Friday, May 4, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Photoshop time
Okay I absolutely love Photoshop, I have been using it ever since I was in jr high. I use it for building materials and textures when I am doing 3D scenes and I use it just for pimping photographs. Its so much fun. Today I did a wallpaper and its of the Joker from Batman Dark Knight.
Okay who do you think did the best job at playing the Joker... Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger?
What do you think?
> ? <
Okay who do you think did the best job at playing the Joker... Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger?
A.) HEATH
B.) JACK
Personally, I loved Heath Ledger over Jack Nicholson. Heath just did a way better job a playing the character then Nicholson. He was funny, but he was so evil. He did just a perfect job.
--
I was going through all my 3D scenes and I found my first 3D scene I ever did. Wow :) So long ago. What do you think?
Its my snowman scene :P Wow I remember sitting in my office working 13 hours on that. Haha I can get that done its about 5 minutes now. I am going to put some more scenes that I did when I first started.
Here is just a scene I did with random objects.
Haha Here is my Post Apocalypse scene, i call it... "Dan's Dead Gas Station" I ran the render through photoshop to give it a cartoon-ish look.
OHHHHHHH HERE IS MY REDBULL ENERGY SPRAY
Well I've been doing 3D work for about 5 years now, I have been teaching myself and working hard at it. I want to work for Pixar so badly, It's not even funny how badly I want to work there. I would sell my own mother so I could.. JUST KIDDING MOM!!! Nahh I just have to keep working and learning as much as I can. Hopefully I can make a good impression on the Pixar people.
After a couple of years of working on my 3D modeling, I got enough courage to send a professional graphic designs guy some of my work and hoping that he could give me his critique. This is what he sent me.
--
HOLY SH**, ETHAN! That is one f***ing beautiful render!
I don't think there's anything more I can tell you about the modeling part that you don't already know. Right now, you already seem to be an experienced modeler. I think you'll be able solve any problems you might have making any shape by using what you already know. You can tell if the mesh is bad because it is hard to uv map and when you render it, the textures will seem to stretch or slide. Your models look just fine.
Ethan, it seems you've already gone beyond modeling and are moving into the creative/artistic side of things. I can really say you're well on your way to becoming a well rounded 3d artist.
You want a critique? :) Ok, here it goes.
I don't remember what software you use but I love the way you did the texturing. Texturing is an art form by itself that is completely separate from modeling. UV mapping is the technical side of it and making the shaders and the textures is the creative side. In big production studios there is 1 whole department just for texturing.
I'm really impressed by the fine scratches and the reflectivity of the bottles.
The way you did the blood is really top notch. I want to say that it could use just a bit of transparency but I cannot really tell if it is a separate mesh from the sand or a part of the sand with a different shader and bump map. And that's 1 way you can tell if the artist is good. If you can't decide whether what you see is real or fake, then the artist really knows his stuff. Very nicely done!
The coins are just perfect. The bumps are just right and the sand on some of the coins is a master touch. That is the funny thing about details. Even if there is only 1 very small detail that is wrong, the eye of the viewer is pulled to it. He can tell there is something wrong with the picture even if he can't tell you exactly what it is. If all the details are correct, the viewer knows the picture is good even if he can't tell you why. It's all in the small details.
The cork is just fine. When I zoom in on the parchment labels I want to say that you should lessen the bumps. But when I zoom out and look at the whole thing, the labels looks just fine.
I like the way the smoothness of the skull is in contrast to all the grainy textures around it. There seem to be some black smudges on some parts facing the light so they should not be in shadow. Could be some problem with the uv mapping or maybe some normals in the mesh got reversed if you used booleans to make the skull.
Sand and snow are always hard to do and you made your sand very nicely. I can see that you're already using bumps to add to the effect - very good. You can make it more realistic by subdividing the mesh more and more to make small folds and details in the sand. But that will make your poly count really crazy and your render time really crazy, so that's not a practical way to do it. Try using displacements maps. If you want your displacements to go down as well as up, use a negative value in the displacement. If you see "banding" or lines when it should be a gradient, try making your displacement map really big. Or save to a format that doesn't have data loss like jpg. Try saving to tiff or bmp.
