New Adventures

As some of you may know, I have taken on the new title of Art Director and Brand Manager at SUM interactive. This is a company that was started by Derek and David Sunshine last year and I am building the children's side of their publishing company. With that being said, you will see a lot more updates from me about the games we are making. If you like trivia : we have titles such as Right Right Wrong - http://www.rightrightwrong.com/ Fast Food Trivia - http://sum-interactive.com/fastfood/ Ultimate Fight Trivia & Genius Trivia http://sum-interactive.com/trivia-2/ We just released a niche runner named RV Runner (still waiting for apple approval but should be released on iOS by early next week) Currently available on nook and kindle RV Runner Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TKRwMBm2cc I will update the kids side next week as well with the launch of the site. Feedback on all games is always welcome and I hope you enjoy them!!

The transformation period

So as some of you may already know or not, I will be teaching a texturing and lighting class starting the last week of Aug at LCAD . I love this school and all the passionate teachers and students that are there and am honored to have been given an opportunity teaching there.

With that being said, I have been warming up for my class starting now. I have decided on the fundamentals that I feel are most important to cover and have created a loose syllabus to cover a range of topics and texturing tips. I am now going to use my blog to share these tips and tricks as I am going along to make sure that nothing is missed. The first tip I would like to share is aligning in 3DMax. I had looked far and wide on how to align vertices in Max with the same ease as Maya gives you, but kept only getting Maxscripts or people complaining about the align tool.

VERY IMPORTANT TIP : The align tool is very useful for aligning objects only. If you would like to align vertices or edges, you must select the verts and then choose an axis next to the Make Planar button



Sorry this is so short, but I have to run... I will write something more cohesive and in depth later.

Update

Alright guys... Here is the bear Finished... well minus the wood frame I am putting on tonight.



ANNNNDDDD.... The latest Something Sour Something Sweet.



I am digging this new style and think I have figured out the balance and process that I want to move forward with from here on out for a while. With that said I am officially making this next painting the first of series I have been waiting to do. It is based off of an idea I had a couple of years ago that I always wanted to do and have been storing until the time and process was right and now I am ready to get it out.
Stay tuned.

I never ....

keep up. But perhaps that is from moving cross country twice in the past 6 months.
I got to spend a lot of very much needed time with my family in NJ while working for Digital Embryo creating games. The entire experience was another great leap for me mentally and artistically. I can definitely understand what elders mean now when they say life passes you by so fast. I think what it is, is that each part gets condensed into a scrap book of moments and once it's over it's gone. When I am in the same place for an extended period of time I don't notice it go by much, but with all this traveling and short term experiments I am seeing life in an expedited time frame.

I am still trying to zero in on who I am as a person and perhaps allowing myself to jump into the worlds that my art creates I will find someone I love on the other side.

Here are 2 pieces that I created since being home. They were both experiments with mediums so that I can try and find where I feel most comfortable. I am on a third piece now and I am so far labeling it as the piece that showed me what I DIDN'T like..

This bear is not done yet. I am still waiting to try another transfer method tonight.


I can see Machinarium influence all over this piece. It is a fantastic puzzle game, get it! This is where I hang my keys.

The Wading Game

Sorry I have not written for a while. There a couple of things going on right now, but I am waiting before I share them so as not to jinx myself. I am trying the "create yourself" approach with a dash of going with the flow and sprinkled with some patience.

Over the past 2 weeks I have also been implementing the separation of my website. I now have one site for my graphics work and one site for my game work. I think this is a much cleaner approach to introducing myself to companies and it will allow everyone to see just the work they are interested in. For my friends and fans, I know you would like to see it all which is why I am sharing it here. I will eventually have a fine art site as well, which will serve as my most personal work but I need to focus on my 3D work. Maybe one day it will all be implemented together. Actually, I would say it is more possible than not.

So here are my new sites!

Games
Graphics

Art For Healing

Hello internet world.
A few months ago I got hooked up with an amazing woman named Laurie who runs a non profit called Art and Creativity 4 Healing . She helps children, teens and adults work through anger, stress, grief and confusion by giving them some art tools, instruction and compassion.
My first volunteer experience was at Camp Pendleton which is a Marine Base near my home. I got to work with children whose parents are in the military and encourage them to draw. It was fantastic, because I find my time spent with children inspiring and I hope to inspire them as well. Tomorrow night is a fund raiser and I am donating a piece of art to help out. I will also be volunteering there and meeting lots of new people so I feel like tomorrow will be a great night!
Here is the piece that I did for the event. I treated it more of a commercial piece and not so much as a fine art piece because I want it to serve my intended purpose before it serves someone else. I am really enjoying working with the watercolor and ink so I am going to need to learn how to control it better.



Another thing that is coming into my life... wood. So think about that until the next update.

5th piece

This is my second good piece that I made at the academy. The last one didn't go over so well. I loved the figures, but the bg and the situation were definitely not working. If I ever fix it, I will post it, but for now it has been forgotten.

This assignment was to demonstrate the sound snap, pop or crackle. I chose snap and made a big fat bird falling out of a tree. I love this one! Plus, I worked with mediums I have never used to compose before and now I feel that I am going to do this more often. Watercolor+Ink+Pattern= Happiness. Mark English even went as far as to say that it was professional which I was actually surprised by since I used such bold color and I got some mixed feedback on Sunday from other people after everything was pretty much done. So all I must say is "Success is Mine!" (for this one at least).