Crispy's Sketches and stuff.

[Crispy4004]

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4871/tittleh.jpg
Demo Reel (http://www.vimeo.com/21046828)
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________________




I'll have a lot of work to show here soon with how involved I am at the moment, but to start with here is a beginning to an anatomy study:

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/8066/bodye.jpg

I haven't started on the hands or the feet which also need some minor proportional fixes, but everything else needs another pass where I'll clean stuff up and double check the anatomy. Trying to hit the details a little harder than what is natural for the sake of making everything read clearly. The idea is to get the anatomy pat down now so I can use it as a starting point and/or reference for a number of sculpts I'll be doing in the future.

[spindraft]

Looking good man. Looks like you've been doing some homework.

[chunkymunky]

Apart from the feet as you're aware of this is looking so so cool! Although one single crit would be that on the lower thigh area just above the knee there's some bands that look like tops of high boots or something, do you see what I mean? Other than that very impressive.

[Crispy4004]

Thanks for pointing that out, looks like one of my references was wrong.

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/32/antique4large08.jpg

I'm guessing it's just a ligament, but I imagine a rather insignificant one with little to no impact on the surface considering most references don't include it. Think I'll remove it.

[Crispy4004]

Just got my Philippe Faraut Sculpting DVDs in today! Decided to try something different and put Sculptris through the ropes today. For those of you who don't know, sculptris is a free sculpting application that works similarly to 3Dcoats voxel sculpting approach, just a little more limited, but a bit more responsive and user friendly. That means you can basicly sculpt anything from a sphere, no base mesh required.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/9715/girljy.jpg
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/6541/girl2j.jpg

Overall it worked fairly well. There are definitely some weakness, performance and masking tools being 2 of the big ones for me. At the same time however you get a limitless amount of freedom to manipulate the shape and no more pesky poles/spikes. After using it I'm very excited to see what comes next.

[chunkymunky]

Wow that beautifully done!

[Agent-X]

Looks good man. Keep up the good work. Push it even further and keep going. :)

[Crispy4004]

Here's an update:

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7114/anatomy.png

Still have quite a few things I want to fix, and even more after seeing the render. It's going though.

[chunkymunky]

Really very realistic renders you're getting there. Nice progress IMO.

[HansKa]

Nice sculpts! Sculptris looks interesting. Does it handle as much polys as Zbrush or mudbox?

Also, your renders are a bit too blurry... :)

[chunkymunky]

Love that vampire dude :)

[Crispy4004]

Nice sculpts! Sculptris looks interesting. Does it handle as much polys as Zbrush or mudbox?

Also, your renders are a bit too blurry... :)

It doesn't handle nearly the same level of polygons at least currently, but it also requires a lot less for the same definition. Even so I've already hit some pretty big slowdown so stuff like surface detail would be nearly impossible. Sculpting in it however just feels fantastic, I'd even say better than mudbox and zbrush because 5-corner spikes don't exist. However due to the nature of how the app works, replicating certain things like the clay tubes brush is slow.

I don't think it would be wise to use it for anything professionally at this point, but by the next major release, who knows. Can't believe I'm saying this but I could actualy see Zbrush and Mudbox having a serious free competitor in the future, especialy if they don't adopt the advancements this app has made.

I'm definitely going to tone down the DOF for the next renders. Probably harden up the material/lighting a tad as well.

[Crispy4004]

Wow what an exciting week! One of the first projects I've had a small hand in at Zoic Studios as an intern was released, the E3 Twisted Metal Reveal Trailer! Even more exciting it was the big surprise at the end of Sony's show!

Back to WIP land, here is a little something I've been working on today. I threw a little quick texture on to see if it could help me get a read of the celebrity I'm trying to sculpt. Don't think I've got the likeness quite yet but any guesses on who it is?

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4712/facetest.jpg

[chunkymunky]

Hmmmmmmm a tricky one, looks a bit like Bradley Cooper who plays the face in the new A Team film.......am I way off? lol

[Crispy4004]

Not quite. That's good though, tells me I have a ways to go, that and looking at it with some fresh eyes this mourning. I see a lot of things that need some fixing.

[Raul]

awesome sculpts!!

Sculptris, huh?

[Crispy4004]

Well, at least 2 of the models in this thread. I don't think I'd use it for anything more than a simple bust at this point. That said, I think I prefer it for something like that, at least until I need to break the symmetry.

I've been trying a new approach with the app where I sculpt in a simplified scull then start layering on the face muscles. I tried doing the same thing with a Zsphere base but it actually took me a lot more time fighting it to block it in.

