Diablo Head Sculpt WIP

So I am still trying to learn Zbrush, and I've been wanting to make something more complex.

I found this video a while ago of a guy that did a speed sculpt from the game Diablo. Here is the video:

I really liked how he did his sculpt, so I decided to do mine. Here is what I have so far:

I had to start over once already because I placed the horns to close to the front of the face. I will continue to work on this sculpt over the New Year's holiday.

Thanks for reading!

Splash Damage Art Test - Revisited

So I did this piece a while back, but I really liked it. I never got around to texturing the buildings, but I have uploaded the model to Sketchfab so that anyone is able to look at it from any angle. Here is the model:

Splash Damage Art Test from FushiNoRyuu on Sketchfab.

That'a all for now, thanks for reading!

Dragon Axe - Version 1.5

So I showed my concept image to my friend that made the axe that I really liked, and she gave me a few tips.

I have made some minor changes to the size of the blade and I plan change the head. Instead of facing to the left, I think I want to make the head loo towards the center.

I've already started the base model of the blade in Maya, and once I'm done, I will take it into Zbrush and do all the sculpting for the head and the fine detail.

My hope is that I am able to replicate the art style of World of Warcraft weapons. This includes the shape of the weapon and the color palate.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

My Next Project - Dragon Axe

So I have been think the last few days on what I should do for my new project, and recently a friend of mine made a really cool looking axe. That inspired me to make one as well, here is the concept image I've been working on for the last few days:

I still don't know all the details of how its going to to look, but I figured this was a good place to start. My idea is that if this were to be put in a game, this would a one handed axe, so Its not going to be very big and that's why it also has the handle so low. 

The top of the axe is going to be shaped like a dragon and he will have a gem of some sort in its mouth. The part that is wrapping around the pole will be the tail of the dragon and it eventually becomes part of the handle. 

I will make the base model in Maya since I think i can get it done faster that way, and then I will finish it off with Zbrush. Maybe I will jump back to Maya for the UVs, but I'm not sure yet. That's all for now, thanks for reading. 

Bull Sculpt in Sketchfab

So after spending some time in Polycount, I found this really cool site called Sketchfab and they allow you to display your models in 3D in your site without plugins or any extra downloads. I decided to take it for a spin, and this is my model:

Bull Head Sculpt

by FushiNoRyuu

on Sketchfab

I really like the way it works and that you don't have to have any plug-ins or extra downloads for it to work. I think that I will start to add all my models on my portfolio on Sketchfab soon.


That's all for now, thanks for reading.

Portfolio Updated - Bull Sculpt Added

So I have finished putting together the renders into one image and have updated my portfolio with it. Here is the immage:

You can also find my portfolio at: christian.brushd.com. Now its on to my next project, thanks for reading.

Bull Head Done!

Here is the final renders for the textured head:

I did the final render ins Marmoset Tool Bag. I am really happy with the way it turned out, I did this completely in Zbrush only using Maya to fix some topology issued with the low res version of the model and to fix the UVs.

I will also be posting this to Polycount and see what kind of feedback I can get from there. Thanks for reading.

Bull Head - Diffuse Map Done

So I have finished working on the diffused map for my Bull Head. Here it is:

Overall I am really pleased with the way it turned out. Now I just need to work on the specular map, and I will be able to render it in Marmoset Tool Bag.

Hopefully I will be able to do it today and post a final render here and on Polycount. Thanks for reading!

Made With Mischief

So I know I am going to regret in the morning stay up this late sketching. Anyways, lets get this over with.

Here is some progress in a sketch that I've been thinking about making for a while:

So I know its nothing too amazing, but its my base sketch and I think I like the way its going. What I want to draw is an girl with armor (or bikini, haven't made up my mind yet) like these images of Witchblade. I wanted it to be in the anime/manga art style, and I been taking a lot of inspiration from the League of Legends champion Sona.

I like Sona's long flowing hair and I wanted my girl to have that same hair. I also wanted her to look like a bad ass, so I drew her eye in a way that would imply that she is not afraid of anything. I know that the face is really light, but if you can zoom in you will be able to see what I am talking about.

