Hi im a really big fan but i know you have alot heh
if your goal is to get your girls to digital perfection i think youv done it heh really great art and imagination too
First question is have you taken classes in southeast asia if so, do you know any in thailand(bangkok). I know its not malasia but its been hard for me to find any school 2D or 3D.
How long have you been doing CG?
-Forgot somthing…I love you cloud tutorial! :applause:
RanZ Cross, 1. I did do some photography, and it may have helped me a little with lighting. Though I didn’t do so very much of it… Studying anatomy, like for instance in Life Drawing class, bodybuilding magazines, and medical pictures etc, has really helped a lot.
2. I started at 3, so I was kind of self-learning for over 20 years, then I studied art formally for 3 years, then I practised as a professional illustrator for 10 years (which could also be seen as learning).
3. I’d like to work on a great movie project, like LOTR was. 
azmin, don’t join… my partner and me tried our best to start it up and get it going, but as of now, over a year later, there has been very little help from other industry leaders or the government, and attendance and interest is falling… I think we’re just about to give up on it, sorry.
Jose Pardo, 1. Good epic feeling. I think the hues in the background are too varied: purple, yellow, white, orange, red, all of them quite saturated… I’d tone the bottom half to be a bit more like that cool beige/yellow on the left. The purplish clouds are nice. The white should be toned down (to beige or peach), especially since it doesn’t seem to match the lighting in the scene: the light on the characters seems to come from our left. The lightning bolt acts as an arrow to lead our eyes out of the scene, try to mute the brightest part of it. On the left, the smoke rising from the vent could be made stronger, to lead the eye more upwards, instead now the eye follows the horizon out of the frame. The minotaur’s axe on our left is good, maybe even darker - the one on our right could catch a big highlight right across it, and become a secondary focal point, I think that would look nice composition wise, it would make sense lighting-wise, and also we would see right away that he’s holding 2 axes instead of 1, it took me a while… the castle battlements, if you make the ‘teeth’ along them smaller the castle will look bigger.
Nice character study, her personality or attitude really shows. But she has some anatomy and lighting problems, like her left hand too small, neck too long, elbow too rounded and ‘bulgy’… spine seems quite long, and I’m not sure we’d actually see the butt cheek at all from this angle. I think you need reference for this, it’s VERY hard to do without it, I certainly wouldn’t like to try. It can be as simple as a friend of yours in a rolled-up t-shirt, with a desklamp from the front, click. Done. I really recommend it, nothing beats reference you shoot yourself, and it’s quick, cheap, easy and fun.
Cool idea, I really like the background, but the foreground is very ‘busy’ in terms of shadows and highlights and colors and forms, lots of contrast and complexity. See if you can simplify that a little, maybe put her more in silhouette, maybe only lit by those explosions behind her, and a bluish helmet light inside the helmet (like in “Outland” or “Aliens” or something - in fact I recommend buying or renting movies just for reference). That would improve the clarity, the compositon, and increase the drama.
InKraBid, good drawing, cool style, I like the color scheme and the composition… not sure what is going on though, maybe it’s designed to be viewed within some kind of context? Seems to be a perspective problem on the stone rim, at the bottom of the image. The black shadow in the face, while graphic and strong, seems a little out of place, maybe it should be slightly lighter, like a dark grey? Or else a black shadow from her body on the water and wall behind her. The direction of the light… if the face is in this much shadow, I think also the breasts and the skirt would throw more shadow downwards. And for some reason I’d like to increase that bright area at the top, not sure why. Widen it, make the whole wall brighter along the upper edge. This image inspires me, good job.
ArtisticVisions, 1. I’ve done no sculpting at all in art school, in fact none at all since I was a teen.
2. The 2d of the Fairy&Snake came first, it was always planned as a 3d, but I got carried away on the sketching stage…
Pvt. Jackson, tackar! Yes, I’m thinking about doing a DVD for Gnomon, I shall do my very best to get going on that.
DivineRAiN, 1. I think rigging the face is the easiest part. Knee, ankle, maybe elbow, also fairly easy, though the elbow is complicated by the extreme amount of twist the neighbouring joints have to be able to do. THe hardest is definitely the shoulder/biceproll, the hip comes in a distant second (not at all as mobile as the shoulder.
2. Oh yes, many times. Pretty much all of Linda’s work for instance, just to take an example close to home.
3. Because I spend so much time and effort on each piece, I usually feel about the same some months later. Also, I’ve learned to see more clearly, than I did say 20 years ago. Even 10 years ago.
anzibon, hehe, fun idea! Is that a tornado in the background? Is that what released the prisoner?
