Dinumsaurs Part 2

Ok, my initial concept for my nephew's birthday piece involved sculpting some dinosaurs, and then rendering them in Maya to get a cleaner image.  Although the final product was acceptable, it began to bother me.  Not following through with pieces is not a usual occurrence for me.  But if I do so happen to stop working at a project, it is usually because I did a rush job in the beginning, and back tracking would not be worth my time.  So, in any case, I made sure the models were sculpted properly, with clean UVs and flawless geometry.  So if I were to back track and revisit this project, It wouldn't be too time consuming.
I love Maya, for all it can do and all it has taught me, but the rendering portion is very time consuming.  Being a 2D illustrator, I enjoy speed when working digitally.  So I did a little research on alternate 3D Modeling software, and stumbled upon Modo.  I downloaded the trial version, ripped through the basic tutorials, and voila!
The lighting is a bit blown out, and some of the cast shadows are weird, but I like it.  So I'm done.

Enjoy!

Dinumsaurs

I just finished this piece yesterday.  Made it for my nephew's birthday present.  I think he liked it... As much as any three year old could.  He really loves those dinosaurs.

Enjoy!

Here's the original sketch concept.

S'More Frag 3D

I've been screwing around in ZBrush again.... I love this guy! He makes me laugh.  Seems there is a real life Frag in my city!
Enjoy!!!

Noob 3D Lines

Just threw on some lines and additional color to an old 3D render.
Enjoy!

Noob.... Nuff Said

Inside The Mind of...

Hello again! I hate these long breaks between projects. Work takes soooo much out of me, yet the creative juices are boiling over in my brain.  Haven't seriously worked the cintiq in about a month, other than some chicken scratch.  But in an effort to keep the blog roll spinning, here is a collage of a couple of older pieces.  It captures the essence of the characters, if you know the whole story... ;)
I know that I need to do this book, but I keep talking myself out of it.....

Push Btn

Pushing "Resistance" to the side and moving forward, whether it sucks or not.
Recently got a shot of inspiration from the book, The War Of Art, by Steven Pressfield.
I recommend it to anyone who procrastinates any endeavor.

Enjoy!

Update!

Rather than move on to something new... I decided to explore new layer types, to obtain a new look, and add some vibrance to my workflow.  The Linear Dodge and Pin Line layers seem to make some cool effects, when your goal is to blow out a specific portion of an image.

BREAK!!!

So after putting in serious hours, I've finally got a little sample of what I had initially set out to produce.

Gremlins Attack!!!

Lately I've been on a Gremlins kick. I love those old 80's movies! They make me feel like a kid again. I'm such a fan, that I spent a few weeks sculpting one. I also spent a few weeks working on texture maps and scene lighting in Maya. I do it because I love it. Here is what I've come up with so far, but there is more to come!

I like when other artists post the preliminary steps taken to get to the final product, so here is some of the early renders.

Squidbilly... In 3D!

Finally finished! Started in ZBrush, and ended in Photoshop.
Seems not too many people know about Squidbillies, so I'd suggest checking it out!
Render Passes were done in Maya, and it took forever to get the lighting and materials right. But I learned a lot.

Enjoy!

Brian

Just a quick sculpt and render of Brian.
Enjoy!!! Oh, and Merry Christmas!!!

Classic Wolverine Portrait

Screwed around in ZBrush again... Just can't stay away! Gotta get it right buddy!
Stayin' up all night can't be good for you....
Was having fun, then I f'd around and forgot to save it...... epic fail....:(

Enjoy!

Santa Sculpt

Just a quick wakeup sculpture from this morning.

Enjoy... With some Tunes!

Angry Birds!

Still pluggin' away at Maya and ZBrush.
I've got big plans, but don't want to mention them until I'm almost done!
Just did a speed model of some Angry Birds fan art.
Modeled and rendered in Maya/Mental Ray.

Another Raphael 3D Pose

I love this bust for some reason... But I need to move on.
I started sculpting a Turtle Body a couple of days ago.

S'more TMNT Madness!!!

It's been so long since I've posted anything, but I didn't just want to post another sketch or crappy painting. I wanted to post something I've been working very hard to master.... and that is ZBrush!
I've been busting my azz, pushing one of my other projects aside, so that I can feel comfortable with ZBrush. I don't know why, but I just love sculpting now. I still draw and paint, but this adds a whole new method of composing pieces that I would have never tried before. I've so fare learned to use Maya, Mudbox, Google Sketchup, and so far ZBrush is what I'm drawn to. Maya is cool for the rendering and creating hard edged objects, but ZBrush feels like I'm back to sculpting that big clump of red clay my mom used to use around the house.
There will be a lot more to come, but this is it for now....
Enjoy!

Guess Who's Back SUCKA!!?

Still workin' away at my comic, book illustrations, studies, etc.....
I'll confess though, the majority of my time has been dedicated to learning ZBrush inside out. I took a break after that treacherous month of working with Mudbox, creating my Warrior character... A learning experience, but very very treacherous! It's now ZBrush all the way baby! I like it just for fooling around, and since I've spent so much time self teaching, I might as well go all the way with it.

Here is my Frag. I did about 10 render passes in ZBrush and came up with this. I think this is the style I wanted for my comic, but I might make it more cell shady looking in the final comics.

Enjoy!

3D Noob

In my inbetween Illustration time, I've been experimenting with my characters in ZBrush. I'm thinking it may be faster to finish my comics if I don't have to worry about drawing them over and over. I can just pose them and add the captions.

Sculpted in ZBrush4

Enjoy!

Final Warrior Entry!

The time has come, where I've gotta suck it up and post my final finished rendering of my Warrior.
It's been quite some time, but I think I'm ready to let him go.
I checked out the entries so far, and they are all really beautiful.... in their own way. Some are wicked awesome though!
So here it is!
Enjoy!!!

Fun With Lighting & Poses

I was just screwing around with some of the posing and lighting of my model today. I'm almost finished, and I want to start over again!
I enjoyed adding the Blood effects!