Saturday 26 January 2013

Starscream Update

Having ran into some sort of 'designer's block' with regards to Starscreams face texture, I rendered out a front view of Colour and Ambient Occ for the face and helmet (the face was just a grey mia x material), then set them up in Photoshop to be painted over. I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out; it's now time to go back into Maya to restructure the face and add in the neck geometry. 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated (especially any tips or suggestions for rendering settings and materials).


Mark.

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Starscream Project

Growing up in the 80's, Transformers was to kids what cocaine was to lawyers - explosive and expensive quick fixes that were paid for by our parents.

Every character from the Generation 1 era became instant household names. With characters as charismatic and as memorable as Starscream, The Dinobots, The Constructicons, Optimus Prime, Megatron and Soundwave, not even Orson Welles' famous defamatory statement, 'I play a big toy who attacks a bunch of smaller toys'  could put a damper on our relationship with Transformers...probably because a.) He was pretty much correct, and b.) At the age of 6: who was Orson Welles? He didn't sound like a very interesting Transformer anyway.

We all know what happened with Michael Bay and Transformers, which is a shame because the concept art for a lot of the character designs looked incredible; a lot more akin to the solid, sleek and strong silhouettes of the original series than the convoluted, ugly 90's esque 'cool sharp shapes' of the final designs. God, even Optimus Prime had a flame tattoo. He may aswell have textured on a f***ing 8-ball and gave him a wallet chain.

Anyhow, the point in this post is that I've decided to model a selection of Transformers, keeping close to the G1 designs but textured and lit realistically. I stumbled upon an amazing 'Devastator' fan-piece that is exactly how he should have been re-imagined for the film and is a constant source of inspiration for this project. You'll find it in the images below.

First on the list is Starscream. The Colour Map is almost complete. I'll start on the Bump and Specular very soon then begin a few rendering tests before moving onto his face.

If you have any feedback, ideas or suggestions then feel free to post or email.

Hope you enjoy.










Mark.