Antropus

Antropus on Facebook

kris@antropus.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:59:52 +0100

Brand new Antropus community on Facebook.
There you will find some of my new works in progress along with some of my old work.
Enjoy,
-Kris

Antropus on Facebook

Please, no freelance work

kris@antropus.com — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:31:10 +0100

For the past weeks I received a good amount of emails asking me for freelance work services. As much as I appreciate your interest in my work, I have to say that I do not take any freelance work at this point. I'm under a sponsored Visa and a single freelance work can put my Visa at risk (along with deportation...). So, as much as I like the subjects of some of the projects offered, the risk is just too big. If I become available at some point, I'll make sure the information is shared here in this very same site. I hope you understand.

Thanks again,
-Kris

Stan Winston Tribute

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:59:09 +0100

Update: the results are in: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=208&t=675762
Congrats to everybody who managed to finish their works and thanks again for stopping by my thread and for your votes. I see you next time!

****************************************************************************
Today I finished my entry for the recent hardcore modeling challenge at CGSociety. It was fun to create a bunch of models as a homage to Stan, who greatly inspired me to be a SFX/VFX artist back in the day (I made to VFX but never got to be a makeup artist though). T2 and Jurassic Park are probably the specific reasons. Stan Winston and ILM were just a killler combo. In about a month and a half, I created four models from the scratch but could not finish one of them for lack of more free time (Predator). You can check the whole process and see way more pictures by visiting: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=208&t=663654

Some samples:

Stan caricature, based on the amazing Sebastian Kr�eger's painting:

T-Rex:

Pumpkinhead:

-Kris

Monster Bash is Here!

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:35:55 +0100

Last week I bought my very first pinball machine ever. Happens to be the "Monster Bash", considered by many one of the top 10 pinball machines of all time! Only 3,361 units made ( 1998 ) and the very last great machine from the legendary Williams before they closed doors. It was a great coincidence but a perfect fit for my home. Just a few months ago I started modeling the Frankenstein monster and his bride. This must be a sign! :)
The machine is in great condition. I found only one light/bumper not working so far. My plan is to get it fixed by myself, since I already started the learning process on how to deal with those babes and will start the cleaning/polishing process soon, also fixing and tweaking a few things as I go. It plays and looks great and it's a funny funny game, with lots of jokes and some great moments, with a 4 ball multi-ball craziness! I love this thing :)

Here's the new member of the family:

-Kris

Gnomon Gallery / Rabbit Holes

kris@antropus.com — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:22:14 +0100

Edit: new video added:

RabbitHoles 3D Motion Holograms @ SIGGRAPH & Gnomon Gallery from douglas johnson on Vimeo
I'll be part of the group of artists featured on the brand new Gnomon Gallery. Here's a preview of my work that will be displayed there and the poster/release:

If you are in LA, be sure to check it out!

For more information, visit:
www.gnomongallery.com
www.rabbitholes.com

-Kris

Industrial Light & Magic

kris@antropus.com — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:37:11 +0100

I'm very happy to announce that I got hired as senior artist at ILM's digital modeling department.

It's impossible for me to express in words how happy I am right now. Being a long time fan of everything that ILM does and having the respect that I have for the artists and the work involved in such mind-blowing VFX that inspired a generation of CG artists like myself, this is really an honor and a dream coming true, as stated in my previous post just a few days ago.

I like to thank everybody at Lucasfilm Animation for making me feel so welcome, keeping me around for the past 8-9 months. Working on the TV show was a great experience. I had the chance to meet an amazing team over there. I can't wait to see (on the big and small screens) the results of all that hard work. You guys are awesome and deserve just the very best, from the bottom of my heart.

To everybody at ILM, specially to the digital modeling team, I can only say: THANK YOU SO MUCH for having me aboard! I have a lot to learn with all of you. I feel great knowing about the challenges I will face, that will push my limits and will make me grow immensely as an artist. I'm also scared (in a good way) to work with such AMAZING artists. I'm so excited and inspired with the opportunity. I assure you I'll do my very best to help the team on any project you put me in.