And lastly the sky. This is the only thing that I can say takes a little bit away from the realism of the picture. If you look at the sky you will notice that none of the clouds have any sharp edges. That is a very small detail but my eye was pulled to the lower right corner where the edges of the clouds are sharper. That's easy to fix. Just add a little gaussian blur to your sky texture map. Then you can add bright stars on another layer if you want. :)
If you want to make realistic textures the best thing to do is to go out and see what they look like in the real world. When I was learning how to do grunge maps I wanted to know where grunge grows and how it starts. So wherever I went I was always looking behind doors to look for grunge and bending down to see the corner between the floor and wall. Everybody thought I had finally gone crazy. LOL Well, maybe they're right but I try to act normal so nobody will notice. LOL
And that is my critique. Whew. But you know, I'm so proud of what you've made that I'm going to show it to my friends. It's really nice.
This next part is for your future study.
I already know you have a good grasp of modeling, uv mapping, shaders, texturing and rendering. I would say you're already moving from the intermediate level to the expert level in all of these.
Like I said, I think you're starting to move beyond the technical side of 3d into the purely artistic side. I think it's time that you should start to learn art theory. That is the difference between a 3d technician and a real artist. It's like the difference between a draftsman and a painter.
Here are some things you should study. Composition, perspective, balance, color theory and lighting. Just google any of these topics and you will get lots of reading material. You can just get an overview of these or you can go as deep as you want in your study. All of these topics are very broad and have many, many sub-topics inside them. Anything you can learn about these will help you greatly in whatever you do from now on.
Some people have natural artistic talent and I think you are one of them. Just imagine what you can do with your talent if you know what all the great masters have learned over so many hundreds of years.
To get you started here is a small tutorial on the rule of thirds. It falls under the topic of composition and there are many other rules of composition. If you read it you will find that your placement of the bottles is almost on the exact third. That is why your render is so pleasing to the eye. If you composed your render that way unconsciously without knowing about this rule, you definitely have talent.
It's really strange but you can try it for yourself. Relax your mind and your eyes and look at your render. Your eyes will stop on the third where the bottles are. But they will try to move to the right where the exact third is. Now try doing the same thing to another picture. If the point of focus of the picture is not on a third your eyes will never stop but will keep jumping all around the picture trying to find a place to rest.
It seems the old masters found out something about our human subconscious. Now go find out about the other rules of composition. They're just as much fun to play around with. You can play tricks on your friends by making them feel tense or worried just by looking at your renders. LOL
Now this part is if you want to specialize in realism. Realism is all about lighting, lighting, lighting. You can use light to make the viewer focus on one part, you can use it to hide mesh that is not so nice, you can use light or dark to add drama, you can use the contrast of light and dark to show action or conflict.
There is classical lighting - 1 point, 2 point, 3 point, ambient lighting, rim lighting, etc. That is 1 topic I mentioned above in art theory so it's good if you have an overview of all of these.
Then there is realistic lighting. The best place to study this is in photography. Photography is the study of light and shadow. No picture is all black or all white. There must be light and shadow so there will be a picture. Again google tutorials on photography. There are millions of them.
And finally, if you want to see some practical applications of art theory and lighting, here is a link to my gallery.
If you read the comments, you will notice that in my first and second post I asked that everyone critique my work. So many gave insights and very useful information on what I should learn. So you can see, Ethan, that I am also still learning. I don't think we will ever stop learning as long as we are alive.
And that is the end of this long,long email. LOL
Sorry for that but I'm so happy about your progress and so proud of what you have made. I want to teach you everything I know but I can't put it all into 1 email.
Keep going. You're doing fantastic.
Best regards,
I don't think there's anything more I can tell you about the modeling part that you don't already know. Right now, you already seem to be an experienced modeler. I think you'll be able solve any problems you might have making any shape by using what you already know. You can tell if the mesh is bad because it is hard to uv map and when you render it, the textures will seem to stretch or slide. Your models look just fine.
Ethan, it seems you've already gone beyond modeling and are moving into the creative/artistic side of things. I can really say you're well on your way to becoming a well rounded 3d artist.
You want a critique? :) Ok, here it goes.
I don't remember what software you use but I love the way you did the texturing. Texturing is an art form by itself that is completely separate from modeling. UV mapping is the technical side of it and making the shaders and the textures is the creative side. In big production studios there is 1 whole department just for texturing.
I'm really impressed by the fine scratches and the reflectivity of the bottles.
The way you did the blood is really top notch. I want to say that it could use just a bit of transparency but I cannot really tell if it is a separate mesh from the sand or a part of the sand with a different shader and bump map. And that's 1 way you can tell if the artist is good. If you can't decide whether what you see is real or fake, then the artist really knows his stuff. Very nicely done!
The coins are just perfect. The bumps are just right and the sand on some of the coins is a master touch. That is the funny thing about details. Even if there is only 1 very small detail that is wrong, the eye of the viewer is pulled to it. He can tell there is something wrong with the picture even if he can't tell you exactly what it is. If all the details are correct, the viewer knows the picture is good even if he can't tell you why. It's all in the small details.
The cork is just fine. When I zoom in on the parchment labels I want to say that you should lessen the bumps. But when I zoom out and look at the whole thing, the labels looks just fine.
I like the way the smoothness of the skull is in contrast to all the grainy textures around it. There seem to be some black smudges on some parts facing the light so they should not be in shadow. Could be some problem with the uv mapping or maybe some normals in the mesh got reversed if you used booleans to make the skull.
Sand and snow are always hard to do and you made your sand very nicely. I can see that you're already using bumps to add to the effect - very good. You can make it more realistic by subdividing the mesh more and more to make small folds and details in the sand. But that will make your poly count really crazy and your render time really crazy, so that's not a practical way to do it. Try using displacements maps. If you want your displacements to go down as well as up, use a negative value in the displacement. If you see "banding" or lines when it should be a gradient, try making your displacement map really big. Or save to a format that doesn't have data loss like jpg. Try saving to tiff or bmp.
And lastly the sky. This is the only thing that I can say takes a little bit away from the realism of the picture. If you look at the sky you will notice that none of the clouds have any sharp edges. That is a very small detail but my eye was pulled to the lower right corner where the edges of the clouds are sharper. That's easy to fix. Just add a little gaussian blur to your sky texture map. Then you can add bright stars on another layer if you want. :)
If you want to make realistic textures the best thing to do is to go out and see what they look like in the real world. When I was learning how to do grunge maps I wanted to know where grunge grows and how it starts. So wherever I went I was always looking behind doors to look for grunge and bending down to see the corner between the floor and wall. Everybody thought I had finally gone crazy. LOL Well, maybe they're right but I try to act normal so nobody will notice. LOL
And that is my critique. Whew. But you know, I'm so proud of what you've made that I'm going to show it to my friends. It's really nice.
This next part is for your future study.
I already know you have a good grasp of modeling, uv mapping, shaders, texturing and rendering. I would say you're already moving from the intermediate level to the expert level in all of these.
Like I said, I think you're starting to move beyond the technical side of 3d into the purely artistic side. I think it's time that you should start to learn art theory. That is the difference between a 3d technician and a real artist. It's like the difference between a draftsman and a painter.
Here are some things you should study. Composition, perspective, balance, color theory and lighting. Just google any of these topics and you will get lots of reading material. You can just get an overview of these or you can go as deep as you want in your study. All of these topics are very broad and have many, many sub-topics inside them. Anything you can learn about these will help you greatly in whatever you do from now on.
Some people have natural artistic talent and I think you are one of them. Just imagine what you can do with your talent if you know what all the great masters have learned over so many hundreds of years.
To get you started here is a small tutorial on the rule of thirds. It falls under the topic of composition and there are many other rules of composition. If you read it you will find that your placement of the bottles is almost on the exact third. That is why your render is so pleasing to the eye. If you composed your render that way unconsciously without knowing about this rule, you definitely have talent.
It's really strange but you can try it for yourself. Relax your mind and your eyes and look at your render. Your eyes will stop on the third where the bottles are. But they will try to move to the right where the exact third is. Now try doing the same thing to another picture. If the point of focus of the picture is not on a third your eyes will never stop but will keep jumping all around the picture trying to find a place to rest.
It seems the old masters found out something about our human subconscious. Now go find out about the other rules of composition. They're just as much fun to play around with. You can play tricks on your friends by making them feel tense or worried just by looking at your renders. LOL
Now this part is if you want to specialize in realism. Realism is all about lighting, lighting, lighting. You can use light to make the viewer focus on one part, you can use it to hide mesh that is not so nice, you can use light or dark to add drama, you can use the contrast of light and dark to show action or conflict.
There is classical lighting - 1 point, 2 point, 3 point, ambient lighting, rim lighting, etc. That is 1 topic I mentioned above in art theory so it's good if you have an overview of all of these.
