Going to California

Whoo! That's intense.

2012-01-14T00:33:00.002+02:00

Lately I've had one of the biggest, if not THE biggest workloads I've ever had.

Between the school project (which I'm very close to sharing work from with everyone here!), a couple of small jobs I've taken on to ease my financial worries, and trying to maintain decent grades at school classes that don't relate to my school project... And trying to run a decent personal life among it all... It's been crazy.

I'm getting big satisfaction from it all but it's really hard to keep it up. I'm not built for this kind of life. I need my space. :O

See you soon with some materials from our yearly project which is shaping up to be something AWESOME! Hopefully we'll have enough time and skill to complete it.

P.S - Since I didn't jump the happy-new-year-blog-post wagon, I'll use this opportunity to wish everyone a happy new year! Make sure you use it better than the last!

-Alon Tako.

Bezalel Campaign

2011-12-20T11:09:00.000+02:00

Hey all,

My art school's going to go through a publicity campaign, which should be pretty unique.
Basically they're gonna take some of the best student work from the past year and put it on billboards all over the country.

My application for their consideration is this:

While not exactly a school project, I owe a lot of where I am today to my school and this is something that shows considerable progress compared to other sculpture work that I did.

The QR code is leading here, so that maybe a few more people will join you readers that take interest in me. And thank you for doing so! :)

EDIT:

I've been receiving comments about the painfully obvious symmetry on the model.

I do wish I had the time to break symmetry and bring this presentation to a higher level, but sadly I had to render it pretty quickly and give it out to the management. I do plan on finishing this guy up eventually... and the next step is without a doubt to break symmetry!

Oh, and yes, he's barefoot and he loves it. That's just how he roles.

-Alon Tako.

Jaguar E-Type

2011-11-25T01:56:00.001+02:00

Sup!

I've been working on one of the most beautiful cars of all times in my opinion, as part of a course I'm taking in school. Jaguar E-Type.

Here's a peak... not done yet, still gotta do interior and improve smoothing, and there's more detailing work - but I just blocked in the interior and it finally took shape of a real car and I had to share!

Working full power on our yearly project... hope to have things to share soon!

-AT.

Going slow!

2011-11-17T00:58:00.001+02:00

Hey everybody,

Just wanted to update on how Bronn's looking now.
I don't think I'll be calling him "Bronn" anymore as I figure, if it's only inspired by an idea I had when I read about Bronn, and hardly at all similar to anything Bronn is, why call him Bronn?

Either way progress is slow. School started, and I've begun work on a 2 minute 3D short I'll be making throughout the year... which is obviously a ton of work. So I hope I get to finish this soon.

Finally, a portfolio site!

2011-09-24T11:29:00.003+03:00

It's been long overdue... but I finally have one.

I really should put more work into it, but I guess for the time being it'll be fine.
Give it a visit!
http://alontako.daportfolio.com/

Oh and a quick update on Bronn (click on it for the bigger version where you can see the face):

Bronn Anatomy

2011-09-22T17:54:00.000+03:00

Some anatomy on Bronn.

Bronn the Panther

2011-09-19T22:46:00.002+03:00

Starting my own visualization of Bronn from Song of Ice and Fire.
Won't follow the exact description - only the one that's in my head after reading the book. :)

Here's a quick fix for some proportion stuff:

Some anatomy block-in:

Human Revolution.

2011-09-03T17:05:00.000+03:00

Romanticism
In times like this, when the world is on the brink of another world war, and the financial condition is what people say "the worst it has ever been", a game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution is more than a new installment of a video-gaming classic.

It's an experience that makes you think about what it means to be human, to be a part of today's society.
It makes you question what this world is coming to.
It makes you think, how can I be of any help, to make this world a better place?

Story Telling
In the year 2000, Deux Ex was released by game-designer Warren Spector.
For it's time, it was a wonder. It was the best of the best. It was a truly anachronistic experience. Games like Deus Ex, they come once in a decade. They don't have to be "the best in history" - although some will say that about Deus Ex (the first) - they just give you an extremely unique experience, they make you think. They have value beyond the fun of video games.

