HMC #22: Classic Self Portrait: Magdalena Dadela

[Intervain]

weird I can't seem to be able to see the painting in post 1 though I see it when posting 0_o
Hope you guys see it. Here's a link anyway (http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/69the-fireplace-tissotb.jpg)

[mecos]

i see it. it's a cool painting. are you gonna replace the doggy with a current pet of yours?

[Intervain]

I don't have a pet unfortunately :( but I was thinking of replacing it with a cat :P - I'm not a dog person LOL

[mecos]

baring in mind that the dog = fidelity and a cat = infidelity?

[Intervain]

lol I could make a different comparison you know... but will refrain myself in case some dog lovers visit ;)

[TiMrozek]

Awesome choice. I'm not familiar with the work but I'm pretty excited to see what you are able to do with this. That dress is gonna be something else if you can pull it off, which I'm sure you can. Good luck.

[PeterR]

beautiful painting ,well and detailed dress,hair ,it will look awnsome as 3d model:)

[Intervain]

thanks guys - I do hope so. Well I'll start doing the basic layout and meshes this weekend, hope to have something substantial to post soon :)

[namnocilis]

The Queen of drapery sculpting is back!! :wise: that was quite predictable even before i clicked this link :p Hope you get enough time to complete it and we get to see a wonderful sculpt by you.. All the Best Magda!

[BrettSinclair]

Yowza! Good luck! Thats all I can say :D

[Intervain]

LOL Brett that's enough ;) hehehe - yeah you're right

namnocilis - thanks very much - too kind for sure

well I've finally started to do something - will post more today hopefully - I've been putting this thing off all the time shame on me ;)

[moonangel]

hehe, you said, you want to do this, to avoid doing the other things, you can't get yourself to doing... so you have effectively then been doing nothing? reminds me of myself :D
no, just curious to see, what you've done so far ;)

[PKT]

Nice choice, and I must say I look forward to your work.

[Intervain]

hehe, you said, you want to do this, to avoid doing the other things, you can't get yourself to doing... so you have effectively then been doing nothing? reminds me of myself :D
no, just curious to see, what you've done so far ;)

LOL good deduction - but no at least I can console myself - I've been doing a lot of 2d instead... at least something :P

[Intervain]

ok here's a start... it's my second self portrait [did one for the self portrait as a creature workshop]... I made myself a bit younger and less tired looking this time [using an old passport photo and a mirror for refs - dont' want to take those front, side shots, cause I wouldn't stand looking at them - and obviously it's too symmetrical now. [forgive the lack of eyeballs - I forgot to unhide them and couldn't be bothered after taking the image ;)]

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_1.jpg

and here's a start of the base mesh for the body... very early days as you can see - I have to get myself in gear or I wont' finish this:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_2.jpg

[robo3687]

looks like a really good start as usual magda

i took a little license with mine as well, i'm aiming to make me look like how i would if i lost the 10-15 kilo's i plan to lose....lol...as a bit of a motivator....

[Nothingness]

it's already looking very nice and smooth.

If you don't mind me asking, i would love to see a wireframe of your base sculpting mesh. As i am getting more and more into sculpting, i love to see what meshes are being used by the pro's. :blush:

I think the mesh i used, is just a little too low res, but i tried to avoid too many poles and vectors. It's not long that i discovered that you don't always need a perfect mesh with good loops to sculpt on. Those can come afterwards.

cheers

[PKT]

Great start!
Don't know how simmilar the model is to how you look like irl, but it's a nice model.

[TiMrozek]

Great start as usual Maggie. Guess we'll never know if it really looks like you, but it looks like your last self portrait, so I'll take your word ;) Dress looks like a good start too. Even in its simplistic state it is starting to really resemble the position of the character in the painting.

[WyattHarris]

Man, you always get the lines in your sculpts so clean. The dress is a good start, the shape is there. Honestly I wouldn't know where to start. So many folds and wrinkles.

[moonangel]

i can only join in the comments :D
and i would say, you're pretty fast with this.

[arun-nagar]

great start as always, can I see wires of face, if you don't mind.

[Intervain]

thanks guys... alright - here's the old photo (http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/magda_passport_photopage.jpg) I'm using - it's a goddamn awful passport thing and I look like a boy but it's a nice 3/4 view which helps + a mirror as I've said. For the profile I used some caps from last year's Sigg that somebody took of me :)

Since it's a late 18th century costume and wig I started building up the silly do based on some period sculptures and some screencaptures from my period drama collection ;) [I'm kinda silly about those... I took some caps of Keira Knightley's dress in the Dutchess since she was wearing something silmilar there and her crazy wigs were useful to hehe] - I also stylized the face a bit to match the period, since I'm going for a sculptural look in the end..

Here's the wire you wanted:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_4.jpg

and the face as it is now

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_3.jpg

I worked on the dress a bit too but not enough progress to see a huge change so I'll post it next time when there's more :)
cheers

[Intervain]

one last thing today - turned the head and slightly closed the eyelids... hopefully will have something done by the end of the weekend - have to work tomorrow...crunch, crunch, crunching

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_5.jpg

[robo3687]

lookin really good magda

[Chokmah]

hey Intervain , good job for now .

