DEMOREEL: Test Render Feedback Wanted
Here is a render test for my upcoming demoreel. I wanted to go for a clean 'clay' appearance so that the reel doesn't come across as too flashy but focuses on the sculpt primarily.
Looking for feedback on this, so any comments or critiques would be very welcome.
Cheers.
P.
UPDATE: Demoreel & TimberWolf Project
Very recently I got some very honest and useful feedback on my current Demoreel and the target industry it leans towards most. As such I have decided that I need to change up what is on my reel and replace some of the older work (circa 2008/9) and focus on creating a few pieces of work just for the reel with a focus on more realism and clearer breakdowns.
So far I am happy with the progress of this and it has been serving it's purpose on the R&D side of thing so I don't mind shelving it for short time so that I work on a few high resolution sculpts to add to my demoreel.
I spent the weekend doing some research and preparing some sketches and notes on what I want to include in the new reel. One of those being the wolf head sculpt from my TimberWolf project, now while the sculpt has no fur, it serves its purpose to show the anatomy of the head which is what I want to show off anyway.
The fur element is part of an ongoing R&D project that I'm working on and can carry on regardless of what I do with the sculpted mesh. As such the Timberwolf will be put on hold for the time being, but I have included a few stills below to show where the Fur got to, as well as another render.
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| Timberwolf Project: Fur Stages - Work in Progress |
This image (left) is a quick bit of Look-Dev over the top of an older render, mainly just trying to get a cinematic and interesting look while still keeping enough detail on show so that it is useful for a reel.
Below are a few stages of the Fur progress, by this point I was happy with the fur and was in the process of adding it and grooming it to the rest of the head. This is rendered without any colour maps or other maps for fur adjustment. Hence why it looks a bit tidy, once I finish my new demoreel, I will be going straight back to this.
So far I am happy with the progress of this and it has been serving it's purpose on the R&D side of thing so I don't mind shelving it for short time so that I work on a few high resolution sculpts to add to my demoreel.
However, the Wolf head will be going through another session of R&D today as it will be used as the test bed for the Scene, Turnaround and Wireframe render tests that the other meshes will follow for the new reel.
As usual, comments, questions...all are welcome.
Cheers folks,
Pat.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Frosty Spider
Hi folks,
I decided to take a break from CG work and decided to do a bit of file clear out and I came across an old photo I captured in 2011 and did nothing with. This was the year I first got into DSLR Photography and this was one of the good results from all my playing around.
I know that Spiders aren't everyone's favourite subject but I was pleased at the detail I was able to capture with the stock lens of my Nikon D3100. I cleaned up the image a bit using CameraRAW and a few minor tweaks in Photoshop.
I decided to take a break from CG work and decided to do a bit of file clear out and I came across an old photo I captured in 2011 and did nothing with. This was the year I first got into DSLR Photography and this was one of the good results from all my playing around.
I know that Spiders aren't everyone's favourite subject but I was pleased at the detail I was able to capture with the stock lens of my Nikon D3100. I cleaned up the image a bit using CameraRAW and a few minor tweaks in Photoshop.
ARTWORK: Mental Core Tests
Hi there folks,
Recently I got my hands on a trial version of Mental Core, which is an amazing authorized plug-in for Maya/Mental Ray that basically just makes things quicker to set up and access when dealing with Mental Ray. It also ships with built-in shaders that replicate the Blinn and Mia shaders of the standard Mental Ray so you won't be lost without your favourite shaders.
The plugin itself is around $200 so it won't break the bank and the way the Render Pass manager works is crazy efficient so you save a lot of time there.
I decided to throw together a quick scene to play with some of it's advanced features such as DOF, Bokeh and Light Bloom as well as AO, IBL and Lens Shaders. The scene below has all that and uses the Core_Mia material with a few presets applied, as it's a render test I also thought it would be apt to use the Stanford Dragon and Bunny as my test meshes.
