What is a warrior?

Forge your warrior in the ultimate 3D sculpting and painting challenge. Stretch your imagination and show off your creativity. Warriors can be fantastic, futuristic, historical, ethnic or anything else you can dream up. Is your warrior organic or mechanical, male, female or creature, low or high tech, cute or fierce, cartoony or hyper realistic? The options are endless, the choice is yours, let the battle begin.

war · ri · or –noun1. engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier.2. shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness.

Rules:
http://cghub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4092

entries:
http://cghub.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=110

Strength Vs. Agile Warrior

Fantasy vs. Present Vs. Sci Fi

Hyper Real vs. Stylalised vs. Cartoon

Organic vs Mechanical

Undead, Alien, Monster, Humanoid

Male, Female, It

Oriental, SEAsian, China/Mongolia, European, Native America, Polynesian, Japanese,

Soldier (ordered and resolute)

Barbarian (Chaotic and wild)

Galdiator (Desperate and Bloodthirty)

projection texture pass

First pass of projection!

Butcher color/normal/bump test

Model, Unwrapped, Rigged and Grinning

Presenting the Butcher in his full 3D grinning glory...

Velvet Shader by Steven J.Tubbrit

Found this useful to simulate fuzz or short fur on animals.
Creating A Velvet Shader

Introduction

Hello, this is a tutorial on how to create a velvet shader within maya, although this shader can be primarily used to simulate velvet, it also has other use's too, which we will go into later. This tutorial also introduces the user to the Sampler Info node, of which we will be utilising the facing ratio, again, more later. I've created this simple model, you can create your own model, it's similar to a cushion.

In order for us to see things a bit more clearly that our end result will be working I have added some small additions such as wrinkles that will hopefully gather light like velvet would, we will see this happening later. For now, depending on you preference, smooth your object using either Modify > Convert > Polygons To Subdiv and then press 3 on the keyboard for smooth display, or Polygons > Smooth (This will probably be defaulted at smoothing level 1, so apply it again to ensure a nice smooth looking object), you should now have something like this, see below : -

Next step, now open up your Hypershade, and create a new Lambert material, I normally like to name my materials, so I've named it Velvet_LambertM, as seen below : -

Red is usually a colour I associate velvet with, so open up your new materials options and click on the colour box and then change the colour to the following red, RGB = R 255, G 60, B 0 : -

Now, just so we can compare an original and a working version of our velvet shader, let's create another 'cushion', and move it across slightly so we can see it better, select your original object, press CTRL + D to duplicate it and then move it slightly to you right as your looking at the screen, see below : -

During this tutorial, I will be just using the FRONT view for doing renders, the original object I built has already been placed in such a way that it will catch the light quite nicely, so for now, do a quick test render, you should get something like this :-

Ok, that's fine for now, now we need to assign a new shader to the second cushion, the one that we will actually be working on to create the velvet look, open up your Hypershade, select your Velvet_LambertM shader, then outside of the box, right click and select EDIT > DUPLICATE > SHADING NETWORK, you should now have a second material called, Velvet_LambertM1 : -

Let's get straight into the rest now, open up your new material, and in it's options, click on the Incandescence options box : -

Once you've done that, within your 2D Textures area, select the RAMP node : -

Edit the ramp so that it look like this, you select the boxes on the right side to delete a colour entry list and you select the circles on the left side to create one or edit it's current colour, so delete the middle ramp colour entry and then edit the colours : -

Next, change the Type of Ramp to a U Ramp, this option essentially makes sure our ramp runs on the U part of the UV space of our object : -

Next, change the interpolation to Exponential Down, this option essentially favours the colour at the top of the ramp towards the bottom, i.e. the black will show more than the red in this current ramp : -

Now, to ensure a nice falloff for our velvet shader, we need to set up a much lighter colour of our red, I've made this version which is slightly off red, and kind of reaching into the pinks and oranges, obviously this would need to change if your object was a different colour, i.e blue velvet would require a nice sky blue cyan type colour for it's falloff, notice I have also moved the bottom colour entry list up slightly, you do the same : -

The colours I used for my falloff were, RGB = R 255, G 135, B 100 : -

Now the most important bit of the shader, the Sampler Info node, so again, open up your Hypershade, then scroll down to the utilities tab or alternatively do what I do and change where it says 'CREATE MATERIAL' to 'CREATE ALL NODES', and then just scroll down to where the sampler info node is, now middle mouse drag the sampler info node onto you work area as below : -

Then middle mouse drag the sampler info node directly on top of the ramp as shown : -

The Connection Editor should now open up automatically, the sampler info node will be on the left and the ramp will be on the right, find the facing ratio within the sampler info options (the facing ratio is calculated between the surface normals and the viewing angle) : -

Now, finally, do another a test render from the Front View, you should now have something like the figure below, which looks very nice and simulates a good looking soft velvety look, which is what we were trying to achieve : -

You can download the final scene file here, which includes the velvet shader : -

Final Scene File (Maya 4.5) - As Seen Above (Zip File - 42kb)

As you can see in these other examples, you do do any colours you wish, as long as you follow the rule of making sure you change the second colour entry in the ramp to match the colour you are creating a velvet shader for, for people who are wanting to take this further, you can add extra things like a very fine procedural bump to catch the light even more and look even more like velvet, it's up to you to experiment. I sometime use this type of shader for lot's of everyday objects, clothing, skin and cartoony looking objects, as it's just a nice shader in general, if you experiment further with the sampler info node you can also create effects like x-rays and electron microscope imagery. Well, that's it for now.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find this tutorial useful.

Animatic version 1 (without sound)

Presenting the Butcher...

Presenting the Butcher in all his glory!

