Krishnamurti M. Costa - 3D Character Artist - News http://www.antropus.com/blog Tue, 20 May 2008 10:34:45 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.antropus.com/blog http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=49












Ok, I'll start by saying that I am sick and tired of CG Hulks. I've seen a ton of them and I promised myself I would never model one. BUT... last week I watched the Hulk trailer and, again, the design is not even close to what I expected. I would like to see a Hulk like the one in the comics, only more natural looking. A monster green man, with well developed parts but preserving some very human characteristics, like the size of the eyes and ears, that help also to define his scale, with ape like features, that make the Hulk on the comics so cool. I've seen way too many Hulks based on anatomy books, where every single muscle fiber is visible, like those creatures are all body builders with zero fat... So, this is my personal approach: a more natural body, yet powerful and big, with stylized proportions.

For now, the left hand is not posed yet and the proportion is wrong. The hand size will match the size of the right hand (fist). I'll finish modeling the hands and then I need to go back to the feet, legs, the whole back, hair geometry, pants etc. One week of work so far so I still need to work on it A LOT before I can call this one completed and this is not gonna happen any time soon because I wanna go back to the Frankenstein monster and the bride models very soon. I'll see.

-Kris]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=49 Thu, 15 May 2008 14:00:24 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=48





I started this over the weekend. I worked on it on Saturday and Sunday, on and off while watching TV. Lots to do. Face, hands, pants, arms, boots, etc are very basic models right now. I'm happy with the amount of work I managed to do in such short period of time. Of course I started from a previous model, the Old Swimmer, from who I stole the goggles that will lately be replaced by a new model that matches Ranx's ones.

Ranxerox comics was a great inspiration when I was teenager. The technique used by Liberatore always impressed me a lot. Anatomy and colors are just amazing. I've seen some artists copying his coloring and trace style but you don't trick me! ;)
Anyways, Liberatore was also influenced by some amazing artists so it's all good :)

Ranxerox is a modern age VERY TWISTED, politically incorrect, cyber-punk android Frankenstein monster... come on, who doesn't love Frankenstein? Of any kind, they are always fun.

Here I'm just trying to pay a little tribute to the master Liberatore. More progress to come.

-Kris ]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=48 Mon, 05 May 2008 09:01:14 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=46




First personal work in a long time (over three months without even opening Maya or ZBrush at home). This is one of my all time favorite movie monsters. It's fascinating how believable the creature is even today, past almost 80 years since the movie was released in 1931.

The idea of modeling him happened last week, when I was searching at Sideshow Collectibles website and just for a change, they don't have any of the cool sculpts. So frustrating to see the images all over their website and don't be able to buy it! Come on, if you don't have the products available, just take off those pictures from there already...

So, out of frustration, I decided to model my own version of the monster. I spent a couple of hours on it during the weekend, starting from an old base mesh. It's really rough and blobby right now and the likeness needs a ton of work. The plan is to get the likeness improved before I can think about adding fine details. I'm posting here, in it's early stages, just to show that I'm trying to slowly get back to my personal stuff.

Rick Baker did an amazing job recreating this monster in ZBrush over 2 years ago. But hey, he is THE MAN.

I'll replace those images with newer ones as soon as I get some more progress done on this model.

-Kris]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=46 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:57:02 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=47

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I started this one over the weekend, to rest a little bit from the monster (which I have a TON of things to fix). Two days work so far. Still working on the likeness and model detail. The texture is just a quick polypaint and the hair is an ugly place hold. More progress to come:



-Kris]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=47 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:45:13 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=44

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]]> kris@antropus.com Professional Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=44 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:37:11 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=42
Looking back and remembering of all the not-so-cool things that happened in my life, like losing my mom 11 years ago, who was my best friend and such strong person or don't even having a chance to meet my father who passed away only two months before I was born, at age of 32 (I'm 36 now and I can't even imagine this happening to someone like him, so young and probably full of dreams just like this dreamer that writes these long lines right now...), I still think I'm a very lucky, fortunate and positive person. I have this energy that drives me and makes me look forward, even when things are not all that promising. Maybe I am just plain stupid and alienated enough to don't notice when things are going wrong around me. Maybe it's just my choice to simply do not allow things to "immobilize" me. I guess I just try to pay attention to some signs that normally don't come clear but after some time and reflection really start to make sense.

I'm probably just a dreamer after all, who believes that things happen to people who are constantly searching for answers and challenges in life. I believe that people can't just sit and wait for things to come in their direction so easily. I can't imagine a better way to do that other than working hard and most of all: being passionate about what you do. Like the Zen Buddhists use to say, being Zen means living every moment in plenitude, doing everything with passion/dedication no matter how insignificant the action seems at first sight.

I know we are no plants. There are no roots under our feet. We have to keep walking. That's the only way to experience new places, new things, new "flavors" in life. That's why I try to keep walking, always looking forward. Looking back too, but as a reflexion to help me to improve myself as an artist and a human being. The only certain thing is that I'll never, ever allow the past to serve me as the chain that keeps me away from my dreams.

So, why all this nonsense now? Because I'm happy, really happy actually. A long time dream is about to come true and I just can't wait (but I have to) to let you know what is that all about. I'll probably post the news in about 2-3 weeks from now. In my mind, it's just the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new moment in my life and career. So, stay tuned. It's good stuff that I like to share here at my "online mess".

All the very best,
-Kris ]]> kris@antropus.com Personal http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=42 Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:02:12 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=41







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]]> kris@antropus.com Personal http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=41 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:40:59 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=40
I'll be here for about a month before I get back to work at the BRR.
Next year will be huge for the Star Wars series and you will finally be able to see all the work we are doing for the upcoming TV Series. Stay tuned!

For now, I just want to wish you all a great holiday season and a fantastic 2008!
Spend some good times with your families, friends and pets and prepare yourself for the coming year (that I expect will be always better than the previous one). What else would I do without faith anyways?

Be well,
-Kris]]> kris@antropus.com Personal http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=40 Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:03:28 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=39

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]]> kris@antropus.com Personal http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=39 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:25:42 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=38













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]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=38 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:24:45 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=36











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]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=36 Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:45:35 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=35






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]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=35 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:57:30 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=37

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.]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=37 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:07:05 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=34

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]]> kris@antropus.com Professional Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=34 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:40:34 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=33
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.]]> kris@antropus.com Professional Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=33 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:11:17 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=29






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

-Kris]]> kris@antropus.com Personal Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=29 Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:19:36 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=28

That's right!!! Now he is a freelance singer for the weddings in Vegas! :)
Those are not very fresh news but anyway, I just finished scanning the pictures and decided to share it here. Last time my wife Célia came to the USA, in December 2006, I decided to prepare a surprise for her. I rented a limousine and bought a full "re-marriage" package: pictures, a movie in DVD and... Elvis!!!!! Yeah baby! Because to get married in Vegas without some "magical moments" with Elvis makes no sense! :D
So yeah, Elvis was there, singing a couple of songs and making the surprise sweeter. My wife (we are already married since 2003) was very emotional but after, she relaxed and decided to have fun, just like me. It was a great moment for sure. Looking at those pictures today, while I was scanning them, just made me realize how much I miss you, Celinha. Can't wait to see you again, my love.

-Kris]]> kris@antropus.com Personal http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=28 Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:06:56 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=27

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
]]> kris@antropus.com Professional Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=27 Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:14:28 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=26

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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!
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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]]> kris@antropus.com Professional Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=26 Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:52:42 +0100 http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=25


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]]> kris@antropus.com Professional Work http://www.antropus.com/blog/index.php?entryid=25 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:01:57 +0100