Prize Winners Have a Peek behind the curtain

I work on all sorts of things both artistically, R & D wise and programming wise that never ever see's the light of day, (or it can be a fair few years until they do).  Some time ago I had a little mini competition on Facebook to see who could share my short 'Monsters' the fastest.  It was a draw between 2 guys, Pete Steiner & Adrian Wise.  So there I was for over a month trying to work out a prize that would be interesting and unique for them.  So it came down to two things, and I thought I'd send them both :)

The first is the unreleased text from the Mudbox book I was writing back in 2009, its never seen the light of day, was never finished and never will see the light of day in that form.  Secondly is a special video with a 'peek behind the curtain' of something I have had in development for a while. (I think its seriously fucking cool BTW).  It seemed to be far more interesting to give a prize that was unique than just something simple like a DVD or a model.

Both Adrian and Pete have been told to keep these to themselves so don't go asking or pestering them please.   Maybe one day I'll restart the mudbox book.... although I've been saying that to myself for years.

Back in the Office

Just a quick note ethis time to let those interested know I've just finished my stinkt at Screen Scene in Dublin (a far shorter stint than my 6 1/2 months last time lol) and I am back working in my office.  As usual NDA means I can't say what projects I was working on yet.

You will also notice a new production reel has apeared today on the main site (www.dashdotslash.net) but that has to stay behind a password at the moment due to NDA's.


This means I now have plenty of time left for both personal projects and also freelance work.  It also gives me some time on an evening and during the day to expand my list of apps I use a little bit.

Bigfoot FINAL (with breakdown) & tweak to digital double of Me

BigFoot

Me with hair tweak

[EDIT] I've added some details on how I approached the Bigfoot model including lots of details at the end for those that are interested[/EDIT]

A couple of ones today, finally calling the bigfoot head shot done, as I have to get that one wound up as I have a busy week or two ahead of me.  Orantrix was used for the hair, sculpted and textured in mudbox, renmderd in 3dmax with vray for the Bigfoot and mental ray for the digital double of me.  My hatred of doing hair is wel known..however I have to say that the demo of ornatrix I used for these is probbaly hte best hair systemn I have ever tried. Its very easy to get the look your after I find.  I'll do a breakdown of why certain design choices were made on the bigfoot another time.

Enjoy

My Approach to Bigfoot

I thought the subject matter of the bigfoot model, my preparation and research for it may be interesting for some.  I wanted to show the good, the bad and the downright ugly to show in context what goes on behind the scenes. As a note to those starting out, things rarely pop out fully formed and perfect.  It occurred to me that artists rarely show when things go wrong, they only want to show the good things. It also occurred to me that its far more useful to people starting out to see the mistake as well as the solutions and decisions made and why.

I decided to do a bust of Bigfoot, coz..well ....why not?  I didn't want to just 'sculpt something that looks cool' off the top of my head but do some proper research as I would do in production.  So it had to have a strong basis in reality using anthropological references and mixing them into a way that I felt made the most logical sense.  That way I am nearly guaranteed to get something that is believable at the end.

My first move was to do a speed sculpt to get a feel for things and to see what pops out of my head when it's on its 'default settings'.  My first idea was to mix together both human and gorilla. While that was all very nice and all that, it didn't 'float my boat' and so it was back to the drawing board.  

the original speed sculpt

Step two was to change the 'mix' of source animals to human, gorilla and gigantopithicus (an extinct giant ape ).  The reason for this choice were that it is a  bloody huge ape and the right silhouette, it is also many big foot believers 'animal of choice' if it turned out to exist.   

Photoshop mockups

So I ran off some Photoshop mock ups using my speed sculpt as a basis until I was happy the mix would both work and look right.  I didn't however want to go too much in the direction of Gantipithicus as the ape looked a bit bloody gormless to be honest and didn't look at all threatening.   (if you don't believe me, look up some reconstructions that have been done by anthropologists lol).  So by varying the amount of each animal until I was happy I ball parked the main concept.  S by doing a 3 way blend between human, gorilla and Gigatipithicus skulls I had a ballpark shape.

Texturing was fun as I didn't want to take the predictable way out and give him black gorilla like skin.  That was simply too forgiving as a main colour, so I went with something paler. (This also helps with the subsurface scattering of the skin, as dark colours do not scatter well).

For his eyes I had a choice between human and ape, I decided human would made him look way too much like planet of the apes so went with chimpanzee eyes instead as they also seemed to add something to the model...they just felt 'right'.

oh no..... that doesn't look right at all!

The hair and fur I initially approached completely differently to I (or most other people) would.  I created some hair out of splines for the sides of the face, the chin and the overall 'flying' hairs on the head. I then put hair and fur under this for the head part to fill it out using the default hair and fur in 3ds max.  while the cheek and chin hair looked great the rest looked like shit as you can see above (in fact it looks like a cross between a hair brush and pubic hair). So it was back to the drawing board.  

I then started messing around with the Ornatrix demo (which resets your models hair every time you save), and was amazed how much easier it was to use.  Anyone who even remotely knows me, knows I hate doing hair on models.  I'm usually terrible at it, so if I can get something looking even remotely ok out of it the it has to be a good system. 

