Randotron

Flora

2011-12-19T23:23:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to go to the Charles Dickens Fair over the weekend and had the pleasure of an unexpected drawing session during part of the event.

This was a 15 minute pose in graphite.

Vindictus trailer is out

2011-12-07T11:32:00.001-08:00

I did some work on the American release trailer for Nexon's Vindictus, I built the lights, cameras, uprezzed the models, built the shaders and composed the shots out of engine.
View youtube video here

Recent Works

2011-11-25T20:44:00.001-08:00

Here are some recent building assets I've been doing at work, modeled in 3ds max with some retouch work in photoshop. The end result are the sprites that we put into game.

Tamarin update

2011-09-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

Work has been keeping me so busy I haven't had much time for my personal work but here's a sample of my recent work on this piece, come back soon to see some new stuff.

Joel

2011-07-30T22:14:00.001-07:00

I've been getting a little more time and a free schedule to draw lately, here are some snapshots from my sketchbook after a morning modeling session.

Bulldog sketch

2011-07-30T22:11:00.001-07:00

Here is a quick sketch of a bulldog in my office, I'm using the study in some of the artwork we need and had a pretty good time the piece in zbrush.

Try to find it in the game when it comes out!

Tamarin Armature

2011-07-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a new piece, almost 1:1 scale emperor tamarin. It's a beautiful inquisitive animal, and remarkably cure. I was lucky enough to study them on a recent zoo visit, I'll show some progress pics as I go on this one.

The Great Race

2011-07-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

End of the week is our finish line...

Jerry

2011-07-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

I got to spend about 10 hours with Jerry on this bust, I used Roma #1 because it's about 12 inches tall. I have a little brushwork left to soften the texture, improve the wrinkles and homogenize the hair.

Carlos Huante's Creature Class

2011-05-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

I took Carlos's workshop a few months ago and had a great time. We had a choice of 3 designs that were done by Carlos in advance, so when we arrived our armatures were already constructed and we were ready to sculpt. The 3 designs were used as a 3D puzzle we had to unravel and determine how to construct from only one view based on our knowledge of anatomy. It was a very difficult excercise with lots of good artists to work around, ranging from ILM, Pixar, Dreamworks, EA and Zynga and more.
I chose a quadruped with a split front leg, so it has 5 contact points with the base. The piece stand about 20 inches tall. We were going to have a considerable amount of time to work on details so we used Chavant nsp for extra detailing later in the week.

Carlos Would walk around the workshop aiding everyone in how to read the design and with the craft of sculpting the material to match his expectations of texture and form. Understanding his concept was key, it was like a working for him for a week. These is how far I was able to push the piece during the week, occasionally Carlos would come by with a knife and chop off whatever he didn't agree with, so some bits were left at varying levels of finish.

As you can see the piece was designed without any face, I may return to the piece later and finish it up if I have some time for it. The workshop itself was great and everyone in the class with me made it even more enjoyable.

1/4 finished with a new pose

2011-04-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

This is a small scale piece I started a few weeks ago, I have 4 more sessions scheduled with the model. I'm trying to keep this a loose piece and am using roma #2 clay for that reason.

Level 3 day 5

2011-03-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here is my piece after the level 3 course, it was a great class, even better instruction and course material covered than the previous week's. I've learned a considerable about of techniques to add to my work.

Level 3 day 4

2011-03-17T22:41:00.000-07:00

We worked really hard on our pieces for day 4 of our class, here's some proof.

Level 3 day 3

2011-03-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day, we focused even more in depth on the hands and feet. We went all the way down the planes of the flexor and extensor digitorum into the fingers and toes and giving then expressive and dynamic qualities.

I was very flattered when asked by other classmates about Andrew helping me out with my hands, and they were all surprised I did them myself because they all like them so much. This may also mean that the rest of what I'm doing isn't working as well :(
Studying Burne Hogarth's book about dynamic hands back in high school surely helped me out with this.

A bust made by Jonathan Neill of the the Governator was brought in today for the class to check out, it was a very well done piece, hopefully he will be able to teach a class in SF sometime soon, his portrait work is phenomenal.

Finally here is my recorded progress for the day.

Level 3 day 2

2011-03-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day for progress, out goal was to nail a few overlooked portions of a piece due to difficulty. We focused on the face, hands, feet and knees. Joint transitions are some of the hardest parts of the body to have look accurate, yet are one of the major telling points of whether or not a sculpture is correct.

Andrew did a quick demo for relating animal to human anatomy, we worked with a few live dogs and tracked bone and musle configuration in relation to a human's anatomy.

Our co-instructor, Damon Bard, brought in a maquette he made at Dreamworks for Kung Fu Panda. It was a really well made piece that showed his skills of understanding anatomy, form, and squash and stretch.

This is a detail show of how we worked through giving the 1/3 scale hand some detail.

Here is the progress I made for the day, after only 2 days I'm very happy with the pose and likeness to the model. I still have some correct planes and anatomy to fix before I can add any more detail, but at this rate I'll have the confidence I need in Carlos Huante's class next week.

