THAT WAS EPIC BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART!!!
and also that would be be an awsome video game main menu!!!!Personally I don’t like people painting over artist’s work. Sorry, no offense but; you guys should keep your critics on a technical stand point. What you are doing is criticizing artist’s construction, fiction, the way of telling the story. That’s not your business at all.
Artists are free to tell their story with the way they like, that makes it unique, personal and special. That’s their touch and their freedom. One day you all will need that freedom to tell a story with your way - so try to remember that.
As for the focal point discussions; Alex is also a photographer and he knows how to focus very well. The idea on his composition is making the audience feel like they are looking through a window to the dirge’s world… When you looking through an actual window in real life, do you have a focal point?.. I don’t think so.
Anyway, I’ve wrote what I’ve feel about this artwork before and I think it’s really a special one. Especially animation is work of a genius. And thanks for the screen saver, will be my default indeed.
Hi dirge
Sorry for the bad paint over man. Your piece is on my desktop though. I love it. You see when I love something I feel like touching it. I was making a comment on the focus. I hand a feeling you could have made the vastness of the environment epic, and at the same time push the character forward thru atmospheric perspective. But then rules are made to be creatively broken. You are an inspiration man.
Hi kerem
“When you looking through an actual window in real life, do you have a focal point?.. I don’t think so.”
Your are right. Ive just done that the distant scene, reflections, a bit of dust and fingerprints combine to form a one very expressive picture. I also notice that the picture tires my mind quickly. My mind quickly picks a focal point. either the outside scene or the reflections and fingerprints on the glass. And there I can watch that longer without my mind battling me. It could be that my mind is playing tricks on me. I guess this “thru the glass” phenomena can be used specifically to tire out people’s minds if the artist chooses to.
sick! Some heat haze distortion might push the composite to another fiery level but fantastic and inspiring job as is. Love the animated portrait concept too.
Wow, that looks incredible 
Love the animation as well, really feels like it has life to it
Alex,
just wanted to thank you for the great work at gnomon.
my question might be redundant but very important to most zbruh users for sure.
Can you please give us a quick breakdown of the process of exporting the normal maps and displacement maps (32 bit) to maya and render them appropriately.
thanks
Cinoklu
See what happens when you forget to take your medication!?!?!
But seriously,
Man that was brain-snapping!
I would say I’m speechless, but I have 8 billion questions, most of them start with: “How the f…”
I haven’t read the whole thread but I’m hoping this guy will be the subject of a Video Tut. I was waiting for him to leap forward and scream at me, thank christ he didn’t, my wife would be calling the paramedics right about now! I gotta admit, I’m not that into fantasy stuff but every so often something comes along that makes you go “What was THAT!!!” 
Absolutely inspirational! Reminds me of the first time I heard Eddie Van Halen’s lead break on ‘Thriller’! Truly outstanding!
@ iezho
i agree with the idea to add some blur to background of the picture 
but i understand that the artists need to show us all that cool architecture,
it just looks so great! ,
i wouldn’t blur that out too
Iezho: Thanks for the paintover. I’m not in the least bit offended and appreciate you taking the time to do it. I think that if this anim represented a typical ‘shot’ that was to be seen for only a few seconds, something like what you have done would make more sense, so that it is easier to read what is the focal point of the image. In the end, there are always so many ways one can go with an image that it is hard to choose…
8th Day: Thanks!
kskovbo: Aw, its not that bad. I actually think it is a rather interesting direction.
zber2: thanks…
monkeydonuts246: Thank you!
Kerem: Well, paintovers are an extremely common thing in production, as many art directors are tasked with this job. In regards to focal point, when you look out a window, technically you have a focal point which is whatever you’re looking at. The issue with something like what I did is that I wanted people to be able to look around… which then makes the use of Depth of Field kinda tricky… which is why I kept it really minimal.
Iezho: Thanks! again, no worries on the paint over. I thought it was nice of you to take the time to make a suggestion.
DRTMTV: yeah, I had thought about heat distortion… but in the end I think I forgot about it… heh.
T0rch: Thanks!
Cinoklu: Thanks. For exporting I use both 32bit displacements and Normal maps. I use Adaptive and SmoothUV off for both. For the displacements I also set the mid slider to 0, so that I do not need to adjust alpha gain/offset in Maya. The reason I use both is to reduce the amount of polys I need to tesselate to at render time. So I displace to a point that maintains the proper silhouette, then use normals for all the high-frequency details that really have no impact on the overall shape. Therefore if I have a subtool that is 4000 polys at sDiv1 and 4million at sDiv6, I will export the sDiv1, use a Displacement to take it to perhaps 64,000, and then a Normal for the rest.
slashpot: heh… thanks!
gwainbarek: yeah, that was the issue… thanks! 
-Alex
I really like the atmosphere of animation and the character.
And I In he future I’d ike to add to my concept characters animation, environment and music, no matter how perfect a rendering would be, nothing is like an animated image, is closer to reality.
I understand that you arrive in Bucharest, Romania, for Behaind the Iron Curtain Workshop, well I live in Bucharest! Good luck!!
sir ,u r all ways good … whatever u do its a master piece …biggest source of inspiration for meeeeeeee…
Wow Amazing!!! To me, that would make a great DVD set up menu for a holloween style DVD.
This piece reminds me of a few unpleasant weight cuts. I hate saunas and rubber suits. Thank the lord I’m getting old and fat.
