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.

Portfolio - Delahaye 1938

Here is a model of an old 1938 Delahaye I have recently completed.  It was a fun car to model with its curvy body and wheel wells.  This car model is also the first time I have included an interior of the vehicle.  It really helps drive this car to the next level along with the new Mental Ray shaders available.  Currently I am in the process of completing a Lamborghini Reventon, so keep your eyes out for that model.

Portfolio - 2010 Demo Shot Re-Worked

Here is a shot I re-created for my 2010 demo, this was the opening shot in the 2009 demo I threw together. You can see the refinement in the environment, better mountains, rock layout and the addition of foliage to fill the scene and give it a splash of color. I also used two seperate cameras to help show off more of the environment. The toad like character has also been added to this scene sitting on a rock eating a fish. It has a better feel than before, and with the addition of the character it really helps breath life into the shot.

Portfolio - Tower 34

Tower 34 was a game concept that I was working on with a friend and colleague Clinton White. He was handling the programming side and I was handling the graphics. Here is the result of the ship that was going to be the main character for the game. I started by combining several random shapes together just to see what looked cool. From there we selected a couple of combinations that would work for the ship, some for backup support ships and other shapes even fit well for the bad guys of the game. I took the shape combination that we selected for the ship and refined into about 10 other ships of similar shape. From there we choose the final shape and I further refined it into a top down drawing so I could model the ship in 3D.



Here is the concept for the background. The city is hidden in the renders, the game was supposed to be top down, and as of now the city only looks good from that top down perspective.



Here are some 3D Renders of Tower 34 and the Ship.





Here is a basic cinematic of the ship taking off.

Tower 34 - Game Cinematic Comcept

'69 Dodge Charger

Here is the 1969 Dodge Charger I modeled with my 3D Modeling class in Spring of 09. I went a little further and placed it driving down the coast in a short and simple animation. Hope you enjoy!

Dodge Charger 69