A couple of years later, a new installment of the Deus Ex franchise was released, and it failed - for many reasons. We shouldn't talk about that now. Since then, it seemed like the Deus Ex universe was dead. And more so when Ion Storm was shut down, barely 2 years after DX2 was released. Warren Spector, the legendary designer behind the first (and also the failed second), moved on to different things - and we were left with a historic game, a failed sequel, and no hope for anything new named "Deus Ex".

Until 2007. Then we were told another game is being developed, by a new team, fresh, and extremely talented. We have been waiting for 4 long years, we've heard tons of news about the new game, we've been drooling for months, and then - it was released. And it was worth the wait.

Clarification
DXHR is, above all else, a new Deus Ex game.
The biggest fear I had when this game was announced, is that the original creators weren't there to support the process, and because of that it will not be another Deus Ex. I was proven 2 things:
1. I was wrong, it IS in fact a Deus Ex game. More than the second was, for sure.
2. The saying that "once a creation leave's it's creator, it becomes independent" - proves itself to be correct.
Deus Ex is not something Warren Spector owns. It's a world, it exists outside the boundaries of the original creator, and anyone can visit it, and with enough time exploring it - anyone can give everyone an answer as to what happens, happened or will happen in that world.

The game initially feels very different from the original. The visuals are based on a black-gold coloring, instead of the traditional Deus Ex black-ultramarine/teal color setting. The originals were very futuristic, while the new one is more stylized, an interesting combo of cyberpunk and renaissance.

In his shoes

You will play Adam Jensen. A former policeman, SWAT, and current security head of Sarif Industries - One of the leading company in a rather new, exciting field of science - human augmentation.

If you've played the original Deus Ex, you will know where this story is going. If you didn't you won't. But neither will make you less curious to find out what - happens - next. You will uncover conspiracies, you will meet friends, enemies, and you'll fight. Hard. Until evil fails, and good wins. The only difference between someone who played DX1 and someone who didn't, is that those who did, know that in the Deus Ex universe much like in our own - there is no such thing as good or evil. It's all a matter of perspective. And in DXHR, just like DX1, you will experience firsthand what different world views make people do - and how their actions change the way the world views them, or could view them.

Any word beyond that, regarding story and experience, would ruin your experience, so I'll stop here and move on...

Gaming

The first DX was a revolution. It was a freak game at a time when freak games didn't really happen. It combined RPG with FPS and Adventure and Puzzle and Stealth and what not - and it did it extremely well. It was like a blast to the head, telling you "goddamnit, there really ISNT a limit to game genres" - and there isn't. I've always told myself, if you get into designing a game and you know your genre beforehand - you won't go very far. When you design a game, just design the game. Let critiques worry about tagging it.

At that, DXHR knew what genre it would be. And it shows.

DXHR delivers, but it delivers nothing more than it set out to deliver. DXHR is an amazing game, with amazing gameplay, and it does what it was intended to do better than any game that came before it - including DX1. But the difference is, that DX1 is a 2000 game, and DXHR is a 2011 game. Gameplay wise, it's the best of the best in it's genre. But it doesn't reinvent anything.

Now, that's not a bad thing, but it's important to clarify. DXHR is a better GAME (gameplay-wise) than DX1 - but for it's time, DX1 was a much, much bigger leap in gameplay depth and quality than DXHR is today.

With that said, DXHR is clearly an amazing game.

It draws inspiration from some of the greatest games ever made: Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect, and of course Deus Ex. It takes the good from each of those, and adds it the the already amazing formula of DX1. It takes DX1, and improves upon it with the newest tech, ideas, and gaming concepts of today's games. And it does it extremely well, better than any of the things it was inspired by. It's better than ME2, it's better than MGS4.

Add that to the epic story, the freedom of choice that me and my fellow older gamers have been missing so much, the AMAZING visual design, the awesome voice-acting that covers every single dialogue in the entire game, and the oldschool attitude of this game... and you get a blast from the past.

A blast from the past

DXHR is a new game, but it's a new game that plays and looks like what we've all been dreaming of, 10 years ago. When I was in my teens, I would think "damn, I wonder what games would look like in 10 years." This is what I imagined. A game that takes what's good from what I knew back then, and builds upon it with the best ideas the last century has produced.

