Hey folks, I'm benignly neglecting this blog currently. The usefulness of this "space" has kind of been supplanted by the ease of posting art on tumbler. You can find my "feed", or whatever the kids call it, at:

http://nezach-hod.tumblr.com/

Here is a short animation of the Precellys 24 I posted a while ago. This has updated materials (using the mental ray Arch and Design uber-shader instead of the hodge-podge of old mr/mia shaders had to cobble together in Max 8 ), lighting (mr Photographic Exposure Control FTW), and is a higher quality render overall, if I do say so myself. This was also test of of some behind the scenes render passes and other theories of visual trickery I put to the test. The parts where the model is still use an image with high quality render settings, but when the camera move kicks in the quality is dropped and a post process (After Effects) vector motion blur kicks in to cover it up. I am happy with the result and the fact that it halved the render time with very little loss of image fidelity.

Done with 3ds Max 2011, After Effects, and Photoshop.

precellys comp01 1 1 from Ndege Diamond on Vimeo.

securpass-beauty01

securpass-beauty01

I haven't posted in a bit so I'll (hopefully) be adding some stuff that I've been doing while neglecting this blog.

First up is some work related imagery. Here are some beauty renders of a model made for training operators of Securpass full body scanners.

This was made in the venerable 3ds Max 8 (not 2008 either) using its implementation of mental ray. The logo and graphic textures were developed from digital images taken on site at one of Chicago's fine correctional institutions.

Ndege Diamond Portfolio 2009 - 2010

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Interiors: 3ds Max 2009 using mental ray (final gather and global illumination, ambient occlusion). Exterior: mental ray (Sun and Sky, final Gather).

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3ds Max 8, mental ray, Photoshop.

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3ds Max 8, Mental Ray, Photoshop CS3, ShaderMap Pro.

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3ds Max 8 mental ray, Photoshop. Ambient occlusion via light shader. Grass generated with Hair and Fur modifier. House water system modeled by Centrax 3D department, Well model, environment, texturing, lighting, rendering and compositing by Ndege Diamond.

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3ds Max 8, Mental Ray, Photoshop CS3.

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3DS Max 8, Model of E7L HVAC drive bypass rigged for door opening animation. 3ds Max 8 scanline renderer.




Click on image below for example animation.

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3ds Max 8, mental ray, Photoshop

I did a video on generating masks for integrating an AO pass into a base pass render. It's quick, it's dirty, and the sound quality is rather bad. In other words, it's a typical You Tube video.

dandy01

A Llellewyloly based off of the W.Keith Illustration in "The Traveller Adventure".

About a day's work in 3ds Max and Photoshop. I modeled and rigged one leg and then posed it and took mesh snapshots and arranged them around the body. The hair/fur rendered out much nicer than I hoped for. I rendered it with the mental ray renderer using the fast sub-surface scattering shader and mr primitives for the hair.

I used Photoshop for color adjustment, painting the banding on the legs over the render and some minor touch ups.

Return to Research Station Gamma

Research Station Gamma

I did this over a couple of nights after work. It was a rush job for a 'zine needing a cover done quick so it was a bit slap dash, but it was fun to do. The 'zine ended up going with something else, but what can you do?

I rendered out the basic textured forms in 3ds Max to establish lighting and reflections and then layered painting and more textures in Photoshop.

Second Life Avatar Textures

cmh_sl_people

For the past few months I have been involved in Second Life developing an interactive hospital for visualization and 'serious games' training for a client. Part of the contract involved creation of several avatar textures.

The image here is a sample of some of those textures. Overall I had to do around 30 unique skins (3 textures each), for each gender covering a variety of client defined ethnicities.

Each skin requires three 512x512 texture pages conforming to a predefined (and rather bad) UV layout - one for the head, one for the torso, and one for the hips and legs. As this is Second Life developers are only able to access the diffuse textures, so no specular or normal maps were created.

I used Photoshop and ZBrush with the ZAppLink plugin. The texturing took about 2 and a half weeks to complete.

f44c

f44c
Originally uploaded by nezach_hod

Near future military aircraft. Pure Photoshop.

prim composer junk

prim composer junk
Originally uploaded by nezach_hod

Various Second Life items made in 3ds Max with Shack Dougall's Prim Composer scripts. Textured with Photoshop and Zbrush (ZApplInk). Someday Second Life will get it together and allow meshes.

scout planet08

A personal project for the Traveller role-playing game fanzine Freelance Traveller. This image is a variation of the one that appeared on the cover.

This illustration combines renders from 3DS Max 8 utilizing the scanline renderer with the Symbiont 2 plugin from Darkling Simulations (perhaps the one benifit of working for a cheapskate company) with renders from 3DS Max 2010 using mental ray.

The various elements and passes were combined then manipulated further in Photoshop.

XBoat 70135

xboat70135sfm

A render of an X-Boat from the Traveller RPG. A personal project for the Traveller fanzine Freelance Traveller.

3Ds Max, Photoshop, Inkscape, MapZone, and ShaderMap Pro. Rendered with mental ray.

precellys 24

3ds Max 8, Mental Ray, Photoshop CS3.

plexid

3ds Max 8, Mental Ray, Photoshop CS3, ShaderMap Pro.

Flare S

Flare S
Originally uploaded by nezach_hod

A personal modeling project of a "Flare S" swoop from Star Wars. It's a yet another work in progress. Next step is texturing it to not look so factory fresh.

slamhound

slamhound

A personal modeling project based on a sketch did a while ago. Eventually I intend to texture and re-rig for animation.

3ds Max 8, mental ray, Photoshop

grocery store

grocery store

3D Grocery store environment for nutrition training program. 3ds Max 8, mental ray, Photoshop.

E7L Drive Bypass

In 2006 Yaskawa Electric America contracted my company to develop a Flash based e-Learning package to train their service department in the basic operation of the E7L HVAC drive bypass. I was given the task of creating the 3D content. Everything was done in 3ds Max 8 and rendered using the scanline renderer. The door was rigged so the keypad cable and computer ribbon move when it opens. Several other animations were created to train users on proper wire placement and tool use.

We were later contracted again to redo the 3D content. It turns out that the references that I was originally given were from a training department cabinet. Apparently someone with field E7L experience saw the training program and commented that wasn't how they actually set them up. The images here can be considered the "blooper" reel, although only a qualified Yaskawa technician would get the joke.

Well integration with house water system

3ds Max 8 mental ray, Photoshop. Several render layers were generated and composted in post processing. Ambient occlusion was done by adding an AO shader to an omni light, rather than doing a second pass and adding it in post. The grass was generated with the Hair and Fur modifier. The house water system was created by my colleagues, and I was tasked with integrating the well components and environment. After integration I textured, lit, rendered, and composed the layer passes in Photoshop CS3.