Thread: KP's Stuff

These are a few renders of a few characters I'm doing for a video game contract.

They're fairly low-poly (as you'd expect for games) and they're not "dialed-in" yet. But this is current work-in-progress...

They are fully textured and rigged. All musculature and joints are functional.

Here are a few photos - and not one of my dog which is uncommon - I might have to remedy that later.

Just a few I dug out from my composition class that I don't think suck too much. Includes some notes. Unless otherwise noted, they're shot with a Canon 20D DSLR. They are unretouched since the class didn't allow any photoshop work. (composition in camera)
All natural light - no lighting permitted.

Crocus Vernus Upus Closeus


f/1.1 (yes, that's not a typo...), 1/60sec, Canon XI 98mm f/1.1 fixed, My Backyard where Spring has Sprung!, ISO 100, Matrix Metering, Manual.Playing with a lens that I acquired from a friend who was cleaning out their garage. It's an f/1.1 fixed focal length Cannon lens. Amazingly shallow depth of field and quick with the light! Still had to shoot inbetween the breeze which seems like a 10.0 earthquake from that close.

Toad In A Hole


f/64, 3sec, Autobellows w/135mm, ISO-200, Manual Exposure, Exposure Comp. +0.7stop, Metered Pattern.

This is the most difficult photograph I've ever made. It was my first field shot with the new and incredibly complicated macro gear. All those dials-and-knobs-and-plungers when dealing with a live and active subject will take some getting used to! It was taken in natural light with very deep DoF. It's not perfect IMHO. I wish the rock on the right foreground was in focus.

On The Right Track


f/7.1, 1/100, 55mm.

Ant Flower


(Nothing Recorded)

Stroke!



f/5.6, 1/250, 70-300 @ 140mm, Pattern Metering in AV - ISO 100. Taken just before sunset on Lake Natomas, CA.
Deliberately broke the split-horizon rule in order to catch the setting sun's rays. Did it work? I think it's kinda mediocre.

Windblown Sparkles



Metering: Matrix, 70-300 @ 135mm (216mm @ 35equiv)
Lake Natomas at Sunset, Folsom, CA.

Slow And Steady



f/64, 1/2sec, 105mm, shot in my backyard in Folsom CA about 1am.

Originally posted by kimpossible
On The Right Track


f/7.1, 1/100, 55mm.

That's an awesome photo

One little rusty nut holds the bolt in place
bolt holds the track in place
track guides the train

For want of a nail the war was lost

Good Stuff, Kim.

I love your head modelling. I need to get the hang of UV mapping and vertex painting so I can start doing detail like that.

I never was a fan of the whole learning process thing. Lol.

Originally posted by Ynot


That's an awesome photo

One little rusty nut holds the bolt in place
bolt holds the track in place
track guides the train

For want of a nail the war was lost

Thank you!

That was from a very early assignment in Field Compositon. And still ranks for me as the most valuable thing I learned in photography, period.

The assigment was to pick three subjects and shoot them the way you envisioned shooting them. Then shoot atleast a roll of film shooting them in every other possible way. The point was to learn creative field compositon - and open yourself up to other possibilities than what you thought would be an effective photograph.

My train-tracks picture ended-up being hoohumm, yet another railroad picture. That one won awards. I ended-up coming home with more than 3000 pictures! Almost nine hours on that one subject. I was laying on my stomach shooting the tracks from down low when I looked over, saw it, and just *knew* it was \"the one\"... Hugely valuable lesson for me on \"working the subject\"...

Thanks again!

P.S. My favorite is still \"Toad In A Hole\". But I know what I went through to make that shot. Crawling eeever soooo slooowly for a half an hour over a rock pile to get two shots before he took off.

Double P.S. Don't tell anyone - but the photo you liked is actually photoshopped in one way: There was a huge pile of bird-poop on the rail. My photoshop skills weren't so hot back then, and you can still see where I cloned it out. It was done in Photoshop 7 instead of CS/CS2 which has far superior cloning tools.

Originally posted by Oneironaut
Good Stuff, Kim.

I love your head modelling. I need to get the hang of UV mapping and vertex painting so I can start doing detail like that.

I never was a fan of the whole learning process thing. Lol.

Thanks! I'll get some more complete models up in the next week as time allows for me to go through my stuff.

The modeling, map application, and rendering was done in Maya 5. The texture maps were painted in Photoshop CS2. The challenge for me is that the project calls for mutiple races and ages in each gender. So you start looking at stereotypical facial features that provide the clues to each. I do the heads first because each has their "own personality" that, to me, dictates the body. It's the opposite of what most modelers do. I just can't reverse my workflow to coincide with that opinion. [shrug]

The foreheads are lacking wrinkles. I haven't perfected a technique for those yet. It's my next major hurdle!

Here's an image that will show the poly-count as well as some rigging:

Originally posted by kimpossible

She looks so much like my freind Max I just had to comment!

Very pretty

Thanks!

If you don't mind my asking: How old is Max and what's her family's background - what part of the world is the family originally from?

(This project I'm working on basically requires people of all ages 13+ and of all ethnic backgrounds. So I'm kinda winging it.)

Um... that was an unexpected question!

She's 18, but she looks a bit younger. And she's blonde. I don't know if her family came from somewhere else originally, but she comes from a well-off family living in Wales.

I really enjoyed the photography, Kim. My favorite was the snail one...