Barry's Art Dump

TOES!

2012-01-26T00:43:00.001-07:00

Spent an hour or so modeling the toes tonight. I once saw a news story about how a man lost his thumb in a shop accident, so they sewed a cadaver's big toe onto his hand, and it works perfectly. Well, I just took a finger and made a toe out of it. Seemed to work just fine too. :) Now to just attach them to the feet. I'm getting REALLY tired of how many times I have to click in Max. Talk about carpel tunnel.

Attached Hands...

2012-01-24T00:39:00.002-07:00

And now on to the the feet! After a brief respite from the 1am nights, I got the hands modeled and attached to the body. Max is proving to be pretty good for modeling, if I could just find a tool to "tweak" the verts. That, and I find that the brushes aren't very good at getting what I want. Normally at this point, I would export it to Modo or Silo for refining, but I'm going to stick it out. Hopefully soon I'll be starting the head. About 6 hours in total at this point.

Hand Modeling Timelapse Parts 2, 3

2012-01-17T10:19:00.004-07:00

Here are parts 2 and 3. There are still some points where I am trying to find the right tool, but again, feeling like I'm getting really comfortable...

Hand Modeling Timelapse

2012-01-15T11:14:00.001-07:00

Here's the video I promised in the previous post. It's unedited and fraught with mistakes, and keep in mind that I'm still learning 3DS Max :) There's no sounds and it's 2x real speed.

3DS Max Rambling and Wicked Fingers

2012-01-15T01:19:00.003-07:00

So, like I said before, I'm learning 3DS Max. Yeah. Who knew that I could be in the game and film industry as a character TD for 11 years and have never used it in production? Well, it's the truth. I have to say it is different, but I'm liking the tools. It's going to take more getting used to than I anticipated, mainly because of a couple of things: navigation that is NOT like Maya, Modo, Silo, or others; and how CTRL clicking is how you add to selections, NOT with Shift. C'mon, really? Every app on the planet uses SHIFT to add to a selection. Oh well, it's a little thing. It just slows me down a bit but nothing big. I'm finding that I'm mainly using the same 4 tools: extrude, bridge, insert edge loop, and "Set Flow". Not sure why it is called that, but okay. There's a little thing I like to call "Click Rate" for every application, where in order to perform a command or function, how many clicks does it take? For example, to bevel and edge:

Select the edge
Open the edge menu
Select the bevel tool
Click and drag on the edge
Fit the new edges into place

That was 5 clicks to perform one function. Pretty horrible workflow in my book. Here's a possible solution:

Hit a hotkey (ex: hit the B key)
Click and drag on an edge (or hold Shift while dragging for the entire loop) to bevel it out, and the bevel either interpolates the shape (cubic) or follows the edge directly (linear) according to your tool settings.

That was a hotkey and one click. A much better scenario for modeling.

So far, 3DS Max is pretty high on the click-rate scale (that's a bad thing). I think this is what most 3d Software suffers from. There are ways to do better, and I haven't seen many of the mainstream apps do it very well. I've been using Silo lately (wish they would continue developing it) and I really love the modeling tools, and how simple yet powerful they are. They really got it right when they wrote that.

Anyways, I couldn't help but hear the soundtrack to "Wicked" playing while I modeled these :) 3DS Max modeling is getting a lot more comfortable...now I really need to learn the hotkeys to speed my workflow up, but I am feeling like I'm getting the hang of it. This was about an hour of work. I'll be redoing the nails so that they look correct, but for now, I think things are looking pretty good. I did a timelapse video of this process, and maybe I'll post it soon. Stay tuned!

Time to Learn Max

2012-01-05T01:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I've decided that I need to learn 3DS Max. I guess it's a good thing since most of the CG world uses it :) Anyways, I've given it a shot, starting my character for my new project in it. So far, it's very different than Maya, Modo, or Silo, but I'm liking a lot of the tools in it. It's coming along quicker than I thought. Now I just have to keep at it. Here's a quick shot of my current progress, after a couple of hours (yes, I am LEARNING it...normally that wouldn't take me more than 30 minutes).

Sea Tel Christmas Card

2012-01-03T17:14:00.002-07:00

This was a quick animation I did for a client. It took about a week to do, and is all done in Maya and Photoshop. The sound was done by the great Ethan Halvorsen. I think it turned out pretty well.

I guess I like old guys' faces....

2011-11-16T17:49:00.001-07:00

A little fun in Sculptris (20 min)

The simplicity of Sculptris is awesome. To just get an idea out there, and then take it into 3D Coat to retopo is a really slick pipeline. Maybe I'll do a video of it soon. For now, I think I need to branch off into something other than wrinkly, angry old men.

Petrie Dish

2011-11-02T22:04:00.001-06:00

I don't know if that's how you spell it, but we are playing "round robin" with colds at my house, and it's my turn....again. I'm going to bed.

A:M Tutorials Back Online!!

2011-11-01T20:29:00.002-06:00

I've been getting a lot of emails lately about my Lulu.com video site. Lulu discontinued the ability to sell digital downloads, so I have to find a new automated method. But for now, you can go to my website and purchase them directly from there. This is not an ideal method, but it's through PayPal, and you don't have to have a Lulu account to purchase them. So if you are looking for my tutorials, head on over...they are available again.

Once I get payment confirmation, I'll send you an email with the links to download the videos from my server. I'll get you the email within 24 hours, most of the time it will be a matter of minutes. All you need to do is Right-Click and Save As, and it will download the file for you. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to respond here, or email me.

Thanks!

Barry

Barry's Animation:Master 2005 Tutorial Videos

Bee-Hive Update and Bee-Hive Lite now available!

