What the man behind the curtain is up to.

This demo illustrates the steps taken to develop a character from concept sketches to finished facial rig in a simplified format. This is an actual rig I developed with the use of proprietary rigging tools in Maya utilized daily at work so I’m not going to demo those tools. However, future installments will incorporate the use of tools that I have written and that you can use to aide the building of complex facial rigs such as this, and include overviews of more advanced rigging techniques. I would also like to break the process down into chunks to really go into more detail about things you should be thinking about if you are trying to rig a face. This is an ongoing process so stay tuned, I have lot’s of useful tips to share.

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Find Out How to Turn Custom Text to Realistic Metallic Objects

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Infinite Scan vRay2.0 FastSSS2 sIBL test 1

Infinite Scan vRay2.0 FastSSS2 sIBL test 2

Because I am half out of my mind and not ready to fall asleep, scratch that, because I was thrilled to learn today that Lee Perry-Smith in collaboration with Infinite Realities has released a very awesome high res 3d scan of his “fat head”, I would like to direct your attention to scanning technology being called Triplegangers.  Anyone interested in playing around with your very own, very remarkable scan should head on over and download this file along with many other examples and some very useful facial reference.  Check the CGFeedback thread for posting your own creations using Lee’s head.  If you’re like me, use it as a practice head to hone your skin shading and rendering techniques!

Along with a fresh head, how ’bout some new HDR images to light your scenes?  Over at HDR Labs they have an ever growing selection of free promo HDRs to use and sIBL GUI, along with tons of other useful tools and vast amounts of information, for ooober simplification of your lighting needs no matter what package you’re working in or renderer of choice.

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Anatomy for rigging and modeling with Jeff Hesser was an event hosted online by Rigging Dojo just the other night. Improve your work and understanding of joint movement in the Human Body. A must see if you’re a TD, Animator, or Modeler.  Follow Rigging Dojo to find out about more events like this in the near future.

Vokle is a place for live webcasts and is very integrated with social media websites so it’s easy to share with your friends interesting events.  During this event Jeff had his rig that he created while at Rigging Dojo on the webcast showing people human motion and anatomy.  He has unbelievable depth of knowledge on what drives our bodies underneath the surface.  Seeing and learning anatomy like this is absolutely essential to creating believable animation and rigs that make creatures/characters move in a natural way.

Here are some links to what I think are major resources in learning anatomy traditionally and in a 3d atmosphere.

Books:

• Stephen Rogers Peck – Atlas Human Anatomy
• Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form – Eliot Goldfinger
• Master Class in Figure Drawing – Robert Beverly Hale, Terence Coyle
• Artistic Anatomy Dr. Paul Richer, Robert Beverly Hale

Web:

• scott-eaton.com
• 3D Anatomy Mentor
• http://www.zackpetroc.com/

 

Looks like Zbrush has added new materials and viewport rendering upgrades.

This is a cool looking example of the new capabilities of Zbrush 4.0 just released the other day.  I’m very interested to see what the comparison of Zbrush to Mudbox will be.  Quite a few people I know have disowned Zbrush for it’s lack of usability and bug riddled programming.  Hopefully it is more stable now with upgrades to the usability, but I also wish I didn’t have to upgrade the plugins everytime I update Zbrush.  It’s okay for personal use, but is that really good for production pipelines that depend on the plugins for their work?  What are your thoughts on Zbrush, or Zbrush vs. Mudbox?

In the coming weeks, I hope to tear into it and give a synopsis and possibly a breakdown comparison between Zbrush and Mudbox.