To my wife Celinha and all my friends, thank you very much for the constant support. I love you all (Celinha first!)

Sincerely,
-Kris

Food for thought

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:06:36 +0100

Links:
http://www.youtube.com/v/WQLNXEQhpQc&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/v/J7JBRNULPko&hl=en

Some people ask me about my name. They ask me "are you Indian? Your name is Indian...". The fact is, I'm Brazilian and my roots are in Portugal and Spain and I'm not related to India (other than my name, of course). My name Krishnamurti was a "gift" from my father. The meaning of my name is "the sacred image of Krishna". My father was very interested in philosophy and his favorite philosopher was "Jiddu Krishnamurti", an Indian man born in 1895 who passed away in 1986. He is considered by many the most important philosopher of the 20th century.

So, today surfing on internet I had a very good surprise. I found out that a good amount of videos showing the old master (who didn't like to be called a master at all) are hosted on youtube. I found them fascinating for the simplicity of his thought that, for a lot of reasons, seem so complicated to a lot of people to understand. Probably because we really like to complicate things for not understanding anything that goes beyond the obvious comprehension. I could connect to what he was saying instantly. It's interesting how similar is his line of thought when compared to some texts of Shunryu Suzuki and Meister Eckhart. I mean, the root of most of all religions is the same and things said by Jesus Christ, in essence, are not any different from things said by Buddha, for example. So, it's not a surprise to see how different bright people have such similar approach when talking about the human being and the "mind" that goes way beyond the thought.

The brain is not the mind, they all say. I really truly believe this. They all say that the "mind" can be listened only when the brain stops the thought process, only achieved by meditation process. It's interesting to notice that the mind is global, not part of the individual but shared by the whole. The video gave me more inspiration to go back to Meister Eckart, Christian/mystic/philosopher from the 13th century that is used as an example very often by some Buddhists, because of the way he approached the same subjects concerning the Mind, God, human suffering etc. Google "Meister Eckhart" if you like philosophy/theosophy. Also, google "Shunryu Suzuki", a Zen Master that wrote some very important books on the same subjects. Try "Zen mind, Beginner's mind". There are some amazing insights on it. They have it at Amazon.com for about 10 bucks.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the videos. I did.

-Kris

New project! No... it's not CG

kris@antropus.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:40:59 +0100

So, for the past 2 months I was away from any personal CG work. I didn't even open any 3D software at home since December! The reason: I was working on a long time dream I always had, to have a customized arcade machine at home. I mean, one of the main reasons I got to this whole CG thing was because of the videogames I used to play on the arcades since I was 7 years old (that means 1978-1979...).

So, I bought a cabinet kit and a ready made control panel, because living in an apartment, I don't have the space to build it from the scratch. BUT, I did assembled the whole thing, wired everything, designed and applied my own custom artwork (based on my MachineFlesh Challenge entry :) ) and configured the computer to run transparent, without even showing a little trace of windows on it. It looks and feels very pro :)

The monitor is an actual 27" multi-sync arcade monitor (now you can have an idea of how big this monster machine really is...). That means that it can synchronize CGA, EGA and VGA resolutions! You know those scan lines visible on the old games? Well, it looks EXACTLY like that! No comparison to a CRT or a LCD monitor. This is THE REAL DEAL!
Just for fun, I installed an actual coin door that really works with $0.25 dollars, just to have a "true" experience at home. The artwork was printed in huge self-adhesive ultra resistant-water proof vinyl and the quality looks amazing. Those images posted here really don't make justice to the real thing.

The controls are: 2x 8-way joysticks, 1x 4-way joystick (for old classics), a trackball, a spinner, pinball buttons on the sides and an additional front one to release the ball (google and youtube "visual pinball" to see the best pinball emulator in action!).

Well, that's it for now. To check the building process and see a ton of more images, visit: http://www.antropus.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=83

Cheers!
-Kris

A Blast...

