Tortilus Turntable.

Associated turntable for the Tortilus.

Tortilus Turntable from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

Tortilus.

So this latest project has been in development (hell) for a long time. The initial idea and shape were conceived nearly three years ago but I lacked the inspiration and inclination to box model all the hard surfaces in ZBrush at the time. Paul Gaboury taught another Mastering ZBrush course at UArtsy and focused on hard surfaces expressly for making a mech. I marched to the beat of my own drum and didn't do a gundam like the majority of the class. I did a late 19th century steam powered exploration vehicle in the shape of a tortoise. I give you, the Tortilus:

Neat huh? There's a ton of detail under the shell which is rather obscured but you can tell there's stuff going on there which is good. Not millions and millions of polygons due to judicious use of bevels and dynamic subdivisions. New ZBrush stuff as it was a new course.

There should be crew. Think Michael Caine in Zulu but due to time constraints and wanting to do an illustrative end image rather than photoreal he's remained in 2013. Maybe one day he'll be in the balcony.

I like:

• The concept. It's mine. It's clever. It reads British.
• It's not a pretty lady or a humanoid! Variety is the spice of life.
• Getting on the course for free as an alum, seriously, they may be pricey but it was great to sit in on a course I took three years back!
• Using the ZModeler brush. I'm old enough to have box modelling as a skill; it's nice to have that supported in ZBrush.
• It should 3D print pretty well. There's very little that's a fudge, structurally.
• The blueprints in the background. You can see the flywheel. Made in ZBrush's own render passes.
• That the class including Paul Gaboury and Ryan Kingslien liked the finished product and concept.

I dislike:

• It all looks the same material, because it mostly is. Steam tractors are generally painted metal all over, but maybe the carapace could have been different in hindsight.
• You can't see the substructure because of the carapace or lots of other incidental detail at that angle (flywheel, gramophone horn, suspension springs, steering wheel, rear doors, it's all there)
• I haven't got a crewed up grimed up (this one's too perfect too but as it's an advertising poster I'm allowed it to look off the production line) version actually exploring through a jungle. Not enough hours in the day or Keyshot experience.

My next project shouldn't be too far behind. 3D print one too. Staaaaaay tuned!

Sphynx Warrior Turntable.

Associated turntable for the Sphynx Warrior.

Sphynx Warrior from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

Sphynx Warrior 2015.

When I was starting to learn all this 3D stuff I had a short list of things I'd like to sculpt.  That list is now much longer, but sometimes I revisit items already cherry picked and ticked off.  This is one of those.  Four years ago I sculpted a "Sphynx Warrior"; a humanoid with a Sphynx cat head a sword and shield and chunky paws for hands.  I'll save you from an image of it, that description already does it too much justice.  Sphynx cats are amazing for sculpting though as they're hairless, and I could keep the accessories to a minimum to stop the project getting out of control.

While researching lightweight swordsmen, I happened across Angampora, a Sri Lankan martial art.  Looking reference up before the Internet must've been such a sleuthing job!  There's no way I'd've found out about Angampora from a library growing up in the 90s.  Anyways, perfect for the job:  Lots of lithe chaps leaping around with simple outfits and lightweight weapons.  In fact, the pose is largely taken (sword arm, feet kicked back) from a picture I found online.

I've rendered out two views, as I was intending just the right facing one as the hero image but that missed out on the sash knot (yeah I could've just mirrored the sash before posing) but it turns out the left facing view feels more dynamic.

The background is a recoloured Utah salt flats pic taken by me that is also about four years old hah.

I like:

• The anatomy.  Enough to not put "anatomy" in the "dislike" section.  The wrinkly Sphynx head is good, the incredibly rotated right shoulder is good from the angle I'm viewing from, the feet and hands suit the character.
• The knot on the sash.  It's again a real flow of geometry.  It's how you tie a karate belt!  I like doing ZSphere knots.
• The eyes.  They have concave irises and there's another spherical tool which is transparent over that.  Much better than just painting on a sphere.
• How the pose has a sense of motion and reality even though it's quite extreme.  Especially in the left-facing view.
• That it's a measure of how I have improved over four years since my last Sphynx Warrior.

