Gripe

Pah. The last few days have seen me rapidly lose my will to continue 3D modelling and life in general. Who would have thought that one model could spawn so many problems, what great timing. It was all going fine until I reached the point in the process where a low poly mesh is constructed over the high poly sculpture and the normal maps are baked out. The character sculpture is made up of around 20 separate sub-tools (objects) many of which are pretty small but still need to be kept separate (the earring, shoe straps, cap strap etc.). These are the ones which have been causing the problems. For some reason trying to retopologize these has been a complete nightmare. Exhibits A and B:




The ring I still haven't managed to fix and may just have to scrap it. It's so utterly demoralising to spend a day, or many in this case, fighting with the same problem and getting absolutely nowhere. Getting well sick of this.

Those final little bits!

Possibly not necessary

This was actually pretty fun to work on. I started with a picture of a gold sovereign and used it as an alpha to get the outlines which I then filled in and worked up by hand. Not quite sure whether this detail is really essential but it's too late now! Incidentally, kudos to 'Sathe' of Zbrushcentral for the gold matcap.

Back in yellow

It has been far too long since the last update on here, for which I feel moderately guilty but thankfully I at least have a little to show for the time. Having said that it doesn't look like Dazza (or Dave) here has actually moved on much, mainly because I keep catching myself niggling away at silly details (the skin folds on the inside of the hand for instance) which are never going to see the light of day.

On a more positive note the trousers have had their folds completely reworked to look more like how we expect the fabric to appear and the t-shirt has been given the super sharp crease treatment. Readers will also be pleased to note that I finally got around to giving the shoes and cap some loving, both of which I'm pretty pleased with although the shoes were a pixol-pain in the arse.

The most exciting additions to the model have to be the shiny bling bits (well, I'm excited about them anyway). I spent many a night lying awake pondering upon the problem of how to best construct the link bracelet but when I jumped in and had a go today it was effortless and worked a treat. Enough of my self-evaluation drivel, just look at the pictures.

Anyone else getting bored of seeing this bod?

Pastel blue flavour

Folds and creases galore!

Got at least 2 more levels of detail to add to the trousers before I'll be happy with them. The folds need to be tightened up too as at the moment the fabric looks too soft (its supposed to be that lightweight polyster stuff), tricky!

Blocking in them shapes

Colour once again

I've been playing dress-up with pixel-paper dolls! My fav is clearly the one that looks like a battenburg cake. Its all the rage in the big fashion houses.

Plan on doing a few of these for some different costume designs. Once I have the costume nailed (for this one anyway) I'll start working on attitude and actual character, probably do a few 3D head sketches.

Blargle

A little update on my demon lawd.

This is the Zbrush model, heavily WIP and as you can see is currently missing a head. Still working on designs for aforementioned head. Also still to be blocked in are the shoulder mouth, left arm tentacles and weapon. Much tinkering has been done to the design since the original concept sketch, the legs for instance now almost make sense and the right arm is a super smashy claw!



I've also been slowly chipping away at a more detailed concept piece:

Quickie update on my Dominance War demon lord. I've started working on a rough Zbrush model but nothing worth showing yet.

Monochrome bad

This blog has been seriously lacking colour recently so here are some old sketchbook scans and some forum 'sigs' I did waaay back in high school. Have a good laugh!

Which is it to be?

Thought I'd just pop some of my more recent Dominance War work up here, don't want the blog to feel neglected do we now.

I'm currently trying to choose between two possible characters. The first is a whopping great demony lord type chap who oozes death out of every corrupted pore. See below.


Misc. limb bits.


The second character is a Stalker (read assassin/rogue) with a powerful knife which, when the pommel spike is tugged, becomes two knives with a magical cord of near infinite strength created between them.

War!

Dominance War IV has begun and is sucking out my soul. Here is my thread on GA http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7701 go forth and cheer!

Pure value

Pehhh. This started off as a simple study but rapidly degenerated into a perfectionist mess. It's driving me insane; I can't understand why the likeness isn't more complete, so if there is anyone out there, help me! Incidentally, the pretty lady is Naomi from the TV series 'Skins', which you should watch.

New toy!

I've been checking out this natty little piece of software called 'Alchemy' (http://al.chemy.org) in preperation for Dominance War IV (which starts on saturday). It seems perfect for getting interesting shapes slapped down in no time at all. Most of these took 5 mins at most!



Haven't spent much time on this since last post but here's an update anyway:



Finally, a bit of actual work. Don't worry, I'll work on the whole monotonous and grey problem and get some colours on the go. Soon. Honest.

Progress is subjective

Just a few wee things I've been having a crack at recently.



This is some very early conceptual splurge for my final Uni project. There are many more of these to come, hopefully better than the ones here. (Kudos to Ryan Kingslien for creating the super-posable model used above)



A value study of the stunning Jessica Alba. Very much work in progress although I won't be finishing it to a high degree as it is just a study.



Hrm, yep, it's Alba again. This one was done pretty snappily so the likeness is, well, pretty much non-existant.

Good lord, a post?

Mm. Been a while. Dissertation? Not much more to say about that really.

This wee chap has nothing to do with my Uni project, but I felt the need to break out and do something a little outlandish before getting truly stuck into my project. Additionally it's getting me psyched for Dominance War IV which begins in earnest very soon. So far I've only blocked in the body mass and worked a little on the face, which is probably going to be covered; go figure.





This one is an anaglyph, so get out yon blue and red glasses! It's not a true anaglyph as the two images are taken from the same angle, once I've got myself some glasses I'll have a go at a proper one.

Unrelated to mostly everything

Ignoring the fact that we have deadlines creeping (rather quickly) towards us, here is a quick little Birthday card pic for my little bro. It's a birthday sprite wielding brightly coloured birthday magics, obviously.

Not dead!

Wow! Blog!

So I'm trying to smush my brain back into work gear after a semi-holiday (I was working throughout christmas, but also not working, if you get me). Here's a possible sneek-peak at the front page of my project presentation. It's a bit busy to use as the base for the rest of the slides and obviously the scale of the bricks is a bit of a problem, hell, that police tape is massive!