Justin Oaksford

Modo+Paint

2011-11-28T17:33:00.000-08:00

Taking a modo class- I'm not very good at 3d, but it's really fun to use as a kind of pre-vis tool. I've used sketchup for a number of years, and Modo's preview-render window makes it really fun and fast to figure out your lighting. I'd like to learn Maya so I can actually make stuff in a pipeline, but for underlays, Modo is a nice tool!
The class has however, reminded me why I do concept and not 3d: I spent weeks... several weeks fighting the software. Not just learning how to use it, but trying to make it do what I want- while I enjoy problem solving, it's very frustrating when you are being held back because you need to make the technology think like you.

Anyways, I'm not good enough to show just a render of the model so I had to paint over it to make it pretty!

Perdido Street Station

2011-10-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Finally! This was 5-6 weeks worth of a single class this semester. It was quite a sprint! I feel like very often at Art Center there's this push to say "I need to do some animation style" or "I need to do some live-action style" stuff, and for once, I'm happy to not decide on a style, but just sit down and draw whatever came out. This is definitely not an exercise in originality or high-end polish, but I learned a lot about myself from not trying to force myself down any one tunnel. Due to the short time frame, this end result as a lot farther behind then where I had hoped in week 1. Can't wait to get out of school so I can think at my own pace again and hopefully start breaking some new ground, mentally speaking.

I should point out, that these images are purely my interpretation of China's great work- they are not meant to be literal verbatim depictions of what you read in the novel! (Although I somehow managed to miss the description that Isaac is in fact dark-skinned, so that's pretty wrong and I'll need to repaint it when I have time...)

Thank you all for looking, I hope you enjoy it!

'North wall' of Pasadena

2011-10-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Did a little digi plein-airing tonight! Learned quite a bit about indicating mountains. Painting the strokes along the 'form' of the mountain is the obvious one, but also how to look for overlapping ridges- by terminating the strokes along an invisible line where one ridge comes in front of another, you can show a bit more depth. It's a basic painting principle, but it took some patience and focus to understand what was happening visually.

Exciting projects this term: will post the first one in it's entirety in about two weeks or so. Until then! Thanks for looking.

Oracle

2011-09-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a while... This was done for one of the community activities on CGHub. About to enter my last year of Art Center, I'm looking forward to doing lots of figure drawing. There are lots of issues I'm running into realizing how much more time I wish I had to go the last 3 years. Unfortunately, Ent Design's schedule doesn't make too much room for the workshops :<

The rest of term 6

2011-04-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here's again, just some of the better part of the term for me.

Market scene for viscom 6

2011-03-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Northern Castle

2011-03-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

Doom Project for Architecture

2011-03-25T16:55:00.001-07:00

This was a 3-4 class assignment. There was alot more work to it (research, reference, and sketching actual props from Doom 3 to internalize the form language), but that stuff is boring!

"Alien planet" Landscapes

2011-01-21T23:31:00.000-08:00

First Assignment: "Alien Vista with a piece of technology/architecture", for Cecil Kim's Viscom 6 class! Here are the thumbnails. They feel very expected... I need to get more confident with environments so I can stop making things that all look exactly the same.

Render bender

2011-01-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

Trying to work on spending lots of time on an image. Could probably spend alot longer on this one though..

Trying to keep momentum

2010-12-16T22:34:00.000-08:00

It's always a task coming down from the high energy of being in term, and I try to stay productive but I know eventually complacence will wash over me. Before that happens, I'm going to try and be as productive as possible. These are for the Creature Planet activity on CGHub. Final illustration is still in progress, but for some reason posting it lights a fire under my ass to push it further, so check back soon.

Polis

2010-12-13T23:24:00.000-08:00

Some of the only blogworthy work from our Color Theory project this term. :\

Character 1: Second Half

2010-12-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

Felt like being a render monkey, and experimented with some photobashing on the creature. After about week 10-11, fifth term leveled out and became pretty easy. Instead of doing more work for classes or spending more time rendering what I had, I invested more time doing personal sketching and painting. Or watching movies. Definitely ready for sixth term.

