Scarlett Johansson Sculpt

I haven't been on here in a while.. So here's what I've been working on recently! Will go into more detail when I've got some proper renders out... Black Widow! 

  

Purple Doberman... not so purple.

Gave one of my favorite models a make-over today. I wanted to see how the purple doberman would look..... not purple. Turns out I kind of like it!  Rendering some high quality stills and turnarounds out of this pooch at the moment, so more detail on this guy shall be coming shortly :)

to see the old renders of this guy, click here.

Lets go painting pt. 2 !

This was a facial study I started a few months ago, and was happy with the form and depth I had created. However seeing as I've now graduated and hiding from adult life, I decided to go back to this painting and finish the full piece. The longer I've spent digital painting the more confident I've become with this medium, so felt confident to move into more difficult area's of the face!

 

Here is the final image, with torso, full head and hair painted in.

    

Started painting again !

So now university has finished (for the time being), after spending a good few months in 3D modelling programmes I thought I'd better go back and touch up my drawing skills.



I've got a few pieces unfinished at the moment which I'm now in the process of updating, but for now I wanted to sketch up a stylized character and give it a little paint over... so here's the process!

 

I first got a range of reference images of canines and began sketching out a main body shape, keeping in mind i wanted a stylized form, so the limbs were stretched and the muzzle narrowed. I then filled in a silhouette of the design to make sure the pose and proportions worked well within the design. Once confirming I was happy with the shape and form, I then moved onto tonal values. 

I firstly filled in the tonal range least affected by light, and then began to add in the most affected across the back and fronts of legs, then the shadowed area's across the under belly and backs of legs. 

Once pretty happy with the overall light set up, I began blending the shadows together, by colour picking mid tones and painting between these colours in a low opacity brush, until eventually creating a clean tonal form.

Once happy with this, the colouring begins!

 The colouring for this piece was relatively simple. Adding a light orange as a base, and a darker orange across the back and shoulders the main colour was complete. I then added white tips to the tail, behind the shoulders and under the jaw, and added darker shades of brown across the ear tips, muzzle and a large percentage of the limbs. I then added a light blue eye for personality !

Happy with the  colouring, I then chose a background colour that would compliment the character.

 Lastly I tested out different backgrounds until happy with the final result, and added in my
signature in a low opacity on top of the rear leg.

Flourish 2014 Graduate Showcase

I've recently graduated with a top first-class honors degree in BA Computer Animation!

So happy with this news :) to top it off I was also a nominee for 'Best CG Artist' at the Glammies 2014 Awards Ceremony, so got to see my recent show reel up on the big screen!

Really pleased with the outcome of the final year, and hope this sets me up in a good place for looking into employment and other opportunities. So, if you haven't yet already check out my link in the post below of my new showreel, and also have a look at my profile and its links on the Flourish 2014 Graduate Showcase, now available for employment! ;)

https://cciweb.southwales.ac.uk/flourish14/galleries/animation/students/z-lane.html

CG Artist Showreel 2014

This years showreel's up, check it out! 

Alternative Girl CG

I've been really busy lately with my major project deadline at university, so I haven't had time to post up what I've been doing. This is my latest piece, and I'm really happy with how she turned out :) This is Belle, the alternative model I designed earlier this year (with some clothes changes!) modelledin Maya 2014, sculpted in Zbrush and textured using Zbrush polypaint and Photoshop CS6 for tweaking the exported maps.

 

As my work progresses, I can see quicker and easier ways to get around working, slowly coming across less problems and mistakes along the way. I really feel with this character that I'm beginning to understand character modelling for animation far better, allowing me to make models with better topology and more realistic materials each time. I used GMH2 Hair Plug-In for the hair for this character which is a fantastic plug-in, easily allowed me to create the hair I desired with minimal effort and time consumption. My next aim is to create a male character of the same style, so that I become more comfortable with modelling male anatomy as I am with female. To see the full turnaround and close up images of Belle, check out my youtube! 

......so here's a unicorn.

Thought I'd do an update on the unicorn. finally finished it, really pleased with the outcome! Used GMH2 Hair Plugin for the mane, and its worked really nicely. I then spent a long time looking into different ways of modelling the eyeballs, and tested a variety of different materials on them to make sure they looked believable as character features, as I find especially with stylized characters the eyes do make a huge difference. Once getting the desired eyes and mane created I finally added in a simple diffuse with very subtle details such as dirt on the hooves, fur detail and spots on the muzzle. 

I then posed the unicorn in a simple trotting action, and added some grass for it to be running through. Will be putting the finished render up on here once it's completed!

Andrew Hickinbottom

 

 I've been meaning to post about this artist for some time now, and seeing as I'm about to start my stylised woman which shall be very inspired by him, I thought now would be a good time. Andrew Hickinbottom is one of my favourite CG artists. I was introduced to him through a friend and instantly fell in love with his pieces. Hickinbottom has been seen in a variety of different CG/3D magazines and is well known through this industry as a highly talented character artists, especially when it comes to the female form. Specialising in pin-up style images, Hickinbottom's unique style can easily be seen in each model he creates, this style is what inspired me so much whilst thinking of designs for my future characters.

