Back to School

Well, today was the first day of the new semester. My last at the Academy. I have to say that I am excited to be back and see old friends and teachers, but I look forward more to graduating and to start working again.

This semester I am taking my final 3 classes. Today I had an advanced modeling class, Spaceship Design and Construction. This class rocks! I look forward to creating my own ship, modeling and texturing it. We are also going on several field trips including a trip to I.L.M. Tomorrow I have Ecorche II. A continuation of the anatomical sculpture class that I had a year ago. And then on Wed. I have Facial Sculpting and Blend Shapes. That should be extremely cool.

I'll be sure to post my works in progress and keep everyone up to date on how my final semester proceeds.

Shannon

ZBrush ZBrush ZBrush

I am in love with Zbrush. This program is simply amazing. I have been spending most of this winter break finalizing the truck for the WORM Project, updating my site, and learning ZBrush.

It took me a bit of getting used to, the interface is a little strange, but once I got the hang of it I was cruising. Now I can't get enough. And the Mumakil Project, which I started so that I would teach myself how to use the program, is now in full swing. I just finished up most of the head today. (I originally had the model as one whole piece but had to detach the head in order to get a high enough poly-count). Unfortunately school starts next week so the body will most likely not be done as soon as I would like, but now that I am comfortable, it shouldn't take too long.

So here without further adue are the the first shots of the Mumakil Head. These are screen grabs straight from ZBrush cause I didn't have enough time to export and render them out right now.

Let me know what ya think.

***Things to keep in mind - This is only the head section without the mouth, eyes, or tusks. Also since I uploaded these pictures to my home page, you have to click back on your browser window after viewing the picture. Do NOT just close the larger picture are you view it or you will have to reopen your internet browser from scratch. Sorry for the inconvenience.***

Recent Updates...

Despite just launching my new site filled with new work only a short while ago. I just finished a new Textured RX-8 Turntable and also added a new pic of the RX-8 that I thought I lost and recently found. You can find them under the 3D section or by clicking here.

Enjoy.

Holy Mr. Incredible Mickey!

The father of animation has just bought the leader in animation. Good teamup then right, well possibly. I mean Steve Jobs did make one heck of an invetsment turning 10 million into 7.4 billion. But why fix something that isn't broken. Money, more creative possiblilies, or maybe more theme parks?

To most people who aren't artists, this buisness is just like any other, the object is to make money. To me it is more of a resource to express ideas and artistic impressions. So what will happen now. Experts know a lot more then me but I am hoping that most will be unchanged at Pixar except that they will have more money, have no problems with distribution, and more movies will come out each year. I hope it just doesn't mean that we will have more amusement parks and merchandise.

But has this form of competition now become lost as a result as it does with any big merger...probably. I just hope that they keep the extremely talented and passionate people at Pixar, and just slap the Disney name at the top as they have for the past few years as distributer.

Click here for more on the issue.

SUPERBOWL BOUND!!!

Unbelieveable!!! For the first time ever in the history of the NFL a 6th seed is going to the Super Bowl. I have to say that I was a little nervous before today's game. Not as much as against Indy, but the Broncos are a good team and have not last a game at home this season, well, until today.

Simply another stellar performance by the entire Steeler organization. Today the Pittsburgh Steelers have finally made a believer out the rest of the league and have proven themselves as the best team in the league. Knocking off the #1,2, and 3 teams in the much stronger AFC Division. And to win all three on the road, where a homefield can really give you that extra boost, really is something special. I said it at the beginning of the playoffs, this is the best number 6 seed in history.

Led by our mature 23 year old second year star, Ben Roethlisberger, I don't see a stop to this Super Bowl ride. The kid is quite simply amazing. He has played in 2 AFC Championship games in his short 2 year career, a feat that no one else has ever done. In 2 years he is 26-4, rediculous right. I once again bow my head to the Steeler scouts in nabbing this guy 2 years ago and solidifying our team for years to come.

But Defense wins Championships, and today once again proved that. Forcing 4-tunrovers but Jake the Snake alone, something that everyone was expecting last week against NE. (By the way, thanks Denver for not making us play them again, that is the only team in the league that gives us trouble). Joey Porter and Polumalu were once again all over the place.

I saw a sign in the stands that summed up the day for me. I had a picture of a school bus and said, " Detroit Recalls The Bus." I hope that they can win the whole thing to cap off his amazing career. We have to wait 2 weeks but that also gives us time to hype this whole game up a bit, which, when its your team, is a lot of fun.

I'll leave with this little bit of information. The Steelers, the #6 seed in the AFC, are going to the Seattle Seahawks, the #1 team in the NFC in Super Bowl 40. Number 6 vs. Number 1... The Steelers are favored :)

Steeler Sunday!!!

Well for those of you who have read my Bio, I'm from Pittsburgh, PA. So that means that Steeler blood flows through my veins. And tomorrow is the AFC Championship Game and we face a very solid Denver Broncos. No one ever expected us to beat Indy, myself included, don't get me wrong, I knew we could, I just didn't think we would. And even though the refs tried their best to re-write the rule books and get Peyton into the Superbowl, the Steelers held on to win in a most gut-wrenching game last week.

So now one can't help but think, "Man, we're only one game away from the Superbowl." And as bad as the NFC is, you have to think about their chances of winning the whole thing. Though lets not get ahead of ourselves too quickly, we do still have to win tomorrow. And Denver did beat the un-beatable NE Patriots, in NE. So despite the fact that the Steelers are receiving 3 points in the spread (nothing compared to the 10 Indy gave us last week), I like our chances. I said it at the beginning of the playoffs, I actually think us being on the road will help us to focus 100% on playing our game and not worry about pleasing the fans. And if we played like we did last week, we can beat any team in any stadium.

So strap on your helmets boys and girls, put on your Steeler appare, and wave those Terrible Towels cause we got ourselves a AFL Championship Game. And possibly a chance at a ring, that is ofcourse, as long as we can get past those underrated Denver Broncos.

Welcome to the New Look of my Online Portfolio!

So after a solid week, my website is officially updated. Besides the new look, their are tons of new images and video clips to view. Most of the new material is in the 3D section. There you can see all of my latest work including:

- The Old Truck that I did for the WORM short.
- My finished Mazda RX-8
- A Self-Portrait that is mostly done other then the clothing and textures
- The Oliphaunt/Mumakil that is now in ZBrush


I also updated my Resources page to show off some of my friends sites and such. I'm sorry it took for me to post my models online but I hope it was worth the wait. I look forward to hearing what you think.


Shannon

Site Temporaily Under Construction...

So I have decied to redue my website. It was in serious need of an update as far as my work goes and it would have taken about the same time to redue the entire layout. The new design will allow me to update it a whole lot easier. It will be up in a few days with my latest models. So stay tuned and I look forward to hearing what people think of my work.

Thanks,

Management