Spectacular 3D Entry: Jason Nystrom

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128567480_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128567480_large.jpg)

so i've been wanting to enter a challange for a while now but haven't had a good idea.

i think i have one now.

the past weekend a weird creature design popped into my mind, so i started modeling and was pretty pleased with the results. i figured i'd continue it in zbrush as that's something i'm recently getting into. then a few nights later i had a cool idea for a still image using this new monster. and i thought it'd be perfect for a cgchallange. i'll be building one monster, building one human (victim), and building a relatively simple setting, a hallway. it will rely heavily on modeling and texturing, two things i feel pretty good at and will be a good chance to get better at rigging and lighting, rendering and compositing.

i'm pretty jazzed...

i'll try to post a concept sketch tomorrow. in the mean time here's the modeling i did the other day.

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128695831_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128695831_large.jpg)

still haven't done that concept sketch but i made pretty good progress with the hallway. found a great reference photo on the net and have been just basically coping it.

not sure about lighting yet. obviously i want it dark and creepy so i don't know if the lights will be on, if there's light coming in through the window or what...

and i actually am leaning towards a square format. i'm playing with the idea of it being a poloroid photo. like someone stumbled across this thing in a hallway with it's victim and took a quick snapshot of it. we'll see how that works.

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128696250_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128696250_large.jpg)

not much here, just the hallway reference photo i've been using. (copyright someone, somewhere, please don't sue me...)

i will say that i cannot stress enough how important reference is to me. it doesn't matter what project i'm working on the the first thing i always do is gather as much reference as i can. i believe it not only makes you job a lot easier but you also get much better results.

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128725411_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1128725411_large.jpg)

here's the concept sketch.

i barely consider myself a 3d artist and as this sketch will demonstrate i do not consider myself a 2d artist at all.

but hopefully it will illustrate my idea. the creature, floating in a hallway, clutching some poor dead victim.

i'm going for a h.p. lovecraft kinda feel. a little victorian, very dark and creepy and, hopefully, extremely horrorific.

the plan is for the final image to be pretty spectacular (heh). a 'i can't believe that got that photo'/'it must be a hoax.'/'who the hell was there with a camera?' kinda thing. like the feeling 'blair witch' gave you.

i'm up against some truely awesome competition and, frankly, don't really expect to place or anything. i'm just using the format of the challange to force me to actually finish something.

that's MY cgchallange - finish a project.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1129165621_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1129165621_large.jpg)

more modeling...

i finished the creature and the main hallway. i still plan on adding a few details to the hallway, a hanging mirror, mouldings, cornices, etc.

anyway, here's some quick screen captures. along with wires for those so inclined. (i am, i love wireframes, they're like porn for me.)

overall i'm pretty happy with the progress. getting the creature into zbrush will make a big difference, i'm really looking forward to doing that. still need a name for it too. any ideas? right now i'm calling it a 'floating horror' but that's a little gay*.

i've also started unwrapping but what can you say about that?

still to do? a whole damn lot, but i'm really having a lot of fun, so onwards we go...

* not homosexual gay, that's ok. but lame gay, you know?

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1129906954_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1129906954_large.jpg)

pretty much finished unwrapping the still-unnamed monster.

been busy lately so there's not much else to report but hopefully i'll get some more done this weekend.

i've also started placing a very basic rig on the monster. the td in me wants to go crazy rigging this thing up for animation but that will have to wait until i've finished everything else first.

[Gunilla]

Cool looking creature you got going! I think this scene can come out really well - so just go on :thumbsup:

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130097996_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130097996_large.jpg)

i consider the build of the monster finished. i put a quick skeleton/weight set/rig on it for posing. (rigging for a still image as opposed to animation is much easier.)

i still need to zbrush and texture it.

i also need to polish off the hallway model and finish the unwrap of it. i've started a lot of this, even begun texturing the hallway but there's nothing worth showing yet...

oh yeah, and build a photo-real cg human.

no big deal.

cheers,

[Dutchman]

Wow man, spectacular stuff! :scream: Too sad you don't get any replies..?!

