The Star Glazer

I am definitely not the first to create artwork with the old Singaporean playground elements. But it has been something i wanted to do for a while. I also took the chance to try out real time rendering for a change from all the V-Ray.

modeled in 3DS max and Zbrush, texture painted in Zbrush, rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 3.

more after jump break.

Kutsuki Puzzle Piko Area 12 (The Red Wedding)

This is the last area done for the game. It is my favorite but it did not make it to the game before it got shutdown. It has a Chinese food theme which stands out from the rest of the areas. The popular Singaporean dish Chicken Rice is also featured.

Technically, the translucent and oily quality of the sauce is a challenge. The translucency is mainly a time consuming process of test rendering. As for the layer of oil, it is achieved by compositing different passes of a tileable oil image applied to a few different channels.

Another challenging task would be the cloth. The cloth sim in 3DS Max provided a decent base model for me to work on in ZBrush. The cloth sim for the biggest piece on the main platform took me quite some time before getting it right. 

concept credit: Ian Ho/Jose Cua 

Below are the close up test renders and ZBrush original model renders.

More Zbrush screen captures and grey captures after jump break.

Kutsuki Puzzle PIKO Area 1

Area 1 V-Ray Render

I have been working mainly on the environments for the mobile game Kutsuki Puzzle PIKO. The first 3 Areas of the game (android version) has been released for BETA in Philippines. Thus i am able to post them finally.

This is a food-themed puzzle game which takes place in the World of Fooditopia. Players tap on the food building to play the game. For Area 1, the buildings are inspired by healthy vegetables and fruits, set in the gentle morning light. 

The top image is a VRay render in 3DS Max. The individual buildings needs to be animated in Unity so they are exported separately. There are also other interactive elements which are added on to the stage in game.

All the buildings in Area 1 are done in Zbrush, and lower resolution models are exported to 3DS Max and rendered with VRay. Concept art by Ma Qi Yin. 

Area 1 In-game Screen Capture in Unity Engine

More higher resolution images of renders and ZBrush BPR after the jump break. 

NOA - Rescue Pod

This Rescue Pod is actually designed by a Chinese in preparation for the 2012 Mayan end-of-the-world predictions. NOA is along this theme as well. there are many similar pods designed in real life for tsunami but i like this one because of the big text over its yellow painted body. The spelling mistakes in the english text are there in the original reference but i added a little more to it. i thought this is interesting because i have seen many other non-Chinese artist used Chinese words on their mecha art incorrectly so i will do a reverse.

ZBrush Screen Cap

UDK Scene Cap 01

UDK Scene Cap 02

UDK Scene Cap 03

ZBrush Organic Model: The Pink Rose

Z-Brush render of Rose model composite to background image in Photoshop

BPR render with Rose Quartz matcap in Zbrush

The low resolution cage of the rose model is done in Maya a few years ago. i decided to use it to try out the HD Geometry sculpting workflow in ZBrush r4. There were some minor hiccups due to the lack of foresight in normal subdividing prior to HD subdividing. However, the biggest challenge is sourcing for good reference materials (as always), especially for non-fantasy subjects.

A slightly modified Rose Quartz matcap material is used for the render. Different passes are generated with BPR and used for compositing in Photoshop.

close-ups of some of the many petals