2011-10-25T12:50:00.002-06:00

Our awesome game - "Bee-Hive" has been updated to v 1.1! Included are new tutorials, new sound effects, new music, and some new graphics. It's available for Android, iOS, and WebOS! There's also a new Bee-Hive Lite (Free) version (on Android, soon on iOS) for you to try before you buy! Go give it a shot and tell me what you think!

Don't ask...I have no idea.

2011-10-20T00:14:00.001-06:00

It was late...what can I say?

New Personal Project

2011-10-17T23:08:00.000-06:00

Well, it's time to push myself...again. Time to learn to do things that I can definitely improve on, so I'm starting a new personal project. This project is going to be a 30 second short, fully written, designed, modeled, textured, rigged, animated, and rendered by yours truly. I've already started on the first parts, where I've written the script and designed the first character (there's only two). One of my pet projects wherever I am is to try to optimize the pipeline so that it is as fast as possible, while allowing me more time to focus on the ART of the project rather than the technical aspects of the project. While I like the technical stuff, the further I get in my career, the more I realize that I am constantly going back to my first love - the art. I am trying to have a timeline for this project, and hope that I can stick to it with how insanely crazy my life is. Thankfully, this project has the full backing (and pushing forward) of my wife. So we will see how the next 6 months goes. I plan to post all of the progress on another blog, where you can follow along with this crazy journey. Here is a sample of one of the designs. Hope you like it (the face is still in design review for me :) )

Some people are just fun to draw :)

2011-10-08T01:05:00.001-06:00

New iPad Drawing

2011-10-08T00:42:00.001-06:00

I'm starting to get used to drawing on the iPad. However, I still feel that the stylus tip is way too fat for my liking. But maybe that's a good thing. It keeps me from noodling a drawing to death like I usually do.

Retopologizing in 3D Coat = AWESOME.

2011-09-29T18:11:00.002-06:00

Been SUPER busy lately, but I decided to take my Arnold Sculpt into 3D coat and retopo it. Man, 3D Coat blows away other software when it comes to retopologizing. So easy, so intuitive, so powerful. That's how software should be. It took me about 30 minutes to get this far... and that's with a learning curve! This is totally IP, but so far, there's only 4 tris. Can you find them?

iPad sketch #1...

2011-09-16T01:06:00.001-06:00

My first decent ipad sketch. Not bad for a guy with fat fingers...

Such a Decieving Thumbnail...or is it my brain?

2011-09-15T12:56:00.002-06:00

It's funny how you can see the thumbnail of an image, imagine the full image to look one way, or see something in it, and then look at the full image, only to realize that you were completely wrong. I just did this. I was strolling through Blizzard's website, and saw an image thumbnail and saw this:

In the quick glance, my brain saw this:

But in reality, it was this:

I wish my brain worked like that all the time :)

40 Minute Mudbox Sketch

2011-09-09T16:15:00.001-06:00

At work, we had a little challenge, just to get the creativity flowing. We had 40 minutes to sculpt Arnold Schwarzenegger. Here's my attempt. I think I was headed on the right track. I wanted it a bit more stylized, but it came out a little more realistic than I wanted. Oh well, it's a long way from done, but it was really fun to do.

Where the heck have I been?

2011-09-08T20:51:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. And what about that "daily drawing" you may ask? Yeah, what about that. Ha ha. Funny how life seems to accelerate into a giant blur.

Most of that time has been spent working on other projects - one of which has finally been finished (at least for now): a new game for iOS, Android, and WebOS called Bee-Hive! It's a combination of a puzzle with traffic control, and it's a blast to play! Head on over to the App Store, the Android Market, or to the WebOS store and pick it up now! Make sure to rate it and also leave a review for us! You can also follow Bee-Hive on our Facebook Page. Leave comments there, look for hints, and like us!

iOS
Android
WebOS (link coming soon!)

Daily Sketch - June 30, 2011

2011-06-30T17:33:00.001-06:00

Quick 10 min facial structure study.

Daily Sketch - June 29, 2011

2011-06-29T11:38:00.001-06:00

10 min. Not too happy with this one.

Daily Sketch - June 28, 2011

2011-06-29T11:34:00.002-06:00

I know, I'm posting this a day late, but I got sidetracked...I'm starting to get into sketching again - loosening up those drawing skills. I'm currently using GIMP to do these - it's what I have available at work in the morning when I am doing these. It's decent, but not ideal. Here's the first post:

SCULPTRIS Alpha 6!!

2011-06-21T12:00:00.004-06:00

So I started playing around with Sculptris Alpha 6...not sure what they did to make it better. There are some good things and some things that are not yet that good. But overall, I love not having to worry about topology. This was created from the default sphere in about 15 minutes:

I know, I know. I need to answer my post about "Why 3D Software stinks". I'll get to it, I swear. As soon as life lets me ;) For now, here's a new piece of art.

Why 3D Software Stinks - Part 1

2011-04-29T11:12:00.000-06:00

I've been in this industry a long time. Not as long as some, but I've been using 3D software since 1998. While the technology has improved by leaps and bounds, one thing has remained the same, and perhaps regressed - the usability of the software that employs that technology.

Now, I know I'm going to get all kinds of people yelling and screaming at me "WHAT?? ZBrush is SOOO intuitive! Maya is so fast!! 3D Studio Max is the fastest modeler out there!", and a myriad of other "you're so stupid - you just don't get it" statements. I have one question for those people: How many consecutive hours of use did it take for you become "confortable" in a 3D package? By "comfortable", I don't mean that you could create a primitive, move a few verts, and tumble the view. I mean that you could actually produce work in that package, and not feel like you were blindfolded with one arm tied behind your back and hung upside down. That's what I thought.

