Machineflesh 3D Challenge Entry: David Marsh

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1080591803_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1080591803_large.jpg)

OK, so this chaps a bit short on ideas but, fret not, he's been fitted with the patented 'Bright Idea Creator'. Simply plug it in and relieve that mind block at the flick of a switch - now where's the socket...

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1081244163_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1081244163_large.jpg)

I've made good progress in the modelling of the head. I have moved the ligtbulb to sit more on top of the head, reinforcing the 'idea' theme to greater effect.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1081244638_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1081244638_large.jpg)

I have spent some time adjusting the right side of the face to make the head more asymmetrical and hopefully more life-like. I have also added a wry expression.

[DimitrisLiatsos]

Very nice ..and he has an ironic smile i think!!! ..cool work....waiting for more.

:bounce:

[irahus]

Love the modelling..err..can u tell more about the purpose. :)

[pseudonympending]

Cheers guys :)

The concept could probably do with some clarifying. Basically this is just an ordinary Joe who, in order to advance his career, has gone to the extreme of having an implant installed that allows him to, at the flick of a switch, have a great idea.

The final work is intended to be very tongue in cheek, as lets face it, if there were such an implant, you'd hardly wan't or need a huge great light bulb sticking out the top of your head. It's a pardoy on the old comic book lightbulb that appears above a characters head when he's just had a brain wave.

Also, the sheer impracticality of having to plug it in gives the impression that he bought this thing for £19.95 out of the back of some seedy magazine. I love the idea that whilst it serves a mechanical purpose and enhances the user - it is in fact a bit rubbish!

I mused around several other, more outragoeus sci-fi based ideas before settling with this one as I enjoyed the subtlety of it.
However I'm planning several other additions to the original concept to re-inforce these ideas in the finished work and make it as amusing as possible. For example, the lead for the plug will probably come out of his nose.

I hope this makes things clearer, thanks for your comments so far, any more will be very much appreciated.

[Cygnus-X]

Great modeling, I like the expression in is face :) Funny concept

[Ravendsg]

Great work! The face is almost alive with that little smile. And the way the bulb and switch is placed make its very believeable and interesting! REally GREAT MODELLING!! :applause:

[ufotung]

Humor will be winner ~
:thumbsup:

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086093344_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086093344_large.jpg)

The hand is pretty basic at this stage. I'll be adding more wrinkles and the like later.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086093823_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086093823_large.jpg)

The hand has been boned and skinned and positioned to hold the plug. I've added wires and detail at the base of the light bulb.

I've opted for a t-shirt as opposed to the suit I originally planned. I still like the idea of him wearing a shirt so might revisit that time-permitting.

The hand has moved from the left of the character to the right for no reason other than I prefer the composition.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086094528_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086094528_large.jpg)

Here's the colour map for the face along with a render. As well as bump and specular maps I'm using Brazil to add translucency and skin cell detail.

The t-shirt is currently proceedural.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086095012_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086095012_large.jpg)

I've also textured the hand (I love these bank holiday weekends). Once again i'm using Brazil to achieve the nice translucent look on the fingers. Now i've posed the hand I feel I need to model in some more detail where the skin would scrunch up.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086096048_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086096048_large.jpg)

I've spiced up the composition and used an HDRI map for the basis to the lighting. It's rendered using Brazil with a sky light (HDRI), a key light and a back light.

I think the lighting is effective on the head but not quite so on the hand. Plus it's all a bit short on colour, so i'll be looking at that.

[harnelbe]

:thumbsup:
Superb materials textures lighting modeling !
The concept is very funny, light and original.

[pseudonympending]

Thanks man, glad you like it. The next mission is to give him hair which'll be interesting to say the least.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086349454_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086349454_large.jpg)

I've altered the lighting, using a new HDRI map along with two omnis.

I've also made a displacement map for the hand to give it all the wrinkles - anthing to put of making the hair :)

[Russo]

that´s a simple idea very well executed!!

:buttrock:

[Man]

cool idea dude!

[harnelbe]

:surprised :bounce:
Whaooowww !!! the rendering of the hand !!!! look at the hand ! Superb ! So realistic ! So full of life !!
Very impressive !!!
I'm a fan !

[BESTrin]

very nice. I liked the old lighting allitle better because it had hotter specular highlights which added that extra realistic wetness. He should be sweating a bit. Great concept and great execution. The foldes in the skin and in his shirt are realy nice. And the integration of the bulb into the head is simple yet perfect for the concept. The fingernails need allitle work but i think your orkin your way up the hand and gettin around to that. Realy nice. Great idea.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086607464_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086607464_large.jpg)

I've worked a lot on the eye area by imroving the eyeballs themsleves and adding eyebrows and eyelashes.

I've also imroved on the wire conectors and textured on his shaven head.

