This web site serves as a platform to display my personal portfolio, training material I have created, pictures of my adventures, and news blurbs about it all. This is the news page and shows what has been updated on the web site and where to find it, as well as a place to post whatever is currently happening in my career and life. My current portfolio can be found under the 2d art and 3d art links on the menu to the left. 2d art is two-dimensional drawings, paintings, or sketches. 3d art is the art that I do for a living and is a type of virtual sculpture and painting, this is also the primary section of my portfolio, as it is where my skills are strongest. Tutorials is the link to the training material I have created. Resume is where I list my shipped titles, experience in the industry and teaching field, in html, pdf, and word doc form. Links leads to a page of the artists who have influenced me and can be looked to as examples of leaders of the field. Poop-map goes to the index of all my personal photos from trips and conferences. Email should be self explanatory. Finally at the top of the page is a form to add an email to my mailing list. Any email address submitted will be notified of site updates.

There are no advertisements, donation links, or attempts to profit of any type. I believe in freedom of information. All training material is provided as a free service to all.

08/01/2008

Long time no update, but my photography has been keeping me busy. I have a tutorial planned for this weekend, which I'll try my best to finish and upload. I have a request. Will anyone attending a university that meets the following requirements please email me? The university must operate entirely in english, offer a 3d degree, a photography degree, and not be located in the UK or the USA.

06/07/2008

I've started a lighting blog to serve as a sort of tutorial site for my photography. Anyone interested in using off-camera flash, or just curious how I do my lit photos, drop by. mr-chompers.blogspot.com

06/04/2008

Long time no update. There is a good reason. After Morocco, I went on a three week trip to Finland and the Ukraine. Immediately before I finalized a new personal 3d piece which can be seen on the 3d page. He is rigged and available for download. In addition, the Finland and Ukraine photos are up, on the poop-map page. I have a few small tutorial ideas floating around in my head that I'd like to create soon, but I'm not sure of the timeline. In one week, I will be traveling to Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada to present at the Jalloo festival for NBCC. Anyone in that particular pocket of the world should give me an email so we can hang out.

04/28/2008

Back from Morocco, and clear of the stomach virus I picked up while there. Guess that even in a 5-star hotel, don't drink the tap water in Africa if you're not from there! The photo album will take a few days to edit and upload, as I took about 12 gigabytes worth to edit, but there are two new updates on my accolades page, accessible through the resume page. One is a video interview with Ten Ton Hammer at the NYC comic con, and the other is my VFX world interview collated onto this site.

04/02/2008

Few news updates. First, a new interview with me on VFX world is up here. I don't copy and paste between interviews, so there should be some new information within. Also, upcoming trips: I'll be giving a talk at the NYC Comic Con in NYC April 17-20. I'm going to be in Marrakesch, Morocco April 25-30, and then on May 9-19 I'll be in Helsinki/Tampere, Finland, May 19-30 in Kiev/Odessa, Ukraine. If you live in any of these awesome cities, please give me an email and we can meet up while I'm there. There are also some new panoramics on the panoramics page.

03/09/2008

GDC went well, despite a few snafus. There were about 70 people in attendance at my lecture, and Maxon had me give away a full version of bodypaint as well as free T-shirts. SF was gorgeous, and I took a ton of photos. My photo page has been updated with three new galleries. I've also now got a flickr page going that I update much more often than my photo page, which you can find via the link on my photo page.

02/18/2008

Now I'm being told it's still on Wednesday. I'm not sure what to believe. I'm pretty sure it's on Wednesday like originally was planned. The paper schedule we'll all get at GDC should be correct, but I'm not sure. If I find out for certain I'll mention it here.

02/17/2008

Update, apparently GDC has changed the date of my talk. It's now Friday the 22, same time, but now room 3003 in the West Hall. Please use this page to double check the day, as it should always be correct.

