The 3D Art &amp

Welcome to
The
3D Art
& Design
TM
The world of 3D art and design continues to be one of best places in which to express
artistic creativity. As the possibilities are almost endless, 3D artists have the opportunity to
design and create whatever they want, as long as they have the inspiration. The 3D Art &
Design Book Volume 2 provides that inspiration with a variety of step-by-step tutorials and
comprehensive features covering six key aspects of a 3D artists portfolio. From characters and
arch-vis to vehicles and environments, these expert guides will help educate and inspire you to
create your best ever designs. And if that wasnt enough, weve also included a free CD packed
full of textures, 3D models, video tutorials and source les to help you nish many of the tutorials
found in the book.
The
3D Art
& Design
TM
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Head of Design
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William Shum
Design
Rachel Shemilt
Photographer
James Sheppard
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The 3D Art & Design Book Volume 02 2013 Imagine Publishing Ltd
ISBN 978-1909372283
Part of the
bookazine series
IMAGINEER
OF THE YEAR
WILLIAM SHUM
ut
Syk
zej
ndr
A
08
50 3D art tips & tricks
Character Architectural Photorealism
16 50 tips for better characters visualisation 126 50 tips for ultimate 3D realism
24 Design and model a robot 82 Master arch vis 132 Learn to create photoreal 3D
30 Animate characters 88 Visualise architecture 138 Achieve fantastic 3D realism

in modo 601 using Blender
143 I made this Sphynx Cat
36 Create a high-res 94 Apply the finishing touches
creature 144 Visualise realistic products
100 Create superior interiors in modo
42 Sculpt an epic beast
106 Design interactive interiors 149 Gallery Taha Alkan
47 Gallery
110 Build unique arch-vis assets 150 Make realistic food
48 Design striking
characters 116 Fantasy arch vis: concept design 155 Gallery Rod DeWeese
54 Design and create an exosuit 118 Fantasy arch vis: 3D illustration 156 Model and render a
photorealistic watch
61 Gallery
62 Sculpt folds and fabrics
68 Create a mythical beast
74 Master Weta character design
6 3D Art & Design

54
170 252
42 150
Environment Vehicle Animation

162 20 steps to better 200 Model vehicles for animation 232 Learn to animate a bouncing ball
environments
206 Rig vehicles in Maya 236 Realistic character rigging
169 I made this Rue de
Seine 212 Texture a realistic vehicle 240 Learn to animate a walk cycle
170 Underwater landscapes 214 Model a luxury car 244 Animate a character lifting weights
175 Gallery Dennis Kaya 219 I made this Black Drone
248 How to animate a jump
Iversholt
220 Sculpt a space vehicle
252 Animate action moves
176 Create a desert landscape
226 Create vehicles with open-
181 I made this Under the source software
Southern Highway
182 Create trees in Unity
184 Futuristic cityscapes
190 Sculpt beautiful terrains
192 Design an epic Vue

landscape
197 Gallery Lee Griggs
3D Art & Design 7

3D art tips & tricks
50
Go
bli
n
&tricks
Sv
en
Ju
hli
3D art
n
Pieces of expert advice to help

improve your work and your artistic
standing within the 3D community
tips
8 3D Art & Design
W
hether youre seeking some guidance on
rendering and postproduction, or how best to
promote yourself and your work, help is at
hand. Weve tracked down a group of pro industry artists
with exceptional portfolios to ask them for their top tips
on composition, copyright and everything else in between Cr
ab

An
Improve your images

drz
ej S
yku
t
Composition MINI
MOCKUPS
Introducing
Thumbnail sketches are the
Our panel of experts
best way to establish composition
BALANCING and lighting. Draw them small and in
Artist: Andrzej Sykut
ACT black and white to start with, keep them
Website: http://azazel.carbonmade.com
Bio: Lighting is what full-time freelancer
Mostly I place a raster on my simple and abstract, and draw at least Andrzej likes to do most. He also enjoys
image with nine squares three in four iterations. Once you have a solid
riding his mountain bike and photography
height and three in width. Then I try to in his spare time.
composition you can then move on to
nd a balance between the viewpoint colour thumbnails to establish your
of the character and that of the viewer. Artist: Carlos Ortega Elizalde
main colours and lighting Website: http://stroggtank.cgsociety.org
You can push the viewer to a desired scheme. Richard Bio: A self-taught 3D artist working in the
direction with depth-of-eld LEARN media department of Guanajuato
efects and vignettes. THE RULES University, Mexico, Carlos specialises in 3D
The rule of thirds illustration, modelling and texturing.
Maarten
plays a big role in
image composition Artist: Maarten Verhoeven
and leading the eyes Learn Website: http://mutte.cghub.com
Bio: Maarten is a CG sculpting/design
into the image.
Maurice the basic artist with a passion for anatomy, lm and
monsters in the toy, VFX and game world.
He has a Masters degree in animation.
theories and
Artist: Maurice Panisch
observe why they Website: www.maurice-panisch.de
Bio: Maurice started out with grafti at a
work then learn young age, going on to add Photoshop and
3ds Max to his arsenal. He works as a
how to break senior 3D artist at Sehsucht in Germany.
SHAPES them Artist: Pascal Blanch

AND LETTERS Andrzej Sykut
Website: www.3dluvr.com/pascalb
Bio: French artist Pascal lives and works in
I like triangular the UK. Hes worked in the videogame
compositions they are very industry for many years and is currently
employed as an art director for Jagex.
efective and always create
powerful pictures. Avoid
Artist: Rafael Grassetti
presenting characters in a T-pose Website: http://grassettiart.com
theres so much you can express Bio: Rafael specialises in traditional
[with a] nice dynamic sculpture, 3D modelling, digital sculpting,
posture try to push it. texturing and assets for feature lms like
Star Wars, cinematics and toy design.
Journey Continues Andrzej Sykut Pascal
HINTS Artist: Rebeca Puebla
OF HUES
Colour Even if it is a very
colourful scene, its good if
Website: www.rebecapuebla.com
Bio: Spanish creative Rebeca excels in
modelling and texturing characters. Shes
worked in the game, lm, television and
the atmosphere tints the advertising industries for eight years.
whole scene colours at
VARIED least a bit just like in Artist: Richard Yot
PALETTE real life. Carlos Website: www.itchy-animation.co.uk
Its more to do with personal Bio: Richard is a professional illustrator
taste here, but I like to play with specialising in character design with a taste
for the quirky and contemporary. He likes
slightly shifted vibrant primary to create weird characters and worlds.
colours and their complementaries.
But there are tones of palettes Artist: Sven Juhlin
to test be imaginative and Website: www.daybreakcg.com
look around on the web. I always Bio: Sven lives in Stockholm, Sweden. He
has been working as a freelance character
look for new inspiration. artist for three years, creating characters for
Pascal Twisted Dolls: Mistress games, cinematics and movies.
Lili Rebeca Puebla
3D Art & Design 9

PLAY
Lighting IT SAFE
Truth is, I dont take many COLLECT
risks when it comes to INSPIRATION
lighting. I try to create a look Have some good
THREE- similar to that of fashion reference pictures of nice
POINT LIGHTING photography, with global lighting on your screen so
Having a noticeable primary illumination and two or you can get the right help
three area lights.
source of light helps to avoid a at-
Rebeca BRANCH and inspiration needed
to make your render
looking image and better dene the OUT
volumes and depth of the subject and Start with the basic three-
pop. Sven ADD
scene. I always complement this point setup (key, ll, rim) and SHADES
with some opposed ll lights or a dissect it nd out why it works Put some colour in your
rim light to contour the main so well so often. But dont be ambient lighting and
subject of the scene. constrained by three-point shadows; in any case, get away
Carlos lighting its just a useful from the grey! Even the best
shortcut, after all. photorealistic renders have
Andrzej subtle touches of colour
bouncing here and
there. Pascal
Hy
pe
rac
tive
Alie
nC
arlos Orteg Elizalde
a
Irulan Pascal Blanch

Rendering layers for
the nal composite
What are the most helpful
passes to render out? LAYER UP
In Photoshop I tend to
I will usually render out a pass for create tons of layers any time I
each light and composite them in need an efect and then erase it
post that way I can relight my
scene in Photoshop without having
Rendering and where I want to tone it down. When
the comp becomes a bit messy I
to render again. I dont tend to
bother with diffuse/specular/
postproduction create a copy of the collapsed
layers, but always make sure I
keep them around in case
reection passes, though; I nalise
my materials in the render. theyre needed.
Richard
The most important rule is Pascal
For every single image I create, I

knowing when to stop dont
always render a depth pass and a destroy your ne work with
matte or the subject/object of focus. bad compositing or by
The depth pass helps to add
depth of eld in postproduction,
painting out nice details
which is faster and more Maarten Verhoeven LESS WORK
Experiment, use Curves a
manageable. It also helps to SAVING lot and, most importantly, use
dene the scale of the scene. TIME TIPS adjustment layers everywhere.
Carlos If some things can be Dont tweak levels for the whole
made faster and better
AND TYPES
I dont render out any passes image apply a Levels adjustment
An alpha pass is a must-have looking in postproduction,
any more though I used to layer instead. Youll be able to go
to isolate your subject; apart I usually go for it. Unless, of back easily, mask it, drop it into
from that, depending on the render out an occlusion layer but
course, its something Im another image, thus saving
it is denitely a good method if you
needs, I make two or three trying to learn in the 3D yourself a ton of work.
want to tweak the render and its
versions of different shaders and package. Carlos Andrzej
much easier to get the result you
mix them during post, or isolate want. A separate spec and AO
some objects for masks. Sometimes pass are essential if you want
I isolate the specular too. Pascal to postprocess your
image. Sven
10 3D Art & Design

Keep the faith

Promote yourself What to do if your image
doesnt get accepted by online
Get feedback and get noticed forums and galleries
Do it for yourself rst, not for a
HONEST community. Keep yourself happy
COMMENTS with the art you create, then
Its important to show work acceptance to the online forums
online in several communities will be conrmation of all the hard
and get comments from people work youve put in.
who arent your family or friends.
This feedback is mostly true and If your image doesnt get accepted,
raw but it is real. Itll prove more just keep plugging away. It takes
helpful than a nice or great work to get to where you want
from your mum! sometimes a lot of work. Richard
Maurice HELPFUL
FEEDBACK We all have rejected works from
Youll quickly learn to be galleries and colleagues it can be
selective about the critics; whos disappointing at rst, but it is also a
constructive and who isnt. I good motivator to seek advice from
personally like to show my work as the community to nd out how you
a nished piece that way no one might improve. Carlos
interferes with the process and,
once its completed, anyone SHARING
can say whatever they YOUR WORK
want. Rebeca CGTalk and CG Channel are
still the best places. deviantART
has a huge community and is a great
If you like BMW Interior 1er Coupe RAISE way to reach many people at the
Maurice Panisch YOUR PROFILE same time. When you have some
what youre Your blog/website must be the good pictures, submit your work to
COMMUNITY best place for people to see your CGHub and magazines and
doing and want to SPIRIT work, but you need places where people cross your ngers to pass
the selection. Pascal
make a living out I love ZBrushCentral lots of
professionals drop by to check
can access your website. Forums are a
great start, but unless you receive front
Centaur Maarten Verhoeven
of it, continue till out each others work. Most of page or an award its hard to get noticed.
You need clients to see your work and the
the guys and gals are also very
you get there helpful if you have questions. best place to do that is by creating
Its a good place to get portfolios on websites that ofer that
make it happen! positive feedback. possibility, such as CGHub,
Pascal Blanch Maarten CGSociety, deviantART and so
on. Rafael GET
TOUGHEN FEEDBACK
UP Its always good to show
Learn to accept critique
and grow a thick skin. Itll
come in handy again and
Portfolio tips your workow and work-
in-progress on forums. You
have to keep your mind
again when it comes to open to other artists
commercial work.
Do what youre best at. Work on comments.
Andrzej your weaknesses as well, but only Rafael
Th
eF
lea
put your best work in your portfolio

Ca
rl
be ruthless about that .
os
Or
te
Richard Yot PERSONAL
g PIECES
aE
I try to create at least one

liz
ald
personal piece per month, when

e
NEW time allows it. It helps me to optimise

ADDITIONS workow from previous projects to use
In my case (Im slow later when tight deadlines show up in
and busy!) I try to keep it to real work. And, of course, its a great
a minimum of three pictures way to show the community you are
a year, but a good portfolio still actively practising and learning
could have just three to six from mistakes and hits. It helps
good pictures for keep the stress away too.
starters. Pascal Carlos
3D Art & Design 11

Portfolio tips SPECIALISE

IN A SECTOR
(continued) You need to know what type of
industry you want to work in and
focus your portfolio on this. If its
the game industry, do at least three
REFRESHING nished characters; if its for
WORK statues and prototyping, focus Just have your best
Update your portfolio as often
your work on ZBrush and
as you can. Its a lot of fun to do
stuf for your portfolio since you
high-res models. work in your portfolio
Rafael
can do whatever you like. Dont its about quality
rush it though: two really good STRONG
images are always better than
FOUNDATIONS
not quantity
ten semi-good ones. Rebeca Puebla
Its important to rst show a
Sven
solid base of work before you
go on and show diversity. Thats
not to say diversity isnt good,
Photography is a great addition to a but high standards are the rst
portfolio as long as its good. Itll make you thing a client or company SHOWCASE
wants to see. Maurice YOUR TALENTS
grow as an artist and help with your lighting, Find something youre
framing and composition skills Andrzej Sykut comfortable with a technique
or style and just show of your
skills. Try to show something new
every time something that pushes
your skills to a new personal level.
Dont be afraid to be diferent
and try out your own
ideas. Maarten
FAN
OF FAN ART?
In the case of very
recognisable characters, you
can enter them into the fan art
Panisch & Markus Hanke
category and interpret the character

VW Passat Maurice
how you like. Although you cant

legally exhibit them without
permission from the copyright
holder. Its complicated.
Rebeca
RE-CREATING AN
EXISTING CONCEPT
While most people can feel attered
looking at work derived from their ideas, You could benet and learn a lot
some artists can take it in a bad way. The more if you do your own concepts. That
best thing about the internet is that its easier
to get in touch with the original artist than way, come the end, you can say its 100 per
ever before. Drop them an email asking for cent your own work and not copied or
permission, explain the clear purpose of
using their concept and, of course, reworked from another
always give the appropriate Maurice Panisch
credit(s). Carlos
SIZE
ADD YOUR MATTERS
DETAILS I usually post images bigger
Always apply a signature, than 800px and smaller than
credit and email address on 1,600px its a high enough
your nished images. Images resolution for people to appreciate
get lost on the web and no one your work online. People can take
will know its yours if you advantage of high-res images and
dont have a name on it. make a prot out of it; its attering to
Rafael know your work is good quality,
Dinoblues
but its unfair without your
Pascal Blanch consent. Carlos
12 3D Art & Design

Protect yourself Think ahead

Ensure your work is secure Paul Hellard is editor of
CGSociety, manager of CGJobs and
is artist liaison at Ballistic Media
ut
Why would you want to from his home in Melbourne,

yk
jS
ze
Australia. With a varied career as

publish your high-res images
dr
An
g BACK UP an artist, cameraman and

dybu
Ive got my work backed online? Screen resolution production manager in lm behind
La
up tons of times Ive even is often enough him, Paul has a passionate interest
hidden some high-res images in the internet, cinema and digital
online just in case. I had my PC
Andrzej Sykut
arts and is a font of CG knowledge.
stolen ten years ago and I lost
The Greatest Show On

some work you can never
Earth Richard Yot

What is an ideal size to work at to
have enough backups. ensure images are good enough
Pascal
CREDIT resolution for the web? And how
WHERE about for print?
ITS DUE I always urge artists to work on
Be honest about the their images at as high a resolution
references and textures used as possible. You never know you
in your projects. Names and may create something that
links are most often
enough. Andrzej BE everyone will want to see as a big
ORIGINAL print! You can always save a 72dpi
I like to create my own RGB for uploading to your
characters because I have CGPortfolio on CGSociety, and a
CGFeedback is by far the best lots of original ideas. This
also avoids any legal
300dpi for that high-end art book
you submit to, like Exotique 7.
feedback site. Theres a lot of good problems when you come
to exhibit work. When it comes to working in RGB
artists there and youll denitely Rebeca
or CMYK, whats best if I want to
get a lot of good comments submit to an online gallery? And
Mecha Rafael
what about for a book?

Grassetti
Sven Juhlin The colours on display on a

WORKING
FROM YOUR computer screen are generated in
OWN CONCEPTS Red, Green and Blue (RGB) at 72dpi.
Creating the design is the best The pixel info in your image
part of CG to me, since its the instructs each pixel of the
most creative job. The rest is just computer screen to illuminate each
execution. With design you can colour light to a certain strength.
really express your own point of These three colours mix to the
view and make something perfect value. Same with print,
unique. Richard though there is more information
for the book press, at 300dpi.
Why does my image look different

from one monitor to the next, and
then again in print? How can I
STORAGE make sure my image will look as
SOLUTIONS intended when I submit it to an
CD/DVDs are worthless online gallery or to a book/mag?
you cant read them after a The quick answer is that monitor
few years. HDDs, and now gamma and colour settings vary
cloud storage, are the best considerably. Studios should have
ways to make sure you their monitors calibrated regularly.
dont lose your work.
For Ballistic books, we prepare all
Andrzej
received images on a monitor
with sRGB colour response and
You should back up your work every a gamma value of 2.2. We then
day both to a local hard disk and to an convert them from RGB to CMYK
using the latest stochastic screen
online service such as Dropbox Richard Yot processes for printing.
Yeti Sven Juhlin

3D Art & Design 13
Character
Master the essential art of
the human form 74
16 50 tips for better characters

Advice for improving your characters Jos Alves
da Silva
24 Design and model a robot
Hard-surface modelling techniques
30 Animate characters
in modo 601
Taking a closer look at 601s toolset
36 Create a high-res creature

Taking you from concept to the final render
42 Sculpt an epic beast

Capture intense creature expressions
47 Gallery
Nathan Boyds Firebomb
48 Design striking characters

A fun and vibrant character creation 48
54 Design and create an exosuit
The workflow of a mechanical design
61 Gallery
Maciej Kuciaras Alien 19
62 Sculpt folds and fabrics
Use ZBrush to design a stylised character
68 Create a mythical beast

Luiz Alves takes us through his workflow
74 Master Weta character design

Use ZBrush to create a fantasy character
30 54 16
14 3D Art & Design

We will essentially be
taking a simple 3D primitive
through the stages to a
complete polished bust
42
3D Art & Design 15

Andrew Hickinbottom
Andrew Hickinbottom
www.andrewhickinbottom.com
16 3D Art & Design

FOR
Alex Huguet
www.metamesh.blogspot.co.uk
Character
Arda Koyuncu
www.ardakoyuncu.com
Carlos Ortega
www.zigrafus.com.mx
Dmitry Cheremisin
http://d33mon.cgsociety.org
Eric Spitler
www.ericspitler.com
Jorge Lopes
www.behance.net/jorgepepelife
Jos Alves da Silva

www.artofJos.com
Luis Santos
www.luissantos.net
Matej Hradsky
http://matoh.cgsociety.org/gallery
Mohsen Fallah
www.mohsen-fallah.cghub.com
50
BETTER
TIPS
CHARACTERS I
Tiago Idalino
www.tiagoart.com
Titouan Olive
http://digitalia3d.teria.fr
CG characters
advice to help
Yang Guang
your characters with personality!

www.blog.sina.com.cn/cgradiation
or just plain out
as day. To help you overcome these

Whether theyre
realistic, stylised
human looks like, so even the smallest

you improve your
50 tips and tricks that will help you instil

there, heres some
in the eld of character creation to gather

troubles, we talk to some of the top artists
Zhang Chen
of the toughest elements of CG work.
We all have a pretty good idea of what a
errors or inaccuracies will stand out as clear

n many ways, character creation is one
http://zhangchendaxiao.cgsociety.org
50 tips for better characters
Even with cartoon images, depicting the correct anatomy

can be key: I put the main bony landmarks of the arm in
place the epicondyles of the humerus, the olecranon and
the styloid process of the ulna then added muscles based
on those landmarks, explains Spitler Eric Spitler
Getting started 02 Create more than one sketch. I

always start by sketching several of
my ideas down on paper. I then choose the
Starting right is often the most crucial part one I prefer. If youre using photo references
of the process then select them carefully use images
with a similar focal length, sharpness and
01
Sketch Quick T-pose sculpt
Strive for originality. The 3D market is exposure to what you wish to achieve.
becoming quite saturated now [so] new ideas Titouan Olive
are hard to come by. Look for things for inspiration
your favourite cartoonists, real-life moments you
experience, lm, illustrations. Save any inspirational 03 Do research. To capture the
essence of realism in your artwork,
you must study what it is you want to
reference you nd and keep a record of ideas that create. For instance, if Im texturing a
Retopologised in 3D-Coat Blocking in PolyPaint
come to you. Andrew Hickinbottom character, I like to do a lot of research into
the characters age and profession, and
collect reference material accordingly.
Arda Koyuncu
04 You need to pay attention to

detail. Decide your characters
sex, age, physique, occupation and Transposing & DynaMeshing Sculpting
environment, and then collect reference
information that will complement your
character. They must be high-resolution
images of excellent quality, with the right
lighting and correct angle. You can nd such
images on 3D.sk or Google, or [shoot] them
yourself with a model. Dmitry Cheremisin Detailing in
Photoshop
05 Its never a good idea to wing it.

I have a full-length mirror where
I work, so I can pose for myself. I start
out small maybe just working on the
Lighting is one of the biggest bust of a character, or even an arm, leg or
Titouan Olive
challenges, Olive says. I torso study. You might also want to try
usually render my images with
mental ray. I often use an HDR posing one of the free models that comes
Dome coupled with Final with ZBrush rather than making one
Gather. I also create traditional
key and rim lights from scratch. Eric Spitler
3D Art & Design 17

Character
Important
rst steps
Carlos Ortega talks us through
the initial stages of this stunning
image, The Weeping Woman
For Carlos, the very rst thing he needs to
consider before even thinking about
exploring poses or sketching ideas is the
back story of his image. He explains: I
always take into account the characters
attitude, the emotions or feelings I want to
convey and the background story, if any,
of the character. Sometimes I even start
thinking of the atmosphere I want for the
nal image. Thinking of the mood you
want to convey helps you to narrow your
options and speed up the process.
When it comes to posing, Carlos
believes its better to think about broad
shapes rather than precise positioning. I
look for an attractive ow of shapes
between the elements on the scene and
balance whether its a static or a moving
pose, he says. In a static pose it will
avoid a stiff look in the character, and in a
moving and dynamic pose it will tell the
viewer where the elements are moving
and where they come from in space.
Always try to guide the viewer from one
element to another.
Finally, as always, reference is key. I
suggest you use as many references as you
can when starting out, as it helps you to
learn how a body reacts and balances in
different positions. [Whenever] I can I
look for anatomical and artistic
references, while taking a few moments to
analyse what makes me feel comfortable
or disturbed by looking at them. Most
importantly, look outside for real-world
reference at all times! The more info you
have about how people react to
Carlos Ortega
movement, the more intuitive and fun it

becomes to re-create those poses. Know
their limits and even go beyond them!
Ortega believes that real-world references still apply

to cartoon characters as well as realistic ones, but
you can push those limits to get even more attractive,
graceful and believable poses
18 3D Art & Design

Pick the right software

Find the right tools that work for you
06 My preferred software is ZBrush. It really ofers you the

freedom to create what you want. You can freely add or remove
whatever you want, when you want. Its a lot like traditional sculpture in
that sense. Mohsen Fallah
07 It all depends on your experience

with the software. Ive used Maya
and ZBrush for modelling, sculpting,
good camera angle and focal length to keep
a nice composition for the nal frame before
moving forward. Carlos Ortega
shading, lighting and rendering for years, so
I have no reason to change my tools. As
reptology can be a really time-consuming
process, I use tools like 3D-Coat [for that].
10 For organic modelling, I prefer
Maya over 3ds Max due to the
Artisan tool and the easy setup of the Soft
Mohsen Fallah Selection. However, both are equally
capable and the tools I use are quite basic
08 I stylise my characters directly in

