love it !! how do u do the hair ??
COOOOL !!!
I agree with vivien, fantastic character 
I’m going to do a complete start to finish tutorial later today. For now it’s comment and thanks time…
TVEyes: Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier. I’ve been working on this guy
so much I was drained emotionally and didn’t have the energy to reply in a timely fashion…
Thank you for your comments, Mark. I hope you get some great results from the material and lights. They are simple, but a good foundation to build upon…
Yainderidoo: Please forgive my not answering you yet. Belseth actually did it for me… I’m more proficient in LW’s modeler for non-organic forms. I could do it in Z-Brush, but never got the hang of muti markers yet. They baffle the hell outta me. The jacket I made out of Z-Spheres. I could have used LW for a base, but I wanted to play with the Z-Spheres more, so I made it out of them. I’ll be posting how I did the jacket soon.
Aminuts: Glad ya like the shades. I’ve seen ones like it in the shops, so I decided to make them for him. I ususally wear glasses, so I couldn’t wear these myself…
Pete330: Yes indeed, he does look a lil like Michael Hutchence. Not that it was intentional. I see more of Mick Jagger/Keith Richards/David Bowie in him. As I had no one person in mind, an rockstar amalgamation is the result.
Pixelsoul: Thanks!
Bas: That’s the earpiece of his glasses. I had the scale wrong so it protruded…
I fixed that up…
Jason: I’d love a poster too! I just have to settle for him being my desktop image for now.
Elfufu: Thanks, Bro! Like it or not, I seem to have a definate style to my designs now.
Belseth: You took the words right outta my mouth. Thank you for replying to Yanderidoo. I was fried for the last 2 days. A bloody zombie. I feel a wee bit better now. Once I start playing with a piece, I can get VERY obsessed with it…
Moochie: Thank you!
Frenchie: He does look like Fonzie a bit, doesn’t he…
Mr. Micro: Thanks, glad ya like how it turned out…
Ron: Thanks! I will be putting up a tutorial for the hair later today. I like the PhotoshopCS answer to hair a lil bit better than using Z-Brush’s fibers. I get more control with the styling. Although Z-Brushes fibers ROCK for certain applications. They make great mohawks…
Vlad74: Thank you! I worked on this skin for 2 days trying to find the right combo of diffuse and yet still have the feeling of transparancy. I’m still searching for that material grail, but I’m 1 step closer…
Mattybyng: Thanks for your input… I’m partial to the horn piecrcing, as it emphasizes his impishness. But then again. I’m his daddy… I’m happy you like the rest of him though…
Bokowar: Thanks!
Maartmo: Gabba, Gabba, We accept you, We accept you, As one of us…
I don’t wanna be a Pinhead no more…Now I guess I gotta tell 'em, I ain’t got no cerebellum… I got to hang with The Ramones backstage in a roadhouse in south Jersey back in the summer of '83. An incredibly sweet bunch of guys. I still have the T-Shirt they all autographed for me…Christ I’m old…
Duke of Vampires: Thank you!
Sebcesoir: Thank you, my friend. As I’m a big fan of your work, I really appreciate the props…
Sirozz: Thank you. I put the material and lights up earlier in this thread, so download them and play…
MHS72 and Mattybyng: Thanks again. I’ll put up more hair info later today…
Yainderidoo: Some people like to do everything in Z-Brush. If I have time, I like to also, as I learn more. But sometimes it’s quicker working with what you know, software-wise…Oh, and thanks again…
VIV! Great to hear from you… I’m glad you like him. I think he’s my best so far…Still want to add one more thing to it…
Buckie: Thank you! I agree, I learned a LOT from this guy…
Well, that’s it for now. As I said, I’ll post the creation procees for this piece later today. It’ll take a bit to organize.
That is if my house is still here. We got a hell of a fire raging about 2 miles away. Just bloody huge…I can smell and see the smoke as I type…
Ahhh, the joys of living in Los Angeles…
Dickie
DOH! I forgot Poland! Errr…I mean I forgot Lord Binah, El-D and Drums!!
El-D: Those are indeed my influences…
It’s funny, even today, I still think of Punk and New Wave as “New” music. They’ve been around for 30 years now, those styles. As for the jacket, you are correct, my friend. It does look too new. I’ll have to go back and wear out the seams a little more…
Lord Binah: Thanks and I’ll be posting a tutorial later for the hair…I used the
Free Nagel brush set for Photoshop CS.
Drums: Thnaks again, my Brother. You and VIV always keep me inspired by your works and by your words. Hope all is well with you two…
Dickie
Well, so far the fire has spread considerably, but not in my direction, thank God. Whe I look out the living room window, all the trees behind me are outlined in orange, pink and purple. It’s beautiful, really. If you don’t consider the source.
I got stuck in evacuation traffic 2 hours ago. A lot of folks in the hills have been fleeing. If I step outside, I can hear the sirens. Both my daughter’s High School and College are being used as evacuation centers.
I just hope the wind don’t change direction…
More to come later…
A very nervous,
Dickie
I’ve got a lot of friends in the area. Hope all is well. Always scary when it jumps the freeway.
I’ll send ya some of the damn wind we got blowing today so you can blow it out or away.
Hope all stays well, don’t forget to grab your zbrush if you do have to go…after the family and pets of course!
good luck for you today my friend. I hope mother nature is in a good mooth
I’d wish rain for you, but you guys get mudslides too, don’t you? And earthquakes. Mountain Lions. Yipes.
I hope all works out fine. Got a number of friends in LA … I hate this annual fire season.
