Environmental / Prop Sculpture...

Seeing a job posting on Blizzard's website made me realize how little environment / prop modeling I have to show on my site, so I sculpted a quick skull to start an assets library.  I will clean it up at a later date if I am going to use it for anything high res, but for what I have in mind I really don't need it high poly.

Now the concept piece I have is Banderlog's work, but I wanted something fun to model and I like his style. I have blocked out the shapes, and am ready to start working the details.  After that, I am really excited to use zbrush to create some cool rope in the scene.  

UPDATE:  Couldn't sleep, so I went back to work.  Textured and base painted the post.  I am excited about getting the rope in there... seems like it could be a nice learning experience.  

6:30am and a crash?  Time to try for a little sleep.  Ug.

"Gettin' it done" update

Update on the Gettin' it done challenge from zbrushhangout.com.  Massed in the shapes better, stated adding  clothes and refining likeness.

UPDATED
Continuing to refine, and added a bit of base color to show differences.  Need to finish the hands, then I will be ready to start detailing.

Stepping away...

I am stepping away from the bird / dinosaur sculpture to take part in a two week challenge at zbrushhangout.com.  The idea is to take a concept image you like and make a film ready asset in two weeks any way you can.  I have chosen a piece called "The Frog Prince" by Steve Carruthers (www.veshaku.com) for my entry.

I am still massing in the shapes and anatomy, and will be doing a nude before I get into the clothes.  I want to have the ability to change outfits if needed.

And a quick update with it a bit more flushed out....

Reworking an old sketch #2...

So here is another old model that I started playing with to clean up, and quickly changed it to an illustration style sculpture.  My current idea is going to be the last dodo standing on the nose of a t-rex skull, surrounded by saber tooth cats.

And a quick update... Added some more environment elements (rocks, spine, teeth).  I am really liking the ease of GoZ and how it allows me to quickly take one element in zbrush into Maya and model other elements that would be done faster polymodeling.  Below is an image of the skull and jaw brought into Maya to model and place the teeth, then exported/imported in zbrush and dropped in place.

I need to move the bird to the nose and really rework the character for more appeal, add in some plant life and the cat creatures as a story element.  

Final Wooly Rhino (RhinoBear)

For now, unless I readdress it in the future, I am saying this fella is done and am moving on to the next model.  I am really enjoying zbrush.

Another update,
Had to unify the model to get fibermesh working correctly in zbrush, but here is a first run at getting the fur going.  Gonna play around with the settings... maybe do a couple different layers to get a believable coat.

UPDATE:  Fiddled with the fibers and am getting a closer look to what I was intending.  Not sure if I would call it believable yet, but definitely getting better. 

So after a crash... painting in zbrush... I took a break and walked away.  Then I went back and repainted a skin texture for the RhinoBear.  I am now going to figure out fibermesh for the fur, then on to rendering.  Here is an update of how the head looks.

I also uploaded a WIP turnaround to Vimeo... You can check it out here...

The Rhinobear

Since I am able to update the blog again, I decided to look back though it and update something from the past.  I also wanted a break from working the death's helm for something a bit more alive.  I found this image...

... and thought it would be fun to sculpt.  So quick into Maya for a base mesh... 

... and in lunch crunch fashion, I got to here.  The second and third images below show a rough area that I am later going to use fibermesh to create a thick, polar bear style fur.  

 After the hour, I decided that I liked the character enough to spend a couple more hours detailing it out.  This is my current progress, and I have done a couple different fur tests, but am waiting for all detailing do be done before I finish working the fibers.

UPDATE:  Spent a little time adding some underpainting colors and roughing up the fur a bit...

Some WIP updates...

A couple work in progress updates...

First, the Death's helm sculpt...

Then, a digital painting piece I am working on for a playmat.  Rough BG, about to start massing in the mid and foregrounds.  

More to come.

Finally was able to transfer permissions to my real profile...

So I have been dealing with permissions and getting into this account for a while now, but I think I have everything worked out so it will be functioning correctly.  Lots of new stuff to update too.  Might as well start it off with an add.  I just made a society6 storefront and have 6 images up to start merchandising off of.  :)

I have also been steadily working in zbrush whenever possible and thanks to the society at zbrushhangouts.com I feel much more comfortable moving around the interface.  Below is a WIP sculpture done off of Steve Carruther's (www.veshkau.com) concept.

