daft punk WIP 2

second WIP of Tommy Bang Bang.

daft punk

WIP of the daft punk models I promised to do over the break, done in Maya. gonna use the base body in Muddy to do the sculpt of the suits for the both of them. Also gonna try to make the robot baby, but dont got really good ref of the body on that. when the time comes I could use some help on setting up the gold/silver mats, I tried a bunch of settings with a blinn and I got something pretty good going but then I messed it up and forgot what settings I was using, so back to sqaure one, D'OH!

"Departure"

Here is my WIP of my painting I'm calling "Departure" (why not). I went with this subject matter because I had been watching "Ancient Aliens" on the History Channel, plus I had found an image reproduced from a carving that supposedly shows a Mayan in a rocket. This was enough fodder to extrapolate from to come up with the scene. Once I got going, I realized this doesn't have to be specifically Meso-American based in context, rather, it is a scene that could take place on any planet, so I didn't bother going as far as making the Mayan/Aztec specific details. Pyramids were close enough for effect.

For my own process I like to sit and have a think about what I'm going to paint, and sketch some key features I'd like to put in, before actually doing any painting. The sketches laid down the direction I'd take.

The painting I'd say is 50% there, I'd like to get it going with color on it next, put more ceremonial attire on the people, tighten up the lighting and add atmospherics. Thanks for looking.

Paint Challenge WIP

Heres my contribution to the 2D challenge. Wanted to do some guys fighting some kind of worm creature. Dcided to do a desert scene with late sunset colors and cool shadows. Got a ways to go but here it is so far.

painting challenge WIP

so heres a speed paint doodley doo for the painting challenge. was just messin around while "watching" tutorials. have plans to do other different types of enviros, but thought i'd just put this up for now.

2D PAINT Challenge (w/alternate)

All, for the next challenge, and to keep us on our collective toes, a 2D Paint challenge is in order. Several of us have gathered behind a friends monitor here and there and marveled at a well done concept painting, whether it was theirs or some other artist' painting, gloating over the awesomeness.

I know there are a few folks who would like to keep modeling; considering some of us are undertaking Mudbox training, as such, if you would prefer to do another modeling challenge, there's an alternate project if you'd like to opt out of the 2D Paint Challenge. Details follow.

Details:

For the 2D Paint Challenge you will need to adhere to the following rules, but these are by no means "constraints".

• Your painting is required to have an environment evocative of a particular mood. You must utilize devices like fog, light and shadow, color to produce this aspect. Maybe some rule of thirds, composition use what you know.

• Your painting must have one character or focal point. If there is a character, it must be posed in context to the environment, a straight up stand is fine, but put some dynamism in there somewhere. This challenge is not necessarily focused on character design, but it can be a component to the overall finished piece.

• Your painting must be an illustrated narrative. Whomever looks at your finished work should be able to tell you what they think is happening. If you want to put an Easter egg of some sort in there or personal meaning, that be great but it should be 'Epic'.

• Your painting should focus on a particular genre. SciFi is fine, historical, Video Game Industry.

I encourage you to treat this work as a pretend freelance project. Take it seriously and give your colleagues here at work something interesting to look at, and more importantly, give yourself a finished piece you can throw in your own reel.

ALTERNATE PROJECT: Model a low poly video game character.

For those of you who want to model:

• Use the software suite of your choice. Preferably, if you're training, use that program.

• Polygon Limit: The max polygon limit is 1200. Whomever gets really lower than that and has an awesome design will not 'win', but earn, a heartily applied slap on the back signifying a congratulatory overture.

• Your character has to have the appearance of meticulous detail. Please reference Final Fantasy characters (one of a plethora of examples).

• Your character should incorporate a bump map at the least. I'm implying that you should go for more detailed surface maps, especially if you want the detail.

• Your character should have all the virtues of being an absolutely memorable character; exhibiting silhouette, gesture, presence.

Same deal. Ultimately this project makes you better in some way and it's yours. Give your colleagues something to appreciate.

_____________

This challenge officially starts MONDAY the 22nd of this month and is due the 17th of December. You can start early as in NOW.

-B

Agressive Insectoidal

Here's my entry for the bug like warrior challenge. Since I'd last done a humanoid, I figured WTH I'll straight up bust out with a custom bug. I looked at some reference and liked a lot of different features, so I thought I'd graft a few things together on one bug. Wings, horns, pronounced mandibles, venomous stingers, armoured thorax, with some abstraction. This was a four hour speed sculpt so it's essentially a rough out. I do have the multi-subdivided layered .mud I can return to later to refine, but with that said, this would be ready for a re-top since it is already taxing my computer. I've attempted to paint it to add some color, I was going to go with a bright, vibrant scheme indicative of danger, unfortunately I'll have to do a re-top first, one day. All in all it was a fun exercise. I'm looking forward to painting for now. I'll post the challenge notes soon.-The Mayor

Big Ole' Art Dump

Hey All,

Just thought I'd share abunch of stuffz I worked on recently.

