Punch-Out!!

First post for November! It's Punch-Out!! Punctuation overload...

I'm using a combination of toon shading techniques in this one - for Little Mac, it's toon shading through the use of XSI's render tree channel mixers and incidence maps, which brings out more volume as you add more shades and mixers; as for the background, it's a blend of XSI's native toon shader material, constant (i.e, self-illuminating) material and ambient occlusion passes. Oh, and for the few black 'ink' strokes I added in, it's all thanks to ton ink lens, a cool little node that works directly with the camera, thus perfect for a single pass that I can use in the composition shot put together on Photoshop.

This one also had something completely new for me - rigging a character I modelled. I didn't get everything quite right yet, but like everything else, I'll get the concept through my head the more I have to do it. For now, it worked for posing Mac, not as dramatically as I wanted, though.

Does this post mean I'm back to posting at least once a month?! Find out in December!

Nissan Skyline W.I.P Post III

Composition:

• 1x Mental Ray Final Gathering pass;
• 1x Ambient Occlusion pass for the entire scene;
• 1x Ambient Occlusion pass for the wheels and ground;

General info:

• More than fourty individual projections for all the decals, each individually painted and vectored;
• More than enough cases of decals flowing from one car part to the other;
• Dirt painted over through decals and texturing;
• Individual reflection mask for each decal, as well as the car paint;
• Works in 360 degrees, all sides covered by detailing work;
  
• Different transparency maps for each window;
• Two reflection planes, and one plane for ambient lighting;
• Five individual lights - one for the car interior, and four for head and backlights;
  

Nissan Skyline W.I.P Post II

Wireframe and occlusion pass.

Nissan Skyline W.I.P Post I

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus, it's been pretty hectic around here. Anyway, I'd like to start a new series of posts regarding my latest project, the Calsonic Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 #12 car that I posted a while back. It's nearly finished, as part of my illumination and rendering class.

As a slow starter, here are the decals I remade in order to use on the car, some on Illustrator and some I repainted directly on Photoshop.


This time, I'm using XSI for the render, in Mental Ray instead of Max and Vray. I'll have the final results soon, keep an eye out for the next few posts showing some more of the details! See ya!

An elegant weapon for a more civilized age...

"This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times... before the Empire."

I started making Count Dooku's lightsaber today, and even though it might seem simple at first, it's a twisty and curvy model to make. Still working on the bump mapping for the hilt surface, and the glow was worked on elsewhere, not on 3ds Max.

More stuff

Here's some more stuff I've been modeling over the past few days on 3ds Max. I'm still trying to get the can right, as if it just came out of the fridge!

Latest stuff

Hey, I've been putting together a modeling portfolio in order to get a job in a local production studio that a friend used to work at. The catch is that place only uses 3ds Max, so I spent the entirety of last month using Max as a modeling platform, from zero interface knowledge whatsoever, just following tips from another kind friend, tutorials and Max's own help module. Here's the latest model I worked on for that modeling reel:

I'm pretty happy with the results, compared to not knowing anything about modeling in Max about four weeks ago and now this! I also modeled a Sony PSP, but haven't gotten around to texturing it yet.

As for normal XSI modeling, I started making yet another car, a Nissan Skyline GT-R. It's so I can use it in the texturing/lighting class I started taking in July. It'll eventually become a Calsonic Skyline GT-R #12, in a grant turismo paintjob style. That's still a bit off, but here's the progress so far:

I also have the last version of that Iron Man bust I posted a while back that I'll try using on this new class as well:


I stopped working on that bust because I really wanted to make an Extremis version of the Iron Man armor based on Ari Granov's drawings. It's still in a really early stage, so it's just a mention in this post, with no pictures! Call me lazy! :)

More updates to come soon, hopefully I'll have great news on the next one!