the Final Piece - image series

[Meats Meier]

Thanks guys (and gals?)

Jantim - right on!
I love the "meats basement" and the new one "the flood".
How did you go about creating the water? It looks pretty convincing.
The piece in the front kind of throws me off, it might look better without it?
I like the algae on the robot, great idea.

I'm going to make more soon...

thanks!

Meats

[Meats Meier]

Sorry, I was away for the weekend, here are some answers for those that asked a question...

Baryonix
-

It is completely realized with Zbrush? With Zphères?
- How long has you needed to realize the scene ?

Yes, this image series is 100% Zbrush. I did start the original robot with Zspheres, and then adjust the resultant model from there. I used the “wire style” to get different wire models, and then combined them all together into on Pixol image. I then dropped a lot of little primitives and such and painted on the color and materials.
The main image (Processor) took me about 4 days. I was trying lots of different techniques mainly, so I tried to spend some time on it.

Andromedia-

p.s. copenhagen er very cold now

I’m going to be in Copenhagen next month, I hope it warms up a little at least.. maybe we can meet up at some point while I’m there?

lm-

I loaded the zbr file and did a best render which took a bit of time. I am working on a laptop with a 2.4 GHz processor and 256 MB of ram. Although you probably didn't do alot of best renders along the way you must have done a few to fine tune your image. What type of computer/processor/RAM do you use with Zbrush and roughly how long does it take to do a best render?

I work with two computers. My work computer is a dual Opteron with two gigs of ram. My personal workstation is a laptop (hp ZD7000) with one gig of ram. I transfer back and forth fairly often. I can work fine with my laptop, but the one gig definitely slows me down a bit (compacting memory, etc.)
To render the scene that I provided takes 1 min and 18 seconds on the dual Opteron..

Jantim-

Are all these forms you made Ztools and "Alpha's-make 3D" ....got any secrets to tell or is it "just" hard work ,talent and buy the DVD ? I would love to see a Zscript from you.

No real secrets, just buy the DVD ß- just kidding. I just mainly create the base form using Zsphere objects or otherwise and then “populate” the detail on top by adding or removing Pixols with primitives and earlier created tools.
I would like to do a Zscript session, the problem comes from the fact that a lot of my images are created during the course of several days, which makes it hard to follow with a script. I have to turn off computers at night, etc…

Anh-

p.s. you gotta do a one day demo in class when we just sit there and see you work

Hi, Anh. I have always planned on doing this the last day of class, but never do because things always seem to come up. I will make a point of it this semester, although…would be fun for me, at least…

Thomaskl-

Sometimes, i am wondering if Zbrush is made by Meats, or Meats is made by Zbrush....;-)

That’s funny that you say that. I was just talking to someone about how when I first got Zbrush I felt like it was made just for me and my way of creating. It really has changed the way that I work and re-infused me with energy for doing art digitally..

agrapha-

Truly impressive work controlling the complex geometry. How do you keep track of it all? Did you model it elsewhere first?

I can keep track of it because it is much like painting, but with 3d. Once it is there on the canvas, I don’t have to think about it anymore, it is a part of the piece.
I made all of the elements with Zbrush. I create a few pieces before hand, and some right as I need it. I make sure to use as many layers as I can to make this process easier.

ryankingslien-

When’s your gallery opening?

J. I do hope to have an all Zbrush show in the next few. I just need to create about 20 new pieces before I even considered doing that. Thanks for saying that!

lemons -

At the risk of being shouted down,I have a criticism. I'm a fan of Mr. Meats work, generally speaking, but I think this one is showing some signs of formula. That's okay, and to get straight to the point, I think there's not enough contrast between the subject, and its background. In other words, way too much detail in both. It gives an impression of scribble rather than subject.

Now excuse me - I have to duck.

LOL. No reason to duck. J
I agree a lot with what you are saying, although I don’t know if it’s a bad thing all together. An artist must make his own visual style and sometimes that is seen as a formula. I know a lot of traditional artists that basically create one thing over and over again. I would like to think that although my style (hopefully) is consistent, the images themselves are different enough. To be honest, most of what I have been doing is exploring the limits of the software, not to cure cancer or anything…..

