Author Archives: Les

Concept Sculpting Videos

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Finally getting around to uploading more concept sculpt videos to our YouTube channel. Here are parts one and two of a new sculpt that I’m really liking the outcome of. Really creepy shape to this guy. Odds are it will end up a new character in Apocalypse Girl. Planning to add some things to it in the next couple days, just to flesh out where it’s going. -Les

Update: Added parts 3 and 4 to this, showing the character taken to it’s completed concept sculpt. Also, at the bottom are BPR renders out of Zbrush showing off the final look.

DecrepitGenomancer_Render1 DecrepitGenomancer_Render2 DecrepitGenomancer_Render3 DecrepitGenomancer_Render4 DecrepitGenomancer_Render5 DecrepitGenomancer_Render6

 

“In Her Den”

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Finalizing my art pieces that will make up the bulk of the promo for the second installment in the “Outlanders” series, “Mama Shotgun”. While the full rendered pieces will be used on the products, I’m absolutely in love with doing these pen and ink style renders in Poser 2014. The style I’m managing to reach with them is starting to land somewhere between Tim Bradstreet and Travis Charest, something I’m very pleased with. More details on “Mama Shotgun” to come…InHerDen InHerDen_Rendered

 

Poser 10/2014 Comic Book Style Rendering

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Ok. I admit it: I’ve always been a purist when it comes to comics. As a guy who got his art career started drawing comic books right before “digital” became a “thing” in that business, there’s always been an aversion I’ve had to computers in comic art. Sure, I got over it with the awesome leaps forward that Image Comics made in coloring back then (I’m pointing at YOU, Brian… hehehe) but beyond that, it’s never really been something I’ve gotten into until just lately, and even then, not so much with 3D, but more with the use of Manga Studio EX from Smith Micro. So why all the hubbub about comic stuff here? Well, just check out the image attached to this post. What you see there is a new kit of ours that should be out soon called “Mama Shotgun”, rendered using Poser 10/2014′s new “Comic Book” style rendering. Let me just get this out of the way:

WOW!

And in case I was unclear, well… WOW!!!

The way that this new feature adapts what’s in the viewport of Poser to a very traditional pen and ink style is beyond amazing. What’s more, if you dig in on the material nodes in your scene, especially playing with ambiance settings, you’ll find a striking amount of possibilities opening up. Since I’ve only cracked the surface on this, I’m sure that as I dig around and explore more of the way the materials interact with this render mode a lot of cool things will be uncovered. At first glance my only critiques are simply that I would LOVE to see the nuts and bolts of how the rendering is executed made available through some kind of interface where can have finer control over things like line weight, and the especially the way in which it interprets very complex textures like cloth patterns into the ink. Still, with further exploration I may run into ways to do just what I’m talking about, and if I do, will certainly post back here about it, but for something I’ve literally spent minutes playing with, it’s incredible. -Les

Mama Shotgun

Testing the new comic book style rendering in Poser 2014

Interesting stuff coming in Poser 10/2014

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As a part of the beta program behind Poser, I’ve gotten to see the cool new toys coming for a long time. Still, I’ve had my wishlist for at least that long, and while a lot on that list has been added inch by inch, there I haven’t always been as impressed with the advanced made in new versions of Poser. With Poser 10/2014, however, there is some serious maturity coming to play that I’m very excited about. With that in mind, I’ll be adding information to the blog here from time to time leading up to and past the release of Poser 10/2014 that is meant to illuminate and explore some of what the latest version has to offer, beginning with one of the most impressive new additions, their inclusion of the Open Subdiv architecture from Pixar.

Most Poser users at this point are aware, at least to some degree, of the availability of subdivision surfaces inside Poser by way of the “smooth polygons” option in the renders settings, though from my interaction with users it seems that the meaning of this option is still rather unclear. In simple terms, what it means is that by checking “smooth polygons”, any objects in the scene which also have smooth polys checked in their parameters will have their poly count multiplied by a factor of four and somewhat relaxed at render time to produce a smoother, more organic look. To date, Poser users have been stuck with one degree of subdivision and while that allows a certain extra level detail, by embracing the OpenSubdiv Architecture in the newest build of Poser, users will now not only have the option to subdivide at render time, but to see the results of subdivision in the viewport plus being able to dial in as many degrees of subdivision as they like. This opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for those of us creating content and the users of Poser alike, and I plan to go into some of those in a future installment. For now, however I’ll leave you with a link to the official pages at Pixar detailing the nuts and bolts of just what Open Subdiv Architecture is. Be forewarned: this is the deep stuff when it comes to 3D but it’s very interesting and I think, kinda cool to understand the deeper workings of the software we’re using to do this crazy art form of ours.  -Les

Open Subdiv Architecture from Pixar