I never imagined today's games the way they are. Today's industry is full of half-baked games. Very short, very easy, very forgiving. There are standards you must meet, which outweigh the original goals of this art form. Today, to make a game, you have to answer those. Make it look awesome, Make an online feature, make it short - you don't have much time. Make it cheap, we want more profit. Make it streamlined, so nobody would ever feel like they're working too hard. Make it easy, so everyone will think they're geniuses. Make it work on all consoles, so we can sell it to as many people as possible. And the list goes on.

DXHR was made with one thought in mind - make it DEUS EX. And it shows.

It is truly the biggest experience I've had in 2011, gaming-wise.

It's a game to remember. It's a game to play. Not only as a gamer, but as a person living in this world.

It's a game for those who've been missing video games.

Gloom and Hope

DXHR did not sell like a COD game would sell.

I didn't expect it to - COD games turn to a certain crowd I don't like to include within those who would find a game like DXHR appealing. I did, however, expect more impressive sales on it's first week.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game I'd like to see more of.

I do hope it sells enough to be worth a sequel to the producers. Because you know, games like this are why I try so hard to be a part of this industry. Games like this are what moves me, and keeps me standing on the edge, waiting for another. If games like this stop getting released because games like COD become the only thing worth making - I just might lose interest altogether.

Thank you Eidos Montreal, for giving us this. I needed that.

Stuff Stuff Stuff

2011-08-22T15:47:00.000+03:00

Hey everyone,

It's been a hazy month.
Lots of work (hopefully soon I'll be able to share), been looking for a new apartment, found one, gonna move soon, got a couple more jobs, a ton of new games released (Bastion is friggin awesome! BIG thumbs up to supergiant games!) - tomorrow Deus Ex: HR is released and I'm completely PSYCHED for it. Even though I probably won't have time to touch it until sunday.. which is a big bummer as you can probably imagine.

Well, Just trying to keep this place alive - I'll be more active towards October, and afterwards, since I'll be starting my 3rd year in school and work on an animated short during almost a year after that.

Well, not much to share other than that. Hopefully soon. :)

-AT.

The gates of burning hell open!

2011-08-14T20:28:00.005+03:00

http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/events/gamescom2011-activities.html

I'm 100% SURE this means the beta is going to be available at the 16th of august.
I mean, there's nothing else this could represent!
Though, you know, it could be just a joke on our backs. And then it would suck.

Every cell in my body is going crazy for this game.

Crossing my fingers to get a key...
I need a key...
I gotta get a key...

[EDIT Aug 16th]
So, no beta today. Kinda sucky. Also I guess being 100% sure can sometimes fail too.
But Bliz did not disappoint and the gates to Diablo's burning hell DID open:
http://www.diablo-3.net/diablo-3-strasenmalerei-aktion-und-pressekonferenz-am-rudlofplatz/086577
That is so freakin awesome. Reminds me of this great street painting I saw once using Stumbleupon. Wish I'd have kept the link to share it now.

Check out this link. And if you want to read more about it, in English, and you don't like google translate, you can always check out www.blizzplanet.com - they never fail us. :)

Either way, I DO hope the beta starts sometime soon. At the very latest one week after Deus Ex: HR releases later this month, since that's about the time it'll take me to un-glue myself from the screen after playing it nonstop for friggin DAYS. This game looks sweet.

Right now I'm playing Deus Ex, the original. It's amazing how much you learn about games by playing an older game. It just more strongly proves - it's never the technology, people, it's only the designers (and we'll forgive Mr. Spector for the horrible Deus Ex 2...)

Until next time, peace all.

-AT.

Defense of the Ancients

2011-08-08T00:19:00.000+03:00

DotA.
I have a lot of mixed thoughts about DotA.

For those of you who don't know what DotA is - first of all, shame on you. If you're gamers that is. :)
Second - It's a strategy/rpg/something game, in which you play a hero in a team of 5, against a team of other 5 heroes. You have a ton of different heroes to pick from at the beginning of a match, each has unique skills and different strengths and weaknesses. Once the game starts, you go out to the battlefield, push your way through waves of monsters coming from the enemy base, killing the enemy heroes, in hopes of breaking the defenses of their base and destroying their main citadel.

