http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/ soulburn3d's gallery of images en-us 120 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/808359

This started off as a speed painting, ended up finishing it off to be more of a matte painting (total of 4 hours of painting over a few days).

A few words on the technique. This is based on a photograph my wife took, I decided to paint this all by hand rather than doing some sort of photomanip (it's good practice), using the photo simply as reference. The only photo used in the actual painting are the two photoshop tree brushes, which I created by taking real photos of 2 trees against the sky, making them greyscale, and then contrasting the heck out of them. 99% of the image is the three brushes below.



May I say that painting clouds is both fun and incredibly frustrating. But I'm happy to get the practice in.
]]> Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:59:59 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/803431

Had a chance to do some environment paintings this August. All images were painted really small in photoshop, a few were painted over really simple 3d geometry to get the perspective right, but the vast majority is hand painted. Just working on mood, color and composition. Each painting completed in 1-3 hours.]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:53:13 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/783880

This is not only a model for my friend Stephan Bugaj's short film "Measured Assessment", but also for a new Gnomon DVD on how to Shade and Texture Hard Surface Models. Modeled in 3dsmax in polys for subdivision, this character is approx 2000 objects. Shading and Texturing took about a week of work, a mixture of hand painted, photomanip and procedural textures. Rendered in Brazil 2.0, photoshop was used for all the texture painting and photomanip. My Wirebundler script was used for the couple of wires on the character's underbelly.

Here's some textured views...



Here's a smooth shaded view of the model from two angles.



Some closeups of the textured model...







Click here to see a smooth shaded turntable (approx 18.7 meg).

Click here to see a textured turntable (approx 12.3 meg).
]]> Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:14:45 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/785889

This image started out as a simple sphere in the mist. As I continued to work on it, my results kept deviating from my original idea. Finally, I let go of my original idea and finished the piece the way it needed to be finished, the result is this finished image. The lighting isn't as dramatic as I had originally been going for, but it has some other details I'm happy with. Painted in photoshop.]]> Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:40:30 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/778159

The name Golem (not to be confused with the character Gollum from Lord Of The Rings) refers to an animate creature in Jewish Folklore created entirely from inanimate matter. These creatures would be created to do the bidding of their masters, large, bulky, and powerful, usually they were mindless, took orders literally, and didn't speak. This started off as a quick speed painting, ended up being a little more finished than I'd originally intended, but I dug the composition and felt it deserved a little more polish.]]> Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:59:41 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/759709

This would qualify as a more "finished" speed painting, but it still only took me about 5 hours. The image is all hand painted except for the lower tentacles which are simple 3d painted over in photoshop. The creature looks something like an ambulatory stingray, of course I had to throw in the giant teeth filled mouth. I'd hate to be marooned on a planet and have this thing walk out of the swirling dust, or worse yet a whole flock of them. ]]> Mon, 04 May 2009 12:16:47 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/755017

Here's an odd story of inspiration. So I was going through the gallery section of cgtalk, and I saw this thumbnail that really caught my eye. When I clicked on it, it turns out the thumbnail was actually taken from a rather minor part of the final image, it wasn't the focal point at all. I loved the thumbnail so much, it inspired me to make this image, which of course looks nothing like the final image they made. I totally can't find their image anymore, so I can't credit them for the initial inspiration, but if anyone finds a thumbnail that looks kinda like this image, let me know so I can credit the original artist. It's funny how an artists mind can make odd associations, you see a set of shapes or colors, and one artist sees a loaf of bread, another sees the potential for the same shapes to form a scary monster.

I painted this image really big (like 5k) so I can print him out really huge one day, I think he'll look pretty imposing on the wall. About half paint and half 3d. Already have a Hive Mind II in the works that has a similar creature, but totally different composition.]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:29:59 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/753323

This started off as a speed painting, but eventually I added enough detail that I decided to just keep going ahead and finishing it off. The lighting was inspired by some lighting I saw driving into work on a stormy day. Everything was done in photoshop except for the ships, they are a 3d element. The towers are a mixture of handpainting and photomanip, as is the sky.
]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:55:01 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/753322

An armada of ships being lead through space by what I could only describe as a giant flying wing. Speed Painting, maybe took me 4-5 hours. ]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:52:31 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/682994

This is a rough concept sculpt made in Mudbox 2.

