Think it's time for a new post?

I do!

After feeling a dire need to update my portfolio to a more professional level and being inspired by an amazing scene in UDK, I have started on a project that will be an attempt to emulate it and then take it to another level by having seasonal changes controllable by a sci-fi panel or some sort of weather doohickey!

Here is the piece that inspired me, done by Paul Svoboda.

I am first going for a supersmall scene as a proof of concept deal as well as a chance to learn lighting in UDK, it seems that after I build an entire level, by the time I go to light it, the rebuild times take far too long for me to learn how to get good results, currently I have about a half second of rebuild time which is perfect for testing.

Okay enough text, onto some pictures, these are all untextured leaves with normal maps displayed on high quality in the maya viewport.  I am trying to use Paul's technique adapted to my own means as I only have a vague explanation of how he did it. 

For the tri count's I will be able to afford more than just 2 tri's per leaf for this scene since it will be focusing solely on one very small tree and nothing else.

 Flat leaf variations

 Curled Leaves

I will also be completely revamping my portfolio site, a total new look and a completely new layout.  After reading the do's and don'ts of a good portfolio I found that school forced me to do a lot of don'ts, so now I am going to fix all of that.  I will be doing whatever it takes to get my dreamjob!

I will get back to the concept helmet once I have my portfolio site redone and I will be able to update soon with a whole slew of objects I had spent the last 2 months working on for a freelance project.

More to come soon! These are ginkgo leaves by the way :)