31 December 2007

I'm sponsoring the Content Paradise Passport freebie!


That's right. All January, in contentparadise.com, all Passport members will be able to download my Amazon Queen for G2Sydney for free! Finally, I can spill the beans :D
My main tools for creating the set were:
Modelling:
Shade and Silo2.
Uvmapping:
Silo2 and unwrap3d
Texturing:
3d-brush and the Gimp
Rendering:
Poser7 and Shade. I just did a render in Shade, just to see if there were no surprises on conversion. So all the renders and thumbnails you see with the product, are in fact done in Poser.
cr2, pp2, mc6, mt5 files tweaking:
Open Office 2.3, jane 1.54, SandR 1.5, MorphManager 4.0

You can find the link here

12 December 2007

Patio of residence in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico


This is quickie work I had to do on an old model (well, from September of this year...). Everything you see is modelled in Shade, except the roofs, which were modelled in Amapi. The roof tiles are made in Shade though...
Rendered in Shade.

28 November 2007

26 November 2007

Pirate in the fog


This is a novel take on a character I am developing for Near-me by e-frontier.(or is it by Smith Micro now).
The blouse as of right now, is a dynamic clothing, the trousers and boots are conforming clothes. The eye patch and the sword are smart props.
Rendered in Poser7, saved using the multipass script and composited and postworked in the Gimp.
The mesh geometry was done in Silo2.

23 November 2007

elven character for Terai Yuki2, WIP


Just as the title says. Althogh, maybe I'll throw in a falchion and a captain's hat, she could be a nice pirate too...

I'm using a novel approach using curved surfaces in Shade, using them as a low polygon mesh, to later detail in Silo. Unwrapped in unwrap3d, and the cloth simulation is courtesy of Poser7.

No render... yet.

I also did an elven staff in Silo2, and a cloak I did in Shade... which I'm not showing until the next wip hehehe

garage renovation


A simple render highlighting the renovation of a garage. The existing architecture is all white and somewhat simplified to give contrast between the old and the new.

Modelled and rendered using Shade pro. Background rendered in Vue5 infinite. The brik thingy was uvmapped in Silo2. The props are not mine in case anybody wonders...

12 November 2007

Near me is an Amazon Warrior, now on sale!


:D

After quite a while, doodling in Shade, Silo, unwrap3d, zbrush, 3d-brush, the Gimp, and what-not, it is ready!

I'm quite proud of it.

11 November 2007

Near-me as an Amazon Warrior, almost ready for prime time!


I crafted her a cudgel-spear-thingy for her yesterday, modelled and uvmapped it in Silo, textured in 3d-brush. Rendered in Poser7, postwork in the Gimp.

08 November 2007

Near-me as an Amazon Warrior WIP, yet another update


Here is a viewport screengrab, now with a legknife with its scabbard. This time around, the knife and scabbard were modelled and uvmapped in Silo2.05, and textured in 3d-brush 2.01
The screengrab is from Poser7.

28 October 2007

Near-me amazon Warrior WIP, update



Most time consuming this time was the sort of knot on the sandals. Modelled and uvmapped the sandals in Silo2, textured in Zbrush 3.1, rendered in Poser7.

beach esplanade delight, WIP


Modelled in Shade, uvmapped in Silo2, rendered in Shade.

I should have put some more weathering effects all around, but it is a work in progress. The conical thatched roof, I need to get rid of that visible seam. Still, I think it conveys the general idea...

20 October 2007

Near-me amazon Warrior WIP update



I did this the other day but did not upload it. New are the shoulder guards as well as the gauntlets. Used Silo2 and Zbrush for the modelling and texturing, rendered in Poser7

Bar and TV, as of this morning


I'm leaving the render on the background while I'm doing stuff (though I do turn it off to render other stuff), and this is how it looks as of this morning. I turned on the light panels for this image, but leaved the floor lights turned off.

19 October 2007

Small shopping centre in Martinez de la Torre, Veracruz


A "maquette" view of a proposal of a shopping centre (or to be exact, a row of shops) in Martinez de la Torre, Veracruz. Since the design still is in very early stages, I opted for an all white image, the volumetry of the project giving it "life"

Traced and extruded in Lightwave9.3, detailed in Silo2, uvmapped in unwrap3d, rendered in Shade. I know, lots of programs involved, but this being a relatively simple project, I was experimenting using alternate workflows.

