Rockin' the Cornice

So, I've done a pretty terrible job this semester of updating my blog with my updates. So, after going to class and watching hours and hours and hours (yes, many hours) of tutorials, I finally feel like I'm starting to SCRATCH the surface of Maya... but only a scratch.
First, I drew out the shapes in Illustrator and then imported them into Maya as curves (shown in older posts)... unfortunately, I had no clue what I was doing and ditched that idea. I now know how to do it that way, but I did not used that method for this project. Instead, I reverted to good ol' box modeling. Here's what I came up with (click for larger image):

The shape was weird and I had a hard time building this without getting triangles... I literally rebuilt this about 20 times, and I still would have built it differently. Finally got it to work though.

Alright, so next I delved into the main body some more. I deleted the area where the glass would be, and the bottom where the back plate would be. I had to tweak this quite a bit to get everything just right.

Next, the band. The cool thing about the band is how I bended it. I just selected all of the duplicated links, grouped them (ctrl+g) and added the same bend deformer that I used on the links. It just took some tweaking to get it just right!

Finally getting to the end. At this point I've started messing with the mental ray shaders. I knew I wanted it very shiny like chrome but darker. ALL of the shaders are from the mental ray shaders built into maya--they are surprisingly rockin!

I was pretty happy with it the way it is now... but then I found out about image based lighting. First, what makes chrome look shiny? The objects around it. That's why the inside of the wrist band looks better than the outside--because things are being reflected. IBL gives the watch something to reflect. Here are my final renders and this is what the IBL did. Enjoy!

And a turntable animation!

Maya

I'm in a 3D modeling class this semester and this is my first attempt! There are still a lot of things wrong with it, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Especially for a first go at it.

You Can't Choose Your Family

Quite the weekend with the in-laws. The drama, the laughing, the crying... the kids falling off of stools and smacking their heads on the corner of another stool (picture below)- Good times. I had a lot of fun with the fam but I loved the pictures below. My niece, Morgan, was entertaining us by running around in some huge glasses. I just happened to have my camera.


























































Here is Morgan after smacking her face against a stool. That crazy baby.



















I don't have many pictures of myself but my sister-in-law, Kate, wanted to take some pics of the fam with my camera and she snapped this one of me. I just doctored it up a little.

Winter? Hardly.

Alright, so it's not winter... it's almost fall, but I never posted this picture. Anyone familiar with Logan winters know about the inversions we have. In fact, I think we were ranked #1 for worst air quality in the entire USA last winter or the winter before. The upside: We can get cool pics during an inversion.

Vancouverage

I have some other pictures that I will update, but here's a landscape picture for now. Jane and I enjoyed our time in Vancouver but I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the architecture... Vancouver doesn't have a very diverse skyline. That's all I'll say.





Here's a picture from Victoria.










Some forest in Vancouver... I can't remember the name but this is by some famous suspension bridge.



















Here is a view from our ferry boat.
































I don't know why I found this interesting...



















SEATAC airport. I was waiting for my ride.

Yellowstone

So, I took this trip to Island Park/Yellowstone for a family reunion this summer. Here are couple pictures from that trip.

My Grandpa used to drive tour buses like this through Yellowstone. I tried so many times to get a picture without someone in the picture but it was impossible. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised because it was July 4th. I then edited the picture to look like an old Lomo photograph.













I spent quite awhile in Yellowstone and only ended up with this one picture that I actually liked. This is Morning Glory. I had to take a total of 12 pictures to end of with this HDR pic.











This was a little fishing pond close to our cabin in Island Park.





Here is my Grandpa. Him and I see nothing eye to eye when it comes to politics, but damnit, I have nothing but great love and respect for him.

Good Ol' Logan UT!

Here are some logos for a couple businesses here in Logan, UT.

Although I can't say anything about this first logo or the company itself, I can at least show the logo to you. This is for a startup company called McCole Co.



















The second logo is for a website hosting company called Geek Toast. I actually use them to host all of my sites. They rock! Check them out at http://www.geektoast.com

I CAN NOT take full credit for this logo. The owner had put together the Toast character, I just helped him polish it up. I DID, however, create the wordmark.

GeoBob/IDIAS

Here's a logo I created for my job at USU. Well, the division recently lost its funding so I just finished there. In short, GeoBob is a division of IDIAS that created apps for iPhone and Droid. Feel free to read more about them. I also designed the site!

http://geobob.usu.edu








Here's another version.

Holy Stick!

So, I'm not one of those artists to take pictures with my work, but I couldn't resist with this sculpture!

This was a joint effort by myself and Mike Jaggi, a fellow designer that happened to be in my class. He's a stud and I enjoyed working with him on this piece.

We built this piece in the early spring when everyone was throwing away their tree trimmings. Altogether, I personally spent about 12-15 hours. Very tedious but very fun. This piece made such an impression on the Landscape Architecture department head that he asked if he could re-locate the piece to a property in North Logan. He is using the piece to show how stick sculptures can be integrated with landscapes. He will be documenting it's aging process as well.







































Photo below courtesy of Sean Michael.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

So, I'm not a huge reader but I used to love S.E. Hinton. If you've read "The Outsiders," you've inevitably read this poem. I liked the idea that this poem was written about childhood. Things are never as golden as they seem when you're a child. Thus, bringing us to my next piece. I used to have these red cowboy boots as a little kid that I refused to take off. In fact, it was easier for my mom to put me to sleep in those bad boys than to take them off. So, with all the stress of life and college, I wanted to make something that reminded me of the golden age of my childhood. It's supposed to be a rocking horse, but a lot of people call it a dog... I'm very fond of dogs so I take no offense. This sculpture is made up of lamps, a fireplace (yes, you heard me right), log holders (next to a fireplace), and magazine racks. Definitely a labor of love.

Plaster... Need I say more?

While trying to remain optimistic, I'll say that working with plaster was an interesting experience. I would be lying if I didn't say that I occasionally took the freight train to profanity town, but I learned a lot. Here is a piece that I created from a hunk of plaster. My main goal was to create something a little more organic with nice flowing lines. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Thanks to Jinman Jo for the awesome pictures!

Chicago is for Lovers...

Yeah, I'm sure that title can't be right....

So, here's another poster I created for my Type/Image class. This is another poster competion, but for Chicago city. They wanted something that advertised the use of green transportation. Here is what I came up with.

A Print to the Finish Line

Here is a poster I designed for the Print Magazine student competition. The theme behind this year's competition was "the future of print and digital." Our Type/Image class was required to design a poster but we weren't required to submit it. I got busy with summer school and did not submit this...

I went with a Wolf in Sheep's clothing approach but was told by many people that it looked like my paper sheep was "mounting" my wolf. I was going to revise it and submit it but like I said- summer school got the best of me. Here was my design.

Conceal

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” -Oscar Wilde

What a great quote. So, here's a project I did for my Type, Image, and Visual Continuity class. We all had to create masks that represent what we aspire to. The idea behind my mask was to be a Self-Made Man. Why? As cheesy as it sounds, I want to create a legacy of my own. I think my mask represents me because I made this mask from the ground, up. I cut hunks of wood from an old fallen pecan tree in Louisiana, flew it home to Utah, planed it down, and carved it by hand. I was part of every process. The design is meant to have a positive upward movement and harmony.

Here is the magazine spread I created.


















































This bad boy below is my mask ▼