Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Vault

Hello everyone,

I recently created a new blog which contains pictures of all my work and I also included my resume. Please take a look, the web address is:

http://3dmodelingmaniacvault.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by.

-Mando.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Batmobile - Work in Progress

Here are a few different angles on the Batmobile including a requested one with the hood open which shows all the engine detail. There are still a few more parts to model on the engine.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Batmobile - Work in Progress

Here is the mesh of the body so far; I have to add a few more small details but for the most part it is complete. I have also been modeling some of the engine components. The chassis is almost ready to be UV-ed and textured.

New Project: Batmobile

Here is the latest project I have been working on. It’s the Batmobile from the graphic Novel, Batman vs. Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham. Simon Bisley who also illustrated other Judge Dredd comics and graphic novels created the original artwork for this Batmobile. This Batmobile predates some of the more famous modern ones including the one from Tim Burton’s Batman and the subsequent series of films from the 1990’s, and the one featured in Batman Begins and Dark Knight. Unlike the one from the latest series of films, this Batmobile is not humvee, tank-like vehicle, which is opportunistically used by Bruce Wayne as his crime-fighting vehicle of choice. It is instead a highly stylized vehicle featuring oversized bat-wings and a front profile that resembles an angry demon with yellow headlights that look like eyes and lower front vents that remind you of teeth. All of which Batman uses and are designed to intimidate and bring fear into the souls of the criminal underworld of Gotham City. And not to take away from the other incarnations of the Batmobile, including the one from the 1960’s TV series and 1940’s comic books, in my opinion this is one of the coolest and my most favorite Batmobile.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

My F-14 in Blitz II

Here is another screenshot of the F-14 from the game Blitz II by Midway.

My F-14 in Blitz II

My F-14 was used in the game Blitz II by Midway. Here are some screenshots of the F-14 from the game.

Second bottom view of F-14

Here is the bottom view of the F-14, this time with the wings retracted.

My favorite angle of the F-14

This is my favorite angle on my F-14.

Bottom view of F-14

Here is the bottom view of the F-14.

My F-14 vs a real F-14 Take 2

Here is another picture with my F-14 and a real one (mine is in the background). I would have placed mine in the front but the real one is too big. I might do it in the near future and see how it comes out.

Top View of F-14

Here is the top view of the F-14.

My F-14 vs a real F-14

Here I have my F-14 (on the top) and a real F-14, there are some small differences between the 2 but overall I think its pretty good.

I'm back ...

Well let’s see, I have not posted anything since June of last year. Needless to say I have been very busy; recently a friend of mine asked why I have not posted anything since last year. And I told him that well I just hadn’t, so after that I decided to post again. What has kept me so busy? Work; I am currently working as a Technical Artist at Midway games in Chicago and due to the amount of work I just have not had much time to work on my modeling much less post anything on my blog. By the way I am not much of a blog posting person to begin with, if you see my older posts they are straight forward and to the point. So I would say this entry will probably be the longest one I have typed and will be for a long time to come. But back to the modeling, even though I have not modeled a lot of things since my last post I did not forget and do want to keep on modeling, and so I did. So being that I love aircraft of all kinds I decided to model and texture as realistically as possible an F-14a Tomcat. I think it came out pretty good although looking back on it I know I could do much better. Honestly looking back at some of the work I previously posted I think I can do much, much, much, much better than what I did. I think that’s how everyone feels about their work, they see older stuff and say “oh no I did that?” and I am not different. But don’t misunderstand me, I am very proud of the work I did and stand by 100% but I can now see all the mistakes and what I could have done better. And I think that’s what its all about, doing something, learning from it and then come back later and do something even better. Well enough blogging (blah, blah, blah). Here is my F-14a Tomcat.

New Project: Environment Scene - Alley

Angle 2 ...

New Project: Environment Scene - Alley

Sorry I have not updated in a while, here are some new pictures of the Alley. I also decided to include the Mustang in this scene.

1968 Mustang Fastback. Work in progress IV: The new paintjob and wheels! More Pics...

Occlusion plus normal ... better shadows ...

1968 Mustang Fastback. Work in progress IV: The new paintjob and wheels! More Pics...

Here are more pics for your pleasure. Enjoy.

1968 Mustang Fastback. Work in progress IV: The new paintjob and wheels! More Pics...

More pics .... I just can't get enough!

1968 Mustang Fastback. Work in progress IV: The new paintjob and wheels!

Hello everyone, here is a new pic with the new paintjob and wheels for my '68 'Stang! Sweet! I have changed the paintjob to black from the original forest green from the "Bullit" Mustang. I love the color black but I might just change it back to the forest green.

Up next for the 'Stang: Baked shadows to incease realism and perhaps a very subtle bump map to give it that "real paint feel. I may put stripes on it, I don't know. Also it has been suggested that I make another version with rust, dirt and body damage. Sounds cool. I hope you like it and comments are always welcomed.

1968 Mustang Fastback. The Process...

One of the toughest parts to model was the wheels. I modeled these after Cragar wheels although they have some features of American Racing wheels.

New Project: Environment Scene - Alley - Session 1

A close up to show detail on the lightpost. Will add wires and textures next.

People whose work I think is really cool.

Surfing through the web I have found many people whose work I think is really cool. Here are some of my favorites (in no particular order). I hope you guys like their work. Enjoy!

1. Hyun Hee Lee
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=466166

2. Jeremy Engleman
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=449040

3. Marek Denko
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=451732

4. Olivier Ponsonnet
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=440280

5. Stefan Morrell
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=399743

6. Kim Hyong Jun
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=255737

New Project: Environment Scene - Alley

I decided to create a new environment scene. I wanted to pick something that had a lot of detail that was also dark and gritty. I did not want to do a clean city street, an alley is dark and hidden, makes it interesting. Here is a picture of an alley in Chicago.

People whose work I think is really cool.

Here is a link to someone whose work I have been keeping an eye on. I hope to one day I can create work as great as this. Enjoy!

Alessandro Baldasseroni

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=461079

-Mando.

1968 Mustang Fastback. Work in progress.

Here is my 1968 Mustang Fastback. It is a work in progress, I modeled it using Maya 7. Comments? Let me know what you think.

- Mando

Old Blog content ...

Ok so I know this is my new blog but since my old blog contained so many images that I cared about but cannot be seen I have decided to move all my old posts to this blog.

For now I cannot retreive all the old images because the goofy drawing is there, but once I can get a hold of them I will update all the posts with the correct images. So for now it will be text only for the old posts.

Once this transfer is complete I will begin to post pictures of my current work in progress. Thank you for your patience.

-Mando.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

My New Blog! :)

Everyone,

To all who have seen my old Blog and are looking at this one, thank you for coming and following me from my old one to my new Blog. I really appreciate it.

To all of you who are new to my Blog, thank you for visiting and I hope that you keep coming back. Welcome and I am glad you are here.

So then the primary purpose of this blog is to post pictures of my work as a 3d-Modeler. I welcome and appreciate all your comments so please feel free to critique my work. only through your critiques can I become a better artist.

Again thank you all for coming and I hope you appreciate my posts.

-Mando.