This artist works in a variety of different programmes such as Zbrush, 3DS Max and Mudbox, but  predominantly works  in 3DS Max. As an Autodesk Maya artist, I will have to research into the different tips and techniques Hickinbottom speaks of, and transfer these from 3DS Max into Maya. I recently purchased '3DS Max Projects', a book that includes the most in-depth look into the way he works, and how he works around topology, mapping and light set ups, a really useful information source for my upcoming project! Another aspect of this art which I like is that each finshed model is posed and given its own finished image. Hickinbottom adds coloured backgrounds and extra assets to make the finished piece feel more natural, and lastly his light set ups which always make the finished piece look beautiful.

 

 

Whilst researching into his work I have seen that a lot of his composition work is created outside maya, with effects and adjustments being made in Photoshop. This is a technique I hope to incoroporate into my own finished image, as it really does make a huge different to a finished image if extra time is spent adding finishing touches. This also inspired me to rig my model, and pose it in a cheeky/seductive manner as a final image for the character, giving her an emotion and character for the viewer to empathise with. This high level of detail added into every piece makes Hickinbottom a huge inspiration for me, and many other aspiring character artists out there, being highly informative with all his pieces, explaining how to create such looks and where he got the inspiration from, I really enjoy following this artist and the works he creates.

 
To see more of Andrew Hickinbottoms work, click here.

Making a unicorn pt. II

 

 

I've been working on the unicorn sculpt for around a week now, and I was correct in assuming this project was going to run quite smoothly. Within an hour the base mesh had been completed and I was pretty a happy with the silhouette. The head was slightly changed in the modelling process as the turnaround images didn't quite work in 3D, and I think he looked better with the new head anyway.

I then had some feedback on the model. It was advised (as the model was yet to have a finished eye and nostril shape) that it would be easier to bring this base mesh into zbrush and sculpt it there, then bring it back into maya to topologise. Usually I would be hesitant to model in zbrush rather than just be adding final touches, but after the time spent in there with the creature again I was pretty confident I could handle it. I was also given a really handy tip for making my unicorn look more of a professional standard stylised model, by adding in harsh flat edges as well as the standard smooth surfaces on the model. A really good example I was given was the Wreck it Ralph characters.

 

 

Here you can see on a variety of models this technique being used; sharp jaw lines with rounded checks, and flattened noses with rounded foreheads. Another model I kept for inspiration is the model used for 'Trojan horse is really a unicorn'.... Which surprising really kinda looks like it could be the adult version of my design!

 

 

Turns out the sculpting was reasonably straight forward. Here is the finished result, and I'm really pleased with the base mesh I've created.

 

 You can see here the techniques being used, and I thinks it's really effective, it's given my model a unique form and made him look recognisable as a character, something really important in a character artists work. From here I then brought the mesh back into Maya and retopologised the form so it can later be easily textured and animated if needed. The next stage of this process shall be bringing the sculpt back into maya and adding more definition to the character to use as a displacement map, as well as sculpting the horn and mane. 

 

Animals real and imagined.

 

 

I found a book. 

I was so excited getting this. If you've read any of my earlier posts you'll know Terryl Whitlach's art is a recent love of mine after seeing her STARWARS illustrations. But this book is far better for me, as you don't need an in depth knowledge of STARWARS and it also has a huge amount of animals inside, which is a big plus in any situation.

 

As you can see from the pictures, there's not much to say, just to feel very jealous of her skills and
love her work. Very much like the previous book 'The wildlife of STARWARS a field guide' Whitlach continues to put as much detail into each creature as the one before, seeing high levels of editable in each area of design. She shows movement, muscle and skeletal structure of a large amount of different species, including already existing creatures and designs of her own. So glad I found this book, another site of inspiration for me to store!


Link to Animals real and imagined here!

Making a unicorn.

So I'm working on a personal project next, a little stylized unicorn. Since completing the E4 sting advert    I knew I found modelling stylized/cartoon characters far more rewarding, giving them their own little character and unique personality, so I knew first least one of my personal projects I wanted to do the same style again, but go even more stylized... And here we are.

I wanted this character to have more of a foal structure than a horse, so a 'too big for its body' head needed to be incorporated, along with long gangly legs that you see in action on most foals when they're trying to get up for the first time and walk around their surroundings. I looked into zebra and horse foals for research, and after testing different proportions and styles I was pleased with the final outcome.

After creating the detailed creature sculpt in zbrush and becoming far more comfortable with the program I'm fairly confident I can produce this form rather quickly.  I will bring the already existing turnaround into maya and create the base shape there, before moving into zbrush for detailing. 

Pathfinder interior lighting

Another quick update on the spaceship interior. The lighting for the scene has been sent over and here's a render of the combined result. It needed to be very orange due to the placement of the ship in space which is very close to the sun. This is effective for the film, however the intense lighting 

loses a lot of the detail from the diffuse and spec maps ( which I'll put up soon!) which I've been working on, so for my show reel I will be using my own lighting to allow full viewing of my models and textures nicely.