I began blocking in the scene on saturday, and I had some more time today. I need to continue placing pipes and then add the tv screens. At that point, I'll put it into udk as block-in meshes that I can replace when I start modeling the final assets.

So I started to research my next scene. It's a scifi room, based on a concept from Jeremy Love:

I researched nuclear reactors and the Large Hadron Colider for real layouts and detail work. For levels of quality, I sourced some Halo 4 props and other painted concepts. It's going to be a long, hard challenge, but I'm excited to start.

For now, it is done. I'll make a pass for more details (grime, blood, color correction).
It was a fun experience, but I'll focus on more environment pieces, I think.

After many weeks of in-activity due to school, I finally had time to work on something for myself again: a weapon with a handmade feel. A combination of hatchet and cleaver. A Clatchet:

I made the sculpt over the thanksgiving weekend, and I'll begin re-topo tomorrow. Texturing should follow right after.

I got some critique on how to improve the scene, so after tweaking shaders ad lighting, plus adding a wooden grid mesh on the sides, It has a lot more personality. I'll render out a few hi-res images later on.

It is done! For now.
The body of the dragon was a long battle. But it was definitely worth it. After I get critique on this, I'll add some more elements or props to it.

I think these turned out nicely. I now need to work on the body of the dragon, and then it's the last bit of work to finish and present it.

The scene is going into UDK and starting to get fleshed out. Good progress so far!

After more than a month of modeling, texturing and asset placement, I'm finally putting everything into UDK for the final stretch. Here's the door, the first complete asset besides the pillar that got in so far.

I threw the door sheet into UDK to test out the material. Something weird was happening before with the specular map, where it would seem that the yellow specular map would mix the blue light and bounce off a ghastly green. I switched computers and it disappeared. Could have been a rendering bug.

The flaming decorations on top are modeled, baked and placed! I'll get to texturing them later on. As for next prop to be modeled, it's the window. And that one will be the last one before the texture sheets. And then... the dragon.

Worked on the throne this weekend. Four 512 texture sheets, including the details trims, fabric seating, the pattern in the back-panels, and the still not done sheet with the geometric details that go on top of the panels.
That will be done soon!

After working and learning better texturing during the week, I arrived at this result yesterday:

I might cook-up and try out different gloss maps to get that metallic reflection just right. It's on to the door and throne next!

Over the weekend, I made the pillar of the scene. Check my few first posts if you want to compare how much I have learned between last year and now.
Took me three days total, and It bounced me right back into full work mode.

I'm almost done with everything. I just have to make a handle to give the door a better sense of it's scale.

The original head of the dragon was abysmal. Thankfully, Marian helped me on how to properly sculpt a better one.
I made an entire, 3 dimensional head. After finding the proper camera angle, I squished it using the move tool and placed it where it belongs. Now it actually looks like a relief!

Door for the unseen part of the scene. Mostly getting my feet wet with new Zbrush tools. It was fun.

First iteration of the fireflies. Static, they look just like fat dots. I used the curve editor in Cascade to actually make them fade out slowly. It's neat.

But this is now going officially on ice. The throne room...

...beckons.

Here are the lamps, illuminated. The UDK command I used to take the screenshots splits the screen in 4 equal sectors and takes a screenshot at screen resolution. When compiled, the shot is four times the original res, and screen-space effect either are distorted or disappear.
Next up, I have to figure out the basics of Cascade to make moths.

A maya viewport screenshot of the egg, baked and textured. It's off to UDK with this one.

And here it is!

A close-up of the egg. I used several alphas to get the texture on the shell, but a simple masking brush for the scrollwork. Now It's off to re-topo.

Small update. After a week of break, and one of break-in into the new semester, I'm going full ahead again with my project.
Here's a lamp I'm doing. The egg is not finished yet.

Sky Tree - Early fly-through

A video fly-through I made for the class. A few more assets have to be there before I put it on ice.

Update! Finally got the tree and grass in. It's going to take sometime before I can smoothly blend the grass and tree trunk properly.

Progress on the character:

I have to narrow the value range and outfits that the character will have. I'm liking this project a lot, but it's slow work.

On the scene, I worked and added a lot since I last updated. All geometry is in. Now I have to start texturing and figuring out the materials.

The branches of the tree will be placed on the main one once I have the tiling and textures in place.
The hardest part starts now.

Some Character Design to break the pattern. So far, this is only the linework. I have to make several different costumes, values and color patterns. It's fun, but slow and careful work.

Finished the textures for the pillar! I'll put it into marmoset over the weekend to get a nice presentation sheet. Or maybe I'll start on the rest of the assets.

I'm almost 90% done with the low-poly baking of the pillar. Once I understood some of the basic principles, It went by really fast. Right now, I have two sheets: one for the column, and the other for the capitol.
Some quick, dirty, viewport screencaps: