More Than This?

Hey All. I started this guy yesterday during a slow patch at work. Nothing better to do than slap on some Roxy Music and figured Bryan Ferry could be fun to sculpt. Anyways, here he is, derived from a sphere. I have actually sculpted his whole body in pose too... I'll put that up in a bit. Rendered in ZBrush and comped in AE. Enjoy!

SHAZAM!!!

Hey All. Here's a little morning speed sculpt. Created from a Dynamesh sphere and busted out in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. I spent a bit longer colouring him up and rendering him in Zbrush. (Maybe about 3 hours all up, start to finish!?!) Enjoy!

Shazam Speed Sculpt... from Daniel McKay on Vimeo.

Astronaut... Again.

Hey All. Here is a little sculpt I've been working on here and there for the last week. It began as a 1.15 hour speed sculpt of a head (See post below), and I decided to build a helmet for him. One thing lead to another and Boom! I got myself an astronaut. He's a work in progress... Nothing here is final. I have a few more attachments and cleanup to go. He's all Dynamesh at the moment and hope to retopo him, and potentially animate him!?! I haven't started texturing him yet either... these are just basic colours dropped on the tools. Everything was built in Zbrush, as well as rendering. Enjoy!

Update: Here is a paint over I did in Photoshop just to finalise some of the textures/colours. I have to retopo first but nice to see a result like this to keep me motivated! Enjoy!

Head Speed Sculpt...

Hi All. Here's a quick sculpt I did while waiting for client feedback. I allowed myself 2 hours, but actually wrapped it up here at about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Started from a Dynamesh sphere and rendered in ZBrush. Comped in Photoshop. I did a little history video, but my Zbrush crashed and I lost a lot of the end stages. Although this video is pretty nasty (He spends most of the time looking like a transvestite Goblin) it's a bit of an eye-opener to see where I waste my time the most and what I can improve on. Enjoy!

Back to Basics...

Hey All. Here is a little anatomy study I started yesterday. I am very aware that my anatomy knowledge is pretty basic and I am going to attempt to pick apart the body piece by piece. Hands have always troubled me so figured I'd begin here. I thought I'd try a sculpt using photo reference first, then go back and learn the actual bones/muscles of the hand and attempt a better sculpt at the end. That's the theory, anyways. I also added a little step-by-step tutorial, as much for my benefit as anyone else who might find it useful! All up, about 3 hours work. All done in Zbrush and rendered passes using BPR. Comped in Photoshop. Enjoy!

White Trash Zombie...

Hey All. Here's a little sculpt I started as a speed sculpt. It wasn't really for anything, other than I happened upon the cover of the book 'My Life as a White Trash Zombie' and liked the image. I didn't want to spend any more than a day on this and so started with a female base mesh. While it took about 8 hours all up, it was during the course of about a week... an hour here... and hour there. The hair was done in fibermesh and was bugging the hell outta me so ended up as a rough Photoshop paint over. I really gotta spend more time on that tool!!! She turned out ok... Not quite as I had planned. Anyways, all sculpted, textured, lit, rendered in Zbrush. Comped in Photoshop. Enjoy!

Speedy Spawn...

Hi All. A quick sculpt at work in between client feedback and getting out new playblasts! I was pretty happy with how this guy came out considering the time (Maybe about 4 hours, all up including comping!?!) Based on images of the toy (Commando Spawn), I like the 'blocky' style and simple colouring. He's all Dynamesh and textured just using basic fills in Zbrush. Rendered layers in Zbrush and Comped in AE. Enjoy!

Masquerade...

Hi All. Here is a sculpt I put out over the last 2 days. It was a bit quiet at work, so between small jobs here and there, and waiting for client feedback, I figured a new sculpt was in order. Her name is Masquerade and she's a post WW2 comic superhero. Her back story is a bit wishy-washy, where as a socialite, she visited a Mardi Gras and needed a costume. She found this one and although the salesperson told her it was consumed by the 'spirit of justice', she went for it. She stops a criminal, feels all warm and fuzzy inside, and decides that crime-fighting is for her... As you do. So here she is... Sculpted entirely in Zbrush, textured and lit and rendered using BPR. Final comp done in After Effects. It was my first effort using Fibermesh for something other than short hair or stubble, and have learnt a lot since. It's a powerful tool, but there's definitely a learning curve there. Anyways... Enjoy!

Steambot Racer - Revisited...

Ok, looking back now I was a little unhappy how my Steambot guy turned out. In hindsight there are a million things I would change, mostly in his facial expression. I was originally going for a day-dreaming 'this-is-the-biggest-race-of-my-life' quiet, reflective moment... Now he just seems bland. So... here's a super expressive pic of him! Giving it all he's got, on the verge of death!?! A real 'the moment before IT happened' style pic... All done in Zbrush... Posed, textured, lit, rendered and then comped in After Effects. I like that he doesn't look 'real', but like a stylised, almost painted, character. Or maybe it's just late and I should be in bed... Enjoy!