Figure

2010-12-01T21:50:00.001-08:00

Figure painting from Bob Kato's class trying to apply stuff learned with Acrylic painting into photoshop.

Drive inspired Speedy

2010-11-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

Picked up Drive the other day- a book by Annis Naeem, Danny Gardner, and Scott Robertson. Very inspired by all the vehicles and couldn't help but pay homage to the superb "Salvage" section with a down-and-dirty doodle. After detaining the books for weeks, homeland security has finally confirmed the books aren't terrorist training manuals, so you will be able to pick up a copy soon- and I recommend you do.

Hopefully next term I'll get good enough at this stuff that your eyes stop bleeding. Until then, my apologies!

EDIT: I got some good feedback from a friend in transportation design, so I tried to change things a bit to correct it:

More Architecture Homework

2010-11-03T16:50:00.000-07:00

Not as happy with this one as the last: Something is wrong with my perspective on the main building... You just cant trust those damned 3d programs, can you? Maybe it's my sketching that needs work <_< And for those wondering, it's a very very large nod to Lindblum, probably one of my favorite cities in a video game ever.

Character Designs

2010-10-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

Alright, this project was for Character Design 1 with Hong Ly and Kevin Chen, two of the most amazing teachers we've had so far at ACCD. Our classes are on Saturday from 9AM to 4PM, but it seems like it just never lasts long enough. The projects are fun, the crits are amazing, it's really great. Here was our first of two projects this term: A miyazaki movie in an animated stlye- anything from Dexter's Lab to Samurai Jack to Pixar or Dreamworks was our range, so for a large change of pace I attempted to do something 'Dreamworks' like. I'm not happy with the designs still, and the final poses I chose are extremely static, but I can't afford time in term to fix that stuff now, it's on to new projects! I'm going to post the development sketches as well so people have some insight on to how I arrived at the finals: As a final note- there were definitely good and bad sketching days, but I've decided not to edit the worse ones for the sake of transparency. Also, for the final renders there is no 3d used, only 2 or 3 photo-textures to add some insta-realism.

Theory

2010-10-24T02:31:00.000-07:00

Characters are still being finished up... In the meantime, here's an exercise for Color Theory class!
Complimentary palette painting: you only use 2 hues, which are exact compliments, and try to make an image that doesn't look like it's only two hues.

This exercise has been far-far-far more educational than I ever would have thought and has really opened my eyes to alot of things. I highly recommend people to try it out. Here's how to make your palette to color pick from (Make sure to use very saturated colors for your base hues so you get the most range from your palette, something I forgot to do below:):

2010-10-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

20 minutes in Sculptris + a few seconds rendered in Modo (by Robert Simons). This was really fun actually :>

Architecture 1 homework

2010-10-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Fast value sketch underneath a line drawing from architecture class, the lines were done over a rough sketchup underlay. I apologize for the horrendous tangent that happened on the man's head. it's a doozy.

And another

2010-10-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

going to try and fit in some personal work here and there this term, seems like a great way to let information sink in.

Still flailing about uncontrollably while trying to appear competent...

2010-09-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

One does not simply rock in to Mordor..

2010-09-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Did a 'Mordor' painting for a challenge over at CGHub. Super cliche, but it was fun and good warm up for 5th term, starting in a few days :D

It's a bit dark but Mordor is a bit evil so you know... :P And beneath that is... well, it's just me getting my rocks off. Can you tell I like mountains?

Clair De Lune

2010-07-03T23:16:00.001-07:00

Another Red riding hood piece, not sure about the airship as far as the universe is concerned. Probably a bad idea- I dunno, we'll see!

More red riding hood development!

2010-06-25T20:34:00.001-07:00

I'm liking this direction. It's not the most original or thoughtful painting, but there's plenty of time to refine :)

2010-06-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long!

First initial direction exploring for a red riding hood project. Still no idea what I want to do, but this was a very fun piece to break away from my normal stuff. Saving for web loses alot of the depth (especially in the bottom- the original has more details and doesn't go to black like that :<), but the image is still mostly in tact.

edit; Oh oh oh!! I also forgot to mention! Through alot of great fortune and the hard work of Kenneth Scott and Nicolas Bouvier, I'm currently interning in Redmond, WA at 343 industries, helping to expand the Halo universe! Having a blast and am enjoying the change of scenery! (also glad to be working with Robogabo and Glenn Isreal!)

With this post comes the close of the first half of Art Center Life.

2010-04-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

One of my final paintings for Costume design. Very rushed but the best of the 3.

2010-04-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

Final assignment for digital landscape. Exhausted!
(posting from a funky monitor so sorry if they be ugly.)

2010-03-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Walt Disney concert hall landscapes and 1950's costume life painting :)

Some Costume design... more on the way.

2010-03-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! This is just a costume design illustration comp as well as the thumbs and comps that lead up to it (please excuse the template that shows through on some of the drawings, didn't print it light enough apparently)... have a few more coming down the pipe soon!

The other weekend my car broke down and a few of my friends from art center really helped me out. Want to give a shout to Alex, Lindsey, Rebecca and Danny. check them out.

2010-03-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

Life Painting from Costume Design class. First page is 5 minutes, Second is 10, third is 10 and 15, and last is 15. This dude literally jumped from a Leyendecker painting. His face was amazing.

2010-03-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

I was going through my inspiration/ref folders and saw this portrait by Sargent and even though I dont really have the time to do this today, I couldn't resist. Everything is off by a bit but I learned so much, and got a brush I'm fairly happy with. (Here's the brush.) It isn't a 'Sargent Mimic' brush as you can obviously see :P, just a regular custom brush. (Johnny boy's is to the left, mine to the right)

Digital Landscapes

2010-03-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

This post is going to be a bit more rough-and-tumble than usual.

We have a class at Art Center called Digital Landscape, with Nick Pugh.
It's a really great class, we go on location and paint places with a different focus (sometimes architecture, sometimes water at Long beach, etc.)
I was on the fence whether or not I should post these, as they aren't pretty and I still have a long way to go to get better, but hopefully some of you without the curriculum will try this yourselves!

Nick has us paint in the realm of 20 minutes per. Occasionally they are under 10, I think those speak for themselves :P Then once in a while there's a longer one, about 40 minutes is the absolute max.

2010-03-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

In viscom 4 we are trying to dissect what makes a good quick 'sketch'- not so much in the form of a pencil sketch, but anything that is quick and communicates fast and accurately, and is appealing. After doing some research and experiments, I've grown fond of the sort of 'oil painter' approach that some people like Justin Sweet seem to employ- painting on top of your ground (toned cavnas). I've finally set up a tiny space where I can practice oils, so maybe given a little gamsol and a few years I can figure out the whole painting thing and do this a bit more justice...
-One huge thing that this assignment has reinforced though, is that if you spend a good amount more love on your drawing, rendering not only becomes more fun, but a bit easier. I heard a concept guy say once 'you need to put as much information as you possibly can into each sketch you do'. I would substitute the word information with either 'knowledge' or 'research'. In creatures, for example, the more accurately you can represent anatomy in a drawing, the better that sketch will sell. I know that sounds super basic but.. in my mind it pushes me to sketch harder.

Bridge of the Albatross

2010-02-26T19:29:00.001-08:00

One of the Albatross Pilots

2010-02-25T00:32:00.000-08:00

Here's one of the pilots of the ship from before. The ideations look really dorky, as if his neck is craned out.. so I shrunk his head and twisted it to make it both more serious and dynamic.

This character is supposed to be a space salvage pirate...He teams up with a hacker friend of his to disable the security systems on abandoned ships floating in Wild Space, then stealing both useful parts as well as data and AI systems that he can sell on the black market. He isn't so much a Jack Sparrow- he sees himself a bit more as a bad-ass Robin Hood.

(Also, I tried really really hard to escape from Mass Effect influences while obeying the assignment, but it still permeates the whole thing... damn!)

Still stuff to fix with the final probably... might get back to it later.

2010-02-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

Here are featured both the brand new and 'Certified Pre-Owned' versions of the Albatross. Next? The Albatross Custom (retrofitting it, louder muffler, maybe a body kit and some cool flame decals!)
(sidenote: no 3d used.. photos used on the weathered version to add texture)

The most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.

2010-02-06T20:39:00.000-08:00

You know those times when you see something so completely and extraordinarily beautiful that you just 'yip' and stand their with your jaw open? Tonight after the rain clouds were dispersing over Pasadena, I caught a glimpse of what must be the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my entire life. Photos can't even come close to doing it justice. I attempted to paint it on the spot with my laptop, failing miserably as the rain came back 3 minutes in. I stood there trying to absorb every detail about it, not sure if I could re paint it or not.

I tried, and again failed pretty terribly. but it helps me to cling to that memory, which I enjoy very much.

Experimentation part 2

2010-02-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

Similar as last week, but with spaceships this time, and a large amount more rough around the edges. Now it's time to refine the design (make it pleasing while maintaining originality) and make it photoreal. I'm scared :<
Sorry for the ruddyness, I'm not terribly motivated to take any of these designs further as they are pretty unsuccessful. (though fun!)

Experimentation

2010-02-02T00:03:00.000-08:00

These were all experiments in idea generation for the first day of homework for Scott Robertson's Viscom 4 class at Art Center. I'm not particularly proud of the results, but I got enough positive feedback I thought it couldn't hurt to post here. I dont have much mechy techy stuff anyways.

These are just laser bots. I gave each of the six some different personality traits. We are doing another set of 6 experiments this week, so I won't be taking any of these to polish. (Also, don't read any of the info... I did an all nighter and couldn't even type straight english.)

2010-01-09T22:40:00.000-08:00

I do love winter!

Best of Term 3

2009-12-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

*inhale* I have over 50 pages of work I could upload, but I'm not really proud of any of it... so I'm only uploading the better stuff (so that it doesn't look like I've been doing nothing for 4 months.) As an FYI, this is just a part of the work for 1 class over 14 weeks with 4 other classes at the same time, so the quality is kind of 'bouncy', so to speak- thanks for your consideration :P

A large number of my art center buddies in the side bar also did similar projects they should be putting up- be sure to check them out as well (if you haven't already!)

2009-12-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

first painting of break!!

been wanting to do this one for weeks.

Preview of things to come

2009-12-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots and lots of things...

2009-11-13T18:08:00.001-08:00

2009-11-09T19:05:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Matt Tkocz and Alex Cunningham for crits. check them out in the sidebar ->

This is viscom 3.

2009-10-26T02:08:00.000-07:00

The assignment is to take a photo with the specific assigned material, then apply that material to a drawing
of your own design. No 3d underlay, no fancy tricks- just reference and physics. Learned so much with this it's insane, even though it's still riddled with inaccuracies and is fairly rough, the process creates results super fast. For a more detailed one, check out Danny Gardner in the sidebar ->

2009-10-03T17:29:00.001-07:00

2009-10-02T23:39:00.001-07:00

2009-09-26T02:57:00.001-07:00

experimentation between homework

Homework!

2009-09-21T01:38:00.001-07:00

homework for viscom 3 class

2009-08-29T19:01:00.001-07:00

alot of fires around pasadena lately :(

The Nautilus, replenishing it's oxygen supply in the Antarctic.

2009-08-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

2009-08-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

First journey into gouache

went hiking today with a friend, wanted to try it out! Not great, but it was a fun experiment I hope to continue..

Kurosawa tribute

2009-08-08T02:47:00.001-07:00

Been on a Kurosawa binge lately... Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Kagemusha... deliciously inspiring. Was very fun to do this piece!

2009-08-04T21:06:00.001-07:00

Here's a mecha I did for the Ottoman Project (www.the-ottoman.com)
the mechanical stuff works fine... in my brain :P and surprisingly, no 3d used :D

2009-08-02T15:06:00.001-07:00

just a 'spariment

2009-07-14T20:39:00.001-07:00

Under the bridge this time...
There was some really great light tha disappeared before I could capture it! :<

2009-07-12T15:28:00.001-07:00

On ACCD campus today

2009-07-08T22:20:00.001-07:00

inspired tonight! :D

2009-07-04T18:20:00.001-07:00

Fantasy style portrait of some lizard priest guy! Happy birthday to america, as well!

EDIT: Also did a quick little bird concept in Artrage (man this prog is FUN and cheap :D)
didn't think it warranted it's own post (yet) so I'm just gonna leave this here...

2009-07-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Introducing... the Strata. More views to come! (and hopefully better branding..)

spaceman with suit!

2009-07-02T00:36:00.001-07:00

2009-06-26T17:13:00.001-07:00

2009-06-09T00:41:00.001-07:00

Prop piece!

City Burning

2009-06-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

A bit darker colors than usual, not sure why <_<

2009-06-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

Just something quick for fun :) original was in hi-tec C. some kinda storm trooper remix or something...

2009-05-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just some sketches, need to do more of these... it's amazingly fun.. hi-tec C .03 and White prisma

2009-05-23T11:43:00.001-07:00

Maybe too graphic for this one?
inspired by Pao and some other peeps :>

2009-05-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

Trying to pull off something more graphic along the lines of neil ross

2009-05-15T00:20:00.001-07:00

need to balance my textures better... and maybe start spending more than just an hour on these... x_x

2009-05-14T01:02:00.001-07:00

something quite a bit easier to keep myself in the groove..

2009-05-07T07:48:00.001-07:00

hour of power, topic 'cliff dwelling'

2009-05-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Underwater speed topic...

2009-05-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Photo study to practice edges/materials...

Another hour paint with friends, topic 'pier'

I think the upper wall is too bright, it tends to look sort of 'sky' like which throws off everything :S

2009-05-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

1 hour paint with friends

2009-05-03T00:17:00.000-07:00

froggy!

2009-05-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

valhalla, for speedy challenge with friends

2009-05-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

Studies from frame filter... need to work on that brush economy... trying to push features so I get more 'character' coming out of them.

2009-04-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

haven't done anything steampunk for a while...

Project; Redhood

2009-04-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

Working on a personal project to beef up the folio... Little red riding hood, sci-fi style!

also, very experimental brush piece!

Thumbnails

2009-04-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Some thumbnails from a freelance project..

Looking for freelance and stuff!

2009-04-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

2009-03-19T16:04:00.001-07:00

Whoops... too much texture.. >_<

2009-03-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

Here's some stuff from Design Process 2 with Scott Robertson; We have to design 2 1940's era VTOL aircraft and their pilots. We are still in the ideation stage, this project will carry out until end of term (mid april). So expect updates (with perhaps more polished imagery :D)

2009-02-19T03:22:00.000-08:00

I had this piece in my head since I got back from break.. inspired by all the time waiting in the airport. I really hate this 'arid morning' feeling, but it's so rich I wanted to paint it. hope I at least got it a little bit...

Saturdays

2009-02-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

was fun painting with friends :) did 2! and one from last week as well! (rain!! :D)

2009-02-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

kicking it old school every Saturday on campus at 2pm

2009-01-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

self portrait for digital design :D

2009-01-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

done for mary's class on a small moleskin sb (4x6 or something)

term 2 initia

2009-01-12T01:10:00.000-08:00

One last throe before re-entering the fray

better test....

2009-01-01T00:45:00.000-08:00

brushtest for tonight!

2008-12-31T23:28:00.001-08:00

testing corals... need more practice!

Happy new year!

2008-12-31T14:59:00.001-08:00

2008-12-24T00:10:00.000-08:00

cruddy brush test....

Par kora pt. 1

2008-11-26T01:51:00.000-08:00

next time I clean up the dark parts.. or maybe I should just stick with viscom 1

crab-bot

2008-11-25T20:00:00.001-08:00

2008-11-18T01:40:00.001-08:00

haven't painted in a few weeks

it burns :<

Starting over

2008-11-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

trying this again...