Summer Skill Building – Figure Drawing, Boss Modeling, and Lighting Experiments
While classes are on break, I’ve been keeping my creative momentum going with a mix of personal growth, professional work, and experimentation. One of my main focuses has been figure drawing—something I’ve been returning to regularly to stay sharp with form, proportion, and gesture. It’s been a helpful way to ground myself in fundamentals, especially since strong anatomy plays such a big role in believable 3D work. I’ve been rotating between quick poses for gesture practice and longer studies to dig into structure and lighting.
I’ve also been modeling boss characters for the upcoming game Streetsync, which is preparing for release on Steam soon. This has been a great opportunity to practice high-to-low workflow, particularly around sculpting dynamic silhouettes and exaggerated anatomy that supports stylized gameplay. I’ve handled base meshes and sculpt passes in ZBrush, then brought them into Maya for retopo, UVs, and export. Working on a live project has sharpened my ability to stay consistent with a shared style guide, collaborate on feedback, and hit performance targets.
To continue improving my sculpting, I’ve been doing additional personal studies in ZBrush, focusing on small forms and surface details. My professor emphasized the importance of refining secondary and tertiary shapes, so I’ve been using those techniques to push realism and character personality. It's helped me approach texturing and baking with a better understanding of how light interacts with form. I’ve also begun experimenting with micro-detail workflows to see how far I can push subtle storytelling through surface design.
In Unreal Engine 5.3, I’ve been diving deeper into baked lighting techniques as an alternative to the raytraced setups I used during the semester. I experimented with lightmap density, UV layout, and reflection capture setups to improve performance while maintaining a cinematic look. This process helped me better understand the balance between static and dynamic elements in lighting workflows—especially useful for mobile or performance-sensitive platforms. It’s been eye-opening to see how much mood and clarity I can achieve just through smart lighting and post-process adjustments.
This summer has also been about reviewing my past work and identifying areas I want to level up during the next semester. Between figure drawing, sculpting, and lighting experiments, I’ve started building a stronger sense of polish and direction in my workflow. Working on Streetsync gave me the chance to contribute to a real release, and that experience has made me even more motivated to bring that same level of finish to my personal projects.
I’m excited to carry all of this growth into the fall. My goals are to push my character and environment modeling further, refine my storytelling through materials and FX, and continue building strong, optimized game assets. Whether it's for personal pieces or collaborative games, this summer gave me the creative space to explore, practice, and build momentum.