A.Alvarez -

dig the coolbot... you never showed me that one mr secretive...
cool idea to let people play with your file.

I’m not secretive! J
This one just didn’t exist when I was showing them to you…
I think the idea of collaborating with people on this forum could be really cool!

Nerdyneo-

how do you create the metal effects (i know how to simply do the wire stuff, using masking ) but you make them look so good, like you creations are actually made of real metal parts, how do you do it??

I think a big part of making it look like metal is to add little scratches, bolts, holes, etc. onto it, and of course a reflective, shiny shader goes a long way towards capturing the feeling of metal.

Billrobertson42-

A dance floor on the top would look cool.

Then download and make one! It’s the good times!

boozy floozie-

Amazing explorative work with Zbrush, here as with all your posts.
I also very much enjoyed the clarity of your writing and the lateral approach you took in the ZBrush2 Manual.
A ZBrush VIP indeed.

That was very nice of you…made my day

[Neville]

If you are into collaborating, perhaps you can do my stuff for me while I am busy? Please!

Diggin this run of stuff Meats. Can't wait for the show!!!! Don't forget about our big printer. See you tonight.

[jantim]

Glad you liked my "drowned Meatsbot" ....the first image i made looked better but the image was small so i scaled it up in Zbrush, that gave it less detail but a nice painterly feel to it.
The second image( the one i posted )had the better format, but the reflections on the surface were not that good, so i made that piece in the front !
It was my first watersurface, just a terrainmesh with noise and reflection and a fog image, you need some luck to get a nice surface ...that is if you don't do some postproduction work !
This is a render of my first "drowned world".....its better i think .



even the decay on the robot looks better...
jantim

[billrobertson42]

To render the scene that I provided takes 1 min and 18 seconds on the dual Opteron..

Sweet...

Then download and make one! It’s the good times!

Maybe after I watch your dvd. I'm still in the fumble bumble stage.

[hilden]

ill.. just ill.
I dig that you're into collaboration. brilliant.

too many cats get hung up on the mine! mine! mine! deal.

how long are you going to let this go, and when does the next one start?

[namaste]

[jantim]

I had a version of my first render without piece in front on my drive...a little tweak in photoshop and it looks not as bad as i thought....hope you agree !


jantim

[Lucky_1]

Fantastic work as always Meats,
I bought your first gnomon dvd - introduction to...-
THe DVD was clear and we easy to follow ...

Lucky_1

[Meats Meier]

Neville -

You are going to get sick of me eventually once I start wanting to have things printed on your sweet big printer...I can't wait. I am preparing my first order....


Lucky1 -

Thank you!


Jantim -

Wow! I really do like that a lot better without the object in the front of the water. I was staring at it for awhile last night, I really like how it turned out. THe Algae looks so cool.


Hilden -

Hey! Nice to see you on these boards...now get Zbrushin like the maniac you are!

[Meats Meier]

Umbilical Bot:

[hilden]

oh, I'll be z-brushin' all right!

there sure are a lot of talented cats <points in your direction> up on these boards.. enough to motivate me to get crackin'..

[namaste]

[jantim]

I see that my "watery" bot's inspired you Meats...its a strange thing, i wanted to make an oldfashioned copper diving-helmet for your bot and surround him with jellyfish !...but you kinda beat me to it !

jantim

[Mahlikus The Black]

Hey no fair, you have layers.

Wicked cool Meats.

[Meats Meier]

Jantim - yeah, you inspired me, for sure

Mahlikus

Hey no fair, you have layers.

The downloadable version has layers, too! I am working with the two layers, the robot and the background. Both are included in the file. The main difference is the size, of course. Having a 100 meg download would kill my server although

[Mahlikus The Black]

Oh sorry..lol.
I guess I flattened mine or something.

Thanks Meats.