Another creature

3D stereo pair.  Cross eyes to see in 3D

Hand sculpture "How To" and a little animation

A short animation made with particles and fields in Maya 2011.



Here is an instructional video in how to make a hand with oil based clay ( Chavant )

A couple of paintjobs on some creatures

So while visiting LA I created a few creatures of my own as well as some for Hollywood.  Ill be leaving here soon but my creatures will stay.  Here are a couple of my personal sculptures.  More to come.

 This one above is made from ceramic then painted in acrylic paint.

This guy above is made from Super Sculpey, baked then painted in the same acrylic paint.  (click on images to see larger)

A quick bust

Here is a bust I whipped up yesterday.  I spent about 2hrs on this guy.  I wasnt in a rush, just wanted to create a creature.  Ive been doing a few things in sculpey and wanted to do a quicky.  This is done in water based clay, which is faster to work with than sculpey.  Now I need a kiln to put these ones into.  

Quick bust

Here is another quick bust.  Took about 1hr 30mins.  Water based clay.

Quick sculpture

This one was done in water based clay, white earthenware its called.  It took 1hr 30min.  I love how fast water clay can be worked.  Im trying to get my speed down to around 45mins to create something decent.  So this week I plan to bang out a pile of water clay sculpts with the aim of speed form and proportion.

A super sculpey bust

So this guy, I didnt know what he was going to be at all through out the whole creation of it. I started out with a coat hanger, bending it around until I said, Ok a bust you will be then. Then I couldnt work out what kind of posture I wanted...then I loaded up some clay and figured I would go with a simple humanoid but with a bit of something going on. I wanted an odd nose, couldnt work out how odd. After a few noses I thought of how bat noses are quite wacky sometimes. So I went with that thought. 

An Odd Limbed Creature

I have begun to explore odd limb creature designs.  I want to make them somewhat believable and functional too.  so not just a ball with nine legs and three arms, although I would like to get that stage where I can see the functionality of all those limbs.  Maybe it would be centipede like or something.
Anyway here is a design, this one is a hanging creature which hangs by its colon. It whips its feces at predators and leaves its waste everywhere it goes.

Not a good pet.

7 Cyclops over 7 days!

Cyclops #1... I have found that I am not comfortable with the idea of a cyclops.  Something about the idea just doesnt make sense so, I am going to do 7 cyclops over the next 7 days.  With the hopes that I can shake the need to make sense of the cyclops. 

This first posted cyclops is done in Zbrush.  I kind of like him.  I liked the ears and his big mouth full of crooked teeth.  I dont really want to follow the usual style of cyclops which was just a giant man with one eye.  That just never made sense to me.  The whole one eye thing just seems silly.  How could it see depth?  It would have a terrible time navigating about the place. 
Anyway, we shall see what comes next in the cyclops future.

A few Zbrushins

Hope you enjoy these few Zbrush creations.

Making clean edges in Zbrush

This video shows my technique for creating clean edges. There are two techniques I use, both similar. One is to simply mask, in low subdiv, and pull the geometry over other geometry and then pinch to make the edges close so that after subdiv up they remain close.
The other is to turn off "subdiv smooth modifier" so when subdiv up levels the corners remain.
You will see both techniques in this video.




Making clean edges in Zbrush from Nick McGavern on Vimeo.

Edit existing topology in Zbrush

This is a short demo showing how to take existing geometry and to edit the geometry/topology to better suit your mesh needs.
Load a Zsphere.
Scroll to the "Topology" dropdown.
Click "Select Topo" and choose your geometry to be edited.
Go to the "Rigging" dropdown above and choose "Select Mesh" and choose the mesh your editing (to be used as a surface that you can lay your verts onto).
Click the "Edit Topology" button and begin editing the topo.

Tips.
Hovering over the verts will turn your brush green, you can then click on that vert to use as a starting point.
To reset the beginning point of your vert placement, double click in space, otherwise it will start at the center of your zsphere.
Make your draw size about 1-3 so you are only effecting one vert at a time.
This method can also be used to merge two tools, once they have been merged down to one.
Also great way to add geometry to a sculpture without having to venture out to another program.

Edit topology in Zbrush from Nick McGavern on Vimeo.

MutAnteater on top of the mountain

Here I placed the creature on top of a mountain.  Also updated its skin.

MutAnteater

Another creature for the post, this one has a little hair on its back.

 

Just in case you you were wondering, it is female and has 4 eyes.  I like trying to throw in an extra set of eyes, but more so having them so they kind of make sense...unlike spiders.  What do they need so many eyes for??

 

If you click on this one, it will get bigger...just one click, dont get too excited.

30 Creatures in 30 Days - Day 6

A few drawings here.  Im starting to be free but not free enough.  I didnt force too much in these, just tried to go along with whatever they presented to me.
There is a certain zen involved with drawing as Ive noticed with many things.  Zen is not a state that can be consciously forced on.  You have to allow yourself to get there.  As if you have to relax knowing that you will be there and once the desire to go there is gone, you find yourself there.  Its the conscious thoughts that I find seem to get in the way.
I need to quiet the mind and be knowing of the place I will go.
Anyway, here are some drawings!
I missed a couple of days of posting but, I have three drawings for this post and am keeping the days consecutive.