So in this case research was vital and kept it from getting too far away from reality.   It was rendered in 3Ds Max 2014 using Vray and comped in Photoshop and Nuke. (minor grading).  Hopefully this helps those starting out to see that things undergo a few iterations, a lot of planning and problem solving and don't just pop out fully formed.  It came to me that artists normally only how the 'good decisions' of a piece, never the good and bad in context.

The BrainKiller EP

I discoverd a genre of music called 'nightcore' at 8pm last night. As usual, I deconstructed it...and put it back together in a way I like...so sort of my version of nightcore as a style.  So then as I had had a seriously screwed up day I sat and remixed some songs of mine into this EP between 8pm last night and midday today.

Enjoy

Bigfoot bust doodle

As I decided to take this molrning off, I thought I'd spend this afternoon doing a doodle..... My idea was to do a bust of bigfoot... 1st version is a simple cross between a gorilla and a human male.  I'll probably doa  version two as this combo works but doesnt work well as a design for me.  Next attempt wil be gigantipithicus + human.

Mudbox, rendered in mental ray using my very old clay / chavant setup (thats been riped off more times than enough over the years lol)

MaxScript: Wayne's Morpher Switcher

 

Download

A useful maxscript of mine for those of you dealing with morph target animation (whether it be keyframe of facial mocap).  This script lets you turn part of your animtion on and off based on your naming convention you use.  So if every mouth target starte with 'Mouth_'  then simply put that into the mouth section and set the base name using the button above it.  Do this for your 4 groups provided and you can turn section of your animation on and off making it easier to spot problems. 

Isolating the sections of your facial animation can give you vital clues to why a certain area may not be looking right.  Its a non distructive process and your animtoin is still there, simply turned off until you turn it back on again.

Feel free to poke around in the maxscript and adapt to your needs...although I canm promise you there is nothing revolutionary there lol.  To run simply extract the ziup file and bang it into your scripts folder.  The run as normal.

Enjoy

MaxScripts: Wayne's Nitrous Tools & Wayne's Morph Renamer

 

Download

A couple of maxscripts that you guys may find of use.  The first is a one I knocked up this morning to make life a bit easier to control the Nitrous viewport in 3Ds Max.  Consider it a basic version 1, as its got the things I personaly need / want there.  (Other stuff will be added later / as I get time.)  Its pretty self explanitory to use, simply bung it in your scripts / startup folder and add to your UI.  You will find it under the catagory 'Wayne Robson'.

 

Download

The second is for those that attended my second End User Event lecture.  It is a life saver for those who use mudbox in a blendshapes workflow, it removes the 'Shape' text tag from all morph layers making life a bit easier from a workflow perspective.  (Mudbox add's the text 'Shape' to every blendshape on export which can screw up transferring of animation data).  Its nothing world changing, but a nice handy little script you just need to run when you need it.

Enjoy.....

Back to work

I'm back from my Lectures at End User Event 2013 (which went very well) and back in my office trying to catch up on the week I have lost.  It was nice to catch up with freinds both old and new and catch some lectures on subjects I don't normally touch. The tech behind my facial mocap and 3d scanning seemed to cause a lot of interest in some quarters (as did a certain part of my second lecture lol)


On a night time I'm currently messing around with a 'Nitrous Toolset' maxscript to relax on as nightime that might see the light of day at some point.

The maxscripts referenced in my second lecture I'll upload (Paul Neale may well upload the one he made for me to his site) once I get turned around and settled in again.

'Monsters!' Episode 1

First up the important stuff that if I just stick at the end, 70% of you will not get to:

 'Monsters!' is going to be an occasional episodic series of 1-2 min shorts in a pseudo documentary format (think of sort of national geographic meets monsters lol).   The first episode is a 'technical test' to iron out the bugs and problems.  It was produced from scratch in 3 days, took another  3 day to render.  I am aware of an problems you that may spot I can assure you,many are either due to having to cut corners so I could actually render it on a single desktop machine, or simply due to the 3 days I had to make it.  At some point I will redo this episode to bring it up to the quality of the others but for now it stands as it does.  Script mattered and acting mattered less for this test than the technical stuff (although I apologies for the 'non rigged' shoulder are.... but hey I had 3 days, deal with it lol).

The concept behind this series is  simply 'what if monsters were real, what would they think of us?'  Each episode will cover both a differing topic and a different 'Monster' (although as this video shows, to them WE are the monsters!)   This subject was picked for the technical test  / 1st episode as it wrote itself and I had the script knocking about for months. I was Sculpted and textured in Mudbox, with facial system created in in 3Ds Max using data from 'Mask', my in house facial MOCAP app / system.  It was rendered  using Mental Ray.

For those interested, the 'Monster' in this video, Xaphan is actually based on a demon documented in both the catholic religion and demonology.  Xaphan was both 'Duke of Hell' and ruled the 28 Legions.  But prior to this,he was an arc angel and was documented as being the 'angel who set hell on fire'.  (Who said angels have to have wings and fucking halo's????? )  So yep I did do some 'demonology research', and didn't just pluck the character out of my arse, you'll be pleased to know.

