nwiz25's CGPortoflio Gallery

dream dragon

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:02:47 +0000

my entry for the design fusion challenge --

i wanted to make it look more of a spirit of the dream realm filled with color and magic i deliberately didn't add wings for the dragon, nor teeth, ( didn't want a fierce dragon; anatomically speaking )

hehe .. this time, my work doesn't have much of a story to tell,
even so, i didn't want to make it more busy than it already is :P
instead more for visual appeal ... i let myself go nuts

main model was created in 3dsmax, lots of basic shapes such as lines, circles (warped/pulled/stretched), soft edged brush strokes for smoke, finally ... fix ups, glows, color mixes, a little bit of edge shine on the 3d model ...
final size is 5333 x 3333, 32bit & 16bit color depth

hope you'll like it

cheers everyone! god bless!

ethereal smile in dying sleep

Tue, 13 May 2008 08:53:07 +0000

hello everyone! my latest offering to the CGchallenge ..
-- uplift universe --

it's about two distinct species ... who fall in love with each other, but with a bitter end!
furious with their affair and failing to realise any good about a new, lasting relationship between their species, she is banished by her human kind without hesitation!

to inflict more pain, she is stripped of her clothes, shaved of her hair and finally poisoned...all this, in the hope that her alien lover would be disgusted by her appearance and leave their world forever, never to return back ...

but, no ... their love was far too strong for such an act ...
in his arms, for one final moment, she's ever grateful for being loved, for completing each other ...

into the darkest regions of the heart...
into a dying sleep, she smiles ...

many thanks to all the artists who helped take this piece to a new level.. my utmost thanks to Jerome (jeromoo), Gerardo (GaeasHerald), Michael (walrus), Axel (AxelAlonso), Torsten (Russel nash), Fernando (Ferx) ... for their advice & suggestions!

without their inputs, i wouldn't have been able to add those extra, subtle details like skin pores and alien texture (Jerome), forehead wrinkles and folds (Micheal), specular focusing and light concentration (Gerado), fixing the head shape in its earlier steps ( Axel & Torsten ) and finally fixing the shades on her shoulders, alien biceps coz it was looking flat (Fernando)

owe it to vivek, my buddy for kicking my butt to finish this entry and to stop whining about it

god bless!!

here's the link to my wip thread ...
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=235&t=613119&page=1&pp=15

also, a 'quick specular effect' screenshot ...
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=235&t=613119&page=11&pp=15

problems i faced;
referring a low res image to create a 3k resolution artwork,
everything was mostly/slightly pixelated, so i had to search for other images for details but still keep in mind about the lighting,shadows & specularity ... very tricky :(

-- close up shots --

CREDITS go to these sites and images i used for reference :

>> for basic lighting, shadows and characters (only female was used, for the alien male i had to conjure something in reference to other images below in terms of features and texture)
http://www.vivaphotography.com/slideshow/couples1.html

>> for alien texture; tiger shark :P
http://www.michaelaw.com/masite2006/fiji%20sharks/DSC_6971-tiger.jpg

>> for fins and other features, dolphin
http://www.hickerphoto.com/data/media/185/dolphin-fin_11157.jpg
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_01/dolphin6DM0510_800x529.jpg

>> finally ... the dramatic touch ... tear drop
http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/images/Crying_Child.jpg

that's it buddies .... it was fun and tough the same time, but well worth it! ...

cheers to you all!

the Showstopper

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:24:08 +0000

hello everyone! my latest offering for the CGSociety Challenge, "strange behaviour" ...

meet Celine! ... the robot worker for POSE magazine who against all odds crashes the biggest fashion show of 2007 to fulfill her wish of becoming a supermodel, only to receive a mixed bag of emotions from the audience and the other models .. but all that takes a massive u turn propelling her to become the showstopper!

looking at reality, i dedicated this piece to all the ugly looking people who think they don't have what it takes to be part of the world, but, be loved unconditionally inspite of their physical flaws, damaged self esteem, in fact their strange behaviour as how humanity tends to see it ..

take heart ... they are beautiful no matter what ...

