Monday, April 7, 2014

Old sketch

Here's an update of an old sketch I made last year, updated the lighting and added some color.


Project Vanguard visual design doc

This is for everyone who might be interested in seeing how a visual style guide for a simple game looks, this document includes a game summary, and basic design guidelines that should be followed for the visual style of this specific game. Also reference boards, thumbnails, concepts and 3D block meshes are included in the doc, so check it out!

Note: Download PDF and use acrobat for better display.




Angler Point Logo works

Logo design proposals I made for the Angler Point game in development.



Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Angler Point development thumbnails

This are some development thumbnails for project Angler Point, an exploration sidescroller set under the sea.



Thursday, March 20, 2014

Troll creature design

This is a troll creature design I made to help one of my friends with his thesis project.


Saturday, February 15, 2014

My self-appraisal – A look into the corners of my mind



It seems the time has come for me to write about the aspects that make me who I am. This is an exercise of introspection, I must analyze myself, how I came to be this way and start to think on how I want to develop as a professional as well as a human being. To do this, I feel that I must tell you about myself, share a little of my history with you before I proceed to disassemble myself and then put myself back together in the best way possible, deconstructing one, Juan Angel.

On my Background

I’m going far back but I don’t intend to linger too long on this memories, I will only explore briefly this pieces of the puzzle that is Juan the person, later I will discuss Juan the professional.

Early years

So, back when I was in high school I was the quiet type, I didn’t talk much with others, I used to believe I had everyone figured out so I would rather spend my time drawing creatures on multiple sketchbooks and dreaming of alternate worlds. I knew I wanted to pursue a career where I would build worlds I just didn’t know what that career was at this point.

First University years

Still trying to figure out where I could work on my dreams, I decided to start a career in philosophy and literature. I hoped to learn how to start writing properly about the worlds, the places and the stories in my head.

I believe this to be one of turning points of my life, I met many amazing people from a diversity of backgrounds, in a country that has such a strong class conflict this was an eye opening experience for me. I learned a lot about the realities of others and how they compared to mine. I learned about values and respect and learned that no matter our background we could all relate to each other. During this process I also learned very particular ways to write and gained significant reading comprehension skills, which have helped me greatly in all of my endeavors. A small but important note here is that I never stopped drawing, people would ask me for portraits and fantasy creatures, I got really tired of drawing fairies and vampires for petititions.

Later University years

I continued my career in philosophy and I loved it! I was learning Latin and Greek, I was learning about theology and about evolution, I learned about Oscar Wilde, and Hegel and Heidegger. It was all quite an experience but I realized that my dreams were not materializing. I came to the realization that I was just swimming in other people’s dreams and while some of this dreams were set in beautifully realized worlds, I wanted to create my own, which is why I made a decision to move to the city and start a career in graphic design with a focus on illustration. From here on I would continue building on my artistic skills.

Graphic design

This is another pivotal point in my life, moving to the city gave me even more insight and made me realize the scope of things was even larger than I ever thought. I met people from every part of the country and this people were doing all sorts of stuff. Some were very talented no doubt, but they lacked the passion and drive to build their legacy. I never stopped searching for people with drives, and then I met this group of like-minded people that wanted to build worlds through art and design. It was with this friends that I really learned about teamwork and project building. At some point I realized that the seed idea for a project we proposed was becoming a full fledged world, this place was the sum of our ideas, the whole greater than the sum of its parts. This would have never been accomplished without this team effort and back and forth discussion and it really helped open my mind to other ideas that could propel mine beyond their initial scope.

During my graphic design years I learned a lot about shapes, composition, color and a variety of techniques like acrylics, watercolors, color pencils and even stop motion puppet making. I was accumulating the tools to build and engineer my worlds; the design aspect helped me make smart decisions on how to present my ideas to others.

My artistic skills grew but my people skills largely remained the same, I was still a quiet individual, and while polite and willing to help friends in times of need I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to meet someone new.

Moving on

Graphic design taught me so much about presentation, I came to the somewhat dubious realization that a mediocre product with an outstanding presentation could become the next big thing. I decided to focus some of my final years in graphic design in improving my presentation skills (in terms of graphics) to better show my work. Now, this last statement would make it seem that I think my work is mediocre, but, while there is room for improvement, I believe myself to be quite a capable artist.

The next step

I successfully graduated as a graphic designer and made a decision to continue my studies in the USA. I decided to pursue my studies in Game Design. I realized that the answer was there in front of me all along, I had always been an avid videogame player I was passionate about the worlds of videogames and I wanted to be a part of that. My dreams have led me this far, I keep meeting new and fantastic people and I keep improving my skills and this is just the beginning…


Evaluation of character

The reason I went through all that background information is because at this pivotal points in my life is where I learned all the personality and character ethics that define me, this have been the key moments that have made me the artist I’m today.

At different points I have learned different skills and different things about myself.