I made this with a software package that a friend of mine showed me some time ago called Mischief. Essentially its like painting/drawing with vectors, but not in the same style like illustrator. In Mischief there is no predetermined canvas size, and you can zoom in and out with out worrying about the resolution or pixelation of your work.

I've tried to draw in Photoshop before, but I alway need to re adjust my canvas size, or the resolution wasn't set correctly. With Mischief I don't have to worry about that. Right now I am running the free trial, and I have to say that I am really loving it. If you want to know more about this software package, go to madewithmischief.com.

I still need to keep working on this sketch, I don't like the way the feet look and the girl's left arm looks weird on that position. I want it to look like she is folding her arms behind her head, but at that angle with the hair, the arm loos like its part of the hair.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Progress on Polypaint

Here are two renders from Marmoset Toolbag on my progress on polypaiting my bull:

I still need to finish the color on the ears, a different color for the nose & nose ring, eyes, and another pass at the horns. But overall, I am really liking my progress on my bull.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

First Try at Polypainting

Now that I have successfully baked the detail into the lower resolution mesh, I been trying to see how to I should texture my bull. Usually I've used a combination of Photoshop and Mudbox. But since I am trying to learn Zbrush, I thought that I should do it in with Polypaint, and so far I am liking the results. Here are the renders from the horns:

At first I was a little hesitant to use Polypaint, but one of my friend Zac loves polypainting.

I will continue to work on painting it, but I wanted to show some progress before I have to go to work.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Normal & Ambient Occlusion Map Test

Since the UVs are done, I decided to do a normal & AO map test in XNormal to see how it turns out. Here are the renders. I did these in the lowest settings so that it wouldn't take for ever to render:

Now that I can see that the UVs turned out ok, I will continue to polypaint. I will have to watch a few tutorial videos, but I'm sure it will be fine. Thanks for reading!

Quick Start to ZBrush: Volume 2 - Progress

So I had started the second volume of the ZBrush training but left it half ways done to try and learn ZBrush on my own much like I learned Maya. Sure I had a lot of help learning Maya, but I don't have a professor or TA that I can ask for help now, I find that I can learn more if I try to figure it out on my own and then look up anything that I don't know.

And while I am very pleased on how much progress I have done in the last month, I realized that there is no way I learn a software package as big as ZBrush on my own. So instead of jumping on my next personal project of learning ZBrush on my own, I decided to go back and finish at least another couple of volumes of ZBrush.

Here is a render of my progress so far on Volume 2:

I had to sculpt the base mesh, and use ZRemesher to get a lower resolution mesh with higher resolution on the face and the hands.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Final Render of Bull's Head Sculpt

Here is the final render for my bull head:

I did a few changes since last time:

• I changed the horns, since I realized that they were pointing straight and they should be up at an angle with some curvature.
• I added a nose ring, I thought that it was appropriate and added character to the sculpt. 
• I removed the skin flap under the mouth. I was thinking of making it hair, but I gave up on that idea.

I added some detail to the: ears, around the base of the horns, the nose, and skin texture. I really do think I'm getting better in the short month since I started ZBrush. I remember my first sculpt that I tried to do by myself, and it looks awful.

Now I have to keep working at it and I will be even better! For my next project, I don't really what I want to do yet. I want to do something else that is interesting. Since I've been doing only head sculpts, I may try to do a full body sculpt. 

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Bull Head Sculpt WIP

So for my next sculpt, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I thought about it for a while, and I decided to do another animal head sculpt. So I've decided to do a bull's head. I thought that it would be cool because of the horns.

After a few hours of sculpting here is my progress so far:

I think I'm almost done with the base mesh, so I look forward to finishing this in the next few days. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Werewolf Head Sculpt

So I decided to make something a little more creative other than generic head sculpts. It's my first time doing something like this, and I'm drawing only on what I already know from ZBrush, so I have to keep taking tutorials since I need to get a better understanding of the software package.

Here are the renders:

I worked on this sculpt for a few days, so I'm going to move on to another piece now. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

2nd Head Sculpt

So this is the 2nd head sculpt that I've done, I've decided that taking only 1 hour for each head sculpt is not wise, at least not when I'm so new to Zbrush. I've decided that I will give it at least a couple of hours and if I like what I have, I will work on it for a couple more, but no more than 4 hours per sculpt.

