Scared Silly Entry by Thao Le

[ThaoLe]

Tiltle: Little Trouble in Halloween Night.

Story: Halloween night, the copes rised except one. He got stuck under his own place. Trouble is still there when his buddies tried to help him. Poor that guy, he won't able to scare anyone in his big night: Halloween Night.

Process: Everyone knows Zbrush is one of the best software to create highly detail models. No doubt about that and no need to be aproved. :)
I want to push as far as I can using subtools and combine two powerful aspects of Zbush: 3D and 2.5D to create this work. The entire process will be done in zbrush (with the exception of photshop when I used zaplink).

I will post the details of the process to show how I created this one down the road. I need your helps to finish this one well.

Thank you
Thao Le

Here is the concept:

littletroubleinhalloweenight.jpg

[3Dean]

Hah, I like the idea. Sort of like mine :)

[Harmonic]

:lol: Funny Idea! Great Sketch! :tu:

[piz]

Great Concept! :D :tu:

[fizzy]

Yeah great idea. It would be funny to see one of the Zombies with the guys arm in his hands. As if he's pulled to hard to get him out and pulled his arm off.

Pete B

[ThaoLe]

Thanks everyone :)
Here is what I have so far.

I am thinking about this composition. I found that, this will be a overall shot and its night time. So the details of the models won't able to be seen much. (and again, I don't want to spend time to create details that won't be seen in the final shot. As i mention early, Zbrush is a great tool for that. I want to push to the other aspects of zbrush: Subtools, Lighting, Texturing, and ofcourse.. the composition).
Thanks for your C&C
Thao Le

process1.jpg

[piz]

Very cool project ThaoLe!

[LittleDedder]

Great work

[ThaoLe]

added details to the ground and more evironment elements.
also i just did a quick test on color map.
Lots of works need to be done.
update comming up.
Thao Le

process2.jpg

[Sebcesoir]

Cute little scene!

[fishadder]

loving all the texture work and the overall 'creepy' vibe

keep on Z-ing
fishadder
:)

[skulll_monster]

wow...its great ! interesting poses...but 2 of them look same (in pose,left and right)... !...keep it up

[ThaoLe]

here is one of the Zombie that i detailed up. I didn't want to go crazy about the details here since the final finish won't able to see much this close. Also it will be at night.
Thao Le
zombie_face.jpg zombie_face2.jpg

[reminator]

I didn't want to go crazy about the details here too late :)
awesome work

[ThaoLe]

its too late.. i am so tired.. Here is one of his buddy.
Thanks for your comments
ThaoLe.

zombiesStanding.jpg

zombiesStanding_Closeup.jpg

[willbrown1]

I'm enjoying this! Keep going! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[cannedmushrooms]

Love your Zombies!!!I love the twist you put on them. Very cool

[ThaoLe]

Here is his close buddy who is trying to pull him out.


zombies11.jpg

zombies12.jpg

zombies13.jpg

[piz]

Scary ... eh eh eh! Very good update ThaoLe. :tu:

[Plakkie]

Oh man, it's so much fun seeing those decomposing corpses struggle! I'm just waiting for an arm to fall off. :lol: :tu: :tu:

[fizzy]

This is looking amazing. Reminds me of those games workshop minatures.

[ThaoLe]

I had so much fun worked on this piece.. I didnt' know zbrush can do this kind of achitect structures this well...you can created chips from the walls or bevels from the edges so fast.
Zb again.. difines an awsome software.
Thao Le


graveprocess.jpg

[Disco Stu]

awesome work

[dustbin1_uk]

I never did stand a chance of winning this competition, but with work like this I'm happy to loose. ;)

Well done so far!

[Plakkie]

When the competition frenzy is over it would be great to see a tutorial about how you make those stone cracks etc. They really look great and I'd love to know/see how you make them. :tu:

[Atwooki]

Excellent work ThaoLe :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

Love the pained and tortured expressions - the poses are great also :)

Chris

[AngelJ]

ThaoLe,

Very very impressive and interesting approach, appreciate you showing this in steps, more you show the better for everyone! Amazing concept to final visualization. Soooo many good entrys again its just so hard to express the appreciation for them all but this among the rest are why many of us love coming to zbrushcentral!! :tu: :tu:

[ThaoLe]

just updated the tree.

treeProcess.jpg



And here are different angles of the final version.


