Portfolio of Thomas Torfs

You know that feeling when you’re into 3D and constantly have the urge to find a faster way to work?  Well, I’ve been struggling with that feeling over the past few years.  Some people swear by using one package and worship it as the holy grail.  Others never seem to find the right solution in their pursuit for finding the ultimate 3D software.  I used to be one of the latter.

Starting with 3DSMax left me with a mixed feeling.  The program crashed constantly and organic modeling went really slow.  Results didn’t come as quick as I hoped for.  This is where Blender really opened my eyes.  I’ve never come across a program as fast as this one (and still haven’t).  Shame the render engine isn’t on par with commercial alternatives.  Then there’s Maya, XSI, Lightwave, etc etc.  I could go on, but you get the idea: there is no one-stop solution!

After a long struggle I’ve found that the following combination seems rock solid in terms of speed and flexibility:

primarily
Lightwave (for modeling, shaders, fast rendering and voxel fx)
Maya (for rigging, animation and complex fx)

secondary
3DSMax (for hard surface modeling and fast fx)

other
Pointoven (the link between applications)
Blender (retopo and UV unwrapping)
ZBrush (sculpting and painting)

Ah yes, and I’ve also modeled a very simple character last weekend, based on a vector drawing from a friend of mine PhadMiJet.   I’m planning to implement it into live footage.

Furry

I decided to add some momentum on the blog by adding small sketches or samples once every week or 2 weeks. They can vary from 2D sketches to 3D animation all the way to soundtrack composition. And… they have to be created within the same day, preferrably within a few hours.

Today’s sketch was made in 4 hours using Photoshop’s standard brushes.

The chosen keywords before I started sketching are “action”, “in the clouds” and “2050 AC”.

Sketch of the day

YES! After a little over 10 hours of searching and coding I managed to get the wordpress templating system to work and look the way I wanted.  I must admit it’s by no means as powerful as Drupal or similar, but this system works just fine for a small site like this one.

Meanwhile, I’m playing a role as a cattleman leading cows higher up the sky. Why? You’ll find out soon

Animating the cowrig

Scene overview