Airship and Impala

Airship - W.I.P. Concept

This Airship concept has been a heart project for some time. I created the concept sketch and reference library at the end of 2021, I modelled the main body and rigged the sail mechanics sometime in 2022, and it has sat in my mind and hard drives for many months until I had time to put some more love into it earlier this year, 2023, for a demo reel update project. I was made aware of The Rookie Awards 2023 on May 20th from an instructor from college that I recently reached out to for career advice. I'm so grateful he suggested entering, it was a great spark of motivation to make some more progress on this. Over the last 11 days I have spent almost every waking hour updating and optimizing it in pursuit to get some higher quality shots together for my last minute entry.

This project still has a long ways to go, and even though I am not super stoked to have a work in progress project included in my entry, I think there is still many elements here that showcase my skills and knowledge when it comes to creating 3D assets that are both detailed and optimized for a production environment. 

The original sketches/blueprints I designed for the project, some elements have changed over the process, namely the living quarters/cabin/windmill situation and the design of the greenhouse.

Thumbnails and sketches to explore shapes and styles before finalizing the design. 

Reference library for my airship concept.

While the main objects and environment are my original work, there are a few elements that I utilized from existing asset libraries, namely Quixel Megascans, like the plants in the greenhouse dome and the smaller props that fill out the upper floor chamber of the cabin to give a more lived in feel. I want to say I set up the environment with a character or story in mind, but honestly I just put together a home that feels comfortable to me and my own personal style. I plan on creating more original props and scene fill when I have more time.

The projects I want to use this environment for in the future are going to explore my own personal experiences and pieces of wisdom that have helped me grow throughout my life. An element of which is health and disability, which is why I ensured that this ship is accessible in a very intentional way; unlike many of the environments both in real life and media. Hence the detailed elevator/spiral staircase combo and large railed ramp on the deck, both of which took many iterations and fussing with to get them working and feeling good with the other elements of the build. 

Some challenges that arose during the making of this ship were figuring out how to rig the hydraulics for the sail mechanics and optimizing the models to get the look and use potential I was aiming for while keeping them light weight. I plan to construct the entire interior of the hull and cabin, so dealing with the headaches that come with planning ahead in that way will be worth it when that time comes. I also had less than 24 hours to do all my renders, compositing and editing to make the entry deadline, so relying on the Evee renderer in Blender was a life saver time wise, but I am missing the feel and quality I wanted for this project. Maya Arnold is my preferred engine, but that boy takes a heckin long time, even with GPU rendering. I also miss the control I usually allow myself with multiple render passes and compositing many layers, having to rely on single beauty sequences was a risk I had to make.

Some more examples of design changes that came up during the process to optimize for performance and time.

I used Maya for modelling, rigging and animating; Adobe Substance Painter and Photoshop for texturing and Blender for scene layout and rendering.

To point out some more obvious observations that may arise in terms of the quality of this airship, there are many elements that are weaker than my usual standard of quality due to the last minute dash to make this entry. I would have loved to spend more time on the textures and model optimizations. Many things feel quite flat and empty. Many of the assets that interact with each other don't necessarily feel real or grounded, like clipping in the sail rig or structural elements lacking joints/joinery with each other, along with just a general sense of lacking with props and scene layout.

A more built out environment and more in depth quality control will come, as I want to use this for personal short films and storytelling. If I don’t get into the industry by next year, I hope I will have a more finished ship with characters to inhabit and tell their stories for next year's entry.

Much of the animation, both camera moves and sail cycles feel pretty lackluster and a bit clunky, but I hope the feel I was aiming for can be deciphered from what is there. I am excited to get some more cinematic shots when it is closer to completion and I have more time to fuss about the little things.

