ERIK SAN JUAN'S BLOG-FOLIO

Female Base Model

Before you end up sculpting in Zbrush, it is always a good idea to have models in Maya that you can use as a base.  In the old-school days we would just start from a cube and extrude and cut until you had something that looks like this.  These days, things take so damn long that you have to have base models to bastardize or start from so you can get right into sculpting.  If you end up having triangles in your sculpt mesh, you may end up with little "pimples" on your smoothed mesh that you can never get out.  If you have to have triangles in your model, its best to hide them between toes and fingers or under the feet somewhere. 

The Villains Series: Preview

"Without villains, there are no heroes." (coming soon)

Flashback: Evil Kratos

I was running through my old folders and found a screenshot of Evil Kratos!  A lot dirtier than the original Kratos model I made for God of War, he has messier polygons and smaller dirtier textures.  If anyone made it to the end of the game, you (Kratos) are defending your wife and child in another dimension while you get pummelled by a thousand versions of your evil self.  This model reminds me of days when building models was simpler--which is why it warrants a Flashback post!

The Professionals Series

I wanted to compose a couple of monochromatic images in two different styles and turned over in a quick amount of time.  I wanted one looser than the other, so I started them as a sketch in my DS and then brought them into Ps for some refining.  In these images, I wanted to capture the lighting and mood of the red lights that these professionals are accustomed to. 

Bryan Dupree

Known for working more on his hair than his vocabulary, smooth as velvet rapper Bryan "Bling" Dupree searches for fame and glory within the purple spotlight of his mind. 

Emulation Exercise: Liepke's Brunette

In my studio, I have a leaflet with a painting that I really like from Malcom Liepke.  I was sitting on my bed with my DS looking to paint and thought it would be great to study how someone paints by painting their painting.  The exercise itself goes beyond mere copying.  It's a little like singing along with a good song--exercising by emulation helps me understand the choices that artist made with value, color and light.   I admire the energy and richness of Liepke's paintings. This image took me about an hour and a half to render, allowing me to feel more comfortable with the DS controls in Colors. 

DS Thumbnail Exercises

These were made using my Nintendo DS with an art program called "Colors." It allows you to concentrate on composition and value without getting bogged down in all the details too quickly. It is a simple and convenient way to paint on the go.

Nature of Water Process

This is one of my earliest sketches trying to define the poses of Bruce Lee that are most memorable to me. Much of the gesture in these images should be pushed to show the dynamic pose.

At first I try to attain correct values and lighting before I convolute my image with color, since color can complicate things. This method also works well if your colors and tone in the image could change from a warm to a cool scene. With this method you can experiment with different color schemes without committing to just one. Here Bruce's hair is not right, and I am not happy with his face. But with good reference you can visually see those characteristics that are the essence of your subject matter.

In this image, I concentrate on the face more because it will be the focal point of my piece. If I get this wrong then I am screwed. Here I try to make his hair less "bowl-cut-like" than the image above, and more dynamic. Reference is key when trying to nail a likeness, so gather tons of images to help you capture those subtleties, not only in faces but in everything you see.

Modeling Female Bum

I can definitely say that modeling a creature with tons of wrinkles, folds and texture is much easier than something that is as smooth as a woman's rear-end. There are landmarks of anatomy to follow when modeling a pelvis, but with a young woman there are certain subtleties that need to be indicated, as well as the correct falloff for muscles and definition, without making it too muscular and keeping it very "feminine." This is a portion of a personal model I am working on in Zbrush3. In our media driven culture and within the artistic world, the female figure is one of the most fascinating beautiful things to render in 2D and 3D. More on this in future posts to come.

Fluidity

My contribution to the Nucleus Gallery: The Nature of Water Exhibition. In my future entries I will post some process images for this piece, which include my early sketches and thoughts while creating it.