Mudbox. I prefer to work with it
because its a straightforward piece of
extrusions, brushes to paint and relax
topology and so on. I tend to use Maya and
3ds Max for creating a base mesh to further
software. Its toolset and interface enable sculpt in ZBrush and texture in Mudbox.
me to reach my goals in an intuitive and fast Alex Huguet
manner, meaning I have more freedom to
experiment instead of having a painful
experience of interface juggling. Find
something thats comfortable for you in this
11 With each new release Im nding it
possible to do more of my work in
ZBrush. I am experimenting with ZSphere
way thats what really matters. rigging and having some positive results. If
Luis Santos Im creating a character that will need to be
animated, I will sculpt my model in ZBrush
09 Most of the time I feel most

comfortable modelling the base
in a base pose, then pose the mesh in 3ds
Max and transfer all the sculpted details
Mohsen Fallah
mesh in Maya and posing the model by using Displacement or Normal maps.
In terms of textures, it depends on what Im trying to adding a basic skeleton. It can serve as a Eric Spitler
make. Sometimes I use projection and paint over that; dummy to explore silhouettes, store
other times I feel I should paint some skin tone. It
depends on what Im looking to create, says Fallah diferent poses on the timeline and block a
Expert stylisation
Jos Alves da Silva

Jos Alves da Silva reveals the tools he uses to
create his professional stylised characters
12 Exaggeration is about giving more

relevance/expression to parts of the
character broadening their shoulders to
14 Simplication, meanwhile, is less
about pronouncing elements and
more about making their shape readable.
give information about their physical Its about transmitting the idea in a very
strength, for example, or modelling a clear way, says Jos. I like to use curved
high forehead to transmit intelligence. lines versus straight, which contribute to
a dynamic design for stylised characters.
13 While modelling exaggeration, I

mainly use the Move tool in ZBrush
to redene proportions. The Inat tool is
This will often lead to characters with
sharper shapes than in reality. To achieve
this sharper or harder-edged look, I tend
also good for expanding/contracting to use the Polish, Flatten and Trim
certain areas and testing their impact. Dynamic brushes in ZBrush.
Exaggeration is a key tool when creating stylised characters. It helps create a

pronounced image around the kind of personality youre looking to convey
3D Art & Design 19

Character
Modelling & posing

How the physicality of a good pose is just as
important as your characters aesthetics
15 When using Maya, set some basic

image planes with some of your
reference pictures to help with proportions.
Its important to place those image planes in
perspective views, not in orthogonal (front,
side) views, because the perspective
distortion will mean you will never get the
model right. Alex Huguet
16 Convincing character movement is

incredibly important, from the bone
movement limits to the way the muscle
shape is formed by force and angles. Good
anatomical knowledge is important in
shaping a convincing sense of movement
and selling the viewer on your premise.
Yang Guang
17 I model the base mesh in a neutral

and slightly relaxed pose to keep
control of proportions such as the limbs
length and body volume. Then I start
exploring diferent positions. It helps me to
try to re-create the same pose myself and
see which things work and which dont. Yes,
sometimes youll look ridiculous, but thats
one of the fun parts of the process!
Carlos Ortega
18 Pushing and pulling on the mesh is important once I have the

base head geometry, I can make adjustments with Symmetry and
Arda Koyuncu
Soft Selection, or even use ZBrush to re-proportion the model and

experiment with looks, shapes and congurations. Once Im happy, I clean
up the image then add detail and denition. Andrew Hickinbottom
19 What I like to do is create a highly

detailed base geometry in 3ds Max.
You can then put your mesh and your
21 ZBrush has multiple tools that give
you design exibility: ZSpheres
enable you to block a characters silhouette
reference next to each other in Photoshop fast [and] DynaMesh opens the possibility
and match the proportions. Creating the of modelling the base of a concept without I avoid using too
many or too few
nal base geometry is important, because having to worry about polygon stretching or difuse lights
when you get into the rendering process lack of polygons. The latest tools in ZBrush because they tend
to make it more
your base geometry needs to hold up the 4R4 even permit welding diferent difcult to create
overall shapes and retain the detail you geometry parts together It also adds the believability,
says Koyuncu
sculpted via Displacement maps or QRemesher tool, which generates
something similar. Arda Koyuncu automatic topology. Jos Alves da Silva
20 Exaggerating your characters

features is important when adding 22 Once satised with a pose, start
recovering the missing volumes and
23 When Im trying to nish up a pose Ill look at
it from extreme angles that I havent been
paying attention to; Ill move the lights around in
personality and keeping away from a deformations the sculpting software cant
generic-looking character. You must re-create, such as the elbows and shoulders ZBrush and Ill squint my eyes to blur it. Ill often look
balance such features if you want to achieve on a bending arm, or knees and hips on a at the pose upside down, and I nd it very helpful to
a rich character without going overboard, bending leg, which are better to adjust look at a mirror image of the pose. Looking at your
though experiment to see what works, separately without any Symmetry settings.
work in these ways can help you to see it with fresh
and keep in mind that there are such things Having constant details like this along the
as happy accidents dont underestimate body helps to keep the piece at a certain eyes and highlight some of the errors you couldnt
the power of chaos! Luis Santos level of stylisation. Carlos Ortega see before. Eric Spitler
20 3D Art & Design
Textures & materials

You wont be able to sell the audience on your
character unless they believe in its appearance!
24 Try to eliminate unnecessary

steps in the process. For example, I
sometimes wont UV my character, and will
30 If Im trying to create a realistic
character, I like to use texture
projection to create a solid base. After I get
just use PolyPaint to texture in ZBrush. Sure, a clean projection, I like to hand-paint on top
it will probably look better with a full set of of that to get more interesting colours and
textures and rendered in V-Ray, but variety that ts with the character I am
sometimes taking too long on a project can trying to create. Arda Koyuncu
see you can get tired and quit. I see so many
31
Luis Santos
artists start projects but never nish them! Materials play a big role in the
Eric Spitler stylisation of characters. You can
force the specularity to create a more plastic
25 In terms of textures, it depends on

what youre trying to make. I really
like Photoshop and BodyPaint 3D, as Im
look or exaggerate the reections to get a
shinier and visually appealing character.
Toon shaders and materials that render
comfortable with them. I can use pretty big lines at the characters edges create a
textures with many layers, simultaneously cel-shaded look. By mixing regular materials
paint many channels, project diferent with at-shaded materials you can achieve a
photos and paint over and over again until comic-style look. Your imagination is the
Realistic skin
Im happy. Mohsen Fallah only limit. Jos Alves da Silva
Luis Santos talks us through the process of

texturing lifelike skin 26 When working with stylised
characters, simplify! Having a
cartoony character with photorealistic
32 When texturing, I use ZBrush to do
the base painting and [create] the
occlusion maps, cavity mask, difuse and
If you have a traditional painterly background, this will
textures can look strange, so think about bump. I work with these maps in Photoshop,
denitely help with this process, says Luis of creating
true-to-life skin textures. Instead of relying only on how you can stylise textures and reduce building the composition using photographs
photo sampling and projection, I prefer to manually detail to complement the models look. and a little painting. The tip here is to
paint on my characters. The results are unique and allow Many people opt for cel shading when composite textures in Photoshop, along with
for stylisation. producing cartoony images, which can cavity maps, photographs, and some
I start off with broad strokes of colour and gradually look cheap if handled without reason hand-painting to give volume to the maps.
include smaller details, he continues. Real skin is a stack and restraint. Andrew Hickinbottom Tiago Idalino
of layers, so it makes sense to paint it accordingly. I paint
27
several passes of layered skin tones and details while If you dont have a good light setup it could ruin
Photoshop has a fabulous toolset everything youve done up to that point. That said, a
ddling with different opacity values. Please avoid using good lighting setup can also save a job that wasnt as
to create painting brushes.
Mirror, as it may kill your works sense of authenticity, successful earlier in the process, Idalino advises
Mastering brush creation is important when
making it look dull and unrealistic in essence remember,
we are not truly symmetrical! you paint textures by hand which happens
When it comes to materials it all depends on the style very often in stylised characters as you
youre aiming for: Photorealism will lead you towards can create brushes with specic purposes,
referenced materials, while illustrative works will often like adding noise, dirt, texture, stitches,
lead to rule bending, says Luis. Sometimes, youll be patterns and so on. You will be able to work
constrained by client requirements, [and] other times much faster. Jos Alves da Silva
youll have context considerations and sometimes
28
hopefully it will be entirely up to your taste, and youll be I use ZBrush with PolyPaint to
able to experiment in order to achieve the desired amount
create the main tone and colour
of stylisation in your textures!
directly on my model. When this base is
done, however, I use Photoshop for the ner
details. I try to work with larger textures, as
its always possible to reduce the resolution
later, but the opposite is not possible.
Titouan Olive
29 When creating Sub-Surface Scattering

maps for realistic-looking characters, try to
Tiago Idalino
be as objective as you can. Its always really cool to

add tons of SSS to your renders, but try to push it just
Santos uses Mudbox for his textures due to the softwares ability to paint to the right level if you overdo it, it can be easy to
layered textures in a Photoshop-like manner while also being able to keep
sculpting and texturing tied closely together end up with waxy-looking models. Alex Huguet
3D Art & Design 21
Character
Light your characters

Why setting the scene is almost as vital as populating it
33 Light intensity will help pinpoint the parts of the character that you
want the viewer to see rst, and establish the path that their eyes
follow when interpreting the image. Intensity and sharpness between light
Cheremisin is a fan of
MARI: Its easy to
implement the
process of projective
texturing; it allows
and shadow can also convey a darker or comic-book look, while softer you to create shaders
and it contains a set of
lights establish a cuter or lighter look. Jos Alves da Silva masks. The benets Dmitry Cheremisin
are innumerable
34 When Im doing stylised rendering

I mainly use soft shadows and
dont put too much contrast in the picture.
When posing a character
you must look for
references of dynamic,
real-life characters. Do
Global illumination is my friend, and I like to not fall into the cycle of
endlessly studying
use higher settings for the primary GI anatomy, though study
art! Guang says
bounces. It also helps to use higher values
for ambient occlusion and to add some
warm colour to the lights. Matej Hradsky
35 I light most of my work in mental

ray with mr lights, but sometimes
for pre-vis I use GPU-based renderers like
FurryBall or Mayas Viewport 2.0. Even
when they dont give you full physically
accurate lighting, it saves me a lot of time by
providing real-time feedback. Sometimes I
start to light the scene at the same time Im
exploring poses with rough geometry, as it
helps to plan my workow and see what
areas I need to take more care on.
Carlos Ortega
36
Yang Guang
Be sure to study lighting in

advance, just as if you were
directing a photo shoot. Pay close attention
to how lighting afects your specular, bump
and other channels. If youre aiming for a
stylised/cartoony look, you have more
freedom regarding multiple light sources,
straight separation between character
and background, depth illusions and
colour exaggerations. Luis Santos 39 Depending on the mood of the
piece, its good to get nice, bright
and clear lighting with some strong, sharp
37 I always try to add a bit of contrast

[to] the nal render, a little rim light
and so on nothing too complicated. I tend
rim lights to show of the silhouette
providing your character design and pose
has a strong silhouette to begin with. Weak
to place a couple of V-Ray lights and play lighting can ruin the impact of the
with the intensities, sizes and positions until characters, so its best to think about
I nd what Im looking for. I often do a lot of whether you want soft or sharp lighting;
tests too, tweaking the lights and shaders to dramatic or at; bright or dim; warm
get the desired result which can or cold. Andrew Hickinbottom
sometimes take longer than the modelling
and texturing! Alex Huguet
40 A good light setup such as the
reliable three-point lighting can
38 Try to use soft shadows, as they

look more realistic. Also pay
attention to the work of professional
give the viewer enough information to read
the whole piece if its for showcase
purposes. For a diferent kind of feeling you
photographers and how they set up their can go for a more dramatic approach
lighting. You can nd a lot of information in varying light types, temperature and
books about photography. I often use intensity will help to immerse the viewer in Lopes uses PolyPaint to create textures, which gives
him a broad idea of what the nished image will look
VrayPhysicalCamera, as it has settings [like the characters atmosphere without losing like before adding details in Photoshop
on a] real camera. Dmitry Cheremisin its silhouette. Carlos Ortega Jorge Lopes
22 3D Art & Design