Since I started using 3d software, I have used: Maya, Blender, Wings, Lightwave, 3DS Max, Animation:Master, XSI|Softimage, Daz3D, Silo, Mudbox, ZBrush, Sculptris, Nendo, Mirai, Messiah, Modo, Cinema 4D, Bodypaint, Marmoset, Unity3D, Strata 3D, proprietary toolsets, and a bunch of others that I can remember looking at or using and shuddering, but not remember their names. Some were better than others, but the majority, no matter how they marketed themselves, were just mind-boggling hard to use when it came down to it.

What makes software difficult? (In no particular order):

First, uniformity.

Second, vocabulary.

Third, GUI.

Fourth, tool implementation.

Fifth, complexity.

With computers growing ever faster and more powerful, it's time we take a look at why computer graphics has become so wildly popular, and yet so unfriendly. In the next few weeks, I'll be going through each point in detail. Please feel free to comment and to share your thoughts about this. Stay tuned...

New Blender Leg Rigging Tutorials

2010-10-20T22:07:00.003-06:00

Blender Leg Rigging Tutorials

Hey everyone. Man, it's been too long. Life just seems to get too busy. Anyways, my good friend Tony Jones from Avalanche Software has been making additions to Blender's rigging tools, and so I decided to show off some of them by doing a set of tutorials. The tutorials cover the following:

Adding the Rig Bones and the Control Armature
Adding the Constraints
Adding the Drivers and Custom Properties for the control object

Tony's done a great job with it and you can check out his site here where you can get all the information on his new build and you can even download it to play with it.

I'd love to hear what you guys think about the tutorials!

Be back soon!

I've now got them all up on Vimeo too:

barryzundel.com goes live!

2010-10-14T19:29:00.002-06:00

Yes, I finally came into the digital age by having my own website. It's a work in progress until I can actually get the time to make the site I REALLY want to make, but it'll work for now. So hopefully everyone can go check it out. Most of the content is what is on my blog, but in a much more organized manner.

Like I said before, I have been taking pictures for a long time, much to the chagrin of my wife and to the detriment of the multiple hard drives that I have used up. But I decided to do it a little more seriously, investing in new equipment and starting to do individual and family photography. All the information is available at my site.

I would definitely welcome any suggestions, since it's still a work in progress. Thanks!

Blender Foot Rigging Test

2010-09-13T16:37:00.000-06:00

So, one of my good friends, Tony Jones (a programmer/artist at Disney Interactive) started getting into Blender, adding some features to the rigging tools that help a lot with creating much less complex rigs. Here's what he has been up to. So I'm testing his new tools and learning to rig in Blender at the same time. It's a rough road, but Tony is making it a lot easier with these tools.

I rigged this leg up in about a 30-40 min period, learning included:

Blender 2.5 Beta - What a difference...

2010-08-30T10:18:00.002-06:00

I've known about Blender and "tried" to use Blender for years. I have always been impressed at it's amazing capabilities given the free nature of the software. There's just something about people writing software because they truly love it vs. wanting to make a huge profit that intrigues me. In those years of attempting to use Blender, I have never been able to really grasp it. But with 2.5, and the Maya hotkey presets, it just opened up a whole new world that I think I just might want to try out again. Not because it's "Maya", but because there's one less program that I have to learn with different key combos. I was able to jump into Blender 2.5 Beta and start playing around immediately. That being said, modeling something from scratch (a face, body, etc.) is still proving to be a challenge, but it's one that I just might consider now that I don't have to fight the urge to use the Alt-LMB combo to tumble. I would suggest everyone give it a shot if you are into 3D. It's looking like a really cool tool that is finally coming of age.

Something a little different...

2010-08-11T10:01:00.004-06:00

As my wife can tell you, when we go on vacation, I develop a growth on my right hand that she likes to call a "ca-me-ra"". It seems to appear out of nowhere and it takes over my brain at times. I've really gotten into photography lately more for the artistry of it. I've invested in a few new lenses, and woah, do they make a difference. I'm still a total novice at this, but I love it. Here are a few pictures of my latest trip up Highway 101 through California and Oregon. There are many, many more to come....

Meeting Sketches

2010-06-23T22:16:00.004-06:00

It's been waaaaay too long since I posted something. So here are some meeting sketches:

Sometimes I Hate Technology...and typing.

2010-05-28T11:43:00.003-06:00

So as I was typing the title for this post, I think I hit the backspace button about 20 times. Not a good day for typing.

Anyhoo, I found out the hard way that backing up 9 years of work is a good thing to do in more than one place. Two days ago, I was working on my laptop at work, and had my backup drive attached to it. All my music, pictures, previous work materials, downloaded training materials, etc, were on it. The dumb thing had a 1.5 foot USB cord, and as I turned in my chair with my laptop on my lap, the drive careened off the desk and hit the floor. Then it started what sounded like beeping at me. I soon found out that the "beeping" was more of a mechanical problem where the disc would spin up, but couldn't be read. So I did some calling to find out how much data recover costs...you don't even want to know. For a 200 GB drive (yeah, it's been my backup for a LONG time, I know), it was going to cost me between $800 and $2700 for the data retrieval. Why don't I just give them my newborn child and call it even? So now the drive is sitting on my desk, a cold, black, dead reminder to BACKUP YOUR FLIPPIN' WORK!!

We'll see how long I can go without accessing anything on it.

Animation:Master Tutorials Price Reduction!! - up to 75% off!

