Masters of the Universe

It's been a few weeks but here is my version of production illustration for a final showdown between the protagonist and antagonist at the end of a He-Man movie. I have always been a He-Man fan and heard that they were going to do a film so I started on my own idea. Anyway let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy!

Hell Boy 2 Scene Adaptation

Hello. I am taking a Gnomon class with Hugo Martin and decided to do my own adaptation of a Hell Boy 2 scene. I'm trying to focus on making better production images that kind of sell the key scenes of a movie/game. This scene was kind of short but it was artistically one of my favorite from the movie.

I have to apologize too if it seems too dark. My monitor at home displays things brighter and inevitably this will look different on someone's machine. Lame.

Alien Bust

Here is my second Mudbox sculpt ever. Actually this is my second digitial 3D sculpt ever, period. The first one I did was an experiment for a concept I did for work so I can't show it. I was inspired by Jordu Schell's creatures and decided to do something of a similar style and subject matter. Eventually I might convince myself to do a full body but these are so much fun and fairly quick to knock out. :P

Alien Savage Concept

Here is a tutorial I decided to do for the heck of it to show my process. This tutorial shows how to go from a sketch you might like to a final render. Keep in mind that one step missing might be the very first step which is thumbnail ideation and experimentation.

A. Here is a messy rough image I made, originally on the fly for my sculpture. I liked it enough to go with it, and skipping having to create several thumbnails and choosing between them. The idea usually should be suppliment the needs of a story but in this case I just needed to create a cool creature. What is going through my head is that I want something original in anatomy and provocative. I want it to feel plausible but very strange, and somewhat relatable. I gave him an upright posture to make him feel relatable and added a weapon. In the end I think I want this guy to feel savage and semi-intelligent.

B. After messing around (and I do mean "messy") to find a good sketch, I begin to clean it up a bit and figure out how exactly I want the pose and anatomy to work together. I don't care for the arm on the right bent up and the hand on the left limply holding the stick/weapon. I also fixed the shoulders to give him more perspective and the illusion of contraposto.

C. I add a midtone overlay layer, underneath the drawing which is a multiply layer. This is to give me some range in the higher keys and lower keys. This will allow me to push and pull forms with lighting. I adjust the pose.

D. Here is some more clean up, this time of the overlay midtone layer. I'm probably looking at the general silhouette alot to see if it's worth moving to the next step. This overlay midtone layer also acts as a great way to "ctrl select" your silhoutte to paint within the boundaries and make a clean painting.

E. I establish the lighting direction and begin to bring out the forms based on that direction. I mainly use a source light and some kind of rim. This allows me to drop off detail in the less important areas like the feet and lower body. This is called "vignetting".

F. I push back some forms with shadows and experiment a little with a crest on the creature's chest. I did something similar already on Posiedon so I ditch it later. These steps are my "sculpting" steps, becauseI am focusing on making this creature feel dimensional and real. I usually use some relevant anatomical reference to remind myself of how certain body part should fit together.

G. I play with a duotone color arrangement, similar to something you might find on a colorful amphibian.

H. I don't like the weapon because it doesn't say much about the character's savage quality so I go with something closer to a spear. I also play with interesting ways to break up the monotony of his silhouette. The spines are too long and distracting. I want the attention to be primarily around the head area. I spend a litte more time punching up the lighting in subtle ways with shines and shadows.

I. I experiment with a different spear shape, but this one feels too metallic, regal and well-engineered. I add chest gills that speak to his somewhat amphibious nature.

J. I push back the further extremities with "fog" to give a little depth. I change the materials of the spear to be wood, leather, and bone to make it feel more savage. The minimal storytelling I do with the spear is to make parts of it look like it could be made from a spine, broken ribcage, and a larger bone sliver. I could have added some costuming to the creature but I decide that I like him more as a creature showcase than creating him for a specific story. Voila!

Poseidon Revealed!

I believe it is ok to show this now. I had to wait 6 months but here it is. Admittedly I could have taken this further but it was done several nights in a row while trying to compose and edit the tutorial video, which were gruelling to do due to my slow computer. The process was fun, despite the fact and I got great comments on this. I would liked to have shown how photo-textures could have been integrated and how to better develop the composition of his environment but I had to speed through this and do this in a quick, streamlined fashion. One thing that would have been great is to explore more poses and lighting but oh well.

P.S. My favorite animal is an octopus that's why I chose this design. :P

Old Work-in-Progress Creature scuplture

Here is a rare Eric Ryan scuplture! I started this during a class I was taking with the master sculputor Jordu Schell. Yeah it needs lots of work and I was really excited to finish detailing this and cook it and put in up in my house somewhere to admire but unfortunately it will forever remain a WIP. The reason for this is that half way through I realized that the underlying armature was too thick and I couldn't carve away the detail I needed without revealing it. I definitely didn't want to add more Sculpey to compensate for this because it would take away from the thin lankiness of the creature I originally designed. UGH! Oh well. I wasn't even going to show this but after over a year's time I will put my pride away and show this WIP.

I am eventually going to redeem myself somewhat by doing a color version of the 2D concept. I wish I had the patience to sit down and remake this guy in Sculpey.

Abom Revision...

It's been a long time since I have posted and I appreciate all of the feedback thus far. Here is a revision I made a while ago that came from people telling me this Abom was too thin on the lower area to believably support his upper torso weight. I finally saw the light and here are the results.