_____ Blog / beesub.org

Following up with the previous post with some more views and the alternate rusted version. All materials and textures were initially made within Keyshot. using different type of metal, plastic and rubber, adding more or less damages... Several passes were rendered and later composed in Photoshop. Final details were hand painted as well...

The process for texturing was pretty simple. I created different materials within Keyshot, using different type of metal with more or less damages applied on different parts, as well as a special pass of the same rust material applied on everything. I also used 1 or 2 HDRI with different lighting. For each view, I had up to 10 different passes rendered that I needed to combine in Photoshop in post using masks...

I had a blast working on this project during my spare time. The challenge was to respect the mood & spirit as well as the shapes of the initial 2d concept sketch by Thomas Oates from Weta Workshop. I wanted to keep the main volume and shapes, and to add details here and there as well. The back view was missing and some areas were just roughly suggested in the sketch so I needed to invent it and figure out how all the parts could be connected and work together. Fun process for sure!...

For this one, I used the original 2d concept sketch from Al Crutchley called "Li.-2".This was my main reference and guidelines but also wanted to add more details to make it believable. So I gathered many references (see post below to see some of them). Once again, hard surface modeling done in Maya. Rendered in Keyshot and post final comp in Photoshop...

Well, if you follow my posts, I usually tend to stick with modeling and basic clay rendering. Texturing is not what I do best and, most of the time, I prefer seeing neutral "gray" renders of things instead of the fully finished piece. You see the details more and I simply prefer this look. But for this project, as it is a tribute to Nikolay Georgiev (fuelstains) work, I wanted to make it special and learn new things as well. I used Keyshot and Photoshop for this.

Dog Bot is a personal project made during my spare time and weekends. It all started with a 2D sketch from Nikolay Georgiev (aka fuelstains). I used it as a learning exercise to practice hard surface modeling more. Made in Maya, I tried to respect the global shapes and keep the spirit of the initial sketch. But I also wanted to add much more details to make it believable. This is the final result. Hope you will like it!...

This is the initial sketch from fuelsatains. I am a big fan of his work and discovered him on instagram. I started this project on my own and I wanted to give justice to his sketch that I simply loved. I showed him the very first blocking out to have his feedback and informed him that I was trying to turn his sketch into 3D. He reacted very well to my first message and really loved the results so far. So I kept working hard on it and kept asking for his feedback from time to time. It was a really fun process and I am really happy and quite proud that the original artist simply loves it! Thanks man!

To go with the new sculpt I made, Coolprops team also updated the paint for this AVP SCAR PREDATOR. On my side, I was asked to sculpt this beast that needed some refinement. First version was made prior I joined the team so I made the head entirely again, new teeth, all the individual dreads (previous version was merged) and jewelry for each and all the hardsurface elements (chest shoulders armors, back pack and so on).

Some time ago I've been asked to work on the Lifesize AVP Scar Predator Bust for CoolProps. First version was made prior I joined the team but it needed some re-work and refinement. So I re-worked the head entirely, made new teeth, new individual dreads (they were all merged together previously), all the hardsurface elements (chest, shoulders armor, back pack, dreads jewelry).

Some time ago, I've been asked to work on the AVP SCAR PREDATOR lifesize bust for Coolprops. It needed some refinement so I made the head entirely again and made new teeth as well. I also created all the individual dreads (previous version was merged) and jewelry for it. Finally I was also in charge of all the hardsurface elements such as chest and shoulders armors back pack and so on...

I've been asked to help creating Lifesize Bust Replica of this iconic charcacter from the Japanese culture. I was in charge of the face while the other elements were worked separately. This bust comes with LED features in eyes and chest. The timing was really short but the final piece looks great and it was definitely awesome to work on such a character!

I've been asked to help creating Lifesize Bust Replica of this iconic character from the Japanese culture. I was in charge of the face while the other elements were worked separately. This bust comes with LED features in eyes, front head and chest, as well as removable head blades. The timing was really short but the final piece looks great and it was definitely awesome to work on such a character!

This "Werewolf" head is the first one I made just to test the process. Taking a 2D sketch to turn it into a fully finished 3D piece. Obviously this one is still WIP as I would need to fix some areas here and there, add textures and so on... I learned a lot during the process. Especially that something that looks good in 2D, doesn't necessarily look good in 3D! I needed to adjust the forms and proportions of the drawing to make it look decent in 3D.

This one was fun. I started it as an exercise, trying to get better at Hard Surface. I used the original 2d concept from Al Crutchley as a starting point. I kept the overall idea & shape, and also tried to changed some parts and add details here and there. The modeling phase is almost done. Next steps will be the UV and textures parts, before the final rendering.

