Poster for Danny John-Jules 1 man show & UE4 tests

A few things of late that I've been up to:

1st up here's a poster I designed a while back for Danny John-Jules one man show, which starts in the UK this october.

...and also some test images from a Unreal Engine 4 level I'm using as a testbed for some shader work to nail the perfect workflow for use of Gaea assets in both a game and visual FX pipeline.  The idea for this was to use only a very simple set of geometry and let the shader do the heavy lifting.  

I've been Awarded Autodesk Expert Elite Status

I forgot to mention that about a month back I was awarded Autodesk Elite Status. This is rather cool and it allows me to help out people with some of my somewhat extensive experience.  Things have been rather busy on the personal front with my father having to have a serious spinal operation (hence why I didn't mention it until now.... I've not had a moment to myself till recently.

New Tutorial Release :: Gaea A Practical Guide

Quite recently Quadspinner released Gaea a next generation terrain creation application.  I'd been lucky enough to be allowed to use a very early version to help out with a troublesome freelance gig I had in at the time and it quite honestly made my life far easier.  Now, as some of you know I've not released commercial tutorials for quite a few years (I lost count of how many I did for various firms including FXPHD etc.....)  So what has changed and why have I released this one?

Its quite simple really, I stopped being excited by any of the recent applications that came out (although I did rather like substance designer and painter when I gave those a whirl.)  Gaea genuinely excites me and more importantly makes me WANT to work in it.  Its the same feeling I got with Mudbox and Zbrush many years back. In fact the title of the tutorial is a tribute in a small way to my very first DVD tutorial 'Mudbox:: A Practical Guide'

This will be the 1st in a series of tutorials in increasing complexity that will be coming out.  This tutorial covers GAEA in its entirety, covering every node and with a  number of examples as we progress. There are also two projects, a simple 'get you started making something that looks cool one' and a far more complex one for you to get your teeth in.

It runs at 3 3/4 hours long and can be bought right now form gumroad, or if you prefer, for the next 2 days only you can buy directly from me (and as a result get £5 off the asking price).

So spread the word of this amazing application and maybe even buy the tutorial ;)

If you would like to buy it diret fomr me for £20 then simply use the following Paypal.me link and once I have the money I will send you a direct link to the tutorial videos and files: 

paypal.me/WayneRobsonUK

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A quick video I did explaining about it...

All the following images are just direct screenshots from the GAEA interface and not proper renders.

Wayne's Review of 2018

...And I thought 2017 was a bad year!! Well holy shitballs it wasn't even in the running compared to 2018!  All sorts of very bad things happened on the personal front including my father being in an out of hospital and a close family member going missing for a month. (Along with a LOT of other stuff I cant outline for various reasons.)

But career wise the year started with a couple of speed sculpts. I was intending on keeping this up until 'life happened' and sort of got in the way a wee bit.

Over the course of the year I did a number of painting commissions (3 of which I can't show until next year some point).  But ones I can show included a one of Batman, a Shawn of the Dead one and a portrait of a couple.

I was interviewed for an article by Dice on working in the games industry. (Which was a bit odd as I'd not worked on site in the games industry since 2014!)

The happiest part of the year was getting married back in April to the love of my life Louise. We had a huge wedding and party with people attending from all four corners of the globe.  It was a truly astoundingly amazing time.

I celebrated 25 years doing 3D this year and I still count myself as on the never ending journey of learning. Its one of the things I love about this industry... you can never say at any point that you know it all.  I've been lucky enough to work with some amazing people and on some amazing projects and look forward to seeing what next year holds.  Quarter of a century doing this isn't bad going I think.

I also did a full Sci Fi level in the Unreal Engine as 'something to do' when work was thin on the ground.  I was later asked by Epic if I minded them putting it on file to be possibly used for publicity purposes (I think my reply was 'you sure about that? You've not mixed me up with some bugger else?' lol.)

So what do I ask for next year?  Well being realistic, simply that its less shit than this year, even if only by a little and that some interesting projects come along. Also that the personal life crap takes a backseat this year so I can crack on doing what I love.

I hope you've all had an amazing Xmas and that you have a truly terrific 2019.

UE4 Sci Fi level mess around done

Although it still has a few niggley problems I'm considering this done now so I can move onto other stuff. This was basically just me messing around when I had a few minutes here and there. I wanted a clean look and some Kubrick-esque style framing and lighting (as I'm sick to damn death of everything having to be dirty and knackered looking, everyone and their dog seems to be doing that in substance painter, substance designer these days.)

Anyway here are a few screen shots:

You can also seem them and a couple of videos over on my Art Station account HERE

Proving why Banksy 'shredding a painting live at an auction' was a fake and a setup.

I saw on the news about Banksy 'shredding a painting live at an auction and was horrified how its been presented a a fact and not the 100% provable fake is no doubt is.  So I said as much on my Facebook page with a few people asking me to outline why, as it may interst a few other people, here's the video.... oh and it also outlines Banksy's real name (which the auction houses and median have known for years but choose not to mention.)

Celebrating 25 years in 3D!

In September 1993 I 1st started doing 3D when I was 23 years old.... quarter of a century ago!  So I thought to mark this large milestone I'd bang out a quick video this morning. (...and realized in the process it'd been a year since I stuck anything on YouTube!)

It's been a long road, and this video covers lots of stuff and answers a few questions as well, its 1/2 hour long, so make yourself a coffee 1st ;) But that only works out at just over a minute of video per year ;)

Unreal Level update (WIP)

Some new texture sets out of Knald and shader setups mostly in this update.