I'll follow this thread ;)

Great subject choice, this kind of painting is one I love the most ^^

Good luck to you. I'll wait for the next update ;)

[scottimation]

Nice start, very clean looking sculpt. Looking forward to more. And I'm sure none of us really like our self reference photos :hmm:

[Salvation]

Awesome! can't wait to see more!

[JHarford]

Can't see any images, which sucks becuase i'm sure they are great.

[gordon-V]

hey Magdalena! you got a really nice start on this! Im looking forward to the finished piece!

[PKT]

Great model so far! No crits.

[Intervain]

robo3687 - thanks

Chokmah - thanks a lot :) yeah these paintings are my fav kind too :)

scottimation - thank you

Salvation - thanks, glad you like so far

JHarford - hmmm I can see all of them :( Thanks for dropping by though :D

gordon-V - thanks

PKT - thank you

well.. I dropped the idea of modeling the top of her body in xsi - made a simple torso basemesh and sculpted a sketch in Zbrush to build the topology on... way easier with these clothes...

started on some accessories - the shoe's not done - just started and needed a ref in zbrush so it's there incomplete...same goes for the hat... the hair is just a quick zsphere now - which I'll build up properly later

Next I have to retopo the upper half of the body and model proper hands...

so here's the sketch

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_6.jpg

here's some over-doodle in PS...just to see if the overall shape's decent:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_8.jpg

and here's The Dutchess screencap (http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/vlcsnap-126650.png) I'll reference for the back of the dress :)

[arun-nagar]

just amazing:thumbsup: and waiting for next update:bounce:
sorry no critique, keep it up.

[Nothingness]

I'm not really sure, but she looks kind of short.
Probably just because of the size of the dress and the hat, but that's the way i see it.

great progress

[TyroneMaddams]

Your head cheerleader is here

Lets do this!!


- Ty

[Intervain]

thanks guys.

Nothingness - yeah those clothes do that - the proportions of the character match exactly the one on the painting and an average human but I did extend the body a tiny bit after you've said it, cause i had the same feeling :) thnx

Tyrone - LOL thanks so much :D

[varunbondwal]

The model looks good.. waiting for it to be finished

[WyattHarris]

It's amazing people used to dress like that, makes me hot thinking about it.

So far so good. I'm curious how you interpret this painting. To me she is either warming her feet by the fire or she is inspecting the cleanliness.

[Intervain]

thanks... yeah I think it's the first - she seems to be drying her shoe or warming it I think - the handkerchief is making me think it's the first one but you never know hhehe :)
I love those period clothes but yeah, nowadays it wouldn't quite work - imagine getting in a car in that thing on ;) I love looking at 'on the set' photos from period dramas when the actresses always hitch those skirts up and put sneakers on LOL it's funny

[TiMrozek]

Ha, yeah, nothing like a victorian dress and chucks.

[GregStrangis]

Hey Magda! Really looking forward to how you will handle the cloth treatment =). Quite a stunning painting and if you can capture that it will be such a wonderful image to stare at :)

[sanketpro3d]

this is coming out really nice as expected .. this is going to be awesome..m sure....keep it coming ,,:shrug:

[Intervain]

thanks everyone... not much done really... finished the base of the shoe and started retopologizing the top of the outfit... not done of course but thought I'd share nonetheless, so you don't think I'm totally slacking off ;)

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_9.jpg

ps. hope you can see it 'cause for some reason I can't 0_o

[moonangel]

yep, we can see it(at least i can)

and thats enough progress to show, every little bit someone is showing, motivates others to do something, i think thats one of the cores why these challenges are going so well.

keep going :D

[oneandonlyDiscoStu]

very pretty :p

[Intervain]

moonangel - I intend to thnx ;)

oneandonlyDiscoStu - is that good or bad?

it's taking forever... a bit of progress on the meshes... [the skirts are level2 from zbrush so I have a point of ref, I didn't model them that highres ;)]

I'm gonna finish these this weekend and hopefully work on the base of the fireplace before going back to zbrushing the character...

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_10.jpg

[TiMrozek]

Well, I think it's gonna be worth how long it's taking you. I'm enjoying the progress and seeing how you are going about doing your cloth. I feel like maybe I relied too much on zbrush for placement, but it's all about trying different things. Probably easier to really get the mesh close in your modeling program first as you seem to be doing.

Well, keep on going, looks like proportions and general shape of everything are right on. Do you intend to eventually texture this too? All those stripes just seem like too much fun to never attempt.

[BertieRooster]

That's looking brilliant. Your work is always inspiring. :applause:

[PeterR]

Wow that looks just nice :) keep going :applause:

[Paul4wood]

I'm loving this thread!

[CraftMaster]

This is really cool so far. To Me it seems like a very ambitious piece, but you are pulling it off, Excellent work. :)

[Chokmah]

Great updates Intervain ^^

Zbrush -> Retopologizing -> Zbrush ; seems the wise way for modeling difficult clothes to me too .

Again, very good step on ;)

[Intervain]

TiMrozek -well I started some things in Zbrush first and retopoed them in xsi.

BertieRooster - thank you very much :)

PeterR - thanks :)

Paul4Wood - thanks a lot!

Arisan - thank you. To me it's very ambitious too but hey, why do easy? Some challenge is a good thing...

Chokmah - thanks very much. Yep, for these clothes and in pose, I feel it's the best way :)

ok, not much today - just started doing the fireplace - only a bit done ... was looking for some refs and the andirons on that image gave me a headache just thinking of them 0_o...
here's the start:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_11.jpg

[RexDiem]

The figure and dress are looking gorgeous! Great start on the fireplace too. You have definitely made a ton of progress very fast this past week or so. Looking at your thread is motivating and inspiring to get myself back to work/rework my model too. I can't wait to see more of your progress!

[zszs]

:applause:
cool job! I looking forward this one!

[Intervain]

thanks very much guys :)
slacking off today ;) - just a little bit more work on the fireplace:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_12.jpg

[robo3687]

looks like there'll be lots of nice little details on the fireplace

[jojo1975]

I'm sure you will make a masterpiece as always ! I love your work magdalena and if you will teach a workshop I will be one of your students ! Keep going :)

[Intervain]

robo3687 - yeah there's a lot happening there... I decided some of the detail will be zbrush only - can't be bothered to model them ;)

jojo1975 - thank you so much - too kind!

well still working on the meshes in xsi - jeez... still many more to go and the time's running like mad :argh: i'm taking some liberties with this and I really want to start working on her - the hands and the leg and all the clothes 'sigh' - but a diorama it is

did this crap render 'cause i wanted to see it with shadows

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_13.jpg

[TyroneMaddams]

Whoa is it getting hot in here... or is her ankle exposed...its just too much skin for us gentlemen

Looking great, can't wait to see the next update!


- Ty

[WyattHarris]

Lol, inappropriate! :D

The shadows are a bit heavy on the face but a few radiosity bounces should straighten that out.

[Intervain]

hahah Tyrone - thanks

Wyatt - yeah it's just 1 light put in there without adjusting - not a proper lighting setup... I just wanted to see it differently than a viewport blant grayness ;)

[BrettSinclair]

wow. This is coming together great. Keep going I'm looking forward to seeing this finished :).

[Nothingness]

Great progress,

maybe you should do something more interesting with it. Like giving it a more sarcastic tough by showing how she accidentally put her shoo on fire.
could be fun

[oneandonlyDiscoStu]

Of course thats a good thing!

[Intervain]

Brett - thank you :) I hope it'll not disappoint...

Nothingness - hehe no I think I will go the boring route and only change a few minor things...

oneandonlyDiscoStu - good to hear it :)

well some fun with one of the fireplace accessories - not much, just a bit of sculpting to get away from base meshes... still will refine it further ofcourse. And almost done with a base mesh for a cat - no dog on my rug for sure :P - sorry all ye dog lovers ;)

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_14.jpg

[robo3687]

yay, i was hoping there would be a cat....

[TiMrozek]

This is really shaping up. I hadn't really realized how much is going on in the painting you chose. Quite a good deal of peripheral models. Looks like you are doing just fine though. Your blocking seems to be right on for the character and fireplace. Still very excited to see the dress start coming together.

[TheRazorsEdge]

- no dog on my rug for sure :P - sorry all ye dog lovers ;)
Quoted for agreement! lol :D

Great work here so far! Jeez, I don't envy you for the upcoming work on the cloth etc!
Looking forward to more updates.

Cheers!

[energise]

looking awesome! cant wait to see all the cool folds on that dress! :P

[majid-smiley]

its greAT !

[vitaliysalyuk]

Hey there: that's totatly wicked-sick!!! Good Job!!!

[Intervain]

wow thank you very much everyone :) - it's not done though so I wouldn't get too excited ;) hhehee Cheers

Ok started putting the meshes in Zbrush - still some are not in there so I know things are missing :) - and I think I'll put some fireplace accessories [poker, shovel etc] on a stand on the other side, so it's not so empty... the cat is not totally posed either... well it's all early days and looks like a mess :hmm: ...

http://mdadela.com/gallery/fireplace_wip_15.jpg

[TiMrozek]

Well, in progress or no, it's certainly coming along quite nicely. I love the curly fry hair ;).

[zszs]

:argh: very Beautiful work!

[scottimation]

Excellent work so far, and still two weeks left!

[robo3687]

perhaps you should slightly reposition the cat?. maybe back a bit?

because right now it looks like your about to step on the poor things head....

but looking awesome :beer:

[TyroneMaddams]

wow thank you very much everyone :) - it's not done though so I wouldn't get too excited ;) hhehee Cheers

Ok started putting the meshes in Zbrush - still some are not in there so I know things are missing :) - and I think I'll put some fireplace accessories [poker, shovel etc] on a stand on the other side, so it's not so empty... the cat is not totally posed either... well it's all early days and looks like a mess :hmm: ...

http://mdadela.com/gallery/fireplace_wip_15.jpg


Looking great!!

Uhmm...is she kicking that poor lil kitty into the fire? :cry::cry::scream:

- Ty

[CraftMaster]

yeah, I have to agree, I think the cat is too close to the fire even if you arn`t kicking it, it looks like it is gonna burn it`s face off. If it was moved to a similar place to the dog in the painting it would be better. I don`t know how placeholder the flame is either but I think that should be toned down too because I get the feeling you`d burn your foot too. I can`t say anything is technically wrong with it though, it all looks great to me. You definately have awesome skills.

