Zap Blast!

Zbrush Class Final Assignment

2011-12-04T19:05:00.001-05:00

I've spent the last few weeks working on a final project for my zbrush class. Here are a few detail renders of the objects I sculpted and textured in zbrush and my final render of the scene done in Maya.
Matt

Zbrush work

2011-11-26T12:12:00.001-05:00

I am working on my final assignment for my class. I have decided to do a background/set. I am not sure if this will end up as a CG environment or a Matte painting background.

Silver Assignment 09

2011-11-20T17:34:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe my class with Stephen Silver is over. I learned a lot and this latest assignment gives a glimpse of that. On the left is the character I designed for week 1, and on the right is the same character re-designed for week 9. I still really like the style of the character from week one, but I can see a lot of nice things going on with the new one. I guess the main thing I learned from this class is to draw a lot (I mean a lot!), and really observe life. I am going to try and draw as much as I can.
Matt

Silver Assigment 08

2011-11-13T20:36:00.002-05:00

This week Silver has us doing some sketching in our sketchbooks. I tried to go to the mall and draw people as they walked around but they were moving too fast. I struggled with it for a couple of hours and decided to rely on photographs. I looked for very candid paparazzi type photos. I think the sketches came out alright, but it is clear I need to do this a lot more often to get better at it.

The second part of the assignment was to do a memory sketch. For this I looked a a photo for a couple of minutes trying to study all the details I could then I started drawing based on the details I could remember.

zbrush robot!

2011-11-08T20:14:00.000-05:00

Here is a robot model that has shown up on this blog once or twice before. I originally modeled it Maya. I imported the pieces into zbrush for sculpting. By the time it was finished I had re-created a lot of it in zbrush

I applied a cool chrome metal matcap for the final render.

Matt

Silver Assigment 07

2011-11-06T16:20:00.000-05:00

Silver's Schoolism class will be wrapping up soon. It has been quite a learning experience for me. I have a lot of work to do on the turns I posted last week. Silver's critiques are a great resource, and he had a lot to say about my turns. I have been so busy working on the new assignment I didn't get the chance to revise those.

This week we worked on facial expressions and some attitude poses for our design. I think my facial expressions are a little stiff. I was happy with my attitude poses, but I am feeling they might be "off model". It is hard to keep consistent when I am constantly tweaking things to make it better.

Matt

Silver Assignment 06

2011-10-30T23:13:00.000-04:00

The assignment this week was to do a turn around for the character we've been working on. I have been struggling with the 3/4 front view. It looks very similar to the front view. I really learned a lot this week. I am looking forward to Stephen's critique on this one!
Matt

Zbrush Sculpting from life

2011-10-25T22:40:00.001-04:00

Tonight in Zbrush class we sculpted from a live model. It was an interesting experience. I don't think any of these sculptures are particularly good but I thought I gave it a good try. The first 3 were 20 minute poses and the last one was an hour long and the model rotated around so we could view different angles of the pose.
Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 06 - Final

2011-10-24T23:45:00.002-04:00

I finished up the last few details and adjusted the material and lighting to get a more dynamic image. I am pretty happy with the way it came out.
Matt

A Bunch of Stuff!

2011-10-24T20:13:00.000-04:00

Zbrush Class Assignment 06

2011-10-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

Okay,
After working all night on it, I was able to polish up my model and get some color on him. This file is starting to get rather large to work on. I have no idea how people make the amazing things they do with this program. I am having fun with it though...
Matt

Silver Assignment 05

2011-10-23T19:03:00.000-04:00

I am starting to get somewhere with my Dr. Jekyll character. I am learning a lot in this class and I am looking forward to applying this knowledge to my cast of characters.
Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 05 - Progress

2011-10-23T18:58:00.000-04:00

I am a little behind on the project. This week we are supposed to be working in color with Poly Paint. I am still working on the sculpt. I think the overall form is looking good. Need to spend a bunch of time with the flatten and polish tools, then add some cool details. Then on to color...
Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 05

2011-10-17T22:18:00.002-04:00

The assignment was to create a monster of some sort. I struggled with a couple of different ideas. I had a couple of failed attempts to get what I want. You can check those out below.

So I settled on doing the Godzilla monster Gigan. Here is a reference image of what I am going for.

I really like the idea of doing it to feel cheap. Below are some in progress images. It is really early on. I might put in a bit more time on it tonight and maybe some time before class. Next week we are going to do textures so I need to finish this guy up. Next week should be fun!