The light direction, I think the whole chest, stomach, and his right arm and leg (except maybe the foot), would all be in full shadow, as the suns rays would not be able to reach them. As I’ve mentioned before, I think some reference would be great here, mainly for the landscape, but also maybe some extreme bodybuilder images. If you look through enough of them, maybe you can even find one that has similar lighting and pose. The giant’s anatomy looks good so far, but it’s always better to have reference. Good luck with the challenge.
Jeremyi, thanks! 1. No, sorry, no classes here in Asia, and I don’t know any in Thailand.
2. About 11 years.
Thanks for the detailed crit, really appreciate it! I will probably leave these alone but will try to apply these thoughts to my next few pieces.
Thanks
I was wondering if the mesh that you use as a base mesh for all of your female models resembles your girlfriend. ( how closely ? )
If not, does she somehow compare herself to your ‘ideal’ model ?
Lastly, do you use her for reference ( video footage that you take on a frame by frame basis etc … or do you just use a mirror. )
Sorry if this has been asked before. ( Too lazy to read 9 pages )
Thanks for the inspiration Steven !
Vegan, my mesh doesn’t look like my wife, I never used her as reference. She doesn’t care.
I’ve used video reference three times, two of those were shot in the sound studio as we recorded the voice talent.
“Would you like to collaborate with me/make me a logo for my site/chat with us on ICQ? Why not?
No, I’m sorry, I’d really love to be able to do everything, but I just don’t have time to do anything right now except 1. work, 2. spend time with my family, and 3. work.”
First off, Thank you very much for taking the time for this.
Secondly, I thought I’d mention where I had seen you work prior to cgtalk.
Bikergirl and walking gun were the first few digital images I had seen when I first started to find out about 3d. At the time I was studying mechanical engineering and just recently changed my major to something art related. Anyhow Since Im learning on my own, I wanted to ask you these questions.
Would you mind sharing a few techniques on your workflow process? (modeling and your skin shader.)
I remember a while back reading something in regard to optidigit doing some sort of online training of the sort-cant remember the exact details-what happened?
What advice would you give to someone on their first cg related job?
Cant access the cript on your home page.
and the last one, can you make me a logo?
j/k
Thanks.
Hi Mr. Stahlberg, it’s awesome you found some time to answer so many questions 
I’ve got few questions myself; hopefully they haven’t been asked yet. If they have, just ignore them (although I’ve read the whole thread and haven’t noticed any similar ones). Anyway:
thanks a lot for your time!
I’m taking the train to Singapore in a few minutes, I’ll try to get online tomorrow to reply here.
Hi there steven,
I’ve been watching your work for some time now. I really like the illustration you made. It really inspires me in many ways. I’ve got some question for you regarding the 3d industry in malaysia. I’m a fresh graduate and was wondering how the industry was like. How do they pay and the types of jobs available and also the opportunity compare to singapore and also the other countries like canada and US. I’m a 3d animator by the way. Thank you so much for your time. Have a great time in singapore.
Jengkins
Hie Mr. Stalhberg,
Thanks for the links on Craig Mullins and introduce me to Thomas Kinkaid.
What happened to Craig is unfortunate. Nothing wrong with the art it seems, only the people surrounded it during the exhibition. It is very sad tho.
Like one guy said on that thread that this is just a beginning. People tumbles first before they can stand up and climb.
And Thomas Kinkaid…well…no comments.
One more questio if i may,
I think color is important. (duh!) Can you tell us about your approach to color or the process to get the color. A tutorial, if you can to give us mere mortal a lesson in live.
What are you doing in Spore? (thats two questions and the second one is reeally none of my business …heheh?)
cheers!
Okay just a quickie now because I’m at a 5 star hotel and they’re charging 50 Singapore cents per minute. The reason I’m here is to hear Rob Coleman talk.
FUG1T1VE, 1. Hm, workflow on modeling… I usually either start with a sketch, one for shape and one for topology, or if I don’t I usually have to do that halfway into the modeling anyway. I use polygonal box modeling most of the time, with a lot of deleting and adding of edges, to finetune topology. Skinshading, well there’s my tutorial, and there’s a better one coming out soon, in the “D’Artiste 2” book.
2.The training center we were planning wasn’t online, it was going to be physical, here. I mentioned elsewhere in this thread that these plans are shelved for an undetermined period.
dirty, 1. I use the MJ_PolyTools a lot when modeling. There’s a really great SmoothFlood plugin that helps a lot if you want to avoid weight painting (which I do). But otherwise, plugins can be trouble, for instance when a new version maya comes out, or you have to work on a different machine.
