First attempts

[voodoodad]

Unable to raise the motivation or energy to start something new, I decided to finally light the candle on Bag End (litterally). I spent several days attempting to find a way to at least partially simulate this in Zbrush, but the closest I could come was to place a point light directly over the lamp and crank all the settings for it down to minimum. It did a semi-reasonable job at creating the area light I needed but of course it didn't provide the pinpoint light for the flame. I finally just threw up my hands and did the flame and area light in Photoshop. I was tired and more than a tiny bit frustrated at the time so I didn't really do a very good job, but I'll probably fix it in the near future. C&C welcome.

[voodoodad]

Taking a stab at making my own zombie.

[voodoodad]

A head shot for good measure.

[blueferret]

your zombie is looking pretty good......the saber tooth cat looks good , but maybe your masking leaked a little bit to some back faces ?? just a thought.... Deke

[voodoodad]

Thanks, Deke. The bottom of the saber tooth's jaw was pretty thin at the bottom so he ended up with some hair in his mouth lol. I've redone the fibers several time since then, more or less for practice and he'll be showing up again sometime soon because I really like the base mesh and it's great for fibermesh practice.

Just about done with the zombie although I'll probably still be tweaking things for hours to come.

[voodoodad]

Sorry, posted pic wasn't the latest revision. Revamped the eyes.

[voodoodad]

Back to fur and light studies.

[Bonecradle]

I spent several days attempting to find a way to at least partially simulate this in Zbrush, but the closest I could come was to place a point light directly over the lamp and crank all the settings for it down to minimum. It did a semi-reasonable job at creating the area light I needed but of course it didn't provide the pinpoint light for the flame.

For a bright point light source with a small falloff, you could try turning the intensity up and then lower the radius in the Lights Placement subpalette (make sure ambient is on zero - I turn ambient off for all lights anyway as a general rule). As a tip if you didn't know it, to place lights like this in a scene, you can put some geometry in the scene where you want the light, then click on the "P" button in the lIghts Placement subpalette and drag onto that geometry. The light will be placed wherever you drop it. You can then delete the geometry or hide it if not needed.

The flame itself I would still do in Photoshop

[voodoodad]

Hi Bonecradle. Really glad you stopped by. It gave me an opportunity to admire your portrait of a warrior again. Yeah, the lighting I had already figured out by doing pretty much exactly as you suggested. It did give a really nice area of light around the lamp, lacking of course the flame itself. Unfortunately Zbrush crashed on me (seemingly without reason) and I didn't have the heart to load Bag End up again and sitting very still for the 20 or so minutes it takes to render all those fibers, so I did a slap-dash job in PS. I'll do it properly at some point, but for right now I'm trying different things. Thanks again for the tips, and keep posting! I really want to see some more of your work!

___________________

Gave my saber tooth some saber dentures. I couldn't go to bed without enabling him to go hunt down something to eat. Peta might come ofter me!

[voodoodad]

I re-edited my zombie with heavy use of filters and a slightly closer view.

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi Gary

Hey...Great job on that last version of the zombie....The colors are what really make it work... for me anyway..Sometimes less can be more, and the power of suggestion approach, rather than the in your face with blood and guts approach can be alot more powerful.The overall green values with just a little tad of toned down red really makes the complementary effects of green and red come to life..no pun intended ..Nice tonal and value range which really adds to the lighting effect. and the mood/feeling that the piece projects..Excellent.
About the Hobbit house piece...To make the candle work better as a light sorce...it needs to be darker around it..Rembrandt style lighting, or better yet...Georges de La Tour's lighting style.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/searc...ff&fr2=piv-web

Link to La Tours works above......Might give you an idea and or Inspiration for your hobbit piece..Who Knows..

Glenn

[voodoodad]

Hi Glenn. Thanks for your comment about the zombie. I forgot to mention that sculpt was based on a sketch by Bernie Wrightson, one of the best horror artists ever. As far as Bag End, yeah I'm going back to that at some point and give it the love I think it deserves. That's by far my favorite sculpt, both from a standpoint of fun to do and how it looks in the end, so I'll eventually go back and do it up right.

For now here's someting I started tonight just to keep from getting rusty. A lot of folks have done sculpts of Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Well, I wanted to go old schools and throw us back to 1968, when an ape wasn't a motion captured animation but a guy in a latex mask with a big ol' helmet of hair.

Here's Cornelius (aka Roddy McDowel) Still a wip. All comments are good comments!

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi Gary

Hey...Great job so far on the Planet of the Apes piece..Captured the right, and a good facial emotion..Great foundation to work from and build upon..Really looking forward to seeing where it leads you to..

Glenn

[monstermaker]

1968 were people even alive then? Looking forward to seeing him finished. I could tell it was Cornelius form the thumbnail.

[voodoodad]

Hi Gary

Hey...Great job so far on the Planet of the Apes piece..Captured the right, and a good facial emotion..Great foundation to work from and build upon..Really looking forward to seeing where it leads you to..

Glenn

Thanks Glenn! I'm probably going to be working on character busts for a while, or at least that's most likely all I'll post. I'm working on my anatomy skills on the dl for now lol.

1968 were people even alive then? Looking forward to seeing him finished. I could tell it was Cornelius form the thumbnail.

I'm glad you like it Rick. Yes, people were around in '68 but the movin' picture thing was still relatively new.