Jonathon Roe' s Photography and Digital Design

A little late but...

2010-07-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so things have been HECTIC lately, but I thought I'd post on here, a week and a few days late, but on Thursday, July 15, at 1:50 pm, my wife was rushed into the O.R. due to high blood pressure, and 15 minutes later they finished scrubbing me up, and had me sitting beside her to watch as my BABY GIRL ABIGAIL ROE joined the world!! She was born at 5 lbs, 5 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. She was born at 34 weeks gestation, so she's a little young, but she didn't really need the Cpap (oxygen) that they had on her the first day. She's already in a crib at the NICU, and has passed all the tests they've given her with flying colors (with the exception of learning to feed without getting tired). So, hopefully she'll be home soon, and I'll have even better pictures :).

Back to Photography

2010-07-02T03:54:00.001-07:00

For those who haven't heard yet, I now have a new camera! Yes,it's back to photography for me! I'm no longer a Nikonian, however, but a Pentaxian! Yep, I have a K100d Super! And I'm already on my way to buying new kit for it, so I should be back to normal photo status sometime soon.

Progression of the cathedral

2010-05-05T01:05:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd show some of my progress so far on the cathedral. The sad thing is, this might not even really show in my scene. I really just wanted to make it a background piece, but it's turning out better than I'd hoped. Yes, that is a slightly modified version of the Rose Window of Strasbourg Cathedral. There is a church near my home that looks very similar in design, and I've always loved looking at it. If I can ever find someone with a cherry picker that would let me get to the 20ft. elevation to take one, I'd love a picture of it.

Anyhow, this is being done in Deled, and I plan on texturing much more to it. I may even add to the architecture, at least adding bells to the towers.

As this is my last day working at this post (I work security), I will not have nearly as much time to work on my models and scenes. If it meant more money, I might be a little happier about this move... but alas, it is not. Anyhow, nothing too good lasts forever, and though it might take longer, I intend on continuing these. Hope you all enjoy looking at them as much as I do making them!

Still Going

2010-05-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Yep, another one. This one took awhile unfortunately, due to the time it took to texture all the brick and windows.

Another building

2010-04-27T02:51:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to churn out one building per day. Keep in mind I have been texturing these pretty much from scratch... I did use a few textures (which I modified) from Mayang Textures.

I love the optimize function in Deled. I think with this one it eliminated somewhere near 50 unnecessary polys - sweet.

Patience is a virtue

2010-04-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

And I have very little of it. I'm learning that while making a street scene SOUNDS like a good idea... it's a LOT of work. The modeling isn't the hard part, it's the texturing that makes you want to tear out your eyes. Find reference, either modify or recreate in Photoshop, export to model - test - repeat until satisfied. Oh well, here's what I've done the past couple of days.

What's up?

2010-04-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of making a street scene, and to do that, I need architecture. I tried Silo, but it's honestly a little... dumb about more complex boolean adding/subtracting to existing meshes. So, I decided to try deled's boolean... looked like a spiderweb. Fortunately, I found some really good tutorials that have helped me with building via extrusion. This way I use very few polys, plus Deled's texturing/material system is uber-easy. So, I'm learning more of Deled at the moment. Hopefully all the hard work I put in will be worthwhile.

WIP Shots of AUG 413

2010-04-18T12:47:00.001-07:00

A few people have requested some info on how AUG 413 was made. Hopefully some of these screens will give some idea. Basically, I'm venturing into Box modeling, which seems to be a LITTLE less stressful than poly drawing... so I started with a box, which then grew a head, then legs, and then arms... blah blah. I then made fingers... got admittedly a bit lazy w/ toes, then moved on to making alterations by adding a rectangle to the head, then a cylinder for the mechanical eye, and cylinders for the back (not really seen in the final render, but they're there).

From there I shrank the appendages in the middles to add more a sense of a fetal growth, then moved to Zbrush to add details/paint, as well as posing (after posing I found I lost a little bit of anatomy, and added a little to legs to make it "sit" right, heh. I went back to Silo to add tubes coming from the back, and a cord in the front. Then I went back into Zbrush for final adjustments to the cord and final tweaking.

