Gavin's Art Dump

Swordmaster 2 - Teaser

2011-11-19T13:25:00.001-08:00

Whipped up a quick pose and new render for the Swordmaster -

Gav

Swordmaster 2 - Sculpt Progress

2011-11-02T06:34:00.000-07:00

The latest chapter of the Swordmaster series is out - which focuses n the high resolution / sculpting phase of the character. Here are a few progress shots I took along the way:

More shots will creep up in the future -

Gav

Swordmaster 2

2011-10-05T06:51:00.000-07:00

More art stuff! 3D Creative has finally started showing the Swordmaster 2 character to the public, expect more shots of this guy in the near future -

Concept / Design by: Ignacio Bazan Lazcano

Gav

Kingdom Death - Sunstalker

2011-08-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

A little sculpt I've been working on here and there for the Kingdom Death table top game. Really awesome guy to work with, really interesting flavour of horror - check it out: http://kingdomdeath.com/

My first time sculpting for something intended for a smaller scale - a big change from going detail crazy:

Gav

Clay Sculpture - Alien

2011-06-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

Got to play with some clay this weekend in a workshop, haven't touched this sort of thing in about 10 years - first time ever working on something of this size but I hope to do more in the future.

Gav

3D Artist Issue 28 - Masterclass

2011-04-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Finished with the Futuristic Femme project (part 3 - rigging was in issue 27 along with rendering setup in Marmoset in issue 28)

Gav

Alien Sketch

2011-04-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Lots of excuses why I haven't been producing much lately on my own time - got to get back in the swing things. Been listening to a lot of Jordu Schell podcasts lately and staring at his work, really got me wanting to do a classic alien bust, so, I banged out this quick doodle this evening:

GDC Discovery - Garage Games

2011-03-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

A character I made for Garage Games (Instant Actions Fallen Empire: Legions) is now being used for promotional material - this was at the base of escalators throughout the convention center. Pretty rendering was done in house, high poly model by me, the sticker for the floor - i assume - was done by a printing company and the escalator...well...that goes to the fine Teamster's of San Fran.

3D Artist Issue 26

2011-03-06T01:26:00.000-08:00

Returned from GDC to find Issue 26 has gone public - Still on San Fran time, it's 4:30 in the morning...might as well post something. Here is the splash for part 2 of the Futurisitc Femme tutorial.

3D Artist Issue 25

2011-02-20T18:41:00.000-08:00

Issue# 25 marks my first printed feature (both writing and art) and is Part 1 of a multi-part tutorial showing the creation of the Futuristic Femme character 3D Artist and Kekai Kotaki created:

Here is the original splash art that you can see in the title image - more to come as future issues become available!

Cheers,
Gav

Work in Progress - [Civil War] Captain Beefheart

2011-02-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

Finally got to start sculpting this guy - though everything is still very rough, I'm like the direction it's going. Made some more proportional changes and with the details falling into place - I think he's looking more intimidating like originally intended.

Gav

The Astonishing Assholes

2011-02-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

Another quickie friendly competition between myself, Jorge Lacera and Carlos V. The Astonishing Assholes are the redesign of the X-Men if they were in a "Kick-Ass" like universe. To use Carlos' description, " Young, jaded assholes that have no purpose but to listen to loud music and smash a few heads. They smoke, drink and fuck. Everything your normal teenager does." I decided to do Cyclops, Carlos took on Beast and ol' Jorge took on Wolvie - check them out!

Gav

Work in Progress - [Civil War] Captain Beefheart

2011-02-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

Now with more beef.

I made the entire character wider by quite a bit, I felt that he was coming off a bit goblin like before. Should start sculpting within a few days.

Gav

Work in Progress - [Civil War] Captain Beefheart

2011-01-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Yet another update on Beefheart. The last think I really need to do is figure out what his gun is going to look like. I'm thinking a mix between a Derringer, a flare gun and a grenade launcher. Basically, an ornate single shot gun firing explosive rounds.