Matt

Silver Assignment 04

2011-10-17T22:11:00.000-04:00

No work on our characters this week. Instead we had to draw a page of hands, noses, ears and eyes. I have been drawing a long time and this assignment proved to be pretty challenging to get right. We have been learning a lot about construction. I am getting back into practice and I am starting to have some fun.
Matt

Zbrush Assignment 04 Tweaks

2011-10-17T22:07:00.003-04:00

I put a couple of extra hours on this before class last week. I added in a few quick details. It is still missing a few details, and the anatomy could use some work but I press on...
Matt

Silver Assignment 03

2011-10-10T23:28:00.001-04:00

I was really unhappy with my work here. Although, I guess it is good to get my ideas on paper. I don't really feel like I pushed anything with these and a lot of my designs are similar and still.

The assignment is to design characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We will be spending the duration of the class working out these designs with Stephen Silver's guidance. I decided to do a futuristic take on them. This is my first attempt at working out some ideas.

Matt

Zbrush Assignment 04

2011-10-10T23:20:00.000-04:00

This time the assignment was to create a super-hero. I decided on Captain America. I am using the newest version of zbrush so I tried out one of the new features called Dynamesh. Not sure what is going on with that but it is pretty cool. This is a work in progress. Not sure when I will have the time to finish it up, I will have to jump on the next assignment after class tomorrow.
Matt

Zbrush Assignment 03 Final... Part 2

2011-10-03T21:09:00.002-04:00

I decided to make a few more tweaks to the sculpt. I wasn't happy with some parts of it. I tweaked the mouth a bit and changed the mustache and eyebrows. I also added a bit more detail with some alpha brushes. I tweaked the lighting in zbrush to give the image more of the mood from Templesmith's work below.
Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 03 Final

2011-10-02T20:21:00.001-04:00

There are still a few things I could work out better but I am calling it done. If I find the time I would like to flesh out the full comic cover this is based on.
Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 03

2011-10-01T21:25:00.000-04:00

This time its a vampire. I am basing my work off of a comic book cover Ben Templesmith illustrated. This is obviously a work in progress.
Matt

Stephen Silver Class 02

2011-09-28T22:36:00.002-04:00

I just completed and submitted my assignment for week 2. I don't think I did it properly and will likely be redoing it. The assignment was to work on the silhouette of the characters and not focus on any details. I think I was too general with my designs and after looking at some of my classmates work I am feeling like I mis-understood the assignment. So I am going to hold off on posting it here.

In an attempt to get better with my drawing I worked on a couple of pages of just hands. I think they came out ok. I need to keep up the practice.

Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 02 Final

2011-09-25T21:06:00.001-04:00

I think I am calling this assignment completed. I spent a lot more time since yesterday sculpting the rocks, and then adding in some finer details to all the surfaces. I wanted the environment to have a cartoon feel, so I didn't want to overdo it by sculpting in a lot of details. I'd like to add texture to it once I learn a bit more on how to do that.

Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 02

2011-09-24T15:36:00.001-04:00

Here is another work in progress for my second Zbrush assignment. This assignment was to create an environment. I was trying to create everything inside of Zbrush but I couldn't figure out a good way of getting clumps of grass so I did that with paint effects in Maya. These homework assignments take up a lot of time and there is a new project to do each week. I will post finals when I finish them up.
Matt

Zbrush Class Assignment 01

2011-09-19T21:55:00.001-04:00

Here is a work in progress of my first Zbrush assignment. We were given the direction to sculpt a pirate. I was inspired by some illustrated images I saw online of cartoon kid pirates. So I decided to do something along these lines. I did all of the base modeling in Maya and I spent a lot of time moving things around in Zbrush to get a decent looking form. It is a lot easier than Maya and more fun to play around at this stage.

Matt

Schoolism with Stephen Silver

2011-09-18T20:40:00.002-04:00

I am going to have a busy fall this year! I am taking two classes this semester. I am enrolled online in Stephen Silver's Schoolism character design class and I am taking an intro to ZBrush class at Rhode Island School of Design. Both classes have weekly assignments that I plan to post here.

Below is the work I did for my first assignment in Silver's class. These designs were based off a brief written description he gave us. Now on to my ZBrush assignment...