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:25:42 +0100

... I had at the Gnomon Workshop past weekend. It was awesome to meet a great group of amazingly talented artists. I think I collected inspiration enough to drive me for a long run now. I like to thank Alex and Travis for everything and also everyone at Gnomon, Pixologic and, of, course, all the amazing artists and the public that packed that immense room on Sunday 10am to watch my presentation. I thought nobody would show up on Sunday morning but you guys proved me COMPLETELY wrong. So, thank you so much for coming :)

Ryan Kingslien, my friend and our favorite "ZBrush Guru" wrote a great little article about my presentation that you have to check. He captured all the main points of my presentation, showing that he was really paying attention to everything ;)
Thank you so much for the great job on the text Ryan! I really appreciated reading.

Check Ryan's blog to read this article and others, get great tutorials, tips and references:
http://www.pixologic.com/blogs/ryan/2007/12/03/kris-kosta-gnomon-live/

Cheers,
-Kris

The Swimmer

kris@antropus.com — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:24:45 +0100

New work. Completed for the Gnomon Workshop Live I'll be presenting on December the 2nd.
Other 4 models are in progress and will be used to show my workflow and techniques about character digital sculpting.

-Kris

Tribute to Salvador Dali

kris@antropus.com — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:45:35 +0100

I started this 3D portrait of Dali last weekend. I'm still working on the likeness and textures/shaders. I'm going for a surreal composition around him. A monumental bust, recreating a little of his style on the elements around. A surreal portrait, that is.

More to come.

-Kris

Tribal Old Woman

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:57:30 +0100

Here's one of my latest works:

Skin textures hand painted using polypaint in Zbrush 3.1 then transfered to a color map. Base mesh in Maya. Sculpt in ZBrush. Normal maps used at render time, to recover the fine details on the mesh. Rendered with Mental Ray and Final Gather in Maya. Fast Skin Shader used for skin and eyeballs. Final model with all accessories has about 21 million Polygons in ZBrush.
This work is not based on any specific photograph. It was a collection of pictures found on internet that I collected in order to create this lady that does not exist in real life.

-Kris

Fun with Marty

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:07:05 +0100

I'm doing some more render tests with Marty model. Adding some more action to the shot. I'll go back to the textures soon... I guess.

Gnomon Workshop: Live!

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:40:34 +0100

I'll be one of the artists presenting at the Gnomon Workshop: Live.
When: Sunday, December 2nd
10:00am - Kris Costa: Digital Character Sculpting

Such an honor to be among those amazing and inspiring artists during these two days of seminars. Hopefully, I'll not miss a single presentation. Thanks Travis and Alex for the invitation!

More details:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/events.html

New job at Lucasfilm!!!

kris@antropus.com — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:11:17 +0100

Now I can make it official.

Yesterday I received the confirmation that my new O-1 visa was approved and I soon will start working at Lucasfilm - USA, at the beautiful Big Rock Ranch. I got hired as Senior Modeler for an upcoming movie in development by Lucasfilm Animation, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd.

I'm very excited with the new job and just can't wait to start working with all those talented artists already there. I like to thank everybody at Lucasfilm Animation for being such a great group of people and for making me feel so welcome. You guys are the best!

-Kris

Edit: seems like at least for now, I will be working on the upcoming CG Clone Wars TV episodes.

Zbrush 3.0 - Beta Testers Gallery Released!

kris@antropus.com — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 04:19:36 +0100

Check it out some of my latest works done with Zbrush 3 and the amazing artwork produced by all the other artists. Congrats everybody!

Link:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=43569&page=1

-Kris

Pan's Labyrinth: 3 Oscars!!!!!

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:14:28 +0100

Ok, now that's official. Pan's Labyrinth is a GREAT movie. It's such an honor being part of this project in some way. Awesome to see a beautiful yet low budget movie moving so many hearts all around of the globe. Well deserved prizes to Guillermo and the whole crew involved, mainly the people that made the Oscars possible on the following categories:

* Achievement in Art Direction
* Achievement in Cinematography
* Achievement in Makeup

Also congrats to CafeFX for investing on the project. What a great way to start the year!

