I will be moving this week, and starting at Icarus on 10/29/2007.   Our house is torn apart, and we just have to wait for the movers to give us notice of the pick up appointment, and we’ll pack the rest.

We’re looking to get rid of things, and I was happy to find that GameStop is offering an extra $20 on most systems, including the Xbox we want to sell (because we have a 360).  They’re also taking GBA SP systems with that bonus… which puts them at $40.  Grabbing a bunch of games Mandy and I won’t play anymore, we were happy to get enough store credit to pick up Blue Dragon, Beautiful Katamari,  Phantom Hourglass, and have $60 left over to use towards Guitar Hero III.  We got rid of several pounds of freight, and picked up a few good games to boot.  Not a bad afternoon.

I know I’m not a regular blogger, and this was mainly a portfolio “blog,” but I wanted to update the few of you reading, and say that I probably won’t be posting again for a few weeks… and probably no new art until I’ve had a chance to REALLY settle in and start home projects.

Very sad news to report to potential employers out there. I accepted a job. Icarus Studios offered me a job as a content writer / game designer on the post-apocalyptic MMO “Fallen Earth.”

This is my first full-time job in the game industry, and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to write some game content and do a little art, too. This is the type of job I’ve been working towards getting since I graduated from college… the FIRST time.

I’m going to be moving from my current home in Elkhart, IN to the Raleigh, NC area… which is the biggest move I’ve ever done. I’m pretty apprehensive, especially since I’m going to be a new dad in February, but I think it’ll all work out for the best. The stars have aligned, if you believe that sort of thing, to make this happen. Ten days ago I didn’t even know about the job. Now I have it, I’m moving across 5 states to get here, along with my wife and 5 cats….. Hooooo boy!

Anyway, I’ll post what I can still of my personal stuff as I maintain my art portfolio here. This hasn’t ever been the best wordpress-based art portfolio ever organized, but hey, I got a job, didn’t I? Oh yeah… it wasn’t just for the art!

Smokey sure has shown a bit of improvement since the first render. I put him in a temporary environment using recycled texture maps from previous projects, modeled the arms a bit more to create little grabbers, but it’s not quite locked down yet. I’m going to make changes to the model to prepare it for animation (such as turning the little pincer claws individually into separate objects ready for rigging). If anyone out there is listening, what do you think? I’d love to see comments.

I’ve been working on a project called “Village the Game” recently, and this is a hut I’m building for a pre-rendered building to be used in the casual RTS. This is the new model just ready for a test render tonight.

Here’s more of Smokey the robot. I did a lot of refinement to the legs, mouth, eye area, and jaw mesh. I still need to add detail to the arms which will eventually be much larger than is there, and possible a four-way pincher… like a claw game claw. I’m going to start working on finalized textures once the model is locked down, which should be this weekend!