Rendering advice
The nal steps of the character-creation
process can often be the most important
41 For me, the most important V-Ray

render element passes are VRay
Difuse,VRay Raw GI,VRay Raw
42 Render passes and render layers
are really important when creating
something special and realistic I like using
Light,VRay Raw Reect,VRay Raw Refract, ambient occlusion, a Fresnel pass [with] fur,
Reect Filter,VRay Refract Filter,VRay hair and shadows. Sometimes I prefer to
Specular,VRay Self Illumination andVRay render lights separately. Mohsen Fallah
Background. The nal render is the sum of
these diferent render elements (render
passes). We can achieve the same result in
Photoshop, like in the VRay Frame Bufer.
43 With stylised images, once
everything is done I often try to put
one more Difuse pass on top of it all. With
For this, we just need to put all passes in blending modes (in Photoshop), I play a
Photoshop and set each layer to Linear little; using transparency/the Eraser gives a
Dodge (Add) excluding the VRay painted, cartoony feeling. I think its good to
Background (this must be Normal and play with ideas like this, as you can hope for
belowall other layers). a magical happy accident. Matek Hradsky
GI (VRay Global Illumination) is a
44
Hradsky was complex render element: we can take it I try to render major things in one
inspired by the
dirtiness of from the Render Elements menu, or we pass and create masks for the
Rangos textures can multiply VRay Difuse with VRay Raw diferent elements like the character, the
for this image. He
used overpainting, GI. The result will be the same. Its the background, depth of eld or the efects
gradients and
contrast on the same for the Light pass: just Multiply VRay so I can separate them or put them together
textures for the Difuse with VRay Raw Light. later on in Photoshop. Arda Koyuncu
nal version
Heres an example:
Matej Hradsky GI = Difuse*Raw GI
Light = Difuse*Raw Light
Reect = Raw Reect*Reect Filter
45 I always render a Depth pass for
atmospheric and lens-blur
purposes. I use an Object ID pass to have
Final render = GI (Difuse*Raw GI) + Light enough masks to work with and to adjust
(Difuse*Raw Light) + Reection (Reect colour values on individual objects. I add a
Filter*Raw Reect) + Refraction (Refract Normal map pass if I need to re-light areas
Filter*Raw Refract) + Specular + Self for composition or aesthetic purposes, and
illumination + Background. a Specular Reection pass just in case!
Dmitry Cheremisin Carlos Ortega
46 I render separate passes to save time if I need to make

adjustments on materials or x distracting artefacts without
having to go back to render everything again. It gives you more control
over the nal image not to mention the chance to create efects in
post-production. Carlos Ortega
Quick rendering tips

Jos Alves da Silva offers four quick tips for rendering
47 I use render passes to force

non-physically correct light
situations (that look right) to enrich my
49 I often render an Occlusion pass
to enhance the connection
between the various scene elements
images. For example, sometimes Ill want and help dene the character form, using
to emphasise a characters silhouette, the Linear Burn blending mode with a
even though hes against a wall I create low ll value to composite it with the
a separate pass of the rim light without original image.
any shadows that I can composite later
The Maya skin

with physically correct lights.
50 Importantly, I render a pass with
masks that will enable me to
48
material is a priority in Rendering specular highlights easily select different objects in
material selection
You need to spend a and self-illuminated objects in Photoshop and make colour corrections
lot of time adjusting it separate render passes is a trick I use to to each part of the image very quickly,
and comparing it to
other materials, easily boost the highlights and create then ne-tune the colour temperature,
Zhang Chen advises Chen bloom/glow effects in post-production. contrast and saturation.
3D Art & Design 23

Character
Design and Easy-to-follow guides

take you from concept
model a robot
to the nal render
Artist info
Red eye 2012 Niles Doubleday
Personal portfolio site
www.nilesd.com
A robot design created for practise and to demonstrate Country USA
Software used 3ds Max,
some helpful hard-surface modelling techniques KeyShot, Photoshop
Expertise Niles enjoys all
Niles Doubleday is an environment artist at Airtight Games aspects of 3D, but specialises in
props and environments for
I
f you love robots or sci- and want to turn some of 3D model. Well go through the basic workow I use video games
your ideas into 3D, this step-by-step tutorial will when hard-surface modelling in 3ds Max and then render
give you a great start. in KeyShot (look out for my mental ray tips on the
Well begin by going over some of the basic design opposite page).
techniques involved in coming up with balanced If youre already a modelling pro Ive included some
thumbnails. Once youve got an idea youre excited about, hard-surface tricks for 3ds Max, before we nish of with
youll then be able to turn your idea into a fully-edged a few quick steps to make your render pop in Photoshop.
Pre-production
Plan now, save time later the most important step!
This is what my initial a Customise your modier
thumbnails look like not sets and drop down a plane
exactly cohesive! with your image
for reference
01Develop a concept The key to concept development is to draw all your

ideas even the bad ones as you never know which direction your design
may take. Grab the elements that you like from one sketch and then apply them to
another in a diferent way. Just throw down a bunch of ideas without worrying about
polishing them or thinking too hard about it. Details can be as loosely represented as
random lines; once you have some general volumes you like, then you can take some
time to deconstruct it and detail those parts individually a.
02Set up a scene I usually take one of my key concepts and put it in the
scene on a plane aligned to one of the axes. I always use an Orthographic
camera, but its especially important at this stage. The Orthographic view makes it a
lot easier to make shapes accurate to your concept when you start modelling. Ive
also added some common modiers to my Modier box on the right. I strongly
recommend setting up this UI element to support your most-used functions b.
24 3D Art & Design

Design and model a robot
If you prefer mental ray

This tutorial was created using Keyshot, however its
possible to easily achieve great results right in 3d studio
max using mental ray. Start by using the arch and design
materials found in the material editor, choose some of the
presets for the materials you need, then adjust the colors
to your needs. Then hit F10 to bring up the render settings
and switch the preset to photometric, mental ray, next turn
on nal gather in the indirect lighting tab. Next throw in
some basic lighting, use a couple of mr Sky Portals found in
the photometric lights, adjust there color and brightness. I
use draft setting to get the ballpark settings, then for the
nal switch over to higher quality.
Software used in this piece
3ds Max KeyShot Photoshop
Concept
My initial concept
was a heavy,
low-to-the-ground
robot about two/
three-feet tall. I am
really playing with You can download the following
source les from http://tinyurl.
the idea of a 20:80 com/cp26lps:
ratio of detail versus Final_Model_01.max (2011)
overall shape Final_Obj.obj
3D Art & Design 25

Character
Begin modelling
Its time to define the shape of your robot Analyse the
blocked-out
c d model
Some things to remember
when blocking in:
Gaps in shapes are ne
you can worry about
these later
The goal is to get a feel
for the shape of what
youre making. Hide your
concept and ask yourself
design questions
Is your concept working
in 3D? Does the 3D
model look like something
you want to spend
another week or so
working on? If any of
these answers are no,
experiment with what
you have; try some new
shapes or scale what you
have diferently.
03Block in your base shapes Using the plane as a reference, start blocking in your key
shapes. I create the torso rst and make it the most detailed. Once that is done, I start adding
in other pieces such as the legs and pipes in the back. This robot is going to be nearly perfectly
e
symmetrical for most of the process, so its important to only really work on half of it, you can mirror
and weld it later. That being said, its not a bad idea to copy what you have across to check out the
proportions on the full piece as you progress c.
04Detail the blocking shapes Pick a core mesh and hide the rest of the model. Start to
detail out the mesh and get in some supporting edges so that it holds its shape when you
apply the TurboSmooth modier. When you approach subdivision hard-surface modelling, you will
spend a lot of time looking for pinching and odd shading. To help you spot these errors easily, apply a
base material with a high Specular and Glossiness setting. This material will enable you to get a better
idea of how the forms will look when rendered later on d.
05Add basic edge supports The most challenging part of hard-surface modelling is
getting interestingly-shaped surfaces to subdivide correctly and derive a clean form. The next
couple of steps will cover some geometry solutions I use for some common scenarios. In this example,
you can see the shading along the crease of the surface in the red box has a shadow along the edge,
the surface in the green below doesnt. The diference is due to the extra supporting edge added
around the actual cut. This provides more support and attens the surface quicker when smoothed e.
c Block in the basic d Apply a shiny material to e Support your g Edge Constraint is one of
forms to decide if your help you spot errors edges to get nice the key hard-surface
concept works in 3D when subdividing clean bevels modelling tools
Niles Doubleday
Currently living in the state of
Washington in the United States, Niles
spends his days working for Airtight
Games and his nights modelling to the Cryogenics facility 3ds Max, Photoshop, Unreal Engine (2011)
sounds of dubstep. When hes not busy This is a game resolution project Niles created to practise bringing
at the computer screen he enjoys riding the sci- themes of his personal work into the Unreal Engine
his trusty bicycle and hanging out with Sci- diver 3ds Max, Photoshop, KeyShot (2011)
good friends. This image was created as an exercise using the same workow
Niles is demonstrating in this tutorial
26 3D Art & Design

Add form and functionality

Place large and small elements for believability
Ending edges on at g
surfaces in the middle
of polygons is ne
06Avoid extra work Its always important to model cleanly, however there are exceptions to
every rule. In this case, since the side of this leg segment is perfectly at, its okay to leave
edges ending in the middle of polygons. You can see that it still smoothes out ne in the right-hand
image. When you have edges end in convenient places, rather than carrying them all the way into an
Edge Loop, this saves a lot of time and keeps the model a little easier to manage f.
07Constrain edges Most important is the ability to easily move a vertex along an edge. Turn
on Edge Constraint under Constraints on the right, found in the Edit Polygon modier. In the
image I have a vertex that is interrupting a smooth ow on this bevel. To x this issue, turn on Edge
Constraint and slide it to one of the end vertices, then slide it back along that edge to the correct
location. Now itll be in line with the intended surface and wont create any odd bumps g.
The Inset and Collapse h

command are more
weapons in your arsenal
Surface type
As you continue to model, dening surfaces and details,
keep in mind what kind of material the pieces are made out
of. If you add really sharp edges and at, smooth surfaces,
the material will appear to be much harder. Rounder edges
08The Inset and Collapse tools The Inset tool is very useful for adding Edge Loops to
support edges and add detail. Sometimes when you add an inset it creates overlapping
vertices in sharp corners. This doesnt work all the time, but most of the time just collapsing that will
with big bevels and a more supple surface will appear
softer. Its important to have a couple types of surfaces in
your model. I like to have the sub-surface feel softer, with
enable you to keep your sharp corner and smooth surface without noticeable pinching. Easily navigate the exterior pieces being hard plastic or painted metal.
to Collapse by right-clicking and nding it on the pop-up menu h.
i
09Place large details
and new forms
When supporting the edges and
dening the design further, I
Alien spine always start to add large-level
ZBrush,
detail, such as big vents or tube
Photoshop (2012)
connections. As you add the
Inspired by the Alien
franchise, Niles detail, make sure the new shapes
made a quick t in with your existing large
ZBrush sculpt shapes. As an example, here is
before rendering what the underside of the body
the diferent looks like with the four leg-attach
elements in ZBrush points and the vent underneath.
with various Details such as this add an extra
MatCaps and layer of believability and display
compiling them in function. The more the viewer
post-production can relate the forms to real-world
using Photoshop An edge-supported mesh things, the more believable your
with some larger detail added
design will be i.
3D Art & Design 27

Character
Polish the model

With all the basic meshes complete, bring your creation to life
j
11Get feedback and
adjust accordingly
Show your model to the
You can still make
changes late in the game
client, or friends whose

opinion you value, and ask
for feedback. In my case it
became apparent I needed
to better illustrate a face and
show more character. I
started blocking out some
shapes to see what would t
in with my existing structure
and provide a more
interesting focal point. Its
okay to make big changes to
your model, even at this late
10Fill in the gaps Now that you have all the major forms
nailed down, there are probably some gaps still left
between pieces. Now is a good time to ll those gaps. Use the
stage in the process. I push
the main lens out and add
some representational
same workow as the other pieces to make a sub-surface. Block in plating, as well as a couple of
some base shapes that intersect with the large forms youve got. spline-based hoses. These
Try to make these new shapes match the design of the existing add mid-level detail by
ones as much as possible. In my case I have matched the arch of externally attaching them to k
the rear tubes with a rear guard j. the body of the machine k.
Use the FFD modier to easily

make complex shapes 12FFD modier
dened the face, it
became apparent that the
After I
shape would be very

time-consuming to model in its
curved form while still avoiding
errors when subdividing. This is
a perfect case for the FFD
modier. To use it efectively,
model out your form at to a
world axis where you can get
the mesh to subdivide easily.
Next, reference that mesh and
drag it to the location its
needed. Once your at
unsmoothed mesh is in place,
use one of the FFD modiers to
bend it into shape. Last, go
l back to your on-axis mesh and
use TurboSmooth l.
13Final detail pass The last phase of modelling is where

you really get to add some life to the model. Take elements
that you think need another layer of detail, subdivide them, then
Extract another layer of
detail from the model with
insets and more elements
apply another Edit Poly modier. In the new modier, start adding
some insets, bolts or seams in key places. Another method is to
select a bunch of faces and Shift-drag them of of the mesh to
create a new sub element. Add a bit of thickness to this new
element to create a layering efect m.
Design your fine details