Gav

Work in Progress - [Civil War] Captain Beefheart

2011-01-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

More progress on Captain Beefheart w/ "Crackers." I've got to figure out what to do with the cyber arm and the boots - and model out the base for the face in place taking up space. For the boots, I want to do something asymmetrical as if his gear has been collected through previous battles. Maybe one boot with heavy leather and chains, the other with a more polished heavy armor - like collected from a corporation soldier. The arm will have bits of Bionic Commando and Omega Red. The face will be a handsome ork.

Gav

3D Artist Issue 23

2011-01-10T05:56:00.001-08:00

First time ever my work has been printed and featured full page.

Gav

Work in Progress - [Civil War] Captain Beefheart

2011-01-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

The beginning of my character block in for our little Civil War comp:

Female C-3PO

2011-01-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

Finished this up over the New Year's break before getting started on a little "match up between friends"

Gav

Work In Progress - C3PO Girl

2010-12-28T23:05:00.000-08:00

Having another throwdown with Jorge and the gang, the theme this time is Star Wars gender bending. Male characters become female, female characters become male, R2D2 becomes....uhh....

Just getting the body done, still need to get a head made (which will probably be the most challenging part), pose, render.

Gav

Work In Progress - The GAIF Demo

2010-12-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

On my vacation I got to work on a model I'll be using as a demo at the GAIF showing my rough work flow.

Gav

Medical Illustration

2010-12-09T18:25:00.000-08:00

Imagine Publishing gave me the rare opportunity to make an illustration for them a while back and I finally get to post it up! Splash art for an article in 3D Artist Issue 23 -

Gav

Kamikaze Star Fox

2010-12-09T06:47:00.000-08:00

Did this quick speed sculpt / polypaint. Star Fox (Fox McCloud) with a World War 2 theme...obviously, I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a kamikaze pilot.

Gav

Work In Progress - Kamikaze Star Fox

2010-12-07T21:40:00.000-08:00

A few friends are jamming out with their clams out to the tune of WW2 Nintendo, I chose Star Fox and Kamikaze Pilots. Jorge Lacera chose Samus US Allies

Base model done, now onto the sculpt.

Gav

Dead Rising 2

2010-10-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Some character work I did on Dead Rising 2. More to come as screenshots become available.

Work in Progress - Cable

2010-09-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

Entered the comicon challenge this year and will hopefully finish (my computer is nearing the end of it's long....long life.) Went with Cable this year, paying homage to the great Rob Liefield.

Work In Progress - Alien Dude and The Fat Man

2010-07-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Personal Project A-

Personal Project B-

Tutorial - Working and Living as a Canadian In America

2010-04-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

Intro

I am a Canadian who happily works in the United States. In my little adventure, I have hit every imaginable bump in the road – or at least it seems like it – and thought it would be great to write down my experiences while they are still fresh in my mind.

This in NO WAY reflects on or will discuss my employer, our relationship, what I’m doing at work, my artwork in general or anything else other than the ramblings of one Canadian who is snug in America’s digestive system.

I am not an immigration lawyer or expert, don’t take what I say seriously – this is more of a ‘conversation over a pint’ rather than ‘idiot’s guide.’

This isn’t the sort of thing that I would usually write, but after dealing with this transition – I felt really motivated to write some things down that may help others when they find themselves in a similar situation. In no way is this criticizing the system, my job, the industry, governments, etc. but instead is merely just an observation and an attempt to share what little knowledge I have gained. Consider it half blog entry, half tutorial, half Luke Skywalker and half Darth Vader.

Obtaining A Work Visa

If you want to work in the United States - Get a job in the United States. Seriously. This may sound obvious, and if it does, good, but many people attempt for a work Visa with no job lined up. Make it clear what sort of experience you have and if they have lawyers at their disposal to help you out. If they are looking at you, have brought you on site, given you a test, etc. – they probably already know the deal – but you can never be too safe. Having the backing of a company and their lawyers was a huge bonus in my situation and gave me an advantage that I am very grateful for.

