RFX Design: DESIGN • ENERGY • MOTION: Thesis Project: Alex ZBrush Sculpts

9/20/11

Thesis Project: Alex ZBrush Sculpts

This week I took my human character, Alex, into ZBrush to do the fine detail sculpting. This is where a lot of the fun is in 3D modeling, because you get to push, pull, carve, pinch, and soften your mesh using a stylus and tablet. It's much more intuitive and rewarding than working with floating polygons in space, and I imagine that most people could pick up on it quick enough. Pixologic, the company that makes ZBrush, just announced some new voxel sculpting tools that makes the conceptual process of 3D modeling a lot more streamlined and artist-friendly.

For the most part, Roger wanted me to not worry about the technical details of the model as I went into ZBrush and just to have fun. He introduced me to a retopologizing program called TopoGun, which I can see as being an indispensable part of any 3D artist's toolset.

Changing around materials is one way to see how different areas are looking in your model. I switch between materials many times during a sculpt and it helps me to see different areas better. Some materials are better for small details while some are better at showing where the cavities on your model are. And there are some that are just goofy...

The goal with this sculpture is to get it looking as close to Mr. Freddie Boath as possible. Unfortunately, I don't have many high resolution reference photos of the young British actor, so I'll have to get it close enough.

I could take it all the way up in sculpting even to the small textures, but that is for the future. Plus, I will probably do that in Mudbox, considering that there are a few textures that have geometric patterns on them. Now that I've done this, though, I want to try out some of ZBrush's new tools. Alas, if I only had the extra time.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What is this all about?

I was only nine years old when my brother brought the game Myst into our house. I remember vividly delving into it's surreal world and being mesmerized by the groundbreaking visuals that it held. It was at that moment that a seed of fascination had been planted inside me which continued to grow and grow and grow.

It has been many years since that day when I was introduced to the world of 3D computer animation, but I have had an increasingly strong desire to learn more and more about it. I remember the first computer animation I created as a teenager using Strata Studio Pro: a simple car driving around a corner and into a garage with the door closing behind it. The modeling was crude, there were no textures, the animation itself did not look realistic at all, the resulting movie took up a significant portion of our hard drive space, and the rendering time tied up the family computer for over a day. Despite all those things, I realized that there was something in my future involving this new developing medium.

My interest in 3D computer animation grew exponentially over the years and I have never been able to get enough of it. I am continually fascinated by the challenging visuals that are continually being achieved in the entertainment industry. I'm the type of person who will buy the special edition of the movie just so I can see all of the "Making Of" featurettes. I think I enjoy them more than the movie sometimes. Although I had this strong interest in 3D computer animation, I chose to do my undergraduate work in industrial design. I have no regrets about my decision to pursue that path, however, because I learned a great deal about proper proportions, composition, form, color theory, and how people's perception of things can be influenced by visual cues. I recognize that many of these principles translate very easily into visual entertainment.

I graduated from Brigham Young University in 2007 and was hired by Pride Mobility Products in Scranton, Pennsylvania. While there I was responsible for designing various mobility products such as powered wheelchairs, scooters, and other accessories. Oddly enough, however, I found my duties in the design team being focused more towards tasks that were closely related to what a technical director or render wrangler would do. I was often chosen to do the renderings for the products we designed because I understood how to program shaders and how to create HDR studio lighting setups. In addition, during our regular meetings, I found myself doodling little cartoon characters that I had dreamed up or dreaming up ways of how our products could transform into robots, etc. Eventually the itch returned and I realized that my ultimate goals and professional desired wouldn't be fully satisfied in my current career path.

In the spring of 2009 I decided that I wanted to pursue 3D computer modeling and animation as a profession and applied for the MFA program at Academy of Art University. I recently moved to Provo, Utah, and am currently taking classes online while I pursue some other personal goals. I am eager to collaborate on projects and am excited to get involved with the other graduate students. Feel free to check out my web site www.rfxdesign.com and give me any critiques on my work. I'm always looking for a chance to improve my knowledge and skills.

9/20/11

Thesis Project: Alex ZBrush Sculpts

No comments:

What is this all about?

Blog Archive

Personal Links