Your goal is, basically, to never die. And get a lot of money by killing your enemies and their minions. And getting great items with this money. And not fall behind on your level, because u gotta stay as strong as your enemy. Etc.

It's a great game. Really. It's competitive, it's deep, it's complex, it's friggin HARD, it's unbalanced as hell, and yet if you know what you're doing you can always get out of trouble - it's everything a gamer wants.

And yet, I never managed to ignore a very irritating effect that occurs in the game, like so many other great games. I call it "the juggernaut effect".
Every so often there comes a game, usually a game where you have the option to level up, get stronger with time, and skill, and knowledge. Basically, if you do good, you get better. Capitalism.
There's one flaw with this concept. If you got better, you're stronger than everyone else. They can't beat you, but you can beat them. You still profit from beating them, since that's the goal of the game. What happens is, that once you've managed to skillfully open a gap between yourself and others, there's a very slim chance for them to recover - and that chance gets smaller and smaller as time goes by, because if the game rewards you for success, and you're stronger to begin with, then you keep getting better, since you keep doing better and getting rewards for it.

As a way of life - it's cruel. It's freedom at it's best, but it's cruel. That's why there are capitalists, and socialists. You could argue about the validity of such a system in real life.

But in a game, a capitalist system that reward you for success, makes you stronger and makes it easier for you to beat your enemy, who's the one you beat to get to this point to begin with - it's just bad design.
And before you flame me over this, let me explain why.

Yes, you SHOULD be rewarded for being more skilled.
Yes, in a game where leveling up, getting money and items is a goal - you SHOULD be rewarded with money, experience and items when you do better than your opponents.
But as game designers, we have to take into account the fact that once a big enough gap has been opened - there's no point in continuing the game. People have no chance against you, since you're so strong, and instead of fighting a pointless fight - they'll either move on to the next game, or in a worse case, they'll think "screw it" and quit your game altogether.

DotA suffers from this symptom insanely.
A typical DotA game lasts somewhere around 20-30 minutes. But as early as 10 minutes into the game, or even sooner if you're playing against people far less skilled than you, a huge gap could be opened in level and items, which will ensure your victory no matter what. Unless you suddenly begin to suck.

That causes people to just quit the game (thus people really hate "leavers" in the DotA community), because they died once too many. Many give up on DotA completely, since it's very unforgiving. But more importantly - it causes them to quit the game before its ended. Instead of sticking in and fighting the whole 20-30 minutes, they quit after 10, 15, because they believe they can't win. And even worse, many times people quit when they can still win! they're just so used to quitting when a "juggernaut effect" is beginning to take place, that they don't even try to fight. Once it's started, they quit on the spot.

In Heroes of Newerth, a standalone DotA based game, they solve this issue by allowing a losing team to concede, raise a white flag, so that everyone can move on to do better stuff with their time instead of sticking out, watching themselves lose, or winning an incredibly easy fight.

This is a cheap solution. It's not really a solution, it's just a system that allows you to quit while making sure everyone is as frustrated as you and want to quit as well - and then, you're not a "leaver". It's no solution, it's not a gameplay solution. It's just treating a symptom of bad design. There are also all sorts of other cheap solution, like diminishing returns. Which is sort of like a solution, but again, it's a cheap solution. The higher you get, the slower you go up. The bigger the gap between you and your enemy, the less you gain from beating him. It's only fair, yes, but it's not enough since it only slows you down - it doesn't help him improve in any way.

I think there IS a solution. There has to be. And no, it's not a "socialist" solution that will reward losers because they lose. Also it's not just one solution, there are numerous solutions, I'm sure. But nobody seems to care, since so many games suffer from the juggernaut effect...

In order for a player to stick out and give it another shot, he has to feel like there's SOMETHING he can do. No matter how hard, how complex. He also HAS to have something to do to get out of the situation, if you want a game to remain a valid game once a big gap has been opened.