>> Software used : Photoshop & Depth of field generator pro

Technical information : due to the enormous file sizes ( ranging from 200 - 400 MB) five master files were created, one contained the main model, the second had the peeping bigbot and crowd, the third had the jealous model with the extra crowd details, the fourth contained the entire composition with more details and fixups ending with the fifth, which had all the layers flattened for the depth of field treatment.

depth map was created in photoshop itself with a big reference help from www.dofpro.com with which i used the depth of field generator pro plugin which is without a doubt ... simply mindblowing!

No 3d application was used for this image, not even adobe illustrator, i totally challenged myself this time by creating this artwork completely in photoshop. I couldn't have done this without everyone's constant encouragement and suggestions!

this has been the best challenge yet! amazing talent out there!
cheers to you all!

here's the wip link, right from concept sketch to final image :
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=225&t=512920

screenshots

:- final act -:

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:45:28 +0000

Inspired by the Eon novel by Greg Bear.
This is my illustration entry for the EON challenge, created using 3dsmax and photoshop.

though it was my first time entering, i had a blast! ... i met so many talented members! .. its so very overwhelming,
this challenge is and will always be close to my heart! ..

all of us who participated helped each other up whenever we fell thats the true colour of challenges!

i thank you all for being with me all the way! it was a an unforgettable experience!

cheers! & god bless ya all!

- : - Butterfly Blaze - : -

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:27:38 +0000

In this piece, i wanted to make an impact with
Mother Nature's most beautiful gift ; the butterfly.
In order to make it very special and unique, different colours were painted on each wing! combined with a little glitter and subtle line work. To add to the final touch, a strong zoom effect was added to make it more dramatic and further blaze the colours in all its glory!

:- Happy Valentine's Day! -:

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:09:47 +0000

my latest gift to everyone here in CGSociety!

feel free to send it to that special loved one!

created entirely in photoshop CS .. lots n lots of transparencies .. blending modes ... chrome filter .. levels .. gaussion blur ..
and lastly ... blood hound search for those delicious chocolate references .. made me drool :O :(

well ... stay tuned for more ... till then ..

enjoy!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

god bless!

::spirit of christmas::

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 06:04:13 +0000

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

GOD BLESS YA ALL!

image info : hey guys! my latest offering, exclusive christmas theme!

please please adjust ur monitor's gamma settings for proper viewing ...

i've not used any 3d elements at all!... raw photoshop CS2 .. my all time sweetheart! what would i do without photoshop

cheers people!

enjoy!

Pour

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 22:37:36 +0000

created entirely in adobe photoshop 7...

no 3d used at all...

no filters...

layer styles...satin primarily used for the stream of water being poured into the glass...

bevel emboss used for the bubble particles

layer blending modes...color dodge, linear, soft light, screen ...

smudge tool...

eraser...

~: Love Hurts : ~

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 22:26:11 +0000

this will be a gore! to say for sure... but, our hearts r put thru this rite?? i just wanted to elevate the thought a lil bit more...or too much...

> dodge n burn was used on the blade like instrument to get highlights n shadows..

> lots of transparency was used on the heart...as far as gloss n dark shading is concerned...

> for the blood spill, layer styles...

will send screenshot for the settings!!

CHEERS!

Ford Focus WRC concept

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 21:27:25 +0000

Well people, here it is ... my project that was dragged for months is finally complete!

Actually, my pal vivek ( vivudude ) gave me that 'push' to finish it at any cost! followed by my other pal atul ( aadravid ) who joined the bandwagon, hehehehe...

both of them already know how lazy i am when it comes to finishing projects like these, most of my other works are all incomplete! ... so i thought, come what may, i must finish this ...

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4130/wirescreenshot3as.jpg

>> The What ...

Ford focus WRC concept, not much of a high tech design, but, i added a few extras here and there to make more appealing. I had to gather a couple of reference photos to see what it actually looks like in reality, the blueprint is kind of an old one, but that helped a lot to get the basic design.

The new 2004 model looks real cool, so i had to make this one a combination of both the old and the new...followed by the crazy color strips...which of course is certainly not there on any of the models till date...

reason ...

i wanted to make this model look absolutely different from the rest.

