3D (Dave's Digital Doodles)

New Site!

2011-04-21T11:40:00.000-04:00

So this is a thing now. New site is up and running! My old blog and portfolio have been taken out back and shot, and this shiny new site will carry on in the glorious tradition of me pimping my wares in their place. Take a look around! Tell me what you think! And be sure to update your bookmarks and/or RSS feeds if you've really been following me that obsessively!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

2011-04-06T19:46:00.000-04:00

...Some architectural renderings! I was hoping to bulk out my portfolio a little for the purposes of getting some freelance work on the side, cause who in their right mind hates money? This in mind, and knowing that there was not really a bustling market for freelance character artists, I decided to add some arch viz work. This is the result. I learned how to light and render properly using mentalRay and the daylighting system thanks to the Jeff Patton Gnomon video series, and a great book, called Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds Max and mental ray

In the end, I learned a ton and am that much closer to knowing everything about everything ever. Hooray for me.

Kilowog

2011-04-05T15:07:00.001-04:00

I've been spending some time lately doing arch viz, since it's really the only thing you can hope to get for freelance, and boy howdy, would I like some freelance. Anyway, after like 3 weeks of playing around with that stuff, I was DYING to get back into sculpting again, so I just kinda started doodling this. When I finished, I decided, "why not throw on a quick poly paint?" and so I did that too. After that, I thought to myself, "self, I've been spending a lot of time with Mental Ray learning how to light and render with physically based lighting, perhaps I should toss this dude into a scene" and so I did that too. All in all, I spent maybe two and a half hours on this, every moment of which was spent with me proclaiming "I'VE MISSED YOU SCULPTING!!!"

So in summary: bust of Kilowog - A member of the Green Lantern Corps. Modeled / textured / lit / rendered in about 2.5 - 3 hours, rendered in mentalRay. Feel free to C&C if you so desire, but like I said, this was just a doodle, and as such, there's not much chance of me going back to work on it.

Forest Mage Sculpt

2011-03-01T14:29:00.000-05:00

Here's my latest work in progress. Sculpted over my lunches for somewhere around 3 weeks, on and off. I'm trying to decide on colour schemes and whatnot at the moment, then texturing will begin! I'll update again when there's something substantial to show on that front.

Steampunk Dude - FINALLY FINISHED!

2011-01-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

I've FINALLY done it. Steampunk-Man McGee is finally retopologized, and the normal and texture maps have been shifted over. I used this cool plugin for Max called Max_Retopo that shrink wraps any geometry you model around the high poly base. I've been using Topogun until now, but I think I'm gonna just start using this; it's easier, faster, and is one less program I have to deal with. Anyway, normal map and texture transfer accomplished with xNormal, and it also generated cavity and AO maps for me while it was at it. Finished mesh, with weapon and accessories weighs in at about 8500 polys. Production sheet below:

...Oh ya, the astute among you will note that the image above implies boylie3d.com to be a thing. Well, it totally is. It's my shiny new portfolio site, though I am already trying to sort out how to do the thing properly from scratch (this one was made with the free service Weebly, which is awesome if you're trying to get a site up in a hurry.)

Anyway, that's about it for now, I'm trying to sort out what I wanna do next. Hmm.......

Steampunk Dude - Textured (mostly)!

2010-09-30T13:50:00.002-04:00

Texturing is now finished on most of my model, so I though I'd post another update. I just have the hard surface stuff left to do and it'll be done. I'm also about 1/3 of the way through retopologizing him, so hopefully I'll have a finished, game ready model in the next week or so.

I did a shader test for the head using the 3 point realtime viewport shader. Check it out after the jump >>

I textured everything in ZBrush4, using the awesome new layer functionality that allows paint information to be recorded onto the layers. It is about my favourite thing ever.

So that's all for today; like I said, there'll hopefully be a finished model to show off sometime in the next week or so. Stay tuned

Steampunk Character Project

2010-09-14T15:07:00.000-04:00

My newest project, made (for the most part) in ZBrush 4. I didn't really use a ton of the new features, but what I did have a go at was pretty impressive.

So I don't remember what kicked it all off, but I really wanted to do a steampunk character all of a sudden. I still have to give him hair, but I figured hair cards would be a lot easier then trying to do any kind of ZBrush wizardry to try and get it looking good. I'm texturing / retopologizing at the moment, so I'm hopeful that I'll be finished within the next week or so.

Freelance Site Banner, or Shameless Plug? YOU DECIDE.

2010-09-09T23:19:00.001-04:00

Mai waifu runs a freelance photography racket. She has a deal going up soon for folks in the Toronto area on StealTheDeal. She wanted a banner dealie to show when the ad ran on their site, so I sprang to action. Done in maybe 4 hours, and rendered in finalRender.