Level 3 day 1

2011-03-14T19:48:00.001-07:00

Today was the start of the level 3 course! It's more 1 on 1 instructor, a more advanced pose, less hand holding and allows more experimentation with blending Andrew's work flow and the students. So far it's an awesome class, with an amazing model and pose.

Half of the students are making an animal, which will be completing with the aid of a creature and animal expert and reference. The other half of the students (including me) will be working on the human figure in a dynamic pose. It's a really solid class and very excellent .

This is a quick sculpture Andrew did to demonstrate how tension can be expressed in the muscles of a model and what a dynamic pose can really do. It's an awesome piece and is the same model we'll be working with, a very short but powerful cirque du soleil performer.

This is my piece the and progress I made by the end of the day. It was pretty close to hitting my goals, incorporating Andrew's methods with the ones I've been practicing for a long time, starting back with Robert Copskey's back at MICA.

It's a pretty good start and has some good energy to the pose, but needs some proportion adjustments to the masses. The model is currently holding ropes in his fists and is 50% into his final pose. Later in the week he'll hang form the ceiling for very short periods of time and then we'll really push understanding anatomy in a dynamic pose.

asking god for some ice cream

2011-03-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

This is a short post commenting about the instruction and students that I've been in contact with for the last week. The instruction is awesome, and many of the students are fun to be around and talented, but I believe some are confused about why they're here and have some absurd expectations. This is a very advanced sculpture course, and some students have somehow gotten in with little to no sculpture experience. Some of these people expect to be spoon-fed talent and ability, rather than understand how to obtain it. For example one student asked several times what the insertion of a muscle was, wasting the entire class' time.

To put this in perspective it’s like asking god for anything and getting it, but you ask for just an ice cream cone.

Any advanced anatomy, artistic and technical information about sculpture is standing in front of you in the form of a single man, and people asked about things that are clearly written on charts around the room. What a squandered opportunity!

One of my best friends was interviewed back in college and was asked the question of what would his one wish be if anything could be granted. To the surprise of everyone, it was "I guess I'd want to be a few inches taller."

You have to work for what you want in life, and realize when you to advantage of a goldmine when it's sitting wide open in front of you.

Level 2 day 5

2011-03-13T17:58:00.001-07:00

These images show the work I've done for the week, much of the piece was left intentionally rough and blocked out to leave a map of Andrew's sculpting style. By leaving in the blocking lines, it shows his methods for breaking down the figure and measuring spots to accurately construct the anatomy for a figure.

I think the class was a great success and already see how these tips can improve my work and ways I can combine them with the approach I'm used to in my work flow.

I'm 1/3 of the way done with my workshops, I felt like Andrew's knowledge was so expansive there was far more than could be absorbed in one week, I feel very grateful I have more time to work with him and can't wait for more!

My goals for next week are to nail down some tricky parts of blocking out the flexors and extensors and expressing the subtleties of the back correctly. For the piece as a whole I hope to be able to better merge Andrew's techniques of working with the figure and my own. If I can do this it will be a combination of his and my own work flow and perhaps with the new knowledge and my old skills I can push my skills to a new level. I was trained to work mainly from observation, and with Andrew the week was spent learning the body and how to recreate it from knowledge. Observational and the new ways to break down anatomy should help create the results I've been working for.

Level 2 day 4

2011-03-10T22:35:00.001-08:00

Here is my work for the day, class must have run for about 16 hours today and I'm just wiped out, I'll update you guys more on how the piece got to this point, but for now here are just the images for today's work.

Some discipline that’s can be difficult to understand and harder to follow this week is knowing our goal as a workshop isn’t to make a piece of art, it’s to sculpt and learn the methods to create one while being accurate. My normal speed and process would have been able to get me much further along than I am after so much work. We’re only to work on the sections of the body we cover in lectures and nothing else during sculpting time. This makes the creation process somewhat a disjointed workflow and also only gives us one shot at each location of the body.

As Andrew has repeatedly stated, there is no point for us to come and create what we always do in our normal work because it will be simply that; something at our current skill level. What I’m making certainly isn’t beautiful, but it’s accuracy to real anatomy is much closer than anything I’ve done before and I will only grow from this point.

Level 2 day 3

2011-03-09T23:55:00.000-08:00

Day 3 of our workshop has come to a close. It was a great day but even with 12 hours of class I didn't get enough time to get my piece as far as I wanted or try all of the excellent methods of Andrew's.

As promised, here is today's progress.

Level 2 day 2

2011-03-08T21:40:00.001-08:00

Today was the end of day 2 for level 2! I'm still going strong and having a blast. The material is just right for me, some is review and some is new which is just what I was looking for to start out with my 3 weeks of instruction. The following pic is Andrew showing us his method for nailing the skull proportions.

The little 1/3 scale skull was made by instructor Eric Wilson. It's an awesome reference piece and something I plan on keeping with my just to study and keep in my hands when I have a few free moments in my day.

