Calendar November 24, 2013 13:52

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My Next Project - Dragon Axe

So I have been think the last few days on what I should do for my new project, and recently a friend of mine made a really cool looking axe. That inspired me to make one as well, here is the concept image I've been working on for the last few days:


I still don't know all the details of how its going to to look, but I figured this was a good place to start. My idea is that if this were to be put in a game, this would a one handed axe, so Its not going to be very big and that's why it also has the handle so low. 

The top of the axe is going to be shaped like a dragon and he will have a gem of some sort in its mouth. The part that is wrapping around the pole will be the tail of the dragon and it eventually becomes part of the handle. 

I will make the base model in Maya since I think i can get it done faster that way, and then I will finish it off with Zbrush. Maybe I will jump back to Maya for the UVs, but I'm not sure yet. That's all for now, thanks for reading. 

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Calendar November 23, 2013 17:06

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Bull Sculpt in Sketchfab

So after spending some time in Polycount, I found this really cool site called Sketchfab and they allow you to display your models in 3D in your site without plugins or any extra downloads. I decided to take it for a spin, and this is my model:

I really like the way it works and that you don't have to have any plug-ins or extra downloads for it to work. I think that I will start to add all my models on my portfolio on Sketchfab soon.


That's all for now, thanks for reading.

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Calendar November 13, 2013 14:41

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Portfolio Updated - Bull Sculpt Added

So I have finished putting together the renders into one image and have updated my portfolio with it. Here is the immage:


You can also find my portfolio at: christian.brushd.com. Now its on to my next project, thanks for reading.

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Calendar November 11, 2013 15:57

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Bull Head Done!

Here is the final renders for the textured head:




I did the final render ins Marmoset Tool Bag. I am really happy with the way it turned out, I did this completely in Zbrush only using Maya to fix some topology issued with the low res version of the model and to fix the UVs.

I will also be posting this to Polycount and see what kind of feedback I can get from there. Thanks for reading.

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Calendar November 11, 2013 01:23

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Bull Head - Diffuse Map Done

So I have finished working on the diffused map for my Bull Head. Here it is:


Overall I am really pleased with the way it turned out. Now I just need to work on the specular map, and I will be able to render it in Marmoset Tool Bag.

Hopefully I will be able to do it today and post a final render here and on Polycount. Thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 7, 2013 06:32

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Made With Mischief

So I know I am going to regret in the morning stay up this late sketching. Anyways, lets get this over with.

Here is some progress in a sketch that I've been thinking about making for a while:


So I know its nothing too amazing, but its my base sketch and I think I like the way its going. What I want to draw is an girl with armor (or bikini, haven't made up my mind yet) like these images of Witchblade. I wanted it to be in the anime/manga art style, and I been taking a lot of inspiration from the League of Legends champion Sona.

I like Sona's long flowing hair and I wanted my girl to have that same hair. I also wanted her to look like a bad ass, so I drew her eye in a way that would imply that she is not afraid of anything. I know that the face is really light, but if you can zoom in you will be able to see what I am talking about.

I made this with a software package that a friend of mine showed me some time ago called Mischief. Essentially its like painting/drawing with vectors, but not in the same style like illustrator. In Mischief there is no predetermined canvas size, and you can zoom in and out with out worrying about the resolution or pixelation of your work.

I've tried to draw in Photoshop before, but I alway need to re adjust my canvas size, or the resolution wasn't set correctly. With Mischief I don't have to worry about that. Right now I am running the free trial, and I have to say that I am really loving it. If you want to know more about this software package, go to madewithmischief.com.

I still need to keep working on this sketch, I don't like the way the feet look and the girl's left arm looks weird on that position. I want it to look like she is folding her arms behind her head, but at that angle with the hair, the arm loos like its part of the hair.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 3, 2013 11:57

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Progress on Polypaint

Here are two renders from Marmoset Toolbag on my progress on polypaiting my bull:



I still need to finish the color on the ears, a different color for the nose & nose ring, eyes, and another pass at the horns. But overall, I am really liking my progress on my bull.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

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Calendar October 27, 2013 12:34

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First Try at Polypainting

Now that I have successfully baked the detail into the lower resolution mesh, I been trying to see how to I should texture my bull. Usually I've used a combination of Photoshop and Mudbox. But since I am trying to learn Zbrush, I thought that I should do it in with Polypaint, and so far I am liking the results. Here are the renders from the horns:



At first I was a little hesitant to use Polypaint, but one of my friend Zac loves polypainting.