>> The How ...

< Modeling >

It took at least 8 - 14 months to finish this model, mainly due to my laziness... plus, at one point i completely stopped everything, so after a gap of 4 months, i continued with the modeling process again...

I used subdivision polymodeling ... no nurbs at all! ...

lots of edge extrusions, chamfering, outlining, insets, subdividing etc ...

It was tough, but worth the effort! i was really scared when it came to detaching the different parts of the car, i had to maintain the design 'flow' , i didn't want any blocky sections.

As you can see at the bottom of the pic, the polygon count is a freaked out 2236691 !
My graphic card took a good beating when it came to 505 objects, which is mainly because of the tyres; the nuts, bolts, caliper, disk brakes ( too bad they are not seen much )

The main shell cover of the car has a meshsmooth iteration of 3 !

There were a lot of problems during the modeling process, once the objects started to increase, so did the polygon count, then memory, then viewport display was slowing down, which of course my graphic card wouldnt be able to handle it all, so there was one life saving option... select the group of components that had a higher polygon count and check mark the
[ display as box ] option in the properties dialog...

I also started to 'categorize' the objects using layers ... this helped a great deal while modeling, i can hide completed components whenever i wanted to thereby saving a lot of memory while working on the new sections of the car.... very cool indeed! its just like using layers in photoshop and illustrator ...

< Materials >

The materials used here comprise of standard max shaders and mental ray.
for the outer shell of the model, rubber parts, tyres etc. standard shaders were used, but, for the glass objects like headlights, bulb, rearlights etc. mental ray glass physics phen was used.
As for the texturing, which is obviously the trickiest, painstaking task of all... i used good ol' texporter! very helpful plugin for max!

Now to mask all the decals ( sponsors, numbers, paint strips etc. ) i had to use the blend material. The map channel option was used extensively as well!
Below is a link giving a full description of how to use the blend material and channels to the maximum level!
A plus, even the modeling process is shown here... a Nissan R390 GT ...

http://www.enriconencini.com/tutorials.htm

very informative, but take time to understand it carefully, its worth it!
Another addition to the group is the ' composite map ' ... this too is equally important ...

> i'll update this post soon once i find the link...

< lighting >

The lighting setup used in this project is slightly different :

> Skylight : this light provided the overall Gi

> Free Area light : i specifically used 2 of these lights for ' speculars ' on the model with the diffuse option turned off, this helps when you only want to show that gloss or shine and you don't want the colours to be affected, in other words, washed out!
You will have to play around with the multiplier to check up on the gloss intensity, so... test renderings galore!
I even excluded the ground plane from illumination and shadow casting, plus i turned off cast shadows for headlights, bulbs and rearlights in the properties dialog.

> Lightplanes : these planes were used for the additional illumination and most importantly, reflections.
For this the glow lume shader fit the bill!

< Rendering >

All of you know, i'm a crazy person when it comes to mental ray! love the renderer to the core! maxwell comes a close second!, then V - ray ...
actually, this is just my personal opinion, in the end it all depends on how well you manipulate the renderer to the fullest.

As for the rendering of all the scenes, it was a major disaster! it took at least a week to finish it off!
Since my graphic card konked out... i had to bring my work to the institute and render the images...not to mention regular power cuts from 3:00pm - 6:00pm. But, somehow i managed ... correct me if i'm wrong, but, i think its best to collapse the entire modifier stack to improve rendering speed...

At 800 x 480 for each of the views, it took 4 - 6 hrs ... even more, depending on the camera angle and the materials used.

Also, without the settings for BSP, Map manager and memory limit , max would shut down immediately after hitting the render button! thanks to the high polygon count!

These options were very new to me in the initial stage, so i had to look it up in the reference file to see how i can render scenes with high polygon count.

>> The end ...

Even after experimenting with the settings, still the rendering would take very long. Which left me no other alternative but to render the entire scene in 'regions'

Yup! region rendering it is!

dividing the scene into 2 parts or 2 regions ... i finally got the rendering started!

Thats that!

The rest was the assembly of all the images and few corrections in photoshop...

phew!!