01/22/2008

I've found my GDC lecture date and time: Wednesday, February 20th from 12-1pm in room 2016 of the West Hall. More details here. Please, if you attend, and knew about it from my website, come up to me afterwards and introduce yourself. I'll try to hang around and answer any additional questions or chit-chat.

01/07/2008

That's more like the proper length between updates! The links page has two new very talented artists linked to, Henning Horstmann and Askhat Mozembikov. Check out their sites. Also, I've added a new asset to the 3d page, the Cyber Punk. He's been "done" for quite some time, but I was originally planning to make a low poly/normal map, and complete asset out of him. It's been so long I'm calling him done at just the high poly stage. He can be viewed on the 3d page.

01/05/2008

First update of the new year! I wish it hadn't been so long since last update, but I was out of town almost all of December. The lecture at Demontfort in Leicester, England went well, I did a week long workshop as well as a two hour lecture on creativity in the game industry. Some of it was filmed, and when I get my copy, I'll upload it to the website. I just got back from my vacation in Virginia and took a ton of photos, which you can see via my photo page. I'm getting so into photography I plan on starting a sister site to showcase only that. It will have fewer photos, and only photography related tutorials. I'll make a news announcement when it goes live. The 3d page has been updated to include the SDK for Popeye the Sailor Puffin (see the last update). Click the download link in his text description. All personal art is up for download for learning purposes. GDC is approaching, and I'm finalizing my lecture content, so be sure to find the Maxon (bodypaint) sponsored demo if you want to see me making a fool of myself in front of a crowd.

11/27/2007

Mondo update! Two new 3d page entries, one personal, one professional. Resume has been updated to include the latest title I've helped on, Hellgate London, as well as to include a link to frontpages and interviews on one easy to access page.

11/13/2007

Fanfest has come and gone, and here is an interview of me for Ambulation, the upcoming expansion pack for Eve Online that I'm currently working on. Right click and save as here.

10/29/2007

New pictures up! A friend from work put on an art project where she designed costumes, assembled friends, makeup artists, and photographers, and put on an event called "Wierd Girls". I covered the getting ready stage, which is what the new gallery is about. I don't have any off camera flash yet, so when we got to the main event, I didn't have enough light for the group shots, but I'm happy with the shots I did get. In addition, I'll be headed to Leicester, England the week of December 10-14 to lecture at DeMontfort University. Anyone in the area, send me an email and we can meet up.

10/08/2007

New pictures up! I retooled my photos page to be a bit easier to navigate, and I have one more potential change to make it even nicer later. Now when you mouse over the points on the map that have more than one gallery associated with it, you get a drop down list. In addition, there is now a dot for panoramics, as well as one that shows my current gear. Speaking of which, I added a 35mm f/1.4 L to my Lenses this morning, and it required a full shoot to test it out, so there is a new gallery up. The pictures are now listed with the latest at the top to give less scrolling.

10/02/2007

New pictures up! I just purchased a Canon 40D, a 17-40mm f/4 L and 70-200mm f/4 L, along with a nice tripod and a panoramic tripod head. There are three new panoramic pictures, and you can clearly see the increase in quality from the nicer camera. There is also two new galleries on the poop-map, one from Sirkus with the CCP gang, and one from exploring around Iceland. The Iceland one is from a trip to/from the Blue Lagoon, and a visit to the Thingfellir, with a good friend visiting from Belgium. A really talented artist named Brice Vandemoortele. So check out his page, my pictures page, and the panoramics, and look forward to even clearer photos from my travels.

09/19/2007

A russian magazine did an article on outsourcing in videogames. They interviewed Liquid Development and Streamline Studios, two very large outsourcing studios. They also talked with a russian employee of Streamline, to get the input from an employee of a big studio, and lastly, they interviewed myself, to talk with an independent freelancer. You can click the thumbnail for larger, or here. The English version of the interview is here.

