http://www.albihn.net Portfolio of Björn Albihn Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:38:43 +0000 http://www.albihn.net en http://www.albihn.net/320898/GoMax http://www.albihn.net/320898/GoMax Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:38:43 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 320898 <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/320898/screenshot.jpg" border="0" width="116" height="198" align="left" /> While awaiting Pixologic's release of GoZ for Windows and 3D studio Max, Norman Schaar (www.norman3d.com) released GoMax, a plugin to Zbrush/3D Studio. After doing some smaller modifications to the script as well as making it work for versions below Max 2010, Norman took me on board and I'm now part of developing newer versions of the script. Being a developer takes a chunk of my free time but it's also great to be able to get the features I want into the application, as well as being able to use new features before they are released. Its now a tool I now use daily and it's a real time saver in my workflow. Check it out and download it here: www.zbrushcentral.com http://www.albihn.net/320898/GoMax http://www.albihn.net/106557/Witchblade http://www.albihn.net/106557/Witchblade Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:13:42 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 106557 Witchblade was made during half a week for a superhero competition held by www.animate.se. I ended up at second place and will recieve the model printed in color on a ZPrinter 650. As I was long from satisfied with the result, I'm updating the model for the print <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/106557/Tuyrnaround.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="296" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/106557/closeup.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="433" align="left" /> As soon as I have recieved the model, I will take a photo of it and post it here. http://www.albihn.net/106557/Witchblade http://www.albihn.net/111130/Arsonist http://www.albihn.net/111130/Arsonist Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:56:17 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 111130 A bust of a futuristic arsonist. A quick project I undertook during the summer 2009 to work a bit on my female modelling skills. I might give it a remake soon and make the full character. Final renders <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/111130/arson_beauty_shot.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="372" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/111130/arson_construction.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="366" align="left" /> http://www.albihn.net/111130/Arsonist http://www.albihn.net/110021/Biography http://www.albihn.net/110021/Biography Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:44:27 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 110021 Starting out I begun using 3D applications in 1998, inspired of movies such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2. At the time it was only dreams and a hobby but at the end of college I took the leap to move towards a professional career in 3D by undergoing the 2 year program “Computer Graphics Design” at Studium Göteborg. Near the end of the program I was contacted by GRIN and the week after graduation I moved to Stockholm to begin my career in the games industry. I started as a regular 3D artist in June 2005 working with props and environmental art for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, thereafter I progressed to do technical art and finally characters which is my favorite subject. This width in different fields and my high flexibility in my work have given me many assignments that have crossed the borders of my positions and I have gained an understanding of the workflow of programmers, animators, concept artists and game designers. I have also often been the person to go to with tasks that needed to be handled quickly and still retaining a high quality. Toolsmith Being able to script tools enables an artist to make himself and others more efficient. I have been writing maxscripts since 2004 and during my first three years at GRIN, I was the only one with a solid Maxscript experience which proved to be an enormous asset since we had a MAX-based pipeline. I have therefore been the person to go to when tools for artists needed to be constructed. I have continually developed tools for work flow enhancement, optimization of content as well as tools for solving difficult tasks in all art departments at GRIN enabling our artists to be more efficient and deliver better content. A documentation of the most valuable scripts I've written can be found here. Lead Artist When the team rapidly grew at GRIN during the development of Bionic Commando I was chosen to be the Lead Character Artist in June 2007 and have since then also performed several management tasks for my group such as production planning as well as education for new character artists. As a Lead artist my method is to be working in and with the team in a supportive role, I keep a close contact with my teammates and make sure to bridge the gaps that may be approaching before they become problems. Living in Shanghai After GRIN shut down due to financial issues I decided to leave Stockholm and Sweden in order to get new experiences. I also felt that the extra assignments the Lead role at GRIN had moved me away from my artistic development. I therefore aimed to find a highly creative and artistic job in a new part of the world with a completely new culture and my search end in Shanghai, China. I've worked there as for Gameloft's concept art studio Redsteam as Lead 3D Artist. The assignments have been varied, deadlines tight and I've had the pleasure of developing my artistic side together with very talented people. Current Goals I'm currently available for freelance assignments for games - and possibly also for movie and advertising. Working freelance has been a goal of mine for a long time. I did however want the experience of working inside the industry to understand mechanics and methods before starting out so that I can deliver efficiently. Outside the office My favourite hobby outside the office is exploring and travelling. I love seeing new places, meeting new people and doing new things. I also enjoy a good book, having pen and paper nearby, warming sunlight, good music and cool, optimistic and relaxed people. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about me. http://www.albihn.net/110021/Biography http://www.albihn.net/107642/Work-In-Progress http://www.albihn.net/107642/Work-In-Progress Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:26:34 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 107642 “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” - Leonardo da Vinci Here is some work that is still under progress. Nolt <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107642/Personal_Nolt.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="322" align="left" /> Shaman Previous&nbsp;/&nbsp;Next image&nbsp;(1 of 3)<img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107642/priv_03.jpg" border="0" width="495" height="724" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107642/priv_02.jpg" border="0" width="513" height="724" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107642/priv_01.jpg" border="0" width="354" height="724" align="left" /> Shaman Staff Previous&nbsp;/&nbsp;Next image&nbsp;(1 of 3)<img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107642/priv_04.jpg" border="0" width="207" height="740" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107642/priv_05.jpg" border="0" width="195" height="740" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107642/priv_06.jpg" border="0" width="190" height="740" align="left" /> http://www.albihn.net/107642/Work-In-Progress http://www.albihn.net/107581/Terminator-Salvation-The-Game http://www.albihn.net/107581/Terminator-Salvation-The-Game Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:14:39 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 107581 Developer/Publisher: GRIN/Halcyon Games 2009 Platforms: Xbox 360/PS3/PC Role: Lead Character Artist www.terminatorsalvationthegame.com Terminator Salvation was the quickest project I've been involved in this far. I was supposed to move into the team at May 2008 but as the facial animation of Bionic Commando was delayed and my assistance was needed there so I was not fully relocated to Terminator Salvation until October. <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107581/02.