''scared Silly Entry By Craig Thomson''

[fishadder]

Concept.jpg

Well here's my entry in this very cool competition.

I wanted to keep it as simple yet get as much visual interest and 'Halloweeniness in to it as possible and keep it kind of fun with a dark twist too so here goes!

Basically 2 little kids dressed in Halloween costumes are Trick or Treating on Mr Pumpkin head who should be the one to Scare them but He is terrifiedd by them and to make matters worse they come brandishing his parents pumpkin heads as Lanterns!!!

I love the organicness of ZBrush so all the knarled trees and pumpkin skin should be right up my alley and I really loved the Organic Faun character form Pans Labrynth so I think I'll Take Mr Pumpkin Head in that direction rather than have him in clothes, the kids aren't set in my head yet but one mummy and one Freddy or Jason character or maybee little girl Vampire. Also we'll see how much time I have but I'd like to add background detail to the inside of Mr Pumpkins House so you might see his folks pictures on the wall and recognise the lanterns rather than have him have to say it in a speech bubble?

Also possibly mock the image up as the cover of a Horror comic book in the vein of CreepShow or The Twilight zone with this image as the cover art called 'Scared Silly' depending on time

anyway

We'll see, I'm actually scaring myself silly at the prospect of all the work but I've been after a solid challenge to get my teeth into and this is a belter so bring it on!

comments and crits as always

fiahadder
:)
PS whenever I post a thread I don't get a nice little ZBrush man logo before my post like everyone else!? I get a sort of file icon! I'm not bothered but I'd kind of like to know what i'm doing that's different and if it affects my post in any way?

[Marsyas]

Great sketch! I love the style and coloring.

[LittleDedder]

Looks very fun!!

[fishadder]

Thanks guys

Here's a start on Mr Pumpkins head

pumkin.jpg

I then tried lots of different textures and materials, some shiny, some matt to get a decent overal pumpkin skin, layering them in different strengths to give it depth

Layered.jpg

:)
fishadder

[fishadder]

Next I give it more detail and get the angle/pose I wanted and stretched it a bit to get a more startled/scared look.
Scared.jpg

then tweaked and colour corrected in Photoshop.
From doing the head I know now not to be too precious about the backs of the models as time is tight and it'll be a flat image anyway.

onto the body next

:)
Fishadder

[markkens]

PS whenever I post a thread I don't get a nice little ZBrush man logo before my post like everyone else!? I get a sort of file icon! I'm not bothered but I'd kind of like to know what i'm doing that's different and if it affects my post in any way?The icon's different for threads you start, or ones you post in.

Cool idea...like the foliage for hands & feet.

[fishadder]

Still don't get it?
I thought i posted in the SCARED SILLY thread like everyone else but they all have a diffenernt logo!?
Am I posting in other peoples threads?
Because that's not good as i need my own thread for the competition!?

:)
Fishadder

[markkens]

It's just an "I posted something here" indicator. You'll see it for threads you start and other people's that you post in. I saw the Z in your thread at first, now I see the file marker 'cause I replied.

Keep posting your updates in the one you started.

[fishadder]

Ah Ok so I'm fine to keep going, lol!

I still feel a bit new to posting but Thanks again

:)
Fishadder

[fishadder]

Here's an update on Mr Pumpkin

BODY.jpg

built a rough body pose in Z-Spheres, skinned it and texture it as much like knarled wood and roots as I could

Then played with textures and materials to get a good bunch of dry and wet surfaces

BODY TXTRES.jpg

then combined and tweaked the head and body together. I might add more fungal growths and stuff but here he is

MR PUMKIN.jpg

Time to crack on with the little trick or treaters!

:)
Fishadder

[migusan76]

Love the concept art for this one! Can't wait to see this one done...

[dustbin1_uk]

Ho man that's a real treat to see that process! He looks amazing! Well done! :D:tu:

[threetails]

This is one of my fav's. nice work

[dustbin1_uk]

So have you rendered each of those materials seperately and used something like Photoshop to compose the layers?

Sorry I'm just getting used to 3D rendering being new to all forms of 3D art work.

When this is over would love to see a step by step of how you did that.

