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Sketchbook: JST - Character and Asset Artist

Cybersam
polycounter lvl 8
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Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
Greetings and welcome to my sketchbook! I've decided to use polycount as a diary to document my path to greatness(/employment) just because lets face it, this forum rocks ;).

Anyway! Quick bio; My real name is Joseph Samuel Taskis (JST - www.taskisjs.wordpress.com) and I have recently graduated from the University of Hertfordshire (http://uhanimation.co.uk/) studying 3d Animation Game Art. I'm not blowing my horn here but UH animation is probably one of the best schools in the country. A) because the lecturers are experienced and close to gods of their specialisation and B) because of our industry connections. I've loved every second at University, but now I want to go pro. The only way I'm going to do this is by making a kick ass portfolio and showreel. The main purpose of this sketchbook is to test my work and show to you lot so you can comment and give advice. I would be so grateful for any and all feedback.

Enough about that. I'd like to document today as day 1. 21 August 2012 is the day I went pro. Here is my current showreel of the things I have worked on. I will place a breakdown of my work below this video:

http://vimeo.com/45298516

My first question is how do I embed a video here on polycount? I looked along the edit bar and can't find it :S.

Let's begin. Below are renders and breakdowns of my current work. Any and all improvements will be documented as they come ;).





Fallen Legend Project Brief:
Produce a real time Game Trailer. The game concept you run with will be chosen and developed in your group. You are asked to model, texture, light and produce a short realtime games trailer with sound and titles. The trailer should be a minimum of 1.10 minutes long and should be to the quality of a “vertical slice.”
To produce the characters, assets and environments for my part of this group project, I researched extensively from historical texts (in transcription), manuals of military practice, period paintings and collated this series of images as a starting point.

char_con1a.jpg

char_con2.jpg

char_con5.jpg

will_char_scrib01.jpg

model01.jpg

william_gray02.jpg

Replies

  • Cybersam
  • Cybersam
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    try inverting the green channel of your normalmap and see if it looks better, something is clearly off right now.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Thanks Neox, i'll give it a shot in Marmoset when I want to re-render it :).

    In the meantime here's the breakdowns of my work so far. Below is my super soaker asset for use in a games engine.

    super_soaker_presentation_slide.jpg

    wordpress_super_soaker_beauty.jpg

    super_soaker_polycount_render_wireframe.jpg
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    blooody hell, day 4 and I havent even got this up to date. Shame on me :(! Dw, I will devote the rest of today of getting this up to speed. Recently I've done some Normal and Diffuse clean up on my super soaker. Here's some snapshots from marmoset and i will add some video capture footage to my showreel when I have the time.

    super_soaker_beauty01.jpg?w=958&h=513

    super_soaker_wireframe02.jpg?w=958&h=513

    Currently, I'm just tidying up the Diffuse and Normal maps and I will put this one to rest then.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    The last thing I want to do to this piece is tidy up the Normals on the left side of the water gun so that the lights on the diffuse and normal maps match up. In the Meantime, here's My most recent character model Piece. My aim for this project was to create Sean Bean as Major Richard Sharpe in the "sharpe" series. I am currently only in the Normal mapping stage and there is still quite a bit of sculpting adjustments to be done, but thanks to Zbrush, they'll all be easy fixes :P.

    richard_sharpe_base07.jpg?w=1024&h=610
    richard_sharpe_base06.jpg?w=1024&h=631

    Just as a note, I have scaled down the foot. I would love any and all critique on this peice as I want to make this a short and sweet showreel piece. I know I can do it, I just need pointers and guidance in the right direction. Once this part is complete, I will then build his Trench coat and Rifle.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    richard_sharpe_comparison01.jpg?w=1024&h=576

    I need some serious help trying to figure out what isn't working here. I feel I'm getting close to getting the head right. But there's perhaps some proportions that are off. It's an easy fix in Zbrush though (thankfully ;) ).
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Hey People How are we doing? Long time no see. Sorry been reeeaaal busy with moving from Uni life back into the real world :). I am still working on Major Sharpe so don't panick, when I have something a little more solid I'll get back to it. I'd like him to be my next showreel's main piece :). NOW, I am working on another quick project atm. I am creating an asset which is a copy of a flick knife. So far I have built the Hi-Res, Built the Low-Res and unwrapped the Lo-Res. I'm feeling good about this project because I've only been working on it for a total of 2 days and I've already got this far :P. Anyway below is an image of everything I've made so far.

