New Project!

I have started on a new project. It's basically a room scene, except I plan on setting it a little ways in the future. This is a redo of a project I did when I was at FHSU. I had a class on 3d in which we had to build a room among other things. I don't even remember the program, though I think it started with an S. The room project was always my favorite of the things I did in that class, so I decided I would redo it except with everything better, and with the benefit of nearly 10 years new knowledge of the world that I didn't have at the time. At the suggestion of my good friend, Dave Simpson, I decided to start posting "in progress" pics of this project as I go along instead of keeping everyone in suspense.

This one is the main table, and as soon as I get the thermos finished, I will add it. I am creating each piece separately and to scale, so it will be easier to reuse them later for other projects. There are going to be quite a few more items in this scene- which will be better lit, I should add- than in the original, by the time I am done.

I modeled, textured and rendered it in Modo/Photoshop (the wood grain is made from scratch in Photoshop). By the time I am done, I might model a sculpture or two in Zbrush and bring it in, for decoration. We'll see I guess.

I thought I would include my two favorite pics from that original scene. Just to give some point of reference of where I am starting.

A few points on the above image:
• I hope Apple will forgive me as I can't really leave out the name and such without destroying the image. I no longer have the original 3d files to allow me to edit it. Not to mention there is a reference to an episode of  a particular tv show.. It was a class project after all. These will all get changed in the new version.
• There is, of course, no such thing as a G7. I didn't have any way of knowing they would switch to Intel chips later on after this was created. I do believe the trend will continue more in this direction of being smaller and smaller. though.
• You might think the floating display is sci fi.. think again. If you have a spare $20,000 or so.. you can get one.. hopefully in the future as technology gets better they will become more consumer affordable.
http://thefutureofthings.com/articles/40/heliodisplay-floating-display.html

Next is the stereo…

 
I was pretty happy with the stereo itself- particularly after the hours I had spent modeling and assembling it. The main flaws here are the stand and the floor. Bleh! Both need major help in the area of surfacing. The new version will be a different kind of stereo anyway. Also the lighting needs improvement I think.

I plan to do a couple different sets of images for this eventually- a daytime and nighttime version. The room will have windows of course. After all, how boring would a room be with no windows?

Everything has to start somewhere...

I decided to create a few base meshes for starting points. ZBrush lets you use something it calls ZSpheres to create a base from which to sculpt. I have a few others I made, but this is the best, and it's also getting close to Halloween, so I figured it was fitting. These ZSpheres will eventually be given a surface and that is what will be sculpted to look more like a real spider, including the eyes, which are not in this model.

Not textured yet, but …

here is the latest practice piece. I spent a lot of time this weekend learning more about the program and I want to try texturing this fellow with a feature, called Spotlight, in the program that allows for easier texturing. But for now, here is the sculpt.

New sculpt

New head. I think for the next one I'm going to try to work on texture maps for a bit more realism. The eyes are done in the style of real world sculpture, but I want to eventually get to the point where I am doing photo realism with it.

Figure sculpting practice

Here are a few new views of a bust I made in ZBrush this morning. I fixed the contrast on them a bit in Photoshop afterward.

Really love the new version of ZBrush

Pixologic just came out with Revision 2 of ZBrush 4 the other day and it is better than before. It has some very nice features that help me overcome the issues I was having in the old one such as stretching of geometry.

Here is a new 3d sketch I did, in a few different views. I don't think I would want to have to whip this guy as he looks a little rough.

3D!

Here is a little head I created in ZBrush 4. It's more of a 3d sketch than any kind of finished piece. I'm hoping that my 3d work will help my drawing and that the drawing will help the 3d.  I am going to try to start putting up a mix of sketches that I've done on paper and things I've done in 3d in Zbrush and other programs.