The Meal

Final Concept Painting for "the Meal"

Progress paint of The Meal

First I blocked out a rough model in mudbox,

then build up the layers and experimented with colours in photoshop.

Presenting the Butcher...

Now its time to model him :P

The Red Herring...

A few treasures from the oracle...

__________________________________________________

If ur gonna use a red herring like this, then might as well go all the way to mislead and subvert audience expectations

so, forget abt making it the pet, your storyboard with the barking dog sound good and logical now, ie the dog is barking because it's not a pet, its a scruffy street mongrel hauled back to be fattened as a macabre/cheap version of meatloaf

now you work your narrative on 2 parallel levels:

(1) you have your butcher fatten the poor unsuspecting mongrel (up to this point mistaken as a pet by audience) for the kill;

(2) you as the director-writer fatten your unsuspecting audience for the kill 

so picking up from your original storyboard, go for the macguffin after the "pet feeding-*pet*pet* good dog" cliched moment of affectionate bonding and stroking

(1) do a cut-away shot to something seemingly unrelated (cld be environment, storm outside abating etc); (2) camera slowly pulling out to re-establishment (3) slow fade to black

basically u PLAY UP to the audience's stereotype or expectations of nice warm fuzzy ending, except this is a false ending

u need to pace very carefully here, basically it shud slow down enuff to lull audience into a false sense of security-some editors will tell u pacing shud slow to mimic human breathing 

(commando friends have told me that is exactly how they kill chicken with their bare hands in the jungle, u must stroke your animal affectionately...slowly...until their breathing becomes slow and relaxed....then they twist the head off in one gesture.)

I know cos I am vegetarian

then sharp sound of cleaver slash

CUT TO: aftermath of slaughter etc 

basically the dog didn't see it coming, and neither shud the audience

u dun even need to show butcher eating fattened pet (that's stating the obvious + there's unspoken screen taboo abt death of animals and children in film, ie it evokes v strong neg aud reactions. implied is gd enuff.)

mebbe the last shot shud be a recipe book open to the page on How to Make Christmas MeatLoaf? I dunno 

subtle but clear enuff 

More butcher Concepts

Some more concepts...Subconsciously I think I'm influenced heavy from Starwars.. Had a comment that one looks like an evil Yoda while the other a cross between a Rancor and Boss Nass...

Character Design...

A loose speed concept painting. I'm satisfied with the final mood.. Had to force myself to keep detailing at a minimum and focus on lighting, colour and mood.

How to make Cool Fire!

Stumbled across this tutorial! and managed to replicate it!
Thanks to Zgrachan!
Part 1
Part 2

Part 3My test Render! quite heavy though, 32 secs per frame...

"The Meal" concepts...

Concept designs for the pet animal/meal concepts. Want it to be appealing, helpless, and instantly bonding with the audience. Help!

Butcher/Chef Concept 01

A simple 2 hour sketch on one of the silhouettes i thought was interesting.

Opening Frame Mood board...

Mood Study i skeched up in 20 minutes. Just exploring the colour and layout of the opening sequence. Got it down on "paper" at least!

Butcher Silhouettes 01

Some silhouettes for butcher character... still experimenting and searching for the right one...

head sketches

Some head sketches i did over the weekend, took inspiration from different forms and silhouettes that I liked. Trying not to make the creature too mindless nor too intelligent looking.

Script 1.0

The theme will revolve around Stereotyping and Stigmatization. Medium will be 3D, style will be hyper-realistic caricature.
referances:
Fallen Art: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HMz1WKkso&feature=fvw
Ark:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tch8mHk81ug
The Cathedral: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GyHvBogrI
Sebastian's Voodoo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ePWK0qfisE&feature=related


Story v1.0

1. Setting: Gloomy, stormy night, establishing shot of hut on a hill
2. Slowly zoom in to lit window, noise and activity going on inside. (thumping and clanging)
3. Pan around messy kitchen, dirty pots and pans, assorted utensils especially knives hanging off wall.
4. Focus on Cleaver stuck in chopping board, grubby hand unsticks it violently.
5. Hands furiously at work, chopping, dicing, smashing
6. slowly reveal chef/butcher
7. Thunder claps outside as storm starts to intensify, a animal bark draws focus to a adorable pet animal.
8. Back shot of chef/butcher working furiously, pet animal running around his feet barking and yelping at the rain/thunderclaps/lightning flash
9. Chef/butcher gets increasingly annoyed, with the chopping, thunder, and incessant noise of the pet animal.
10. noise reaches cacophony, Chef/butcher snaps.
11. POV pet animal, Big hands grabbing it
12. pet animal wimpers and yelps as butcher/chef ties a sack up
13. browses through his hanging utensils, lifts a heavy two handed club
14. raises it up and smashes the sack. stunned silence
15. reaches into the sack and tastes some red goo
16. licks his lips in approval
17. scoops some pieces and goo from the sack and pours a mountain of it into a pet feeding bowl
18. pet animal perks up behind the mountain of food and digs in with gusto
19. chef/butcher sighs in content and tickles his pet behind the ears
20. sits down on a stool at a table and tucks in to a drumstick, bones and all.
21. The End
    

Other versions:
Brings sack out onto railway track to get smashed.
Eats the pet after stuffing it full of food.

Comments on this version
Punchline revealed too fast if framing is not right
Too long drawn?
Punchline weak
cliché

Objectives:
I want the audience to stereotype the butcher chef based on his environment and home. The image i have is an obese, grubby, creature
that will portray a self-centered and indulgent character that is probably violent and detested by society. The plot reveals that appearances
are not what it seems as he has a kind heart and love for his pet hence reversing the audience's labelling in the first 2 minutes at the end.