[axiomatic]

coming along very nicely :)

i think for me what make the figure in the original painting so intriguing is the way she's almost peaking out over the rim of all this clothing to the comfortable dog on the floor. there's almost this face-peering-out-of-jungle effect, as if the figures natural camouflage is the layers and layers of clothing that she's bundled up in.

i think your figures pose and the arrangement of clothing, especially around her torso, loses some of that hidden depth that's present in the original.

maybe it's just that your figure looks more comfortable and, well, happy while the original seems to me more distracted and confined. down to the point we even her hands are busy in the task of just dealing with her enormous wardrobe.

i'd like to see the folds and creases in your cloth get sharpened, with some nice flat spaces between. the referenced material appears to be stiff with starch and i think it's important, adding to this feeling that the clothing is greater than the lady.

the expression on the face in your image seems quite happy, which is fine as after all it's a self portrait and the emotion has to be your own. that being said, if you dropped the outer part of the eyes slightly and pulled the neck back i think it'd go a long way to adding a more mysterious look to the face.

i feel like the face in this portrait could wear any emotional expression as long as it suggests a particular thought. the viewer needs to be asking "what is she thinking about?" :)

finally, i wouldn't worry about the other side of the fireplace too much. for me the original image is about claustrophobia, it's tight on the lady and even the main light through the window has to fight for it's space on the canvas. i think you could tighten up your framing and drop those extra tasks.

over all i really like where this is going and wouldn't have bothered with my above comments if i wasn't impressed with your attention to form, as I am every challenge you do :)

[Intervain]

great comments guys thanks :)

yes I'll reposition the cat 'cause I totally agree with you on that kicking thing ;) and yeah the fireplace may be blazing a bit much :D

As to the neck - yes I have changed it in the latest version a bit - it's hard to get it to look like the painting though because that way her head would be tiny and her torso huge - the 2d artist got away with a lot here - especially the length of a neck, which seems to be gone when you try to reproduce it in 3d. I still have to add the ribbon around the neck which makes the head look even more hidden so maybe it'll enhance the effect. Yes the face - well I won't touch that I'm afraid - I'm not copying the painting here after all and I have to make it by Nov 2nd haha:)
Also the other side of the fireplace thing - yes I agree but I'm not going for a fixed camera shot - I want to make it viewable from all sides and I want to make a turntable of it so if it's too empty it'll look a bit silly I think, the fireplace is huge and she'll get lost.

about the creases - yeah I only just started - worked for like an hour on them :) they'll be sharper for sure - it's evidently a stiff taffeta dress so yeah ...good eye
Thanks for great comments :)

[axiomatic]

the 2d artist got away with a lot here - especially the length of a neck, which seems to be gone when you try to reproduce it in 3d

I find it amazing how often art in traditional mediums gets away with things like this, as if the artist is aware of how our own eyes will just piece things together and make sense of them. It's like we're presented with subtle optical illusions that are embedded into our understanding of form, particularly the language of the human body.

3d continues to teach me so much about the difference between Art and the Real. An echo of the intersection between Technical and Artistic perhaps.

good eye

From you that's a wonderful compliment, thank you :)

[FICTIS]

Damn, I thought this was hot with just the girl, now it looks awesome!!

Keep it up!

[oneandonlyDiscoStu]

Just place a dog there and the kicking thing should be totally fine :P

[Intervain]

LOL ;)

Fictis - thank you very much

[Intervain]

well just a bit of sculpting today...

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_16.jpg

[WyattHarris]

Everything is coming together nicely. One thing I notice, and this may be better, is the cloth looks thicker on your model like its a different type of fabric. Again, this is not really a problem just different.

[Intervain]

good point - will make sure I to work on it - yeah I look at it all the time there's things like that one can miss... Thanks a lot!

[RubberEggs]

This looks so good it is unfit, I have a few questions. I love the pose on the cat , was he posed in ZBrush? Can we see a render of the hat and the hair? , they look awesome.
Is the background going to be a matte or will it be modeled as well? I can't wait to see this textured, your texture work is so nice, and as others have said this thread is great. can't wait to see more. :D

[Intervain]

Thanks very much Adam.

To answer your questiongs - yes, the cat was posed in zbrush - he's not completely posed though - still have to pose the front paws hhehe

I am not going to texture it I fear - no time for that... I would like to render it in the style of the louvre or Musee D'Orsay sculpture images - white marble with light similar bg... I still have to do so much sculpting on this that texturing is definitely out of the question :)

[Intervain]

continuing to sculpt and add some missing meshes...

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_17.jpg

as for the hair and hat - I'm still thinking what to do with the hair and I fear I'll have to retopo it properly... right now it's just simple tubes and the geo's not good enough for a nice sculpt IMO The hat for now is just imported base meshes that need to be sculpted further still ... like everything - there's so much of it :cry:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_18.jpg

[Intervain]

some work on the fireplace today... thnx for looking

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_19.jpg

[TyroneMaddams]

Looking Beautiful!!!

:drool::drool:

- Ty

[jesuisankit]

Awesome Awesome stuff :D

[zszs]

:surprised wow~

great progress!!

[Piek]

Zbrush flames :o) Nice work Ints! Have you got any of the 'V&A Fashion in Details' books? I think you'd dig them.

[Intervain]

I sure do :) Thanks :D I damn haven't got the 18nth century one though - but I do have the Kyoto institute's history of fashion huge 2 volumes so it's cool, cause there are those 'robe a la polonaise' dresses there too... I only have the 19nth cent in detail and recreating the tudor fashion :)

A person after my own heart I see :D

thanks all :D

[WyattHarris]

'V&A Fashion in Details' books? I think you'd dig them.
Never heard of them before. Thanks for the heads up.

[Intervain]

yesterday I mostly worked in xsi, setting up some lighting and so on so nothing much to show... started working on the other sides of her dress - interpolating between the side view and some back views of similar dresses from other references - those real dresses look like a mess in the back 0_O so my will too... only touched the scarf around her shoulders a bit so it looks like a lamp hanging there :argh: - that will change I promise ;)

the hair's new geometry which needs to be reshaped... I had to add a more subdivided mesh to get any effect and hopefully it'll work...

but yeah generally still tons to do on that costume not to mention the cat :surprised Cheers

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_20.jpg

[robo3687]

allow me to give you your 100th reply and say that that looks freakin awesome...:bowdown:

[Intervain]

thank you kindly sir :) - damn so little time left though - only just realised today we have less than 2 weeks to go :argh:

[TiMrozek]

Yeah, winding down. Woohoo (in a scared way). Quick question, do you mind doing a super quick rundown of your method of going inbetween xsi and zbrush cause your models look identical. I have thus far had terrible luck with both normal and displacement maps going into maya. I'm sure there is no short answer so feel free not to comment. Just curious if that's all you are doing. I also keep reading that even though Go-Z isn't ready for PC's you can still export as a .ma file with all maps applied. This doesn't actually seem to be true. You can export .ma but it might as well be an .obj.

Anyway, it's really looking great. This is gonna be the most serious cloth sculpt study on this side of the galaxy. Good luck.

[robo3687]

thank you kindly sir :) - damn so little time left though - only just realised today we have less than 2 weeks to go :argh:

yeh i know...i think i might finish mine up today.....

[RubberEggs]

Great progress.
I don't find the scarf looks like a lamp, it does look a bit tight on her back, but I think that may just be the viewing angle. Love the hat.

[Nothingness]

allow me to give you your 100th reply and say that that looks freakin awesome...:bowdown:

101st actually :argh:

[TheRazorsEdge]

I can only agree with robo and the others! Looks amazing so far! I personally really hate modeling and sculpting cloth, hence I am even more so in awe.:bowdown:

Cheers!

[Intervain]

thanks guys, I'm glad you like where it's going :)

[Intervain]

wow has everyone died or have you all been as lazy as me? ;) heheh... I'm just jumping around the subtools now constantly sculpting and resculpting... I should manage within the next week and a half I think *fingers crossed* - still lots to be done but slowly getting there...

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_21.jpg

[TiMrozek]

Ha, yeah, crunch time,everyone is either giving up or is too busy to speak. I'm just trying to figure out how to push mine a bit farther. Well, yours is looking pretty sweet. Nice subtle noise or stone-ish texture on that fireplace.

[TyroneMaddams]

Looking great!!!

I love the lil touches like kitty ear bent, looks adorable :love:


-Ty

[RubberEggs]

wow..:applause:This is so well done

I smell a winner :thumbsup:

[Intervain]

TiMrozek - thank you - well the matcap is just one of the downloads from the matcap library on ZBC :) not my doing

Tyrone - thanks a lot - nice to see someone noticed the ear - must sculpt the rest of him now ;)

RubberEggs - Thank you - well let's have everyone finish and we'll see, I appreciate it though!

[BelalSaeed]

Looking great!!, can't wait to see the next update!

[Intervain]

Thank you very much Belal, I appreciate it :)

[Steyn]

Whoa, that is....that is just unbelievably gorgeous.
No crits from me, just compliments.

[Intervain]

Steyn - thank you, I really appreciate it :)

well I did a lot of refining of the clothes and still avoided the cat ;) - so you might not even notice a difference but it's a WIP thread so I'll post where I'm at today

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_23.jpg

a little test render of the fireplace back in xsi

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_22.jpg

[TiMrozek]

I can see a bit. The clothes really look a lot cleaner. It's ok though I probably posted about 4 WIPs where I was the only one who could see a difference ;). So which matcap is that on the fireplace that gives the random stone noise? I like it.

Oh, I see the hair looks a bit refined too. Looks like you are hitting that spot where it's just tiny little changes to the model. Home-stretch here. Looking great.

[TiMrozek]

By the way, you seem to be really damned good with displacement maps judging from your xsi renders. I am going to have to bother you sometime for some tips. I have had absolutely terrible luck with maps from zbrush to maya. I've gone through it about 10 different ways at least now. Very frustrating. Anyway, yeah, cheers, keep going, almost there!

[Intervain]

thanks - yeah I did the hair... glad it's noticeable...

about the matcap - it's an al_dusted_bone one

Well there's no displacement here :) - I used decimation master for the sculpted part of the fireplace [only the one in the middle - the rest is just smoothed in xsi :)]

For the character I'll also use decimation master - I don't want to bother with displacements at all... What I usually do when I use a displacement map is make a map at level 1 - for levels 1-3 and then a normal map for 3 and up as the displacement alone usually doesn't capture the tiny details very well...