16 October 2007

Bar and TV, rendering so far


Modelled in Shade, rendering in Maxwell. This is how the render looks so far. Behind the frosted glass panels are some light panels, as well as below the floor (which also is frosted glass). But I like this option a lot, reminds me of some film noir.

26 September 2007

Entrance to a housing complex


Modeled and rendred entirely in Shade. The main "watch tower" however I exported to Silo to uvmap so the seams could match the design. The cars and the tree are from the Shade Collection series.

Near_me is an amazon warrior! W.I.P.


So struggling between real life, doing some more charros, and my japanese outfit for Koji G2, now I add an amazon warrior set for Near_me, a cute manga doll released recently by e-frontier.

As of now, I made her a body morph in Zbrush 3.1, which I then tweaked in Silo2, and the body armour, done in Silo2 and detailed and textured in Zbrush. I found it easier than I thought to incorporate the displacement maps and normal maps into Poser, I'll have to use this more often...

13 September 2007

Charro suits for G2 Poser figures, now available!


Finally, some extra time well spent.

The shirts, pants, hats and skirt were modelled initially in Shade using curved surfaces, then tweaked and uvmapped in Silo. The buttons on the shirt were also done in Silo. The ribbon in Shade.

The shoes were completely done in Silo.

The texturing colouring was done in Zbrush. The occlusion from the bucles was baked in Lightwave.

Finally, image postwork was done in the Gimp.

You can find a link to the product page here.

12 September 2007

Doodling with Silo, Shade, Zbrush, Lightwave, the Gimp and Poser


A closeup on some clothing items I did recently. I did use a lot of programs on this one!

The shirt was originally done in Shade with curved surfaces, exported as a polygon mesh to Silo, where I inserted the buttons, tweaked the mesh, and made some understandable uv maps. Same with the pants, in Silo I made the belt and the basic bucle.

The bucle I exported to Zbrush, where I did the floral thingies. I exported the displacement stuff to Lightwave, where I baked the occlusion information, and saved as a texture.

The bump texture of the shirt I did in the Gimp.

The flower thingies in the pants I also did them on Zbrush. I also did the occlusion thing on the pants via Lightwave.

I think I could have also made a bump map for the pants, but it did add nothing to the image.

And all this I rendered in Poser7.

I could have done an occlusion pass in Poser, but baking the occlusion makes for a faster render when you need multiple views.

20 August 2007

Koji G2 formal kimono WIP, almost done!



I think it is now just a texture thing, making some textures with some kamo on the haori and stuff, but the hard work is mostly done.

15 August 2007

CFE station for Atlixco, Puebla


Keeping in the overall mexican contemporary style, this is part of several alternatives for the Atlixco, Puebla branch of the CFE (or Federal Comission for Electricity).
Modeled and rendered in Shade, using some Vue palmtrees, and some Shade content.

Haori Hakama and Tabi for Koji G2, W.I.P


This is something I'm working on in my spare time. As you can see, the main issue seems to be the bump texture. Still working on it, and I know I'll get it right in the end ;)

Modeled in Shade and Silo, rendered in Poser7, no postwork.

The figure is G2 Koji, by e-frontier, btw...

13 August 2007

Weekend trip to Tehuacan




Tehuacán, or Tehuacán de las granadas (Tehuacan of the pomegranates), lies some two hours south of Puebla city, and is famous as a centre of denim manufacture, chicken egg production, and of course, its fabled mineral water.
Until quite recently is looked more like a sleepy town, this being specially true due to the fact that is is almost year round a very hot and dry climate. Who wants to work with that heat?
So anyway, a friend of mine that works in the tomato greenhouse industry near Tehuacan invited me and a cousing of her to visit, and so we did. Arriving early, I took the chance to buy myself a beautiful Sahuayo hat, and walk around downtown, with its enchanting central square (or Zócalo), admire it's colonial architecture, and so on.
While part of the state of Puebla, it retains it's own charm and personality.
Later we met my friend, had some nice chit chat, and went over to her place to get ready for a night of partying.
Curiously enough, the disco, located to the left of the city hall, once was a house of the famous ex-dictator Porfirio Diaz. Music was a bit for teenagers, though nothing extreme, no mosh pits or slam contests. Everybody was quite nice. Very hospitable people.
Of course the next day we basically slept the whole day, we danced THAT much. And there is no nightspot curfew, so we danced till quite late.

