Long Time

Hi Folks,

It's been ages since I last posted anything. Various reasons, but mainly I've been focused on learning more about Unity, C# and modeling the basics so really nothing interesting to show off. I've been working through the Hard Surface Modeling Challenges on PolyCount. This is fantastic practice because you're focused on creating some really gnarly shapes. On top of recreating these as Hi Poly models, I've been attempting to get more experience working through the game pipeline, so after I finish each of these models, I attempt to retopologise it, unwrap the uvs and then bake out the various maps. Up to this point it's been a bit of a disaster, but by week 5 of these challenges I feel like I'm getting there. Below you'll find an example. Let me know what you think. Hope the new year is treating you well. 

-Paul

New ZBrush Sculpt - A Stone Well

Yep...you read that right...its a stone well. Nothing special. Just thought I'd try making something a little more naturalistic in ZBrush. Modeled entirely in ZBrush, but rendered out in Maya using Mental Ray. Took a few pointers from Tate Mosesian's video series on Pixologic's site, http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/lesson/environments-with-tate-mosesian/. Tate Mosesian is the Lead Environment Artist at Naughty Dog so he's got some chops. Anyway hope you enjoy.

All the best

Paul

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Ghost Key Sculpt Final

Hi Folks,

Sorted out most of the issues I was having with the UVs. Turns out the ribbon/swirl was causing all sorts of issues when generating a UV map in ZBrush. Had to push and pull a bit to get it working properly. 

Here is a final comp I put together after rendering it out in Maya using Mental Ray. Simple comp with an Ambient Occlusion, Depth and Beauty Render. 

For the most part I'm happy with how it turned out. I've definitely got some learning to do when it comes to Displacement Maps. Let me know what you think. 

-Paul

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New ZBrush Sculpt - Ghost Key

Hi Folks,

Another day, another key from Locke and Key, the aforementioned awesome graphic novel series from writer extraordinaire Joe Hill. Here we have the Ghost Key. Still a work in progress. The sculpt is done, but I'm getting some wacky errors when I try to create a UV map and associated textures for the body of the key. Also...I'll be experimenting with displacement maps on this one so stay tuned for shenanigans. Initial test render is looking decent. 

-Paul

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New ZBrush Sculpt - Shadow Key

Hi Folks,

Another key from the brilliant graphic novel Locke and Key for you today. Done mostly in ZBrush and then rendered out in Maya. I'm not sold on the materials...feel more plastic than metal to me, but I've spent enough time on this one for now. I'll move on to another one shortly. Let me know what you think.

-Paul

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New ZBrush Sculpt - The Echo Key

Just finished up a new ZBrush sculpt. I've been trying to come up with little one off pieces that I can actually complete in a reasonable amount of time. This is the Echo Key from the amazing graphic novel series 'Locke and Key'. If you haven't read it...do yourself a favour and order every last issue. Its a great horror story written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriquez and published by IDW. 

Hope you like it.

-Paul

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40K Lasgun WIP

Working on a new model these days. It's an Imperial Guard standard issue Lasgun from the Warhammer 40K Universe. Still a WIP, but it's coming along. The Dynamesh/Boolean tools in ZBrush never cease to amaze and come in incredibly handy on these hard surface models. As always let me know what you think. 

All the best.

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Nostromo Airlock - Final Render

Hello again,

Rendered out a higher res version and performed some rudimentary compositing ( Ambient Occlusion and Depth of Field ). Pretty happy with how this turned out. Let me know what you think.

-Paul

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Nostromo Airlock

Hi Folks,

Working on a new piece inspired by my all time favourite film, 'Alien'.  Using a combination of polygonal modelling in Maya and various booleans in conjunction with ZBrush's new Dynamesh feature to build the doorway. Then roughed in a first pass of the lighting. Still need to apply some smoothing and tackle the floor grate, but its pretty much there. Hope you like it.

1GAM - Player Ship WIP

Hi Folks,

I've been stretching the ol'programming muscles a lot more these days. Participated in my first Game Jam last month ( the Public Domain Game Jam ) and produced what can optimistically be called 'The Worst Game Ever'. But...Game Jams aren't about making great game...at least that's what I'll keep telling myself, they're about learning and boy did I learn a thing or two. 

So to keep what I learned fresh in my mind I'm onto the next challenge. I'm making a simple game for the '1 Game a Month Challenge' (www.onegameamonth.com).  This site is great.  Its just a bunch of folks, making games, both to improve their skills and for the joy of it.  I'm making a simple Asteroids clone with a Fantastic Voyage vibe. 