Now that the blog is set up correctly, expect lots more posts in the future...

I have been spending time at the LA Zoo...

When I first got back to LA I picked up a membership to the LA zoo, and have been spending time hanging out /sketching the animals.  Here is a koala watercolor piece.  :)

iAnimate.net

I am starting up an iAnimate workshop tomorrow and was able to download their rigs earlier today.  This is just some fun testing out what they can do.  I have not been able to get the facials working yet in what I think is some backwards compatibility issues (I use Maya 2009), but they were fun to play with anyways.

I will post work in progress animations soon.

Starting back up some zbrush practice...

After checking out one of the Gnomon presentations, I was inspired to get back into zbrush and really delve into the program. The first model I am working will incorporate both hard and soft objects, hair and in-zbrush rendering.

I am currently close to being done with the character and about 30% into modeling out his mech suit. Most of it so far is still in the blocking out masses stage.

Also adding a WIP goblin from my sketchbook.

Getting ready for Africa... but wait!

For the past month now I have been planning and preparing for my humanitarian trip to Uganda. This included things like renewing my passport, spending lots of time in the sun, (I tend to spend much of my time on the computer and am not too used to hot weather anymore) and a 10 day fast I wanted to do for health, and as a start to re-train my stomach to not want as much food. I think American portions are too big, and sometimes get a bit carried away with them. :)

Well, about 4 days into my fast I got word that the volunteer group that I was heading over there with lost a bunch of people (no one died, they just opted out) and a bunch of other things happened that resulted in loss of group rates of air travel and ended up just being canceled outright. I was pretty bummed, but at least I found out before I went in for my pin-cushion worthy number of preventative shots including Malaria, Typhoid, Yellow fever, Hep A, B, C, etc.

Today is day 10 of my fast, and I am excited because TONIGHT, WE DINE... well, I haven't really decided where yet but I get to eat again!

WOO HOO!

Ugh... finally an update! :)

Well, here it is. It has been a while in the works but is finally up and running. The totally new redesign of dimind.net.

When redesigning the site, I decided early on that I wanted drop down navigation menus for ease of use and comprehension, but to do that I needed to teach myself CSS. No big deal, CSS is easy... right?

Well, it turns out that when using CSS, the basic work flow of web page front end design to back end programming is pretty different from how I have been working with my previous sites. Matching a design through photoshop is a HUGE pain, especially if you are determined to have things like custom fonts, gradients stuck to the sides, etc. so what I thought I would get done in a week to two turned to a couple of months... and that is with the help of some friendly forum followers over at csscreator.com. If you are looking for help with your CSS problems, I would defiantly recommend heading over that way.

There are still a number of things that I am unhappy with (including the stupid redirect emailmeform added to the form code that I am going to have to replace with new code and the pdf's not opening in fancybox) but I thought it best to work on that after the site is live. It was time for it to be up.

Other than that, I haven't really spent any free time away from the computer. The town I am in has only one dance club and I got over it real fast. Those who know me can attest that I am not really into the "thug" scene. :\

I actually uploaded the site monday morning, then kind of collapsed with a combination of exhaustion and illness which has kept me near constantly bedridden till... well... about 25 minutes ago. Couldn't really sit up fully without getting dizzy for about 4 days, but most of it is gone now.

On that note, I have been dealing with some unfortunate health issues lately and still have a ways to go before feeling healthy again.

I was however able to watch the entire series of Farscape in 4 days. Yep, that's what I said. For those of you who don't know the series, that's 88 forty-five minute long episodes of sci-fi goodness ending in the most surprising last minute plot development before cancelation fiasco that I have ever seen. And I thought the series end for "My name is Earl" was aggravating.

Thank goodness for fan forced wrap-up movies.

Anyways, feel free to take a gander at the new threads. I really wanted to stress an elegant and professional theme with this one, and really couldn't think of something more fitting than pinstripes.

Makes me want to head back to Vegas and check out the Armani store. :P

I hope you like it, and feel free to send a message if you guys spot errors in spelling, things not working or just flat out suggestions.

Oh, and yes, demo reel is down currently... that was my project for this week, but being sick changed the plans.

-d