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[Portfolio] Scott Homer - Environment Artist

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  • scotthomer
    Ive got to agree with you on that one, im not a character artist so that really inst my forte. I'm considering completely dropping the piece as it isn't games art. Id be happy to collaborate with someone if they wanted to create a statue for the scene. Otherwise im going to have to leave that piece where it is I think. Its a shame but it seems like its a fairly weak piece that doesn't showcase anything other than half decent lighting.
  • imperator_dk
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    imperator_dk polycounter lvl 10
    I'm pretty sure you can pull off modelling an Anubis statue / pillar based on your other stuff, i would just get into it. You can get away with a lot more on a model like that than you can on a realism based character model.
  • whats_true
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    whats_true polycounter lvl 15
    Cool stuff dude. Do you have any drawing skills or concepts to show the process behind your art work?
  • Heartless
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    Heartless polycounter lvl 8
    Good stuff. I may be wrong here, but wouldn't it be a good idea to work on a larger scale full environment instead of just modules and assets? Showing you know how to make pieces of an environment is good, but I'd assume possible future employers would like to see that you know how to fit all the puzzle pieces together.
  • scotthomer
    I'm pretty sure you can pull off modelling an Anubis statue / pillar based on your other stuff, i would just get into it. You can get away with a lot more on a model like that than you can on a realism based character model.

    Yeah, I think you are right, its outside of my comfort zone and it would probably be a nice challenge to get stuck in at least try to produce something of a higher standard. I will make sure to attempt it, even its just for my own curiosity in the near future. It bugs me every time I look at it.

    DAMN YOU EGYPT.
    I actually had alot of fun modelling that scene..
    whats_true wrote: »
    Cool stuff dude. Do you have any drawing skills or concepts to show the process behind your art work?

    I do sketch occasionally, however on the advice of industry veterans I was advised that the quality of my hand drawn art skills were dragging down my portfolio as they are far inferior to my 3d skills. I took their advice and removed all my hand drawn stuff as I will admit now, it was fairly poor. I tend to concept in a different way, if I have an idea for a project ill tend to research into the back story a fair bit, take inspirational images into a moodboard and then start playing around with concepts in 3d, naturally as a result the model im working on tends to develop and change as I make it. I would however be more than capable of working from concept/reference images I just don't possess the time/hand drawn abilities to create a professional quality concept image. It would definitely be a useful string to my bow, a skill that I hope to develop over the first few years of my career.

    I LOVE how Bioshock Infinate is looking at the moment, probably one the games im looking forward to the most (along with Crysis 2, Brink and Bullet Storm). Id love to work for someone like Irrational Games in the future, would you guys be completely turned off by a guy without an hand-drawn concepts in his reel/portfolio?

    Thanks for getting in touch with me dude, its really nice to see my work reaching as far over the pond as the US!

    ALRIGHT!
    I took into consideration the critique you guys had put forward and reduced the high frequency scratched on the barrel of the gun, and I also increased the wood grain in the handle texture. (I also fixed a couple of visible seams and some areas I had missed in the texturing phase). Better?

    m79-Fixed.jpg
    Thanks for the critique guys, it was appreciated as always!
  • scotthomer
    Heartless wrote: »
    Good stuff. I may be wrong here, but wouldn't it be a good idea to work on a larger scale full environment instead of just modules and assets? Showing you know how to make pieces of an environment is good, but I'd assume possible future employers would like to see that you know how to fit all the puzzle pieces together.

    In an ideal world yeah, id agree with you.
    Unfortunately im very limited in time at university at the moment, Pretty much each piece in my portfolio is 2/3 weeks of work that ive had to put in between submissions. If I am unsuccessful in my hunt for a job then I will definitely spend my summer creating something on a grander scale, however creating an entire environment wouldve been abit unrealistic in the time frames that I have been given. From what i gather as junior in the games industry I wouldnt be expected to create an entire level anyway, but I will, job or not over the summer create a entire environment inside of either UDK or Cryengine.

    Its a good point you raise, i have created entire environments in the past, nothing showreel worthy though.
  • tda
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    tda polycounter lvl 16
    The texture work on this launcher is looking really nice, the materials are maybe not reading as well for me as i think they could though. The metal parts all over look quite matte, like it's covered in soot or dust. Maybe this is intentional on your part with going for the painted look, but try pumping the spec up and see if it looks better. From what i've seen, well used old guns like this tend to get really oily and shiny looking.

    The wooden parts are really close, but again i think if you upped the glossyness a bit and gave em a touch more spec, maybe a tiny bit more of reflection too, it'd look totally boss. The spec on the wood also seems quite sharp and defined, on a hand-worn-smooth piece of wood i'd imagine the specular highlights to be quite broad and blurred. This is a great example http://www.wwwoodworks.net/woodcarvingsCFRODGERSSTOCK052.jpg.

    My 2c, nice work so far dude.
  • marks
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    marks greentooth
    Would probably look decent if the entire model didnt look like concrete - material definition is waaayyy off base. Far too much grain on ... well ... everything. A 2048 texture for that is (in my opinion) excessive - the amount of high-frequency detail in the materials which you will never be able to make out ingame is just not necessary. 6400 tris is again, excessive. The overall shapes of that model are very simple and you're using about double what you need. Wireframes would be useful.
  • scotthomer
    Wow, this is awesome advice, ive never thought this deeply into specular highlights, im really really grateful for the insight. Ive blurred out the specular highlights in the worn parts of the stock and the handle. Ive also increased the intensity of the highlights on the barrel to make the barrel look more like powder coated metal. Better?

    better.jpg
  • marks
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    marks greentooth
    It still looks like sandpaper.
  • scotthomer
    Thanks for your input Marks, I agree with you 100%, (I was racing to beat you to reading my thread so I could post up wires/improved textures.)

    I have at present, blurred the reflections in the worn wood on the handle, reduced the noise in the specular highlights on the barrel and stock. I have reduced the intensity of the normal map bumps aswell to make the handle look smoother.

    fixedwires.jpg

    The figures ive been working towards have been based on the VSS (http://www.patricksutton3d.com/portfolio/vintorez.html) Created by Patrick Sutton (a very inspirational artist to me) however I also researched the FPS weapon specifications from UDK and Cryengine. I take on-board what you've said though about the optimisation of the gun and I can once im finished, scale down the textures if I have to.

    Thanks for your input, I feel like everything you guys have suggested has improved the M79 100% already, so keep the crits coming!
  • AlecMoody
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    AlecMoody ngon master
    Mark is right but its not something that can really be fixed with some bluring or filters. You are using a lot of base textures and almost global overlays which are adding to the noise. Especially for metal I would start with a solid color and slowly add texture in logical ares of the model.

    Here are some examples for you
    this is on the very clean side of the spectrum:
    http://www.b-cog.net/images/AR-15/Splash.jpg

    and here is something with more damage:
    http://polygoo.com/port/m39_05.jpg
  • scotthomer
    Ahh cheers for those images Alec, great reference (book marked!). Just to clarify I didn't just slap a downloaded texture onto the texture, I actually picked an area of wood from a high-res photo, and then painted the wood grain in/emphasised what was there, and then built up layers of varnish and dirt on-top, however I would agree that the textures need some work/redoing even. Ive had a week to create this gun, and have 4 weeks to create an Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Grenades, sidearms and Claymores. (Its for a project at university) so ive been pressed for time. I will however redo the bits you guys have pointed out, thank you for taking the time to comment, I do very much value your input, and ill post updates of progress of the re-texturing when I get time.
  • scotthomer
    I haven't posted anything in some time, so I thought id let you guys see a little something something that I literally just did, (about 5 hours work or so). I have been ridiculously busy recently with the beurocratic side of University. (4000 word Dissertation was in on Thursday) so ive been doing very little in the way of 3D for the past week or so, im back ontop of it all now. Im "working" (in terms of university work) freelance between 2 final major projects at university currently, making weapons for the one film and a couple of environments for the other. So..I made a claymore mine with alittle bit more personality. Im trying to make the best of a bad situation at the moment, dont get me wrong, university is great and the course I am on is second to none, however the way the cards have fallen has meant that I am working on 2 pre-rendered films , so im having to make things as low poly as possible, whilst still being accurate to the original design/high enough poly to look realistic. I think ive pretty much gotten this as low as I could whilst still keeping it looking semi realistic.

    claymorepoly.jpg


    In other news, I put together my final portfolio last week, it cost me several hundred pounds to get it all done, (I might take some photos at some point this weekend to show you guys) and whilst I was doing so, I put together an updated showreel with the changes everyone had suggested (minus a few I just didn't have time for). Check it out (if you dare..)

    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5dnC4sSzWQ&feature=player_embedded[/ame]


    IN OTHER NEWS: I HAVE A JOB.
    I will be starting at Crytek UK once ive finished my degree, as a Junior Environment Artist. This is seriously a dream come true for me, ive had Crytek at the top of my list (an invisible list in my head) for the last 4 years, and to get the job that I wanted after all this work is the most incredible feeling. Everyone there is amazing, and im really excited to get stuck in with all talented artists (alot of whom frequent these forums.)

    Id really like to say a big thank you to Polycount and the polycount community, it was via Polycount that my work was "noticed" and therefore has essentially gotten my career on track. Everyone has been amazing with awesome critique and general kind words, so im just really grateful.

    Stay classy, er, polycount.
  • Sean VanGorder
    Congrats man! You really deserve it. Your work serves as great inspiration and motivation.
  • scotthomer
    Thanks so much sean, ive put so much time in over the last 3/4 years, ive pretty much had no life, missed my birthdays, my girlfriends birthdays, (even valentines day) so to get the job of my dreams has made it all worthwhile. Ive got a lot of work ahead to get myself out of the doghouse for missing Valentines day ahah!
  • JobyeK
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    JobyeK polycounter lvl 13
    Awesome, congrats on the job! Say hi to John Crewe, a Designer, over there for me :), he's one of my mod leaders on Ham and Jam!
  • Ex-Ray
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    Ex-Ray polycounter lvl 12
    Sweet congrats Scott, I knew you wouldn't have a problem landing a job, one of my best mate Ed works there as well so you'll have to hi to him as well :)
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Hey Scott, congratulations!

    Out of interest, which university are you studying at?
  • scotthomer
    Cheers everyone! Im glad there are so many good people working there, ive had about 10 people say "ahh i know an awesome guy who works there, say hello to X for me" so im really looking forward to getting there!

    @PogoP, Im at the University of Hertfordshire, only got like 12 weeks left, so im counting down the days. :D
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 14
    Congrats mate, you deserve it. Over here at Derby University I'm pretty much in the same boat but we get to focus on the portfolio a little more, still got the dissertaton and all that stuff though.

    What's this about 700 pounds?!
  • scotthomer
    Cheers dude!
    Ahh derby, ill be living in your neck of the woods soon! Id much rather have worked on the portfolio for the entire year, im sure my portfolio would be much more polished given twice the time, but oh well. The course is great otherwise and I don't really mind doing the modelling stuff for the films anyway, its more the cinematography stuff that doesn't interest me much (that being said i still did it to the best of my abilities), but I cant really expect them to tailor a course specifically to my needs really.

    Oh well, by several I meant £200 actually (I worked it out last night) all the portfolio, wallets, card, printing, dvd's etc came to just over £200. (Pretty pricey when you have no income) but hey, it all worked for the best.
    Good luck with your job hunt dude!
  • Jeff Parrott
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    Jeff Parrott polycounter lvl 19
    Congrats man! I gotta say your site and presentation with it is really awesome. You have a great look to it all. Plus the great work, motivating man. Keep it up.
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Ah, nice Scott! I turned down Hertfordshire University to go to Staffordshire, so I could have been working alongside you! I'm in my final year now, got about 12 weeks left to go too.

    Very impressive portfolio. It really puts mine to shame! We've both done 3 years on our respective courses and yours seems to have had a much better outcome. Just going to have to keep on cracking away at mine!

    Again, congrats and maybe one day I too will be working at Crytek UK (Ahh, one can only dream..)
  • teaandcigarettes
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    teaandcigarettes polycounter lvl 12
    Gratz man! Not much to say here, judging by your folio it's totally well deserved :) It's always nice to hear that people are getting jobs.
  • scotthomer
    @jeffro- Thanks for taking a look at my stuff man, means alot!


    @PogoP- I went to Staffordshire for the open day, and I got into the course too, it was perfect for me because it was close to Birmingham and being a Brummy myself it'd have been fairly close, but on the open day we essentially sat and looked at the final year game stuff and I really wasnt impressed. That being said, ive been a fan of your work for some time and I think you've made equally as good use of your time at uni. (I fucking love the Meteor Scene, seriously). So I think anyone properly motivated can do amazing things.


    @teaandcigarettes- Cheers dude, well I was considering keeping it quiet out of respect for those unfortunate people that have been let go from various companies over the country, but I thought that I might serve as inspiration for anyone that is out of work at the moment. There are jobs!
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks Scott, that really means a lot! Keep us updated on how it is to work at Crytek!

    Out of interest, how did you go about applying when you were still at uni? Just shooting a few emails off, or did you go through the application process as you would do if you weren't a graduate?
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    Great job on your portfolio and Congrats on Crytek, the hard work is well deserved. I'm sure you'll make kickass assets for them!
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    Congratulations on landing a gig at Crytek, dude! You really deserve it!

    Another UK final year games student here, I feel your final year pain! Well maybe not as hard, seeing as you seem to have put an ton of work into your portfolio stuff!

    Well done! :)
  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    Congrats man, you are a really hard worker, so you deserve it :)
    Sweet portfolio i was stunned when looking trough it today.
  • scotthomer
    PogoP- *Question answered via email* Ive literally got a counter set on my pc counting down the days till i start. Cheers for getting in touch with me dude!

    Kaburan- Thanks dude, ive heard that you improve 10x faster once you are in the industry, so im really looking forward to see what i can come up with once ive got a bit of experience.

    Fearian- Thanks buddy, im just so happy, honestly a dream come true.
    Yeah, tell me about it, i really just wanna get out of here, its horrible having the light at the end of the tunnel just out of reach. Still the University of Hertfordshire has been incredible to me, im going to miss alot of amazing talented people. Lukily the alumni are such great guys, im still seeing people that left 2 years ago. Definitely makes you think about how important it is to not make any enemies whilst you are at uni.

    Stromberg90- Thanks dude, im glad you like my portfolio, im thinking about uploading a PDF that I put together for my actual portfolio for people to download, I dunno if thats the done thing? Ill drop you an email with a link to download it if i dont decide to put it up for everyone to download!

    Anyway, i threw something together for one of the films im working on. Didnt get to spent long on this so its abit simple, (its going to be on screen for like a split second.

    Hope you guys like it!
    drilllow.jpg
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Very nice as usual. Out of interest, did you make your high poly in Max? Also, how did you generate the high frequency noise on your normal map? Crazybump?
  • scotthomer
    Modelled the high poly in max, baked the normal map out in xnormal, painted the diffuse and specular, then I made a second normal map using NDO and combined the NDO normal and the baked normal together.

    Usually i wouldn't have created a normal map for the sticker on the battery but i wanted to give it an Embossed look. :D
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Ah, so those chipped parts on the normal map are generated using nDO?

    Scott, I don't think anyone's asked you as many questions in a 24 hour period than I have today lol.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Ah congratz on the gig Scott! I really need to get my shit together, my working ethics have bean down bottom the last month. But this is very inspirational! Really great to see grad students getting in to the biz right away. I hope i'll be up there with you in a few month when my internship ends.
  • scotthomer
    @PogoP - Yeah the chipped bits are ndo, the actually surface transfer information was created in xnormal. I dont mind, just dont be offended if i dont get back to you, i can be abit absent minded in that respect.

    My life=

    3D
    Food
    Girlfriend
    Mountain Dew
    Video Games
    My Car
    My health
    Replying to emails and threads.
    (in that order)

    So I can only apologise for not getting back to you!

    @sltrOlsson: Thanks for the congrats dude, im lucky to have a seemingly bottomless pool of inspiration and motivation. (mostly due to seeing cool shit on polycount etc!)

    here is something new I did today, i actually enjoyed this quite alot. Cool little asset.
    hammeryshit.jpg
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 14
    Good stuff Scott, the darks on the drill could probably be lit up a tiny bit, or it could be my monitor but some parts are almost pitch black.

    Rest is nice, churning out those assets :)
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Seeing the drill you did earlier inspired me to make a bunch of tools, my dad has a load of random tools and equipment in his garage and I wanted to do a set of them in 3D! Looks like we're going to be doing very similar projects haha.
  • IchII3D
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    IchII3D polycounter lvl 12
    Congratulations! Bet your final weeks at University will be crazy, I spent my last few weeks doped up on pro plus and relentless trying to get everything done. Probably not so good for the heart so wouldn't recommend it :P
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 14
    IchII3D wrote: »
    Congratulations! Bet your final weeks at University will be crazy, I spent my last few weeks doped up on pro plus and relentless trying to get everything done. Probably not so good for the heart so wouldn't recommend it :P


    Relentless! Yeah the final month or so before a hand in is usually all nighters, funny to see most the course do them though then come in with black eyes.
  • scotthomer
    @Mr Bear, Yeah im pretty fast once I get going churning stuff out for these 2 films im working on. It might be abit dark, my laptop screen is pretty naff (considering its a £1400 laptop, you'd have thought MSI wouldve put a decent screen in)

    @PogoP, Ahaha, yeah looks that way, im making a whole garage environment for this one film im doing atm, so these are going to be hanging above a tool bench.

    @IchII3D - Thanks dude, so much. Yeah well tbh, the last year has been like that, ive been really burning the candle at both ends for so long, but the end of this year is going to be insane i recon. Last year (for my final major project) i was living in the library putting in 3 all nighters a week (easily) and just churning out the assets. Something tells me that its going to be the same this year, (times 2 seeing as im working on 2 movies) so yeah, relentless, proplus and coffee are gunna be my new diet. Its all worth it knowing what I have waiting for me on the other side. Excited isnt the word.

    See you soon buddy :D
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    [edit] Great stuff here man! It's great to see the progression from the beginning of the thread to you getting a job to here. Very inspiring, I wish I was as motivated as you when I was 20! Good stuff.
  • scotthomer
    chaosquack wrote: »
    [edit] Great stuff here man! It's great to see the progression from the beginning of the thread to you getting a job to here. Very inspiring, I wish I was as motivated as you when I was 20! Good stuff.

    Ahaha thanks dude, i have a 45 page thread over on another forum, you'd be amazed how taking critique helps you improve over the course of a couple of years. Thanks for the kind words, i am really motivated, I do get writers block occasionally though.

    I have a meeting tomorrow that was brought forward (it was supposed to be in a weeks time) to monitor the progress of the films im working on. This shotgun was supposed to be modelled by next week, but i found out like 24 hours ago that i needed it for tomorrow, so i started modelling my ass off, probably about 12 hours have gone into this so far, its pretty close to the real thing minus a couple of little nuances i still need to add. Hope you guys like it, id love some C&C :D

    mossbergshotgun.jpg
  • scotthomer
    mossbergshotgunfinished.jpg

    Finished the highpoly, now to make the low poly and start unwrapping. Gotta love a shotgun, ive had such fun making this. Any crits?
  • Sean VanGorder
    Looks great man. Just out of curiosity, you mentioned you had a tight deadline for this model, is there a reason you decided to model in all the high frequency detail as opposed to adding that later in photoshop?
  • scotthomer
    Cheers dude, something quick. Yeah, well I needed it for the meeting today, so thats out the way, but I hope to have all the textures baked out by tomorrow night.

    Well, in my opinion there is no excuse for not baking out textures. It takes next to no time and gets the best results. Ive managed to develop a fast workflow where creating a high poly and baking out the normals is far faster than faffing about in photoshop.

    Still, im sure there are people on here who could kick my ass painting normals by hand!
  • Dudeman95
    Wow Scott you are so good! I'm currently starting my first next gen dinosaur model and I have yet to get the whole idea of a spec map. I know that some people like to do a normal grayscale from their diffuse, but I heard that you are suppose to to an inverse of the diffuse so you can neutralize it when light is reflected off of it. How do you go about making your spec maps?
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Check out this tut for spec maps, explains everything you need to know:

    http://www.manufato.com/?p=902
  • Dudeman95
    PogoP wrote: »
    Check out this tut for spec maps, explains everything you need to know:

    http://www.manufato.com/?p=902

    lol that was the tut I was referring too. :P It is just kind of hard for me to grasp. I will read it a couple of more times to see if I pick up on anything I didn't the first time.
  • scotthomer
    Dudeman95 wrote: »
    Wow Scott you are so good! I'm currently starting my first next gen dinosaur model and I have yet to get the whole idea of a spec map. I know that some people like to do a normal grayscale from their diffuse, but I heard that you are suppose to to an inverse of the diffuse so you can neutralize it when light is reflected off of it. How do you go about making your spec maps?

    Erm, I tend to use a basic greyscale as the foundation of the specular map, and then I tend to pain the specular details over the top, building it up in layers. I often use colour depending on the material effect im trying to get.

    Pogop's link looks brilliant actually, read it through over and over. :D

    Anyway, I baked out the shotgun. Its abit messy atm, (the AO is very very messy, I dont tend to use the AO bake much in my diffuse texture so its simple a blurred out crappy AO atm, with a cavity over the top)

    lowpolymossberg.jpg

    Gotta be up in the morning, so ill clean it up in the day tomorrow, then I can get to texturing this bad boy. Any crits would be appreciated!
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