata Knights universe. Starting has proven difficult, and I believe it is because I simply don't know enough about how this stuff works, Hopefully this study I did of a photo I found on wikipedia will really start the ball rolling and I'll have something portfolio worthy.

Female Cingulata Knight

Following the advice of my former teacher, Dave Groff, I'm adding a sexy lady to my portfolio :) I also needed to add some fantasy in there. Playing around with the armadillo theme, and adding the UT burnt orange.

I thought I was close to finally finding that job, and flying to my brother's wedding in Israel with a clear conscience, but even though I've got some interested responses, there's nothing solid. GDC is Monday, will it be the solution to my problems? That would be amazing, but not something I can rely on.

Holy warrior silhouettes

This was a fun sheet, as the typical scepter evolved into a firearm. Giving the clergy a "magical" way of killing is a fun story idea. I also thought it would be fun to use an alternative religious symbol, something inspired by the legend of Austria's flag and by how people attach emotions to the heart. Kidneys seem like a fun shape, but as someone mentioned on facebook, they also look like a set of lungs, or dehydrated testicles XD That's something I may be able to clarify in future reworks.

Cingulata Knights portrait thumbnails

Working out some quick head designs for my knights, trying to figure out what would be fun to do. I did some pretty similar heads for Steel Stag, so I tried introducing more varied shapes. Do I think it worked?

I'm still unemployed, but I hope the Door64 Tech Fair I attended on Monday may have opened doors for me. I've had someone refer my resume to an airline in Dallas to do UI work, signed up with the Advisory Board Company, sent Paul McDonald of Build A Sign my resume, and handed out all my business cards (except 1 I found today,) Hell, maybe I'll even have a choice of where I want to go. :)

Swordmen Silhouettes

More Cingulata Knights: swordsmen.

Went to a Young Adult Division meeting tonight, which may have opened some doors for me to find a job, in California maybe? Despite my emotional investment in Austin, I would accept such an offer. Even after the YAD meeting ended, I hung around 6th street with an Israeli I found at the meeting, watching him try pick up lines on random girls, later joined by 2 more Israeli friends. We may hang out some more, would be fun.

Cingulata Knights - Spearmen

The first set of silhouettes for my new personal project: "Cingulata Knights" I'm expanding my portfolio to include fantasy, and I think it's going to be fun to create an army based on Armadillos, the small mammal of my new home, Texas. (Hopefully for longer than 4 months.)

Cartoon Armadillo

Quick cartoony armadillo, an intro study into my new project.

I guess I won't be interning with Origin magazine. Picking up the slack in the job search. I feel really short of time, with my brother's wedding at the end of October. I'm not ready to give up on my American dream. In better news, I have been selected to volunteer for GDC Online, and I'm very excited for the event, coming Oct. 10-13.

Cat Knight

This is my entry for the "anonymous" Art order challenge. Asked to take a character sketch and try to adapt it to a certain style, samples of which were provided. Original post:Trying Something Out of The Ordinary

Austin Nature & Science Center Trade Counter card sketches

I volunteer at the ANSC, been watering the trees every Monday morning for the past month or so.
Of course, my main reason for starting was to help out with the art/design/software side of things, but I get distracted when I work from home.
I finally got around to finish the first round of sketched for the redesign of these cards.

The editor of Origin Magazine told me she would love to have me as an intern, but that was a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still not sure how it'll pan out. This job limbo sucks, but I hope something does work out, and I can move into my own apartment.

Anti-Air Battalion

Hidden from enemy eyes and radar amidst the foliage thick valley of a river, this Anti-Aircraft Battalion (supply carrier out of view) defends a vital location.

Time to call it done, despite some funky perspective.
Going to slap it on the back of my new business card design, and have them delivered before Armadillocon, update the website, open a portfolio on filter foundry, update my paper portfolio... did I forget anything? :D

AA river WIP 2

More progress, for the curious

Looks like I didn't post my first WIP, so here it is.

