Journey of the Mountain King

Here's an update to my painting with some color added.  Still have a ways to go...

(New title: Journey of the Mountain King)

I'm going for a more muted color palette so I will try to keep most of the color to a minimum except the robot when I paint the color on.

The Squidopus

The Squidopus

This is the painting that I mentioned in my previous post.  This is my first oil painting and it was a great experience and really fun! The pictures not great but it is a phone picture so.... yeah.

The Wanderer

Just a quick post to show a new painting that I just started.  I finished another one and I'll post it soon.

This painting is called The Wanderer.  It still has A LOT of work to be done to it but I'm really happy with the concept!

 Step 1

Step 2 (Blurry : / )

Update on Mage Faire

We have been having an explosion of people on our website! (Not literally) I've been really busy with all of that and also with holiday stuff.  But, back to our game.  We had so many people try to sign up for newsletters and alpha testing that it actually knocked out our mailing system temporarily.  Amazing stuff!

Mage Faire Online

Since returning to the US I have been working for an indie game studio called Mage Faire Studios.  I helped out a LOT with the website..... so yeah check that out!  I'll post occasionally about it when I can.  Right now I can't unless something has been officially released.  This is one of those things! :D

www.magefaireonline.com

More Sketches and Another Steampunk Creature

I saw that a lot of people were coming to my blog to look for steampunk drawings so I thought I'd throw another one up with a couple other sketches.  I love sketching and I'm glad that I can share my sketches with other people who come to visit my blog, even if it is just in passing.   Behold! O_o

 This guy is based off of a very disturbing break in that happened a while back.  This is my mental interpretation of the criminal.

 This is based off of a cool picture that I saw in 3D World magazine.  I took the basic form and added all kinds of creepy stuff. (unfinished) (It says To Babysan: my infinite inspiration)

 This one came from my mind when I was studying art nouveau and wanted to put my own spin on it.

This was something that was inspired by Brian Despain, my favorite artist.

Here is the steampunk degu.  If you don't know what a Degu is, I recommend that looking them up.  We had 2 of them in Budapest and they were the sweetest little rodents EVER! (Not Legal in California, just FYI)

So that's it. Hope you enjoyed it :)

Dragoncon or the Best Weekend of the Year

Oh Dragoncon.  What an amazing event.  Held over labor day weekend, it is by far the greatest weekend of the year.  The thing I love about this particular convention is that it isn't big enough to force you to wait in line for ridiculous amounts of time, unless you want to, and it's also big enough that there is plenty to do!  To give you an idea of how much there is to do, we would get up at 8, eat breakfast, head to the convention at 9:30, and then get home at 3:30..... in the morning O_o.  Crazy stuff!

This year there were at least 52,000 people! If that's not enticing enough, it is considered to have the BEST cosplay costumes.  There are also many workshops for people who are interested in learning about making their own costumes or doing cool things themselves, such as writing for videogames.

Now,without further ado, here's some pictures!

For more information here's the website dragoncon.org

Long time between posts

I have not posted in a long time.  I had a lot of issues with depression the last couple of months in Hungary and couldn't get up the energy to post ANYTHING.  However I'm ready to go again.  I hope at least one person is still reading this.  Since my last post I have left Hungary, gotten a new job working on a video game, and felt a lot happier.

I think that Hungary was an amazing time and I really hope that everyone will feel inclined to visit Budapest at some point in their lives, but I think my time there was over.  I will miss it a lot but on to new things!

For my first post back I would like to post a few picture of a vinyl figure that I made and that's it.  Enjoy!

A Trip to Turkey

Bwah. THis is my first blog post in 2 months. Talk about slacking! Anyways here's some videos!

The first batch is from Istanbul.

First Night in Istanbul

A Cool Cafe in Istanbul.

The Aya Sofya. It was SO amazing!

This place that we went to had the BEST baklava ever! It was amazing!

The Entrance to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

Inside the Grand Bazaar.... after the power went out and everyone had to use generators.

We went to Bosnia last year and first heard the call to prayer there, at sunset. I think this is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard.

A beautiful view of the harbor.

The most amazing fish sandwich that I've ever had in MY LIFE!!!! They actually caught the fish about 20 feet from where we ate it!

Jake and I decided to get a haircut in Turkey. Here's Jake getting a Turkish style haircut. It was quite an experience!

Bwah! I have no idea what this was about but it was cool!

The haircutter also used an old style razor! It was pretty cool! It was pretty smooth too!

Then it was my turn for the fire!

This was the final result of an almost 2 hour search for these amazing sweet treats. It was well worth the time that it took. It turns out that they were an old style treat in Turkey, which meant that they were almost impossible to find!

Next up.... Pamukkale

Nothing to really say here. I think the videos speak for themselves. You can really see how beautiful of a place this was. The water was so warm and clear. IT was a truly amazing experience!

Cappadocia.....

This was, by far, the most difficult part of the trip. It all started with a series of troublesome, and expensive bus rides. Each person we asked along the way insisted that finding a bus to our destination would be easy. However, we ended taking many buses out of our way and paying out the nose for said bus rides. It was a nightmare even trying to find a bus that would take us to a place near Cappadocia. However, afterwards the time that we spent there was quite enjoyable. I even got a chance to try doing some Yoga, which was actually pretty amazing!!

This is how our bus trip started out after we were basically stranded by the bus company.

However, things chilled out and started going a lot better.... kinda....

Here were some amazing trees that we found on the side of the road.

Goreme

Goreme again

And finally, on the way out of Cappadocia we saw this mountainside village.

This was our trip to Turkey. Hope you enjoyed the videos!

Remembering 9/11

So, I'm sitting in bed and looking at pictures of the terrorist attacks from 9/11. I still get choked up seeing them. I hate to think that anyone is even capable of doing a thing like that. However, I'm also happy to see how everyone has united to remember the people that died. I think this is a day I will always remember for the rest of my life, as if it happened yesterday.

It's strange that here they can talk about it so casually. I don't think that they really truly understand how, as an American, that I feel about this. I hope that they never have to know either.

Phhhheeewww...... ok here we go

Time to catch up on this blog. I have been seriously busy but I finally made some time to get this done.

First up....

First up is one of my new CGI projects. It's a cat shaman. It's pretty much done and I'm happy with how it turned out.

This one is a demon for a scene that I'm going to make. I still have a lot of work to do on the scene but yeah....

Well, I guess that's probably it since I can't seem to find any of my videos so I'll have to look for my camera... : /

Fail and Epic Fail :(

Soooooo.... This is bad.... really bad. I haven't updated this blog in a REALLY long time. I have a good excuse though! I've been busy..... that's a pretty lousy excuse... but it IS true. Well anyways, I'll do my back entries for all the videos that I've taken. There's been a LOT.

Well, on to the present. We went to a wine festival today and it was really fun. It was in a place called Skanzen. We had some wine, but not too much, and then we enjoyed some electrofolk music, which is amazing. If you haven't heard it, check it out! This is a short entry but there will be more soon!

(This is a quote from our tour guide in Mostar. to give it some context, he was refering to how nothing in the world is what it is. There is always some reasoning behind everything.)

This past trip was probably one of the best we've ever had. It was relaxing, exciting, beautiful, and thrilling all at the same time. Sarajevo was, admittingly, not the best part of the trip. The real beauty and adventure was in Mostar, which was surprising, given it's size. However we had a wonderful time there!!!

View of the countryside from the train.

A short tour of our hostel. It was perfect! If you go to Mostar, you MUST stay at Majdas. The people were so amazing and Bata's tour is well worth the trip alone! Not to mention that Majda is the sweetest person I've ever met :)

The Islamic call to prayer at sunset. It was so beautiful!

The waterfall that we got to swim in!!

A small castle town, far from civilization!

The old bank building. It was apparently used by snipers during the war. It's pretty eerie. It was totally abandoned but there were still many things in it, ranging from old files from the bank to bullet shells that had been fired by the snipers. Creepy!

Well, that's all from the amazing vacation that we just got back from. It was an amazing experience, and to be honest it was Majdas Hostel that was the main cause. If you go to Mostar, this is the only place you should stay at.

Working on a Portfolio

There hasn't been too much to update lately. Things have been busy, as usual. Worl is work and life is life. We've been doing things but It's very hard to find the time to wait for videos to upload to the internet. Especially more than one. On the good side, there are many things coming up soon so hopefully that will give me an incentive to record and upload. However, I'm starting to get really into animation again since we've been having kind of a lul. Annnnnyyyways, Here's 2 projects I've been working on. Both were made in a combination of Maya and Mudbox. Both unbelievable programs! The first is the head of a type of alien from the video game StarCraft 2. I had a fun time making it and learned alot from tutorials that I watched on youtube.

Protoss bust.

The next is a character that I drew in my sketch book. I think the modeling came out pretty well and I'm glad that it came out as well as it did. He's kind of a forest spirit guy that I thought up a while back.