2. I would really like the Hair to render with MR without outside plugins… there’s a few other minor things too I can’t remember right now. Oh, the way joint rotations are calculated, I think they call it quaternions…
3. I ended up with Alias only because it shipped bundled with my first computer.
4. I mostly only enjoy Halo and Max Payne, though I’m going to try Doom3 on the Xbox too.
5. what inspires you most: music, books, movies? Books… then movies. and traveling.
Ok, that’s it for now, more later.
Rob Coleman??
The Star Wars guy??
So he’s done with the Episode III??
Heres there in Spore??
Sorry to many question 
This has been a great thread to follow. It is wonderful too see an artist of your stature take the time to inspire and inform in such a candid way.
There have been a great many illustrators in the past and I would like to encourage the artist’s here in this forum to go and investigate these great artists. Norman Rockwell, N.C.Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, J.C. Leyendecker, Charles Dana Gibson. The list goes on and on. They are a great source for styles, story telling and paintng techniques that could provide insight into the possibilities of 3D.
I couldn’t agree more about your comments on Greg’s show and what’s more “The Painter of Light”. This is only a true testiment to a great agent that guy has to fool so many people.
I do have one question for you Steven. You mentioned that you get all you work online. Which would seem to me you are dealing with clients from all over the world . My question is what is your step by step process that insures you get the work to them and how do you insure you get paid?
Are you getting a deposit and the balance upon completion of the job etc etc?
Ok, so that is three questions.
Thanks again for your help in the past!
jengkins, the opportunities in Malaysia and Singapore seem roughly the same, I talked with a couple other guys about this here yesterday, and they seem to agree. Compared to USA, Canada etc… well there’s not much of a comparison, is there. I mean, look at how active Siggraph is in USA, compared to Kuala Lumpur… just one indicator…
Maranello 55, my approach to color is mostly intuitive, but I’ve learned from experience that I have to try to keep saturation to a minimum, in most of my images, and save the really hot saturation for a few very small areas. Tutorials are really hard to write when it comes to color, all you can basically say in the end is, I used this color here, and not that one, because I kind of… felt… it looked better. That’s what I do anyway. There’s a link to some more theoretical info on color in our Art Theory and Tutorials links. Also, if you check Linda’s “Meet the Artist” thread, I’m not sure but I think she talked some about colors too.
Yes, it’s the Star Wars Rob Coleman, and yes they’re done with Ep3! His talk was great, and he’s such a nice guy himself. He’s been so long in the industry, he joined ILM during JP 1. I just can’t believe he said “I know this guy!” to me when I met him. And listen to this: he said he checks CGTalk out from time to time! So play nice, boys and girls, we never know who’s reading our posts here.
El Quistador, the process is usually, they email me, we discuss, they send a contract by email, I sign and fax back, they send another copy back signed by them in normal mail or Fedex, meanwhile I’ve started the job. I keep in regular contact with the art director, and send them updates and get feedback. Then I send the finished item, and then they pay. guess I should take more care in ensuring I’m paid, but so far it’s only gone wrong once, and that was years ago when the company I was working for got caught in the IT bubble burst. I wasn’t even finished with the work I was supposed to deliver anyway.
Hi all,
Here’s your last chance to ask Steven Stahlberg questions or have work critiqued. Will close this Q&A session at the end of Monday 25 April 2005 (worldwide).
Best,
Leonard
One last question Mr. Stalhberg!
Whats your goal in your CG venture?
Thanks for being patience answering all our question and my mortal stupid questions…You’re an excellent artist and a nice person…
See you around!
Ok, I’m doing the one thing I had said before that I wouldn’t ask you to do… I’m asking you to critique my work. :argh: Not that I’m thrilled to be doing this (who ever wants to ask for someone to critique there work?), but I’ve realized that in order to become better, I need to ask the opinions of those who are better than me.
Specifically, I’m asking your opinion on one of my character concept paintings for the current Challenge; it’s located here, at the bottom of the page (the girl).
Thank you.
Hello Mr. Stalhberg,
Most of my questions are being answered here, but i’m here to tell u that you have been my inspiration to really dig into the CG world. I found out ur work about 2-3 years ago when i was 16/17years old. Back then i thought things that you do are not possible and u know some kind of magic ( i still think that though). Now i started to know those things can be done. I wanna thank you for inspireing me and giving me hope that i’mpossible can be achived.
Thank You again
