Cathedral : DONE!!

Finally it's done! There's a polycount in the tens of millions and brought not one but 2 PC's to their knees and me to the edge of insanity over the last 2 weeks of it. I've had dying machines to contend with, epic powercuts, both kids at home for 2 months due to crazy stuff by the local education authority who seem to see a simple move of schools as worthy of international debate...but I digress. The bottom line is its done.

Although modelling, texturing, lighting and rendering out the shots for both the Durham cathedral interior from last year and the exterior this year have been fun, I'd a little glad to be able to move onto something organic for a while. The above shot is a style frame from the actual shot done as part of the MOD302 class that's just wound up after 10 weeks spread over 3 months. Things can and do change before final composite although that could take quite a while before I see it. (The stuff from MOD 301 finished last October has only just came into my hands ..and there are still a few shots not rendered out and composited yet.) I'm sort of hoping I'm not the last dude to have it rendered out as be sort of a bitch if the guy who created it does not get to put it on a reel till after everyone else lol.

EDIT: Here's a quick reel of some of the shots I have got a hold of from MOD301 so far.

So no more Norman architecture for a while for Wayney boy! Its been full on 18 hours minimum a day the last few weeks and for most of this year in fact. So in one way its nice to have some more 'me' time and time for the wife and kids.

Its back to organics for a while and prepping for Anomaly in Vancouver for my lecture and demo at the end of this month. I can promise something special as you do not go to what could be called the 3d sculpting capital of the world unprepared ;) Not only is there the lecture but also 6 hours where I'll be demoing and available for questions and practical stuff as well.

I've not made an antique kids bike before to original specs...groovy.

Also I just did a quick logo for Danny John Jules film 'Bucky'. Very fast turnaround on this pone as a favour to Danny. I'd urge you to donate if you can as I'm probably one of the few people to have even a rough overview of what it's about (Danny has been purposely keeping it very secret). I can say it's going to be damn good.... I normally don't pimp other peoples stuff in my blog, but :

A - I count Danny as a mate

B - Its a very cool idea and story line

C - If I didn't he might get the thumbscrews out again...lol

So here is the LINK

So it's back to organics for me for a while so next week or so I'll be getting back up to speed after a year of mostly environment stuff. Expect monsters, expect creatures as it's been a bloody age since I did any. So no more banging on about the cathedral unless its to show you animated comped shots ;) ...mainly as of right now...my books are empty so back to freelance work searching for me.

Mudbox: Voice operated

"What if you never had to remember hotkeys"

"What if something actually did as you told it to?"

"What if you could get rid of the entire interface for an app?"

You know every now and again I have an urge to do something crazy while waiting on a render or such like. Occasionally I come up with a pretty nice idea such as 'Waynes Vector Displacement shader' (which was the 1st for mental ray), or MudWalker (which spawned a host of clones) or things I never got around to releasing such as ReDucto my own uniqiue polygon reduction algorythm .

youtube link in case other one is blocked in your country

I also come up with some crap no one see's and is of no use to anyone but me.... so which is this idea? I'll let you decide. What I will say is yes this video is real and I am operating mudbox by voice control alone. Its very easy to do (I'm suprised no one has done it up till now to be honest), and is intended to augment my usual sculpting workflow so I can maximise screen space and get rid of all the menus when working or lecturing. That is its only purpose.... plus it can be expanded to other apps.

As Mudbox 2013's feature set was announced today I thought it seemed as good a time as any to show this. Even more so as this only took about an hour to get running and working 99.9% from initial idea. So it could be something you as an artist find nothing more than a 'toy' or maybe you can see how it frees up things to concentrate on the sculpting and texturing. But in the words of the Oracle from the matrix films "You'll just have to make up your own damn mind".

What you can't hear as you can only hear it over my headphone's, is on mudbox start up you hear a certain voice saying 'what is thy bidding my master?' lol.

"...If I never model another cathedral it will be too soon!"

This is just the front section of the complex...there is far more behind this!

I've been putting some intense hours into the model of the durham cathedral complex the last day or two. Now that the front and main towers are done (I'll have to leave off the many statues for now as it'll simply take far too long and probably make it nearly impossible to render.) There are still loads of decorative thingies to put on, but those can wait till the last minute.

