some assets

more assets

  

The scorpion render 

Gun walthier style

Claymore

new work Yelena

Some rework on her hair yay! Her hair has less alphas and more geometry. Some readjusting on her armor colors to add more contrast.

The now introducing the illustrious Yelena!

Taken from the painting "Submersive Beauty" by Luis Royo I loved that art so much I made her into a model. This one is for you Mr Royo!

She has alot of loose but also tight hanging cloth, a nice balance. Heres the 3d sculpt done in zbrush appx 18mil polys.

assets

New stuff
Just some assets an paintings I have been waiting to make for the past while

jackal knight

Hi
after a long hiatus, im back. (do check my webstite for more work) nicholaskirlis.weebly.com.
Ive been continuing my work for sfbay studios and I have a bunch to show for it. Ive been using a different theory in my work recently, i try to keep the model in zbrush as long as I can, I love the sculpting however i hate the vert painting, ill try to stay away from mudbox (i love it for texturing) at least for now, add more details  finish up the hd sculpt  currently 24 million polys 15 subtools

medieval

Heres a small collage of the medieval assets I have come up with over the last few years

Heavy Odin

Odin Light (battle Lord)

Diadiem  Sword

Quick update

A quick update
Hi here's a close-up of the lady's face and her new uv layout Blank parts have her mouth, hands and feet. Her prosthesis is much more developed and detailed now. All progress is done in mudbox.

Ill be adding new piercings and some "cerebral cords" from her back to the empty plugs in her head.

The lady is back!

Hey everyone its been ages!
Due to the holidays and moving I have been very busy. But I have been working throughout the month to complete the lady Z model I have been intermittently working on. (this mesh has the head, hands,harness and codpiece hidden)

 

I redesigned parts of her armor namely the back and the armor plates on the sides

I might thicken the plate on her butt it seems too thin to be functional.

This model will be very reliant on how crazy bump will bake out the normal, I have painted a lot of spec on the armor it should coincide with her diffuse (via mudbox). Painting spec in mudbox is really fun and easy. Combining  spec  painting with a stamp will produce great results with minimal effort. With sci-fi spec maps with geometric designs are very effective such as hexagonal patterns and kevelar patterns.

 

 

(I claim no ownership over this texture all rights belong to the original author)

I haven't touched her face or hands yet, (they were messed up when imported into mudbox). But after some critique she seemed a little androgynous, a very effective way to combat this is to push some of her femininity via makeup  and accessorizing. (a lot of artists would exaggerate her curves and increase her bust size) In some respects it doesn't make much sense, would a spy/ mercenary wear makeup- no, no she wouldn't. But  its ok to push reality (depending on the project). for some reference I have been looking into the work of Luis Royo's , it is amazing (most work not work safe). And the technical art of metal gear Metal Gear.

Arm of the Lady

Hi, heres a update on the lady
Yay the arm is much better and the metal plates overlap into her torso.
She now has eye lashes and mouth geo

Week 11: The Facts

Heres a script that changes the grid to udk scale it just for ease further down the road ill build a ui for it and make it all pretty but as of now there is simply just no need for it. Further down the road ill make more special features but this script is useful enough. The notes are there so you can customize the sub divs and whatnot.
So feel free to use or distribute , non shall stop you do as you please!



import maya.cmds as cmds
cmds.text(l = "Grid spacing of Kirlis")
#To toggle the grid display of the grid (in all views):
currState = cmds.grid( toggle=True, q=True )
cmds.grid( toggle=(currState == 0) )

# To change the grid spacing and subdivisions:
cmds.grid( spacing=256, d=16 )
# To set the defaults for inches
cmds.grid( default=True, spacing='1in', size='1ft', divisions=4 )
# To change the size of the grid to 5000x5000, extending 10 units
# in each direction:
cmds.grid( spacing=5000 )

Here is lady Z's texture atlas

 

She is a vast improvement over her predecessor in terms of design and execution. She has even saved polycount currently she under 14k .(check my earlier posts for her pervious iteration)

What Worked

She was basically a texture test to myself creating a outfit design based solely on hand painted textures, no real photos.