Before you write for any character I believe you must 'know them'....hence the research.  But again this was primarily a technical test of the pipeline for my in house facial motion capture system / app and re-targeting existing data onto a model with non human anatomy.  Eventually the plan is to compile all the episodes into one far longer, more optimised scripted short

Hopefully you enjoy it and the 'message' it contains ...sometimes its easier to listen to pretend creature than to other humans.  (Plus no one can accuse HIM of being a pontificateing old bastard lol....)

Everything you see and hear was done by me, right down to sound design, although I must thank Lukáš Duběda for help rendering it out, and Ruairí Robinson for the script advice.   No man is an island.

[Side Note]
Far from being a picture of calm over the 3 days making this and the 3 days to render it, I have to admit that sanity was in short supply and that procrastination ruled.  I was convinced I would not meet the deadline (imposed simply as I wanted it ready before I went to the End User Event in Utrecht Holland to lecture lol).  No one is more surprised than me that it is done I can assure you.

'Monsters' (side project)

 

'Monsters' is a muliti part animation i'm trying to get the first part ready for end user event next week.  its a tall order and one i may or may not manage.  the basic premise is each creatures view of us humans....i'll give you a hint......to them we are the monsters.

expect dark overtones...this isn't something that will cause many smiles....sometimes the best way to show how inhuman us humans can be is if it is not a human telling us...  I've had to cut the design back to something less complex and this ones a old fashioned poly model..... its going to take 60 hours to render the rest of the frames..... touch and go....

Something on the side

I'm gambling that I may have a little time left over with the stuff I'm prepping for the end user event (www.enduserevent.com )  so I'm currnetly in the middle of this one...sort of something on the side....work in progress so usual disclaimers stand.

Me - Digital Double ...almost done

Almost done..... just afew minor tweka to do next week and I'm calling this done.   Yes I am overweight lol.

My Album 'Fat Funky Bastard' - Full Free and Legal

My nights at the Twisted Pepper in Dublin may be showing on this lol

My second album that I have been recording over the last twelve month, is more 'Electronic' and more club friendly.  Fat Funky Bastard was recorded mostly while I was living in Dublin while working at screen scene on the film Last Days on Mars. All but the last couple of tracks were recorded there at 'Apartment 12'.  Some people working there with me at the time may be able to deduce what was going on at work by the titles if they are clever.

Some have rather controversial meanings if you can work out the knotted spaghetti that is my mind such as The Jonestown Massacre that features vocal samples with the murdering bastard himself 'the reverend Jim Jones' to prove exactly how easy it is to twist words.  Others have deeper meaning that may allude anyone but me.... but if the tunes fine then it doesn't mater. ;)   If your interested, I was imagining a sort of 'tarantino-eque' vibe or this one by the way. While 'Kill he Batman' is an attempt to put into music what is going through my head while I sculpt (although not actually killing batman or any other well known superhero lol)

In case your wondering.... the 'Fat Funky Bastard' referred to in the title and the title track is me.   The photo that I used for the cover (as I couldn't be arsed to make a special one...and the 'alternative idea' as a for it to feature a picture of my arse), was taken one  took  a greasy spoon near Stephens green in Dublin to check my camera one Sunday.

There are all sorts of styles and bastard hybrids of electronic music on here.

Again all songs are composed by me, recorded by me, performed by me and I did all mixing adn engineering (as usual). Think of it as a distilled ego trip by a world class control freak lol.

I make my music free as its not done to make money from and I do it to relax and unwind. But all rights are reserved and copyright Wayne Robson 2013, if you want to use it for any reason then drop me an email and I'll probably be fine with it. (Unless its for use as the soundtack to a martian donkey porn film. lol)

My Classical Music Album 'Adoramus Vertexium' Full Free and Legal

'1/2 'Proper classical', 1/2 metal and 1/2 crazy shit

I thought it easier to link both of the two album I have wrote and recorded over the last twelve months in two posts with a single player direct from my soundcloud.  I think of this album as having  halves (lol), as its half 'proper' classical compositions I have wrote peformed and recorded half rock and metal stuff and half crazy stuff.
Again all songs are composed by me, recorded by me, performed by me (apart from the classical vocal bits) even the damn album are work is by me.  Think of it as a distilled ego trip lol.  Although hopefully it show there is a little bit more to me than just being 'Mudbox guy'.

I make my music free as its not done to make money from and I do it to relax and unwind. But all rights are reserved and copyright Wayne Robson 2013, if you want to use it for any reason then drop me an email and I'll probably be fine with it.  (Unless its for use as the soundtack to a martian donkey porn film lol)

Something Different: 2 new albums of my music

Over the last year I've be writing, recording and producing 2 albums wroth of music. As its in 2 different musical fields I've split them into to albums. The first album is called 'Fat Funky Bastard', the second album is called 'Adoramus Vertexium' and is a 'mostly classical music' album.  The links and track listing are below:

[EDITED] I've removed the links as I will be upping the playlists for both albums soon so they are far easier to listen to without copying and pasting links.[/EDIT]

As I do these 'for me' to relax...  I put them out as I always have with my music for me..... Enjoy