Death Dealer

[Aleks]

Hey, guys.
So this is the new model I'm working on right now and it's Death Dealer by Frank Frazetta. The final thing should look something like this:
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1764/deathdealerkw9.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=deathdealerkw9.jpg)http://img136.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)


Anyway,I made a med res body of this guy,but then thought that it would be better to finish the horse first.So here's my current progress:
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/853/horsewipls8.jpg
http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/1587/horsewirero7.th.jpg (http://img384.imageshack.us/my.php?image=horsewirero7.jpg)


The tail and lower part of the legs are obviously WIP and I still gotta figure out a way to make the...erm..."neck hair",but overall I'm quite happy with it.

I'm gonna work on all that hair next and pose the horse,so hopefully I'll post another update tonight.

[poopipe]

yeah, here we go!

You're one of the few people around who can do this justice, I eagerly await the finished product.

I wonder whether the horsey is a little "underhung" at the moment

btw: the neck hair is called a mane :p

[DaddyDoom]

Will this be the full monty, with textures and post-production, or just the sculpting?
Would be cool to see ya take this all the way Aleks. I think you can do it no sweat.
Anyway, if you give me a good render of the sculpt alone, I could do a post-prod like I did for Sathe's HADRON mech. It would be an honour!
Think about it :)
DD

[mel_danes]

Aleks - Very bold choice! One of the early fantasy Icon paintings.
The interesting thing of note with most of Frazetta's is that he uses detail where he needs it. The face is cast with shadow as is the chest. I am anxious to see what you do with these area's of mystery.

Very Cool!!!

[mark.clarence]

looking great alex, i'm always loving each new model you do, theres always a lot of great detail in them i'm looking forward to this one, however there is one thing that bugs me though and that is the thickness of the horses legs in the side view, i know the concept artwork has quite thick legs but horses generally have quite thin legs, as a result the thickness of the legs in your model makes the horse look short, i'd maybe make them a bit thinner unless you want to stay true to the concept, otherwise its a great start and nothing else to crit, the muscle work is great

[Redne]

This will be wonderful!

This is your first horse?

[MadComputerUser]

cant wait to see this. Only crit:
horses tail needs to be longer, like this:
http://www.billybear4kids.com/animal/whose-toes/WildHorse.jpg
http://www.georgianindex.net/horse_and_carriage/hanover_horse.jpg

[Perversonality]

cant wait to see this. Only crit:
horses tail needs to be longer, like this:
http://www.billybear4kids.com/animal/whose-toes/WildHorse.jpg
http://www.georgianindex.net/horse_and_carriage/hanover_horse.jpg

Er, this is being modelled against a concept and the concept has a short tail, so no, it doesn't need to be longer!

[MadComputerUser]

oops, so sorry, hadnt seen that picture :( so sorry. Well, nice work then.

[Aleks]

poopipe: Yeah,been wanting to do this guy for quite some time now, but thought my skills weren't good enough to make a decent model of his guy. Now I'm a bit more confident in myself so hopefully the end result won't disappoint.
Oh and thanks for the word there ;)

DaddyDoom: Nah,it will be just a sculpt again :dunno: I want to finish the reel by the end of the year,so no time for learning all that texturing stuff.
As for pos-prod,sounds cool! I liked what you did with Sathe's mech, so yeah some PS work would be sweet :)

mel_danes: Yeah,the chest and head will be the trickiest parts in the project.I mean,we don't even know if this guy is a human :dunno:...Will have to think about the lightning in the turntable as well.
Gonna be tough, that's for sure.

mark.clarence: Yes, you're right about the legs.I kinda want the horse to be slightly stylized and not 100% true to the painting.
I tweaked the thickness of the legs so hopefully the model looks better now :)
EDIT: Actually,it looks like I forgot to tweak it...Probably loaded the wrong file.

Redne: Yep, it's the first time I'm modeling a horse :)

MadComputerUser : Yeah,I'm going with the painting look ;)

Perversonality: Right you are :)

Thanks for all the comments, guys. Keeps me motivated :)


Anyway, I was doing some tests with the hair last night and here's some progress:

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6606/wip2te1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


There is really no way for me to make hair look realistic using just the sculpting tools, and since I don't want to use any hair FX stuff, I'm gonna leave it the way it is.I'm quite happy with it anyway...
Next stop - the mane (;)) . Have no idea how I'm gonna do it.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

if this was a low poly model, I would say go with planes, but your polly count is way out of my grasp, so.... Use planes. You can go with a bit of what you got on the tail and feet, and then use a fe planes to change it up.

[DaddyDoom]

Coolness man!
Just render it with a cool matcap and light setup, and I'll try my best :D

[Sathe]

Dude, this is my favorite painting of all time and Frank Frazetta is one of my favorite artists ever so stoked you are doing this.
Dieing to see the dark knight himself and how you go with it.

/.G

[bradjames]

Your the man and your **** rocks. Always love when you make a new thread because you know its going to be great. The horse looks very good

[Tank[NL]]

damn, aleks, why dont you have a job yet at, i dunno, ILM or something? :)

[sharpo]

one word.....dude. from seeing your past work im sure this will be another master piece. keep it up.

[pables]

Aleks, this is gonna be awesome! Frazzetta is one of my fav artists. Can't wait!