2010-05-18T17:45:00.003-06:00

All my tutorials for Hash's Animation:Master have been reduced to $5 or less! You can go download them here:

Barry's Lulu Storefront

Happy downloading!

Things they are a-changin’…

2010-04-05T22:40:00.001-06:00

After 9 great years at Avalanche Software in Salt Lake City, I took the plunge, and made the jump to movies – something I have always wanted to do. In those 9 years I have worked with some of the most amazing artists and people around and have learned an immense amount from them. Like Adam Ford said, they are some of the greatest people I know and will continue to be great friends. I am thankful for the amazing knowledge that I gleaned from so many of them, and hopefully, I can do it justice.

But on to a new chapter of life.

Today, the dream became the reality. I was lucky enough to be considered and then hired by Pixar as a Technical Director. It’s quite frightening after working in the games industry for 9 years to walk into a place where you are now the rookie and you don’t know a thing about what you are about to do. But I feel like a huge sponge that is bone dry, and I can’t wait to be thrown into the pool. It’s going to be difficult, but I am so ready for this.

Softimage Softbody Tutorial

2010-02-12T11:27:00.002-07:00

Well, I figured that since I couldn't find a tutorial on this, even though it's pretty simple, I would put one up, mainly for myself so that I can remember in 2 months when I try to do this again, but also so that if someone else is looking for a tutorial, they could find one. So here it is...

If I'm doing something wrong in this tutorial, or if there is a better way to do it, by all means, please let me know!

More Figure Drawings…This time in ANALOG!!

2010-01-25T11:18:00.001-07:00

I haven’t had a lot of time for CG stuff lately, so here are some drawings that I recently got around to imaging:

Figure Drawing Friday

2010-01-15T10:28:00.001-07:00

So for about a month now, I have been out of drawing supplies, and just too lazy to go get any…which is the reason for all of the digital drawings. Here’s another drawing that I could have used 2 more hours on. I think it turned out pretty good, but I’m feeling like if I go back to paper now, it’s going to be a whole new experience all over again…

Once again, I just can’t seem to get a likeness. I need to do a lot more portraiture and study measurements. I guess that’s my next task.

Here are the steps:

My Digital Drawing Technique

2009-12-18T12:38:00.001-07:00

This is how I tend to do my digital drawing in Painter. It’s pretty much exactly like I would do with paper and charcoal, but I have UNDO!! Anyways, this drawing isn’t finished. I got to figure drawing late, so I was limited, and just like any lazy artist, I wait for the face, hair, and the hands until last. I guess that’s why they are almost never there. Anyways, here are the steps I go through:

1. First, I block out the forms and make sure my proportions are correct:

2. I create a second layer and keep “pick up underlying color” checked, then first wipe out the image using a blender brush, then lay down lines for form:

3. After that, I start another layer, and wipe the lines down so that they are not so harsh:

4. Once I have that done, I begin blocking in my light and shadow, and tightening up the edges a bit in places. I like to have some tight edges and some soft:

5. In my last step, I now go through each part, tightening the drawing, adding shadows, core shadows, highlights, etc. :

So like I said, I didn’t finish this drawing, but I think it is a good example of how I work digitally. Hopefully next time I’ll actually finish it.

Again, an Updated Demo Reel

2009-12-03T22:05:00.001-07:00

Here's the newest edition...

Added a few things and gave it a bit of a makeover.

Great Marcelo Vignali Interview

2009-12-02T14:19:00.003-07:00

Thanks for the suggestion from my colleague Sam Nielson -

For those of you who don't know him, Marcelo Vignali is an amazing artist working at Sony Animation Studios. In this interview, he gives so much good information about being an artist in the industry today, it's hard to summarize. It's a good hour long discussion, but it's amazing to hear his thoughts on being and becoming an artist in this industry. I would recommend everyone watch it.

Mirroring Shape Keys in Softimage

2009-11-25T23:54:00.002-07:00

I have been trying t0 figure out why so many 3D packages refuse to make tools that are easy and intuitive. Continued searching has just proven to me that most packages try to do the same things as the others, just in a different, but still overly difficult, way. So I moved one of my personal projects from Maya into Softimage. Making new morphs was a painful process in Maya, and I know that rigging is a lot better in XSI, so I thought I would give it a shot. So I started making shapes, and wanted to figure out a way to mirror them easily. So I went out on the net looking for some tutorials. The only ones I really found were using GATOR. Not a very easy thing to do. So I read about using weight maps to do the mirroring. Not very much info. so after testing and trying and reading and watching, I tried to put it all together and finally figured it out. This method may be widely known, but unfortunately, there's very little demonstration or documentation on it, so I thought I would do that so others don't have to go through what I did. Once you have the weight maps made, Softimage actually makes it really nice and easy to separate your symmetrical shapes. Here's a quick demo of how it works:

Digital Drawings

2009-11-09T11:49:00.003-07:00

Here are a few digital sketches from our Friday figure drawing sessions. They were just studies, as I was trying to feel more comfortable with a stylus and tablet while sketching...

Updated Demo Reel - 2009

2009-11-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

Here's my newest demo reel. It includes a lot of stuff that I have previously posted on it's own...

My First Foray Into MEL

2009-10-22T22:48:00.003-06:00

Cool, but not the most fun thing in the world.

Biped Auto Rigger...Not finished yet. It's still missing a lot of stuff. It's just an IK spine with no facial rig, no stretchy limbs, etc. I'll have to keep going on it.

