Jaina Woodward - Student Work 2021

Hello and thank you for taking the time to look through my entry.

Currently I'm in my final term at Columbia College Hollywood/ Flashpoint Chicago.   My submission includes my demo reel for modeling and texturing which I put together last term as well as a piece I just completed that I have yet to incorporate into my reel.

When it came to putting together a reel I did a lot of digging, I wanted to know what kept the viewers attention.  After some deliberation I felt that having a faster paced reel that delivers the necessary information without dragging on was critical to keeping the attention of the viewer.  I went into designing my reel knowing that I wanted to incorporate some smooth transitions as well to keep the visual pace up without many jump cuts.

Scavenger S2k

This piece came together after having the honor of talking with an industry professional whom I had reached out to for feedback on my work at the time and suggested I begin to work on assets and models that are sci-fi or things which do not exist within our world. I immediately got to work on this in between my class time.

In many ways this piece is representative of my life before deciding to make a career out of vfx and modeling.  I wanted to show case my interest in cars and modifying them while simultaneously stepping into an alternate dystopian reality where resources are scarce and scavenging is the way of those still on earth.  In many ways it is still representative of car culture and utilizing all means to modify and build something, many of the add on parts are based on real world parts with some additional wear added.

This piece was modeled in Maya with a few pieces brought into ZBrush to create more damage.  Texturing was done in Substance.  The scene it lies within is made up of some additional models I created as background elements, the ground and rock formations are all from Megascans.

DJI Inspire Drone

This drone started as a project for my modeling 2 class where the assignment was to create a mechanical object, this was also my first exposure to rigging as well. I found it important to test the movement as I was modeling. Verifying objects were the correct length was important due to the nature of how this drone performs raising and lowering of the legs.  Throughout this project I utilized loads of reference images along with any video I could find showing the process for the legs raising and lowering. Below is a portion of the reference I collected throughout the project.

(Above) A look at the first stage of the drone as it was submitted for my Modeling 2 final.  The model was created in Maya, textured with substance and rendered in Arnold.

As I began to think about how I would incorporate this into my reel I had the idea of someone (or something) fighting against all odds, in many ways I was projecting myself into this scene and undoubtedly drones are not fit for rainy weather.  I wanted to tell the story that although the drone had been through the ringer it wasn't going to submit to the will of it's environment.  

To accomplish this I retextured the drone to make it dirtier along with other minor changes.  The rain was created in Maya as well with nParticles, the final shot used in the reel was composited in Nuke, additional foreground clouds were added in nuke to create a greater sense of movement as well.

The Kitchen

For this scene I wanted to channel my inner designer. Photo reference again was important and after looking at a variety of styles I settled for something modest yet open.  My goal with this project after all was lighting so I tried to play to a design that would emphasize that. It was through this project that I discovered just how important good lighting is in 3d.

I strived to create an atmosphere that said Saturday morning with nothing to do.  The lighting I believe captures this feeling of a carefree suburban weekend.  This scene again was modeled in Maya and rendered with Arnold. Textures were created in Substance.

Nintendo Switch

This piece is another that was originally part of an assignment for my modeling 2 class.  I set out to create a photo real and accurate representation of the switch. The initial model was created when I had purchased my own switch so I had it on hand for reference. This made the modeling process very smooth and allowed me to see every detail. 

As I began to think about how I would incorporate this piece into my reel I knew I had to make changes. I started by beating it up a bit, again I had my personal switch on hand which my kids had tossed around quite a bit so it gave me very good information when it came to realistic wear. Moving along I found that looking at plain gray joy cons wasn't very interesting either and adding a solid color I found was equally as dull, I wanted it to pop. My friend @cycleoffates allowed me to use their illustrations of an original character they had made that works quite well with the layout.

NB-8 (Mecha Robot)

The original concept design for this piece was created by Eldar Safin on Artstation. When I took this project on I set out to find a concept piece I liked and execute on it, this essentially was my entire goal with this piece. I wanted to demonstrate the ability to interpret another artists work and fill in any gaps left to the imagination without altering the original design and silhouette.

(Above) Concept art by Eldar Safin.

The mech was modeled in Maya, textured with Substance, and rendered in Arnold.  I noticed the concept art had some visual cues when it came to wear mostly within the decals however I wanted to present an asset that was further along in it's lifespan something that had seen real battle.  In many ways I attribute the battle scars to being free as opposed to bound up in a hangar.