Hard(l)y Done... Lawless Hardy 2.0 - Face Update 2

And here we go again.

Almost another year.

I'm doing a great job at sticking to a blog post once a year...

As much as I would like to post every so often, I am compelled to keep tinkering behind the curtain until my work is all done. However, I think it is unfair to keep my progress to myself and I am certain that sharing it could benefit others in someway and be helpful to those in the process of working on something similar.

Here are a few screenshots of Tom Hardy in his latest digital state...

I never clearly stated one of the main purposes of this project. It is an ongoing project to track my progress in achieving a hyper realistic computer-generated human being - A goal I hope to accomplish. So this is practically a milestone project, if you will.

Tom Hardy is probably the best candidate for this since he is an actor who is so well photographed and filmed. It is also a plus that I am an immense fan of him, his acting, and his films and that he is a charming fellow which makes staring at his face for hours on end to sculpt and replicate the details all the more enjoyable! (Sorry if that sounds creepy. Welcome to character likeness art!)

Throughout this project, I expect to gain an understanding of how to accurately replicate real world objects and people digitally. I hope to then be able to create fantastical photorealistic characters and environments of my own and ultimately surpass the uncanny valley to reach that sought out level of true realism... which has impressively already been achieved by artists, movies, and commercials. Thankfully, there are constant technical leaps and achievements happening in the world of visual effects and computer graphics hardware and software to make that goal more attainable than ever. With that said, this project has a long way to go before it reaches its end, but until then, it's one great big work in progress until I get there.

Thanks for reading! Please comment if you have any questions. As this was more of a general update, I might possibly do a more in-depth breakdown in the near future.


-Natalie

Lawless Hardy 2.0 - Update 1

A BIG Hello to you!

It has been a while... 

Actually, it has been more than a year since my last post.

To get this up and running again, I thought I would start by sharing a few semi-old and fairly new work-in-progress screenshots of my current personal project. I am updating and redoing 90% of a Tom Hardy model I created for my character modeling demo reel while at Full Sail University. I am currently revising and sculpting the head in Zbrush. Will move on to 3D software, Maya later on where I will pick up on the rest of the body model that I made already.

"LOOK MA, NO HANDS!"

I often refer back to these stills from the movie, Lawless for art direction. After all, this is a likeness, not just of Tom Hardy, but of the particular Forrest Bondurant character he portrayed in the film.

 More progress on the sculpt and cleaning up the paint job. Nothing is final at this point. Just playing around with the colors, adding in pore detail, making face tweaks, and rendering out different lighting situations-- Having fun!

Highest resolution models compare: New (left),Old (right)

For those who have not pursued a likeness project, you need to gather a bunch of reference of the person you are trying to replicate. This helps make things easier down the line. 

Using a profile photo, I try to match up silhouettes and shapes in Zbrush's Spotlight.

Most recently through spotlight, I lined up and painted a nice hi-res photo right onto the sculpture. Sort of like shrink wrapping it to the surface. And it lined up almost PERFECTLY!
However, it is still going to require a lot of tweaking, but it's another good base texture to start with.

In the image below, it is apparent to see the impact a texture has on a model.

Same model- different texture.

That is it for now! Thanks for reading!

First Post of 2014!

Boy, time flies! The last half of 2013 after I graduated in May from Full Sail University was chaotic and eventful to say the least. The studying continued as I was really deciding the next territory I wanted to venture in. So since I didn't get to update earlier last year, I decided to cram in all my adventures into one blog post...

A month after I graduated from Full Sail University, I went back for an internship to assist the online students in the 3D Foundations course for the Computer Animation degree program. It was wonderful to see students with the same immense passion as I had, anxious to finally learn what they've always dreamed of learning -to bring their imagination to life.

To keep with professionalism, I updated my resume frequently and I got my business cards that I designed while in Full Sail printed by Primo Cards.

During the same time as my Full Sail internship, I also had the good fortune of interning with Legal Demonstrative Exhibits as a 3D Artist, where I was asked to model an anatomical human male skeleton to be used in medical illustrations and animations for legal cases. I became more aware of the true importance of understanding anatomy especially pertaining to the medical field. Renders can be seen on my website.

After the internships ended, I made myself available to volunteer freelance work for a bit.

In September, I took a trip with my dad to the other side of the country, Los Angeles, California! There we attended the Gnomon Workshop Live Event. For two days, ten industry artists talked about their work and experiences. The demos and presentations ranged from technical to artistic with all of them being insightful. I had the pleasure of meeting and networking with talented artists, students, and experienced industry professionals (That's where those business cards come in handy).

It was expensive, but it was worth it. If not going would have meant at the expense of knowledge, inspiration, not to mention the revitalized energy, motivation, and focus I experienced... it was definitely worth going.

What's crazy about it all is that I grew up with the movies and games that these artists presenting helped in creating and realizing. It was such a surreal experience for me and yet everyone was so casual and professional, which was even more surprising. I grew up with the crazed fan conventions and it was nothing like that. Everyone treated each other like professional artists. It was nice.

Sketch collage of the 2013 Gnomon Workshop
Live Event presenters: Because artists rarely get
drawings done of them and I love drawing faces!

Finally got to meet Neville Page, a brilliant creature and concept designer who has worked on Avatar, Cloverfield, Star Trek, Prometheus, and much more. He is a big inspiration and one of the reasons why I wanted to pursue a career in the industry. To see a design you create then to become full reality in a movie is a dream of mine and I didn't realize that until I saw Cloverfield. Another inspiration was Peter Konig, a concept artist for film and game, whose resume jumps back to Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers. Izzy Medrano worked on the concepts for Tony Hawk: American Wasteland, and God of War III! And the list goes on and on.. Of course, every single presenting artist has inspired me to this point. Seriously look their portfolios up and your mind will be blown!

While the artists presented their demos, I took a plethora of notes and managed to sketch each one of them (in the dimly lit room). Here are the sketches I did with a few color corrections in Photoshop.

All the presenters were very inspirational with their work and stories and made me want to work even harder on my art skills when I got back home.

To illustrate that, while I was on a camping trip, since it just happened to be the first of the month, it was perfect
timing, and for multiple reasons, I decided to take advantage and start a personal creature challenge exercise where I would make up a creature every day for 30 days in any medium and post on social sites. I didn't concern myself over if they were completely thought out or unique, but just to have the excuse to practice everyday, seeing where it would take me, how much I could expand on my creative ideas and imagination, and what I could get inspired with especially with being in the outdoors for half the month!

Redid my website, changing my title from Character Modeler to Character and Creature Artist. I love every step of the visual effects process and as of yet to find something I absolutely dislike doing, but my biggest passion for the longest has been the character and creature development aspect.

Towards the end of the year, I enrolled in the online Gnomon Master Classes where I networked, learned more on visual effects, and got inspired some more! I definitely recommend it if you have the funds. It's a terrific learning experience.

Last but not least to start the new year with a bang, I got added to the Avalanche Studios team in Manhattan, New York! The thought of moving and starting my first major gig in the game industry is a thrilling feeling, but I am ready as I'll ever be and I'm looking forward to starting my new career.

I hope that I can post more frequently this year, which is a new year's resolution of mine. Thank you for reading.

Caveman Work In Progress!

He will be one of my assets going on my first ever Demo Reel. I'll post more pictures of him before he was as detailed. He is based off the concept by Sarah Mensinga. Cool lookin character if I do say so myself :)