Modeler/animator

[mrdes]

Heyyas. I recently sent an application through E-mail to New Horizon but I hear he is having computer trouble so I should try posting in this section. Here's a bit of an updated version of what I sent to him.

 

-

 

Hey there. I'm Mike. I was interested in applying for a position on the Dark Mod team. I've been searching for something to work on and your project seems perfect for me. I'm a big fan of the Thief series, and I coincidently just started playing around with Thief 3 a few days before I found your mod team.

 

I am taking a two year 3D animation college program and am starting my second year in a few months. We cover a lot of areas such as life drawing and traditional art. We also cover every part of the character creation process from concept to modelling, to getting the character textured and rigged and of course animated. One of my professors suggested that a good place to start getting some more experience with designing for games is the mod community, so here I am.

 

My skills include

 

Character modelling - Mostly low poly until recently I've dove into higher poly modelling for use with normal mapping.

Animation - I have studied a lot of animation theory and techniques, 2D as well as 3D. 2D I've done mostly to just understand the basics of timing, posing and such. 3D I have experience animating characters' walk cycles, run cycles, jumps, and various actions such as slams/punches.

 

Art - I noticed there wasn't anything posted about needing a concept artist but I figured I'd put this here since I believe it's relevant to modelling and animation. I've been drawing since I was a kid. I have taken life drawing classes in the past and will be taking more come September when I am back in school as it's one of the courses in my college program. Not much else to say here but I've attached some examples of my work.

 

Weaknesses - Color is a problem for me. I haven't really had much experience with painting or just coloring in general. It is something I am definitely working on though. Another thing is my lack of knowledge about the Doom 3 editor. I'm not sure what kinds of problems that could pose but I'm willing to learn how to use it if I need to.

 

I model using the 3DStudio Max 7 Package, and animate with it as well using Max's Character Studio, mostly just for the biped (All animation by hand, no simple "footsteps" tool or anything). I also have some experience with Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter.

 

And here are links to some of my work. I am not sure how many pieces you are asking for, but if you are interested in seeing more just let me know since I have tons of work online. (-You will probably have to fullscreen most of these to see the correct resolution-)

 

2D:

http://img108.echo.cx/img108/5503/stunned2lk.jpg

http://img104.echo.cx/img104/1706/somechick3gg.jpg

http://img115.echo.cx/img115/8546/thaiboxers8wt.jpg

http://img277.echo.cx/img277/1791/flesheatercolor29vc.jpg

http://img292.echo.cx/img292/1948/monsters0fa.jpg

http://img258.echo.cx/img258/7042/scan64aj.jpg

 

3D (All are either untextured with just colored polygons to get a general idea of the color layout, or they have a fairly low quality texture as it is currently not my main focus):

Low poly-

Little beast man. Two different versions of the character.

First version is just about 2.5k tris, and the second one is around 3.5k tris.

http://img296.echo.cx/img296/600/progress13om.jpg

http://img204.echo.cx/img204/9853/progress1main2ng.jpg

http://img204.echo.cx/img204/8995/progress29ve.jpg

Throwing ideas around for a Boogieman type character.

http://img206.echo.cx/img206/5954/shot31iw.jpg

http://img206.echo.cx/img206/7340/collage8hf.jpg

Simple human. 2.2k tris.

http://img241.echo.cx/img241/2532/rigging456df.jpg

http://img286.echo.cx/img286/4637/textureprogress41ta.jpg

 

High Poly-

A work in progress high poly model that will be used for a normals map. The low poly version next to it is currently 3046 tris. http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3571/progress43ov.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2057/pr...4closeup5oz.jpg

http://img124.echo.cx/img124/9662/headprogress78vb.jpg

 

At the moment I don't have anywhere to host my animations until I finish up a little logo work where I will recieve access to web hosting for a while as my payment. Though I don't have quite as much work to show regarding animation because I've been mostly focusing on the whole modelling process, I believe I still have a good amount of skill to offer to the team. I am willing to do either of the two (or more) to help the team.

 

If you need to see any more information about me, my work or need to see more of it just let me know. Thanks for your time.

 

edit: Forgot to mention that I also own zbrush and have a handle on the basics of it so far. Every model above was made in 3DSMax though. And another thing - Feel free to comment or critique as hard as you please on any of my work.

Edited July 2, 2005 by mrdes

[oDDity]

You're obviously a competent enough modeler to join the team, but the last thing we need is another modeler who can't texture his own work to a high standard. I think I'm the only modeler here who textures to the same degree as he models.

We already have a sack of untextured models as it is.

Concept artists are one thing we don't lack, so while your drawing is good and it's nice for a modeler to be able to improvise and come up wth hs own suggestions, it's not really a bonus.

I'd have to see your animation. If it's good enough you could definfitely get in as an animator/modeler.

[mrdes]

Hey. Thanks for taking the time to check out my work. I'd definitely be willing to work on animations for the team. Would you rather I send examples of my work to you in .mov format for quicktime or would you prefer that I find a host and post them here?

[oDDity]

You could send then to odditycg@gmail.com - it has plenty of storage space, though I'm not sure what the file size limit per email is.

[mrdes]

Ok great. I just sent you some of my work. Let me know what you think.

 

Thanks again.

[oDDity]

Those animations are all excellent. I'm just learning myself animaton ATM, so I'm impressed.

With your character modeling and animation skills combined you'd definitely be an asset to the team.

The Powers That Be know how hard I am to please in these matters so they'll accept my unilateral decision as final.

 

Welcome aboard)

[oDDity]

I'll linkthe anims from our FTP for all to see.

 

Sneak

Jump

Run

Tableslam

JabHook

[Napalm]

Beutiful Animations, smooth and realistic

[Springheel]

Well, I was going to vote for you anyway, but if you've impressed Oddity, that's quite an achievement.

 

I've gone ahead and made you a contributor. Hopefully you now have access to the modeling forum, but we've just updated our board software, so I'm not sure what's working. If you can't see the art forums, let me know.

 

Take some time to get acquainted, and we'll come up with some jobs for you.

[sparhawk]

Cool animations. I especially like the tableslam.