portfolio

http://ashleyobrienart.blogspot.com/?zx=af4f5d5df0537e48

My online portfolio. check it out. still under construction.

WIP character

lil update of the character i am doing. the textures were painted in zbrush. so far i'm liking zbrush as a painting application. it speeds up my work flow quite nicely.

its been a while. ive been doing a little zbrush practice for my portfolio, i wasnt sure if what i had gained in 3 years really showed what i can do. so im going to have a 50s theme character environment and vehicle ready for my site.

FMP WIP

Thought it was about time i took a break to post some wip. got allot to do to these to finalize them but they're coming along. Fagin is around 7500tris and dodger is just over 5000. both characters have 1024 for their head and 1024 for the body spec norm and diff. they are both completely painted. no photographs.

the crunch

It seems that nottinghams very own Free Radical design has gone into administration. not only does it mean that 140 jobs have been axed and there may be more companies doing the same but more professionals are going to be searching for work just before we send our cvs and portfolios off. A little bit disheartening to find yourself competing with highly skilled professionals especialy in work that has few job openings as it is.
Free Radical has a now 40 strong workforce, with other companies ready to make offers, free radical should be seing some sort of future. Just have to wait until mid to late january before we know if they can recover.
Free Radical were working on a star wars game for lucas arts that has already seen two years of development but it recently fell through, they have also worked on games such as haze, second sight and Timesplitters.

week 9 project

Im on the way to finishing the model for my character. who is pretty much a ww1 soldier. he's a basic soldier because i didnt want to waste much time thinking about how he would look instead i wanted to get an accurate representation of my dad as a soldier. Im pretty short on time so ill stick with my second head model in wich i didnt overlap his face on the uv.

week 8 project

I have decided to base my character off my dad. mostly because i started the project while i was at home and he was easy to get refrance of. The model i made of his head isnt perfect but the wirframe is modeled in a way i descovered only recently. after texturing i was reasonably pleased with it. even though it was probebly my second head after my self portrait, which was pretty terrible. if i modelled it again i would do a much better job. no normal map at the moment. im still getting the hang of zbrush.

week 7 project

The van is pretty much completed. fully unwrapped and textured but still open for revision later on when i have time to tweak. Im not happy with its final look. I have modelled and textured a simple skybox and floor to place my assets in. The render doesnt look as nice as id have liked it to. if i were to do it again i would pick a smaller section. Probebly focused on a corner of the childs playground rather than the whole thing.

week 6.5 project

Half way through the term i can say that i am ahead of schedual as i have finally completed the texturing of all scene assets and began texturing the van. the van was textured using sections of other photos and some painted. so far its looking ok but if i get the opotunity to use photo graphic textures, i will.

week 6 project

The van is now fully modeled apart from the little bits such as the lights and handles but i will go ahead and unwrap everything i have done so far ready for the end of the week. i have began texturing the landscape swings, both benches and the seesaw are completed. i had to remove some graffiti from the seesaw as it had a comment that probebly wasnt necessary.

week 5 project

Completed the modelling of all the assets for the scene. next is to unwrap them. after taking a long time to model all the assets i went back to the park and due to the fast chaging winter weather, the ambiance of the park is alot colder as you would expect but if i were to take textures again the change would be very dramatic. there are alot less leaves on trees and the floor is damp rather than dry and dusty, it almost reflects some of the color of the assets in the floor.

Due to the change in weather ill use most of the refrance i obtained from my first visit.

week 4 project

beginning the hvan without any of my own refrance wasnt to difficult as there are many images floating around the web that show the vehicle from many angles including the partial inside. such as this one. to date i have finnished the blocking out of the main chassis. i came in to a problen with the front wirframe as i had to many verts exiting the wheel arch and entering the door panel. i couldnt find a neat way of flowing those lines at first but i decided to lower the poly count of the wheel arch just enough to neaten it up and keep a beleivable curve.

week 3 project

i collected some refrance and began the modelling of the scene assets. having a park close by meant for easy texture and refrance sourcing. so far i have modelled the major assets that will go in my scene. the ones i have left to complete are the elephant rocker the bin and swings as well as some sort of setting/surroundings.

im retty sure that im going to change some of the models as they are far to high poly. starting with the bin. personaly i feel confident enough to stop and start again due to having finnished a large part of one of the projects.

