Containing Costs for Cover Art

   One concern I know many people have when seeking out 3D art is cost. In this marketplace, it's tough to know what prices will be, whether you'll be hit by hidden costs, etc. I don't think that's necessary, and when I make my services available I always price my work as fairly as I can -- especially for books. As a writer myself, I know the joy of seeing your story in print, and I want to help as many people as possible enjoy that experience.

   I've had a long-term working (and writing) relationship with Iceberg Publishing (www.icebergpublishing.com), and having produced dozens of images and videos for their books, I've learned many tricks to economize my time, while keeping quality high. I make this experience available to writers and small publishers too, and to help provide guidelines for what costs might be for independent authors and small presses, here are some examples:

Defense Command: "Tapestries of Blood" Cover Image (Cropped Image)

 $200 - $250 Canadian

Defense Command: "2235 Omnibus" Cover Image (Full Cover Image)

 $250 - $300 Canadian

Seas of Sand: "Finding the Range - Anthology I" Cover Image (Back and Front Covers)

 $350 - $400 Canadian

The Equation Series: "The Destiny Equation" Cover Image (Cropped Image on the Back Cover)

$150 - $300 Canadian

   Unfortunately, I do charge more when working with large publishers, or other industries... but for authors and small presses, it's basically work at minimum cost. Once I do an image, I pass all rights for it to the customer, and if we do multiple images of the same ship, additional discounts might be available, depending on how complex (if you need multiple angles for a ship schematic, for instance).

   So if you're an author trying to get your vision of one of your ships onto a book cover, or a small press looking for quality CGI that you can afford, I'd like to help. Email me if you have any questions!

New PC and some new worlds!

A terraformed Europa

   Instead of a paragraph to start out explaining what I've been doing, I posted an image instead. It's made using a new shader I downloaded off the net and located here: http://www.welter-4d.de/fplugs/freeplugins_en.html

   I had been searching for a way to make realistic looking atmospheres, because it's slightly important if you're doing a lot of space related scenes. So finding that plugin is a BIG life saver, plus having a new PC definitely helps the render time.

Terraformed Europa with mighty Jupiter in the background

   Speaking of new PCs, the specs for my new PC is here:

Intel Core i7 3770 (3.4Ghz)

16 gigs of RAM

2 TB HDD

Nvidia GTX 660

Compare that to my old PC:

AMD Dual Core X2 5000+

4 gigs of Ram

500 gig HDD

Nvidia GTX 260

It's a VERY big upgrade and it was VERY much needed.

   The last two images are related to Defense Command, and the upcoming "Black Sun" Sequel. The one above is more related to the later as the Martian ships are from that post-war period. They've got a new Tri-engine configuration along with the last of the Tharsis Class Battleships.

   The last image is more or less a work in progress. I'm recreating the cover image from The Articles of Empire. I'll post a more finished version of this when I get around to it.

   Until then, enjoy the images and see you later!

Project: SnapDragron (initial update)

Well now, it seems as though I haven't posted in a while. But now that has changed! I got something new and interesting for you guys today!

This is what I've been working on over the past few days. This little series of updates will chronicle the making of an alt-history bent wing jet, The SnapDragon.

This project was set before me by Kenneth Tam, my friend and a pretty damn good writer of a number of different sci-fi series. He wanted a jet for one of his upcoming books and didn't know what it'd look like. So he gave the project to me and within a couple hours I sent him these.

Made from a simple blueprint of the Corsair.

A modified Gloster Meteor.

A Modified Spitfire.

He reacted extremely positive to all of them, but decided on the modified Spitfire. From there I took the blueprint image of the Spitfire and made some modifications to the image to give him an idea of what the finished SnapDragon would look like.

The Modified Spitfire blueprint.

From there he gave the go ahead to start the modeling process and by the next night I had come up with this image.

What I hadn't realized in making the SnapDragon up until then, was that it looked like a bird in mid-dive. Which after some thought, seemed like something designers of the time would've looked at for inspiration. So it worked out spectacularly.

From there it was off to doing a number of different revision and edits. Below you can see my efforts to date.

