Sketchbook: Spiredarc

Spiredarc

Hello Everyone,

My name is Zach. I am a 3D artist in Boston. I have a complicated backstory with art. I'm going to skip all that and just say every post I've seen on here, in the short time I've been here on the site, has helped me realize that I want to be better, I want a better life, and you achieve that by doing and by turning off the video games, TV, whatever, to focus on more fulfilling things. Thanks for being inspirational, feel free to leave feedback.

Here's what I've been working on:

Spiredarc

Spiredarc

Lately I find I have a strange preoccupation with rules. As a result of this I've become really indecisive and even apathetic when it comes to doing work. I mean, I've always been indecisive but it's amplified because I find myself thinking about "rules". For example, I've been trying to become better at drawing, like concept artist good, achieving that level of skill is my white whale (one of them). I know that the only way to reach that level is through lots and lots of practice. But everytime I am going to use a site like quickposes or pixelovey to do gesture drawing my brain says something along the lines of "this isn't real practice because it's not from life" and I end up getting nothing done. Usually I just force myself to just do it anyway and that works fine, but my brain is really good at the long con. I win those small victories then (usually on the weekend) it pounces and buries me underneath a ton of bricks. Does anyone reading this have methods or processes you use to tune out any negativity, whether its from yourself or others?

Spiredarc

Just a warm up doodle/ sketch I did at work today trying to get in a zone.

pmiller001

Hey man, nice work on the car. I like it so far. I hope you finish it.
As far as tuning out negativity. Yeah i tend to just keep working on stuff, if i get burnt out. I take my dog for a walk. Go workout a bit, dance. Then come back to it. I hope that helps haha.

Spiredarc

Hey pmiller001,

Thank you for your comments. I kind of fell of the wagon on being productive shortly after I posted last. But I've come back around, I've been spending a lot of time learning web development, practicing my draftsmanship, learning everything I can about anything that I feel will make me better. In the time i've been gone I've really be attacking how to deal with my negativity and I found that keeping a journal to incredibly helpful. I don't have to make sense, just put my thoughts on the page. Then when I look back and see how silly how I feel is, I just sort of get over it. Also being busy working, as you said, helps too. Literally not having the time to think stupid stuff, really nips negativity in the bud.

Spiredarc

I've been following tutorials on DigitalTutors for Mudbox and this is what my end result was. the base mesh was provided by DigitalTutors, and I just followed along loosely.

Spiredarc

Been a while since I’ve done anything, not related to work. It’s supposed to be a Winchester Model 1897 Takedown (also known as a trench gun for it’s use in WWI) with a heat shield and bayonet mount. I have image planes set up and am using other references to get the details. I plan on doing a High Poly build (pictured) then make a low Poly version and transfer details to that.

Spiredarc

Worked on the forearm today.

Spiredarc

Below is the latest progress of the Winchester M97 I've been working on, I made progress on the heat shield, Bayonet Mount, and Stock. I started the breechbolt. I added basic materials to help me visualize it, but when working on it I change it to the default Before that is a quick model I made of a Ka-bar using a Ka-Bar replica on my desk. Everything was done in Maya Lt.








On a side note, I've been looking heavily at switching to Modo. The Foundry just released version 901, and from what I've seen from demos, and experienced from my trial edition of 801, It has some amazing tools and capabilities that I want. It does everything Maya does and is a fraction of the price. If anyone actually reads my sketchbook, I highly recommend going and trying out the trial. If you've been using Maya or 3ds Max it's a little awkward to use at first but you get over it, also there are plenty of videos on The Foundry's site that help transition to it.

SarahYork3D

Hey man - interesting sketchbook. Would you mind briefly describing how you did the details with the holes on the gun and as well as the reloading barrel?

I have the same trouble with negativity and motivation - I had a moment where I cut out video games etc as I felt they were stopping me getting better. But then I realised how important it was not to do that - you need to relax once in a while and it's all about balancing work/play. I have lots of little different projects going to keep me interested and if I don't feel motivated enough to finish something I just split my goals into tiny chunks like 'today I will model 1 main part of my gun' or whatever and work slowly towards your goals. Hope that helps? :P

Spiredarc

For the reloading barrel, I upped the subdivisions along the height of the cylinder, then used the offset loop to add 2 loops around each one, then scaled the original edge loops in, then add two more edge loops outside the offset loops to tighten up the bevel of the smooth mesh.

For the holes, I cut a cylinder down to just a few spans, then used booleans to cut out cylinders, cleaned up the edge flow with the multi-cut tool, then extruded the edges of each hole in slightly. After that, I duplicated the span as much as needed, and combined and merged those spans together.

Let me know if you have any more questions.


For me, my negativity and motivation has kind of solved itself. After I started looking at 3D modeling, drawing, texturing, etc. as a challenge and something to be mastered, that reignited some passion for me.

Spiredarc

Finished building the Ka-Bar, both High and Low poly, UV'd the Low, did some baking, but it's my first time using Turtle in Maya LT so I stopped for today, and will go more in depth next time.

High is 18860 Tris
Low is 824 Tris

Spiredarc

These are just an quick attempt to make a floater to add bullet ricochet details for a mesh, either by adding it to a mesh for baking or just adding it to the mesh. I didn't use reference it was just a shot in the dark.

Spiredarc

The bullet Ricochet got me thinking about a bullet hole. it's kind of messy, but if it's only for baking I do think that matters as much.

Spiredarc

This is some screen grabs from dDo freeware of the Ka-bar I've been working on. It's the first time I've ever used it, and this is probably the closest I've gotten to finishing a personal project. I'm hungry to do more and learn more.







and the texture presentation:

Spiredarc

So I finally bought my first 3D modeling package, Modo 901. The amazing artist Tor Frick a.k.a. "Snefer" convinced me to buy after watching his many videos on youtube. So far I haven't done much other than experimenting a lot, plus this futuristic ATM sketch.

Unite 2015 Boston is wrapping up here, so that's my latest source of inspiration to get back to being productive and putting stuff out there.

Tor if you read this: you are my spirit animal.

Spiredarc

I've been pretty busy lately, but in my down time I watch tutorials a lot, and try to soak up as much as I can. The last one I completed was one by Vaughan Ling doing a sci-fi corridor. this is my attempt to build on what I learned from that. These aren't high quality renders just quick previews. Constructive Feedback is welcome.

Spiredarc

Spiredarc

Spiredarc

Practicing my observational skills on photos I find with google. I want to keep pushing this. Textured procedurally in Modo.

Spiredarc

Made some revisions, I'm pretty close to done with the modeling. All that's let is some texturing and fleshing out the materials some more.

Spiredarc

Been a long time, trying to learn new skills with a side of soul searching. Thank you polycount for being a steady source of encouragement and inspiration. Picked up a copy of Zbrush this is the outcomes so far. Nothing special, just simple explorations.