The medicine man guy is some freelance concept art I did about two years ago for an unrealized game. I have a more rendered version somewhere.

The color monster is old as well, but a couple weeks ago I did a few minor tweaks to it that I have wanted to do for awhile. I think I can call this finished now.

The Demon Lord guy is something Ive noodled away on for the past month or so. It was meant to be a quick design so i could build him in 3D. I think i went crazy on the rendering. Maybe I will finish him and add color.

The Space Marine sketch is a recent 2 hour-or-so work I have since lost interest in. I just think there is alot of stuff wrong with it and I gave up on it rather than fix it.

Thanks for checkin' out my stuffz.

Tribal Warrior / Butterfly WIP

Here's my WIP. Still a noob at ZBrush and getting around in it's interface. Yeah, I'm blaming the tools even though I know the saying goes "A bad workman blames his tools" :P. May take a hand at learning Mudbux next time around.



I intend to put in the wings and spear eventually.

PS. - will add my concept sketches when I get to a scanner

current WIP

A current WIP of my Innsmouth Look concept. Rendered in Maya using a low rez base mesh and normal maps exported out from mudbox. Used the sss-fast skin shader from mental ray, added a 3 point light system for rendering. Still have some tweaking to do but its coming along. Thanks to Richard for showing me a few things concerning normal maps and Maya.

Warrior Insect or Warrior Bird

start date: 10/11
end date: 11/8

Model and sculpt an insect or bird that is ready to defend it's clan in battle. Your insect/bird should have some kind of armor and weaponry that looks like it is made from it's natural surroundings. So, no crazy futuristic Liefeld guns. Everyone should do a different insect/bird from everyone else. I'm going to be doing a praying mantis.

Good luck and I love you.

Concepts for the fairy-warrior-babe character

Should have put this along with the previous post, but I was lazy and I didn't scan my concepts until now (my bad).  The previous post's concept is the first image you see; the second spidery one is an example of a derivative I plan to make from this previous (hence the my plan for modular construction).  As for colors, the first one is more orchid mantis / hornet-like, the spider is more black widow like.

Superhero challenge - Arriving from the past, through time itself!

I've still got another couple of hours to put into my Alien tonight, but I'm starting to catch up now that I have some grasp on the program again.

In the meantime, here's my delayed reformatted superhero from a few challenges back! I liked the concept too much to just abandon it, which is thrown in below. The glowing eyes were added in afterward, but aside from that, it's all sculpted, textured, and lit in Mudbox.

Wait..I did Superman...that's an alien. If I just say he kills people too.... It's genius! I did two challenges in one!!!!!!! BAM!

But seriously I'll post the alien later today. For now...

Supraman Ultra: Red/Blue Dynamo Power Fusion!!

Entrusted with protecting Earth by the immortal Kryptonian space wizard Zord-El, twin brothers Kal and Kent Clark use their gifted alien bio-technology to transform into the mighty Supramen. Kal as “Supraman Blue” has great speed and agility, while Kent as “Supraman Red” embodies strength and stamina. When the situation grows dire, they can fuse their powers together to form the unstoppable force for justice, Supraman Ultra!

My main influences on this one were Ultraman, Gatchaman, and a splash of Guyver; actually had the challenge involved the main body, I probably would have had strayed a bit more into Guyver armor territory, but I really skimmed over that portion in the concept, since it wasn’t needed for the head and neck.

Last speed sculpt or finish a project week

Well guys, its the last week of speedies. Mark will be giving us our next assignment next Monday. so here we go....

Got a project you want to push a little more? Wanna put those left over hours into a previous speed sculpt? Wanted to get back into one of the long projects and wrap it up? Got a side project you really want to get going? Go ahead do it man. I will probably finish a previous long project myself.

Dont want to do that?
For those that want a new challenge this weeks speed sculpt, do a speed sculpt bust of...

"The demons in my head"

NO fool, not MY head but your head. Everyones demons are different. My Demons are pretty horrific.

3 hour sculpt time, 1 hour paint if you want to color.

Finals are due next Monday the 11th.

Have fun

Kahi

alien assassin

Heres my take. I only worked for 2 hours due to having food poisoning most of the weekend and working my weekend job, and having a bunch of other bull I had to deal with. I may put another couple hours into it in the next few nights.