After you get the job you will need to obtain a work Visa. My work Visa is a TN Visa, so that is all I really know about but there are apparently others that you could go for. The TN Visa is part of the NAFTA agreement established by Canada, America and Mexico. Within it there are listed ‘careers’ and the requirements needed for said career in order to obtain the Visa. I am a Graphic Designer, there is no entry for Game Developer and Software Engineer isn’t exactly what I do. Think of it like explaining to your grandmother what you do for a living. Not that the border officials are senile or anything, but they most likely have no idea what it is yo do 'exactly.' So, to avoid confusion: You make pictures. You make them for video games. You design graphics, as it were, for video games.

When I applied for my work Visa, I had only one year of schooling but more than the minimum of required work experience (which is 3, but I had 5.) However, since much of my legitimate work experience is freelance work – it is harder to prove this to immigration officials when the time comes. Anyone can say ‘Sure, I worked for MegaGames in December 2008.’ Get solid studio experience if you do not have a bachelor’s degree and pair it with at least 1 year of school – even if it is a dinky college of a relevant nature. I never thought that that piece of paper would do something good for me, but having it in the stack of paper work I’m about to explain to you certainly made my life easier.

I have been an advocate of the self taught route for quite a while, even though I had attended school myself. It was and, to a certain degree, still is my opinion that you do the majority of learning on your own and that 'game art' schools are a giant waste of money - HOWEVER - the piece of paper that I obtained from this school was crucial to me getting my work Visa so, I must admit, casting my bad feelings aside - I am glad that I went to school when I did.

First, I needed to obtain as many ‘experience letters’ from my former employers as I could – signed – that vouched for my time working for them and all of this time needed to add up to at least 3 years of experience. Luckily, everyone I’ve ever worked with is awesome and quickly did this for me. I also needed to obtain a letter from my school’s Education Director that more or less stated the same thing – just regarding my schooling – along with transcripts of my schooling to go with my original diploma. This is basically a way to prove that your experience is legit. Again, good luck proving Freelance experience - To someone not in the know, it seems very sketchy.

Also, you will need the official job offer letter from your employer and information on them. Basically, this is all listed in the NAFTA paperwork and is only something that your employer can provide.

Many people I have talked to will say ‘It all depends on the official at the border – if they are having a bad day, so will you.’ That may be the case, but the person in charge of my Visa was extremely approachable and easy to work with. It could be that America had just kicked Canada’s ass at our own game – in my city – in the Olympics…or he could have just been a nice guy, not sure.

Try to look nice for your interview. You will get profiled and if you look like a slob, you’re going to get treated like one. They aren’t paid to be nice people, they’re paid to be a line of defense for their country. I have many tattoos, two full sleeves and a half leg sleeve. It was very important that I dress up and look nice – which was advised by lawyers and friends who had been through this experience as well. For the first time in my life, I was dressed in a suit and, though I felt awkward, I feel as though they treated me like a ‘professional’ when they probably wouldn't before.

In general, during your Visa ‘interview’ – try not to make things more complicated than they need to be. Immigration officials don’t care how talented you are, they want to see if you meet the criteria given by NAFTA. Don’t use terminology to sound educated on the subject because they aren’t and will probably just get confused. Order all of your papers, in a neat folder, as they are listed in the NAFTA requirements. The people at the border are doing a job – anything you can do to make their job easier is a good thing. Colour coded? Awesome. Papers ordered in the same order as the NAFTA ‘checklist’? Awesome. This is the same for us if someone names their files properly. Can we still do the job, yes, but isn’t it so much better when you don’t need to search for things?

All in all, my Visa experience – something that many people will tell you is a Hellish process and is equivalent to facing off against a pit bull – was actually very easy and pleasant. Just make sure you follow the rules, look nice, be nice and have everything organized –twice.

