http://zman.cgsociety.org/gallery/ zman's gallery of images en-us 120 http://zman.cgsociety.org/gallery/598903

This image is inspired by a friend of mine called Ella who is actually a model and was kind enough to pose for me and let me take all the refference I need (of course she gets a nice print in return

This project was dragged on and off for quite sometime but I've decided its time to finish it now. I actually modeled and rigged and textured all the body for other future projects as well.

The scene was done in Max and rendered in mental ray. Textures and post work done in Photoshop.
]]> Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:55:35 +0000 http://zman.cgsociety.org/gallery/518515

This image was done in 2 weeks.
Since I don't work on a 64BIT station yet, I had to render many different passes (forground, background, vines, grass, the afterburn sky, occlusion and so on) and do the main finishing work in photoshop.
]]> Sun, 15 Jul 2007 08:32:08 +0000 http://zman.cgsociety.org/gallery/392829

After half a year of no free-time personal projects, I run across a sketch of a blood elf from Blizzard's game and was flooded with inspiration. I've decided to make my own version of it.
I've started with a basic body model which I previusly had, and modeled the base robe over it, I then modeled all the armor parts on top of it. All I can briefly say is that the SHELL modifier was very helpfull here
The hair is max's hair and I am pretty happy with the result, too bad the effect ended up hiding the best parts of it ...
I used mental ray to render, tho' I didnt really use any of "advanced" feature 'xcpt for maybe ambient occlusion.
I rendered many many different passes and put it all togheter with photoshop.
I've decided to make this in print resolution in case it might get into a Ballistic book so there are lots of small details there
Here's a closer look at the face -
http://zivcg.com/BE_close.jpg]]> Sun, 13 Aug 2006 15:39:25 +0000 http://zman.cgsociety.org/gallery/300180

Finnaly !
After more than 2 months of working on this in my spare time (after work), my spectacular entry is ready !
This was a true challange to get done in time, especially considering the hardware limitations I had to face and the resolution it was rendered to.
you can see the milestones along the way to create it (there are a few things there that didnt end up in the final image) here -
http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/spectacular/view_entries.php?challenger=8617
Here's the story that goes with this image -
It was just another silent, peaceful day in Babylon, the center of all cultures, 5,500 years ago when all of a sudden, clouds strangely started to gather over the Tower of Babel. Most people kept at their daily business, not even realizing that the very existence of the tower had angered God. The first to realize what was happening were the animals. They sensed something was wrong and begun panicking slightly before there were even signs of the chaos that was about to hit the tower. After a short while the sky started to shape in an unnatural way, being very bright on one side and dark on the other. This was in fact a revelation of God himself. At this point most people still didn't know what was going on and while some stood shocked and terrified, others were fascinated by the spectacular view. Some people still kept at their daily occupations ignoring all the signs. Moments later, the ground which the tower was built upon started trembling, increasingly shaking the very foundations of the tower. Thats the point when this image takes place - just about the last second the Tower of Babylon stood tall, when it just started cracking up (the lower stories beared the highest pressure) and a few moments before it collapsed and changed the face of human history forever.
While watching helplessly as mankinds' greatest creation began crumbling into nothing more than bricks and dust the confusion just got much greater as God started to spread different languages among the cultures resulting in anger and forever separating mankind into many groups.
[disclaimer] I did a lot of research about this story and about the tower design before I even began working on it. I've tried to keep things generally authentic but also to give them my own twist.
A few notes about the symbolism in this piece -
Peace - I think the whole concept of Babylon, the city where all the cultures lived together speaking the same language and worked together for a shared goal, is the strongest symbol of peace. When you think about it, This was the last time mankind ever lived in peace.
Advances/Innovation - The Tower of Babylon was probably one of mankinds greatest creations. It probably seemed impossible to create a few years before the construction begun, same as things and achievements we make today seemed impossible yesterday. I think this tower is a symbol of mankinds will to always push his boundaries and break the limits (even as far as to reach the height of God and maybe beyond it).
God - The bible is filled with stories about how mankind angered God and got punished for it but also were forgiven for their sins. I've tried to symbolize that in the sky and in the lighting: one side of the sky is dark and raging while the other is warm and "hopeful". The general lighting setup is the same - cold from one side and warm from the other. The end result of this story is the same: God was angry, but he decided to only shake the ground around the tower itself to bring it down and not to harm people who were far enough from it.
Here's a higher resolution version (about 33% of the full image)

and some close ups -
Tower cracking up

Tower close up 2

Market mess

Market / dock

Wrath of god

Rays of hope

]]> Wed, 07 Dec 2005 18:02:20 +0000 http://zman.cgsociety.org/gallery/207990

as a true fantasy fan, i had to make my own fantasy poster. the scene is actually divided into 3 parts (backround,midground and forground) so that i could afford extream amount of details with fast workflow.
comments will be accepted gladly.
]]> Fri, 04 Feb 2005 19:48:06 +0000 http://zman.cgsociety.org/gallery/246494

This is my submission to the master and servant contest.
When i first read the guidlines, I immedietly knew i want to make it fantasy styled. After quite some time of brainstorming, I've decided i wanna make it extream with having a small human master controlling a huge giant creature.
with the power of the red cristal staff, the wizzard summons the giant endless serpant who commes from within the deep dark cave.
]]> Sat, 04 Jun 2005 00:21:58 +0000