    flickknifewirefrender.jpg

    I've made seperate wireframe renders of the elements of the Lo-Res, but I'll upload them tommorow :).
  • Cybersam
  • Cybersam
  • paulchen83
    nice sketches! Keep up the good work!
  • Francois_K
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    Francois_K interpolator
    I think the nose is a bit strange. A bit too wide me thinks. Other than that there's detail missing like wrinkles , skin detail and if I were you I'd do the hair very differently. Rather than sculpt it in zbrush just use fibermesh and figure out how it flows then create it from planes within maya or max whichever you're using. The hair is the biggest issue
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Hey all, thanks for the feedback. I will be coming back to Major Richard Sharpe some other time as I have started working on the Day-Z Mod and also taken on another project. Currently I am working on character concets for a new video game my team are working on. We are in the early and pre-vis stages.

    My brief is to create law enforcement and criminal characters from a dystopian background. We're assuming the time period is sometime around 2100 AD. We are taking references from Judge Dredd, The Raid Redemption, Blade Runner, and all other kinds of Sci-fi (The aim isn't to make the unit's too techy but I'm welcome to multiple ideas).

    I have a flickr that I'm uploading to then linking to here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/102616756@N07/). Im sketching on paper and photoshop. I'd appreciate any feedback on my work and any idea's on where to get more reference from.

    10764204974_e1565748cc_o.jpg

    10821551655_beaa19d41a_o.jpg

    10847168296_aedd51815e_o.jpg

    10862405186_8fbc265701_o.jpg

    10882815184_0c3f9870ec_o.jpg

    10945482496_34ec08fb59_o.jpg

    10945670743_121d3243a6_o.jpg

    10945577714_28a7358526_o.jpg


    photostream
  • Cybersam
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Another piece for one of the projects I am currently working on xcpetionwarperchardes01c.jpg
  • gonzo_3d
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    gonzo_3d polycounter lvl 6
    Re: Sean Bean.

    "But there's perhaps some proportions that are off."

    Yep. Pardon the pun, but you're on the nose.

    " It's an easy fix in Zbrush though"

    Well, that's a different story. Instead of rushing through to the details, you need to make sure that your sculpt foundation is bang on. Details come later. If you focus on developing the planes first, you develop the likeness. Rush through that, and it won't matter what you do. In other words, done well, the likeness is evident even in really early stages of the sculpt. Overall form & proportion.

    Don't take my word for it though - I believe in this guy: Phillipe Faraut
    [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Portraiture--Advanced-Analyses-Sculpted/dp/0975506560/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1391476969&sr=8-3&keywords=faraut"]Mastering Portraiture- Advanced Analyses of the Face Sculpted in Clay: Philippe Faraut, Charisse Faraut: 9780975506561: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

    My .02, worth price charged.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Thanks Gonzo :) appreciate the crit.

    Yeah you are absolutely right. I have been quite busy with other game projects recently but I am definitely going to go back there and keep working on it :).

    Cheers for the link, I'll check it out when I can. Do you have any other sources I could look at for guidance in Zbrush or general sculpting?
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    sharperender03.jpg

    I need some advice on getting the proportions for this "Richard Sharpe" character right. I'm still only an amateur and need some guidance :(

    Check this for comparison or do a quick google search
    mainsharpepic.jpg

    Any and all advice I'd greatly appreciate because I'm struggling here Like I've hit a wall of sorts.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Updated this concept. I'll stick a background next and try to add some dirt and grit in places :)

    xcpetionwarperchardes01d.jpg

    This is a character Design Sheet I'm currently working on

    smooimpconcept01a.jpg
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    beautyrender011.jpg

    Leaving this asset until I can get a fresh pair of eyes on it. I will be continuing on with the Richard Sharpe Character. Any and all crit is most welcome :)
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    build08.jpg

    Doing this quickly for a video game I'm helping build. thought I'd take the oppurtunity to get my head around mirroring UV's and the like.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Here's an update on the imp character. He has a basic rig with fully functioning foot roll and finger bending.

    build11.jpg

    1.4k Poly's
    1024 Diffuse texture

    and he has a tail ^^
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Sup Guys! The Imp is in Game (Unity) and running around merrily ^^.