Matt

Yellow Snow

2011-08-23T22:34:00.002-04:00

More design work on the logo. I decided to take it into Maya to extrude the illustrator vectors. I think it looks a lot better. I am still tweaking the shaders and lighting on it but I like where it is going.
Matt

Stephen Silver

2011-08-12T10:51:00.000-04:00

I'm taking Stephen's character design class on Schoolism in a few weeks. Stephen is a super talented artist that I have been following for a while now. I am very excited to start his course and learn all I can. His new project is a super cool looking children's book coming out on the iPad. Check out the trailer on youtube.

Matt

Animation Look Development

2011-08-08T22:14:00.000-04:00

I have been experimenting with some looks for my 3D characters. I like the look of what I have here. I will be handling the eyes and mouth in 2D with textures and the rest of the character will be rigged and animated in Maya.

Matt

New Reel!

2011-07-17T18:38:00.000-04:00

I just completed work on a new reel. I made a lot of effort to freshen up every aspect of it. I kept the same music because I really like it and it was composed by a good friend Michael Dibiase. You can check out his work here:

http://michaeldibiase.com/

My reel is viewable on my website as well but here is a direct link:

Click here to view my reel on Vimeo

Matt

Excellent animation

2011-06-26T18:01:00.000-04:00

I came across this the other day. I was a big fan of the movie when it came out. I am a comic fan, but I have never read the comic. I need to do something about that. Anyway it is a beautiful piece... The You Tube link has some graphics all over it but it posts nicely on my blog. It is cleaner on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/25088498

Matt

Broadcast Design

2011-06-12T12:38:00.004-04:00

Here's a look at something I have been working on for the last few weeks. It is the opening for a TV show coming out in a few weeks that is focusing on Paul Rabil. I don't follow Lacrosse but I am told he is pretty good. I did all the design and animation work for the whole show package but here is a peek at the intro. I worked pretty heavily in Maya for this one. The workflow from Maya and After Effects is pretty solid. I was my intention to add in more design elements and effects in After Effects but I ran out of time. Overall I think it came out pretty cool. I was also using Stephan Minning's great plugin "normality" for a lot of post work with the lighting. The plugin is free and it is very cool.

Matt

Character Design

2011-05-26T22:26:00.002-04:00

I am still fleshing out some designs for the Christmas project. I feel my earlier designs lacked some style and details so I went back to them. This is a quick drawing I did on the Cintiq to play around with some ideas. It is different than the style I usually draw in so it is hard to decide if I like it or not. The animation I am creating will end up being a mash up of 2D and 3D. I am taking an animation class at Mass Art this summer so I am looking forward to putting some time in on animating these characters. I like knowing that I have a designated amount of time each week in class to work on my own projects.

Matt

Awesome Animation

2011-05-11T18:20:00.001-04:00

Check out this really cool animation for Cartoon Network done by the amazing Meindbender studio. I have been following their work for a while now. This animation is fantastic. There is also a great article on it's production at http://www.cgsociety.org/

Matt

Finally a new post!

2011-05-11T18:10:00.008-04:00

I've been busy lately and haven't posted much. Recently I got my copy of Maya updated to a brand spankin' new version of 2012. There are a ton of new features, and I love playing around with new features! One of the new cooler features is a more advanced 3D viewport called viewport 2.0. The above image is what Maya is rendering in real time.

You can add in cool stuff like screen space ambient occlusion, depth of field and motion blur! Depending on your model and textures you can get a pretty nice looking result. It is kind of fussy about lights, and I had some trouble getting decent shadows. Most of the shadowing you see above is from the mixed in occlusion. It isn't fully there yet, but it is looking really promising.

Matt

Zap Blast Comics!

2011-02-21T22:52:00.002-05:00

Like figuring out WordPress isn't enough... I decide to throw ComicPress into the mix! ComicPress is a cool theme that sets WordPress up nicely to accept the medium of web comics. It has a lot of nice features that make it easier to update frequently with new content and it keeps a nice organized archive of the older posts/comics. The programming for this type of thing is a lot more complex. I am still learning what everything does. Only some of what I learned from doing my other site is translating over. The site is still a work in progress but I thought I would share a peek. I am really excited about doing this, it has been a long time coming.

Take a look here: zapblastcomics.com

It is a no frills presentation right now. As I find more time to work on the site I will add more to it, but the most important part for this site is the comics. I intend to add a new page from my existing self published comic each week. Then it is my hope to continue the adventures on a weekly basis. So basically I have 22 weeks to get cranking on finishing up some new material or else I run out of pages to post!

