Scared Silly Entry by Mark Johnson (Dustbin1_uk)

[dustbin1_uk]

Ok my concept sounds worse than it is, and once I have the sketch done you'll see it's quite tame. ;)

A guy visits the bathroom. He is the kind of wimpy looking guy that life always seems to happen to.

So he has finished his business stands to pull his pants up and is shocked to see a ghoulish/scaled arm reaching out the toilet with a trick or treat bucket in it's hand.

MODELS:

The toilet
The man who used it.
Ghoulish/scaled with webbed fingered hand
Trick or treat pumpkin bucket
and all the little things you find in a toilet room. (toothpaste, glass, mirror, sink etc.......

Being new to ZBrush, this is going to be tough! BUT FUN!!!!!!!!!!:D :tu:

[wdcstudios]

Sounds pretty good, I laughed out loud when I pictured it in my head.

[dustbin1_uk]

Ok, here is the concept drawing, I sketched this very quickly, but it does give an idea as to what I want to do.

scare me silly concept.jpg

The man will look a little more cartoony, probably with a "I don't believe it!" Jaw drop look.

And will no doubt angle the view a bit better. ;)

[dustbin1_uk]

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Zsphere%20Toilet%20Arm.JPG http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Toilet%20Arm%20Preview.JPG

[dustbin1_uk]

Little bit of sculpting, don't want to get too detailed right now, as I have loads of models to make yet. Best to get the bulk out the way first.;)

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Toilet_arm_V0.4.JPG

[Moochie]

Good start! Best of luck.

[dustbin1_uk]

I thought that I should really set up a basic body layout if I wish to model people in ZBrush.

So that’s what I have done.

Proportionally incorrect at this time, but I can sculpt this into anyone I choose.

For this project and future projects!

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Body%20Spheres1.JPG

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Body%20Spheres2.JPG

[dustbin1_uk]

You may have noticed that I am completely new to ZBrush.....

well... actually I'm new to all kinds of 3D! :o

I know there is probably little chance of me winning when I am up against some of the most talented people in the world. But the reason I decided to do this, is that I think I may learn more by taking this on then I would any other way. And I thought this would be fun of course!! ;)

So I hope I don't embarrass myself and I'll see you all as we go along. :tu: :D :tu:

[Ctrl-Z]

I think you're pulled back way too far in your concept sketch. We don't need to see all the details of his bathroom -- the story itself is all happening in the corner. Let the toilet monster dominate the scene!

Maybe put the viewer's perspective much lower to the ground, looking past the toilet bowl, past the arm and the bucket, to our hero's reaction.

Or maybe we're looking at the toilet from a more traditional front or side view. The guy's barely in frame, or not there at all -- does his reaction add to ours, or detract from it?

What does the shower bring us? The sink and mirror? When the viewer's eye flits over to those elements, is the tone you want heightened? Or is the viewer simply distracted from what you want them to see?

A piece like this is all about focus and composition. It doesn't need a ton of elements; just make the few you have look really good!

[dustbin1_uk]

Thank you! That's just the kind of advice I need. I'm only really doing this to learn as much as I can over the comming weeks.

Your right too, I knew as soon as I did the drawing the angle was all wrong. But it was only to give an idea of what was in the scene

You're very correct in saying I have included too much that does not need to be there.

I think I'll just have the guy stood there as if he was too shocked to pull up his pants, let alone run. I like your ideas and may go with the a view from behind the toilet over the arm, so you can see the guy's reaction full on.

Anyway I need to get the model of the guy done first, then the toilet, the trick or treat bucket, and then I'll just have to put it together and see.

Thanks for the good advice! More like that from everyone is VERY welcome!

[chemkid]

ctrl-z - cool advice... good timing, too. it`s exactly my problem, too. i always think of too many details and can`t concentrate on the important parts anymore.

dustbin1_uk - lucky you, having a working mirror! i mean, lots of stuff to see in a mirror... your comment about the mirror in my scene made me think already... hahaha

thank you,


chem!

[dustbin1_uk]

Ok just for the mean time I cut some of the concept picture out Ctrl-Z was very correct.

(See third post in this thread)

[Ctrl-Z]

Too many details is an easy trap to fall into, particularly with CG. We like to challenge ourselves, and we like to show off. It's perfectly natural!

sidenote for dustbin and chemkid:
I'm still bouncing ideas around for my own entry. The ones I keep coming back to also have a mirror. Prominently featured. I'm rejecting these ideas because of it.

Thing is, we can't do reflections in ZBrush. Not really. We can find clever ways to fake any effect, but if you genuinely need accurate raytracing, that's going to mean an outside renderer.

And while, yes, I do own a license for several such products, I think there's a strong competitive advantage to keeping everything native. Remember, it's the ZBC community voting.

(that said, diving headlong into such a challenge and posting how-to solutions will only help your standing. so, I'm really just avoiding mirrors out of laziness.)

[dustbin1_uk]

Lets put it this way, the mirror is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY down my list of things to do. ;)

I can see ways to pull it off, but it may not be needed.

[dustbin1_uk]

At work today so can't get much done until tonight. :cry:

Here is my basic body ZSphere I made earlier, modified to meet the concept.
Proportionally his legs will be a little shorter and his head will be oversized for comic value.

He is now a polymesh and ready to be sculpted. He will be posed a little more once sculpting is complete.

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Scared%20Sam%20V0.1.JPG

[soulreaver]

LOL..Really funny concept u got there:D ..The hand sculpting looks really nice. Keep it up...

[Bingo_Jackson]

A mirror reflection is pretty easily done up with photoshop post processing. Sometimes we overthink things and spend hours rendering things out that are easily touched up in photoshop in 5 minutes for the same effect. There's no stigma to photoshop post-processing...it's par for the course...every digital image ends up there for some reason, and ZB is specifically designed to work with it.

Look forward to seeing more!