Making Hair with ZSpheres

2009-09-03T14:25:00.003-06:00

So I was looking around and I saw some guy who did all of his hair on his models with zspheres, so I thought I would try it too. Turns out it works REALLY well. This was just a test, so it's not a final sculpt. Just messing around, but really cool nonetheless. The head is a standard preset from Modo, but all of the hair is from ZSpheres.

Low Poly Arm Tutorial

2009-08-27T14:38:00.001-06:00

Here is a two part time lapse video where I build a low-poly arm in Maya. I used Maya and Go Tools for the modeling.

Part 1

Part 2

2009 Figure Drawings

2009-08-21T12:03:00.001-06:00

So I finally got around to taking pictures of my figure drawings. Click on the slideshow to go the album for hi-res images.

Some thoughts on workflow...

2009-07-29T16:21:00.002-06:00

I'm one of those artists who is rarely satisfied with the tools at my disposal. Even with the advent of ZBrush, Mudbox, Modo, etc., I still find myself wondering why the software designers created the workflow the way they did. Yes, anyone can get very comfortable in any package, but it usually takes years of practive and customization before that happens. It is rare that a piece of software is so straightforward right out of the box.

One of my biggest pet peves (sp?) is a software package that has features that seem to never end, and yet those features are so hard to get to and use, that it almost negates the fact that they are there in the first place. Years ago, I was hired at Avalanche Software in Salt Lake City (I still work for them, but we are now Disney Interactive Salt Lake). We were using a piece of software at the time called Hash's Animation:Master. I had never seen it before. I had been studying at BYU in the animation department, barely making it through creating characters out of NURBS primitives, and hated every second of it (Nurbs, that is). Now I understand that they have been made easier to work with in some packages, but still, back then, it was a total pain. You could not do what you wanted without it being a total paiin. When I began in Animation:Master, I found something different: that the feature set wasn't huge, and the paradigm was different (using b-splines vs. polys or Nurbs), but I found that authoring what I wanted to was an absolute breeze. Things like bones didn't have joint orients. Assigning a mesh to a skeleton was a manual, but an easy and simple process. Rigging was a joy compared to what I was used to. It had almost every tool that I needed to use, and it was EASY to understand and implement all of them. Different, but when easy is the different part, I willing o go for that. I loved it.

They had a dirty little secret: make tools easy to use and understand, and the artists is empowered. Such was the way that you could correct a mesh's deformation when it was animated. Who would have thought - just pose the character, sculpt the mesh, and have the character remember what it looked like at that point! Truly amazing. So simple, yet almost all software packages today that are so much more "robust" fail to realize that. They take pride in how "deep" their feature set is. What I see is painful authoring. Even though I CAN do it, I have to do it an inefficient and difficult way. the result is the same, but I have lost valuable time I could be spending on other things. I have much more important things to to than make corrective blend shapes, influence objects, etc. I want to animate. This is where Hash came in. If more packages would implement things like these two videos I made, artists would go nuts. The power that comes with correct authoring methods cannot be overstated.

The first video shows "Smart Skinning". Move an object, fix anything that needs to be fixed, and it remembers. The second shows how I create a facial animation slider, blending skeletal animation and a corrective shape in one step, and one simple to use interface. Now remember, the tools are pretty rudimentary, but the implementation is genius. No wonder I continue to compare Maya and Softimage to A:M. It was one of the most genius packages ever.

Ahhhh. Those were the days.

ZBrush Mouth Sculpt

2009-06-18T22:37:00.002-06:00

Here was a 13 minute sculpt I did in ZBrush. Man, I love sculpting in it, but I still can't STAND the interface. I did a lot of the sculpting with the DamStandard Brush, that you can download from Pixologic's Homeroom website. Here is the direct link. The brush was created by Damien Canderle, whose website is www.maddamart.com.

New and Improved!

2009-06-04T22:37:00.004-06:00

So, I made some adjustments that I think make a big difference. Looks more like what I had in mind...a 7 year old kid. Now for the hair...Stay tuned.

New Character Progress

2009-06-04T15:37:00.003-06:00

So I started on a new character, and to break out of the mold, I went really cartoony. I need to break out of my box from time to time. After seeing Up, I thought I would give the look a shot. While this is a far cry from it, it's definitely closer than previous stuff. This is all about 2 hours of work. I started from a box and wend from there. I'm not normally a box modeler, but I really wanted a smooth surface that comes from "Catmull-Clarking" a box down. it's actually pretty easy. I would never do it for a complicated character, but for something like this, it worked great. The top montage is just a few morphs that I was experimenting with. This was all done in Modo 302...gotta love Modo!

Mr. SphereHead

2009-06-03T12:15:00.002-06:00

Man, it's been too long since I posted. I need to get back on the horse and get some stuff up here. Dave Malan is putting me to shame. I really have loved getting back to more realistic stuff, albeit a little twisted version. I'm really trying to break out of the mold I'm made from - very academic. So the other night I was staring at Mel Milton's blog and got really fired up to go really stylized. This ZBrush head is NOT stylized like I'm talking about, but my next one will be, so stay tuned. And Mel, thanks for the inspiration! Truly amazing stuff!

EDGE LOOPS!!

2009-04-03T11:14:00.003-06:00

So Here is another model I did in Silo. I really liked the tools. I thought I would do a study of edge loops, so I can really get in the habit of doing them right. I also made this head as a generic game model so I can push/pull it into any desigh I want.

Good Edgeloops = Flexibility

First Silo Model

2009-04-02T14:09:00.002-06:00

So I'm starting to learn Silo (www.nevercenter.com) and so far I am really liking it. It just seems that it was MEANT to be a modeler (it was!) whereas other software feels like all the tools are there for modeling, but they are tucked away in some hard to reach place.

