08.06.08 - Guardian Image made with Maya, Zbrush, Mental Ray. I started this as a head sculpt/sketch from a sphere in Zbrush, but then added the torso... then the lower limbs... then decided it needed a background... then some bugs.. then some smoke. Since I didn't start with a design, I just poked at it from time to time over the past couple months. So I guess the image evolved over time, but I'm happy with where it ended up. The final image is 4500x8000 to be printed at 30"x54". 01.11.08 - Fume Same guy as below... it was tough settling on an angle to work on him from. I'm still not even sure if this was the right choice, but time to walk away from it. I shot a bunch of photos of smoke specifically for this image that I comped in Photoshop... and now I am a big fan of smoke photos. They're purty. 01.04.08 - Ember So I recently started shooting friends/models with the initial intention of finding interesting poses/lighting to use as reference/inspiration for my 2D + 3D stuff. I've been taking photos and tweaking them in photoshop to create possible directions for a 3D image. In the process, however, I've found that I kinda like how some of them turned out on their own, without the need to become just 'reference'. I thought I'd post one of them in here just to share what I've been doing... 01.04.08 - Study Render test of the aforementioned sculpt that has since evolved a little in zbrush. I definitely need to do something more interesting with him than this... :/ 01.02.08 - Whisper Happy New Year to all... Here's a quick photoshop study of a new zbrush sculpt. Still playing around with it so I'll probably have other images with this guy as he progresses. 10.09.07 - Trin Another new guy... this was made for fun, but also as 'homework' for a new class I'm teaching at Gnomon. It is a ten week class where every two weeks we make a new character or creature. The first assignment was to make a portrait or bust. Unfortunately I was only able to spend a couple days on him, but he's done for now. Time to move onto the next one... 08.30.07 - Jester Tutorial So I've just spent the last couple weeks putting together an incredibly thorough tutorial on the making of Jester. Over 18 hours long! A lot of work went into it as I really wanted people to be able to understand every single step in Jester's creation. There is a lot of technical stuff in here that should help people out. :) http://www.gnomonology.com 08.30.07 - Jester Here's a new guy called 'Jester'. He's a plaything for kids. :) This is based on an old sketch of mine (in the 2D trad section) that I always wanted to make in 3D. I spent a bit of time on this one, making 2k-4k textures for everything with the intention of being able to make a big print. Maybe... But at least I know he will hold up to an 8k render. Of course, I need more RAM if I want to pull that off. Perhaps it is time to get a 64bit machine... hmm. Anyhow, he is done for now... need to take a break from it to get some perspective. (and opinions). Posted in 3Dartwork. 09.05.07 - well hey!... jester got plugged at Zbrushcentral.com 09.10.07 - cool! Jester just got a CGchoice award at cgtalk. 07.15.07 - 'Void' New image based on the recent sketches from below. 06.12.07 - Gnomonology I've been recording new tutorials like a nut over the past couple months in anticipation of the launch. Meats Meier, Scott Spencer, Zack Petroc, Craig Zerouni and Chris Nichols have also contributed new tutorials with much more to come this summer. I really hope that people find it to be a valuable resource. This is day one and we will continue to grow and evolve the site. 06.10.07 - 'Sunken' New image posted to 3D Artwork. 06.07.07 - 'Smile' Here's a new unfinished(?) image 'Smile'... I got to this point after a couple evenings and haven't had time to get back to it. Its tough to have fun making an image, but then have a week go by with not one second to work on it anymore! So for now, I thought I would post it here. It is based on another one of the sketches below. Maya/Zbrush/Photoshop. 05.27.07 - 'Threshold' Posted in 3Dartwork. 05.27.07 - 'Kiss' Here's an image I made in Maya/Zbrush a couple weeks ago: 'Kiss'. 04.07.07 - Sketches So a couple months ago I started sketching again... over the course of a few evenings. Decided to do a few 4x6 quick sketches/drawings and then pick one to make in 3D. Each sketch is about 10-30 minutes. Wow am I rusty... amazing that ten years ago I used to draw every day and now I almost never do. So sad... Well, at least I've picked it up again and hopefully I'll get better. :) 03.07.07 - Avatar In other news, I recently finished up six months full-time in the art dept of the new James Cameron film 'Avatar'. I was doing creature look development and it was an incredibly inspiring experience. The movie doesn't come out until 2009, but it should be frickin amazing looking... and the script is actually quite good. There are so many amazing artists in the art dept... Neville Page, Ryan Church, Dylan Cole, James Clyne... the list goes on and on and on. The creatures are now in the hands of Weta Digital and I can't wait to see what they do! Recent Projects: 08.06.08 - Guardian 01.11.08 - Fume 01.02.08 - Whisper 10.09.07 - Trin 08.15.07 - Jester 06.15.07 - Gnomonology 04.15.07 - Avatar 02.28.07 - GW Live Teaching @ Gnomon: Fall, '08 - Will be teaching the Character & Creature Dev. class again this fall. :) Winter, '08 - Taking a term off from teaching to focus on other things. Fall, '07 - Character & Creature Dev. I'll be teaching a new 10 week class at Gnomon this fall for upper term students focusing on character/ creature work. Summer, '07 - Dynamic Effects, II. Spring, '07 - Dynamic Effects, I Teaching @ Gnomonology: 01.25.08 - Added a new tutorial on the making of Fume. 10.17.07 - Added a new tutorial on the making of Trin. 09.18.07 - Added a new tutorial on the making of Jester. 18 hours! 06.12.07 - launced the site with over 40 hours of new tutorials by me, so too many to list here. :) As many of the projects cover various software, they are split between Maya, Zbrush, Photoshop, UVlayout and After Effects. Random Musings: If you haven't seen 'Jacob's Ladder', then you should... because it is a disturbing masterpiece. Or if you want something bizzare, check out 'Tetsuo Iron Man'. Movie tips of the day. :)