Male study

Click on image to enlarge

I found this model on line yesterday. It is pretty damn good for a free model. In case any one wants to download it I got it from right here:
http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/human-male-89352.html
It comes with one color map, I used it as my base color and added on top of it in a similar way to the work I have done on the old man !

I am not sure exactly what I want to focus on this time.. maybe I will try to focus on the eyes because it was one of things I did not nail down in other man ! As right now I am just playing with the shader and playing around with lights …

 

the eyes look weird here for some reason !

Some eye work + normal map

Click to enlarge

 

I did some changes. Most noticeably I got rid of my proc iris texture that I had and replaced it with an iris texture map ! I did not like what I had before… also Omar Mansour my friend who modeled this model provided me with a normal map exported from zbrush because I was missing some important modeling details specially around the eyes area. So I plugged that in and I think it looks much better !

Adding hair

 

Just started to add hair using Maya fur. I am not that good with maya fur so it has been a challenge. Its still work in progress ! I know I will have to come back to the eyes later .. right now the hair and eyes are making me question everything i know about the my life and my self !…. sigh

Breaking down some of my feckles and moles proc

My friend Nicole asked me how did i get the moles and freckles procedurally, so I decided to take a couple of snap shots and isolate those in a render where those procs are plugged into a surface shader. So we are only seeing what are they doing. So I was not sure which procedural I used for moles it turns out I used “Granite”

As many of you may already know, the scale of the Geo in the scene will be taken into account. So if you copy the exact same number you may not get the same exact result. I have setup my scene so that its relative to real life scale. I set my units to centimeters ( yup im from the other side of the world Im more comfortable using cm over inches) and my bust is scaled to where this dude is 2 meters, which is taller than average but still with in the human scale (do not know why I chose to do that but I like whole number) …

I also have multiple layers of moles. In some places I would isolate certain ones to be only around the eyes or the cheeks to control their scale. So here is another layer, probably duplicate of the first one with some tweaking.

Here are some of the freckles layer. I also used granite for this one as well . . .

Using the RGB mask I layered specific freckles only for the cheeks area as shown below:

One last note, if you look at the first color slot in the granite proc above, you’ll notice that it is mapped with something, I actually wanted to break the clean round shapes it was giving me so I mapped a noise into it. Thats why some freckles shapes are interrupted with noise shapes at points.

Thank you. I will keep you posted by updates in the shader. As for now I will share the last render I have for this guy. No progress on the shader, but slightly different lighting.

Although this is technically in progress but I thought it would be useful to share my Epidermal, sub dermal maps as well as spec and bump layers. . .

Skin shader update

I added some high freq bump and skin imperfection. I think I am going to take a break from the shading and do some lighting, then get back to shading !!

This is my shader tree. It is not very inviting

Update on the proc skin shader

So I think this test is getting very interesting for me at least. I was annoyed a little bit by the head model i was working with, if I was texturing that model by the conventional way I am always used to (photoshop) it would have been impossible to do what I just did that fast. I basically asked my good friend Omar Mansour to give me any of his head models.. he has a ton because he is a bad ass modeler, and basically all I had to redo is the RGB maps that I have showed you in the first post on this shader. It took me 20 minutes to carefully paint the 2 RGB mask on the new UV of the new head model. Then I literally assign the shader to the new head with out touching or tweaking anything. All i had to do is to make sure its the same scale. And I hit render this is what I get. . . I think it looks really good for a first look ! since that’s an older dude I will spend some a little more time to add some details to reflect that age. But I am very impressed by how easy it was to assign the textures to a totally different model . . .   Im starting to love procedural texturing a lot !

The eyes still needs a lot of work. The lips looks strange and I do not have back scatter yet . . . I will keep posting updates 😉

Update

Although I said I wont work on this shader any more but I actually ended adding little stuff ! yeah I lied ..

So I added some freckles and little moles. I think it looks much better. I also think I maybe continue working on this guy a little bit more and use him to learn some hair …

Procedural skin textures

I wanted to experiment with something I have not done before. So I thought trying to do skin surfacing using only maya procedural nodes would be fun. I had high hopes for this project but after 3 days of working on it I dont think I have enough drive to finish it ! but it was nice to play around with the hyper shade !

I used two RGB maps though to be able to mask specific portions of the face. Beside those the RGB masks everything is Procedural.

 

The model comes with one of digital tutors tutorials. It was Uv-ed as well !

The Butterfly Effect

it is mind boggling how one small event like watching someone talk for a couple of hours could be the spear head and effects where you are & what you do several years later !

2005 I was still in my undergrad studies, when as a field trip we were required to attend a CG related conference in Cairo, Egypt.  Of course we thought we were too cool to actually go to sit down and listen to people talk. Until we knew there is a guy from PIXAR who’s invited to come talk. Until this moment, to me he is “the guy from PIXAR” and that will very much change later !! So my friends and I we thought let’s check it out. Basically an animator from PIXAR gave a 3 hour detailed lecture on their pipe line from story to render. He had a ton of material from “The incredibles”. characters’ muscle systems, rigging tests, animation tests, early concept art and character design, sculptures almost every aspect of the production. I can’t quite describe how those three hours took effect on me. Honestly, I felt bad for myself ! I was not the same person after I sat through his talk. And I never forgot his name since then, Matt Majers.  This is the day when I knew what I need to be doing. But had NO clue how or where to begin ! Of course later when I got more into it I saw many many of those kind of technical break downs but this was my first time to see it in depth. And this experience had a weird effect on me, & I think Matt Majers’s lecture was the butterfly wing flap that initiated what brought me here to the states, chasing my dreams and doing what I’m doing. Every decision I took moving on was as a result of that day, like an upside down pyramid.

Now when I think about it from different prespective it is some what funny. To Matt Majers it was just another talk. He probably done more than a couple of them. In one lecture he was talking to hundreds of people. So when swapping sides things may not be that special I guess. But that does not take away how inspiring he was to me. Wish I could thank him !

My friends and I still remember and laugh about it and they are definitely an important part of this memory. Noran Aref, Raghda shaarawy and Eman ashraf 😀 miss you guys !

Not Entirely sure why I am starting a Blog !

SCAD Catalog

Hey everyone ! Writing was never something I liked to do, & I am not entirely sure if I want to blog about work and geek out on animation and 3D technical related topics or do I want to talk about personal experiences. There is 90% chance that  this blog will end up being a waste of kilo Bytes. Also, since neither writing nor English is particularly my strong perks; expect some weak usage of words here and there. Enjoy 🙂

Since yesterday was new years I want to reflect on 2012 which was a great year for me on the career end and for my family, & worst year for Egypt on the political end. I will not be talking almost at all about politics because 1- I hate politics 2- I freakin hate politics ! So I started working in BlueSky 10 days before having a tiny addition to my family, Camillia ~ tiny in size but humongous in the after math on my life. A moment of silence to all dads and moms out there…………………………………. moving on ! dont get me wrong , it is awesome but you can never be ready enough ! Also it is a testimony to how well I plan my life. So I was finishing school, moving to CT, starting a new job & my wife was giving birth  in GA all in the time !! My approach is simple; jump right in to it and figure things out later.

I am excited to share things about work and the movie we are working on now “EPIC” but of course with in whats legally allowed ! I was super excited that I was able to contribute to the trailer that is being screened in theaters right now. In case you have not seen it :http://www.epicthemovie.com/

I will be talking about my experience working in BSS so far later ! I dont even know where I am going with this ..In general I want to share  my experience leaving home “Egypt” and coming to the USA. I also want to talk about my experience in SCAD which was a huge influence for everything happened after. I also want to share my experience being a daddy. And there will be a ton of art/animation related blabing ..  so I will just wish every one a happy new year ! and post something when I have anything interesting (or not very interesting) to say. Cheers