The Morphing of Kamila

Kamila the baby sister of Kalifa has the look that will melt the heart. It's the look I had pictured in my mind since day one. I just couldn’t get it right on paper because it is easier to draw what’s in front of me rather than what inside my head. That’s why a figure drawing class is also known as life drawing class because the subject is alive in front of us. There’s where we develop the skill of translating what we see onto the canvas or paper.

In the 3D world we are deprived of all traditional tools of ours. That doesn’t mean we cannot be creative. We still have the skill of translating what we saw onto the screen using the mouse or digitizing pen. It is difficult to create the model from nothing. The intuitive method is by morphing. I start by using an available base model which is on the left and shape it using the morph targets to make it look like on the right. The process is like clay modeling. An understanding of anatomy is a great asset to get the shape right. Finally the ethnic flavouring was done in Photoshop by painting the face map in 2D.

Unlike the other characters that I had done the reference for Kamila’s face didn’t come from war news photo. It was a photo from a medical news article about a bubble boy. But Kamila is a girl so some gender bending was needed. But for a 3-4 year old child the difference is not that obvious. 

The piggy tail hair was added from library. The colour was toned darker to match her Arabian look. There is no need to build from scratch since the element is readily available. But can the design be claimed as original because the original source is not my own? If it is just a pure cut and paste or tracing other people’s work than it’s plagiarism. To qualify as an original the work it has to go through an extensive creative process that represent my expression and not others. Like if the two characters above stood in a police lineup they will definitely be identified as two separate person. The left is a product of someone else’s expression while the right is my expression of the little girl Kamila. That qualifies as an original and an intellectual property that is protected by the copyright law.

 One thing for sure that the things I design from scratch for all the characters are the costumes. Kamila is a peasant girl whose parents live a simple and basic life. There are no sign of luxury in their home even in their clothing. There are no laces or embroidery. Just a simple plain coloured dress without flowery print. The other reason for the simplicity in design is because of emphasis. The emphasis for most of the character are their faces. It remind us strongly that they are humans.

Sometime we forget about the human element because we are too preoccupied with materialism. That is why in our modern wars like in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and especially Palestine we witness so much atrocities been committed. The soldiers who are material centric have forgotten about humanity. If the soldiers on the ground could easily forget that basic human perception then how about the one in the air or the ones who sit remotely in their bases on their computers and taking human lives like a video game. Then what about their leaders who hide cowardly thousand of miles away and ordered the killings without having to smell the death personally. At the end of the day the smell of the profits that matters.

Technorati Tags: Facial Morph

In Search of Siti Zahara

Siti Zahara is the mother of the boy-hero Kalifa. When I was writing the script I had no visual idea of her looks except that she is wearing a black hijab. But emotionally I could feel her with my words though in real life I could not relate anyone like her. Only after watching the film ‘Lion of the Desert’ I came to realize that the character that played the little boy’s mother matched Siti Zahara perfectly.

I grabbed a number of frames of her head shots and molded her face in Poser as close to her features but not to duplicate her looks exactly.  The base figure is Alyson a Caucasian which I morphed it into an Arab and became Siti Zahara.

I also used the same hijab design as in the film which is two piece. One is over her head and shoulders and the other is tied over and around the head with the knot at the back. The front neck is exposed because the situation in the script demanded it. The scene was in and near her house and she was dressed moderately. All the modeling was done in 3DS Max which can be quite frustrating with this kind of organic modeling

 

The morphing of her face is not that difficult if one was trained in sculpting or life drawing. It is just a matter of using the source as reference and manipulate your work accordingly. The facemap then need to be redrawn in Photoshop because it is not possible to paint directly in Poser. The main focus area is the eye makeup because Arab women have a certain way of doing their eyes. The process needs both software to be run simultaneously. The painting is in 2D but the facemap is in 3D. That will make most artists feel disorientated trying to shuttled between the two dimensions.

The draping of Siti Zahara was more challenging than Abu Musa’s. The thobe of Abu Musa uses a dynamic cloth which behaves like a real cloth that conform to gravity, collision and external forces like wind which means all the folds and creases are decided by the software. Siti Zahara’s thobe also uses dynamic cloth but her hijab is not. If I use dynamic cloth for her hijab it will loose all the folds that I modeled originally in 3DS Max because it will fall flat against her body. I have no other choice but to use conform clothing which wrap around her like a molded plastic. It will not conform to the law of physics but it will deformed accordingly to the poses of the character. Any imperfection will be corrected by my drawings.

By now I hope my artist friends would understand what I am getting at. It is not about free hand drawing or tracing or cheating. Art is a process and expression. Foremost it is has to be original because that constitute an intellectual property.

 

Technorati Tags: Siti Zahara,Poser Conform Clothing

The Draping of Abu Musa

Most of my artist friends probably been waiting long to see the full character designs of Palestine 3000 A.D.. I could not blame them since graphic novels are very character centric. But foremost is the drawing styles. Is it going to be Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse, Manga or some kind of Asian experimental? Well I don’t really care about labels because I am an independent. I am more prudent about message and expression. The message is quite obvious in the title but when it comes to expression I am more inclined towards grunge.

Before I could render those grungy  strokes I have to do my R & D. Previously I usually brag about my ideas came from out of nowhere because that nowhere is the future. Nobody really knows anything when it is  about the future. We just imagine based on present situations. Technology will evolve but humans will remain unchanged. So are the situation in Palestine if the world remain asleep.

Abu Musa is the forefront character in this Book One story. He is the father of the boy-hero Kalifa. A strong personality character which I had visualized when I was writing the script. His exact look did not come from out of nowhere. Like Kalifa his look was inspired by real people from news photos. Abu Musa was based on a photo from AFP source which was shot during Israel assault on southern Lebanon. I like the facial expression in the photo which is quite similar what Abu Musa will go through. But the model above of Abu Musa is having a neutral expression as most 3D models at its default pose.

Abu Musa’s face was done in Poser’s Face Room. The facial texture were finalized in Photoshop. No real 3D modeling been done because Poser is not a modeling program. The face was shaped using morph target of a library model called Ryan. Ryan has a European characteristic and I molded him into an Arab which is quite close to the AFP photo.

For the modeling of his robe I have to move out of my comfort zone which is Rhino 3D and use 3ds Max instead because it seems Poser’s Cloth works well with a quad base geometry that 3ds Max produce.

The modeling of the robe is quite simple by using  ‘Box’ modeling which starts with a simple box and the details are produce by extrusions. Overall it is like the draping process in fashion design. To add reality the ‘seam’ area need to be creased just like a real garment. So I made a study on how actual garments been put together. The objective is to make the robe look real with dynamics and not just a plastic mold around the character body like in games design.

The final geometry is then smoothed out by increasing the subdivisions which will increase the file size and slows down the computer. A large computer memory is needed to handle such complex geometry.

 

The geometry is then imported into Poser as a prop and assigned as a dynamic cloth. The character need to be posed in such a way it will show all the folds and creases during the cloth simulation. There is nothing much to it except tweaking the cloth settings to get the right folds and density. The only setback is the amount of time waiting for the simulation.

So why go through all the trouble for a graphic novel? I like a certain reality in my work especially when it adds to the drama. Just like classic artist Leonardo or the sculptor Michelangelo who rendered realistic visuals of garments. How the folds caught the lights and shadows. I could use a flat tone or texture from the comprehensive library of Manga Studio software but it is just not me. I don’t like shortcuts. But I like to break rules and disregard the norms. My work is not ruled by textbooks. I like to rewrite the textbooks. This is how real art are made.

Technorati Tags: Abu Musa,Poser Dynamic Cloth