I started this personal project some time ago, mostly working on it during my lunch break and spare time. The 2d concepts from Vadim Sverdlov always inspired me so I decided to give it a try. 1st pass modeling done in Maya. I will probably tweak some parts here and there. Then UV and textures for final rendering.

After so many years without holding a pen to draw, I felt really rusty but slowly, I started to enjoy the process again... I try now to keep my skechbook with me and draw my ideas as often as I can. Of course, most of my skecthes are monsters and the next steps will be to turn some of them into 3D...and probably 3d print them as well for limited edition kits. Stay tuned!...

My tasks included taking the initial 2d sketches from concept artists such as Ben Mauro or Marc Simonetti... and to translate it into 3D. I had to model lifesize sets & props in 3D for 3D printing. I did the Skyjet used in many sequences, the Hologram sleeve/box and the decals for it as well, the "cop" badge Valerian is holding, his gun, the main elements for the Trash Corridor and the entire set of Paradise Alley... and much more.

After so many years without holding a pen to draw, I felt really rusty but slowly, I started to enjoy the process again... I try now to keep my skechbook with me and draw my ideas as often as I can. Of course, most of my skecthes are monsters and the next steps will be to turn some of them into 3D...and probably 3d print them as well for limited edition kits. Stay tuned!...

The 1/3 scale AVP Queen I did for Coolprops is finally available worldwide for pre-order at Sideshow. Concept, 3D Sculpt and Engineering done by me based on the original design made by Akihito Ikeda for Studio ADI and the AVP movie. Quick mock up mixing my renders with official pictures of the prototype done by the amazing Coolprops team. Thanks guys. It was an awesome project to work on. Great team work and exchange during the process. I can't wait to have this huge beast in hands.

Some behind the scene digital sculpt of this beast. You can fully appreciate the details of this raw unpainted version. This Limited Edition 1:3 scale bust is huge and comes in 2 versions. Standard and Deluxe. The Standard comes with 1 single head carapace (clean version) and the Deluxe comes with 2 swapable head carapaces (clean and damaged version).

For each view, I made between 7 to 10 different passes, changing HRDI maps & settings (brightness, contrast, rotation...). I did the same for the texture itself and let keyshot run for several days. Then it took me a couple of days in photoshop for compositing...

Unfolding UV was a pretty straight forward process, made directly inside Zbrush with the UV tools. Most of the time, I just had to press the buttons and paint areas I wanted to protect in order to avoid visible seams or seams placed in unwanted areas. Then I started to paint textures with Zbrush mixing polypaint and textures projection using lightbox. Time consuming process but pretty fun...

Clay renders of the Zombie and his "blood sucker host". This bug/parasite is deeply attached to his body, sucking/eating him from the inside while keeping him kind of alive... Slowly turning into a dead-alive creature, not totally dead but no longer human anymore...

The Zbrush file done, I sent the file to Ownage. They took care of everything from cutting the model where needed, printing the 3D Master (opaque dome version), molds and castings in hard resin with transparent dome. The final 1:2 scale kit (46cm long x 45 cm high) comes in 7 parts, including 2 inner mouth triggers (1 short & 1 long) and transparent dome. This kit is for sale. Just a few left so get in touch on my facebook page (top right link).

Some of the final clay renderings and Zbrush screenshots of the final HD digital sculpts. The blocking stage and 1st details pass were made in roughly a week. I liked the results and the first comments and feedback were great too. Some of my friends pushed me to move forward... and what started as a personnal fan art project slowly changed into a limited edition kit I would have to try and produce on my own...

I used Zbrush as my main and unique tool for this project. It all started from a sphere in Dynamesh mode. After blocking out the main shapes and first volume, I slowly increased the Dynamesh resolution to roughly add some details. Once the overall look was there, I copied the Ztool, left the Dynamesh mode and used Zremesher on the new tool to have a better topology. I used "Project All" to project the first details and used it as a starting base. Then I spent hours and days in my spare time and weekend to sculpt, tweak and refine until I was happy with the result...

... right out of the machine, without any post work. The result looks smooth and clean. The shapes are respected and the overall aspect is just awesome. The 3D printing company did a beautiful work. Thanks again guys!

3D printed pieces are always a bit tricky to finish. It looks smooth and clean, but as soon as you want to paint it, all the 3d printed layers/building marks, suddenly appear. There are many ways to get rid of this but for this model, I teamed up with my friend and sculptor Stéphane Barret. He did all the finishing, painting and post work on the Inspector, using sand papers and all sort of wizardry and magical tricks to complete the model. Perfect work my friend!