[Aleks]

BiG ToE: I don't think planes will work.I'm gonna make a turntable with this model,so it has to look like a real sculpture or maquette or something.So yeah,no planes I guess :dunno:

DaddyDoom: Say what now? Cool matcaps and light setup? How about a gray shader with crappy lightning? That's what I had in mind :D

Sathe: hehe ;)

bradjames: Thanks,Brad :)

Tank[NL]: 'Cause I'm an idiot...har har... :lame:

sharpo: Thanks :)

pables: Yeah,let's hope I won't screw this one up ;)

Anyway,I don't really have any updates for now. I made the mane and started working on the saddle,but it doesn't look that good :dunno:. I'll try to post an update tomorrow.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

is there a shell like modifier in zbrush to give those planes some gerth.

[Avatar-3DT]

Can't wait for your next update. The horse looks sweet.

[poopipe]

is there a shell like modifier in zbrush to give those planes some gerth.

yes - you can extract with thickness

[Aleks]

Hey,guys.Sorry for the lack of updates,but I was kinda sick of everything for a while...including 3D.
Anyway,here's some progress on the saddle. Too bad I had to make all those tiny details again that aren't even visible in the render...sigh

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5927/saddlenk1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[xxxcubanxxx]

Hey Aleks, looking great like always. I was waiting for an update, dude even if you think you don't see those small details you talk about which I'm sure are there, they do add a lot to the model itself. It can only make it better, keep on going, its looking awesome.

regards,

xxxcubanxxx.

[Perversonality]

Excellent work Alex :) Amazing what a short break can do :D

[poopipe]

Nah, it's rubbish. Start again :p


I jest :D this is moving on very nicely..

Some things I thought of that may or may not be complete rubbish...

Is the neck muscular/pumped enough? Seems a bit weedy compared to the general buffness of the horse

Is the shape of the forehead a bit off (too simple/rounded) or do I just not know what the front end of a horse looks like?

Isn't the saddle a bit on the lightweight side? - Maybe it's just me cartoonising (new word :D) things in my head but I kind of picture everything being heavier and chunkier.

[Tank[NL]]

motherf*cker... damn, that is a lot of detail, aleks. really sick.

few thing i noticed tho. the manes look a bit weak and flat. could be me tho. and i agree with poop with regards to the saddle. my sister drives a horse, and has her own saddle. its huge... and its only for western style horse riding. i would want to know how massive a warhorse saddle would have to be. yours just looks a bit flimsy.

the way it looks now, the deathdealer will only be dealing death to his most prized balls....
anywho, gl man. im sure you'll sort out what needs sorting :)

[MattChin]

Will be awesome to see how you fill in all the details since the concept art is lacking a lot of details. Great work so far!

[Aleks]

Thanks for the comments,guys :)

poopipe: I'll take a closer look at the neck. It kinda looks ok to me,but I'll check it anyway.

I'm not that much of a horse export,either :) But I guess you're right,the forehead does look a bit too round.I'll try to fix it.

Modeling the saddle was a huge pain in the ass.Not because it's very hard to model something like this (it wasn't easy though),but because there is a really weird saddle in the picture itself.It didn't match up with any references I had here, so I spent a lot of time just thinking how to make this damn thing :dunno:
I'm not very happy with the result,either, by the way.

Tank[NL]: What you saw on the screen was a...erm... "bad" side of the mane.There is a lot more hair on the other side of the neck.I was just trying to follow the concept (as you can see,the mane is hardly noticeable in the painting). And besides,it's not done.I still need to add that hair on the forehead :)
As for the saddle,I don't know.There are different kinds of saddles and I used the most ordinary one for the ref.I found a lot of images in Google and most of them didn't look that big. They were just a bit more higher I guess,but not bigger :hmm:

MattChin: Well,I for one don't look forward to that ;P I wish the painting was a bit more simple *sigh*


Anyway,here's the side view of the model for you guys, so you could see how accurate/inaccurate the model is.But just to let you know,I didn't use the painting as a background when I was posing the horse,so the head and legs are way off.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/6561/sideex2.jpg

As you may see,the back of the saddle matches up with the concept nicely,but the problem is - this guys is kinda sitting on the neck of the horse.Check out where his feet are located -they are on a par (can I say that here? *sigh*) with the horse's legs.It's really weird because I haven't found anything similar to this on the net.The rider's legs are usually slightly before the horse's if you look from the side view.

Aaanyway,here's a little close up of the bridle I made today:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8620/detailpm5.jpg

And wires:

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8500/wireshd6.jpg

[DaddyDoom]

Looking hot Aleks.
Finish it so I can pimp it up :D

[poopipe]

Aleks: yeah - I wasn't looking at the painting when I commented on the saddle and I can see now the blanket thing is pretty well bang on target. I do still wonder about the "seat" bit not being heavy enough but I'll just shut up about that for now :)

What I mean about the neck is that I think it wants to be a bit more massive and powerful looking - you've captured the muscles under the skin really nicely on the rest of the body, it's just a bit less obvious on the neck. I've kind of got the neck of a really big Bull in mind.
Having looked at the painting again I'm wondering whether your horse is just a tiny bit too skinny overall - Frank's legs seem a tiny bit thicker and the shoulders/ass appear bulkier. There's really not much difference but I'm not quite getting the same sense of unstoppable juggernaut that I do from the painting.

I wouldn't normally crit anything this hard - I guess the subtleties become more important when the basic stuff is nailed :)

[Aleks]

DaddyDoom: hehe ;) Will do my best.

poopipe: Alright,I'll throw the model in Mudbox in a bit and work on the neck a little more.

I tweaked the saddle a little bit yesterday,but I'm gonna bring it to Mudbox as well,so hopefully it will look better next time I show it.

As for my horse being skinny and all,well, the horse on the painting is pretty stylized,especially the head and ass area.Unfortunately, for most of my models I usually go with a more realistic look :dunno: I'll tweak some areas little bit though, but I guess it's as close as I can get to that demonic thing.

Oh and do post more crits,it's really helping. The more C&C I get,the better the final thing will look ;)

[bradjames]

YOU ROCK.....I can't say that enough to you man. The horse is one of the best I've seen in a long time and all those little details are paying off for sure. Keep it up

[dhin]

Very impressive, I'll wait to see more before I say more, but so far the only crit I could give is get the hair from the main on the top of its head.

5*

[Rych]

I would have to say the anatomy on that horse is spot on man! I can't wait to see the Dealer himself man!!

[Aleks]

bradjames: Thanks,mate :)

dhin: Thanks :) Oh and the mane isn't done yet.

Rych: Thanks :)

Hey guys,I tweaked the horse a little bit (made the head bigger/wider,shortened the legs and added some mass,not too much, to the neck and made some teeth and a tongue) and here's a little update. Note: both the horse and that saddle-blanket thingie aren't on their highest subdiv. levels - way too many polys for my machine, and the saddle got all messed up for some reason, so ZBrush crashes every time I subdivide to level 7 or do some changes to it.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8595/wippqn3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[rraj]

wow! damn good.Waiting for the Dealer now.

[poopipe]

yeah, thats more like it.

I eagerly await the little man

[DaddyDoom]

Go and ask Sathe to get you a mean looking matcap for the model!
The horse is superb dude!

[mon_stdnt]

its coming out fantastic.

[batworm]

Wonderful work. I want a 1680 * 1050 render for my desktop when it is done :) And it will stay at my desktop for eternity.

It's not just a 5/5

...It is 100/100...

Gratz.

[Aleks]

rraj: Thanks :)

poopipe: ;)

DaddyDoom: Actually that's one of Grant's matcaps I'm using :)

mon_stdnt: Thanks :)

batworm: hehe thanks :D

Anyway,unfortunately I don't have anything to show right now,but I'll probably start working on the helmet today, so hopefully I'll post something soon.

[DaddyDoom]

Yeah... but something more.... EVILLLLLLLL!

[Aleks]

DaddyDoom : I could use a black matcap. Will that be evil enough for you? :D

Here's the helmet for this guy.Not very happy with,but it will do...


http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5711/helmvd0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[badpixl]

WOW, that horse is just amazing, i gotta learn z brush properly!

Helmet looks great too, even though you arent happy with it! maybe to make it more evil you could sink the eyes back a bit and pronounce the brow more, and give it sharp edges? or just make the eyes angrier?

[poopipe]

I'm not entirely convinced by the eyes - if it were actually on your head I think you'd have difficulties seeing. They probably just want to be bigger - along the lines of the ancient greek helmets maybe.

I'm liking the beaten metal feel a lot - you could maybe emphasise that some more.


a question - how do you get a different matcap on the horns ? I assume they're subtools

[DaddyDoom]

Yeah man... the matcap on the helmet looks great!

[Aleks]

badpixl: Thanks. I'm actually pretty happy with the eyes and overall look,I just don't like the design of those details :dunno:

poopipe: Agree about the eyes.But I'm using a sculpture for the ref and the helmet there has those small holes for the eyes.It's not very practical,but I like how it looks :)

As for the matcaps,go to the Draw menu and enable Mrgb;in the Tool menu,Texture,enable Colorize.After that go to the Color menu and click FillObject. In other words,it's just like applying different colors to subtools,but in this case you need to enable Mrgb.

DaddyDoom: Yeah,it's one of Ralph's matcaps :)


Anyway,here's an updated version of the helmet.I made the eyes just a tad bigger and added some finer detail.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4354/helmyi4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


By the way,here's the ref I'm using:
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/648/deathdealer2008aeh0.th.jpg (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=deathdealer2008aeh0.jpg)

[poopipe]

you're right, it looks good like that :D

I'm thinking of doing my own version for the next low-poly comp so I'm gonna stop living my idea through your piece now.
thanks for finding all these refs and stuff for me btw ;)

[HansKa]

Damn, man. This looks really promising. Got no crits atm, this looks damn fine to me :) Keep it up!

[kazmamurat]

i m watching this thread with admiration, it ll be another masterpiece i think, awesome!!

[DaddyDoom]

Kickin' serious ASS!

[Aleks]

poopipe: hehe ;) Good luck with the model,I'll keep my eye on the comp.

HansKa: Thanks,man :)

kazmamurat: Thanks :wave:

DaddyDoom: hehe :dance:


Unfortunately, I don't have anything new to show right now :dunno:.I started working on the head yesterday and for the most part it's done (at least the first,hardest stage of it is done), so now I have to work on the legs and hands. And just so you know, I HATE sculpting hands...just hate it. But I'll try to finish the body today and do some retopologizing.

[DaddyDoom]

The people demand updates.
Stop scratching balls and play console and start sculpting gothdamnit.

[McFly]

I must second DD on this one. Updates!

The horse looks stunning and the helmet is ery good too!
Come on Alexs! Bring them updates!

[mon_stdnt]

I third DD

[Aleks]

Hey guys :wave:
God damn it,how do I always miss replies in my own threads?...

DaddyDoom: If I had my PS3 here in Tallinn,there wouldn't have been any Death Dealer models in the first place.That's why I keep it in my hometown ;)

McFly: They are coming :)

mon_stdnt: ;)


Ok,so I've been really busy with the university here lately and I don't think the situation will change any time soon (exams and all),but I'll try to work on this guy as much as possible.Would've been nice if I had a decent laptop so I could work on the model during weekends, but ah well...

Anyway,not to make this post useless,here's a shot of the body that I made several weeks ago.

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/2558/riderud8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Most of it will be hidden of course,but I'm gonna use it to make clothes so some of the muscles had to be sculpted.Plus,some anatomy practice never hurts ;)
Oh and I've retopologized and posed all of the visible body parts today,so I'll try and post some close ups tomorrow.

[Aleks]

Here's a little update:

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4302/ridernx3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


The arms are done for the most part,but I still need to pose them,so I tried not to spend too much time on the hands and fingers in particular.

[DaddyDoom]

Looking good!

[McFly]

Yeah, always a treat to see your models.

[Rych]

Those arms are intense man! I love the detail on them. How long doe it take you to say model something like that? I mean just the arm.

Baron

[batworm]

Yeah!! Aleks is back on the track!

[poopipe]

*insert enthusiastic gushing here ;)

I have a question for you if it's not too much trouble mr Aleks...

I hate hands - it's having to orbit the camera around the centre point of two hands that gets on my nerves rather than sculpting them. Do you have a sneaky way to avoid this problem? ie. can I isolate one hand and thus orbit around it nicely without losing the ability to mirror my sculpting onto the other hand?

[Sathe]

I will answer the question (using zbrush) as i beleive aleks is away with UNI?

Ctrl+Shift Drag over the hand, isolating it. Hit F to centre the camera to it.

Sculpt do whatever,

Ctrl + Shift left click outside the model to reveal it all.

Now Mask off the hand you have just sculpted

In the deformation tab, hit "Smart resym" and shazam detail will pop back up on the opposite side.

If you only want to use smart resym on a certain area just mask off what you dont want to change.

Hope this helps.

[Aleks]

Man,what a week! ****ing intense! Sorry I didn't post anything,guys but I've been REALLY busy with the UNI.Plus our Internet connection got cut off for the whole week,so had to go the library here just to check what's going on in the world ;)

Rych: It usually takes me several hours to make something like this.But it all depends on the base mesh actually.I used to work with base meshes that were pretty close the final model,so all I needed to was just sculpt the muscles.Now I tend to make really simple base meshes,with boxes for arms and legs,so it takes much more time to make a decent looking sculpt out of them.Mostly because I have to constantly tweak proportions and see if the arms,for example, aren't too skinny or too bulky.

poopipe: I'm not sure if Sathe's technique will work when you sculpt objects that consist of two separate meshes even if they are symmetrical, but I'm quite sure you can't do that in Mudbox.At least I can't do it...Thanks to my crappy video card I have TONS of issues in the 2009 version.
Anyway,what I usually do is just hit F to focus on the fingers of a hand for example and work on that area with symmetry turned on.If the arms are connected and not separate meshes like in my case,then it's much easier to work on the hands.Hit V,select the area you want to work on,hit F to focus on it,sculpt the hell out of it,unhide everything,select one face on the side of the mesh you have worked on,go to the layer menu,click on the " > " icon and select Mirror -> tangent, or X axis if the model is 100% symmetrical.
That's about it :)

[bakr]

This will be wonderful!
v.good work

[Crispy4004]

I hate hands - it's having to orbit the camera around the centre point of two hands that gets on my nerves rather than sculpting them. Do you have a sneaky way to avoid this problem? ie. can I isolate one hand and thus orbit around it nicely without losing the ability to mirror my sculpting onto the other hand?
In zbrush click the Local button , but keep L.Sym off. Lightly tap on one hands and zoom in. When you rotate the model your view will now revolve around wherever your last stroke was. Makes sculpting hands very easy. I believe you can hide other parts of the body you are not sculpting, but remember to never hide the opposite hand. Also if you haven't figured out already, Inflate is your best friend with fingers.

I generally try to avoid smart resym as much as possible. Becomes too much of a pain at higher resolutions.

[Aleks]

In zbrush click the Local button , but keep L.Sym off. Lightly tap on one hands and zoom in. When you rotate the model your view will now revolve around wherever your last stroke was. Makes sculpting hands very easy. I believe you can hide other parts of the body you are not sculpting, but remember to never hide the opposite hand. Also if you haven't figured out already, Inflate is your best friend with fingers.

I generally try to avoid smart resym as much as possible. Becomes too much of a pain at higher resolutions.

