Branded

#1

I was walking down the street one night, going home after a long days work. It was a bit of a cold night, with snow beginning to fall. Everyone bustling about, getting things done so they could get home and be with their families before the storm really settled in. As I was walking, I saw this man coming towards me and there was just something different about him. He wasn’t a rich man, nor a distinguished man, may have even been homeless, but there was something about him that just seemed different. As he got closer, I started to see his face and see the many wounds he bore, words like failure, stupid, not good enough. You know, just the normal things written across all of our faces, but to my amazement, they were not wounds any more, but scars, healed and proudly displayed as some great victory won. Then I looked and saw across his forehead the word LOVED written, and I knew why he was so different. As he smiled and looked at me, I could feel the love that had so consumed him, pouring out for me as well. I knew I may not ever meet another person like him. Luckily I had my camera with me and moving quickly, I raised the camera and CLICK.


(here are the words written on his face: hopeless, fat, failure, idiot, ugly, worthless, homeless, not good enough, loser, dirt, trash, stupid - LOVED)

And that’s the story for the image

I’ve been working on this for about four months now as I have time in between other things. It’s the first time I’ve ever done something like this, so I thought I would share it and see what other people thought of it while I’m making it. I’ll be sure to post the most recent render I do above. Where I am at right now is I just finished hand painting the epidermal part of the skin as well as did one of the scars. Next I’ll be finishing up the scars and painting the sub-dermal and reflection maps. So far, except for the very basic teeth mesh, the only programs I have used are Blender and a photo editor called Photoline. The teeth base mesh are thanks to ANDREI CRISTEA: http://www.undoz.com/blog/2014/1/3/base-meshes-and-primitives.html

If you would like to hear a little more backstory for the image, you can keep reading below, but if a picture can be worth a thousand words, I imagine it can also be worth a thousand interpretations as well :slight_smile: So please don’t think this is somehow the correct way of looking at it. I would actually love to hear the way you saw it if it meant something to you, but don’t think you have to say anything.

To me it’s really just about how, as people, we have such a huge desire to know and feel that we are valuable and good enough. Yet so many times in the course of life, that message is sent, often unintentionally, that you’re worthless and you don’t matter, and we kind of become wounded by all the things people say about us or the things we believe about ourselves. Whether we want to admit it or not, it’s something that we all struggle with in various forms.
Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I think it’s really why we want to be the best at something, or to be famous, or want to be like others who are better at something than we are, constantly trying to compare ourselves to them to see how we measure up. I think it’s also why we can be so arrogant and prideful at times, looking down on others and believing that we are just somehow inherently better than everyone else, when in reality we are just so broken inside, we would completely fall apart believing anything less. Or sometimes we also try to escape feeling worthless into things like drinking, or drugs, or pornography. There was a story I had heard once of someone who had a drug addiction for many, many years because of one single event that had happened with his father when he was a child that had made him feel like he was worthless and unloved. And maybe we don’t put it into these words, but it’s like, if I could only be like them, I could feel loved and valuable, good enough, and we live our whole lives trying to be like someone else just to feel loved like they are loved. It’s really not a bad thing to want to be loved, but I think the real difficulty is that the love that people give does change. If you mess up or you aren’t what someone wants you to be, you do get rejected and the love that is given pretty much always comes with some kind of condition.

Not to try and make this into a religious post, but that is really what is so different about the love that Jesus gives, it’s unconditional, it will not change. You are loved as you are, and I guess in the end I just wanted to say that knowing I am loved and always will be loved has completely changed my life. It’s such a wonderful thing to have that freedom of being able to fail and make mistakes and know that you’re still going to be loved. To be grounded in a love that’s not going to change because you mess up and isn’t based on your performance. I don’t have to be great or famous or better than someone else to be loved by Him, or I don’t have to try and get people to believe I’m more perfect than I really am because I am already loved and valuable as I am, even in all of my weaknesses and failures. As someone who has been a perfectionist a great deal of my life, it’s wonderful to have someone that you don’t have to be perfect or good enough for because you’re already loved in all your inabilities. Not to say that I don’t do my best, but there is definitely a big difference between perfectionism and wanting to do something well. I think in the end it’s really why I was ever a perfectionist in the first place because of being so utterly scared someone would find something wrong with something I had done and reject me because of it. That’s really what is so different about an unconditional love, and why His love has changed my life and healed those wounds; there are no conditions, you are wholeheartedly loved and that’s the end of it.

