Michael Assous - LikeTheMilkyWay -

Georgia O'Keeffe

Responsible for all aspect and concept

This is a portrait made as tribute to Georgia O'Keeffe from a photo taken by Alfred Stieglitz. I sculpted from scratch her hands, and head using Maxon Zbrush .

Textured with Mari using for base displacements 3D Scan Store and Texturing XYZ. This project have been made possible under the supervision of Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma at Gnomon School of VFX.

A little animation of the composition utilizing Nuke and some FX

Raw render with texture showing different angles

Clay render Turntable

Different passes including a Specular, Edges pass and a diffuse

A process view of the light breakdown 

Use of Golden Ratio for the composition and split value from a light standpoint 

Screengrab from my Mari workflow illustrating the different techniques I'm using

Sinister Hands

Responsible for all aspect and concept

This project has been made while taking Jared Krichevsky's Creature modeling and sculpting class at Gnomon School of VFX in Los Angeles. Every week, Jared was providing us a theme to work on for the following week. This time around the theme he had picked was Abomination and since the class is mainly about building concepts, I decided to create something that would be as beautiful and deranging which is a contrast i'm interested in. The Hands are creating this harmonious shape of a dancer following in a sense the muscle and tissue flow. The torrent above it, is in a way pulling back the harmony.

For this concept piece, I utilized 3Dscanstore scanned arm, duplicating it and modeling multiples iteration manually placing them over on a sculpt of a dancer I did previously trying to follow the harmony of lines. I mainly used Zbrush utilizing Arraymesh to create the torrent of hands.

A process view with the light breakdown

A different shot of my Sinister Hands piece

A little animation with a wide angle and a more stage like set up recreating the mood of a dance ballet

The High Priestess

Responsible for all aspect and concept

This is a project I worked on while studying at Gnomon School of VFX. The composition was inspired from a painting by the French painter Hippolyte Flandrin "a portrait of a young lady". For the the sculpting part, I took photos of my friend Alani Jade and sculpted her using Zbrush and Mudbox. I painted my displacements and albedo maps in Mari using a variety of samples from Texture XYZ as well as 3D Scan Store. I modeled the dress using Marvelous Designer and textured it with Substance Painter. The whole scene was then rendered with V-Ray and comped with nukeX. This is my first finished piece since I started my journey in digital arts. This project would have never being made possible without the mentoring of some of the best artists and instructors at Gnomon in Los Angeles. Among the many I would like to thank Tran Ma and Miguel Ortega for their patience, their incredible skills, talent and support. Merci.

A breakdown of the lighting scenario

Illustration of the use of Golden Ratio for the composition

Jeremiah

Responsible for all aspects and concept

While I was staying in Northern Idaho up in the mountains living within the forest I started researching about the Fur Traders of the 19th century, the Hudson Bay company and the incredible stories some of these men lived. The movie Jeremiah Johnson was the starting point for me to explore these weathered, hardened by the elements adventurer and the inherent communion these men had with pacific Northwest wilderness.

This project was my first utilizing the Displacement workflow taught by Tran Ma at Gnomon. I painted the textures utilizing Mari amazing nodal workflow, Sculpted the bust entirely from scratch in Zbrush and did the grooming using Xgen. The render was made possible with V-Ray using Maya

A process view of the light breakdown 

Ambroisia

Responsible for all aspects

This is a project I worked on while studying at Gnomon School of VFX. With this camera angle I wanted to explore a more Chiaroscuro use of lights with strong contrasts between light and dark, the green tone was meant to give a more cinematic feeling. For the the sculpting part, I took photos of my friend Alani Jade and sculpted her using Zbrush and Mudbox (mainly for polishing the sculpt using Mudbox physical camera and layer system). I painted my displacements and albedo maps in Mari from a variety of samples from Texture XYZ as well as 3D scanstore. I modeled the dress using Marvelous Designer and textured it with Substance Painter. The whole scene was then rendered with Vray and comped with nuke. This is my first finished piece since I started my journey in digital arts. This project would have never being made possible without the mentoring of some of the best artists and instructors at Gnomon in Los Angeles. Among the many I would like to thank Tran Ma and Miguel Ortega for their patience, their incredible skills, talent and support.

A process view with the light breakdown

Composition inspired by Vinci's Mona Lisa and her triangle shape posture

Screengrabs showing the guide works for the French braid, the grooming in Xgen as well a screengrab from Mari's displacement work

Thank you so much for your time !