Christmas Time!

Some Christmas Spirit etc etc etc

Also this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ftld7Ohojg

Regards

Francis

:3c

Fo'Drizzle.

Yeah. two posts in one night.

Unprecedented shiz all up in the hizzay.

Also Ronald Jenkees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esubYoUfrjM

Regards

Francis

Rube Wips

I'm just gonna copy paste what I wrote on deviantart, because i'm lazy.


So this is Rube, Hi Rube!

Been busy painting him and having a whole lot of fun, experimenting a lot, as annoying as it is, it's great when you find problems doing something and then you learn how to circumvent certain errors, it's great! Had problems with the mapping but this turned out dandy.

Hope ya like it though he's not totally mixed yet, not finished, but it's getting there drop by, tell me what ya think! cheerio!

Regards

Francis

Also This:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5aq4V0Ywk

Done for Realsies!

Decided not to let the tram project get the better of me, and with much help and boost-of-confidence, as well as critic, from and not limited to:

Gavin Eastwood
Jizhou Yang and Claya (Team Chalise)
Cobus Van Staden
Brandon Naidoo 

(^ you guys rock)

I've finally gotten the train to a point where i'm happy with it and ready to move on to other aspects of the project. Hope ya like it :D

Regards

Francis

And stay tuned for more of the project :D 

Words

Too tired to write or be snarky,

I guess Tram is done, hand painted, my hand is now a bloodied stump.started on robot, wips below

unghj,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Adventures in Texturing part 1

Well, in between lamenting my inability to do anything good in art, and barely sleeping as is, i've been texturing the tram that I created in the last post, I've been experimenting with Painter and vray blend materials, trying to combine 2d and 3d knowledge, you see, it seemed a good idea at the time before I realized that I'm really really bad at painting.

So that's fun.

at the moment i'm going through and unwrapping and hand painting textures, flipping colours around, seeing what works, another exercise in try, fail, carry on. and so on and so forth

feel free to tell me what ya think.

Regards

Francis

Trains, Deviantart, and a badly drawn teddybear.

Hey,

Been really busy this week, unfortunately haven't had time to draw as much as I want to, (original excuse, yeah.)

But I did manage to sign up to deviantart, which is pretty cool, and it's nothing you haven't seen here, but hey, advertising, right? So swing by, and do something, or don't, whatever floats your fancy.

http://crumpety.deviantart.com/

Here's some updates on the tram i've been working on and the badly drawn teddy bear that I regret ever creating.

Regards

Francis

Sneak Peeks n tweaks

Yo, well I got back into modelling after awhile break, started this project on friday, and after a weekend of relaxing and copious amounts of gaming and sleep i'm hitting the ground running again with my projects, This is to be a part of an animation i'm doing to put in to my reel, as I'd quite like to follow my dream and become an animator, there aren't many options where I am, but I'll keep working and hoping that I can get something one day.

Other than that, the project itself is a fun idea that will unfold in due time, I'm no good writing, so it's better that I show you as the project progresses.

This so far is my tram that has a convenient chair and steering wheel, something toyish and fun.

I can't so i'm following any structured pipeline, Started the image on paper, then sighed and realized when I started modelling that nothing is going to look like the design that I had in mind so I just decided to pick up the ball and run with it, I also started playing around with some lights in the back, just to get a feel and mood, I did use some reference, really not as much as I should have, but just the basics while I try and find a decent silhouette for the object. Not sure where to take it from here in regards of design and form, but I guess i'll begin refining and see where it takes me.


Hope ya like it

Regards

Francis

P.S. Seems I forgot to add a picture of the boiler but i'm far too lazy to turn everything back on, so I guess you'll have to wait till next time ;D.

Swing and a...Kind of a hit actually

Hey

Watched a recent movie called chernobyl diaries and was inspired to a strange concept, it doesn't really mean anything to anyone else, and it's more of a personal thing to me but it's a concept of Limbo, which is generic and cleche yadda yadda but shut up.

Did this in amongst a few high temperatures on sunday, i quite like it, I enjoy this heavy inking and if you notice the trees in the background (yes they're supposed to be trees) i incorporated some of the painting tools i've learnt in the last week.

Not a perfect piece but i'm certainly happy with it, and the perspective was fun,

hah, now that I think about it, I was bitching to my mentor about the odd perspective and he said:

 "You could just paint it normally and rotate the canvas afterwards."

aaaahhhh I died a little inside after I realized I did it the long way, was quite fun though.

In other news back into some 3d modelling, should have something in the next few days.

Regards

P.S.

sorry about the weird image size, there was too much white, had to crop it down and up, and ended up with a really weird image ratio.

Francis

Swing and a miss attempt 1

Evenin'

Decided this week to do a bit of architecture and characters, but I failed, mostly because I've been struck down with an unholy fever from somewhere. and haven't been able to do much, to be honest, I felt guilty about using 3ds max to do the intial blocking out of the scene, but then I realized that it's not really that bad, i'm using tools at my disposal to get to my goal the fastest.

I learnt quite a lot about painting, and I feel sorry for my friends David, Mathias, Singe, Jizhou, and all the rest that had to listen to me scream and yell that this was terrible.

