I am nearing my 100th post and thats the reason I'm making this blog post.
I want to convey how genuinely thankful I am for Team Liquid featuring my stream and allowing me to broadcast my trials and tribulations in the 3D sculpting world.
How it all started:
I was fresh off my anatomy course with Zbrush (the software I use), and somethings my teacher (Alex Oliver) said really stuck with me, mainly that we students thought too much about doing stuff and did not actually do them.
I pondered this for a good while and what he meant was that by the time we got the courage to face the software and test our skills he would have already done 10 models and that was why he was teaching and we were learning, its an interesting concept that not enough people grasp. DO STUFF, don't just think about it. Take action , its all in your hands.
So I took action !
Being a mod for several "high profile" streams led me to share my work with other moderators and one of them in particular Jeroen van de Pol (Miicr0) told me to stream my sculpting.
I was a bit skeptical about doing it but eventualy he convinced me, getting over 60 viewers in my first showing I was astounded and taken aback as to how many people were interested...it was short lived however since I was sculpting this woman, and she happened to be naked. And so Justin.tv banned me without a word or warning..shutting me down for good it seemed.
I could not stream my human work it seemed, so the logical next step was to help out my good friend Ben Nichol (MrBitter) who was doing a little show called 12 weeks with the pros. He needed a banner and he was zerg..I would oblige ! It would be a challenge and good practice.
The Show !
So I had this sculpt in my mind ever since I got to know MrBitter and his show.
It was my first ever Sketch on this website and you can check it out below.
It was a two hour sculpt ! not bad and I got my good mod friends from MrBitter's stream to come watch and support me. A total of around 20 people came to watch my debut ! I was so happy !
Zergling Head:
24th of February
After this first foray I decided to make my blog post and the feedback was more than I ever expected. Such kind words and encouragement. Thank you all to those original posters/friends who bumped it and gave me an average rating of 4.8.
It was such a good feeling to sculpt and just not care, I just wanted to get better. I wanted to feel this again.
The next day I sculpted Tassadar, or at least what I thought he looked like. It was an interesting experience gathering reference understanding the best tools for each job and trying to get the best result possible.
Tassadar Bust:
The feedback was again overwhelmingly positive ! And I just felt like I needed to keep going. Maybe one day a few months down the road I could be featured as something different to watch !
So what better way to keep myself relevant than to try to do the Team Liquid horse logo ? With a twist of course
Team Liquid Horse:
I wont say that I'm in love with this piece but It was certainly fun to work out all the kinks with my friends on the stream, not perfect by any means but nice enough.
The question:
One thing crossed my mind, what if one day in the far flung future I could make an art event on team liquid...well how do those events work? I know..Ill ask Kennigit !!
And so I sent him a PM wondering how events worked and such as I just wanted to get a few more viewers, because not all tournament broadcasters are featured and such..could not hurt to ask.
A couple of days later...
The Answer:
"hihi, been watching your videos/streams and they are very nice. I do some zbrush sculpting myself as a hobby but im chobo ^^. Unfortunately admins/mods are the only people that can add events to the calendar. Instead we are going to feature your stream so that more people can see it.
Hope that helps
Kennigit"
My expression:
OOOOOOOOOOOO MMMMMM GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG O_O
KENNIGIT YOU SNEAKY STREAM LURKER YOU !
Keep in mind that this was 4 days after I started streaming or so. I could not believe my eyes.
After this it was decided...lets start a SHOW ! and lets call it TIME FOR ART !
Nazgul and Kennigit responded to the thread and I remember to this day what both of them said..they kept me going !
I was pumped ! I was featured but now was the time to make a splash ! Still I had alot I needed to improve (and do still) but I felt everyone deserved to see a full character sculpted.
Enter the Mustalisk:
My first full character sketch ! Alot of rough edges but definetly promising I thought and so did alot of other intrepid folk who watched me and started following me .
We did not stop there tho, we wanted bigger !! Badder !!
Queen:
4 hours !! And I was so tired after this !! In the end I did not like this sculpt very much but it was a good experience in dealing with large characters and trying to match reference..not complete fail.
Plus I had a power outage I get sympathy points at least...
I wanted to take it back a bit...I was going to fast. Burning myself out this early would not be good.
So In the advent of dragon age 2 coming out , I decided to beat the first game again and maybe do a sculpt of an ogre.
Ogre Sculpt:
I really like this piece for a couple of reasons , one it was short and sweet.
Two, It looked like the ogre from Dragon age. This was enough, I was happy.
And then came the true test...saturday..nobody home just me and the computer....
Hell, lets make a Dark Templar !
Ah this guy , I love him for so many reasons but Ill list a few.
It was a good complete process, of base muscles into armor , into detail. Very important to do at least once.
I meet Thundertoss! and Spazcraft they liked my work and he asked me why I was not in justin.tv......
3, he just looks like a boss :D.
Getting Unbanned from justin.tv:
Let me tell you comrades this was not so easy, but I had good friends in Thundertoss and Spazcraft.
I made 3D logo for Spaz and told Thundertoss he could have some big renders of my DT for whatever he wanted to do with it. Also I gave him mod cause he is a badass.
I held the logo hostage till I got unbanned and traded it for good unban bullets metro 2033 style.
And there we had it , Run_sc2 was dead but RuN__ was now in business and back on justin.tv.
So why not celebrate...and make...
A Hydralisk !
This thing was alot of work, but well worth it. I was quite happy and still am as were alot the people who helped me create him.
Then I took another step back and took a break...I was undecided..conflicted lots of things happening with my life....
A few days later we made a Corruptor !
I noticed something, I was getting faster..better at getting the shapes in...transforming concept to sculpt..it was moving forward..I liked that.
And then another challenge, no more gooey soft stuff..lets make something that is mechanical !
A Stalker !
To this day I still don't like this at all, but thats because hindsight is 20/20. And I know how that I went about this all wrong..its ok tho some peeps still liked it.
And then I failed:
I promised an Ultralisk and I did not deliver. I am still very frustrated till this day about that Ultralisk...It just didnt go well and I don't want to talk about it. I will do him one day..when I am better.
I shook it off tho and started fresh..
Overlord
]
Believe it or not , this took one hour to do. Thats how bad it is..I still don't know how people like this one..but I hey to each his own...quick and dirty.. literally.
Discovering my new found speed...I just wanted to keep on it.
This led me to just sketch alot, get some basic cubes and make some characters...and here is the result. I needed to relax..not think about it.
Red Alien:
This guy was fun to do and alot of people liked him, he is different and has some really interesting details like his neck and the overall shape of his face...overall happy with this .
And then...we stumbled on...
Gruff !
So we started with this head that I really liked and one of my viewers told me to give him a body..
Still shaken up about that Ultralisk I was hesitant but I just felt like he deserved more than just a head.
And so we built his body and armor . Im also quite happy with this sketch.
And then came Tyler...
Oh Tyler..your face still haunts my dreams every time I try to figure out how to make a bunch of clay look like you..
Tyler was nice enough to come into the stream watch , give feedback and get us some pictures of himself.. ALOT of pictures. He is AWESOME.
I then grew comfortable enough to use my webcam and to show my tablet/myself/my cat. A big step into the quality of the show.
After failing abit on likenesses I also wanted to change it up and so we did, Thundertoss came back ask me a favor for the boys over at Z33k
Z33k Coin !
I don't know how I did this..so don't ask.. I like it tho and so do the guys at z33k. Quite happy with this one ).
With being featured comes great responsability:
Responsibility 1: Be nice to your stream, always. FOREVER and talk to everyone. Be nice to trolls that way the don't come back.
Responsibility 2: Listen to good relaxing music...that way you can put people in a chilled state and they never see the dubstep drop coming ! RWAR.
Responsibility 3: Innovate !! And challenge yourself !!
And challenge we did... grab a few cubes and make a marine suit..
Marine Suit out of Cubes + Tyler.
This was so much fun to do, and quite hard as well, but I got my highest viewer count and that was 470 people. I said that If we could break 400 I would put Tyler in the suit..and so..I did.
This stream also instated the 100 viewers Sarah (my cat) appearance. This rule seemed to be popular as my cat is the cutest thing evar.
So after this grueling saturday we took a break and did another sketch.
Zsaz
Alot of details here..and the introduction to the golden material of epicness that makes everything look amazing O_O.
At this point I had it in my mind for a long time that I wanted to make a baneling..and so we did.
Baneling!
This was a culmination of everything , these last 2 months that I've been with Team Liquid have been incredible. I sculpted and painted in just under 6 hours. So very fast ! I was impressed and quite happy with the result.
Hopefully now through me reliving a little bit of my work you can perhaps see how much I improved thanks to Team Liquid and my Stream. I could not have done it without you guys and for that I can't ever express how much you all mean to me. I would never have gathered up the will to keep going if it was not for you, and never would I be considered a better artist either.
Thank you, so much.
So enough about the past..lets talk about now.
I am an artist, I am constantly learning, and I need to improve lots of areas of my work still as I am far from being bullet proof like some artists but as I always say.. I will get there. With your help.
Here is what we did these past couple of days. We are concepting a full mechanical character that will be very polished and high quality, this is the concept that we are making the detail for ..stay tuned during the week to see the process.
5/10/11 edit:
Today after all the heart warming comments in this thread we decided to sketch this infestor that we will continue and finish during the week.
7 hours for this one
I would like to take this last paragraph here to again thank Team Liquid for allowing me to display my art/stream my work. It has helped me grow immensely as a person and artist.
I never dreamed that I would get featured so fast and much less that I would have such a loyal and INCREDIBLE fanbase ! You guys make my days shine brighter and you keep me going I love all of you !
It is because of you guys that I now have 617 followers on justin.tv and 110 on Twitter ( a number that grew VERY fast, due to what I think is the quality of my work increasing. ) All of it cascades.. I just don't have words, thank you so much.
It has also made my career advance in more ways then one..having gotten more than one raise in a period of 45 days. It is truly incredible what you guys helped me achieve.
I've made many new and very good friends ( Austin you rock bro ! ) you all changed my life.
THANK YOU !!!
A bit of pluggin:
MY SHOW THREAD IS HERE !
I pride myself in being the most interactive stream on Team Liquid so if you don't think thats true, come ask me a question. Come help me make my art better ! Lets do this together guys ! Maybe one day Ill be a big dog in this industry .
As a final note if you like my story and like my work you can track me down quite easily.
I am either being a MOD for:
MrBitter
Sheth
vVvTitan
Or I will be streaming with my cute cat ! justin.tv/run__
You can check out all the pictures and more of my work here:
Portfolio @magalhaes.carbonmade.com
Stream: @http://www.justin.tv/run__
Twitter: @RuN_3D (brother mack follows me here, that means that so should you)