Saturday Evening Post, December 1926

[Woody]

I don't know if I'll manage to finish it in time, but I have set a
little project for myself to actually recreate a scene from a
painting by Norman Rockwell that always captured my
imagination ever since I was a boy.

1232

I have begun modeling the Globe and Book of Good Boys so far.
Of course, I'm putting off modeling Santa until I feel up to it,
but I've been making good progress so far, so maybe I'll get around
to him soon.

My pipeline for this project is Modo for modeling and UV mapping,
ZBrush for displacement and texture painting, then off to Lightwave for
any rigging and scene setup. I will experiment with different render
engines, though right now I intend to final in LightWave. If I finish early,
maybe I'll send out digital Chistmas cards to all of you!

I invite comment,critique and questions from members throughout the project! :D

[bmckain]

Very nice Charles,

And you got the spirit of how to post a project down to a tee.

I'll be curious to see how the flow goes from one app to another and what bumps you experience along the way and how you solved them.

[TheGreatRaja]

Santa could be a really hassle.
Dont see him modeled all that often
looks good so far

[Gordon Robb]

Schaweet! I envy your guts, but don't envy your task. Looking forward to seeing it develop.

[Woody]

Thanks guys! I'll need a little luck for sure.

I have modeled the title of the book for the face and spine and think that
it's time to move on. Due to time constraints, I'm more or less 'blocking'
these things out before worrying about detail, UV's, texturing and so forth.

The text was accomplished using the Text tool, then extruded and beveled,
with some minor clean up for crossing vertexes after the inset bevel.

So with this update, modeling for the Book of Good Boys is finished.

:D

[TheGreatRaja]

it's amazing how well that scene holds up after all these years
Nice work on the book

[Sodonn]

I have no doubt that you will pull this off perfectly!

[wave of light]

Looking forward to this one Woody, bring on the spirit of Xmas.

[Woody]

Thank you all - I hope I don't disappoint! :cool:

Here's Santa's Glass. Simple primitives and an extrusion for the handle,
then converted to Subdivision Surfaces. Three materials are defined:
Steel, Glass and Handle. Just to organize things a little for later when I
start surfacing all this stuff.

[Woody]

it's amazing how well that scene holds up after all these years
Nice work on the book

Norman Rockwell was a layout genius. Probably my favorite artist of all time.
Followed closely by Craig Mullins, of course! :D :p

[bmckain]

I have to tell you I am really looking forward to seeing how this will turn out. There's certainly nothing wrong with the modeling.

[Rigel]

Looks really good so far Woody.

I too have always been impressed with how Norman Rockwell put his paintings together. I've always felt a connection to them even though they do not depict the society I grew up in.

[Kataar]

I've always loved that image, and I'm amazed that you've picked such a difficult one to try, but then I've always felt daunted by organic modeling, and an iconic character like Santa would scare the hell out of me if I tried to model him :)

You've an excellent start to it, I can't wait to see progress!!!!

~Jon

[Mikala]

A worthy project for you Charles.
From the looks of it you are definitely going down the right road so far.

[Woody]

I agree that it will be challenging to get a convincing Santa put together,
but I'm hoping that ZBrush will be the bridge that I need from a 'good'
model to a convincing recreation of Norman Rockwell's interpretation
of the Jolly Old Elf. I think what really draws the viewer into his painting
is the expression of anticipation and joy on his face. If I can nail that,
then the rest will come. I think that expression alone is going to be
the most difficult aspect of the piece.

[Mikala]

So will you be Poly Painting or traditional texturing? Or praise be ZApplink and go back and forth to Photoshop?

[Woody]

Bit too early to tell yet, though I think the poly res in ZBrush should be sufficient for Poly Painting and ZAppLink work, and export for traditional application within LightWave.

:wtf: Uh, did that make any sense at all? :D

I now know why my wife thinks that I speak alien when I talk CG with her.

[Mikala]

Nope I get it. Sounds like a plan.
I'll be watching this real close especially around paintjob time.

[Woody]

Modeling for the various pieces is complete. Now, on to the Jolly Fat Elf!
Look for an update this weekend for certain, and thanks to all of you
for your encouragement - you guys motivate me! :D

[Rigel]

Modeling for the various pieces is complete. Now, on to the Jolly Fat Elf!
Look for an update this weekend for certain, and thanks to all of you
for your encouragement - you guys motivate me! :D

That's what we're here for Charles.

*surreptitiously displays the pointy stick*

[Mikala]

Pointedly point that stick!

[Matt]

But point it with purpose... you can mis-handle something like that, could be dangerous...


...and who the heck left the thing unguarded anyways ;)





Looking good at any rate Charles, should make a nice project ;)

[Rigel]

...and who the heck left the thing unguarded anyways ;)

Bill had it last, didn't he??

Any peeks at the Santa model yet? Really anxious to see what it looks like!

[Woody]

Aha - Patience please.
If you saw what he looks like now, I would be shamed.
(Naked fat guys just are not pretty!)

[Mikala]

Throw a towel on him at least...

[November Zulu]

This looks like it's going to be one hell of a ride. Why are you modeling in Modo and not in LW?

[BillS]

This looks like it's going to be one hell of a ride. Why are you modeling in Modo and not in LW?

Woody has developed a "thing" for Modo :)

And I didn't leave the PS laying around. Someone grabbed it when I was making coffee!!! :wtf:

[Matt]

Aha - Patience please.
If you saw what he looks like now, I would be shamed.
(Naked fat guys just are not pretty!)

Trust me Charles, if they were pretty I would probably be worried ;)



Looking forward to seeing some progress though ;)

[Woody]

I am slowly nudging things into place.

Here you can see that I have imported all the different objects into one scene file,
then scaled, translated and rotated things into their rough positioning using Rockwell's
painting as a guide. In the end, I may use a backdrop image of the painting for better accuracy when lining things up.

The character is not rigged, I am deforming the mesh itself through traditional poly modeling methods, since it's for a still image.

[Mikala]

Oh ya. The peices are coming together now. Have you decided on how you were going to do the beard yet?

[bmckain]

Suhweet! This is coming along nicely. :)

[Woody]

@Greg - maybe a subtool from ZBrush exported back to the scene. Maybe a Photoshop paintover proxy geometry. I won't wrestle with SasLite, I value my sanity too much. :p

[Mikala]

A great big understood on that one Charles. :)

[Rigel]

Charles, that is looking good.

I think it's wise to just model him in the desired posture, since it is for a still.

[Woody]

Thanks Rigel. :)

Well, here's the scene in ZBrush, where I continue posing the base objects.
ZBrush's transpose features are very nice for this sort of thing.

1563

[Rigel]

That looks like a wood carving; sweet.

[bmckain]

I agree with Rigel, looks like a carving. Man, I do hope you make this in time for Christmas. :)

[Sodonn]

Holy crap!

[Mikala]

What he said only times ten!
Great base to work from Charles. Great base indeed.

[November Zulu]

This is fantastic! Can you explain quickly what is Zbrush?

[Mikala]

ZBrush is a sculpting program that you can take low rez meshes into and come out with insanely high Poly meshes. You can start a mesh in your program of choice or build right in ZBrush. Take a look at the Pixologic website for more.

[Woody]

Thanks everyone. I hope that I can make it in time for Christmas! I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can find the time. I may end up finaling in ZBrush if I can get a decent render out of it...

@November Zulu - Pixologic has a 30 day demo available now on their website. Get into it!
http://www.pixologic.com/

[November Zulu]

ZBrush is a sculpting program that you can take low rez meshes into and come out with insanely high Poly meshes. You can start a mesh in your program of choice or build right in ZBrush. Take a look at the Pixologic website for more.