Some of the clay renders made during the process.

Earlier this summer, the "Musée de l'Homme" in Paris contacted me. They needed iconic characters from the pop culture, for one of their big display cabinet discussing the theme of "augmented man and the possible future of mankind". Inspector Gadget was the one I had to build...from scratch (I will post the Making Of soon).

Concept #04 for Maassera Oil.

Niko (from Instinktiv) and I, worked together again on a serie of product visualisations for Maassera Oil. Once again, Niko did the graphics on the bottles, and I was in charge of the 3D part (modeling, textures & shaders, and rendering). The goal was just to better help figure out the design in volume, based on the quick photoshop mock-up, initialy presented to the client.

Concept #03 for Maassera Oil

Niko (from Instinktiv) and I, worked together again on a serie of product visualisations for Maassera Oil. Once again, Niko did the graphics on the bottles, and I was in charge of the 3D part (modeling, textures & shaders, and rendering). The goal was just to better help figure out the design in volume, based on the quick photoshop mock-up, initialy presented to the client.

Concept #02 for Maassera Oil

Niko (from Instinktiv) and I, worked together again on a serie of product visualisations for Maassera Oil. Once again, Niko did the graphics on the bottles, and I was in charge of the 3D part (modeling, textures & shaders, and rendering). The goal was just to better help figure out the design in volume, based on the quick photoshop mock-up, initialy presented to the client.

Concept #01 for Maassera Oil.

Niko (from Instinktiv) and I, worked together again on a serie of product visualisations for Maassera Oil. Once again, Niko did the graphics on the bottles, and I was in charge of the 3D part (modeling, textures & shaders, and rendering). The goal was just to better help figure out the design in volume, based on the quick photoshop mock-up, initialy presented to the client.

Modeling and renders done in C4D based on the graphic elements made by Niko from Instinktiv. I created and tweaked the shaders in C4D, and finally export several passes to later comp everything in photoshop. Second project done with Niko, and others still to come...

The 1st part of "Fuze" is splited into several sections. This is my take on it. If I kept the spirit & basic workflow of it, I didn't want to stay true to the original. So I added some variations. For the rendering part, I discovered Arnold renderer for Maya. Once I learned the basics, I created my own shaders, decals & graphics and did the final comp in Photoshop.

Polypainted and rendered in Zbrush with some extra post treatment in Photoshop. It's not perfect but the goal here was to see how fast I could do it and stay true to the original concept in the same time...

Process was pretty basic. It all started with a dynamesh sphere to get the primary shapes. When I was happy with the results and the blocking was done, exit dynamesh mode and started to divide the mesh. Each time adding and refining details.

Modelling and renders were made in C4D based on the graphic elements Niko (Instinktiv) gave me. I spent some time creating and tweaking the shaders in C4D, and finally export several passes to later comp everything in photoshop. This was our first collab but not the last one for sure. More branding and packaging beauty shots to come...

I know it's not "clay" but I am so used to Zbrush, that I keep calling it "clay renders" when I do neutral grey rendering. Next step is texture and new renders. This should be fun. Not sure to unfold UV for this. It might work the simple way. Stay tuned.

Some of the renders I did within zbrush and then composed with Photoshop. I still didn't find the right color scheme I have in mind for this one. I might give it another try sooner or later...

This slide shows the process behind the sculpting phase of the Faun. Started from a sphere in Dynamesh mode. Slowly found the right shapes and proportions before adding details and skin textures to it.

Once the main shape and proportions are ok, I slowy added details and textures most of the time by hand or using alphas to speed up the process. But I never or rarely use alpha itself, just the way it is. I always go back into it, changing the alpha 1st result by sculpting changes by hand. Long process by I found it working perfect... at least for me. When it's done, it's time for polypaint...

Some of the basic renders I did when the tank was completed. Next steps will be to try and learn unfolding UV and make really great textures for it. Hopefully I will come up with decent realistic renderings... or not!

"Nekromantik" was the 1st "ok" project in Zbrush. But also the first one where I tried polypaint and BPR to test compositing in photoshop. With a background of graphic design, the layout and compositing part of the project was an easier thing for me. More natural. I'll have to try new things and technique in the near future. Fun process.

"Nekromantik" started with a simple sphere in dynamesh mode. Roughly blocking out the shapes and main proportions. Slowly adding details. Then outside dynamesh, using sudivide method to finally add micro details, textures, skin folds and bump to make it more realistic. Hopefully I didn't fail too much with this?...