09/08/2007

Finished another competition, though a small one. Check out the 3d page to see Greg the mini-monster. It was made for the new forum Game Artisans. I find myself spending more and more time there, so it's a great forum to check out and get involved with. The mini competitions are great if you're short on time. There is also a new main competition where you have to recreate a Naruto character in next-gen specifications. I'm doing Naruto of course, but this time with the full budget allowance and a pretty radically different design than is on my website. These competitions are how I fill my lunch time, so my evenings and weekends are still for my personal project for Snjohus Games.

08/20/2007

Just got back from Siggraph and Vacation in Croatia, and have uploaded the pictures. There are two new galleries on the poop-map page. One is the Reykjavik Pride parade, and the second set is from my recent vacation to Croatia, with a side trip to Venice. Also, for those who have been reading about my side project. I have a teaser page up, www.snjohusgames.com

07/18/2007

Super Update! Not one, but TWO new tutorials are up! Part 11 of the delilah series is up, as is an explanation of the DDS plugin for Photoshop. It explains the different compression options and when to use them. In addition, I added more pictures from here in Iceland. I'll also be at Siggraph this year, so look for me and feel free to say hello if you see me. After that, I'll be headed to Porec, Croatia for a week, but I'll also hit Zagreb, so if anyone lives there, give me an email.

06/30/2007

I did an interview while at UAT, and the finished version has been published on their internal site. Here is the article in question. *click the thumbnail for the full version*

06/20/2007

The Tech Forum lectures went really well. There were about sixty people in attendance for the demo in the Forum itself, and about 35 in the workshop on Saturday. When I get the video from UAT I'll edit and upload along with the example files I created. As another announcement, I've added torrent links to all video tutorials. This means that when the http links go down, the torrent links will still be available. If you prefer torrent, by all means use it and leave the http bandwidth for users without access to torrent downloading capabilities.

06/08/2007

Small update. I'm headed back to Phoenix, Arizona next week for the UAT Technology Forum. I'll be giving a short lecture on texturing during the forum, but then a longer workshop on Saturday. If you live in the Phoenix, AZ area, drop me a line and we'll see about meeting up. If you can come to the Tech Forum, please do, and say hello when you see me. I got the physical copy of the Russian magazine that I was interviewed in, here is the picture of it.

05/25/2007

I really hate going this long without updating. I've added some pictures from Iceland on the poop-map page. I'm also working on the project I mentioned in the last post. I need to find a program that will let me scrub well backwards in an avi. I'm trying to edit the last part of the texture tutorial for Delilah, but going back a frame takes 2 or 3 seconds, and I can't scrub in real time at all. I have some ideas to try, because I really want to get it done.

05/01/2007

Finally did a 2d update. I'm trying to focus more on my sketching and painting, so there will not be many 3d updates. However, I am starting work on a larger personal project. I don't want to say too much about it till I get more done, but suffice it to say, it will require a sister site to maintain the updates. As a further hint I bought a copy of the Torque engine.

04/01/2007

Part 10 of the Delilah series is up, the hair texturing. There are only two more to go, the body texture, and the rigging using skin. Head over to the tutorials page for the link. I think I've worked out a way to keep the videos up the entire month, but if you ever get the message "bandwidth exceeded" for the video links, just wait till the 1st of the following month for it to be back up.

03/27/2007

Dominance War is over and I finished my entry. Check it out on the 3d page. I am still in Iceland, and I really love this country, it's so beautiful. I didn't manage to record any of the high poly process, but I did come up with some new techniques I'm going to do mini tutorials on this week most likely. This file is in the zip with the Dominance War model, but in case you want the bare file, here (right click to download) is the FX file I created for the entry, and here is a picture of the interface. It should load in any FX compatible engine/modeling program. Be sure to fill all the slots, even if it's with a blank map, or it won't show up in the viewport.

03/12/2007

Switzerland and Germany pictures are up on the pictures page. I'm in Orleans, France right now, and will be back in Reykjavik, Iceland on Wednesday. The Russian GDC is a bust, they expected me to pay all my travel expenses, even though I was coming to help generate content for their event. Frustrating, but beyond my control. I might still flesh out my powerpoint presentation and throw it up, but it will have to wait till after the Delilah series is completed. My Dominance War entry is coming along, I think I'll be able to finish in time. I'll be putting the completed model up for download, so be ready!