BRM Sculpt...

Hi All. This is a little different for me. It began as a play in Zbrush as a hard-surface experiment and evolved into a full sculpt, based on blueprints of a BRM MARK I. The whole process from start to finish was roughly 16 hours. I found it really helpful in learning more about some of Z's newest features... especially 'Panel Loops' and 'Insert Meshes'. EVERYTHING is done in Zbrush, as well as texturing and rendering. Final comp in After Effects. For the purists, look away now. I got a bit excited and added a fair few 'bonus' elements to the car! Enjoy!

Duddle Doodle...

Hi all. Here's a speed sculpt I whipped up on my Sunday night. It comes via a character from the amazing Jonny Duddle book, The Pirates Next Door. His illustrations are amazing and recommend you go buy his books immediately!!! This lil guy took a few minutes shy of 3 hours. He needs a bit more tweaking but I liked where he was heading... Can't wait to colour and detail him too! All done with Dynamesh in Zbrush... Comped in After Effects. Enjoy!

Update: I had a quick play tonight just colouring him in as referenced from the book. By no means final, it was a quick test just to see where to head next... All done in Zbrush in just over an hour. Comped in AE. Enjoy!

Update (again): Ahhhhh Zbrush. The ease at which I can now do retopo and UVing, as well as hi-res texturing and surface noise thanks to this program is nuts! If I get more time, I'll do another pass on his face and look into better textures/shaders/lighting, but for now I think he looks pretty cool! Enjoy! (Oh and Jonny Duddle, the amazing illustrator who drew the original character, has just released another book... The King of Space... Buy it!)

Update: More texturing love, I gave the brother some shoes, and toyed with his hair. Rendered in Zbrush and played with a new grade in After Effects. Enjoy!

STEAMBOT Racer...

Being a big fan of Barontieri's work and an avid supporter of Steambot Studios, I thought I'd try and tackle one of their original concepts. This one is of a futuristic racer which I came across via their Steambot book of awesomeness. I hope I did it justice! Done entirely in Zbrush from a basic dynamesh, then retopo'd seperate sections, and detailed. Finally, I textured him over the last couple of days and posed him for the final here... I like to think it's a candid snap of him preparing for an upcoming race, smoking a cigar to relax, all the while maintaining focus as his ship is prepared. Rendering was done using BPR in Zbrush and comped in After Effects. Enjoy!

BLOODHOUND SSC Contribution...

Hi All,

Here's my contribution to the new Bloodhound SSC promo vid created by FLOCK London. I was responsible for modelling, sculpting, retopologising, and texturing the driver. The end result can be seen here in the final video that was featured on the BBC News and the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19798748 (I will link to a higher res version of the final when it becomes available) Enjoy!

BLOODHOUND SSC Contribution... from Daniel McKay on Vimeo.

New Reel Wrapping up 2012...

Hi All,

With my imminent move back to New Zealand, I decided it was time to update my reel. All the work you'll see has been done by me (except for the Bloodhound bit which was purely just the driver modelling, sculpting and texturing... I'll post a more in depth segment on that shortly though to clarify). Enjoy!

Mobotato - Showreel 2012/13... from Daniel McKay on Vimeo.

Muscle Crunch...

Hey All. Here's a lil sculpt I busted out last night before going to bed. He took 45 minutes in Zbrush with a tiny bit of post work in After Effects. He is made from a Dynamesh sphere, some subtle polypaint, and rendered in Zbrush. If I took him a little bit further, I'd add a rose between the teeth and perhaps the ol' furry Tarzan-style leopard 'leotard' over the shoulder... Maybe another time!?! Enjoy!

Update: Ok... Another 15 minutes just to finish this guy off. I added the leotard thingymajig. Made with FiberMesh.  He's one smooth cat now... Definitely one for the ladiessssss.

Lift Offfffffffff!!!

Hi All! Here's a selection of my lil Baron character in various poses. They were tests done today after getting him textured, lit, rigged, and set up to render in Maya (using Mental Ray). The next step is an animation. I'm thinking showing him mid-flight. I like the idea of him doing barrel rolls and the smoke trails following accordingly. So far, he is made up of a basic color, AO, and depth pass... I'll get more hands on for the final renders, but for now I'm happy where he's heading! Enjoy!

Update! Here's another lil play with the Baron in post. I was testing to see what I can get away with in terms of rendering, and what sort of treatment to the final look I could use. I think I'm happy with the flexibility of the render layers I'm pumping out, but as much as I like the treatment here, it won't be a final look. I think. Maybe... we'll see. First I gotta animate that sucker. Enjoy!

The Baron... Take Off!