That 'creature' looks really cool, and the idea behind your concept also really rocks! I'm really looking forward to the part with the 'photoreal human'! :twisted:

That rig looks also really nice... And complicated! ;) Do you do that rigging stuff because it may be nessecairy, or more to practise and learn rigging... Cause you could be doing it more effective, or does that just seem so? :shrug:

In every case I want to wish you tons of luck & tons of fun! :thumbsup:
-Gijs

[meatpuppet]

Gunilla - i hope so. thanks for the nice words.

Dutchman - i consider what's there a very basic rig. only for posing the creature. building the skeleton, weighting the creature and building the rig only took an hour or two. if i was going to be using this creature for a visual effects shot i'd probably want blend shapes for the gills and vents, softbodies on the float and maybe other things as well.

the creature is a lot lower ploycount-wise than i usually model. i'm going to be getting all the detail from displacement mapping. (thank you pixologic!) that made it a lot easier and quicker to rig than i think it would have been normally.

the same will apply to the human (i think.) i'll keep the model pretty light, get all my detail from zbrush and keep the rig very simple, for posing only. i won't have to kill myself getting perfect deformations. and i won't need ik and reverse foot rigs and whatnot.

it's just a bit of a different way of working for me. i usually have to take the rigging a lot farther for animation.

i'm really getting into producing just one frame of something!

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130424155_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130424155_large.jpg)

finished unwrapping the hallway and begun texturing it. now things start getting creative again.

i'm really hoping to get some feedback here. i'm pretty sure i like the wallpaper pattern (but i'll probably try others) but i'm less sure about the floor/tiles.

any thoughts or suggestions?

going to start zbrushing the creature soon and texturing it. i'm going to try texturing in zbrush, something i've never done before but it looks like a pretty good workflow.

also have to make that photo-real cg girl. obviously, i've been putting this one off until last even though i really shouldn't.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130461577_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130461577_large.jpg)

it's not really worth showing but what the hell...

i've begun assembling the scene. and testing lighting/rendering.

why, you ask, when i still have so much modeling and texturing to do? i don't know. mostly i wanted to see how long a 4k (original resolution) mental ray gi render would take.

the answer? i don't know, i forgot to turn 'verbosity' on. heh.

[soapy]

Hey nice work! That creature model is creepy as hell.

I am not too fond of the wallpaper, it might be a tad too busy. You have a lot of good detail in the image already and may need some space for the eye to rest so I think the wallpaper might be too much? On the other hand maybe you want a really intense look? hmm

You need a new floor, that I am certain. :-)

cheers

[meatpuppet]

thanks for the feedback, soapy.

i will try a few other wallpaper patterns, i also might just make the current one more subtle. more worn-out and less contrasty.

and i agree with you about the floor. i was thinking of a long hallway rug. i dunno. i'm less sure about the floor than other areas. i have a few other ideas to try out here too.

i think i really need to get it all together and take a look at it as a whole and then see what parts work and which ones don't.

thanks again for the comments.

cheers,

[soapy]

Well at least those flat textures are easy enough to change out later.

The composition, modeling and lighting so far are super good.

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130860079_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1130860079_large.jpg)

so after bringing the monster into zbrush i decided to make a few minor tweaks to the geometry. i removed the polygon veins that ran up from it's 'face' to it's 'float'. i also fixed the uv's.

i realized i can get better, more detailed results using displacement alone. now i think it's ready for zbrushing...

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1131238066_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1131238066_large.jpg)

it's not perfect yet but i feel like the hallway is complete enough to move onto others areas.

what other areas you ask? re-weighting the creature. (i changed the model a little.)

and i still gotta make the girl. the cute young one in the nightdress. the one who's getting her face eaten off by the creature.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

but i got a lot done over the weekend.

