Soul Reaver, Raziel Remake WIP

Thought it would be a fun idea to remake a character from an old game as best as I could, I'm about 1 hour in so far. WIP

Portait Drawing

After my last drawing, i took what feedback I got and had another go. With a different face for ref'
I have to say it's a big improvement. Apart from the hair. I notice her left side is stronger then the right. So it is a must that when rendering I pay attention to everything and not favor any part more then another.
Overall though, i enjoyed drawing this quite a bit!

Friday night Sketch

Used reference, after i realised i completely lost the likeness, i just decided to focus on the tones hehe.
Next time, work proportions and eyes more :)

late night doodle!

Havent been in Zbrush for a while, thought i'd do a quick doodle before bed :)

Morning figure drawing

Today I draw in pen, to stop my chicken scratches :P
Also working on the shape of shadows and how they define the figure.

Finished the head

so he ended up a bit wonky...

Another Alien thingie!

Todays doodle!
Trying to put a lot more focus into light, and shadows. Trying to stay away from lines. Life drawing everyday is really paying off! :D

Sculpt of a head!

Thought I'd go all out and work on a head this week!
So far it feels like it's going right, but i'll give it a break for a while and come back to it, it still lacks life and likeness :/

sunday alien sketch

Quick sketch whilst sitting by the fire :)

Recent Drawings

Since studying anatomy my drawing has improved too :D anatomy is awesome :)

Clay Sculpt

after spending a good few months learning anatomy I figured it was a good time to do another sculpt to see progress and any weak points in what I know. So far, it's legs and feet :P

QuickyDoodle

Haven't been in Zbrush for a while so I thought i'd have a little doodle :)
Maybe i'll use this head sometime...
I think next time i'll go for something a bit more creature and not so human.

Latest ShowReel

SHOWREEL - vimeo link right there

2 hour Sketches!

Been doing a few portrait sketches in Zbrush only 1-2 hours spent on each, to help learn to differentiate between different races. And of course, Faces are very important to learn!

OldMan head Returns Again! - MentalRay Maya Render

So I retopologised(?) the head in Zbrush and exported it along with displacement.

Stuck him in Maya for some realistic Mental Ray renders!

I used image-based lighting, a skin shader for the head and a bokeh lense for the camera.

Would be nice to get some eyebrows and stubble, and a bit more colour in his face.

Old Man Face Returns!

I revisited his zbrush sculpt. My first attempt at really painting n Zbrush using a technique i think alot of people use for quick sketches etc. Basically starting with temperature zones and undertones and working my way up. I'll bring it to finish (paint it properly), give him some nice eyes and clean up the little funny bits here and there. I might even put him in Maya and do some nice Mental ray renders! I had fun doing the wrinkles :)

Update on Bumpy dude! Zbrush sculpt...

Visited one of my Zbrush doodles again will paint it soon, although i'm not looking forward to it :P

Old man face!... Wrinkles

Had a go with using some zbrush alphas to make some wrinkles. Need to learn more about skin but it's a start!
Also tried adding eyes, they're pretty dull :/

Doodle WIP

Started this sculpt a while ago, decided to revisit it and finish it with my new found abilities in zbrush!
He didn't have dumpy parts to begin with but now he's turning into more a dragon like dude, still having fun with it, it might change alot over the next few weeks who knows! :P
Played around with some matcaps i got from pixologic so try not to mind the random colours and lights :P

Head sculpt

Going through my zbrush book.
This tutorial showed use of different tools and masking techniques. Also some anatomy practise and a interesting workflow.

Zbush tutorials!

Recently  got a zbrush book,
ZBrush Character Creation, Advanced Digital Sculpting, 2nd edition by Scott Spencer.
It's a great book that a lot of people I know have found useful.
Scott talks very in depth about sculpting in ZBrush and from a sculptors perspective which is great, he also has input from other artist throughout the book which is the cherry on the cake.
I'll be posting up the work i get out of this book!

Chapter one: Door Knocker.
This tutorial covered most of the UI and tool in ZBrush.

A 3D Artists Road to Success, sort of...

So!
My Goal is to become a 3D Character Artist, an amazing one. Simple right?..
Well how do I get there?
I had no idea, even now sometimes I still wonder!
I went to Uni to study Animation (I actually went to study Game Art, but they told me animation would be better for me, what good that did me?! mann...), ending up finding I enjoyed creating characters more then anything so my final major ended up being just that. And BAM I find out i can freelance just doing this!? Great!!
But! Wait a second...
What does it take to become a successful Character Artist?
Can I have a great career just Freelancing?
And by great I mean have a ''healthy'' work/life balance. And by ''healthy'' I mean seeing daylight more then just a few hours a week, actual human interaction!

Well I think I have a answer to one?!

I emailed a bunch of different professional character artists asking for advice on what steps I should be taking. I was over the moon (I was actually over the bog, but that's not the point) when I got a reply so quickly from Peter Zoppi. Who, is a amazing character artist working in films and games.
And here's what he had to say.

''The things that will help you get a job is showing you can analyse things and recreate them properly.  Anatomy is the perfect place for that because everyone will know straight off if you've executed it properly or if it isn't right.''
He also mentioned to do several small anatomy studies instead of big ones, and to take a few days or even a week doing them. Working my way around the body taking it in small chunks.

So, taking Peters advice I plan to do more anatomy studies and small modelling projects.
But I personally think it is important to have a few big projects that I can spend weeks on working the whole character pipeline, so I can demonstrate more ability as well. But nevertheless I am taking his advice and running with it!

I listened to a pod-cast recently By Dave Rapoza and Dan Warren. Which are both amazing Freelance Artists.
They had a long talk about Freelancing as a Concept artist, although there field is in 2D art, it was still a great listen specially for the weird funny parts! Youtube Vid Here!
They hit a lot of interesting points in the talk most of them shocked and scared me, and other motivated me into wanting my goal more.
The overall talk was about ''Making it'' becoming a professional and getting the jobs you want and working when you want. They go on to talk about the three stages that you'll go through.

The Beginning, this is where you just start out and you're not known at all. You'll take any job just so you can start making something but these are very rarely the jobs you want. And to top it of the pay is minimal sometimes even none.

The Middle, Now you're finally establishing yourself, you're getting more jobs, they still aren't the jobs you want though. Now this is were it gets dark.
They go on to talk about how much of a struggle and push it is to get jobs to have enough money to live. And how much the work can pile up, if you don't do the jobs then you don't get the money and all the pressure adds up.
Right now Dan says he is just past the worst of the middle, he literally said it was hell. Having so much work they said made less time for other activities.
Here's one of the things that scared me and motivated me.

The End. After 4-5 years, you're a pro working the jobs you want to working when you want to.
Now that doesn't sound to bad but then I think about how much time they put into working and what things they gave up just so that they had more time to focus on becoming better. It just puts things into retrospective for me to know what to expect if I don't pull my socks up! Pro at 26yrs sounds good to me!

Now I know that these guys are 2D Artists But I imagine things not to be too different. Most Freelance character artists have already 5-10 year experience in a company before they freelance.

My best bet it seems would be to land a job with a company, establish myself then freelance. But that is to say I haven't changed my mind by the time I ''Get in''.

I have time on my side, living at home is a blessing, it gives me time to study and work without worrying too much about bills or money. I'm taking this opportunity to work my ass off and get it into a company!

I think it'll be a good idea to email some employers (Crytek please!), see what they want and if i can get any advice from them! Maybe even sneak my way into a job.

;)

Finished Sculpt

First Clay Sculpt W.I.P

Blocking Out

Muscle groups

Almost there