OBrien.Art blog

New Character

2012-02-15T09:54:00.001-08:00

For the first time in about a year and a half I'm starting work on a new personal project, here's the first few hours.

This is my first time seriously using ZSpheres, they were not quite as gentle with me as I hoped but combined with dynamesh they ended up being very useful.

Daily Sculpt #2 - Male head

2012-02-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

I use the term 'daily' sculpt in the loosest of terms!

ZBrush
1h 30 mins

Getting back Into It

2012-01-28T05:17:00.001-08:00

OK, so I've been working professionally in the industry for JUST under a year (3 days from now) and I've realised that you can't just rely on the work done during the day to increase skill. Sure, it helps, but personal development is key.
It's time to create art in my free time again, not only will I get better but I'm really hoping to get back into they enjoyment of art again!

Strengthening The Basics 1 - The Torso

2010-12-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm focusing on the topology of individual areas of the body, hopefully spending the time and focus on just one area at a time, instead of the whole picture, will help me to find any flaws I may have been slipping in to my mesh flows.

Today I've been looking at the torso...

2010-11-16T02:54:00.000-08:00

It would seem that it's been a while since I last posted anything, this would be because I've been busy doing freelance stuff and learning things! Here's a little something I whipped up this morning.

2010-09-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update

It doesn't QUITE look like me yet, but I can't figure out the missing piece that'll do that :\

Oh yeah, I don't think I credited Del with the use of his awesome matcap! Pick it up here! :D

Self Portrait MK II!

2010-09-28T00:31:00.001-07:00

Here's me having another go at a self portrait.

the one I did in uni is looking VERY outdated now!

Practice...

2010-09-22T03:06:00.000-07:00

2010-09-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

Just posting a head sculpt I created whilst on a train the other day

I usually find that some of my best stuff comes out of riding around on a train, I should use them more often :D

Comicon 2010

2010-08-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

Decided to enter for comicon '10 over at gameartisans.

I've gone for Scott Pilgrim. I'm going to make my own realistic version (So it's won't look like Michael Cera) that wraps itself around the fight with the twins (movie version), so big ethereal gorilla!

2010-08-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this for a while! Here's some WIP shots from a few weeks ago...

This is what I'm trying to go for with this model

And this is how the sculpt looks like right now. Still needs detailing and such (and nipples :P).

And here's where she's currently at, I'm just getting the bases for her clothes ready for ZBrush.

Hopefully I'll get some time to complete her in the near future, especially since I have a few jobs finishing soon... though with comicon coming up over at gameartisans I'm unsure!

It's all coming together now...

2010-07-20T01:52:00.000-07:00

All of the parts of my latest model have been stitched together and the body is about ready for ZBrush.

Finished Dorothy shots

2010-07-14T00:36:00.000-07:00

Until I can get another turntable up somewhere, here's some static shots of Dorothy...

I tend to do this...

2010-07-12T05:32:00.000-07:00

I've neglected this blog again. Bah! Once again I'll promise to update it often, let's hope I can stick to that this time...

This is just a quickie anyway since I'd love some feedback on a WIP model.

I realise there are LOADS of loops, an excessive amount you may say - but I'm intending to whack this in Zbrush, so I've gotta try and keep this sucker quadded (although, you may notice that there are a few five sided polys, something that I'd like some feedback on removing if possible?).

There's a ton of other stuff that I want to upload too, and something that I'd love to upload (but am unable to on a blogger site) is the real time Dorothy turntable. It was on a friend's site but that's currently in the middle of a revamp. I'll just have to post static images up later instead. =(

Squeeky clean Toto

2010-04-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

Toto's base is pretty much done, just need to add dirt!

Toto

2010-04-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

Started Dorothy's bike (Toto)!

WIP:

3d Printing

2010-03-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

The other week I sent off a 3d model to be printed and today I got my print!

Here's the model I gave them...

and here's what I got back!

It's so cool what they've done. I really want to make something else, something more detailed and out of metal next time preferably!

More Dorothy

2010-03-25T06:56:00.001-07:00

Just posting the end product for the Oz comp.

Unfortunately I didn't finish in time so she's a little incomplete. The main thing I wanted to do was to use up the remaining tris on Toto, who in this instance would be a BMX =D

2010-03-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

I drew a boat!

2010-02-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

Due to lack of time and entering a very late, I haven't been able to finish the Oz comp in time. Though I am going to finish this model since I'm pretty happy with the texturing so far...

On the upside, I can take my time and make this look awesome now!

Oz

2010-02-20T02:07:00.000-08:00

I've entered a competition on GA (though a little late) - the idea is to recreate one of the iconic wizard of oz characters.

I've chosen to create a modern day Dorothy

Concept

WIP

Gotta finish by monday!

Finished turbine

2010-02-20T01:55:00.000-08:00

Here's the finished turbine - it was done aaages ago, I just hadn't got around to posting it here yet.

Turbine

2009-11-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a WIP for a comp I'm entering on GameArtist.net.

