I had a bit of a break from this one I started a while back (a redo of a model done for the game salvation prophecy….so the base is glen southerns.) I wanted to do  a’proper’ version of it so changed a few things and made it my own in many ways, although obviously big props still go to my mate Glen for the main idea.   Sculpted in mudbox and renderd in 3d max with 2 portal lights

Well I’d like to wish a hapy new year to you all.  I’m sure many of you have had some well needed time off from work and took it easy over teh holidays. Alas I was busy and worked over xmas on a important model for a client.  So apart from the daytime on xmas day itself I worked completely though it.  It might sounds rather scrooge like, but sometimes you have to pull hours and working times that are beyond normal.

So after a couple of weeks of working on ‘non monsters’ I was itching to get back to a big scay monster for some personal time.  But you should know me well enough by now that I can’t go too long without a few monsters lol.  I just started this one tonight from an old base mesh I had lying around.  Its stil very much early days as a work in progress and I’m usure whether to keep these proportions or not at this stage.

I hope you all had a wonderful time over xmas and new yer, but I have to admit I find it god to get back to normal.

I’d like to wish all the readers of DashDotSlash a very merry xmas and hope you all have a fantastic new yer.

Wayne…

Sculpting Ears the Simple Way Video Link

Mudbox 2009 vimeo Group

One of the areas that beginners seem to have the most trouble learning to sculpt is the human ear.  So in this video I outline a very simple way to get your forms ready to take to the next level.  To clarify thing, this video  shows how to get from a flat plane to the major forms and is not intended as a highly detailed sculpt.  My hope is that by concentrating on the simple shapes it will make sculpting ears easier for those who have trouble with them.   Once you get to the stage shown in the video it is them far simplier to take things to a final result.

These ‘Simple Way’ videos are part of what will be an irregular series recorded as I have time concentrating on areas that people have trouble with when starting out.

Wanna see the whole of Wave 2 of the ‘From the Ground Up’ series in one go?   Well here it is….just a  fair bit faster, but hopefully enough to give you an idea of where this is heading. It acts as sort of a rough trailer for wave 2 while you wait for the rest of it to be upped to TheArea.

enjoy

Mudbox 2009: ‘From the Ground Up’ Wave 2 now up!

Part 1 (28 mins) Temporary download link

Part 2 - 11 mins

OK here it is faster than you probably thought.. Wave 2 of the Mudbox 2009 ‘From The Ground Up’ free high resolution video tutorials series.  I’ve put a temporary low res version of part one up (due to a file naming mix up part 2 got put up 1st on The Area).  So as not to disapoint those of you following the series I decided to do a  very fast encode of the 1st part and put that up to hold you guys off till the high res version appears in a couple of days.

Enjoy.

Wayne…

Part 6 - Hard Surface texturing  (41mins)

Here is it, the last part of Wave one of the Mudbox 2009: ‘Ftrom The Ground Up’ series that is a 41 min hard surface texturing video tutorial in Mudbox 2009.  Wave 2 should be starting in a day or three.   All hasn’t been sweetness and light in Wayne Towers though…

It’s been a helluva week and looks like someone has taken a very serious exception to the ‘Ground Up’ series and the QuickStart one.   In the last 2 week I’ve had 2 attacks with drive killer taking out over 4 terrabyte of drives (and turning them into paperweights…along with the last year of work) and tonight at 7.27pm GMT my paypal account hacked…. is that going to stop the series?  No chance ;)  I don’t give in to bullies.  So I’ve lost a year worth of models and contacts….but models I can easily make again..and contacts know me well enough to know where to find me.

What I’m most angry about was a model I was never going to share, that was a cartoon character in the Aardman animation style I did for my son.  The beauty of working as fast is that its  no biggy to redo stuff in a night or three.  But that model was special so I’m livid that my son was left disapointed.

If anything it just makes me even more detirmed to keep this running as long as I can… I’m notoriously pig headed and no way will I let something like this stop these videos from being released…   So its safe to say that I’m rattling more than  a few cages with people that would rather that these high resolution free tutorials weren’t out there or made available for free.  I vowed to keep this revolution roling as far as I could and I will, no matter what.  Plus contingency plans were made a while back.

Wayne…
PS in case anyone thinks I’m being an attention seeking loonatic I have proof of the above happening and have passed it on to Dave Cardwell at Autodesk in case anyone accuses me of being some idiot making it all up…I know I’d have trouble beliving it if I read someone posting this….

This started as a doodle that I ended up taking a bit further tonight.  Its a viewport render from Mudbox 2009 and is of a 300, thousand poly sculpt (just because you can use lots of polys, doesn’t nean you must!) Maps: 2k bump, diffuse and specular

Watch Here

Link to iPhone version

Please note: Internet explorer has SWF sound issues..if your experience this please use firefox. (if you experience these issues in any other browser please leave let me know. thanks)

Here a video to demo mudbox’s capabilites as a painting program I’ve been asked to do by Autodesk.   It covers some of the its plus points in comparision to other software and what I personally consider its strong points from a texturing point of view.  Its not meant to be a conprehensive list, more of a overview.  it shows the texturing of a enviromental model with multiple 2k diffuse, spec and bump maps.  If this was to be used as an in game asset obviously this texture size would be cut down and a tileable bump used instead.

I’ve uploaded a online viewing /downloadable version and also a version for those of you with Apple iPhones.  Feel free to share it  with people you think may be interested.

Enjoy.

Mudbox 2009 ‘From the Ground Up’ - Brushes (including hard surface sculpting tutorial)(45mins)

Link

Here’s the link to Part 5 that not only covers brushes in depth, but also includes a hard surface sculpting tutorial as well.  We’ll be using a hard surface sculpt such as this one in the next couple of videos that cover texturing in detail.  There’s still plenty left to come yet.