Just doing some texture tests in Photoshop. It's starting to come together I think...

This is where I'll leave you guys today, there's still a lot of work ahead, but it'll be worth it!

Until then,

Enjoy and leave your comments!

Get out of here S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

   No, no. You can stay! It's a fairly iconic line of dialogue mentioned (a number of times) in GSC Gameworlds cult hit/smash/epic, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. As I'll tell you now, I've have been playing a fair amount of that series in the past week and it's carried over into the 3D world!

   First up is a render of some Pripyat apartment blocks based on a photo I found while surfing Google. I think these turned out fairly well!

The Grass is done using a colour image and an alpha image on a plane and then have it duplicated and spun a couple degrees. Same with the Trees

   After I was pleased and happy with the results I took that image into Photoshop and did a bit of tweaking and editing until I got to this image!

Old Timey filters and distance blur added, plus a bit of fiddling with the Levels.

   Once I was happy with that I went ahead and did some more searching on Google for a Radiation sign and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat game logo. Once I had those elements, it was a short time later that I came up with this, the finished product!

I'd say that's none to shabby!

   So, I had done that up after I had completed Call of Pripyat...So, in keeping with the theme of doing something like that after finishing a game...I did up a Desktop Wallpaper for Shadow of Chernobyl as well!

All Photoshop using real world photographs!

   As you can tell by the caption, that's all Photoshop. Showing off what I can do with it might help one day in getting a job...but we'll see! Never hurts to show off your skills!

Until next time!

Enjoy and don't hesitate to comment!

It's a Bird...It's a Plane!...No wait..it IS a Plane! (A MIG-15 to be exact!)

   During my final year of Animation, the class had 3 major modeling projects. Make a Building, make some mechanical and make a character.

   For the Mechanical piece, I decided fairly early on that I'd make a plane. But not just any old boring plane, like a 747 or a Airbus. No, no. I wanted to make a jet fighter, one that was fairly iconic and legendary.

   The MIG-15.

   The first two images below, shows the Migs untextured state. I made two models, one with landing gear and space for the wheels to retract into, and one without all that extra bits for when it's flying. I even had one side of the landing gear rigged so it could fold up into the wings (and it looked pretty darn close too!)

Coming together nicely!

Even added detail to the wheel wells, even though they never got any attention. Oh well, still looks cool!

   After the model making had been done I went to town making her look pretty. I used XSI's Architectural Material as the base and plugged the MIG-15 textures into it. The follow shots show that off, along with some Bokeh shader to make it look a bit more real.

That's a rendered image, not a Photograph!

Nope, still not a photograph!

Guess again! Not a photograph!

Okay okay...oh wait...Still not a photograph!

   With that, I'll leave you with two more photos of my first Airplane/Jet Fighter model.

Still shot from a little fly around animation.

Made this to look like it had come from a "gun camera" from a chasing Jet.
Turned out alright!

    Enjoy and leave your comments below!

And now for something completely different.

   So, not much to add today, except a new Star Trek model and a render of some realistic Pokeballs.

   The Star Trek Ship, is based on the Kirov Class Command Cruiser, which can be found here: http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/battlecruiser_kirov_var1.jpg

   So, this is my take on the Kirov class.

No, it's not the Enterprise...Although it does look a bit like it.

   This is also the first ship with the engineer section I've built. I think it turned out alright. It's a little bit bigger than the Fletcher and Akula Classes, but not by much.

Every ship has to have a Beauty shot...Just makes them look so cool looking.

   Finally and to change up the pace of this blog, I stumbled across an image of some realistic looking "Pokeballs", from Pokemon. They're the baseball sized capsules used to capture the various Pokemon.

   So I decided to see how hard it'd be to make one myself!

Gotta catch 'em all!

   As you can see...not very hard at all.

   Enjoy and please leave your comments!

One more quick thing

Well, it's a little bit more than just "one" thing.

I know a couple people would want to see these, so here they are. The animated pieces I've worked on from old to new.

Finally, my 2012 Demo-Reel.
You'll see similar scenes but they're cleaned up and changed slightly.

Enjoy and leave your comments below!