On the way back, I allowed myself a bit of night chill in order to watch the stars in the heavens above. The sky being so unpolluted and clear, with hardly a cloud in sight, it was just the perfect opportunity for stargazing.

30 July 2007

A simple love story

This is the video with which I won the antics3d focus competition.
Let me tell you a bit about antics3d.

In case it doesn't show up in the flash thingy, here is the direct link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7FAmNp8zsz0

Antics3d is a pre-visualization program, used extensively in the tv and movie industries as a tool to help explain everybody involved in the making of scenes just how the scenes are intended to look like. It is a wonderful alternative to sketch storyboarding, and has many very useful tools to set up cameras, lighting, virtual sets, and so on.

However, me being a 3dcg archviz illustrator, what do I have to do with antics3d?

Well, antics3d has more than meets the eye. The drag and drop way that one can create complete scenes can also be applied as a previz architectural tool. It even has a 3dsmax plugin which enables 3dsmax people to add to the huge library of premade content to quickly and effortlessly populate scenes, with people, cars, streetlights, doors that open and close, etc etc etc. Really great stuff. And fun.

So anyway, I was doing a bit of previz work for a friend, when I decided it would be more fun to do the work with a simple story. It would help showcase the intended work better, and would keep the potential client a bit more engrossed on what was being presented (as most clients are not too deep on architecture).

Well, here is the video. I should have done some cleaning and stuff, hidden the camera paths and so on, but it shows just what can be done in some 3 hours with the software.

Gaby Valero sings to a packed audience in the Zocalo!

Gaby Valero, a good friend of mine, and singer extraordinaire, sang to a packed audience in the Zócalo de Puebla (main square in downtown Puebla), Mexico. She sang as part of the repertoire showcasing the cultural season this year.
Accompaining her were three extremely talented musicians, one of which I have the luck of knowing personally, and let me say, he is a really virtuoso on the violin.
Shown here is the backstage bootlegged video ( :P just kidding).
What really happened is that when she got to the stage, there was nowhere to put her stuff, and I volunteered to help her out, so I became her "logistical manager" for the event.

27 July 2007

I just won the best video of Antics3d Focus Group!

I checked my mail, and this is what I got:

(from Antics Focus Group, email address suppressed)

Dear All,

The quality of the feedback provided and the videos submitted were of a very high standard, however, there can only be two winners and they are:

Winner of the Best Feedback Competition: Colin Le Roux

Winner of the Best Video Competition: Juan Manuel Bautista Hoepfner

Both winners will take home $500.


Once again, thank-you to everyone and please feel free to email me, at anytime, any additional feedback, user requirements, or project updates you may have. We will also keep you posted about other opportunities to contribute to the development of this product.

Best Regards

David Harragin

David Harragin
Antics Technologies Ltd

Linen Hall
3rd Floor
162-168 Regent Street
London
W1B 5TD

Tel: +44 (0) 207 038 3900
Fax: +44 (0) 207 038 3901
Web: www.antics3d.com

So congratulations, Colin! And congratulations to me too! :D
I'll upload the video soon, after I finish some pressing assignments

25 July 2007

Content Paradise winning image

This is the image that won.

I won the Content Paradise image contest!


For the benefit of those not registered as Passport users in Content Paradise, I attach a screenshot of the all-important announcement that I won :D

05 July 2007

Gaby Valero has a new homepage!

Gaby Valero, an extremely talented singer, and artist in general (did I say she's a friend of mine?) now has her own homepage. It is as of yet a work in progress, but I'm sure soon we'll have a very nice place to visit in internetdom.