[-WOODY-]

I like your sketch and coloring. You really have a good eye for color. Your modeling is unique as well. Mr. Pumpkin looks neat and kinda reminds me of Mr. Scarecrow on Wizzard of Oz.

[fishadder]

Dustbin1_UK it's pretty much as I'm showing it here!

I'm new to working with ZBRUSH, finally got a decent computer and ZBrush 3 although I've been a big fan of this site for a while.
I've only attempted a few models previous and have managed to gain a basic knowledge of Z-Spheres, texturing, colouring etc BUT I only know enough to get by really!
I have no clue yet about lighting, propper rendering or even how to have more than 1 material type on the same model at once like matt moss on a shiny tree if it's actually possible?
So I'm basically building and posing the pieces how I want them in the final scene then saving the image in multiple textures and materials and then layering them in diff strengths in PShop to make the final character or whatever! lol! It works really well and I'm managing to get pretty much exactly what I'm after but I bet there's a propper/faster way!? lol!

The Pumpkin man was a layered pumkin model head added to a layered tree model body with extra tweaks and colour correction in PShop like the inside of the mouth and eyes. I added little things like the mushroom which was also done in ZBrush in fact I was mucking about with mushrooms just before to add to the scene somewhere later and the Jellybean Material is superb for those, it seems there's a texture or material for every ocassion lol!

shrooms.jpg

Anyway I'm waffling but I absolutely love ZBrush because It feels so natural and organic to sculpt! I've never been any use at 3D modelling packages before
I'm a traditional illustrator/sculptor who always fancied the PIXAR thing but just couldn't ever get my head around the interfaces on stuff my mates use
but ZBrush lets you go to town straight away with a ball of clay and the learning curve and helpful comunity here are really great too!

Anyway Thanks for all the positives so far! I'm really getting a buzz out of this challenge and it's great to see all the contenders work in production although some make me scared silly just looking at their quality!

Woody - Mr Pumpkins body was inspired or at least I had in mind the Faun from Pans Labrynth I didn't look directly at him but remember he sort of blended into his environment and was very organic so thats the way I wanted to go, also I thought clothes on him would be a real pain and way too fiddly at my current level of skillZ! lol!

:)
Fishadder

[garyhanna]

Love the pumpkin guy. Very nice gesture and form on his body and head.










Gary Hanna Scared Silly (http://209.132.96.165/zbc/showthread.php?t=52227)

[fishadder]

Been working on the first kids mask and skeleton suit

skull.jpg
SUIT.jpg

[fishadder]

Here he is with some extra detail and added Glow-in-the-dark!

skullkid.jpg

:)
Fishadder

[Marsyas]

Looking great! I really like the materials you are coming up with.

[XSI Apprentice]

Hey, nice concept and idea. Progress looks to be going good, I think tho Mr Pumkins head looks a little too big on the body, but that view could change with the whole scene. Great work :) look forward to more

[fishadder]

Yeah I thought that and was going to reduce his noggin a bit more.

I think it's just that the body is so wiry and the head is obviously bulbous and bright orange. I thought i got the proportions about right but maybee there's an optical oddness happening because of the contrast in materials because his limbs also look a little short to me now!?

Anyway Thanks for confirming what I thought though because you get so used to looking at it that you forget the little wrongnesses if that's a word!

Still, I'm a long way off yet and sure a whole lot more will change before it's done lol!

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[dustbin1_uk]

Well as far as I am concerned that process clearly works well.

Poly painting is how to achive different materials on different parts of a model. You select something like the standard brush, turn off the Zadd and Zsub buttons select M or MRGB (if you also want to add colour) and off you go.

But to be honest the results your getting a amazing without that! :D:tu:

EDIT: sorry forgot to add:

If you want the whole model to work from a base material and not keep changing when you select a new material on the perts you've not painted yet, select MRGB and then Fill Object on the colour menu.

[markkens]

"DETH"?

I'm on the floor.:D

[Jason Belec]

This is wonderful work! ;)

[fishadder]

Hi all!

Thanks for the feedback!

Feel like I've not updated for a bit but I've been hard at it on the remaining characters!
Still so much to get done!!!

Here's the MummyKid Character, Iooked back at my original sketch and realised the little SkullKid was the girl and the mummy was the boy but I think they work better this way!?

