Sketchbook: YettiCrush

YettiCrush

Hello and welcome to my digital sketchbook! My name is Davey Woodward also known by YettiCrush. I'm starting this sketchbook to document my progress as an artist with a goal to improve through both practice and criticism. Please feel free to be as harsh and picky as possible!

My Bio: My life as an artist started as a child. I was home-schooled by my mother who was an illustrator who had worked for a few magazines while my father worked in finance and traveled a lot. Early on, my mom had taught me basic techniques from drawing, illustration, painting, and some clay sculpting.

In highschool I took a few art classes, but started to get more into programming. It was around this time I played my first MMO and was introduced to 3DSMax. I used Max to model a few weapons and armor pieces for the original Morrowind, but my early modeling days didn't last for long. I went to college for IS, stopped taking art classes, and ended up joining the Navy as an engineer.

Finishing my service in the Navy I moved to Vegas and went back to school. I started playing games, mainly MMO's again, and slowly burnt myself out as a member of a high-ranked raiding guild spanning a few games/teams. The more burnt-out I got, the more I began to mess with 3D programs and engines/modding again. This is when I found Zbrush and Blender.

My Zbrush trial really inspired me again, although nothing I made was even decent by standards, and my trial came to an end. I then picked up Blender as it was free, but I got burnt out again not being skilled enough to give my models proper textures. This led me to start modding using things like Aurora and UDK again. Which brings me to now, 2 years later.

I recently moved back home and have an entry-level career at a large shipping facility to pay the bills... and boy is it tight. About 3 months ago I decided that I'm going to learn to create my own assets to use in various engines/toolsets... anything from levels, environments, props, to characters. This way I can progress to building a strong portfolio. Right now I'm a hobbyist with a dream to turn into a professional 3D artist.

My Weapons of Choice:

Concepts - MS Paint (basic shapes/silhouettes made easy)
Models - Blender (free)
Textures - Gimp (free)
Input device - Mouse (saving for a wacom)
- Also saving for a license of ZBrush for anything next-gen

YettiCrush

The model was inspired by the Quel'Serrar and created in Blender. Texture was painted in Gimp with a mouse. Render was in Blender using cycles. The model is at 318 Tri's with a 512x256 diffuse.

YettiCrush

The model was created in Blender. Texture was painted in Gimp with a mouse. Render was in Blender using cycles. The model is at 428 Tri's with a 512x256 diffuse. I added a normal and specular generated with CrazyBump that I used in the render for this model.

YettiCrush

The model was created in Blender. Texture was painted in Gimp with a mouse. Render was in Blender using cycles. The model is at 430 Tri's with a 512x256 diffuse. I added a normal and specular generated with CrazyBump that I used in the render for this model.

YettiCrush

This is an old unfinished WIP I made using and learning Z-brush with their 30-day Trial. Hopefully when I can afford the software I'll be able to finish him up, but first with a proper low-poly model, quality rigging, better sculpting, and more realistic anatomy.

Zbrush for the model/sculpt and Windows Paint with a mouse for the sketch.

YettiCrush

This is a really old sketch I did shortly before Mists of Pandaria released. It was scratched away with a mouse and Window's paint.

YettiCrush

The model was created in Blender. Texture was painted in Gimp with a mouse. Render was in Blender using cycles. The model is at 548 Tri's with a 512x256 diffuse, normal, and specular. The normal was created in Gimp with the NormalMap add-on and the specular was created using color/saturation/contrast balancing.

Rendered Animation: youtu.be/5nYCxEOheLI