i've finally finished the concept work for my part of the WOW contest. now i must start the actual 3D modeling and texturing D; another challenge and portion to adapt to. The concepting portion was fun and something different and new. It taught me how much researching, finding reference, and asking for assistance (from instructors especially) can really impact your work. Im beginning to watch a 3D modeling&texturing DVD right now just to see if there's any tips within the DVD to assist me even more in this portion of the project.

that's all for now!

Travis Ngov

Winter Break

YES! it has finally begun.......well a couple days ago it has. I started winter break with a good start on my concept artworks for the blizzard contest. I believe i got a good headstart so far.

Right now im on the final phase of the concepting. Ive gotten the artstyle down, the mindset, and now i just need to create a finished piece. Ive already created many many thumbnails, and sketches of my project. The only thing left is that ONE finished concept artwork of it. I plan to have at least 4 final concept pieces to choose from. Then i can get to the 3D aspect of this! :D

Im confident that i can finish this project before school starts again, which is also about a week before the contest ends! :) i dont really want to post any concepts in progress but i'll post these actually when the artwork is completed just for personal reasons.

but i HAVE been doing alot of figure studies along the way! i do these studies casually as a way to warm up when it comes to drawing in my sketchbook. So far ive had many many pages ever since break started so it shows im not completely unproductive.

I do get this wierd feeling though as these days of break goes by. this feeling is the feeling of being completely useless/unproductive. This usually comes by when i dont do anything all day that has to do with art whatsoever like sketching,modeling, etc. I understand its "winter break" and we all DO deserve a vacation but i just feel theres so much talent and competition out there that i cant afford to just spend 3 FULL weeks of just playing video games and going out.

We all WANT something but we have to show HOW MUCH we actually want that something. And just sitting here saying things wont do me any good? so the further i get into this field, the more i want to..DO MORE? i guess you can say?

that's really all about it for now....i'll post some sketches up here sometime soon along with my concept artworks AFTER i finish the project im working on :)

Till next time,

Travis Ngov

So my finals is VERY close.

i have a Humanities, Game Prototyping, 3D Scripting, and Character Animation final!

My humanities final im a BIT concerned about but it shouldnt be too much stress.

for scripting, i managed to finish my script BUT found a bug recently. turns out it can only be used once. i'll be posting my script soon on my blog and a description on what it is and how to use it :)
but i will definitely fix this bug. its not too much to do. just will of course require alot of logic.

for Game prototyping, i stiiiiiill have yet to add my kismetics to my video game level. Its ALMOST done though :) no stress for this whatsoever either. just will require efficient time management.

and character animation.......oooooo yeah i feel VERY confident in the animations ive made recently. i will post every final on my blogspot once they're finished. VERY SOOOON

one more week and then i finallyyy get a break! im in sooo dire need in a break that today, for my one day off of the week, i slept for nearly 11 hours O_o

also here's a painting i did recently today while relaxing. i did sketch and basic value in school for 1 hour then today while at home i spent another hour and a half on it. Good results so far!

Im in LOVE with this wacom intuos 5 that i just purchased recently. it feels very comfortable and clean ^___^ i'll definitely be releasing more artworks this break! including my artwork submission for the world of warcraft student contest i have yet to do!

i HAVE done alot of conceptual sketches and studies on their artwork , i just have to scan them off my sketchbook =P okay thats all for now.

Sayonara,

Travis Ngov

Been awhile once again? i think from now on i'll be more active on this. But more on my personal work, especially my sketchbook stuff :)

well first off ive started working. well not really started, this has been going on for like 2 quarters so far, but yeah. Its a pretty interesting so far. I'm required to take notes for students at my school! i know, pretty random right? But it's given me the opportunity to take notes in classes ive also never tooken before! Ive got some interesting classes like a senior graphic design class or an audio class haha. But im also getting some courses ive already took but they're good as refreshers like observational drawing and hopefully soon anatomy again! :)

here's a sketch i did recently while taking notes for a student in observational drawing. they were all required to draw the planes of the human skull. So i thought itd be interesting to tag along with this! so this is what i did on the human skull.

unfortunately this image wasn't scanned since i just quickly needed an image to put up.

Ive been putting alot of time into my actual sketches though ^_^
I recently ordered a wacom tablet , intuos 5, LARGE!!! :D and im very excited to get it! ive been working mainly on my wacom bamboo small. And even though i can still work with it, i feel i'll have a faster pace when dealing with my digital work. Usually i'll whip out an artwork within an hour to 4 but i think this will drastically improve my performance! i just have to wait for it to arrive in front of my door. ohhhhh the pain in waiting for a package to arrive =/ I ordered the wacom off a website my school notified me that i get discounts from. The best deal i saw on it was the autodesk suite for around 250$! man....

on a recent note, i was notified about a student art contest!
And the ones hosting it is blizzard!!!
im super excited to enter this contest! i will start concepting ideas until my school quarter ends. By the time that happens, i'll begin the rest of the process required (modeling, unwrapping ,texturing, etc.)

i haven't approached the style of blizzard before but hey, theres a beginning for everything right?! :)

well thats all for now, i have school tomorrow. Not really a class but WORK x] im taking notes for 2 classes every tuesdays which is image manipulation and US history. EGH, US HISTOOOORRYYYY MY ENEMYYYY. the worse part isnt even that, its that ive NEVER taken the class for this school yet!? so i'll have to take it again. But hey, im doing pretty decent with the notes, roughly near 10 pages of notes a week for the student :D alright, time to head to bed.

sayonara!

