Old School Bowling Score Keeper

While this was just one of the props of my many projects for this class I took called MCR (Modeling Creation), I call this my best object.

Practicing for Blizzard

So last night I was looking at different companies I might want to apply for.  I am always trying to find new companies I have never looked at before and see if they are offering positions in Modeling or 3D Artist.  After looking through several different company websites and not finding anything I really liked, I decided to go back to Blizzard Entertainment; the company I had decided on a few months back.  I am skeptical however about choosing Blizzard, mainly due to the fact that I have not played any of their games before.  I tried playing a demo of World of Warcraft a couple years ago but I just didn't really see the play factor in it.  I mean really how can people spend hours upon hours and countless $$$ on playing this game?  Is it really that addicting? Well if it is, I didn't want to be sucked up into it.  I recently meant to buy their latest release, Star Craft II, but school was hectic and I didn't have time to invest into it.  Perhaps if it ever drops in price in the near future, I'll give it a go, since I switched to the 36 month program at Full Sail University.  Anyway, back to Blizzard.  Even though I do not play their games, I do however worship their epic Cinematic Game Trailers!  The trailer for Wrath of the Lich King is one of the most beautiful and awesome CG Trailers I have ever seen.  What I love about them is that their headquarters are located in the beautiful Irvine, California and their offices are spectacular.  They also have every job type I could want.  Because I am still pretty early on in my stages at Full Sail, I do not know exactly what area of the Computer Animation world I want to center on, but at this point my choice is Modeling because I am very good at creating inanimate and nonorganic objects.  So for my first crack at creating objects geared towards the tastes of Blizzard, I quickly created this Battle Hammer.

New Individual Project

So I am currently retaking my 3DF (3D Foundations) class here at Full Sail.  I have about a week left in this class before I am off for my Winter Break.  I'm lucky I get any time off from my nonstop schedule.  I watched the movie The Social Network last night and it inspired me to blog frequently and daily if possible.  And since this blog is devoted to showing off all my creations in Maya, I shall be creating new creations and models weekly.  I will start by uploading all my previous objects I created for a class I took called MCR (Modeling Creation).  For my new individual project for the class I'm taking now, I decided to create Three Individual 300-500 polygon objects or props.  For some reason I started making a gum ball machine but I just didn't like where I was going with it, also I knew that my 2 other objects would have to be with the same theme somehow.  I decided to make something a bit manlier, if that's a word lol. I have created a Roman Sword, a Roman Helmet, and a Roman Shield.  It all started from my mental image of Maximus' Helmet from Gladiator.  I pulled up an image of it on Google Images and immediately started working on it on Maya.  I figured the simplest way was to slice a sphere in half and extrude select faces to create an early rendering of the helmet.  My version is somewhat similar to his but there are still many differences.  I then pulled up an image of a Roman Sword.  This turned out a lot easier than I had expected. Keep in mind that for all 3 of my objects, they must be one solid object.  Meaning that the entire object must be originated from one single shape.  Our teacher gives the example that he must be able to pour water into our object and it should fill every part of it.  Anyway I'll end my endless ramble thats probably making you not even want to see my objects.  I'm first showing all 3 objects with simple colors applied to them.  I'll later show them again when they are all textured.  I haven't figured out how to put the picture below my words but I'll figure it out eventually. Enjoy!

The Lorax & Green Eggs and Ham

A little while ago I became inspired to start modeling characters from Dr. Seuss' books.  For some reason, the first character that popped in my head was The Lorax.  I figured he was one of the more simpler Dr. Seuss characters.  This is a work in progress.  I thought I'd add Green Eggs and Ham for the fun of it.

BFG Gun from Doom Movie

This was my first real complex modeling project that I did for school.  I think it turned out great considering it's all one solid piece.  Meaning it is hollow inside.  It still is missing quite a few details but for a month's worth of work, while learning the Autodesk Maya 2011 software, I'd say it turned out quite well.

Captain America's Shield

I'm thinking of going with a totally new concept with his shield.  Possibly adding a Spear of some type, giving it a more Spartan feel to it.  Tell me what you guys think.

Lightsabers!

The Beginnings at Full Sail University

Let me start off by introducing myself and telling all of you my life in a nutshell.  My name is Jonathan Arman McKerley.  My middle name comes from my mom's side of the family, which is Persian.  I am currently 20 years old.  My second name or my nick name is Big John.  For the longest time, all of my friends (even some teachers) have called me by this name.  I guess it's due to the fact that I'm generally much taller and bigger than everyone around me.  Anyway, I am born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee.  Nashville is known throughout this country as being "Music City USA".  That music mainly being country music.  For some strange reason, I grew up being completely opposed to this music and fell into the pop world unfortunately.  Recently in the past several years I have opened up my musical taste buds to country.  The majority of my friends all have music majors in college right now.  I'm the only one with a major on a completely different scale.  In fact, I'm the only one in my family right now getting a degree in something other than business or medicine.  I am currently enrolled at Full Sail University in the Computer Animation program.  Until 5 months ago, I only thought that a Computer Animator was one job.  I was quickly informed that there are many many aspects to this industry and many different jobs associated within it.  While I am very early on into my program, my current area of focus is Modeling.  Very soon I will be posting all of my school and personal projects I have created since my time at Full Sail University.  Stay in-touch as I continually post all of my creations.  Thank you very much for taking the time to read this first blog post and I look forward to getting to know all of my audience!