These pics show the day's work, we mapped out the skull and ocular cavities. We worked down into the neck, formed some of the shoulders and then back into the scapula. Hopefully we can start picking up the pace tomorrow, I'm excited to see how far I can get it my Friday.

Level 2 day 1

2011-03-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

I just finished the first day of Anatomy Tools level 2 course! Andrew Cawrse is the instructor and did an excellent job introducing us to his measuring techniques and methods for approaching a new sculptures.

This is the inside of the classroom, just to give you an idea of how large the facility is. It has a nice lighting layout with enough control to light all the pieces, there are about 5 students in the class, Andrew instructing and 3 assistants sculpting with us to see the process they are coaching us with.

Here is the piece that originally led me to this studio to study, it's Andrew's reference Ecorché sculpt. Along with paying for the class I was finally able to afford a cast of this piece for reference use in my own studio.

This is Walter, any sculpting class worth taking always has a resident skeleton.

This poster shows the end goal for this week's piece. The model is a cirque du soleil trapeze artist. As you can imagine he is in incredible shape and a rare treat to study from. The final result should look pretty close to the CG example already made by Andrew.

These 3 pieces illustrate Andrew's method of simple primitives, refining them to planes and then adding in anatomical details.

Lecture time with Andrew,we're discussing primitives and breaking down the masses for generic shapes when starting a piece.

This is what I managed to finish after the first day, with all the lecture time we only had 2 hours to dive into the clay, but I had a decent start. Can't wait to get further along with this guy!

Muir Woods

2011-03-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

My parents came into the city for a visit, the first one since I moved to San Francisco.

We had a great time and took a day trip out to Muir Woods, one of the oldest redwood forests in the country.

Anatomy Sculpture Workshops

2011-03-06T23:13:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning I embark on 3 weeks worth of heavy anatomy study and clay sculpture training. As I've learned through my study of art, one discipline will always inform another, and my digital 3D work will only benefit from this great course schedule.

Be sure to visit often over the next few weeks to follow my progress!

Fabric dye and photo troubles

2011-03-06T22:58:00.000-08:00

Today I finished the color treatments I wanted for a metal piece I can't seem to stop working on. I can finally say it's done and out of my hands, but during some photo tests I can't seem to get the shots I want.

My Friend Sean McGing, a great DP for documentaries from NYC should be paying me a visit soon. I'm thinking he should be able to get some better shots than I can for final.

Prepped for Firing

2011-02-18T13:57:00.001-08:00

Here is the bust sealed up and ready to fire, finger's crossed!

Hollowing the Bust

2011-02-18T13:56:00.000-08:00

Bust of Angela pt. 1

2010-12-06T23:57:00.001-08:00

I've hit about the first 1/3 of progress done on a 1:1 scale clay sculpt I'm working on. As I get more time with the model I'll be updating the blog with new photos.

Joker

2010-11-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished Joker piece I've been working on. I've picked up a few new tricks to my workflow on this piece, including z sphere hair, shader tweaking for best the best lighting on a sculpt and turntable master.

As I mentioned in a previous post this Joker from the graphic novel "The Killing Joke" featuring designs by Brian Bolland.

Texas Trooper

2010-11-02T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here is this year's Halloween costume, I went as Texas Trooper.

I crafted the Stormtrooper mask from some milk jugs and paint, then assembled the rest from various clothes from the closet. It was perfect for the Star Wars themed party I attended.

Ms. Dottie Lux

2010-09-23T23:51:00.001-07:00

Joker Bust Preview

2010-09-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

I'm about halfway through a bust of the Joker from the Batman comics, this one is based on Brian Bolland's design. The final sculpt will follow shortly.

Ready for Adventure!

2010-08-27T15:26:00.001-07:00

Here are the final renders from the Captain K'nuckies I was working on. Images were created using 3DS Max, Vray, Zbrush, and Photoshop. All designs are property of Cartoon Network Studios.

Captain K'nuckies

2010-08-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the costar from the series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Captain K'nuckles. The model I'm working on is one of the stages of his youth when he was a mere K'nuckies.

Sewing Done!

2010-04-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is a sculpture I come back to sometimes to add small pieces to, and here are some images of the fabric work finished on it. Hopefully I'll find some time soon to color and coat it.

Neglected Animal's Anatomy

2010-04-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

These images are a model I've been working on and should have added to my portfolio soon, it's an accurate model of goat's anatomy. In college I spent many hours studying the sculpture of Frederick Hart, a phenomenal artist with an excellent grasp of anatomy. With his and Lanteri's influences I wanted to have correct anatomy on an animal that is not in the spotlight as often as the horse or lion.

This is an early screencap of the polygon from 3DS max.

Here is another screencap after a little work in z-brush, check back soon to see the final piece in my portfolio.

SpeedTree and U3

2010-03-16T18:11:00.001-07:00

I've been spending a few days learning Unreal 3 and here is a little playing around I did with speedtree, so far I like how the engine works, very similar to Source but it's far more visual to work with.

the beginning

2010-03-16T18:04:00.001-07:00

I activated my blog for sketchbook posts, I'll be adding my work in progress images and posting info on CG.