[Nemoriko]

funny concept :D good luck for you :tu:

[soulreaver]

Its coming along nicely..:lol:
The fingers & some joints look a bit stiff, try adjusting the adaptive skin settings like membrane curvature, Min skin to child/parent etc options to smooth out them.(I just learned:lol: )

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks soulreaver, will give that a try. :D

[dustbin1_uk]

hey thanks for the advice on that one Soulreaver! That's really made a big difference!

Could have saved me an hour or so if I had used that to begin with! :o

I guess that's why I am doing this, to learn! :D ;)

[dustbin1_uk]

Don't supose anyone knows why sometimes when I try and move a ZSpere branch, my model flips to a random location on the screen and the rotate point is way out.

I have to press the A key and flip to preview and back again to cure it! It's blooming annoying!

[hhssuu]

Hey man, funny idea for a image :-D um i think it could turn out really cool, one tiny suggestion: maybe try a couple of different camera angles/compositions cos every thing seem rather small and i think it would be better if the image puts more focus on the guys shocked expression :) coming along nicely man!

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks mate.

Indeed, I'll be making several angles to see what works well.

Just working on the sculpt of the man I am now calling Scared Sam.

Will post as soon as he is in a reasonable state. :)

[ravioli_rancher]

dustbin1_uk,

Great and ambitious concept.

I know your still very early in the sculpting, but have you considered making the human's hands as separate meshes, then attaching them as subtools and painting over the seams with the 2.5D tools. It might save you some headaches and allow for much higher polycounts / smoother sculpting.

Anyway, congratulations on a strong start. :)

[Ctrl-Z]

I know your still very early in the sculpting, but have you considered making the human's hands as separate meshes, then attaching them as subtools and painting over the seams with the 2.5D tools. It might save you some headaches and allow for much higher polycounts / smoother sculpting.I'd extend that idea to say "make the whole arm as a seperate mesh", because:

1) he's wearing a shirt, so there's no trouble covering seams, and

2) the one you already built for your monster should adapt nicely. (clone it and mirror for the other side...)

[threetails]

this is going to be a very funny one, nice idea.... i think this happend to me once...;)

[dustbin1_uk]

Cheers guys,

Good idea separating the limbs, I was already thinking about doing that with the head too. His expression is important and getting higher polycount will help that.

In fact I may also do that with the feet, I was considering giving Scared Sam sandals, just to add to the comic value.

As for recycling the ghoulish arm, well, I have since learnt a better way to make an arm than I used for the ghoulish hand and will probably use that for Scared Sam's limbs.

My only concern is making the toilet! :confused: I don't want to cheat and download a ready made one. Making it myself should be a challenge. Just have to figure it out. ;)

Anyway, will post with an image in the next couple of days.

[Marsyas]

Funny idea! I like how the arm wants a treat, hehe.

[chemkid]

dustbin1_uk - let`s exchange some toilet making-ofz hahaha!


chem!

[nightwoodwolf]

Dustbin1_uk I don***8217;t see this concept as a small hallway, good luck :D

[dustbin1_uk]

A little bit of sculpting on Sam. Not much done yet but you get the idea. :confused:

I know, I know, the legs look funny and so does the neck. :cry: I need to work on that.

The head is going to disapear and be modeled as a sub-tool.

Proportions look a bit funny, but Sam is going to have cartoon like features when he is done.

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Scared%20Sam%20V1.0.JPG

[Rory_L]

The mirror.

When your scene is finished, barring the mirror glass reflection, clone-combine all the elements of the scene except for the mirror and wall and scale the result on the X axis by minus one; mirroring the scene for real!

The reflection object will only show up in the 'mirror glass' hole, as the rest of it will be hidded behind the mirror frame and wall.

You could try sketching a few different compositions. It might be just me, but there seems to be a lot of dead space in your picture: you could pull all the required elements closer together and get a more close-up shot.

Edit: To be honest, if you go for a tighter, cropped shot you'll do away with the need for the mirror entirely. You could tell the story with just the bog; the arm and bucket; and the man's body from the knees up. You don't have to model the shoes!

Good luck!

R

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks Rory! Great advice! :tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Here is some work I have done on sculpting Sam's face. Not bad seeing as I have never done that before. Oh and I made it fom scratch using a simple poly sphere too!

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Sam%20Face%20progress%20V1.0.JPG

[dustbin1_uk]

Obviously I still need to do some work on the head. Hair I think will need to be done in GIMP (spent all my money on ZBrush so can't afford Photoshop yet;) ). Did I mention I'll only be using ZBrush and GIMP? Anyway.....

He needs hair and I'll be using poly paint to add some more skin tone to his face.

And I just need to tweak here and there to get the expression right.

I think the nose needs some work.

Anyway, I'm going back to fixing the body today and giving him some clothes, then I'll come back to the head.

I also want to start on that toilet. Still unsure how to even start on that one! :confused:
Until I come up for air..... laters! :D

[Rastaman]

Nice concept.:tu:


Sam looks really scared. :eek:
Go for it.:D

[Seavannah]

real funny and scary concept now I am afraid to go to the restroom and I can't stop laughing at myself for being scared either. can't wait to see this finished. really good modeling for someone who is new to 3d.

[dustbin1_uk]

So the head is on the body, and I have changed the proportions of the body somewhat. Still some work to do, like the arms, which still don't look right.

But I think I'll clothe him first, give him some hair and then see what needs to be done.

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Scared%20Sam%20V2.0.JPG

[dustbin1_uk]

Oh! and please excuse the poor quality of the last image. I am desperately trying to get good renders to come out, and keep skrewing up the settings.

Any advice on this would be welcome!

[dustbin1_uk]

Here is a test compose of Scared Sam, trying to see what colours would be best.
http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Scared%20Sam%20V3.0.JPG

A test long shot with some tempory trousers on him. Gives me some idea what will work and what won't.

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Scared%20Sam%20V4.0.JPG

[dustbin1_uk]

Sigh! No one seems to care about me and my thread. Though it's not surprising with so much talent in this competition, who'd care about a noob? (joking! Honestly);)

But seriously, I could do with some advice, C&C's etc..

