Intro Idea

So a friend helped me come up with an idea for an intro for my final demo reel. Use the letters on the fridge to spell out what you see. I'll zoom out from that and show the rest of the kitchen to seamlessly integrate my intro into my first scene that I'll be showing off. I'll find a way to do something similar for the last scene to show my contact info. If you look closely here you can find a little easter egg besides my name and demo reel stuff. I'll try and throw subtle easter eggs through out the reel in my various pieces. Should be fun.

Rough Cut Done

When I say its a rough cut, that's exactly what I mean. Bad quality also.

Messin' around..

So I tossed the idea of an instrument set...

...and instead have decided to make the "lonely guitar." Its symbolizes a man who came out to rehearse for his performance, but never came back out to perform and the show was canceled . I think its a pretty cool concept. Its coming along, and it wont be as involved as trying to do an entire set of instruments.

P.S I know how smooth the guitar is. To be honest, I may leave it like that because I like the way it looks better.

Final piece started for demo reel..

All of the previous pieces I've been showing are going to be in the reel, and now I've started whats going to be a simple turnaround of a guitar, drum set, and maybe a trumpet or something, to have some organic models in the reel. First attempt at a guitar, I think its coming along fairly okay.

Mooorre...updates

The rough cut is compiled and ready for tommorow. I finally decided to change the chairs for the kitchen. Turned down the spec on the grass for the golf scene a bit. Tweaked the lighting for the bridge and temple scenes. I know I haven't shown much of the the gym equipment. Its in the earliest stage compared to everything else. Its going to be a simple small scene in a basement with the equipment you see. I added fire to the temple scene that needs to be tweaked also. Were coming along here, and I'm happy that I'm not behind either.

More updates

Got 3 days until the rough cut is due. I'm not going to render out videos for this rough cut. Just stills.

Back to the bridge..

I'm workin on several different projects at once now..here is how the bridge is coming along..
We have to make a rough cut of our demo reel for next week..I better get started now because my render times are unbelievable. I know the lighting is off. Man this rendering time is killing me..

just a test video...

More minor details..

My computer went to a blue screen (crashed) while I was working on this a few hours ago for no reason. Usually if I my computer shuts off while 3d max is running, when I go back to open the file its usually corrupted, along with all of the incremental saves. Suffice to say when my computer loaded back up the file was not corrupted and I had just saved it. Cant even begin to describe how infuriated I would've been had I lost this project.

Portfolio prep....

.....requires us to work on projects worthy of portfolio quality to use for our demo reel and portfolios. Its week 4 next week and I basically counting down the weeks until I graduate. 7 weeks left for this then another 11 weeks and I'll be done with a 3 week winter break in between. It's imperative that I get going and start improving my projects so I can pass, plus I really want to win best of show. That being said, Ive been told by our teacher that we have to get as much feedback as possible from here on out. I've been working my but off the last few weeks. No more time wasting for me, and I've never been more serious about my work then now. Time to show what I can be capable of. Anyway, here is my old kitchen project during the middle of its make over. Want to make it look a little more lived in than before. Still got some ways to go but it looks a hellava lot better than it did when I first considered it finished a long time ago.

Hummer using mental ray and car paint

Man, this looks cool. Now that I'm learning this stuff, all I have to do is make my models better for next time.

trying to fix up hummer..

I tried to go back and make the hummer a bit better modeling wise, like making better tires and rims, and adding smoothing groups to certain places..I really wish I would have known what I know now when I started this ; it wouldve came out better. I know for next time though. I think its is looking a little better than before at least. Also for fun, playing with some various color schemes for it like camo and dirt. The front is KILLIN me lol..it sticks out like a sore thumb..oh well, I still had fun with this and my next car will be a lot better.

Wartorn city for final portfolio

I'm starting early and am going to take my time to finish this project. Its going to go in my final demo reel by march..I'm using a lot of techniques I've never used so far. I have a tendency to rush when doing 3d, and I'm really trying this time to take my time and pay attention to even the smallest details. It was going good so far, but as the hours passed, I started getting impatient, and began to rush again..thus it needs several tweaks so far, but its still coming along well I think.

Been a while..

Over my break, I decided to try something I've never been able to do; vehicles. I started of with a golf cart, figuring that would be easier. Then I went on to try a hummer, thinking it would be more difficult, but still manageable for me considering its boxy like a golf cart. They arent perfect, but since Ive never done anything close to this, I'm pretty happy with the way they both are coming along. They will both be on the site soon.

Website update..

Website received an overhaul and I think it looks and navigates very well now. That is all.

Playing with a background

for the bridge...

Site is up!!

My official website is finally up. There isn't any content uploaded as of yet though. The url is brandonmcduffie.com.

Still waiting for my confirmation email for my website...

I'm supposed to receive an email today, its been 48 hours, saying my website is ready for me to start uploading stuff but haven't received it yet. In the meantime I played around with the bridge a little more. Added a sky box and some water. I want to find a nice city backdrop to throw in there. I'll post more updates as we go along.

Website and Bridge

This ended up being the final design for the website after a lot of feedback. I like it. I'll see how it goes for a while. The domain name and server space were purchased yesterday, so by tomorrow hopefully it will be up and running. The url is brandonmcduffie.com

Also, I started this attempt at the Golden Gate Bridge. It took about 5 hours to get to this point, and I am very proud of it so far. Definitely a portfolio piece when it gets done.

Making my actual website

This quarter I'm taking my web portfolio class, which is where we make our actual website. Its a really fun class and our teacher is knowledgeable about how to go about creating our websites. The site will actually go live within a few weeks for a midterm grade. After several mock ups of the home page, I decided to narrow it down to this design, but not yet decided on which of the three variations as of yet. Starting out, I had a few certain things in mind that I wanted to be sure I nailed for the homepage, and overall website; for it to be sleek, elegant, and very straight forward. I believe I achieved these goals so far.

Another update..

Added a bulletin board..still need to design a few more papers to go on it. Also had to scale down the floor texture and take it to photoshop and tile it. Not fun. Also added an exit door.

ring update..

Its gettin there..I'm gonna change a few things though. More work still needs to be done.

Court update..

Okay it 2 in the morning and I got class in like 5 hours so I'll keep this short. Here is an update for the basketball court.

The quarter is finally over!!

Man, I am relieved. We completed our team production project. It came along rather nicley, despite not being technically 100% finished. It actually needs quite a bit more work, but we'll get to finishing it when we get to it. Anyway, its all me again from here on out at school, as I've completed all of the classes in which I have to be on a team. Now I can focus on sorely me again. I've finally got around to the gym project again...I'm taking a short break from modeling, so I decided to start procedural texturing some of the these things. I'm still tampering with the materials, as I'm always changing them. One thing I think I should make clear once and for all though is the fact that I want these projects, mainly speaking my interior exterior environment projects to look real, but at the same time not photo realistic. I want to add my own touch to my projects, which is why I tend to over exaggerate certain aspects of my models and texturing. I get heat for it, and I always try to take the advice into consideration, but I want to stay with my unique style. I guess I want it to be a cross between photo realistic, and cartoony, for lack of a better word. I mean, in all honesty, what is the point of making something so realistic that you could of just taken a photo? The only way I could see doing that would be if I was like a 3d architect or interior designer or something, but I'm a Game design student, so I believe my style is justified. Anyway, heres a few updated pics.