Try… try again!

beaufolsom — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:57:48 +0000

After some deep experimentation in Unity, I discovered the native ‘Web Player’ delivers a much truer representation of the original versions of my real-time scene — The ‘Flash’ export in the Unity engine is a very cool feature, but it’s still an “Alpha” preview, and the team are continuing to diligently add functionality.

I offer up the dramatically improved results of my experimentation. Also check out the serene tropical beach scene I built as an example-promo piece for a big hotel & resort.

NOTE: After clicking on the link/image you may be prompted to install the Unity Web Player in order to see the new scenes.

“Platforms” 3D Unity Scene

[Click Image to View]

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“Tropical Beach” 3D Unity Scene

[Click Image to View]

Share your thoughts!

-Beau-

Leveling Up

beaufolsom — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:59:44 +0000

Every role-playing game fan knows that you can’t spec a character to fill every role. Life follows similar rules. In my younger days I was the DPS heavy “rouge/barbarian”; a major dual wielding damage dealer — I pumped out high quality art assets at tremendous speed.

As my career progressed, I had to re-spec my role to be more of a “tank” — A lead artist that still had to produce, but had the added role of managing and protecting the team.

As I leveled up even farther I found I had to refocus my stats towards the buff granting “bard” — Directing the process and still supporting a team but now with diplomacy and planning, making sure others were empowered to do their jobs for the betterment of the whole.

It seemed my damage dealing days were over… along the way I had traded strength for wisdom.

The other parallel I’ve found is that certain roles are less sexy than others. If you spec’ed your character wrong it can be hard to find a party to group with, especially when you start hanging with the hardcore “min-maxers” — I found that some of the career choices I made as my career progressed made it difficult to get the attention of younger hot-shot developers. This was compounded by the missing “epic armor set” or eye candy on display in my portfolio. I was still sporting the coolest battleaxe from the first expansion, but now version five was out with upgraded “next-gen” graphics and my once kick-ass battleaxe was looking pixelated and blurry.

Well life unlike games has a way of giving us unusual and unique opportunities to redefine ourselves. I’ve had the chance to dig in and flex some long dormant art muscles. and I’ve found that I may be stronger than I ever was. The reckless speed and blind passion of youth has been replaced by the confident strokes of a skilled craftsman.

To put the icing on this long-winded analogy, my character roster is now a collection of all those old roles. My damage dealing warrior may be soft around the middle, but there is still power in my swing, and it’s guided by hard earned wisdom.

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One of my recent tasks was to build assets for the evangelist team at Unity — They wanted some “good looking” modular building blocks that could be used for demos. Something other than cubes and spheres and programmer art. They requested a style reminiscent of the side-scroller ’Rochard‘, but with a more “current-gen” feel.

This is what I came up with…

First I created a high-res platform to get the style nailed down and signed off.

Next I switched to the low-res geometry to build out and test the functionality of the connector bits.

The level would need modular walls/floors.

Now it was time for materials and textures — Here are the final results in-engine. I added some dynamic cloth flags, particle flames, and a reflective water plane to the scene in order to create depth and motion.

Finally — If you want to see this in it’s full 3D goodness, click the image/link below. You will be able to spin the scene by moving the mouse around.

NOTE: You’ll need the latest Flash plugin to view this, and be patient – on my machine even after the loading bar finishes it took nearly 10 seconds for the window to open. I’ll be very interested to hear if this works for everyone. It lacks some of the polish of the full PC version (in the above screen shots), but it runs in a browser! How cool is that!!

Cheers!

-Beau-

The Big Gamble

beaufolsom — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:12:00 +0000

It may seem like I haven’t posted in a while… Well I ‘ve been hard at work on assets for a contract job I picked up at the beginning of September. I’ve been doing a lot of 3D work, knocking the rust off my 3DS Max skills, and just got clearance to share some of it on my blog. I have too much to share in just one post, so I’ll try to dole it out over the next week or so. I’ll start with something I never expected I would build — a modern slot machine demo. I chose to go with a classic theme of Fruit, but put my own twist on it.

May I present to you, Luxury Fruit!

[Click Image to Enlarge]

I had a lot of fun doing non-real-time rendering for a change. I did a lot of research on rendering glass, and building materials with caustic & refractive properties. Here are bigger version of a couple of the fruit.