Thanks Mikala!

Thanks everyone. I hope that I can make it in time for Christmas! I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can find the time. I may end up finaling in ZBrush if I can get a decent render out of it...

@November Zulu - Pixologic has a 30 day demo available now on their website. Get into it!
http://www.pixologic.com/

Sweet! I'll have to give it a shot! ... right after finals are over...

[Mikala]

You're welcome and good luck on your finals!

[Raffs]

Awesome work Charles as always :)

[Woody]

Alright, just a little update this morning. I have gotten the hands (roughly) posed and
have begun working on the facial features and expression, along with some sculpting on
the body to try and reflect the contour of Rockwell's piece.

My plan is to try a mesh extraction for the shirt, wish me luck!

http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/studio/2007/12/4-08-122921_tn.jpg (http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/studio/2007/12/4-08-122921.jpg)

Santa is at level 2 subdivision in this pic, which for this mesh is ~30k polygons.

[Elowan]

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus ....

[Rigel]

luck !

[Matt]

Nice update Charles... :)

[TheGreatRaja]

looking really good

[davidtoddmichael]

Looking awesome. I would think it would be terrific if santa was rigged and the shot could come to life.

[Gordon Robb]

Superb, really need to get more into Zbrush

[Darkstone]

:jawdrop:

Bloody awesome! Really hope you finish this in time for Christmas... :tu:

[BillS]

For posting pictures of Santa naked.... Woody goes into the Naughty Book :)

[Woody]

LOL, he's just wearing red Lycra Bill. :rolleyes: :wtf:

Been working on the expression a bit this morning. Hair and beard soon.

1916

[Duncan7]

Woddy, does it make things more difficult for you to work in different applications and then try and "bring them together" for updates?

[Gordon Robb]

Woody my man, an inspiration. That looks awesome as it is. Love it.

[November Zulu]

As my friend back home used to say: That's redonkulous!

[Darkstone]

Hmmm... Dunno if it's just the "red Lycra" outfit, but to me it seems he could be a bit more chubbier. What will you use to make the hair and beard? Sasquatch?

[Meurig]

It's looking great. I find his expression really quite creepy though, I have to say! A manic gurn... Kind of like a face the Joker might pull :p

[Rigel]

Charles, that is incredible! Other than being a reddish colour, it looks very real.

[deg3D]

Ah coolness dude, great choice of project. Lookin' good so far eh. :)

deg

[Woody]

Thanks guys. I managed to get the slippers on him and start roughing in the
hair and beard this morning before work. I figured I'd give you guys a break
from the default Red Wax material as well.

2064

[bmckain]

Damn Charles! All I can say is wow!

[Mikala]

Are the booties a mesh extraction or a subtool?

[Rigel]

The slippers look fantastic, Charles.

I can hardly wait to see this finished!

[Woody]

Thanks guys - comin' down to the wire on this really fast. Yikes!

@Greg - Masked off the bottom of the foot, extracted the masked area from the SubTools palette.
Worked out pretty nicely. I tried to accomplish the same trick with the beard and
hair, but the extraction got mangled, so I'm building up the hair using the
Clay Tubes brush, which I'll then refine using the Rake Brush.

[Mikala]

The Clay works great and Raking afterward should give you a more than acceptable beard.
This will be outstanding Mr.

[Gordon Robb]

Superb work there woody. Lovin' those slippers

[Martocticvs]

Looks superb so far! ;)

[DELTA]

Boy I came into this post late... WOW. Very Nice!!!! You will make it in time... "Someone is looking over your shoulder":tu:

[Matt]

Man I love that update Charles :)

[TheWharGoul]

Very very cool.. Cant wait till this is finished!

great stuff as always.

[Woody]

Thanks guys!
Here's an update - adding hair using clay tubes and rake brush. :cool:
Also started some wrinkling on his pajama pants.

