tentang Another New Malaysian Animation - Ejen Ali

it is new and it is fresh.. this one was just announced last friday (i actually completely forgot abt this blog lol). an feature film from Wau Animation based in Cyberjaya, Malaysia

Do comment on Facebook or Youtube page ya. thx!!

tentang New Domereel (2011)

finally done compiling my latest demoreel!
now ima write those cover letters and send out to all those company and hope i'll be employed soon. 11 days left till we board the plane back to KL! *excited*



as always, any comments are welcome. but im not really gonna change this reel because of the time constraints.

tentang Lowpoly Character Model - Milo

my own design. when the base model was finished, it looked a lot like that neutron kid. but i think after texturing it it looks different. not too bad for 3 days' work. now i wanna alter the model and retexture it.. make another variation of the character, Milo in super mode XD

day 1 - no head

day 2 - no face

day 3 - ^_^

gotta work quick. i hope to start compiling the reel and finalize it by next weekend. i think i'll make it.

by april, i hope to have sent out my job applications. yosh!

tentang A House in the Sky

done! though i hoped i could've done this a little bit faster. but yeah it's not too bad. took me 1 week.

now i can start the next model.. my character ^^

tentang Next 3D Project - House In The Sky

a house in the sky
3d modeling project
by adi bahari (aka kusut)

ok this project is actually a part of a scene in that short animation (that i still hope i'll be able to make this year) but because my aim is to put it in my showreel, this house is decent enough (assuming i manage to model+texture+render+comp it the way i imagined) as a showreel material. so the rest of the scene, which consists of more ground, a bridge thing, a long wall and a gate; will be modeled when it is more appropriate to continue with the animation.

so here is the sketch of the house i drew in my notebook (hence the horizontal lines)

a very quick sketch

here's where im at. most of the modeling part is done. only the ground element is still in it's blocking stage. so i'm doing that today. try to make it look more 'rocky' and add details on it (grass, some vines hanging here and there, some roots).

with lighting work!

i enjoy working on this piece. it looks kinda like what i imagine. and the colour vibrant and fun. yeah i hope this one will look fun in the end.. somehow

hope i will finish this one early next week ^_^

tentang 3D Modeling Project update lagi se

not exactly final. but i'm moving on to the next 3D scene. this one looks ok. when i finish modeling some more 3D scenes.. i'll come back and do a video of this env. then compile it in a single showcase.

now on to the next one! time is of the essence!!!

yeah i worry that i dont couldn't make the showreel i plan to make in time. and that i have to send out a rushed work to apply for a job.

*freakin out!!!*

die >_<

tentang 3D Modeling Project update

just a quick update.

curtain, selimut, mattress and pillows need zbrushing

made the room. though nothing is textured but i decided put all the things in one scene file (the room) so that i could get an idea how it would look like. and what else do i need to model.

and i think i need to add :
- a stack of magazines
- an open book on the floor
- a pen under the bed
- a mug to put stationaries
- a few pens + pencils + markers
- 2 shelves mounted above the bed
- books to put on shelf
- a box under the bed (boxofprunes)

planning to finish all those things tonight and tomorrow i'll start texturing! ^_^

tentang 3D Modeling Project - The Room

these are 3D models i made for my 'Room' scene.

nothing really special. definitely not anything epic. tapi i do plan it to look good.
i'm modeling a room at the moment. kalau sempat, i wanna use it in an animated short. or it'll just be a 3D scene for my latest showreel.

ima need that to look for a job. very soon.

but anyway, most of the things have been modeled. im in my 2nd week modeling the room. the stuff i modeled have been UVW unwrapped. not yet textured. there's more models i made. i'll post more tomorrow.

next ima need to model the curtains (and a mirror! i just remembered this one). some models need zbrushing work.. and then texture all models. then make the room. set up lighting. render and composite.. done!

gogogo

tentang Zbrush Practice

last month i did that Birdman tutorial for zbrush and since then i've been practising that method and (hopefully) get better. i made a bust of malaysian 'superhero' (he's not so super actually) keluangman. i think i have kinda improved.

