Galapagos Tortoise Final

Finished off Mr. Tortoise, finally.
I ditched final gather in favour of an ambient light with occlusion and did a little base very much in the style of the one I did for the Rhino. There's an unfortunate shadow that makes the cactus fruit look a bit 2d but other than that I can't be stuffed fixing it up any more. I have a few days off and I don't want to be fixing this piece the whole time. Depth opf field was done with the Bokeh shader for mental ray, which multiplied the render time by a factor of 5 or something.
Fun times.

A sodding merry Xmas to all!

Another Speed Sculpt

Seeing as I have some time off, I'm doing speed sculpts
This was an attempt at actor Steve Buscemi, it was good practice although the likeness
is pretty bad. The Screengrab has a slightly altered neck which I think looks a bit better

Speed Sculpt

Another Speed sculpt
Some post work in photoshop

ZBrush 3.5 First Speed Sculpt

I just got my Zbrush 3.5 license so I decided to do a speed sculpt.
This was done from a cube, I usually use a basemesh so this was a good challenge.
Once again I didn't use any references because I wanted to test myself a bit.
Took about 2 hours.

Galapagos Giant Tortoise WIP #6

I've done a test pose for the tortoise with a bit of cactus fruit that they apparently eat. The depth of field is done in Mental ray and takes for ever to render. Some of the maps still need a bit of touching up but otherwise this model is nearing the end. If I can figure out a way to get it to render quicker I might be able to do some animations with him. Thanks to Greg Tatum for some useful advice.

Galpagos Giant Tortoise WIP #5

I've started the process of texturing this model.
At this point I've got diffuse, bump, spec and gloss maps on everything and they all need refining to the point where it looks right. The lighting is the same setup as the earlier WIP. I'm liking the head but the neck and legs need a lot of work. You can see where I've started detailing the bump map on the shell but haven't gotten the whole way through yet.

Galpagos Giant Tortoise WIP #4

I've done some more sculpting on this model and also mapped the pieces of the model and exported some low res displacement maps to test that things are working as they should be.
I've comped the wireframe over the top to show the underlying geometry.
I'm looking forward to texturing this guy now although there is a fair bit of cleaning up and sculpting to do in Zbrush first.
Rendered in Mental Ray

Galpagos Giant Tortoise WIP #3

Some more work on this model
Nori had a question from the previous post about the base mesh so I've included a screengrab of the base level.
The mesh is organised for rigging and animation, which is what intend to do with the model once I have exported some displacement/normal/whatever maps. I would also like to do proper texture maps for this guy and try for a little more realism than I did with the rhino. All the details still need refinement but I find it easier to jump around here and there on the model to keep myself interested.

Galpagos Giant Tortoise WIP #2

I've started detailing the tortoise. I'm sort of blocking in the major scales, wrinkles and folds (of which there are many) so I can come back and surface them a bit better later on. I've done a fair bit on the front legs as well but they are not shown in this render. He looks a bit angry, so I should probably fix that too

Galpagos Giant Tortoise WIP #1

I had lots of fun making the rhino so I thought I'd stick with animals for now. This is 5 or so hours into a model of a Galpagos giant tortoise, I just think they're cool animals. This one I intend to completely retop in MAX to get a full unwrap and animation ready mesh, and then either do bump or displacement in ZBrush. The anatomy of these creature's is totally bizarre and it's good practice to work on something so foreign anatomically.

African Rhino Render

I've done the displacement thing in MAX and mental ray and created a little base and vegetation for my Rhino Model. I got the base render and multiplied over an ambient occlusion pass in fusion to make the model pop a little bit more. Learned a bit more about displacement exporting from ZBrush, although I still don't get it much. I think she's pretty anyway

Hey! It's another speed sculpt

Today's speed sculpt, this one took around 3 hours. It's supposed to be a kind of orc creature but I wanted it to be more human looking.

Another Speed Sculpt

A slow day at work, Jono decided I should try to model John lithgow. Not wanting to get on Jono's bad side, I agreed. This took five hours or so. Some photoshop tweaks on the eyes on the shadow of the hair.

Speed Sculpt

A slow day at work so time for another speed sculpt
This took a few hours and I foolishly used no references.