The Forest Spirit. The face is like a wooden mask.

Well, that's all for now. I'm excited to get back into modeling and doing something towards getting into grad school!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

It's a little late but the 24th was my birthday! It was a really good one too! I got presents from some of the teachers, some of the students, and everyone wished me a happy birthday! It made me very happy :D. Unfortunately, it's at times like this that I really miss home. It makes it very hard not being able to see everyone that I love and care about. I miss everyone so much!

On a second note, I worked on a project for our friend Jake. He wanted an intro video for his videos so here it is.

Not too much else has been going on. I got some more videos to upload from our trip to Serbia.

Today.... is a sick day. Val and I have been feeling like crap since we got back from our vacation yesterday. Val wasn't feeling good since Saturday and it really started hitting me on Monday. Blech!
On the bright side, I'm now able to post updates to my blog! Huzzah!

First update: The Buso Festival. This was a crazy holiday where people dress up in demon costumes, scare people, befriend children, and sexually assault women.... and yes it was as weird, and as fun, as it sounds.

One of the first busos we saw.

baby buso!!!

Buso parade!!!!!

Busos starting the bonfire!!!!!!!!!

and last but certainly not least....

The Buso bonfire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although we walked around for 8 hours, and felt like our legs were going to fall off, it was an amazing time and it was an easy festival to get sucked into. Eveyone had a great time and I think that most people would enjoy it. Even the kids, oddly enough, were delighted by the Busos. Weird, wacky stuff!

Ah. The Ski trip. What a crazy, amazing, wild, fun, and disorienting trip. See, a couple of weeks ago we were invited to go skiing in Austria. We of course said yes. Well, we got some AMAZING pictures and videos!


It was super foggy. Which was really strange. Actually, to be more accurate, it wasn't foggy but cloudy. We were at such a high altitude that we were in the clouds!

This was a ride up one of the main ski lifts.

There aren't many videos from the trip but there were a LOT of photo opportunities!

Val in Ski School!

The view from the top of the red. Breath taking!

Relaxing at the top of a red run!

It was so cold that Val's hair started frosting!

Old Christmas Videos

I've been really falling behind on blogging! Sorry to everyone who looks at my blog. I'm gonna try and get better about it!



Anyways, I forgot to post videos of when we went to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, so here it is now! Better late than never.

This first video is of some blacksmithing! It was really cool and it was nice to get close to a heat source since it was so unbelievably cold!

Along with the blacksmithing were some carols! It was great. This was a rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star!"

Lastly, there was this street performer with a puppet. People loved it and he drew a huge crowd. It might be hard to see in the video but the "puppet" got mad when an old man walked accross his stage. It was pretty hilarious!

I loved Bratislava and I think it was a nice place to go for a day trip.

So fast forward a bit and we find ourselves at the day filled with adventure. Jake, Val, and I explored the town and discovered many new and interesting sights! The first was the top of Castle District.

the castle and the Fisherman's Bastion!

These were some old ruins accompanied by a little dialogue from my self and from Jake!

This was part of the underground hospital. They were selling gas masks for 1500 HUF ($7.50) and that was WAY too good of a deal to pass up. We had a lot of fun afterwards taking pictures and videos wearing the masks!

Well, now we fast forward to the recent past. Val and I's friend Amy recently had a birthday party and she invited us. It was Mexican themed and she invited some Hungarians to join in the festivities as well. Great fun! They all loved the tacos that Amy made and Val even made some sopapillas that everyone loved as well!

Otkert

Ahhh what can I say about this wonderful place? It's the MOST amazing place in Budapest and our favorite place to go. This place has it all, good food, amazing decor, and the friendliest staff I've met anywhere in Europe. If you go to Budapest, you have to go here. I've been agonizing about posting about this place because it's so amazing and I don't want people knowing about it, but my kind nature made me change my mind :). If anyone wants us to take them there when they're here, let us know! (Not that you'll have a choice) :)

Otkert on Google Maps!

The Speaking Test!!!

This has been the craziest week that Val and I have experienced yet! It seems that everything is falling on the same days. For instance, this week we had everything happen! The new teachers from CETP arrived this week and we stopped by to say hi, My kids had a practice speaking test (That they all did great on!) and Val and I started our Hungarian lessons this week as well! It has been crazy, but mainly exciting!

To everyone that I haven't talked to on Skype, sorry about that. This week has been absolutely packed with things and I've had a hard time managing all of it.