    Late last night I was just chilling out and sketching and came out with this
    sketch063.jpg

    Crit all you like but this was really just me messing around. But if I take this further I'd aim to make it a nice character concept piece

    Also in other news the flick knife is done and been rendered in marmoset with mirrored normals (Which I've got to work for the first time!).
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    sketch133.jpg

    Maaaaan I always struggle with applying colour :(
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Man it's been a while, but I'm back and with vengeance.

    This character piece originally was for a competition that was posted up at Gamescom 2016 (something like, draw/cosplay as a character you want to attend Gamescom as) so I decided to create a super gamer/hacker with skills in programming, engineering, holographics and Parkour. Think Mirrors Edge crossed with Tony Stark (but not quite his personality) and a hint of Ghost in the shell. This character is a leading expert in multiple fields (this character would be some kind of super hero) including Holographics, Augmented Reality and Computer Science (I'm using basic terms here as I haven't researched into each subject with depth. I will do when I have the time). He has been able to create a holographic projector which creates a hologram (the blue floating shape in front of our character) which he controls via a Gesture UI (there will be special gloves on his hands which I will create when I have the hands right). He has also created a set of Augmented Reality Glasses, all of which link back to his computer which sits on his belt. As he is a parkour artist all of his kit will be shock proof. I imagine his Slogan would be something like "Super Nerd not Super Hero".

    My goal for this is to actually FINISH a concept Art piece. I'm almost done with the Line work (although I want to revisit the hands and trousers) and then I will move onto some colouring.

  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    I've edited his right Hand and the outline of the hologram display quite a bit, I will upload a Jpeg when I can.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    I have started adding images to the holo projections and adjusted the position of his head.


  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    I know i haven't finished the previous SuperHacker piece but I couldn't help myself starting this one.



    This guy is a character in Idea which will be the piece de resistance of my career. His name is the sculptor. The easiest way to describe this character is a blend between a summoner and a bladesinger from DnD. There is a huge backstory for this chap and the society/community he comes from which I won't get into. I'm trying to create a travelling scholar and warrior. His goal right now is to travel the world and observe all patterns in nature (including in flora and fauna) and to apply his skills to help them. So I need to be able to create someone who is light on their feet, can survive in any weather but also who is a powerful "sculptor". I expect once I finish the clothing and equipment I will have to add some rugged and dirt details in places. But I think I will also place him into a scene as well, perhaps some dark dungeon or forest. His pose and face suggests he is sensing something dangerous so I'm gonna roll with that.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8

    So this is my current progress on my 'sculptor' Character. For context, He's a support character in a game I want to start working on soon. In my game there will be a rare skill/ability called Sculpting. This is where you can control the building blocks of materials and change them into something else. You could say it's Alchemy from Full Metal Alchemist, but instead of, Circles, chants or Hand signs, the ability just forms in your mind naturally. This character is almost the "Jesus" of this skill. He is the one in a million of his generation. He can see so far into materials that he can practically see the atomic structure of something, break it down and reforge it into something else. This idea of "sculpting" needs further work, and probably a patent :D But I want to figure out a way to convey it in this image (hence 7. Magic). I'm glad I've made it this far with this character, because most of the time I'll sketch in a sketchbook or on PS and then I just stop, hitting some kind of wall. So I'm happy I've got as far as finishing the lines and most of the colour. All feedback welcome. I have what I want to work on next on the list in the top left.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8

    So ive added some textures and shadows, but im struggling with the skin and the lighting. I'm pretty set on where the lights are coming from, But I just need to figure out HOW to present them
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8

    Worked on the lights. I think Im happy with them now. But Im goin to make an environment from scratch and any light bounces on top of that.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Hi Guys! I need some help with this piece. For context, i'm trying to make this character look like he's speed vaulting over something with his bow at the ready. I'm struggling the most with his Right leg. Can anyone suggest some ideas on how to position this leg? I might bend it and turn it to (his) left a little and will consult some speed vaulting reference in the meantime.


  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8


    So now I've finished the Linework on this, can't wait to get cracking with the colour and background. #DigitalArt #CharacterConcept #Lineart #WIP #DareToDream
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