Sketchbook - Darik Smith

visoutre

Hey guys! I'm new to the forum, but I wanted to join for a long time. At my school we started a modeling class, so I'm going to upload that stuff throughout the semester. Looking forward to improving with the awesome people on this site!

Big 3D Dump of my recent works:

This was my first attempt at a modular environment in UDK with assets created in Maya.









First character; modeled in Zbrush and sent to Maya for rigging/animation. This is before I knew about smoothing groups and harden/soften edge in Maya...




First hard surface model. Didn't push the textures as much as I could, but learned a lot.

visoutre

2D Dump next!

My school is heavy with traditional art and life drawing, so I do a lot of 2D stuff. Since I'm in an animation school, most of the drawings we do are fast and dirty, but I prefer illustration drawings. My style is sort of in between, but it's constantly evolving. Since I started modeling my thinking process changed. It will be interesting to see where I will be at the end of the year with both 2D and 3D.

visoutre

Currently modeling a stagecoach for a western robbery. My teacher is really into this theme, so he gave a lot of advice for making the wheels functional. It's crazy how much you can learn from modeling.

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Designed a facade for some Old West stores.

visoutre

The school year ended last week which means I have more time to study 3D! The modeling class was fun, but we just did character modeling. I learned a bit of Zbrush too and made a simple environment in my spare time. It's pretty crazy how much 3D helps my 2D and vice versa. It's so addicting.





The 2nd last image is a study of Michelangelo's Piet

visoutre

Hmm, still don't post much here. I've been studying in a private Facebook group, mostly 2D art though. I feel stronger in that area, but all I've done 3D wise is a bunch of unfinished experiments. I have a lot to learn. But I've been learning a lot! So gonna dump some of my 2D stuff here and focus more on 3D at least for the next few weeks. See how it goes.

Some Environment designs:







Character Designs:












Studies (Cassie and Tywin Lannister from photo refs)

taytahs

You've got a wide variety of abilities, and you're sure to get better and better. If you're just starting in 3d, props. Your character topology and everything looks nice. Also digging all your more recent grayscales. I think your city piece with the jets and motorcycle would be really strong if you lowered the vanishing point on the right side, or raised the perspective on the left side. The perspective seems like you're about 6 feet higher on the right side than on the left (hope that makes sense.) Good stuff, keep it up!

visoutre

Thanks! I actually started 3D a while ago, but I realized I need to do more of it. I enjoy 2D a lot, but 3D feels more rewarding which is why I'm pushing to learn recently.

Lately I've been learning vertex painting and more about modular/tiling environment pieces. My old hand painted models are really ugly looking. I watched a video series by Sean Marino on tiling stone, this is what I created from it:




I've also been working on a character model of one of the designs I posted before. I made a main thread for it here

visoutre

Working on a bunch of stuff and trying to boost my zbrush skills to be industry level in a year or so. Still have a long way to go, but it's crazy how much easier things are now compared to when I started last year.

This is just a helmet I've been learning some hard surface modeling in Zbrush. Made a base mesh in Maya, took to zbrush and tested out Keyshot for the first time. Still just WIP If I use this for an actual project the design will change a lot, just keep on learning for now.

visoutre

Also can't believe I didn't post the updated biker girl here! There is still more I would like to make some more edits (like design proper tattoos and retexture), but I have to finish other things first. I'm happy with the improvement though. And getting her rigged and animated in game was so exciting!

visoutre

I finished the helmet sculpt and rendered it in Keyshot just to see how the program works. Then I retopologized in zbrush and textured it in dDo. Learned so much from this model. It's too high poly for actual game usage, but it served it's purpose. Can't wait to try these techniques on more hard surface models!

visoutre

Oh my goodness this semester was crazy. Learned so much technical stuff. Unfortunately the art took a hit and there's still some obstacles I need to overcome. But slowly learning more and improving! Here's some stuff I worked on recently minus the big failures. But it's the failures that taught me the most...












My mascot character, Deerman! Revamped!