Looking for work again. New website and other stuff.

Reliance MediaWorks VFX has finally closed it's London offices. Oh, did I forgot to mention that I started work at Reliance as their senior texture artist almost two months ago (working on Michael Bay's Black Sails TV series) - I replaced their leaving lead texture artist. So... it looks like I'm looking for work, again. Anyone hiring?

In other news I have taken down Unearthedart.com, and replaced it with a temporary version until I get a proper version of the website up and running. A re-design was well overdue; I last updated the design about 7/8 years ago.

I've updated my showreel with some of the work I did on World War Z. It's still private for the time being but will be public sometime soonish. I'll be sure to post it then.

My Living Dead Girl III (3) is almost complete. I'm hoping to put the finishing touches to her in the coming week. I just have a few lighting tweaks to make (it's looking way better than the last render I posted), and one or two changes to make to the blood and hair, etc. I'll also try and create a decent breakdown of the character.

I've put that stylized character of mine on hold for now - I have something new planned that I'm more excited about. I finished off most of the texturing on her (I'll post my last progress sometime). Lost a bit of interest on her when I started planning my next character... that's the way it goes I guess. I hope I re-visit her though, as I was enjoying working on her. Perhaps a break will do her good. Let see...

Until the next update...

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A new stylized character

I'm still working on my Living Dead Girl character - she's about 90% done, but felt like working on something a bit different for a change, so I began work on this stylized character about a week ago in my spare time. I also had a bit of downtime whilst working on 300: Rise Of An Empire at Cinesite so also managed to squeeze in some work on her there. And yes, I'm using Maya.

Most of the base geometry is done with the exception of the figure itself, which is still the low poly base mesh and is thus lacking detail and shape. I still need to add in small details like toe and finger nails and flesh out more of her forms and also give her proper ears. I want to keep her quite simple and not add too much anatomical detail. I've been really inspired by Paranorman and a few other films lately, so felt like doing something a bit more in that vain, though this won't be anywhere nearly as stylized as that.

I'm actually working on 3 characters at the moment; one I mentioned in a previous post (Living Dead Girl 4) which I've put on hold until I finish the 3rd (Living Dead Girl) and this character. I want both characters done for when I launch my new website.

More to come...

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Environment...

Just some quick, low quality renders. I'm busy with the environment, working on the pillars - they should go pretty quickly. I just need to texture the upper part above the column then do some sculpting on them to break up the edges and such, and then do some secondary maps (bump, spec, etc.). Then I can focus on the layout, lighting, etc.

I was also playing about with the colour of the gown and some depth of field in the scene. I like the white version but will most likely keep it dark. I might try red as well...

I'm also mucking about with my 4th Living Dead Girl as I work on this.

More to come...

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Coming soon....

Nothing to show at the moment but I've started working on my 4th Living Dead Girl (based on an old concept I did a couple of years back) in between working on the environment for the 3rd one. I'm trying not to get too distracted by her as I really need to finish the 3rd one soon.

Coming soon....

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Wax on wax off

I've been working on the environment for my 3rd Living Dead Girl. I'm done with about 90% of the modelling in Maya (yes I've made the switch to Maya for modelling - I'm still rendering in Max though); just one or two more things left to model. This candle stand is the first asset that I've textured and done some test rendering on with VRay in Max. I haven't put too much effort into this as it'll most likely be in the background; none-the-less I'm quite happy with the results.

I'll be moving onto more of the environment texturing and sculpting later in the day.

Until then...

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A small update

If you right-click on the image and select open image in new tab/window it should open a larger 1600px version.

It's been a while since I've updated my blog - I've been quite busy with freelance work over the past months, so I haven't had too much time to work on my personal work. Fortunately, I've had a bit of time over the past month or so to do some work on my Living Dead Girl (number 3). It's mostly involved redoing the hair for her (which I'm still working on). I've also been able to render it properly with VRay since Hair-Farm now seems to fully support it. I've redone the cloth as well as textured it properly now.

I'm quite happy with the way she's turning out. The lighting is still very much a work in progress (though I do like the direction it's taking); along with quite a few other things that I'll touch up once I start putting the scene together - I'll hopefully start modelling an environment for her this coming week.

More to come...

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More cloth...