Bodyrox - Yeah, Yeah

This is a study from a screen cap from the music video mentioned in the title.
I think I'll do more. I'll have fun searching through my favorite tunes for interesting frames. :)

I hope I find some employment soon, aside from the unfortunate weather, I really enjoy it here.
I'll also take an unpaid internship, if it guarantees I can return after my brother's wedding.

Stahl März final

Time to let it go and move on to other things.

Riverbank studies 2

Playing around with composition.

Riverbank studies

Grabbed some photos from Google, which I thought could be a good basis for where I wanted to have my Anti-Aircraft group.
Did quick digital studies to learn about composition, colors, and other details that could help me sell the idea.

Missile platform

The final piece of the AA puzzle.
Next I'll do some landscape studies including these guys.

Supply carrier

Another part of the AA group.

AA Launch control module

Anti-Air radar

Anti-Aircraft radar emplacement silhouette.

Even though I'm still working on my Stähl Marz final, I decided it would be a good idea to explore new ideas for Steel Stag.
If it all goes according to plan, I'll update my paper portfolio as well as the online, and have a new back for my business cards.

Still unemployed, but I feel like I'm inching towards that job, hoping that I'll reach a happy end before I hit my deadlines.
Been to a couple of good events this week, the AAUGA July meeting and Game Dev Beer Night.

Stahl März final rough

Final decisions time. Roughed out what I want the final to look like, making sure the values and composition work.
Going to build a proper perspective grid, something I don't do often enough, and flesh out the final.

Stahl März thumbs round 5

Moving on to thumbnails of possible compositions for the final in round 5.
It's interesting to see the different colors "black and white" photos have.

Stahl März thumbs round 4

Took my favorite design, fixed the legs and some of the other details, and tried some color combinations out.

Stahl März thumbs round 3

Picked out my 5 favorite silhouettes from round 2, and made a few variations of details for each.
This was the most time consuming phase yet, by far.
I think I know why ANJ changed his technique. ;)

Monday was a good day. I don't like to stick around when housekeeping comes in, so I had to find something to do. Ended up going to AIA Austin to ask for some advice on breaking into the architecture business. I met Kristina, who was super nice and gave me some great advice, totally worth the trip, even though I may be barking up the wrong tree without any Revit knowledge.
I then visited the Austin Capital and Visitor center, learned a few new things about the city I'm in, and took the tour. Coming back to a clean room was also nice.

Unfortunately, waking up from a nap, I found that my weekly wi-fi code had expired, with no way to connect until I woke up and went to the office for a new code. Guess it's going to happen every Monday while I'm here.

Stahl März thumbs round 2

Round 2 of thumbs. These reflect my decision to go with a six-legged hexapod design, and using what I saw on the armored cars which started appearing at the time.

Stahl März thumbs

Thumbnails for Ianfodder's Stahl März WWI walker "commission" (I just don't think it's the right word, since there's no exchange of currency.)

WWI tanks

A couple of studies of WWI tanks, a British Mark IV and a French FT-17.
Getting ready to do a commission thing on deviantArt.

Moved into Studio 6 in Midtown Austin, returned the rented car, going to the Austin IGDA picnic next Saturday, hopefully I will get some good connections with people in the game industry. So far I only know people who know other people, and no Austinites on facebook. What's up with that.
I've also been sending cover letters to architects, hoping they need someone to do some 3D graphics. Would be a great way to get some experience, probably better than working for sign makers or graphic designers.

Marine PIV + bonus

Marine PIV is inspired by ProgV and that guy who told me high school kids with no schooling have better work than I.

First I felt kind of shitty, cause he hit a sore spot, but I've received enough comments and critique that I have a pretty clear idea of where I stand, and it's not rock bottom.
Then I felt inspired, and I had been meaning to do a study anyway. I should do more, that was kind of fun. Maybe some Star Wars concept art.

As I was looking at the post I made for this image on Sketchaton, I noticed the image I did a couple of days ago, how similar it is in certain aspects, and how I like some of it's quirks, like the weird feet, so here it is, skull helmet.