I'm not completely happy with the way its going, lots of glaring problems , but hell its a quick sketch right? I wanted him to have a type of stealth suit, very low aspect, lightly armored and form fitting. Allowing him to be able to blend into environments easier to get close to the mark.It would probably have some type of chameleon power in the suit and a powerful but small power pack on his back. Maybe even with plugs and such to plug in a high energy weapon for accurate one shot kills.

Anyway, If I do put more time into this, I will post it.

Thanks for looking
Kahi

Alien assassin over limit

This speed sculpt series was good fun, so fun that at the end I went over the 4 hours by 15 minutes. So sue me. Oh well. I didn't bother to paint it but settled for a different material with some ambient occlusion. Figure he's armoured, so metallic would be nice. I did try different settings with the brushes and tried to work more with keeping certain sculpting or detailing to particular levels and I get it now, the purpose, or logic to the work flow. When I heard 'Alien Assassin' I thought of the Giger Alien plus some tech suit. I would have loved to take this all the way and really refine it more. The circular detail in the middle of the chest piece started to look like a little grey alien and made me think perhaps this design is an exo-suit. I got a bit over zealous I guess and this looks less stealthy befitting of an assassin and more akin to soldier. Meh, I really don't care either way, this is what wanted to come out and I wasn't going to fight it. At this point I'd rather go organic for the next topic if possible, hard surfacing is a little of a drag in the 'box.

What have I been working on? Could use every pipeline specialist's opinions...

Well, aside from trying to throw in a few images into our monthly challenges, I've been working on a side project the whole time, mostly for leisure and research (which is mostly the reason why I haven't been consistent with the challenges).  Here are some WIP's for a full character I have been working on, from concept to rigged, a longer project that I've been using as a test for new things I learn at work, things I read, etc.

I've always had a thing for stylized / propaganda / pin-up / fantasy art, and this character is sort of a culmination of it (yes, she is a fairy-warrior-fantasy-babe you'd probably find in a comic book for teen boys... with the recent talk about Rob Liefeld, I'm almost hesitant to show this, but hey, stylized anatomy to a certain extent can be rather interesting within its own genre).  Anyway, here are some of the aspects of it:

1. Sculpted the low-res mesh in Zbrush, but used the displacement and normal maps as a reference / template for the color map.  The color image you see are in fact what you see in the viewport within Maya, no rendering or high-quality mode.  I wanted to develop a certain look that emulates that old pin-up feel.
2. Planning to use hi-res details from Zbrush for armor.  Probably will attempt a composite render to create a unique feel to the armor.  Looking at references for semi-translucent insect carapaces for the armor.
3. I have several other characters styled in this fashion so I kept in mind aspects of modularity.  Hair can be swapped, clothes / armor are modeled separately, etc
4. Tried a lot of rigging techniques / approaches that I didn't know about before.  I did a blended dual quaterion weighting for the whole body and made some blendshapes for the mouth and eyes - planning to focus a lot more on these subtle deformation-related techniques to get a compelling character at the animation phase.

All in all, this is a character I like to keep working on gradually to discover new approaches and try out different things; she's sort of a "trainer character" so to speak.  Regardless, I'd love to hear everyone's feedback about this, the overall outfit is still in its rudimentary phases but I could use some advice from surfacing and rigging guys as well.  Thanks for checking it out.

Alien Quickie (No obscenity intended)

I wanted to try out something for the bull mesh quick sculpt but I wasn't able to get anything interesting out of it (at least anything to show).  I tried playing around with the human base mesh for about an hour and a half in zbrush (yep, exported the mesh obj from mud and brought it into z, just wanted to try something else).  I kinda got tired of looking at it (short attention span of mines) so I will go ahead and post it up.  If I get anything else interesting I'll go ahead and post it up too...

Velocidad de esculpir número tres¡

for this weeks speedie sculptification action, our subject will be...

Alien assassin!!!!!!!!!!

Using the human base mesh sculpt out an Alien assassin.

Obviously he or she is humanoid, can be in a suit, biomechanical, or even just a naked creature that is good at killling stuff. Where will your imagination take you?

Basic parameters- human basemesh in mudbox. 4 hour time limit to sculpt (since it is a full figure) 1 hour to paint if you want color.

remember, its not about details. Does the character read well? Think of it as a concept sculpt, and worry about details if you want to go in a retopo your character to really get in some nice details.

Due Monday Oct 4th, 2010.

Cool, have fun guys.

Fantástico Acción¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

speedy #2

so here is my contribution to the second speed sculpt since I "missed" the first one. this took me 3 hours and is actually not finished. I had plans to put a small saddle and harness right behind the yoke but not enough time. so we have here some giant rhino type thing, roughly 15-20 ft tall.

