Zbrush Hangout Livestream

From tonight's Zbrush hangout. Styracosaurus.

Check the recorded session bellow. In my future hangouts I'l try to plan stream events day or two before, organize notification system and sort of countdown before I start. Also, I'l try and make commentary on my sessions once I get used to the whole idea.

SURRIGONIA

Surrigonia is the title for the short fantasy novel I'm writing. Story follows a boy who sets of on a journey to save his father that got poisoned while the two of them were fishing. 

The title "Surrigonia" actually represents mythical rare plant with miraculous medicinal properties and is the only thing that can save this boy's father's life.

The main plot of the story was written around 2009. Over the following years I came up with separate stories and characters. Now, I'm blending these elements into one larger and a bit more complex novel. The turntable animation bellow is one of the creatures that shows up in Surrigonia. It is Crab Queen of the Needle Island. The model is still in wip stage and far from showing all the details and beauty of the concept I have in my mind. More frequent posts with concept designs and ideas revolving around Surrigonia can be seen on my Facebook page.

SEQUOIA TREE 3D MODEL

I decided I'll start putting together library of 3d trees and plants that were probable trough out the dinosaur era. I want to start using these plants and trees in my illustrative work as to improve the look and feel of my creations and give them more "authentic" appearance. I kind of got tired of composing dinosaurs within environments constructed out of my own photographs of modern forests, trees and plants.
I've started this quest with Sequoia. Magnificent tree that exists today and is naturally growing only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Most of these monumental trees (about 95%) were obliterated during logging in late 19th and early 20th century.
Hopefully we will preserve and rebuild at least part of these forests that were there before.
Anyway, to go back to the topic. I own Vue 8 Infinite software that contains comprehensive library of trees and plants. 
There is one Sequoia tree there but it just doesn't look good if you need to render it in any proximity to the camera. It could work well for distant shots of complete forests on vast terrain.
For my work I need trees and plants that can bee set closer to and around subjects of the illustrations, both foreground and background. 
Bellow you can see the rendered tree. This is the alpha tree. It is built in pieces so I can easily rebuild it using its parts to form more unique trees from it. I also made 3 varied tree trunk textures. This way I can avoid having obvious repetitive elements within one or series of illustrations.

Click on image then right click and select view image for a closer look.

CARNOTAURUS WITH FEATHERS? WHY NOT

This is my depiction of Carnotuaurus, if it had feather filament. Now, I know all about what was discovered next to the 2/3 of a single Carnotaurus skeleton ever dug out.

This feathery concept is me being inspired after reading great article I found online about feathers in dinosaurs, I recommend it, it's a good read:
On feathers fleas and big stem birds
There are more and more articles and new research on the subject of feathers in dinosaurs. I begin to see now that the more we learn about dinosaurs, and the more new findings emerge, the more we realize how wrong we were about some of our previous understandings.
I'm not the one to say whether Carnotaurus had feathers or not, that's for sure. But I can think about it and try to imagine what would it be if it had fur/feather filament from the artistic perspective. Not trying to be sensationalist about it either, this is just a matter of exploring existing ideas and assumptions. Take Elephant for example. It is more or less naked with some patches of fur and fuzz scattered trough its body. Now go just a little bit back in time and you have a close relative, Woolly Mammoth, with tons of fur. Who is to say that dinosaurs were not the same? Maybe some of them developed fuz and fur as they spread around the globe, as to adjust to the new environments. Maybe they shed fur seasonally. As well, there is a great write up on the fact that fur and scales can coexist by Mr. Tom Hopp: Even more dinosaur skin
This is one nice example of the armadillo, quite scaly and armored animal, with fur and scales at the same time: Chaetophractus vellerosus
Now imagine if Carnotaurus did feature something like this armadillo, but if it was not fur, if it was feathery filament such as this: Feathery filament
We would end up with a pretty fuzzy Carnotaurus in that case, just like the one I made.
In regard to preserved patches of skin, they are in the end just that, patches. And there is the fact that feather is the hardest one to be preserved. With paleontologists discovering feathers preserved only in specific type of rock. To quote that article: "outside of the Chinese and German beds, and rare amber inclusions, there are very few regions where feather are preserved in the fossil record."

HOBBIT

Last December that was so eagerly awaited was back in 2003 when the Lord Of The Rings saga ended with "Return Of The King"...actually, it's December 2009 and Avatar.
Epic adventure continues. Hobbit is the movie of the year in my book.

 It met all my expectations. It is painted in the same shades of "Great" as LOTR trilogy. This prelude to LOTR trilogy will blend in and make the most epic hexology that has ever been filmed.
I need to point out that as many of us, I was a bit concerned about the HFR aspect. My led tv has this tru-motion setting that interpolates usual 24 frames to 48, or 50, or 60, in tv, and gives this smooth, almost "speed up" feeling that can be associated to tv soap operas and documentaries. I dont like that setting and I keep it at off all the time. It alienates me from the film. I feared it might ruin the experience of the Hobbit. Since the non Hfr versions plays only in small screen halls I decided to see it on  the big screen with Hfr and the 3D. It is just a movie at the end of the day and there is no point of obsessing and making drama about the "first viewing experience".
First couple of shots were expectedly "soap opera" like. But after about 5 to 10 minutes in I forgot about it. The ambient,  the characters, the movie, it overcame this tech aspect.
I really enjoyed the ride and everything that came with it. I have read the Hobbit book twice. After seeing the movie, I'm sort of itchy to read it again.
The dwarves gang was fantastic. Just the right amount of singing :) If they followed the book more closely in that department, we would have ended up with a musical. The Misty Mountain Cold song spawned goosebumps all over my back, blurred vision due to watery eyes, magnificent! 

 Critics resent that the Hobbiton/Bilbo dinner scene was way dragged out. I could watch that bunch of characters eating and chatting whole night long. Critics, both "professional" and plane critical people are actually a very funny bunch. They resent how everything feels dragged out unnecessarily and how it gets to a point of being boring, and then we get to the Goblin lair scenes where they resent to much details, to much Goblins, to much happening. You can never please these folk I tell ya.

But to return to the subject. I enjoyed the pacing of the movie. It was good to see some old faces, sorts of Ian Mckellen as Gandalf, Woods as Frodo, Serkis as Gollum, and awesome new faces in Dwarf characters, both actors and costume/make up artists made a brilliant effort with stunning results...

 There are so many things I liked. I like how PJ incorporated different elements taken from other parts of the J.R.Tolkiens universe to make up ground for splitting the book into three parts, elements like the albino Orc character, Azog the defiler.. We get to see bit of Smaug, tho obscured in fire and smoke and gold :) Cannot wait enough to see how they go about Smaug in what is to come. The dragon speaks in the book. I guess the movie version will speak as well. The way I see this happen is in a telepathy sort a way. No cheap lipsinc stuff. It must be made on the similar level the way the "Lidless Eye a.k.a Sauron" on the tower spoke to Frodo in LOTR whenever he had the ring on. Or the way Galadriel went all psycho on Frodo near the mirror.. "....Treacherous as the Sea! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!.."
So much to look forward to, especially now that the first installment passed with flying colors.
Looking back at all the negotiations and all the director names that got connected to the Hobbit prior to production, and at the start of production with Guillermo Del Toro and all, I'm glad PJ took over. I somehow think GDT would smear the universe if he got to direct Hobbit. He has different style to PJ and it would probably just feel off.
Hobbit is awesome!