http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/ alfra's gallery of images en-us 120 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/745646

Note: This image has been changed since comments were left.

I wasn't sure what the style of the end image was going to be while working on this model. I was looking at doing something with an unusual colour scheme, but kept getting the feeling that she would look best in black and white, so I went with it and ended up building the final look around that.

I wanted her style and personality to be unique, rather than looking like a cartoon character cliche, so I avoided facial proportions most commonly used for stylized females.

Possibly misleading to include ZBrush in the 'software used' section, as I only used it to create the foil-ish dress texture.]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:00:59 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/815390

An image inspired by the work of Japanese illustrator Ippei Gyoubu. I think some parts are very similar to his work (like the colours), whereas others are more my own style (like the face and hair).

When I can't think of a name for a character I pick something at random from behindthename.com, which is where this came from. In case you're wondering.]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:01:20 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/568213

Just a quick character model, done using a combination of Max and Maya. I did a brief animation as well, though the rendering's a bit rougher than the main images for reasons I won't get into.



Links:

Jump animation (1.5 MB): http://www.alexfranks.net/FrogJumpsRender1.wmv

Model movie (800k): http://www.alexfranks.net/RedFrogTurn2.wmv

UV layout: http://www.alexfranks.net/FrogUVs.jpg
]]> Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:20:07 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/628849

The first 2D image to make it into my CGSociety portfolio...]]> Tue, 06 May 2008 21:11:21 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/813698

I rediscovered this at the weekend, having previously abandoned it about a year ago, when I think I gave up on it as I couldn't get it to look however I wanted it to look. I decided that it was actually more interesting than most other stuff I'd done, so I spent a couple of hours finishing it up to add to my portfolio.

All of the elements were originally 3D but most of the background ended up being replaced with 2D stuff, as it was effectively acting in a 2D way anyway. Some of the details on 3D objects were added in Photoshop as well, like the stripes on the tree and dots on the blue fruit things, as it was much easier to tweak the composition this way.]]> Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:06:11 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/532285

This was a fairly quick model, taking about 3 days or so. I went back a couple of years after doing the renders and used my increased Photoshop know-how to give him a more cinematic look.]]> Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:33:00 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/826002

A couple of characters from the game EyeToy Play: Hero for the PS2. The models are around 1,200 polys each and were originally toon-shaded.

I don't know who the character concept artist was for the game. I think he lived in Spain and Sony hired him to do the concepts from home.]]> Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:08:33 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/499045

An image done for a print advert. It took about four days to complete, including working out how I could do it without too much painstaking number-placement. To aid the number-distribution process I built a model of the magnifying glass, split it into regions, and used the regions to emit different shades of number with particle dynamics. I also used a MEL script to get some of the other numbers to spread about in a semi-random manner.

Unfortunately the background colour had already been decided, so it was difficult to get much contrast between the background and the numbers. Any light grey numbers would virtually disappear, so I could only use shades that weren't close to the yellow in terms of brightness.
]]> Tue, 22 May 2007 17:03:21 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/514932

I used the Gnomon DVD 'Head Sculpting and Texturing - ZBrush Techniques with Alex Alvarez' for the basic workflow for this image, though the design itself is very different to Alvarez's model, which was more of an orc-ish kind of thing. The head was done almost entriely in ZBrush, before being brought into Maya to render. The other foreground elements were done in Maya.


The background elements are a combination of 3D, Photoshop painting, and the HDR image I used for lighting.

]]> Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:53:16 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/513652

This is an old-ish image. It was originally going to be a square image with a smaller main moon in the centre and everything happening around it, but I changed part way through so that the main alien could take up more screen space.

I think the image's composition works pretty well, but I think that the background planets and stars don't integrate well with the foreground, due to their differing styles.]]> Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:23:13 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/561044

Probably the biggest inspiration for this image was the film Le Roi et L'Oiseau. I don't think much of this influence can be seen in any particular element of the image (apart from maybe the background towers), but that's where the general concept came from, along with a couple of other similar films.

Images for each of the characters (apart from the robot) are included in my portfolio.]]> Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:56:16 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/524344

Character created for another image (see portfolio).]]> Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:55:08 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/524338

Character created for another image (see portfolio).]]> Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:43:09 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/524335

Character created for another image (see portfolio).]]> Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:37:34 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/540294

Images from a short film I worked on. I did all VFX, including compositing, tracking etc. There were around 30 shots in all, though in some the insect was less prominent than in these images. The film has been shown at UK film festivals, and should be online at some point.]]> Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:00:39 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/826102

Initial concept art for an unreleased game.]]> Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:33:06 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/499031

These are images from an old project. It was a short animation that was mainly an environment flythrough, though it also featured the helicopter and robot seen in the images. ]]> Tue, 22 May 2007 16:14:50 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/513083

This is a character created for an animated DVD intro I did a year or so ago. I wasn't keen on the design used on the DVD so I did two new versions. The other one is also featured in my portfolio.

The background images are taken from the HDR image I used for lighting, which I got from a 3D World Magazine CD. ]]> Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:25:37 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/499072

This is a model from an old semi-commercial animation project I did, with a new colour scheme and haircut. I did two new colour schemes (I couldn't decide), the other of which is also featured in my portfolio.

This was actually my original design, but the client I was working for wanted something more roboty for the animation.

The character and shadows were done in Maya. I rendered the shadows with a Use Background shader and did the stripes seperately in Photoshop.]]> Tue, 22 May 2007 18:04:22 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/499042

Plane models created for animations I did for Channel Greetings, a web-based video greetings company. Each animation is for a different greeting/occassion. I think I did 17 in total, but I only used 12 in the image as some were variations on other planes. Each version of the plane and pilot took about a day to do.]]> Tue, 22 May 2007 16:51:46 +0000 http://alfra.cgsociety.org/gallery/826085

My latest showreel...]]> Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:57:36 +0000