So I modeled a cartoon hand, and thought I would record the process for posterity's sake (or more likely just mine). Turned out pretty good, but this was an experiment, so there's a lot of mistakes and backtracking in it. But I like to see that happen in a video so that I can understand what happened, and what went wrong. Hope you like it. The first video is 3x and the second is 4x.

Modeling a Cartoon Hand in Silo - Part 1 from Barry Zundel on Vimeo.

Modeling A Cartoon Hand in Silo - Part 2 from Barry Zundel on Vimeo.

Old Game Art

2009-03-12T15:42:00.002-06:00

These are a **few** characters from games I was the character lead for - Chicken Little, and Meet the Robinsons. Old, low-poly characters are always fun to look at.. I did the modeling, UV mapping, and rigging. Some rough textures too, but in the end, our texturing team did the final paint job.

My Current Demo Reel

2009-02-25T11:11:00.010-07:00

So after 8 years of working, I realized that I didn't really have anything to show, because I had never made a demo reel. Most of what I have done for the past 8 years didn't make it, but I used a few personal things and such, and put together a reel. More for myself than anything else. It made me realize that I have a lot to do and a long way to go.

Barry Zundel 2008 Demo Reel from Barry Zundel on Vimeo.

Death Vegas is Live!

2009-02-13T11:46:00.006-07:00

Well, it went live a few weeks ago. But I did all the character modeling and rigging. It was a really fun project to work on and especially to work with such great talent as Scott Stoddard, Adam Ford, Ethan Halvorsen, and Melissa Halvorsen. They are a great team with amazing talents and capabilities.

Maya Arm Rigging Tutorials

2008-10-27T12:13:00.004-06:00

For my BYU Class, I did some simple rigging tutorials so that they could watch it after I shoe them in class. I made these available on Vimeo, so anyone can watch them. They're pretty simple, since this is a beginning Maya class, but for what it's worth, they may help someone else.

Oh, and by the way, if you join Vimeo (which is free), you can download the original video at the bottom right of the page.

Part 1 - Joints, IK, and Control Objects

Creating an IK Arm in Maya - Part 1 from Barry Zundel on Vimeo.

Part 2 - Forearm Roll Bones

Creating an IK Arm in Maya - Part 2 from Barry Zundel on Vimeo.

Part 3 - Finger and Clavicle Control

Creating an IK Arm in Maya - Part 3 from Barry Zundel on Vimeo.

3D Head...Part 2

2008-09-29T21:18:00.002-06:00

So, my first session in ZBrush came out like this...

I think there is a little bit too much in the hair, but it's going well. We'll see what happens next.

New 3D Head - Part 1

2008-09-19T13:45:00.002-06:00

I've been working on this a tiny bit here and there for a while now. This is a render of the base mesh. Next step: sculpting. Modeled and rendered in Modo 302.

New Stuff...

2008-09-12T20:40:00.003-06:00

So again, it's been way too long since I've posted anything. I need to do this a lot more, as I always say, but here are some "newer" ones. Sitting behind Dave McClellan for this last one doesn't help my confidence much.

Friday Figure

2008-06-27T10:36:00.000-06:00

I caught myself a little early this morning. I have the worst way of elongating the torso so that it just doesn't fit, but I think this one turned out better. Not perfect, but better than normal.

The World Has Ended

2008-06-20T10:16:00.000-06:00

Well, maybe not. But it could have, because I'm posting a few drawings. These are from this morning's figure drawing session at work. Last weekend, I was going through all of my pads of drawings from college and before, and I as amazed that I have almost completely forgotten most of the good things I learned...the gesture, the construction, line quality. All of those things have slowly ended up in the garbage bin within my head. So I'm trying to get them back. I kind of like the way this drawing turned out. A little heavy on the lines and outlining, but overall, I think it came out pretty good.

Animation:Master Animation DVD Downloads are now available!

2008-06-19T09:41:00.004-06:00

I finally got to posting my animation tutorials on my Lulu storefront. All of the character performance videos are now available:

Character Performance Introduction - 31 min.
Keyframing - 52 min.
Inbetweening - 1 hr. 13 min.
Finessing the Curves - 58 min.
Facial Animation - 50 min.
Final Rendering - 10 min.

They are all 1280x1024 Quicktime h.264 .mov's.

Since my posting privileges have been removed from Hash.com's forum (long story...maybe I'll tell it sometime. Let's just say that I'm an Avalanche guy and Martin Hash doesn't like that), I'm announcing it here. There have been a lot of people emailing me about these, and there will be more coming soon.

10,000 hits!

2008-05-23T13:32:00.002-06:00

Well, it's a pretty pitiful accomplishment seeing that most of my Avalanche cohorts have triple or 10x that. But I never thought that many people would see my stuff. I hope it's actually interesting to them, and not one of those...

*Avalanche Blog*...
"Ryan Wood! Sweet!....Adam Ford- Sweet!!! who's this Barry Zundel guy?...(clicks link)...oh...(clicks "back")

Anyways, thanks for the patronage. I've really been struggling to find time to add to my blog lately, so I will try to do better in the future.

Well, not quite a painting, but...

2008-04-18T15:06:00.001-06:00

Most of my time for the past 2 months has been consumed by finishing my basement, so I haven't had a lot of time to do any painting. So for my last post, I guess I'll have to postpone that for a while. Anyways, here is a figure drawing fron last week's session. I'm ok with it, but I felt that I needed to find the shapes faster and not noodle so much in the details. The quest never ends. Hopefully I'll be painting soon. We'll see if that actually happens.

Blah.

2008-03-07T13:52:00.002-07:00

There is a severe lack of color on this blog. Time to do a painting. Now only if I could remember how.

