Taron

Well, while I've resumed posting here, I thought I'll present my first Hologram adventures here. RabbitHoles has given a set of artists the privilege to produce a Hologram for and with them. As I was one of them I tried to think up something that could work as a piece of art with a bit of timelessness. That's somehow a bit ambitious, but whether or not it worked out, the piece itself was and is a lot of fun, especially now that I have it in my living room together with a second rabbithole that I'll post later on here, too.

The Growth (link to the animated preview of the hologram)


I started off with the tree, basically just to lay down a foundation. Trees always have a certain spiritual value, without trying to sound esotherical, but their symbolic power is hard to dispute. Obviously I knew it was just some material to zbrush on and kept it therefore very simple. After looking at it for a few minutes I felt like hanging something on to it, felt like I could make a human grow from it like a parasite. I did actually take a snapshot of the set into ArtRage and just doodled a possible pose into it for framing. Since Holograms were something totally new for me, I was a little worried that I fit it properly in every way. Otherwise I wouldn't have been so careful. But more on that later.

The geometry of the figure in it's first stage was extremely basic, but to keep it freeflow I used this for the first session...


After the first zbrush session I exported it at division level 2 for better detail quality. I've also added the rest of the arm just then, but within Lightwave...


I used subtool projection within Zbrush to keep what I had done before and project it on the new geometry with the added hand...


The hair piece, by the way, is an extra geometry, which I first did just as a test and ended up liking it a lot. With both geometries inside of zbrush, thanks to the subtools, it was easy to make them blend perfectly. I also placed the eyes as a subtool, but basically just as preview. They are simply balls...nothing fancy.

In messiah:Studio then I've rigged the whole thing with bones and gave it a gentle animation. I tried to make sure that her arm would come out the picture as far as possible, while still staying in frame, when the hologram is viewed from extreme angles. If I would've kept the arm outside it could have clipped at some point, destroying the illusion.

The tree had been nothing much fancy, while consuming the most memory, though. A lot of rather arbitrary details to get a decent bark going. The nature of the holograms makes objects get out of focus with distance into the background all by itself, so with that in mind I didn't put too much effort into the tree. I later was even accentuating that effect by adding a mild depth of field to it as well, using frischluft's depth of field plug-in for AfterFX. But here's the tree within zbrush...


For the hologram itself I later added a procedural moving through her "hair" as well, just adding a bit more motion to it, as you move from side to side. It's a subtle but nice effect. She also blinks a little bit, but that, too, is rather subtle.

So that's the story for my first RabbitHole. Hope you liked it and I certainly hope those of you, who are in the Los Angeles area have a chance to come by the Gallery at Gnomon in Hollywood! The exhibition ends September 17th with a closing party, so you should best come sooner than later! It's a fantastic collection with pieces from some of the biggest artists in our industry... I will leave you with the flier to the party and see to prepare the post for my second hologram "The Hide".

savagliani

the hide is by far my favorite one, above all other artists...thats so cool man!! I wish I could buy that and place on my wall...I think this rabbit hole thing is a new form of art. Thats going to be huge...the growth is wonderful, beautiful...taron, why dont you release new tutorials dvds? one for rigging, animating, one for sculpting in zbrush? thanks for sharing your work

Zeth09

amazing stuff, and i cant wait to see one of these rabbitholes in person (be even nicer if i saw yours ;P)

LeX Soares

Awesome work!! i love holograms! lookin forward to see some more stuff!!

Taron

Well, I'll cover "The Hide" next, but oddly enough it's effectiveness has a different nature. It's not dazzling details or really nice modeling, but rather a benificial choice of arrangement for the Hologram, so to say. I'll get to that...

And, oh yes, I certainly will make my DVD series on full production, covering displacement and working within Zbrush in detail! Thanks for asking, though. Makes me very happy to hear!

Captain Sensible

I wasn't privileged enough to be able to go to Siggraph but I saw these on the Rabbitholes site and was pretty blown away! It would be great to be able to view these for real. I have been a fan of your work for some time now and thought it great that something of yours could be made in this way. I agree I preferred 'The Hide' more as it was very fitting for this format. Thanks for sharing

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abhominal

Hi,

great work!

I have been following their website for over a year now, I would love to make one but think the technoogy is still very expensive. Was it easy to work with them? I would love to see one in the flesh!

look forward to seeing the other one that youre gonna post

cheers

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abhominal

hi again!

I just saw 'The Hide one' - excellent! My favourite one that Ive seen.

Thanks for the info at the start of the thread, could you possibly mention a little bit about how you provide the files? You mentioned after effects earlier.

Also how 3D do they appear? Do they really pop out? Its so hard to tell from an animated sequence online.

Many Thanks

Jason

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TeckZ

wonderful work )) i like the girls expression

nellement

Thats beautiful,love that dreamy feel it has

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calum5ZB

I want ,I want ,i WANT!!!!!!!!!SOME!!!!!.This is going to be huge,brilliant work Taron.Thanks for the info also:-)bye cal

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Erklaerbar

awesome

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machuca

great work taron!
specialy like "the hide". its so emotional, with that being trapped alone and devouring himself.

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savagliani

great news Taron...if you release 20 dvds I will buy them all...You are such a complete artist...the hide was "the" rabbit hole..., but of course, the growth is a much more beautiful one....hurry up with the dvds...I cant wait to learn...