Sunday, May 29, 2011

Weapon Concepts

Here is my 1st attempt in designing some weapons based on real life type weapons. The 1st one is based off a .308 version of an M4 carbine. Just an M4 with more punch. The second is based off a .50 cal sniper but again, with more punch. I will be designing some more weapons in the futue like a sub machine gun, pistol and a squad machine gun. Enjoy!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Excavation

In this piece I wanted to show some scale and depth with a futuristic sense. Here shows a crater or huge crack was created due to some underground growth of a crystalite right under a city. So this is the excavation process for large amounts of sampling for energy, and other tests for what the people of the city can make use of this new element. Hope you enjoy this piece like I do!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Fallout New Vegas

Ok, this post is simply for the game. I understand that developers will have different little bugs and glitches in video games that eventually get fixed after either the game testers find them or the public(which is probably the best testing for a video game) will eventually find them. Now there are some bugs and glitches that get past the internal game testers onto the public. Normally the developers will see them in forum posts or what not. They will eventually hear it from the public and then have them fixed/resolved. I would say an average game will get "most" of the games bugs and glitches after 1-3 months from the game's launch date.

Using Homefront as an example from what I mean. Homefront released the game with massive problems, not with the game directly, but their servers to where players (most, if not all) were blatantly unable to play the game online. Yea you could play the single player mode, but after 5 hours of gameplay available(who wants to play the same campaign 4 different times in under 2 days haha), the game was simply a $65 paper weight. The game was mainly aimed for multiplayer online gameplay, which I feel has TONS of replay value. But this post isnt about Homefront, so just to get to the point Im trying to make using this game as an example. Homefront was unable to be played online for over a week due player count exceeding server capacity. They got more servers online, fixed and tweaked a couple things and with under a few weeks, the MP side of it was golden.

Now Fallout New Vegas is a totally different story. I reseved FNV(Fallout New Vegas) once I found out it was available for reservation because Fallout 3 was just an epic game. I loved it and was a fresh new game you can play for hours once you got a bit bored of playing FPS's and just wanted a game a little slower paced. So launch day came for FNV and I went to a midnight launch (I always do!!)and was stoked I bought it. Poped it in my xbox 360 and played it for hours on end. During the time I came across quite a bit of bugs and glitches. To name a few I came across in the 1st few days of playing it is listed:

1. This was starting to get to me after a while, while running(and in some cases standing still) the player's arms and weapon in the first person mode, would dissapear and then re-appear from the top of the screen returning to its original position as if the player is doing a downward hit with his weapon starting with his hands over his head. Kinda like the 1st game Mario ever appeared in with Donkey Kong, when Mario has the hammer and how he hits haha. Thats the move FNV player made with what ever weapon her was wielding. Got annoying after a while.

2. I came across this a few times, but there was apoint where I was on a mission to meet a person in the middle of  a plain desert space with a few 10-15 tall cliffs around and as I approach the person, the person was no where to be found. But on my indicator, I was stranding right next to the player. Upon further inspection, I notice that the player was right where he was supposed to be........just 10ft underground haha. The person I was supposed to meet had somehow spawned inside the map's little cliffs; and in other cases, just under the ground in general. Now this was funny, but even a bigger problem from #1. I was unable to interact with the person I was meeting, therefor making the mission unable to continue until I restarted the game by dashboarding. Then the person would be in his/her/it's(haha) spot after re-launch. The same thing would happen when I would enter/exit a place where it required a loading screen and I was with a companion. After loading was done, my companion would spawn inside the map and I was unable to retrieve my companion until dashboard.

There were a few minor bugs/glitches but none I could remember due to it being a 1 or 2 time deal and/or it not being that major.

Now this was fine, but I had FNV for a while and decided to trade it in(around November-ish, cuz time was being spent on Black Ops)because I wanted to REALLY explore the game in its entirety, bug/glitch free. So I waited until yesterday (almost 8 months from launch date) to re-buy FNV and to finally explore it, hoping the bugs/glitches would be fixed. Poped in the game and guess what............problem #1 is still there, and as a matter of fact, even worse, problem #1 is happening more often. What makes me even more upsetting and one of the main reasons I took the time to write this, was that there are new bugs/glitches on top of the old ones. The new ones are listed:

#3. Probably the worst, and mabe even a deal breaker(as if to return the game for my money back). Upon entering V.A.T.S., my player(1st person mode) and the game would go into slow mode as normal with the camera aimed at my player, but then would just show my player just standing there doing nothing as the enemy would come closer to me and start to hit me while the slow mode still active. The enemy would then hit my player until my player and the enemy was out of the camera view. At about10-12 seconds after, it would go back to my first person mode and showed that I had taken all the damage the enemy did to me. During this time with my player just standing there, I was unable to move or use my player AT ALL. Multiple times it would happen with a Deathclaw and I would just die without me being able to do anything about it. This never happened to me once the 1st couple weeks I had the game. My guess it that the bug came out with the DLC's. Thats the only thing I can think of.

#4a. Minor bugs. Upon running up to an obsticle to jump on top/over(table, 3-5ft cliff, car hood). When my player touches the obsticle while running, I am unable to jump  until my player stops running. I have to run up to the obsticle until touching it, then stop, then jump over.

