Judgemental

This is a ZBrush doodle of a wonderful character from Jason Chan’s Birth On Venus, featured on the cover of ImagineFX in June 2007.

This was my first test of GoZ, although I only used it to transfer the base-mesh to ZBrush. It’s refreshing to not have to stop and save out a .obj of whatever I’m working on. That small break in the workflow always felt incongruous.

I rapidly block in forms with the move brush and the standard brush

The sculpt begins to take shape, with the nose, ears and the brow line becoming apparent.

I finally add the artificial eyes and strengthen the chin considerably.

I was stumped as to how the lips should look and, admittedly, it stalled the whole piece. I’m happy with this as a study, and I’m really motivated to work on some more!

Herder

This is overdue, but, better late than never.

Here is the piece of concept art I created for my Character Design proposal.

This is a quick paint over of a ZBrush sculpt, and as such, is not animatable.

I’ve been fortunate to have access to ZBrush 3.2, and I have no doubts that GoZ is going to completely change my workflow. It’s all looking very exciting!

The Rave News Network

This is an introduction/bumper I produced for a friend’s university assignment, in which he is directing a fictional news show.

The work is all very simple and was made in quite a rush, however, I am pleased with the way this piece has turned out

Turtle-Whale

This is a piece of personal work which I may include in my Lighting & Rendering assignment, however, it would require rigging and animating, which would take up an inordinate amount of work for the duration this would be in-shot for.

It is a mashup between a whale and a turtle. I was very interested by the skeletons of terrestrial whales and how the flukes of the tail have no supporting bone.

 

A quick concept sketch is laid down. Other areas are studied in closer detail on other sheets of paper.

 

In Maya, I rapidly build the body of the Whale from a cube. I choose to drop the hind flipper as it makes the creature resemble a turtle too closely.

 

Detail is sculpted into the mesh in ZBrush, with steadily increasing levels of subdivision to accommodate the increasingly complex details.

 

While building this I tried to reduce the time it took to reach completion. The entire process, from concept to final sculpting took a little over one and a half hours.

Coralicious!

One of the many issues with making a lost structure underwater is the sheer amount of detail required to make it compelling.

This coral is the first of almost 30 individual models for the interior. That number is for coral alone and does not include crabs, seaspiders, fish, detritus or the structure itself.

 

The base mesh built in Maya, shown smoothed.

 

A rapid sculpt from ZBrush. There is a minor issue with ZBrush interpreting elements of the mesh from Maya incorrectly.

 

I am more excited about the Lighting & Rendering module now than ever before, mostly because a very abstract and far-reaching idea is starting to become a reality. 

It is becoming readily apparent, however, that in order to deliver this scene in the next 11 weeks I’m going to have to dramatically step up the pace.

Space-Pig

I’ve begun to work on a character set for Character Design. There will be three characters, and they will interact in a variety of ways. I chose a very biological route when I was considering how these characters would be related, and connected to one another.

The three characters are a Herder, a Herd Animal, and a Parasite.

Below is the development of the herd animal, affectionately (and I think quite aptly) named, The Space-Pig.

 

In an effort to make a more intriguing and original creature I began with simple ink-blots. Here I can see the bony head of a creature with a very unusual jaw.

 

Next  I draw a fast and cartoony sketch. This will act as a guide during the modelling process.

 

In order to progress quickly with the creature, I lay out Zspheres in Zbrush. This allows me to interactively work with the proportions in 3D and experiment with different forms.

 

The Adaptive Skin mesh is imported into Maya. This mesh isn’t ideal and will pose challenges later in the modelling process.

 

The finished mesh in Maya. I have added accoutrements such as the start of a saddle and a set of reigns with a bit.

 

The partly finished sculpt in Zbrush.

 

I have not proceeded to add intricate detail to this model as I am unsatisfied with the proportions, and I will likely remodel it.

The reason for this not meeting my expectations is due to me losing objectivity and not taking the time to stand back and assess the model against the concept, and against what I wanted it to become.

I may still use this as a variation on the Space-Pig concept, the reason for the reigns and saddle, as it would make a pleasing hero-shot with a Herder astride it.

Funky Gibbon

It’s time for some life in the trees.

This little chap is a canopy-dweller, not unlike a Gibbon. I wanted to push the body plan to extremes, and I took inspiration from both spiders and crabs. I had a lot of fun making the expression, although I’m certain it serves no real purpose.

 

I knew the face was going to drive the whole character so I set about finding a shape which was going to put it centre-stage.

 

Here I lay out a pleasing shape with ZSpheres. I like this method because I can experiment and work very quickly.

 

The Adaptive Skin mesh ZBrush generated was very ugly and would have taken a very long time to fix before any progress could be made. I chose to discard it.

 

I take screenshots of the front and the side of the ZSphere model, and use them as image-planes in Maya. Here you see them next to the grid.

 

I build the mesh by hand in Maya. Here is a smoothed version of the basic mesh to better demonstrate the desired shapes and proportions.

 

I model a mouth and eye-sockets, which fit closely around two large, flat Nurbs spheres. I wanted to exaggerate the mouth and make the skin looked stretched.

 

This model is not finished and I want to do much more with it. When I revisit this I’ll add a striated, claw-like look to the hooked feet and hands, as well as a full coat of fur.

Jellyfish Lanterns

For my Rendering & Lighting module I am required to construct a scene, light it, and produce an animated fly-through of the scene lasting between 30 and 120 seconds.

I’ve spent a lot of time imagining various settings, situations, back-stories and moods for the scenes I would like to make, but the setting which stands out most vividly is that of an underwater cathedral. I have yet to decide whether it is alien in origin or whether it is a submerged structure, colonised by sea-life.

My inspirations for this were the submerged villages of the Lake District, such as the village of Derwent, and the reveal of the alien city in one of the final sequences of the 1989 film, The Abyss.

In order to light this vast space, which would usually be shrouded in darkness, I am considering using phosphorescent animals.

I’ve begun testing looks for jellyfish, which could move throughout the scene in small groups, exposing more of the interior as the fly-through progresses.

 

Light-source?

 

The blue in my image is rather cold and would be great for influencing the mood when juxtaposed with one of these or one of these.

Heavy-G Herbivore

As a warm up to the character design module I’ve chosen to focus on extreme conditions, and the evolutionary pressures they put onto creatures.

Here is the process for quickly creating a creature using Zbrush and Maya. I had only basic sketches, but some detailed notes on what I wanted the creature to look like were excellent guides

 

Here we see the initial Zsphere model. The hazy circles are Magnet Spheres, intended to influence the mesh

 

Zbrush then interprets the Zspeheres using Adaptive Skin to form a polygonal model. Can you guess what it is yet?

 

The mesh is subdivided in Zbrush and transferred to Maya for some careful finessing

 

The mesh has now been imported back into Zbrush and has been subdivided several times more. Now that I have the form more or less how I want it to be, I can begin sculpting in some detail

 

I add in details for the head. A happy accident with the Deform palette leads to a much nicer shape for the head. The bony plates on the chest and underside are intended to mesh together when the creature leans forward to graze, taking the weight off the muscles of the neck.

 

This model will probably not be developed further, as I’m pleased with what I have and I want to move onto other extremes such as low gravity, cold, heat, water and life in the canopy of a forest.

It’s Alive!

Welcome to PolygonPrimitive!

This site is primarily a creative log for my Lighting & Rendering and Character Design modules at university, however, I will also be posting my personal work.

I hope you enjoy my work and don’t hesitate to post feedback.