Travis Ngov

Here is a new painting ive currently created. it started as a head value study then eventually i added a body to the head :)

Advance Material and Lighting Assignments

here are my homework assignments for material and light, the environment was honestly very dissappointing. the modeling came out okay but then the texturing didnt come out as good as it should've been. there's also random numbers visible on the environment because of an accidental photoshop layer left on.

the environment was my first assignment and the door was my second assignment.

here's a door im currently working on for my Advance Mat & Light class, ive got alot more texturing to work on, ALOT to do on the specs, and bump map, but so far so good, gotta keep going! :D

some recent studies ive done! i havnt been keeping this blogger updated but im back and ready! :D

Here are some AO passes and Physical Sun and Sky renders due tomorrow for my 3D camera tech class! :D

Current Work in Progress

WIP on my latest work!

another study done! started it at 3 AM O.o but it was well worth it =]

my business cards have arrived! wooooo =D

ive managed to do alot of studying and sketching during this break so far and its only been 1 week! heres what i have

mech!

heres a mech im currently working on! im planning to put more details on the robot even though it wont be rendered that close. The actual size of the robot after its rendered will only be like 1 inch when fitting an average computer screen. But i might as well model more parts just for practice. I was given assistance from my instructor and friends so far to mess with the legs a bit because they said itd seem a bit difficult to see the leg support the head. And also to put some sort of way for the body to not only rotate but pivot upwards and so. But yea, heres my WIP

new beginnings, rehearsal rehearsal rehearsal.

still getting used to UDK, loving the program so far. just recently joined a life drawing club at my school! its cool & a very good opportunity =] managing my time to put some traditional sketches in my life still. even though i have these 3D classes, im still having a goal set of concept art. my plans as of now are to graduate as a 3D environment artist with knowledge also for character work. In the future i'll be transitioning into concept art! my original plan was to graduate as a concept artist but i'll need much more time before doing so. well heres some new sketches ive done recently:

MDK

so today i started my side assignment, realizing i have alot of extra time on my hands. the classes i have this quarter dont really give alot of homework, so ive given myself a project to do. so based off a concept art, im going to be making it in max and maya. theres vehicles and robotic mechs included but i believe i can finish this before the quarter ends. But while doing this, i took a break and played the game minecraft with my friends. The reason i play minecraft is because im still able to be creative in the game by building things. What im doing atm is making a colusseum where your able to enter with an iron door but on the other side you cant get out, until the host of the collusseum opens the door for your to leave. But anyways to the main part, while building this, i saw a glimpse of a familiar scenery. The scene i saw looked EXACTLY like how UDK would start up as, which a flat plane, a block in the middle, and the sky. So i just HAD to screen shot this! haha, its the minecraft version of UDK, i call it the Minecraft Dev Kit! haha

also, i havnt been able to upload new artworks due to the classes that i currently have.

i have: anthropology, psychology, level design, and 3d Rigging.

anthropology and psychology doesnt consist of me doing artworks so nothing to really show there.

level design has me use the included meshes in UDK to make a level as the class plays the level eventually for improvement, but theres none of my OWN created meshes really so i dont see a reason to show it.

and 3d rigging, im required to rig a character we find, we could use our own characters but the models ive previously created arent too exciting enough to rig, they're just armored humanistic characters. I wouldnt wanna show my rig of another person's model. id rather show my own model being rigged so i cant really show that project either.

but i will be putting more sketchbook stuff as ive joined my school's life drawing club as of today! it was very refreshing to be able to draw again! =]

thats all for now.

sketchbook submission 2

Some stuff from my sketchbook again, been having a good amount of opportunities to add more sketches so i'll be filling this sketchbook up PRETTY soon so i'll need to buy another =]

morrigan , anatomy study sculpture

Another personal project, Morrigan of Darkstalkers , WIP. Not sure if i'll get to finish this, seeing how school is now just around the corner.

still have left to finish detailing the entire thing, adding hands, and making the entire model smooth but oh well =] had alot of fun doing this!

PS, the quality of the image is horrible because it was taken with my phone's camera. Wish i had an actual high res photography camera so that i can take pictures of my sculptures in the future.

While working on this, i had ANOTHER sculpture i was working on and i was working back and forth depending on my day's mood. I'll finish up the other sculpture and post it here asap.

the next sculpture i plan to polish and actually finish. but this one is going to be unfortunately left like this. The reason of this sculpture was just for female anatomy study anyways =P

sketchbook (half filled)

here are some sketches of my sketchbook, this isnt even half of whats in the sketchbook but they're all works i either enjoyed doing or am happy with the results.

quite hard to fill up this sketchbook in 1 quarter when i had 3 3D classes and 1 general ed.