Live Blog 2011 #1

Working away on my ART Evolved feathered Dinosaur, while talking to Peter Bond.

While we've worked on art while talking together on skype in the past, the new feature of being able to share live screen shots, has massively increased the experience. Not only can we discuss our art, we can take the other through our process. Amazingly fun stuff.

I finished rigging and feathering the Troodon.

However as rigging 100's of individual feathers is slowing things to a near halt I'm tempted to engage in a short side project of "billboard" decal replacements that might let me not slow down.

Elephant Live Blog 4

So after a little bit more work last night, and a bit this morning my Mammoth is done!

While I shall force you to wait till the Gallery's opening to view the final version here is a preview of things to come...
So here is my sad little guy in the middle of his arctic abyss...

In the final version he is posed and there is a bit more going on in the environment, but only a bit more.

The only clue you get is this epic fail of a render I tried with my snow effect. What is going on with the snow you'll have to predict.

So that concludes my live blogging for this gallery. This must constitute my shortest 3Ding creation for ART Evolved, but I was aiming for something simple and non time consuming. I have a lot of other projects on the go. All due this New Year!

Elephant Live Blog 3

Here we are, nearly the end of my first day's attempt, and my critter is 75% done after a mere 4 hours. A first for sure.

A quick aside. The cartoony fur job was inspired by an ancient screw up on my part way way back when... Looked bad back then, hilarious now. So remember kids, always learn from your mistakes!

So starting on the Mammoths face.

The tusks needed to be brought down.

This first attempt at the trunk half looks funny as the shader didn't match...

Furring the face has been proving a challenge much like the feet...

First thing I did was seperate the head into a forehead "blub" and face. This way I could make the face fur thinner and the blub thicker.

Again the eye holes were proving a titch fussy...

It took a few tries...

However a little preserverance and you can manage anything!

Elephant Live Blog 2

So got a leg done just before post 1.

Here is my progress with it.

Here is how they started.

Adding hair to them I got this. Wasn't totally happy with their orientation.

A slight tweak later, and presto! Contentness...

Now to add some toes. This was proving a titch harder than I thought...

However with some patient reapplying of my replicator I cleared enough space for the toes.

So now I had to add the toes. Which on the first go were too tight to each other.

However with the hair clearing I'd done gave me the effect I was going for.

Though I'd cleared a bit too much of the shag from the inside...

So a quick Adjeustment and we were right as rain.

I'd almost be embrassed to post this thing as just the modelling I've done. It is nice and simple, which on one hand is kind of neat. Yet it isn't that impressive...

Adding my hair (which has been proving to be about 70% of my time expended) I get something rather impressive!

He is a virtual muppet!!!

Now on to the imposing task of the head...

Elephant Live Blog 1

Righteo, a Mammoth is the order of the day. I still don't have a clue what I'm aiming to do.

I do know I have NO interest in a full on scientific reconstruction of one at this point in time. Mammals bore me most of the time, and frankly I have no use for a Mammoth. So rather then enter into the very time consuming process of making a realistic Mammoth, I'm aiming for something not real...

What and how I have no clue!

So I've spent the last 40 mins playing around.


I've so far only really built the body. It is a simple thing, but should suffice for the moment.

Espeically when I add the Wolly part to it, it looks not too bad. Though the Wolly was a bit too big here.

So I've just been playing with the size of the shaginess.
This was what I ended up deciding on.

However I tried the next size down which ended up looking TOO real...

Added the shader, and I think I'm off to a good start.

I've just started on legs, but literally just started. So I'll leave them to next hours post, as I expect they'll take up the majority of that time.

Live Blogging Mammoth

Been a while since I've live blogged (been a while since I've had time to do anything on this blog really). So here we go...
Start watching here every hour for progress on my upcoming Elephant. Not sure what I'm doing yet, so this should be fun for all of us!

Into the Deep

You know for a very unemployed teacher, I still get up to a lot!

In good news I had a job interview this weekend! Its for a summer day camp gig, and I'm optimistic (I have worked 8 years worth of summer camps!). Immediately after that interview I attended Leonard Nimoy's "last" public appearance (so they claim anyways). Instead of waiting in the Olympic sized line ups to see Mr. Spock, I instead met the very very VERY nice William Stout (more on this encounter on ART Evolved soon!).

In bad news still no leads on teaching, that alone any interviews... It doesn't help that the local skool board requires a million references (those I have) AND a million reference letters! New Zealanders typically aren't into or wanting reference letters, so producing (and acquiring) these has proven a real barrier. Working on a solution today.

Anyways with that out of the way (this is supposed to be an art post... but since I haven't updated the blog in over a week, thought you might like a snap shot into where I'm at) now for the topic at hand!

Now I'll be the first to admit, this particular round of live blogging has been pretty sad. My life (and Lady R's) just hasn't been stable enough for me to sit down and dedicate the time to properly documenting the construction of my Ichthyosaur. Hopefully by the next gallery I'll be able to make a better go of it.

Anyways I've managed to not only rig my Shonisaurus, but pose a small pod of them. I'm onto the crucial step of lighting, which when you're underwater can be 80% of the piece's success.

