A few years ago I was doing an internship in college. Although I liked what I was doing I didn't really get that feeling you get when you're doing something you love, something that ignites that passion inside you. While I was there I got the chance to go to the movies and I watched out of curiosity a movie that caught my eye from the teasers I saw a few months before. That movie was Cameron's Avatar. Now, ever since I've been using technology(since I was born lol) I've been in love with graphics & visual effects. I love digital art and the way things are displayed digitally. When I got to the University I enrolled in the computer science program since that was the closest I could get to what I wanted. Sadly, there were barely no courses offered for it, and very few lectures were available. I couldn't just walk away so I stayed and finished it. But I digress.
I was entranced by that film. So much so I watched it many times after that. I was awed at the effects, the six legged horses, the banshees and the ships. I was even more impressed by Cameron's rendering of the Na'Vi with the revolutionary 3D camera he'd invented along with his other colleague. It was during that time that I had an epiphany: I want to do what they do. I want to draw, animate and do visual effects.
Since going to art school is very expensive I did the next best thing: learn it yourself. I got a few books from Amazon and started drawing, modelling, texturing & rendering by myself. Many months later I stand proud of the work I've done, mostly because I did it all by myself from scratch! The only times I checked with the provided material was when I got stuck on something. What I drew & modeled isn't the exact same thing that's in the books, but it's pretty darn close for someone with virtually no previous experience. So without further ado, here are the screenshots from my little side project:
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| General Overview of the alley with houses, night sky and moon. |
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| Closer view of the alley, with the awnings, doors, and garbage drums visible. |
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| View of the face of a house with door texture. Window is black to simulate darkness. Garbage drum with bags to the left. |
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| One of the lamp posts. Turning the original prism shape into what you see now was one of the hardest parts of this scene. The yellow oval inside is the light bulb. |
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| Garbage drum. One of several scattered across the alley scene. The garbage bags are of irregular shapes to add realism of miscellaneous garbage and bags on the floor. |
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| Overview of the scene with the moon, night sky & stars. High quality rendering is used. |
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| The hands and nails of the character. Because he will walk like a human he his paws have human features. |
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| Full view of the character. The upper torso is bigger and wider to give it a more cartoon look/feel. |
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| Closeup of the neck, whiskers and collar. Collar not textured. |
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| From the back. Tail is visible. |
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The face. The nose was really hard to shape & put together, mostly because this is the first time I do it lol. I'm still working on the eyes.
Hope you like it :)
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