Some great advice from a friend was, 'Follow the rules. If you follow the rules and have everything NAFTA requires - they have no reason to deny you.' I found this to be true and, at the very least, it made me feel more confident at the border.

Land of the Free (Plus Security Deposit)

As a Canadian in America, you have no credit. No credit means no history. No history means a hard time proving you are not a dead beat. For my first apartment, I had to pay 3 months rent up front – 1st month rent, 1 month damage deposit and 1 more month deposit as a liability for not having any credit. Not BAD credit, just no credit history. I also had to drop deposits for cable and power. This may be different based on who you deal with or what state you are in.

Before all of this, though, you will need to obtain a very important piece of information – the social security number. This number is like the life blood to Americans and is similar to a Social Insurance Number to Canadians – though – seemingly much more crucial. Before I could get a place to live or have anything hooked up, I needed an SSN. Though this may seem like common sense, it wasn’t at the time for me.

The problem with getting an SSN as an alien is that you need to have a Visa and proof that you are, indeed, working for this company. So, if you can somehow obtain a Visa weeks before you actually move to the states, you can apply for a SSN and possibly have it ready before you enter the country as a resident.

Also, be prepared to pay for renter’s insurance – which seems necessary here. Probably a good idea to have anyways – but it was never presented to me as being mandatory in Vancouver, Halifax or Fredericton.

Your average American – or average person anywhere for that matter – will have no idea what is involved in the Visa process or working in a different country under a work Visa. Try not to get frustrated as you will be explaining your situation many different times throughout this entire ordeal. Many people have not had to go through the experience of setting up shop in a new country and are generally only used to dealing with residents of the country who already know how things work. Because of this, there were a lot of things that I ran into as a last minute ‘Oh yeah – you’ll need this…’ situation. SSN, insurance, deposits in the form of bankers checks – all were last minute surprises for me.

Oddly enough, I got a bank account very easily and only need to show a valid piece of ID – which was my passport. Which leads me to...

Don’t Lose Your Fucking Passport

When I first got to America, there were a lot of things I needed to take care of on a daily basis. Going to the bank, going to the SSN office, going to my landlord’s office, etc. and would often need identification – the only valid ID I had was my passport. Many places will not accept your ‘out of state’ ID, including bars, so I had to carry it with me most of the time.

While enjoying a delicious lunch with a friend, I had foolishly left my bag – which contained my passport, cell phone, pay check and glasses case - in the restaurant. This is something I never do. I had never lost anything important up to that point, honestly, and can only blame my forgetfulness on sleep deprivation.

About an hour after I had returned to work, I realized that something was missing. I scurried back to the lunch spot as quickly as possible to see my bag toppled over on the floor. Rummaging through my bag, I could see that my passport and pay check were gone. On the brink of turning green and smashing through a few brick walls, I went back to the office to tell my HR manager what was going on. As I am feeling my purple pants and white dress shirt tear apart in rage – two complete strangers come to the office with my information in hand. Apparently they had found it on the floor and wanted to return it to the office. I was very lucky and never carry my passport with me – or if I do, it’s stapled to my chest.

The solution to this is to get a state ID / driver’s license. Of course, you can’t get this until you have a SSN and a valid address within the state. So, this is the last thing you will be able to get – but probably the most useful as losing your passport (which your TN Visa is clumsily stapled to) could be a giant pain in the ass.

Mothership Connection

If you have a significant other that you enjoy keeping around, you will have a very hard time having them live with you legally unless you are married. My long time girlfriend and common-law spouse, at the time, who had been with me for 10 years couldn’t legally live in the United States or be rolled into my benefits. Common-law arrangements do not translate outside of Canada. Though there are ‘spousal equivalents,’ it seems to be very difficult to prove this and doesn’t hold as much power as the Canadian version. As cold as it sounds, the solution to this is to get married – it makes life a lot easier if you were willing to make that commitment anyways but just put it off.