[henrysouth]

hey dude, awesome start! you might wanna give a bit more movement in the main charicter. i know it sounds weird but if i have a problem with a movement, take a picture of it. get a pair of trousers round your knees and try and get a photo of you falling backwards to see how the movement would work. great hand tho!

[dustbin1_uk]

hahahahaha! I could just imagine my wife walking into the bedroom with me taking a picture of myself with my trousers down!

She'd say "Oh no not again!" ;)

But yeah, he has not been possed yet, but your advice is sound, I'll use a reference to work from when I do pose him.

One issue I have is that the shirt is a subtool and so will be the trousers. Any easy way to pose both of them together?

[henrysouth]

u might think about exporting them all as low poly .OBJs into 3Ds max or maya connecting them up and re exporting them into zbrush. that should give u the lines to work with immediately and give u the ability to pose the lot of it all together!

[Disco Stu]

hey dustbin i think ur pretty good for a "noob" which i am too i only started 3 months ago. i think the main problem of your character is the mouth u should go and google and find your perfect mouth and recreate it. u should always work with some photographs they help a lot when working on an human. im doing snoop dog right now and im tweaking the mouth for at least 4 hours now and i just cant get it right.
u shouldnt get frustrated when no one posts back its mostly because people just dont know that there was progress in the thread. u should post a picture ever so often so that its displayed in the thumbnail gallery bellow the top row. just keep on and ull get noticed !!!

[dustbin1_uk]

HenrySouth: Great idea! One issue though, sadly I have no 3D Studio Max or Maya, I could barely afford the price tag for ZBrush (dispite it's good value).

As it is I am having to do all touch up work with GIMP as I have no photoshop until the knew year when I have saved up for it.

Sigh! the life of the broke novice.:cry:

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks Disco,

Yeah posting my images to ZBrush Central is a good idea to get people seeing my thread and offering C&C's.

Been hosting my pics on my own site for now as I am also updating a WIP section I have there.

As for using a reference photo, your right. Google is amazing for the amount of images there. Will work on his expression and pose and let you all know.

[Rory_L]

One issue I have is that the shirt is a subtool and so will be the trousers. Any easy way to pose both of them together?
You can do this by recording brush strokes in the Stroke/Inventory menu, transposing one subtool and then changing to the other subtool without touching the screen and replaying the recorded srokes. It works for each type of transpose, but not if they're mixed together: record your Move transpositions, then copy them to the other subtool; then record the Rotate ones and copy, etc...

Cheers,

R

[dustbin1_uk]

ho man that's just what I needed.:tu: :D :tu:

Maybe multi subtool transpose could be the next feature of ZB. ;)

[henrysouth]

blimey, was just about to post that exact peice of advice. i ran across it in the tips section of 3D world magazine. bah. beat me to it. well yes. that is how u do it or even [Ctrl - 1] will replay last stroke. HAHA, good luck dustbin.

[Disco Stu]

was looking for the same thing this morning :lol:

[animastur]

Amused idea. Perhaps changing the perspective will be more interesting. ;)

[dustbin1_uk]

animastur: Thanks for the advice, Indeed the angle will be changed for a better composition

Thanks to everyone for their advice so far it's been invaluable and has made me realise how good it is here in ZBrush Central.

So for an update:

I finally got some time to do some work on this (I hate working two jobs :mad: )

So, here I have finally started the proud task of making the toilet for this scene.
First I created the basic shape sculpting a cylinder poly mesh.

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Toilet1.JPG


I then used the previous sculpt to create an alpha brush which I then used to create the toilet seat.
http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Thumbs/Toilet%20Alpha%20THUMB.JPG http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Thumbs/Toilet2%20THUMB.JPG

And here is a preview of the toilet. Need to add some hinges and a silo to it.

http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/Toilet3.JPG

[dustbin1_uk]

Here is a quick test of the toilet and the arm.

Arm%20Toilet%20Test.jpg

To be honest I'm not happy with how it's looking. I think I might go get the sketch paper and 2B pencil and rethink this through. Maybe a little creature rather than an arm..... Hmmmmmmm

EDIT:

Oh! And I know the toilet needs some hinges and some holes where you skrew the toilet to the floor. It also needs a silo and a chain/flush.

[LittleDedder]

I like the hand, but a little creature might be fun.

[Slosh]

I agree with your last thought...a creature would be more fun, but the arm itself came out great. You could change it, but it's not necessary. Great job on the toilet, and a very creative use of the alpha for the seat.

[Marsyas]

Nice toilet! That's some creative modeling. :tu:

[Dondemaker]

I've been following your post for a while, so when I saw the thumbnail I knew immediately what it was - dustbin1-uk has done his "toilet with arm"! :) . The toilet looks pretty good. A little creature might be fun but I think the arm could work just as well. If you want to go with the arm I think it needs some work and maybe that's why you're not happy with it. Try putting your arm in the same position, palm facing down with the same vertical 90° bend at the elbow - can't be done! The forearm is also very short (about the same length as the hand), whereas in a human arm it's more like twice the length. Hope this helps.
Looking forward to more
Jason

Edit - my girlfirend was just looking at me very strangely as I sat in front of my computer holding my arm above my head trying to copy your pose!! I've discovered it can be done, more or less, but the arm has a twist to it that I think is lacking in your model.

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks for your feedback guys. I think what I'll do is start to texture some of these models. As yet all of them have simply had materials and some RBG added and I think it's time to decide on a colour palette and some lighting decisions.

I also need to start thinking about composition as I screwed that up in my concept sketch by choosing a bad angle. :o

In the mean time I'll start sketching some gremlin'esk creatures and if any little critters look good, I'll decide weather to loose the arm or not.

Oh! And I almost forgot the trick or treat pumpkin bucket! Best model that soon. heh!

Then once that's all done I'll start tweaking and posing Scared Sam (and give him some decent trousers). I'm possibly going to be clothing him as if he was at a fancy dress Halloween party when he encountered the creep from the toilet.

