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!

The Queen of Babylon

Here's a pic of the Queen of Babylon. It's more a screenshot of a film project I'm working on. I liked this shot of her, so I decided to render out a large image. The texturing and shading isn't quite done yet, but it's already at a stage where I feel it's taking shape. The set she's in is a combination of 3D elements and painted Backdrops. It's awesome what some DOF and environment fog will do...

I hope you like it...

Myth Project Update (Final)

She's finally done. Thanks to Siller from DigitalTutors.com I managed to render in Mental Ray. Thanks a million Siller! I changed the hair completely, since it didn't work from this angle. And I started playing around with the shading, because up until now it was just the default shading. I added some caustics as well as a lens flare glow on the specular of some of the metal shaders. I added one more spotlight with a fractal material that has no effect on the objects to create the light shafts beaming down from the upper right corner.

I hope you like the image and please feel free to leave your comments ... I'm really excited also about next month's project, which should be very interesting...

Myth Project Update

Here is a preview render in Software with a different camera angle. I prefer this angle because it's more dynamic and better in terms of composition. I also added some fluid effects that's more prominent in the background than the foreground because of the low antialiasing. If I'm going with this angle, then I would have to tweak the hair a bit to get rid of any bold spots. I'm almost done, I just need to figure out the little details and then render the final in Mental Ray.

Myth Project Update

Here's the first render. It's not Mental Ray, I rendered it in Software just to see what it will look like. I've also added all the render passes. Shadow Pass, Specular Pass, Diffuse Pass and then the final render. It's not quite the look I was going for, but I'll keep playing with it in Mental Ray until it works.

Myth Project Update

The textures are finally done. What really saved me in laying out the UVs for a posed character was the fact that I continually moved UVs around as I was modeling. It makes the modeling process longer, but it seriously makes the texturing process easier. I also added a lot of procedural textures to the accessories, so hopefully it will turn out nicely in the final render. Next will be the clouds and then I'll add some SSS for the skin. Most probably, my next post will be a render, just to see how things are looking so far...

Surf Advert

I was responsible for the animatics of this live action commercial. It's great to see everything taking shape...

TetraPak Advert

I worked alongside DepthVFX a while ago to develop this commercial. It is one of several in a series for TetraPak, and it's currently showing on TV in the States and in SA. There are others as well, but I don't want to bore you with the entire series...

Myth Project Update

My work is starting again in a few days, so I'm really rushing through this now to get it done. Once work starts, I'm afraid I'll never touch this project again. So here's the next step. I've added the bow to the figure and scaled it to fit in nicely. I used Maya's Hair system to sculpt the hair. And I've added some jewelry for flow and composition. Next I'll start working on the textures and then the clouds. My only worry is that the figure might seem a little bland, so if you have any suggestions to add more detail, please let me know...

Myth Project Update

Here's a couple of screenshots of the bow. I turned on High Quality Shading with BUMP and DISPLACEMENT Maps. The UVs of this was tricky to lay out since it goes along a curve. But I used Planar Mapping and Cylinder Mapping and then tweaked it manually a little, so it came out nicely. I love the patterns on the bow, which was really just random scribbling. For the feathers I converted Paint Effects to Polygons and used a latice to deform them into the shape I want.

Myth Project Update

Alright, I attached the head to the body and smoothed it once more. Then I started sculpting in some more details, especially in the feet and hands.

I also did a cloth simulation with Syflex and just deleted the history once I was happy with the shape of the cloth. I'm trying to get a sense of motion into the picture, so I will add some more objects like jewelry to help with that effect.

I still have to paint the textures, but since I concentrated on the UV layout as I model, I saved a whole lot of time.

Myth Project Update

Here's the head model as promised. I think that maybe the mesh is a little too dense, but since it's going to be just a still image, it shouldn't bother too much. My next step is to get rid of all those ugly tri's.

Myth Project Update

Here's the model so far. It still needs a lot of detail, but the basic shape is done. I started the model from a cube and extruded until I got the basic shape. I smoothed once and redirected the topology and then I just smoothed and sculpted from there. I like to do the head seperate, because it's such a main feature. I'll post the head model soon...

Myth project

DJ started a "Theme project of the month" on Digitaltutors.com

This is an awesome idea. For January, the theme is Mythological women. I decided on creating Artemis. Everything has to be modeled and rendered out in Maya, so this will pose a lot of challenges for me.

Firstly I just created a rouch sketch in Painter IX. I tried to focus more on the figure's pose rather than image composition. I also focussed on lighting, because I know that once I go to Maya that will be a challenge. I'll probably use Fluid Effects for the clouds and Syflex for the cloth. I'm hoping to do some long flowing cloth to help with composition.

Nephuiem Project

Here's one of the images from the Nephuiem Project. I used Maya extensively as well as Photoshop and Painter. This DVD features a lot of rigging and modeling as well as compositing. The image took about a week to complete which is really fast considering that everything was done from scratch.

MAESTRO Survey 2008

It's a new year and Maestro is launching a whole new set of Workshops for industry training. Here's the front page of the new Year's survey. If you'd like more info in DVDs or sales. Feel free to contact me. Or if you'd like a custom DVD to be created, you can also shoot me a mail and I'll see what I can do for you...