I showed my way of making a displacement in XSI here (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=72010&page=44&pp=15) :) it's a pain in every package though hehe

[TiMrozek]

Oh yeah, I've sort of ignored decimation master. Guess it's worth playing with though. Does it work with 3.5r2? I've noticed some of the 3.1 plugins have issues. Particularly subtool master. Anyway, glad I asked and glad you pointed it out. I feel a bit silly having not tried it yet.

[Intervain]

no none of the plugins work with 3.5r2 - that's why I'm still mostly working in 3.1 :) - 3.5 was used for the hair [zspheres2] and the small andirons sculpts - otherwise it's all 3.1

I love decimation master and we've used it in production too [for non-animatable stuff] 'cause you can decimate by 99% and still keep almost all the detail and keep the UVs which is most important - it's awesome

[jojo1975]

Magdalena you are doing a wonderful job I love those foldings ! We still wait for the cat update ;) and about zbrush. Decimation master was really a blessing but since I'm a max users and neverd had too much luck I'm waiting for GoZ ;)

[RubberEggs]

Great progress , can't wait to see it all in xsi.

[nakimushi]

looks great / but I cant wait to see your next model ;)

[Fahran]

I love the folds and creases in her clothing. Awesome stuff! :D:)

[Intervain]

thank you guys - I had almost no time to work on this these past few days - hopefully will find some today to finish the cat :)

cheers

[Intervain]

a bit more on all sides - I think I'll leave the cat very sketchy - with just a bit of texture modeling... to be honest you can't really see him well and I'd rather correct and finish her clothes... Next time final renders I think:)
The pic is small because I didn't want to stretch the thread too much - here's a link to a bigger version (http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_25.jpg)

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_24.jpg

[arun-nagar]

what can I say
just awesome:bowdown:

[MayaDamien]

wow! what can i say , that is just superb cloth sculpting.excellent work ma'am!
cheers,
d

[BrettSinclair]

Stretch the thread, you know you want too :D.

Well done Mag. She looks stunning. The dress is my favourite.

[Sinister]

Awesome work!

Only comment I have is that the cat is a little too close to the fireplace, a cat would never lay that close. move it to the side or away just a little and it feels more natural :)

[Paul4wood]

Just stunning! That's all I can say. I'm too stunned. :bowdown:

[WyattHarris]

Oh nice, I hadn't noticed the shawl until you posted the different angle.

I like pictures that give you more the more you study them.

[Nothingness]

maybe just put the cat inside the fireplace and don't bother with it anymore. :D

[Intervain]

arun-nagar - thank you

Maya-Damien - thanks a lot :)

Brett - thanks :D

Sinister - thank you, yes I'll move him heheh

Paul4Wood - thanks very much, I appreciate this

WyattHarris - :)

Nothingness - nah, the dog's in there already ;)

a bit of an update today after all... experimented with a bit of texture on the skirt [it was a pain]... I like the result ...

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_26.jpg

[Paul4wood]

Wow again! The stripes on the undulating skirt must have been a bit of a nightmare but it looks fabulous.

[TheRazorsEdge]

Dang, that looks great! :eek:How'd you do it?

Cheers!

[Intervain]

thanks guys :) well I used ZApplink to make a texture - projected the stripes from many directions so they wouldn't stretch too much. Then I used that texture in Zbrush - made an Alpha of it, masked the skirt by alpha and used the Inflate function in the deformation tab :) - it took time but worked quite well.

[Piek]

It was time well taken, because it looks great.

[Alanise]

Looks wonderful can we see a zoom shot of the stripes on the dress. I would like a closer look.

[Intervain]

Piek - thank'ee sir :)

Alanise - thnx - here's a closer shot [I added some more detail since yesterday]- sorry for crappy antialiasing settings, couldn't be bothered to make a bigger document... anyway the whole character is not supposed to be seen in closeups really - I was more concerned with the overall scene so some things are really sketchy as you can see

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/Fireplace_WIP_27.jpg

[TiMrozek]

Wow, well, you certainly have modeled in a hardcore fashion!

[Alanise]

Thanks for the closer shot now I can see all the hard work put into it. Plus I am learning zbrush so it helps me a lot to see the effect better after you explain how you did it. Very beautiful I am glad you went the extra mile to do the stripes.

[TyroneMaddams]

omg....this is looking beautiful, i love those stripes, such a good addition :)

ALSO the kitty got some love too, i'm impressed with your work

- Ty

[Cold-Fussion]

Excellent work on the model so far but i have some comments on the cat. Firstly at home i have 2 cats and a fireplace. Your model has the cat looking directly at the fire and sitting really close, from what i've noticed with my cats, they don't usually stare at the fire and they have never sat as close as you are showing them. I'm not sure if this is because we have tiles around our fireplace or whether they just don't like being that close. We also have tiles in about half our house and our cats will never sleep or rest on the tiles, they will go find some carpet or some furniture to lay on.

Carry on with the excellent modeling. :)

[TheRazorsEdge]

Thanks a lot for the explanation and the close-up. Outstanding work!