A little history on the character. This guy comes from a highly religious race of beings. The best and brightest become priests, their eventual objective is to be chosen as a high priest. As well as receiving vast political power, the high priests also receive bionic enhancements, including a new synthetic brain that’s implanted in the top of the head to work alongside their organic brain. This brain contains the memories and experiences of all the previous high priests of the order. High priests upload this information on a weekly basis as part of a complex ritual to a centralized computer, so that their experience is not lost should they go missing or should the implanted brain get damaged.

Made a simple base mesh in max, sculpted all the detail in mudbox 2 (the final mesh is 32 million tris), then back to max to be rendered in Brazil 2.0. Wanted to get that “real clay” look, I’m pretty happy with the results.



Click here to see a turntable (approx 8 meg). ]]> Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:00:22 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/683485

This is another rough concept sculpt made in Mudbox 2.

Made a simple base mesh in max, sculpted all the detail in mudbox 2 (the final mesh is 16 million tris), then back to max to be rendered in Brazil 2.0. Depicts a predatory creature who glides in the thick gas filled atmosphere of an alien planet, much like how a sting ray would glide in our earth's oceans.



Click here to see a turntable (approx 10 meg).]]> Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:34:50 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/695212

This is a study from a photo I found on the net. Unfortunately, I can no longer find the original photo, and so I don't have the name of the photographer to credit. Painted in about an hour in photoshop.]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:59:24 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/694637

A new image in the style of my Mountain King image, maybe it's just the red color, but this guy feels more sinister to me.]]> Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:09:06 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/664563

Probably one of the most complex hard surface models I've ever made. I sketched this guy while trapped for 2 hours on an airport runway. His basic function is to be a forklift, his antigravitational abilities allows him to get into areas a standard forklift would not be able to reach. The Class 1 Loaderbot (this model) is for lighter lifting, it's bulkier cousin the Class 2 (which I may build one day) is for heavier objects.

Modeled in subdivs, all the pipes were modeled using pretty standard methods, no automated script to help me out here (I did use wirebundler for the wires that attach the eyes to the main body). The texturing was done using photoshop and a number of shader tricks I've been developping, for example, a more automated way of adding knicks and scratches to the edges of objects, and then paint overrides to add manual detail where needed. Like laying down a foundation of paint before painting details, the shaders provide a base layer on which I layer lots of hand painting and photomanipulated specific details. Rendered using Brazil 2.0.


Here's a smooth shaded view of the model from several angles.


Here's some closeups of the smooth shaded model.


Here's some closeups of the textured model.


Here's a wireframe of the model, this basic wireframe was then converted to subdivs for the final render.

Click here to see a smooth shaded turntable (approx 7 meg).

Click here to see some closeup views of the smooth shaded turntable (approx 11 meg).

Click here to see a textured turntable (approx 7.5 meg).

Click here to see some closeup views of the textured turntable (approx 16 meg).]]> Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:01:46 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/653924

This is the first in a series I hope to do based on a short story. The gist of the story is that an alien race populates a series of planets in a far away solar system millenia ago. The sun of their adopted system is now going supernova, and so the inhabitants of the planets are being evacuated to a neighboring system through these giant teleportation gates. The gates and ships are 3D with some matte painted details, the rocks are assembled from about 7 or 8 rock photos I took during a recent trip to Big Sur, manipulated and painted over heavily in Photoshop.]]> Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:45:13 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/642011

This is one of those models that came to me during traffic. WTF you say? Well, I'm sitting in my car, stuck on the 580 going towards Emeryville, and I'm behind this big truck for a mile going at 5 mph, and the truck's rear bumper has all of these brake lights. Suddenly, it dawns on me that the warning lights look like a strip of eyes, staring back at me. The creative juices start to flow, and this is what I end up with. The eyes also remind me a bit of the Sentinels in the matrix films, but then again, people driving to ESC to work on those films were probably stuck in the exact same traffic I was, since their facility was only 5 exits south of where I was headed My inspiration also came from printer cables, and a beast that shows up in the middle of the film Naussica. There's something about the long and flat creature that I find unusually appealing, probably because it's not something you see in nature all the time.