From there I went into Deled, created a sphere, flipped the faces inwards to create a completely enclosed environment, made a "muscle" texture in Photoshop, added it to the sphere, then used Deled's magnet tool to pull out parts of the sphere to make a uterus for the fetus to float in. Input all this into Vue, render, and voila! It was then time to make final adjustments in Photoshop to clean it up a bit.

A.U.G. 413

2010-04-18T06:13:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, this didn't take too long to render, somewhere near a half hour. I did a bit more Photoshop work on it, but nothing too noticeable, as the lighting was just about right already, meaning I'm learning Vue's lighting controls better... or I got lucky. Most of the Photoshop work was adding details around the cord and detail to the background.

Enjoy!

Boogeyman FINISHED (or abandoned)

2010-04-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the render of "Boogeyman" (ok, it's been done a few days now, but pregnant wifey needs tender loving care from her patient and loving hubby), and finally got a chance to put the final touches on it. I didn't use radiosity, but I did use global illumination. In Photoshop, I added a blurred reflection in the window, adjusted shadows, enhanced the door, added light spots, small vignette, some blurring, a little grunge around the frame, small bit of warm mist from 55mm, then topped it all off with a small bit of fish-eye distortion. Total Photoshop time was around 1 hour. Not much when you consider I've put about 1 month into the modeling and texturing for everything (yeesh!)

Things I've learned using programs I've got

2010-03-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Just thought that I'd leave a note here as I keep battling with render/lighting settings in Vue.

First off - modeling. I use Milkshape 3d for all my base meshes (until I start learning 3dmax that is). I usually leave the model at somewhere near 300 - 600 faces, then subdivide within MS3d one time to add more resolution. I then export it as an .obj.

THEN I go into Zbrush, and add at LEAST 3 subdivision levels. I do a little tweaking with the first level, doing general poly pulling to get the basic shape refines. I pretty much skip 2 and 3 and go into level 4, where I sculpt details. After I'm satisfied, I start poly painting, create a uvmap using UV Master, turn polypaint into my texture, go back to level 1, and create a displacement map. As a note, I also add a little dark grey and white brush strokes along some of my details to enhance places of depth (wrinkles, contours, etc.) I then invert Y, export the new level 1 .obj w/ texture, and move into Photoshop.

2nd, in Photoshop, I open my texture and my displacement map. I place my displacement map over my texture as an overlay layer, and erase and alter the overlay to my liking. This allows me to have a little more control over my models looks through any lighting. I usually lower the opacity to somewhere near 2% to 10%, as I don't want to over exaggerate (and some details are already there from my polypainted details).

As for my scenery, it's much the same, only without Zbrush. I use Unwrap3d sometimes for aiding in my UVmaps. I use Deled to create rooms, place my models, etc.

This is the important part about Deled - its .obj export function is a little... not good :). It saves the .obj, but makes all the models into groups - which Vue doesn't recognize (DOH!). Vue sees it as ONE HUUUUUGE Model! So, I found a workaround - open the Deled exported .obj in Milkshape, then just save it again as another .obj file. Milkshape seperates the groups into groups that Vue can understand, allowing for individual texture tweaking, bump/displacement maps, etc. in Vue. Why Deled's export doesn't, I don't know, it's annoying but then again, it wasn't made for making static renders, but videogames... oh, and just as importantly, Deled's .obj export saves the groups by their material names, and if every model has to have a different material name, or when you get to Vue, you'll notice that you can't edit one model without editing the other with the same material name (I used to be lazy and everything modeled used Material1 for a texture name, lol).

Anyhow, after that I pretty much just tweak my scene in Vue, then add lighting, then fight the different settings until I get the look of the scene right.

Once I'm satisfied, I take the final render, put it into Photoshop, and use adjustment-layers-curves in place of Dodge/Burn (more control, no oversaturation), use various filters (mostly from Digital Film's 55mm suite) to add lens/film effects, and save it all!

