6/30/11

Ogre Mudbox Bust Revisited

I wanted to revisit an old project I had done last year.  I started doing a head sculpt of an orge in Mudbox, but never got around to doing the textures.  Since I have some time between school, I wanted to keep my skills up.  I started doing a high resolution version of the head, then began painting it by hand in Mudbox.  After a few days, I got the textures done.


I used a special type of mental ray shader called a "subsurface scattering" shader.  It basically simulates how light passes through certain types of translucent surfaces like wax, jade, and even skin.  As such, you wind up adjusting colors on the epidermal, subdermal, and deep tissue layers to get the right effect.  You can tell from the ogre's skin that it has light scattering through it before it returns out.  On the ears, you can get the deep tissue effect where light is somewhat visible through the shallow tissues.

Overall, it could be better, but this was mainly for my own learning.  I've never worked with subsurface scattering shaders before, so I wanted the experience.

6/26/11

Thesis Concept Art

No, I'm not dead... although I felt like it at some point during the past few weeks.  I have actually been hard at work creating concept artwork for my thesis project.  Due to some unforeseen circumstances (i.e. getting married and moving) I was unable to present my proposal at a midpoint review last semester.  As such, I'm one semester behind and am actually not able to take any more classes until I complete the review.  So, in order to be prepared for it all, I dug in my heels and whipped out some artwork.  I don't know what the committee will think of it, but I can say that, honestly, I did my best.

This title was just for my presentation.  I wanted to do something that showed the art style I was looking toward doing.
This was just a mockup of the city of Diaspar.  I won't be creating it, but I thought it would add a nice touch as a 1:1,000,000,000 scale model.


I changed the name of the main character from Alvin to Alex, mainly because I didn't want any associations with a particular singing rodent.  His costume is meant to feel unnatural, hence the cool, mechanical colors.
The robot went through a number of iterations, but after looking at a bunch of science fiction illustrations and movies, I decided that simpler is better.  The rigging will take some effort, but this one could turn out to be a very interesting piece to work on.
Taking a cue from Battlestar Galactica, I named the spaceship "The Kobol."  It's meant to be a flying cathedral with lots of symbolism to its structure.  I still need to figure out things like the landing skids and other such things, though.
In addition to the exterior, I plan on completing the interior living quarters of the ship.  The plan and elevation view of the interior gives some idea to how it functions.
Clicking on the photos will actually give you a full-resolution version of each image, which will show the details much better.  I actually should know soon when I will be presenting for my midpoint review.  Until then, I have a presentation to run through.  Wish me luck!