#avrilgibbonart

[avrilgibbon]

Project: Draconic Lady - Posing

Concept: @arttasysworld

I actually finished this step back in May but never got to posting it because I have had a pretty big life project I have been working on. Now it's mostly sorted I can get back to finishing this off!

For posing I actually experimented with a couple of new tools like Mixamo and Maya's quick rig, but in the end they more than what I needed to pose her for just a still render. So I went back to what I knew, just builiding a basic rig, which was quick and got the job done.

I always do love the posing stage, it's when I feel like a model actually starts to take on life, I got really excited at this point as she was really coming together.

To move the bulk of the hair I just used a latice deformer and then manually adjusted indivdual hair strands into the position that I wanted. Making sure to keep an eye on the camera view so it would look as close to the concept as possible.

She is now ready for the final stage! I have been hanging to get into Unreal for so long now, but maybe the delay was a good thing. I have seen a bunch of new YouTube tutorials come out for exactly what I want to do so that's going to be handy.

[avrilgibbon]

Project: Draconic Lady - Test Render

Concept: @arttasysworld

So I have become kind of stuck, frustrated, not sure where I am headed with the breakup and flyaways stage.

I started to realise through the process that I had probably made both the strands and the actual hair chunks too thick with not enough variation or clumps within the actual cards. Placing any of my "flyaway" cards without them starting to cover up the cards underneath was proving really hard to do. They also just weren't looking light or fluffy to me like I felt they should. I also just wasn't sure how the hair line was looking and just overall a bit lost on what to do.

I realised a lot of my concern was coming from not being sure if it was actually looking any good, possibly from staring at it for too long.

So I decided to try and do a test render. Initially I thought I might jump ahead and get into unreal to see how it was looking, often I find when you're learning something new a lot of doubt comes from being unsure of the next stage. But after opening UE, looking at a couple of tuts I just kinda noped outta that idea. It was definitely going to take too long to learn how to get her in there, which would ultimately push finishing the hair out further.

And. I Just. Want. It. Done.

So I decided to just set up the Arnold shaders and see how that turned out. I realise Arnold is going to look different to UE but the purpose is to push me forward and see what I can do with the cards I have. Like am I just being pedantic or can I just make this work and get it done?

The first problem of course was that the Albedo was super desaturated, which I had noticed when creating the texture maps. I have no idea why this was and I wasn't going back to figure it out so I just adjusted the levels in photoshop.

Once I was happy with the colour I was glad to see that it wasn't looking too bad and rendering it definitely gave me the perspective I needed to see what I need to do next.

I did a bit of a draw over, identifying what needed to be done:

The left side hairline line isn't too bad, I think I can just add some transitional pieces

Right side needs work: It's too far back and needs to be filled out underneath some more.

The entire thing needs to have loose, single strands that don't all flow with the overall shape and hide/breakup those flatter pieces on top

Lots of fluffy, flyaway, curly bits near the ears and caught on the horns

Now I think I am ready to just get this shit knocked over.

[avrilgibbon]

Project: Draconic Lady - Hair Blockout

Concept: @arttasysworld

Finished the blockout , as expected placement took a long time and a bit to get used.

Started off with a skull cap that I am still debating whether I or not to use, as I think her hair line is looking ok without it (first image) Especially once I add some breakup/flyaways. But it was good to have as a starting point

I played around with making a few different hair card types as I wasnt exactly sure what I would need or what would look good.

Following along with one of the tutorials/videos I was using, I added 3 deformers: Bend, Sine & Twist. This made me realise that I really could have relied purely on the deformers to create the curly/wavy shape rather than trying to shape the splines. Something I noticed some other people doing was re-using the same hair cards for other characters and just adjusting the shape/size. Which I thought was a good way to save on time.

Got a few placed and I was honestly pretty excited to see it all start coming together! It felt like I had been in learning purgatory for so long which always makes you feel like you arent making any "real" progress because you can't see or show what you have been doing. Obvioulsy learning how to is part of the progress, I find it just gets frustrating if it goes on too long. It's usually at that point I stop being so careful about the results and just start doing shit!

Started doing regular mirror tests after each row to check how it was looking. Once I completed all the rows:

I cleaned up/organised my outliner

Mirrored each row, re-naming everything as I went.

Then went back through each layer again, fixing any mirroring to look less symetrical.

Now onto Breakup and Flyaways.....

[avrilgibbon]

Witches Hearth 

Low poly, hand painted

For the Brisbane CGI Group Magic Challenge

First attempt at hand painted textures and due to be sick I didn’t get enough time to work on them. May return to this at a later stage.

[avrilgibbon]

First piece I have finished in for - EVER! Been trying to get this one done since 2012! Will have to post my progress because every time I came back to it I had to fix things.

This baby is going to the character I model for the Creat3d art exhibit.

Cant wait to get started ^_^

[purchasedharpy]

Sketch for today, I quite like how her face turned out. Too bad about the rest.... . . . #sketchaday #avrilgibbonart #artistofinstagram #sketchesoninstagram #art

[avrilgibbon]

While I wait for renders, I'll draw boobs.

[purchasedharpy]

While waiting for renders, I'll draw boobs . . . #avrilgibbonart #sketchesoninstagram #sketches #art #artistofinstagram

[avrilgibbon]

Full Image of my piece for the Creat3d art exhibit. 

Will be fixing up the textures and a few other things on this character to get her animation ready for a short action animation I want to use her in next year.

So basically, you will be seeing a lot more of her!  

[avrilgibbon]

Finished sculpting on my Bounty hunter character. Very happy with her hair, face and Armour. 

Cant wait to show this off at the exhibit on Friday! 

[avrilgibbon]

Some sculpting progress on my model, have to finish this off tonight so I can start texturing. 

[avrilgibbon]

Base mesh is done, jumping into Zbrush today! 

[avrilgibbon]

Bit of a progress update for my character for the Creat3d art exhibit. Only 3 more weeks to go and still so much left to do >_<