The spouse’s Visa is based off of your own TN Visa and is a TD status. This means they can go to school and can live with you as long as your TN Visa is valid. Everything becomes based on the TN and, in many ways, the spouse becomes your responsibility.

Of course, if the spouse / significant other has a degree or is able to work in the United States, they are fully capable of obtaining their own work Visa.

Man's Best Friend

Someone who won’t be able to get their own Visa, however, is the family house pet. I have a cat and very much wanted her to come to America with me. The process to do this is very straight forward and, in my experience, easy. My cat is huge, so I needed to make some different reservations, but for the most part all you will need to do is have a rabies shot for the animal and a letter from the vet stating that the animal is in good health – this letter needs to be within 30 days of the animal’s entry into the states. In this case, ‘good health’ means that the animal isn’t patient zero. Not carrying any diseases, not on the verge of death, not a danger to airline staff.

My cat is huge – 20 lbs. – so I needed to buy her an airline approved carrying case and she had to be stored with the luggage under the plane. This broke my heart as my imagination had her shifting around with bags of dirty underwear and bathing suits. You will also need to provide the animal with dry food and water within 4 hours of the trip. For my trip, I had to pick my cat up in customs during the first stop over – I only had an hour to do all of this and would recommend giving yourself more breathing room. Going through customs, getting all of my luggage, rechecking all of my luggage and giving my cat a morale boost made my schedule very tight and nearly caused me to miss my (our) flight. Granted, this falls on the shoulders of the airline – but who wants that stress either way? Ultimately, she made it fine after a 9 hour trip – was mildly shaken up as I’m sure cats have no concept of flight – and was back to her sleeping 90% of the time self.

End

This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It has been totally worth it and I would do it again in a second. I had help along the way from friends, but it was still a very complicated situation that took some time to figure out. Like pulling a tooth, it’s painful, takes time, but once it is done – life is a lot better.

Irrational Games

2010-03-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

I have just recently accepted a job offer from Irrational Games and am in the process of getting up to speed there and relocating to Boston!

Gav

Art - Ultimates Nick Fury

2010-02-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

Alright, seriously this time, last post for Nick Fury - Brought his cranium down, giving him less of an alien egg head. NOW it's done.

Gav

Art - Ultimates Nick Fury

2010-02-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

Alright, finished with this one...gotta move on!

HP:

LP - Textures:

LP - Model

Gav

Work in Progress - Nick Fury

2010-02-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Took a break from the planet peeler to work on this bust -

Still got more to do!
Gav

Work in Progress - Jouste's Lunq the Planet Peeler

2010-02-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

Little update, been going a little slow on this :\

Work In Progress - Jouste's Lunq the Planet Peeler

2010-01-30T23:14:00.001-08:00

More work on this guy, most of the body is blocked out - just have a few more tweaks, some sculpting work and the sword for the high poly.

Gav

Work In Progress - Jouste's Lunq the Planet Peeler

2010-01-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

Started working on the 3D version of one of Jouste's AWESOME concepts, Lunq the Planet Peeler...still early:

Festivus Break / Eat 3d

2009-12-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

Enjoying a nice vacation, hoping to get some work done before the new year.

Eat 3D recently posted the interview they did with me - check it out!

Work in Progress - Pilot

2009-11-01T22:33:00.001-08:00

Little more work on this guy, next is the parachute -

Work in Progress - Scarecrow

2009-11-01T22:31:00.001-08:00

Scarecrow update! Still got a little more to do, but it's going slow - this has been moved to my lunch time project...so, only about an hour a day of work at best.

Work In Progress - Pilot

2009-10-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Little update -

Work In Progress - Pilot

2009-10-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

Another personal project I'm working on...

