Texas Ranger [WIP]

I wish I could say this was a quickie, and in some ways it was, but I did spend a bit of time on this image. I recently purchased this cool Texas Ranger outfit form Daz3D.com, and just couldn't resist playing with it, even though there is no way this will ever make it to print in any of our books.

Texas Ranger - © 2017 Mike Mitchell

The primary reason for that is his knees. The textures on this model just stretch, making the denim pattern look absurdly stretched, and the seams at the bend don't fold correctly. This is one of the faults of confirming clothes. That is to say, 3D models that bend with the figure, but don't include soft-body dynamics simulations (or cloth simulations). These are the computations that actually treat the 3D model like fabric, and make it bend and behave like real fabric.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not disparaging this product, or its creator. That's just the nature of conforming props. They don't bend like real cloth, and that's why I can't actually use it in one of the Western books I illustrate for Hawgleg Publishing.

But, this really has a nice texture set and I wanted to play around with it, so here it is. A bit of fun for a weekend (and hey, I got this on sale!). An updated version of this will definitely appear in some future book or project.

RuntimeDNA: My Zombie Attack was selected as an Image of the Week!

I received another VERY COOL accolade this week. My Zombie Attack illustration was selected by the RuntimeDNA community as an Image of the Week.

You may not remember this one, because I usually post my zombie art over at the Hawgleg Blog, but it features young Sheriff Mike Foreman coming face to face with a newly risen fiend.

I am particularly pleased with this illustration, as his expression really conveys a sense of terror. Plus, I like the blast effect -- messy without being too messy!

RuntimeDNA is an online community similar to Rendrosity. They sell a variety of products, focused more on the Poser community than on Daz Studo. Renderosity has a lot more members, so the traffic over there is very high. But although RuntimeDNA has a smaller user base, that translates to the images posted there being of a high quality. That's probably just a product of the math -- when you have tons of anything, more of it is going to be average rather than spectacular.

I'm not exactly sure how large RDNA is, but they select about five images a week, and I'm very proud to be one of them -- especially since this accolade comes with a prize! As a winner, I was able to pick an item from their store! There were a few restrictions (no software & no bundles), but nevertheless, something free is AWESOME!

For me, the item I selected was almost a no-brainer (don't tell the zombies I said that). Last September RDNA released a really cool Saloon Gal outfit that I really wanted to use for a character in the upcoming book, Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood. But, at $25, it was a bit pricey (not unaffordable, but I prefer to wait for sales and coupons when buying something that can really only be used for one character).

But, as a freebie? Ohhhhh yeeeah! That is exactly the item I selected as my prize. Here's the promo art for the Rockabilly Burlesque outfit.

Copyright 2013 RuntimeDNA

Yeah, I can definitely picture her whipping out a hidden Derringer to shoot a surprised undead gambler right between the eyes. And yes, I may even go all cliche and have her pine for young Sheriff Foreman, knowing all the while that she can never wind up with him.

Anyway, we'll see how that plays out. But you can definitely plan on seeing her (or at least her outfit -- I haven't designed the face or selected the hair, yet, but I admit that I like this a lot) sometime in the near future.