Ha! So much to do and so little time. :):tu:

EDIT:

Dondemaker - Sorry just saw your reply as my post went up! Sorry!
That's it though! your right on the mark! the arm is not correct in posture. Thank you. And don't worry about your girlfriend looking at you funny, my wifes looked at me that way for years. You get used to it! :D

[Dondemaker]

Sorry, another edit - Another thought: as you have the arm at the moment, the shoulder and head of the monster would be just about where the narrowest part of the toilet is - maybe you should lower and enlarge the arm a bit so that it's believable that the monster's head and body are actually beneath the floor.

[dustbin1_uk]

Oh! and I think the arm looks short because it is pointing towards the camera. :confused:

EDIT:

ARRRGHH! we're posting out of sync!!!!

But again, sound advice thank you.

[-WOODY-]

That's pretty good modeling for starting out with a cylinder primitive. I also noticed that you said you had to add a "silo". Is that what we call a "tank" for the back of the toity?

I just think it's funny seeing all the different names other countries have for things and yes, we do call those toitys over here lol. Pronounced "toy-tee".

Toity is short for "toilet" which in the south is pronounced "turlet"
And yes, we laugh when we here it pronounced like that too. Since I live in the south now, I can't laugh at it anymore.

[dustbin1_uk]

Ha ha ha! I remember going to California for a holiday, I soon learnt a toilet there is called a "John".

I learnt that after asking for the "loo" as we brits sometimes do when we're not paying attention.

The worst is you call trousers "Pants". In the UK that means underwear (not boxers the other kind).

A rubber in the UK is something we rub pencil marks out with, in america it means your gonna get lucky and need a rubber to stall Darwins theories. heh! Funny what having a big sea beetween two english speaking nations can do.

[dustbin1_uk]

Some more work done on the arm, better bending and rotation of the forearm. Trick or treat bucket is done and some lighting added.

Also added some colour to the arm and some purple veins.
Still need to do some hinges and the rest of the toilet.

Forgot to post a progress of the T or T bucket, will get that done and up soon.
Zombie Toilet Test.JPG

[Slosh]

That's much more like it, Mark! The arm doesn't look so unnatural now.

[Dondemaker]

I agree with Slosh - it's looking much better.

[nightwoodwolf]

hey mark thats looking good .. just add some color variation to the texture n it will look even better, good luck

[dustbin1_uk]

Thank you slosh and Dondemaker, your advice really helped me improve this! :tu:

nightwoodwolf: Indeed I need to add some more contrast to the arm and some shading to the toilet to make it more 'used' in it's look.

I have an urgent issue that is stopping me progressing on the rest of the scene here (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=52439) <EIDT:: SOLVED NOW THANKS>

Any help on this would be REALLY kind. Thank you.

[dustbin1_uk]

Sorry I said this had been solved but it hasn't PLEASE HELP if you can, I have added some more info here (SOLVED NOW). (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=52439) :(

This is really holding me up, I have spent at least 2 hours just trying to solve this issue.

I know it's me doing something stupid, but I can't find out what!

SOLVED IT!!!! :D:tu:

[3Dean]

Try removing zapplink, then initialize zbrush. Then try and do it the standard way.

Good luck. This scene is gonna be cool.

-3Dean

[dustbin1_uk]

Ok got it, it was a setting for my UV's. A personnal thank you to Altermind for helping me out there, will get on with some more making tonight when I have recovered from this episode! :p

[Altermind]

glad to have helped... I really like the concept. looking forward to seeing the finished result :)

[fishadder]

Hey Dustbin 1_UK!

Just wanted to shout out some more support! you're entry's really taking shape and reminds me of that 80's movie Goulies!

One thing i would do is maybee turn the pumpkin slightly so you can see more of its features, just a thought?

Also Many thanks for the tips regarding polypainting! I love this site for it's creativity and all the help!

Can't believe I'm still up at this hour ZBrushing! Well actually I can, It's addictive as hell plus I'm realising I probably bit off a bit more than I could chew but I'm learning loads!

Thanks again!

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[dustbin1_uk]

Thank you fishadder, your comments mean alot to me. Glad to hear your having as much fun as I am! I think this is not really a competition but a gathering of people who love art and love fun.:D:tu:

Here is my last update for the day. Now I'm off to bed. ;)
Zombie Toilet Test 2b.JPG

[dustbin1_uk]

Actually just before I go to sleep, I want to put water in the basin, as if the arm is blocking the flush. Has anyone had experience using transparent materials?

[Marsyas]

I like the wood lid and porcelain! Nice materials.

I think for a transparent water effect you'd have to use multiple layers and turn off 'flatten layers' in the render options in order to use the transparency controls in zmaterials.

[Blaine91555]

Lookin good! I like the wood texture. I have toilet seat like that at home.

[dustbin1_uk]

Ok need a little help, I VERY QUICKLY made these composition shots. And I am REALLY struggling to find the right angle for this.

Any help with this would be welcome.

[fishadder]

What about a higher camera angle to highten the horror like from up in the corner of the room. I initially was gonna say either the one from slightly behind the victim so you share looking at the monster or the one slightly behind the beastie so you can see the shock on the guys face but then read your post about flooding the room and thought that would look great from a higher angle, with reflectiona!
you might have to show a bit more of whats in the toilet that way but you could just have the arm coming out of murky water you can't see through - I love the Jelly Bean material for shiny yet opaque thick gloop! I have no idea how you would flood the whole floor though but GOOD LUCK!!!

:)
Fishadder

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks Fishadder, the original concept drawing I did was taken from a higher angle. The trouble I found was that the arm gets almost swallowed by the rest of the scene. I think I might go with a shot from behind Scared Sam at a slight angle so you can see the arm reaching out of the toilet towards him and not loose detail on it, similar to the last shot, but higher up.

I am getting pressured for time now. I already work two jobs and I want to spend as much time on this a possible, but I am beginning to get this sinking feeling about finishing on time.

It's not helped by the fact that I'm gonna have to do allot more work on Sam himself. After studying the face and body I'm not happy to use the model I already made and will need to rethink, QUICKLY!!

It's a shame, but even if I pass the deadline I'll submit what I can and finish the rest just for fun.

