Creature Week

Here's something I did last week. I wanted to create a creature portrait per day for five days using Zbrush and Photoshop.

I went to this Creature Design Workshop at FZD  last year and man it was awesome! The speakers were Neville Page and Ben Mauro. Neville Page! I was geeking out the entire time. He is one of my biggest inspirations. Go check out his website here:
http://bit.ly/YjWbkC

and Ben Mauro's :
http://bit.ly/YjWqfB

The technique I used is what Ben showed us and the workflow is very simple. It goes like this. You  sculpt something out in Zbrush based on one of your sketches. Once you feel like you're done (it doesn't necessarily have to be a very polished sculpt) then you render out a couple of passes using different materials (the default Matcaps and Standard ones)  and comp them in Photoshop and viola!


Here's my end result. Be sure to check out the Hi-Res images here: http://bit.ly/XmuZ5F

So it's four steps:

01. Do some sketches. It's the most fun part. Again, it doesn't have to be super detailed but usually if you do most of your figuring out at this stage it get's a lot easier later on. Which I should have done. Anyway, here're some thumbnail sketches and a color thumb. Speaking of which, one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this was so that I can be more familiar with colors. How I decided my color was by referring to an artwork or image that I really liked and use it as a guide for selecting my colors. There's still much to improve.

Thumbnails really help since you don't have to worry about the details.
Plus you can flip them around in all sorts of ways and come up with shapes you like.

02. Get your sculpting on. This is also a very fun part :)

03. Render out the materials you want. Most of the labels refer to how I used them in Photoshop and not the actual name of the material.

04. And finally you just press the magic button in Photoshop and you're done! :)

It's mostly playing around with different blending modes , painting and erasing stuff, adding textures and happy accidents. Let's not forget the most important of them all... Lens-flares! :P

Here's a simple progression

A photo of myself for reference.
I have a small mirror in front of me which I make faces at.
 I don't think it likes that very much :)

All in all a very good learning experience. Here's to less excuses and creating more monsters in the year ahead. If you have any critiques, suggestions comment below or send me an email. Bye!

A holiday well spent

Here's something I've worked on during the holiday titled "Tiny Companion". My friends and I wanted to do some sculpting together to practice anatomy. I originally intended it to look like and actual sculpture. Hence, the lack of textures.

I'm just going to dive in and explain how I went about creating this. Started out in Maya for the base mesh. It didn't take me long since I already have a human base I created from one of my previous assignments. Deleted it from the hips down and blocked out the horse bit. Here's how initial blocking turned out.

ugly is what it looks like! :P

 After that I exported it to Zbrush and adjusted the proportions.Mostly used the move and inflat brush. Since I didn't have any sketches I looked at photo references to block out the proportions.

Earlier on I just referred to a lot of images on the Internetz (actual photos and 3D references)  and books to block out the muscles. At first I wanted it to have a hero type physique in a dynamic pose.

so much abs!

made him more muscular

At this point I felt like I needed a break from sculpting since I've been staring at it for too long and it wasn't really going anywhere. Its always good to spend sometime doing something non cg related so that when you come back its easier to spot mistakes. There were many of course but I like how his face looked.  The problem now was that it wasn't matching well with the body. I played around with different proportions and smoothed out some of the parts that I felt like it wasn't working. Never feel reluctant to just erase away something that isn't working just because you've spent too much time on it. Starting over is good and remember that layers can do you wonders.

Most of the sculpting after I posed it was done with symmetry turned off. 

Now I was getting somewhere. I've never sculpted a chubby guy before and had no clue how to sculpt realistic looking muscles that look like they have proper weight. Took me a long time to figure it out, especially those man boobs. You should never take man boobs lightly.

Remember when I said I wanted a heroic guy in a dynamic pose? Well after making him chubby and a little old looking I decided that wouldn't work anymore. I was thinking that if things looked subtle he'll be more convincing as a character.

 I also posed a lot in front of the mirror. It really helped me understand form changes when you move an arm or turn your head. Made sculpting a lot easier. Especially with the arms.