Fine detail of the model is what really makes it come alive,
taking it from a 3D model to something believable. The
really important part is to use the detail to add hints of
construction and ne seams where the plating comes
together or is attached. Ive also added little divots to
suggest vents or attach points. Use this opportunity to
better support the large forms. With the plate, for instance,
Ive added highlights to the slight curve of the front as well
as conforms to a new vent along the side. m
28 3D Art & Design

Pose and render Rendering

in KeyShot
Its time to make that model into a polished image
KeyShot, formerly known
as HyperShot, is a really
14 Set up a hierarchy
At this point your model
is all nished and you need to
great piece of rendering
software. I like to use it
because it enables me to
put it into a cool pose for focus on my model
rendering. To make that posing without worrying about
easy and avoid making a full spending lots of time
bone rig, set the pivot points for setting up an HDRI and
the meshes where the joints complex shaders. Im
are. Parent the meshes in the actually using an old
way you would expect the version, so I have to break
robot to bend. For example, in up the diferent materials
the screenshot Ive shown the into separate meshes to
foot plate being parented to the import it into the
lower leg n. program. With the latest
version (a free demo is
available) you can import
j Fill in any gaps that may have your MAX le straight in.
appeared between the forms This enables the material
n Parent the meshes to one IDs from 3ds Max to be
another at the joints to make transferred and makes
posing easy material selection and
p The base render and n organisation very easy!
sub-surface render
o Pose the model and set

up the scene
2e0a+
tion time
hours
15 Build up the scene Switch the Rotation to
Local and start rotating the base into position. All cr tion:
the legs and head should follow if youve parented them. Image resolu25
Next, rotate the legs and head to suit the camera and the 3,200 x 3,8
scene. Ive set up a bunch of boxes to give the robot some
context, but sometimes a at plane works. I generally play
around with a few diferent camera angles and poses o.
16KeyShot rendering Ive chosen KeyShot to render this

scene, but any renderer that gives you easy access to a
broad range of materials will work well. Its a good idea to try out
diferent materials and colours until you nd the best results. I
knew that I wanted some chipped-away paint that would reveal a
metal surface underneath, so I make an additional render that is
entirely metal. In Photoshop I take the metal image and add more
contrast using the Levels adjustments p.
17Move to post-production In Photoshop I start by

copying the base render onto a layer above the metal layer
and painting a mask where I want scratches, so the metal shows
through. Other important elements are Bloom and Sharpening. For
Bloom, copy the merged layers onto a new layer and use Levels to
drag the darks almost all the way to lights to clamp it. Use the
Gaussian Blur lter (6-10 pixels) then set the Blending mode to The nal composite
and the accompanying
Screen. To sharpen, copy the merged layers and apply a High Pass Photoshop layers q
lter with a low pixel count and set it to Overlay q.
3D Art & Design 29

Character
modo ZBrush Photoshop
3D artists explain the

techniques behind
their amazing artwork
Artist info
Richard Yot

www.itchy-animation.co.uk
Country UK
Software used
ZBrush, modo, Photoshop
Expertise Richard is an
illustrator who specialises in
quirky character design.
dragon tamer.mp4
karate kid-2.mp4
30 3D Art & Design

Animate characters in modo 601
Animate characters
in modo 601 Modelling
Dragon Tamer 2011 Textures
modo 601 can now do full-blown character animation. We

take a closer look at the new toolset Richard Yot illustrator
T
he modo 3D
modelling software
continues to go
Create detailed assets
from strength to strength.
Many new options are
Use modos new features to build textures and more
featured but character-
animation tools are the most
signicant. Developer
01Initial modelling The initial modelling was completed in
ZBrush using ZSpheres to block out the basic form of the
character. I prefer to sculpt the initial stages of a character rather
Luxology has not contented than deal with polygons so that I can concentrate on nding the
itself with just copying forms without having to worry about topology. Its also much
features from established easier to revise and tweak a design in a sculpting package since the
applications, but has mesh is so much more malleable a.
approached the workow
from its own unique
perspective with the aim of
02Use new retopology tools In its latest version, modo
has introduced some substantial new retopologising
features. There is a dedicated Topology tab, a new Background
making the tools accessible Constraint type and some new tools, of which the Topology Pen is
and enabling users to get a the most important and innovative. With this it is possible to
results very quickly. retopologise extremely quickly by extending edges, creating new
Ease of use and quick loops and merging vertices all without ever dropping this one tool.
Having tried all of the specialised retopologising packages on the
workows are at the heart of With 601, modo market, I can say that modo 601 is among the very best because of
modo, and in 601 there are is now among the fast workow it ofers and the way in which this one tool
the very best
tools that enable novices or retopologising combines so many useful features b.
those working to short solutions on
03A new improved paint engine

the market
deadlines to set up 601 has a much
characters for animation improved painting engine compared to earlier versions of
modo, and I used this in conjunction with Photoshop CS5s 3D
extremely quickly. It also
features to create all of the texture maps for the animation. By
enables more advanced using the Brush settings to create chaotic and varied brushes, I was
users the ability to create able to make the worn wood and paper textures that are used
powerful custom rigs with throughout the set. The Procedural brush in modo is particularly
extremely complex and useful for this as it can create very natural results. The character
versatile controls. was also painted this way, and the Image Ink brush was used to
For those who have ever b add details such as ngerprints on his virtual Plasticine face c.
spent frustrating hours
setting up a basic character,
modo 601 is breath of fresh
Concept
air. Bones can be placed The concept was based on an
intelligently inside your mesh, existing digital painting of mine.
saving hours of time There was a nice atmosphere
tweaking them into place. with a blend of spooky and funny
that seemed like a good starting
Binding and weight painting point for a simple short lm.
is painless and you can use
the new Pose tool and the
a Finding the initial forms is much easier in ZBrush, where you can
Actors and Actions groups to concentrate on design without worrying about topology
start animating without any c c Using modo and Photoshops brush engines enabled me to create
of the usual problems. natural and convincing textures
3D Art & Design 31

Character
Set up the scene

Now that the assets are created we need to prepare them for animation
04Add shading and materials Once the textures were

painted, the diferent materials were dened in the Shader
Tree. In order to create the handmade look that I like to use in my
work I made heavy use of SSS in the character to simulate the look
of Plasticine. The materials for the set were also designed to look
handmade, so the oor used displacement to portray wood, the
walls used a matte material to look like stained wallpaper and the
blanket used bump and a tiny bit of fur to create a convincing fabric.
I also sculpted some folds into the blanket, pillow and sheets d.
05Light the set Because my intention was to mimic a

physical stop-motion set I could make use of quite
theatrical lighting, using a spotlight shining down on the character
in bed. The little bedside lamp created some context for the light,
but it was actually placed far above the character to single him out
from his environment. Monte Carlo global illumination was used
throughout the animation despite the added render times, because
of the added realism it creates e.
d
06 Lay out the bones With the assets all created, it was
then time to move to the rigging stage. Luckily this is very
straightforward in modo and can be done quickly. The tools are
exible and set up in such a way that it is still possible to make
modelling changes without breaking the rig. To add bones to my
character it was a simple case of drawing them over the mesh in
the new dedicated Setup Mode. Modo takes care to intersect them
with the geometry of the model, so once drawn they need little or
no tweaking into position f.
07Apply binding and weight painting With the

introduction of bone-based deformers, modo has also
introduced several automatic binding algorithms as well as
allowing the paint tools to edit weight maps. Alternatively the
weights can be edited with the same Weight tool that is used to
crease SDS models. It is possible to create everything manually
using Weight Containers, Deformers and the Schematic View, or
to use an automated option and then edit the results manually. The
automated results were very good in this case and only needed
some minor adjustments to create nice deformations g.
Character design
problems and solutions
There is a big diference between stills and animation
when it comes to creating and preparing assets. When e
working on a still it is possible to cut a lot of corners
topology doesnt have to be perfect, meshes can be very
dense, textures might not be seen close-up and so can
be lower resolution. When making an animation,
however, every stage of the process is going to take
longer: a mesh that needs to deform must have good
topology, an animated character must also have a
manageable mesh density for fast playback in the
viewport. Textures might need to be seen in close-up as
well as from far away, so every asset needs much more
thought and preparation for it to hold up under every
possible situation you might require in the animation.
This means that as well as all the time spent
animating and rigging, you generally need to allow for
more time when it comes to asset creation. This means
you get the best outcome that you are capable of. In this
case I spent just as long on the assets as I did on the
rigging and animating. Three weeks were spent building
the set and characters and another three weeks on the
actual production. f g
32 3D Art & Design

08Utilise the new

Pose tool The Pose Create the
tool is a really great feature for
anyone who needs to animate set texture
a character quickly. It is
essentially a very exible and I wanted the set to have a
powerful tool for posing your handmade feel and look
skeleton without having to build like a stop-motion set. In
any rigging controls. I was able order to do this I
downloaded some
to use simple kinematics to
photographic textures
rotate joints in the normal way,
from www.cgtextures.
and then by activating the Pose com. I used both modo
tool I could have on-the-y and Photoshop to
Inverse Kinematics (IK) in any handpaint extra layers of
part of my skeleton. Its also grime using custom
possible to add real IK and use brushes to simulate
it in conjunction with the Pose scratched paintwork and
tool, but its not strictly stains of various kinds.
necessary. This tool saved me For the tinfoil moon and
many hours of rigging work, stars I sculpted some
making this a relatively wrinkles and created a
h
short-term project h. metallic material with
some additional bump
maps for extra creases.
The key to creating
convincing textures is
mostly patience, time and
attention to detail. I spent
more time on the textures
for the set than I did on
the modelling, because in
this particular case the
textures create the vast
majority of the details. In
order to further reinforce
the stop-motion feel I
used very shallow depth
of eld to make the
results more
photographic, and the
fact that the focus is
sometimes briey of also
helps to create the illusion
of a real camera. The nal
touches in postproduction
to add some glare around
the highlights and a tiny
bit of vignetting were also
aimed at increasing the
photographic feel
achieved in the lm.
i
d Using modos excellent Render
Preview makes material creation
09Go to the Actors and Poses option Another nice

workow tool is the Actors and Poses feature, which
enabled me to store poses and recall them later. I dened actors by
very quick
e The lighting was intended to

mimic a stop-motion animation,
selecting the rig for my main character and another one for the with the character isolated by a
spotlight positioned above him
dragon, then I could set up the key poses for the action and reuse
them in later sequences. This was particularly useful for repetitive f The smart bone positioning in
actions such as the wings apping. I was also able to set up smaller modo ensures that your bones
are always placed correctly
selection sets as Actors, which I did on the hands so that I could inside your mesh
reuse hand poses throughout the animation i.
g Weights can be adjusted with
10
modos paint tools, or with the
Morph map workow Once the basic poses had been Weight tool
blocked out the next step was to create morph targets for
both the facial expression and for corrective modelling on some of h With the Pose tool you can
animate a character with
the deformed poses. With modo you can model and sculpt in pose minimal rigging or setup time
space, making the task of creating corrective morphs very
i With the Actors an Poses
straightforward and in the Deformers List you can organise the feature, you can dene a motion
order in which morphs and bone deformers are triggered. This way to be used repeatedly
facial expressions can be red before the skeleton poses, but
j Morphs can be used for facial
corrective morphs afterwards. This gives animators a lot of j animation and for corrective
exibility with their use of morphs j. modelling on deformed meshes
3D Art & Design 33

