a small update for a HUGE CHANGE!

So wife and I are finally moving to Bangalore at the end of this month. Its been an amazing 2 years at RnH and with good memories I move on to a change in scene.

End of this month, I'll be joining the core team for Dreamworks in India as a Modeling Lead....(still sinking in:))....looking forward to more fun times!!


In other news.....finished the sculpt on Ram....onto texturing and lighting this now to finish the illustration. Here are some zbrush snapshots.

The legend of Ram

Jai Sri Ram!
So finally after a really long spell of silence, I have some work on this blog.
This is a WIP(work in Progress) of an illustration of Sri Ram that i'm currently working on.
the first image is just a test render i was playin around with.
For those new to Indian mythology, Sri Ram is the warrior hero of the Indian epic , "Ramayana".
He is also deeply revered as a God by Hindus all over the world.
I'm hoping to finish this illustration sometime this month. Still a lot to do, and the process only gets slower when the subject is so close to heart!
the shader for the zbrush screenshots are from Arran Lewis and the test render shader is from Marc Mordelet. A big thanks to both of them!
P.s. In other news...a change of job and city is on the cards!:)

and then some....

for all who came back expecting more artwork....my sincere apologies....u can blame my dysfunctional back for now(thankyou lord for reasons to procrastinate!)......for those of u who just like to see me bathe in boastfulness and raise my ever dipping spirits......a little more footage for now:)
3dcreative magazine has Zerst in their 10 best galleries section for March. U can download the 'Lite' version from their site. Pay for the full copy for 200 pages of awesome info(if ur curious that is!)....check it out here.
3dcreative

Another step another stone....

The Golden Compass Won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects!
It surely is a proud day for me and for all my colleagues at Rhythm and Hues here in India and LA!

Testing 1...2...3...

Just a quick render test of my last sculpt. The model isnt in its higest level of subd so theres a bit of jaggedness.no textures, no shaders and not really much of a blog post but i'm bored.....what the hell.

Evolution

The things evolution can do !!:)
This is again a model for the same friend of mine from two posts ago.
He is supposed to be a more evolved version of the earlier goblin, so that he can.....ummm..no spoilers here...we'll have to wait for his announcement sometime:)
No textures, no shaders...just a boring zbrush snapshot is what u see. Hope you guys like it!

5 More seconds of fame..:)

Video on ndtv.





No, this is not an excuse for not having real blog updates, but its just a great start for a brand new year!:)
This initially aired on thursday night at 11:30ISt as part of a programme called "night out".

You can see a higher res(better quality) version on that ndtv link on top.

Real artwork updates coming soon!:)
HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody!!!!!!

Season's Greetings!

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!
Keeping with the spirit of the season, just finished this piece for a friend of mine. He plans to use this goblin in some game that he plans to build. Time for givin and sharing people!:)

Its been a kind week...:)

Well yeah, for starters , Exotique 3 reached my doorstep early this week. It was nice to see the War God in print alongside a lot of other awesome artwork!:)
and then, a very normal sunday spent with a little extra work in givin a presentation earned me some free publicity!:)
I havent had a chance to wrap up any artwork lately what with the testing I've been doing , but this is good reminder that I've been a hardworking boy!;)
I guess this is a good time to start simultaneously blogging on my new blog thats attached to my portfolio.
A self-pat on the back is in order..:)...ah...life and its silver linings!!

Happy Diwali!!!!

Happy Diwali peeps!!
My first Diwali at my Inlaw's place and had a really great time. This is the rangoli that I made outside their door. They were quite thrilled with it(I hope!;)).

for the clueless, a rangoli is artwork(usually patterns and designs) made outside ones home using coloured powder. Its quite standard practise during the festival of Diwali(festival of lights)

of Fish and Men.....

I finally get the chance to put this up. Yes, this is the same merman from 2 posts ago.....just the final illustration. You can also see him in this months Animation Today magazine on the cover.

I finished this about a month ago but had to wait till the magazines release so that i could put this up.Hope it was worth the wait(for those waiting!!)

This was made as part of the merman modeling challenge on cgtantra. I couldnt quite finish it for the challenge so decided to make an illustration of it.

This guy is designed to be the lead of an elite task force of similar mermen of an otherwise all mermaid race. They are entrusted with the protection of the queen mermaid and are called in to fight only as a last line of defense. They were results of long experimentation with various sea life and humans to build a perfect weapon. they're bodies are grafted with that of a shark with electrocuting tentacles that emerge out of the rib cage area. The jewels on the chest signify rank. They are a killing force efficient enuf to fight without armour or weapons.