Matt

Been Busy

2011-02-20T21:18:00.005-05:00

I haven't had a chance to post anything in a while. I've been busy working on a new self promotional main website. Check it out at matthewdaday.com. So I've been trying to figure out Wordpress for the design of it. It is deceptively complicated once you get into it. So far I am pretty satisfied with the look of it but there are some things I would like to tweak, but the coding is a little daunting. In the interests of being consistent I decided to give my blog design an overhaul as well. I didn't spend too much time on it, but I got it looking like my main site so that is good enough for me.

Matt

More Shading Work

2011-01-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! First Post of 2011...

More work on a toon shade technique. This time with one of the characters from my Christmas animation project. Hopefully you will be seeing a lot more of this over the next year. I still can't seem to get a toon outline that doesn't look lousy (It looked so bad I didn't even try to make it work with this image.) I need to do more R&D on that.
Matt

Shading Techniques

2010-12-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

I am really interested in different looks to animation. I often wonder how people/studios are getting the looks they get. the Pixar and Dreamworks stuff is amazing... but some of the independent stuff really inspires me and it feels totally different. In the past I have posted about some of the cg toon animation looks I like. I have found a couple of others since that are absolutely fantastic. Check out the Salesman Pete and Meet Buck animated shorts if you are interested. http://salesmanbuck.com.

I was playing around with rendering a surface shaded pass along with an occlusion pass. I also rendered out a normal pass and was playing around with Stefan Minning's Normality After Effects plug-in. There are tons of features to that plug-in and you can achieve a lot of nice looks with it. It is a really interesting way to work and it really offloads a lot of rendering you would ordinarily have to do in Maya. I am still experimenting, and I would like to see this applied to something that is animated to see how it holds up.

Acting for Animators

2010-11-21T21:08:00.001-05:00

I just finished up a 2 day workshop with animator Ron Freidman. He is a very talented animator and a great speaker in general. So to take a workshop with him was a real treat. All in all it was a great, but difficult experience for me. I am working really hard to "get" animation. In my job at Hasbro I touch so many different aspects of animation. I do a lot of pre-production and directing as well as rendering and compositing but I rarely get to animate anything myself. So it was nice to be able to allot the time to do this. We had to work with 10 seconds of audio, decide on a performance, record video reference of ourselves acting out the shot and then do the actual character animation. All in 2 8 hour days! It's not unlike the 11 second club if you've ever heard of that. My work in progress is below. All in all the body looks pretty good... but a lot of it was rushed in order to have something to show at the end of my workshop. Ron encouraged us to continue working on our own. I may do that, but I have also been inspired by these past 2 days to maybe pick some new audio and give it a fresh start.

Matt

Yellow Snow

2010-10-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

My friend Mike has been working hard over the past 2 years on a Christmas album. It is very near completion and I have been doing some design work for the CD cover. Here is a new logo design I did for the band.
Matt

More Christmas work

2010-08-30T22:08:00.000-04:00

Still working on that Christmas project. At this point I have almost all of the main characters designs started. I am still tweaking many of them but at this point I think I am ready to start working out the designs in 3D.

Here's Rudi

Matt

Man in Red

2010-07-26T21:29:00.003-04:00

Here are some character designs I have been working on. If you follow the blog then you know I am working with a partner on a Christmas animation special. It has been fun coming up with the characters. I need to do more research on costumes and I need to figure out the anatomy of a reindeer that walks on 2 feet. So far I like the progress I am making. These characters are getting more and more fun to draw as I figure them out.

Matt

Quiet Lately

2010-07-05T13:08:00.005-04:00

I haven't posted here in a while... But I am always working on something. I tend to bounce around a lot on projects. There are so many different areas of production that interest me that I like to try my hand in all of them. I want to get better at telling stories. That is my main goal. Whether it is by illustrating a comic book, or by the decisions I make when designing characters and environments... I try to keep storytelling in my mind when working.

I love Sam and Max. If you don't know what it is then google it. It started as a comic book, which I'll admit I knew nothing about at first. I fell in love with the video game that came out in 1993 and the short lived animated series that came out after around 1997. LucasArts originally made the game, but a few years ago a company called Tell Tale Games picked up the torch to make new games with these characters. I would love to be a part of making those games so I decided to throw my hat in the ring for a job there. Out of all their open positions I though I fit best in the cinematic department. One of the application requirements, in addition to the usual portfolio requirement, is they ask that you work on a cinematic test piece. So I downloaded a script and audio files from their website. They purposely give you nothing for art assets. They want to see what you will come up with. So I started drawing storyboards. I got halfway through the boards and I realized that I could communicate camera movement and composition much better if I worked in an actual 3D program. So I halted production on these boards but I thought they came out pretty well so I thought I would share them here.