Sigh, I wish I had a quieter life sometimes.:cry:

EDIT:

Oh yeah, thanks for the idea of using 'dirty water'. I have experimented with the jelly bean material before and think it's a good choice. Hmmmmmm, decisions, decisions. Where's that damn time machiene when I need it. ;)

[Rory_L]

I'd go with something like composition 2, but with the man's left hand raised towards the monster, in a "No! No: get it back!" kind of gesture. With this one, you get the monster's arm in full frame and a clear view of the man's fearful face.


Good luck!

R

[Marsyas]

I'd say it's a tough call between 2 and 4. When I first saw the thumbnails and what they were depicting I was imagining something like the last shot, but with more perspective and a bit more to the side (so you could at least see a bit of the side of his face and his expression).

[dustbin1_uk]

Well it's been a tough couple of days for me, I had a major confidence crises and thought I was just looking foolish entering the competition up against some of the talent I've seen here.

But then I knuckled down tonight and rethought a few things through and remembered that most people here are very experienced 3d designers and I'm brand new to all things 3D. I looked at my work and the original concept and decided to give it one last go.

So here is the latest update. I am so glad I didn’t quit, but I cam so close. I was letting the other amazing artists here intimidate me and I was letting the deadline get to me. But after my progress tonight I feel better.

So... here it is, Sam is no were near finished (and I know his fingers are broken, poor bugger), but you get the idea.

Sam Redesign.JPG

[fishadder]

Hey Dustbin1_UK!

Don't you dare quit! He looks much better/funnier now he's older and balder!
and this is a great way to learn more plus you really supported and helped me the past few weeks which I apreciate a lot!

It's hard not to feel a little bit down because there's some really stunning art going on but that's healthy and inspiring and I nearly quit my day job when I followed some of your links to those concept artists and was BLOWN AWAY by the digital illustration on display! lol!

Anyway I think we're relative newbies to this game and have families and other work too so this should first and foremost be an enjoyable sideline!

Don't stress the finish line is in sight Arrrgh!!! can I borrow your time machine and most important -

Have Fun and Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[Marsyas]

Looking good! :tu:

Glad you decided to persist. I try to focus on accomplishing what I set out to do instead of 'competing'. I've learnt so much so far and I'm sure you have to.

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks guys, your words have given me the steel to get this finished. I started this to learn about how to complete a project like this and I have no regrets now, it's just been a long week (personal problems) and I really thought I was going to have to stop just because of time. But I have managed to get some time put aside and I am back in and having fun again. :D:tu:

THANK YOU for your encouragement and kind words.

So!….. enough whining and back on with it! ;)

[Rory_L]

I want to add my voice to the "Keep at it!" cry! I don't believe that polished execution is the only critrion for winning art. Your idea is very strong and funny; and the way you've made the models demonstrates some of the new features of ZB3, like that retopologizing of the cow.

I have no expectations of winning, but entered to challenge myself: if I complete my image in time and to a standard I'm happy with I will consider that a 'win'.

And bald is a good design choice!:D

R

[Altermind]

keep going man ! :) I love the expression on his face lol

[dustbin1_uk]

Here is a VERY quick compose of the models. Gives me plenty of ideas. Lighting needs alot of work. The saturation on the Treak or Treat bucket is too high.

Not done much poly painting on sam yet. And I still need to add a silo, flush.....etc to the toilet, not to mention the rest of the scene, but that will be simple enough in GIMP post production.

C&C's welcome!

Cheers, Dusty. :D:tu:

Quick Test.JPG

[nightwoodwolf]

i like how he is shocked seeing the hand coming out of the toilet, good work :tu:

[fizzy]

Ha ha, I love the expressions you've got on his face. Such a nice straight forward scene that works so well.


Well done

Pete B

[Harmonic]

Hey its starting to come together. :tu: I was thinking you may be able to get a better composition if you place the camera kind of behind either the toilet or the fallen man, and just a bit to side and a bit up.

[dustbin1_uk]

Cheers Guys! As usuall your comments spur me on to get this finished and done as well as I can in the time I have.

Does the following look a better angle?

Test Comp.JPG

[Plakkie]

Well done on the pants Mark, and well done on the whole setup so far! You nailed his facial expression, so it would be a shame if you didn't show that. Maybe you could position it so that we:
1. Can see the fright on the man's face and how he hasn't had time to pull up his pants. AND:
2. Look right into the frightfull pumpkin coming out of the toilet.
Maybe you can achieve this by turning the man's face away from the horrible sight: if he looks a bit to the side, but his eye's look right at the pumpkin, you could get more room to show it all. Plus you get nice conflict behaveour in your character: trying to get away from the terror, but at the same time unable to look away.
To my eyes you could lower the left arm a bit, that way he would really use it as shield agains the toilet-horror.
These ofcourse are just my inexpert observations. Do with them what you will! :)

It's a really fun concept, keep working on it; it will be worth it!

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks Plakkie, good advice, as a result I think this is better:

better or not.JPG

[Plakkie]

Yeah, that's it! Nice one Mark! When he's posed like this his weight would be on his right arm, so maybe it should rest firmly on the ground, carrying the weight of the upper body? Trying the pose out yourself (with or without pants :lol: ) may help.

[Slosh]

Much, much better on the last pose, Mark. Glad you aren't quitting, because I've not seen more effort from anyone compared to what you are putting into it. And just so you know, I came close to quitting as well...I've had work all week and haven't done diddly on my project since Sunday. I can't get the lighting and shadows the way I want in ZBrush and have considered using another app for rendering, but we have a week still and no one should be giving up.

[dustbin1_uk]

Awwwww cheers guys. :o :):tu:

Now I stopped worrying about the deadline and my own skills and just have fun, I'm really enjoying myself.

Hit a slight hurdle though, I have never made a background before. Trying to use a shoe box set (floor and two walls) and then...... mental block, just don't know what to do next. Been trying hard to get the background to fit the composition I have chosen. Can sort of do that, I just don't know what to put on it.

