Some renders

After a really nice Christmas weekend, I got a couple of these put together. It feels pretty nice :) There was some error uploading videos directly to the blog, so unfortunately I have to provide links instead. Please check them out :)

These are also up on my website, which I overhauled a couple weeks ago.

http://vimeo.com/34260761
Francois, looking as haughty as any Fancy-Goat should!

http://vimeo.com/34298670
Jack Mamba, all coloured at last :)

These were uploaded in SD, when I put my final reel together, I'm going to upload in HD.

Happy Holidays!

Wow, it looks like my blog fell victim to the same fate as my facebook account... Doomed to be used once every few months! I'm going to work a little harder to keep this here updated, because I'd love to be able to look back at my own work years down the road.

So what happened between now and forever ago? For one, I got an amazing new computer that it great to work with... the old one had a bit of a problem with crashing constantly while I was using creative software.

I got work done on Francois:

Here's Francois with all of the Control Objects from the rig visible. It might be a bit cluttered, but it works great for my first try and I am happy with the results :)

Here's the rig with all of the hidden objects and enveloped bones shown. I'm not used to doing rigs like this, so for me the hierarchy and constraints were a challenge to work with!

D'aww, Francois.

He's the most pompous goat ever (Not counting the other Fancy-Goats, of course).

I got to learn about poly painting and projections with Jack Mamba:

Pretty happy with how this guy turned out too.

 Yeah, in the final version his shirt isn't actually high-gloss. That was just a material mix-up.

I spent a great deal of my time actually trying to bake a normal map of the detail from this sculpt onto the low poly version that I started with. Wow, I mean a lot of time. I feel really defeated by the problem I'm having with it.

I'm also creating a couple of still life scenes, one using that skull I launched this blog with. It might look neat with a camera panning around it. So yes, that's still to come!

Random Stuffs and Things

Here's a preview of some models I've been getting ready for a scene I'm working on (No textures as of yet.)

It will be nice when it all starts coming together.

(The furniture is based on photographs I found on Google images.)

Where's Francois?

So Francois is coming along. I subscribed to Digital Tutors in the hopes of learning a bit more about what I do, and I've been going through one of their courses on rigging in Max. The videos are helpful, but it's hard for me to figure out how to adapt what I'm seeing being done on a rig built for a human onto a goat, but it's a sure learning experience. Here's Francois so far:

I did a little bit of texture work as well. Now I was sad to discover that the version of Photoshop that I've subscribed to can't open DAE files, so I can't do my texture painting right on the model, so I  have a bit of a problem with the seam visibility. Sigh, I'll figure out a way to fix that, but it's disappointing. 

That Offbeat Orc

So I have this website called offbeatorc.com where I do a little bit of nerdy business making paper miniatures for tabletop RPG games. I'm very pleased to say that I finished a custom order today what was received rather well. If he ever randomly happens to see this, thank you Scott, and yay! I hope you enjoy endless hours of Earthdawn-playing fun. 

I'll add those two to my ever-growing shelf of my own hand drawn miniatures! It's a source of happiness. :o)

Many Goats, GOAT ISLAND!

Come join me! Let us take a walk around Francois!

Poot!

Ew! Anyhow, I've been lately in the process of UV unwrapping him. That will occupy my time for a bit and then I will post the results. And now, I away~~~!!!

Francois, the only goat with a fancy wig.

So I've been working a bit more on Francois, and though there is still fixing up to do I'm happy with the direction he's going in. His design has changed a bit since that initial drawing I made, I have a bit of fun doing that while I model characters of my own creation, anyways here he is:

I really wanted to make Francois a quadrupedal modeling/rigging experiment, and I'm eager to get to the rigging part, but I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself!

Francois, Continued

I didn't see much of Francois yesterday, but today I worked on refining the topology for animation and threw a multi subobject material on him with some basic colours for fun:

He still needs a luxurious goatee and hairpiece and so on but I think he looks p. cute :)

Introducing Francois the Fancy-Goat! (WIP)

Recently I've been coming up with some more ideas, one of which produced FRANCOIS THE FANCY-GOAT! I started modelling him today.

