George's Artblog

Discontinuing Blogger

2008-06-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Because of certain unfortunate actions by Google interfering with certain blogs on its Blogspot domain, I cannot in good conscience continue to actively use Blogspot for my own blogs. Further updates of the Artblog will be on http://georgesartblog.wordpress.com

Stuff

2008-04-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Doodle cards

2008-01-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

Location WIP: 360 shooting range

2007-12-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

For the entirely non-ripped-off (particularly not from Kurt Wimmer :P ) handgun based martial art of Gun Bagua.

The rails up there are where the targets would be hanging and moving around.

On the table is finding out how people get into the room, a plausible way for people to observe from relative safety, and some more greebles.

The Cliff of Deeds

2007-10-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Just to point out:

2007-10-02T23:58:00.001-07:00

How obscenely clever I am.

Am-I-Dumb.com - Intelligence Test

Sigh.

2007-09-09T13:20:00.001-07:00

The fat guy has a torso

2007-08-26T17:31:00.001-07:00

Meet the fat guy.

2007-08-19T19:53:00.001-07:00

15k polycount.

Another animation test: pseudo dry brush blur

2007-08-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook roundup

2007-08-12T16:45:00.001-07:00

Bah, political cartoons.

2007-07-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

It's an ugly business, but someone's got to do them. Context on the other blog.

A little animation test

2007-07-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

Some doodles

2007-07-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

I need to get a scanner, if only because capturing paper sketches via camera requires a bunch of manual tweaking to make them presentable.

1. Perspective tweak. Since the picture isn't usually taken at a perfect 90 degree angle that has to be adjusted.
2. Color adjustment. Usually an automatic white balance works, and if that's too extreme I try an automatic "normalize" before trying manually adjusting the contrast.
3. High pass filter. Cleans up uneven lighting.

Return of the Institute

2007-07-18T16:08:00.001-07:00

WIP render

Project Anduril: Institute of Legitimate Wisdom

2007-07-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

A WIP render for Project Anduril.
This virtual building will be the main headquarters for the Prophet's talk show.
The design is based mostly on a previously shown sketch.

Polygon count: 591K
Render time: 5min

Vehicles

2007-06-29T12:17:00.001-07:00

A WIP spacecraft that will appear later in Chapter 4 of Thinginess.

A brief cutscene around the end of the last chapter showed enviro-nut Tim Leif reporting to his boss Elrond Huffard, founder of the Church of Sophontology, aboard a space vessel orbiting the Earth.

Without giving too much away, this is supposed to be a prototype super-shuttle capable of faster-than-light interstellar flights. While it has a very small cargo/passenger capacity, it will free the Earth Liberation Front from having to rely on a dwindling fleet of 25-year-old carriers.

More?

2007-06-11T23:06:00.001-07:00

Using the fabulously sophisticated media of ballpoint pen and an 8 color set of crayons, I have these: a spiderkitty and a robofairy/fangirl.

A spiderkitty is of course a cat with a few arachnid features, particularly 8 legs, 8 eyes, and the ability to make webs.

Whether the other figure is a fangirl or a robofairy depends mainly on what scale you choose to impose. If she's human sized, she's a fangirl, and if she's tiny, she's a robofairy.

Fangirls of course use the rotors on their backs to move air and help people cool off, while robofairies use theirs to fly.

Doodles

2007-05-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

Spiderkitty

2007-04-03T00:18:00.000-07:00

Done in 2D in GIMP.

Some of the fine ladies of the ComicGenesis community have a fascination with spiders. To such a person this should be a supreme example of cuteness.
Anyone else, such as my brother, would go "DOUBLEYOU TEE EFF MATE?!" at such a horrendous freak of nature.

Even more deli

2007-03-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

Polycount: 64000

Though far from complete, it is ready for some production shots.

Deli Advancing

2007-03-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

Polycount: about 64000

Now experimenting with additional superfluous eyecandy, namely a bloom effect. That is, that soft glare you see on the things here.

Deli Interior

2007-03-12T04:04:00.000-07:00

Polycount: 61000

The seats, tables, and lights are all there.

An important consideration is not to go overboard with the kinds of things that really crank up render times, like lots of raytraced lights.

For example, each of those fluorescent lights has an area lamp attached to it, that is basically six raytraced lights in a row, as far as casting shadows is concerned. And there are about ten of them in this room, for sixty lights total, which is really quite a lot.

