Michael Curtiss

Dirty Rick

2012-01-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

This was for a class assignment, where we had to caricature a famous person. My natural choice was, of course, Richard Nixon. Only had a little over a week (on top of other classes) to get this done, so couldn't finish off the plinth. Was a lot of fun. Low res stuff rendered in UDK. Oh, and the mouth has weird topology because part of the assignment was to keep the mouth closed. And the low-res is pretty high-res, but hey, it is still under the limit for the assignment . Also, First time animating a face! Pretty crappy job I know, this is just here to see it move around. If you watch in full screen it looks better!

New Clothing line

2012-01-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

This MC hoodie will be in stores in time for the new spring lineup. Get yours before they are all gone.

Some Winter Break Fun!

2012-01-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

Did this for some fun times. I know there are some problems with how this would actually physically exist, but hey, I'm not a marine biologist.

The Craytin is a marine creature that roams the coastal waters, reefs, and shallows; the common denominator of these habitats being large populations of minnows and juvenile fish. The Craytin preys upon these small fish in much the same manner as the jellyfish - ensnaring them in its poisonous thread-like tentacles (11). The venom that the Craytin utilizes is a unique and potent and blend of neurotoxins and hemotoxins that can kill a small fish within seconds of injection. This venom is produced in the sacs that lie to either side of the 'head' of the Craytin, and is pumped to the tentacles via a large vein running the length of the Craytin's sail (10). The Craytin produces such large quantities of this highly potent venom that it is estimated that the life-time output of a single Craytin would be enough to eliminate the entire population of Madagascar.

The Craytin has developed a great degree of locomotion. It uses both its swimmerets (8) and its pectoral fins (6) combined with the flexing and contraction of its body to swim. The gills located on the 'head' of the Craytin (4) indicate that it must be in relatively constant movement to filter oxygen from the water. This is constitutes a large expenditure of energy, especially when compared to other venom-ed and tentacled marine creatures such as the jellyfish. As a result, the Craytin has also developed an extremely sophisticated method of predation, which is highly successful.

The Craytin's primary sensory organ is the horn-like structure protruding from its head (1). The filaments extending from this horn can detect the slightest changes in pressure, temperature, and direction of the water. When the Craytin detects prey within its vicinity, it will release large amounts of its neurotoxin out of the pores in its head (3) into the water, with the directionality of the current pushing this small cloud of neurotoxin towards the prey. All it takes is the ingestion of just a few molecules of this neurotoxin to slow the movement of a small fish. This allows the Craytin to swim around the fish, ensnaring it in the Craytin's tentacles. The Craytin uses its long sensory antennae (2) to aid in this maneuver.

Upone entanglement, the Craytin will then use its posterior and anterior maxillipeds (9,5) (appendages modified to assist in feeding) to transfer the food from the tentacles to the mouth, which is located on the underside of the Craytin (7).

Fantastic Environment

2011-12-08T09:20:00.001-08:00

ere is the fantastic environment that I made. Not entirely happy with the final product, but man, did I learn a whooooooooole lot about process and technique for modeling/texturing things. I'll try to write my thoughts down in a future post...

Here was the rough concept that I painted. It is a house that is built into the statue of a sleeping woman.

Here is a layout of all of the assets used to construct the scene.

Contact sheet, for those interested. I know nothing is nearly as optimized as it should be, I just ran out of time.

And some beauty shots:

And a crappy camera move through the space... I really need to think about this camera before hand...Bad cameras are becoming a habit for me, I need to fix that.

2011-11-29T09:17:00.001-08:00

Heheh. Had some fun. Not too much fun, but some fun.

Realistic Environment

2011-11-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

This environment was based off of the Tlingit culture of Northwestern America.

Here is an animatic that a buddy (Christopher Lewis) and I worked up to pitch the environment - It has sound, so make sure you put those headphones on!:

And here is my section of the environment. Everything you see (aside from the trees poking through the sky-hole) was made by me:

Everything is pretty low-ish poly. I think the polycount for the entire scene is around 20-25k...Well, that may be high...I don't know. Texture resolutions are all pretty high though...

Here is a small contact sheet that display the more higher-res objects in the scene:

Here is an admittedly atrocious camera move to show what it is like to move through the space. Youtube killed the lighting, so forgive me for the darkness....watch in 480!

Finished Environments

2011-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

These are as done as they are going to get for now. Learned quite a bit, although I wish I had done quite a few things differently.

Color Roughs

2011-10-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

Update on those wips

These are the color roughs. A guy from Digital Domain came in to the crit, so I got some good info on stuff that I need to work on - mainly relating to color relationships, pushing concept, and pushing colors and contrasts...goodstuffs -- Look for the finals in a week or two!

Comin' along!

2 Greyscal W.I.Ps

2011-10-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I can get around to polishing both of these in full color.

And, if you don't catch it, The house in the first picture is carved into a statue of a woman. It came from an idea for a fairytale where a woman lies down and gets turned to stone. Then some dwarf decided to turn her into a shelter.

Vanitas still life

2011-09-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

A warm up exercise before we hit environments. Had fun. I feel like I've gotten back into the groove.

edit: can't tell if I like this composition better...

SchoolWork

2011-09-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Here is something I did for school. Had fun with this!

Weeeee

2011-07-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

A doodle...

Dragon nesting grounds

2011-06-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

Got this done right before I split my hand open.

Just a sketch

2011-04-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

Had fun with this :).