Character
Character control
Fine-tune the rough animation
Richard Yot Morph fallofs can be
I am an illustrator that specialises in making quirky
animated to add an extra
layer of subtlety to your
Think pace
characters and quirky little worlds for them to live in. I
like giving my CG work some of the charm of handmade
facial animations and contrast
things and use photorealism with a twist to create One way of helping a
something a little imperfect. story along is with pacing
and contrasts. The start
of the animation is
deliberately slow to
reinforce the idea that the
character is sleepy, the
nal section is paced
much faster as a
k deliberate contrast, the
diference between the
Rufus modo (2011) two helps to tell the story.
This bad tempered l The editing was also
little mutt is part of a instrumental in this, with
family of not-really slow dissolves used in the
wooden characters. rst part and fast cuts in
Hes noisy and the second to emphasise
irritating, like any self- the change in mood.
respecting small dog
should be. l Workow in modo frees you up
to spend more time on content
rather than technical aspects
m A simple rig for controlling eye

movement, that can also be
overridden when necessary
Vinyl monster
ZBrush, modo (2012)
If he had some brains, he would be scary. Part of a series of
virtual vinyl monsters created for 3D Artist magazine.
11Morph fallofs Most deformers can be attenuated with fallofs and this applies to morphs
too, adding another layer of control and subtlety. I was able to model quite extreme versions of
my characters expressions and then use Spherical Fallofs to modulate how and when they appeared
over his face. This enables for much subtler morph map animation and also for more movement. For
example I animated the gulp by creating a simple morph map of the throat but created the movement
by animating the fallof which made the throat move as it owed over the morph map k.
12Aim for emotion With most of the technical work done and the basic poses and
expressions blocked in, the most important part of the work could then proceed: the
performance. Animation is essentially about conveying emotions and maybe humour and its
Vlad modo, ZBrush important not to lose sight of this. Because modo enables such a rapid workow with the Pose tool
(2011) and the minimal rigging, I was able to spend more time working with the character and his emotions
A virtual ppier rather than spending time on technical tasks such as building rigs or setting up IK l.
mach monster with
a big mouth and even
bigger tongue. Hes
not as scary as he
13Animate the eyes With this particular character design (although this is true of almost any
character), most of the expression had to be conveyed in the eyes. The big mouth lends the
design a lot of humour and quirkiness, but is limiting in terms of animation since it doesnt have the
thinks, and being pink realism of a less-extreme design. This meant I had to take great care animating the eyes and I used the
doesnt help.
lower lids extensively to convey the characters emotions. I made a basic rig using locators and
direction constraints and another really simple rig to control the eyelids m.
34 3D Art & Design
Final animation and edit

5days
render tim
e
Resolution
Once the final touches are complete, its time to edit the film 1,920 x 1,08 :
0
n o
14Place cold sweat In the sequence where the boy wakes

up suddenly, I needed to create many little beads of sweat
forming over his face. These were done with a replicator system
that used the face as a point source and a map was painted to
control their placement. Then it was simply a case of animating
their size over time to create the illusion of the character breaking
into a cold sweat n.
15Use the Graph Editor The nal step in the animation

process was to tweak the Curves and the timing by
manipulating the Curves in the Graph Editor. The Graph Editor in
modo also has some useful controls for setting up repeating
actions such as the dragons wings in ight. I could animate them
once and set the action to repeat o. p
16Render the animation Because the raw animation was

almost two minutes long at full HD it was rendered on a
commercial render farm, taking a few days to render out all the
sequences. In order to keep things manageable, I broke the
animation up into short sequences that could be rendered
separately. Each sequence was rendered with extra footage at the
start and end so I could have some space to work when making my
nal edit p.
17Final composition and edit Finally everything was put

together in After Efects. Magic Bullet Photolooks was used
to add some bloom and vignetting. All of the depth of eld efects
were created in the raw modo renders rather than post as this
gives much more realistic results. Audio was added at the edit
stage and all the nal decisions on timing and pacing were left until
the very end. I began the editing stage with some rough viewport
renders while the animation was in the render farm to save time q.
Ideas and story

The story ideas were being revised all through the
process and I didnt settle on an ending until the
animation was almost complete. I had initially started
with a darker direction that was potentially funnier, but it
wasnt right for this project so I toned it down. But then I
wasnt really happy with the ending so I kept
storyboarding diferent ideas right up to the eleventh
hour when I settled on the nal version. This is a normal
process with any animation, because if theres even a
small chance of improving the work before its too late
then that chance is worth taking.
n The beads of sweat were p The new, improved render

created with a replicator that window in 601 is much more
was animated to increase user-friendly than seen in
gradually over time previous versions
o The Graph Editor can be used to q All of the nal editing,

q quickly set up repeating actions compositing and efects work
as well as for tweaking timings was done in After Efects
3D Art & Design 35

Character
ZBrush Maya mental ray Photoshop
Create a
high-res creature
Desert creature 2012
With this project we wanted to create something a little different, so we mixed a few
different creature styles together. We had a vision of a desert-dwelling creature, but a
desert from another world that was dry but cool Daniel Crossland is a senior character artist
T
he aim of this tutorial is to give an overview create this creature. We were keen on the idea of a into 3D. I will now show you how to go about
of how to go about taking a concept and desert-dwelling creature on the side of cute but still making an asset to be shaded, lit and nally
translating that into a nished render. In grotesque, much akin to some of the creatures from rendered in Maya. Ill also cover how I optimise my
my job I have the great fortune of working around the recent lm John Carter. scenes for more streamlined rendering when
really talented people, so I asked Daniel Baker, a After taking Daniels concept I made block- memory can be an issue, and how to composite the
senior concept artist here at Ninja Theory, to help outs in ZBrush to check the concept translated well nal scene.
36 3D Art & Design

Create a high-res creature
A
Easy-to-follow guides
to the nal render
Artist info
Daniel Crossland 01 Use a ZSphere rig Because the character has many
appendages I prefer to make a basic ZSphere rig. This
approach is far better then modelling a base in 3D as I can pose
Username: Pteropus
the rig, make global changes to the proportions and easily make
an Adaptive Skin mesh to lay my basic forms down a.
www.dancrossland.co.uk
Country UK b
Software used
ZBrush, Maya, mental ray,
Photoshop
Expertise Specialist areas
include character design,
concepts, high-detailed sculpts
and 3D modelling
Sculpting
Texturing
Lighting 02 Work with DynaMesh Daniel provided me with
some silhouettes of the creature. A strong silhouette
can inform the design and is enough to make some design
sculpts in ZBrush, so from this point on I make an Adaptive Skin
from my ZSphere rig, providing a new ZTool to start sculpting
Concept on. With this done I hit Use DynaMesh under the Geometry
panel and started to sculpt. I spend a couple of hours at this
We started by discussing stage just playing with the forms. These will act as conceptual
the direction for the meshes for you to base the nal model on. Having a workable
character and, knowing asset early on makes projects run much smoother b.
Daniels designs, I knew it
was going to be something
unique. After exploring a c
few ideas we both liked
the louse concept
a A ZSphere rig can quickly

03 The digital sculpt process Digital sculpting with
DynaMesh is now very much like working as a
traditional sculptor. I like not having to worry about topology so
lay your model out ready I can just sculpt and let the model grow organically.
for basic sculpting
You always have enough resolution with DynaMesh. If you
b Here we aim to block in choose when to tessellate the model, by hitting Cmd/Ctrl and
major forms. Only a dragging a box outside your model it will update the mesh with
strong and accurate
new geometry to work with. I keep my meshes low and really
foundation for the work
will ensure our success simple. Once basic feature planes are blocked in, I then rene
the sculpts main masses into denite volumes that are
c Using DynaMesh, we need Its essential that the polished with the hPolish brush. The modelling process for me
to clean the mesh and concept sketch translates
sculpt the basic volumes is mainly to retopologise my DynaMesh tools so they can go to
well into 3D
ready for rening a rene pass, which cleans any artefacts c.
3D Art & Design 37

Character
New topology
Transfer the sculpt to clean topology
d d The model
with polished
major forms
04 Renement pass At this stage I work up the sculpt
to a rened state. All the main muscle masses and the
skin quality are built but not in high-frequency detail. If we were
to detail with too many wrinkles and too much noise early, we
e The nal
character pose could lose the primary masses. Without these smaller details
we dont have structure to keep the model together. For this
f The louse pass I use my favourite brush, Clay Tubes, to place muscle. The
after a
detail pass Pinch brush also tightens areas and inates at a very low
setting to add volume where needed. I work each area of the
face, smoothing as I go along. To tighten the primary wrinkles I
switch to a high-specular MatCap and with the Dam Standard
brush to go over the model, adding criss-cross marks to make
only the major wrinkles. I polish these afterwards by stroking
the hPolish brush lightly over the entire model, one area at a
time, to complete the renement d.
05 Remain exible In my day job, the ability to be

exible to change is of the utmost importance. We
tried lots of diferent poses using the Transpose tool in ZBrush,
and Dan worked some pose silhouette thumbnails so we could
explore further. In the end, we xed the pose to be more
hunched over, where the character is slightly turned to look at
the viewer. Once the stance was xed I did some corrective
sculpting around the joints. Its best to x this before going on
to high-frequency detail. You are safe to then concentrate 100
e f per cent on those nal details, assured that your pose will work
for the nal angle of the shot e.
06 High-detail pass Once Im around Level 6, I divide

my mesh using HD sculpting. This takes my model to
ten million polys per SubTool. By hitting the A key over an area
of the sculpt, I go into HD mode. The main reason Ive recently
started using HD sculpting is because then I can also use HD
PolyPainting, which makes creating texture maps much quicker.
As long as I sculpt the detail into my model, its all there for
making masks and painting. For detailing I use a combination of
the Standard brush with the modier set to around 30. This will
use the Push and Pinch functions, which work really well for the
wrinkles. Additionally, I usually tighten them with Pinch and
steady strokes, with some more Dam Standard brush thrown in
to deepen the crevices f.
Daniel Crossland
My fascination with art started at the age of
four and it continues to fascinate me to this
day. Im currently senior character artist at
Ninja Theory and in a lot of my work I like
to focus on traditional art skills by looking
at anatomy and real clay sculpture. I nd Fetal skull Maya, ZBrush (2010) Udasaur Maya, ZBrush (2011)
this keeps me focused on pushing my art. I I modelled this skull as part of some learning I sculpted this creature based on one of the creatures from The
try to replicate the same level of realism sculpts, to improve in sculpting and the World of King Kong natural history book. This creature didnt
and quality in my digital work. development of form appear in the lm so I took the chance to realise it in ZBrush
38 3D Art & Design

Create UV maps Problems

and solutions
Prepare the model for lighting and texturing Once I have my rened
sculpt I prepare the model
for rendering. This means
g h making some new
topology from which we
can make UVs for
texturing. I currently use
Silo at work to create new
topology, but there are
many other options to
create new meshes, as
long as you have the ability
in your program to draw
polygons and get them to
snap to your high-res
source. Keep in mind the
direction and ow of the
polys you draw, as good
directions will facilitate
your sculpting and also
optimise your model for
the rendering stage.
After making my new
mesh I can now project
my DynaMesh sculpt onto
07
it. There are a few options
Steps for setting up UVs To set up my UVs I use i to get this to work, but
UV Layout Pro. Switching all my creature SubTools to assuming the models are
Level 0, I export my meshes and load them in for unwrapping. pretty well surfaced, each
By marking where we want our seams, we can extract those should be fairly
meshes into pieces for attening. Once I have clean UVs with straightforward. In short,
you need to bring in your
no distortion, I import them back into ZBrush over my original new mesh, subdivide it
meshes with these new UV versions. This updates the tools so four times and then go to
I can now bake and paint my maps g. Project to get the detail
from your DynaMesh.
08
Usually there will be a
Eyes, claws and spines Once the main body is clean up of this mesh
resolved I add additional geometry to the eyes, spines where the projection has
and claws. I model these in Softimage and add them as a broken, such as under the
separate SubTool. Using the same workow I add UVs and do a arms. I clean this then
sculpt pass to add some details h. move to the polish phase
of the sculpt.
09 Bake maps Next I bake out the base maps that I will
use later for textures. To set up my textures in ZBrush
I set my resolution under the UV section, choosing the highest
g Distortion-free UVs
h Additional features
map bake of 4,000 and maximising the edge bleed to 16 pixels
so I have no issue with seams on my normals. I then drop down i The ZBrush multimap
exporter at work
to Level 0 and use a multimap exporter to bake out my Normal
map, Displacement map and PolyPaint in one go i. j Texture map bases
Corpus
ZBrush,
Maya (2011)
This piece
was created
10 Paint the bases Painting the bases is pretty simple. I like to roughly match some basic
SSS colours so the model will give a good appearance of skin when I come to render. In
this step I block in Photoshop colour by lling with basic skin values using the Paint Bucket tool. In
for a 3D print. this case the skin is quite cool, so I add a blue Overlay layer on top of my bakes from ZBrush and
Eventually it
will be cast balance them so theyre not too strong. I make a map for each slot that includes an epidermal,
out in bronze subdermal, backscatter, Difuse and an Overall map. Making these basic block-ins will give me a
good idea of how to treat the skin and the feeling of the work before getting into ne detail j.
3D Art & Design 39