The pillow emboss tool in Photoshop is a great tool , easy for painting hard surface objects.

The character design I am proud of, combining many of my favorites genres and styles

The face is simple yet effective

She stayed true to my original concept art

Her life support module (back was very fun to make) the painted spec really made it pop visually while keeping her back visually appealing

Her holster and harness make great contrast with the rest of her outfit

the fixed seams on the designs

I was pleased with the hair (it was a fun mudbox/ photoshop exercise)

 

What didn't Work

A lot of detail was lost in the normal bake

she isn't game ready ( no mouth geo)......yet

some textures not given enough love (circular parts on the back)pillow and emboss will help 

 possible asymmetry on her back, perhaps a result of splicing a reflected copy(will use old mesh if necessary

her arm; In mubox; the shaders really help with contrast and creating shadows,  but unfortunately never rely on a shader , especially if it isn't in a game engine, it will definitely need another pass ie spec and greebels.

 

 

All of these problems stem from time management as I am a disgustingly busy person. I will address and fix these problem this weekend after work (its personal now). As I will continue to update this blog and continue my work and rig Lady Z and Cherno in the upcoming weeks.

See you soon,

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Good people,
Heres the long awaited update for the scripting half. I worked  on two scripts this week
The Grid spacer of kirlis
And the Finalization of kirlis
They were made to help speed up the transition from maya to udk.
The grid spacer creates the udk scale at the click of the button, it doesn't do anything with the mesh (its best left up to the discretion to the modeler).
The finalization script is to help modelers make sure the history is deleted the normal are correct and the ngons and non manifold geo is addressed(not fixed but addressed). The scripts need some troubleshooting but no worries they will be released soon, very soon.

Hey yall,
I've balancing a lot of things and projects (while starting up a company a lot of things u[p in the air).

A lady at work got fired, so ive been working a lot more, more money less art and less updates.
Her textures are almost finished excluding boots and mechanical arm, which will be completed by the end of the week. I cleaned up the texture map as there were artifacts from her previous iterations.
Most of the detail have been form fitting to emphasize that she is indeed a girl   (easiest way would be increasing her curves since she has a very moderate bust size), while working some people referred to her as a guy at that point I needed a change

 

Also I used a custom brush alpha for her hair (in mudbox the  stroke + stamp tool makes great custom hair).  However the default color for transparency is a distracting tan color (where nothing is painted) which shows up very prominently against her platinum hair. And speaking of her hair as it was an alpha brush naturally it was white but I decided to stick with that color as it contrasts with the rest of her outfit but matches the clasps on her belts and harness. It also emphasizes the whole cyber goth  aesthetic I am going for I might make another texture for black hair with possibly blue in the future.

 

I touched up her back life support module painting spec into it as no normal maps have been used. Updates will continue .

 

Heres an update I spent some time baking the normals, but I am not satisfied with the results of the bake. The bake lost almost all of its details and many artifacts shown up ill continue to rework the zbrush sculpt to make sure to not loose the detail

I might need to re sculpt the arm with a full retopo as the normal looked like stamps and not her muscles character right arm). Since then I been re painting her and fixing her seams and adding more detail.

Hello All,
Heres a quick late night update of  my character
Theres been many redesigns, a lot of moving and allocating uv shells
I started sculpting her her earlier the normal are mostly just for her arms as one is organic (character left) while the other is mechanical (based on musculature character right).

I also stated panel loops as an experiment  (good tool I never end up using it zbrush hard surface is suspect nothing I cant do in maya faster)
her texture has been cleaned up (no screen cap available) is a just to get a base color on her and erase the old AO bake borders, thankfully, mudbox has a steady stroke tool option (sorry photoshop).
All her new parts have been neatly placed on 2 uv shells two 2048s.

Heres a quick update.
She maybe half machine but she is all woman, that's enough for obscure references.
Ill be re compiling her with all her new uv parts and make sure they fit with the old texture map. this will make her like a Frankenstein's monster of 3d parts, a mechanical one.

