taurinfox

From Concept to Character (Part 1: Template)

Here's the 1st lesson in this video tutorial series, where I go through the process of creating this German Shepherd character from start to finish!

This lesson goes through the process of drawing templates for the front and side views, which will be used in the next lesson, where I start to model the character.

I used Adobe Photoshop version CS6 for this, but the same process should work for any digital drawing software that supports layers.  In fact, the basics would even s...

1/15/21 Morning Stream Progress

Hi all!

     Little edits on the body shape required a new connector piece.  So that's all finished up and looking hot!  (Pictured above, semi disassembled to show it off. 

     Taurin did some awesome work on the fur map and it's just slapped on there as a placeholder till the fur is in!  Only a few bits to go and minor edits before rigs and fluffs woo!

-Fox

Gaussly Color Map

I just finished putting together Gaussly's fur color map!  I used Substance Painter for it, which I'm still getting used to, but I'm happy with how this came out =)

It's taken us a while to get to this point, but things are starting to move pretty fast now!  Fox has been doing an amazing job on the robotic arms, legs, and eyes.  There isn't a whole lot left to do before we can put everything together, get some fur on this guy, and get him rigged.

Enjoy!

-Tauri...

1/7/2021 AM Progress

Wow I had to retype 2021 like 5 times!  

Hello!

     Finally finished up Gaussly's eyeball.  Careful what you do with him, it's recorded.  Probably.  Either way you should be careful ;3.  

     See you all tonight at the stream for some work on the body textures!  Or something!

-Fox

3D Character Tutorial Series

I just put together a timelapse preview video of the footage I recorded for the upcoming tutorial series.  I had to condense almost 24 hours of footage into about 17 minutes, so some things had to be cut, but I managed to capture each major step in the process =)

I'm planning on taking that footage and releasing it as a series of narrated tutorials for the $15 tier, starting in January 2021.  I'll be covering concept art, modeling, sculpting, UV mapping, materials, rigging, po...

Patreon End of Year Update!

I don't think I've ever been so excited for a year to end...

As you all know, this year has been a rough one.  I'm sorry that I haven't been posting as much as I'd like to, especially over the past several months.  The art business has been in a state of transition, which has caused a bit of a lull this year, but we've got some really exciting things planned for 2021!

The most exciting thing to happen this year is that I added two people to my animation team!  Movin...

12/28/20 Stream Progress

Woot doot boop ya in the snoot :D

     Hi all!  Things are coming along well.  Final textures and UV's are setup (well, we hope final, WHO KNOWS) for Gaussly!  Got some mats up for the arms and legs and soon the all important fur coloring.  But for now he is shiny boi.  See you tomorrow!

-Fox

12/28/20 Morningish Stream Progress

Hey all!

     Getting back into the groove of things now that the move and holidays are over.  Prep work for getting the base mesh for Gaussly finished up.  Things are a little 'off' but the geo is there and progress is being made (after fighting maya a bit~ ofc) WOO!  Next is finishing up the connectors, eyes, and getting a quick anatomy pass in.  I'll see you all tomorrow!

     -Fox

10/23/20 Morning Stream Progress

Just one more thing,

     Hi all!  Short stream this morning but got a few of the eyeball ideas out!  The arms and legs have been sent over to Kish to slap on a sculpt, then the real fun begins after that!  Stay tuned!

     -Fox

Welcome to the Patreon Justin!

10/22/20 Evening Stream Progress

EYE SEE YOU, 

     Hayhay everyone.  Little bit of wip ideawork tonight for our robocommission!  Thinking on how to add gears to eyes.  Will be continuing exploration on the topic tomorrow morning!

     -Fox

10/19/20 Morning Stream Progress

Hello all,

     Had a little bit of a shorter stream today, but still productive!  Got the endo for the arm all kitbashed together and looking good!  Paint3d workflow is looking good as well on the 3rd pic (jokes jokes).  Next up is combining the arms and legs into one material and finalizing that!

     -Fox

ps: Welcome Shiron and Ray to the patreon <3!

2020-10-19 17:52:08 +0000 UTC View Post

10/16/20 Morning Stream Progress

Happy Friday all,

     Update on Gaussly's commission piece!  We got the arm plates all uv mapped and textured up with a placeholder for now!  (Tweaking to be done after everything comes together.)  Next up the endo!

     -Fox

Don't forget to catch our streams! 

Tuesday, Thursday at 3pm-5pm (6pm-8pm est): 2D art hour and 3D art hour! 

Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 9am-12pm (12pm-...

