SCF Banners

I've been working as part of a group, who've been asked to voluntarily build banners for various pages on the Superhero Costuming Forum. As the winner of their logo contest, I was asked to design and release the banner template, and with other artists, we would split the workload among our group.

After choosing which pages we'd design for, we went away and came back with our banners, made using photos submitted by members of the SCF forum.

I decided that as we were using photos of real people, I'd try going for a more cinematic approach, as opposed to an exaggerated look. Here are the banners I made.

Handsome Jim - WIP

Here's a character I've been working on for a possible animated short. Half a day's work. I've made good progress on the sub-surface shader, and love the way the light comes through the ears, kinda like what you'd see on a mouse, lol. I'm also hoping to do the full body, and rigging, but being painfully careful not to make him look like Woody from Toy Story.

Alfred - WIP 2

I've been working more on my Michael Caine head, including work on the Subsurface Scattering shaders, and displacement maps to create wrinkles and depth.

Alfred - WIP

I know it's nothing amazing, but it's my first attempt at a hyper-realistic head, and it's still a work-in-progress. I used Facegen Modeller and Softimage XSI 6.5 to put this Michael Caine head together. And I hope that once I get it looking closer to realistic, I'll take it into Zbrush and add more detail to him. I do need practise with Zbrush though, so it may be a while yet. I may also try increasing the resolution of the skin texture, so I can add more skin detail in Photoshop, like wrinkles, uneven colouration and the occasional freckle.

Dark Knight - Batcave

Decided to work on a little project that would involve modelling something photorealistic, so I thought I'd start with something that involved relatively simple geometry, and the Batcave from Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" was the perfect candidate. I'm hoping to get it to a level where it looks basically identical to the set from the movie, right down to the hidden compartments and multi-screened computer system.

oh, and just found these lying around.... thought i'd throw them up here for ya all to see. they're all just sorta exercises really, lol.

Next Commission (cont.)

Just a quick addition to the work I've been doing. Moving a bit faster now. It's coming together pretty well. Once I've got him fully built and rigged, I'll be adding cloth simulation to parts of the robe and soft body stuff to the hair. It'll still feel a little cartoony, but it'll flow nicely enough, hehe.

The Next Commission

I was originally commissioned to do this animated intro piece and decided to do it as a Flash animation, as it'd be easier for me to do. But I got caught up in so much other junk, that I felt I owed the guy more than a cheapass Flash animation for his patience. So I've opted to do the whole thing in 3D, and it's looking better than I thought it might. Here's the little bit I've done so far. In the 6 or so hours I've worked on this, the file has corrupted twice, so I was forced to start from scratch. Lemme know what you think!

Superhero Fashion

Lately I've found myself being commissioned to design suits for dye-sublimation printing (the same method used to create the Spider-man movie costumes) building various superhero characters. Just thought I'd share some teaser pics of some of the designs I've made so far...

"That... IS his hand!"

Ok, so I've been working on this Hellboy bust sculpt, and thought, "what's Hellboy without his Right Hand of Doom?" So I started putting this thing together, using cardboard, plastic, elastic straps, and ALOT of masking tape, lol. Soon I'm planning to cover the whole thing in paper mache and texture it with acrylic paints. All the fingers work individually, and is very close in size and shape to screen-used hand.

"Hulk PIVOT!!"

Here's a lil something I've been working on to expand my modelling showreel... what do ya think?
I'm planning to add some extra detail using ZBrush, when I learn how to use it properly, lol.

give em hell

Here's another pic of my Hellboy sculpt in progress... all that's left now is the skin texture, then I can go ahead and get this beauty cast.

The Third Year Film

Ok, yeah, the storyline has changed.... alot....

I'm still anxious not to give too much away, but I will show you guys my finished character model. This poor sucker is still without a name, so feel free to make a suggestion.

I've also been working on a Hellboy costume, for which I've been sculpting my own mask, so here's a preview of the beautiful thing... I'll also be making copies of the mask and selling those on eBay, with any luck, so lemme know if you're interested.



So 'til my next post, cya!

Change

Sorry about not updating the blog, I've totally neglected the whole thing, but I'm gonna do my best to keep you all up to speed. I've TOTALLY changed the plot of my 3rd year animated film, so I'll be uploading new pics soonish. Keep your eyes peeled.