Hello all
This week I dedicated to reworking  Lady Z.
From concept to , well , progress

 

Ill go for more stylization, its really funny through all my side jobs I developed a new drawing style, an almost anime like one, thanks Funimation.  For the new style Im going for Deus Ex meets Resident Evil Revelations, kinda of tactical cyberpunk feel. All of the metal work is based off of human musculature(easy) so ill integrate some normal maps to help speed up the process.

Heres a before and after much more busyness to her I also lifted her butt and slightly shortened her torso. I have to now paint over her ao  and find some texture samples for her tactical equipment.
Next to do:


Her hair, makeup touchup
possible more geo on boots.
Rework her knee pads(possible)


The whole scripting experience is to create ease for exporting. In the works is a script to create a udk grid at the touch of a button (later unity).
I started by doing research what make a udk grid
length width 5K
Grid every 256
subdiv 16
At this point I have a basic script with some errors that ill be reworking and trouble shooting
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/unreal3/setup-grid-scale-in-maya-for-unreal3.php
// To change the grid spacing and subdivisions:
grid -spacing 10 -d 10;
this is the mel code but I still have to convert it to python
easy in theory but it looks some syntax errors heres a list of mel references



Heres the sample my script is based off of
http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/maya2014/zh_cn/CommandsPython/grid.html
import maya.cmds as cmds

#To toggle the grid display of the grid (in all views):
currState = cmds.grid( toggle=True, q=True )
cmds.grid( toggle=(currState == 0) )

# To reset the grid to default values:
cmds.grid( reset=True )

# To change the grid spacing and subdivisions:
cmds.grid( spacing=10, d=10 )

# To set the defaults for inches
cmds.grid( default=True, spacing='1in', size='1ft', divisions=4 )

# To change the size of the grid to 20x20, extending 10 units
# in each direction:
cmds.grid( spacing=10 )

I've been working on the alpha process(png traerency method) I tried with alpha clusters but the fringe issue would need to be address and too much time.
One thing is for sure the maya display is garbage especially on my computer (it doesn't display alphas or normal maps correctly (only when I render but I assure everyone the finished character doesn't look like this)

Maya viewport= bad

 

 

 

render= good

 

I will now clean up and adjust some parts of the mesh (the loin loth is too exposed for my liking)

The color of his skin is much lighter than I thought , I might tweak that.

But rather than perfect him ill start on redesigns of my female cyberpunk character lady z. she was due in 2 weeks so I built her with that kept in mind, ill have some sketches soon. Ill go for a more deus ex approach more machinery based on human musculature while adding more organic parts to her (make her left arm organic) One critique was that she was  rather androgynous, the critique was subjective to the point of irrelevance,  but hey, ill push some glam in her yet.

 

 

Shes basically a shadowrun mod character I made but ive branched out from that (shes like 20k polys now)

Ill be redesigning the hair adding some more straps and cosmetics.

 The reet will be more traditional boots (with steel toes)

Her lower body "support will be higher and more stylized a the current design isn't really innovative.

ill also make her pupils smaller and paint some detail on he lips

ill be experimenting with the colors.

Im really experimenting with the whole gothpunk influences (without taking anything from bladerunner)

 

Heres the Completed script
I noticed the last script the quit def was in the wrong place and broke the "quit" button.
There was a some trouble with the obj exporter but now it is fixed.

import maya.cmds as cmds
#import maya.mel as mel
#Nicholas_Kirlis
#Special Thanks Morrissey Alexander
#Special Thanks Roman Parez
def ExporterWindow():
    #Checks if a window exists, if it does delete it
    if cmds.window("ExpWin", exists = True):
        #I copied this
        cmds.deleteUI("ExpWin", window = True)
       
    #Create a window
    myWin = cmds.window("ExpWin", t = "Exporter of Kirlis")
    cmds.columnLayout()
    cmds.text(l = "Script of Kirlis")
    cmds.text(l = "Choose Your Export Method")
    cmds.button(l = "FBX", c = "FBXExport()")
    cmds.button(l = "OBJ", c = "OBJExport()")
    cmds.button(l = "Quit", c = "DeleteWindow()")
    cmds.showWindow("ExpWin")
   
def FBXExport():
    #Center selection
    cmds.move(0,0,0, rpr = True)
    #Delete all history
    cmds.delete (ch=True)
    #export selection 
    basicFilter = "*.fbx"
       
    filename = cmds.fileDialog2(fileFilter=basicFilter, fileMode=0, caption="FBX export")
       
    cmds.file (filename[0], force=True,  typ= "FBX export" , pr=1, es=1  )
       
def OBJExport():
       
    #Center selection
    cmds.move(0,0,0, rpr = True)
    #Delete all history
    cmds.delete (ch=True)
    #export selection
    basicFilter = "*.obj"
       
    filename = cmds.fileDialog2(fileFilter=basicFilter, fileMode=0, caption="OBJ export")
       
    cmds.file (filename[0], force=True,  typ= "OBJexport" , pr=1, es=1  )
   
def DeleteWindow():
    # and pasted it here
    cmds.deleteUI("ExpWin", window = True)
   
ExporterWindow()

Hello,
I am almost finished with my character chernobog. He should be completed this time next week (depending on various problems that could occur).
His face has been bloodied hands color transitioned nicer normal slightly tweaked necklaces painted (placeholder)  I also added the designs on the vestments which really make his clothes stand out. Ill also test out new designs on his fleshy "crown".

 

Progress on my script is going smoothly the obj portion is still buggy and not worth posting nobody wants a broken script ill start cleaning it and compiling it (this week him getting together with some of my programmer buddies to make sure Im on the right track).

Heres a large update of the script it integrated gui and export
I original wrote it in mel then converted  it to python(albeit with help)
 Use it freely, nobody will stop you, do as you please. Ill be working on the obj capabilities later this week

import maya.cmds as cmds

#import maya.mel as mel

 

def ExporterWindow():

 

    #Checks if a window exists, if it does delete it

    if cmds.window("ExpWin", exists = True):

        cmds.deleteUI("ExpWin", window = True)

       

    #Create a window

    myWin = cmds.window("ExpWin", t = "Exporter of Kirlis")

    cmds.columnLayout()

    cmds.text(l = "Script of Kirlis")

    cmds.button(l = "FBX", c = "FBXExport()")

    cmds.button(l = "OBJ", c = "command2")

    cmds.text(l = "Coming Soon")

    cmds.button(l = "Quit", c = "command3")

    cmds.showWindow("ExpWin")

   

def FBXExport():

    #Nicholas_Kirlis

    #Special Morrissey Alexander

    # Special Roman Parez

    #Fbx_Export_Script

    #import maya.cmds as cmds

       

    #Center selection

    cmds.move(0,0,0, rpr = True)

        

    #Freeze transformations

    #cmds.makeIdentity(apply=True, t=1, r=1, s=1, n=0)

       

    #Delete all history

    cmds.delete (ch=True)

       

    #Group

    #cmds.group(n='assets')

    #export selection

       

    basicFilter = "*.fbx"

       

    filename = cmds.fileDialog2(fileFilter=basicFilter, fileMode=0, caption="FBX export")

       

    cmds.file (filename[0], force=True,  typ= "FBX export" , pr=1, es=1  )

       

ExporterWindow()

Hey yall,
Heres a update,
His face was painted(basic colors detail needed)
hands painted
normal retouched
alphas on shawl and belt (prepped)

The orange like color on the fringe is a mudbox "error". I am an avid user of the export screen to psd feature in mubdox, its awesome, but certain artifacts emerge, regardless it will be alpha and the rest of the color will be cut out.
In painting him I clearly stayed away from the color black, as of now hes just one color  but I will introduce more colors as I hit the detail phase.
I will paint gold (albeit fading) trim and designs on his clothes
Now looking at the character at a distance the colors are very similar , ill consider creating more of a contrast 



Hers some direction from lotr

I plan to paint the face similar to this ie the teeth
And make his skin  more visceral, my pretty much clone stamping the normals and texture, from the face to the rest of the body.
Tomorrow ill be uploading a script for some ui ill continue to tweak and integrate the export script and make a obj export option