But I guess I pushed on and did as much as my limited knowledge allows me and it's not a bad start to digital painting, and a first architectural idea.

Hope ya like it

Regards

Francis

Late Night Digitals

Yo, Got some fun stuff to show.

Decided to move from traditional stuff art-wise to digital, and among the chaos of modern life, moving houses, learning routes as to not get lost and chopped up in some serial killers basement, I managed to learn quite a lot from Saturday night to today (Sunday).

This first image is for my girlfriend Meghan, bit of a personal piece, but it came out exceptionally well, which marks my breaking in to digital works, the second work (picture of the lady) is a result of me trying to follow a tutorial from Gnomon, failing, then going on my own tangent, learning the tools. ins and outs of everything.

In regards to the lady, I feel that the second to last image was a better product, but I felt like trying out some hair and being daring.

With the rabbit I got some awesome colouring help from my long term friend and mentor Jizhou Yang, as asian as can be (by that I mean ridiculously talented) and without his help the picture would have fallen to pieces, so cheers big ears.


It was a successful weekend in terms of practice, hope you guys enjoy the results.

as always i've included wip screengrabs, deal with it.

In closing i'm going to leave you with a quote from somewhere:

"If you don't fail, you don't learn, and if you don't learn, you're not trying hard enough."

So, i'm basically going to be trudging through the valley of unholy suckage for awhile, be it 3d or 2d, i'll put my head down and practice till hell or high water.

Let's see where we go from here.


Regards

Francis

100th post goodness and late night thoughts

Hey there,

it's been awhile, but i'm back. it's a rather cold, late night here in Johannesburg, and someone very dear to me has gone on a long trip, so the night seems ever darker.

Yet, I feel euphoric, this is the start of something new, something grand, a time where I can practice as hard as possible, for as long as possible in my passion, 2d and 3d. This, this right here is what I live for.

You know, I had a misconception of what art was like. It's not what hollywood portrays, there's no tough practice with angels singing choirs in the background followed by a "EURIKA", there's nothing of the sort, it's gaining knowledge and applying it, learning the rules of reality in order to break them. Knowing anatomy to know where to exaggerate, understanding lighting to pull the emotions, putting the hours into cinematography to add to the emotion of the overall piece. It's hard, it's a perpetual battle against oneself, and the hope that one day, you will get to where you need to be.

I've taken a break from 3d for the past 2 or was it 3 weeks? Brushed back up on my pencil skills. When I was working and studying last year, I poured all time and effort into working in 3d, and I doubted for awhile there that I would ever illustrate again. A lot of the stuff is messy, and I apologize in advance that I don't have a scanner. But here are some of the things that i've done, along with my dear companion Meghan, (she did all the hard bits. :D ) Sadly, due to internet, and well, practicality, I decided not to upload 30 or 40 sketches and drawings of gestures, so you get a random few pages from my sketchbook to prove that I am not, in fact lying. (Or maybe i'm just proud of some of the stuff, unthinkable thoughts.)

And yeah. So that's where we leave it, a new beginning on my 100th post.

See you guys next time round.

Generic Cyber Girl

Hey there, been recently going through a tough time, hence the lack of updates.

Tried to break a bit of a block going on, and funnily enough, the easiest thing that I could think of was: "LET'S TRY A HUMAN BEING BECAUSE WHY THE HELL NOT."

This after having horrible things happen in the past when I listen to myself.

Well, she's generic, she's bland, character design is boring, and her helmet looks like a tumor, but it's there.

used some of Mike Jensens Hard Surface Sculpting 2 alpha brushes, so...Copyright to him for that.

So...That's a thing. I guess.

 Regards

Francis

P.S. Screw human beings . I'll go back to anatomy studies and maybe, maybe try a human figure awhile from now.

Riley

Well, i'm not sure where this came along, this evening I had no drive to draw, no real ambition to tackle anything, and then I just started scribbling, and along came Riley.

What's interesting, to me at least, is that for the years that I was drawing, I never really enjoyed myself, I was always worried about how good the picture would look in the eyes of my peers (Both real and imaginary). I was never happy with the shading, proportion or anatomy, while this drive to become better isn't a bad thing in itself, the fixation of perfection eventually strangled anything creative I could muster, I fear this is also the trap i've fallen in to with my 3D modelling, unwilling to start and experiment for fear of making a mistake. 

It's almost poetically tragic how in my fear of doing something wrong, I did nothing and stagnated. 

In a long-winded way, here we come to Riley, a picture I didn't care about, and started scribbling, and two hours later, I feel that here i've made more progress developing my own style and joy in drawing than years of copying portraits and photographs. 

Here's the images of where I started and where I left off. 

Regards

Francis

P.S. as an afterthought, this particular picture isn't good in technical ability nor anything really, but, in my own way, i'm learning to stop caring and start enjoying what i'm doing. Sooner or later i'll get back to anatomy studies and 3d design visualization, but for now. I'm content.

Bob

Well, in an unexpected turn of events, I've started drawing again after a long absence and a sinking feeling that i'd never pick up a pencil again.