I think he's using Mudbox.Maybe not...But yeah,that "Local" button is pretty much what F on your keyboard does in Mudbox.
Also,in Mudbox,there is this "edge distance" thingy similar to MAX's soft selection feature which is really handy when you work on something like fingers.Because you can pretty much use any brush,including move brush, and not worry that it will affect nearby geometry.As long as the brush size isn't too big,that is.

Anyway,I've been kinda busy with one project lately, so I might as well just show it here.
Basically I was told to make a cow.But this cow had to stand on its hind legs and it had to be a dude...and by that I mean that I sculpted some abs and pecs...It was tricky to make something like this,because,well,the anatomy is all screwed up,but I like how it turned out.
So here it is:
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1262/cowwip3lp4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


I was responsible for the model/sculpt but this thing will have fur and all that stuff so...can't wait to see the final render :)

As for Death Dealer,I'm in my hometown right now so I don't have the model with me,but I'll try to model some inorganic stuff,like the shield and axe.

[poopipe]

oh right - im on zbrush and was thus slightly confused by aleks solution.

cheers crispy, I'll give that a poke when i can be bothered to do some more work :D

[Aleks]

oh right - im on zbrush and was thus slightly confused by aleks solution.

cheers crispy, I'll give that a poke when i can be bothered to do some more work :D

Weird,I always thought you were more of a Mudbox kinda guy. But yeah,the local transformation thing is what you need when you're on ZBrush.I can't believe you worked all this time without even knowing about it.Must have been a nightmare ;)

[Boo_Funk]

Basically I was told to make a cow.But this cow had to stand on its hind legs and it had to be a dude...and by that I mean that I sculpted some abs and pecs...It was tricky to make something like this,because,well,the anatomy is all screwed up,but I like how it turned out.


As much as I hate my first post to be a criticism, I have to say something.
Bulls don't have utters. :P Wonderful model, nonetheless. You are very skilled.

[Avatar-3DT]

Lool Boo_Funk, spot on man. Aleks, its seems like you cow dude has some doubts about its sexuality.

[Boo_Funk]

Funny thing is, I seem to remember EA making the same mistake with the Black and White series. Horns + Utters =/= Win.

It also looks like your Bull Has a vulva in the last shot. Anywho, how long have you been modeling, Aleks? I'll assume you started long before you registered here three years ago.

[Aleks]

Avatar: haha yeah :D

Boo_Funk: This isn't a bull,it's a cow transvestite... Seriously,though,if only I could show you the concept,the abs and pecs would make much more sense. As well as the nose ring,I guess :)

Anyway,I've been sculpting for four years or so I think.And before that I spent a year or so doing some simple stuff in MAX.
Oh and I've been longer than three years on these boards.I have another,old user ;)

EDIT: P.S. I googled vulva to see what it was...*sigh*. Nah,my cow doesn't have one of those...it's his/her udder.They kinda look like that from the back.

[Boo_Funk]

So you do most of your work in Mudbox or what have you? I downloaded ZBrush, but the UI is way complicated. It's designers must have had a sense of humor. Max is what I spend most of my time in, but I hear good things about Mudbox, so I think I'll give it a try soon.

But seriously, all questions of sexual identity aside, you deserve major props on the cow. The horse is looking nice as well, and I can't wait to see the final render.

[Aleks]

Thanks :)
Yeah,you should try Mudbox.It's VERY easy to use - will probably take you half an hour to get your head around it - and the sculpting tools are unmatched IMO.It just feels better and more natural than ZBrush, and now that there is equivalent of "lazy mouse",the only thing it needs to make me completely abandon ZBrush, is some kind of posing tools.

[kazmamurat]

i hope you can have some spare time for finishing "Death Dealer",

really, i don t want to see him as "Milk Dealer", heheheh.

[poopipe]

Weird,I always thought you were more of a Mudbox kinda guy. But yeah,the local transformation thing is what you need when you're on ZBrush.I can't believe you worked all this time without even knowing about it.Must have been a nightmare ;)

to be honest it's only been the last 3-4 months where zbrush hasn't been incredibly painful for me to use in the most basic ways.

We got zbrush at work cos it was cheaper and works better on older hardware so it's where I've spent most of my time.

I'll give new mudbox another try now I've got a system at home that's up to date enough to run it and if that works out I'll think about moving over.

[Aleks]

kazmamurat: hehe don't worry,I'll finish it. I hope... :hmm:

poopipe:That's cool.I don't want to advertise Mudbox or force it on anyone,so if you're more comfortable with ZBrush,just stick with it :)


Here's a little update:

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2479/shieldaxeqp9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[DaddyDoom]

Yeah!

[Aleks]

Yeah!

Hell yeah! ;)


Here's another update:

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/2463/bootsdoneng9.jpg
http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/8835/sabatonswiresgo3.jpg

Next stop - the shirt :zzz:

[DaddyDoom]

Yeah Yeah Yeah :D

[pables]

It's awesome Aleks, and everytime I see it, has gotten better.

[dhruvsm]

nice updates aleks...:-). ....

[L3XICON]

really nice Aleks. the awesome level of sculpting that is we now expect from you :P

I especially love the detailing on the saddle / harness areas!

