Fantastic work!
All of your expressions are excellent…
HMC#20: Expressions - Tom the Friendly Troll
JBoskma
#86
Thank you all once again! It’s very motivating to read your response to this project.
TheRazorsEdge: Thanks for your feedback… I’m afraid your comments lay in the reign of personal taste though 
Personally I like the hard spec… sort of a clayish look I was going for. The reason for using a wider lens is to get a bit more action out of all the expressions.
Rages: Thanks! It’s exactly what I was going for. I’m lighting this with an area spotlight as my key light and another spotlight as my rimlight. I’m using Final Gather to bounce some light around (1 bounce) I’ve got two white grids setup around the model for the bounces. They light up the darker areas and get that reflection in his eye. I’ve posted a screenshot for you below.
I’ve got two more sets done today. Sadness, Rage, Jealousy and Hateful
Light setup:
polymaster
#87
if i may ask . what material did u use. and did u composite or is it one pass ?could be helpful to fresher like me…
Oh wow!
You’re really nailing those expressions in my opinion, I’d love to see an animation. Keep it up. 
TheRazorsEdge
#89
No argument about that! I thought that was pretty obvious from the way I wrote them.
Whether such comments are used to actually make changes or just reinforce one’s own different ideas and stick with what one has is irrelevant, I’d like think as the commentor, since there are no absolutes in art. In my own work, I personally value whatever input/crit I can get, regardless of whether I agree with it or not and like to assume others do too. 
Thanks a lot for your explanations of your train of thought with this work.
Cheers!
JBoskma
#90
Polymaster: Just a regular phong. There’s a bit of comp work done. I render out two passes for each image. A beauty and an Ambient Occlusion pass. One more set today, 3 expressions left to do!
*PS: Mag, I shamelessly borrowed your floating hearts idea. Hope we’re still cool
Intervain
#91
lol hillarious! not my idea exactly though hehe - it’s Tyrone’s suggestion so it’s all cool with me
yannes
#93
Hi Jelmer!
I knew this character was fantastic, but i would never thought it will turn out this great. I was already blown away with the first few pics, but these final renders made me speechless. It was a superb idea to play with the camera angles too, it really made the trick.
The spider-mice version was a spot on too, made me laugh, thank you!
Sorry, for no crits or advise from me, just drooling. Well there is just one thing, but only after the challenge ends and you still want to play with this model.
It would be nice touch to play with the lights and light angles, i mean a strong light from above on the happy, proud, in love -like faces almost giving him a glory or halo, or a ligth from under (like when you holding a flashlight while telling a scary story at the campfire) on the angry, rage, etc. faces, things like that.
I know it’s a HMC and not a HLC, so don’t let me hold you back, especially when there is so little time. I really wish you can finish this. This character even with this grey clay material is the most vivid and full of life cg character I’ve ever seen.
Keep up the good work!
JBoskma
#94
Yannes: Thanks a ton for your kind words and suggestions! Touched me.
DONE! Here’s the last three! Wanted to thank everyone once again for posting your kind comments and keeping my morale up to finish this, thank you!
(Pride) Don’t worry mylady, Tom will slay that dragon for you!
(Worried) …hmm, looks like my punches didn’t hurt him all that much afterall
(Contemptful) Kiddy Widdy Winkies… Come see what uncle Tommy has in his basement…
WyattHarris
#96
Phew, well done Jelmer. Great job on everything. You couldn’t have nailed pride better.
uinku
#98
Your expressions have such a great range and are spot on with each emotion. Glad to see you managed to get them all done.
LordMcGoat
#99
Congratulations on this, the work is outstanding and you got it finished on time. Can’t ask for much more on that I think “love” is my favourite.
JBoskma
#100
Thank you guys! I took the liberty to copy this post I just made on zbrushcentral in which I elloborate a bit more about the progress. For those who are interested!
About your questions concerning the deformation and process about creating these faces. I aproached this model from a film production point of view. Meaning that the model doesn’t only has to work as still imagery but also will need the proper topological support to be able to move and deform correctly in animation.
Forming wrinkles in a polygon mesh gives you a completely different effect then blending in wrinkles in a painted or extracted displacement map. The effect of flesh and form compressing into eachother I believe can only be achieved properly in a realistic manner when it’s actually modeled in. The displacement detail is just along for the ride.
The basemesh I build therefor is fairly dense. All the big wrinkles and most of the wrinkles around the eyes were modeled into the original model in Maya. Most of the deformation for the expressions takes place there. The displacement detail I sculpted in Zbrush was applied to these shapes and corrected appropriatly later. These so called Driven Displacement Maps can be hooked up in the shader tree and connected to the blendshapes within Maya so they dial in when nescecary. These corrective displacement details were fairly minor, but absolutely crucial to achieving a realistic effect on screen. I’ve attached an image to show you an example of the corrective displacement work I’ve done.
The ‘Rage’ mouth on the left shows you the original displacement detail applied to the blendshape without any adjustments made. The ‘Rage’ mouth on the right shows the corrective work I’ve done, fading out the wrinkle detail on the lip, which happens when the mouth is pulled open this wide. The lips stretch around a much larger area and loose the crumbly lip wrinkles that showing in more neutral expressions.
The other image I’ve attached shows you the original Maya model and the ‘scared’ blendshape. Here you can see what happens in Maya and what was adjusted in Zbrush if you compare it to the final render.
I realise that for the goal of creating 15 still images, this approach might seem overdone or unnescary. I could have done it all in Zbrush, but in the end it saved me time. Ofcourse if I would ever have the intend to get this animated, it would actually work, which is a nice idea.
If you want to know more about driven displacement maps I can suggest to pick up a copy of Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation which is beeing published by Autodesk and is co-authored by Jeff Unay, one of the facial leads over at Weta Digital.
Hope you found this useful, let me know if there’s any other questions!
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ChrRambow
#101
Saw this already at Zbrushcentral.
Now i have to say here on cgtalk, that this is an absolute fantastic work.
Each expression is a masterpiece!
DavidLarrea
#102
Really cool entrance Jboskma, the character is awesome!Keep it up, I want to see them all!!!
