RFX Design: DESIGN • ENERGY • MOTION: Organic Modeling 2: Midterm Project Textures & Shaders

3/10/12

Organic Modeling 2: Midterm Project Textures & Shaders

I'm not finished with this one, but I am getting a lot closer. I was able to gather a lot of real textures from photos of Mr. Malkovitch himself and use ZBrush's spotlight feature to paint them on. I was quite pleased with the results.

I tried adding some stubble and hair for the renderings, but it's not quite there yet. There are a lot of things about Fibermesh that I learned this week from playing around with it and I might have to do another go-around on it to get it working. I was glad that, even though they are small, I was able to get some eyelashes in there. A subtle detail like that helps to make it even more real.

Materials and lights in ZBrush are actually more complicated than in Maya, so I felt very confused going into this. I think I might have messed a few things up with the lighting that is casting that huge shadow on his chest, but I think I know what is wrong. I am actually guessing at what a lot of the settings in ZBrush do because the documentation is so poorly written. Either way, though, I am fairly pleased with the results I am getting from this project. It makes me excited for future prospects.

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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.

3/10/12

Organic Modeling 2: Midterm Project Textures & Shaders

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What is this all about?

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