[Aleks]

Thanks guys :)

I'm not sure yet but I'll probably put the project on hold for a while.I only have the sword,cape and skirt to sculpt so far,but there are so many objects on this model and they are all so dense that my machine constantly runs out of memory.I can't even reconstruct the subdiv. levels of the shield, let alone "weld" it to the character. I figured out the way to make the details on the skirt though,but 3 million of polys is simply not enough for that kind of detailing.

I might post what I currently have,though,but I really don't want to show him without his shield and the horse :dunno:

[neokyubi]

Amazing level of detail. My computer cant work with those high poly counts. I especially like the axe, shield and horse. When looking at those boots I keep thinking that it's gotta huuurt when getting kicked by those... :crazy: by the way, I used your horse sculpts as reference to turn my giant-doberman-pinscher-horse into a horse-horse ;-) . Looking forward for more updates,.. so dont put it on hold for too long ;-)

regards

[Aleks]

neokyubi: Thanks :) I'm not sure if using my horse was a good idea,because it's one of those heavy/load horses and it's kind of stylized,but if it worked for you then it's cool.


Anyway,it took me HOURS and LOTS of ZBrsuh crashes just to attach some of the objects to the main model,but here it is - my current progress on the project:

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/122/wipppll8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And some armor close ups:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1545/armorgf6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


The skirt isn't final.In fact, I made the details just for this render.There isn't enough polys on it,but I can't subdivide anymore (running out of RAM) so I'll leave till whenever I get a new machine.

[Pickman]

F'n sweet man! I smell a plug comin' on. ;)

As for Zbrush crashes......my favorite is exploding meshes. Took me awhile to get that under control.

Any plans for color. Honestly your portfolio is wicked good, but I think color is the next step for you. (with one of your realistic-ish characters, EWJ is one of my faves) This guy would look great with simple matcaps and flat colors.

Then again you already said you have RAM problems....darn memory hungry Zbrush. Maybe you could drop him to pixols and paint him over.

You did an excellent job making that armor believable.

Rock on! You inspire me!

[DaddyDoom]

Hell Freaking BustahNutting YEAH!

[kazmamurat]

that s it! awesome progress! here comes death dealer!

[Tom-3DT]

A spotlight plug for you! Excellent work :)

Tom

[bradjames]

This is really relly nice man. Been waiting a while for this update. I do have one crit for you and that is I find he looks a little small on the horse. Wondering if he needs to be a little bigger. Also wondering if you should make him sit up straight more. I mean yes in the pic he is bent over a little but wondering if he would look more powerful in a more upright position. Anyways that just me man...outstanding as always man

[Aleks]

Thanks,guys :wave:

Brad: Hey man :) You might be right about the size. I actually made the horse bigger yesterday because the whole thing looked a bit weird to me,but I might reduce its size just a tad.
I'm not going to make any changes to his posture,though.Not because it looks fine to me the way it is - and it does by the way - but because it would require me to move all those subtools again, and quite frankly - I'm sick and tired of that. You can't even imagine how many times I moved pretty much all of those objects around using the deformation modifiers in ZBrush. So no,no changes to the rider :)

Anyway,here's a tiny update for today - stirrups:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5149/tinyaa0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MStandar]

First time i look in this threed, and i can just say that you have some awesome stuff going on in these images :)

Keep it up,

[fatihakin]

Wooooow. :) This work of Frank Frezetta is my favorite concept I really liked and you modeled it well. but I think the forehead of horse needs a bit more efforts.congratulations...

[bradjames]

I think the size looks much better now man. As for moving everything around being a pain do you use Transpose Master. It would allow you to select each subtool and move them at the same time. This way you wouldn;t have to move each one individually if thats what you do. Keep it up man

[Sandpiper]

Really nice work Aleks. Superb attention to detail. I can tell you enjoyed creating this one - minus the memory issues and all the crashing!

[Aleks]

MStandar: Glad you liked it :)

fatihakin: Yeah,the forehead is a bit weird.I tweaked it,thanks :)

bradjames: haha I got you man! This is the same model,I just added the stirrups.I didn't change the size of the horse :D
Transpose Master...&^%$ I completely forgot about it! I had some troubles working with it in the past,though,but I'll give it another try.

Sandpiper: Well...I enjoyed sculpting the horse (it's always fun to sculpt something new),but I gotta be honest - the rest of the project was a nightmare.There were so much technical problems that at some point I just wanted to give up the damn thing.Further more,it's very VERY hard to model something like this,when you can't see half of the character.
But the results are pretty cool so far,so I guess it's worth the effort :) I just wish I had a better machine here.I wouldn't even care if ZBrush crashed just as much on it,it's just that I don't want to leave this guy unfinished :dunno:


Anyway,I have another exam this Friday so I guess I won't be able to work on the model tomorrow.But then again,I've already failed two exams and I really don't give a crap about the university anymore,so who knows,maybe I'll work on this guy a bit more this week after all...

[Kage]

Just went from start to what is at the moment the last page :p
Amazing sculpting work going on!!! Can't fault it at all

[DaddyDoom]

Greatness.
Still want me to do some pimping on the final piece?

[poopipe]

It's rubbish - start again




Har!

It's really moving on well now.

can you use HD geometry on the skirt or does it do something stupid ?