wiimote white board

over the summer break we were left to our own devices, without tv maybe even without internet. i personally dont watch tv any more unless taking a break from googling. one of the many, many days i spent in front of google i found my self at a youtube page that seemed to show that i could draw on my moniter and my projecter for £1500 punds less (pretty much free) as long as i had a wiimote and a bluetooth adapter handy. luckyly i did, well my nefew did, i proceded to follow the instructions that on first glance looked quite complex but turned out to be just two bits of software and a dash of luck (windows isnt exactly a dead sert). the idea based itself upon the wiimote being a sensor for a moving infrared led that i would fashion into a beautiful looking pen. the wiimote infact is just a very cheap high quality infra red camra. it works on a reasonably high resolution compared to standard, lets say, web cams. after i completed my dodgy pen and positioned the wiimote all that was left was to use the software given to calibrate the wiimote to the irpen. it gladly worked to my amazment, first time. its fairly limited as there is no preasure sensitivity and if you put yourself in the way of the wii sensor the pen ceases to funcion but all in all it was a sucess. you might think that i would stop there but after a few web searches to find the seed site where all this came from, i descovered that there are two more projects that were relitavly simple but worked off the same basic principle. one being virtual reality. ir leds attatched to said persons head, as he/she moves so do the pictures on screan thus creating the effect of a window into your computer. this project i have also completed but the software isnt as great as i imagined or maybe it needs a little more work on my end as the picture does not seem to fake perspective as well as the demonstration suggests. the third and final project that interests me the most is ir gloves that allow me to control up to four points with four fingers from a distance. although people have developed on this design to make a fully working touch screen, it will take a hefty amount of time money and effort to get that finished so im going to put it on standby until i have the time.

week two project

project one : character

i have yet to gain anything other than refrance for ideas on this project. but the refrance i have gained has given me a clear idea of who and what i want to create. he will be a trrench warfair soldier, most likly geared up for gas attacks and partially wounded. but i have yet to draw any concept scetches of him as i need photo refrance of somone to base him off. ive wanted to design and model a ww1 character for some time now but never had the chance.

project two : vehicle

the mesh is fully completed on the outside and almost all unwrapped but the inside is a problem as non of the schematics have inside layouts and i have yet to find the actual van. putting that aside i have decided to turn the van into the style of "bellville ronde vou". which is an amazing french silent animation. after i have finished unwrapping ill leave texturing to later on in the week.

project three : landscape

modelled most of the smaller assets. no more than 2 or 3 left to do. todays task is to get them all modelled and hopfully unwrapped as this is the only project i have photo refrance already taken from a park not far from where i live.
week two finnish unwrapping of both project two and three. then texture assets from project three

week one project

today is a working day. starting with what will most likly be my choice for the three projects. project one: characterthe ww1 character. i have wanted to make a character from this eera for a while. partly because its easy to get hold of photos and museums with real objects are common place but mainly because the way people dress around the time was probebly the most interesting to me in the 1900s. ill focus on a british soldier in the trenches as i found some inspiring short quotes from peoplees lives in the trenches that instantly give a picture of a good character.
project two: vehiclemany of the vehicles listed are not as common place as i was expecting. there is a bubble car in i beleive lincolnshire but as for the citron van. texture refrance is not going to be easy. i will focus on the citroen van as i can get teh refrance to atleast begin this vehicle but texturing wont be easy if i cant find the van to photograph.
project three: landscapefirst of all i chose to doa scrap yard but recently going on a photographic trip to the various leicester scrap yards it became increasingly difficult to get in as they seemed a little less than above board and wouldnt allow me on site thus i have decided to begin the childs inner city play area. its going to be fairly easy to find and not at all difficult to make a texture library.
week one gain refrance and textures for all three projects. saturday 11th of october. childs play area texture/refrancesunday 12th october. citroen h van refrance(textures if possible)monday 13th october. ww1 soldier refrance(textures if possible)

for the character drawing project i decided to go ahead and use the other one day iteresting person to make my character. my bird lady interpretation. i first saw this lady back in derby near the river when i was about 13, she came pretty much every day to give a trolly, a completly full trolly of bread to birds. there must have been hundreds of birds around her most days (what gets me is how one person can have so much bread more that 3 times a weak) i was reminded of this women when walking back on the day of this project when i came across a little old lady that was dressed pretty much the same way.
with a big padded coat and head scalf she waddled down the street at a surprisingly slow pace however i decided to make a character based on this person and with influences from an artist called Keith Thompson, specifically his undead. he draws the most magnificent characters with close attention to muscular form and indepth ideas that are clearly based off something hes seen or read. before i say anything else, this character isnt another zombie. she is actually just plain dead. sort of like a living birdhouse. that is completly controlled by birds that over time have gathered objects to make this woman look liflike from a distance, which brings me to my next point. while searching for some ideas on what she would look like i came across a site that made me laugh at just how intelligent birds can be thus if you think about it the birds are the character and the woman is just a prop they hold.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/carwash.asp

as far as i can tell this site is real but ive only skimmed over it so i could easily have missed somthing, but heres the character i innished earlier in the weak. she still needs a bit more color however you can see what i was aiming for.