I will go over the character ethics that define me and at what points were this ethics acquired, I will also discuss aspects I need to improve.

Integrity: I consider myself to be very reliable and I’m always on time for my appointments, however this wasn’t always the case. Back in my high school years I didn’t care too much about delivering work and meeting deadlines cause I just wasn’t interested in schoolwork. Later when I started realizing my dreams and chose a career path, that changed, I learned that when you are truly passionate about something you want to get it done, and done on time.

Humility: This area presents particular problems for me because back in high school most of the people I grew up with were trying to bring me down all the time and when I started my career path I decided to take things into my hands and do my work with determination. I truly believe I’m capable of great things, this might strike some as arrogance but I believe that I work really hard. If someone needs my help I will try to give them advice based on my experiences and choices, I will try to be patient but ultimately we all make our own path.

Fidelity: I’m determined and will always strive to get my work done to the best of my ability; hard work will always shine through even if the results are unexpected. I also strive towards self-improvement and do regular exercises (artistic and physical) to keep my mind sharp and my body fit.

Temperance: For the longest time in my life I had a very short fuse, I would yell and overreact at every minor annoyance. Once I realized how much pain and inconveniences I was causing I decided I would never be like that again. I still get annoyed with surprising regularity but I mostly keep it to myself, I’m always polite and respectful even in the most tense and dire situations.

Courage: I have a terrible tendency to slide into comfort zones and just repeat tasks, I’m trying to pull myself away from this comfort zones but fear can be a powerful deterrent. Some of my more recent classes have helped me address my fears and thus increase my skills in a variety of areas that I thought I would never master.

Justice: I always try to be fair with my peers, I will congratulate them on a job well done and will never call them out in front of everyone for their mistakes. I would never do unto someone what I don’t wish upon myself.

Patience: I’m patient and understanding with my peers. I try to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and will try to motivate my peers with encouragement on a job well done while minimizing the weakest points. Weak points can be fixed and strong points can be improved, we all grow together.

However I must clarify that I have zero tolerance for laziness and will quit groups with people that can’t pull their weight, I’ve done this before and will not stand for mediocrity.

Industry: On this point, while I believe I work very hard, I think I don’t get as much work done as I can produce. A reason for this might be that I have a very high standard for myself and products that don’t reach those expectations are discarded. I can push myself to the very limits to reach my deadlines but I believe that in the long term this is going to be to the detriment of my health, I don’t expect to live very long with my current sleep schedule.

Hopefully that should cover my character ethics

Personality ethics

Moving on to my personality ethics I do try to be positive but I don’t succeed all the time and I’ve had problems with authority figures before, I really have a hard time handling commanding people. If asked nicely I will do my work to the best of my ability but I don’t respond kindly to people that are commanding and shout a lot.

I’m not thick skinned at all and a bad situation can sour my whole day making me a nasty person to be around. I will try to avoid people that complain and whine a lot but I will flock to hard working people with good work ethics and practices.

I will always congratulate my peers if I believe they have done a good job and will try to elevate the quality of my work to match that of my hard working peers.

Skills and conclusion

Keeping all the previously stated in mind I assess that my overall skillset and character ethics can be summarized as follows:

Skills

  • Professional presentation and layout skills (graphic design).
  • Understanding of human anatomy (still improving).
  • Basic to moderate painting skills.
  • Bilingual – Able speak and write in two languages fluently.
  • Diverse skill set, can execute 2D as well as 3D tasks.
  • Ability to organize and execute projects.
  • Excellent reading and comprehension skills
  • Will get work done in time.
Ethics
  • Hard working and tenacious.
  • Quiet but polite and respectful.
  •  Willing to listen to critique.
  •  Understanding of others.
  • Low tolerance for failure. (My own failures)

Conclusion

I could have covered more of my own failures and deficiencies but this is my blog and my presentation, and part of that is being positive so I’m showing myself in a more positive light. I believe that I was fair in my assessment of strengths and weaknesses and anyone who reads this will probably have a good idea of who I am and what my work ethics and character ethics are. 

If you made it this far I salute you and thank you for reading!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Neon Avenger MOD

This was a fun project, this little game is a heavy modification of the Unity game demo Angry bots. I went in and designed a bunch of new assets and modified others in order to give the game a completely different look and feel. I also changed the camera angle to make it feel more like a classic shooter, a lot of stuff changed from concept to final but most of the changes improved gameplay in areas of the level were it was lacking. I put some fun easter eggs in this one too.

Here you will find the game pitch, level layout, vignettes and screenshots.











Saturday, February 8, 2014

Small steps - exploration game

 This work was done for my first person exploration game called Small steps. In small steps you are an explorer in the planet ITHYLL-3, this planet has many wonderful sights and is sure to become a major space tourist spot. Here I show you the level layout and some vignettes of the sights in the game.














Coming soon...

more to come.



Bane study

Then...you'll have my permission to die.


Apple Study

Quick apple Study


Hands study

Hands paint studies.