Matt Benya's 'The watch' in 3d a'la DaddyMack

#1

Hi guys, I’m pulling together a modeling showreel this winter and am lucky enough to have the priveledge of using some great artwork and design from some of my favourite artists. The first piece I’ll be doing is Matt Benya’s ‘The watch’. I’ve chosen this piece for its great contrast in forms and Matts great use of edgy linework to describe them.

Here’s Matt’s original piece

Here are the first shots of the minion WIP

My main aims at this time is to find a style in 3d that best represents Matt’s forms in the 2d image. I plan to retopologise this guy to about 5000 tris when he’s done and output normal maps for all of his details.

Here’s a vid of the sculpting process so far

I’d appreciate any C+C you guys have to offer along the way :beer:

#2

This is great! no Critique yet, looking forwrd to seeing more mate.

#3

Neeno… Thanks Neeno, long time no see

I spent a little time refining the minion sculpt… Happy with his overall form but not quite sold on most of the details yet.

and did the first pass on the staff

#4

Hey Rob, great work so far, I love what you’re doing with the cloak dwelling goblins! What I really got a kick out of was seeing what you did with their feet since I hadn’t drawn them in. I don’t know if it is because they are in ortho, the hands could maybe be a little meatier. Also great job on the staff that is spot on! Love what I am seeing so far man keep it up! :buttrock: :beer:

Matt :slight_smile:

#5

mmbenya… Heya Matt, thanks for chiming in here and Humblest of thanks for this awesome piece to work on. More meat coming up for their hands;) I’ve hit a little snag with some bugs in retoplogising these guys but I’ve got a theoretical workaround that, if successful will mean perfect models here. I plan to bring all the details over to Max and do some cool stuff with output for this piece. I’m ordering another 8 gig of ram for my reactor soon so I’ll have massive overheads to play with to pull off some deadly LOD in this and the other pieces I’ll be doing. :bowdown: thanks again for this killer piece mate :bowdown:

More soon

#6

Nice one DM. I like the ‘chiseled’ features I have always been a fan of that type of modeling/style. Though I do have to agree about the hands they seem small in comparison to the arms.

Also the shoulders seem slightly big in comparison to the arms, at least from what I can tell by the original picture.

Lookin’ good thus far though :slight_smile: Cheers.

#7

Geta-Ve… Hey mate:) thanks for the fresh eyes on this, I agree again on all counts… I’ll git on the hands and shoulders soon… Was holding off until retopo to really nail down some details but retopo has won this round on a technicality… 2 days of no real progress means time to move on to me so move on I have…

I’ve started some posing and I plan to drop my female mesh in there soon. I plan to do all I can to make the little guys still appear fleshy while having that edgy look to them… Should be interesting fun while I build this scene up

Here’s some pose testing

Thanks for lookin:wavey:

#8

Nice work. If their feet are gonna be in frame I would suggest making them blocky like the hands to give them some continuity. Looking forward to seeing the girl in there.

#9

RTjunior… Thanks, will do with the feet, haven’t spent any real time on them yet

Hmm… Not one ever comfortable with defeat I did some deeper research on retopo. I think I should be able to pull off what I’m trying to do but it means further delays. I need to get on top of the workflow for the rest of my reel so I’m gonna give it another crack this weekend… I’ll post the new mesh soon hopefully:hmm:

#10

I shall await your update! I am just curious as to why he lost a lot of the chiseled features of your first image?

#11

Geta-Ve… Thanks for your synapses here mate… This is (naturally) proving a little more challenging than I first thought. The reason for the softer look is that when I exported the obj from ZB it kinda shrunk it as if deflating the normals a bit… Dunno why

The battle is now officially over and ZB and I are like best buds again… The system for retopo on a hi res mesh with mouth cavities etc is not a 1 click automagic solution. It requires a little tweeking and patience but is definitely worth it:buttrock:

Anyways… I’ll be moving ahead with this project now that my first technical hurdle is behind… More soon

Here’s a shot of the all quad retopo’d mesh


well worth the effort for this workflow

#12

Hey Rob, looking really sweet! And a great big :eek: for retopoing it in Z3. I tried that when I first got the update but it really wasn’t working for me and I just export the high(er) resolution mesh and retopo elsewhere. Glad you got it worked out man, looking forward to more updates.

Matt :slight_smile:

#13

Great stuff! I am curious as to how long it actually took you to retopo in ZB, and your actual technique for doing so. I tried to mess around with the retopo features previously but they just threw my head for a loop.

I am thinking though retopo is usually only relevant if you didn’t start out with a proper base mesh in the first place? As I usually model as much as possible in Wings3D before hand I am assuming that it probably wouldn’t be necessary for me? (or someone like me)

Keep us updated Mack! :slight_smile:

#14

mmbenya… Thanks man, I fought for it… I plan to use a hybrid workflow in the future for retopo. I’m stoked to have you drop in here mate and glad that you like the progress… More soon:beer:

Geta-Ve… Hey bro… don’t ask:blush: took me a week to really nail down a workflow… I advise doing most retopologising in a single session and only leaving some tweeking to subsequent sessions. I didn’t get it all at once, sort of an adjust, zproject, smooth, inflate, zproject etc etc to get the higher subs to deform perfectly. Fiddly but worth it for sure. My mesh was pretty cool to start with but it’s for a modeling reel so I want to really see how far I can take it;)

#15

Ok here’s a quick layout of the scene… I see sooo many issues in there atm and will be on it all asap :beer:

#16

Pooop… Thanks, I only hope I do Matt’s piece justice

I think I’m over most of the technical hurdles with this, there were loads of thing I needed to learn but I think I’ve got a good run of sculpting ahead of me now.

Here’s the progress on the scene atm

And here’s a link to the timelapse of some detail refinement on the minions and the first pass on the cape

#17

Wow DM, what a great foundation you’ve created, hope things go well with the refinement.

#18

handlebar… Thanks for the wellwishing mate, it’s been an steep learning curve so far but it’s given me the freedom and flexibility I need for the rest of the project

Here’s a little shot of a quick progress to make the cape 3d… see the vid for the workflowI used to make the 2d mesh nice and clean in 3d

And here’s a link to the WIP/ Workflow vid

The workflow allows you to focus on the flow and forms without having to worry about the ‘other side’ of the geomtry getting messed up

#19

I decided to retopo the cape completely in Zbrush, I redid the UVs in Max and will extract it again soon… very happy with the overall output so far but have a long way to go. I plan to do some cleverness with it in Max for the final shot for my reel hence all fiddling with final topos and UVs

here’s a snap of the retopo


And here’s a link to the timelapse of the process

#20

Hi guys I’ve picked this one back up and will be knocking it over soon… Here’s the latest, did her hair, gloves, timepiece etc

Here’s a snapshot

Anything stand out as needing attention?