You can visit her homepage at www.gabyvalero.com

02 July 2007

Amazon Warrior for Lucy Jet, now available


In a record time (at least for me) I did this set from the ground up in two days. Certainly an achievement I am proud of. Now available for sale in Content Paradise, here

25 June 2007

Nemesis Warrior for Poser G2males, almost ready!


This is what I've been working on my free time this week. It is supposed to be a counterpart to my all sweet and cute Amazon Warrior.

24 June 2007

G2James hair fit for Terai Yuki2, on sale!


This is a hair fit for the "barbarian" hair that comes with the G2James Poser figure. What amazes me most in how the impression on the figure changes with just a different hair.

On sale at Content Paradise too.

17 June 2007

Miki2 hair fit for TY2, on sale now!


Miki2 and Terai Yuki2 are both wonderful figures for e-frontier's Poser. I like the Miki2 hair, but unfortunately, it does not quite fit Terai Yuki2. Not anymore!
I made a custom fit workaround, now for all the world to enjoy!

Available here in Content Paradise

10 June 2007

Amazon Warrior character set for Poser, almost ready!


Indeed, just a thing of tweaking files, making some more promo images, decent thumbnails and stuff. It has been seme weeks of hard work, but I think it has been worthwhile.

It is a set of clothing, accessories, as well as some morph targets for e-frontier's Terai Yuki2 character, which works in Poser.

I have used Shade and Silo extensively for the modelling, Silo and unwrap3d for the uvmapping, the Gimp for generating the bitmap textures. And of course, Poser for posing, rigging, and rendering.

The wings on the angel are not mine, they were part of the bonus content for pre-purchasing Poser6. The famous Winter Queen set.

27 May 2007

Inspirational image, "lost", Poser version


I did some thigh-strapped swords, and decided this time around to render in Poser7, as I in fact pose my characters in Poser, less guesswork involved.

25 May 2007

Inspirational image, "lost"


Just something I fancied out in my free time. It is also a work in progress on a character set I'm working on for the Terai Yuki2 figure for Poser. I like the overall redness of the image.

19 May 2007

Restaurant facade in Puebla, Mexico


This is yet another revision on the restaurant, hopefully nearer to the clients needs!
Modelled in Shade (except for the palm trees, they are tweaked Vue5infinite palmtrees).
Also rendered in Shade.

09 May 2007

photomontage on proposed restaurant in Puebla, Mexico


This is in fact the second version of the restaurant. Really not much to work on, no working drawings, only photo references and some quick sketches. But for a day's work, I think it is quite convincing.
Modelled and rendered in Shade pro, with a bit of help from Silo2beta.

30 April 2007

Ita, Andrea, Juan


A really beautiful photograph showing us three in the really enchanting garden in the house of some relatives. As you can see, we are all quite happy.

18 April 2007

Trip to Valle de Bravo, Mexico



I know, this trip was done some time ago, but I have just found some spare time to upload some pictures. The ravishingly beautiful girl in the image is my girlfriend, with her daughter, which is a very sweet child, especially for her age.

13 April 2007

Weekend retreat residence in Atlixco, Puebla, another view


Another view of the same house...

Row of houses in Morillotla, Puebla


Just as the title says, a row of houses. Some contemporary undertones get blended with the more traditional massive structures reminiscent of prehispanic architecture result in a contemporary solution that is modern and at the same time, discreet.

12 April 2007

Free natural stone textures!

If I see interest in these, I'll upload more. Enjoy!
http://www.sharecg.com/view.php?upload_id=2120
http://www.sharecg.com/view.php?upload_id=2119
http://www.sharecg.com/view.php?upload_id=2118
http://www.sharecg.com/view.php?upload_id=2116

Weekend retreat residence in Atlixco, Puebla


Atlixco is a small city near Puebla, Mexico, with a very agreeable climate, where wealthy people from Puebla have weekend retreat homes. This is a project for precisely one of this homes.

Modelled and rendered in Shade.

28 March 2007

14 March 2007

She said yes!


The girl of my dreams that I had been dating just accepted being my girlfriend. I am soooo happy!

Her name is Ita.
And I am in love. And on a diet ;)

08 March 2007

Saint Anthony on its head


For those in the know, you know what this means.
For those that don't...
I'll explain to you on Monday.