Here's a test turnaround with lights in Zbrush to see how he looks like:
http://bit.ly/TQvWmW

In some earlier versions I gave him long hair. Sculpting hair is very time consuming
and I decided not to go ahead with it because I might not finish it on time.

He looks really weird without the beard now.

I tried out some basic three point lighting in Zbrush to see if the forms were looking ok. Especially with the beard. If you think man boobs are hard to sculpt wait till you try sculpting hair. But like everything, if you spend enough time really figuring out stuff it pays off.

Decimated the model after sculpting so I can export it to Maya to do Lighting, Materials
 and Rendering. Here are some early tests with materials and lighting. 

Final lighting, Material and Render.
Check out the HiRes version here: http://bit.ly/TQoTuC

In the end I spent all two weeks of my holiday working on it. Quite satisfied with the result. A good way to start the year. My friends and I are aiming to do a sculpt every month depending on how much free time we have apart from work and assignments. Hopefully we can be consistent. Their feedback was a big help and most importantly I had a lot of fun doing it :)

I'm looking forward to doing more sculpts this year and I'm really excited about my final project. But I need to manage my time so that I can always spend a few hours every week doing something of my own to put in my portfolio. Happy New Year everyone! May this be a great one :)

The Brog and the Monark

Hi people :)

Another busy week comes to an end. As I’ve mentioned before, one of our final project is to do a short film. The video shoot is eating up all my time, even on the weekends. I’ve decided to put on hold updating my blog till I finish the semester so I can focus more on my finals. I’m still going to continue practicing, but not as much.

I’m really looking forward to the holidays. There’s a project in 3d that I’ve been meaning to work on for a while now.  Can’t wait :)

As for this week, I spent half of it practicing anatomy and the other half drawing animals using photo references. I remember reading interviews from successful artists about developing your own style. They emphasize on the importance of drawing from life rather than copying other artist. Its also important to keep in mind is that it’s going to take time. Draw every day, with passion and the constant need to learn new things. Drawing from life also improves your design sense in a way.

I noticed it somewhat when I was drawing animals. I did studies of two separate animals first and then tried to come up with one of my own creatures by combining the two. Not that I was able to design a super cool super awesome creature.  not yet at least :D but rather than trying to come up with a random design using my imagination, it helped a lot in terms of design knowing how something actually looks like. Even the weirdest aliens from far away galaxies are based off of something in real life. Maybe I should plan a trip to the zoo. Something else I can look forward to do during the holidays.

Hope everyone has a great week and happy drawing :D

here's a still from last weeks shoot

   it makes me sad that i didn't get this shot. it was clear skies, then it started to rain.

   I've always wanted to do a star trail. sigh! managed to get enough for 1 second 

   though. i'll have to try again next week. click HERE to view a gif i made with it

Sunrise sunrise!

Hi :)

It’s been a busy two weeks. Mainly because one subject this semester requires us to do a short film. Which is taking up a lot of time during the week. So I was occupied with the shooting last week. The location is a town near the seaside. Which is good since it’s been a long time since I haven’t seen the ocean or a beach. It was very nostalgic. I also got to do some time-lapse photography. I love time-lapse; even though it’s kind of tedious. There’s a lot of waiting around.  But to see the shots compiled and everything sped up is really rewarding. I should really make more projects for myself during sem break.

It’s also one reason why I didn’t update my blog last week, the other being that I felt that there wasn’t enough content. I’m still using the Loomis and Bridgeman books to study anatomy.  There’s still much to learn. It’s a never ending process after all. For people with lack of  motivation, you’ll only start being motivated once you start drawing and keep practicing and learning every day.  At least for me it did, and I bet if you try, it will for you too. I was waiting for someone or something to magically inspire me. But that never happened. It’s really your choice. You just need to push through the first couple of days or weeks until you get the hang of it.

Last week I tried adding values to my daily studies. But it was a bit time consuming since I have assignments to worry about and they come first. Although recently I feel like I’ve been paying more attention to this rather than my assignments. Working on it now hehehe

I really need to manage my time efficiently. So I've decided that that's going to be my task next week, besides my daily practice. I could also work on lighting and values separately. I’m also itching and scratching to start painting in gouache. maybe after i learn to manage my time.

Hope everyone has a great week and happy drawing :)

bones aren't as fun to draw, but a good practice nonetheless

trying out a different layout. looks similar to a traditional blue pencil sketch than digital

haven't seen one of these in a while. here's the link to the video.

One small step

Sup  :)

It’s been a month since I started drawing every day. I find myself more involved with it. I’ve noticed a change in my attitude towards drawing and the need to constantly learn new stuff.

I used to plan things in my head, how much I should draw everyday or what I should practice next. Discussed with friends and other artists on how much discipline and hard work is important, but never actually did something. So to everyone reading this, if you feel like you’re not improving, start…start NOW. Don’t wait for a new day a new month or a new year. Start now or you’ll never get around to doing it.

Don’t rush it either, when I’m practicing anatomy, form and other stuff, I really take my time in understanding what’s happening with the drawing. How something takes shape, why something is drawn a certain way, regardless of whether it takes me half an hour, to get the shape of the head right I get what’s happening. And the next time I draw, I take less time to draw it. Practice till you get it right. If you’re stuck then take a break, draw something else or do something else and come back again. Speed eventually comes to you. Believe me; a month ago I couldn’t properly draw a straight line using the stylus. Now it feels really natural and easy. Even if it’s a little accomplishment, it feels great and I want to find more time in a day to learn more. So yes, start now. Don’t think about it too much, like how and what and when you’ll do it. Eventually you’ll find yourself drawing and determined to learn more J

The highlight of this week was that I got to attend a masterclass by Rishikesh Nandlaskar from Rhythm and Hues. He’s the guy who modeled the hulk (the recent one) and a lot of other cool stuff. He showed us the actual models in maya and talked about how he goes about creating one. too bad we couldn't take photos though. apparently there'd be some issues since the content belonged to Fox and Universal. It was so fricking awesome!! The talk was very inspiring, and awesome. I said that already :p but yeah, it was hehe check out his gallery :)

Next week I’m going to start practicing drawing the skeleton, simplified and semi-detailed and more anatomy. I've been using a book called "Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life". Hope everyone has a great week. Till then, happy drawing :D

p.s. ooh ooh, I’m gonna start learning to paint in gouache soon. It took me two weeks to save up to buy the materials. Very excited :D 

my friend's from college and i started a little sketch group in facebook.
 just a weekly art jam, to have fun and to learn.
here's a material study from this week

after a successful month of drawing

The road to creature design

Hi :),

Hope everyone had a great week. I was supposed to work on female anatomy, but since I couldn’t find references I was happy with I did something else.

I was watching an interview with Terryl Witlatch on the cgchannel. She’s an awesome creature designer. She said that any artist who wants to be a creature designer should know how to draw animals inside out. and also to start collecting references from magazines and whatnot. Maybe i should plan a trip to the zoo when i'm free. do some sketching. So yeah, I practiced animal anatomy this week.

I followed a tutorial by MarshallVandruff, who explains on basic form and anatomy. Getting the basics welded in your brain is very important. If you don’t get the basics right you’ll stumble with the rest.  Apparently it takes a slight error in proportion for a horse to look like a dog and a dog to look like something else.  

I'd also managed to find time to do a little digital painting. I really want to learn how to paint, I mean traditionally. I practiced doing the color wheel using water colors. Boy do I need more practice. I should put “mastering the color wheel” on the list of things I should do. Although my target now is to learn how to paint using oils. Someday soon I hope :)

This week I’ll be going back to doing male anatomy. Till then, happy drawing and have a great week everyone :D

horses are such beautiful creatures

and here's the painting. dedicated to Dorothy
you're awesome and i miss you <3

body parts and then some...