Dan Platt | Character Modeler

On June 24th, 2012 – My Digital Domain colleagues and I were listed as winners of the coveted Cannes Titanium Lion Award for Virtual Tupac. It’s a humbling experience to stand in the shadow of industry giants.

This was a tough show; no scans, no time, no place to hide. Facing a rapid development schedule against an immovable, hard deadline, I took on the daunting task of hand modeling the likeness of Tupac Shakur and his FACS based facial shapes. I relied heavily on screen grabs from interviews, videos, fan pics as well as personal guided input by Tupac’s friends; Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

I look forward to the day when I am permitted to post a shot of my Tupac model. So until then, here’s a small teaser of the final work.

Tupac Shakur for Coachella

Senior Facial Lead
Modeled in Mudbox and Maya

I was the Character Model Lead on X-Men: First Class. Below is a sample of my photoreal, CG character modeling work on the Kevin Bacon character, Sebastian Shaw. The head splitting effect is called the “kinetic echo”.

Sebastion Shaw

Character Model Lead
Modeled in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Hand modeled Kevin Bacon sculpt for X-Men: First Class.

Mudbox
100% Quads

Clu CG Model

On Tron: Legacy, I was the Facial Model Lead responsible for “youthenizing” Jeff Bridges as “Clu”, Bruce Boxleitner as “Tron”; creating their hand modeled 350+ FACS based blendshapes and for creating the high res digital double heads of Quorra & Flynn.

Below are shots of the “youthenized” Jeff Bridges as “Clu”, showing a large range of his all digital, emotive abilities.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Clu CG Model

Below are four views of the hand modeled, Clu CG Model (neutral) used to create the 350+ FACS based blend shapes.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Clu wireframe

Here’s a small sampling of Clu’s 350+ FACS based blend shapes as “wireframes” in action. Matthias Wittman, Tom St. Amand and Patrick Perez were the top shelf animators that brought Clu to life.

Tron

Having Bruce Boxleitner reprise his younger role as “Tron” was pretty exciting. Just like Clu, I “youthenized” him using Mudbox, taking the then 60 year old actor and making him look as he was in his early 30′s.

Unfortunately, he was rendered with a heavy filter to suggest “a flashback”, obscuring much of his likeness. Sigh.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Flynn

There was discussion that we may need a digital model of present age Jeff Bridges for when he re-intergrates with Clu during the bridge sequence. Below is the CG model prepared for that shot. Ultimately, it wasn’t used.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Quorra

For the scene where Quorra leaps off of the bridge while swinging from a light whip, we needed a digital double of Olivia Wilde to complete the dangerous shot. Quorra’s face would be visible for 2 – 3 frames at most, so I couldn’t spend more than a week on this model.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Shock Trooper from BOLT

ZAP!!! This is the SHOCK TROOPER that I modeled for Disney’s animated film BOLT. This character model embodies both hard surface (as in the case of his helmet) and organic modeling. Like all of my models, everything is 100% quads, modeled in poly’s and converted to subD’s at render time.

Truth be told, the most challenging aspect of this piece was the helmet. It consisted of a butterfly-shaped compound curve cut out from a spherical “ball”, changing yet controlled radiuses, consistent “shiplaps” and renders without a single kink.

Note: No booleans were ever used – everything was carefully hand shaped for precise control over design.

Modeled in Maya
Rendered in Mental Ray
100% quads

Ford Thunderbird

This high res CG production model of a Ford Thunderbird was originally created for American Dog but ultimately scrapped when the scenes, um…, movie changed. So instead of hitting the candy-like delete button, I opted for the candy-like render button and shot out a few images of the untextured model as a keepsake.

Created in Maya
Rendered in Mental Ray
100% Quads 

…and a subD wireframe shot

…and some poly wire shots