Matt

Graphic! Part 2

2010-06-27T12:09:00.002-04:00

Please vote for us if you can so we can continue to the next round. I decided to post our entry here as well. The link to vote is below. I think you are allowed to vote once a day. Thanks for the support.

http://play.sydneyoperahouse.com/index.php/graphic/726.html

Matt

Graphic!

2010-06-27T11:59:00.002-04:00

The Sydney Opera House is hosting a contest called Graphic. It is a very cool competition for illustrators, animators and storytellers of all levels. Right now all the entries are rough animatics. The winner could win some money to actually produce their animation project. I worked on an entry with my friend Mike. He is a pretty talented audio professional.

Check out his work at: michaeldibiase.com

We decided to use our Christmas project as a theme for the contest. We are still in the early stages of development on that so it was a perfect choice. Hopefully there are more good things to come with this Christmas project. In the meantime check out the contest and give us a vote. We appreciate any and all support.

Here is a link to our entry:
http://play.sydneyoperahouse.com/index.php/graphic/726.html

Matt

Santa - Christmas animation

2010-06-10T22:07:00.005-04:00

Now that school is finished I can start working on one of the projects I had been putting off. Here is a completed piece of concept art for a Santa character we intend to use in an upcoming animation project. I am trying a different style than I am normally used to drawing. I like it, but I have been very fussy over the look. I need to live with these designs for a while so I want them to be right. More to come over the coming weeks.
Matt

Vector Render and Occlusion

2010-05-23T23:40:00.005-04:00

I am still trying to come up with a cool looking toon shade. This frame is from an animation cycle I am working on. I have been experimenting with the Vector render settings, and mixing in an Occlusion pass. I think this example is still a little dark... But I like the look of it.

School is finished

2010-05-22T18:33:00.003-04:00

Well. School is done. It has been a long haul. Over 18 months now. I had my last class on Thursday. Now it is time to do something will all of this new knowledge. Here is my final reel from class. Its also on my website at a better resolution. matthewdaday.com

Brain Jar Render

2010-03-13T23:31:00.002-05:00

Taking a break from the big scene I am working on to play around with my character and rig. I really like the performance here. I think the timing could be tweaked a bit more. So far so good.
Matt

Lip Sync Exercise

2010-03-07T11:13:00.003-05:00

Here is a little project I completed a short time ago as an "intro" to lip sync. It's a pretty cool little character. He is only a "head" that has limited controls to animate with. The focus was on speech. So it was a nice test to see what I can do to make him act. I think it came out pretty well.
Matt

Superfail Results

2010-03-07T10:50:00.007-05:00

A while back I participated in a 3D image competition that my school hosted. It was a 16 hour marathon... Team based. We were short one person on the day of, so I volunteered to do it alone. Well the results are in and I took 2nd place.

The judges were:
John Corbett - CDIA Alumni - Brickyard VFX
Steven Taylor - Freelance Consultant
Graham Sternberg - Art Director - MacGuffin Games

Here are the comments from judges. I pretty much agree with everything they are saying.

“gorgeous art and great design, but unfortunately, Stilt-Man is an established Marvel comics villain. Whether he’s a failure or not is open to debate…”

“Great poster, very convincing, the anatomy blows this image though.”

“I think this piece, as a total package, is incredibly well done. All of the disparate components work well together, they seem to exist convincingly within the same world, and the text as part of a recruitment poster helps to keep the aesthetic going. My only real concern lies in exactly what message is being delivered–in that area, the piece is a bit conflicted. While the name Stilt Man is ridiculous, Stilt-Man himself seems dangerous AND successful. He’s striding across the world! I would not mess with that guy, and I sure wouldn’t tell him that his name was a joke. Remember that no matter how well-done your image is, it’s even more important that it say precisely what you (or your client) want it to.”

Here is the image again in case you missed it:

One More

2010-03-06T12:09:00.004-05:00

Here is some work I have been doing on the scene. I am working on blocking the camera, as well as strong key character poses. I am having fun learning this stuff.
Matt

Play Blasts!