The wires use my wireBundler script, Darktree for some of the texture, other parts of the texture were hand painted in photoshop. Rendered using Brazil 2.0.

Here's a smooth shaded view of the model.

http://www.neilblevins.com/artgallery/media/prey_smooth.jpg

Click below to see a turntable (approx 20 meg)

http://www.neilblevins.com/artgallery/media/prey.mov]]> Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:59:13 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/642661

Another new cattle image. Why I am obsessed with alien looking cows? I don't know, I just am. Painted in photoshop in a couple of sittings.]]> Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:59:56 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/640347

Quick speed painting, done in a few hours. Depicts a swarm of enemy spacecraft surrounding a larger craft, flying near the center of a gas nebula.]]> Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:50:07 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/572122

Been working on this one off and on for about a year. This is one of those images that started out cool, got really, really ugly looking, then kinda came together at the end again. The image has probably been overhauled 3 or 4 times, but I decided to stick with the original composition, and maybe some alternate compositions will appear as sequels in the coming years. Everything modeled in max, the creatures uses my WireBundler script heavily. While no geometry appears in the final image, the original concept for the creature came from experiments using Groboto, a procedural modeling tool by Braid. Rendered in Brazil, comp in photoshop. I decided to inject a bit of a narrative in this image, which is rare, my work is usually a little more abstract.]]> Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:55:06 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/574726

A reworking of a digital painting I did last year. I did a sketch for the painting, and the final result was very different. This is closer to the original design. The lilipad shaped towers were built in max, rendered in brazil, everything else was painted in photoshop, the rocks, the background, the ships, etc.]]> Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:54:32 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/572779

A reworking of my original Mouths To Feed image from 2003. I've done sequels before, but this one is more a tweak of the original image rather than a total reworking. I liked aspects of the original image, but I always felt like I could have done more with it, and this is my attempt at adding that "more". Most of the same elements are there, but I totally changed the mouths to add more detail, and fixed a number of problems with the pipes. I also improved the focus of the image by carefully placing new areas of light and dark. Finally, changed the orientation to a portrait instead of a landscape. Modeled in max, rendered in Brazil, photoshop for the comp. Much happier with this incarnation. ]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:14:41 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/568997

Sequel to my original Cattle image, this one is a little more like what I was originally intending for the image. I did my best to give it a sense of perspective and depth, while still feeling very flat. ]]> Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:33:02 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/572482

Last year I started this speed painting, but evolution took over and it ended up looking very different in the end. So this year I decided to revisit the original concept and see if I could get something closer to my original vision. The painting makes strong use of custom brushes for the mechanical stuff, and my usual gassy treatment.]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:21:56 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/567997

A really quick image, I was stuck on a plane on the tarmack for 2 hours and did a bunch of sketching, then threw this together in 2 sittings. While not really complex, there's something about the composition that I like.]]> Sun, 02 Dec 2007 01:07:46 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/571108

This model started off as a much loftier concept of a sand dwelling robot character, in the end the most interesting part of the concept was his head, so I decided to turn it into a bust. The first image shows him with his faceshield on (to avoid his internals getting totally encrusted with sand), the second shows him open, with voice and ventilation unit exposed. I imagine each of his three eyes to have different lens sets, sorta like how humans use bifocals, or how you change lenses on your camera to go between extreme wideangle and extreme telephoto. If he needs to see close up, he uses the bottom eye, to see far off in the distant sands, he uses his top eye, the middle eye is for mid range viewing. Would love to get this made into a realworld articulated model. Modeled all in subds, Rendered in Brazil 2, I'll try and post a turbtable at some point.]]> Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:22:15 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/569497

This started out as an unused tshirt design from a bunch of years ago, I always liked the composition, although not the details. So I decided to redo it as a bit more abstract. Kinda reminds me of the MCP in tron. ]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:49:32 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/512279

Quite a mix on this one, lots of 3D, lots of manipulated photos, lots of painting. The image started as a painting to get the overall atmosphere and the ominous black figure. Then I added the 3d elements made in max and rendered with brazil such as the face, the cloth (no cloth sim used, just modeled geometry), and other robotic elements. Then I used a bunch of photos I took last year from various construction sites to plus out the model. The complex part was integrating everything together lighting wise, since many of the photographic elements had lighting that didn't match up. Still kept it a little loose, didn't want to overwork this one. Part 9 in the ongoing reaper series.]]> Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:13:00 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/503287