Speed Sculpt

A one hour speed sculpt, just for fun

Rhino WIP#2

I've been at this for a couple of days now, it's great fun to work on. I'm starting to realise the power of ZBrush alphas in creating surface textures, the trick is to use them in the right way so they don't look like tiled and flow with the mesh. I have 8GB of RAM in my machine and this mesh has got it at it's limit, I had to change a few settings to get the performance useable. It's obvious that I haven't started sculpting the far side of the body yet. I'm looking forward to posing him/her.

Rhino WIP#1

I've got some time off so I'm starting a new modeling project. This is something that I thought would be a good challenge from the overall form, to the secondary major skin folds to the tertiary skin details, wrinkles etc. After doing a lot of work on lighting, materials etc on Cohen I need to get back into pure modeling and try to improve. Probably 7 hours spent on this so far, I'm taking my time because I'm trying for a fairly realistic representation.

Cohen the Barbarian

Well, it's been a hectic month or so at work. We've been developing an intro and teaser for a kid's animated TV show for a while now for 2large productions and I hadn't had any time to work on Cohen. Once we sent Dan off to MIPCOM with his DVD though, things quietened down significantly, so much so that I'm now on holidays for the next week and a bit.

Having more spare time has meant that I could finish off Cohen. For me, finishing off a model is more a case of becoming unable to see it properly, losing my objectivity, becoming exhausted and throwing in the towel. It could be heaps better, but I'm better off moving onto the next challenge and trying to learn something rather than tweaking and re-rendering for weeks.

Cohen Update

Some texturing, lighting and hair work on this model

Cohen Update

Just an update on Cohen.
I'm approaching the retop stage for the costume elements and then it's on to texturing and figuring out the displacement map settings which has proved difficult in the past. Also sorting out the fur whihc is always a pain.

Cohen Face WIP

Just some work on Cohen's Face
still lots of details to put in, although much of the lower face will be covered by beard

Cohen the Barbarian WIP#2

Some updates on this character
All the costume elements are standins and will be redone in MAX.

Cohen the Barbarian WIP#1

Another Discworld inspired character. This is based on the art of Josh Kidby from the Discworld fable "The Last Hero". Cohen is an ancient barbarian hero who refuses to die. So far I'm just blocking things in to make sure I have the proportions right. The devil character wasn't going where I wanted so I had to cut my losses on that one.

Faust WIP#2

OK so Faust is not just another name for the devil as I had thought.
He was a fictional character in German literature who sold his soul to the devil.
Anyway this is the character as it stands now. The pose needs some tweaking
and the whole thing needs a lot of cleaning up and detailing.

Faust WIP#1

I've jumped straight back into another character.
I wanted to concentrate on learning anatomy and something more realistic and less exaggerated.
This is bascially a depiction of the biblical devil as a middle aged man, I've chosen ram horns as opposed to the more traditional goat horns just for aesthetic reasons. I've spent about 6-7 hours on this sculpt and the basemesh is taken from my earlier anatomy study and edited slightly to give better edge distribution. I'm glad that sculpt has come in handy.
So far the weak points are definetly the hands and the back musculature. It's a good challenge to do a character where the muscles are overlaid with fat.

Polly Final

I've finished working on this image
It's not perfect but I just can't spend any more time on it. I've learned a lot by making it and hopefully improved a bit as a result.

Polly close to completion

It's been a fair journey with this model.
Looking back at this blog it seems it was about a month ago I had started on this project, intending to do two characters. Well one out of two isn't bad is it?
I think a month is alright considering I only had weekends and whatever weeknights I wasn't playing sport to work on it.
As an excercise in learning all the technical aspects of putting together a reasonably complex model it has been very useful. I have learned heaps since starting on this. It's not finished but I'm gradually whittling down the list of things that need to be done.

-Hair
-Face and hands need texture work
-Base needs work
-Boots need texture work
-Plume on the hat
-Lighting and Comp
....and probably more

New Pose

Just a new pose for this character
I've also done some more sculpting on some of the cloth elements to change their feel a little
The pose still needs work, I find it to be one of the hardest things to get right.

Monstrous Regiment Progress

Some futher work on this character. Most of the elements have been brought into ZBrush except for a heap of buttons and little its and pieces. There is still a fair bit of sculpting to do on some of the peices. I've started on the texture for the head, it's a bit messy but it's heading in the right direction I think. It was rendered in Max using mental ray

Monstrous Regiment WIP

I've done some work on one of my two characters for the monstrous regiment piece.
All elements are pretty incomplete and some are just stand in geometry. I still need to
incorporate a whole bunch of straps, buckles, belts, a bottle and a pack.