2010-03-06T11:46:00.002-05:00

I been working on a scene with my character and set designs. Here are a couple of animation tests. The first a simple walk cycle. I tried to give him an uneven "swagger". After all he is lugging around a heavy metal Claw! The second is a lip sync test. I realized after doing it that I might need to model a few more facial shapes to achieve better results. Although, once you add in eye blinks, and head movement you don't notice mouth movement as much.
Matt

Frustration!

2010-01-31T18:50:00.002-05:00

Been working on some animation... Finally! This is the first test scene I have put together using all of the assets I have modeled, textured and lit. I jumped ahead and put the scene togehter, even though I have a lot of character work still do to with the Doctor. I was excited to see the scene all put together after months of working on this stuff. It is quite a bit of work to get everything looking right.
Matt

Toon Shading

2010-01-16T19:37:00.004-05:00

Surfing Santa! This is a 3D model I created and rigged to make this image. I wanted to start playing with some toon shaded renders. I like the stuff Nerd Corp does in their shows like Storm Hawks, League of Super Evil and Battle Force 5. This is still a work in progress, I want to see if I can push the toon shade look a little further.
Matt

Super Fail!

2010-01-16T15:39:00.002-05:00

I recently entered a competition to create a 3D image. The theme was for failed superheroes. I thought the idea of a bad guy called Stilt-Man was pretty funny. I worked 16 hours straight in my classroom computer lab to complete this image. Judging is happening now...
Matt

Dr. Brain Jar

2009-12-05T14:55:00.000-05:00

New Post

2009-11-29T09:29:00.005-05:00

It's been months since my last post. I have been working on a bunch of new characters as well as learning about rigging. The first image is the lab scene I have been working on, with my characters added in. The other two are some sample poses I did to test out my rigs. There is definitively a lot that goes into this stuff.
Matt

Work in progress: Lab with some materials

2009-06-24T17:06:00.002-04:00

While I am at it...

2009-06-17T20:36:00.002-04:00

Here is a new scene I started a week or so ago. My focus will be on materials and lighting. I want both to be as convincing as possible, but I still want to maintain an animated feel. I have very little interest in doing photo real stuff in 3D. Here are a few shots I rendered out during my modeling process.
Matt

Revisions

2009-06-17T20:29:00.003-04:00

I have gone back to an earlier Maya scene I was working on to improve on the mood of it. I was never all that happy with the textures I used. I really want my work to have some style to it. I am trying to get better at UV layout so I can get the textures to do what I want. Here is an image of the original scene and where I am at now. I feel I have come a long way in a short time, and I am only getting better.
Matt

More Character Animation Work

2009-04-11T22:34:00.002-04:00

This is a work in progress. Some of the timing is off, but I wanted to post the progress. I am having a lot of fun animating these guys! I plan to lengthen the animation a bit and play around with some of the pacing. Right now the beginning and the end are rushed. I like the kick and the guy taking the kick...

Warehouse Final Images

2009-04-04T15:27:00.001-04:00

The video quality isn't the best here so I wanted to post some higher resolution stills to show off some of the details in the environment.

Warehouse Final

2009-04-04T15:14:00.003-04:00

Earlier I had posted some stills of the warehouse environment I was working on. Here is my final product with an animated camera.

Character Animation

2009-04-04T15:07:00.005-04:00

I finally started doing some character animation in the 3D animation program I am enrolled in. The model was provided to us, but I rigged, and animated it. We were asked to do a walk cycle and then something of our own choice.

Environmental Model

2009-03-15T11:30:00.002-04:00

Here's a concept sketch I created digitally in Photoshop and a WIP render of the Maya scene.
Matt

Delivery Truck

2009-03-15T11:25:00.002-04:00

Warehouse Progress

2009-03-15T11:23:00.002-04:00

I Cleaned up some of the textures and tweaked the lighting.
Matt

More Progress

2009-03-12T19:46:00.004-04:00

I'm still tweaking the model and lighting of my warehouse. Here's a few more snaps.
Matt

Wii remote

2009-03-03T00:38:00.001-05:00

I finished this a little while back but never posted it. Figured if I am throwing some 3D stuff on here I might as well put this up too.
Matt

3D Work

2009-03-03T00:19:00.007-05:00

I've been busy working on a lot of 3D Maya work lately. Here are some screen shots of a work in progress. I am modeling, texturing and lighting the warehouse. I didn't model the Mini, but I am working on another vehicle for the scene now.
Matt

Wheel Pals

2009-01-18T22:54:00.003-05:00

Here's a drawing and painting I did as a Christmas gift for my little Nephew. He loves those Tonka Wheel Pals toys!
Matt

Long Time No Post

2008-11-03T19:25:00.003-05:00

Hey,
It's been a while since my last post. I've been working on a ton of stuff lately. Here is another contest entry for a drawing of a robot. I could not resist throwing in my very own bot from Terror on the Tenth Planet!
Matt

Phantom Cover Art Contest!