As a last thing, here is the attribution for the things I am using:
Alexander Lyubavin | IMG_4487 | https://www.flickr.com/photos/santea/22645274623/

The Tartan Loom — jkon — http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/81061

Mix Shader By Color ID Texture (Sharp) — novellino — http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/81017

#2

The scars are done! It took quite a bit longer than I thought it would, but then I realized there are about 70 scars altogether, so I suppose it should take a while :slight_smile: I tried to make them a bit subtle so you have to really look at them, but also readable as well. They may not all be readable, but hopefully for the most part they are. If not, I’ll try to work on them some more. At least on my monitor, the image is a bit blurry when linking it, so you may have to click on it to see it clearly. Hopefully they also look like scars as well. I was also able to create the different skin maps and, as you can see below, have been working on the eyes and tongue.

#3

Sorry about the image being posted twice; something must have messed up when I was doing the previous post.

#4

wow quite a story. This looks really good. I can see you put alot of time into this piece and it shows. Keep it up

#5

Thanks so much for the encouragement, it really has been quite a long journey; I’ll definitely be working on it still :slight_smile: That’s some pretty great stuff you have on your website. I’ve always been interested in 3D work that feels a bit more painterly or like a drawing, so it’s neat to see how you translate the drawings into 3D.

#6

I was able to get the teeth and the eyebrows put in as well as the eyelashes. It took a little while to try to figure out how to get the eyebrows looking right, and I think they’re still going to need some work but at least they’re closer to what I had in mind. It really is neat seeing him kind of coming to life. Hopefully everything is looking natural and not too out of place, or at least the way one might expect someone older without teeth to look.

#7

The rest of the hair is put in, including those tiny little hairs that go all over the face. I also changed the description a bit in the first post. You’ll have to excuse some of the areas I haven’t worked on since they won’t be seen, like the top of the head and ears, but you can see how he’s looking in a sunlit environment below as well. I think I’m going to need to try and make the face a bit more wrinkly, but I thought I would wait and get the clothes done before I work on that. Other than that, I think the face might almost be done!

#8

My stuff is more cartoony than anything. I still have tons to learn. Hopefully someday I can do realistic pieces.

I really envy anyone who can achieve realism in their renders. I don’t know how this old man looks visually, but I’m sure you nailed him perfectly. Wish I was good enough of an organic modeler to tell you how to improve on this model more, but i’m not. Looks good to me though, keep it up. Can’t wait to see more from this thread.

#9

I’ve been working on this for about four months now as I have time in between other things. It’s the first time I’ve ever done something like this…

Wow!..I’m kind of taken aback…

Let me explain. Taking into account the insightful premise supporting your project, basically a parable for these turbulent times we’re living at the moment. Not unlike in my honest opinion The Return of The Prodigal Son but also the finesse involved generating this accomplished output, which is quite remarkable.

As an aside, I’ve been around a while, with a niggling thought always sitting in the background, of seeing something standalone…and I think this is one of those instances. So just keep doing what you’re doing man!..my congratulations.

PS:
Seriously you should submit this work too the galleries - deserves attention, and again well done.

#10

DarkMizu - Thanks DarkMizu, that’s great to hear! I think there’s a lot to be said for more cartoony works of art as well. It’s difficult to make something light hearted and fun when doing something realistic, and at least in my opinion, one isn’t really better than the other, they’re just different :slight_smile: With the model, it actually does help just to know that he is looking good to someone else. After I’ve been staring at it for so many months, it helps to have a fresh pair of eyes look at it :slight_smile: Interestingly, I found it a bit difficult to find photos I could use that showed all of the different aspects of his face, so he kind of turned out to be a mashup of different people.

sacboi - Thanks sacboi! That means a lot, and is actually fairly humbling as well. It’s taken a lot of trial and error, but I’m also pretty surprised it’s turning out as well as it is :slight_smile: When I started out, I really didn’t know what to expect or how it would turn out in the end, I just had an idea and thought I would try making something. I think it’s also kind of extraordinary to be able to create something like this with a completely free program. I had not seen that painting before; that’s really amazing how Rembrandt was able to depict that. It’s such a heartfelt painting. That probably would be good to submit my image to the gallery; I’ll have to think about it. What part of the website do you submit it to? I thought the latest entries section, but I wasn’t sure.