[DimitrisLiatsos]

Superb modeling and very nice texturing...i kinda like him without eyebroews...but that's just me...cool work man....your model of the head is in my disk for study :thumbsup:

[Tryn]

nice job texturing; great skin.
Question: Was there any particular method you used to get such a sweet UV map for your texture, or was it all laid out/unwrapped manually?

[pseudonympending]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I've used 3dsmax for this and after applying cylindrical mapping co-ords to the head I add the Unwrap UVW map modifier. There's a tool in there which I think is new to Max 6 that allows you to select differrent areas of the mesh and relax it. This is well handy were you have lots of high detailing - particulalry around the eyes and ears.

However, you don't want to get too carried away with it as you'll end up with a texture that visibly stretches across your polys. I tend to go for a combination of using relax and doing manual tweaks to get the best results in the shortest time.

I then use a free plugin called Texporter to save out the UV map at a nice high resolution and then get photoshopping like a madman.

Hope this makes sense.

[Tryn]

Thanks for the info, dude. I use maya, but I found pretty much the same tools you were talking about. :thumbsup:

[Syeko]

Really cool!

ive been sat looking at this for a while now, Awsomme.


Good Luck

[Yann1ck]

Your textures are impressive.
This very good. Good luck

Mirage

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086984936_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1086984936_large.jpg)

I've made lots of subtle changes mainly to the eyebrows, plug and bulb. I've also ramped up the Sub-Surface Scattering and tweaked the lighting.

Some things are for the better and some are not.

I'm going to leave the hair I planned out simply due to the short amount of time left, nevermind I think he still looks pretty good with a skinhead.

[BESTrin]

I think hes better bald regardless of time. It looks great but you should still take a look a the tips of his fingers in his right hand (holding the switch). Other than that it looks great.

[EmpY]

Simple, effective!
I would give him a few drops of blood from the nose, just
a thought...
I like it!:thumbsup:

[Squibbit]

funny! :thumbsup:
:beer:

[BrettHolton]

turn the light bulb on!!

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296193_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296193_large.jpg)

Here's the final mesh in all it's mesh smoothed glory.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296400_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296400_large.jpg)

Here are the final textures. Note the displacement map for the hand in the bottom right.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296560_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296560_large.jpg)

Here's the final lit image - including and HDRI map, a key light a back light and an omni dedicated to picking out the highlights on the eyes.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296631_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296631_large.jpg)

Wayhey - the final render!

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296735_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087296735_large.jpg)

Not much done here. Just an alpha mask to allow me to add a simple background in Photoshop.

[pseudonympending]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087297041_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/5/3026/3026_1087297041_large.jpg)

OK this is it - the finished product. AS ever there's loads more i'd love to have done but you guys know how it works :)

I've opted for a simple, light background to best show off the model and after a couple of small touchups in Photoshop and it's all done.

Must rush - i'm catching a plane to Portugal in a few hours. I'm off for Euro2004 Football finals - C'mon Enlgand :)

Thanks for all the support and comments - it's been great fun. Bring on the next one.

[Raul-Reznek]

that's great! :D

[Irratio]

Most sympathic, most refreshing. You've got my vote.

[Dutchman]

Incredible photorealistic and awesome modelled! Also the textures and lightning and.... All is just AWESOME!

Reeeaaaly nice job! :drool:

[Ionized]

Another great entry that I completely missed.. lol...

Great work... very tongue in cheek, I like it.

Excellent rendering too!

[Flip_Render]

Hi there! I liked the idea in your MF entry most. It has an original and polite, but ironical message. Though I preferred the first HDRI render @ 06-01-2004, 01:20 PM over the final one. I think that the lightbulb looked better in it, and so did the skin, except the SSS is better in the final render. U got my vote! The whole concept is great. I mean, a human being an household accessory, combined with French philosopher René Descartes's undeniable comment,, in a t-shirt!!!!

[pseudonympending]

Thanks for all the comments guys, they are greatly recieved.

Flip_Render, i'm glad you like my work. Interestingly you describe it as 'a human being as a household accessory'. Now it's all over and I can distance myself from it a bit I can see that you are 100% correct - the dude looks like a standard lamp!

Amusingly this was never my intention, in fact he was meant to be fitted with some sort of ideas device that would light up when he had a brainwave, like the comic book lightbulb above the head and hense the 'I think therefore I am' on the t-shirt. I think this is probably a common misconception but hey, I guess all art is open to the interpretaion of the viewer so maybe i'll just keep quiet :)

In regards to the previous render perhaps being superior to the final image, I was on the fence myself (and still am), but I opted in the end for this one purely because he looks a bit healthier - in my sisters words the last one 'looks like a crack addict'!

Anyhow, thanks for the vote, it's much appreciated.

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