Character
Move into Maya

Take the model and lay a foundation for the light rig
11 Export meshes from ZBrush Exporting meshes has

never been easier. I use GoZ to export all my meshes out
for light tests at the same time. I always build my models to
k
real-world scale so the SSS setting will be relative and wont

cause any issues with my skin shading. I set Maya to
centimetres, import my OBJs, and in the Object Properties set
my Geometry to Visible In Reections and In Refractions. This
is necessary when bringing in meshes from ZBrush k.
12 Pre-visualise light Dan and I had a brief discussion

on how the character should be lit and felt that we
would like to avoid the typical warm earthy tones. Instead we
both felt a cooler palette would look a little more sinister and
also convey a strange landscape. This would bring an almost
twilight feel, like the character was lit by moonlight. I did some
basic lighting studies before I set up the nal lighting l.
13 Light the scene I always apply my lighting in another

Maya le so I can better concentrate. I use a low-res
proxy mesh of the creature to do my light tests. I have two key
lights and one back light; additionally I use some bounce cards
with incandescence only to add bounce light when using nal
gather. I use area lights with the Mia Portal shader plugged into l
them, which gives bounce light efects so you can take it easy
on nal gather samples and speed up render times. In the
portal light attributes, I tick Enable Sky Portal and tweak the
Intensity multiplier until the image is the correct brightness. At
this stage I also plug the MR photographic shader into the lens
of my camera, along with a blackbody node that will simulate
real work values. This will enable me to essentially take a digital
photograph of my model and make use of realistic camera
efects, such as bokeh. I build up efects such as depth and m
bokeh in another pass, which I blend later in Photoshop as they
can take time to render m.
14 Subsurface scatter Here I add the SSS shading

networks to the body shell and eyes. I begin by blocking
out each component of the SSS efect on its own by switching
of the backscatter and subdermal scatter. I concentrate on
Epidermal Weight and Radius values, going through each
element in the same way before nally adding them together
and doing test renders, balancing the efect as I go. I like to get
the SSS looking as good as possible before plugging any maps
into the channels. Once the correct values have been achieved
for the skin, I polish these shaders with maps n.
k Use GoZ to export out of m Taking numerous light tests

ZBrush for light tests is an essential stage
l Lighting can make or break n Add SSS shading before

an artwork, so be careful plugging any maps in
n n
40 3D Art & Design

4
Skin shading in mental ray render time
hours
Set up the skin in Maya Resolution:

4,000 x 3,000
o
15 Texture renement To make textures I use ZBrush

and PolyPaint. As mentioned, for high-res sculpting I
switch to HD. I also do my PolyPainting at HD levels so I have
p
plenty of pixels to play with. By masking my model by cavity I

can isolate the raised parts and begin painting some light q
Final
colours into each cavity of the mesh. This works really well and
gives you a really detailed map to use in your rendering. I thoughts
usually paint lots of splatter and noise into the map, adding I think when creating a
veins and other imperfections to really sell the image. character like this the
Scattering the brushes with an alpha and spraying strokes adds design is really important.
great depth to your maps. I use this along with a spotlight to You have to feel good
about what you are
blend imperfections from real photographs into the skin o.
producing, otherwise I
nd it doesnt ow as well
16 Build the nal render scene For rendering I add all

the OBJs that make up my creature at a mid-level mesh.
I use Level 3 so I dont have to displace to any great detail, as
as it should.
In this industry we have
really open critiques,
displacements can soon eat up lots of memory if used to which helps push design
further than it might
displace the high-frequency details. For this model I use a usually go. Making
combination of Displacement and Normal maps. I use a concept sketches or a
Displacement map on the body and shell to take the model up digital sculpt sketch is
to a smooth result, then Normal and Bump maps for ne now possible, and I feel
has really opened up
details. This is faster for your machine when it comes to more creative workows.
rendering and gives you great control of the details as you add As a result we can now
them into your model. I then check that everything is working see just how a model will
with a test render at small dimensions, to make sure there are o Build up the skin p With all the elements look before going into full
no nasty surprises before I hit the Render button p. using HD PolyPainting for an added we can start the production. I feel this is a
impressive efect test render process great advancement and
has beneted my
17 Finalise the image The image took me about a week

of balancing the SSS shaders with the scene to get the
result I wanted. Test rendering constantly at small dimensions
q Finishing touches
workow tremendously.
I have always felt that
studying traditional art is
is essential, and using the Render Region tool to focus and the best recipe to follow
in creating successful
rene areas before making any decisions gives great exibility. artwork, and that remains
Because of using a streamlined workow with no high FG true. Theres a lot to cover
samples, I could make as many changes as I needed without in a short space on the
bogging my computer down. I composite the nal image in entire breakdown of this
character, so if you have
Photoshop and render it as a separate pass. Daniel made a
any specic questions
background plate of the environment that was composited and feel free to contact me via
graded into the render. This was then dropped in behind the my website.
model along with images of dirt to add a grungy feel. With Good luck with your
further balancing of all layers, I colour correct the main passes own artistic endeavours!
to nish the image q.
3D Art & Design 41

Character
Sculpting
Texturing
ZBrush Photoshop
42 3D Art & Design

Sculpt an epic beast

Pteroscent: The Blue Hour 2012
The attention to detail and anatomy in Carlos Huantes awless
work is inspiring! Here weve tried to capture the intense creature
take you from concept expression he does so well, in a ZBrush sculpt
to the nal render Jamie-lee Lloyd Is a character artist for Rockstar North
Artist info
I Concept
n this tutorial we will cover the process to create
2012 C.Huante. anatomytools.com

a creature from scratch using the new tools in Carlos Huantes creature
ZBrush. We will mainly focus on DynaMesh and its concepts are insanely
ability to enable free-form sculpting without the detailed and very well
constraints of topology. We will take you through the thought out. The powerful
stages of sculpting and show how you can quickly pose and facial expression
Jamie-lee Lloyd extract, append and duplicate parts to improve your of this vampire bat really
bring this bust to life! The
Personal portfolio site design in no time at all.
details and bone structure
jamie-leelloyd.blogspot.co.uk The most enjoyable aspect of working this way is the are a great reference point,
Country UK
ability to keep the creative ball rolling and never having to and the silhouette is very
Software used
ZBrush, Photoshop leave the zone. We will essentially be taking a simple 3D appealing to me.
Expertise Jamie-lee is a primitive through the stages to a complete polished bust, I compiled a mood board
videogames character artist, without having to fret about jumping between packages of some of Huantes other creature sketches as reference for the
currently working for Rockstar sculpt. One of the challenges was to keep control of the design
North. He specialises in or hitting any snags. Well touch on posing and
character design, digital
it would be easy to make a mash up of all the diferent designs
PolyPainting the creature before hitting BPR and and end up with a something inconsistent.
sculpting and real-time assets
preparing for the nal illustration.
Pull shapes to create form

Create the base mesh and block in shape
01 Block from a sphere
Go to Lightbox>Tools and select PolySphere.
Navigate to the Tool>Geometry menu and click the
A
DynaMesh button. This will activate DynaMesh

mode, but at this point well keep the DynaMesh
resolution quite low so we can pull things around
easier. Move the Resolution slider to adjust.
Use the Move Elastic and Move brushes, with
Symmetry turned on, to pull the sphere into shape.
Change the brush sizes to target smaller areas, like
pulling out the neck. By holding Cmd/Ctrl and
dragging outside the canvas you can refresh
DynaMesh and always have topology to work with.
Pull the mesh around to get a rough bust shape
then use the Curve Tube brush to drag out the arms
(the size of the brush determines the thickness of the
tubes). Once dragged out, the bust will automatically
mask itself, enabling us to move or rotate the arms to
t them into place. When it looks okay, clear the
mask and update DynaMesh. You will see the arms
have been included in the mesh A.
To create the big ears, mask a section on the side
of the head, invert it, then use the Transpose tools to
move and rotate them into place. Update DynaMesh
as you pull out the ears they require more topology
to work with b.
A Pull the sphere around to create a simple bust shape

B Update DynaMesh with Cmd/Ctrl-drag to build the ears b
3D Art & Design 43

Character
Build up the forms

Continue blocking in your character
02 Block in the forms

c d
Next use the Move
and Clay Buildup brushes to
start roughly blocking in the
shape. At this point well keep
the proportions quite human,
just to get an idea of things. Use
some anatomical references at
this point, but dont get too
carried away with the details.
Using the Polish and Flatten
brushes will help give an idea of
some basic shape and forms.
These harder-planed areas will
act as reference points in the
next step when we start to
pose the bust c.
03 Open the mouth

and make a pose
We want to go for a similar
e
pose to the original Carlos

Huante bust, but before that
well try to get a better idea of
the mouth and jawline. By
thinking about the mouth area
at this early stage well make it
easier to nail the open scream
when posing.
Start by adding a bit more
resolution to the DynaMesh
and begin blocking in the brow
bones, nose and cheekbones.
Then paint a mask line across
the lip area, invert it and use
Transpose Move to push it
inside the head. Update
DynaMesh and push things
around inside this will be our
basic mouth d.
Next well begin the posing.
As our DynaMesh is still quite
low-res, we can blur masks
pretty well, enabling smooth f
transposing. With Symmetry
still on, use the Mask Lasso tool 04 First pass Begin again by adding a bit more resolution
to the mesh and start working in the medium forms
relative to the new pose. With the same method used in Step 1, pull
to select parts of the bust you
want to efect. Blur the mask to up the nose ap and adjust the ears. Again, with the Clay Buildup
get a nice smooth ow of and Standard brushes, work in a rough idea of the underlying
topology when youre rotating bones and muscles while dening some eshy areas. You can also
them. Well try to rotate from push the mouth area inside and adjust the cheeks around it g.
the areas where the bone
would actually pivot from, for
example rotating the jawbone
to open the mouth e.
Push the bust forward from
the stomach, rotate the arms
back and lift the head up. Well
pull the neck forward slightly,
and drop the shoulders before
using the Move tool to adjust
small bits like the area around
the mouth. You can mimic a
pose in the mirror it helps to c Roughly add simple shapes to get e The rough, blocked forms
an idea of proportion and form sculpted earlier should help with
get the lines right and pick up reference points to make the
on subtle details but just make d Rotate from the jaw pivot posing quite relative, and keep
sure no-one walks in on you f! to open the mouth the proportions intact g
44 3D Art & Design