Treefinal.jpg

[LittleDedder]

good looking tree

[-WOODY-]

Yeah, that's a darn good job on that tree.

All of this looks like a LOT of work, but it's looking cool.

Good luck

[garyhanna]

Looking great. Love the ghouls...you can almost smell the rot!


-Gary



Gary's Scared Silly Entry (showthread.php?t=52227)

[fabritz]

Very nice. I really like the tree, it came out nice. Can't wait to see it done.

[ThaoLe]

Thank you very much everyone.
Here is the color pass on one of the zombie.

Zombiecolor_close.jpg

Zombiecolor.jpg

[alexleia]

really nice!

Alex Oliver

[Buckie]

This is fab, good work...

[AdamBolton]

great zombie emotion! :eek:

`Adam

[piz]

Very Scary... as the Theme must be! :cool: :tu:

[Marsyas]

Cool stuff! I like how you sculpted out the whole scene and the grave, especially.

[ThaoLe]

Here is the final (i think) color pass for the zombie. I have so much fun with this. Zbush is awsome. so much i have learned from doing this.
Hope you like
Thao Le

closeshot.jpg

closeshot2.jpg

closeshot4.jpg

closeshot3.jpg

[ThaoLe]

both.jpg

both2.jpg

both4.jpg

[markkens]

That's nasssttyyy!!!

In a good way. :D

[Plakkie]

Love the stylized shader!!

[jamoka]

wonderful! congrats!

[alonso varela]

wow!... really good in diferent ways, congrats!

:tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Wow! :eek:

[KOSOVA]

Zombies are looking realy good. Great texture too.

[Remib]

really impressive, it's wonderful :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Malleable man]

I have to admit, while the scene was very rich with detail this entry just didnt do it for me.

Now that you have started texturing, it has totally made me reexamine this thread. The textures really make this come alive or should I say dead.

The scene could be right out of the movie "Army of darkness".

Great work!

Regards, James. :tu:

[ThaoLe]

just a quick update on the color pass of the graves and other zombie.


graverenderall.jpg

[Sebcesoir]

Waw... SUperb texturing on the tombe man...
Great job....:tu: :tu: :tu:

[threetails]

love those tomb stones. looking forward to the final on this, very cool.

[WoL_]

Now I cannot sleep!!! (ok maybe if I cannot sleep I can play with ZB :p )

[ThaoLe]

Thanks guys..

Here are the tools I created to set dressing my set later using 2.5 D feature of Zbrush.
As I mentioned before, I want to push as far as i can to use zbrush new feature: subtool.
The main tool I have right now that included zombies, graves, trees, ground has 27 subtools which is alot. Suprisingly, zb handle it very well. I don't know the total amount of polly in this tool but i guess there are alot of poly in here because each subtool I cranked up to 7 or 8 subdiv...
I want to see if Zbrush not just the tool to model detail of monster but can do other things like the other sofwares can do such as maya, or max as well. That why I mostly built my set out of everything included details monster, and architectures as well as natures tree, grass, leaves.
quick up date.
Thao Le


PileofleaveProcess.jpg

[ThaoLe]

Grassprocess.jpg

[stumpf]

Great work, I can't wait to see the final.

Cheers

Ralf Stumpf

[Plakkie]

Wow, wow and: wow!

Seems like you are exploring whole new area's of Zbrush here. Those tombstones are totally what they should be. The leaves and grass have a great atmos to them. A whole scene inside one tool; would be great if Zbrush could pull it of.
Here's hoping you will find time and energy later to show us some of these big steps you take in detail. Those tombstones alone could teach me a ton on texturing...
:tu: :tu: :tu: (I feel a fourth thumb coming on when you will post the big finish...)

[Intervain]

awesome job on the leaves! Wow I'm impressed with what you can achieve in such a simple way :tu:

[threetails]

those new elements are looking great, the leaf work is outstanding.

