Hi, my name is Christian Munoz and this is my blog about the different game projects I've been involved in. I recently graduated from the University of Utah with my MFA and now I'm looking for a job in the game industry as a game artist.
This blog includes work I did for my capstone project as an undergrad and all the projects that I worked on as a graduate student at the U of U.
Here is the final render for my shield. I ended up using a total of 3 1024x1024 maps for this model (diffuse, specular, normal). I'm happy with the results and I think that I've come a long way since I first started to make 3d models a few years ago.
I showed this image to one of my art teachers and he recommends that I go back and do another pass on the normal map. Since I took the tribals and took the image into Crazy Bump and the light is not reflecting well off the model. He said that I should probably model the tribals in Maya in high poly and bake the normals.
I also got some feedback saying that the gold trim should be ticker and to show that the shield has curvature since it may not be apparent that this is a shield if there is no side view.
I don't know when I'll be able to get back to work on the model, but I will strive to make it better. Thanks for reading!
So I've been working on low poly bird that we can put on the sky in our thesis game. Up until now, the player had only clouds as a point of reference that they are falling through the sky. So I've been trying to come up with things that we can put in the sky to give a better point of reference for the player. Here is a screen shot of the model and simple texture in Maya:
The main point was to get the basic shape, since the player will be falling by really quick. That's all for now, thanks for reading!
I think over all it looks really good, and it certainly turned out better than I thought it would when I first started to work on this project. I've been putting it all together, but I've been trying to find a better way to render my models than just using the production setting on mental ray. I will make sure to post a render of my model in the next few days, thanks for reading!
So I picked up Metal Gear during the week, and I've spent a big part of the weekend playing through the new Metal Gear game, and I have to say that I'm really impressed with the game. Its a huge difference from other Metal Gear games where you have to sneak around and be stealthy in your kills.
I was always a fan of Raiden, and it was a shame that he didn't get more screen time in MGS 3. But to make him the center piece of a game was the best thing that anyone could've done for Raiden. When I first saw the demo for this game a few years ago, it was really cool how they could split a water melon into precises pieces, which even now it still baffles me how they do that. Then there were no news from the project until I finally found out that it had been canceled, which was a real shame since it had so much potential.
A while later, I heard that Platinum Games had taken over the project, and it was amazing since I loved what Platinum Games did with Bayonetta and Anarchy Reigns. And they didn't disappoint, PG has a way of making their games with an over-the-top style that makes them kind of ridiculous, but not in a bad way. They make things really epic and they took that and applied it to Metal Gear Rising!
The beat'em-up style for this game works really well, and the core mechanic of slowing down time never gets old. It can be a little challenging at times to slice the enemy in the right place, but its a matter skill and practice.
I think that I'm probably a quarter of the way done with the game, but I don't know how many bosses or areas are in the game so there is no way of telling. All I know is that I've made it to Mexico and the cinematic for this area was really funny (see below for video). Hopefully I'll be able to finish the game soon, and keep writing more about the game. Thanks for reading!
I've reworked this specular map a few times by now, I belief this is the 5th version, but I think it will look ok on the final render. At first I started to work on it in Mudbox, but after a while I realized that it would be faster to do it in Photoshop.
I'm so happy that its all finally coming together, I just couldn't help but feel like I would never finish this project when I first started a month ago. I was afraid that this would become one of those project that I started but never finished. That's all for now, thanks for reading!
So I'm almost done with the diffuse texture, but I got thinking that I should also start messing with normals for my shield. Here is my normal map that I will be using:
Its very simple, but I wanted to make the tribals pop. Basically what I did is that I took the layer from my photoshop file where my tribals were, and exported them out into a separate file. Then took that into Crazy Bump, and messed with the setting a bit until I got something I liked. The one thing I don't like is that there seems to be some dips at the edge of the tribals and I don't know why that is.
I also tried to make a high poly version of the shield, but for some reason my normals won't export correctly. I'll have to ask my art professor how to do it correctly. For now that is all until I can finish the diffuse and work on the specular map, thanks for reading!
Here is what I've got so far on my diffuse texture for my shield:
I added some color variation on the silver "wing" part of the shield, as well as some scrapes on the main shield. Overall, its coming along nicely and I can't wait for this thing to be finished. I'm hoping to be able to finish it by the 24th since the art challenge was to do it in a month or less, and I want to see how much I've improved over my time in the EAE MGS program. That's all for now, thanks for reading!
So I finally figured out what I'm going to put in the center of the shield, I've decided to go with a dragon crest in the middle. I found a few reference images for a dragon head tribal and I decided to make one of my own with a few of the tribals that I used for the shield. Here is what it looks like so far in Photoshop:
I will clean it up a bit before putting it into the texture, but I really like the way it turned out even for a first pass at the dragon tribal. That's all for now, thanks for reading!
Here is a render of what the shield looks like at the moment, I also had to make a few changes to the model so I had to tweak the UVs.
If you notice, there is some pixelation in the render since I was forced to use "Maya Software" render since I'm using a psd file for the texture. A psd file makes it easier for me to make changes to the texture and then refreshing the file in maya without having to export the texture into a something other than a psd. If I try to use a psd with mental ray, it only renders the specularity from the blinn material.
I still need to find something to put on the shield on the center since its a little empty at the moment. I think I might stick to the tribal design that I've got going so far. There is still a lot to do with the texture, but I feel that its a solid foundation for now. I think that I will also try to make it paint instead of sticking to making it a certain type of metal.
So I've been working on layout the UVs, and now I'm done:
Now its time to start working on the texture for the shield. I've used Mudbox in the past to make my textures, but I have not gotten good results in the past. I like Mudbox because I can see exactly where stuff will be placed. But the tools are not as good as those in Photoshop for 2D.
I'm planning to use the following metals/materials in my model: gold, silver/steel, copper, & leather. I'm not sure If I want to make them actual metal or paint. I will post progress on my texture as I go along, thanks for reading!
So after I showed my model to a few people, they really liked it, but someone gave me the idea to remove the bottom "crest" on shield to make a different shapes. Here is a render of the new model with an AO bake on it:
The back is the same, so I didn't bother to put another render of the back. I'm really glad that I asked for critique on my work, since I think my model looks much better now. Also, I had another classmate tell me that I should add some buckle to the strap to make it look like its adjustable. I will work on that, but I don't think I will post a render for such a small bit. That's all for now, thanks for reading!
So after I finished the handle and the strap, I decided to put it together and see how it looks specially with the AO bake I did for this post.
I'm really happy with the way it turned out, but I feel like there needs to be different shapes on the model. I'm going to ask some of my class mates and teachers for a critique and see what I can improve on this model before I move on the UV layout. That's all for now, thanks for reading!
This is a really small update, I just wanted to post a render of the handle and strap that I made for the shield.
I made these seperate from the model, now I can take them into the other file and merge them into the other file and make render. I will try to work on the main shield a little more over the next few days. Thanks for reading!