Had some bad health problems these past 3 months, I'm so happy to be well enough to actually get excited about making my own art again. While I didn't mean to, the image shares a similar theme and composition to my Swirling Sands image, so you may consider this a sequel. Modeled / shaded in max, rendered in Brazil, photoshop for the atmosphere and then a bunch of painting on top to add all the details.]]> Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:18:09 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/428729

While I can't pinpoint the initial inspiration (this composition just sorta came to me one night while I was drifting off to sleep), the final figure kind of looks like a tribal doll of some sort. Maybe a mechanical voodoo doll who has trapped a mortal soul in an electronic hell. The figure screams in agony at its imprisonment. Modeled in Max, rendered in Brazil, the hair was generated with Wirebundler, and the mist and sky painted in photoshop.]]> Sun, 12 Nov 2006 22:08:09 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/472370

New speed painting done in four one-hour sessions this week. Some very minor 3d work to help with perspective, everything else is painted and photo texture.]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:03:01 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/467299

Part 2 in my king series. I was originally going to do a full 3d render of this guy, but decided to keep him 2d for the moment. Lots of custom brushes, photo collage and hand painted stuff.]]> Sun, 25 Feb 2007 02:25:42 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/457093

Super quick 3 hour painting, I'm pretty happy with how this guy came together. I'm also feeling that my custom brushes are becoming more successful in adding the kind of texture I'm after.]]> Mon, 29 Jan 2007 01:41:02 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/454139

Another mouth image, this one came together pretty quickly. Sculpted in mudbox, rendered in Brazil, post-processing in photoshop. I'd hate for this to be the last thing I see.]]> Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:42:25 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/408407

Many interesting creatures live in the fantasy forest. Faeries, Goblins, Gnomes, many a friend have explored these themes in art. My take on the forest creature has far more tentacles. Constructed primarily using scatter, I made a single tentacle, copied it around a zillion times, then hand modified their positions into more interesting clumps. Then a LOT of photoshop work, mixing real photos and straight ahead painting to make a super textural result. I wanted to let the viewer smell the dirt. Modeled in max, rendered in Brazil, everything else photoshop.]]> Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:19:07 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/399483

Number 8 in the reaper series. This guy went through several evolutionary steps before arriving at this final version, I had to remodel him 3 times before I finally got a shape that was working for me. The only thing that survived all 3 iterations were the shoulder cylinders and face. Modeled using Power Solids and subdivs, rendered with Brazil, compositing in Photoshop. I'd hate to think there's something like this waiting for me when I die.]]> Thu, 31 Aug 2006 03:18:26 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/364818

A quicky image that was originally going to be mostly 2D, but ended up mainly 3D with some 2d postprocessing and a few paint touchups. Rendered in Brazil, post processing in Photoshop. This was mainly an exercise in thick atmosphere and backlit silhouettes.]]> Thu, 01 Jun 2006 06:21:54 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/271756

Used Power Solids for a few of the pieces of the main connector, but this is primarily a polygonal model. The wires were done with a new version of wireBundler (a script I wrote) that lets me assign geometry to the wires using pathdeform. I spent a lot of time on the wires, since I'm sort of bored with the whole smooth wires with a texture map thing, it was time to get more details in there like connectors and such. The wound is a complex hand painted texture map with several layers. Rendered in Brazil, post process in Photoshop. While this image and Alternative Birth have some similarities, this really was always intended to be a sequel to my Entry Point image, and thematically works better as such since the wires were exploding out in Alternative Birth, and here the wires are entering in.
]]> Mon, 29 Aug 2005 14:54:22 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/338430

While a lot of this is painted, there's enough 3d in there to still call it a 3d image. The towers are the most prominent 3d element, the sand dunes are a mixture of paint and heavily manipulated photographs of real desert dunes. I kept the image a little loose so it wouldn't feel overworked, so feel free to consider it a sketch / concept piece if you like.]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:14:40 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/334629