[Blaine91555]

I love all those details :tu: :tu: .... and whats not to love about walkin dead people :D

[ThaoLe]

Finally I put them together. I tried different angles to see which one i will use for the final shot.
Here are the shot without color painting. which one do you guys like the most?
Thanks
Thao Le

anothernewangle_BW.jpg

closeshot_bw.jpg

Comsecond_BWLighting.jpg

newangle_BW.jpg

[cinnamonstix]

I like the last two the best but wish you could see the graveyard gate/fence in the scene like the second from top has.

Bottom two just really pops out. I would pick the very bottom one if the zombe standing by the tree and grave was in it...maybe standing by the grave with the cross on it. He's great. Well, the entire scene is!

Good luck!!

[LittleDedder]

I like 1 and 4

[mekas]

nice job m8 :)

[AngelJ]

Thao Le,

In order of the ones I think stand out the best and center on the theme better would be:

3) Like the use of elements and space which helps center on the main image/theme of the composition. Only thought would be maybe a standing zombie toward the left bottom corner in the foreground would help add more appeal. Could either be fully standing moving toward or near the others to help his friends. Still as is its my favorite!

4) Does somewhat what 3 does but the angle view of the back of the sarcophagus isn't as visually interesting as the view 3 gives.

1) Looks ok, has less elements though stays true to the theme good. Prefer the other two above more so.

Can't wait to see the end result of the final image!! :tu: :tu:

[Blaine91555]

This is looking great. Nice work.

[Dondemaker]

Hi Thao Le, great post! My preference (like AngelJ) is definitely for #3 followed by #4.
#3 has the most interesting composition. It has a whole lot of diagonal lines running through it that lead the eye in. I have taken the liberty of drawing on your image to show what I mean. I also like the Zombie in the foreground climbing out of the earth and I think there is more movement in the group - this angle gives more of a feeling of pulling to get the trapped zombie out.
In #4 I like the shape of the tree and the zombie on the right, but perhaps too much so - maybe they steal interest away from your main group.
Whichever you go for, you are working towards a great final piece.
Jason

ThaoLeComp.jpg

[lachd]

Great work. I agree with the others on scene 3. However it seems a little strange where the ground seems to drop away in the background. Maybe some additional elements back there to break it up. Say an old fence and half open gate that the zombie is walking through.

Cant wait to see the finshed product.

[AngelJ]

Dondemaker references to support number 3 are pretty spot on, definitely agree. My personal out look is if you can take the overall image make the positive space a black silhouette and the back ground negative space image leave white and it looks interesting then you got a solid composition!! Soo....


PICK NUMBER 3 M'LORD!! :tu: :tu: (yes its a shrek reference);)

[julien n]

Number 4, because i like the importance of the tree, and i got the impression to be into the scene.
I really enjoy the tombstone in first plane in the 3rd image, if you can do the same thing in the 4th image It will be great. maybe on the left.

Please excuse my english.

great job.


One more thing, The shadows in the 3 image are really good, if you can get the same in the 4th image it's nice. :)

[stumpf]

Hello, great work so far.
I would choose #4 but with the gate in the back left side. And maybe you want
crop some of the top and the left side (more like a classic 70mm movie format)

Cheers

Ralf Stumpf

[fizzy]

I actually like 2 but needs to be brought into the action a bit more.

I just like the way you can see the other two Zombie leaving in the background.

Pete B

[shavedmonkey]

This is looking :tu: :tu: :tu:

All textures look very good, looking forward to the final piece ;)

[alonso varela]

really good work, I like so much the realistic proportions! Congrats!


;)

[ThaoLe]

I just want to say thank you very much to your imput everyone. That is very helpful to me when I finish up the final.

After thinking for a while I have decided to try out the other direction. You guys please tell me what you think. The reason I want to try out this new composition because i always have a feeling that the original concept I have lacks of silliness. I want to add more silliness on my final composition. So here we go. Please tell me what you guys think. I am very thankful for your imput now.

