Redback Spider (W.I.P)

Modeling in   - Blender 

Hair added in - Maya

Rendered in   - V-Ray

Light Balance: 


Test render of  just the spider:

As a workflow test I decided to model a new Redback in Blender using Blenders Skin Modifer. Previously I modeled one in Maya.

I noted my first attempt at using Blenders Skin Modifier HERE. Once the base shape was created I retopologized the mesh using the blender add-on RetypoFlow.

Render test one. I created a web alpha in photoshop and projected them onto images planes in Maya. Here is a test render:

The web is, in all honesty, not very believable, the spiders joints are way to bright and the lighting isn't the best. I decided to do a test without a background or hair:

....could be better but, as always, it's a W.I.P.

Hunting Humans

Hunting humans - Red Demon

Modeling:      Maya + Zbrush

Texturing:      Zbrush + Photoshop

Rendering:     Mental Ray

Compositing: Photoshop

Look Development: Funnel Web Spider

Modeling     - Zbrush/Maya

Textureing    - Zbrush/Photoshop

Rendering     - Mental Ray

Compositing - After effects

Mental Ray - Shader Creation/Testing

Mental Ray shaders creation. Textures are a mix of personal photos and images from the following sites:

www.textures.com

www.texturemate.com

Demon - Work In Progress

Look Development - Demon (WIP)
Modeled in Maya/Zbrush
Textured in Zbrush/Photoshop
Rendered in Mental Ray

Look Development: "Mouth Of Hell"

Funnel Web Spider - WIP

Funnel Web Spider - WIP

Here are a few test render with a blend of materials in Vray for Maya with displacement, normal maps, specular maps blended with subsurface material.

Eric Keller's Insect DVD has been a great help.

Forest Environment - Maya, Paint Effects, Mental Ray, After Effects

After watching some wonderful tutorials by Alex Alvarez on creating plants in Maya's paint effects and rendering them in mental ray I figured I'd have some fun and create some of the plants I see in Sydney when bush walking. These Paint Effects plants have been converted to Polys and have been instanced along a poly plane.

I plan to keep growing a library of plants and trees so I can quickly make environments and animate them.

Here are two useful scripts.... 

1. The SpPaint Script 

2. The  Leaf UV Tool 

Software Used - Maya, Mental Ray and After Effects. 

Tests:

Video copilot - AE Particles & Origami Pigasus

Thought I would follow along with a cool particle tutorial by Andrew Kramer on videocopilot.net.

I'll have to think up some cool ideas to see how far I can push these techniques.

A ghostly Origami Pigasus animation i did years ago for fun and very quickly - (my excuse for not motion tracking it properly)  - I wouldn't mind finding the original maya files and making it look good - - with - AE particles perhaps? Hmm....