Not Bull! A challenge to un-bullify a bull

I was figuring on making a dragon out of the bull, but then I thought of making something like a chimera. I felt the biggest pain was reshaping the bull, it might have been easier to start with a base mesh out of Maya, but then that's not really a challenge. Spent moments in the process dipping back to my Mudbox book trying settings on brushes and other things endeavoring to deepen my understanding of the technical aspects. I was going to paint the speed sculpt, but tried some lighting and material settings and ended up with the sculpt looking like a pewter figurine, at least that's what it reminds me of. Oh well-st, this is what I was able to do before burning out.

He is so handsome... from the bull mesh

Yeah , Im not even sure what this thing is. I started just pushing and pulling on the bull base mesh and at the same time was looking at a pug calender on my desk.

Yeah I like pugs! You wanna make something of it?

Anyway... I spend an hour on this guy before I got bored and tired. I may just call this one done. Im not happy about the feet but I probably put just a few minutes into them. I put zero thought into muscle structure, which is obvious, and spent most of the hour on the head and neck. I played around with the material preset and the lighting...for another minute and shot off a few screen renders. Probably spent a full hour and ten minutes on this handsome bugger.

All in all I thought the bull mesh was rather limiting, but worth the time cause I had to think a bit about the forms and how to deform them. Ill come up with a better subject for next weeks speedie sculpts.

Any suggestions?

Mighty Morphin Wolverine!

Pretty much all I've got for this challenge. Sculpt done in 2:45 HR; paint in1 HR. Originated at basic head. Influences were some Robotech Mospeada helmets, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Patlabor. Oh wellst, I tried.

Speed Sculpts week number the second

What can you do with the bull base mesh?

Take the bull base mesh from mudbox, and see what kind of quadruped you can come up with.

No limit, just gotta have four legs on him is all. Is he a beasty? Just a bull? Whatever you can imagine is fair game.

3 hour sculpt limit, 1 hour for color if you want.
Multiple sculpts are always welcome.

due Monday September 27th, 2010. Front, side and three-quarter view for final presentation.

Mental Organisim Designed Only to Kill

M.O.D.O.K. speed sculpt. used the whole three hours but I did a bunch of experimenting with some settings to curves and brushes, trying to mimic some of the hard surface brushes in Zbrush. Didn't come up with much I must say, and all the experimenting caused me to not get a complete sculpt. His entire back side is unfinished. Oh well speed sculpts help me learn.

He ended up looking alot like Hakaider, which wasn't the intent but I guess Hakaider was locked in the back of my mind somewhere. I added the arms and legs as an after thought just to show where they would go, it is not part of the 3 hours of sculpting time.

All in all I had fun doing it but I think on hard surface sculpts I may go back to Zbrush.

speed sculptification and modelizing #1

Inspired by Brian's speedie from the other night, the first speed sculpt will be Japanese armored super heroes and villains.

What would Superman, Captain America, Magneto, or the Green Goblin look like if they were a armored Japanese super hero? Pick any American comic book hero or villain and give them the Japanese style treatment. Look up such characters as, Kikaider, The Kamen Riders, Zaboga, Robot Detective K, or any of the Ultraman heroes for reference and/or inspiration. There are even more, and if anyone knows any cool ones go ahead and list them for others to look up.

Parameters:
1. A bust of your character. Head and neck a must, shoulders arms a bonus if you so choose to sculpt them.

2. 3 hour time limit on the sculpt. This includes any base mesh you choose to build, the base heads in zbrush or mudbox should be fine for sculpting. Any time you spend on the base mesh is part of the sculpt, so don't worry so much about a base this is just a speed sculpt. Besides you can retopo it later if you want to.

3. 1 extra hour for any painting if you want to add color.

4. Have fun.

5. As many as you want. Want to do a speedie every night? Go for it, the more the merrier.

Just one thing, please don't sculpt for 12 hours then say you did it in 3. Whatever you do in 3 hours is perfect, the more of these you do the faster you will get.

All sculpts due next Monday Sept 20th, with a front, side and 3/4 side view. Any other views you want to include are optional.

Allrighty then, cant wait to see what we get out of this.

further list of Japanese heroes I know of:
Diamond eye, Metalder, 5 Go Rangers, Inazuman, Giant Robo, Inframan, Rainbowman and... thats all I can think of

prophet WIP #3

so heres my prophet up till this point, very much unfinished, haven't even started sculpting on the legs, but I'm definitely gonna continue working on this guy. so far I'm really happy on the way the face is coming along, especially where the beard connects. I don't think I'm gonna do any color on this sculpt, just keep it as a model, mainly cuz I didn't do UVs nor do I have solid color scheme in mind.