Side note: I have my newest character sculpt finished; I should prolly post it. Maybe tomorrow at lunch... MAYBE.

Yet Another Head Sculpt

2010-08-24T14:18:00.001-04:00

I should really move on and start doing studies of other parts of the body, or maybe cloth, but oh well. For now, you get another bust. Did this one as a test in ZBrush4. It is awesome by the way, just in case you didn't know. Also a bit of practice for texturing, since I never end up doing them... Anyway, more to come soonish, model sheet after the break, etc, etc, etc.

Johnald Marston

2010-08-09T23:46:00.001-04:00

So first of all: first new post in forever. Sorry about that. I am working on a new big project; I'll post that when the sculpt is done. In the meantime you get this.

I played way too much Red Dead Redemption when it came out, and decided to model Marston. I ended up making his face kinda more muscular then it should be, and I'd planned on doing the hair in max, but well, you can see that didn't happen. Rather then have this model disappear into the ether, however, I've decided to post it here in it's current state. I plan on going back and at least finishing the sculpt when I'm done my new project, but well, I plan a lot of things... We'll see how it goes.

New Game Concept

2010-06-08T09:58:00.000-04:00

Me and my pals Don and Nate have decided to start making a game in our spare time. We are going for a more exaggerated style for the characters, so this is one of the concept sculpts I did (I sculpt better / faster then I draw). This dude is meant to be a kind of tall and lanky guy, but the plan is to have a few other body types in here too. Anyway, we're just kinda in the "hashing out the details" phase, so lots left to do before I'll have anything finished to show.

Likeness Excercise

2010-05-25T15:08:00.000-04:00

So I haven't traditionally been so great with likenesses. I've started to focus on that, in an effort to improve. This is one such sketch. Angelina Jolie bust; done in about 2 hours, since, like I said, I suck at likenesses at the moment. I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Barbarian WIP

2010-05-03T12:39:00.000-04:00

A work in progress of the newest character I'm working on. I'm starting poly painting today, and I'll post again when that's done. The hands still need some work, but I'll come back to them a bit later. I think all told I've spent about 15ish hours on this so far.

It Was A Sketch...

2010-05-03T00:23:00.002-04:00

...It was a monster sketch!

A challenge on the ZBrushed forums - "Cute Monster". This was my entry. I spent around 3 hours on it. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, given the amount of time I had to work on it before the challenges deadline (it was a weekend challenge, but I only had a few hours Sunday to work on it).

As an aside, I'm working on my next big project, and it's almost done. I'll post soon, when the sculpt is finished. Stay tuned!

New Forum Where the Cool Kids Go

2010-04-24T20:50:00.000-04:00

Me and a friend of mine were discussing the desire to be part of a 3D community the other day, and we got to talking about our attempts to join large sites with a huge member base, and kinda getting lost in the shuffle. Well, one thing led to another,and we ended up coming to the conclusion that, eff it, we're gonna start our own. zbrushed.com - bookmark this link boyos. We are a small community, dedicated to showing our work, giving honest feedback, and growing as artists. We are looking for people that want to share their work, improve themselves, and most importantly, be a part of a small community of artists that want to do the same. If you are like us and are tired of getting little, if any, feedback on the larger sites, come and see us. You'll be glad you did.

The Majestic Unirexicorn

2010-04-06T21:23:00.002-04:00

This happened. Hit the jump for an explanation and an enchanting new desktop wallpaper.

First, a turnaround:

So, my friend Jorge from work sends me this picture the other day he's thrown together of a unicorn with a t-rex head and lasers shooting out everywhere. He commissions me to make this thing, and being as I was coming up short on ideas for my next project (as well as this sounding AWESOME), I accepted. I made it in like 5 days, which is some kind of crazy record for me I think.

And now, as promised, your inspiration for the rest of the day:

Just believe.

Diabolic Tutor

2010-03-29T15:14:00.010-04:00

So my friend Dave Dind was showing some work at the Toronto ComicCon this weekend and ended up snagging like a ton of magic card packs. He gave me 3 of them, cause I was looking to learn how to play. As I was checking through the cards I got, I saw this "Diabolic Tutor" card, whose art was pretty badass, and so I did the bust over lunch. Total time was probably about 40 minutes.

Alien Bust

2010-03-28T22:40:00.001-04:00

Bust done over the course of a few hours today. The initial design was based off an image I found on the internets, but I can't seem to find it now... Oh well. I kinda think he turned out as some kind of amalgam of Wrex and Boss Nass. Anyways, ZBrush character sheet after the jump...

