• Course Announcement on the NAD Centre website

Samples from my Bodies in Motion image library are now online. The library was created to capture high-quality, dynamic figure reference for artists. The human figure is extremely complex and its form is so variable during motion that high-quality reference is essential for capturing that anatomical complexity. The full library is over 20,000 images so I can only put a sample of images online to start, but I hope you find it interesting and useful!

link to Bodies in Motion

The plates from Duchenne de Boulogne’s Le Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine (ca 1876) have been added to the reference library. The images are curious and not entirely pleasant to look at, but useful for artists interested in the extremes of human facial expressions. Duchenne would use electro-stimulation to activate individual facial muscles in willing but not entirely happy subjects.
Link to image gallery.

I will be giving a lecture at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects as part of an Anatomy Masters evening on the 22nd of October. I will be one of four speakers presenting that evening and admission is free, so you will definitely get your money’s worth! The content is evolving but my talk will focus on comparative anatomy. More details to come….

I will be giving an intensive two-day anatomy course at the The National Animation and Design Centre in Montreal, Canada on the 24th and 25th of August 2009. The course is open the public and industry professionals in and around Montreal. If you have a desire to deepen your knowledge of anatomy and improve your character skills, please stop by, I hope to see you there.

• course page at Centre N.A.D.
  
• More information on the Anatomy for Digital Artists course

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Here is an image of my latest digital sculpture, The Death of the Centaur. The sculpture depicts the moment when the king of the centaurs, Chiron, is struck down by an errant volley of Hercules’ poisoned arrows.

Chiron originally appears in Greek mythology as an exemplar of wisdom and learning, tutoring many of the legendary Greek heroes including Achilles, Jason, Theseus, and Hercules. He meets his end at the hands of Hercules who, during a skirmish with unruly centaurs, accidentally wounds Chiron with an arrow poisoned with Hydra blood. Being immortal Chiron can’t die, but lives in agony until he selflessly barters his immortality for Prometheus‘ freedom (note: I have take small liberties with the original story in my depiction of events). Chiron subsequently makes appearances in other stories including Dante’s Inferno, where he guards the seventh level of hell, and in Goethe’s Faust.

Click on the thumbnail above for a high resolution image of the sculpture (2048×1760 pixels). Use the green arrow at the bottom of the lightbox to enlarge the image. I have provided it at high resolution so that you can (hopefully) appreciate some of the fine details. For more images from the construction process, see the Death of the Centaur development page.

Image rendered with Hypershot

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After a few more iterations on proportions as well as layering in some of the thin layers of muscle, veins and skin folds, the sculpture is getting close to completion. It still needs one more pass at a higher subdivision level to capture some fine details and break up the regularity of the surfaces. I may need to modify the pose a bit as well.

Image rendered with Hypershot.