Life is AWSM!

Wow look at the time! Has it really been 5 months since my last post? Unforgivable. Must remedy that.

After a short contract artist job at SCEA I'm back on the streets, hungry for work. In the mean time, I've been frequenting a lot more 3D forums lately. My favorite by far is Polycount.com. One of my favorite parts of their forum is their "Game Art Workshops," where artists all work on the same project, and collaborate on techniques and theories. It's been a great way to learn, but also get some great portfolio work out of it.

This past project involved modeling the stock piece of an Arctic Warfare Sniper Magnum rifle, or AWSM. (or AWP, for those who play Half-Life Counterstrike)

The Beast

I began by downloading a huge collection of reference images to give me an idea of the dimensions and volumes throughout the rifle. I then took a pure side view, projected it onto a background plane, and began blocking it out using a single polygon.

One polygon is where it starts

I tried to pay special attention to the flow of the mesh, as when you are working with high-polygon objects, the cleaner your base is, the better the results will be later.

Note the flow of the center lines down the mesh.

The stock was deceptively complicated, particularly around the handle area, where there are lots of sharp angles that meet at curves. The best thing about working in 3DS Max (my 3D program of choice for modeling these days) is that the "turbosmooth" modifier works with the stack itself. You can easily switch back and forth so see exactly how your low poly mesh is influencing the high poly final.

High Poly with bolt and barrel blocked-in.

Another angle.

Not simply content with modeling the stock of the rifle, I decided to go whole-hog and model the rest! It took several hours spread in and around my freelance work, but I wrapped it up! I'm currently in the process of creating a low-poly version to map the high-poly to, and then provide a final texture. In the mean time, let us both bask in the loveliness that is high-poly.

Hard to believe it all started with a single polygon. There's a metaphor for life somewhere in there I think. I'll have more updates in the coming days, so stay tuned!

-Jason

Post-Mortem - Train Station Environment

Well, that was quick huh?

Alright, so for my last big portfolio project I had hoped to construct a large, spacious environment in the hopes of filling it with all kinds of props and details, as well as try my hand at creating modular pieces of environment (kind of like lego blocks) and piecing them together. Simple huh?

The results? I managed to create a large, expansive environment utilizing only a small number of pieces. I learned a ton about building things in modular pieces, such as a set piece of wall or floor that can then be connected to other pieces in order to create a full environment. Every piece of the Train Station is modular, so it could actually be re-arranged any number of ways.

Overall? I learned a ton. I'm hoping to apply what I learned on this project to my next one. Stay tuned!

New Reel hosting!

Hello,
I came across a better video encoding site. I've added my demo reel to Vimeo.com, which should hopefully allow for a better-quality viewing!



Jason Copeland - Demo from Jason Copeland on Vimeo.

More portfolio work

Hello!
Attached are a few samples of work I did on The Bourne Conspiracy while I was working at High Moon Studios. As you can see, I was the go-to guy for weapons, but I tackled a bunch of different tasks, from environment models to character props. I've also added a sample building I did as an art test just recently. Hope you like them!



-Jason

Oi! A Zep!

Hello!
In a continuing effort to keep my blog up to date, I've roughly decided on keeping it updated at least every Sunday. This Sunday dump, I thought I'd show you what I've been up to lately. Behold!







I've been working with two good friends over the last couple of weeks designing a total conversion modification for Unreal Tournament 3. We are all huge fans of the steampunk genre, and thought it would be great to do something that was wholly different from what we were used to doing at work. Thus our idea for a multiplayer team-based vehicle game was born.

I've been solely responsible for all content creation thus far, from concept to completion, so it's been a huge creative responsibility!

We're still in the early stages of our project, but we hope to have more information, including a website, shortly! Stay tuned, and in the mean time, keeping checking back here for art dumps!

-Jas