1. from the previous update: i am basiclly done texturing and lighting the hallway.

2. re-weighted the creature and made some progress texturing it. i also completely rebuilt it's eyes and made textures for those as well. (teeth and gums too.)

3. started modeling the girl but haven't really gotten very far. i'm a little unsure how to proceed here. how detailed should the geo be? what can i accomplish in zbrush? how the hell am i going to do her nightgown? am i going to need cloth sim? (something i've never done before but want to learn.) or would that be overkill?

so, to sum up, i made a lot of progress and still have a long way to go.

the other entries are really shaping nicely, i'm truly in some awesome company.

cheers,

[Gunilla]

Some really nice progress here!
You've done a wonderful job with the hallway - especially the lighting. I'm not quite as fond of the floor... perhaps a worn carpet would fit better? The kind you see in cheap hotels - greenish or the like, just a thought. The wallpaper rocks though - really like that pattern.
Looking forward to see you proceed :thumbsup:

Practical hint: you should place a link to your thread in your signature, that way people will find it easier. You should have much more attention that you've had so far - this is really good work.

[meatpuppet]

thanks Gunilla,

i agree with you about the floor. i actually considered carpet but put it off in favor of spending time on other areas. i'm still thinking about it though. i do like the idea of old carpeting, perhaps a runner down the hall on top of the tile...

and i added a link in my signature, great suggestion.

cheers,

[soapy]

Bring on the first victim!

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1131558467_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1131558467_large.jpg)

i finally started zbrushing the monster.

and i mean JUST starting, there's still a long way to go, but i think the results will be worth it.

and i made a little more progress on the victim, i'll be posting something for her soon.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

i agree, soapy.

i was considering skipping the girl and just having the monster. but i don't think the piece would have nearly the impact so i can't be lazy...

i worked on her a little this morning and she's starting to shape up. i'm pretty sure i can keep the model very simple for two reasons.

1. most of her will be covered, either by the nightgown of her hair
2. her face and chest will be eaten by the monster, blood and gore will hopefully cover any imperfections in the girl.

mmm... blood and gore... (think i've been spending too much time over here (http://www.mastersfx.com/) lately.)

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1131637335_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1131637335_large.jpg)

not much yet, but it's a beginning. again i don't think i need a really detailed body as i't only really there as a collision object for the cloth of her nightgown. and again her face and chest will be all chewed up so i won't really need to have a lot of detail there.

hopefully.

only a few weeks left. guess i'd better make some progress.

cheers,

[Nakary]

Hi Jason.. that is a nice monster, I reckon its going to look even cooler when shaded... I think its creases are way to sharp, other than that is perfect.

Your Hallway is pretty cool too. nice colors and mood.

Congratulations and good luck.!

[meatpuppet]

thanks for the kind words, Nakary.

hopefully the creature will look pretty cool. i think i have an interesting color scheme (which i have yet to post). i find the vast majority of my creature inspiration comes from deep sea life and very dangerous/toxic animals with bright, strange coloring. sea slugs, octopods, poisonous frogs, etc. so the creature is orange, white, pink, purple, and black. it sounds weird but i think it will work.

it seems to me like most made-up monsters are always black and shiney. look at just about any creature movie, especially one made within the past few years and the monster is black and shiney. that just seems a little boring (and lacking imagination) to me.

as for the model, that was just a quick zbrush screen capture of a lower subdivision stage. the final will be much more organic and natural.

man, have i got a lot of work to do. fortunatly i have a long weekend starting tomorrow and the weather's been really bad so i'll be encouraged to spend a lot of time working on it.

cheers,

[soapy]

I agree about the black monsters being boring, I think that black came about from a practical working standpoint, shiny and black can hide defiencies in the prop and preserve the mystery on film. Prolly easier to move from prop to cg also? Now with better cg I suspect movies will move away from black, hmm. Of course black is black and will always be kool.