Salute!

[oneandonlyDiscoStu]

beautiful clothwork :love:

[Oberyn]

Absolutely beautiful work, as usual. :)

[Intervain]

Thanks everyone :)

About the cat - well actually I've found many pictures of cats staring intently into the fireplace and lying very close to it - so I guess it depends on the cat hehe - I remember my friend's cat who loved the fire and got very close to it. Oh and mine is on a rug btw...


So it's time to say bye bye to this project. YAY ;) In the end I have decided to remain within Zbrush - the renders took way too much time in XSI and I wasn't happy with the results... therefore this is my final entry. Hope you like it guys. Thanks very much for all the comments and good luck to the participants :)


ORIGINAL CONCEPT: James Tissot - The Fireplace (http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/69the-fireplace-tissotb.jpg)

BEAUTY RENDER:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/fireplace_final_med.jpg

ORTOGRAPHIC VIEWS:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/fireplace_final_orto1.jpg

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/fireplace_final_orto2.jpg

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/fireplace_final_orto3.jpg

WIREFRAME:

http://mdadela.com/ssp_director/albums/album-9/lg/fireplace_final_wireframes.jpg

[arun-nagar]

AMAZING and
Congrets for your great work.
I learn a lot from your work, very Inspiring, Thanks

[scottimation]

Fantastic piece, and thanks for sharing your work flow throughout this challenge.

[robo3687]

turned out really great magda, it was fun to watch....


<-----yay new avatar.....my most recent work....angry football dude...

[BelalSaeed]

Amazing work Maggy, congratulations!! ;)
best of luck with the challenge.

[TheRazorsEdge]

Great finish. The whole piece looks amazing!

Cheers!

[RageOfAges]

I find it really difficult to say "Great Job", and "Totally awesome", when the previous 10 pages in the thread say the exact same thing (no point in beating a dead horse), so I thought I'd throw in some constructive criticism.

For beginners:

Well, I can't help it. Looks great. Nuff said.

The meat:

While the sculpt is great, I find you've almost completely missed the essence of the challenge-Classical Self Portrait. It is extremely difficult to look at the painting and say "That is Magdalena", both for lack of reference pics (are you shy?), and the fact that the Center of attention is facing away from the camera. It seems to me that you indulged in some cloth sculpting practice (which, imo, turned out great), but ignored features like the face and hands. Way back at the beginning of the thread, there was a couple posts that showed your head basemesh (nice clean topo, btw), but then there was no more detailing in that area for the rest of the 11 pages.

Don`t hit me:

I've seen your work around the forums, and your sketchbook on zbrushcentral, as well as your sketchbook here at cgtalk, and in my opinion this isn't your best work. You have some incredible pieces (even little simple things that may be just exercises, but look really credible-such as your InMotion WIP, your little goat, the goblin mechanic, and Mephisto from a couple challenges back, just to name a few that really stood out). Unfortunately, in my opinion, this piece falls short of your creative talent and doesn't do your skill level or your keen eye for tiny details any justice.

That being said, doesn't mean I don't think it's good. The contrary; It's fantastic. It just isn't Mageriffic, Magtastic, Magalicious...you get the point.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. Hope my comments help keep you focused in future challenges. If I'm way off, well, this was an opinion piece.

Cheers,

-Rage

[Intervain]

hehe fair enough = I seriously don't care if it's the best thing I've ever done or not - to me it was an exercise, nothing more and I wasn't striving for some magnifincence just practice and fun. I really think people take 3d too seriously sometimes, as you did now. For me it's just play and joy.

I did post a picture of me I used - you missed it - I won't put it up again because I dont' like it... those who followed the thread saw it ;)
I think the head is detailed enough... I don't believe in detailing faces with all the crap people put on them just for the sake of it. I wanted to show a full figure and when you look at a human from that distance you really see just general landmarks...


btw - how did I miss the issue? I did what others did EXACTLY... guess we all did miss what the challenge was about then... is it because my face is not head on staring at you? :surprised I've seen self portraits with just hands in the picture you know...


but yeah whatevah LOL = you don't like it, it's fine, not everybody will - I totally accept that. God knows there's tons of works branded 'awesome' that I hate with a passion LOL. there's no need to flatter me with other stuff I've done either to soften the blows - I don't mind bashing ;) - it sure as hell isn't the first one. Cheers :)

[JM-art]

Well done! as usual. There is a chance that you can texture and render this piece?( for the challenge is good like it is).

cheers.

[BrettSinclair]

Outstanding. Nothing to say. You've had me speechless most of the challenge. Congrats Mag.
Good luck with the votes :)

[Nothingness]

this is sweet!

but where is the xsi render version? Too little time to do this?

[Intervain]

JMART - thanks... no I'm not interested in doing full 3d copies of 3d images... it's a challenge to try and model it so it's working from all sides but doing another picture just doesn't appeal to me :)

Brett - thanks so much, I'm really happy you like it!

Nothingness - took way too long to render half the scene LOL and I didn't want to waste time setting up a nice shader either - I didn't like the marble effect I had and I didn't have the patience to keep trying to get something better... I think I'll have to finally start building my own library of shaders so I don't have to redo some things like that :surprised

[Nothingness]

What time are we talking about here?