Durham cathedral as its not been seen (in newly erected condition ) since 170AD

Once this is done then I have to texture the whole damn complex and then create the cgi enviroment that I am going to replace 80% of the final plate with. Although I have been enjoying the challenge in a strange masochistic sort of way, if I never model another cathedral for at least a year I'll be a happy man lol. There are only so many widdly bits of stone the human mind can put up with before it threatens to break and I run round with an axe lol.

So for now its decorative thiniges and lots of windows and doors I have left to do modeling wise , and roof supports and borring shit like that. There can't be many 3d guys who have modelled an entire cathedral complex and its interior.... I dont think most people are insane enough to try unless they have to on pain of death. Seriously though I have been enjoying it, but yes I will be glad once its done.

Durham Cathedral Exterior WIP PT2

The front two towers raw poly model

OK the two front towers I'm calling about done modelling wise (given the extreme crunch on this one)...starting to add the side windows and deco now.... the biggest pain in the backside will be the main tower as there's more polys needed for that than the rest of the complex combined.

Now in an ideal world (when is it ever that??) I'd sculpt every part and render through renderman...but alas time will not allow this...it also occured to me that apart from a few design tweaks this is the first time durham cathedral has been seen in its orginal state since 1100AD!

Still loads to do!

Durham Cathedral Exterior WIP

Work in Progress (about 1 /20th of the cathedral complex!)

Well it seems like a lifetime since I finsihed off the durham cathedral interior for FXPHD course MOD301 that I gave last year. But now about 4-5 months later its now time to get on with the exterior of the cathedral. This is no men task as the whole cathedral complex is massive and once you get a 300mm lens out you see detail that is not visible with the naked eye.

The bad side? I only have a week and a half to get it all done in before it has to be used in tehfinal few classes of the MOD302 3D digital environments course. Its the 1st time in ages I am geniuely crapping bricks it wont be done on time as usually I've give myself at least another week or two. but if this isn't done right it coud ruin the whole series of shots for the Joan of Arc short that FXPHD & mike seymour are making.

You know people ask me why I like using 3d max for personal stuff. Thats an easy question to answer, its got a lot of power and most of all the nitrous viewport... I hope neil hazard and the nitrous team are ready for it to be pushed to insane levels ;)

With a viewport like this its far easier to judge forms and lighting.

FXPHD Interview & doc on my time as an escape artist

FXPHD / FXguide were nice enough to ask me for an interview a while back that they have just made live and you can watch it here:

http://www.fxphd.com/blog/professor-profile-wayne-robson/

...also for this I made a 22min documentary on my time as an escapologist. Until a couple of weeks back most people in 3D didn't have a clue about this and its safe to say there was a fair bit of interest in knowing more. So here is the full 'directors cut' of my short doc on my time as an escape artist. In some cases the footage is 27 years old and are the only copies that survive anywhere so this isn't the HD footage you may be used to.

I warn you it is a frank and often brutally honest look back at what I achieved and allows me for the very 1st time to put the record straight on something from over 23 years back thats been eating away at me all that time. So while to many of you in 3D thats not really important...to those who knew me before 3D this allows me to right a wrong and put my side of the story for the 1st time.

I realise that as a result I may well get the piss taken out of me now every time I appear at a 3d or art event to lecture or demo, but you know what... I'm still proud of everything I did back then. This isn't the character I use to present the 3d videos I release, or the crazy version of me from my youtube videos, but rather the real me.... this is as personal as it's ever going to get.
Enjoy

Wayne

Saturday Night Render

Sort of start of a work in progress.... ignore the jumper as it not been sculpted yet and the uvs are screwed up... but threw it into max and did a render anyways. Not the worlds most challenging model on the sculpting side as very little to do really...although may change a few proportions next time I pick it up. Runs off Three 4k maps, a diffuse, a bump and a spec....these are then plugged into various channels of the shader and color corrected in app as needed.... render time is only 40 seconds and this way saves a fair old whack of render time.

Some of you I know may see that it bares more than a passing resemblance to someone on the london 3d max scene...thats totally by chance.... honest ;)

Waterfalls Scene Final

About as final as you'll get until its in shot

This is about as final as this will get here on my blog now until its used in the Joan of arc short FXPHD are making that these shots are meant for. Not one but two animated waterfalls and neither use water sims, both are old school practical effects. ;)

It may seem very little has changed since the last update but I can assure you it has... drastically... so that everything works in the actual shot and isn't going to take 6 million years to render. In fact it should be less than the average frame time for a TV series shot.