[Crispy4004]

Alright, lets try this again, guess who it is. If you're pretty positive you know who the actor is feel free to give some crits:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5556/face2o.jpg
(again the texture is a quick job.)

[chunkymunky]

I'm lost......no idea now lol.....looks good though however it is :)

[TheDarkKnightNL]

from the straight on front view I would have guessed Ryan Reynolds?

[Crispy4004]

Yup, definitely a ways away from being instantly recognizable but you got it.

[MStandar]

Looking very nice crispy :)

in some odd way the girl model remebered me of Meet Meline. http://www.vimeo.com/10471831
:D

[Crispy4004]

Another update, this time with a Mental Ray Render. Everything needs a lot more work from the detailing to the likeness. He's also a bit shiny right now because I don't have a reflectivity map:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/807/face3z.jpg

Been a good long day working on this, got a pretty good amount done which has become quite a feet on my aging home computer.

[Crispy4004]

An update to the likeness:
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9323/gl1a.jpg
Crits are more than welcome, please let me know if something looks off to you.

[Aleks]

What brushes do you use? Most of your sculpts have that bumpiness to them. I'm not sure if you're doing it on purpose,to get the "fleshy" look,but it just doesn't work on the latest head model.
Those skull bones on the forehead are way too pronounced,and like I said above - there's too much bumpiness going on in there. It's hard to tell with the texture on,but even the cheeks look "messy".
BUT,I can recognize the actor. That's Ryan Reynolds,right? :)

[Crispy4004]

The bumpiness is not something intentional, it just happens when I move around the shape of face, all those tweaks start becoming visible, a lot of times because I'm being lazily not dropping the subd level. Definitely bad habit of mine I need to work on breaking in favor of a cleaner approach. I do plan on going back and cleaning it up.

I'll definitely post the next update minus the texture and with a softer temple region. Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it. Glad to hear Ryan Renolds is coming through :).

[Crispy4004]

Next Update. Cleaned up a lot of stuff, spent some more time on the likeness, and redid the surface detail. Think I'm close, but it's hard to tell when I've been staring at him for so long.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8646/gl2jc.jpg

[Crispy4004]

An Updated Render with a quick hair cutout. There's a strange artifact on his left side but I'll find out what's causing it later.
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/3764/gl3k.jpg

Think I've only got a few small things left to tweak in terns of his facial features that I know will make him look more convincing. Aside from that I've got a lot of texturing and detailing cleanup with some more shader adjustments.

[chunkymunky]

Pretty impressive hair, the skin still needs alot more work IMO but is really getting better and better with each new post :)

[Crispy4004]

The hair better be impressive, it's just a cut out of a photo pasted on in photoshop for now ;).

Maybe that's a sign to start your own WIP. Believe me, we all appreciate the feedback, it can be way too quiet around here at times, but try taking time away from helping everyone else out and start seeking feedback for your own work. You've definately established enough of a presence here to garner a lot of attention once you start showing us what you're capable of. With nearly 3,000 posts, it's well past due. You're like the Rudy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ7ZpLgkVxA) of 3Dtotal, except you're still on that bench and need to start contributing on the field.

Giving all this a shot yourself will help train your eye and discover techniques that in turn will help you give even more informative critiques. Plus I often find the critiques I get, whether it be from a teacher, co-worker, or on a forum are usually similar to what other people need to hear as well. Discovering the mistakes I make helps me give better feedback.

[Crispy4004]

Little bit of a happy accident today, I tried doing some studio lighting but ultimately felt the performance hit from the 2 Area lights was not worth it. Instead I opted to go back to sIBL (which is fantastic and super fast btw). What I forgot to do was remove those Area lights, but what it gave me was some great results like what a real photographer gets with additional lighting outside. I kinda doubt I'll use this lighting setup again on my comp, at least for these test renders, but maybe I could find an IBL that produces similar results.

Here is the update today consisting mostly of likeness tweaks, this time wiht a little CC in photoshop to see what it would look like a little cooler:
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/2669/gl3.png

[chunkymunky]

That's actually a pretty good exterior effect :)

[Crispy4004]

Next update. Spent many, many hours trying to getting the likeness though there are a few more small tweaks I wish to make. The biggest struggle is dealing with perspective. The differences between how a model looks in Zbrush and Maya can be huge, even when I tweak the focal length in both applications, it's maddening.


http://a.imageshack.us/img34/4098/face6q.png

Still have to clean up some texturing, materials, hair and if time allows for it, studio lighting and modeling for a shoulder length bust. I plan to make a full figure in the future but for now I'm on a deadline. Trying to get as pretty as I can in time for SIGGRAPH while also putting together my reel, changing my website, and hopefully printing this on some business cards. Oh boy.

[Crispy4004]

One last update before I call it a night:
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/6619/face7.png

[Crispy4004]

Generated some new topology for the body a la 3D Coat. Worked incredibly well.

Going to further refine the body, but before I get to that I need to decide, new or classic Green Lantern. Any preferences?


http://a.imageshack.us/img401/2879/topobodyt.jpg

[lebaje]

http://www.billandwalts.com/images/comics/a_fig/dcdirect/23598t.jpg
:lame: :lame: :lame: :lame: :lame:


new please:evil::evil:

[Crispy4004]

Well, I'm a little torn to be honest. On one hand I understand the route they went with the film. Tights and the white gloves would just look terribly tacky on the silver screen. Plus it does a lot to show how the suit actually glows.

On the other hand I think the design they came up with is a little too uniform. I like the way the black and white breaks up the costume in the classic version. Plus when I see artwork like these I'm tempted to go a similar route:
http://a.imageshack.us/img441/737/greenlantern00.th.jpg (http://img441.imageshack.us/i/greenlantern00.jpg/)http://a.imageshack.us/img835/2823/greenlanternartworkscal.th.jpg (http://img835.imageshack.us/i/greenlanternartworkscal.jpg/)

Oh well, I still have some time to decide because of how busy I am at work.

[rejjcarlos]

Gr8 to see the vampire :) Keep up the good work.

[lebaje]

go more with the armor !!

and one thing, is arm look skinny from the angle that you choose

[Crispy4004]

Oh don't worry, I'm definitely going to bulk him up a bit in certain areas. The body is actually just a copy of the body I did back on the first page, just with newly generated topology and re-projected details with some slight tweaks. Things are going to change quite a bit once I can get back to working on this, after all the old body had issues.

I do want to however shy away from adding any sort of armor here. Part of my intentions are to do a solid anatomy piece, but this time a subject matter that is relevant and people can get excited about.

[lobster007]

Looks nice, what seems me a bit strange are the femurs in athe front wiew. Also the hands do not seem to be antomically finished.

http://www.3d.sk/?ref=3dt21

[johngate2100]

This is the mastery for sketch.That is good.

[hulahuga]

Looking good crispy :). I like the anatomical sketches.

Green lantern is coming along nicely as well. Lips look odd to me though.. I think it might be too pinched at the ends.. Ears look perhaps a bit smudgy as well. Other than that it looks solid :).

[Crispy4004]

Yup, I'm still alive, just got a little busy with a few other projects. One of which is working with a 3D scan of Graham Herbster, tracking master at Zoic Studios. This was my first time working with a scan. It's actually a lot more work than you might think, tons of cleanup in involved. I cleaned up up a lot already and got some of the finner details in there from the texture, but there is still lots more to fix up, in particular the eye region and some texturing problems.

http://a.imageshack.us/img189/6982/gface1.png

Used Mental Ray, Maya, Zbrush, and Nuke (broke him down into about 12 passes). I plan on revisiting this in the future and making something out of it.

In the meantime back to the Green Lantern now that my Internship is over. I've switched to Mudbox after getting a little frustrated with Zbrush's perspective. I've decided to start from scratch with the face and have done some little tweaks to the body so far. Still very early.
http://a.imageshack.us/img197/1882/60268829.png

[Crispy4004]

Update on the body with a quick pose. Also wanted to explore a few new Mental Ray lighting tricks I've added to my bag.
http://a.imageshack.us/img811/4839/body2.png

[hulahuga]

Looks very much like wax... Too blurry render for my taste though...

Have you made a displacement map and normal for the model or how did you render it?

[Crispy4004]

I just decimated the model in Zbrush and took it into Maya for the Mental Ray treatment. Eventually I'll get some displacement maps in there, but for now it's not necessary. Personalty I think displacement + a regular bump to slightly push surface detail is the way to go.

The blur is actually significantly toned back from renders on the first page, but I did use a harsher image for the chromatic effect. Definitely too dramatic considering the resulting image looks like it was taken with a cheap disposable camera. I'm going to go back, get the DOF accurate to scale (it's close, but 100% there yet) as well as tone down the CA. The result will be a slightly sharper image, but don't expect razer sharp, artifact-free edges.