Hopefully, once I'm on my 15th sculpt, I will be much faster and much better than what I am today.

Here are the renders for today's work:

Yesterday I did the sculpt without reference, and I it turned out horrible because of it. I tried to see how well I could do if I just left it up to my imagination.

Anyways, I've learned my lesson and for today's sculpt I followed this YouTube video:

It isn't a step-by-step video, its a quick rendering of an artist work into a 15 minute video. I paused and rewind the video as many times as I need to see how the artist was doing his work. I learned some really cool tricks and a different way to start a head sculpt.

For tomorrow I will try to find a woman's head that I can sculpt, and maybe even add hair! :O Well, that's all for now, thanks for reading!

30 Head Sculpts in a Month Challenge

Everyday for the next month, I'm going to sculpt a head in Zbrush. It doesn't look that great now, but the idea is that hopefully by doing it everyday I will get better.

My friend Brandon Rees is now a tech artist for EA Tiburon, and he gave me this great idea. He said that I should take no more than an hour per sculpt, after a while what used to take me 20 minutes to do will be done in half the time.

I will have to admit that I cheated on this head sculpt since I spent almost 2 hours doing it. I know that it looks really crappy for 2 hours worth of work, but it took me a while to figure dinamesh and all that set up stuff. Anyways, here are the renders from ZBrush:

I was trying to go for the look of an old wooden idol head. If anyone has critique, please feel free to let me know. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Quick Start to ZBrush: Volume 1 Assignment

So here is my sculpt for the assignment at the end of volume 1 in the DT (digital tutors) quick start series:

I decided that I'm going to create like a rocky beach and I will eventually learn how to make a treasure chest of some sort and put it on top of the middle pedestal with other things around it as props. It doesn't look like it from this angle, but I made it so that the part that is sunk in is lower than the rocky part. I don't know if I can do this is Zbrush, but if not I'll figure out how to do it another way, but I'm planning on adding water of some kind to that it looks like a beach.

Hopefully my plan works, since I can see it so well in my mind. If I have time, I'll try to sketch out a concept of what I mean over the week.

Now its time to start volume 2 and learn some more Zbrush! Thanks for reading!

Quick Start to ZBrush: Volume 1 - Done

So I've decided to learn Zbrush, and I'm taking the learning path in Digital Tutors for Zbrush.

I have finished watching all the video and I've been following along, and been doing my own model. I downloaded the project files just in case I needed them, but it turns out that its probably just better to do everything my self.

Here is a quick render of what I have after the first lesson:

I also took the test, and I only got 1 answer wrong giving me a grand total of 93% for the final test.

Next, I will do the homework assignment and create another terrain on my own. Hopefully by the time I'm done I will have 2 finished assets and know my way around Zbrush.

To be fair, I was always scared of zbrush because its so different from what I'm used to with Maya. All the controls felt weird, but after a good couple hours of working in Zbrush, I'm actually really liking this software package and hope that I can keep getting better.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Fifth Day of Teaching

So today was my last day teaching at Spy Hop.

Today was mainly about getting the students to do 3d modeling on their own, so I was mainly jumping around helping students with questions. The students had freedom to make almost anything they wanted, but I made sure that it wasn't too complicated.

One of the students was trying to redo the companion cube on his own, another made a computer, and made a cake. Even though it was a short week, the students got really good at the basics of Maya. I gave them links to other resources like Digital Tutors to help them keep progressing in their 3d modeling.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Fourth Day of Teaching

So today's lesson took longer than I thought it would. I can do the model of the companion cube fairly quickly, but showing a group of people took me pretty much the full time. A lot of the students were really excited to do this project since its based of the game of Portal. 

The reason why I picked this model is because its harder than it looks and it also teaches a lot of tricks for 3d modeling. For example, if you take a look at the companion cube its really only made of 4 parts and its just a matter of making one and duplicating them. 

Tomorrow is the last day of teaching, and I have to say that I really wish there was more time for this class. Thanks for reading!

Third Day of Teaching

So I think I'm finally getting a little more comfortable standing in front of people.