02/24/2007

My lecture was accepted to the Russian GDC, so it looks like April 6-8, I'll be in Moscow. I'm extremely excited to be able to visit Russia for the first time, and to get to give a lecture at such a big event. The title of my topic is Next-Gen Asset Production in a Timely Manner. After the event I'll put up the PDF for everyone to download. In addition, I was interviewed by a Russian Magazine. I've uploaded the image, which you can either click on the thumbnail in this post, or click here. It's in Russian, so if you don't speak russian, you can click here for my original ICQ conversation where the questions were asked.

02/11/2007

Part nine of the Delilah series is up! This part covers the face texturing in photoshop and Bodypaint. I'm participating in the Dominance War again, which is what Delilah was made for, which means I've taken an entire year to get the tutorials out and I'm not done yet! Oh well, no one can complain since I'm doing them for free! Muaahahahahahahhahahahah *cough*. I'm routinely updating my panoramas page which can be accessed at the bottom of my poop-map page. Here is a direct link to the wip thread for my domwar entry. I'm aiming for a fast sprinter that gets in, snipes his target, and gets out. I am planning to record part of the process, when I do the high poly mech modeling. It won't be as official as the Delilah series, just a time-lapse from a static camera (that changes angles to see the right area I'm working on) with no audio. I'm going to keep it application neutral, so I won't be accompanying it with tool tips or a crib sheet, this is gonna be a ghetto tutorial, but I think it will successfully show my high-poly workflow which is something I get a lot of questions about. I'm headed to Cologne next week from the 15-16, then to Dortmund for the 17 and 18. My friend Agust is coming too from Iceland, and we'll be hanging out with Peppi and going to the Carnival. Many pictures will follow!

02/05/2007

This is the low poly character I was talking about previously, he's based off a record cover I saw at my friends house in Montreal. It took me a bit longer to finish than I'd like, but he's done all the same. You can find him on the 3d page.I had forgotten that I'd left the tutorial series undone, so I started back on them. The ninth part, texturing Delilah's face has been edited and compressed, I just have to add the commentary and complete the PDF and it will be uploaded shortly. Also, the Dominance War has started, I'll be participating. Unfortunately I won't video much of it. If I decide to go normal mapped with my asset, I'll try to capture some of my hard surface modeling techniques. I'm in Switzerland and really enjoying it. I've been uploading my panoramic pictures as I take them, but the snapshots won't go up till a bit later. I'm still open for new contracts, especially PSP or diffuse map only assets, so don't hesitate to get in contact with me.

01/08/2007

Reykjavik, Iceland was so amazingly gorgeous. I think I found a new country I've fallen in love with. I had a blast staying with my friend Agust, and I'm headed back in the future for sure. I've uploaded my Iceland gallery which can be accessed from the poop-map page, and also added eleven more panoramic photos to the panoramic page, which can also be accessed from the poop-map page. I'm in London at the moment, hanging out with the London polycount and conceptart.org members. Once I'm in Switzerland (my next stop) I'll be sure to edit the remaining footage for the texture tutorial section of the Delilah series. I brought the raw files with me, and want to work through them soon. I'll be studying German five times a week there, trying to add a second language to my repertoire.

12/19/2006

Montreal is now my favorite North American city. It was amazing, so much good food, interesting sites, attractive people, and cool buildings. I updated the poop-map, and added my Montreal pictures. Contract work is going well, enough stuff to keep me busy, but still allow me to explore around. I'm back at my parents house for Christmas, but I have a lot of stuff to take care of before I leave for Iceland.