A Meeting Drawing...

2008-03-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

Meetings seem to be the place I come up with the very few ideas that are in my brain. Believe me, there aren't that many of them. All of my Avalanche colleagues have taken them already! In the midst of 2 really bad drawings, a little gem emerged. It's not finished, but it has it's moments. I love it when a quick sketch comes out better than a planned, lengthy drawing session. I may have to take this one further.

I'm back...kind of.

2008-03-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did a figure drawing that I felt somewhat good about. This morning was a really good one in my opinion. Not because the drawing was great, but because I felt like my drawing ability to see was slowly returning. I think medium has a lot to do with it. I began with vine charcoal to block in forms and get my proportions right. It's SO forgiving you can move stuff all over while trying to get it right. Once I had that in, I went for the charcoal pencils and compressed charcoal to get the darks and details. I made the mistake of thinking my drawing was good, and then leaning over and looking at Adam Ford's. Not a good idea. But I think this one turned out well. The face leaves a lot to be desired, but that's what I get for leaving it to the last 15 minutes.

Figure Drawing Dump

2008-01-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here are a few figure drawings from the past month or so. I've been using vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, and black NuPastel lately, and I like the result. My favorite is still the black NuPastel. All 18x24 on paper.

New Figures

2007-11-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

We had a genuine Belly Dancer come in for the session last week. Pretty cool, but the sequins really threw off seeing shapes. I think these turned out alright, though. I'm noticing that I'm starting to get impatient with my drawings. It's really hard for me to concentrate on a hand, the shadows, the hair, or a face, etc. Maybe it's time to switch things up...a new medium, perhaps. Or maybe we need to turn a few lights on in the session room so you can actually see what you are drawing. Yeah, I think that would help. Anyways, just when I think things are coming along, this morning happens. We had a soccer player as a model this morning, complete with ball, shin guards, headband - the whole shebang. Not really in the mood for drawing baggy shorts and shirts, I went for a portrait. Bad idea. It started out okay and got progressively worse. After about 45 minutes, I had to stop, and this is what came of it. It's decent, but I had to stop before I completely ruined it. Looks like someone smeared Silly Putty all over his eyes. Once again, I was getting impatient, and it shows.

More Figure Drawings from Fridays

2007-10-15T22:17:00.000-06:00

These are some other figure drawings that have been piling up in my office. Finally got around to it. All are 18x24 Charcoal or NuPastel except the Sepia one. It's 8x10 in conte and white charcoal.

Figure Drawing Dump

2007-10-15T22:13:00.000-06:00

These are a few drawings from the past few weeks. All are 18x24 in either charcoal or NuPastel. I personally am a big fan of the 2nd gesture. It seems that if your gestures are good, your drawing is going to stink. The reverse is the same.

Another ZBrush WIP

2007-10-02T14:12:00.000-06:00

Here's a new image...finally. I have a ton of figure drawings that I would like to put up, but I haven't had my camera at work to take images of them, so I guess this will do until tomorrow or Friday. I'm really enjoying ZBrush now. I've just barely scratched the surface, but it's really fun. One of the most unintuitive interfaces ever, and I am still getting the hang of it. But I LOVE the layer system in it, and I have fallen in love with the sculpting brushes! Well, There will be more to come.

Figure Drawing Heresy

2007-08-17T10:55:00.000-06:00

Well, for the past 10 years, I have been brainwashed into believing that the cardinal sin in figure drawing is to use BLACK NuPastel. Heresy! The only worthy figure drawing medium was Cordovan(sp?) or Bottle Green. All other mediums are worthless. So for the past 10 years, I have mainly used those two. In art stores, I wouldn't even consider looking in the general direction of black NuPastel. It was the enemy, and there was absolutely no way that I would be coerced into using that faulty, lesser medium.

Well, this morning at figure drawing, I grabbed an old box of assorted NuPastel, and lo and behlod, there was BLACK in it!! But for some reason, I thought I might give it a chance. I would rebel against my artistic training and give the black NuPastel a go. I was a bit apprehensive. After all, I would be the laughing stock of the art world, at least in the circles I am in...wouldn't I? But I pressed on. I began with a few gestures. After a few strokes, I reeled in shock. I couldn't have just felt that! There's no possible way! The drawing looked....alright. I drew more. Woah! I had just discovered something amazing. I wanted to continue. It was not conte. It was not charcoal (shudder). It was just what I was looking for. It was glorious.

Well, it may not have made my drawing better, but it sure felt goo to use it. I found that letting go of the training I had received was the best thing for me. I've found my new favorite figure drawing medium. It's NuPastel, and it's BLACK. Take that, Barrett and Barksdale and Smith!!

Friday Figure Drawing

2007-08-06T10:18:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been 4 weeks since I last did figure drawing, so getting back into it was hard, but I felt pretty good about this one. I started to fiddle with it too much, so I had to stop before I completely ruined it. NuPastel on Paper - 18x24.

2007-07-09T14:34:00.000-06:00

This is my first test at using a sphere and ZBrush 3. Man, the interface is a piece of work. Mudbox is amazingly better, but there are some great tools in ZBrush, and I know this is a tiny thing, but I LOVE the wax shader that is the default. Sooooooo much more to work on. This is about an hour of tinkering not knowing what I'm doing...

Cool new Slideshow tool....

2007-06-27T23:25:00.000-06:00

You can do this when you have a Picasa Web Album Account! These are all old drawings, but it's a cool little tool!