I dislike:

• Not spotting the surface on the lower section of the trousers with its normals inverted, a feature extruding inwards on ZModeler introduced, which made the cloth texture noise displace in rather than out on the lower leg.  Fixed in the pics, after another two hours swearing at layers.
• Slight colour differences between the two views despite using the same layer stack!  Missed something subtle.
• The right-facing view has lost some of the movement that was there when sculpting, probably from when I pulled back the perspective distortion to make it less fish-eye distorted.
• The cloth is too clean.  I should try doing tattered cloth one time.  The lack of grime / wear and tear is a common "flaw" of my work.  The cloth is also missing seams and stitching.

Overall, very pleased, although my improvements are now less leaps and bounds between projects.  It's entirely possible that my next posted project is also an old one.  I'm back on Paul Gaboury's UArtsy class and it's giving me a chance to revisit a mech I left 20% done as I didn't know where to go with it.  A toss up between that and more Ulala!

The Moon.

So here's one of those thought experiments that looks more complex than it is: Can I make the moon based on NASA imagery data? A ZBrush sphere comes with a UV map like a Miller Cylindrical projection. To that add a topographical greyscale map of the moon, apply polypaint from texture, then mask by intensity. Now you have the surface very masked for low points, not so much for high. Inflate that, and badabing! Instant craters. This one's had that pushed way more than it is in reality otherwise you really wouldn't see the difference. To make it pop a little more I added a truecolour map of the Moon over the top of the inflated sphere, also from NASA, which pleasingly shared the same co-ordinate space:

Nice huh? Yeah it's precisely what displacement maps are for but this was a nice ZBrush-y way to approach it. Here's the video too but Vimeo has rather softened the image with its compression. Also as ZBrush spins the objects in the scene rather than the camera, the lights stay put while the moon moves. Slightly unusual for Earth based viewers of this blog!

Moon from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

Ulala Turntable.

Associated turntable for Ulala.

UlalaTurntable from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

Introducing: Ulala!

Another sculpt from the "list of things to sculpt".  One that had been on it a long time too!  Those who know me will know my favourite game of all time is probably Space Channel 5.  Part 2 technically as I can actually play that without digging out my Dreamcast from storage.  The star of this is Space Reporter Ulala.  She was due a good quality high resolution update.  Yeah this is an odd subject matter as I'm basing it on a 3D model already, but it's all from my own scratch (Space Gal's musculature and head) tweaked greatly rather than me finding the original SEGA meshes and subdividing those.  Here she is:

In the spirit of me getting projects to a "print and hang on the wall" level I've gone for a retro magazine cover which was a lot of fun to do and really matches her dorky nature.  Her outfit's colour scheme is her original Part 1 one, not the white one from Part 2, although as I have the model made, I'd like to think I can make time to do a whole series of Amazing Tales Space Reporter Ulala Adventures.  She may well get 3D printed too if I can work out hip joints I'm happy with and find a flexible material for her skirt.

I like:

• That she's Ulala, blatantly.  So this project is an outstanding success.
• Her index finger mittens.  Turns out these exist in real life so I felt okay with keeping them and not doing proper gloves.  I assume her original model had to keep the polygons down so four fingers and a thumb was too much of an overhead.  They add to her charm.
• The magazine cover.  I might do that as a finishing technique a lot.
• Her anatomy, especially the hints of knees, although having said that...

I dislike:

• Her stomach.  There's no hint of abdominal muscles.  That's a mistake.
• The angle of her on the cover.  She's got lots of curves going on and the view I picked is too flat.

Right, better get a turntable sorted, although the latest ZBrush has changed their export options for movies and I'm not a fan of that at the moment as I can't make them loop perfectly, which is a key point to a turntable!