Anyway here's how I started,
kind of like Frankenstein putting all the bits together! -

mummy.jpg

It was tough getting a convincing Bandage material but in the end I used a combination of different strength clay tube brushes in quite a painterly fashion to get the texture and different materials with mostly a matt finish to hopefully give it a feel of bandage!?

Here's Her Sweetie Cauldron -

cauldron.jpg

And here she is almost done -

mummy2.jpg

Now, what kind of shoes does she wear? lol!
:)
Fishadder

[fishadder]

And here's the unfortunate Mr and Mrs Pumkin! lol!

mumdad.jpg

:)
Keep on Z-ing!

Fishadder

[Jason Belec]

All these are coming together wonderfully! ;)

[Slosh]

fish, how did you do the chin hairs on Dad-o-lantern?

[fishadder]

The Chin hairs and the kids hair or any loose strands on the clothing etc were hand drawn. I don't know how to do hair or fur in Z-Brush yet so I've just been drawing on any little details once I've composited the pieces together in Photoshop.
I did find the Fish Hook tool very useful for doing the roots on Mr Pumpkins hands and feet but it would start to stretch the mesh if you tried to hook anything too small, plus you'd have to do each hair individually that way and it would be a nightmare I think.

There must be a fur or hair plug in, I have heard mention of such wizardry but like I say I'm not quite advanced enough yet and also I'm used to hand drawing stuff anyway and I think the combination works quite well, makes the final characters more illustrative I think.

I was going to do more chin hair on the Dad pumkin so you knew he was the dad but couldn't decide if it would look odd because pumpkins don't have hair! but I guess they don't have tree bodies and live in houses either so maybee it's ok to have a pumkin beard!

What d'you think?

:)
Keep on Z-ing
Fishadder

[alonso varela]

wow! wonderfull art! pretty work.

:)

[LittleDedder]

great work

[fishadder]

Well I really need to sleep! this Halloween challenge is learning me lots about the Z! but I need some other kinds of Zzzz's lol!

Anyway here's all the characters together for the first time to see if they work!?
What d'you reckon?

Scene.jpg

keep on Zzzzz-ing
:)
Fishadder

[fishadder]

Well this definately my last post for a while!

Just a couple of close-ups -

closeups.jpg

Im off to my coffin, night, night.

Keep on Z-ing!
:)
Fishadder

[Harmonic]

Looks fantastic! Very stylish models. :tu: They play very nicely together :lol:

[dustbin1_uk]

Argghhh! i just came here to find all this work had been done! For some reason I'm not getting emails on this thread.

Fishadder, I think the beard is a funny idea, or you could give him a 60's center parting using his leaves/vines on the top of his head.

I think he needs to be raising an arm in defense of the horror of seeing his mum and dad as lanterns.

Other than that, I am speechless as to how far you've come along with this having never used ZBrush before.

VERY well done!!!

:D:tu:

[XSI Apprentice]

That is looking really cool, lovin the scythe, overall render looks good too :)

[fishadder]

Thanks Dustbin!

I've used it a couple of times previous to this though!

I made a weird angler fish from a ball of clay and I started a Medusa character with ZSpheres after watching a handy tutorial previous to this but the competition has focused me on a propper task from concept to completion which is always best as with my illustration i'm used to working to a brief.

I mean this when I say it's testiment to Pixologic and ZBrush that someone as relatively aged (compared to some of the kids these days lol!) and set in their ways as me is able to get going and use quite competantly from the get a go a piece of software that just feels so intuative!

My friends who work in the CG movie industry have had to learn a lots of other more technical stuff and i Always despaired at how un-user friendly they were and never really thought I had a look in!
ZBrush on the other hand although probably just as complicated lets you begin artistically not technically and as I've been finding out rapidly becomes more addictive than sleep!!!

Anyway I Hope I get this challenge done! I've got all the background to do now but maybee I can keep it simpler to set off what's goin on in the foreground. Anyway thanks again for al the replies, tips and advice, will check to see how you're getting on when I have a spare moment.

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[Dondemaker]

I think it's all coming together excellently. Very well done.

[KOSOVA]

Great work fishadder. All the characters are looking great and beautiful colors as well.

[Remib]

Great entry in a very creative way :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Marsyas]

Looking really great! Love the details.