My rendering mentality is to push lens effects slightly beyond what you'd get with a modern camera. That's because I want to emulate a camera lens, whereas most cameras try removing any traces of it. The reason being I don't want clean, CG renders are too clean as is. I just need to do a little more experimentation to find the perfect balance.

I imagine once I get the relationship perfect in MR the next step will be emulating those effects with regard to depth in a compositing package. A lot of these effects are incredibly taxing, took me 1 hour to render the last shot on my poor machine, whereas without them it takes maybe 3 minutes. I need to create a faster alternative.

[hulahuga]

Sounds pretty good, but make sure you don't put all the focus on the blur since there is a lot more to it still ;). The filters in cameras are way important as well..

Never really got that actually... As far as I know normals have been regarded as better than regular bumps... but I may definitely be wrong, what is actually the main output difference between them really?

[angelababy]

great job . Looks like you've been doing awesome homework.

[Crispy4004]

Never really got that actually... As far as I know normals have been regarded as better than regular bumps... but I may definitely be wrong, what is actually the main output difference between them really?
A normal map also stores normal information for every pixel, meaning you get a more accurate surface description. The downside however is sometimes in those smoothed normals get in the way of sharp surface detail, creating a mushy result. A regular bump is great at small surface detail, plus it's depth value can be adjusted. It's just not good at representing form with more volumetric details.

[keraj37]

Hi Crispy4004, I love this render:

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/2669/gl3.png

Can you tell us something about eyes shaders? What kind of shaders do you use?

[Crispy4004]

My eye setup is nothing fancy, it's actually almost identical to the free Gnomon eye tutorial for Maya, meaning just a single nurbs sphere, a torus for the irus and a black backing plate. The only differences are I use a Mia_material and add some real SSS to it (so sss+ for you).

What really seems to sell eyes though is a good HDRI and/or reflection planes. And of course linear workflow helps tremendously.

[Crispy4004]

So I've gone to the drawing board to try and work out a pose and a clearer idea of what direction to take this. So here is the Green lantern on his way to turning into Parallax:
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/9426/gldesign.png

Thought it would be interesting to visually show he has been infected by the yellow impurity. I need still decide if I want to follow the movie green lantern patterns or not, but I'm worried things may get too busy. I think it may need to be toned back as is.

Thoughts?

[amincgi]

very nice my friend

[Crispy4004]

Another little update, testing out a few design ideas I will be expanding on and cleaning up for the next update. Really excited to start rendering now that I'm beta testing MentalCore but I'm not going to allow myself to rush into it.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6691/gl2.png

[hulahuga]

So then you can basically a combination to get maximum effect then? Normal map for the volumes and then a subtle bump for rasterlike and other tiny effects.
Cool :)!


I like that growing thing on his chest, try making it pop out and glow a bit more :)

[Crispy4004]

Another little update:
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2669/gl3.png
In addition to the new doodads I made some small changes to the anatomy, but even that needs more tweaking and cleanup. Eventualy I'll make my way to the hands and legs but the torso and arms still need more work. Been swamping between anatomy and modeling the small details so I don't get burned out on one or the other.

[Crispy4004]

Just a few test renders. Still lots of unfinished stuff, issues, and placeholders, some of which are further along than in these renders, but I figure an update is overdue so here's what I got:
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5160/greenlantern.png
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2492/picture2lq.png

[Crispy4004]

Quick homework studies for my Drawing Heads and Hands class. I've been trying to alternate between drawing and sculpting every other week.

I tried to only work these enough to get the general idea across, so both are a bit sketchy and have room for improvement:

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1756/faceon.png
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/6084/printk.jpg

[ILuvZbrush]

wow, you really know your anatomy well. Great job !

[Crispy4004]

New website up. Still have a few kinks to work out and things to add, but for the most part it's there:

www.cgsanctuary.com (http://www.cgsanctuary.com/)

It's not quite as snazzy as the last site, but it gives me a lot more room to expand and is much easier to organize.

[hulahuga]

Looks good :). You should revise the loading times though... And clickable images in display mode to go to the next one might be good so you don't have to go all around the screen every time the size changes... :).

Really liked the man (zbrush with a brown/bronzish matcap) in your studies folder between the orc and girl (both who are made in scluptris).

[Crispy4004]

Unfortunately the loading times are a bit of a trade-off. The thumbnails take a while to load when you open an album, but the actual large images are significantly faster to browse through compared to my last site.

I decided it was worth it, also because it's much easier to organize categorically and manage, but I'll see if there is anything I can do.