Gaussly Arm Start

I did a quick geometry cleanup on Gaussly's robot arm on tonight's stream.  Fox will be taking it over tomorrow morning on his stream and giving it the same makeover that he gave the leg.  I can't wait to see how it turns out! x3

     -Taurin

10/14/20 Morning Stream Progress

Ohaiii,

      How's it going everyone?  Today was pretty productive morning stream!  Got the leg rigged up and ready to slap on the body.  (So fkin happy that the aim constraints work!)  Next up is the arms!  Woo!

     -Fox

(Video is just a playblast~ here's a couple renders)

...

10/12/20 Morning Stream Progress

Hey all!  

     Just an update for today's morning stream!  Did some cleanup on Gaussly's legs!  They are looking complicated!  Will be fun to rig ^^; /s.  Anyway here is a couple update pics with a WIP material for them.  

Don't forget to catch our streams!  

Tuesday, Thursday at 3pm-5pm (6pm-9pm est): 2d art hour and 3d art hour!

Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 9am-12pm (12pm-3pm est): 3d art!

...

Gaussly Base Mesh (Kish Sculpt)

Hiya there everyone, it's Kishy! I've started the process of sculpting out Gaussly's character for his commission, and as you can see I've got a much more slender profile than we've gone with in the past.

The idea here is to allow the fur to define the primary silhouette  and only provide the underlying body structures, just like in real life, for the fur to rest upon.

Let us know what you think of my job so far in the comments below, or come around to an after-stream wrap-up...

Asher 3D Ref Sheet

Here's a 3D rendered ref sheet I just completed for Asher using his character model from Smoke Break.

Enjoy!

Edit 9/18/20: Updated with more character info and full credit to the animation team.

Smoke Break

This is an animation project that we just completed for Asher =)  

I'm really excited about this since it's the first joint project between myself, Kish, and Fox.  The process was a little slow as we were working with new software and a new workflow, but we're starting to get the process down, and have some great things in the works!

Thank you all for your support!  Without it, we wouldn't have been able to build the studio up like we have been ^.^

Enjoy!

Asher Scene Update

Fox has been hard at work creating more props for the scene!  On tonight's stream, he built the box that's sitting on the back of the couch, and sent me this render to show it off XD

Enjoy!

Asher Full Scene Renders

Fox has gotten a lot of work done on the environment over the last couple days!  Filling it with props and getting the lighting and materials finalized.

I've also been working hard on getting the fur to its final state.  A few more tweaks, and it should be good to go!

Here are a few sample renders of everything together.

Enjoy!

Asher Environment Render

Fox spent some time on the environment and materials for Asher's animation tonight, and it's looking great!  Environments aren't my strength when it comes to the animations, so having Fox on the team is going to make a HUGE difference in the realism of the animation work.

I'm excited to see this thing come together.

Enjoy!

Smoke Break - Smoke Material Test

I got some basic lighting set up in the scene so that I could test the material and motion of the smoke.  I'm VERY happy with how it's looking ATM!  Credit goes to Fox for creating the simulation itself.

We're getting close to putting the final touches on this one!  I still need to import his fur and get that working right in the scene.  We also need to create materials for the floor, baseboard, etc... and finalize the lighting.

I also played around with depth ...

Demon Asher

A few days ago, I started working on a material for the smoke in Asher's scene.  

The smoke simulation contains a flame channel, which we won't be using for the final rendering, but I thought it would be fun to play around with by creating a fire material and using it as a light source.  As an unexpected bonus, his eyes rendered pure red due to an issue with the eye material, which just completed the effect XD

So, here's Demon Asher.  Enjoy!

Asher Hair Revision

I spent the animation portion of tonight's stream tweaking Asher's hair a bit to suit his character design a bit more.  This was truly a team effort.  Fox and Kish worked on it a bit, and then I did the final styling tonight.

We're REALLY close to sending this project to final render.

Enjoy!

Asher Smoke Simulation

Fox has been working on a smoke simulation for Asher's upcoming animation, and I think he nailed it!  I can't wait to see how this looks rendered!

Asher Smoke Simulation

Now that the character animation is set up, Fox has started on the cigarette smoke simulation.  He just started on it tonight, but damn, it's looking really good already!  I can't wait to see how it looks finished and rendered! ^.^

Asher Motion Final

Okay, maybe it won't be the FINAL final... But tonight I finished keyframing the entire sequence, including adding in the facial animation.

Next up is the smoke simulation, and just tying all of the different parts of this into a finished video!

Enjoy!

Asher Tail and Hair Fix

Here's the refined tail and hair, moving a bit more freely now.  I omitted the main body fur for this test so that I could get faster results for the parts I was testing.

Asher Fur Refined

I actually have a few animation posts to make tonight related to this project. =)  This one is a more refined version of the fur with dynamics.  I'm happy with the main body fur, but the tail and hair are a little stiff.

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