2179 2180

[Gordon Robb]

damn you and your skills. :)

Looking mighty fine woody.

[Rigel]

The detail is fantastic! I like how we can see the stem of the feather protruding out over his sideburns.

[Maph]

Very nice, Woody!
This has a lot of character.

The ears still need a lot of work imho. And the zygomatic area looks odd because it looks like he has no maxilla bones, and that there's just a lot of fatty tissue hanging on the nasal bones. :)

If I may recommend theartofanatomy.com (http://www.theartofanatomy.com/), there are a couple of topics dedicated to the ears, orbital and nasal processes. And they've been a life saver for me. :)

Other than that, fantastic job! Can't wait to see it finished. A front pager for sure!

[bmckain]

Dnag Charles, you do beat all! :D

[Woody]

Thank you for the constructive notes Maph.
The volume for the maxilla is there, but at the angle of the head, may not be as apparent as in a straight ahead view. I think you're definitely right about the ears and zygomatic area needing more attention. :cool:

Very nice, Woody!
This has a lot of character.

The ears still need a lot of work imho. And the zygomatic area looks odd because it looks like he has no maxilla bones, and that there's just a lot of fatty tissue hanging on the nasal bones. :)

If I may recommend theartofanatomy.com (http://www.theartofanatomy.com/), there are a couple of topics dedicated to the ears, orbital and nasal processes. And they've been a life saver for me. :)

Other than that, fantastic job! Can't wait to see it finished. A front pager for sure!

[Thor]

That's looking fantastic!

[Josh2481]

Really nice.

[November Zulu]

Oh wow... it's shaping up fantastically

[Matt]

Fantastic still Charles -- I really look forward to updates every time :)

[Maph]

Thank you for the constructive notes Maph.
The volume for the maxilla is there, but at the angle of the head, may not be as apparent as in a straight ahead view. I think you're definitely right about the ears and zygomatic area needing more attention. :cool:

Allrighty, must've been that horrible fake perspective of Zbrush that confused me. :)

[Meurig]

Ahh this is really coming together now.

[Woody]

Thanks Rhys,
I have a very long way to go yet with it!

Here's my latest update, with Ralph Stumpf's amazing Bronze MatCap.


2542

[Mikala]

Beautiful Charles!
I love that material. Glad Ralph shared it.

[November Zulu]

wow! It looks great! As is it looks like a bronze sculpture.

[bmckain]

Yes, indeedy! Very nice.

[Maph]

The cloth is coming along nicely!
But the hands (as a whole) are very underplayed compared to the rest. Spending some more time on the forms will do a whole lot of good. ;)

note: I seem to be the only one that really doesn't like those Zbrush matcap materials... :hmph::wtf:

[Meurig]

This was always going to be on the front page eventually ;) Congrats.

I'm also a fan of that bronze material, I have to say.

[viandante]

great work! It's simply superb!!!

[Woody]

Wow, thanks everyone for your kind words and encouragement.
I'm honored to have a spot on the front page! - Now I HAVE to finish him! :D

[Gordon Robb]

Woody that is truley an inspiration. Fantastic work.

[deg3D]

That's is sO awesome dude, love the bronze look. :)

Congrats on the FP too, well well deserved. :)

deg

[Rigel]

Charles -- wow.

[Woody]

Thanks guys, you are all too kind. There is yet alot to do. :wtf:

In this update, I have worked on the hands quite a bit, also the wrinkling
on his shirt and some face/beard work as well. I feel like the hair needs
alot of attention, and the expression of the face is not quite right either,
seems to be sleepy rather than delighted. :rolleyes:

Nonetheless - I press on!

2615

[Maph]

Very nice. Raising the upper eyelids a wee tiny bit will do a world of good.

The hands themself are a bit bony for a man of his posture imho.

[Woody]

Aye. The knuckles are a tad pronounced.
Once around with the Inflate brush on the fingers may fix that bony look. ;)

[bmckain]

Go Charles Go! You've just a few days left. ;)

[Treybor]

Woody! This is outstanding work.

