Concept Sculpture and Zbrush Model

I decided to take one of my clay concept sculptures through to Zbrush 4R5. I started modelling from a dynamesh sphere. Renderings were done in Zbrush and composited in Photoshop. I love Zbrush, still have so much to learn, but it's becoming more intuitive the more time I spend with it.

The model is still a work in progress. I softened her features quite a bit for the Zbrush iteration.

Mask Making Workshop

I'm very excited to announce I will be teaching a course in mask making in beautiful Victoria BC on the weekend of June 1st and 2nd.

I will also be teaching sculpting courses in Vancouver this fall. If interested, please drop me a comment below and I will send you further details.

Zbrush Rendering with Compositing in Photoshop

So after having some success with the last rendering, I thought I'd try working on another character I did ages ago but never finished. This Victorian fellow was originally intended to be printed and assembled in one of my clocks. I hope to complete that one of these days. Wally was modelled in Maya and Zbrush 4R2, then textured and rendered in Zbrush 4R5 with final compositing in Photoshop. I'm going to render off some of the pigs from the short now that I have a better grasp on rendering in ZBrush. Can't wait.

I took a couple of months off the short recently, so I could work on some concept work for 3 IP's I'm developing with Mike Erskine-Kellie, a writer friend of mine in Toronto. He's written some exceptionally funny stories, and it seemed natural that we should collaborate on these projects together. So for the past two months, I've been working almost entirely in Zbrush and a little Maya, to develop these concepts. I'd been working fairly sporadically with Zbrush until 2 months ago and had been quite frustrated, as I'd forget all the features I'd learned and basically had to relearn the process every time I would get back to dabbling the software. Now that I've been using it everyday, I finally feel like I'm making inroads. Here's the latest character modelled in maya, zbrush, textured lit and rendered in zbrush and composited in photoshop. I still have a lot to learn on the lighting and rendering side, but I'm starting to enjoy it more. I'll post more when he's rigged and I've modelled the blendshapes.

I'm still busy working away on my short. Progress has it's fits and starts and if it wasn't for the contributions of a few very talented people I wouldn't be as far along as I am. Here's a shout out to all those who've been working with me during the past year and a bit.

Adam Cable: Versatility is this man's middle name. An awesome artist who's great concept and storyboarding work helped get the short up and running.

Mike Peredo: A great friend who's contributed in ways he doesn't know I value. Thank you for all the times you've calmed me down and helped put out those fires when I had no one else to turn to!

Maykol Choqque: I feel very fortunate indeed to have him working on one of our rigs. A very talented Character Animator and Character TD.

Devan Mussato: Another big contributor to the short, Devan created our pig rigs.

Alex Liki: A very talented artist who's been contributing to our Character lineup.

Heather McNabb: A wonderful Animator who's also been exercising her drawing skills on our storyboards and design work.

Alicia Kroeker: She's had a major hand in putting together our layout who has since moved on to Bardel. I wish her the very best.

Mike Erskine-Kellie: A mad Writer genius, who's input has helped prop up my spirits when my enthusiasm waned. (Working on a short for almost a year can be very trying at times indeed!)

Mark Holmes: For the invaluable critique when I really needed it.

Joyce Moller: For your spiritual and financial support.

Andy Asperin and Louie Hinayo: I can't say enough good things about these guys. They are two of the best guys I've ever worked with and although they haven't animated on this particular short, they did animate my previous short film and are a huge part of my wanting to continue down this road. Hopefully I will get another chance to work with them again.

Thanks to all! Onward.......

Happy Holidays Everyone!

My pigs and I just want to wish all my friends a Happy Holiday! 

Halloween 2012

It poured with rain on Saturday and as I didn't fancy getting wet, went for dinner with a good friend instead. Kimberly and I did don our costumes briefly last night to watch some local fireworks. I resurrected the mask I'd started a number of years ago, but never completed.

There was only a wire mesh support, which needed to be finished with papier mache and painted. My time was short as I didn't want to take too much time away from the short, but it was enough time to create a wearable mask. I would have liked to have attached the hair, but ran out of time. Perhaps next year I'll finish off the rest of the costume.

Animation has Begun!

Yes, we've finally started animating the short, with the first shot almost complete!  We still have quite a few background characters to rig and I'm still playing around with hair concepts. Here's a character modeled in Maya and Zbrush using the new FiberMesh for the hair. I'm liking the effects, but not quite satisfied with the final results yet.