One of my very first posts here at the Web-O-Blog was about Alexis Van der Hague’s animation Stilt Walkers: an animated short that was rendered with 3D tools in such a way that it recalled the style of traditional paintings. That, and the lyrical style of the piece, impressed the heck out of me. Just lovely.

3D Total is hosting a "Making Of" article for a new image by Van der Hague. Here we see a portrait, within an 18th century landscape, of Papageno from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

This time around we get not just the final product, which is sensational, but a breakdown of how Van der Hague has used 3D tools (ZBrush, Maya, and Mudbox) to build something that’s beautifully not photorealistic. That’s pretty close to a description of what I try to do. It’s just that the "not photorealistic" styles we’re each aiming for are pretty different.

This article’s a great example of how that can be done. Excellent work!

Technorati Tags: Alexis Van der Hague, papageno the bird catcher, art, illustration, maya, zbrush, mudbox, photoshop, stilt walkers, digital art

A demo version is now available for Fx Lda and Scriptattack’s Bonyface system.

This looks like a really promising tool for setting up facial rigs in 3D characters, animating or posing them, and then storing expressions the same way you might store morph targets, in a library.

What I really like about it is that there’s an underlying network of splines which you fit to the surface of your model. Along the splines there are bones which you use to skin the model to the rig. Then there are a smaller number of controllers that move the splines around… which move the bones around… which move the face around. There’s a fine level of control where it’s needed while you’re given a high level system for using that control. Yet the setup of a character’s face is just a matter of editing those splines to match the model.

Skinning is always traumatic for me because it takes me forever and, truth be told, I’m just not that good at it – and faces are one of the most difficult parts of a character to skin. So when I tell you that this looks like a very clever and powerful tool for 3DS Max… well, I’m coming from a highly motivated place.

And a disinterested one, unfortunately! The script doesn’t claim to be compatible with versions of 3DS Max older than Max 2008, and I’m running on an older version. Something like this might make me a lot more interested in an upgrade.

Found via Max Underground.

Technorati Tags: computer animation, 3d, bonyface, 3ds max, facial rig, skinning, bones

I’ve spent some time working at the far end of the laboratory, and pretty well wrapped that up and added some clutter here, at this end of the table. Finicky, finicky.

The dusty old Interociter doesn’t have a thing to do with the story; odds are Doctor Rognvald just picked it up second hand. You find those things in labs all over the place, of course.

I really need to wrap his one up soon. I keep making the mistake of approaching my test views as though they were actual pictures, which leads to all sorts of little adjustments that simply waste my time until I catch myself at it.

Another day or two and I’ll have to set the laboratory aside while I work on the last couple of props I’ll need in there… and then – finally! – I can concentrate on the illustrations themselves.

Out of all the crazy stuff in here I think I’m getting my biggest kick from the high voltage Frankenstein switches with all their gauges and dials, which only serve to flick the lights on and off.

Technorati Tags: thrilling tales of the downright unusual, retropolis, mad science, mad doctor, laboratory, science fiction, sci fi, interactive stories

I’ve worked out the basic lighting setup for Doctor Rognvald’s lab, and added practical light objects to match them (well, except for that door up on the catwalk, anyway). So far I’ve only got one "cheat" light in here – that’s premature, really, since I’ll mainly add the cheat lights when I’m setting up shots for the illustrations I need. But I wanted a little rim light on that floor lamp.

What we’ve got here is a pretty realistic general lighting setup that I’ll mutate and change and modify for the individual shots I need for the story.

What’s left to do is to add two more light fixtures, and then have a look at the camera angles to decide what other clutter I need on the table, and what indistinct shapes I want to add in the shadows… at which point the lab itself will be pretty much done, and I can move onto a couple of important props. Altogether I’m dangerously close to being able to make pictures in here. Muahahahahaha!

The more time I spend in here the more I find that I’d kind of like a room like this to work in. It’s well equipped: you can’t tell in this shot, but that’s an espresso machine at the far end of the table. What more do you need?

The downside of working on a project of this scale is that it takes so long to get everything done. But part of the upside is that I’ll have such cool sets and props to use in other pictures. I know I’ll want to revisit this lab when I can. I’m really looking forward to making poster-scale images of this one.

Even at high res, though, you’ll never be able to make out the ridiculous labels on the dials and buttons. There’s a "Hyphenation" dial, not to mention the "% Froglike" one. I guess those are just for me.

Technorati Tags: thrilling tales of the downright unusual, retropolis, interactive fiction, mad science, mad doctor, retro future, retrofuturistic, science fiction, sci fi, raygun gothic

Here’s where ‘ve been for the last… oh, I have no idea. It’s the laboratory of mad Doctor Rognvald, creator of the Toaster With TWO BRAINS. It’s the second mad scientist’s lab I’ve built for this Thrilling Tale. The two are quite different.

That’s because Cornelius Zappencackler’s lab is sort of a pleasant place for tinkering – one that you or I might like to work in. Oh, you’re right – some of the things he gets up to in there do sort of threaten to destroy the planet. But he’s an affable old gent, and he means well.

Okay. Maybe "well" isn’t the word I was looking for. But he doesn’t mean harm. It’s just that sometimes harm happens anyway.

But this! This is a laboratory that you or I might like to tinker in only if we were evil geniuses! This place is a textbook example of the kind of room where you Meddle In Things That Man Was Not Meant To Wot Of! This is the sort of lab where every now and then you just have to throw your head back and crow: "It’s ALIIIIVE!"

I’ve been having a great time with the glassware and instruments. This is just the point where I’ve dropped a real light source into the scene so I can get an idea of what to do next; but it’s well on its way… it’s…. nearly…. aliiiiive!

See what I mean?

Technorati Tags: thrilling tales of the downright unusual, toaster with two brains, mad science, evil genius, laboratory, science fiction, sci fi, interactive fiction, retro future, retropolis