First, control the gap. If in a game of 5v5, 1 player can become strong enough to kill all 5 opposing players single-handed, maybe your game leans too much on items, and levels, and not enough on skill. You could try to reduce the effect of items and how skills and raw damage scales up with levels, balance it out so that a player can NEVER beat 5 opposing players - no matter what. A skilled player must be able to respond to everything, no matter how far behind he is - because he has skill! If he knows how to play, there's no reason why he shouldn't be able to respond. Yes, higher level items and skills should give you an advantage, and they should give you a considerable advantage as well - but getting to a point where 1 can beat 5, that's just too much.

Second - reward for other things. Give players credit for success that's beyond the most basic requirement of the game. A possible solution for DotA, for instance, is encouraging people to play in a style that's more useful in tight situations. For instance - in order to bring down a level 15 hero, when your team are all level 10, you best option is to group up. So, when an inferior team groups up, and plays well together, they'll be rewarded with buffs. Let the game reward your players for playing the way they should be playing in certain situations. So a group of lvl 10 players will ambush 3 level 15 players - in today's DotA rules, they have a very small chance. But, if the game would recognize this team effort, and give them all a "+1 to all skills and +10 to all stats", they just might have a chance. Of course, this is not necessarily the balanced suggestion, it's just random possible numbers.

Another possible solution - wildcards. Every player, or every team, can acquire (or begin with one, and only one for the entire game) - different wildcards. Those could hold an effect, like +exp for all players, or higher experience from monsters, or faster money regeneration, or a free high tier item for all players, or whatever else. These wildcards will work only once per game, and deciding to use them has to be under certain conditions - a player who died too much, a player who's X levels under the highest player in his team, or Y levels under the lowest level in the opposing team. Team wildcards that can be used once the team has total of X deaths, or when a player has an average item tier that's 2 tiers under the average item tier of everyone else in the enemy team. You could also make these wildcards hard to activate, by requiring the player to go through dangerous areas, places where he might be seen by the opposing team, or close to their lines of defense - and reward him with the wildcard for succeeding.

These are not perfect solutions. They're just possible solutions. I'm not sure I'd implement any of those specifically into a DotA game of my own, if I ever make one. But I do think that the juggernaut effect is a game killer, it's a bad design choice. It has to be countered by SOME element, in order to make the game scale better to later tiers. I know that if I ever made a DotA game, or any game that scales in a similar way, or any game that rewards you permanently for success for that matter - I would put a lot of thought into solving this "juggernaut effect", because without a solution, I would never release the game.

-AT

A gaming one

2011-08-03T15:16:00.002+03:00

With all the talk about Diablo 3 lately, I became worried.

Part of what I love in Diablo 2 is the total freedom of character creation.
I'm not saying Diablo 2 had a lot of variety - it wasn't balanced enough and some skills were "other-worldly", meaning that they felt out of place within the context of the game (Whirlwind, Guided Arrow, and more) - but what I AM saying is that Diablo 2 gave you the FREEDOM to do whatever you liked.

There were many ways to customize your character. All classes could equip all gear, there were runestones which you could apply into anything that they fit into, Charms which didn't care what class you are - they just gave you the buff. You could stat and gear a necromancer like you would a barbarian (apart from holding a 2-handed weapon with 1 hand of course) - nobody would prevent you from doing so.

What I've always hoped is that Diablo 3 would take that freedom and potential depth, and build upon it to create a game that gives the player both the freedom to do whatever he wants, and also the balance of not being forced to use only one skill throughout the whole game because that skill is so much more powerful than everything else the class has to offer.

Blizzard is definitely good enough to create such a system. I have no doubt about it, of course, but maybe they think it would be too complex for the average gamer of this decade. Whatever the reason, I'm really worried for this game. I grew up on Diablo and Diablo 2, Those are among my favorite games of all time. I love many of the things they've done with Diablo 3, and I can't wait for the game. But I can't ignore the fact that it seems like right now, there's a general feel of them sacrificing character uniqueness for the benefit of having a more accessible, simpler, easier game. I don't see why there shouldn't be a check-box for manual stat distribution. The stats exist, so why shouldn't I be able to freely control them if I want to?

In general, I'm not a fan of dumbing down entertainment because I believe in my audience and I believe people will play a good game, no matter how complex it is (well, to a point anyway. Take a look at online Starcaft 2, a very deep game with a huge fan base).

