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Ornithocheirus model

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#1

Hello, it has been a long time since my last post, but I login on a daily basis. Its nice to see how Zbrush 3 have empowered the artists.

Im sending 2 finished works I have done a long time ago, with Zbrush 2, but only now I had the time to render them properly.

Client: Mudbrick Media (USA)
This is the “studio” render of the Ornithocheirus, part of a series of dinosour models I’m rendering.
This model was done in Zbrush 2 + Bodypaint for textures, some time ago, recently I had the time to render it with Vray, using Photoshop to composite the multiple passes.
ornithocheirus_low.jpg

Comments are appreciated. While this is finished work, I will take them kindly for the next jobs. Thank you all, this forum has been inspiring!

Attachments

ornithocheirus2_low.jpg

#2

i dont think his beak is large enough HAHAHA Just kidding. Love the first picture. It reminds of something by Pixar but better.

#3

gostei tbm da primeira foto. muito boa. voce trabalha onde aqui?
abs

liked the first pic. very good.
regards.

#4

Sweet! One of the first creatures I did to test out version 2 of Zbrush was one of this fellas relatives. Then several more, concepts for a tv series and I have no idea what happened to it.

The composite needs work. Creatures of nature blend in, yours stands out from the background.

I recently taught a course where I had people look at pictures of my red and cream coloured Chow Chow’s and asked them to composite them naturally into a group of small wig like trees (very tall) with snow on the ground. They all laughed, but gave it a try. When done I can tell you they had some pretty terrible looking images and the dogs stood out like neon signs. Then I showed them a photo I took of one of the dogs sneaking up on a bird. This was projected up on the wall, nice and large, took most people at least 30 seconds or more before they saw the dog. (imagine that bird!)

I’m not saying yours has to be exactly like that, but have you ever taken your eyes off a bright yellow finch in long (4-5") grass, then looked back? Most often your looking pretty hard. Try a ground squirrel, they are all exceptional at blending, no matter the colour of their coverings.

Dino’s would not be any different, it’s a nature thing.

I hope this helps a bit. Otherwise just ignore me, most others do, I’m getting senile. :wink:

#5

Paccini, DAnconia> thanks for the kind comments. I’m glad you liked the first image. I also think I had put more efforts on the close up than on the other. Yet, I know its not perfect.

Paccini> I currently live in Argentina, and I have never worked for a studio in Brazil. I started as a freelance artist focused on the international market and that kept me a bit away from the internal market.

Thanks guys.

regards,
Leo.

#6

Jason,

I appreciate your comments and while I agree that nature has its own methods of selection, pure Darwinism, we might sometimes find some ackward situations.

I have been to Africa and I agree, it was terribly hard to spot a deer, rhino, elephant. But was very easy to find lots of colorfull birds on the savannah.

The Ornithocheirus lived on Brazil / Europe. Being from Brazil, I can imagine that at the later Cretaceous, it was covered by a tropical forest. Also, we could think on what kind of predators it had and what were its needs to hide / blend with the environment. Like a penguin on the ice/snow?

Thank you for your input. I will take it in consideration when finishing my next ones.:slight_smile:

#7

I would like to elaborate the workflow inside maya, and hear some inputs. I believe this is a field yet to be explored and I could not find precise answers here, when I was in need.

When I was doing this ornithocheirus, I have faced several problems. I had to split it in 7 UV regions in order to obtain the details the client was looking for (having big wings, a single texture file was not enough to sustain even a full body shot).

I have seen lots of solutions here where one select a UV shell, and apply a different material to each one. I think that this can be quite troublesome if you get lots of different uv regions and want too keep the consistent look of a shader.

My solution was to place each image on the proper UV region (translate frame on Maya, offset on 3dsMax), and then mix all the nodes using a Average node. For the displacement, I had to multiply the images in pairs, using only the ‘x’ channel of the multiply node.

This method works nice because if the client was not happy, I would just change one shader.

I hope this can help some of you who didn’t know how to accomplish this.

Looking forward to hear your comments.

netWork.jpg

#8

Many thanks regarding the Maya flow, extremely helpful and, I might add rare.

Love your images, but one small note regarding the second image.
The lighting is off. Particularly on the left side.
There is no appreciable shadow on the ground which would
be present, if the time of day is accurate.
It has the look of just being added to the scene as
an afterthought.
Don’t mean to nitpick, but, as you say, it will be in
your permanent portfolio.
Best of luck and many thanks.

#9

Hello everyone,

Based on the critics given, I tried to do a new composition.

I would appreciate any comments and critics.

Edit: New image uploaded a few minutes after this post. Please check the post below.

I hope you like.

Best regards,
Leo.

#10

For me the cliff edge image displays much better,in the first the left side to us of the beast looked off a little with the scene light.The position adds a better scenario and adds to the creature image.Great stuff:-)

#11

Aha, serious improvement. Mess up that shadow a bit will ya… :wink:

#12

Hi Jason and Calum,

Thanks for the reply, this has been an interesting journey to me, receiving your feedbacks is important to me as an artist. Thanks.
Following Jason´s opinion, I increased the edge jerks of the shadow. this image is 40% of the original resolution, so this might influence on the overall view.

Hope you like.

ornithocheirus3b_low.jpg

All the best.

#13

I would love to see the Ornithocheirus howling or maybe in a postion that resembles the animal about to fly off the cliff. Maybe with his wings spread and his head back and beak open.

Its a beautiful looking illustration though.

#14

Hi DAnconia,

I guess that for this shot, the ornithocheirus was a bit shy to fly.

Thanks for your comments.

Best regards.

#15

cool scene! reminds me of discoverys “Walking with Dinosaurs” series they hyad one a few years ago! keep it up

#16

Really beautiful.
I love dinosaur and your pictures looks pretty good.
I love the overall,
All the best,
Arturo

#17

:+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

#18

Thanks guys!

Your critics and advices are very helpful and made me improve my vision over this piece.

Tnx.