Speed modelling

Found 15mins to do a bit of speed modelling warm up in Maya,I've been checking out some concept environments and rather than spend a few days working on one thought I would try throwing together some loose and rough 3d sketches instead.

Would have added a panelled ceiling and finished the stairs if I had time.

Speed model,15 mins,Maya 2012.

Trespasser: Project update

Over the last few weeks I've been working on a bigger project,modelling and texturing so work on my Trespasser game project has came to a halt.Hopefully when I have free time I can return to it and get it moving again,the plan is to get a fully working AI test into the game which means rigging and animating a Raptor as well as scripting its behaviour.This will most likely be included in the first demo version when this section of the environment is finished.

The last stage I worked on was getting progressing through the environment and
adding features like waterfalls.This area still needs vegetation added.

Environment work

A couple of months ago I done some work on a game project,these are some rough versions of a dock environment built for Unity engine.The models are work in progress base versions to be polished as the map comes together,built in Maya.

Work in progress on layout of the map.Screenshot's from in editor.

Above screenshot showing the shipping yard layout.

Rant : CGI sucks!

Back in the early 90s CGI was something of a novelty.Dinosaurs,metal skinned men and tentacles were expensive to create but audiences wanted more and that's exactly what they got,the boom in cgi began and inevitably the backlash.
Check out any forum or comment section on films and you will come across people bashing computer effects and putting physical effects on a pedestal.The main culprits for criticism are the blockbusters,cgi fests that if created using physical fx today would probably be laughed out of cinemas,films like Independence Day (1996) actually used varied techniques to produce there action scenes but more often than not films have now taken to giving a cgi gloss to ever fx scene in an attempt to hide the seams.
Personally I think there a place for  both CGI and practal fx but the the idea that cgi is somehow less valid because its digital it what annoys me.Scattered through the vast majority of cinema releases are visual effects that mostly go unnoticed,from minor edits on reflections,composting of crowds to full replacements of actors.So I thought I would pick out a couple of examples of CG from the last few years where digital fx may have gone ignored or enhanced the films.
(MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD)

Children of Men (2006)

This fantastic sci-fi drama never quite reached the audience it deserved but seeing it the first time i was blown away by the standard of fx,the film featured brilliantly complex realtime shots,composting and a almost perfect CG moment.

Children of men pulls all sort of digital,compositing and camera tricks to create
its future world.The birth scene features a fully cgi baby.

Splice (2009)

For those who haven't seen it "Splice" basic concept is a genetically created mix of human and animal DNA,the result is a strange tentacled pod creature that develops over the course of the film and to become a humanoid woman.The creature "Dren" is shown onscreen in various forms each using a variety of fx to bring her/it to life.

Dren's brilliant evolution in Splice holds the film together.

Moon (2009)

The most obvious fx to point out in moon would be the interaction between Sam Rockwell and.. Sam Rockwell or the exterior shots of the Lunar surface.But fx are also used to help bring to life the space stations computer GERTY,in the larger scope of things these shots may go ignored but Cinesite's subtle CG served the story perfectly.