Luckily the fires are moving away from us, but I still fear for other folks homes…
Dickie
fantastic work
The fires are still burning here. The lighting is all tinted red from the smoke blocking the sun. We have a light ashfall going on here. I saw this during the last big fires we had. It looks like it’s snowing. It’s light at the moment. Last year I had an 1/8" of ash on all outside surfaces. Creepy.
Here are 3 images I took last night with my camera phone. Not too shabby for a phone-cam. They give a good idea of what it looks like here…
Sorry for spamming these, but they DO make good reference images…
Dickie
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘18941’,‘Fire_01.jpg’,1,0))
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘18942’,‘Fire_02.jpg’,1,0))
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘18943’,‘Fire_03.jpg’,1,0))
Attachments
Hi Dickie
Really good work. This little devil looks like somebody whom I know from Starbucks - actually two identical twins working at the caffeeshop. Your character has obviously lots of personality.
Very good and original work.
;)small_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond
Glad to hear your OK. I saw the thread last night and woke up wondering about it. Seems like destruction is the order of the day lately. I’m getting to where I don’t even want to turn on the news anymore.
Great Work on the model!!!
holy crap dickie! great shots but that’s too close for comfort! i have a wetland behind my house that caught fire a couple springs ago when it was still dried up growth from the year before. came right up to my back yard. nothing like what you’re talking about. it was small but i tell you what, 15 or 20 acres burned up in about a minute and a half. thankfully the fire dept was already on scene or my house would probably be gone. glad it’s blowing away from you…
Here is a picture of the ashfall on my car. I just took this 10 minutes ago.
It looks like it is snowing outside. When I was out there I was having a little trouble breathing. Very smoky now. I’m actually considering buggin’ out, but I have no where to go, really. I don’t want to put any friends in an inconveniant spot. Hopefully it would only be for the night.
The fires themselves are pretty far away, but the wind switched direction and is blowing the smoke and ashes here now. It smells like a burning fireplace and melted plastic. Actually, it pretty much smells like a dump fire.
17.000 acres on fire now, and only 5% contained. They say it’s a possibility that it might just burn straight through to the ocean. If it jumps the 101 freeway, it very well could. That will burn all the brush away and leave everything open to mudslides come the rainy season.
I’m almost done with my tutorial, so I’ll post that in about 1/2 hour…Then I just might consider that buggin’ out to a frinds place for the night idea…
Dickie
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘18946’,‘Ashfall.jpg’,1,0))
So faithful to us to stay and risk oneself for a tutorial…
ARE YOU CRAZY!?! GET THE HELL AWAY!!! LOL RUN! GRAB AN ANIMAL AND TUCK IT UNDER YOUR ARM AND RUN!
Seriously, how far away is it from you? If I lived close by (on the opposite coast) I would be more than happy to put you up for the night.
Hope you the best man.
OK, here is the basic steps I did to create the punk imp.
First I modeled the head in Z-Brush from a sphereized cube. It’s my favorite form to start from. I sometimes use Z-Spheres, but for most heads I go with the sphereized cube. More even polygon distribution, on the whole.
I added pores and wrinkles with projection master. I also used projectionmaster to paint him.
[]
I played with materials and lights for a few days and came up with a material I was happy with. You can find it earlier in this thread. I then made the jacket from Z-spheres that I made into a Unified Skin. I use unified skin instead of adaptive skin because it gives me a more uniform polygon distribution and also looks closer to what the Z-spheres represent than the adaptive skin. (On the whole) I also made the rivets out of a squashed sphere and modeled the glasses in LW modeler (Faster for me).
[]
I then made a Fake Sub Surface Scattering pass using this thread as guidance:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=27709
I ended up colorizing the SSS pass and using it as a rim light.
I also copied the original render of the Imp and used soft light and screen passes to increase contrast and adjust the general color of his skin.
I also sharpened the soft light pass with the sharpen filter in PS to bring out his pores and skin detail.
[]
Lastly I painted hair using the excellent Nagel Brush tools that work in Photoshop CE. Unfortunately the only work in PS CE. They work with your Wacom tablet and the hairs flow with your strokes. Paint the dark underlying hair first and work up in lightness then finally the highlights. These are free brushes created by David Nagel. I use the series 19 and 21 hair brushes. They can be found here:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshopbrushes/
I found these through a Z-Brush forum link created by Handlebar. Thank you Handlebar. These have helped me immensly in creating stylized hair. You can also use the Fiber brush in Z-Brush. The nice thing about the fiber brush is it makes it’s own shadow. Since I used the Nagel brushes, I had to make my own. This is done by painting the hair and then cloning the layer and multiplying it over the render but under the hair painting. Just shift the multiplied layer a few pixels to the right or left, depending on your lighting.
[]
There you have it. The steps I used to create this. I discovered I want to add a hand holding a cigarette, so I still am going to add that to the image. I’ll also adjust his jacket, as it’s too shiny now. I start work again Monday, so I’ll finish this stuff up tonight, I believe.
I hope someone gets some new tricks and techniques out of this. I had a great time making it and learning a few new tricks myself…
Dickie
Bravo, Dickie…very informative tut…I know I will be scouring over it a few times in the coming days…
thnx also for sharing those photos…very interesting stuff…
stay safe
(now back to the Exorcist…ya gotta love the classics )
Well, the wind changed again and the smoke is now blowing away from us. This is a good thing. It only smells like someone is using their fireplace now. We still got a little ashfall, but I blew the majority of the ashes off the car with some canned air. As ashes are acidic, it’s always a good idea to get them off any painted surfaces, just in case of rain. Not that rain is in the near future here. So for now we are staying put. I hope no other Z-Brushers are in the path of this beast. Or anyone else for that matter. More later…
Dickie