Digital Painting Study

Digital painting I did in Painter 2015 using oils and conte crayons.  The composition on this one is really interesting and having a non-right angle bend in the road is what gives it that tweak. Plus, there was a hell of a lot of stuff on this corner as well.  I spent a good amount of time pulling the details out of the boat bumpers and traffic lights learning my way around the brushes. The palette knife was a lot of fun to scape back down to white with, though I still have a lot to learn about the settings on that. 

Personal work, Office and Ice Study

Worked up two CGI personal projects this weekend.  The astronaut "Office Hell" image was to work on interior lighting, dynamics as curves and some simple UVing. Also shattered the helmet a bit to get those cracks which is always fun to do. Then I brought it all into Painter to explore some treatments in there.  I wanted to take it away from the fully clean CGI look and grunge it up a bit.

The Ice Flowers was done in responce to Makoto Azuma's installations which are awesome looking.  I wanted to see how close I could come to those using Modo. Besides some work on modeling the ice block I am pretty happy with how it came out. Fairly minor post in Photoshop adding some slight grain and darkening the foreground. Took 8 hours to render that out using 38 cores.  

Kubricks' 2001: One Mans Incredible Odyssey

Awesome blog post on the VFX in 2001 a Space Odyssey.  Great read. 

Kubricks' 2001: One Mans Incredible Odyssey

Doug Trumbull:  "Filming of the 'Dawn of Man' sequence took place entirely on only one stage at the studio. Distant backgrounds for all the action were front-projected eight-by-ten Ektachrome transparencies, using probably the largest front-pro…

Doug Trumbull:  "Filming of the 'Dawn of Man' sequence took place entirely on only one stage at the studio. Distant backgrounds for all the action were front-projected eight-by-ten Ektachrome transparencies, using probably the largest front-projection device ever made, and constructed specially for 2001 by Tom Howard.  The projector consisted of a specially intensified arc source with water-cooled jaws to hold the oversized carbons, special heat-absorbing glass, giant condensing lenses which would occasionally shatter under the intense heat, special eight-by-ten glass plate holders and positioning mounts, an extremely delicate semi-silvered mirror, and a specially built nodal point head so that the camera could pan, tilt, and zoom without fringing of the image."

Personal Work: Modo Stencil Study

Was working with stencils, replicators and volumetric lights last night and pulled this one off. The volumetric light started breaking up into almost a plasma type feel.  Included the AO render as well so you can see the model without the volumetric light turned on. Interesting shape there as well. 

Personal Work: Grass Fields.

Just picked up a bunch of new models of grass and did this quick test render with a stock photo backdrop.  It is a tad "glossy" on the plants but I enjoy it visually quite a bit.  Great models...

Art: CGI Art of Lee Griggs

Lee Grigs does some amazing things with Maya. His Blog here with a tutorial. Now can I translate that into Modo? VIA Colossal

Art: Gediminas Pranckevicius Illustrations

Gediminas Pranckevicius makes some really luminescent illustrations. I would go to town with some replicators to try and do something like this in 3d.  Getting that rich atmosphere would be damn impossible though. 

Art: Mark Gmehling’s 3D-rendered.. things?

Super fun high plastic 3d art by Mark Gmehling, I really enjoy the toy feel of these. A lot of whimsy and still has a consistent feel.  Motivates me to up my modeling game in Modo. 

Art: Animations by Andy Thomas

Awesome animations here of bird songs by Andy Thomas.  Really enjoy the movement and abstract look of these. 

There is a nice breakdown on his blog as well.

Art: Martin Kimbell Light Tornados

Martin Kimbell makes light tornados with some LEDs and hula hoops. Pretty fun idea. Makes me wanna go out and shoot some nightscapes with the Fuji.

Art: Yuichi Ikehata

Can't tell you much besides I like it.

"This site is Yuichi Ikehata works site.

Kakuunohito “架空の人” is
my disappearing performance unit name.

Art: Miriam Escofet’s Esoteric Paintings of Idyllic Worlds

Found this on the High Fructose tumblr. Really enjoy the textures and lighting on them. It would be a lot of fun to do a 3d study on this style of work. Painter Miriam Escofet.

Band Artwork in Progress

Working on some imagery for a local band called "Whiskey or the Concrete" here is one of my concepts that I was working up the past few days.

New Flexible Paper Sculptures by Li Hongbo

Li Hongbo’s stunning, stretchable, paper sculptures, inspired by both traditional folk art and his time as a student learning to sculpt, challenge our perceptions. With a technique influenced by his fascination with traditional Chinese decorations known as paper gourds—made from glued layers of paper—Li Hongbo applies a honeycomb-like structure to form remarkably flexible sculptures.

An investigation into expression through one of the oldest mediums in history, Li Hongbo invites viewers to experience paper and sculpture in a revolutionary and insightful new way. Utilizing his expert knowledge of paper’s natural strengths and weaknesses, the artist has transformed the media to stretch, twist, elongate and retract as if it were a giant slinky. Through this juxtaposition of playful mobility and a traditional aesthetic, Li Hongbo breathes a unique life into his works that stuns and awes the viewer.

Via- This is Colossal

Abstract CGI Study

Here is a abstract study I did yesterday, rendered over night and printed out this morning.  Loosely based on works by John Chamberlain, I wanted to explore some different finishes / materials and do a lighting study with brushed steel.  Keeping the highlights smooth on the steel and placing the lights was fairly tricky to get how I liked.  Slightly added a HDRi map of some clouds in a landscape to just give a hint of location to the reflection. Printed on Ilford Gold Fiber Silk. 

Some new CGI work

Just thought I would post some CGI projects I have been tinkering with.  The Lebron shoe was for Nike and was never published so I just added that to the front page.  I tweaked on it to add the "Lava" texture the other week which I thought made it more interesting.  Shoe is from a photo shot by Ryan Unruh.

The text piece is a interior study where I am working on getting the floors and lights working right.  Having a issue where I can't get the light working right in the bottom left. The abstract is just a study in making abstract art in CGI that I banged out yesterday. Both of these are entirely CGI.

Sculpting with Light

For 35 years, I’ve been a fine art and commercial studio photographer and for 24 of those years, I’ve used Light Painting (I like to refer to it as “Sculpting with Light”) as my method of lighting subjects. Many years ago, I discovered that light painting was not only a great tool for solving problems (which was initially the reason I started experimented with it), but it also was a way to enhance, reveal and celebrate certain aspects of subjects that weren’t visible to me under normal lighting conditions! There is a transformational quality to the light, and ordinary objects can become extraordinary when seen in this “new” light.