Here are some images of the Player's Sub/Ship. 

Sci-Fi Ninja ZBrush Sculpt

Hi Folks,

Got lots of things on the go these days.  Learning a lot about Python and scripting in Maya as well as taking a game programming course using C#.  That doesn't mean I've stopped putting the new rig to use making sweet ZBrush sculpts though.  The following is a piece that I made while working through Pierre Roger's ( www.sketchzombie.com ) awesome Digital Tutors course.

I've attached various images of the project from beginning to end and a final Hi-Res render which you can see above. Hope you like it because I enjoyed making it while learning some sweet tips and tricks from Pierre.  

ZBrush Lantern

I've been working through Seth Thompson's fantastic tutorial on how to use the new Panel Loops feature in ZBrush.  You can find the tutorial here: 

http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/lesson/environments-with-seth-thompson/#environments-with-seth-thompson-part-2

Really learned a lot about how handy this feature can be.  Its shocking the amount of fine detail you can get in a relatively short period of time.  

Anyway...its not going to win any awards, but here's my version of Scott Thompson's lantern.

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Quick ZBrush Sketch

Recently bought a new computer...can finally run ZBrush properly once again without everything grinding to a halt.  Just noodling around and came up with this surly tree creature...half Swamp Thing, half Goblin King from Return to Oz.

Just saw Frozen again...inspired an Ice Render

Went and saw Disney's latest and really quite excellent film, Frozen, for the second time.  Thought I'd give rendering ice a try and here we have it.  Nothing special, but a good first effort.  It's an Architectural Material, using the Solid Glass Preset with a stone bump map applied to give it some roughness and an Index of Refraction of 1.31 (Ice's IOF).  

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Another Render/Material Pass

A more high quality render.  As you can see the area light in the foreground is being treated as a transparency by the PNG.  Metal still feels too glossy.  It probably needs to be anistropic to get the feel I'm looking for.  Other than that, the black plastic and black metal are a little too matte.

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Rough Lighting/Material Pass

Just a quick lighting and material pass on the microscope.  The black plastic isn't black enough and I don't know if the reflections aren't glossy enough or if the surface itself is too reflective at the moment.  

Clearly the metal looks wrong...very...very...wrong.  Too glossy and too stock Architectural Chrome which I used as a base to work from.  

Light is a Portal Light with a Mental Ray CIE plugged into the Color Multiplier Attribute.  This is a trick I picked up from the Mental Ray course I took through CG Society and its a great one.  Gives a really nice light and its a great way to control the colour and intensity of your light.

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Speed Modelling!

Well...not that speedy, but an evening's worth of work.  Got my buddy to pitch a few ideas and Microscope stood out as a fun little challenge.  I referenced an Omano Microscope here.  Initial Final Gather Render with no material work and no lighting.

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Another Sci Fi Environment

I've been working on this image for Digital Tutor's Monthly Challenge, Creating a Sci Fi Environment.  Convenient considering what I just learned working on my previous project :)

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Constraining Objects to a Character's Hand

*** I wrote up the following in a hurry to help someone with the finer points of Constraints in Maya.  ***

This is the way I do it.  

Create a Locator...name it something you'll remember like 'Ball_in_Right_Hand'

Duplicate this Locator and rename the Duplicate 'Ball_in_Right_Hand_MANIP'

Open up the Outliner Window by going to Window, Outliner and then Middle Mouse Drag the Duplicate onto the Original so that it is a Child.

Now select the hand control, and then Shift Click the Original Locator ( Ball_in_Right_Hand in this example ) and goto Animate->Constrain->Parent Constraint->Options.  (If you don't see the Constrain Menu make sure you've selected Animation from the Dropdown menu in the top left corner).

In the Parent Constraint Options make sure Maintain Offset is OFF and then hit Apply.

The Locator should pop to the hand.  

Select the child, MANIP and then Shift Click the object you want to constrain to the hand and then Parent Constraint.  You don't need to go to the Options this time.  It should pop to the hand and now you can adjust the position of the object using the MANIP locator.

If you notice the locator isn't following the hand anymore, its probably because you've set a key on the Parent.  Select it and Make sure BlendParent in the Channel Editor on the Right is set to '1'.  You may need to go into the graph editor and set it to 1 on all the keys.

Hi Rez Render with near final geo and textures

Getting to a near final state with the Render.  The metal texture on the lights and vent isn't looking good yet and after that a little post work, but its getting there.

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