Hi dudes!

Couple days ago I shared here on the blog some clay renders for the colored pencils material. So I tought it'd be nice to also post the clay renders of the suitcases material.

Here you can see the final plane render vs the "no-albedo but with all the other maps" render vs the clay (no albedo, roughness or metallic):

And here's another no-albedo render, this time the sphere:

Hope you like them!

Cheers! :)
  

Hi buddies!

I just realized I wanted to share also the clay renders of the colored pencils material but I actually forgot.

So here they are (I could have probably just edited the original project but I don't really like adding stuff later and besides it's a good excuse to write in the blog)

Hope you like them!

Cheers!^^

Hi chaps!

In these last few days I finally got the chance to take a couple of spherical HDR panos. :D

This evening I stitched one I made in a corridor of an abandoned building and it came out great! The walls of the whole building were covered with beautiful graffiti but when I entered this corridor I just knew I had to take a pano... the colours were great and the two holes on the roof with the tiles collapsed on the ground made it a perfect spot.

The place was once an mental-health asylum but when the law luckily forced them to shut it down it became abandoned and the municipality, to avoid them to decay and completely fall apart, decided to put the safest structures at disposal for a lot of cultural/social activities. This was the occasion for some young artists to try out graffiti art and eventually to be the ones to teach  it to all others who wanted to try. But then the buildings were inevitably shut down once again as they no longer complied with the  new laws for safety and the group of graffiti artists had to change headquartes to a few rooms in a small edifice.

Tomorrow I'm gonna upload it on the ArtStation Markeplace and in the meanwhile here's a sneak peek:

a pic of me shooting the 360 HDRi:

and a pic of one of my rats helping me out with the stitching in PTGui: :D

Hi fellas!

Since I really like May I've decided to celebrate it with a 30% off on all my digital products (spherical HDR panos) on the ArtStation Marketplace till the end of May.

Use the coupon code HOORAYFORMAY30.

Hope you like them and that they'll help you out in your fantastic projects! :)

https://www.artstation.com/alicedfm/store?coupon=HOORAYFORMAY30

Happy Labour Day!

Cheers,

Alice.

Hi lads!

Some updates...

I worked a bit on Mage Merlin but in the end decided to leave him since I don't really like so much the sculpting any more. So I should probably revisit him from the beginning, maybe also the concept. But first I wanna figure out well how I want to make him... probably too fond of him but I'd like him to be great.

Here's a very simple material I did for his shoes:

Just some simple glitters with a custom mask and choosable amount.

And a sticker design I did that I really like:

And for not-Merlin updates here's the first render I did of a cliff material I've been working on for the past couple days:

I'll post the final project with new renders and material variations in the next few days... stay tuned! ;)

Hi passer-by!

Just uploaded another spherical HDR pano!

Check it out here.

I took it a week ago in a street that takes to Fiesole. Nothing too special about the location but I kinda liked the grey light and the nice stone wall. Also I realized I didn't have any street panos so this one was a good chance.

Interactive preview here.

Spheres....

Here's some test renders on Lily:

And since you read the blog here's a 25% coupon valid till the end of February: HEYIREADTHEBLOG25

:)

Hi Earthlings!

Some news on Lily! My mum, who in addition to be a great mum and talented photographer is a writer, wrote a very nice short story on Lily. She has posted it on our ig family account (dfmfamily) and I thought it was nice to share it also here. I had wrote a page of her diary in the project description of Lily, and that got my mum inspired to write the part were Lily plants the “life-ball”.

Here it is:

2072 August, 25 

Today is the big day. I bedded the seedling into the ground, after tipping the bacteria. I'm going to guard it with my life. I'm going to nurse it. It needs me. It's my baby.

2072 August, 29 

It has sprouted. One more leaf. That's good. I take pride in this. No creature before has turned to me for help! I'm not going to let her down. She's got a name and her name is Cindy.

2072 September, 8 

Cindy is vigorous and thriving. I love her. I speak to her at night when I fear I haven't dressed her warmly enough. I can't wait to see her grow higher than me.

2072 September, 21 

Cindy is all in bud. It's awesome to see her colors glow with happiness in the dull bleakness of this place. I haven't seen a green like this in ages! When I look at her I feel I made the right choice, even if sometimes I miss my friends and find myself wishing that I had left with them towards K_2331.

2072 September, 23 

There's a sharp wind coming from the west and I'm afraid she's going to be injured. There's no way to stop it and now it's blowing in gusts. I guess it's a force 9 gale! There were lots of storms like those when we were in the bunker. But we just were aware of noises coming from twenty yards above.