Then there is realistic lighting. The best place to study this is in photography. Photography is the study of light and shadow. No picture is all black or all white. There must be light and shadow so there will be a picture. Again google tutorials on photography. There are millions of them.
And finally, if you want to see some practical applications of art theory and lighting, here is a link to my gallery.
If you read the comments, you will notice that in my first and second post I asked that everyone critique my work. So many gave insights and very useful information on what I should learn. So you can see, Ethan, that I am also still learning. I don't think we will ever stop learning as long as we are alive.
And that is the end of this long,long email. LOL
Sorry for that but I'm so happy about your progress and so proud of what you have made. I want to teach you everything I know but I can't put it all into 1 email.
Keep going. You're doing fantastic.
Best regards,
--
After getting this email, I became close to (I won't say his name because I don't know if he would want me to, so I will call him... Uhhh James) James and he became my teacher and mentor. He has helped me develop my 3D skills. I am still learning, heck I will be learning for a long long long time, But I have come a long long way from doing those two 3D snowmen. I can't wait to see where I go in the future.
Pixar is my goal. Someday you guys will see my name in the end credits. :) I can't wait.
Sorry for putting the long email on my post.
CHEERS!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
David's Signature "Beyond Gourmet" Jelly Beans
Okay I just want you guys to know, I have finally tried David Klein's "Beyond Gourmet" jelly beans and I take back all I said about the Jelly Belly beans. I am no longer going to support anything that comes out of "Jelly Belly". David Klein is truly the "Candy Man" nothing can begin to compare... Wow!
David I have been living with a blindfold over my eyes for years. Going from Jelly Belly to your beans, was like going from fast food to a home cooked meal. I am now forever a "Beyond Gourmet" jelly bean buyer. From the first bean I popped into my mouth I could tell you are an artist. Your art is your jelly beans, you take pride in them. Thank you, for your wonderful confection creations.
I just want you to know my favorite flavor is Bacon. It rocks my world!! I am just wondering, what are the chances of having meal flavored beans?
Thank You David
New 3D Scenes
Here are the new 3D scenes I am working on. Fire away with your critique!!
Here is a city fly over, with my name in the middle.
Here are pics from my city
There is no sky... Yet!
My Scene of eggs. Yes EGGS! I don't know what kind of eggs they are yet. MY scenes is not even done, it's my first render. I have been focusing mainly on my egg material and sky material.
This is what I have for tonight. Goodnight.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
HA!
Barack cracked a joke at the White house Correspondents Dinner. It was about Sara Palin and eating dogs.. Eating Dogs? HUH?
"What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull is delicious." Oh boy aren't you the bad man on campus!! Comedic value 0!
How long did it take him to come up with that? Phew, good thing his teleprompter was on or he would have been in trouble.
I am no comedian, I know I am not. But I can say jokes more funny than that.
Like how about this...
President Barrack Hussein Obama has finally released his actual birth certificate, PROVING that he really was born in Hawaii, our 57th state.
See what I mean?!?! A heck of a lot more funny than Barrack's joke and I was cutting down a political figure, just like him... So who's joke was more funny? Mine or Obama's?
If you didn't laugh, here is another one.
Have you heard about the new Obama Happy Meal for kids at McDonalds? It comes with a promise
that they'll get a toy.. someday!
Ughhh not laughing yet?????
Fine last one... Barack Obama, Sara Palin and Joe Biden were trapped on a desert island with no hope of rescue, so Obama pulled a magic lamp out of his turban and rubbed it until a Genie appeared, The Genie announced that he would grant three wishes; one wish for each of the castaways. Obama immediately wished to magically transported back to Chicago and he was gone in a puff of smoke. Palin asked to go to Alaska and she was instantly whisked away. Biden began to cry and said, "I wish I had my friends back!"
Okay fine I will stop with the semi-funny jokes that are more funny than Barack's.
Barack's face after telling his clever joke
Settle down tiger it wasn't that funny.. sheesh
Barack's Joke
Have a good sunday.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Jelly Beans
One of my favorite candies are Jelly Beans. No not the horrible off brands, I am talking the original Jelly Belly Jelly Beans.
David Klein was the original founder of the Jelly Belly company. In 1980, Klein and his partner decided to sell out to the Goelitz Candy Company for $4.8 million. Can you believe it? Selling out for 4.5 million?!?! Dude The Jelly Belly company makes $170 million annually. If I was Klein, I would probably still be in my bedroom crying my eyes out and I would most likely go into a deep dark coma of depression!!
