I'm back!

Well, it's been a long time since I wrote something new... I've been busy with all kind of stuff for the past few months but now I finally found some time to get back to doing what I really like - 3D :) To get back in shape I just started modeling first thing that I grabbed and that was simple ruler :)

Modeling this ruler helped me to remember some of the rules of hard-edge modeling.

So, stay tuned for more updates soon... :))

Some of my work

I decided to put here models I did so far. Many of them are wips but I would like to have all them in one place.

Lighthouse - Update #1

I have been working on entrance for a few days. Here are some pictures.



I found great pictures of lighthouse lenses that I'll model. Here are links:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Fresnel_lens_loschen_hg.jpg
http://www.vallejogallery.com/objects/Lighouse%20artifacts/Cape%20Dawn%20lighthouse%20lens%20Australia/1000%20dpi%20Katie%20behind%20light.jpg

Lighthouse

I recently started working on a new project with a lighthouse. I'm planning to make a night scene with a glowing lighthouse on the cliff above the stormy sea. My inspiration come from an old song that talks about relation between people and the sea.



For modeling refrence I used two existing lighthouses, Kilauea lighthouse for upper, and Cape Hatteras lighthouse for lower part of the model. I'm almost done with a lighthouse but I am thinking how to create a landscape, the cliff and the sea. Probably gonna using Vue or some other application just for creating the landscape.

Snow Globe - Update #1

Hi!
I finally found some time to complete the scene for Digital Tutors competition. It is not finished yet but I have a rest if a day to get it done. By now I completed the scene and now is rest to light it and tweek shaders.



I'll add the picture in a background, some shadows and find a way to get rid of these reflections of HDR image in glass material. And of course, after all that, some additional postwork will be done in Photoshop.



Here are nodes in Hypershade just to show you how I made snow shader. It's a simple setup, nothing special. I'll cover more in depth making of this shader somewere in upcoming posts so stay tuned! Bye!

Changing UI theme in Maya

Here is just a short tip on how to change the color of the UI in Maya 2011.
First, locate your Maya shortcut, then right-click on it and chose "Properties". In tab "Shortcut" there is a text field named "Target", click on it.
Just add this command: -style cleanlooks


That is just an example, you can choose a diffrent style if you want. Here are just a few of them I found: plastique, cde, motif, windows, monolith... (don't forget to add "-style" before choosing a theme.)


And just to say that monolith theme is the closest to an old look of Maya, for all nostalgic :D
Hope this tip will be helpful for some of you. Bye!

Entering DT contest

Hello everybody, I'm back!
I haven't been active for some time now, but I was pretty busy with school and other stuff. Anyway, holidays are coming so I hope I'll be adding some more updates in my blog.
I decided to give it a shot and enter to new Digital Tutors contest for December. The contest theme is snow globe.
By now I modeled simple globe and now it's left to put something interesting there. I'm thinking of putting simple christmas tree with some crazy lightning and a lot of presents beneath it.

Updates and pics soon!