The point of today's lesson was a simple introduction to how UV's and materials work in Maya. Since this is a one week course, there is no way to teach everything there is to know about Maya but at least a simple intro would do.

I gave the students access to this file that I got from one of my professors when I was going to school. This is a really simple Maya scene and the main point is to make it look more complex than it really is. Applying a few simple tileable textures can really make the difference on that scene.

It won't look like a AAA game quality work, but the point of this exercise is to get a general idea of how textures work in Maya. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Second Day of Teaching

This is harder than I thought it would be since some of students are still a little nervous or shy about being in the class. I tried to slow down on my presentation since I could tell that some of the students were not able to follow completely yesterday.

To start things off, today I went over the overall process of the art pipeline using this great article I found on IGN. It does a really good job at explaining the overall process but with the right amount of detail that its not too general. I also added some of my personal experience with game development with how some parts of the pipeline can be affected if you skip over or don't do some of the things in the article.

After that we created the basic model for a fire hydrant. It took a while to get started since Maya is still really new to them, but we managed to get through it. At the end, I showed them how to add some of the other detail since we wouldn't be able to keep going with the lecture without going over on time.

I hope that I will get less and less nervous while talking as time goes on, I think that's part of the reason that I start to speak faster. When I get nervous, I start to speak faster so I may lose some of the students. That's all for now, thanks for reading.

First Day of Teaching

So today was my first class at Spy Hop, and it went better than I expected.

I think at parts I was going a little faster than what the students could follow, but I tried to slow down every few steps to see if anyone had questions or if they needed help.

For today, we made a simple chair model. And I could tell that many children weren't really exited about it. But I think that by the end of the lesson, they understood why I was using a chair as the first model that we were going to build together.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be teaching about the art pipeline and make a fire hydrant together as our class exercise. Hopefully, it won't take as long as it did today to make the chair since they should all be more familiar with Maya.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Companion Cube Render

Here is my finished Companion Cube. I used Maya for the 3D model, and Photoshop and Illustrator for the texture. I used Xnormal for baking out the normal map, and occlusion map. Finally I used Marmoset Tool Bag for rendering the final image.

Here is my texture map:

I think I'm having a little issues with the normal map, so I might be able to redo it. But for now, this is what I have. Thanks for reading!

Intro to 3D Modeling in Maya

So I got a small side job coming up, and it involves teaching and intro to 3d modeling class. I will be teaching at a little nonprofit place called Spy Hop Productions. I had to create a syllabus of what I will be teaching, here is what I've come up with:

---

3D Modeling in Maya: July 8th - 12th

This course will teach students how to create their own 3D models using Maya. While this course will not be able to teach everything in one week, it will be enough of a foundation that if students wish to pursue this career, they will know and understand the overall process.

• Program/Learning Objectives: 
• Students will learn what it means to be a game/digital artist. 
• Students will learn the pipeline of game art. 
• Students will learn vital terminology used by game artist and understand what it means. 
• Students will learn how to navigate the UI of Maya. 
• Students will learn how to use basic shapes to model objects in 3D. 
• Students will learn the basics of how to layout UVs and apply textures to models. 

Day 1:

Introduction to the class. This includes showing examples of work and learning the user interface of Maya. By the end of the class, everyone in the class should know how to use the most common tools in maya and we will create a simple model together in class.

Day 2:

Now that students know the basics of Maya, they will learn the pipeline of game art. After the pipeline lesson, students will learn how to use simple shapes along with other tools in Maya to create a fire hydrant.

Day 3:

Now that students are more familiar with Maya, they will use what they learned from the pipeline lesson and start thinking about their final project for the class (more on that below). Students will then learn the basics of UVs in a simple scene and apply tiled textures.

Day 4:

As a final joint exercise, I will show that some models are harder than they look by working on a companion cube from the game Portal. The final project will be discussed, and anytime left over will be used to work on the final project.

Day 5:

Students will have most of the class left to finish working on their final project and ask for help if they need it. Before the end of class, everyone will present the 3D model that they created.

Final Project:

For their final project, students will create a 3D model of a weapon for a game of their choosing. This could be a staff from World of Warcraft, a sword from Final Fantasy, or it can be a completely original idea from the student.

On day 3 the final project will be introduced and students should start thinking of what they want to make. I would advise that they should create a sketch and find plenty of reference images of the weapon that they want to create.

On day 4 we will begin working on the 3D model until its finished and ready to present on day 5.Students will be encouraged to keep the difficulty of the model to a minimum and try to limit it to about 900 triangles.

---

I got most of the material from one of my professors in college, he had a really good way of teaching the fundamentals of 3D to some people that had never touched Maya.

I'm a little nervous since i don't really know what to expect, this is a summer camp and a lot of different students will be there with different ages.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Almost Done With Texture

So I've keept working on my texture for my Sic Fi environment, and I'm glad that I'm making progress. I've trying to learn as much as possible about what it takes to get the Borderlands 2 look, and its not easy. I've read to everything that they posted on a Polycount thread they created with a bunch of renders from their models and textures.

In the mean time, here are the new renders of my progress on this piece:

By my next update, I hope to have figured out how to do the inking correctly for the art style and get rid of the nasty seams in my texture. Thanks for reading!

Texturing Sci Fi Environment

So I've been trying to texture my final project for my Hard Surface Modeling class last semester and use Marmoset Toolbag for the rendering. For some reason my normal map file isn't working, but for now this is my first pass at the textures since I only wanted to get some base colors down on the mesh.

I'm trying to mimic the visual style of Borderlands 2 in this environment, so I'll try to get some critique from some of my old class mates from the U on our Facebook group.

Here is the render:

I plan to take some time doing this crate, so that once I have the look I want I can then move on to the other pieces in the environment without having to stumble so much looking to see what works and what doesn't.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Breaking In My New Cintiq

So for graduation, my wife was very generous and paid for half of my new Wacom tablet. Its a Cintiq 13HD, and I love it. I haven't been able to stop using it and I feel that it will really help me as I try to get better in art and in my future career.

For the mean time, I've decided that I need to start doing more 2D art and I saw a drawing on the web and I decided to do a trace and a little of my own work. I'm not happy with some areas and I think that I need to add a little more detail in others, but for now I think its the beginning of something good. Once I'm done with it I plan to take it into Illustrator and make it a vector image and then paint it on Photoshop.

Here is the image of what I have so far:

If anyone actually reads my blog, I would appreciate some critique. Anyways, thats all for now as I continue to work on some side project now that I'm out of school. Thanks for reading!

Sailboat Model

So now that I can catch up on my internship work, here is one of the models that I've done, a sailboat. Here is a render of the model:

I still have a lot stuff left to catch up on, but this is the beginning. Thanks for reading!

Master of Fine Arts Achieved!

Earlier today I had the chance to see everyone in the cohort for a last time over a MGS sponsored breakfast for the students and family. It was fun talking to people one last time, but at the same time kind of weird seeing everyone's family.

Then later it came time for the ceremony, and it was kind of boring until it came time to walk up on stage. Since the MFA is a terminal degree, we got hooded (I don't know if that is the right term, but I'm going to use it) and everything. I tried to look over to my family in the crowd as I got hooded, but the lights were so bright I couldn't see anyone in the crowd. But the feeling was amazing, like that feeling that you get when you have just beat the final boss of a really good game. Like you would do anything to do it all over again for the first time. That might sound a little weird, but its the only way I can explain it.

Now we just have to put the final touches on our game, an it will soon be published on Desura. I also have to make up a lot of hours on my Internship, but more on that later. Thanks for reading!

The End Is Nigh

So this is my last official week at the MGS lab, and I'm happy to say that today my group and I presented our thesis game, Drop Drop. It took a while to get here, but it feels like yesterday was the first day that I meet everyone in my cohort and now we are about to graduate on Friday.

First off, I have to admit that I wasn't really ready to present my game. I don't mean that I hadn't prepared something to say, I mean that I didn't really know what to expect when presenting your thesis and going to your formal defense of it. My team created a movie instead of a PowerPoint presentation, this made sure that we were only going to have 4 minutes to talk about what we each did on the game, and to stay brief and to the point. I have to admit that I get really anxious when I have to talk in front of people, but I think I did ok.

After the presentation, I had to wait about 2 hours for my turn to go into a room with the Chairman and the rest of my committee evaluating my contribution to the thesis game and my thesis paper that I finished last week (which is why I haven't been posting much lately). For the first part I knew what I needed to say for those 4 minutes, but for this part I didn't really know what they were going to ask me about my paper or the presentation. So I really had nothing ready, I was just ready to answer questions truthfully and hope that it would be enough.

The first thing the Chairman asked me was, "What does the title of your thesis paper mean?". I had titled my paper "Development of an Artist", FYI. And from there a conversation started about how I had started two years ago and where I was now as a game artist. I honestly can't remember everything about the conversation, but I'm really sure that it lasted about 20-25 minutes going back and forth between the five other people in the room and myself. I even had the pleasure of having an old teacher from my undergraduate degree in my committee  and she knew that I had really improved since I took classes with her almost 4 years ago.

Then they had me step outside for a few minutes, until they called me back into the room and congratulated me on the completion of my thesis game and paper. Now all that is left is presenting my Sci Fi environment on Thursday for my hard surface modeling class and one more short paper to write. And if all goes well, I will be walking across the stage on Friday receiving my MFA along with my peers.

Its all kind of surreal actually, thinking that I'm about to graduate. I've been going to school every year since I was like 5 (or whatever the age is when you go to pre-school and all that good stuff) and now in less than a week it will all be over. I'm actually one of the weird kids that like school, not only because I'm kind of a nerd, but because I like what I do and I like talking to all my friends in the MGS lab. I will really miss my computer, and all the really late nights some of us stayed up playing games of League of Legends (its a team building exercise) yelling at each other to stop feeding the other team. Those were the good old days, and now they will be nothing but memories.

I'm going to miss everyone in my cohort, and while I can't really call them family, at different levels, they are all my friends. I will try to stay in touch with all of them, and who knows, one of them might end up being a really famous game developer one day. I may even have the chance to say, "I know that guy/girl, he/she is a friend of mine from grad school." I know that every single one of us has the potential to work at a AAA game studio, and I know that we will all get there one day. Some have already achieved it, I have a few friends that have accepted positions at EA, some in Orlando and some right here in Salt Lake. I can't help but feel a little jealous that they have jobs lined up after graduation, but at the same time I'm proud of their accomplishments and I hope to catch up to them soon.

There is a lot I've learned from this program, and recently it was ranked as number 1 in the nation for the undergrad, and number 2 for the graduate degree. I hope that one day we will be able to claim #1 in both slots, and I'll be even more proud to say that I graduated from the U.

Now the real challenge starts, where I have to find a place where I can get my foot in the door. I've applied at a couple places, even had a couple interviews, but so far nothing. I hope that someone will be able to give me a chance and prove that I'm a good game artist and that I have what it takes to contribute to the studio and the project at hand. I know I will find a place, I just have to be patient and in the meantime continue to improve my skills as a game artist.

This was a really personal post, and I'm sorry to have made it so long. But for now, that is all I have to say. After all, I still have a project to finish and a paper to write. Thanks!

-Chris (soon to be Master Christian Munoz!)

Baking Normal Maps

So I've finally started to bake down my normal maps. I was having some issues but a friend of mine helped me figure out a stupid little mistake of mine. Here is a render of a floor title:

That is the render of a plane with my floor title, it went from being over 10,000 triangles to just 2. I love normal maps! I baked out an occlusion map and a normal map, here is the composite image of both maps:

I only have a couple more models to finish for my scene, but I will continue to do the bake down over these next few days and get it ready to take it into Unreal. Wish me luck since I've never used Unreal. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Scope of My Sci Fi Environment

So there is one week left before I have to submit my sci fi environment and I don't think that I'm going to be able to complete what I had intended in the beginning. I have a lot of detail in the hallway, so I've been working on making that look as good as possible adding props and other details to make it look lived in without having to go into the other area of my environment.

I also decided to seal in my hallway, making adding a big door on either end of the hallway. Here is a render of my new door:

I will think of more items to place around the scene and I'll post updates when I have something to show.

Also, I have to start baking out the normals soon along with some light maps. I'm planning on taking this into unreal for my presentation, so maybe some real basic texture work might be in order. That's all for now, thanks for reading!