Mostly because I have no faith in myself and feel that I have no ability after years of practice, partly because i'm just too tired these days.

But my friend Mathias Damegaeardegd, asked me to illustrate a character for a Dungeons and Dragons session named Bob.

Bob is a Kobold whose head was chopped off, and his soul was trapped into a glass jar, which was put on his head, followed by a smiley face being put on the jar.

I used a picture that I was given to take the pose. so the pose is not mine, but I did the inking with help and advice from my long term friend and mentor in Finland, Jizhou Yang. I'm still convincing him to start a blog, but hey. who knows what'll happen.


Don't really have an opinion on the image, it served it's purpose and it may have got me back into the swing of drawing, I actually really like this comic-type style, really fun to do. so, without further delay, here's the image.

If you lack the patience to listen to my rambling, just look at the picture.


Regards

Francis

Citation Needed

Welp, good evening.

Once upon a time I was supposed to do daily/ nightly updates on my progress. but unfortunately circumstances arose, and my grandfather passed away and i've had to travel for the memorial service and the rest, luckily i've managed to jump head first into some sculpting during the nights i've stayed here.

I'm not claiming any of these to be good at all, as i'm still learning muscle groups and deformations and skeletal structure, but i'd like to show where i've come from 2 days ago, to where I am now.

I'd also like to send a thank you to my friend Cobus, this guy, has no reason to help me with improving my ability, but he patiently bares with me and even shares his screen to show me where I went wrong, at 2 in the morning. So cheers, Cobus, thanks for helping me become a better artist, bro.

And for now, I go onwards and upwards. Strangely enough I don't feel as frustrated as I normally do, I've come to accept the fact that these wips are not good, and that failure is a part of the learning process, and I can't wait to see where I go from here.

Tell me what ya think, and feel free to drop a crit!

Regards

Francis

Night 1 (Creating a female bust in Zbrush)

Good evening,

I caved in and decided to buy a tutorial from gnomon, as organic sculpting with busts has always been a trouble for me, So I got my hands on Creating a female bust in Zbrush for 30 dollars, can be found here:

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/848/sculpting-a-female-bust-in-zbrush

So far i'm having difficulty following it, in the videos he goes slowly, and then speeds up, which leaves me lost at some points, so i'm watching through then attempting to do what I learnt about, here's an update on where I started, and where I'm leaving it off, The biggest problem I have at the  moment is studying muscle groups, I can't really name the muscles that are important, I can't place them, I have experience in traditional drawing, so I have a rough idea of where things are supposed to go, but I can't tell you what muscles form the shape.

So I'll be posting as regularly as I can, and hoping to learn as much as possible this week, though I can't say it will look anything like the end product of the tutorial, but here goes nothing

Regards

Francis

1, 2, Skip a few we're done.

Alright, ended up going back on the dvds, and going step for step with what Mike Jensen did, Wasn't in my initial plan to render it out, but after awhile I missed Vray, so I went ahead, did a similar 2 light setup , pretty much the same as what he did, with the exception of using a different HDRI in the override, all in all, it was an awesome week of learning, and I would definitely recommend anyone interested in learning hard surface sculpting to pick up the Dvd,

Zbrush Hard Surface Techniques, Available for purchase here:  http://eat3d.com/zbrush_hardsurface




And here's my final render, just for fun, looking forward to hopefully purchasing the second dvd (conveniently labelled Hard Surface Techniques 2) in the near future.

Regards

Francis

Day 5 (Where did we go wrong?)

Good evening,

welp, kinda lost track on the dvds, learnt the tools at the beginning, copied the base mesh....and then it all fell apart as im going on my own tangent somewhere, i'm sure when i'm done playing around i'll take it into max and render and composite, but for now, i'm just having fun and learning, ah well, hope ya like it.

None of my stuff really looks hard surfaced, very messy, but I kinda like it even though it potentially destroys the design, I suppose that's where the skill difference is, still trying to get my brush strokes under control.

Anyway, feel free to drop a crit if ya want, any and all help is welcome, just try not to be too soul crushing, will ya?

Regards

Francis

Day 4 (Concepting Mesh and Fun Errors)

Good Evening,


Feeling much better today, spent most of the day working on the dvds, learnt some really nifty new tricks, majority of the day was spent watching the same segements over and over again, seeing how he concepted the mesh and mimicking how he did it, I've changed a few things here and there, like the "Horn" on the helmet, I didn't quite like it, so decided just not to add it in, as well as a few cosmetic changes, but i'm happy to get round about in the ballpark where he was, and i'm looking forward to continuing the dvds tomorrow night.


Here's a screengrab of the character where I am now.

Regards

Francis

P.S. had a bunch of fun getting random errors, and im not sure if they're on my side or on pixologic's side, but it was hilarious indeed.

Night (Morning?) 3 Alpha Brushes and Stamps

Evening, well, started sculpting because i'm sick and can't sleep. Not really in a talkative mood to elabroate but  continued with the Dvds, learnt how to make alpha brushes, and stamps etc, here's what they look like in action and what one of the stamps I created looks like.

Regards

Francis