Two new things.

2011-04-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

I thought I should post these together, seeing as though they have similar color schemes and compositions. The text in the second piece is from this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsvWfuM6kkE

Low-Res teaser

2011-03-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

So my low res is done. All I need to do now is rig it, and give it the beauty treatment, which will come in a few days hopefully.

Hi-Res Sculpt is COMPLETE

2011-02-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

Yay! Alright!

Base Anatomy sculpt

2011-02-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

So here is the base anatomy sculpt. Didn't spend too much time on the legs, feet, arms, and torso, since they will be mostly covered up.

Norse Temple

2011-01-29T14:10:00.001-08:00

final Robin Hood concept.

2011-01-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

So here is what I will spend the next few months modeling and animating.

New Semester!

2011-01-13T07:10:00.000-08:00

So, it is a new semester, and I only have four classes!

We are spending the entire semester in 3-D on a single character. We are going to do everything from modeling to rigging to animating. Needlessly to say, I am excited.

The topic is childhood core fantasy, so I will be doing Robin Hood! - Huzzah!

Here are the rough concepts. I am going to get started on the finalized concept later today.

Sophomore First Semester 3D

2010-12-10T16:28:00.000-08:00

Here be the level and things I made!

Some notes:
As for the level images and camera move - I did not make all of the props and buildings, many were made by classmates. I am responsible for the lighting and the set dressing. I will try to point out which things I did make.

Here Is the concept art that I made for the project. The entire class had to pitch a project, and mine got chosen.

Stuff I made:

Beauty Shots: I did all of the set dressing/lighting. My classmates and I collaborated on the props.

I made the banners in this shot.

Here be the camera move:

Sophmore First Sememster board game

2010-12-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

So... update! Will update again soon with my 3d stuff. This was the board game project.

One note I should make: I did not make the physical ninjas show on the board towards the bottom.Those come from the game Ninja Vs. Ninja, which is the game that I modded.

2010-10-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

moar Ninjas! There be ninjas in the rafters. See if you can finde them.

2010-10-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

An illustration for Game Design class. Derived from a board game called "Ninja vs. Ninja".

2010-09-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

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ignore this post.

A new semester

2010-09-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, first update of the school year! Classes are going well, and I am definitely more enthusiastic about this year than last. My major classes are going well, but we have yet to really get into the core of the coursework - still, I have managed to stay busy :).

So this post is about my 3d class. Every person in my class had to come up with a "pitch" for an alley design. The class then had to choose their three favorite pitches. The alley that survived this voting process is then the alley that the entire class will be modeling and design for the next 13 weeks.

And....my alley pitch took home the gold by a nose! - some other people had some solid pitches.

So, my fellow classmates and I are going to be modeling the following alley that I designed. The basic idea is this: "A Futuristic Mecca Tucked into a Huge Crater." There is still a great deal of work to be done with my classmates to establish the aesthetic of the environment, so, that will probably be in an update to come.

Without further ado:

My pitch in .ppt format: Clicky

Main Concept Art:

Map design:

Speed Paint of what is in the crater:

2010-07-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing much painting/drawing, but I have been productive. How? I have been getting more intense with math and programming. I think it has really helped to give me a certain clarity of thought. I decided to try to apply this new-found thought process to a painting, and this is what I came up with.

This was done for a weekly challenge over at conceptart.org

2010-05-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

small update, been working on environments, won't be able to show them for a bit though, as I have to move a freaking house for the next few weeks.

Enviros

2010-04-22T19:16:00.001-07:00

Some quicker enviros

Blahookieshnaka

2010-04-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

A portrait, and I will try to get my character animation up soon.

character

2010-03-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

Here be my character design for traditional animation. It was hard because I am not used to having to designing "cartoony" characters that need to be drawn quickly and lend themselves to proper traditional animation techniques.

2010-02-11T18:35:00.001-08:00

tiny update

2010-02-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

Presenting...me and my inability to take good pictures....

2010-02-06T14:12:00.001-08:00

quick update. hopefully I'll be able to post some traditional animation and oil/acrylic paintings soo.

Update

2010-01-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

Just Some stuff for fun. My tablet broke, so I won't be able to work on the illustration further. Also, I will be posting some oil still lifes soon.

2009-12-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

yet another w.i.p. that has gotten pushed off to the side because of school work, and now break-time...I may come back to it later.

2009-11-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

New stuff. The piece from imagination isn't finished, I'm just too lazy, and its thanksgiving break...

2009-11-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

Some stuff. Figure from Figure class, and the creature is for my 3-d design class. Gah, I really want to work on the creature some more, I see so many things wrong with it...Ah well, I still feel like I learned something from it.

2009-10-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Some new figure/portraits. The figures are long pose, bout 2.5 hours. I'm wayy too slow. I want to start trying out some new techniques. I think I am going to start playing around with ink, we shall see...

2009-10-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

A lame update: stuff from FEWS. Poses 10 - 15 mins.

2009-10-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

A step by step from today of a 3-d design project I am going to attempt to make. I'm going to make it out of super sculpey. Hopefully I will be able to make the arms and legs pose-able (that is why there is an outline around the arms and legs).

New post #2

2009-10-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

eyyyy. Some stuff for fun. Some more recent than others.

First Post

2009-09-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

Heyyyyyyyyy, first post to start off the blog. I'm going to use this to try to track my own progress, as well as thoughts. Well, here we go.