Portfolio: Al Capone 3D Model

Here is the model of Al Capone that I have been working on. This was the first face model that I was applying the Reilly method to 3D modeling of a head. It has the planes in the cheeks, and forehead, and based upon the results here I forced even more Reilly planes into my next character model, with even better results. I used 3D Studio to model Al, and Mudbox and Photoshop to to the majority of the texture work.

It was a bit different also, normally I would work off the high quality reference I could find, but since the technology and logging of information in his day was not up to par, I had to work around issues with low quality reference and really a lack of reference all together. Great stories and headlines, but no 10 mega pixel images to go with it. What was there was black and white, or yellow. So color was an issue, and not being able to use the modeling reference and a texture base was also a fun one to work around. That may also be the reason that Al has a slightly cartoon feel to him, one I actually did not want, is due to the lack of reference up to the task to be the textures. In fact I could not find one to use, I had to piece together other refs and create a bunch from scratch. He does meet the standard I was going for as far as overall quality and poly count, along with learning uncharted modeling techniques for the forehead and cheeks, Al will go down as a very successful project.

I created a model sheet and a model breakdown of the Al Capone 3D model, hope you enjoy!

Portfolio: The Moon Wurm

This is a model I had sitting around. I created him to be a boss in the Tower34 game I have been working on but never posted it up for the world to see. The Wurm is rigged, animated and ready to go. I have already tested it in Unity3D. I gave it a simple character controller and even created a simple game were the wurm eats mines. Currently I am unsure of the state of Tower34 though, I ran into a critical error as far as the game play is concerned. I am left with the choice to try again or to start on of the many new ideas for a game that I have. I am leaning towards simplifying the game and at least try to salvage what I have. That way I do not just chalk this up to a learning experience, but actually get my homage to Galaga that I have always wanted to make.

Here is a stereoscopic render and a scene breakdown, hope you enjoy!

Portfolio: Life Drawings

I just started a new blog to keep track of my life drawing progress. I started sitting in a couple of classes about six months ago to help meet the life drawing requirements for the master's degree I am looking into. I was very rusty at first but my recent drawing do show much improvement, each week they seem to get better and better. I will keep updating my progress.

Here is the link: papertopoly.blogspot.com

Portfolio: Model - Lamborghini Reventon

I finally completed the Lamborghini Reventon model I have been working on. I had the model completed about 6 months ago but never moved on to the textures. Over the past couple of weeks I spent a few of hours finalizing the materials. This is one of the more sophisticated car models I have produced and I had a lot of fun on the production. I guess now I may have to make a simple game so I can drive it. Hope you enjoy!

Portfolio: Character Models - Cartoons

Here are three characters that I have created. They all started as small sketches that evolved into full 3D characters.

The Ant Man was most recent, I modeled him in Maya and textured in Mudbox. I may supply him to a future Prototyping class for their main character, but until then he will go into the archive. I had a lot of fun sculpting his armor plates to separate up the different sections of his anatomy.

The Toadadial is a mix between a toad and a croc. The main objective of this model was to play around with Mudbox and learn the sculpting and texturing tools available in that software package. I also wanted to combine to very foreign worlds by giving the character a cartoony feel but using realistic textures.



Skel Eton I have actually had completed a while ago. I even have a full 3 minute animation involving this character. I was drawing cartoony skulls, and one of the results was the motivation for this character.

Portfolio: Mr. Apgar

I had this model in my archive for a while now; I think I actually modeled him (me) about 2+ years ago. I have even completed the rigging and UVs of the model as well, but for some reason I stalled out on the textures. Other projects, lack of time, distractions... whatever the excuse I finally got around to completing the final version of my Mr. Apgar model. I have used it several times in my animation lectures, but the next time I use the Mr. Apgar model in class it will have nice textures to go with the animation.

Portfolio: Custom Depth of Field in Photoshop

While I was working on a hallway scene using Mental Ray I ran into some issues. I was not happy with the result that the Mental Ray renderer had with its Depth of Field effect. It was fast but very grainy, more like sandy noise than a blurred effect. I was disappointed to find out that the old DOF effect from Max's scanline was not available in Mental Ray, it may take a long time but the effect was great and could produce a very high quality DOF effect.

I started to play around and I came up with an idea to reproduce the same effect. The old scanline effect would simply move the camera re-render and overlay the images to produce the DOF effect, so I proceeded to move the camera in 3d to attempt to reproduce the effect. I started by moving the camera 4 units to the right and took another render. I wanted to test the DOF effect before moving any further to see if it even had the right effect, what is discovered was not a DOF is was a stereoscopic effect. As soon as I overlayed the two renders I realized it would work for a DOF but instead I produced a 3D image. All I need to do was set the left image to red, and the right to cyan, overlay the two and "poof" the magic of stereoscopic imagery.

That was cool and sparked a love of stereoscopic 3d, but was not the effect that I wanted. While playing around with the stereo effect I realized the solution for the DOF effect was a simple . All I need was a Depth Map and Photoshop. I rendered out a frame and the depth map for that frame. The depth map is a gray scale representation of the z-depth of your scene, all you need to do is use the Color Select option in Photoshop to select out the range of gray that you want to be in focus. Invert your selection and then use the Lens Blur to reproduce the Depth of Field effect. The result is higher quality than in Mental Ray, and still takes only a fraction of the time from the scanline effect.

Original Render:


Depth Map Render:


Depth of Field in Photoshop:

Article: A Giant Enters the Ring - The Battle of Digital Sculpting Sotfware

Over the past couple of years there have been two programs that have changed the work flow of 3D forever, Pixologic ZBrush and Autodesk Mudbox. Both are innovative and supply tools to the 3d artist that seemed like sci-fi programs just years back. With ZBrush quickly being adopted by the industry and Autodesk marketing Mudbox like the geniuses Autodesk is has formed a bitter rivalry that has topped the old Max Maya Wars of the early 2000's, but that is all about to change thanks to Avatar.

The Foundry and Weta are going to release the program they created for Avatar, it will be packaged under the name of "Mari". It will sure add competition to the already boiling digital sculpting and painting market, but it has tools that may top them all. Does this sound like DejaVu... it should. This is how Mudbox came to the market in the first place, it was produce for Lord of the Rings and sold after the movies were completed to the public. This also showcases one of Mubox's straights over ZBrush, it fits perfectly into the production pipeline without any bulky overhead. And from early looks Mari will offer the same productivity plus innovated tools to get tough jobs done right. An example, Mari will offer the ability to sculpt, paint, and animate. But not only animate mesh, but the deforming of mesh, and the morphing of materials. Adding these simple but effective features helped Weta produce very complicated scenes in Avatar and can only improve the current production work flow.

I am sure Mari's impact will be quickly felt in the industry. With the onset of a new wave of more powerful software to an increase in what the industry can produce and the standard in quality. It sure looks like Mari will be accepted with open arms... I wonder how but Autodesk will offer for this one.