Now for my MOD302 class this is the final result you'll see in the next video covered from top to bottom, There is of course always a chance we'll change or add things slightly for the shot that's actually used..but nothing drastic. Its going to look nice once rendered out and properly graded (as its ungraded at the moment).

There's a combo of Nuke, Vue, Mudbox, Photoshop and Maya in this (maybe one or two other app's I can't remember as its been a busy 48 hours lol).

So for those of you taking my MOD302 course....get a notepad ready as this class is going to up the ante on the complexity front several notches or so. This leaves 2 shots left to do before the end of the course, the desert scene and the cathedral exterior matchmoved very complex shot that will give you nightmares..... as there is not just the cathedral to add.... ;) lets just say I have had an idea I want to run past mike 1st.

Free Zbrush Hair to Spline's plugin for 3D Max

'Wayne's Poly to Splines' 3D Max plug-in (Free)

Link: www.psychocore.com/WaynesPolyToSpline.zip

Well as a personal thank you to all the zbrush users that were so positive about the mudbox videos and realised they are just as useful to them, and also didn't insult me or start ww3.... Here's a little thank you for those of you that use 3D Max. Its something I knocked out in an hour tonight that takes imported zbrush hair and converts it into splines so that they can be used with to comb max hair and fur. This of course gives you dynamics and opens the whole thing up to animation. Its single click and works fast...oh and free.

It operates in a single click and includes a very basic installation and usage PDF....if there are any spelling mistakes or typos don't blame me as I wrote the damn thing in 5 mins lol. As mudbox users have sort of had a monopoly on me of late I felt it would be a nice way to say thanks to the zbrush users who often get sidelined in my freebie releases.

I can't stick this on zb central as I've been banned for 'daring to use mudbox' now for over 3 1/2 years lol. So pass the word amongst yourselves as I cannot.

...and so it is done.

It's taken well over a week of uploading day and night on my slow rural internet connection and fitting it around constant client work, but all the DVD's I own copyright to are now available for free. Plus a few other videos that have either been lost over the years, spread in strange places no one but a few knew about or simply higher res versions.

There are many other videos I've done that as I don't own copyright I can't make free such as the 3d creative magazine ones I've done over the years (that could easily double this); and ones for 3D artist magazine coming up and of course the paid more recent FXPHD ones. But at over 46 1/2hours of free DVD's and videos isn't bad going for you all I think. I've no idea how much it would cost to buy them all...a fair bit though.

I do have one or two other things I want to still upload when I have time, but I'm going to take a well earned rest from uploading to the site for a while now. Let's not get this wrong this was a massive undertaking and one that has never been done before. No one has put their entire DVD back catalogue out for free..and certainly not on a very slow rural internet connection like I have. There are times over the last week I would have given my left nut for a faster upload speed. All videos have been uploaded with no help from anyone.... I don't think 3d palace wanted to kill their upload for a week lol.

There have been about 1% of predictable people with a problem, but to be frank I couldn't care less and neither could the vast majority of digital sculptors across the board of both Mudbox and Zbrush persuasion. This was not done for me, or them it was done to help people period. There's not even a proper back link to my main site www.DashDotSlash.net on it lol.

So enjoy the videos and PLEASE remember they are not representative of my current standard of work as some are very old models that were used...even back then. Never say I don't do nice things for you all every now and again. ;) Now it's over to the rest of the industry and see if they can start and build on this idea of mine.

Wow!

Currently as it stands right this moment there is over 43 hours of free DVD's and video tutorials of mine on MudboxLIVE.com. all but 11 1/2 hours that I had totally forgotten about that I did for Filter Foundry a year back are direct links to the streaming video. The filter foundry videos (over 11/2 hours of it !) you do need to join up to filter foundry ....but the video s are free of mine.

There is still at least 2 DVD's I have to upload this week that will add even more serious time to the video content. That's assuming I don't come across any more videos I've forgotten about in the meantime..which I may well do. There are videos all over the internet that I've done over the years, many of which I have either lost track of , deleted or simply forgotten about or can't trace right now. So what's on MudboxLIVE is literally the tip of the iceberg of the videos I've put out.