12/11/2006

The first few weeks of being a traveling freelance artist have been awesome. I'm in Montreal, Quebec Canada right now, having finished my Boston, MA leg. The pictures for that trip are up on the poop-map page, and can be accessed either by clicking the Boston dot on the map, or the Boston text link at the bottom of the page. I'm starting a low poly character tonight based off a ridiculous record cover I found at my friends house, and I'm going to try some experimental texture usage. It should be online later this week.

11/17/2006

As you can see from the above promo image and text (which will stay in place for a while), I am now a full time freelance artist. Today was my last day at Neversoft Entertainment. My main motivation is to travel the globe. I will be using this site to document my trip. The pictures link page is now a link to the "poop map". This will provide a way for those interested to track my journey and see if I'm coming to their area. This is a huge step for me, but I'm excited and eager. Please feel free to pass along my work to anyone looking for a freelance artist. My skills lie in doing slightly stylized stuff, but I can normally plug into any pipeline.

I had a blast working at Neversoft, and it was a tough decision to leave. They were great to me, both while working, and in my transition to freelance. They really are the top studio in terms of treatment of the employees. In the end, it was the siren call of the open road that persuaded me to leave, otherwise I'd still be happily toiling away on the Tony Hawk franchise.

This post also brings with it two EXTRA goodies, both a new tutorial, and two new pieces of professional art. Part eight of the Delilah series is out on texturing the gun in BodyPaint and Photoshop. Look for the yellow *new* on the left column. The new art can be found at the top of my 3d page.

10/31/2006

Today is my twenty-fifth birthday. I woke up to this message from my mother, which made me tear up a little. My dad left me a separate message too. I'm so greatful for such loving parents who have encouraged me in all my endeavors. I would not be where I am today without their love and support. Also, I bought myself a new camera, and have been taking crazy pictures with it. So check out my pictures page for new panoramic pictures, and this folder for random examples. Also, though it's short notice, tomorrow I head to Arizona to lecture at UAT's technology forum. It should be a good opportunity to spread knowledge. Anyone who attends, please feel free to say hello.

10/15/2006

Way too long without an update, so to make up for it, this is a double update! Mr Mint, my personal project of late, is completed and uploaded on the 3d page. I've also finished part seven of the Delilah series, UV layout of the gun in Unfold 3d magic and 3ds Max. My Gnomon class got canceled again, because only two people signed up. I am however taking "Intro to Unreal" and I have a project planned using the knowledge I gain in that class. I'm aiming to get all the tutorials uploaded by Thanksgiving, it's already been too long as it is.

08/31/2006

Part six of the Delilah series is up. This part covers the gun modeling, and is on the tutorials page. As usual, it has a yellow *new* next to it. There is no PDF in this zip as it uses all the same tools covered in the part four and five PDFs. Two weeks ago I got to go on my family vacation in Kill Devil Hills, NC. We spend a week there every year, and I had a blast as usual. This upcoming weekend I'm going up to Lake Arrowhead for the artists retreat, Terra Nova. I went last year and had a blast. I've been hard at work on Tony Hawk Project 8 and it's looking awesome. I got to make one of the secret characters in the game, and I'll post details on how to unlock him, as well as screen shots, as soon as the game hits shelves. My Gnomon class will be starting Sept 10. This is the link to my class page. They've updated the text, but not the example image unfortunately. Here is the link to my profile. It thrills me beyond words to see that. I feel finally validated as a teacher. That said, the students I will have are in for some serious work.

08/16/2006

Finally, part five of the Delilah series is uploaded. It's late, so this post is short. Tutorials page, Delilah tutorial. Look for the yellow *new* next to the thumbnail.

07/26/2006

The zip file for the Fantasy Dragon is now up, slowly but surely I am getting all of my personal project source files uploaded. The link is located in the textual description above the thumbs. Many wonderful links hide in these text areas, one would be amiss to overlook them. This Saturday I head back east to visit my family and relax on a well needed vacation. I will be in Nags Head, North Carolina, anyone living in the area is encouraged to email me, as I'm always up for hanging out with other artists. In addition, I have gotten my greedy hands on a copy of Mudbox, the digital sculpting program from a splinter company of Weta. Let me assure you, Zbrush is officially dead. I would love to write more about it, but NDA's are a drag.