I will continue to work on painting it, but I wanted to show some progress before I have to go to work.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar October 25, 2013 15:30

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Normal & Ambient Occlusion Map Test

Since the UVs are done, I decided to do a normal & AO map test in XNormal to see how it turns out. Here are the renders. I did these in the lowest settings so that it wouldn't take for ever to render:



Now that I can see that the UVs turned out ok, I will continue to polypaint. I will have to watch a few tutorial videos, but I'm sure it will be fine. Thanks for reading!

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Calendar September 21, 2013 12:59

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Quick Start to ZBrush: Volume 2 - Progress

So I had started the second volume of the ZBrush training but left it half ways done to try and learn ZBrush on my own much like I learned Maya. Sure I had a lot of help learning Maya, but I don't have a professor or TA that I can ask for help now, I find that I can learn more if I try to figure it out on my own and then look up anything that I don't know.

And while I am very pleased on how much progress I have done in the last month, I realized that there is no way I learn a software package as big as ZBrush on my own. So instead of jumping on my next personal project of learning ZBrush on my own, I decided to go back and finish at least another couple of volumes of ZBrush.

Here is a render of my progress so far on Volume 2:



I had to sculpt the base mesh, and use ZRemesher to get a lower resolution mesh with higher resolution on the face and the hands.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar September 15, 2013 04:38

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Final Render of Bull's Head Sculpt

Here is the final render for my bull head:




I did a few changes since last time:

  • I changed the horns, since I realized that they were pointing straight and they should be up at an angle with some curvature.
  • I added a nose ring, I thought that it was appropriate and added character to the sculpt. 
  • I removed the skin flap under the mouth. I was thinking of making it hair, but I gave up on that idea.
I added some detail to the: ears, around the base of the horns, the nose, and skin texture. I really do think I'm getting better in the short month since I started ZBrush. I remember my first sculpt that I tried to do by myself, and it looks awful.

Now I have to keep working at it and I will be even better! For my next project, I don't really what I want to do yet. I want to do something else that is interesting. Since I've been doing only head sculpts, I may try to do a full body sculpt. 

That's all for now, thanks for reading!


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Calendar September 10, 2013 13:32

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Bull Head Sculpt WIP

So for my next sculpt, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I thought about it for a while, and I decided to do another animal head sculpt. So I've decided to do a bull's head. I thought that it would be cool because of the horns.

After a few hours of sculpting here is my progress so far:




I think I'm almost done with the base mesh, so I look forward to finishing this in the next few days. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar September 1, 2013 04:35

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Werewolf Head Sculpt

So I decided to make something a little more creative other than generic head sculpts. It's my first time doing something like this, and I'm drawing only on what I already know from ZBrush, so I have to keep taking tutorials since I need to get a better understanding of the software package.

Here are the renders:




I worked on this sculpt for a few days, so I'm going to move on to another piece now. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar August 16, 2013 04:05

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2nd Head Sculpt

So this is the 2nd head sculpt that I've done, I've decided that taking only 1 hour for each head sculpt is not wise, at least not when I'm so new to Zbrush. I've decided that I will give it at least a couple of hours and if I like what I have, I will work on it for a couple more, but no more than 4 hours per sculpt.

Hopefully, once I'm on my 15th sculpt, I will be much faster and much better than what I am today.

Here are the renders for today's work:




Yesterday I did the sculpt without reference, and I it turned out horrible because of it. I tried to see how well I could do if I just left it up to my imagination.

Anyways, I've learned my lesson and for today's sculpt I followed this YouTube video:


It isn't a step-by-step video, its a quick rendering of an artist work into a 15 minute video. I paused and rewind the video as many times as I need to see how the artist was doing his work. I learned some really cool tricks and a different way to start a head sculpt.

For tomorrow I will try to find a woman's head that I can sculpt, and maybe even add hair! :O Well, that's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar August 15, 2013 16:02

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30 Head Sculpts in a Month Challenge

Everyday for the next month, I'm going to sculpt a head in Zbrush. It doesn't look that great now, but the idea is that hopefully by doing it everyday I will get better.

My friend Brandon Rees is now a tech artist for EA Tiburon, and he gave me this great idea. He said that I should take no more than an hour per sculpt, after a while what used to take me 20 minutes to do will be done in half the time.

I will have to admit that I cheated on this head sculpt since I spent almost 2 hours doing it. I know that it looks really crappy for 2 hours worth of work, but it took me a while to figure dinamesh and all that set up stuff. Anyways, here are the renders from ZBrush:



I was trying to go for the look of an old wooden idol head. If anyone has critique, please feel free to let me know. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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