Zbrush should work perfect for making your gore covered victim. I wish I knew zbrush, I am just getting into displacement a little bit myself and am going to use a bit of painted on detail in my entry.

[danielkenobi]

You definetly have a great ambient whith your room. I really like it. The monster looks cool too. Good luck

[Gene_C]

well hello there Jay, what do we have here?

Its great to see you entering this challenge, it should be right up your ally. I like the creature design, its original, and neat, and very much your style. I think you will enjoy z-brush too, that program is too much fun sometimes.

I watching now, I'll let you know more as it goes, good luck dude.
I wish I had time/energy/good ideas/a decent computer to enter these things.
Kill it man!

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132023415_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132023415_large.jpg)

the model is pretty much 'maya done'. now it's time to take it into zbrush and polish it off. there's a lot of polishing to do too.

i also built a skeleton but haven't weighted the model yet. nor have i unwrapped it. and i have no plans to do any kind of rigging. i only need to animate her limp pose for the cloth sim and won't need any ik or anything.

also, also it's not a mistake i did in fact model her without a lower jaw. i plan on detailing her with severe wounds to her upper chest/lower face. and i think a missing jaw bone will fit in with the mood nicely.

man, that deadline sure is coming up. better get back to work.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

hey gene!

well, let's be honest, it will be a miracle if i finish this thing by the deadline. but, much to my surprise, i might actually do it.

thanks for looking.

cheers,

[angel]

Can't wait to see that creature finished. Like the mood in the hallway as well. I hope you find the time to finish it!

-å

[gry]

woah, twice in 2 days i run into you in some form or another. the project is lookin cool. i like the hallway lighting a lot, and i agree with the other dude about changing the floor to some blood soaked carpet. yum. the concert was so rockin last night eh. good luck with this and the zbrush.

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132075654_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132075654_large.jpg)

so i finished zbrushing the monster.

i think it looks pretty cool. it's far from perfect, but i think i'd better start getting on with getting on, otherwise i won't make the deadline.

cheers,

[shemosus]

very cool,waiting for more posts.

[nebezial]

maan and i was sorta wondering how a baby of the predator and the brain bug from starship troopers would look like lol awesome work in every aspect man:buttrock:

[meatpuppet]

nebezial, that was really funny. thanks.

so i squeezed in a few test renders yesterday and got pretty disappointing results. i thought i had a pretty good handle on the whole zbrush+maya+mental ray pipeline but i must have missed something.

and we're hitting a few deadlines at work so finding time to work on this is getting harder to do. but man i really want to finish this piece now so i'll just have to figure something out. i've still got a week and a half or so...

it CAN be done.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

uhg, more set backs.

i had done some polishing to the girl model and unwrapped her dress and then lost everything because i wasen't paying attention to when the last time i saved was...

damn.

s'ok though... it always takes way less time to do it over again. if i can get all the girl's modeling, unwrapping and rigging done over the weekend then all i have to do is the girl's zbrushing both character's texturing and a little more lighting.

not much right?

all the post stuff i'm not too worried about. once i get all my passes into photoshop i think i can get everything together nicely.

my only real 'quality' concern is the girl's model. i have basiclly no experience doing realistic humans and i'm afraid she won't look good enough. i guess we'll see...

[angel]

oh man that's a bummer, it is time to turn on that "save increment" option in Maya just in case that happens again.

I understand what you mean about the whole pipeline. This should be improved asap. XSI got it right in v5. I can get decent dmaps in Maya and MR but when it comes to normal maps, I'm afraid to make that complex shading network work right.

for what is worth, if you can't get a decent displacement in Maya I think your scene might be light enough to just import a hires version and render in layers, one less thing to worry about.

-å

[numberEleven]

Hey, nice alien model! Very "lovecraftian" IMHO. Good use of zbrush i think. The slanted angle in the hallway works too.