Wow, I just realized there's more to my process than what I thought...

Moved?

2010-03-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Yeah, moved. I haven't discovered the reasons, but Google has apparently decided to discontinue FTP access through blogger. I suppose it's no big deal, but I did kind of like having my blog on my own site, rather than remote. Oh well, as the repo guy said in Men in Tights, "They say move, and we MOVE!"

This blog has moved

2010-03-14T16:32:00.001-07:00

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Demon's Awakening

2010-03-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've been working on learning Zbrush lately, and I had an INCREDIBLE model built from a milkshape-made mesh. Unfortunately, it was a little too much for my computer. It wouldn't export at all... so I went back and used Zbrush to add detail/texture, then left it on my low poly version... then *DA DA DAAAA* I used VUE, yes, VUE, to render my cavern scene w/ demon. Oh yes, my friends, I now have access to radiosity rendering! W/O radiosity, render time should have been like 2 hours or something... but w/ radiosity... TWENTY NINE HOURS!! That's a lot of constantly checking the computer and wishing the timer was wrong... but the result was awesome. The entire scene was fairly lo res at 22k polys. I did use Photoshop to tweak it a little, mostly to enhance / darken shadows and lights. I added a small amount of paintbrushing to the orb, just for a little effect.

Thanks go to redheadstock http://redheadstock.deviantart.com for the arcane brushes btw. I used them as light gels and then projected them onto the walls.

Finally finished...

2010-02-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

Some of you may know that I've been working on a scene for quite awhile now. I've been using Deled for the architecture, and milkshape 3d for the models. I've been reading anything and everything that I could get my hands on for learning texturing as well. Everything in my Tranquil Irish Home has been modeled and textured from scratch (I did use bases from both Ben Cloward, Mayang Textures, and my 3d Total Textures set). I rendered the final scene in Bryce 6 using smoothing at about 80%. This greatly reduced the low poly look. I did touch up the render using Photoshop, mask/gaussian(ing?) any areas where two polygons met and didn't want to smooth out :). I also wanted it to look daylit, and Bryce doesn't do radiancy, so I used 55mm's Relight filter, and then I added lightbeams to the windows. I found a free stock photo and used a very small portion of its forest to place in the window of my scene as well. The coat of arms is the Roe blazon, btw :).

Hope someone likes this! I'll be adding it to the site as soon as I optimize it a bit.

Updates... sad news...

2010-02-04T22:36:00.005-08:00

Well, as you can see I havn't posted in awhile. As many of you know I learned a hard lesson in life - some people are just evil, and I should never leave a camera bag in my car. Yep, stolen. Whether I left the door unlocked, didn't close it all the way, I'll never know. All I know is that when Christina asked me about leaving the door open, my heart began to race, and I felt a little more cynical of the human conscience after that moment. I lost my camera, all my flashes, my filters, everything - but they did leave the bag of backdrop equipment (mostly DIY stuff). So, until I start saving up more $$$ for new equipment, 3d is my main venue of artistic expression.

I found a 3d level editor, named DELed (www.delgine.com) that's now free, and it makes building standard levels much easier than Bryce or other programs. And it supports exporting to .obj which makes things even easier. Best of all, it has its own built in renderer so I can easily check my progress. Hopefully I'll finish with my newest scene soon, so I can share it with you all.

Turkey Day, and what became of it

2009-11-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

So, I had to work over this morning/night, so I had plenty of time to work on modeling. Muuuch thanks to the guy who decided that he just didn't feel like working today. Anyhow, I found an outhouse on my screen by the end of the day. Quite fitting to the mood of the day, don't you think?

And now for something completely different

2009-11-24T14:20:00.000-08:00

I tried to start learning 3d max last night - mistake. No nap before work so I was already tired, and reading tutorial after tutorial about the basic functions of the program, I felt a little tired. So, to wake myself up, and not lose my job, I decided to reuse the previous model. So, now you can see what the character I made has in his daily diet.

