Maokai's CG Blog

Marine (Personal Project)

2010-02-28T22:12:00.000-08:00

This morning, I watched the human race trailer of Starcraft 2 again, and I was so excited about this marine movie. So I decided to do something rather than just wait for the game.

Here is my marine, still working in progress. Hope you like it.

(Hell it's about time...!!!!)

(Base Mesh)

Microsoft Trip in Seattle

2010-02-12T08:49:00.001-08:00

Early this week, our project team was invited to visit Microsoft campus in Seattle and do demos there. We met people from different areas, the Surface team, Xbox Natal Team, experienced D&D Players, hardware tester, etc. The trip there is awesome. We were all having a great time, while getting really helpful feedback from both the surface team and the people who met us.

Here are some of the bloggers we spoke to at MS. Maybe you're interested in.

Interview with Channel 10 at Microsoft
Nick Eaton The Microsoft Blog
Brier Dudley The Seattle Times
Matt Hickey
Devin Coldewey
Wolfgang Baur
Jeff Grubb

We will bring Surfacescapes to GDC and PAX East, feel free to come and check it out. Version 2.0 is coming soon.

Surfacescapes (Microsoft SurfaceTable)

2010-01-30T13:23:00.000-08:00

What is Surfacescapes

The objective of the SurfaceScapes project is to create a proof-of-concept for playing tabletop role-playing games on the Microsoft Surface Table. We will be using Dungeons and Dragons as a basis for our prototype, with the option for future expansion to other role-playing games. SurfaceScapes will provide Game Masters and players with a set of features to enhance the combat and role-playing aspects of tabletop games. This will include the ability to interact with the digital environment using real objects such as miniatures and provide automated calculations and visual and audio feedback for actions performed by the player and non-player characters. We are taking traditional tabletop role-playing games to the next level, adding a new layer of immersive and intuitive gaming to the Microsoft Surface Table and assisting both GMs and players in enjoying exciting and engaging adventures.
Here is the Link of our SurfaceScapes Gameplay Session.

Microsoft Surface Table

What I do in this project

This is the second half of the project. So mostly I concentrate my work on the art side, especially 3D art and concept design of the game. And I will put my works here with the project going on. Hope you like them. Also,sometimes, I will help to design the gameplay session and the UI design.

These images below are the concepts and models for our D&D Surfacescapes game. Feel free to leave a comment. Thank you.

(W.I.P)(GOBLIN CONCEPT)
(MODEL)
Click on this Link to watch the demo for this Goblin on vimeo

This image below is the new model of the goblin, which I changed a little bit according to the topology, and it's better both for sculpting and animation.

(New Model)

(high res model)

(with texture)

Beholder Final Concept
Base Mesh
(Rigging with texture)
Rigging with Spline IK and Muscle Bones to make the tentacles be able to stretch, just like cartoon character rigging

I found something very interesting on the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. It's called fomorian. And I think it must be cool to make it in 3D. And this is the model I sculpted in Zbrush. Hope you could see him in our Surfacescapes at the end of this semester.

still working on it

(W.I.P)

Man Head Practice

2010-01-29T03:27:00.000-08:00

This is a new male human head model I'm working on, trying to use Zbrush to add details and render out a normal map. Then will go back to max to apply it to the low poly model. Please leave a comment when you have some idea about it. Thank you!

(1,194 polygons)

(high poly model in Zbrush)

Or click on this Link to watch the high quality demo on vimeo

Blue Dragon

2010-01-28T01:11:00.000-08:00

This is my BVW class round 0 dragon concept, I'm still working on this painting. Hope I could update soon. Also I made a low poly model of the dragon with a walking cycle practice.

(W.I.P)
（MODEL）

Figure Drawings

2010-01-27T02:07:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy I could draw figures at the School of Fine Art in CMU. And for me, this is pretty much relaxing after a whole week of busy project. And I will put my drawings here when I got something new. :) Hope you like them!

Oil Painting

2010-01-26T01:45:00.000-08:00

Traditional Painting in Liaoning province of China

Girl Portrait

2010-01-25T13:59:00.000-08:00

This girl portrait was made a year ago, and because my computer crashed during the process, I lost the original file of the low poly model. So I could only unwrap the higher one. But the good thing is that I can still make it. :)

(Final image with 3ds max and photoshop)

The hair was rendered in max， but the result is not as good as what I want, so I did a lot of work for the hair in PS... =。=!

(UV)

Cartoon Character Pluto

2010-01-25T02:41:00.000-08:00

This is a cartoon character, and his name is Pluto. I made him two years ago for cartoon character study, and I did the design of this character, model, texture, rigging and animation. Also I used this character to learn SSS in Mental Ray and how to use blend shape to create facial expressions.

SSS with facial expressions

Some Old Stuffs

2010-01-24T23:04:00.000-08:00

These images below were done during my undergraduate. Almost all of them are from school projects, which including Beijing 08 Digital Museum, RIGA International Airport Simulation and China Digital Science and Technology Museum. I was honored to work in those projects and did what I could for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Beijing 08 Digital Museum

RIGA Internatinal Airport

China Digital Science and Technology Museum

Orc

2010-01-24T02:22:00.000-08:00

This is my first character which I created after two months of 3ds max learning. Now, I think it's not so good a model, even some edge loops are wrong. But this character means a lot to me as a beginner at that time.

New home here

2010-01-24T01:54:00.000-08:00

Because of some technical issue, my website www.maokaistudio.com is out of service right now. So I used this blog as a backup. And the original one will be fixed soon. I'm sorry for that.

These are works that I have done in recent times...either from my undergraduate school or from what I did in ETC at CMU. And thank you for watching my reels and cg art works. Please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!