I am aiming for something a little different than my usual pieces. Since most Ichthyosaurs are thought to have eaten cephelopods (aka squid, octopus, and several extinct tentacled relatives of theirs) I wanted a scene that matched the most likely time or place you'd see a fish lizard hunt.

As most modern cephelopods tend to operate in environments with little or no light, I envision my Shonisaurs having to either dive really deep or at night time to catch their calamari. As of such I wanted a very dark water background.

Here are the current variants I have (squid not included). I have combined them in thumbnail versions as sometimes this small format can be quite enlightening. When rendering I often can't zoom out. Rather I'm right up close. So shrinking these all to their web browswer thumbnail size helps me see what a stranger googling might see them as.

The differences are:

• A. Has a minimalist lighting suit, aka 1 light source and thus very true to life)
  
• B. Having an additional creature light. This light only illuminates the Ichthyosaurs (and squid when they are present). Thus keeping the nice dark watery abyss of the background.

• C. Has a maximized lighting suit. In this case I've turned on the "light cone" (aka rays) of the second creature light which now brightens up the water background colour.

In thumbnail version I think C is the most effective. However it also looks exactly the same as my usual water scenes. Personally C is my least favourite (for this project), and I'd very much like to avoid it if I can.

Take a look at the bigger versions to see my thinking...

A. Here my Ichthyosaurs are mere silhouettes for the most part, against a ever slightly lighter background.

It is not the easiest piece to discern, but I like the mysterious quality it lends my subject matter. Shonisaurs have long baffled people through its sheer size (it was as big as a medium sized balleen whale!), its lack of teeth (how did it eat?), and being from so long ago.

At the same time I did put enough effort into the model, especially the anatomical proportions, I'd like people to be able to see that work.

So A is not my favourite configuration, but as you'll see not my least favourite either.

B. Here my Shonisaurs are caustically lite by water ripple highlights.

Frankly I feel this version is the best. I captures most of the mystery from above, while giving you a fleeting idea of what the big silhouettes vaguely look like. It also keeps my deep sea scene looking deep. Probably best of all the light shafts give this a slightly painted quality.

Its only flaw is that reduced in size it gets hard to tell what the piece is.

C. Differs from the other two, in that the lighter background makes the Shonisaurs stick out in crystal clarity.

While this might on face value be a good thing I didn't want yet another identical water piece to all the others I've done.

Though Shonisaurs C is set on a darker background then my Anomalocaris here, they aren't that drastically different either. Compare especially piece B to this, and you'll see what I mean.

So what are your thoughts, as I setup the squid for the final render.

Which of the three lighting suits should I use?

Ichthyosaur Live Blogging 2

My live blogging sort of continues, but yet doesn't...


Due to a chaotic evening schedule I wasn't able to get posts up the way I'd planned.
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First thing I did was plop my now "complete" Shonisaurus into his water environment.

Though the ocean setting he is in is among my best, I don't claim to have created it tonight. This is all lighting and settings from my previous ocean projects. I simply stuck him into them.

Next came shading him.

This is where his current shader is sitting at. I decided to go with something different from modern whales and sharks. Though light on the bottom and dark on top I went with a middle layer.

Not sure I entirely like it. Let me know your thoughts.

However due to the power of my previous ocean work he can be made to look awesome.

If I just wanted to phone it in, I could call it quits tonight. However I'm not sure I want to, as I've always wanted to do a proper tribute to Betsey Nicholls (the passed away discoverer of the giant Canadian Shonisaurus in BC).

So tune in tomorrow when I resume on this guy, and get into some attempts at serious detail modelling.

Ichthyosaur Live Blogging Begins... After a fashion

Man things have been way too busy!

Time to get to another project I need to finish before the end of the month...
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So I claim this is live blogging, but in reality this is a bringing you up to speed post.

So last year I began on a Shonisaurus. This is where it got too. I thought it wasn't so great, but figured I might as well check to see if anything was salvageable (it is always easier to work with an existing model than having to start from scratch... you save a little bit of time).


Man was I floored to find out, despite getting lots wrong on the vertical proportions, overall my Shoni was spot on horizontally! The length of the tail, body, and head were nearly correct!!!

I just had to modify the heights of all of them...

First the head needed fixing.

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Then the body proportions.

Finally he needed some flippers.

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So there is where he stands now.

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Let the real work begin...

Live Blogging: Okay not so live...

Due to the precious and limited nature of the time we had/have available, I opted to not post anymore on my progress from last night. The sacrifice was worth it I'd venture (especially as not many of you would have been as foolish as us and still awake into the early morning).

Here is where Mr. Rex ended up.

Key improvements include:

• New and improved leg to hip connection
• Way better toes
• Refined claws
• A total overhaul of the arms/hands
• Experimental lips (not sure how I like these yet...)

There are a few things that still need work. I have to put all the lip scales back, and maybe a few new little details.

JUST before I went to bed in the wee hours of the night I threw together a quick skeletal rig to test pose him.

I think he is starting to look pretty sweet already. Though I need to fix the foot area of the rig. Still not bad for a 10 minute stab at it.

So I present to you the Bond/Dylke hybrid 3D Tyrannosaur!