bumpy dwarf

Here are some images of the dwarf's head with bump maps. A little intense, I may tone down the bump value a little:








Here is bump, diffuse, and spec:




The file textures were created in Zbrush. I didn;t even use the UV map I spent so much time making. I'm looking forward to getting some color on his face and maybe a little sub surface scattering.

Feeling sick again, right before New Year's Eve. Typical.

Home from the holidays

Oh to be back in LA. After a long week of fun with the in-laws - the giant freaky dog, the screaming greeks, the detailed accounts of colonoscopies and prostate exams, the coma inducing dullness of being trapped in suburban New Jersey, the 5 am drive to Newark, the lines of annoying kids, the plane, the endless baggage claim, - there is nothing in the world quite like a big greasy stuffed grilled cheese at Swingers, complete with fries and chocolate milk shake. To top at off, as I slide into the booth the jukebox starts playing the Clash - Jail Guitar Doors. Now I know I'm home.

I know its insane but I love LA. I love Hollywood. Its a ridiculous place, but its my ridiculous place.

Tomorrow I can get back on task with the crazy projects. In January its back to working for the man.

So this is Xmas

And what have I done?

Well, I did this reflection study based on Neville Page's lessons in the eye painting DVD. OK, nothing to blog home about but I did it on my laptop, at the in-laws in NJ, using just a trackpad tro draw with - I foolishly left my wacom at home in DC.




I went out a couple days later and bought a wireless mouse at Staples because my thumb was going numb. I also did some modelling in LightWave (discovery edition - left the dongle at home as well). That was pretty miserable using just a trackpad. I didn't come up with anything great in LW, mainly because I'm relearning the modelling tools. I'm so used to Maya and a little spoiled with Zbrush. I have a hard time with Characters in LW, they just don't look as good as the ones I make in Maya. I think this is because in Lightwave it is so easy to use the subDs or MetaNurbs or whatever they call them, that I abandon my typical Maya workflow and rely too heavily on LW's subD's. So the next time I work in LW I think I will try an emulate my Maya workflow a little more carefully. In Maya I resist smooting as much as possible, if I do increase the polys I alsways find to return to as low a poly count as I can (usually by using smooth proxy). I go back and forth between low and medium poly until I'm absolutely satisfied that my low resolution model is perfect. then I smooth or convert to subDs. I also swicth back and forth between Maya and Zbrush, using Zbrush to sculpt at a higher res and then exporting a lower res back to Maya.

Anyways, I did a couple car tutorials in Lightwave while watching TV with the in-laws. Again, nothing great came of it except a little LW practice and a disdain for poorly written tutorials.

For Christmas I got the art of Star Wars Episode 3, The Mel scripting for Effects Gnomon DVD and the Zbrush for Illustration DVD. I got sme shirts, and Apple Gift Card ($100!) and a check for $100.00 (which I will spend on more Gnomon DVDs, who is this puddnhead guy anyways?)

I've been thinking about some articles about the CG life away from the monitor that I might write for highend. I would write them for HDRI3d but I don't think they want too many non-digital tutorials, highend offers me more of a chance to express an opinion as well.

I did do a large number of quick sillhoutte drawings with marker. Hoping to convert these to prismacolor sketches when I get back. I have another Yuco gig starting on January 2nd. That means I can spend a few more days on the dwarf and other projects when I get bcak to LA.

Last dwarf before Christmas

Off to NJ tomorrow. I've spent the past day or so just doing UV mapping. These images show some work I did in SubD mode trying to get it closer to the original sketch.








Laters!

Friday's Dwarf

Spent all day on my Dwarf: Here's the progress:






Next step is to start refinign as a subD object. then I'll create some displacement maps in Zbrush.

Got my Kong tickets for tonight at the Arclight!

3D Dwarf Progress

Here's some progress on the dwarf from yesterday. I get to work on him all day today!






In other news, my freind Brad Avery up in San Fran has started a 3D news blog as well:

XMaz

Well, I finished up the stuff for a Red Bull sponsored flyhing show so I reckon I'm on Christmas break. I have a couple things to post.

Here's a pencil sketch copy of a Rembrandt (I think, I cut up my art books so sometimes I get them mixed up. If I'm wrong I apologize). He's a sda guy in some kind of helmet.




Also i decided to start making a 3D model of my dwarf caharcter. Here's his head so far, still in the realm of low Poly. I'd like to get him as photorealistic as possible so this model wil take some time:







Looking forward to modelling the cap.

Sunday Stuff

I set up the iMac I bought from my brother. Cool Tapes! It has motion and FCP on it so maybe I can finally get a demo reel that looks good. i made an intro for the new demo in Motion. It came out fairly nicely. But then I realized I hate everything else on the demo so I'm making all new material. Feels good! I miss modelling in Maya. I'm doing 5 character models and 5 environments and then I'll go from there. I'm starting my modelling my dwarf caharcter.

I had to work today, on a tylenol commercial. Reminiscent of the ol' science animations. I'm working with Nate which is always a pleasure.

Here's a sketch I did from a photograph while at work. Looks like I need to fix some stuff on her right arm:



Tonight Zoe and I went to an art opening. my freind Kevin invited us. It's great to see him again, I've missed him the past couple months. I'm looking forward to gate crashing his life drawing class next semester. Anyways. the art at the opening was good stuff. Alex Prager and Mercedes Helnwein. I made an ass out of myself by saying stupid things to Ms. Helnwein. next time I must drink more before talking. There were a few celebrities so it was truly "Fabulous!" So much for Hollywood.

Painting

Slightly frustrated with how the dwarf painting is going. Mainly beacsue i like the original sketch so much more. I'm watching the Neville Page eye rendering DVD over my lunch breaks. I love his lecturing style. Carlos Huante was cool to watch and inspirational, but not much in the form of theory.

I'm eager to take a Gnomon class but I really should wait until spring when I have more of my debts paid off. In the meantime I have more DVDs to go through and I'd love to get the new MEL scripting DVDs. These days I'm more eager to get back over to doing digital 3D work. The past yeat I have focused on traditional art skills which has been great, but I need to beef up the demo was some 3D stuff.

Currently I'm at work rendering locally because the network seems permanently hosed. This is amazingly boring. I may try and copy some master paintings in Photoshop or Painter juysr so I can improve my painting skills.

Dwarf Progress

I spent the weekend quickly churning out a chapter on Toon Shading for Mastering Maya 7. It was actually kind of fun but don't tell my editor. Learned some cool stuff along the way. I also did a little painting on my dwarf. He's coming along slowly. The toes were tough and the forehead wrinkles took a number of tries. Still working on the skin textures.

Best laid planes

I was all fired up to go to sculpture class this week but the flu done brought me and the wife down. Now I'm in the cough drop phase. Called in to work and the friggn' network has been down for two days. All I can do is sit around hoping to get some work done.

I accidentally volunteered to write the toon shader chapter for the Maya 7 book so I'll be plenty busy. Menawhile I feel itchy since I haven't been able to draw or sculpt much over the last few days. Some day I might even do something in Maya or Zbrush...

Finally the feet on my dwarf paining have me kind of stumped. The painting is teetering on that fine line between good and pretty good.