Saturday, 13 February 2016

Skyfood Tacos

The idea I am settling on is a future setting based on inspiration from "Tales from the Loop" and the drawings of Ian McKewan.

The location is an old skyport that is used to dock birding vessels. It's a rough neighbourhood where the few ships docked at night hover noisily and pump out diesel fumes over the slums below. On the street corner outside the bird processing plant there is a greasy taco stand that specialises in battered skyfood.

The catches from the day are dumped off at the plant but in return for a tasty taco, the stand owner has prime choice of the gulls, pigeons and other treats. He whizzes them through his bird processor to clean off the meat and chucks the useless remains over the edge of the dock wall. He thinks the slums squatters should pay him for the free breakfast.

It's early morning and the shifts are about to change. Workers will soon arrive smelling of tobacco and sweat while the night shift leaves covered in feathers and the odour of rotten birds.


Friday, 12 February 2016

Getting back to Environment Art

I have decided it's time to "sharpen the saw" or make sure my skills are up to scratch. I've been working very successfully as a lead and art director for a while now but I miss making environment art. So this is my first step in getting back into it and spending my free time making digital art.

I need to know what to work on, then make sure I have the software required, come up with an idea or two and start building it.

A) What do I need to work on? There's a bunch of skills I'd like to hone and demonstrate on my out of date portfolio.
    1. Physically based materials. I know these inside out but I don't really have any portfolio pieces that demonstrate them.
    2. Hard surface modelling. Some good old sci-fi corridor, gun, armour or machine would do the trick
    3. Sculpting. It's been a while since I used Z-Brush, would be good to get some sculpted surfaces in a scene.
    4. Substance Designer. I haven't had a chance to use this yet but I know it's power. Looking forward to this for some tiling materials!
    5. Substance Painter. I want to use this so bad. Just need some props to work on.
    6. Unreal. I want to learn blueprints and lighting set-up in Unreal as it's awesome.
B) Software?
    1. Unreal 4 for rendering (might try Marmoset too)
    2. 3DS Max 2016 for hard surface
    3. Z-Brush for da sculptz
    4. Substance Designer and Painter
    5. Photoshop for paintovers and for whatever I can't do in Substance yet - work copy
    6. x-normal/Knald for baking