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“Whenever I need to breathe
life into my characters, Alex Alvarez is where I go. Whether
it be to collaborate on concepts with him directly or to
watch his DVDs, I am
always confident in accessibility to great information.
Not only has his technical prowess pulled me out of many
holes, but his character sense
has given rise to some wonderful moments on some major
motion pictures (Avatar and Star Trek). These new DVD's
encapsulate what I gush about.
Crazy and creative character design coupled with empowering
technical know how. ”
- Neville Page
Character/Concept Designer
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This making of demonstration and lecture began with the decision to take a
personal sketch, develop it in 3D and produce a life-size print. This would
require the development of high-resolution detail and textures that could
hold up to a 4000x6000 pixel render, effectively making Jester a film-res
character. Observe and listen as Alex shares his workflow, thought process
and techniques. Volume One covers the character modeling process using Maya
and ZBrush, as well as some lighting, composition and texture exploration.
Alex begins by creating an organized base mesh in Maya that accurately
follows the 2D design. Using UVlayout, he flattens the UVs of the multiple
basemesh components. Jester is then imported into ZBrush for sculpting and
detailing. We give some thought as to the resolution for each subtool that
should be sent to Maya and export them with normal maps generated in
Zmapper. Once in Maya, the shader networks are blocked-out so that Jester
renders in Maya with the same level of detail that he had in ZBrush. The
final step prior to texturing is to then create a Photoshop¬ color study
that will guide our further progress on the character.
540 Minutes of Lecture.
Product Code: AAL03
Base Mesh Creation
Photoshop® Color Study
Composition/Lighting
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Zbrush/Zmapper
Maya Shader Setup
UV Layout
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01. Overview
02. Base Mesh, Part 1
03. Base Mesh,Part 2
04. Base Mesh, Part 3
05. Base Mesh, Part 4
06. UV Layout, Part 1
07. UV Layout, Part 2
08. UV Layout, Part 3
01. Composition/Lighting
02. Sculpting in ZBrush, Part 1
03. Sculpting in ZBrush, Part 2
04. Sculpting in ZBrush, Part 3
05. Maya Shader Set-up
06. Photoshop Color Study
Click here to
view a sample clip from this DVD. Note that while this
clip is compressed for the web the actual movie
is high quality video. View the
thumbnails to the right to see higher resolution stills.
Alex is founder and director of The Gnomon Workshop and of the Gnomon School
of Visual Effects in Hollywood. Having dedicated the last decade to
educating students and professional artists around the world, Alex has
helped change the face of computer graphics and design education. He has
been published in industry magazines, websites and books - plus he has
taught courses at several major trade conferences. Alex is president of the
Los Angeles Maya Users Group and sits on the Advisory Boards for
Highend3D.com and CGsociety. He continues to work on personal and
professional projects, recently as a creature development artist on the
James Cameron film Avatar. Prior to Gnomon, Alex worked for Alias|Wavefront
as a consultant and trainer for studios in the Los Angeles area. Alex is an
alumnus of the Art Center College of Design and the University of
Pennsylvania.
Character Texturing and Rendering
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