Nothing too new - one with lace trimmings and one without. Mostly just some adjustments to the placement of the cloth - mostly how it covers the breasts more now. Though I'm not so happy about the way the cloth interacts with the nipples (it's more visible in the version without the lace). So I'll probably adjust that a bit.

It's still using a basic shader with a few tweaks which looks better than the shader from my previous post. The lace is also pretty flat at the moment as it has no bump applied. I'll still be playing with the shaders later on. There are still no textures aside from the lace and a rough bump material for over all coverage. This will change once I've sorted out the UV's etc.

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Dressing her up...

I wasn't going to post this because the robe/cloth is still a very early work in progress, but I thought that I need to post something.

Anyway, just a quick render of where this character is heading; sans hair (I'll probably end up redoing more of the hair (that I posted earlier) than I intended as my idea or using morph targets with Hair-Farm didn't quite go as planned unfortunately).

The cloth still needs a lot of work:
- The way it's draped needs some attention as well as I want less of her breasts exposed
- I still need to add in seams, etc.
- The shader is also very temporary and there isn't a texture yet so that'll need addressing soon. I'll probably be adding lace trimming and some other delicate stuff.

I like where the lighting is heading as well - obviously it's just a quick test (her right eye looks rather weird at the moment). I still need to start working on the environment (here I come Maya). I've also created a small accessory for her, but will add that in at a later stage.

All that and some extra gooeyness...

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Posing

It's all been going a bit too slow as I've been stuck in a bit of a rut and have also been a bit lazy. Anyway.... I've finished the ZSphere posing and now I'm cleaning up the pose deformation and getting the muscle definition sorted out to match the pose. I've just started on her upper torso. Once that cleaning up is done, it's on to the expression. Shouldn't take too much time to get that all done then I can start setting up the final scene. I've also been testing some VRay shaders, but more on that later.

I'm also about halfway with the clothing. I'll post some updates on that soon.

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Rigging and Posing with ZSpheres.

I've really been been enjoying the freedom and ease that ZBrush's ZSpeheres offer for rigging and posing. I always used to have to painstakingly set up the skinning and posing using Max's biped and Character Studio, which would take ages to do and never really gave me great results (probably because I'm not a character rigger).

I find this works so much more easily and not to mention quickly for what I need. It took roughly 10-15 minutes to create this rig, and the best part is that it skins the character on the fly. It works incredibly well; even really hard areas to rig and manipulate like the shoulder areas are no problem - the arms rotate upwards and the mesh deforms with no problem.

There are still a few areas to pose and tweak: the hands and fingers haven't been touched yet and I might still tweak a few other areas. Once the ZSphere posing is done, I'll do a bit of clean-up sculpting to areas where the muscles have deformed and shifted and then also give the her an expression of some kind.

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More render tests...

I posted these to my deviantArt account a few days ago -  thought I should share them here as well.

Another one of many test renders that I've been doing (I'm enjoying V-Ray). The image on the right is rendered with GI and 2 lights (+ one for the eye highlight). The one on the left is the same but with no GI. Neither are using V-Ray Environment.

I'm mostly done with the sculpting (still might tweak one or two things here and there) and texturing - the bump map still has one or two areas that are inverted (the eyebrows which will be removed when I do the grooming and one or two moles, etc.).

I should be starting the hair and clothing for her soon, meaning that she'll actually start to look like a character.

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Render tests...

I started testing out VRay for the fist time in ages. Okay I lie, I tested  it on a earlier version of this model months back and she's changed a lot since then. It was quite a basic quick test only using a diffuse map and no SSS. But honestly, the last time I used VRay was back when it was free and still in Beta testing.

These are a few of the latest renders I've been testing. The first two in the row of four have GI enabled whilst the last don't, thus their more waxy quality.

This full figure one is the last one that I've done today. The shading is by no means finished, but I'm still really happy with these results. There's still a lot to do to her, mostly:

- Finish sculpting and cleaning up her anatomy;

- Add asymmetrical anatomical detail; 

- Her texturing (diffuse) is about 95% done - finish a few things here and there;

- Update and tweak secondary maps (glossiness, bump, etc.);

- Add hair (her eyebrows are only textured in at the moment but I'll be grooming those with a proper hair system as well);

- Pose her;

- Clothe her;

- Create environment;

- Render, render... and render...

More to come...

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Some new character stuff...

I have just finished a couple of months freelance work on some characters for a game trailer cinematic, so now I'm officially back to some of my own work for a bit.