This one again proves to me that Zbrush is an awsome software. Everyone who works in cg industry know that we have to make changes constanstly due to boss, customer, clients.. and sometime we have to do it fast. Just like my situation now, I have to do it fast. I stayed up late last night and here what i have.
Ps: Transpose tool is an awsome tool in zbrush. Think about this if I want to change the pose on my model which already textured and detailed. With Max or maya, I have to deal with alot of work. But with zbrush, all i need is 20 minutes of work!!! I personal prefer this new one. it makes me laugh and i like it. I called it " Little Fun on Haunted Hill"
Thank you
Thao Le


test.jpg

[ThaoLe]

No down about zbrush can create awsome details. For the final shot, this zombie doesnt' show this close. The tool i have right now has 6 subtools and alot of polygons. work flow is awsome.

Here is the suicided zombie.

Thank you
Thao Le

closeshot.jpg

[AngelJ]

Thao Le,

I agree Zbrush rocks, and its great to see your striving to get more from yourself so your happy with finding the elements and composition that you feel works for your entry. However, I dunno about it compared to the others.. I still prefer the original setup I think. If you really wanted to push this new composition concept then get really silly maybe you need to go further. Perhaps the zombie could be already have hung himself and the other 3 doing a "Pinata" type scene with a blindfold and bat/stick trying to take swing at the zombie blowing in the wind(not to mention his innards would make good treats for the zombies). Something like that would really push the silly especially considering that you did such a good job all the sculpts though lean more toward a realistic style and the textures. Just my .02 cents worth, keep up the great work and will be looking for more. :tu: :tu:

(edited to add few comments)

[alexleia]

great work! i love all!

Alex Oliver

[skulll_monster]

great idea for suicide !...i follow this thread !

[cinnamonstix]

Love It!!!!

[UncleZ]

wow that is really nice

[reminator]

pinata zombie! now that is silly :)

[Marsyas]

I really like the new scene! Gave me a chuckle. :)

[ThaoLe]

I am almost there. I will post the final version tonight around 9 PM california time. I hope its till ok by then.
Feew..Here are what i have for this entry. However, I am having hard time to pick the final one. You know, when you put so much love to each of them , at the end you have hard time to pick out the better one. Also when you look at one thing for so long, it happens the same too. That why i need your guys help here.
Please tell me what you think which one you like the most.

Thank you so much you guys.
Cheer
Thao Le



anothernewangle_renderFull_composed copy.jpg


Comsecond_renderFull copy.jpg


newangle_renderFull_composed copy.jpg


suicidedzombie2_touch5 copy.jpg


suicidedzombie2_touch6 copy.jpg

[sasquatchpoacher]

Thao, you gotta go with 3 or 5! Nice work ethier way.

p.s. Check your email!

[fizzy]

I think the last one. The backgrounds the nicest and makes the objects pop out of the screen. I also think it's funnier then the others, I think the concept gets a bit lost on them.


Best of Luck

Pete B

[Blaine91555]

I'll really mess you up here. As far as impact and composition I like the first one in the series. As far as the theme and humor the suicide is by far the funniest. I think I would move the suicide to the first scene?

[Slosh]

Personally, I like #2 the best...it is almost the same as 1, but the background fits better with the lighting scheme of your objects. The suicide ones are good, too, but I think helping pull a fellow zombie from his grave is funnier than suicide.

[Marsyas]

For me, it's a tough call between 2 and 5. I think I like the last one best but I would try filling it with more 'stuff' (graves, zombies in the background, etc.) like in number 2, because I really love the visual 'density' in number 2.

[Plakkie]

I can see how it's hard choosing from so much eyecandy. So much toil and love went into them, and they shine! :D Beautiful atmos in all of them, but you must be in a hurry, so straight on to my small opinion:

Those zombies are so great and detailed that the closer up the camera is to them, the more I like the image. I enjoyed the last image for that reason, and because it shows the zombies in the best light/contrast. On the other hand I think the other (stuck zombie) concept will work well too if you could put the camera way in there, and really show the struggle going on. In most of the first images it's hard to spot what arm belongs to what zombie for instance. The first image I feel would improve much from a lighter background (the moon right behind them), like you did in that last image; that way their silhouettes would be more clear and strong. The more I look at them I feel a more contrasty background would help a lot.

