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.

Spaceship interior

Just a quick post to show how the environments coming a long ! 

Once putting the scene together it looked quite empty so me and +Kim McCarthy  went back and modelled a few extra assets like pipes in the ceiling and wires connecting workstations to the main electricity circuit to make it look more lived in and natural. The scene looked far better once this approach was once completed.

I'm really liking the scene so I far. I made sure whilst modelling that my designs were matching that of +Kim McCarthy  so our scene looked far more complete, as if each piece came from the same world. 

There is a separate artist who will be lighting the scene, and I am now waiting for the lights so we can then start creating the maps to put onto each model.


 

Pixar

I know this is most likely a very typical company to admire, but I love them and I'll write about them anyway. 

Along with most young aspiring character modellers , I would LOVE to work for Pixar. The textures lighting and stylized forms of their models have interested me since I first watched Toy Story, and by the time I was into my teens I knew i wanted to work in films like this. 

Once watching Monsters Inc. a few years later, I then decided it was the making of characters that interested me. I liked the designing of silhouette and shape of each character, then adding different furs and scales with varying colours and finally then seeing your design come to life on screen. It was only a once in university studying Computer Animation did I finally understand that it was a 'CG Artist' that I wanted to become, and three years later here I am!

So really, I started off loving Pixar, and I still do today. 

Over the past 25 years Pixar have been creating fantastic feature films attracting all ages, being part of a generation who have grown up with this company I can fully agree that no matter what age you are Pixar films always have something to offer. Each film brings a creative new story alongside individual characters for the audience to enjoy.

 

I would like to incorporate this 'Pixar' style into my alternative model (who I really should name) and also the unicorn I plan to model, so my next aim is to look up online any talks or articles by Pixar or the artists within the company to see if there are any useful tips or information on how to create this style! I'd like to try out hair on my unicorns mane like Pixar use on most of their horses in films but I feel this may take too much time for a 4 week project, so if I can't manage this in the time given I shall look into sculpting techniques Pixar use to make realistic fur and hair using the mesh itself. 
 


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