I know you used Decimator for the export. I did the same thing and got some high polycounts.
But using a good renderer, it's not all that bad.
By the way, i think it would just have been sweet to see the scene in a global nice shader with some good shadows and lights. So maybe just leave the textures alone.

But i can understand this is the time where you say, enough of this, what's next!

[WyattHarris]

While the sculpt is great, I find you've almost completely missed the essence of the challenge-Classical Self Portrait.
IDK Rage, I think you're way off on this one. She did post a pic of herself earlier, though I see it's not there now, and it is a very good likeness. She adapted her image to an existing classical painting, one that happens to be faced in this way. Seems pretty close to the spirit of the challenge to me.

As for the quality, again are we looking at the same piece? What I find most impressive is how the tiny tiny details in the clothing still show up so well in the sculpt. I see a few spots where the sculpt goes against the grain of the topology but it's very small and not immediately noticeable.

Well anyway Mag, you addressed the one thing I thought needed work, the texture of the cloth. While the dress is bulky, as it should be, the cloth itself looks much thinner now like a cotton fabric vs. how thick it looked before.

Well done.

[energise]

Congrats on finishing! :) really like how it turned out!

Just watching that dress gives me a head ache hehe :P

It´s just amazing how much work that has been put into this piece.

And like you said, these challenges isn´t a place to make your next masterpiece but rather a nice way to pimp up your skills.

Good luck! :)

[Intervain]

Nothingness - it's not so much the final render time but the test renders that drove me mad ;) I couldn't be bothered... yeah I've had enough of that project heheh. I might render it later but I'm definitely not texturing it ;)

Wyatt - thanks a lot, I'm glad it looks better :)

energise - thanks and exactly - it's just practice

[RubberEggs]

Wonderful work, you made this piece very original and in your own style, yet managed to keep the overall character of the concept. I personally would like to see a little more detail in the fireplace, but at the same time I find it helps push the eye towards the character and the dress, that dress is , ya know I'm not really sure the right word for it so I will just go with WOW. Anyway congratulations on a job very well done, and thanks for sharing your workflow.

actually I have one question , in the beauty and the ortho shots the little things in front of the fireplace (the thing your foot is resting on) they look like they are a lower division then the wireframe, am I correct in my viewing , or are my eyes playing tricks on me (smoothing group in xsi? maybe)

[zszs]

Very nice work! I really like it.:bounce:

[redCigarette]

great work. Congrats!

[RobertoOrtiz]

Congrats!

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b216/robertoortiz1/cgtalk/17.gif
Well done!

-R

[energise]

Woohoo Congrats :P

[TheRazorsEdge]

Congrats for the win and an excellent piece of work!

Cheers!:arteest:

[TyroneMaddams]

Yayyy congrats!

Sweet kitteh btw :love:

-Ty

[BelalSaeed]

wow!
Congrats! ;)

[ChingaCG]

congrats, it looks very very nice. You deserved it.

[Paul4wood]

Congratulations!
I would love to see Tissot's painting projected onto your model, even if only roughly, but I imagine that anything less than perfection would be something that you would avoid.
Anyway, this is an amazing achievement as it is. A well deserved first place. :buttrock:

[FICTIS]

Congradulations, it's a wonderful model, all prices well deserved!

[Intervain]

RubberEggs - thanks a lot :) They are the same subdivision level but low subd is more visible in zbrush, especially with shiny matcaps. I forgot to subdivide that thing hehe

zszs - thanks. Shame you couldn't finish in time, it looked really promising :)

redCigarette - thank you

RobertoOrtiz - thanks a lot :D Yay :)

energise - thanks :)

TheRazorsEdge - thank you!

TyroneMaddams - hehe thanks Tyrone :)

BelalSaeed - thank you!

ChingaCG - thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

Paul4wood - thanks and no thanks ehehhe - I don't think it'd look too well :)

FICTIS - thanks very much. It was a fun challenge and other entries were great too - I'm glad to have finished in time, which is challenge enough for me every time heheh

[TiMrozek]

Awesome work! Well deserved :D. Congratulations.

[PixelRod]

Awesome work. Are the reliefs on the Fireplace sculpted or did you use some zdepth info or alpha? :thumbsup:

[Intervain]

Thank you very much Ti :) You finished with a great entry yourself - congrats on that!

PixelRod - thanks - the fireplace was free hand sculpted too - I just looked at some architectural relief sculpting [it was a doorway in fact :)] and just sculpted in symmetry - so it's the same on both sides and then just placed in in the right spot :)

[sanketpro3d]

A bunch of Congratulations for the winnning :-)
well deserved entry !!
keep us inspiring :buttrock:

[arun-nagar]

Congrats
and it was great leaning experience for me :bowdown:

[Intervain]

sanketpro3d - thanks very much

arun-nagar - thanks :)

[BrettSinclair]

Congrats mag. You deserve it.
Amazing avatar btw :D

[Oberyn]

HAHAHA! That is awesome. *cough*montypythonhmc*cough*

[Intervain]

Haha thnx Brett and Oberyn - hhehe I wouldn't mind one for sure :)

[JM-art]

:beer: Congratulations Magdalena, amazing and inspirational talent for modeling.

Cheers.

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