Well I am not David Klein, so I can enjoy my Jelly Belly Jelly Beans without any pain or sadness! Hmmm my all time favorite jelly bean flavor is... POPCORN... Man I could eat those all day long. They are so buttery and yummy. It seriously is like having a very buttery tub of movie theater popcorn.. but it's smashed into one tiny little bean. Its Insane!!
MMMMMMMM
I think the world would be a better place if everyone had a Jelly Bean machine built into their homes. This is the future I'm telling you. Just imagine every meal you have in Jelly Bean form... That would be amazing.
For Thanksgiving, you would have... Turkey beans, mashed potato beans, gravy beans, stuffing beans, pea beans and mac and cheese bake beans. See everything is tons better!! Plus, think of the time you would save making the meal and then cleaning up. No dishes, no grime. Its perfect!
--
Well here is a list of all the Jelly Belly jelly bean flavors. what are your favorites flavors?
I hope you all have a smashing day.
Ethan
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Long Time No Post
Hey.. I know, I haven't been good at posting anything. I've been just having several weeks in a row that have been just upsetting.. I know why would you care? Hmmm. Well I won't bother you with my crap, so I will talk about something interesting.
When I'm having days that are absolute crap, I always (This is what I do to feel better I'm not gonna unload on you.. don't worry) always always google "beautiful beaches" and go to the images and look at the beautiful beaches. After I have the "beautiful beaches" pulled up on google, I go to my iTunes and turn on... Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
I will go through every picture I can find and just soak them in. It always helps me to calm down if I can't surf off what I am feeling. I know nice.
See what I mean? It's soothing to the soul. I love the beach, I love the ocean so very much. I love the salty wind blowing through my hair and I love the feeling of the water dripping off me when I warm up by the sun. My home, is where the ocean is. I never will leave it.
When ever I think about the ocean, I am reminded of my all time favorite book. Its "The Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne. This incredible story is about five guys, who are prisoners in a confederate camp in Virginia during the "American Civil War" and they escape the prison camp in a hot air balloon. But as they are making their escape, a storm blows them to the ocean (south pacific) and they crash land onto an island.
When I'm having days that are absolute crap, I always (This is what I do to feel better I'm not gonna unload on you.. don't worry) always always google "beautiful beaches" and go to the images and look at the beautiful beaches. After I have the "beautiful beaches" pulled up on google, I go to my iTunes and turn on... Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
I will go through every picture I can find and just soak them in. It always helps me to calm down if I can't surf off what I am feeling. I know nice.
So I've got the song for you... So play it and scroll down all the beach pictures I have.
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Okay soak it all in.
Beautiful Storm
Clearly.. Crystal Clear Awesome-ness!!
Mmmmmm... Smell that coconut milk.
Ah, surfing with a setting sun... Perfect!
No waves to surf.. But still beautiful
Needs a few people... Then its perfect!
I want a Home on this beach
Very Beautiful
Super beautiful waves in the distance
I want to live in a beach hut
See what I mean? It's soothing to the soul. I love the beach, I love the ocean so very much. I love the salty wind blowing through my hair and I love the feeling of the water dripping off me when I warm up by the sun. My home, is where the ocean is. I never will leave it.
When ever I think about the ocean, I am reminded of my all time favorite book. Its "The Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne. This incredible story is about five guys, who are prisoners in a confederate camp in Virginia during the "American Civil War" and they escape the prison camp in a hot air balloon. But as they are making their escape, a storm blows them to the ocean (south pacific) and they crash land onto an island.
With only a few things that they were able to salvage from the crash, they managed to build a entire village/town. It is such an amazing story. I can read it over and over again.
So if you ever end up getting marooned or stranded on an island, this book can come in handy. Its like the ultimate island survival guide! You can learn so much, like how to set up a tent, build a fortress, start a fire and TAME A MONKEY!!!! Anything you can possibly think of is in this book! So get it.
--
I hate blogging. I can't think of anything to post. Im trying Dave, I am just not a writer. Ugh. Okay well here is my newest model I am working on.
It looks horrible, but I will keep working on it. I will sometime get it to look real. I hope your weekend was great! Goodnight my friends and enemies.
Ethan
PS - This is where I want to live. This exact place and If you could turn around, you would be able to see beautiful big waves waiting to be surfed.... Just imagine the waves. night
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