Obese male Sculpt

I'm sculpting this at the same time as the female and I plan to have it as part of the same diorama. Probably about 3 hours spent on this one so far. Both sculpts will have costumes so I'm obviously spending more time on the faces as almost everything else will be covered. I still need the practice on proportions and form so I'm not totally skipping over the bodies. The diorama will be based on the Terry Prtachett book "Monstrous Regiment"

Female Sculpt WIP

I thought it was time to study the female form a bit as I usually sculpt males for some reason. I've spent about 2 hours on this one so far and I'm relatively happy with the way it's going considering I'm having to learn a lot as I go. The pose is temporary just for the purposes of checking the proportions. I have plans to display this model with another one I'm working on as part of a diorama type situation.
*edit* Some refinement of the model and a less stupid pose

Monty Biggs Sculpt

A final sculpt for Monty Biggs.
I had fun making this and there were good opportunites for sculpting cloth and other surfaces.
Hopefully it can be of some use to Arran's project.

Anatomy Study WIP 2

Some more progress on this sculpt
I've never tried to model male genitalia before so that was a new challenge
Lots of detailing still to do. Fingers and toes especially.
Some muscles are incorrect, the forearms are weird.

Anatomy Study WIP

An anatomy study
I'm trying to practice eyeballing proportions and creating a face without reference
About 4-5 hours spent on this so far

Omar WIP3

Some more sculpting. I did a quick pose and expression because i was getting sick of him staring blankly. Finding the likeness to be very difficult to acheive, maybe because in all my reference material he has a beard, although I wouldn't want to have to rely on facial hair to sell the likeness. The neck is not quite right. At this point I'm just happy that he looks like a human being.

Omar WIP2

I've made some progress on Omar. He now looks a bit more like the man himself.
The actor's name is Michael K Williams
I sculpted in a beard but I will probably use a hair plugin for proper hair for the final render.
He has no eyebrows yet so he still looks funny. His cranium still is not quite the right shape.

Omar WIP

I've been watching The Wire for the last few weeks and I'm thoroughly addicted.
It truly is the greatest television show ever put to screen.
I've decided to have a go at sculpting one of the best charatcers in the show, Omar,
I'm not very good at doing likenesses from photos, but this one is going ok so far.
I'm trying to get the basic likeness correct before I put in any details, it's not there yet,
especially around the mouth, but if it comes out well it would be good on the showreel.
Also he looks stoned around the eyes, that will need to be fixed

Texturing Iggy Pop

I've spent a while texturing Iggy Pop
I'm using mental ray for the first time so I'm struggling to learn the skin shader and all it's intricacies. I'm going for a dramatic, illustrative look rather than total realism here, I guess.
It still needs work, on the specular and bumps maps especially. Hair is underway

Monty Biggs modeling WIP

I've been doing some concept sculpting and modeling for Arran Potter's short film project.
I've been very lucky to get the opportunity to work on this project with him and some other very talented artists. The man has a vision, and the film definitely has a chance of being very successful (if I don't stuff it up too much).
This is MAX screenshot of an expression test to see how the model holds up when deformed.
The expression is a bit dodgy, but with work I think Monty should be able to emote pretty well. It's weird to be working mostly in MAX again after mostly using ZBrush but it has given me the chance to think about topology a bit more and that can't hurt.

ZBrush Speed Sculpt

I did this sculpt in about 2.5 hours including making the base mesh in MAX
I just improvised something from a general idea I had, and ended up with this.
There's some wonky bits but it was good fun and practice.

Stegosaurus WIP #1

Today I started modeling a Stegosaurus for fun/practice/showreel
I think this may have been Julie's idea as she's a big stegosaurus fan, so this one is for her
Modelled the basemesh in Max and then started in ZBrush, it's a few hours at this point.
There's many little errors that I can see now that I post this.

Iggy Pop Sculpt

Yay, my first real post.
I'm currently on holidays from work so I have time to work on my Iggy Pop sculpt.
It's getting close to completion, not that's it's great or anything, but I can't be spending too long on any single project.