This originally started as one of my Reaper series, but in the end I felt it looked better with a few Reapers in there, and so it was renamed to be part of my Gathering series. Wires using my wirebundler script, the model is half power solids, half subdivs, tons and tons of postprocess work in photoshop. Rendered in Brazil.
]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2006 16:27:12 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/209198

Part 5 in my Reaper series. Modeling done using Power Solids, rendered in Brazil, compositing in Photoshop. As with most of my work, best viewed against a black background with all the lights turned off in your room on a stormy night.
]]> Wed, 09 Feb 2005 03:43:47 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/334739

A lot of friends upon seeing this image say "That's disturbing", which I suppose was the original point. The orafice is photomanipulation, the wires are cg rendered with Brazil's Depth Of Field, tons of post processing in photoshop to adjust colors and give that ethereal bloom. Yes, I love wires a lot, but then again you probably knew that already.]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:40:32 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/303654

This is an image for a cd cover for a band called Element (notice the large area of stars where the band logo will go for the final cover). Part 3d image, part matte painting, part photo collage. I went to a local beach and got some fantastic pictures of rocks, cliffs and beach which I then modified heavily in photoshop, merged with 3d elements like the pipes and broken machinery. The water and shore is also cg, but then layers of real sand photos and real water went on top to give it extra richness which would take awhile to achieve completely in the cg world. Then a lot of painting on top to meld everything together. The result is a giant collage, showing a long dead world with oceans of blood.
]]> Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:58:59 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/430155

I was going super 2d graphic for this image, a bit of a departure I know, but hopefully there's still some Neilness to the work. I'm also pretty happy with the perspective on this, I hope he really feels like he's towering over you. Inspired by the finale in Fantasia, the mountain devil in that animation scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, which immediately made me facinated with him.]]> Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:49:47 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/430154

Depicts a stormy planet and an alien device, producing electricity in an unconventional fashion.]]> Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:48:59 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/368577

This is dedicated to all the Goldorak fans out there (or Grendizer, in Japan). Watching this cartoon while I was growing up, I couldn't imagine a cooler scenario, every week you have one giant robot beating on a brand new giant robot. So I figured I'd take a few of the enemy robots and modernize them a bit and convert them to 3d. It was complex from a design standpoint, I had to find some sort of balance between the plasticy phong puffed out shapes of a kids cartoon, and a more gritty reality where I wanted to show scale, wear and dirt. These guys were so inspirational in my childhood, and are certainly a major reason I do what I do today. Modeled all in subdivs, textures in Photoshop, rendered in Brazil.]]> Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:12:43 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/324830

An odd shaped creature I came up with sketching one day, basically a modified gecko wearing a metallic helmet with large horns. Used Brazil's skin shader for this one, and a number of new techniques I've been playing with in photoshop for the textures (plus a few darktree layers). The model started out super low res, then I added a bunch of detail in zbrush. This is my very first zbrush model that wasn't me just playing around, hope to push its use even further in the future. Below are a few images from the turntable.



]]> Sat, 04 Mar 2006 17:49:16 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/334764

A lighting test for my lizard. I scanned a photo, cleaned it up in photoshop and integrated the lizard into the background. Rendering was done in Brazil using pretty standard lighting techniques, and then composited and modified in digital fusion. In a situation like this, you sorta get as close as you can inside of max, and then do all your fine tweaks (lighting, color corection) in digital fusion, since it's got basically realtime feedback. Not perfect photorealism, but good for a test. I also did another few hours of tweaks on the lizard's maps between the model and this image.]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2006 19:10:33 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/334767

I started this piece back in 1999 as a test for the mindbridge project at Blur. Never finished it, so I decided to complete it on my own time in early 2002. This is an alien reactor room in the heart of groombridge. Originally designed by Sam Gebhardt, he did a pastel sketch of the env and I build, textured, lit and rendered it. Work done for Blur Studio. ]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2006 19:12:41 +0000 http://soulburn3d.cgsociety.org/gallery/334744

Another test I did for the Ghost renderer (Later to be Brazil). The global illumination in this scene is faked, reflections (of course) are quite real, and a tiny bit of depth of field added. This image was post processed, but just to add a little diffuse glow inside digital fusion. Wires in the background were made using my WireJumble maxscript.]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:46:27 +0000