Work In Progress - Scarecrow

2009-09-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Don and I have decided to throw down again over at GA. This time around, the topic is Batman Universe with him taking on Batman and with me taking on Scarecrow. Here is an early WIP shot of the head I am working on.

Gav

Sketch - Jigsaw

2009-08-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of the comicon challenge over at GA, I did a quick sculpt of "Jigsaw" before heading to Mexico!

Gav

Workflow - Jigsaw

2009-08-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

QUICK gif showing a few stages of my Jigsaw sculpt.

Gav

Art - The Bigs 2

2009-08-01T00:32:00.000-07:00

The Bigs 2 has finally been released and is now on store shelves. Reviews are fairly good and I am happy to show off some of the work I did on the game. Be sure to stay tuned for other pieces that may creep onto my site -

This and other recent updates (included my DW4 stuff) can be found on my main folio site -
GAVIMAGE.COM

Bishop: Making Of

2009-07-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Adding a link to a tutorial I created that is being hosted by 3dTotal. There are a ton of images, some tips and a few movies covering the sculpting process. Be sure to check them out and let me know what you think!

Get it here!

Gav

Work In Progress - DW4 - Bishop (Textures + Rendering)

2009-05-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

Been working away on the game resolution model (10k tris EXACTLY) as well as textures and rendering in the Marmoset Engine. Such an amazing tool, it has it's flaws, but is so easy to pick up and quickly have something that looks really polished. A great alternative to Unreal.

Gav

Work In Progress - Dominance War 4 - Bishop

2009-04-13T02:21:00.001-07:00

A quick update on the DW4 character. Most of my progress can be found over at Polycount Though, I am planning on creating a tutorial afterwards that outlines all of my progress, steps taken and general tips and tricks for current gen character development.

Gav

Sketches - Dominance War Mini

2009-03-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

War. What is it good for? Speed sculpting, apparently! DW4 has begun and started off with a mini competition. Though I didn't complete it, I did make these two sculpts in the process. Definitely a good warm up for the main event.

Workflow - Adon

2009-02-14T16:06:00.000-08:00

I have recently been working on a mini competition over at Game Artisans and have decided to share my final ZTL with the art community. In this RAR file you will find the first and last phases of sculpting. I haven't included the base mesh, which is more or less a sphere with a neck and a funky hairstyle, but if there is any interest, please let me know and I will update the file.

ADON ZTL

Gav

Tutorial - Topology

2009-01-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

Another tutorial I created for 3DCreative on the topic of topology for game models. As a disclaimer, this was following some older techniques that I have since changed and hope to release a new tutorial soon that covers all of this as well as describes my current workflow.

It's more of an article with some practical examples rather than the creation of a specific character. That being said, with this new tutorial I have in mind, I'm hoping to focus it mostly on just one "test case"...any feedback you have or suggestions on what to cover in future tutorials is greatly appreciated.

TOPOLOGY TUTORIAL

Gav

Tutorial - Mindflayer

2009-01-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a tutorial I created a long time ago for 3DCreative involving the Mindflayer bust I made -

Grab the PDF here.

It covers the basic steps of creating a current gen character along with a few technical pointers.

Gav

Workflow - Alien Head

2009-01-10T15:46:00.001-08:00

Workflow - Mr. Incredible

2009-01-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

A quick step by step image of my Mr. Incredible model..

Mr. Incredible and Doodles...

2009-01-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

A few models that I played with recently, trying different techniques and styles. I may still be taking Mr. Incredible to completion...

Intro

2009-01-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

Starting an art blog to track my work in progress images, host tutorials I create focused on game art and as a more "social" online gallery, of sorts.

I have my usual SITE that is used as more of a professional portfolio, something to show potential employers / clients, however, I'm often working on quick sculpts or random ideas that I don't necessarily want to show there. I also usually screen capture a lot of my work as I'm picking away at a project and thought this might be a nice place to host those type of things.

It may be slow going at the time being, so in the meantime check out my friend's work to the right.
Cheers.