Hey All! Here's a lil something that I began some time ago but lost interest in. It wasn't til the other day that I remembered it, had a bunch of new ideas for him, and decided to rework him. 'The Baron' takes on a steampunk-ish feel and revolves around this idea that the Red Baron, shot down and left for dead on a deserted island, builds a 'propeller pack' from his destroyed plane. (Whether he not he fits the old guns to his pack is yet to be decided). The whole mechanism runs via cabling (which is still to be created) that allows the Baron to control at what angle the rear of the propeller pack sits at. This, in turn, allows the Baron to control himself in the air. I'm thinking this guy might work nicely for a reel intro... Original pack built in Maya, original Baron made in Mudbox, and reworked 'everything' created in Zbrush! His equipment is yet to be textured, and is currently coloured with Polypaint. Rendered in Zbrush and comped in AE. Enjoy!

More Fan Art... More Learning!

Hey ho! Here's a sculpt I worked on over the course of 2 days (approximately 6 hours all up). It is based on the amazing work of Andrew Bawidamann which can be found here: http://www.bawidamann.com/portfolio/Military%20Pinup (Cosmonaut). Sculpted, Polypainted, and Rendered in Zbrush, and comped in AE. Enjoy!

On the Brink... Again.

Yep. That's right. Another Brink inspired sculpt. (Last one, I promise). I just love the character design so much and they offer great resource for practising my Zbrushing! Anyways, this guy is called The Eel. Created from a basic Zsphere basemesh, polypainted, transposed, decimated, and sent through to Maya to be rendered in Mental Ray. The final composite was done in After Effects with render passes consisting of a basic color and AO for each pose. Looking at it now, there's more I'd like to add to him, but as he was a learning exercise for me, I'd rather move on and advance to the next thing... Approximately 25 hours on this one. Enjoy!

Finally! An update!

Hi All,

It's been wayyyyyyy too long since my last post. Despite not featuring anything up here, I have been a busy lil bee in the background. Amidst having a lil girl since my last post and realising that I no longer have any spare time, I am neck deep in the wonders of creating a new reel... You know how it is... You want to create a 3 second animation to fill a gap, but slowly becomes a feature length animation!!! Anyways, enough with the rambling. I am now a recent Zbrush convert and I'm loving it! I've joined a blog called lunchcrunch.org who encourage you to produce work super quick and get it up on the site for all to poke fun at, marvel over, stare in awe, drool... yadda yadda. Here are the fruits of my first post... Sculpt was created in 40 minutes. Polypaint, render and composition in AE was done in an additional 40. Enjoy!

Tried and Blue...

Hi. Here's a lil sculpt I did while killing some time waiting for a render at work. The sculpt on the day took 24 minutes, and just finished it up today with some quick hand-painted textures, rendered screen grabs from Mudbox, and lit in After Effects using Normality. I used him as a warm up to get back into Mudboxing after a bit of a break, but decided I liked him enough to put him up here... Enjoy!

Basil... WIP 2...

I managed to get some more done on my lil Basil character today, courtesy of waiting around the house for gas, electricity, and plumbing folk. I did some minor sculpt work, but focused mostly on texturing and got him to where he is now... There are still the odd bits n pieces I intend to add/fix, but I think he's coming along ok! Enjoy...

House... but not House...

Here's a little sculpt I worked on during some down time at work. The sculpt is based on a caricature I came across by Nico Di Mattia: http://nicodimattia.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/housesmall.jpg. I used the standard base head mesh from Mudbox and sculpted away to get this guy in 1 hour and 47 minutes. Texturing took a little longer (3 and a half hours) and was then comped in After Effects just using screen renders from Mudbox. (Color, Ambient Occlusion, Depth). Although he's not a super accurate replica of the illustration, I loved the facial shapes/angles and was happy where he ended up... Enjoy!

Basil...

Ok... This is Basil... I started him tonight and spent 2.5 hours getting him to where he is now. I found a sketch I did a while back of an explorer and figured I'd see what I could do. Granted, he isn't quite as I had originally imagined him in the sketch, I kinda like where he's heading... The idea is to have him covered in a bunch of explore-y type things (Binoculars, Compasses, Backpack, Map, etc) and I think I may just do some animation with him. There's a bunch of stuff I'll fix when I eventually retopo him (Sleeves, collar, etc) but for now I'm happy... Enjoy!

Oooh. And I think he should have a moustache!

Update: I spent a bit more time on him this evening developing some areas (Sleeves, collar, feet, etc). I also added some wrinkles and started producing some accessories in Maya... Enjoy!

Adrift...

This guy started out as a quick sculpt sketch a couple of months back. I spent about 4 hours sculpting him, then added some extras in Maya, and finally textured it back in Mudbox (All up, about 15 hours). I'm struggling to remember what my original motivation was to have him just drifting in 'space', but I do remember liking the idea of a really slow, subtle animation where the camera would just hover around him... I think a really heavy Depth of Field works nicely for such a scene... Enjoy!

A Tale to Tell...

Here's a little something I was toying around with this evening. It's a model I sculpted and textured a while back and had a pang to play around with some new lights on it... I tried several angles, but figured a basic front on cam was the best approach. I like the fact he looks like he's got something on his mind... A tale to tell... Enjoy!