A tri limit of 3,000 on something like this initially seems pretty forgiving, but once you realize that there's a lot of cylinders involved it becomes much trickier!

The high poly will be adding most of the details like wires and stuff. So far this model stands at 2,920 tris.

New WIPs

2009-11-23T06:54:00.000-08:00

Some finished things...

2009-11-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

Firstly, after some on/off working I've finished my chest...

It comes in at 598 tris, with my limit being 600. I asked a guy from rare how much you might expect something like this to clock in at and he seemed to think a good few thousand was ok. seems silly to me!

Here's another minor asset I've whipped up. I was messing around with it for FAR longer than I should have been sooo it took maybe 2 hours from start to finish.

This one's 88 tris.

2009-10-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

In my last post I uploaded a pic of a chest. I've decided to make it, here's some WIPS...

The chest is 598 tris, my limit is 600... perhaps a little low, or maybe too high, I'm not sure. I'm hoping it's just about right as an object that would, you would assume, appear quite a bit in a game.
Though, with this limit I'm a little stretched to make it look exactly the same as the concept so far; I'm hoping the texture and detail normal maps will remedy that.

2x2D's!

2009-10-29T08:47:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of 2d images I've done over the past month:

On the subject of 2d, I really hope to get some more done - I'd forgotten it's joys for a little while

2009-10-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

It's a crate... Not much to say really other than it was another experiment in high poly modelling and that this isn't finished either! The diffuse and spec maps are far from done (in fact, there isn't a spec map yet) But hey, thought I'd post up up while I was here.

This is the crate in the Marmoset engine. It doesn't quite 'pop' without a spec map, but it shows off the normal a bit.

And here it is in max with it's wireframe showing. Sexy.

More Viper

2009-10-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Just a little update on the viper... I haven't actually worked on it in a few weeks, but my reasoning was that if I post a WIP of it here I'll eventually get my act together and finish it!

This is some of the high poly which, of course, will eventually be converted into a normal map and all that jive!

2009-09-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

Yo!

Just thought i'd post up a few WIP pics of what I'm doing atm...

This is a 3d model of my old desk, I'm planning on making it look as much like a 2d picture as possible and hopefully I'll use it on my website somewhere...

This is a boulangerie. The really dense high poly areas will eventually be baked onto their low poly counterparts

and finally, I'm making a Viper Mk II from battlestar galactica! I've only spent a couple of hours on it so far, but I'm having a lot of fun. I'm hoping the finished result will look awesomely battle-worn

It's not too much, but thought you all should know I'm still working away =P

2009-09-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

Whipped this up in about 40 mins today, the title was "crumble"

not sure if I went too crazy on the ol' sharpen or not though!

Hello again!

2009-09-09T02:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a while!

I've been lazy with posting on this thing, I think it's the fact that no one can comment on it (if anyone knows how I can fix whatever error I made int he HTML please let me know!). Feels like I'm talking into a void!

Anyway, thought I should post something, even if the void can't talk back.

So, I've been having a go at the comicon over the past month or so, here's a snippet...

the other images can be found here.

I've also done some 2d stuffs, like this...

Which can also be found in my gallery.

Hopefully I'll start to update more often again!

Sculpting update

2009-07-19T12:07:00.001-07:00

I hope you can tell who it is by now!

Update

2009-07-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Gonna do the ears later, time for dinner!

More ZBrushings

2009-07-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here's something I've been working on lately, with the base mesh included it's taken me about 10 hours so far.

I hope you guys can figure out who it is, if not I'm just going to put it down to it not being finished rather than it being crap!

Done

2009-06-01T17:19:00.001-07:00

This should have really been done quicker, unfortunately house hunting got in the way >..<

2009-06-01T11:41:00.001-07:00

Here's todays postbox update. It's nice to finally get back down to this project, I was worrying that I'd lost interest!

Some more details need to be added and the ligthing needs to be set up right. Ben suggested putting in a lamp post which could go pretty well!

Gorking

2009-05-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

say it like gaming and working combined and you'll have it right. Like... Geerking. It's a term I've coined while playing EVE and working.

Check it!

I was just gonna show a pic of my postbox WIP, but why not post up my entire desktop when there's a pretty space scene too?

lol, and yes, I know that this is a TERRIBLE work ethic but with all the mining I've been doing in EVE it makes sense to multi-task... I doubt it'll last too long anyway!

New Project

2009-05-22T11:24:00.001-07:00

The beginnings of something new!

So awesome!

2009-05-21T18:36:00.001-07:00

The Left4Dead SDK beta was released the other day and I've been staring at the models in wonder ever since.
The character models are particulary awesome. I'm not quite sure where to find their tri counts, but by looking at them I can tlll that they're pretty high. High, but well spent. Have a look!

Damn, looking at these models has really inspired me to make ANOTHER character... I've really gotta throw out something environment-based first.

New Blog

2009-05-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

So this is it, the new blog for my new website. Exciting!
All of my updates and pictures of whatever I'm doing will be posted here.

My website link is to the left in the links bar if anyone's interested!