All posts tagged Art

Concept Sketch

Martin · 3 years

Here's a concept I made recently - hopefully the first of a set. It's the first real digital drawing I've made with my new iPad Pro (using Procreate) and I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Will it ever become a game? We'll see!

For now, more concepting, and more practicing digital sketching.

Here's a time-lapse of the sketch:

Digital Sketching

Martin · 3 years

I've been using a Surface Book for my digital sketching since the device launched, back in 2015/2016, and it's served me well. For a first-generation device, it's a great machine. Were it not for its waning battery life and increasingly slow feel, I'd probably keep using it.

So I've been eyeing an upgrade for a while now, following the release of the Surface Book 2 and then the Surface Book 3, but noting several issues with each iteration of the hardware: pen input jitter, battery volatility, specs that aren't even close to cutting edge, etc. It's been disappointing watching the Book line be relegated to the back of the pack.

I'd hoped this year we'd see a refresh that made an upgrade worth it - even at a premium cost - but I don't see any updates on the horizon, especially with the global chip shortage looking like it'll continue on into next year.

Where does that put me? Well, if you remember some of my really old blog posts, I'm eating crow. I'm trying out an iPad Pro as a replacement.

It's Microsoft's loss, honestly. I've been an evangelist for the Surface Book since I've owned one, and I still like the device. But it just doesn't make sense for me to wait another 6-12 months for a half-step upgrade. Especially when it might still have the same issues people are facing now. Especially with the less accurate pen input. Especially when it will likely cost more.

I might come back to the Surface Book in the future, but for now, I'm going with an iPad Pro for digital drawing. Let's see where that takes me.

Claymation Cat

Martin · 5 years

This cat character was meant to be used for an animation I was thinking about working on, but never got around to finishing. It's almost fully rigged - it only needs more face controls - and the materials I used to shade it were meant to make it look like a posed claymation figure.

It's meant to look a little retro, and a little goofy. The idea was that it would undergo the typical slapstick antics a cartoon from the older days of animation might (think mallets, anvils, etc.). And he'd have kind of a bad attitude about it, so you wouldn't mind watching him get clobbered.

Maybe someday I'll pick it up and start working on it again!

Piranha Plant render

Martin · 8 years
piranha-plant-1

As a practice exercise for modeling/creating materials in Blender, I decided to work on a model inspired by the famous pipe-infesting Piranha Plant enemy from Super Mario Bros.

The model was created as a very simple low-resolution mesh with a SubSurf modifier to add detail, and all the textures were created using Blender's internal texture nodes, in Cycles.