Animation test

This is a shot test. I used wrap deformers to drive a very high poly mesh. I'll keep posting updates on this shot as more details are added. I'm just about ready to start on the actual animation of this short. I still need to tweak some of the storyboards to get the timing just right. I just know that I'm in for one hell of a rendering time. The poly-count of a single shot averages by thousands of polygons, not to mention the effects, textures and lighting I need to add still. But I hope for the best and that it will turn out right. Shoot me an email, or post a comment!

Pistols

Alright, I decided on pistols instead. I wanted to create something that has an old Western feel to it, but wanted to add something different as well.

I added a lot of detail, but I like the double-barrel idea. The way I imagine it is, when the trigger is pulled, the cocks fire with a 50% time delay, that way there will be two shots for one squeeze.

Sword

I'm not sure if I'm going to go with a sword for this character. But I modelled one nevertheless. It took me about an hour to model. I used curves and then used the BevelPlus tool to get the shapes on the blade. I haven't spent any time on the textures yet. I just slapped a blinn on it with a procedural sky map as reflection. I'm considering modeling a cool pistol or gun instead.

Animation Short

I decided on a short animation project based around a character. No deep story lines, just raw CG. I started with a few thumbnail sketches...

I was looking for a streamlined action-based character. Something I can really have fun animating.

While drawing the thumbnails, I considered some of the dynamic elements - I don't want to spend too much time on things like cloth dynamics, so I gave her skin-tight suit.

Once I was happy with the design, I painted the character to establish color and refine some of the details.

I kept working and sculpted the character in ZBrush. This step was quite easy. I used subtools to extract the clothes. The next step would be to re-topologize the entire character and reduce the poly-count for export to Maya.

If you have any questions regarding these steps, please shoot me an email. In the future I will post some video tutorials on painting and sculpting...

February Project Update

Here's another update on Jean Gray. I followed the same process as with Storm. Jean however is not as dramatic and dynamic as Storm, so it always looks to me like something's missing. I'm always looking for cloth blowing in the wind, or some other type on detail that I can add in. So let me know what you think...

February Project Update

I worked some more on Storm this week. I'm trying something different this time, attempting to model as much as I can in ZBrush so that it looks like a sculpture made from a 2D image. I created the base mesh of the hair in Maya and sculpted it in ZBrush. I added some leather bump to it as well and it gives it that extra level of detail.

I hope you like it...

February Project Update

Here is the base mesh for February Theme project. You can check out the original sketch and source images at: http://www.digitaltutors.com/chit_chat/showthread.php?t=7066

The feet are just deformed dummy's from the Artemis project until I've modeled the boots. The hands and head were modeled seperately to make it easier. The suit started from a polyCube that I extruded in Maya and exported as an OBJ in ZBrush where I sculpted the rest. Everything except the feet were modeled in ZBrush. I have to find a way to save time, since I have 3 more characters to model.

I hope you like it! And any feedback will be most welcome!