I do believe Diablo 3 will have incredible depth, in it's own way. But I hate to see the things that made Diablo 2 so great for me, being compressed into almost nothing.

But, I guess you can never judge anything until you've actually put your hands on it. So I'll stay optimistic until I get my hands on the game.

P.S.
I'd like to mention World of Warcraft had a much more "free" system when it was released, and with time they "killed it" in favor of a simpler, more limited character system. I don't really know the reasoning behind these changes, but I like to hope they're not a result of trying to make the game accessible for nubs. I find it hard to hope for that, though.

-AT.

A quick update

2011-07-22T16:51:00.001+03:00

So I haven't had the chance to upload anything new lately.
I've got a small job and it's been hard getting an apartment over here, so my time's a bit limited.

I'm working on a bunch of stuff though, and hopefully soon I'll be able to share it all. Assuming those hiring me will approve. :) One of these things is an independent mod for one of my favorites games of all times!

I hope to get back to my personal projects as soon as possible.

-AT.

Some progress

2011-07-15T12:59:00.002+03:00

Did a T-pose (limited to his movement capability) and now I'm gonna work on making it game ready - started with high-res detail (No pic yet), normal mapping, AO, the whole shabang. Gonna test it on Marmoset! Pics soon.

-AT.

An new render for an old thingie

2011-07-13T22:54:00.000+03:00

Hey all, been a while.

So I fixed my computer, but not before I lost around 900GB of valuable information. It sucked.

But, back to reality. Since I didn't have much time to go on with personal projects (kinda overflowed with work and other-real-life stuff, like broken computers for example) - I decided to share something I did a good while ago but rendered recently again. I won't lie to you, it's a dragon.

View the full-size image for the, uh, "full effect"...
It's an old model, one of the first things I sculpted in ZBrush earlier this year. It's not a very thought-out design, but more of a sketch. Nevertheless it's a dragon.

-AT.

Oh, now that's just awesome.

2011-07-09T19:17:00.000+03:00

I was doing my homework earlier, when suddenly my computer passed away.

BLAM! blue screen, then a black one, then a restart - and no more computer.
I lost tons of material, my hard disk died apparently. I lost hundreds of hundreds of gigs of information and backups.

I hope to get it fixed tomorrow, and hopefully restore some of the lost info. I lost a very important school assignment together with it all, and now I'm in danger of not passing the course. Which will suck BIG TIME. A whole semester GONE because of this bah of a computer.

If you don't see anything posted the upcoming days, know that this is probably the reason.

To hell with computers.

-AT

A quick one

2011-07-09T13:18:00.001+03:00

Hey all,

Haven't posted anything in a few days. Didn't have much time to work on anything.
This time I'm sharing a quick sketch I did a while ago, which I then retopologized just for practice.

Nothing fancy, but I like the profile view of this guy. I might take this further to complete the concept - a bulky elven warrior. I always wanted to play around with the "traditional" concepts of the different fantasy races, and I always thought that an elf could work very well as a bulky warrior.

But that'll have to wait. Gotta finish some mandatory tasks first...

Oh yeah, on my breaks I've been playing some TF2. Gotta say I forgot how much fun it can be.

-AT

This will make things easier...

2011-07-06T12:48:00.001+03:00

Gaming industry worth 74 billion in 2011

Good news to us game developers...
Getting investments just got that much easier. I hope this goes on, but I'm also scared. A little.

-AT

Ascention

2011-07-06T12:33:00.002+03:00

I'd like to say a few words about a game that has recently come to my attention.

Ascention: Chronicles of the Godslayer. (click to go to game's website)

Apparently this is a real-life card game, but now it was brought to the iPhone, and it's just great.
In my opinion it is one of the best, if not THE best iPhone games out there.

It does it all, and it does it rather well. It's basically a [card] deck building game, with rather simple mechanics, but a great fit into your mobile device. Personally I find it a bit too easy for the moment - it has a pretty flat learning curve and once you get the hang of it, you'll win the computer very easily. It's no different with online play, but I guess with time more players will learn how to play and more players will play - which will increase the challenge. Which brings me to another point, the online factor of the game.