[meatpuppet]

SNoWs, really good idea about using a high-res model. the thought didn't even occur to me but given that's it's just a still i don't see why that couldn't work. i'll keep it in mind as a last resort. and i've never even tried using a normal map. i'm barely even aware of what they are (one more thing to learn i guess...)

numberEleven, really, really nice to hear you say that. lovecraft is exactly the vibe i'm going for so i must be getting close. thanks.

i spent about 10 mins. this morning trying to wrap my head around texturing in zbrush using the zaplink plugin and caroline's video tutorials. it looks like a super-sweet workflow and i think it will work very well. i've just got to actually do it now.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132527108_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132527108_large.jpg)

again, very basic but it illustrates my concept.

this is obviously color only without, well without a whole lot. basic blinn material no adjustment, etc.

[ihamid]

great idea man! and nice detailed modeling! the spider thingy is way cool!
cheers!

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132527771_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132527771_large.jpg)

so i got everything i wanted to done on the girl a.k.a. 'victim'. i tweaked the model. i unwrapped the girl and her nightgown. and i built a skeleton and weighted the model.

still to do you ask?

see next posting...

[meatpuppet]

here's a quick copy/paste of my to_do.rtf file.

oh yeah, i finally named the creature. i checked out a couple of h.p. lovecraft sites (i'm actually really unfamilure with his work) and came up Ma'gog Sho'goth. i think it works, anyway...

Ma'gog Sho'goth
Floating Horror/Evil

creature
• model
• unwrap
• rig
• skeleton
• weight
• zbrush
texture

girl
• model
• unwrap
• rig
• skeleton
• weight
zbrush
texture

hallway
• model
• unwrap
• texture

final
posing/composition
lighting
rendering layers (4k)
ambient
diffuse
specular
occlusion
gi/final gather
mask - creature
mask - creature - eyes
mask - victim
mask - hallway - wood
mask - hallway - mirror

compositing

sweetening/treatment

downsample to 2k

i appear to be making progress. the more comfortable i get with zbrush the more i find myself incorporating it into my pipeline. i think it's really raised the quality of my work. also, i'm get faster and better with it (a little) as i go, so i think this project might actually turn out alright.

cheers,

[Gunilla]

That's a frightening list for sure... good that you're well planned though, looks like you'll need it :)

I really like your Zbrush steps for this - the monster is coming alive now! So, yet another reason for me to take the step into Zbrush-land ... great!

Good luck in getting through that list and from the look of it I think you'll make it in time :thumbsup:

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132759323_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1132759323_large.jpg)

just a quick render with all the elements in place.

i'm not completely satisfied with the composition, i'm afraid the creature and girl are too small in frame. i'll have to play around with it some more.

still it's shaping up, i actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.

cheers,

[meatpuppet]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1133217775_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9217/9217_1133217775_large.jpg)

more slow progress...

i think the paint job is coming along alright but the whole mental ray displacement pipeline thing is really slowing me down. my plan was for this to be a first pass at the texturing then, once i got the render working go back to it.

i never got back to it.

but i think i know what i need to do now after talking to someone who actually knows what their doing.

time's running out, wish me luck. and i wish the rest of y'all* luck too.

* yeah, i'm from the south.

[angel]

hey man, good to see you working on your entry, for what is worth I'm still modeling as well.

good luck!

[meatpuppet]

i'd rather 'officially' withdraw than just let this fade away...

after a week of wrestling with mental ray displacement map rendering and only just beginning to see results as of saturday i realize this simple ain't gonna happen.

and while i'm disappointed that i won't finish, i did learn a lot and had a lot of fun. i will be entering any future contests (assuming i have any ideas) and look forwad to participating again.

congratulations to all those that finished and good luck in the voting.

cheers,

[soapy]

Too bad, but no worries, it happens. I've failed to complete 2 contests here. Doh. It is still a good learning process as you say. Of course you should go ahead and finish your image. It is still some very kool work. Cheers.

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