The total render time for this image was about 11 minutes. Some of the big render hogs include the raytraced lights, ambient occlusion, and the raytraced glass material in the windows. Ambient occlusion I generally turn off once I start putting materials on everything, especially if it's going to be toon shaders all around. I leave it on at the beginning so that the early phase test renders aren't too boring. However, the render time saved by turning off AO comes back with materials.

Deli Refined

2007-03-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

A considerable amount of time has been spent on the diversion of switching my computer from Windows XP to Kubuntu. My reasons are purely pragmatic, I am not particularly against getting Windows Vista; but that won't be until I get a new computer.

Poly count: 47000

The neighboring shops and cars out front are important, but priorities must go toward what will be shown in the first strip featuring this location. Most likely that will involve a frontal shot of the building (requiring finished doors, windows, signage) plus an interior shot or two (tables, chairs, front counter).

New Location: Deli

2007-02-18T16:04:00.000-08:00

Initial stages of new location: Mr. Wang's Kosher Deli. A couple other random shops are planned to go on either side, with parking lots out front.

Poly count, about 270.

Second up, status update on the storage facility.
Poly count: Over 9000!!

The buildings are more or less complete apart from texturing, and of course walkways, driveways, and lights. The next major stage will be the underground Fulcrum facility which goes right under the storage complex.

2007-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, I lied. Another render today. This is the more continuity-correct version of the storehouse.

I like using 3D rendered sets because while some might argue they don't go well with hand drawn art, I like their utility.

What I like most is being able to lay out a set, shoot it from any angle, and keep things geometrically accurate. And this business with the ambient occlusion is only for stuff in the untextured WIP phase. With toon shaders on everything this stuff fits comic strips pretty well.

There are a few main advantages and restrictions I find to using this.

Pros
1. Geometrically accurate shots from any angle. I can model something once and render it from any angle. To keep things consistent in hand drawn backgrounds I have to draw maps of the various places. I found that modeling the whole thing in the first place wasn't much more work than keeping up to date maps of the locations.
2. I think it actually helps me draw characters in interesting perspectives sometimes. Often I'll draw a thumbnail of a panel from a relatively humdrum perspective, and when it comes time to render a background frame I'll end up finding a more interesting angle, so I have to draw the characters in at such an angle.

Cons
1. About 60-80% of the work for a location has to be done before it can be used. An outdoor location has to be mostly complete, while an indoor location can get away with several unfinished rooms if they're closed off from the viewer. At any rate, if work is slow on a new set, or even on a new part of an existing set, I have to slow the story down to avoid moving into those parts until they're completed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's annoying. In an ideal universe, I would have a scheduled daily time for 3D work, and when I've mostly completed the current set I would get to work on the next one and have it done by the time I need it. In reality, I slack off, especially when I get a set completed and I think I can coast for a while.
2. There's a really delicate balance between what should be drawn in and what should be modeled. On some levels it's clear -- backgrounds are modeled, characters are drawn. But there are objects the characters have to interact with. Doors and furniture seem good modeled, but it's tricky to figure out which way to go with the smaller objects that people move around and handle.

Roger, Houston, we are go for launch.

2007-01-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

First off, two test renders related to my webcomic Thinginess of Chaos. For those unfamiliar with my process, I create a 3D set in Blender with all the stuff that doesn't really move around, and if it's a large object I put it in even if it does move. I try to use toon shaders for everything so that it doesn't totally clash with the hand drawn elements.

The first guy is supposed to be a statue of some kind of king-- the head's all there is at the moment, and the crown will of course be replaced with a better one. I don't want to give too much away as this model is intended for a set I'm not going to need for a while yet.

Second up is a storage complex. Yes, this is supposed to be the same facility as the one at the beginning of Chapter III, which started while I was still drawing the backgrounds, and the astute reader would notice that I drew the buildings as having four spaces in the front and four in the back, while the ones here each have a single row of six buildings.

I didn't realize that until I checked after getting this far, so that means I'll probably have to scrap this whole thing and do it over. It's a pity, but the most complicated thing there is the doors, which are rigged with shape keys for nice opening and closing. And I can save those.

A couple unrelated renders, first, a Cluebat. It's The wood material on this turned out rather good I think, for a procedural material. And second, a sort of Borg-like rhombicuboctahedron. I couldn't figure out a good angle to really get a sense of the scale, but those little dark oblong bits around the outside of the sidewalk are supposed to be benches. This image I made for the Uncyclopedia article Rhombicuboctahedron. Coming up next time, probably some 2D stuff.