Apart from this, again, totally awesome artwork; really, really love them.
Good luck with the last though descision.

[AngelJ]

Thao Le,

Its a great thing when you got tough decisions when they all look great :D . That said, they fall for me in the following manner:

2) As I stated with my reasons previously its the one I feel I enjoy the most ;) . I kinda wish some of that darker blueish purple background with moon was in the upper right hand corner of this pic that you put in some of the other ones it helps those other images and think might with this one as well, though, hard to say without seeing it in there. Also kinda wish the one zombe being pulled out was facing toward the viewer and not away from us. A tad part of me feels a bit more subtle silly here(maybe a zombie using his leg to help leverage the tomb off the one) could of been used but still overall think I enjoy the lay out more so.

4) Now that the colors have been added to the decision making I like the mood here in this one and how it works with the applied sillyness of the suiciding zombie.

3) Both 3 and 1 are relatively close to me in appeal, think 3 wins out due to more substance in overall placement of the shapes.

1) Centers on theme activity nicely like the others, its well done.

5) Again looks good but prefer the others.

[cinnamonstix]

3 was my fav. But for silliness I think 5 for sure! It totally works!
5. Yes 5!!

[Dondemaker]

I still like #2 the best (as for the B&W ones). If you prefer the hanging scene, I would go for #5. They are all good of course, it's just a question of which is better!!

[chemeleon]

I'd have to go with #5. 2 is a close call, and I kinda like the action in it better, but everything just seems to pop out a little nicer in #5.

[Atwooki]

This is just AMAZING stuff, ThaoLe :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

I lean towards #5 for its simplicity of composition & the more overt 'silliness' factor
that is apparent in the characters' gestures & expressions ;)

#3 is a chasing hard on #5's heels though; Hmmm.......!

All-in-all: awe-inspiring and top-quality character work :)

Chris

[ThaoLe]

Hello zbrushers,
After colected all the votes from everyone's reponses (BIG THNKS), and also my favorist one, I have picked the final version. This has been a wild ride for me. Alot of hard works on this one and most of all, I have learned so much from this. ( I will post what I have learned on here later after I colected all my notes).
The reason I picked this one for my final entry is not just only from most everyone's favorist but to me it depicts about this challenge about: Scrared, Silly, Composition, Lighting done by zbrush. To me, Zbrush is well known of creating details for monster and characters, but still have a big question mark about if it can handle and create a scene, composition, lighting just like other package. I just want to find out and see if I can go for that. After almost 3 weeks with lot of hard works, I have found out that zbrush not just a great software which can do those things but can be used to compose and touch up like photoshop as well.

Modeled, composed, lighting, touch up (thanks to Shaddingenhance and Highlight brushes) are all done in zbrush. The only thing use Photoshop for is zaplink for texturing and create the backgound picture (silhouettes trees).
The composition are done by 9 layers in zrush included the background picture.

Thank you and good luck everyone!
Happy zbrushing.
Cheer
Thao Le



And here is the Final:

Title: LITTLE FUN ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT!
Story: There won't be scary tonight because these fella zombies are busy having little fun for themselves
present size: 1300X1300
large size: 3200X3200
Click this link to go to higher resolution image.

http://www.thaoarts.com/WIP/suicidedzombie2_touch6.jpg



Final.jpg


and here are close shot of the zombie.


CLOSESHOT.jpg


CLOSESHOT2.jpg

[fizzy]

I love this scene, so much depth it really really does feel 3D...if you know what I mean?

So many good entries this is one of the top.

Pete B

[Marsyas]

Great work, ThaoLe! Love the zombie closeups. :tu:

[Dondemaker]

Congratulations ThaoLe, it looks really good. It was also impressive how many different versions that looked almost finished you managed to push out in the last day or two.
The best of luck to you in the voting.
Jason

[AngelJ]

Thao Le,

Yours among some of the others is truly awe-inspiring. Couldn't go wrong which ever one you went with.. masterfully done. Thanks for your entry!! Will be watching for more details :tu: :tu: .

[sadicus]

that is some good sculping. Cool theme!:tu: