Silva's Spoonfuls

[Bryan Silva]

Here's a couple shots of a head I sculpted while recording videos for a CGWorkshop I have coming up at the end of June called 'Blendshapes with Mudbox 2009'. More details on the workshop to come. This head was made as a demonstration of taking the head topology I will be supplying to the class and sculpting it into a new head.

http://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/screenshot_f.jpg
http://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/screenshot_3qr.jpghttp://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/screenshot_3ql.jpg

[Bryan Silva]

http://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/screenshot_r.jpghttp://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/screenshot_l.jpg

[Wayne]

Best of luck with the workshops Bryan. :) I ca definatly see the silva style in that head. ;) nice one.


Wayne...

[Bryan Silva]

Thanks Wayne. Its been nice working on the material for this workshop. As Im sure you know, when you prepare to teach someone about something you really end up teaching yourself a thing or two :) So its a win win as far as I can see it. You help teach those who are coming up and you gain an even deeper understanding of it yourself.

[Wayne]

Without a shadow of a doubt..its beneficial for both parties involved. No one knows everything so we all keep learning until the day we die in art.


Wayne...

[spindraft]

Really nice model. I think you've really nailed all of the forms and the subtlety of the details is really good. Just enough to see they're there w/o going overboard.

Also, kudos to both of you guys on your willingness to impart your knowledge to others. I know Waynes vid's have been a great help to get up and running quickly.

Anyway, good stuff man.

[Hulahuga]

Proportions and forms are great :).
Did you use a stamp for the pores?

[oglu]

is this a special shader..?
it seams that the pores are darker..?
ao..?

great work...!
saved to my ref folder... ;)

[Bryan Silva]

Thanks a lot guys. I really appreciate it. The workshop should be announced soon. I'll be sure to make an announcement here when the dates are locked down.

Yes I did use stamps for the pores. A mix of the imprint and repeat brushes were used to lay the stamp down on the mesh.

The shader is a standard mudbox material with tweaked spec and gloss values and AO maps set to 31 percent.

[steelsky]

Good info Bryan... any chance of seeing the base mesh?

[Hulahuga]

is it a custom stamp?

[Bryan Silva]

yes it is. I attached it to this thread if you want it. I cant remember where I got it now its been so long.

heres todays fun

http://www.bryansilva.com/images/emcee/wip02.jpg

[Hulahuga]

Thanks dude.
This new one has a great sense of style to it.
Textured eyes?

[Alshak]

Cool head Bryan
i'm sure it will be an awesome workshope

[Bryan Silva]

Thanks guys. Hulahuga yes the eyes are just quickly textured in mudbox just to see something staring back at me.

[Hulahuga]

What shader/material did you use on the cap?

[Bryan Silva]

Nothing special just a mudbox material.

[crayzard]

very nice model i love the subtle details u put on ur model.. i hope u dont mind me asking how did u made the pores.. im having a hard time doing natural looking pores..

[Bryan Silva]

My bad for taking so long to get back to you. heres the wireframe.

http://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/wireframe.jpg

[Bryan Silva]

I was working on some blend shapes I've been creating for the workshop and while messing around with some of the sliders, I came up with this expression. It reminds me of squeezing a fart out. :) I got a kick out of it and thought I'd share. The shapes are still in progress btw so there are some areas that still need some love.

http://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/squeeze_fart.jpg

[oglu]

hi bryan

great expression... and a clean mesh...!
is this the base mesh for sculpting or the mesh you use for animation..?

[Hulahuga]

Haha ;). Cool expression!
Mesh is clean too. Especially around the lips! :) GJ.

[Bryan Silva]

Thanks guys. If I want to do blend shapes for the character Im creating I use this mesh in mudbox. It has enough geometry and loops in the right places to do shapes at the base level. I am actually giving this mesh out in my workshop. I will be demonstrating sculpting shapes and revealing blend shape workflows in mudbox. Still time to sign up if you are interested.

[spindraft]

I was working on some blend shapes I've been creating for the workshop and while messing around with some of the sliders, I came up with this expression. It reminds me of squeezing a fart out. :) I got a kick out of it and thought I'd share. The shapes are still in progress btw so there are some areas that still need some love.

Lmfao. Nice man, really got a kick outta that. Thanks.

[oglu]

thanks for info bryan...

is this the head they would use for the bone based animation..?
for jaw rotations and head turns.?
or is there a lower version for things like this..?

[Bryan Silva]

oglu - Sometimes a lower resolution mesh is rigged and skinned and then higher resolution meshes are wrapped to that. It really depends on the pipeline you are a part of and what works best for the asset.

spindraft - Im glad you got a kick out of it. I was cracking up =P

Heres a little playblast I did to check on some of the shapes I been working on and see how the combination shapes are transitioning. No displacement maps, just took my base level from mudbox into maya and smoothed it before playblasting.

http://www.bryansilva.com/workshop/shape_playblast02.gif

[steelsky]

cripes that looks good -love the evily smile combo, are you happy with it?...

[Bryan Silva]

Im digging it for the most part. The brow lowerer shape needs some love. Not completely happy with it right now. Seems to lose volume. Going to be doing some more on the brows. Like an outer brow raiser and then making it work with the innerbrow raiser to create a full brow raiser combination. I will rework that brow lowerer too. Thanks for the comment man.

[oglu]

ooh great work, i like these shapes...
maybe you show us a mouth open or screaming blend..?
would be kind...

[Hulahuga]

Neat ;). I like the concerned expression.

[_S9_]

Great facial expressions lol, yeah, i saw the banner on cgtalk for your workshop, pretty interesting, as well as some of the facial expresssion challenge entries, that dude totally nailed Shia Labouf's likeness and facial expressions, the ogre Jelmer Boskma did was another great example, wich shows more of a VFX approach using a combination of high res blend shapes and animated displacement maps.

[Bryan Silva]

Thanks guys. I will be doing more an more shapes for this guy in due time. little by little hes going to be capable of doing a HUGE range of motion with his face. Making blend shapes is addictive. I saw those posts on zbrush central too. They look great but if they were created as complete expressions (surprised shape, sad shape) then they are far less useful in a pipeline than the shapes I am creating. I am isolating muscles and doing shapes of the isolation. Therefore I can create expressions by adding up the isolated muscle shapes and animate the face with much more control than just creating a surprised shape, or a sad shape. With my work flow you can create any expression once I get enough shapes and combination shapes going. My method takes longer but yields superior results. Just look at characters like Benjamen Button or King Kong. They were done with this approach.

If any of you are interested in blend shape creation I highly suggest signing up for the workshop. Only 3 days left to register!

[Hulahuga]

Since every shape is pre defined with caring then the result must really prove to be resourceful. But couldn't you use a combination of a normal rig and the shapes? The rigging to control the larger joints and the shapes for facial postures and such...


How will the reviewing part go and how would the interaction between pupil and teacher go?

[Bryan Silva]

Yes it would be possible to use a mix of rigging and blendshapes to achieve your desired look. It is also possible to just use shapes. Inbetweens can be used to fight the linear look of blendhshapes. Most rigs even if blend shape based use deformers and clusters on top to give the animators more control over the face and reduce the need for more shapes.

Thie format for the workshop will be each of the eight weeks there is videos showing a mix of both theory and sculpting. The students will watch the videos and then do an assignment. As the student do the assigments, they have an opportunity to post questions in their own threads that the instructor will then read and answer and also give critiques on the work done by the student. I will be reviewing the threads daily and responding just as frequently. When the course is done you should have a lot better understading of creating blendshapes in mudbox, blendshape theory, and a head with some blendshapes done for it. For those who choose to use it, I will also be providing the head topology shown in this thread so that you dont have to worry about creating your own head if you dont want to. You will still have to scupt the head into your own character as the head I supply is generic in shape but at least you dont have to model and uv the head from scratch.

[Hulahuga]

Ah. Thanks for answering :).

I'd really like to attend the course but cashflow is a bit tight now...
Might be so that I'll join in on a later date. (for the other courses)

[Bryan Silva]

heres something I been fooling with lately... egg head

http://www.bryansilva.com/images/egg_head/wip01.jpg

[steelsky]

Very cool mate ... love the style... the eyes and mouth look gr8 to me. Hows the class going?

[Bryan Silva]

Thanks man. The class is going great. Only a few weeks left. I think Im going to revamp the material a little and run it again in the not so distant future.

[steelsky]

Sounds like a plan.. Good to here its going well - not always so easy to run that sort of thing... will look out for it when you redo it... ya never know i may be able to afford it hahaha

[Bryan Silva]

heres another wip

http://www.bryansilva.com/images/oldman/wip04.jpg

[steelsky]

cracking character!... love the ears. Couple of questions - How much reference for this head did you have? And, how long to the sculpt to this level?

[Bryan Silva]

Hard to say exactly how long. I havent been paying much attention. I tend to bounce around on my personal projects. Working on one until Im bored with it and then I open a different one. If I had to guess, I'd say 10 - 12 hours so far on this one. heres a collage of reference images i used. you can see how I pulled from some much more than others.

[Bryan Silva]

pulled this guy back out cause he and decided to make some changes to the body. Took one section of the body and mandibles off and changed some proportions. I want to complete this one and hopefully have it printed.

[Hulahuga]

The head of the spider has some nice attitude. and the legs are nice too.
One crit though. If you are going for spider, shouldn't the "backbody" be larger?

[steelsky]

Cheers for the info Bryan... good to see the ref material aswell ;)... the distorted proportions of the spider make it look like it could really jump ;).. like it