Hello Polycount!
My name is Mike Ackerman, and I am a senior at Champlain College. Currently I am gearing up to join the excellent profession of Game Art and Animation, which I am really excited about.

I believe that Champlain has an excellent program for teaching its students about Game Development. We have three tracks - Design, Art , and Engineering. The curriculum is such that we have production courses that teach us to work with the other main departments. We have two production classes, and a third called "Senior Team Project" which is essentially a group thesis project.

I am currently half way through this cycle - end if the first semester. The goal is to produce a solid vertical slice that will appeal to a board of Professors, who in turn approve our project for full production in the second semester. Out of the 18 teams vying for a spot to launch into full production, 8 were chosen to continue. My team, project Blue, was lucky enough to be one of those 8 teams.

Right now my skills are kind of divided. My curriculum is focused on high quality 3D game art, but over the last year or so, I have found a real passion for digital painting and concept art, which I have been perusing on my own time.

I will be posting some art soon - as for the status of critiques - I will put a status on each piece.

WIP - feel free to critique! Gotta love the advice!

Final - I don't plan on working on that piece any more, but if there is something you absolutely must point out, go ahead. I am always open to critiques.


I am excited to be part of the Polycount community and to learn and share this awesome passion for games and art!
Happy posting everyone!

Hi Mike! It's British! I want to see your work

Hey polycounters,
As I mentioned earlier, I am in the thick of production with my team of 6, working on our Senior Thesis, Senior Team Project.

Here is some work from our project so far. My involvement thus far has been finding the style for our game, and working on the character model. ( I love character work)
I will share the work from Blue first (our working title), then I have some personal work to share as well.

Blue

Character Concept - "Andria"
Explorer that find a pair of solar powered wings and discovers an abandoned the remains of a floating civilization. The two most influential characters are Captain Jack Sparrow, and Hope (Mirrors Edge)



Here is the progress of Andra's model so far. The final poly count is about 4.5k.





Added Wings - They fold up into a backpack




UV unwrap from hell - Since trying to focus on Digital painting, I completely forgot how to UV unwrap effectively, after about 8 hours I took the training wheels back off. I was also learning 3D Coat at the same time. (Super Awesome) Over all, I know it is disorganized, but I am fairly happy with it.







Critiques are welcome, although depending on when I get them, I may not be able to implement them, my team mate who is animating needs the character ASAP, but I always enjoy a good critique, so have at it!

Ok, here is some of my personal work I have done thus far. About a year ago I became infatuated with digital painting. I have always loved concept art, and decided, "With enough hard work I can do it too!" Well, I worked away. And although I don't think I am anywhere near being considered a professional, it is something I deeply enjoy. I have instead decided to use the 2D skills I am developing to support and foster growth in my 3D work, and to relax and have fun. I am really into hand painted textures (ala Torchlight) and using my 2D to flesh out ideas for my 3D work.

Here is most of my work from newest to oldest - I have to warn you, I had a really rough Fall semester, so not much got done unfortunately....

Ok, First

Girly - 45 minute sketch with a new brush I made. I am currently taking my first oil painting class (sooo much fun) and wanted a brush to emulate that feel.



Monk - Inspired by a feeling of serenity at some point last semester (an oasis in a hellish dessert to be sure)



Dragoon Versions 1 and 2 - I wanted to do a variation on the Dragoon class that shows up in many fantasy games. From what I gather, the essence of a dragoon is diving at an enemy with a spear in hand. They are agility based and strike quickly and hard. I decided instead of the traditional jumping method that most dragoons employ, my dragoon was going to use a grappling hook attached to his arm to pull himself at breakneck speeds at his enemies. I plan to make a game model of this character



Version 2 was to address some perspective issues that were occurring. Although unfinished, this is much closer to the dynamic vision I originally had.



The last two were the fruit of my labor over the summer of 2009 - learning digital painting basics. I have no idea how many hours of tutorials and PSD hunting I did. I am a huge Jason Chan of Massive Black fan, so I hunted down every tutorial and ounce of teaching I could find.

The first painting I did during the summer was inspired by the song Anna Molly by Incubus, and Sunburn by Muse. Although the original concept was going to be all warm colors, this one ended up in the cool spectrum.

Anna Molly




This is, in my opinion my Magnum Opus of my 2D work thus far. It was inspired by my love of ethics and the show Ergo Proxy. If something is thrust into what we perceive as self consciousness, how does our relationship with that thing change? What level of respect does it deserve? And most interesting, how should we/do we react?


Lucid Cognition.








Here are some versioning compilations for Anna Molly and Lucid Cognition that I used to present my workflow to the Advanced Seminar class I participated in during the summer of 2009

Hey man, keep up that clean style - it looks really nice.

You should focus on anatomy studies, and still lifes to improve your values, try to show how different materials have different value curves and textures/edges

Keep up

You have some great work in here! That 3d character is awesome, i especially like the concept.

And these latest drawings you've done are great.

Hey everyone!

Here are some new sketches I did while on a train to DC.

style study


Hazards of love, inspired by some of the work here on CGHub


A DJ with holographic turntables who dances on a floor of giant pixels




I was experimenting with styles during the trainride.
I would like to finish the Forest Queen, so if anyone has suggestions or critiques, please let me know what is on your mind.

Currently, I feel like her body is torqued a bit too much, but I really want that s shape that it has right now. Im pretty sure her legs are wrong. If anyone has a reference image or something to help with that, it would be most appreciated. Thanks!

The suit in the bottom left reminded me of my friend Taylor, so I am trying to render it. Any help and critique would be most welcome, especially about the lighting and rendering. I know the piece is kind of flat, but, im Cult of Done'ing this thing.

Thanks!

Here is a sketch for a fire breathing bull i did for an entrant for the 3D Creature Planet challenge I help moderate on CGHub.

Also some sketches I did this summer but never got around to posting

Here is my next project, I am thinking of bringing it into illustrator after I finish planning the composition.

I have also included a critique one of my friends gave me. If you have any input, please let me know!