2008-08-20T20:33:00.005-04:00

This is my entry for a contest over at Moonstone to work up a cover for an upcoming new Phantom series. I decided to go with a cartoon/animated style but keep the distressed old comic book design I have been working with lately. The logo is a recreation from the one used in the old newspaper strip. I had a lot of fun with this one.
Matt

A couple of new ones

2008-07-20T20:58:00.012-04:00

Hey!
It's been a while since my last post... So here are a few new drawings.
Matt

The Phantom:

And... Zap:

Nick Fury!

2008-07-14T23:24:00.001-04:00

A quick sketch that I colored in gray markers of Nick Fury.
Matt

So much for daily!

2008-07-13T21:51:00.003-04:00

I tried my best to post daily. My goal was to post my newest stuff here. I don't want to dig into my older art files when it comes time to post for the day. I have a lot of work to share but I wanted the work I post to this blog to be fresh. I still intend to post as often as I can...
Matt

Here's Shazam

Beat Up!

2008-07-07T20:33:00.002-04:00

Here's a drawing I did of my main character Zap after a bit of a tussle. Some days I can relate...
Matt

New Designs

2008-07-06T21:37:00.004-04:00

I've been working on something the past couple of days that isn't ready to post. As soon as it is completed I will throw it up here, but I didn't want to miss a day of posting so I figured I would share some new character designs I am working on for my forthcoming webcomic. The webcomic is a continuation of the story started in my comic book Terror on the 10th Planet issue #1. It is a book I am very proud of that I self published earlier in the year and it is available here. Pick up a copy... it is fun for all ages! I want to get really far ahead on the webcomic before posting any episodes. Look for it soon... hopefully.
Matt

Here are some sketches of Dr. Brainjar:

Playing around with some different styles... here is one of my main character Zap.

Quick drawing

2008-07-05T15:47:00.002-04:00

I recently purchased a Wacom Cintiq. I did this drawing a little while back of my character Zap, completely on the Cintiq. Drawing on the screen takes some getting used to but it is a huge time saver and it allows me to keep my work mostly digital which I like.
Matt

Transformers

2008-07-04T11:22:00.007-04:00

I love Transformers. I always have since they came out when I was a kid. I used to play with the toys, watch the cartoon and read the comics. Years later, as an adult, I was amazed by the work of Pat Lee when he was doing the Transformers comics. He drew those characters so dynamically. I've been sketching a lot lately and I am determined to learn how to draw these characters. I have a long way to go... There is so much detail to draw. I'd like to ink these up and color them sometime in the future. When I do I will post my results. I also really dig the new animated stuff so I tossed one of Bumblebee in there as well.
Matt

G1 Prowl:

G1 Optimus Prime:

TF Animated Bumblebee

Incredible Hulk

2008-07-03T18:09:00.005-04:00

I have been reading a lot about artists using grayscale markers in their art. I wanted to give it a try so here are a couple of pieces I did in the sketchbook experimenting with the markers.
Matt

Here's the Hulk:

And my own character Zap:

First Post

2008-07-03T17:03:00.002-04:00

Hello,
I set this blog up a while ago and never really did anything with it. I recently self published my own comic that you can but at zapblastcomics.com. Soon, that link will also be the home of my new webcomic for Terror on the Tenth Planet. Here, I hope to post thoughts, works in progress and final art of things I am busy with. I need to push myself to get my work out there. It takes a long time for me to get a single comic book issue done, and I don't want to wait that long for viewers to see my work and make comments on it... So in an effort to get more of my work out there and get public response, I am going to try and post something everyday. I love comics but I am also and animator and motion graphics designer. I am slowly getting into character design and 3D animation. You can check out matthewdaday.com for a peek of that stuff. If all goes well you will be seeing a lot more of me.
Thanks,
Matt