2072 September, 24 

I've spent all night shielding her with my body. I'm so tired and cold. Hope I'm not falling ill. The fact is I'm trembling all over. Three of Cindy's leaves have wizened and she seems a bit gloomy.

2072 September, 8 

Cindy is vigorous and thriving. I love her. I speak to her at night when I fear I haven't dressed her warmly enough. I can't wait to see her grow higher than me.

2072 September, 30

 I'm really at a loss as to what to do. Cindy is recovering but I am not. I have to find somebody else who's willing to take care of her. But... Who? There's nobody left on the planet apart from me.

2072 October, 4 

This morning I left Cindy alone and I had a look around. I've chosen this place because of the spring water. I never saw a well before. I had to walk for months before finding something so good. Apart from that, there are only rocks, sand and dust, and a dead calm.

2072 October, 6 

Yesterday and the day before I've really strained myself, looking for something that doesn't exist. I've only made things worse! Don't know what I was thinking I would find! Cindy is ok though. She's growing and her stem is thickening. I was right when I thought Earth deserved another chance. Life is stronger than any destructive power.

2072 October, 23 

I'm at the end of my tether. However, I'm in a mellow mood. I've had a think about Cindy and I've concluded that she's cool. She can perfectly do without me. She has grown sturdy roots and a lot of branches. She's stout. And self sufficient!

2072 October, 25 

Life is swarming around you! I guess it was me who needed you, not the opposite! You've made me feel alive again! Now I know I've been dead for all these years! Always hiding sixty feet under, in artificial air and electric light, eating tablets. Depending on computers and machines. 

2072 October, 26 

My heart was weak and I felt so fragile. I looked at you teeming with strength and energy and I took off my helmet. At once I smelled the sweet-scented flowers at your feet. I didn't know about flowers before! There were some ants too, scrambling up and down. I knew there were seeds and bugs' eggs in the case, but I never expected such nice and gentle creatures did exist! You made me witness a miracle!

2072 October, 28 

I thought you were my baby but now I know I am the baby and you are the mother, the one from whom life has tumbled out again, unstoppable! You are the greatest and the most wonderful mystery I've ever run into! 2072 October, 29 Look at you, Cindy! You're a beautiful young tree. Your stalk is turning brown. You've got a hardy bark and lots of vigorous branches. On the contrary, I'm grasping for breath. Besides, I've no tablets left. I really have to leave you now. All my love, Lily.

(Lily's Diary written by Laura Di Francesco Maesa)

Ok, yeah a bit sad but I like it a lot! I was hoping for a more happy ending, but this is definitely the right one! Would love to know what you think about it!

Bye,

Alice

Hi world!

Two years ago I took part in this very cool challenge on ArtStation about the world of King Arthur. My character for the entry was Mage Merlin, but not any Mage Merlin... mine travelled trough time and space on a Vespa! In fact due to the well known problem of unemployment and low salary for wizards he had to apply to a part-time pizza-boy job to pay the bills of his wobbly tower!

Sadly I never got to finish it in time, actually also after the challenge had ended I tried several times to conclude the project but then one thing or another he always lied there unfinished...

But truth is I really like him! I love the idea of someone as Merlin bringing around pizza on a Vespa dressed up like in the 70s! That's why I've decided to finally finish him once for all!

The problem is back then I did him quite in a rush and lots of things were a first for me, also I found the pose is a little bit stiff especially the gilet, I didn't deform it because I wanted the patches to be visible but now I don't think it really was a great idea! So I think I'll make the gilet flutter in the wind and transform the patches into stickers on the Vespa...

So, long story short, here's the last renders I was working on probably one year ago (see original full entry here):

And here is me starting again from the texturing (in the original project I had accidentally fragmented the UVs when I was transferring them from a re-projected model so I had to start over from the UV mapping):

....love his squashed face in the UVs....

Hi spiderpeople!

Today I was doodling around in ZBrush and for some reason ended up doing him. For now I think I'm not gonna finish him but I was thinking about making the little spider hairy and also, for a change, to groom his hair instead of sculpting them...

Just a BPR render in Zbrush with some flat colors...

The sad little spider waiting to become hairy :)

Hi fellows!

Yesterday I finished texturing Lily in Substance Painter and polypainting the head and suit in Zbrush.

I also did a few renders in Marmoset. Here they are: