Red Star 3D Work Experience Interview

I have been sending some prospective emails over the past couple of months. Many I have had no response back which is the nature of the game. This one place called Red Star 3D in Sheffield fortunately has replied back to me and invited me for an interview. Great news for me!!!

At the minute I'm just in talks of when the interview will be but at this stage I know it will be for 2 weeks work experience some time between now and end of January. Due to work commitments I'm thinking January is the more ideal time for me, however, I would prefer sooner.

Here's a link to their site

http://www.redstar3d.com/index_home.asp

Work for a games student

So a games student (from my previous University) has gotten in contact with me about a 3rd year project of his, so I offered to help out. He needs me to model interior parts of a space ship like walls, floors, arches, doors, crates, sci fi type computers etc etc etc.

I haven't spoken to him an awful lot but he has given me a quick run through and its going to be a top down shooter set onboard a spaceship with sci fi styling. So I made these quick mock ups literally in a couple of hours. Nothing too detailed, just to get an idea if this is similar to what he is after.

An overdue update

So a fair bit to talk about recently.
Firstly, my old computer was on its last limbs so had to order a replacement, it runs fast and smooth great for 3D apps in general and especially speedy in mudbox thanks to the upgraded components.

If any geeks are concerned about the specs they are:

i5 3570k Processor 3.4GHz
16gb of DDR3 Memory
Nvidia Geforce 660Ti graphics card
1Tb Hard drive
(and to utilise the increased amount of memory, Windows 7 64bit)

Secondly, I have had the opportunity for some freelance work. It is unpaid and in the initial stages I'm just trying to prove myself and see if the client likes my work. I don't know how much I can discuss or show at the minute so won't say too much. However the general role of me at the minute is creating a 3D product visualisation and aiming for realism. This would be the first time I have gone for something super realistic so seems a challenge but not something far off what I can reach. I have produced work already but may only show it if I have permission.

Thirdly I am on the lookout for 3D jobs. I think my problem at the minute is lacking experience in the industry. I only have my degree to go on, nothing hands on inside a studio/company. So I am asking studios if they make take me on for work experience or as in intern. Or as a runner, whichever they see fit or whichever comes first.

Rifle model and weekly scheldue

Okay, so I have been really lacking in the posting lately. Not posted since august :/

So in the past couple of weeks I decided I needed to make myself a proper scheldue to stick to. It's not as strict as saying so much per day but simply gives me a certain amount of time per week. At the moment its 10 hours of 3D work, 1 hour of updating my blog, my website and my other sites like linked in and 2 hours of looking for jobs and sending prospective emails. This seems realistic on top of my normal job.

So yeh I think i mentioned i signed up to digital tutors and so far on this rifle project I've created this...

Its been really fun creating this. There are upsides and downsides to following this from a tutorial however. The upsides are that I have learnt a lot of new techniques for polygon modelling and making sure to keep quads etc. Some stuff i knew before but just couldn't work out certain problems. Another upside is this awesome gun model I've nearly finished on was creating from scratch by me.

The downsides are that this model is completely unoriginal and because i followed hours of tutorials I cannot claim much ownership to the work, however I am still quite proud of the process as a whole. Just need to get it finished. So yeh not really my model from scratch but still a nice looking model for my personal use. Not sure if this could be showreel'd or not.

Anyway I'm also thinking to make my showreel a more generalist approach I might need to do a bit of animation. Which should be okay, I will have to wait and see what else i have planned.

Quick post

Just thought I'd post this quickly. Just seems to be a nice dusky/sunset shot of the rear of the house. Finished modelling the rest of the roof's. 

Professional Portfolio Website

Also thought I should mention that I have set up a Cargo Collective type website for use as my more professional showreel/portfolio website. This will have projects that are finished and may also have some in progress pieces (might be temporarily up for now to bulk the site up a bit) marked as WIP.

The site can be found here:
http://cargocollective.com/liamkirkman

I do also have a domain name I payed for. Simple www.liamkirkman.co.uk
However in order to link this to my cargo collective account, I need to upgrade to premium which I think I might do soon.

I will keep my 'Showreel' page on my blog for now, Just in case anyone wants to quickly see some work if they are already on my Blog.

I also need to get round to compiling even just 40-60 seconds worth of work for a showreel. This is quite essential as some potential employees want to see my best effort and work instantly.

Digital Tutors and House update

It's been a while since I last posted, but I do have some stuff to talk about and show off.

Firstly I have an updated render of the house/decking project.

I decided to physically model the roof as I thought it would help make it look more realistic and the geometry isn't too dense. Much. I will do the same for the top roof, and apply a shader to them all instead of UV mapping. The house will be UV mapped soon, ready for texturing. Also the wooden supports/struts need to be textured as well as the concrete and the plants. Not sure how well it would look but I might put some planes inside the house with pictures of the rooms. It might not work out, but could try using basic geometry similar to the actual layout.

As a way to help motivate and also to keep learning new things I have subscribed to digital tutors. I know my friends at University subscribed to it and it really helped them so I think it would be a good idea to get some professional step by step training.
I'm currently in the process of modelling an assault rifle. Using the tutorial videos it has given me some great tips on a variety of modelling techniques such as good edge loops, maintaining quads where possible, clean geometry and more.

Grass

Have been experimenting with using fur to make the grass. Isn't quite there yet but it will do for now.
I've also done a tad more modelling to the extension part of the house, which includes a gutter and extra bricks coming out of the wall for added realism and closeness to the actual house design.

Need to texture the house asap really.