So that's about it for tonight. Stay tuned; I'm almost done a female base model that I figured I might just post up on here for all to download and use

Quick Sketch

2010-03-26T16:49:00.000-04:00

Done today over my lunch hour. I've been working on sculpting more female characters; for a while they were all pretty dudesome.. I think I'm finally catching on though.

African American Male Bust

2010-02-02T15:41:00.003-05:00

Another lunchtime project. Started as just a quick head sketch, but I decided to texture it. Made in ZBrush, textured with ZAppLink and just good old fasioned Photohopping too. Rendered with Mental Ray in 3dsMax. It took altogether maybe 3 hours.

Hit the jump for a back view and turntable animation...

Back view:

Turntable animation:

Nevernude

2010-01-05T16:28:00.032-05:00

My newest project. An anatomy study based off the classic Greek sculpture "Farnese Hercules". Fans of the show "Arrested Development" will also take note that Herc here has a bit of a medical condition: He's a nevernude. I know, weird right?

This was made over my lunch breaks for about 2 weeks or so (Christmas break messed up my count). Special thanks go to Goran Zovkic for the inspiration on the cutoffs.

Hit the jump for more renders and a turntable video...

Turntable video of the statue:

Back view of the above shot, and an accidental render of the statue while the light probe wasn't linked to the scene properly. I tought it still looked pretty cool.

Here's my initial ZBrush render before I optimized and took it into max for proper renders

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T13:46:00.002-05:00

I made this card last year, that's why Gwen isn't in it. I figured this'd be the day to post this up though! Merry Christmas everyone!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

2009-12-01T01:25:00.002-05:00

As all 3 people that read this site know, I just recently had a daughter. As she is not a fan of sleeping while she ought to, I decided to make the best of my time and play around with new ZBrush (3.5 r3, if you're keeping score). Didn't really do anything groundbreaking, just a head study, since I didn't know how much time I'd have to mess around. Anyways, she's finally gone to sleep, which means this sculpt is officially finished! WOOOOOOOOOO! God, I'm tired.

Hey Hey, Mr. Destructoid!

2009-11-12T09:49:00.006-05:00

I made this a while back, probably around the same time as the snowspeeder, actually. Kinda just done for fun one night; I think I also just wanted a chance to mess around with the finalToon shader outside of work.

If you are unaware, this is the mascot of one of the bigger game blogs on these 'ere internets - Destructoid.com. The mascot itself is actually based on the super popular 'smoking robot' toy. There's your fun fact of the day kids.

Lego Snowspeeder

2009-11-04T19:50:00.004-05:00

This one is from waaaaaaaaay back; thought I'd share anyway. I did this in I think 2 evenings after I found a site with tons of LEGO instruction manuals. After I built all the pieces I needed, this was stupid fun to do, cause it's basically just playing with LEGO but in 3D at that point. The plans came with instructions for a little satellite dealie that I made too, but it was kinda boring looking, so it got left out of the render. Anyway, there it is, in all it's glory

HULK SMASH!!!

2009-11-02T14:27:00.009-05:00

It is finally done. The saga comes to a close. Check out my finished hulk sculpt and tell me what you think. Total time came to roughly 20 or so hours I think. Big thanks to Garrett Hanna and Behram Khoshroo for all the help with the anatomy stuff.

So now that I'm finished, I have to find something else to do; my next project. I'm thinking I should probably just do a straight anatomy study, and maybe after that, maybe Batman? He's pretty much my favourite. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, check out the pile of steamy render goo below to see him in a few other angles:

As always, comments / critiques / whatever else is welcome in the comments below.

Skull Study - Now With More Muscle!

2009-10-05T00:43:00.005-04:00

Spent some time tonight to add the muscles to my skull. I've gone this far, maybe I'll just go ahead and add the skin layer while I'm at it.

Josh King and his Marvelous Malaria Meeting's Models Made Manifest by Me

2009-10-03T14:52:00.014-04:00

A few months back, an old friend from high school got in touch with me and asked me to do some art for a presentation he was giving on malaria. In the end, I did up a little like animated storyboard for him cut to some music. These are some of my favourite renders from that.

Little known fact: Malaria causes Zombism if left untreated. It's science.

Skull Study

2009-10-03T00:54:00.006-04:00

Alright, here goes, first art post on my shiny new blog:
*deep breath*

Human skull study. Done in about 2 and a half hours the other night. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially the teeth, which I kinda hated doing at the time. Hated A LOT. Comments / critiques, internet?

Hello World

2009-10-02T22:51:00.001-04:00

ALERT
ARTSY BLOG INCOMING

IS THIS AWESOME (Y/N)?___