Is the scale of the characters not going to be like in the sketch, or did you not size them like they will be? I rather liked Mr. Pumpkin large like he is in the sketch.

[fishadder]

I haven't had a chance to play around with scale yet, i still have way too many elements to get done before I to composition but thanks for the reminder I actually haven't looked back at the sketch in some time!

Trees next, Oh my!

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[brazaman]

Man, this is freaking awsome!!! hahaha...

Some real good work here!! I bet you are getting tons of fun...
man, congrats.

As yourself say, keep Z-ing

[monstermaker]

Very cool, lots of fun, can't wait to see it finished. This would be perfect , as a lot of these entrees would be, for the October Shadows art show

[fishadder]

Hey thanks for the kind words everyone!

and thanks Monstermaker
Can you tell me a bit more about the Shadow Art Show it sounds interesting!?

I don't know if you remember, I posted a few photos of an albino chimp on your ape thread a good while ago when I used to drop by to marvel at the gallery but I finally got a faster computer and a copy of ZBrush3 and man I'm having the time of my life with this thing!!!

Anyway thanks again everyone

and Dustbin1_UK Don't you dare Quit on me man!!!

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[monstermaker]

I remember that white chimp it was really cool.
Well I'm glad that you have discovered first hand the joys of ZBrush it is really fun isn't it.
The October Shadows show was started last year by Taylor White and Bill Basso . It is an art celebration of everything Halloween. This year I lent them part of my studio for the event . There were over 60 artists participating and about 500 people at the opening. Lots of really great Halloween images ,sculptures ,and masks.
The on line gallery was suppose to be up now, but isn't because of the enormous amount of art submitted this year. I feel for the guy doing the site , he has his work cut out for him,but I wish he would get it up as Halloween is almost here.
If you go here www.creaturefeatures.com you can read about the show and see the participating artists bios, and hopefully in a day or two you can see the work. As I said before your piece would have fit in well with the theme of the show

[fishadder]

Sounds like Fun!

Unfortunately I'm in Scotland so I'll be having my Halloween in the rain and carving Turnips instead of Pumpkins which is Hard going! lol!

Zbrush is a miracle to me as all other 3D packages have been too intimidating
Do you do any FX with computers these days? I was raised on rubber gore but sometimes CG can be stunning!

I will check out all the Shadows work when it's up and thanks for your time.

Kept waiting for an entry by you to appear and many towels to be thrown in lol!
It's been good fun and really taught me a lot and the comunity spirit here is second to none!

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[dustbin1_uk]

I take it everyone saw this (http://209.132.96.165/zbc/showthread.php?t=052346) entry to the creature feature?
stupid question as it's top row.... heh!:o
Anyhow it looks like a great show, I wish I could get accross the pond to see it!

Fishadder I'm still here! thanks for your encouragement! ;)

[fishadder]

Dustbin1_UK I saw that mad pumpkin sculpture and can't believe this 3D printing thing!!! I want to get something done but i bet it costs a fortune!

Anyway I looked back at my original sketch and then re-jigged it with my progress so far and roughed in more of the kind of lighting and atmosphere I want for the final piece -

finalook.jpg

Also Quite worrying to see how much I still have to do!!! So I reckon this will be my last post for a while as I better get my head down and get Z-ing!

I aint getting this far to flop at the last hurdle lol!

Good luck all!
:)
Fishadder

[dustbin1_uk]

Wow this looks great! I'm so impressed!

I think pumpkin man should have a hand over his mouth and pointing at one of his parents. Or have him looking directly at the lantern on the right. It would make the picture make sense to someone who does't know the back ground. When I first saw your concept I didn't connect the punchline, though that may just be me being slow ;).

Other than that this looks amazing, your skills in this are impressive and the colour and feel of the picture is well within keeping of this competition.