Mudman - now "Sewer Patrol" Finished!

2009-11-23T19:42:00.000-08:00

I finished it, finally. I had to render the background in Bryce, and then put it into Poser, as even DAZ's utility didn't want to allow me to put the object file into Bryce correctly. It kept rendering poorly. Anyhoo, it's up on the site now, and on this blog, of course. I'm really proud of it, as everything but the Poser character itself was made from scratch! The grenades, the giant pipe, the junk in the background, the radio (kinda hard to see from this angle, I admit), the belt packs, all made from scratch. Enjoy!

Horshoes and Hand Grenades

2009-11-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

No horsehoes actually. But I'z Gotz Hand Grenadz!! And an ammo pack of sorts. More models for the Poser mudman figure I've been working on. I have another that I made the other day, but I'll post that later. Oh, and the camoflauge was made using both a free plugin at www.vanderlee.com and the pixelation-mosaic filter. I'm using it as a texture for my character's pants. Tell me what you think!

Low Polys - difficult.... I think so

2009-11-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm making progress on the cartoon head, it's looking a little more refined. I'm also learning how to use Milkshape to add and remove faces at will. So far, the head only has 138 polys. I could probably go lower, but I think I may go a bit higher so I can smooth some parts out, plus going lower requires a LOT more experimentation and tweaking than what I ever imagined.

Graarrrgh

2009-11-08T21:46:00.001-08:00

Alas I have failed to obey the tenants of computer law, for I did not save often. I had my Poser figure almost shaped and posed, and then it crashed, and I realized that after 3 hours of working on it, I hadn't saved. And thus after another 10 minutes of quickly redoing some of what I had done previously, I went to other activities again for awhile. No pics, but I started working on making my own character. Creating a cartoon, low-poly head is harder than I thought, and is definitely a learning experience. In completely randomness, I started reading the new Wheel of Time novel, the first in almost a decade! So the road to learning may become a small bit longer.

Textures, models and headaches

2009-11-07T17:38:00.000-08:00

Ah... so I made a higher res texture for the arm cannon... then I ran into a snag. I have to read a little on how to extract UV maps from Poser figures. I can't put conforming clothing on my mudman figure because he's so big, so I have to paint the clothing on the figure... which also means having to resculpt the figure (easy part) but it also means I have to paint the clothing (hard part) as I don't have a UV map (flattened wireframe) to give me the contours, I will have to guess and check if my clothing is hitting the right areas and if it's seamless, etc. etc. Not something I look forward to, so I'm gonna do a little research. In the meantime, I worked on an AK-47 Romanian variant, similar to the one I own in real life, and as I said before, here's the hires arm cannon. As for the AK-47... a better texture might be a good thing...

3d - I feel learned

2009-11-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

I'm learning... I think. I'll probably redo the gun textures as I don't think they look realistic enough - plus the one pic texture is only 256x256. The sword texture was kind of fun, as I learned a quick and dirty way of making a realistic damascus steel kind of look. Han Wei eat your heart out!!! (Ok, so it's EXTREME low poly but it was my first drawn-vertex model, and I like how it turned out)

3d modeling

2009-11-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working on learning 3d modeling, rather than using solely Poser and the like. I don't have a 3 button mouse yet, so I've been learning Milkshape 3d for basic modeling.

If you read this, leave a comment on what you think of my Mudman WIP thus far (BTW, the gun is being replaced w/ the other)

Thought I'd add a blog to the site

2009-10-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure how many people have been to this website, nor do I know how many check if I've updated it any. But, I figured I'd be a little sheep and follow as others have done.

BAAAAAAHHHAAAHHH

But seriously, I think it's a great little way to maybe share what I've done, talk about diy 3d and 2d digital images, and diy photography. I might even come up with something interesting. Now to find out how to merge my blogger with my site!!!

EDIT: And now it's integrated into the site... eventually I'll customize it a little better, but for now it's usable :).