-Kris

Pan's Labyrinth - O Labirinto do Fauno - El Laberinto del Fauno

kris@antropus.com — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:52:42 +0100

***********************
Edited: WOOOOOW! Pan's Labyrinth just got 6 nominations for the 2007 Oscars!!!!!
See by yourself: http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=list

I really hope Guillermo get one (or more). This is a passionate director and deserves nothing less. But well, let's low my expectations for now and just say that this is already a HUGE victory for such modest but great realization. Congrats Guillermo and all the people involved!
***********************

Pan's Labyrinth! Yeah, what a great movie! :D
The movie is out and I already miss the fun we had working on it. This is the moment that you feel good knowing that you helped creating something really special and I'm sure this feeling is shared by every single person that worked on it. My big congrats and thanks goes to CafeFX, the studio responsible for the whole Visual Effects and where I was lucky enough to be working at (and still). The movie itself is a magnificent experience, a "little masterpiece". I say little because it was not based on a huge budget like other movies that have hundreds of thousands of dollars available. The whole movie budget was something around 17 to 19 million dollars (according to press), really inexpensive if you know the amount of CG work done for this movie. How they managed to do that? Because CafeFX said we were doing the VFX and believed on this project and the vision of Guillermo del Toro. Good for CafeFX, good for Guillermo, great for us artists!

The movie is getting prizes and great reviews all over the place and it's a true honor to have my name on the credits, together with all my co-workers. Everett Burrel was a great VFX supervisor and working with him was a pleasure.

As for my participation on the movie, I spent too much time on the facial rigging for the faeries and at the end, because of their size on the screen and the demand for their acting was so limited, I felt like I would be happy if I had done some more animation. But yeah, facial rigging for the faeries was necessary anyways. As for animation, I animated about 4 shots only and I'll post it here as soon as I get authorization. I can tell you that I animated the stick-bug when it first appears at the screen, popping out of the statue's mouth. I did the whole modeling, animation, shader, texturing on the sequence showing the baby in the womb (pretty much everything apart of the rigging and comp). That is "my baby"!!! :)

Anyway, don't want to write too much. Just want to say: watch this BEAUTIFUL movie. Spread the word. Invite your friends. It's a rich experience for all of your senses.

To know more about the movie, please visit: http://www.panslabyrinth.com/

Wanna read the buzz?
Check it out:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pans_labyrinth/
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070122/klawans
http://www.pressacademy.com/satawards/ipa-sa-winners.html
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=406625&highlight=pan%27s

Video-interviews:
http://media.movies.ign.com/media/840/840477/vids_1.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8155571489738252066&q=guillermo+del+toro

-Kris

Energizer TV Spot

kris@antropus.com — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:01:57 +0100

Well, kinda old news but here you have it anyway :)
About 5 months ago I did some work for The Syndicate, "sister" company of CafeFX (both owned by ComputerCafe Group). I modeled the aliens (Maya and Zbrush), based on a 3D concept/sketch by Aaron Sims and painted the textures for them. I also developed the facial rigging for the aliens. Bill Wright created the body rig and did the whole animation. Everything else was done at Syndicate (shaders, lighting, comp, spaceship model etc etc etc).

To know more about it, see the complete credits and also watch the complete spot, please go to http://features.cgsociety.org/story.php?story_id=3765

-Kris

Barnyard DVD out, animation reel in...

kris@antropus.com — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:21:05 +0100

Link: http://antropus.cgsociety.org/gallery/

Hi,
as some of you already know, Barnyard was my first job on the film industry. This was back in 2004. I worked as character animator for about 11 months at Omation Studio (Steve Oedekerk's own studio). That was great experience and I met a lot of talented artists over there. For the past years I've been posting just models here in my website, because I love learning organic modeling but also because I had no access to the shots I created for the movie. 2 days ago the DVD was released and I finally could see my shots. I made a compilation of some of them (about 18 shots, 1 minute 45 seconds) and posted in my CGPortfolio.

I like the way some shots turned out and dislike others but being that my first professional experience, I'm completely happy for having the opportunity of working in some funny stuff and also for being able to create some subtle acting/animation shots.
I'll consider this as a "temp" animation reel because I like to add a few shots I've created for the movie Pan's Labyrinth and also exclude some of the worse animation in this reel, making it shorter.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it.
Cheers,
-Kris