[Crispy4004]

Next update now with displacements. Some things are waaay off like the textures, colors, hair, and parts not fitting together correctly, but hopefully from here on it will mostly be minor tweaking:
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6940/glupdate.png

Also here is an earlier clay render. As a note the glove displacement was messed up here among other things:

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3108/displacementrender.png

And another closeup of the face:
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/2985/newrender1.png

[Crispy4004]

Next update. I'm trying to wrap things up, just got some minor tweaks, a few missing details and posing left. I've actually already started on my next model, trying to finish this up on the side:
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6193/bodyo.png

Going to be a busy month between internship applications, 2 characters to finish, and piles of other art school work.

[hulahuga]

Neat!

The boots look a bit wonky though looking from their outside.. (as in not between his legs ;))

Will the strass be plastic or a textile btw? Might look good breaking off from the glossy look a bit by having a different material there :)

[Crispy4004]

Start to another character based on a friend's concept, very much a work in progress. Probably going to go low poly with this one.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/3548/womank.png

[Aleks]

I'm sorry if someone's already asked this,but is there a reason why you give your models that "clay" look? I can understand if you're applying this technique to certain parts of a model,face for example, to make it look more fleshy,but when you do this to the whole model, it looks strange. Feels to me that you're just overusing the clay brush.

[Crispy4004]

Well, the clay brushes are what I go to by default when I'm just trying to etch things in. I like how they can behave like both a stroke and/or softening tool, it is very efficient for me at early stages. I'm not exactly trying to hit a home run on my first pass so how clean it looks right now doesn't really bother me. My goal was to quickly build something to work off of. The rest will come when I go back over with the standard, Dam_standard, and probably some of sewly's brushes and tighten things up.

[Aleks]

Yes,I get it.But when I look at the previous character,that has all the textures in place,I can still see those clay brush strokes.The mask,legs,hands are the areas just to name a few.
But I guess I'm just being and ass here...Keep those updates coming!

[Crispy4004]

You are right, there are several areas that I moved on from when I shouldn't have. I did made my mid-semester deadline, but it definitely could use more polish, even in addition to the sculpting. I'll work on making sure this next model doesn't show the same issues.

Thanks for the input.

[Crispy4004]

Had an opportunity to meet with some Rythm & Hues recruiters this week on campus so I did a Mental Ray render of my progress:

http://img602.imageshack.us/img602/5630/womanrendercroped.png

Still have a few things I need to clean up with the sculpting, but I've had to move on to the low-poly base. Finals week is days away and I've got 2 school related projects that ideally need this character to be rigged. We'll see what I can get to with all the additional homework I have as well.

And oh yeah, here is the Green latern model posed, did a while ago, but never posted.
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/1726/coverfh.png

[MStandar]

Looking nice, like you said its not finished yet, but sofar so good.

As for the green lantern model goes, That has to be some of the biggest gloves ive seen. Well thats not a problem really, because the characther itself is well done, and it looks good.

Well looking foreward to more updates, and good luck on your finals :)

[Crispy4004]

Thanks for the feedback. I definitely agree with the gloves. I did sculpt the hands a little bigger than I normally would, but not as big as you see them here. It actually is an un-intentional displacement map problem, you'll notice the gloves vary in sizes from post to post. The first picture on this page, being the closest to what I want.

In this render the gloves where not retaining the same mass as the sculpt and the uper arm was showing through, so I scaled them up in size to compensate, but I definitely took it too far. I'll have to go back and play with it a little more.

[Crispy4004]

Put together a Demo Reel over the past week and a half for a student critique event at Dreamworks. Hoping I get selected, they choose 1 or 2 student from each of the Cal States. Was actually quite a challenge to get everything rendered correctly and on time with the hardware I have available.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4871/tittleh.jpg
Demo Reel (http://www.vimeo.com/21046828)

Hopefully by the time I graduate this semester I'll have enough material for 2 separate reels. The first, a modeling reel including my Dominance War V entry if it ever starts, and the second a lighting reel including work for another student film I'm currently serving as the lighting TD on.

[MStandar]

Yaay updates, was ages ago i saw you here.

Looking very good, I would say that you have great chanses :), well know i dont know how the other peoples work look like, but you are indeed very skilled.

My favourite one was the third, the glowing one. But they were all good.

Good luck with the dreamworks thingy :)

[Crispy4004]

Thanks for the encouraging words! I was sort of busy for a while there with intern stuff and school work. Also I wanted to take some time off before DW, which due to delays turned into an extended vacation ;).