Saturday 28 September 2013

"logical" flying car WIP


A set of doodles based on the question "why should a flying car look like a road car?"
Ditched the ducted fans on the assumption that the car uses an antigravity lifting engine and some sort of reactionless drive; this way you get to keep the sleek lines.
For neatness, I think the antigrav and drive will be under the floor; therefore the next pic needs a thicker underfloor.  Also, windscreen wipers seem a bit off for the high tech aesthetic, so I think self-cleaning super-hydrophobic glass is indicated for the windscreen.

Saturday 21 September 2013

Henry Moore Golem Turnaround WIP

So, although the HMG is fully modelled and poseable, there was one big problem with it - render time.  Since it was all done with displacement maps, it took far too long to render a frame for it to be practical to do a turnaround.  So, I switched to a combination of Displacement and Normal mapping:
It's not quite as detailed as before, but you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, and the reduction in render time more than makes up for it.

Before - took just over 30 minutes to do the colour pass (all displacement)

After - took 41 seconds to do the colour pass on this image (2 levels less subdivision + normal mapping)

Friday 20 September 2013

Henry Moore Golem


All rigged and poseable.  Also, features one of the coolest render-passes I've seen so far -

Saturday 14 September 2013

Henry Moore Golem WIP 6


Fully textured, although I'm not entirely happy with the moss; I may go back and add more

Friday 13 September 2013

Henry Moore Golem WIP 5

The torso is now fully textured, showing the glowing carvings.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Henry Moore Golem WIP 2


The more eagle-eyed among you may notice that the carvings on the head are subtly different - this is because I had to tweak the UVs slightly in order to reduce distortion; as a result I had to restart the sculpting.  Fortunately, I only lost the work I'd already done on the head, and the lessons learned mean I should get a better result overall.

Sunday 8 September 2013

Henry Moore Golem WIP



Spent most of today trying to get to grips with the idiosyncracies of floating-point displacement maps (once you get used to them, it's certainly easier than the old 8-bit format); I did at least manage to get the head done for use as a test.

The eventual plan is for the engravings to glow with the magic that animates the golem.

Friday 6 September 2013

Henry Moore Mecha Modelled

I liked the shapes of the Henry Moore Mecha from the speedpaint challenge, so I decided to have a go at modelling it. 




Total poly count - 1437 polygons

Looking at it now, I think it'd make a great stone-golem type creature, with moss and carved details - in addition it will be a great chance to hone my Mudbox skills.

Sunday 1 September 2013

Erratic Discovery


More digital painting practice, inspired by photos of glaciers & fjords etc.