why must we do this?

After this semester, I won't have to touch Autodesk Maya ever again. Which is fantastic because that is possibly the worst program I've ever had to work with. And it singlehandedly convinced me that 3D modeling is not my thing at all. For two semesters of me cursing more than the usual, and feeling like the object of torture from a program.

But I digress: I am now working on the final project I'm doing for the only class utilizing Maya, Advanced Gaming. Throughout the semester we actually barely used Maya, which was music to my ears. We basically divided into groups and made board games. And we actually did concept art, which we didn't get to do at all last semester. Unless we count chairs and silverware...

Then we took these board games and made assets for a 2D game version of it. Somewhat unknowingly, I somehow ended up with the hardest portion of the group: backgrounds. I didn't think it would take as long as it did. As in my group-mates finished their work before I even worked on the 2nd out of 4 backgrounds. Needless to say, one of them (super awesome friend Alex) did 90% of the 4th background for me. But yeah. I think I earned roughly 2-4 years of no pixel art. Yes: pixel/sprite backgrounds.

That was probably the hardest part of the semester: and that didn't even utilize Maya! But for this final project, I had to jump back into it. Good news is: we could make our own concept art for this! Also good news: it doesn't even have to be a human. In fact, it's a creature! This isn't done yet, but I'm pretty satisfied with the model. It's based on Surf 'n Turf, a undead-zombie-fish-with-legs that I made for the above board game. I've gained an affinity for it, I admit it.

Tomorrow I'll be trying out Mudbox for the texturing because let's be clear: I hate sewing texture maps with a passion. Hate's a strong word, and I am not afraid to use it in all aspects of this program and anything 3D-relevant. And I respect ANYONE who can make amazing things in 3D. In fact, these two semesters made me appreciate how much effort is put into all the 3D-animated movies these days.