Onward

Soooo it's been awhile since I posted. I've been busy tinkering with personal projects, traveling, helping to plan upcoming weddings etc.etc. Finally, an update!

I finished sculpting in some detail on my Flintlock in ZBrush. Mostly I just added some scratches around the handle and tip of the wood of the gun. I also added in some etched, flowery detail on some of the silver embellishments. I think I still plan to paint the model using Polypaint in ZBrush. Not sure if I want to bother with baking it all down to game rez, though.

Aside from that, I took a little time to start creating models to populate a urban scene in UDK. I pretty much modeled everything high-rez and then down-rezzed to fairly low, game-rez assets (3ds Max, XNormal). Textures are some reference and a fair amount of hand painting and tweaks. I probably want to redo the ground as terrain so I can get some good vert blending with asphalt and dirt. Also, will want a lot of cracks and stains, so will need to get some decent decals. The apartment buildings are generic and I plan to make them more unique with decals and some vert painting. Still need lots of extra assets to make the area feel more realistic.

So I got rid of the funny prongs on the bottom of the gun and opted for a metal band with a spherical screw. I think it makes more sense with the flow of the gun.

Time to bring into ZBrush for some detailing. I'm unsure if I want to try out Polypaint and just texture the whole thing in ZBrush, or if I'm going to do hand painted, Photoshop stuff. Ehhh.... will figure that out.

Pistol Update

I took a break from the pistol to work on a low-poly, dock level. But! I wanted to get back to modeling more detail onto the pistol. I've added the flintlock mechanisms, some do-hickeys along the barrel, and an auto-firing, piston/gauge bit to the handle. I still feel the barrel is missing something, but I don't really know what yet.

I decided that for my next project I'd design and model a weapon. I enjoy a lot of the "steam-punk" art I see, and have always found old guns to be fascinating. Therefore, I did some research and sketched out a steam-punk-inspired, flintlock pistol.

The above screenshot is what I have so far for my 3d block-in. I'm going to be adding more weight to the butt-end in order to help balance out the front-heavy weapon. Obviously, the flintlock-mechanism hasn't been blocked in yet.

Finished with the Cyborg Killer quickie. Now, to figure out my next project.

2D WIP Fun

I decided to take a little break from 3d and to do a little fun painting. This is WIP: Cyborg Killer.

Concept: Victims of violent crimes and accidents have a second chance at life. Degraded tissue can be replaced with high-tech limbs. At request of family or in cases of extreme trauma, Awakened Souls have their memories deleted and can start their lives anew. However, this process is not yet perfect. For Eva, her violent near-demise has left technologically-untouchable, deep-seeded hatred for any who dare commit crime. Mentally gifted and kind in her first life, Eva now stalks the streets to dole our her justice upon anyone she deems criminal.

SUPER CHEESE!!!! =P 

Need to finish up the suit and do the metal. Not sure if I want to bother with a background or just do a little wibbly around the character. Then, back to 3d.  ^_^

Fountain Finished

That's the *finished* low poly fountain. You can view it + textures etc. on my website: www.april-s-art.com.

Debating with myself on the next project!

 So, here's some quick caps of what I've been working on for the ground plane. I decided that I don't like just a flat, grey ground with a default mat. I ZBrushed the six low poly stones I modeled and turned them into 6 individual low poly stones with HP normals/AO to add ground variation. I also used those same ZBrushed stones to make a tiling ground texture to blend with a hand painted dirt texture I have. Overall, I think it helps with the dilapidated and not-default-material look I'm going for.

I still haven't done any hand painting on the diffuses for the individual stones and the ground plane. I plan to add color variations and some speckles, moss etc. I think that'll help the final render look more refined than currently.

As far as the background.... I might just finish up the ground texturing, do a final render pass and call it good. I might revisit this scene later to add a broken down wall, some ruins.... etc.

I'm happy with where the vegetation is atm... placement-wise. Gonna do the zbrush stones for the ground, not sure what I plan to do in the background once the flooring is in. Might pop in a skydome, a brick fence/wall... . Or, just do a colored bkgd and call that good. Eh... . I'm ready to be on to the next thing!!

I've started drafting in the vegetation. I'm okay with the grass as is atm (I plan to add in the sculpted, tiled stone ground texture asap). The Ivy texture I'm happy with, but overall it's a bit bright, saturated, and obviously trans in the render. I will refine that, but I do feel the addition of vegetation helps with the look I want.

Created a dirt texture and applied it via vertex paint to the fountain. Seems kind of subtle... but I like that the fountain appears more gritty. I plan to create some ivy, I've decided, to place around the object.

So, back to working on my LP fountain. Everything's all game-rez, now, and I've baked out AO and norms. I'd been really teetering back and forth about whether or not I wanted to texture this, or just call it good when I had a game rez and the high rez. I've decided to go ahead and texture the thing since I like painting textures and.. you know... why not? Hehe.

I just have the two tiling base textures atm... tiling marble and tiling worn copper. I've modeled out some low rez stones to detail in ZBrush and then make into a tiling texture for the ground plane. I think, as far as textures go, I'll need at least a tiling dirt/stain texture to add some grit to the fountain. I'm not sure if I'll want to do another tiling texture with water scum (you know, the kind of mossy greenish stuff) to blend in around the bottom areas near the water.

I think I'll probably also do some ivy and weeds to add around the base of the fountain and growing along the bowl/top of the fountain. Could be a nice touch. After all that, if it looks good, I'll post to my website and start on the next project!!!

Speaking of, I'm not sure if I want to do a high rez character sculpt and figure all that out in Zbrush, or do a full sci-fi interior inspired by this cool painting I found on cgsociety. We shall see.

I took some time out from my fountain to work on hand painting some tilable and unique textures. The style is realistic, but still with the look of hand painted. I plan to put them to use at a later date... probably a small, overgrown scene at some point.

As you can tell, I'm only showing the diffuse maps for ease. Also created spec and alpha maps, and generated quick-and-dirty norms via xnormal. 

Fountain HP

 

Finished sculpting all the parts I plan to sculpt in ZBrush. I might cal the high poly portion of the fountain done and move onto the retopo and normal/AO bakes. Not sure if I plan to texture this... . 

Fountain

Here's a quick screengrab as an example of some of the sculpting I've been doing on the pieces of my fountain. About to start in on detailing some of the mid columns. Zbrush feels so easy ... kind of like you can just do free doodles as opposed to planning out the technical aspects, if that makes sense. Anywho, onward.

Well, I decided to just use GoZ rather than tinker with .objs in order to keep the process moving. However, after posting to Polycount, it was suggested I try an import scale number greater than 0 (doh!) and the imports now work! Embarassing, but awesome that someone caught that. Yay, Polycount.

Anywho, here's an updated screenshot with the gargoyle sculpts in place on the bowl. Moving onto sculpting some of the base pieces.

Fountain

Finished the first sculpt: a gargoyle face for the sconces on the side of the fountain's main bowl. Running into an interesting issue, which I'm going to have to figure out. When importing the mesh to 3ds max it's invisible in viewport. It appears that all verts become collapsed to 0,0,0. I've tried flipping normals, adding a normal modifier, applying a scene material, adjusting import settings, and trying exporting in multiple file types. Frustrating, but I'll figure it out.

Here's a quick image of the sculpt, not yet placed in scene due to the aforementioned issue.

Fountain

Got a bit farther on the fountain. Added columns, adjusted arches, general detailing/decor. Spent time prepping some pieces for ZBrush and optimizing the scene so my computer isn't so taxed.

Random other note, I'm looking into Turbosquid and the3DStudio. Since I'm job searching it seems like these could be a nice way to possibly make some income while getting use out of old models and beefing up my portfolio. After reading about both companies it seems like TS has been under fire as less-artist-friendly. Probably going with 3DStudio.

Anywho, ZBrush onward... !

Fountain

Finished the general high poly modeling for the blocking stage. Going to start adding in some columns and such, now.

Fountain

Fixed up the base pedestal and closed off the middle area.

Fountain

Finished up with the bottom part. Moving onto the base pedestal next. The arched area and main bowl feel too low down and I feel the fountain feels stout because of it. May adjust both upward.

Fountain

Beh, I hate being sick! Always puts a damper on progression.

That aside, I've started work on my next personal 3d project. This time I'm doing a high poly water fountain that I might create a game-rez mesh for depending on how I feel at the end. I finished blocking in the general proportions and am currently going through and refining each area. I plan to do a couple ZBrush sculpts for trim, detail etc. I was thinking gargoyles, so I might go that route and have a couple gargoyle heads and maybe a full organic mesh in there as the decorative sculpture that a lot of classic fountains have.

Here's a quick snap of where I'm at... not very far but you can see sort of where I'm going with it!

Hot Rod Complete - Onto the Next Thing

I've neglected to mention finishing my Hot Rod project, but I've recently completed the texturing process and have opted to move onto the next project. There's a page on my portfolio (www.april-s-art.com) that has the final renders, but here's one to have a document.  :)

For my next project I'm thinking a high --> low poly fountain. I want to continue showing my ability to do high --> low poly conversions. I want to do something that's more environmentally related. I also want to do something that requires sculpting in Zbrush/Mudbox. Not sure if I plan to go all out texturing this next project, or if I'll just concentrate on the modeling aspect. We'll see!

Additionally, Happy St Patty's.  <3