[bmckain]

Charles,

Fran is a big Norman Rockwell fan and she actually likes your version better than his. Quite a compliment. She says he just looks a lot more kindly and a lot less sloppy.

[janus]

I don't know about the other guys following this but I'm entranced by watching the whole process flow together. :) Thanks for sharing the whole thing! :)

[janus]

And yes: WOW is about as close as I can get althought it's obviously an understatement!

[Woody]

Thanks guys, without your encouragement I wouldn't have come this far.

I've now started the texture painting which is initially assigning materials
and brushing in some base color before diving in for details. I must remember
that this is for a still image, so no camera can fly in and land on the globe
or anything. :D Makes it bit less stressful to say the least.

So here's the view that I've been posting:
2651

And a slightly different angle:
2652

[panaristi]

Amazing exceptional work:)

[bmckain]

Ah, this is the part I've been waiting for. :D

[TheGreatRaja]

sorry but without the red suit he just looks odd
nice modeling jib though

[Woody]

LOL @ Roger - he does look odd in white, doesn't he? :D

[Woody]

There, that's a bit better. :cool:
Movin' right along!

2678

Anyone have a good approach for painting the globe within ZBrush?

[bmckain]

Do you really need to paint the globe in zbrush? Wouldn't it be easier at this point to drop it out to another package?

Looks incredible though. :D

[Rigel]

Looking nice Charles.

But *ahem* you only have 3 days to finish. :)

[Woody]

Don't remind me! :D

I think it's about time for me to start wrapping it up. :rolleyes:

[Gorgonzola_Happiness]

LOL... don't you worry about an elderly, possibly type-2 diabetic, man looking closely at a book called "Good Boys" and searching the globe... LOL (sorry) very nice work though... Santa's little colostomy bag looks a little like the grenade pouches in COD4... heh...

[Matt]

:jawdrop:


All I can say at this time - great work still Charles :)

[WhiteWolfz]

Wow thats all really left to say!
This was fun watching and can't wait to see the finished ver. of this

Awesome work Woody.

[Gordon Robb]

Anyone have a good approach for painting the globe within ZBrush?

this is looking great woody. I really think it is fantastic.

On the subject of the globe.Could you use that method where you have an image and basically do what in PS would be the clone brush, just copying the texture onto the globe? Might be difficult to get it to look right from different angles.

[Woody]

I ended up just drawing the continents in by hand using the Clay brush with a low level Lazy Mouse. I also was a dumbass and somehow managed to lose all of my poly painting *smacks forehead* sooooo....looks like I'll be drawing the line at a traditional material for the final. :(

[November Zulu]

It's really a great piece of work

[bmckain]

I ended up just drawing the continents in by hand using the Clay brush with a low level Lazy Mouse. I also was a dumbass and somehow managed to lose all of my poly painting *smacks forehead* sooooo....looks like I'll be drawing the line at a traditional material for the final. :(

Not having worked in Zbrush I'm a little ignorant here but if the surfaces have been defined I still don't understand what would be so difficult in adding textures either in LW or modo?

[Woody]

Yeah, it's not that it's terribly difficult...just time consuming, because I didn't set up proper UV maps in modo, and I hate working with ZBrush AUV and GUV methods outside of ZB. They work great, as long as you don't need to do anything with them. So, when I lost my poly painting, I lost a few hours worth of work, and at this point, the next two days won't leave much room to work on this, so I'm calling it finished at this point.

It was alot of fun, and a good learning experience for me to boot. :cool:

So, I give you Norman Rockwell's Christmas sculpture!

2745

[bmckain]

That is really cool Charles! It's reallt too bad about the color lines because I really liked what you were doing. If you ever decide to do the colors again I would really like a print. :)

[WhiteWolfz]

Well even if its not colored in it looks freaking awesome!