just a fanart 

the one above is actually the 3rd try. i tried to model it 100% using the method in the birdman tutorial at first, but it didnt turn out ok. version 1 looked too realistic, too boring. too predictable. too batman. but above all, my sculpting skill was still too rough.

i made a mess around the eyes didn't i?

version 2 was a little better. but still did not have that comicbook look. proportion was all over the place. after  making this one, i decided to not follow the tutorial too much. the eyes, the nose and the mouth region to be precise. it didn't look too bad.. but i think it still is pretty bad. bottom line, i wasn't satisfied with it.

straight into the uncanny valley >_<

next is my fav! well still can improve but i am pretty happy with version 3. proportion wise is nice.. simplified the mouth,nose and eyes area. made it simpler and more cartoonish. i was so happy with it i decided to try texturing it in zbrush.. which i have no idea how to. hence the very rough and very flat texture. but it looks decent.. i think

this is the model i used to make the 'poster' earlier in this post

and here's a turntable video i uploaded in youtube. the colour looked washed and dull. but yeah i just wanna see it rotating.

i'm ready to move on to the next tutorial in the book i bought.
excited!

tentang Zbrush Exercise Update January 23

another 2 + hours doing the birdman tutorial. having fun!!!

i think i did not get some of the skin to look good. especially the chest. pfft. but well im not gonna try to fix it anymore.. but i'll make it right in my next sculpt. but it does look ok overall i think.

maybe not so bad for a first sculpt

tentang Zbrush Exercise Update January 20

yeah this is a late entry.

just an update. had a few hours to work on the birdman tutorial again.

still in med-res stage. 

i was watching guy ritchie's lock,stock, and two smoking barrels today and found myself observing the skin texture of the 3 characters in one of the scenes.. how the oldest man have lots of deep wrinkles that i would think i looked fake if i did that in zbrush. another man who is a little younger had wrinkles all over his face too but not as harsh. and the young guy does not have much wrinkles on his face.

it made me realize how my character now look like an old person. lol

anyway, here's the progress screenie that i posted before. in case anyone's interested.

tentang Zbrush Exercise January 18

i bought this magbook Zbrush Essentials last month. just wanted to learn more about that program and improve my skillz. everything i know abt Zbrush before i only learn from blogs and youtube tutorials. so i hope this one will make things more proper

so i started the basic tutorial this month. only managed to spend 3 days so far but i'm enjoying it.

here's where i at so far. doing the birdman tutorial..

progressive screenie. day 1 to day 3 :D

too bad the DVD is a little problematic. my laptop DVD drive cant read the disc properly. i cant unzip the part2 of the tutorial. sigh. but there's lots of other tutorials in there to compensate anyway. im still happy with it ^^

Phantasy Core - Submissions and Thoughts

i think i did not do well. the design process was rushed, no real planning, and no real decision making was made. i kinda let everything just happen.. and it did not happen and it sucked

lol

i really should've spent more time working on the character instead of exploring the ps3 XD
my bad then

but i submitted it anyway. here's some of them:

Phantasy Core - Sketch, Basemesh and Simple Sculpt

sketch in Photoshop
not final design. but roughly how it will look like and the pretty final proportions

basemesh done in MAX.
took me a few days to model. did not manage to decide how the back and hair would look like but because of time constraints, i moved on to ZBRUSH anyway

sculpted in ZBRUSH
im still very new to zb. so i think it did not look refined.. and not as good as the image i had in mind :P
changes were made.. no more armour and he looks more like a gorilla+turtle than a bear. but not too bad

will model the crystals that will be his new natural armour.. whatever that would look like.
a week left! ><

tentang Ambient Occlusion

okay.. what 'ambient occlusion' or AO is is a render for 3D image/video composite. it is like shadows render but a little different. if normal shadow will depend on the direction of the light source(s), AO's shadows will depend on distance of one object to another.

haha.. some people will go wtf. it's some 3D art tech stuff. people in 3D will normally use AO in their 3D work (unless they're skipping the step to save rendering time), but when i was a fresh grad, i have no idea what AO is.

but when i first used AO i was still a maya user. max was to me that other 3D package that i thought inferior lol. but now i have converted (tho not fully).. one of the things i did not manage to make as good would be this.. the ambient occlusion. maybe.. i did not read the right tutorial to make it.

last week i finally found a proper one. and just so that i wouldn't have a hard time looking for it in the future.. and that others (who are interested in these stuff) can share it. i decided to make a post and link the tutorial here.

'Fast Ambient Occlusion in 3ds Max'
by Tom Isaksen

(click to read)

tentang Phantasy Core - malaysian digital art comp!

i just found out abt this today (via pergh.com forum) and i have to say.. i am truly psyched up abt it! excited and right now i really wanna join the competition!

so ok.. what is it?
kind of similar to Dominance War (which is also going to kick off in a few weeks if im not mistaken) but organized in malaysia. so maybe there'll be more local talents participating. and the prizes are in RM so.. yeah. the competition is open to anyone around the world but by the looks of it, i think it might not be so appealing to most people.. and the site's English isn't actually proper too :P

but anyway,

there'll be 2 categories, 2D and 3D art. participant may not use the same design in both categories. ima join the 3D category.

so in 3D (im not interested in 2D so i wont talk bout that one :P), basically anything goes except for 10k tri count total (that means everything total up to 10k tris max), no mecha. hmm what else. i suggest anyone interested to quickly read their guidelines and stuff at their page (link) because it has already started and there's not much time left to start doing what we need to do to qualify.

Submission Date

15^th October 2010

Closing Date

15^th December 2010

i assume submission date is actually start of competition, and closing date is, well, closing date.
so again, more details can be found here.

tentang The SinX Modeling Progress 1

hm.. is it 'modeling' or 'modelling'?

anyway, have been working on 3D-ing the sketch i did. really slow i think. but i'm not too familiar with this workflow yet. but i think i'm starting to get a hold of the whole low-poly + digital sculpting thing. pretty fun

ok.. here's the sketch again:

here's the lowpoly basic model, excluding the head. im not too happy with it tho.

note that im trying this workflow where i sculpt the body parts separately which you can see from the checker-board unwrapped model that's missing some limbs. i just figured i need better memory management and doing thing will allow me to make more detailed model, considering im working with a 1GB RAM, 2.00GHz Intel Core.

here's the where im at..

(image rendered in Max btw).
i have sculpted the torso and arms, rendered the normal maps and combined them back in Max. it is working pretty well. im really excited to continue sculpting and start texturing. but im taking my time doing this.. better do it properly and perfect it over time than just doing it for the sake of having a finished product.

i'll continue scuplting the other parts and get back to the torso again. will add more details and fix some stuff. here's some things i wish to add and edit later.

tentang 3DTotal Forum's Low Poly Challenge

it has been quite some time since i last posted my 3D works huh? i think it's abt time for me to do some new 3D works.


so..
the people at 3DTotal forum just started a new low-poly challenge entitled 'The Slayer'. the backstory is kinda interesting too. in a nutshell.. powerful creature imprisoned in books for ages are now free and destroying the world. the slayer is one to defeat the creature and restore peace to the world.

for rules, more info, etc.. read at 3dtotal forum

due date : 30th november 2009


here's my idea so far.. but i dont plan to enter the competetion (although the prizes are pretty cool). i still have stuff to do right now so i dont wanna mess up the what im doing right now. i'll finish this one when i have the time.

sketch -

DWIV - submitted

yeah it is done. here are all the 6 (Text, Concept, Construction, Presentation, Beauty, and Texture) final images compiled into 1 image. yes confusing :D because im too lazy to upload and watermark each image. but if anyone wanna see any of those images enlarged let me know ya.


(click to enlarge)





now.. what's next? i need a job lah.

DWIV - beauty shot

(click to enlarge)

stuff to submit for dominance war competition :-

1. Text Image
2. Beauty Shot
3. Presentation Shot
4. Construction Shot
5. Texture Sheets
6. Concept Image

beauty shot.. checked!