My Final Dragon

2007-06-01T17:18:00.000-06:00

Well, I got it "done" before the weekend. It was a little more frustrating than I originally thought it would be. Probably poor planning before beginning to paint. Hopefully I'll get it next time.

My new Avalanche challenge entry..

2007-05-30T15:52:00.000-06:00

I began this, realizing that it takes me so long to paint something to my liking, that I better post something before the subject passes me by. Here's the original drawing and the first step for the painting:

A new place to vent...

2007-05-09T14:47:00.000-06:00

I just started a new blog so my wife doesn't have to listen to my political rantings. Now only those who want to take the time to read them will. But I also hope that it can bring some logical arguments into this internet world of political discussion.

One Messed Up, Beautiful World

Avalanche Challenge Entry

2007-05-01T09:36:00.000-06:00

This working-class superhero saves the lives of countless soccer moms one child-calming kids meal at a time.

Friday Figure Drawings - April 27, 2007

2007-04-27T10:24:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a while since I posted any figure drawings. A lot of them have really stunk, so I haven't posted them. These were the better of the bunch, if there are any that are "better", so here they are:

2o minutes, NuPastel 18"x24"

1.5 Hours, Charcoal 18"x24"

Goddess of Sky and Wind

2007-03-27T15:32:00.000-06:00

This was my late entry into the Avalanche Blog. I actually got really close to finishing it, but then my wife went into labor, and I haven't slept in two weeks. But here it is, in all it's cliche glory. It was a test of painting with Pastels in Painter. I think I like it almost just as much as Ryan Wood's "Washabrusha". I'll have to keep playing with it before I can know for sure.

Friday Figure Drawings - 3/23/2007

2007-03-27T11:31:00.000-06:00

5 minute Nupastel on Paper

2 Hr Nupastel on Paper

I'm somewhat satisfied with this drawing, but I found that the hand on the leg was too small, and I didn't have enough time in the pose to redo it, so it had to stick. Other than that, I think it went pretty well. I had to stop at the 2 hour mark before I started noodling it to death.

Animtion:Master Training Disc 3 Now Available!

2007-02-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

It's finally ready for public consumption! My latest tutorial DVD is out now and available at my website. This DVD contains over 8.5 hours of training from the very beginnings of animation to character performance with audio, lip sync, and final render. It is for Animation:Master 2005, but could easily be applied to any software system. The DVD comes with all the content you need to follow along with the tutorials. They are all 1280x1024 videos made with the Techsmith codec. Go to my website for more information.

Friday Figure Drawing

2007-02-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

February 23, 2007
18"x24" NuPastel on Paper

Figure Drawing Friday

2007-02-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

February 16, 2007
18"x24" Charcoal on Paper

Pastel Test

2007-02-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've always thought my art was a little "slick", so I'm trying to loosen it a bit by using rough media. This was just a 15 minute test in Painter with the pastels...I really like the feel of them, but not the picture too much.

Sketchy, Sketchy

2007-02-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

These are totally out of my norm, but I finally have had some time to devote to sketching again. These are really rough, but I think I liked doing them...got the wacom flowing. Man, there are so many great blogs out there, makes me feel totally inadequate and REALLY rusty.

New Figure Drawings

2007-01-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted, with work being crazy and life even more. But here's a few new ones. One is a re-post of a better-quality image. All are 18x24 conte on paper.

Figure Drawing December 8

2006-12-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here's kind of a crappy cell-phone picture of the latest figure drawing. I'll take a better picture of it as soon as possible, but it's been so long since I posted, I thought I would just get it up. This was a really hard drawing. The model never seemed to stay in the same position, so I feel it's a bit off. There's always next week. Once again, 18x24 charcoal on paper.

New Figure Drawing

2006-11-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Here's last weeks figure drawing session at work. Man, it's been a while. It was also my first foray into charcoal. I really enjoyed it. This pose was about 1.5 hours.

Animation:Master Training DVD 2 Now Available

2006-11-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

I finally got to the 2nd DVD - Character Rigging. It's for sale on my website:

Animation:Master 2005 Training

Have at it!

Avalanche Challenge Piece

2006-10-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here's my entry for the last challenge over at the Avalanche Blog . It was a pretty eye-opening experiment. Thanks to Ryan Wood and Sam Neilson for some great pointers that I probably forgot to implement by mistake.

Couple More Drawings...

2006-10-08T22:22:00.000-06:00

I really got into drawing today, and I still have the itch. I'll have to keep it going. Heaven knows I need the practice.

Portrait of Baldy

2006-10-06T23:18:00.000-06:00

Not sure where this one came from. Lately, I'm trying to get away from the line drawing and go more for tones. Loomis did this really well. So do a ton of the guys I work with.

Sayid

2006-10-06T20:54:00.000-06:00

I've never seen the show "Lost," but here's my shot for the company Art Challenge:

For the rest of the "entries", go to our blog HERE.

This is why I love layers...

2006-10-06T14:56:00.000-06:00

December

2006-10-06T14:22:00.000-06:00

One of my all-time favorite CD's is George Winston's December. My dad bought it when I was really young, and I was inthralled with it. It became my Christmas soundtrack, and remains so to this day. The photo on the front of the CD is exactly what I picture when I hear the music, and I think it's just gorgeous. Being October and all, I started listening to Christmas music. Hey! At least it's not the normal time I begin listening to Christmas music...July. My wife would kill me. At least I can listen to it at work. Hehehehe.

Anyways, I decided to get into painting in Painter again....yes, again. I love using layers. So here is a try at painting in Painter 9.5. Everything was going smoothly until I hit the branches...so much detail, I'm trying to figure out which brushes to use. Better ask Ryan (Wood). I'll post the progress images next.