Pirate Head v3

Here's the latest version of the mangey pirate... working on wrinkles is really my idea of a fun night. I finally found a brush that works for me which is simply the clay brush, it seems to be soft and works well with my process of slowly building up form. I still have a few things to do to finsh (the eyes being the obvious), but I'm going to move over to doing some really detailed texture maps. Adiós!

Pirate Head v2

Second session ... lots of fun. I'd like to get more detail, not quite convinced my PC can handle it (it's 4.5 million polys at the moment) ... going to use the HD sculpting tool to see if I can get the micro details in.

Pirate Head v1

A speed sculpt tonight ... needs another session. Wanted to play with proportion.

Dryad v7

Now with Vines.

Blight Thing

Here's a sneak peak at a concept paint for a friend's thingy.

EDIT: Updated

Dryad v6

Today's lesson: a six million poly mesh = bad on my PC. I really want those poly's tho to get some complex, deep bark on that skin - I may have to be content with a final product that's for mid-range viewing only. Next: wrapping vines around the limbs, and work out how to do the leaves, plus some refining sculpture.

Below, an initial test for bark-skin surface. Combo of some heavy application of negative gouging, cavity occulsion, and a nice bone material shader (not that I think this is working well...).

Dryad v5

Tonight's update, this time in bronze.

Dryad v4

Almost there ... now a final tidy up on the proportions and asymetical pass, and add a layer of smaller details (twigs, smaller branches,). Had three CTD's tonight ... I'm really pushing my PC as this thing is around 88k spheres ... time to upgrade, yup.

Dryad v3

Dryad v2

Alright, I think the skinning issue is sorted. More refining tonight - Zspheres on left and poly's on right.

Dryad v1

I've been crunching down on Zbrush as hard as possible over the last week, burning midnight oil and making sure my graphics pipeline is as smooth as disco. Although I'm down with the theory, I'm not as drilled as I'd like - too much managment and too little practicle. But after a few bumps I'm pretty easy with the Maya > Zbrush > Maya thing. But two things I'm not happy with; (re)topology (not snapping to the old mesh? C'mon!) and creating adaptive skins from Zsketchs - I just can't seem to get a simple, clean mesh outa them. I think you have to go all hi-res and subdivided straight off the bat to get anything like fingers to remain after skinning. If anyone has some advice, let me know. The image above is a quick Zsketch of my Dryad concept - I'll think I take this one as far as possible.

Mr Muscles: ZSpheres pt. II

More refining on the ZSphere sculpture - still lots of odd bumps and the hands and feet become mush on skinning, but it's coming along. I'm tempted to go to the poly sculpting stage but have to refrain as I'm trying to do most of the work in ZSpheres and want that as good as possible a foundation. The image on the far left is comprised of ZSpheres - the two on the right are skinned and smoothed (polys).

Dragon Age - Blood in Ferelden

Cover for Dragon Age, Blood in Ferelden RPG adventure book. Enjoy!
http://www.greenronin.com/dragon_age/blood_in_ferelden_developer_journal.php

ZSphere Madness

I've been experimenting with ZSphere sketching - a really handy way of constructing a model with a more painterly approach. This was about half a day of experimenting and getting my head around the process - lots of issues with the final geometry (left), but a really great starting mesh to commence sculpting detail. The two images to the right are of the actual Zspheres - with a little practice it should be relatively easy to paint down muscle banding real quick. A really handy feature is that you can build a basic skeleton rig underneath the exterior and some binding to move your model about - handing for moving arms out of the way as you're working.