I want to keep the background simple and out of focus so as not to interfere with the main models. but a bathroom has stuff in it. Was thinking of having a dark room with light coming from a door to hallway. trouble with that, how to get the lighting right.

Hmmmmmmmmm, what to do, what to do?

[Ctrl-Z]

I'd say you need a floor (probably tiles, but try to keep the edges subtle) and two walls. Hang a towel and a washcloth off of the far wall, and we'll understand there's a shower just off camera. You don't need much more than that. Toilet's in the corner. Okay.

Or forget the towels, and the far wall can be a bathtub with shower curtain. Just don't make it a distracting curtain.

In fact...


Quick tutorial -- how to poorly fake a "depth of field" effect:

Bring your image into Photoshop.
Flatten everything to one layer if for some reason there's more than one.
Duplicate that layer.
Apply a gaussian blur to the top layer, at a high enough value to lose all your details.
go into Hue/Saturation and make the image more dull and grey by lowering the saturation by maybe 10. Dont overdo this.
In the layers palette, hit the "create mask" button (it looks like a dotted circle)
Select your gradient tool (it might be hiding under the paint bucket).
Hit 'd' to switch your selected colors to default -- black in the foreground, white in the background.
Look to the top of your screen and make sure the selected gradient type is "Radial". Also make sure the sample gradient is showing black and white (not fading in from transparent, or any other set of colors).
Draw a line from the point of greatest importance on your canvas towards the furthest edge away from it.
What you've just done is selectively hide parts of the blurry dull picture to reveal parts of the sharp vibrant one. Your image now forces the eye towards that point, albeit bluntly. Experiment with different lines. It's a fun toy.
Lower the overall opacity of that layer by probably half, 'cause you're too close to your new toy and are probably overdoing it. ;)
It's actually less awful than it sounds. And once you get the hang of it, you can build towards downright reasonable variations. Like "extracting a depth map from your scene and using that in your mask channel instead of the radial gradient." (some level tweaks required)

Point being, you don't have to worry too much about your background. Just throw some raw material down and treat it as such.

[Ctrl-Z]

On a different note, I'd like to see a shot where the lid is up completely, but the seat itself is only propped up as far as the monster's arm pushes it.

Not saying it's a good idea. Just one I'm curious about.

[Marsyas]

That last pose setup is nice! Definitely want his expression showing.

[dustbin1_uk]

EVERYONE: Thank you all, AGAIN! You're all very kind and helpful.

Wow thanks Ctl-Z I'll try that out! Sadly I don't have Photoshop, but after checking what I know and reading the manual a bit I've found that I can what you say in GIMP.

For anyone who cannot afford photoshop, rather than going and spending money on a 'half way there' application, save your moeny and get GIMP while your waiting to afford PS. It's free and VERY good for the money ;). Although it aint PS CS3, it replicates alot of features on PS nicely.

Anyhow will give an update as soon as I have one. Again thanks CTL-Z

SO!..... Head down and on with work!

[nightwoodwolf]

the last pose is much better Mark ... good work and yes you need a background even simple one would be fine .. work on it no time left .. id like to see your final image, good luck :tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Thanks nightwolf, your work is also good. Time is something I feel better about now, still alot to do but slowly getting there. ;)

Ctl-Z, WOW! thanks for helping me with that technique, GIMP seemed to pull it off well.

Here is a test render, some background is needed (but not as much as I was stressing about) and I need to lower the Blur a bit more, but it's getting there.

I also badly need to move everything to the left a bit more, as it seems to be falling off to the right.

I also just realised that I never gave this pic a name. So here it is:

Test Render2.jpg

[Plakkie]

You are doing great Mark, exploring new techniques and new software (a new version of Gimp has just been released), and getting your fun back! :tu: :tu:
A simple floor and background will put everything together, just try something and see how it looks!

[3Dean]

Looks great! It's spelt ghoulish with an H.

[dustbin1_uk]

LOL I realised jut now that was spelt wrong just now, came to see if anyone had noticed and yes they had! :rolleyes: :o

oh well. :D

EDIT: corrected the spelling mistake, That'll confuse people. ;)

[threetails]

looking good, will there be a floor and wall details coming as well, this might help to frame your work and you can play with the cast shadows to add some atmosphere.

[dustbin1_uk]

Sorry! yes there will be some background details added! the last image was just a quick test in GIMP to see if I could make this scene with a bit of polish.

Got a few ideas, will keep you posted.

[sirquadalot]

It would be cool if you could add some water flowing out of the toilet and onto the ground! I love the arm reaching out!:D

[Rory_L]

Or just a drip or two hanging off the pumpkin?

Shaping up nicely!

R

[dustbin1_uk]

EDIT: Removed the large rant I just made about my available time. ;)

TO CONTINUE:

I would indeed like to add water flowing over the rim of this toilet, it was always my intention to do so. I had that and so many other things I wanted to add to this picture, but I am fast running out of time.

As I now only have about an afternoon free to finish this (not included foregoing sleep) I think I may end up submitting a half finished (if that) entry.

So what I think I'll do, in the very likely event I don't get this finished, I'll submit what I can to the final judging (I wasn't expecting to come even close to winning anyhow, it was all for fun), and then finish the image in good time for everyone to see what my intended subission was going to be.

I hate working two jobs for poor money, but nothing I can do about it, so I'll just have to cope. ;)

[Rory_L]

I think you are right to concentrate on refining the elements already in the scene and not adding extras at this stage. Everything you needed to tell the story is now in place, so you can relax and just polish the image till it glows! :D

You could take a moment to look at materials and lighting to get the best render from your models.

Cheers,

R

[dustbin1_uk]

Ha ha ha ha! I got an unexpected 3 hours to do some more modeling on this! Hehehe I've been busy!

Rory_L: Indeed a large amount of my time on this has been spent on lighting and effects. I will continure in that vein from now on, but I am happy to say I have had some extra time to model some more too! YAY!

