HMC #23: Ansel Adams Tribute: tbd

#1

I promised myself i would join the next HMC no matter what it was. I’m not very familiar with Ansel’s work but can see the beauty in it.

I’ve not decided yet but out the few hundred that i’ve seen i’ve narrowed it down to these nine. Really i like the girl in the doorway, but it is not what we would normally think of Adams and without there being a large landscape i wonder if its really in the theme of the challenge.
I really love the lone tree and think that might be the best for a diorama. I like the idea of doing a few hundred sheep too, with a solo donkey, lol.
maybe even do a hybrid of the tree and highway combined, hmm.
and the simplistic complexity of the datura flowers is exciting too.
it’ll probably take me another week just to decide. sigh.

#2

There sure are alot of pictures to choose from and so many possible challenges. I was contemplating doing some of the ref pictures you found as well. I am sure no matter what you decide you will have a good time with it :slight_smile:
Anders

#3

I’ve decided to do the Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome 1940. It is the image that struck me the most, and i like that it is more self contained, i also like the different shapes and textures involved with the rocks, needles and bark, not to mention the bold rock shapes and twisting branches, should be fun.
Here it is in 1940 and in 2002 after drought killed it. There are a few more recent pics out there now which show even less remains, i’ll be using those for reference as well because they are higher res and closer.

I’m not 100% sure which photo i’ll use as my final shot, he also did a color shot which is from a slightly different angle.

I was also struck by this picture:

Lastly the idea of doing something post modern, the irony of a landscape of people indoors looking at ansels pictures of outdoor landscapes is what i thought when i saw these, and i think it would be fun for the challenge if someone wanted to do that too.:

#4

If anyone has a higher res scan of the jeffrey pine i’d greatly appreciate it.

#5

Okay i went to my local library and checked out the 400 pictures book so i could get a nice scan. I’ll post the high res version once i have more done and begin the bark. I also have a good hundred reference pics of the tree from other sources and other trees of the same type so i could get an idea of the bark and pine. Lastly i even went outside(yikes) and examined the pine trees here, i discovered some interesting things that i would not have occurred and some really nice patterns. I also have a new found appreciation for Ansel’s work, there are so many really wonderful pics in this book and i suggest everyone to go check it out, a good amount of them are not on the internet. Also many of the pics of this tree are of it in states of decay, which help with seeing the branches but its quite depressing as well. even though it was killed by drought you can tell that its dismantlement is caused by people sitting and hanging on it.

heres a quick start about 10mins worth, i really wish using reference in zbrush wasn’t so problematic.

Robert could you update my thread title to include the “Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome” if that is the way they are supposed to go. thanks.

#6

doing some tests making the fine branches and pine needles, both were made from a cylinder primitive in zbrush, the needles were placed using meshinsertdot with radial sym on, their need to be more needles and more variation, so i’ll be using about 3 different types. also the branch detail is incorrect and needs to be fixed.
small update on the main tree structure as well.
Does anyone know how i can get my title for this thread corrected to list the Jeffrey Pine?

#7

It looks really good, the trunk and main branches are coming along really nicely and the pine needles are looking sweet. With regards to changing the thread name I guess you need to get hold of some of the forum-wizzards I myself am a forum-noob :slight_smile: keep up the good work, regards
Anders

#8

aovesen, thanks its slow going i keep doing other things, lots of tests. also i’m using about 60 reference pics from different angles and different degrees of decay, its a little difficult trying to match up the branches exactly where they are and how they ‘branch’ off due to perspective/focal length and some other issues. but i’m taking it slow, i think for me this is going to be the hardest part and hopefully once i get to sculpting and doing the needles it will be faster. i have a hard time staying motivated.

heres a very small update. and some tests in trying to figure out how i’m going to do the bark, i want to say i do not plan on doing the bark randomly except for places where i cannot find reference, so most of the bark landmarks will be accurate. for the bark on the left i used claytubes as a base and used the flakes brush with a square alpha.


#9

Looking great.I love the bark samples :thumbsup:

#10

This is looking great! I am curious, how did you get such great tiling on your pine branch? I was trying to do something similar with regards to dragon scales and i wasn’t very successful. Keep up the good work!

#11

JohNLA thanks its the first time i’ve sculpted bark and was a quick test but has potential.

japetus, i used radial symmetry (8) and turned up wrap mode to (6) and drew small dots using masking, inverted the mask, then tool/deformation/inflate about 8, and then used transpose to move them in one direction, lastly just went in with the standard brush to highlight the edge/lip and add this dot sort of thing to the ends.
unfortunately they are not accurate at all but it was a nice test. i also tried to replicate it using box modeling and edgelooping, got the same results but the polycount was roughly the same between the two due to the need for smoothing, which was 130k, which is a bit high considering how many i would need and this detail not being visible at all in Ansels photo.

from my examination of the local pine trees here this sort of scaling(thats really what they look like) only occurs within the last 1 1/2’ of the branches, so i probably wont be doing this and if i do it won’t be as high res.

lastly another old zbrush method of doing scales is here, but i find it easier now with brushes, wrap mode and radial sym.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showpost.php?p=33398&postcount=23

#12

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