Wooyang Kim's Modeling Blog

Orange County Here I Come!

2011-04-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Hey folks!

Guess what? I'm employed again! I told myself I was gonna take 3 months off but man, snagged me a nice job! It's a company called A2Z. Amazon owned small game dev company. Can't say much but it's a small team and I love working in small teams.

Anyways, I just applied to the place because they said they have a small team. Also, being owned by Amazon seem like a company that was pretty stable financially.

They got back and sent me an art test. I worked hard on it and sent it back. Got the the round 2 and 3 of interviews, then flew out to OC. God... the place is amazing! Great food, environment and the beach! Met my aunt and 2 friends I have there. Great times. Interviews went great! Or in my opinion it did... lol. Then got a call from them after coming back! They gave me a great offer so I took it. Life is so positive right now. I'm loving it. I feel like my "grunt" stage of my career is complete. Anyways, here are the art test.

BACK! Dominance War!

2011-03-25T15:09:00.001-07:00

Alright. Wow, my last post was depressing as shit wasn't it? lol.

Update on my life from then on in a quick way.

I freelanced for a bit. Then Cryptic Studios hired me. Then laid off. Got an offer from Japan for some children show (Which I ended up not taking). Then Heartwood studios hired me. Long ass drive but loved the people I worked with there. THEN the studio ran out of projects. Sad face.

An art director from Netdevil called me. Mr. Peter Grundy. Best boss I've ever had! I went in as the 3D artist for the marketing team. There I did screenshots, up-res the low poly models, renders... LOTS of renders... LEGO Universe, Jumpgate Evolution, and Fortune Online are the games that I worked on. I had a great time with this company while I was there and loved my Creative Service team. AVATAR! =D But now I'm laid off again. Major downsizing at the company.

BUT! I met great people here in Colorado and making the best of it.

Right now it's just relaxing and enjoying the unemployment. Before I'd panic, but boy does it feel good to have people that support you unconditionally. I'm a lucky guy.

I bought a dog. =D His name is Digi. Named him after my screenname digiegg. =P

Cool dog. =)

Back to modeling. I've wanted to take some time out of the professional career to revamp my portflio. I was making this ironman but Dominance War came along so I think I'll compete.

Why not? I have no excuse right?

Here's the Ironman Mark I

This I'll complete later.

I'm sure you guys heard of Dominance War: http://www.dominancewar.com

Here's my working Thread. I'm with team CGSociety.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=330&t=965767

Well, That's all folks! Digi and I will return later on!

Facing reality... about to hit rock bottom.

2009-03-27T11:50:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Daniel here. There's been alot of thoughts going on my head lately. I've been under alot of stress.

Thoughts tend to come and haunt me as they bring me down into depression.

I'm realizing alot of facts about who I am as an artist. Actually, I'm not even an artist really.

Just a guy who knows how to use couple of programs and putting things together.

Here's the situation. I've been laid off at the current studio, Heartwood Studios. They ran out of projects and basically I'm laid off.

So I've been applying to alot of places. Whatever job there is, I applied.

CG Generalists, 3D Modelers, 3D Character Artists, 3D environment artist...

And so far, nothing.

Recently I went to GDC to interview Valve. The art director there made me realize that I lack originality. That I should be doing my own designs. He kept asking me on every model I did, if it was my own design. No, it wasn't. Everything was heavily based on someone eles' vision.

Even this model here.

Was based on my good friend Marco's vision. So in the end, am I still an artist?

No... just another 3D Modeler. Not a 3D Artist.

I thought this is what 3D Modelers do though... I was told you're supposed to see a 2D picture and be able to make it into 3D. That's not enough now. The boundaries of being a 3D Artist keeps getting pushed further and further.

Looking at the past...

I first attended AAU without any drawing skills. People said you have to know how to draw first.

So I did. I worked hard. I stayed up all night and day getting my drawings to stand out.

I tried so damn hard.

Then I was told I should learn to model humans properly. So I modeled the shit outta the nurbs guy. This was my second try.

Then on I made the female.

Then to a car because they said I should have a hardsurface model.

Then someone told me I need something flashy. So I said okay, what about an Orc?

I make it and not really that big of a reponse from the cg community. But did get a couple freelance and a job at Cryptic Studios.

I made a tank just for fun. To get away from character stuff and my friend told me that I should be making some good hardsurface items. This gets me into Heartwood Studios. They're a military/architectual company.

I keep taking advice from other people and think about what else I have to do...

but there's a lack of SOMETHING here...

Something that all the other great 3D artists have that I lack.

Is it originality now that I lack?

Could this be the missing element in my portfolio that's hold me back from getting a job?

Or is this just one of the missing elements? What am I doing wrong?

How do I figure this out?

Sigh... wish there was a guide to this whole thing...

Let's see if I can break this down... (I'm thinking as I go at the moment)

Here is the mission:

"To get a job before my savings runs out and I become homeless"

Problems:

1. I'm laid off and have no source of income.

2. No cushion from my parents since they're on a chokehold. No home to go back to if I hit rock bottom.

3. Figure out elements that are missing from my portfolio and fix it.... FAST.

4. Studios are laying off and alot of experienced people are seeking jobs... which rapes my probablity of landing one.

5. Studios aren't hiring enough. Therefore the pool of applicants are huge.

That's about the jist of it.

Thank God I have a girlfriend who's supporting me through all this walk of life I'm going through.

Otherwise I probably would have drove myself maddddd. o_O

OKAY! SO LET'S THINK POSITIVE.

Solutions I came up with in my head.

1. Go to Korea and see if I can be a rapper. (LOL)

2. Setup a small outsource modeling company with my friends. Making high quality models and selling them online.

3. Finish up my Space Marine and pray to God it grabs me a job.

4. Make couple game characters per 2 weeks. Maybe even a week after I have a base mesh. and just start posting them out and make a new game character reel.

5. Make Environments and pray to God I get in as a environment artist.

6. Just push through and keep trying to make high quality models... and work at McDonalds or something if money runs short till I can get a job.

So... there you have it...

but for now, I believe I should finish up the character model even though I'll probably get asked, is this your own design? But I have to finish it... I must.

Yeah... different thoughts and solutions keep running around my head. All this runs as I worry about that day when I run completely out of money... how do I keep myself afloat?

Till I figure it out, I'll just keep modeling away.

2008-07-15T00:22:00.001-07:00

Team Fortress fanwork.

2008-01-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

Mr. Orc is here.

2007-11-15T22:10:00.001-08:00

He's really starting to come along. I never knew hand painting textures would be this much fun!

2007-11-03T12:26:00.001-07:00

Hello puppet

2007-10-24T13:18:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, haven't updated in awhile.
Working on a Orc now and also reposing the Spawn.
Please give me some critiques I can work with.
Thanks!

Back from Vacay!

2007-08-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Got back and ready to model again. Filled up with more energy now. Trying to get these lazyness off me. Here's just a image for updates. Now to do the capes, and ammos, bombs, armors, etc.... God... .hahaha.

Spawn version 2

2007-08-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

The response of the older spawn was bad so I started over again.
Pushing the anatomy and the details a whole lot this time. Taking longer than I expected it to be(1.5weeks). Almost 2 weeks now. Man.. I gotta get this done but hey, quality first right?
I'm learning alot though. Especially from animators like Joe and Neth. With their help I was able to get the pose better. ALOT better actually. Getting better response this time so I guess I'm going the right direction. I'll keep pushing.

Restarting Spawn

2007-07-26T12:56:00.001-07:00

This is sad news... My mentor just tore me a new one about the spawn model itself.
Basically I have to restart my spawn model. Guess it's a good thing for the future but man... having to restart this bitch is a BITCH. Whatever... I'm happy I don't have to stress about texturing, lighting, and mapping. Finally get to a model character again. I'm trying my best to look at this as a positive thing. I'll have the enhanced Spawn model within 1.5 weeks of pure modeling spree. Until then fellas, I'm going in my zombie mode. See you then!

Problems after problems after problems

2007-07-25T13:01:00.001-07:00

God... There's just so much trouble shooting when it comes to rendering...
Before this I had to format my computer again due to some issues. Mac Pro doens't like any kind of windows so I had to find a specific one. Then I install the damn thing and maya. I tried rendering but it gives me bunch of fatal errors saying I'm running out of memory. So I have to downsize everything to a minimum which means I lose quality of the piece. Then I have to apply more different kind of maps if I want to keep the details. Test render, crash, test render, crash. So fucking frustrating! I attached the guns on the lowrez model of the spawn. I think way better than the pistol and chain from before.
It's not just modeling. I wish I can just model and voila, I'm done. But then I wouldn't get hired if I did that... lol. Model > Texture > Create maps > Light > test render > Render. Each > takes so much knowledge and time. Need to understand the progress on what works and what doesn't.
It looks as if this thing should be a easy joyride but damn... so many troubleshooting on the way.
This would be much easier if Mental Ray stopped crashing on me everytime I render...

That was rant. GAH! I should move on to Renderman.

New toys for Mr. Spawn

2007-07-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

The tiny pistol wasn't just bringing out Spawn's personality. So made 2 new big guns for him to hold. Haven't smoothed out or textured but the modeling part is done. Now I gotta open up the UVs, Texture all the parts, Make edges so they make clear hard edges. Sigh... so much more to modeling than just... modeling. I hope these guns look sweet next to spawn. =P

I fixed the proportion of his body. I made his legs longer since most of the critiques were saying my legs were short. Looks better now. I'll post some new shots later.

Patience, Dedication, and Self Dicipline

2007-07-01T04:46:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been doing alot of self study. Thanks to my friend Katie, I was able to make a organize notebook for myself. Basically I'm writing my own Modeling book. It's filling up quite nicely. This Spawn model will be finished soon. I can see the end of it. Things are falling into place and I just have to polish it. I don't think it's going to look the quality that I wanted it to get to. I just need more experience with this stuff.
Lighting to study now... also some more indepth texture painting.

Spawn work in progress

2007-06-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Studying

2007-06-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

Man, there's just so much to study in the modeling field... I thought just learning to sculpt was my job but damn... It goes on. Shading, Lighting, etc...
I FINALLY figured out how to use alphas for detailing in Zbrush today... Man... I was so happy!
I never knew how to do those details all these 3D artists made with Zbrush... now I know!

Learned something new today. Maya's Fast skin shader... I still have alot to learn but I think I'm going to study alot more on it on my next model... Actually, the next model will be a cartoon character. As soon as I finish this damn thing. Haha... I know what I have to do now though. Keep learning the technical side of all this modeling. It's fun but stressful at times. I'm sure taking the time to study all these things will come in handy when I go looking for a job.

Basically right now for the modeling phase, it's just learn the tools, not modeling.
Till next time friends.

Okay.. Spawn's pose is scrapped.

2007-06-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

After numorous tries to get this image to be emotional, I give up. I don't have the skills at the moment to pull off a beautiful image. I'm going w/ more of a simple pose.
The last picture of spawn holding his wife.

Spawn's going to be in a standard pose for now.

Composition

2007-05-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

I think I like this shot. First I have to see which one I want to stick with. =P But I think this one is the best over all... Ugh gotta make the environment stuff.. haha

My new baby!

2007-05-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

Updates =)

2007-05-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

So I ordered my next computer. 8Core Mac Pro. Yeap! Basically there is 8 of 3.0GHz chips inside one computer. Haha... the power!!! No more suffering from rendering.
Check out this monster!

http://www.apple.com/macpro
You can check out the specs there if you're interested in buying one.

Got me a copy of Zbrush 3. This prog is way better than before! I'm taking my time learning all the tools and stuff at the moment. It's very fun to learn. =) Here's a shot.
The new interface is pretty nice. Still got alot to learn at the moment though.

STARCRAFT 2 has been announced! Freaking... I'm so hyped for it. You guys should watch the cinematic scene. It's beautiful. http://www.blizzard.com

Well today is Sunday and I feel like just being lazy. Maybe I should play some warcraft 3... haha.
I'll do a little bit in Zbrush and game all night.

My current project

2007-05-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of something I'm working on these days.
I don't want to publish it to the public yet =P
Maybe I'll change my mind later when I need to get some critiques.

My new modeling blog!

2007-05-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

I had my old one but I'm going to start a new one.
Welcome to my blog. I'll be posting up the latest work up here on this spot.
If you're a friend, let me know your address so I can add you.
Till then... toodles.