[Rigel]

That's beautiful Charles. I love how it looks like it was cast in bronze.

[Gordon Robb]

Well done. It really gives me a quality to aim at. I love the look of it.

[Maph]

A pity you lost the painting job, it looked very promising.:)

Great sculpt, there are some small anatomical things I'd like to point out, but since you called it finished, I won't. :D

[November Zulu]

But it really does look like a sculpture! Incredible work.

[Woody]

Not down for the count yet!
The sculpture piece may stand as the final, but I've managed to eek out some time! :crazy:

Update soon! Thank you all for your support and encouragement!

[today]

This looks like a really fun project

[Woody]

Here's the color final after a marathon repaint session!
Color correction and titling was done in Photoshop.

2787

Boy am I happy to have made it, and just in the "Nick" of time too! :D

[Treybor]

Again... another fine piece of work Woody!

[Cybit]

All I can say is Wow, which of course I think has been said plenty of times already.

Absolutely beautiful Woody, thanks for pumping out the color render it's fantastic. :tu:

[JackDeL]

Really nice work on this Woody, very impressive!

[Gordon Robb]

Awesome mate. Merry Christmass too.

[bmckain]

Very sweet Charles, Fran wants a print. ;)

[Thor]

Excellent job!
:)

[Mikala]

Fine job Charles!
Now get some old scrolly fonts and make yourself a magazine cover.

[BillS]

Its almost criminal how fast you can get things done.....

You have my admiration sir. :)

[Tony Gardner]

Top notch work there Charles.

[dfidler]

Daaaaamn, this is awesome! Good clean work.

[Darkstone]

Wow! :eek:

Fantastic! Just fantastic!

[Rigel]

Nicely done, Charles.

[Matt]

Thats impressive as Charles!! Love it! :)

[Mapper]

Excellent work :)

[today]

Splendid, fantastic.. what everyone else said, nice to see a project go all the way from the planning stage to a final render of this quality

[DELTA]

Looks Awsome... 1 Question... Are there good boys that far north? LOL

[Rigel]

Looks Awsome... 1 Question... Are there good boys that far north? LOL

That's Canada, mate. We're all good boys up here, right Bill, Greg, Shockwave?

[Cybit]

That's Canada, mate. We're all good boys up here, right Bill, Greg, Shockwave?

:rolleyes:

[Mikala]

That's Canada, mate. We're all good boys up here, right Bill, Greg, Shockwave?
That would be affirmative ...sometimes...:rolleyes:

[Sodonn]

Please forgive me for being absent while you were chugging away to get this finished. Damn man, truly inspirational and amazing work in some blazing record time.

Fantastic job my friend!

[Woody]

Thanks again to everyone for your inspiration and encouragement,
I hope that you enjoyed watching as much as I did building.

@ Steve - You're forgiven. Get some sleep Dad.

[Lewis]

What a great piece of work, well done Woody.

[MCMA]

Beautiful work Woody. Tons of style serving Rockwell well hah.
He's truly a remarkable illustrator, one of the US greats. I wish we had more books on him here in Sweden.

Transitioned very well and your decissions and touch are very clever.
Happy new year to all.

[jorjo]

Here's the color final after a marathon repaint session!
Color correction and titling was done in Photoshop.

2787

Boy am I happy to have made it, and just in the "Nick" of time too! :D


*sigh*

Impressive stuff Woody. Very very nice indeed :tu:

[Wizard Drongo]

Indeed. I was waiting till you'd finished to add my congratulations; been watching this a while. Then things went mental here so I didn't remember to. Sorry.
WOW. It's incredible. God plan, amazing execution, superb end result.

I hate you. Damn you people with talent! :)

[BillS]

I hate you. Damn you people with talent! :)

HERE HERE!!!! :D

[voices]

Love it! Especialy the bronze one. Still cant rid the thought of seeing a naked santa.