Anyways, it looks like we will see the process in the upcoming master classes at Gnomon. Good stuff.
oooohh new master classes … excellant
Now this thread turned into a really interesting discussion. I think 80% of you are forgetting a very important point… “wow, awesome” is the worst crit you can get. Yes, of course it’s nice to hear that people like your work. I’m not saying that you should stop writing posts like that. Not at all. However, if someone says that they would expect more from an artist or disagree on some decisions and you blindly go “dude, you’re so rude”… This is where I feel you’re missing the point. Most of the industry know Mr. Alvarez’s work from many years of teaching and his talks on events and we are aware of his professionalism. This is also why some artists may feel that it would be safe to actually give the man some decent criticism. Now, the best crit you can get is “I don’t think this works, here is why: …” Also, when the feedback is very picky and sounds almost absurd, you know your work is good and that the one doing the crit is really doing you a huge favor… I teach modeling at several schools and it’s important to get a feeling of how your students will deal with criticism and then give it to them the way that will benefit them. For an artist like Mr. A I believe he’s used to production environments, harsh feedback and does not take it personally if the feedback is presented in a professional way. It provokes me that this has turned into a childish discussion.
I have always thought that you are stronger technically than artistically, but doing more creative work is the only way of getting better at this. Therefore I like to see that you put a lot of work into this. I agree with what has already been said that variations in the texture would make the believability better. I also feel the picture is messy, but you already stated why you set it up like this. The most important part here is to hear that you have thought it through and this is why and how you wish to present it. Then it makes sense even though I don’t agree with it Some comments:
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I think the deltoids get a bit messy because the pectoralis major is more crashing into it than going under and attaching to the humerus. I feel it would read better if the separation of the two muscle groups was bigger (like on a human) or smoother. Also, this makes the deltoids look a bit crunched. The silhouette of the deltoid on his right hand side looks a bit edgy. I would pay more attention to the arc.
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Fingers look creepy and skeletony (is that even a word?), but the thumb is bothering me a bit. The vain or muscle or shape that is running along the side looks a bit misplaced. Actually, it looks like it was just laid on top of the finished thumb.
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Leg muscles. It looks like the muscle from the pelvis on the front (would it be vastus lateralis or maybe rectus femoris or both?) is twisting around the side and continuing to an unnatural connection point. I’d expect it to aim for the knee. On the other hand, when I see your actual sculpt behind the scenes I can see that they are indeed aiming for the knee, maybe it’s more that the vastus medialis is pushed away to the side by the rectus femoris a bit too much. All in all I think the muscles look a bit too straight going from the pelvis to the knee.
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Mountains in the back could go more black like a silhouette or more realistic. Now, I feel they are somewhere in between with some random snow.
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Blades on his stick. First I read the sharpened part as a UV stretch. I feel it was a bit unfortunate to go for a design that could mislead the viewer. (If he is a nerd and even knows what UV is
) -
The front stairs and the parts around the front hole there is a bit pale. Here, more variations would probably help it out. It actually looks like you threw some sss on them.
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The animation is floating, but you know that. I believe you had more fun writing the expression than doing the actual animation:) I like that you also explain how you set up the breathing rig. Again, variation is the key to believability here. I even undressed for you here to do some research on how the clavicles move when you breathe
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Which MatCap are you using on the first image from the behind the scenes series?
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Maybe you could try to tweak the saturation a bit? That could ease out the messiness of the picture. I know you’re not going to do any tweaks on this piece, just an observation.
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How did the screenshot you show from maya end up at 60k polies? Is Maya listing hidden geometry as well? A quick glance on the polies and I can not see where you spread all those thousands (maybe you have not deleted polies on the back and bottom). The model looks more like 13-14k. And even so, do you feel you need that many polies from Maya instead of having a bit less amount in Maya and subdivide in Z? I’m just curious if there is a reason for going this high from the start
Of course, you could pull the demon card and say that human anatomy doesn’t count 
I just wanted to point out what I reacted on (grammar?)
I don’t understand why someone would be offended by a paintover? It’s just a friendly gesture with suggestions. It’s up to the artist how he/she wants to respond to it. If you get offended by feedback, how are you ever going to get better? (for Karem. Not directed at you Mr. A) I also think you’re taking the various feedback / “feedback” the correct way here by actually listening to those who has something to say and not giving the trolling that doesn’t bring anything to the table too much attention. I think it’s a bit strange that people stop posting on threads because of negative comments. If the comments are trolling, why bother with them? Other comments are either thumbs up or thumbs down, both important in my opinion…
personally, this whole concept of putting your work up on a forum and getting total strangers from all kinds of backgrounds,both artisticly and techically,from every corner of the world to give their opinion about a piece of art is just plain mad.
Its good that alex even gets comments ,(which is rightly so) some of my art hasnt even got a mention.Does this mean that my work is crap? Do i have to prove myself on some gaming challenge forum for many many years to get “in the Know”? just to get some punk kid telling me that “well i dont like that " and " i dont like this”.
Its all just a bit obsurd.
I mean some of the comments ive seen in other threads about some piece of art would make a grown man cry.
You have to have a VERY thick skin.
Keep up the great work man , the digital art world would be a emptier place without your talents…!!
I like the video. The idle animation just brought it to character even in the slight delivery in animation. Reminds of the dark realms in Mortal Kombat movie…the first one.
What I find very funny is how sensitive people get over the silliest of things.
Too bad there is no Ctrl-Z available in our lively actions. In this case for some odd reason many were sulking the grim. This picture in post brought out the devil in some…lol.
Staying on tangent, good work nevertheless.