No doubt we'll see you at the finish, good luck. :D:tu:

[LittleDedder]

Great Work

[XSI Apprentice]

Hey dude, this is looking really good, i could say this is a final image right there. What you could do, its a bit of a cheat way, but could probably work and be effective and also be fast to achieve is, - you could lay a plane down, and shape it so it goes off in the distance a little to simulate the ground, then curve it up at the back to form a wall, you could then paint/texture the image for the bg you have there onto it with a flat shader so it doesnt show specular highlights etc if you get me, then you could paint some fibre grass or something onto the plane and also some pebbles or whatever for the road, and then place adjust your characters onto that plane so that way they cast shadows onto it :D - just an idea :D


Mick

[WoL_]

Amazing

[JUPITER]

Wow, wonderful work,very inspiring!!!
incredible dedication and love for the art..... just can't say enough:eek:

[JUPITER]

I love it, very cool feeling...........;)

[fishadder]

Thanks to all for the wonderful support!

I'm entering the final stages and hard at it getting all the trees done!
I'm also working on getting a realistic moon modelled! lol!
and the town and sky will be a sort of matte painting.
I still haven't worked out a solution to the ground and path but thanks for all the tips and crits guys
and i wish everyone all the best for the deadline!

Keep on Z-ing
:)
Fishadder

[dustbin1_uk]

Man I can't wait to see this one finished. I think you've done a great job so far and I expect this is going to be up there with the winners. :D:tu:

Keep at it fishy! We're almost there!

[brazaman]

man... your work have some serious chance of winning the contest.... I would bet on it... it's awsome!!

[fishadder]

Well I think I Just about made it!
Phew!!!
Here's what it came out like in the end! -

ScaredSilly.jpg

I just hope I submitted it all correctly or I'll cry!

You can see a better resolution version here -


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/1820486850_4fcf265916_b.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/1820486850_4fcf265916_b.jpg)


Well I'm sorry I didn't update much towards the end! It was all hands to the final piece but I will endevour to post some bits and bobs on how i created some of the new stuff and little details it was all too much fun.

It's been a real steep learning curve for me as I'm relatively new to the wonderful world of ZBrush and my Work flow or Pipeline or whatever the jargon is? probably isn't the most conventional way but I managed!

Everything was modeled, textured, rendered inc. the characters, trees, ground, clouds, the moon!, all those damn branches and fidly leaves!!! and most of the extra little twiddly bits in ZBrush!
Except for the hand drawn Pictures on the wall of Mr Pumpkins house, and the little town which I scribbled in a basic drawing package.
The sky colour, Kids hair and eyes, and little fidly hairs and things like shoelaces plus compositing and colour tweaking was done in Photoshop.

I have no idea how many polywotsits or pixel size it all is but i'm off to catch up on some well earned sleep and dream about pumkins again no doubt!

Hope you like the finished piece!?
It was an epic journey and I feel like I learned loads and made a whole bunch of new virtual art buddies along the way!
Thanks for all the support and encouragement guys!
good luck to all those who made it over the line and well done anyway if you ran out of time!
I'm sure we all agree it was a great competition.

There's already so many stunning works turning up, they should make a book!

Keep on Z-ing!
:)
Fishadder

[Marsyas]

Looks great, fishadder! The style and juicy colors are very appealing. :tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Fantastic!! Well done Craig! this looks amazing, I know how hard you worked on this and I have to say it paid off.

The pictures on the wall are a great solution to matching the pumpkins the kids are holding to the pumkin mans Mum and Dad. It reads well and the colours really make the image pop out at you.

Considering your still learning you managed to make this look like a true pro's picture, with of course that unique Craig Thomson style!

I take my hat off to you sir, this deserves to be up there with the winners.

Well done!!! :D:tu:

EDIT: I love the pukin in the nappy! Very Funny!!! LOL :lol:

[XSI Apprentice]

Sweet piece, looks great :) good luck

[AngelJ]

Fishadder,

You look like a season zbrush/3D veteran and this piece is great!! However, part of me wishes you stayed with the painted background somewhat, though I do like the 3D one and some of the elements in there. One thing I really dont care for in the 3D one is the moon, maybe the size and placement of it is why.

[dustbin1_uk]

Hey Craig,

I just wanted to say congratulations on the image and a massive thank you for all the help and support you gave me throughout this competition. Not just when the competition was running but also when the forums got locked down through PM's.

You really got involved in this competition, not just by making a great image but also by going to all the forums and offering support and motivation. If you hadn’t of stopped me I may have quit before the end. But you didn’t let me quit and I thank you for that.

Thanks Buddy, your a star. I just wish we could have voted for more than one image as I would no doubt have chosen this in my top three.

Well done pal.