#4b. Upon entering V.A.T.S. while looking down or at a lower camera angle in first person mode, V.A.T.S. would zoom into the enemy as normal and give me targets, but the camera in V.A.T.S. would only show a portion of the enemy( ex. the knees down, leg and an arm - would be at the top of my camera or top corner, either side depending on prior viewing moments before V.A.T.S.).

#4c. There are certain spots on this huge map that my player would jump into a small gap in rocks and unable to get out unless I fast travel somewhere or die. This falls in with problem #2a. While in the little gap my player is stuck in, Im also unable to even jump, to help my player try and get out. These gaps are 5-10ft deep gaps that the rocks; or boulders rather, make when placed during development of level design.

What makes me upset is that none of the primary bugs/glitches were ever resolved, and new ones appeared making the game even more frustrating to play "broken". And also the the fact that the developers came out with a DLC before even fixing the game. It has been almost 8 months and these bugs/glitches persist making the game almost unplayable......litterally. This is a shame in my opinion(as are my thoughts in this whole post are) because I feel that this is a GREAT game and the fact that these bugs are still in the game, makes me not wanna play it. If Im gonna put the time and effort to play the game in its entirety, which might take a week or even a few.........then I feel its enough time for a developer to fix a problem that started 7 months ago, not add more. Since I love this game soo much, I will just have to endure the problem. It just sucks cuz no other game is like this. Not even Fallout 3, so I dont understand why the problems are still there. I hope the new Fallout (if there is gonna be a new) is not the same as this. So until a fix(or not haha), thanks for reading.

P.S. No offense to the game or game developer. The game rocks, and great job on a great game Devs!! Just need fixin.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Radiant

Ok here is the starting of my 1st map on Radiant for Call of Duty: World at War. This is my learning progress of about just over a week of using Radiant. I love this program and I feel it has its own flow that I feel I caught on pretty fast more than UDK. Plus it does not eat my CPU like UDK and its really fast loading up both from launcher and in-game. So I hope you enjoy some screenshots I took from in-game.







Sunday, May 22, 2011

ZOMBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This concept was inspired by playing a LOT of Call of Duty: Black Ops and being really into the fact that a zombie apocalypse will eventually happen(haha just imagine). I havent done a concept for a few days because I really been working on my project and learning Radiant so I can have another skill under my belt. Im trying to aim for a few concepts a week but its really hard when I have LOTS to learn about level design. So this week is a concept for all you zombie lovers (or haters for that matter haha). Enjoy!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Project Scorn.

Ok Project Scorn is a personal project I started working on 2 days ago (May 12th). Its a new game map Im going to be making in either Radiant or UDK, leaning more towards Radiant. I have a deadline(personal of course haha) that Im going to try and follow hardcore to get into the lifestyle of working under strict deadlines for the game industry. So I been working on some sketches and a couple of concepts(some still in the making). My deadline for the sketches and concepts are tomorrow but I thought Id throw what I have so far and update my blog as I go along with this project. So here are some sketches and concepts for the project. Enjoy!!

 Top sketch blueprint of map.
 Index(gotta have one!!)
 Chancellor building gonna be main focus of map, or enemy HQ.
Close up of building.
 Digital sketch with some color.

Final concept of map overview.

My Resume



Robert Maldonado
20724 Berendo Ave.
Torrance, CA 90502
310-743-6180 - cell
maldonad0art@yahoo.com
conceptart84@yahoo.com
 

OBJECTIVE: Seeking a full time position where I can utilize my art, creativity, talent and attention to detail; for game art/design and testing, in the video game industry

TECHNICAL SKILLS: Strong knowledge in Adobe Photoshop. Basic knowledge in 3d programs such as 3ds Max, Radiant and UDK. I also have experience in traditional art such as painting, drawing and sketching. My video game industry experience include working at GameStop as an Assistant Manager working with marketing, customer advisory and video game launches.                                                            
                                                           
EMPLOYMENT: 
GameStop                   Game Advisor                              11/10 – 01/11
                                     Harbor City, CA

 F.Y.E                          Sales                                           09/09 – 11/10
                                    Torrance, CA

 Zumiez                       Sales                                          10/08 - 01/09
                                    Grand Junction, CO   
           
 Pictage                       Tech Support                               09/07 - 02/08
                                    Torrance, CA 

 GameStop                  Assistant Manager                        04/06 - 12/06  
                                     Harbor City, CA                                 
EDUCATION:
           
Narbonne High School                                                    1998-2002
Harbor City, CA – Gen Ed.

Harbor Occupational                                            07/2009 - 03/2010         San Pedro, CA - Completed course for AWS D1.1 welding/LA city welding license obtained Oct 28, 2010

LA Harbor College                                                           2005
 Harbor City, CA - Graphic Design

REFERENCES:
Jeff Ramos.................................310-489-9029                        

Kianna Golia...............................310-944-1018

Raechel Thacker..........................310-308-8333



Sunday, May 1, 2011

New portfolio website....

http://d1eselart.weebly.com/index.html


This is my temporary site until I upgrade it to my own domain name.