This is what I started working on a while before I started the above mentioned work. Nothing too exciting, just a standard base nude figure for a character I'm working on (more on her at a later date). The nice thing about doing this base figure is, I can use her for multiple characters just by making a few model changes and texture tweaks, which will allow me to focus on the character. She's not going to be a real-time character either.

(edit: I have just realised that this base mesh was derived from an older model made a couple of years back that was never finished.  I've essentially adjusted a lot of the anatomy and proportions - I think I've also added in some extra topological detail as well. Looking back at that old one it's really quite bad and I think this one is quite an improvement over that... hopefully...)


The texture work is about 98% done - just a few small touch-ups here and there. At the moment I've got one 8K (8192x8192) texture for the skin and one 4K (4096x4096) texture for the eyes. I've left her eyebrows in for now as a guide for when I get to do the grooming of the hair later on.

As far as the sculpting goes, I'm only 3 subdivisions in as I'm still just fleshing out the shapes of the muscles and proportions, etc. She'll most likely be a lot less toned than she is now, so I'll be smoothing those muscles down a bit when I move on to higher subdivisions.

Hopefully I'll have more updates on the actual character soon...

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She's finally complete!!!

Finally!!!... Bloody finally!! I got around to finishing her! I can't even remember when I actually started working on her. I think it was roughly 3 years ago when I was working on Wolfenstein! I'll admit that she was a real drag to work on at times, especially towards the end. I kept putting her on hold and would pick at her every now and then.

But saying that, I'm mostly happy with her. One or two things here and there that I would have changed or would have like to have tweaked more: her anatomy, the tattoos, her pose and skinning; she could be optimised more. I would have liked to have given her a base, etc, etc. This is the case with something that has been worked on over such a long period of time... But no!! NO more!! She needed to be laid to rest!! I think If I had worked on her any longer I would have gone nuts.

Anyway saying all that she is most likely going to be my last real-time character. You can see more of her on my website: http://www.unearthedart.com/personal.htm

I've already made some progress with another character - I'm currently texturing the base skin, which is roughly 90% done! WOOO!

More updates soon... hopefully...

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Zombie slowness

I've been rather slow lately getting any personal work done of any sorts.

Anyway a small update on this severed zombie head. Still some detailing to do (sores, etc.) and symmetry to remove. I also still need to work on the severed area as well as finish off the teeth, and then it's on to texturing.

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Detailing zombie head

Added some porous detail to the head. I'll offset the overall symmetry by dislocating his jaw (I've added that detail on another layer in ZBrush). I'll post that in my next update, once I'm happy with it. I'll also add more deeper damage in places. I originally had part of his jawbone exposed but wasn't too happy with it and found it a bit distracting. Again this is a prop for another character, so I'm not going to go into too much detail with it.

Not too much left to do except what I've mentioned above and a few other things; his teeth haven't had much done to them yet - I'll most likely break and skew a few as well as remove a couple. The "severed" part of course needs work (loose flesh, etc.)... then it's on to texturing the sucker!

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Severed zombie head progress

Some progress with the head. Still filling out the basic symmetrical volumes before I go in and add any detail and offset the symmetry.

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Severed zombie head sculpt

Finally got back into some Zbrush work this weekend. Started this severed zombie head prop. No detailing yet; just bashing out the basic shapes and forms of the underlying anatomy. Decay and whatnot yet to come.

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Playing with Marmoset...

I've decided that I'm most likely going to render her in Marmoset from 8monkey Labs. I'm quite happy with the results so far - still busy tweaking secondary textures (specular, etc.) and shaders and lighting. I'm also busy posing her and thinking of a way to actually present her for the final beauty shots.
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She should hopefully be done soon... and then on to some new work... finally >__<

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Finalising tattoos....

I'm mostly done with her tattoos now (I might still tweak them a bit). You might have noticed that I desaturated most of her tattoos. Which is more in line with my original idea for her. Besides I also think they work a lot better this way.

I'm going to step away from her for a few days, and hopefully come back with a fresh pair of eyes. Then it's on to one or two other tweaks and then stick all the textures onto one texture sheet. Optimise (a bit). Set up proper shaders. Pose. Light. Render! I might still make a base for her. Not sure what yet... and then... hopefully move onto another character - non real-time!!

More drawings to come...

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