He's very fancy, even his horns and hooves are made of gold! This is a quick sketch I did of Francois, I made it into a reference image so I could begin to model Francois in Max:

He is beginning to look like a fine fancy-goat indeed.

Newfangled Gunhands!?!?

I got an email from Jack Mamba's concept designer Tyrel a couple days ago asking me to add a special detail onto the character. Tyrel, thanks for sending me the concept art today despite how university is keeping you busy! I spent the day with your concept on my laptop monitor while I upgraded the hand in Max:

Seriously watch out for this guy. What if his finger twitches?

It was a little bit of a challenge but there you have it. Ready for detailing!

Quick Head Update

Just a quick update on the head. More tomorrow!

Sculpting the Head and Solving Issues!

Making excellent headway in head sculpting! Har, har! Joking aside, I fixed some significant issues that the low poly model had with the pose/structure of the head I noticed when I moved it over to Zbrush... I had to deviate from the references a bit but I'm pretty happy with how it's shaping up, but I have a long way to go with it still. The head is at just under 200 K polys so far, there's plenty of room to add detail and refine the shape.

For the sake of my computer, the displayed model is at  lower than max subdivision level.

Our Jack looks pretty humourless!

I still have a lot of refining to do, but it's coming along well :)

I'll continue working on this today for a little while and hopefully have the face done by tomorrow. The pieces are starting to all come together! Tyrel, I hope you'll love the finished product!

Jack, Continued

For the past couple of days I've been working on further detailing Jack's jacket and worked on his lower body.

I would like to add more finishing touches, but I'm having major memory issues at this point with my machine. I'll see how this plays out as I finish more pieces of the character. Maybe I'll win the lottery and be able to afford a sweet computer :)

Jack's Jacket... Part One

I did work on a jacket today:

There is still some fixin's ups to do!

There are still small details to be added, but I think the beginnings of it are starting to shape up nicely. I aim to have this jacket finished by tomorrow and start on the next slice of this Jack!

The Shiniest Hat

Starting today until hopefully no later than the end of the week - character sculpting! I'll be sculpting from a base mesh that was built in 3ds Max 2011, but I have to break it into several pieces before importing it to ZBrush because if I don't, I'm pretty sure my computer will explode.

It already exploded once while making this :(

If all goes according to plan, hopefully I'll have some Jack for this hat of Jack to be worn upon tomorrow.

Skull Time! Learning Digital Sculpting

My  four years at university are over (Aw...), but I feel that I'm not yet ready to present myself to the CG industry.

After a great week of being a Student Volunteer at SIGGRAPH Vancouver 2011 last month, I decided to work full time on my demo reel for a couple of months (thanks very much to my supportive family who allow me to do so), until I feel proud enough with my work to feel confident to present to potential employers.

I want to take this time for working on my reel to brush up on my texturing and rigging skills. I want to learn the industry standard programs that were not covered by my broad fine arts New Media major in university. I want to invite you to share with me my pathway to finding a career! :)

First on my list of things to do is to learn how to do digital sculpting. In the New Media program at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, we take a variety of courses: traditional art, drama, music, film, graphic design, and as a liberal arts university I had to take sciences and social sciences as well (astronomy was my favorite of these). I decided to focus in 3D art as best I could, but there were no in depth digital sculpting courses. So, for the first time, I tackled the ZBrush interface and created my first digital sculpt:

Lovingly nicknamed 'Murray'.

I used several different images as reference, and tried to pay close attention to the anatomy of the human skull. I think the next step for this skull is to try some vertex painting, and place it in a scene for presentation. I think it went really well for a first go, the biggest struggle I had was actually setting up the scenes side and front reference views :S

It can be pretty intimidating learning new software solo, but I'm excited for what I'm working on currently...