birds are just so awsome!

over the years in which technology has grown many things have become easier and more efficient but one thing always lags behind, batteries. yeah it may seem weird I'm blogging this but I'm kind of interested in all things sci-ency and tech like. but back to the point we've got lithium-ion batteries polymer-ion batteries 1 kilo of lithium stores the same power as a 6 kilo lead acid battery. there is a war between two batteries now which is the refinement of lithium-ion batteries and the other is fuel cell. lithium is the one I'm most interested in as it has been under many different schemes but the most fascinating one is MIT's research into fully organic, virus generated cathodes. its based on the idea how tiny proteins cant naturally bond together to form a perfect structure of a sea shell. by identifying certain viral strains MIT managed to come up with a virus that would automatically organize itself into cathode and anode stacks. fundamentally taking the shape of wires only 6 billionth of a meter in diameter. these tiny wires make for an ultimately thin battery. that is 3 times more potent that a standard lithium-ion battery and more importantly its organic nature makes for a completely green energy source. Standford university is experimenting with another way in which they use silicone nano wires and if they can improve the cathode in a similar way there could be a 10 fold in energy density.

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392647

over the two years I've been on the course if come to acknowledge the sheer quantity of talent and creativity that allot of the people i know have hidden away and only let lose in little bits. the learning curve of some people may not seem very steep but pretty much everyone in the group has developed by a substantial amount thus i write this blog while i still have it fresh in my mine. what happens when all this talent and the talent of other similar courses filter into the game (arts in general) society. will there be room for every one to make it or will some people be shut out for not being quite as good as another person.

the game industry is far from a land of freedom and equality its a complete free for all or each man for himself kind of world. i cant help but wonder that some of the people that develop slowly over a period of time will be shot down by the people that were either born with talent and/or the people that jump leaps and bounds every now and again. these two groups of people have different methodologies in which they take on tasks and challenges thus do the group of people that have just as much creativity get put on the bench because they don't quite have the visual language to show there potential. this is where id say that creativity is absolute and is the be all and end all of arts in general but that isn't the true case unless you have the tools to express it to another person effectively. going a little bit off the subject but i was lead to believe that different people had different forms of creativity and no 2 people were ever the same, thus why and how would someones ability to convey a pretty idea to another person denote his or her place in the world. could there be other ways in which people convey ideas to one another, well yes there is! salvation. back to the group as a general miss match of talent and creativity, some people are great at modeling while another a good at drawing what they see but another group could be good at writing what they are thinking in words reachable by others, these are just a few ways in which people differ in the projection of ideas and creativity which hopefully means the people that are good at one or maybe two things will never have to meat someone that is brilliant at every thing. you can admire all you want but jealousy always gets the better of people. tis what some people call human nature.

i realize after searching the web that criticism is more like a "value judgment" rather than judgment my reasoning was discovered when searching the web and i came across this phrase

value judgment: "the judgment of the rightness or wrongness of something, rearing upon a value system. a decision must be made with limited knowledge"

if someone walked up to a half finished piece of work and saw somthing was wrong he/she may not know that this piece of work is unfinished and far from looking like it is complete but judges it as he sees it with (key words) limited knowledge and makes a comment. some people find this offensive and begin to defend themselves, I've done it and so have the tutors. its not that they are judging harshly and ultimately on something unfinished but making a biased decision based on the knowledge at hand.

however judgment : "a balanced opiniong based on evidance and is usually the outcome of an evaluation of alternatives"
"The formal process of evaluation can sometimes be described as a set of conditions and criteria that must be satisfied in order for a judgment to be made. What follows is a suggestive list of some conditions that are commonly required"

therefore i find myself judging people more often on unfinished work as i now understand that when i criticize a person i am using one or the other thus there is no need to take it as a personal attack or put down.