I also animated a couple of the tiles to illustrate simple win scenarios.

I enjoyed this break from the norm… I hope you enjoy it too!

-Beau-

The Project Triangle

beaufolsom — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:15:15 +0000

Believe it or not, I have never spent more than two days on a single piece of art. My career has trained me to be fast above all else, often sacrificing quality to save money and time. The project triangle states that if you have these three qualities to choose from (good — fast– cheap) you are only allowed two at the cost of the third; for example a project can be good and fast but won’t be cheap. Or it can be cheap and good, but will take longer (not fast). Even when you are doing something for yourself, it has a cost… Well I decided to give myself a week and see what I could do with such a leisurely chunk of time. Here are the results. The concept here is from my D.E.A.T.H. idea. This is a reaper working for the (Department of Essence Acquisition Transport and Handling) passing through the viel from the afterlife into our reality.

Let me know what you think!

-Beau-

[Click Image to Enlarge]

And here is a work in progress from early last week.

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Struzan Style

beaufolsom — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:14:38 +0000

Like many young artists that grew up in the hayday of George Lucas and Spielberg films, I was blown away by Drew Struzan’s movie posters. He had such a sense of adventure, and could capture the likeness of his subjects with great skill. I have always wanted to try something Struzan-esqu… I’m pretty happy with the results. Feel free to leave comments! I chose Javier Bardem as my model — He’s has the rugged looks of a hardened adventurer.

-Beau-

[Click Image to Enlarge]

Here is a couple early versions — Work in progress.

NEW!!

beaufolsom — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:15:17 +0000

I’ve had a lot of requests for descriptions and samples of my Art Direction style and processes, This was difficult because I thought I had lost most of these files in a catastrophic computer meltdown late last year. Well, I recently recovered some old files off a previously defunct portable hard drive. You can view the results via the “Art Direction” link at the top of the page — Or you can just click here!

Enjoy — I look forward to your comments and feedback.

-Beau-

My web-store is open for business!

beaufolsom — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:01:52 +0000

I’ve finally built a storefront to sell some of my designs on t-shirts and mugs (and a plethora of other items). I’ll be adding more as time goes on — If anyone has requests or suggestions, I’m happy to hear them. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Thanks!

-Beau-

Pure Design

beaufolsom — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:42:47 +0000

I wanted to play around in Photoshop to see what I could do with some of the brush libraries… here are some purely abstract designs for wallpapers.

Design (a)

WIDESCREEN (1920×1200)

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STANDARD (1280×1024)

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Design (b)

WIDESCREEN (1920×1200)

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STANDARD (1280×1024)

[Click Image to Enlarge]

Enjoy!

-Beau-

John Carter of Mars

beaufolsom — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:37:01 +0000

In anticipation of the upcoming movie, I recently finished reading the first book in the ‘John Carter of Mars‘ series (The Princess of Mars), and wanted to try my hand at depicting some of the visual elements of Barsoom the way I imagined them as my mind riffed on the words of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I tried to read these books when I was much younger, and got lost in the antiquated language and eloquent prose. It was a fun literary journey to read the same story as an adult, and experience the adventuresome world through my adult filter.

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And what alien landscape is complete without indigenousness fauna.

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Here is the combined image…

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Enjoy!

-Beau-

I have been busy…

beaufolsom — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:44:03 +0000

It’s time to update with some of the stuff I have been doing in my spare time. My parents generously gifted me with a Wacom Cyntiq 21UX — It is AWESOME! I have used Wacom tablets almost my entire career, and this is a huge leap up from the standard tablet. The design is elegant, and the usability is dreamy. With the tablet came an offer to open a premium CafePress shop for free. I figured I should build up a backlog of designs if I were going to take advantage of this offer…

I am thinking of naming the shop LOL e POP Designs.

These are some of the ideas I’ve came up with.

Some “cutesy” T-shirt designs –

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And an alternate configuration — I’m still trying out ideas.

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Mr. Stark’s Arc reactor — for a black T-shirt

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Some “No Sign” ideas

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And one of my favorites — the “Victorian Secrets” line.

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Fell free to leave feedback!

Cheers,

-Beau-