Jesús Parras: hard surface plus one

In my first project, I had to produce a copy of a retro game console and I chose the Game Boy. It was my favourite device during my childhood and I remember spending hours playing it. I was thrilled as it was my first contact with the 3D world. At this stage I began to understand the hard surface modeling and lights in a scene for rendering.

I used Autodesk Maya for modeling, Substance Painter for shading and Adobe Photoshop for post-production and composition. Rendering was done with Arnold. 

Game Boy

The Game Boy (Japanese: ゲームボーイ "Gēmu Bōi") is an 8-bit handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989.

The console features a dull green dot-matrix screen with adjustable contrast dial, five control buttons (a directional pad, two game buttons, and "start" and "select"), a single speaker with adjustable volume dial, and uses cartridges as physical media for games. The color scheme is made from two tones of grey with accents of black, blue, and dark magenta. All the corners of the portrait-oriented rectangular unit are softly rounded, except for the bottom right, which is curved. 

The Game Boy was 90 mm (3.5 in) x 148 mm (5.8 in) x 32 mm (1.3 in)

 At the top of the Game Boy, a sliding on-off switch and the slot for the Game Boy cartridges are located. The on-off switch includes a physical lockout to prevent users from either inserting or removing a cartridge while the unit is switched on.

The Game Boy also contains optional input and/or output connectors. On the left side of the system is an external 3.5 mm × 1.35 mm DC power supply jack. A 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack is located on the bottom side of the unit which allows users to listen to the audio with the bundled headphones or external speakers.

The right-side of the device offers a port to connect to another Game Boy system via a link cable, provided both users are playing the same game. It can also be used to connect a Game Boy Printer.

Play it loud! Series

On March 20, 1995, Nintendo released several Game Boy models with colored cases, advertising them in the "Play It Loud!" campaign, known in Japan as Game Boy Bros.

Specifications for this unit remain exactly the same as the original Game Boy, including the monochromatic screen. Play It Loud! units were manufactured in red, green, black, yellow, white, blue, and clear (transparent). Most common are the yellow, red, clear and black. 

The Game Boy celebrates its 30th anniversary in Europe this year. Find below my proposal of a console re-edition announcement to celebrate it featuring a new backlight screen!

This was the second project in my path but the first big one: an M3 Half-track tank. While I do not have a huge passion for war vehicles, I found in it an excellent opportunity to develop my expertise in hard surface modeling of mechanical engineering pieces. In this project, 3D modeling became more comfortable as I got used to it and it helped develop my knowledge of shading and lighting.

I used Autodesk Maya for modeling,, Substance Painter for shading, Adobe Photoshop for post-production and composition and Adobe Premiere for the video production. Arnold was used for rendering.

M3 HALFTRACK

The M3 half-track was an American armored personnel carrier half-track widely used by the Allies during World War II and in the Cold War. 

The M3 was extensively modified with several dozen variant designs produced for different purposes. During World War II, the M3 and its variants were supplied to the U.S.Army and Marines, as well as British Commonwealth and Soviet Red Army forces, serving on all major fronts throughout the war. In the Cold War era, the vehicle was used by a variety of state and non-state operators in conflicts in South America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, remaining in service until as late as the mid-1990s. In Mexico they are still in use as of 2019.

The M3 half-track was 20 ft 3 in (6.17 m) long, 7 ft 3.5 in (2.223 m) wide, 7 ft 5 in (2.26 m) high and weighed 9.07 tonnes (20,000 lb).

This is my latest project: a hard surface character. A bot in which I have implemented all my knowledge of hard surface modeling I got from previous projects to obtain the best possible results I can produce. I tremendously enjoyed both the process and the result. Mostly because I learned a lot about hard surface shaders and the mixing of different materials. This was my first time with a rigging stage, creating the skeleton of the character and FK controls. Currently, I am working on the animation stage of it.

I used Autodesk Maya for modeling and rigging, Substance Painter for shading, Adobe Photoshop for composition and Arnold for rendering.

Billbot

I have used Sketchfab for you to be able to play with the character views. Can you find the technician's fingerprints left in Billbot's body while handling it?

This is the concept art I used, created by Tom Zhao, you can see his work here 

In between M3HALFTRACK and Billbot projects, I worked in an environment modeling based on a concept art. This is my first organic modeling project. I worked with multiple varieties of vegetable from grass or flowers to palms and trees and I also worked with organic shapes like rocks, walls and water. I developed my sculpting skills for organic modeling with Autodesk Mudbox. It was my hands-on learning environment for procedural shaders directly with Maya nodes and I learned to use the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) standard for color space in the scene and in Arnold. I loved this new dimension, as I was able to better fix the light intensity when fading in or out and produce more attractive colors in the image. I also created a couple of shaders for the land terrain in Substance Alchemist.

I used Autodesk Maya and Mudbox for modeling, Substance Painter and procedural nodes for shading and Adobe Photoshop for post-production and composition. Arnold was used for rendering.

LOST OASIS

The word oasis came from Ancient Greek: ὄασις óasis, which in turn is a direct borrowing from Demotic Egyptian. 

Oases are made fertile when sources of freshwater, such as underground rivers or aquifers, irrigate the surface naturally or via man-made wells. The presence of water on the surface or underground is necessary and the local or regional management of this essential resource is strategic, but not sufficient to create such areas.

Rain showers provide subterranean water to sustain natural oases. Impermeable rock and stone can trap water and retain it in pockets. Any incidence of water is then used by migrating birds, which also pass seeds with their droppings which will grow at the water's edge forming an oasis.

This is the concept art I used, created by Quentin Mabile, you can see his work in Artstation or Patreon. 

In this project I experimented with different lighting in the same space. I was inspired by the typical mood of the forests in Avatar film.

The following are some of the references I used for this project:

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