Some of my student 3d artwork by year
At the end of my final year of study I won the Best Game Developer award from Black Lab Games, where I worked for the following 5 years.
In 2015, during year 12, I got into a 2 day per week Tafe course for a Certificate IV in Animation and Game Design. In this course we where taught a very oldschool method of 3d art using Blender, DSLRs & Photoshop, at the time I enjoyed it but when I found out how dated the practices where I was pretty peeved. However, I now appreciate the old school foundations this gave me.
The 2 day a week arrangement actually rekt me at school because I then was disallowed to do ATAR?!? I tried getting this fixed but I was totally not allowed by Shenton College!! My plan was to do this Tafe course and then go into Comp Sci at UWA. However, life had other plans.
2016 I went on to do a Diploma of the same course at North Metropolitan Tafe / E-Central. This was a much better course than the previous year and was very inspiring. Sadly we where using 3ds Max rather than Maya
2017 I moved to Melbourne to complete my Advance Diploma at RIMT. However I never went to class and just bummed off at home making counter strike maps and video games with Alex at our house.
Second semester after failing the Adv Dip I tried studying IT, again at RMIT. Which in hindsight makes absolutely no sense since I'm sure there would have been a better place more nearby.
2018 I was forced to come back to Perth since I no longer had anywhere to stay in Melbourne. I went back to North Metropolitan Tafe / E-Central to finish my Advance Diploma & this time I not only attended class but I passed lol.
Pic related, me repping the banner I made advertising the course with advice (art direction) from Anthony Carriero. 2018 was a much better year for me than 2017
2015
This was my sickest piece at the time, all modelled and rigged by me, animated too. Very sick!
LMAO at the orc only being rendered from behind? I still love the insane aesthetic of these models. Would be hard for me to replicate today.
I never rendered most of my work at this time because I thought if I want to look back on it it'd just be easier to open the .blend file... haha...
2016
Perhaps a premonition....
2017
Lol... My year in Melbourne
2018
I have no idea why I was still using blender at this point? I totally couldn't be bothered using Maya which is what we where being thought but my ego couldn't handle making the switch I guess. I only used Maya in the last 3 months of all my formal training.
In the last semester of class I really pulled my finger out & cracked out some much better work, particularly the two mechs I made which demonstrated my modelling, texturing, rigging and animation!
This Mech in particular is pretty much how I got into my career
This was my first ever paid 3d art gig. Straight out of class at the end of 2018 I was asked to help out finish some props for a VR project for Curtin University in a hurry.