Outstanding work nickz, really great series of tutorials, although sometimes my veoh player doesent work, nothing to do with your vid it happens on load of other ones not sure whats wrong
I had just watched your stuff last night. Come in this morning and now I see more! I can’t keep up with you. Haha.
Yup, when I saw him moving and lean back that was much better :D. I’m happy i didn’t offend you about his centre of gravity. Thanks for all the videos 
Cheers
Brett
In this post I’m going to talk a little bit about how I took my previous work and added to it to produce an illustration.
[attach=90493]buildingAnIllustration.jpg[/attach]
The first thing that I did was create some moons for my background.
[attach=90494]makingMoonDust.jpg[/attach]
Here is a video that shows this process.
[veoh]v1561714wgRanwJh[/veoh]
Once I had my final moon built I looked around on the surface to find a good start to some valleys and hills that I could use for the main piece of my background. Once I found a section that I was happy with I exported that small section out to Maya and put it into my 3D layout that I choose. From here I had a new model that I resurfaced to get some clean geometry, I then used the project all button in the sub tool palette to project the old geometry onto the new geometry. I then sculpted out the hills and valleys to a higher level of fidelity.
Once my mid ground and background were complete I worked on creating a cliff face that my character would stand on.
[attach=90495]makingCliffFace.jpg[/attach]
Here is the video that shows how I built this piece.
[veoh]v1561718rGYQmR63[/veoh]
I am currently working on some new background elements for this piece so I am not quite ready to show the final piece.
I will show an update soon. I promise!
Peace,
NickZ. 
P.S. Thanks to all for the kind words.
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Awesome. What you’re showing and demonstrating is absolutely incredible. You’re a fantastic artist and teacher 
It’s a comprehensive rundown of the disciplines necessarry to survive as a 3D Artist.
Any chance you recorded your UVunwrapping session? UVs, more than anything, seem to prevent me from ever finishing a character. Deciding on where to place seams always seems just too intimidating. 
Anyway, thank you again for these videos and your indispensible knowledge. 
@nickz really neat mate, indeed, you are a gurú.
could you please explain this? " I then used the project all button in the sub tool palette to project the old geometry onto the new geometry "
In the video looks so easy but I cannot fully understand how you do that.
thanks in advance
Great video tutor Nickz. you are my teacher now. thank you very much for share this. 
DentureCream - Sorry I didn’t record too much for UV’s. UV’s are pretty boring. The tools are getting a lot better for generating auto UV’s. As far as seams go, put them where you will see them the least. Look at a clothing for inspiration on where you might want to run you seams.
Anibalin - look back a page in this post. I made a whole video on this subject.
Gookle - No prob! Glad to help!
Here is a craft that I made for my illustration. I still need to render all my craft in the final lay out and then comp them in the final illustration. Then I shall show the world!
[attach=90496]AS_craft_render_01.jpg[/attach]
Peace be with you,
NickZ.
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Should we prepare for the “second coming”
nickz,
Beautiful colors and design. Brings the best of Moby Dick, and Steam Punk adventures together in one interstellar whale. Awesome work.
And thanks for the quick UV tip / philosophy. Treating chacter geometry literally as skins and fabric does take some of the intimidation factor away.
Hopefully this gets rendered at 80000 or so pixels. Maybe paste it the Pixologic building during siggraph. 
NickZ Very cool design, sculpt.
Thank you for sharing your work! I like seeing the entire process, it’s so cool.
will you elaborate on the Maya Rigging process, specifically
The rigging process (clusters?) before you created the bones?
Pride- Yes. We are to always watch for the coming of the messiah. Peace be with you during your Christmas break.
Denture Cream - Thanks for all your kind words buddy!
Sadicus -“will you elaborate on the Maya Rigging process, specifically The rigging process (clusters?) before you created the bones?”
Sure, I just select an edge loop, convert those to verts, then I build a cluster. This will make a cluster in the center of your selection, once that is made you can then snap to the cluster, so when I draw a bone I just hold down the V key and my new bones will snap to the cluster postion.
Hope this helps,
NickZ.
OK, I am calling this illustration done. I wish the flying craft that I built would have worked out but they just were not fitting with the final piece. Oh well I had fun making them.
I hope everyone enjoys the render.
[attach=90497]AS_planet_final_1920X1080.jpg[/attach]
Peace be with you,
NickZ.
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Wonderful illustration
I think you have enough going on in the background. I really like the way the focus is obvious and the pose and expression are perfect. Thank you for the thread as it was very informative.
Exceptional finale.
You could always use the whale as a talisman to hang on his staff or around his neck, and use it as an excuse to make a soft, biolumenscent blue fill light in his darkest shadows.
The dramatic pose and lighting, here, though, is plenty.
Thank you for the epic walkthrough and completing the illustration. All-time classic.
really great work! you definitely made me so curiouss that I wanna try to do the same thing with real time shader 
congrats
Your render has given him a rather ‘God-like’ quality
Should we be reading a message in the beLIEve title? Nice piece of work.
good
This looks fantastic. Well done Nick. The best part is that it can actually move :D. I like the pose. Its strong and proud. The lay out of the image is good too. Your eye flows around the image. Congrats.
I wonder what it will look like with some sss. I know its over used nowadays. But hey. It looks cool. Haha.
I hope to see this on the top row
Cheers
Brett
very nice iilustration !
it comes wonderfull