I hope i provided you all with the necessary information... It was both fun and frustrating at the same time...but, worth it all the way!

Till then,

Cheers!!

Hideous

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 22:12:35 +0000

modelled in 3dsmax 5 using poly mesh and light tracer...

the one thing that inspired me to do this ... was none other than Bram stoker's Dracula... i really loved the stone gargoyle / demon stuff that was there in the poster, so i thought why not try out something like this...

i cudnt get it to look like it is... so i added my own imaginary expressions n appearance to the stone character...

.. :: La Reina :: ..

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 22:32:52 +0000

Hey guys! 3 months down the lane ... 653 files later ... and lots of last minute changes suggested by my buddies! my latest offering ...

.. :: La Reina (in spanish) means ... ' The Queen ' :: ..

Created using 3dsmax 8, rendered with mental ray 3.4 ... and .. drum roll please ... Adobe photoshop CS for the major post work!
yep ... never have i ever used photoshop to this extent .. i mean .. image editing is one thing .. but .. post work is another ... hehe

Anyways, to be very honest ... i'm not all good when it comes to character modeling, texturing and all ... this is my second attempt in creating a female character, the first one didn't work out that well... so, in a way ... i do need to refer to tutorials to go with the flow and then use my own creativity for that personal touch.

> Post Work <

As mentioned earlier ... Photoshop gave my render a serious face lift!
skin blotches, specularity, tatoos, shadows, glows and even fake caustics!

see for yourself! compare the actual raw render ( notice a seam ? ) with the post work :

> Goodies! <

NOW HOW ABOUT THAT CLOAK!
Ok guys! ... heres a lil something! ... how i created the cloak :

> A : create 2 seperate splines, keep an eye on the vertex count ... they must be equal ...
> B : attach the splines and add a crossSection modifier ...
> C : convert the cage to editable spline and refine the new segments and connect all the vertex points and don't forget to move them about to get that wavy look ... in other words ... go with the flow ...
> D : add a surface modifier ... threshold : 0.01 ... steps : 5 ...
> E : still with the surface modifier, reduce the steps to 1 and convert it to editable poly ...
> F : then using paint deformation, carefully brush the mesh object to get good folds ... creases ... lumps ...
the Push / Pull value > brush size > brush strength .. all must be experimented with ... use + / - values for Push / Pull to get lumps and dents ... very cool indeed!
> G : next, add a shell modifier ... thickness value : 0.05 ... ( depends ... value can change accordingly ), then convert it to editable poly again, ring select the new edges and click connect once ...
> H : final object with meshsmooth ...

Assign the cloth material, add a UVW modifier and change the tiling values as necessary ... keep test rendering to see what looks good

SAUCY LIPS!
Here's another goodie! though i didn't use it in my post work ... i thought, why not show you guys how to dazzle your models with that drop dead glossy lipstick! just by using good ol' photoshop!

> A : sample image layer
> B : using the pen tool ( with shape layers enabled ), trace the shape of the lips as shown, don't ever delete this layer ... keep it hidden for later use ...
> C : Ctrl click the shape layer to get a selection ...
> D : create a new layer and fill this selection with a medium dark colour, more of a pinkish tone ... no flashy colours please ... later you'll come to know why ...
> E : with the lip colour layer still selected, change the layer blending mode to ' multiply ' ... hide it
> F : remember the hidden shape layer .. ? Ctrl click it again to get the same selection, select the sample image layer, copy and paste to get a another layer containing only the lips ... desaturate it .. also make sure that this layer lies on top of the initial lip colour
> G : with the desaturated layer still selected, goto > image > adjustments > levels and enter the values as shown
> H : finally ... the icing on the cake! change the blending mode of this layer to color dodge!

Woooohoooo! thats just about it! ... i hope you all found it useful ...
all in all i'd like to thank my buddies! who helped me along the way ... even at the last minute ... i really needed the feedback ... as for my character model .. i know it's filled with a lot of flaws as far as body posture ... expression ... is concerned ... i hope that in the near future, i outdo myself totally! ... my second attempt ... tough ... but worth it all! ... satisfaction level ... reached!

God bless ya all!!

CHEERS!!!