07/18/2006

I've gotten some awesome feedback about the formal training article, which has caused me to re-write the article extensively. One of the things I like about html, is that I can make changes and they go live instantly. I consider my papers alive and malleable for the first few days after publishing, and most go about a few revisions. The formal training article now contains a lot more information about finding a good school, and should read better. It is also shorter.

07/15/2006

After having been asked about what school to go to multiple times, I've written a paper on this very subject that can be found at the top of the tutorials page. It is titled Formal Art Training.

07/13/2006

Thank you Romania, thank you, thank you, thank you.

07/05/2006

Added some new pages from my sketchbook just scanned in, they can be found on the 2d page. My class at Gnomon was cancelled for the summer, as not enough people signed up. The good news is that they want me to teach it for the fall, which will give me more time to prepare. Anyone interested in taking it should be looking for the fall schedule to go live, I'll link it here when time approaches.

06/25/2006

That took way too long, but part four of the Delilah series has been uploaded to the tutorials page (look for the neon yellow *new*). It's a hefty 140 mb zip file, but I couldn't get the fast timelapse to compress any smaller without the quality seriously degrading. I can't imagine how large the texture zip will be, I'll most likely have to break it into chunks. My class at Gnomon is still officially on unless I hear otherwise. It will start next Saturday.

06/19/2006

I've finished the PDF for the fourth tutorial, and it's up for download on the tutorials page. Now all I have left to do is record the audio, compress and upload, which should only take another night or two.

06/19/2006

Here is the link for my Gnomon Class. Currently the enrollment is low. If more people don't register this week, it will be canceled. If anyone is in the LA area and wants to attend, please sign up ASAP so that the class will happen.

06/13/2006

Not dead! I've been hard at work on tutorial four in the Delilah series. Here is a teaser page from the pdf for proof. It's six pages now, and is nearing completion. This is the most involving PDF because it contains all my modeling tools. I'm aiming for this weekend or next week, and the body modeling should follow soon after since it's using the same PDF which is the majority of the preparation time. My Gnomon class is confirmed, starting June 26th. Anyone in the LA area is encouraged to sign up. It's a bit pricey, but Gnomon set's the tuition. I'd do it for free if I could. Character Creation for Games will be Saturdays from 4-7 PM. I'm pulling out all the stops for the curriculum. I'll be uploading my schedule and notes in PDF format here, but it really won't be able to convey the same as ten, in-person, three-hour lectures from yours truly. Our Neversoft company picnic was tons of fun. Tony Hawk showed up with his family, and he even got in the dunking booth, as did our company president. Tons of good food, joking, jousting, and bungee races were had. Got a bit of a sunburn, but was otherwise an awesome day. I've also added an artist to my links page that should have been on there long ago, so check out Vitaliy Naymushin's portfolio.

05/24/2006

Shipped title number seven, head over to the resume page to check it out, though it was a minor contribution. Also, the Naruto zip file with texture, maya file, and max file (max file is rigged) has been uploaded.

05/22/2006

I took a break from editing the tutorials to enter the polycount challenge #24. The brief was to create a super-deformed demon in 1024 triangles with two 512 maps. I ended up using only one. I wanted to go for a slightly different style with this texture, after playing Kingdom Hearts I wanted to attempt something similar to their textures. The finished asset is on my 3d page. In addition, you'll notice a new link in the description for an SDK (skin development kit). This isn't a standard SDK, because it includes not only my final texture in TGA form, but also my PSD with all layers intact. I've also uploaded this same type of archive for my general, Delilah. I'm in the process of creating one for each of the models I've done in my personal time. It took a lot of thought, but I feel that you can learn a lot from looking at another artists final product, so I've decided to freely share mine. Next time I update the rest of my personal models should have SDK's up.