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="357" align="left" /> During the summer I used the little time I could spare from the intense work on Bionic Commando to aid Carl Henriksson who was the Lead Character Artist for Terminator Salvation at the time. I also gave feedback and educated two new character artists at the Stockholm office as well as helped the art directors with critique and feedback of the outsourcing companies we used. During this time I created the render scripts and we built the “Character Evaluation and Approval Pipeline”. In October GRIN Stockholm took charge of the project from GRIN Gothenburg and since most of the shots were taken from Stockholm I took over the role as Lead Character Artist. From there the character team had four months to create 30 more characters including the main cast as well as make a new facial animation system for in-game use. <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107581/03.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="360" align="left" /> When the character artists from Bionic Commando was moved into Terminator Salvation we became 7 character artists in Stockholm, one in Gothenburg and one in Amsterdam. On top of that we had two outsourcing companies attached to the project that were both producing characters. A lot of the producers and management was also still tied up in Bionic Commando so every department had to step up and handle a lot of the management themselves. With all this in mind it became clear that my role would be centered around organizing the production and implementation of the assets to avoid confusion as well as streamlining the pipeline. I therefore created no art during this project, and focused on management. The little time I had apart from that was put into scripting tools for automating tasks. <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107581/01.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="400" align="left" /> I built two very important optimization/automation scripts during this time, first a script to create atlas textures to minimize drawcalls. I also made a script to automatically optimize the LOD's of the characters. For more information about these look at my script documentation. Together with Joakim Hellstedt we updated the Cutscene rig from Bionic Commando to become an entirely in-game cut-scene rig. By strategic placement and use of the facial bones we cut the amount of bones with 60% and only lost a bit of the amount of expressiveness in the characters faces. We also skinned all the actors with this new rig. After the final deadline Tor Helmstein was sent to Los Angeles to aid making the machinima-series that were also published with the game on Xbox Live. I was in charge of managing the GRIN side of this and supplying him with whatever assets he needed. <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107581/04.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="360" align="left" /> Terminator Salvation was not the best game I've been involved in, but the one that I've learned the most from. I had several obstacles to overcome such a large team, people off location, outsourcing content and very little time until the final deadline. In the end I think the character team performed an outstanding job, and I'm proud of that achievement regardless of the mediocre reviews the game as a whole has received. http://www.albihn.net/107581/Terminator-Salvation-The-Game http://www.albihn.net/107580/Wanted-Weapons-of-fate http://www.albihn.net/107580/Wanted-Weapons-of-fate Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:11:40 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 107580 More info soon. http://www.albihn.net/107580/Wanted-Weapons-of-fate http://www.albihn.net/107579/Ghost-Recon-Advanced-Warfighter-2 http://www.albihn.net/107579/Ghost-Recon-Advanced-Warfighter-2 Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:10:11 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 107579 Developer/Publisher: GRIN/Ubisoft 2007 Platforms: PC Role: Senior Artist Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW 2) was GRIN's second game in the series. As the predecessor it was not an simple conversion but an entirely different game on the PC than on the console. This was my first game as an character artist and was alone on this task so I was put in charge of creating or updating all the characters for GRAW 2. This involved everything from modeling to creating the in-game setup of the character customization. I worked with our military specialists we had on GRIN getting the correct equipment for these characters. More info and images soon! http://www.albihn.net/107579/Ghost-Recon-Advanced-Warfighter-2 http://www.albihn.net/107578/Ghost-Recon-Advanced-Warfighter http://www.albihn.net/107578/Ghost-Recon-Advanced-Warfighter Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:10:10 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 107578 More info soon! http://www.albihn.net/107578/Ghost-Recon-Advanced-Warfighter http://www.albihn.net/107559/Bionic-Commando http://www.albihn.net/107559/Bionic-Commando Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:51:31 +0000 Portfolio of Björn Albihn 107559 Developer/Publisher: GRIN/Capcom 2009 Platforms: Xbox 360/PS3/PC Role: Lead Character Artist www.bioniccommando.com During “Bionic Commando” I created most of the human enemy soldiers in the game and some of the supporting characters. The art direction was a futuristic but very functional design for a militant group trained for combat in a radioactive area with environmental suits, gas masks and tools to access the destroyed areas of the city. Bioreign Grunt Previous&nbsp;/&nbsp;Next image&nbsp;(1 of 4)<img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_grunts.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="735" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_grunts_ingame.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="762" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_grunt.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="384" align="left" /> Bioreign Sniper <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_sniper.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="384" align="left" /> Masked Man Previous&nbsp;/&nbsp;Next image&nbsp;(1 of 4)<img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_maskedman_joe.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="875" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_07.jpg" border="0" width="432" height="718" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_08.jpg" border="0" width="435" height="718" align="left" /> <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_09.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="718" align="left" /> In the later stages of the project I worked together with the animators to create the pipeline we needed to get facial animation into the cutscenes. <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_facerig.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="335" align="left" /> This was something GRIN never had done before on this scale, so we basically started from nothing. I also designed and did the final technical setup of the controllers for all the heads within Maya. <img src="http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/10617/107559/bc_facerig_expressionchart.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="776" align="left" /> http://www.albihn.net/107559/Bionic-Commando