#11

That probably would be good to submit my image to the gallery; I’ll have to think about it. What part of the website do you submit it to? I thought the latest entries section, but I wasn’t sure.

Well as far as I know for future reference - Latest Entries, is the point of entry. Just click the Submit Image via CGPortfolio button, then simply follow the prompts.

And If you were asking, that I submit work for appraisal as well?!

…for the moment no. I don’t really think my work is anywhere near the standard required for submission, to be entirely honest.

Now further more my reasoning why you should, is not only due to your obvious skillset generating this piece, that sets it apart, but also in my opinion a certain artistic sensitivity beyond that displayed by other similar work I’ve seen here, which by the way, said as a traditional portraitist/painter from way back when.

I’m also a blender user, have been for ages, specifically a hardsurface mechanical modeller. So I’d be very appreciative if not too much to ask, if you could possibly explain in brief your workflow creating this 3D object?

Which on the face of it, seems not a little ironic given my background that I find modelling human characters more of a challenge, than say a car! - hmm…go figure :confused:

PS
Out of interest, to what Rembrandt painting are you referring too, may I ask?

From my days as an art student there’s another Baroque Master, namely Caravaggio whose work I idolise. Had served as inspiration for Rembrandt throughout his career, in particular the use of Chiaroscuro an Italian artistic term, describing the dramatic effect of contrasting areas between light and dark.

#12

Thanks for the help! I’m so new to the forum that I didn’t really know how it worked. I think I will submit my image to the gallery once it’s done :slight_smile:

I’d be happy to share a bit about the workflow. I started out by sculpting the head and shoulders with dynamic topology, which really helped to easily flesh out how his face was going to look without having to worry about topology. Then I used just simple geometry to create the base mesh for each piece of clothing, trying to keep everything as square as possible so I wouldn’t have areas deforming strangely when I went to sculpt it with a multi-resolution modifier.
To do the more knitted type fabrics, I created a texture by using Bezier Curves to model a single stitch, then used an Array Modifier to repeat that stitch into a square. Then I rendered the model with an orthographic camera, saved the depth pass and applied that texture to the clothing using a displacement modifier.

After I sculpted the clothes and had the zippers and things in place, as well as everything interacting the way I thought it should, I retopologized the head and used a Multi-Resolution modifier to do the smaller details like the pores and the things I couldn’t sculpt with dynamic topology. Then I started working on creating the different color maps and the material for the face.

For the rest I’ve just been slowly working through each piece, getting it looking as realistic as I could, and since I’m not experienced with any of it, just kind of expecting that it’s going to take me a few tries before I’m able to get each piece looking right. With such a large project like this, I think it can also help to look at each piece as kind of a separate project and focus on one piece at a time, just so you don’t get too overwhelmed by everything that has to be done :slight_smile: When trying to create realistic materials, one thing I’ve found really helpful is to use an HDR image, and more specifically one that has the full brightness of the sun like this one: http://www.hyperfocaldesign.com/free-hdri-sky/ , for all of the test lighting. That way you have something as close to the real world as possible, making it easier to spot things that might need changed. Hopefully that will help!

Which on the face of it, seems not a little ironic given my background that I find modelling human characters more of a challenge, than say a car! - hmm…go figure :confused:

That is funny :slight_smile: If you ever try doing characters again, one thing that really helped me tremendously was this set of tutorials by Doris Feibig: https://cgcookie.com/archive/?fwp_library_search=doris. I had done tutorials about characters in the past, but it wasn’t until these that I was finally able to understand how to create a person.

The Rembrandt painting can be seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_(Rembrandt) I had just done a search and thought it was the one you were talking about, but that one you were actually talking about is very good as well; my image really is like it in a lot of ways.