Without a doubt, out of all of the games I've played on my iPhone so far, this one has the best online integration I've seen. Since it's a card game, and it's turn based, you can get in a game and not worry about latency, quality of your connection (it's good enough as long as you stay connected), etc. There are plenty of gamers in there and the game has it's own interface to let you get in, or get out of games. This is the first time I've been regularly playing online on the iPhone since I got it a year ago.

I recommend you all to give it a shot, and if you're a card game geek, I urge you to do so instantly. It's really a must. For now it's rather simplistic for the heavy gamers (at least for the iPhone, I haven't had the chance to try to real life game), but it's much fun nonetheless, and there's no reason why it shouldn't develop and become more and more deep and complex with time, as the community grows.

Thumbs up Gary Games, you've brought something truly great to an otherwise desaturated market. Thanks!

-AT

Retopologized!

2011-07-06T02:24:00.001+03:00

I've finished retopologizing the Tiquan worker character.

I'm quite happy with the results. I might change a few things eventually, but for the sake of going on with ZBrush sculpting it's just fine.

-AT

A quick model of an old concept - WIP

2011-07-05T00:07:00.002+03:00

Hey all,

I'm working on stuff for my reel, and decided to give life to an old concept of mine - A "Tiquan" worker. This concept is from a game I'm working on for quite a while now, hopefully someday it'll see light and you'll all be able to play it. But until then, you'll have to settle with concept art from that game. :)

This is a work in progress, as stated above. I did this model in about an hour. Very bad topology. Basically, it's just a concept model. Next steps will include higher details, proper topology and some more props for the character.

-AT

James Gandolfini - WIP

2011-07-03T22:37:00.002+03:00

Hullo!

Two updates today.
This is a bust of James Gandolfini that I made recently.
It's still a work in progress, I should work more on the likeness and I'm planning on texturing and taking a shot at photorealistic rendering for this guy. Stay tuned! I'll keep updating as this project progresses.

For now I'm still working on the lion sculpture I posted a couple of days ago (See it here). I've already posed it and am working on the details. Many things to decide on that one.

-AT

The Doryphoros

2011-07-03T22:32:00.001+03:00

Hey everyone,

This is a sculpture I made earlier this semester for school. I then rendered it with Mental Ray using the SSS Fast Skin Shader (originally created by master zap who runs a great blog which you can visit by clicking here)

I used a subsurface scattering shader to try and create a translucent marble feel. I eventually got this result:

I generally like how it turned out. It's not perfect, but I'm satisfied with it.

The marble has some waxy feel to it that I liked.

Well, hope you enjoy it!

Lion Study

2011-06-30T20:43:00.002+03:00

This is an early stage of a project I'm working on. I'm making a lion sculpture, and this stage was where I studied anatomy, proportions, etc. since I never dealt with a lion before. Quite happy with the results here, hope I can maintain this level of aesthetics when I refine it further.

First words

2011-06-30T20:36:00.000+03:00

Hey everyone,

This blog is something I've had in my head for some time now... I guess it's time to give it a shot.

For my entire life, I've had this dream of working in the gaming industry. At first, I didn't quite know what it was I wanted to do - I just wanted in. With time, I developed different skills, until eventually - I knew my goal was to be a 3D artist.

Being a game addict, and an intense one, I'll probably never give up my dream of being a game designer. I make my own game plans, I constantly think of new ideas and ways to improve existing games, and games I've planned. But game design is a whole different topic, and I will only aim at it once I'm more involved in the process, and have gained some more experience in the industry being an artist. Not that I don't think my ideas are good, mind you. :)

In this blog I'll post my personal works, my professional works (when they're allowed to be published), my thoughts and critiques... basically, anything that's relevant to my process of becoming a better artist, a better gamer, a better game designer.

My ultimate goal is to be hired by a certain... california based company... who's name I shall not expose just yet. Hence the name of the blog, as you probably have noticed.

I hope my progress attracts some attention, and that those who are interested will find it entertaining and come back for more. I'll do my best to update this regularly, but life's a bitch sometimes.

Thanks for reading!