It's nothing too special and the scene itself took a couple of minutes to set up. The render took approx. 20 minutes but this was without any optimisation of any kind, just settings quite high with lots of feature turned to ON! :D
-P.
Recently I got my hands on a trial version of Mental Core, which is an amazing authorized plug-in for Maya/Mental Ray that basically just makes things quicker to set up and access when dealing with Mental Ray. It also ships with built-in shaders that replicate the Blinn and Mia shaders of the standard Mental Ray so you won't be lost without your favourite shaders.
The plugin itself is around $200 so it won't break the bank and the way the Render Pass manager works is crazy efficient so you save a lot of time there.
I decided to throw together a quick scene to play with some of it's advanced features such as DOF, Bokeh and Light Bloom as well as AO, IBL and Lens Shaders. The scene below has all that and uses the Core_Mia material with a few presets applied, as it's a render test I also thought it would be apt to use the Stanford Dragon and Bunny as my test meshes.
-P.
ARTWORK: Blacksad 2013 WIP
Hi folks,
I have been taking some time off recently to continue production on a short film that I am working on with a friend of mine and I've just finished off the storyboards and I am currently in the process of designing the two characters.
In between that though I have made a quick Zbrush speed sculpt of the comic character 'Blacksad'.
It clearly needs a lot of work, but I am happy with the overall likeness and forms of the face. Workflow wise, I knocked out the rough shape using Dynamesh then used QRemesher to quickly re-topologise it before adding one or two subdivisions to add in further details.
He will be staying like this for a while now, as I need to get back to working on my short film pre-production. I only have this week to get a lot done before my next freelance job starts and in between all this I am trying to develop new workshop ideas.
Well, any comments on this would be welcomed, I actually created a Blacksad model back in 2009 but in retrospect, the head took me a week to model, where as this about 2 hours.
Cheers folks,
P.
I have been taking some time off recently to continue production on a short film that I am working on with a friend of mine and I've just finished off the storyboards and I am currently in the process of designing the two characters.
In between that though I have made a quick Zbrush speed sculpt of the comic character 'Blacksad'.
It clearly needs a lot of work, but I am happy with the overall likeness and forms of the face. Workflow wise, I knocked out the rough shape using Dynamesh then used QRemesher to quickly re-topologise it before adding one or two subdivisions to add in further details.
He will be staying like this for a while now, as I need to get back to working on my short film pre-production. I only have this week to get a lot done before my next freelance job starts and in between all this I am trying to develop new workshop ideas.
Well, any comments on this would be welcomed, I actually created a Blacksad model back in 2009 but in retrospect, the head took me a week to model, where as this about 2 hours.
Cheers folks,
P.
One to One Training and Consultations
I am now offering one to one training and consultations for working professionals and those learning 3D. Services range from full tuition of 3d content creation, critique on projects to consulting on projects and productions.
There are professional and student prices available all of which I feel I have marked at a fair and reasonable price.
Currently, I am available through Skype for these but in the future I am hoping to upgrade to Citrix GoTo Meeting. Depending on where you are I am also willing to provide these services in person; this may incur a little extra cost to cover travelling expenses depending how far I am required to travel.
Please contact by email here: CONTACT ME or through my Twitter if you are interested in any of these services or would like more information regarding prices. I will only discuss prices via email and not directly on my blog or on Twitter.
Software that I provide tuition for are:
Maya
Zbrush
Photoshop
and to a lesser extent:
Mudbox*
Softimage XSI*
*Currently Tuition in these applications is from an introductory level and for sharing data between other applications.
EDIT: I also provide training and consultation for non-software specific topics such as 3D Production Workflow and Trouble-Shooting as well Art Direction, Layout and critique on assets related to a production.
Please share this information if you know of any companies, studios or individuals looking for training or consultation.
Cheers folks,
-Pat.
There are professional and student prices available all of which I feel I have marked at a fair and reasonable price.