This is also my first full character in zbrush.

Hope u guys like the design and final piece.

Base model in maya, sculpted posed and textured in Z Brush. Comped with screen shots in photoshop.

Flexing those brushes...

figured I've not been practisin off late and have been gettin rusty and slow so thought to myself....Wake the f*** up!
I've decided to sketch and doodle on zbrush fr an hour each day......even if i churn out garbage......so heres to a decent start....I should probably start a separate blog just for the doodles else my good pieces disappear:).....
just a quick head doodle(no ears)....took me about 2 hours....zbrush more than anything is definitely stress relief:)

P.S. for those wondering about the merman......kindly 2 weeks waiting please:)

Race against time!!

Signed up for the merman challenge on tantra with a bottle full of enthusiasm not considering the fact that i have "the great Indian wedding" comin up right around the corner.......whats more interesting is that the deadline for the challenge is the same as the day i leave for the wedding.......one challenge to the next!:)
Heres what i have so far on the challenge...just an unfinished body and head and a proxy model, and 2 working days to go!.....yay me!

Commercials

Rhythm and Hues India(the studio i work for) just finished a commercial for alpen liebe recently. I figured now would be a good time to put up some of my professional work on the blog.
For the alpen commercial, I contributed by modeling the crocodile model.
The amaron battery commercial is a slightly older one though worth a mention!:)......My contributions to that one was the Dj and the fashion model, models.
We have a kickass team at the studio that brings this all together in one awesome looking frame!
U can see more images and the entire commercials at the Rhythm and Hues website.

Bored....

One word that pretty much sums up my life for the last six months or so.....
So when i get my hands on a little sculpey and some modeling tools....my expression of emotion couldnt have gotten any louder!:)
took about 2 evenings to finish this and its about 3-4 inches tall.
Photographs once again by my dear friend Ravi:)

Note to self: more sculpey must get!

Sharp Curve Ahead

I usually only post my artwork on my blog and try as much as possible not to just rant about my state of mind.....but then comes those little turns in life that just have to be mentioned!:)

First off......Zerst the WarGod got selected for Exotique 3. Yaayyyyyyy!!:)

And the real curve......Sai and I are gettin married!!....yayyy!!!:)
No I'm not typing down details. If u know me well...u'll ask me!....if not...it doesnt matter to u!:).....

So there we are riding along a bumpy road for the last couple of months and suddenly....
Sharp Curve Ahead........
:)

Z....

My first doodle on zbrush ...an exercise in learnin the tools(my first time!).....
now that i've got a taste of this....how i wish I had picked up the earlier versions too!:).....
hoping to do many more..:)

Misfit

This is a character I've been working on for a short film. The story of the film hasnt been decided but I'm sure I want him to be in it!:)
The concept behind the design is to have a
centaur who was born with a donkey's body instead of the stereotype horse!
This leads to him being a misfit in his society and hence leading to him having a lot of psychological issues( beer gut!)
More info as and when I can plan something. Would love to hear from all out there on suggestions for the story!

a long standing I O U.

This was promised as a favor to my colleague, Vinayak, a long time ago so that he could get it rigged and do a couple of short animation gags with it. All credits for the design go to him. You can see more of his designs here..

http://vinayakpawar.blogspot.com

This was a lot of fun and a welcome break from realistic modeling. It was also nice to bring in form and anatomy into such a simple design.
The colored version is just simple colors slapped on to a standard shader...no fancy properties...no textures.
The rig was also something really simple to pose the model(just to show it off better) with no post corrections. The actual animatable rig is gonna be done by another friend.
Thanks for all the patience Vinayak!:)

Zerst, Maladan WarGod

Been a Year and a Half in the making during free time at work.
This started off purely as an exercise to learn anatomy but decided to push this further over time. I also wanted to push my modeling skills with this and hence decided not to use zbrush or mudbox.Its been a great learnin experience(and a naming experience!).Hope you like it!

And some Clay Renders:

The Fall.....

Been focusing on modeling and aesthetics so long that I failed to see how far I've degraded on my painting skills(not that I had much to boast of anyways....but I was better than this!!).....well, no point crying over spilt milk. I like the fact that my creativity has had a jump start and my laziness is being forced into submission so i'm hoping this phase(of bad artwork) shall pass!!:)
This was a piece done for an activity on conceptart.org....chow64.....The Black Queen.

another quickie!

Should have posted this a long time ago but better late than never huh!
These are images of a sculpture I did while at a 2 day sculpting workshop that I went for with my team from work. This was done in around 5-6 hours and isnt really the best thing u've seen but was a lot of fun!:)