[Aleks]

Kage: Thanks :)

DaddyDoom: Of course I do :D BUT,like I said,I'll need a better machine to finish this guy. I could ask Grant again to render the whole thing,though,but I'd rather do it myself...

poopipe: Yeah,I could use HD geometry but as far as I know,there is no way to generate a disp./normal map from that level.I could try and brake the skirt in two pieces or something,sculpt the hell out of them, generate all the maps and merge them together in PS.But I'm not sure if that's gonna work.

[bradjames]

Alexs thats just not nice....ahah I guess looking closer maybe he is ok then. Keep it up my friend..and play nice..ahahha

[Aleks]

Brad: hehe :) Well, I actually did change the the size of the horse after that last update and it looks pretty good now.The whole thing matches the painting almost perfectly now,proportions wise that is.


Anyway,some good news and some bad news.The good news is that I think I will be able to make that scale detailing on the skirt after all.I deleted a chunk of useless polys and the model is 8mil now,which is bearable.Got to unwrap and "texture" it again,though,but it should take long.Also,making the cloak/cape thing shouldn't be as hard as I thought.I've modeled a blanket thingy today that covers his...um...private area and it took me around 20 minutes to make it look pretty cool,with all kind of deformations/folds and stuff.And it's all thanks to MAX's cloth simulator :)

Now the bad news.I'm going to my hometown first thing tomorrow and there is a big chance that I'll stay there for the whole next week.In other words - no access to the model for a week (I doubt my laptop will be able to handle 40mil of polys....).BUT, I still need to make the sword,so I'll probably model that while I'm there.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

sounds like PS3 for 5 days. Think the sword can wait.

[ICESPADE]

I love horses and you are killing the design. Nice Work! MORE I tell you, More))))))

[nacho_grande]

Great job so far. Frazetta and especially death dealer is one of my favourite. I am looking forward for more progress.

[nielot007]

awesome work Aleks !!

cheers

[pables]

I think, even Master Frazetta would be breathless if he saw the work your'e doing in here.

......Damn, I can't wait to see it finished.

[Aleks]

Thanks you guys :)

sounds like PS3 for 5 days. Think the sword can wait.

My copy of Shadow of the Colossus didn't arrive,so nah,didn't spend that much time with my PS3. I did watch The Dark Knight,though.For the first time.On Blu-Ray. Yay.

Anyway,I'll probably post the finished sword tonight.Just finished the base,so...

EDIT: There we go:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1023/swordhd3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[nacho_grande]

Great effort on the sword!

[Aleks]

Ok,here we go.Some notes first,though: most of the objects are on 3-4 levels of subdivision (out of 6-7),I haven't even touched the leg since the transpose tool,the skirt detailing is still just for the render (I'm about to figure out how to make it work without burning my machine down),the material is a bit dirty,I should have reduced the cavity effect...

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/2901/frontvo8.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2784/backai8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


I'm not too happy with the front look, but I really like how the back turned out.
I'll try and work on the skirt tomorrow,but I'm not sure if what I have in mind gonna work. But for now,it's bed time for me. 6:36AM.... Took me about an hour and a half just subdivide the subtools and place the damn thing on the canvas. Yes,it's THAT bad to work on a 50mil model on my computer. *sigh*

[DaddyDoom]

WOAH!
I must say Alex, that this one is turning one of your best pieces EVER!
Finish it so I can pimp it plz. Dont forget to put in some nice matcaps so that theres a distinction between elements :)

[poopipe]

lets have a whip round and buy Aleks some more RAM

this is turning out very well indeed

[Avatar-3DT]

Damn Alex, thats one sweet piece man! I don't know how you - or your computer for that - makes it but the results are always awesome. A bow to you.

[nacho_grande]

Alex it is getting more and more fun to watch it as you progress :)

[Aleks]

Thanks guys :wave:

DaddyDoom: No "Yeah!" this time? :(...har har... I'd gladly finish it and send you the final pic,but I can't do that on this @#%&&^( computer. And I don't want the final pic to be a screengrab from ZBRush with different matcaps. I was thinking of some dark render in MAX,where the background is all black,the light is hitting his back and there's smoke/fog everywhere...That kind of thing :D But we'll see.I might ask Grant to do the render again, but he's so darn busy lately :/

poopipe: 'mkay,but remember,it's DDR1 I need,not DDR2... *sigh* this machine is so old :ugh:
Anyway,glad you like the model so far ;)

Avatar: haha thanks :D It's a mystery to me as well actually...


nacho_grande: At least someone is having fun :) Right now it's nothing but a chore to work on this guy.

Anyway,it's Friday again and it means it's another "beer and movies" day,so I might not be able to work on the model tonight.But we'll see...

[DaddyDoom]

Triple YEAH! :D
Well, a Max render might do the trick yes. Grant has been pretty busy these days, but if you talk him to do it, it will surely rock.
If possible, send me the image in an alpha map or something, so its easier to work with.

[Aleks]

Triple YEAH! :D
Well, a Max render might do the trick yes. Grant has been pretty busy these days, but if you talk him to do it, it will surely rock.
If possible, send me the image in an alpha map or something, so its easier to work with.

