Spring is here and Mr. Dachshund wants to say hi

So, there is a small chance that I promised you guys some realistic sculpting and…it might have turned into an animal related mobile game featuring  a cartoon dog, thanks to a late night conversation with my best programmer buddy. Umn, whoops.  But then again, when a creative idea strikes, it tends to steal your mind! So everyone, meet Mr Dachshund. I am not comfortable telling what kind of character he will be, because it will be funnier to see him in action. Still, I thought it would be cool to share a sneak peek of the small fella. I am also doing a rare deed and sharing a sketch of him. Besides drawing frequently has really helped me to understand the 2D space and nature of character design, I’m still shy sharing illustrations publicly, although this won’t be a permanent state of things. Rome just was not build in day.

What is happening next: I’m planning to keep the look really cartoony, but we will research the possibility to use a normal map, although it probably will still be too expensive for the cellphone technology. Maybe some toying around with the ao to get a good basis for the texturing process, and then negotiate with the programmer should the light be baked into the diffuse. Also maybe optimise the model slightly, just to be on the safe side. We both are not super experienced with these things, but definitely eager, and believe, that this is what counts. So stay tuned, once you see what we are gonna do with this fella, you are sure to have a good laugh!

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Phase 1: basic geometry in place

A quick sketch of what I’m after.

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Zbrushing ‘n people sketching: Getting out of the comfort zone

Excellent new year to everyone! After taking a long deserved holiday, I am back to learning new techniques and pushing personal boundaries -mine and others; Me and another girl decided to invade a coffee house today, and practice our drawing skills on the other customers. It might be a bit naughty thing to do, but we try to be discreet. We are meeting later today. I feel excited already, as I tend to be somewhat shy and avoid conflicts. But this will definitely be good for me, in matters of learning and in matters of courage -and if I get caught, I can always offer to draw a portrait as compensation? (and then run fast if the other person doesn’t find it funny!)

As I felt it would make a great combo, I started picking up Zbrush simultaneously with drawing. Previously being a Mudbox user, the UI in Zbrush is a labyrinth of madness and pure horror. If it came just to UI, I wouldn’t leave Mudbox, but raw firepower of options and variability is really a much better reason to base a choice to, and that Zbrush has covered. I am still watching tutorials and trying to progress one area at the time, making sure I understand what I’m seeing and am able to repeat the commands. Sometimes the UI causes random screams like “what the hell, why is that there” and “who would….why….” and “that doesn’t….It can’t…..” but it won’t get the better of me. All those horrible UI design failures will not scare me away.

So the wintery sun is shining, cat is being lazy, and creativity and excitement are flowing. There is a good chance I’ll be posting some of my anatomy rehearsals from Zbrush in the near future. All in all everything is going steady, and I am soon moving into actual sculpting and producing few prototypes before engaging into long term projects. I plan to gain a deep level of understanding of this program and really weld it a sturdy part of my arsenal of tools.

The wonderful grand’ma project: completion of the grand’ma

So, here you have folks: One wholesome grand’ma. Fully textured and rigged, good to go for Unity, for even complicated animations. The rig has been done using rigify and automatic weights, which calculated absolutely everything horribly wrong and had to be tweaked manually from scratch. I guess there are no people outside size 2 even in the virtual world? Never the less, I am  happy how this character turned out. The rig was challenging because of the body shape deviating so much from the “norm”, but now the movement is quite natural. Her face is using shape keys, which didn’t put up nearly as much a fight as the rig did, but took long because I had too much fun making them! I am taking a short break now before starting the next model in the series (the grumpy huge cat), looking back and being a little proud of myself. (You can check my Marmoset Toolbag 2 renderings of her at my gallery portion.) Whew, what a grand’ma!

The wonderful grand’ma: rigged and textured
by faeriel
on Sketchfab

The wandering grand’ma: stage2

This eldredly lady has now her highpolys in order. A throughout normal mapping  is soon to follow.

The wandering grand'ma stage2
by faeriel
on Sketchfab

Thoughts about launching a sister portfolio focused on realtime graphics

As I have had time to consider my interests in 3D thoroughly, it really seems without a doubt, that the interest for the world of gaming burns the brightest. A seasoned collegue pointed out a while ago, that it is problematic for me, that as is, my pieces of real time graphics don’t stand out from this portfolio as much as they should. I do have a powerful filter tool on this site, but now that I look at it with the eyes of a recruiter specialized on a certain spesific field, that really might be too time consuming way to preview my works.

The more I have have thought about this comment, the more I think this calls for a change, as I do want to emphasize my interest for the art of real time. First I was unsure if two separate portfolios would seem too bizarre and confusing, but I think as long a clear statement is made why this is so, I am at least willing to try and see if this works out. Also, I do not wish to take down every other non-game related piece, as I have a long history of being a good all-arounder who picks up new things fast, and I can’t see that being a negative characteristic.

So I will be doing some sketching how this should be carried out and hope to get this up and running in the near future. I am thinking of going with something really a lot more simplistics than this layout, but still somehow keep the sites as siblings.

The wandering grand’ma: early stage model

What’s up!

The high-fiving grandma is in the house!  So I am experimenting with Sketchfab, and so far I adore it.  So the basic shapes are done for my elderly lady figurine, and I am moving onto details now. Check me again soon!

the high five grandma
by faeriel
on Sketchfab

New project: the “upper grandma'”

“Ylämummo” is a weird finnish ice hockey slang word, which means a goal shot in the upper corner of the net from a very unlikely source and suddenly. Besides this term, my knowledge of ice hockey is nothing to brag about.  “Ylämummo” would also directly translate into “the upper grandma,” which is the larger part of my little linguistic joke here!

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Ylämummo quick sketchings

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I’ll be modelling an old comic-like lady with a huge cat, which she is walking….or is it the other way around? A while back when still studying, I came up with this design for an animation project, but never used it. The old lady is bit ignorant about her safety, so the cat lifts, throws and catches her when needed. I have decided the duo would function much better in the gaming environment, rather than as an animation, so they will be modelled as low-poly and with real-time optimized approach. I’ll try to update my skills and do my renders in marmoset toolbag2, which I have been secretly practising lately. Maybe I’ll try sketchfab too for comparison.