Ok so the last 3 hours have been spent doing the following:

A_Floor_Texture.jpg

Here is a texture I used to create the floor. This was done in GIMP. I then created a 3D Plane in ZBrush, applied the texture, then upped the subdivisions 3 levels, then created an alpha in GIMP using path painting and used that as a stencil to create grout lines on the floor.

A_Floor_Alpha.jpg

A_Floor.jpg
A Quickime file to show the floor is here (http://www.dustyghost.com/images/WIP/LATEST/Floor.mov) (27.1mb, sorry, forgot to shrink it!)

Updated the toilet. Added a silo and also a handle that I created with an alpha.

B_Toilet_handle.jpg

Also increased the size of the arm and bucket to make it more impossing.

B_Toilet Arm New.jpg

Created a sink by unsing the toilet shape and stretching it up.Then created taps using ZSpheres.

C_Tap_Spheres.jpg
C_Sink.jpg

Here is a shower I created for the corner of the scene. The curtains are dark so it stays in the background. The top won't be seen so no need for a rail.

d_shower.jpg

Here is a toilet roll on a holder.

E_Toilet Roll_ALPHA.JPG
E_Toilet Roll_ALPHA2.JPG
E_Toilet Roll.JPG


I used the first alpha to create a mesh the size of the roll, I then used the second alpha to create a pattern on the end of the roll. Used ZSpheres to create the holder bar and another alpha to created the back plate.I then added a 3D Plane for the peace of paper on the front.


SO!!!! As you can see the last 3 hours were well spent, I'm so happy as I have nearly all I need for models now and this means the next time I work on this it's for the FINAL RENDER!! WOO HOO!!! :D:tu:

[Lucky_1]

Looking good so far dustbin1_uk,
wonder how the final comp will be...

Good luck

Lucky

[fishadder]

Very productive 3 hours there my friend! all those elements will really enhance the scene! Can't waite to see it with lighting etc.
Loks like you've been getting farther than me today!

I've been struggling with a foreground plane! I can't seem to get a decent degree of detail over the whole area!
any tips?
how did you create your floor?

Nearly there!
Keep on Z-ing!
:)
Fishadder

[Dondemaker]

A very productive 3 hours indeed. I too am looking froward to see your finished work.
Cheers
Jason

[Slosh]

First, let me say great job on all the work you are putting into this.

Isn't it odd that we all make our models and that's great, but to actually do a full, finished scene one really gets an idea of the amount of work involved. There are not very many "full scenes" posted on ZBrushCentral. I, for one, have really learned alot this last month. I can see that you have, as well. I can see the growth in you from day one to now. And your participation with all the other entrants is commendable. You're a good guy, and I now count you as one of the people whose posts I will look at when I see your name appear.

[-WOODY-]

I agree and it's coming along pretty good. Y'know, it's all those little tid-bits and fixtures that seem to take the longest to model.

Especially if the guy in that scene is married you would have to model a truck load of hair spray cans, makeup, weird shaped soaps that look like sea shells that you don't know whether to wash with or put out in the garden, blow dryers, curling irons, etc.

[sirquadalot]

Looking good! I love the toilet paper role!

[UncleZ]

he he he funny concept and i like the toilet models too.

[Rory_L]

Fabulous! What a creative 3 hours and inspired alpha-ing.

R

[fizzy]

You've got a lot done since I last saw this ost.

I have to say I think this one is one of the funniest ideas.

Nice work mate, looking forward to the final piece.


Pete B

[shavedmonkey]

Nice work dustbin, powering down the final straight ;)

[Plakkie]

Yeah! Zbrush Toiletpaper!! :tu: :lol:

What a rush Mark, now make the finish!

[nightwoodwolf]

i am really waiting for your final image Mark ... great progress :tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Sorry for not replying sooner guys, been really busy trying to get this done.

Lucky_1 : Thank you, I hope this post answers that

Fishadder: Thank you too. Your encouragement has given me the steel I needed to get this done, THANK YOU PAL!! I mean that!!! When this is over, I’ll give a tutorial on how I made the floor from start to finish and post you a PM to give you a heads up. In the mean time I hope the attached images give you some idea of what I did. Basically I used document layers rather than making on big model and had the floor on one layer, then I put the toilet in, then Sam and finally all the other objects. Hopefully the picture will make is clearer

Dondemaker: Thank you, you also have helped greatly along the way. Cheers!

Slosh: Thank you so much! That was very kind of you to say so, I too will be looking for Slosh’s work in future, as your good fella your self.

WOODY: Thanks woody! For now this guy is single as I am simply running out of time. But your right, all the models and details needed for a whole scene is a daunting task. I just wish I had time to make more models, but that’s the things with deadlines, eh?

Sirquadalot: Thank you very much.

UncleZ: Thank you, glad you like them.

Rory_L: Cheers! Alphas are great! They are largely the reason I got so much done in such a short time.

Fizzy: Thank you! Almost there now!

Plakkie: Thanks man, you also deserve credit for helping me out along the way. Cheers!

Nightwoodwolf: Thank you, your entry is great, and I hope this post will show you what my intention was all along.

And for anyone else I might have forgotten, THANK YOU!!!!

Anyhow the following shows my progress towards the final render:

So I tried out the floor and was amazed at the 2.5D tools in ZBrush, I had no idea just how much you can do with them, the background in tempory in this image and was painted with single layer brush:
Test Render3.JPG

Once I was happy that I was going to be able to get this all together, I started again. First I got the models on the canvas using document layers:

Test Render4.JPG

I then painted in the walls using a new document layer and then used the single layer brush, with bland material and colour, I then used ZAppLink to GIMP to tone the floor down a bit, paint some srtipes on the back, brighten up sam and the toilet, darken back the sink and a few other things that escape me:

Test Render5.JPG

And then a final render, before I export the document out, and then add the polish in GIMP, thank you to CTL_Z for teaching me gaussian blur method, I used it very gently twic in this image, once for the background from the sink and back to the futhest edge, to give depth to the image, and also on sam and the toilet only (using mask layers extracted from the ZAppLink file) to draw the eye to the middle, I then used the drop shadow functions in GIMP to add a frame and some text. The text was placed using the path and rotation tools in GIMP.

Any how, I hope you like it, I'll be submitting the final larger picture to the judges this afternoon if I don't get time to do any more to it:

Final Image.JPG

[fizzy]

Hey it's great to see this scene in the enviroment. One thing though, I reckon you should give those tiles some reflection and less bump.


Pete B

[Disco Stu]

nice one dustbin u finished it!

[dustbin1_uk]

Almost! just fixing the tiles on the floor. Nearly there though!

[Rory_L]

Wow, cool! Now turn on shadows and ground everything on the floor.

R

[Rastaman]

Very well done, Mark. :tu:

Great idea and good work.
As Rory said, you need some more shadows to connect all elements together. That will enhance the result further. ;)
The bluring of the back gives a good DOF-effect.
Nice work.
Congretulations.:tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Is this better?

Final Image UPLOAD.JPG

[fizzy]

YES! Although still no reflection in the tiles :( But yeah that's a lot better.

Pete B

[kobayashi]

best tile***65286; man's Pants!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[dustbin1_uk]

I tried really hard to get some reflection in tiles. Trouble is this is all post production now, no more rendering in ZBRush and I'm sure GIMP has a way to make reaflection, but I am unsure how to do it :cry:.

[dustbin1_uk]

Someone online has just shown me how to do reflections in GIMP. Will try it out, if it looks any better will let you know!

Woo Hoo this is fun! :D

[dustbin1_uk]

How's this?
Final Image UPLOAD.JPG

[Harmonic]

Very Nice! You did a great job on the background :tu:

[marcus_civis]

That's some impressive porcelain! ;) Great work, and good luck!

[Plakkie]

woohoo! Shadows! :D :tu:

[Rory_L]

Very well done!

I bet his cheeks are cold ;)

R

[LittleDedder]

Great work on getting the image done

[dustbin1_uk]

Is that it then, we all happy with Ghoulish Toilet Humour? You sure....... I'm about to send the zip in an email.... sure?...... I pressing..... pressing the butonnnnnnnnn........ it's going...... going..... GONE!

.......PHEW!!! :rolleyes:

So! Here we are, at the end of the contest, our threads get locked tomorrow and we all can relax from all the amazing excitement. This has been the most fun for me and I achieved what I wanted to do. I have learnt soooooooo much about ZBrush, post production, 3D and digital art in general over the last four weeks.

I wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who helped me out over the last few weeks. I would like to name you all but there too many nice people to mention all at once. So THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP, AND PUTTING UP WITH ME!!! ;)

I wish you all the best of luck and thank you all for making it difficult to choose a winning entry with so many fantastic images being made.

See you all on the other side.

Mark (Dusty) Johnson :D:tu:

[fizzy]

Well done mate, you have a great image there and something to be really proud of. Toliet humour, always a winner :)

Pete B

[Marsyas]

Great work! That bathroom turned out really nice. :tu:

[JUPITER]

;) Nice work, very funny GL

[-WOODY-]

Wow, you just finished by the skin of your teeth lol. Maybe for the next challenge we can ALL get started a little earlier. I know I learned my lesson.

Your final render looks best. Shadows always help to bring out depth and enhance the image.

Good luck.

[ravioli_rancher]

dustbin1_UK,

In the US, we have a television personality who calls himself Dr. Phil. He invites people onto his show to tell him about their life dramas, then yells at them. His marketing team has managed to plaster his image on everything from buses, to restaurants, to grocery store displays. Perhaps they're even genetically altering melons to resemble his facial structure. I don't know if his celebrity pollution has reached your landmass yet.

Anyway, your frightened character on the floor captures his appearence and facial expression succinctly, which, whether intentional or accidental, makes this piece that much funnier. :tu: And scarier. :evil:

Congratulations on finishing, thank you for all the time you spent on making this contest work, and hope to see you place in the top three. :cool: :)

[Plakkie]

Love your enthousiasm man, you've learned a lot and it shows. By improving yourself you're already a winner. :tu: :tu:

[cinnamonstix]

If he had any hair on the top of his head, it'd be standing straight up! Too funny!! His expression is priceless.
The texturing is great too. I almost expect to see my reflection on the porcelin through my monitor. Er--the sink, not toilet, haha.
Seems like you had so much fun and learned allot! You give me eagerness to learn and motivation.
Good luck to you!!

[shavedmonkey]

Backgrounds come up really well Mark, Armitage shanks would be proud! ;)

Great stuff, nice finished piece, good luck

[fishadder]

Well Done mate!

It looks really good and has a very unique style and quirky feel concidering the subject it could have went a darker route but you managed to keep it silly AND Scary!

and To think you nearly quit! lol!

I actually feel quite emotional like one of them runners crossing the line and just slumping to the ground!

'Where's our tinfoil capes!'

Anyway least we can all return to normality until next time of course!

Once again great work!
Thanks for all your support too you really have been a trooper round these parts and i hope to see more good stuff from you in the future!

Oh by the way thanks for the tips on zipping stuff but i just couldn't get it to work so i sent a 2meg image which they seem to have got ok which should be fine.

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[soulreaver]

:tu: :tu: :tu: WELL DONE mate, really glad to see ur concept finished superbly.....:) :)

[nightwoodwolf]

hey Mark i am really glad to see your final image .. it looks great and funny, good luck :tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Thank you everyone! This has been a HOOT!

So, by the time I get up in the morning this should all be locked down. So I just wanted to say a final:


WELL DONE EVERYONE!


&

GOOD LUCK!!


:tu: :tu: :D :tu: :tu:

[Dondemaker]

Thanks Mark and, above all, well done and good luck yourself. Your background environment looks great and you could almost say you finished early!! :tu:
Jason

[nightwoodwolf]

I've noticed your communication with other artists during the contest and how you were providing input and supporting them too, you have an artist's spirit and a very good team work spirit and that is very important.

good luck next contest :)

[fizzy]

I'd like to second that,
Mark's unrelenting support has been the most inspiring thing I've taken away from this competition.

Pete B