I am humbled by the reaction to this crazy idea of mine. Its gone little bit viral and is very odd for me to see from the 'inside'. Although part of me finds it disturbing that more people have now seen stuff of mine that is years old than have seen my recent work lol. I do hope everyone bears in mind that a lot of the videos uploaded are very old and do not reflect what I can do as a tutor or an artist right now. The links to MudboxLIVE have been growing exponentially this week, and that just the ones I know about.....to be honest I haven't had time to check as I've been too busy.

I normally do not add links to my YouTube video blog to my site as to be honest its sort of my video diary and isn't meant to be taken particularly seriously, but the videos I upped a couple of days ago may explain why I've made all my back catalogue of DVD's available for free and how I personally see the whole thing.I should point out these YouTube videos are normally only intended for friends and are very not safe for work, there is swearing, rather a lot of it in fact. It is also in my 'raw' accent.

So as of right now I'm going to have the 1st day off of the year so far. I'm going to be doing some serious relaxing. Enjoy the videos.......

As of now all my Mudbox DVD's free .....

People have said alot of nice things about the 14 DVD's I've released over the years and they continue to sell. As I own copyright on 10 of them (and to be frank the other 4 are so old they are useless to anyone except an archaeologist lol) I have decided to put my entire range of DVD's out for free as my gift. No catch...no signing up for a forum...and no restrictions on where you can add them. I've always said that when I do well I try to spread the good fortune around in some way and as this year so far has been fantastic... so...well you all get a late xmas present ;)

It always seemed a pity to me that the majority of my videos can't e seen unless you bought them or are already a Mudbox user. While some people worked out ages back most are just as useful to Zbrush sculptors as Mudbox users, But a lot of people without the spare cash to buy them missed out, and relied on either piracy or the free videos. Now let's not kid ourselves that this is an easy undertaking...this is a massive logistical undertaking that I have dropped like a H bomb on Cris who runs 3D-palace.com about 30mins ago. He took it well without passing out at all lol.

Getting the ones that are not on servers uploaded and out is going to take a little time, but it's already started. So tonight the 1st DVD's goes 'From the Ground up: Wave 2' the Dentist, hard surface sculpting by hand in Mudbox. Vol 5 of the Mudbox Masterclass series 'The Minotaur' and an oldie but a goody the siggraph 2009 masterclass. Those are the ones I can find right now on the server and the only reason why these are up 1st.

MUDBOXLIVE.com

Bookmark this as this is where my entire DVD range is going one by one for free!

1st FREE DVD: Mudbox From the Ground Up Wave 2 'The Dentist'

2nd FREE DVD Mudbox Masterclass Vol 5: 'The Minotaur'

3rd FREE DVD 'Autodesk Mudbox Masterclass Siggraph 2009'|

Autodesk Mudbox Masterclass Siggraph 2010 also coming (with parts never seen.)

Also while I'm at it I have removed some of the older time lapses and tutorials that I feel are just too old or not good enough to stick around. Sorry but I do have some sort of quality control lol. I would say that remember the last DVD I recorded and released was about 2 years back so remember these are not indicative of the current quality of my work. (if you spread them around I would ask you to point that out please as the last thing I want is old work been seen as my current work regardless of how good or bad it may be.) There will be a lot of hours worth of DVD's here that would have cost you a fair old penny to buy.

So as of now I consider the DVD format for tutorials dead. For me it dies tonight and the only place you'll be able to see my classes is either by taking part in the FXPHD MOD301 and MOD302 courses or at live events.

I told you there would be some changes this year ;)

ADDITIONAL:

Once they are all out I'll be organising things onto MudboxLIVE.com a bit better.

Just to make it clear, this isn't some promotional gimmick where they will disappear in a set length of time..they are free now for ever..until either planet earth explodes or a zombie apocalypse kills us all lol. Also these DVD's were making money right up till this morning. Coz if your going to give someone a gift its best to make it worth something. No I'm not doing it for some glory thing as I honestly don't have time to pimp this over half the bloody internet. if your lucky you may see one or two posts , but only if I have time. I'm relying on the users to promote this amongst themselves as I'm way to busy right now.