#13

Thankyoiu very much for sharing, IMO looks to be a pretty straight forward process and also for the advice will certainly follow up, in the near future.

The Rembrandt painting can be seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_(Rembrandt) I had just done a search and thought it was the one you were talking about, but that one you were actually talking about is very good as well; my image really is like it in a lot of ways.

Oh Man (forehead slaps) of course I’m such a dunce! :confused: definitely got my wires crossed there. At times, it would seem I have a tendency too wander off in my own world :frowning:

#14

You’re welcome, it probably isn’t too different of a process from most other things you build, just takes time and a lot of research getting things looking right.

That’s alright about the painting, happens to me all the time :slight_smile:

Thanks again for your help and all of your kind words! That car you’re working on is really looking good; it ought to be pretty amazing if you’re able to get it changing into a transformer.

#15

Here is another update. Kind of a lot to say this time. I was able to get the word loved finished. I tried to go for kind of a paintbrush feel for it. The beanie hat and shirt are put in as well. There was something feeling a little bit stiff with the wrinkling around the eye, so I tried to make it feel a bit more natural and part of the face more. Also tried out the new SSS algorithm in Blender that’s supposed to keep the details in the mesh a bit better. The difference is small, but I think it does do better. Interestingly, you do seem to have to raise the SSS scale quite a bit compared to the other options, yet it still maintains the details better.

#16

Not a whole lot to say this time, but I got two more pieces of clothing done. Next I’ll work on the wool coat and then try to add a bit of snow. I probably won’t do too much post processing in the end, but, just for fun, you can also see how it looks in black and white and with an old photo feel below :slight_smile:

#17

The snow and the coat are put in. I’ll try and work on the face a bit more next and do just general tweaking of things in the image, but amazingly, I think the image might almost be finished!

#18

Well, I think (fingers crossed) it might be done. I made the teeth a little more yellow and added in a few sun spots, so hopefully things feel a bit more natural now. Since it was the first piece of clothing I added materials to, I worked on the hat a bit more using everything I had learned, so hopefully it looks even better now. I also reworked the skin shader a bit and added in the micro-geometry of the skin, based on this: http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/Microgeometry/, using a procedural node setup. It’s a subtle difference, but it is interesting how it changes the way the skin feels and makes the shine not feel as perfect. Unless something really major needs to be done, I’ll probably try to post it in the finished projects section over the weekend. Thanks again to both of you for the encouragement along the way; it really was great to have it :slight_smile:

#19

Really nice render, but Im concern abouut the modeling of the face.

Can you render the head only Front/side orthographic view? Would like to paintover to try something to help you. Do you have any ref for us like someone you try to reproduce?

#20

Thanks and sure, I would be glad to. Thanks for taking the time to help :slight_smile: These are just screenshots, but I can do renders as well if you need them.

Here is how he looks in the orthographic view:

Here he is with the 60mm lens I’ve been using when modeling it:

One thing I’ve struggled with quite a bit proportion wise, that you might know better, is the length of the head being equal to the height of the head, then the ear starting at about 1/2 the length of the head. I have seen people with these proportions, but every time I’ve used them, something just feels off about how far back the ear is, so you can kind of see where I brought the ear forward a little in the end.

Here is the reference image from Pixabay I used for the basic structure of his face. There are a couple things I changed, like the brow being much more relaxed for a smile, and also changed the nose a bit as well. I also wasn’t sure how the back of the jaw might change when he smiled, but it looks like I may not have gotten that quite right with how low it is. Another thing that might feel a bit strange is his chin. Apparently, at least with some people, when you lose your teeth, the jaw starts to collapse and move forward. I think that might be what’s going on with the person’s chin in the reference image, but I’m not sure. It has felt a little bit strange, so I may not have gotten that right in the end and maybe a normal chin would be best. I also used someone else’s neck that felt a bit older.

To try to understand how the face changes when we smile, I used this image from Pixabay below. You can see it more in my previous renders, but for his left eye I went ahead and tried to copy the way his skin wrinkled in the reference image, then for his right eye, I tried to go with where the memory wrinkles were in that first reference image.

I think that’s all of it. There were a few other people I used, but they were only for minor things. Thanks again!