1964 Impala SS Vehicle Model

This was a project I did in honor of my Grandfather and his cool car (pictured in the pure ref doc, biggest pic under 'Body' note). It was a great way to incorporate my love for detail with a familial gift, while showcasing my skillsets. I specialize in modeling but have been working on skills in animation, compositing, rigging, texturing, lighting, environments, etc, all showcased here. Except for some of the assets on the environment platform(some grass/flowers, the rock, the bushes and tree trunk from Quixel Megascans library) everything is my work. This was my first mainly hard surface focused project. 

Creating a version with stylized proportions was a great way to experiment and be creative. I hope to redo both versions with some more customized textures. I used mainly the lattice deform tool in Maya, at a very high division level, to rearrange the original mesh.  I also enjoyed using a blend shape and some transform keyframe animation to create an animated transition between the two (shown in YouTube video).

Material view, wireframe and some compositing layers.

My reference library for creating the model (quite sparse compared to my usual).

A Bit About Me

I don't have any studio or industry experience, but I am always creating and practicing, and looking to the internet to learn new things from industry pros. It is always exciting when my roommate(a technical animator that has been working for a few years in industry) asks me questions about the common software's we use, mainly Maya, and I am able to offer advice or niche bits of information that resolve issues his team is working on(strictly software/process discussions, never sharing anything about the productions he is on). A silver lining of the few years we have had with working at home is being able to have discussions like this and getting a bit of insight into the industry and the level of knowledge of those who have found positions in studios. It has shown me that I have all the skills I need for an entry level position and beyond.

I am also salty about the last few years, as many of us are, because I was graduating just as the lock downs were in full swing and I lost opportunities to network and get my work seen in the same ways that graduates had access to in the past. I have consistently been applying to studios since then(October 2020), and have been both frustrated and grateful for the feedback I have received from the few professionals I have networked with; which has been entirely positive, supportive and confused as to why I haven't found a studio position yet. There are so many talented 3D artists out there that are competing for high interest positions, and I am holding out hope that I will find my place in the industry beside them soon.

At the risk of being off-putting, I am going to get a bit self reflective and personal. I entered into this craft as a lifelong artist and I know my stubbornness to only create things that spark my passion and interests is a likely factor in my seemingly failing pursuit of a professional career. But I am pursuing this career because a life of health issues has left my body in a condition that is unable to continue down the creative path I originally started on. Along with being unable to work the ‘normal’ and more labor intensive jobs I spent most of my life doing before my condition became too severe. Being close to death for multiple years has left me with a sense of purpose to create things I think are beautiful, that spark joy and challenge me to learn everything there is to know about this discipline. I have found something that is accessible and doable for me, so I am going to do it in the way that feels the best for me. I notice that urge slowly fading and the realization that I should just bust out a few projects that are industry tuned to get a job more easily creeping in.

I have also not restricted myself to a single role or specialization, another thing that the industry is often looking for in job candidates. I want to do everything and will continue to do so, even if that means I don't have a single skill set that is comparable to other applicants right now; eventually one of my skill trees will reach that level and all my other ones will be close behind when it does. And when I finally land that first position, I know I will be a great addition to any team. When I am working with others and have expectations put on me, I flourish. I genuinely love taking on responsibilities and helping others troubleshoot. I love being good at what I am doing and learning how to do new things. I love getting feedback and seeing my progress as I ascend through the many levels of skill and specialty in this industry.

And to clarify, I am in much better health now. I had a severe pulmonary embolism in 2017 that became chronic for over 2 years. It dissipated while I was going to college but still put me at a higher risk of the virus, so the observation of my mortality has been very present for me the last few years. I also have a genetic condition that causes a lot of pain and discomfort, but I am still able to work full time at a desk. I share this with the risk of being overlooked by recruiters and studios, but if they don't want an excellent employee because of a disability, I wouldn’t want to work there anyways.

Because of my experiences as a human, I have the mind set that I only want to spend my time here doing what I love, and I really love creating in 3D. I desperately want this to be my career and to contribute to productions with other like minded and talented people. 

Thank you so much to The Rookie Awards team for hosting this event and your consideration. I know this will help many aspiring creative professionals.