Jake, WIP I

For the sake of challenge, I glided to work on a genre. Somehow my usual theme is Cyberpunk or bio-mechanical.

So time for something new! Steampunk!

Searched for references for four days, never really felt content with it, if i speak personally. Started creating low poly assets in Maya cause I knew it will get complex and expensive in the end, which actually took a week in total.

Rear view, this is the mechanism inside the head.

Artistically, sure I can go beyond and get the job done in a week more, but I guess I'm looking for something more. The hardest part is the defining and applying the mechanism (to some extend if you lack vision). To support my research, check this video:

Yeah I wish I found this video early before in production, found it two days ago!
Anyway, I'll update more about my assets and research in next update, Jake is surely going to take a while :)

P.S. I made some illustrations out of these WIPs. Check them out: Jake on dArt
I put all three illustrations in a deviant art package.

Rear.

Ah! Floating gears! So surreal!

That the Jake's left eye in front.

You're so nerd!

Concepted armor over the mech.

Three box view of the face.

Shining Star

I had a great opportunity to create an album art for a single by Smigonaut and Andrea. I went so crazy with their music that I create a short video as a trailer for the single.

You can checkout the artist(s) over here:

britelitebrite.com
soundcloud.com/smigonaut

ZBrush played a major role in development. I started by creating a star fish shaped mesh over which I snapped the custom insert meshes trail. I created three different custom insert brushes.

The material itself is a MatCap captured out of LightCap. That's one feature I love about ZBrush! creating abstract materials.

For the movie, I imported the song in ZBrush and created Beat Markers. That helped in syncing the animation with audio. Next phase was to setup the BPR settings with appropriate filters. I also extracted a mask for the animation by using flat render mode. The mask helped me creating a little motion blur in After Effects using The Foundry's Kronos.

Here's the final video:

Handy, I

I started out building concept sketches
with proper attributes in mind.

The idea was to create a mechanical character
with just hands and a hovercraft. 

This is the final concept accepted by my teacher.

After complete 7 hours of ZBrushing, this was
the final draft I created for my teacher.
Showing off the various features just to make it more understandable.

After the draft was accepted, I went further
and added the 'hover device'.

After creating the final character, I went further
and took out renders from ZBrush.

The intention was to show the scale of the character and
to get a better idea for look development.

WIP II

Here's are some raw renders I got out from Maya. Used MentalRay. I would still say I got a lot of things in my mind and won't stop yet. 

Tweaked a lot for getting the catch light.

I really wanted something different with the metal material.
Not the usual specular highlights or chrome material.
I used mia material on every asset.

My intentions were to get photo realistic effect.

getting the right material for the cloth was real choas.
Using PUV tiles is a choas!

Next stop: rigging.

WIP

I've been very busy with this dude. He's gonna be part of a video and a painting like godPreacher did in Invasion of Xen. Topology brush saved a lot of time in creation of the complex hard surface meshes.

I've been busy with this dude.

Surprisingly, I got back on Z after two months, and it just took me 4 hours to complete the base silhouette.

and next three days to reach this stage. For now, I'm working on material creation process for the hard pieces.

Perv :P

I've been working on realistic skin texture.

It was way more easier than I expected.

So I went further and played with BlendShapes

and gave him little more than expression

and some hairs too!

Smile dude smile! for the camera!

Initial anatomical structure I decided to innovate upon. 

Nothing really innovative though!

He looks like such a perv in this one,

and in this one!

The End!

Invasion Of Xen

Invasion of Xen I

Invasion of Xen II

A.N.N.A.

Poster of A.N.N.A

Demo Reel: Automaton Nuclear Neo-Human Android [ A.N.N.A. ] from Romel Salwi on Vimeo.

Done with sculpting

Tah Dah!

Update Upon A.N.N.A.

Well, just thought of updating with my progress on him. Have added torso armor, hand armor and a thigh plates. I hope getting the topologized parts back in dynamesh would help [ you dunno what i'm talking bout right :D go read Paul's new book!].

Had a terrible night working on the legs [two days back]. I was just not able to get the right edge flow to get the parts out. Made like 3-4 concepts whole day.

Below you'll find some render I made in ZBrush. Thought of playing with lightCap before going to bed.

Got the muscles in places, used the rake and clay tubes brushes to just get a muscle look.

the eye? FYI, it's still a WIP!

ears? or pads?

teeth?

front, eyeless

Rear, just love the angle

Bottom low cam, his armor

If I check on my current status over project, I'm left with hard surface detailing, inserting accessories, a tail and umm...oh yes! lots of render time!

Seeya' roun ;-D