Currently, I am available through Skype for these but in the future I am hoping to upgrade to Citrix GoTo Meeting. Depending on where you are I am also willing to provide these services in person; this may incur a little extra cost to cover travelling expenses depending how far I am required to travel.
Please contact by email here: CONTACT ME or through my Twitter if you are interested in any of these services or would like more information regarding prices. I will only discuss prices via email and not directly on my blog or on Twitter.
Software that I provide tuition for are:
Maya
Zbrush
Photoshop
and to a lesser extent:
Mudbox*
Softimage XSI*
*Currently Tuition in these applications is from an introductory level and for sharing data between other applications.
EDIT: I also provide training and consultation for non-software specific topics such as 3D Production Workflow and Trouble-Shooting as well Art Direction, Layout and critique on assets related to a production.
Please share this information if you know of any companies, studios or individuals looking for training or consultation.
Cheers folks,
-Pat.
TUTORIAL: 3D World Magazine #2
In the latest issue of 3D World Magazine (May 2013/Issue 168) I have a featured tutorial on how to Understand Blendshapes. I had a lot of fun creating this and it expands on a basic tutorial that I posted on the blog a while back.
The tutorial goes in depth into the settings and uses for Blendshapes, how to create them, edit them, add them into and existing rigged character and how to use them for deformations other than facial shapes.
I have a subscriber issue but I reckon the magazine will be out for general release on Monday. Below you can see the front cover and the first couple pages of the tutorial, starting on p78 :D
Let me know what you think folks, cheers.
-P.
The tutorial goes in depth into the settings and uses for Blendshapes, how to create them, edit them, add them into and existing rigged character and how to use them for deformations other than facial shapes.
I have a subscriber issue but I reckon the magazine will be out for general release on Monday. Below you can see the front cover and the first couple pages of the tutorial, starting on p78 :D
Let me know what you think folks, cheers.
-P.
NEWS & ARTWORK: Mari 2.0/Timber Wolf Update
Howdy folks,
Another brief update for my Timber Wolf project - I haven't had a chance to make much progress on it - other than exporting out my displacement and normal Maps and setting them up in Maya. Below is a render showing the setup, using an old light to simulate a clay style render.
I'm pleased with the outcome so far, the Displacement and Normal Map are both 2K and I am happy with the level of detail.
Next step is finishing up the texture maps in Photoshop, building some eyes and then setting up the shaders, all simple enough tasks and then it's on to the fur.
A slight oversight on my part, I have not created enough of the body to frame the wolf the way I originally planned, so instead I will create an extra section that I will blend in to the head when I create the fur.
In other news, Mari 2.0 has just been released and seems to be quite stable on my system - even though I have ATI card installed (Mari prefers Nvidia Cards) So, I have til the end of the month to learn it as I just installed the 15 day trial...time to get my texturing on! If you are unfamiliar with Mari...see the video below, and see why pretty much every CG artist is raving about it.
That's all for now folks, stay well.
Cheers
-P.
Another brief update for my Timber Wolf project - I haven't had a chance to make much progress on it - other than exporting out my displacement and normal Maps and setting them up in Maya. Below is a render showing the setup, using an old light to simulate a clay style render.
I'm pleased with the outcome so far, the Displacement and Normal Map are both 2K and I am happy with the level of detail.
Next step is finishing up the texture maps in Photoshop, building some eyes and then setting up the shaders, all simple enough tasks and then it's on to the fur.
A slight oversight on my part, I have not created enough of the body to frame the wolf the way I originally planned, so instead I will create an extra section that I will blend in to the head when I create the fur.
In other news, Mari 2.0 has just been released and seems to be quite stable on my system - even though I have ATI card installed (Mari prefers Nvidia Cards) So, I have til the end of the month to learn it as I just installed the 15 day trial...time to get my texturing on! If you are unfamiliar with Mari...see the video below, and see why pretty much every CG artist is raving about it.
That's all for now folks, stay well.
Cheers
-P.
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