Sure thing,but...um...it's probably years in the future we're talking about here.Really,I would love to do a render of this guy,and I would love you to do a paintover thing,but it ain't gonna happen any time soon.If ever... :(


Anyway,here's a pretty much finished model:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/866/frontbacknk0.jpg
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/9761/sidelk3.jpg


I actually moved the legs a little bit outwards, so right now the whole thing aligns almost perfectly to the painting. I still need to finish the mane for the horse,though,but quite frankly - I'm sick and tired of the model.And don't get me wrong,I'm proud of the results and I think technically it's my best model,but working in such conditions,when I get 10 crashes a day while trying to save the progress,when it takes like 20 seconds just to hide a part of the model so you could make some details while FPS is around 10-20,etc etc... it's just not fun.

So yeah,I hope you like it and hopefully I could get back to it someday and finish the damn thing.

[mel_danes]

Aleks - Brilliant! Nothing else to say really.

Question? Would you please post your system specs? I know it may be a little nerd personal but I think people crutch up by saying they don't have a machine that can handle this software. You, one of the masters, capable of creating these works on the system you seem to have is exactly what I think people need to see.
Your talent, skill, and passion make these works great not some supercomputer.

Again, Great work, and please consider my request.

[Aleks]

Thanks,mate :)

And sure thing,here are my specs:

Dell Dimension 8300 (I think it was released in December 2003 or something like that)
Intel P4 3.2GHz (not exactly a Dual Core processor,but there is some multithreading thing going on in there)
2GB DDR1 RAM
Windows XP 32-bit

That's pretty much it. It's actually funny how I never really had decent hardware to work on. Heck,I bought a crappy tablet just two years ago,while I was working on a model for my first reel (I believe the alien guy in the reel was actually sculpted using a mouse) and I'm still using this tablet.

I might be getting some money soon and I think I will be able to buy a decent machine on it,but I'm also looking for work at the moment and willing to move out,so I kinda need that money if I get a job,you know...

[Linc]

Really awesome work man, looks spectacular. Will definitely be a bitch getting it into max.

zBrush is still a 32bit app and even when using 64bit OS it has a 4gb RAM limit so system spec doesn't really affect it that much.

[Aleks]

Really awesome work man, looks spectacular. Will definitely be a bitch getting it into max.

zBrush is still a 32bit app and even when using 64bit OS it has a 4gb RAM limit so system spec doesn't really affect it that much.

Might be,but I'm pretty sure I would get less "insufficient memory" errors and crashes.But then again,I'm not even using ZBrush for sculpting.Just for some detailing work, posing and sort of "presenting" the model.Mudbox simply refuses to load such dense meshes that I have here.

Anyway,I'm going to bed now.5:30AM and the university starts in three hours...Gotta get some rest :)

[Linc]

Yeah, definitely. My comment wasn't directly aimed at you (your post wasn't there before I wrote mine), mainly to mel_danes as zBrush is prolly the most pc friendly in terms of hardware.

edit: Ah right, I only read the last page and with talk of zBrush, thought you used too.

[HansKa]

Sweet model man... Your best work so far ;)

[Aleks]

zBrush is prolly the most pc friendly in terms of hardware.


That's true.And at the moment that's exactly what keeps me from switching to Mudbox completely :)

HansKa: Cheers,man :) Got any new stuff to show? ;)

[DaddyDoom]

Insane... YEAH!

[HansKa]

That's true.And at the moment that's exactly what keeps me from switching to Mudbox completely :)

HansKa: Cheers,man :) Got any new stuff to show? ;)

I've got some stuff, yeah :P I might post some of it another time!
Currently studying at a 3D design school in norway, called "Idefagskolen". It's pretty neat, actually. We're mainly using maya, aswell as Zbrush 3 ;)

[poopipe]

Thanks,mate :)

And sure thing,here are my specs:

Dell Dimension 8300 (I think it was released in December 2003 or something like that)
Intel P4 3.2GHz (not exactly a Dual Core processor,but there is some multithreading thing going on in there)
2GB DDR1 RAM
Windows XP 32-bit



I had one of those things at work for 3 years - the fact it lasted me that long with only one power supply failure is a testament to how good they are.

[Aleks]

DaddyDoom: HELL YEAH! *high-five* :D

HansKa: That's great,man! Well be sure to post something when you get a chance ;)

poopipe:Actually I got this computer in 2007,so I have it for just over a year.But I've already changed five video cards and bought a new PSU.But I got the machine for free so,you know,I can't really complain :)


Anyway,I've started a new model today (a robot :eek:),but it's too early to show anything and I'm not even sure if I'll be able to pull it off, but hopefully I'll post something this week.

[pogimonz]

alex dude! this turned out really nice, and all the work w/ a p4 and 2 gb ram is crazy, I thought I had a sh*t computer, haha..

anyway, I was wondering how you sculpted the details on the pants, how did you get the diamond shapes spread out so evenly?

[Aleks]

pogimonz: Skirt detail is pretty easy to make.Unwrap your model; make a tileable texture in MAX,ZBrush or just download it from Turbosquid or something; apply the texture; import it in ZBrush and go to Tool-> Masking and hit "Mask by Intensity"; now go to Tool-> Deformation and play with the "Inflat" slider. That's it :)
In my case,though,those scales/diamonds were a bit blurry, so I had to refine every single one of them using simple brush.Took me about 5 hours or so :xx:

[3mm]

aweseome progress man ,i have been checked this charcter since 2 months ago in cgtalk forum,congorate:shout:
waiting for textured and final version:)