Create the teeth and gums

Append spheres and duplicate to shape the mouth
05 Extract gums and teeth To get a better idea of the expression, were going to need teeth
and gums. Hide everything but the mouth area and paint masks where we want the gums.
Click the Tool>Geometry menu and select Extract. Our mask is extracted into geometry on a new
Subtool. You can adjust the Thickness of the extract with the slider click Accept to keep it. Well then
use DynaMesh on the extracted gums to move them into place.
For the teeth we use the same technique as in Step 1, append a sphere, scale it down and position it
in the mouth, then duplicate it and move one inside the mouth. Well form a tooth out of the rst
sphere and use the second to create the tongue. By activating Transparency and Ghost modes, you
can adjust the tongue through the face and position it easily h.
We duplicate the teeth and then move/scale them into place. Work in a rough pass to get them
h looking decent, then adjust the whole mouth area to get the expression working i.
06 Duplicate parts
and add a mesh
We want to add large shapes to
j
the back to help the silhouette,

so duplicate the main bust and
hide the rest. Start by choosing
Slice Curve (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift
from the Brush menu) and
draw around the ear hit Opt/
Alt to curve the line. When
Polyframe is selected, youll see
that the Slice Curve has created
a new Polygroup for the ear.
With Select Rectangle
highlighted, press Cmd/
k
07 Complete the
second pass
Now the main forms are in
Ctrl+Shift and click on the ear
isolating the Polygroup. Select place, deactivate DynaMesh
Del Hidden from the Geometry and begin the second sculpting
Subpalette to leave just the ear, pass. Its good to have room for
which we place over the further subdividing now
original bust and position using DynaMesh is of but if you
the Move brush. Adjust it to dont, you can always turn
make a breathing duct feature DynaMesh back on with a
on the characters back, then lower resolution selected.
merge it down onto the bust. Use the Clay brush to work
With the bust and the new in the muscles and bones, and
back detail as one Subtool, the Standard brush to
continue to add the skin aps emphasise tendons and eshy
a really nice feature of areas. At this point well
Huantes work. Choose the append a sphere to the bust,
Curve Tri Fill brush and draw place it in the eyesocket, use
the ap shape across the chest the Clay Buildup tool to push
and arms. the socket back and build up
Well then use the Move the lids around the eyeball. Use
brush and Transpose tool to Select Rectangle to isolate the
position the ap. Deselect the eye area to get in close k.
mask and activate DynaMesh
to remesh the bust, back details h Turn on Transparency and Ghost i Scale the teeth and mouth j Use Polygroups to build up k Press Mirror and Weld in the
and skin aps into one j. to adjust the tongue through the into place to capture the details and enhance the Geometry Subpalette to ip the
entire face extreme expression silhouette shape bust around
3D Art & Design 45

Character
Refine and paint your creature

Add the final details and PolyPaint your masterpiece
Since were using ZBrush
08 The rening pass 09 PolyPaint and asymmetry
At this point, we use
the highest subdivision level to
to render well use PolyPaint to colour the bust, as no UVs
are needed and we have enough resolution to get great results.
l
rene the details. Pick the Clay Merge the bust with the other Subtools and apply a rough base
Buildup brush to add subtle colour to the whole model (Color>Fill object). Well then use
bres to the muscles, and the Transpose Move while holding Cmd/Ctrl to mask separate
Standard brush to dene the elements like the teeth and then ll them with their own colour.
taut and loose skin, paying Repeat this for the eyes, gums and the tongue. With Symmetry
attention to how it stresses and activated, start painting some tonal variation with the RGB
relaxes around the pose. Use Intensity set to around 30. Add warm tones to the eshy areas and
the Dam Standard brush to cut darker desaturated tones to cavities, such as where the pectorals
wrinkles, followed by the Inat meet and behind the collar bones. Deactivate Symmetry and add
brush to build up the skin subtle tonal variations using the Spray brushes. Apply warm
especially around the eyes shades to break the contrast and give it a eshier feel, then add
and the bridge of the nose, lighter tones where the bones push against the skin. Finally, use the
where the expression forces DragRect stroke with various alphas to add patterns onto the skin
the skin to fold up. Add a new and give a sense of underlying veins. Rotate the head and drop a
layer with custom Alphas to shoulder to break up symmetry and use the Move brush to make
add high-frequency details l. subtle changes by ofsetting features m.
Now the bust is ready

m
10 Rendering and presentation
for the nal illustration, open a new document, click Double
Size twice and hit the AA Half button. Draw the model onto the
canvas and nd a suitable view. We decided to use a dramatic
front-on view with eye contact. For this we will ramp the
perspective up to about 150, which with the depth of eld should
be quite intimidating. Pick a suitable MatCap shader to
complement the PolyPaint. Go to Render>Render Properties and
turn on the passes you require, the quality settings for each pass is
located underneath. Experiment with various settings, mainly
adjusting the BPR Shadow and BPR AO Rays. Press the BPR button
in the BPR render pass to start rendering. When youre happy with
the results, click on the various pass icons to save them to a le on
your desktop. Well also render custom LightCaps and some
standard MatCaps to experiment with.
Composite the render passes in Photoshop. Applying the Mask
pass enables us to paint the background with colour washes that
set the mood. Paint in layers of smoke around the bust to add
atmosphere before applying the depth of eld. Paint over the nal
result, adding details and specular highlights n.
l Skin pores and impurities are added using custom alphas m Use DynaMesh to create the lines of saliva in the mouth. n Experiment extensively with Overlay and
with the Standard brush and Drag Rectangle Pull them out from the middle to suggest a powerful exhale of air adjustment layers to wrap it up
46 3D Art & Design

Gallery
Artist info
Nathan Boyd
Nathan is a texture painter at
Sony Pictures Imageworks and
loves lms, art and computers
www.nathanboydart.com
Country USA
Software used Maya, MARI,
Photoshop, ZBrush
Work in progress
I wanted to make a portrait-style image

focusing on the textural detail of the mask. I
attempted to maximise the contrast and dramatic
effect of the image with Chiaroscuro lighting.
Caravaggios Tenebrism works were a great
inspiration and guide Nathan Boyd, Firebomb, 2012
3D Art & Design 47
Character
Design striking
characters
to the nal render
Artist info
Kurt Papstein
Leona 2012
Username: Ikameka
A fun and vibrant character creation thats a
http://ikameka.blogspot.com little different to my gritty or hyper-real works
Country USA
Software used Kurt Papstein is a character and creature artist working at Turtle Rock Studios in southern California
T
ZBrush, Photoshop
Expertise Kurt specialises in his tutorial will demonstrate how to go about Insert brushes to block in the proportions and body parts
digital sculpting, creature concepting a full character in ZBrush. We will take of the character. We will also cover how to create all of the
design, and all kinds of
character creation using ZBrush this piece all the way to the end of the pipeline, props and accessories with the new Topology brush.
starting from a sketch, which well translate into a 3D Each step in this tutorial will have something for
concept to build our nal character from. After exploring everyone and will be focused on sharing some of the
with digital clay youll end up with a detailed 3D gure. newer features of ZBrush 4R4. This tutorial is just the tip
We will rst go over how you can start translating your of the iceberg, but hopefully it will inspire you to take your
ideas using DynaMesh, then well take advantage of Mesh sculpting further and to be more creative with your tools.
Concept with DynaMesh

Build a rough sculpt to guide the modelling process
01Dene the body Well start the project by
constructing the main body in DynaMesh. Im using
a concept sketch as a guide. We want to accomplish two
things here: rst we need to lock down the characters core
proportions, which is why we start with the torso and the
head. Having them in place will make it easier to build out
the limbs. The second goal at this stage is to establish a
solid foundation to build the clothing, props and
accessories on a.
02Use Mesh Insert brushes To build out the rest

of her body, well use a lot of the default tools and
Mesh Insert brushes located in ZBrush. Using IMM BParts
a in your Brush menu, you can drag out some quick arms
and legs onto your character. Once placed, you can further
sculpt on them and rene the proportions. Well also
change DynaMeshs Blur setting to zero and activate Polish
in order to have a more accurate and clean-looking C
concept sculpt b.
a Starting with a DynaMesh
03 Finish the concept We should now have sphere at a resolution of

12, we can proceed to
everything blocked in. We have all the major block in the character
shapes (the body) and medium shapes (the suit) sculpted
roughly onto the model. We also currently have one b Use the default body parts
Insert Multi Mesh brush to
SubTool, with everything on it. Its a little dense in topology, esh out the body
but thats okay for what we need. The point of this
completed model is to act as a blueprint for us to build new c Major and medium shapes
are dened on one
assets. Some of it will be saved in the end, but for the most SubTool; smaller details
B part it will be disposed of before were nished c. are saved for later
48 3D Art & Design

Design striking characters
KP_Bags.ZBP
KP_Buckles.ZBP
KP_PackBuckle.ZTL
KP_Polybag.ZTL
KP_Spacegirl.ZTL
Concept
I wanted to revisit an older
character idea to experiment with
some of the new features in ZBrush
4R4. Creating this character in 3D
has been a really fun challenge,
which has pushed me as an artist.
Software used
in this piece
ZBrush Photoshop
Kurt ofers his top

workow advice for
helmet creation on
page 51
3D Art & Design 49

Character
Piece it together Model using PolyGroups and

Transpose options
Use the Topology brush to build SubTools Using masking and PolyGroups we can do some precision
04Topology brush basics

modelling with our Transpose line. I use the Move Transpose
This is where we start building all the separate pieces, line to universally inate the PolyGroup I have selected
with our original sculpt as a guide. Select the Topology brush in the Brush palette through masking. If you Ctrl/right-click inside the outer
and begin drawing edges on your model to dene a piece of the armour. Wherever the handle and drag, the Transpose line will do a universal
ination to the mesh. I do this for the inner PolyGroups as
curves intersect, a vertex will form. By using Symmetry, the curves will automatically snap to well, to push them in further and create more of an edge.
the centre. To delete a curve, hold Opt/Alt and draw over it with another curve. This
function will also clear any unused curves if you hold Opt/Alt and draw on an empty area
of the model d. E
05Create the mesh In order to turn our orange

preview mesh into an actual piece of geometry, we
have to adjust a few things. First we want to adjust our
brush size, as this will directly afect how thick the model
Sculpt the suit were creating will be. A value of 100 will create a very thick
Once the body is blocked in extrusion of geometry from our topology curves, whereas a
we can start sculpting all of value of 0 will create single-sided polygons. Then all you
the suit details onto our need to do is click on the mesh to generate some new
surface. If you dont feel geometry from the curves e.
comfortable sculpting on your
model, you can always
duplicate it in your SubTool list
and continue working on the
duplicate. For this step, I use
my organic sculpting brushes
like Clay Buildup and Dam_
Standard to build the forms
and carve in the shapes. I say
shapes rather than details
because at this point you
shouldnt be worried about
the small stuf. You only want
to construct the shapes and
think about the overall design.
F G
d Use fewer curves to keep
06Split the model 07Work with low geometry

the topology low
Currently our new geometry is At this stage its really
e The new geometry thats combined with the original sculpt. We want to split easy to manipulate the geometry to be exactly how
created from our Topology this mesh into its own SubTool so that we can easily control we want it. To move vertices around, we use the Move
brush curves
it in the later steps. To do this, simply hide either the sculpt brush. By turning its brush size down to 1, well be able to
f The new geometry is now geometry or the new Topology mesh and open up the Split move only one vert at a time. This is extremely useful, as
split into a SubTool using the sub-menu inside the SubTool menu. Notice now that there this way you dont accidentally move other vertices around
new Split Hidden feature
are hidden meshes, Split Hidden becomes active. This is a it. The brush size is very similar to a soft selection in a
g Using the Move brush and new feature in ZBrush 4R4. By pressing this button, program like 3ds Max. You can also quickly clean up these
Clip Curve to adjust vertices anything hidden will be split into a new SubTool. Be careful faces by using the Clip Curve tool to manipulate multiple
at a low-poly stage
you arent splitting any of the new geometry apart f. vertices along the same plane g.
50 3D Art & Design
08Edge creasing Edge Crease is ZBrushs way of managing smoothing groups. A

crease denes a hard edge, so even when you subdivide your mesh with Smt turned Pro tips for helmet design
on, those edges will remain hard. Open the Crease drop-down under the Geometry
sub-menu, located in the Tool menu. To quickly crease the object, click Crease All. You can Here we have my three-step workow solution for great
also control your creasing by hiding certain parts of the mesh and clicking Crease or helmet designs. This is a simplied version of the
character tutorial, showing you how you can take the same
Uncrease. This is an easy way to keep areas rigid, without sculpting them manually later h.
steps and apply them to a simple object or prop to enhance
your character creations
Concept with DynaMesh

To begin, I simply append a sphere into my tool to act as the
helmet. I move it into place on the characters head and turn
H DynaMesh on. Because of its size in space you may need to
turn the resolution of DynaMesh up to get the information
you need. We still want to keep it as low as we can, because
we only want to capture the general shapes. Just like the
body armour, I use brushes like HPolish, Clay Buildup and
Dam_Standard to dene the design.
09Edge looping For this step, were going to use the outer PolyGroups to create
additional Edge Loops on the model for some mechanical details. By hiding the outer DynaMesh with Groups
and inner shells, we are left with the side PolyGroups. Once they are hidden, open the Edge I turn Groups on in the DynaMesh drop-down menu so I can
Loop drop-down in the Geometry sub-menu and click the Edge Loop button. By default it add more meshes without fear of DynaMesh fusing them
will create four additional loops and PolyGroups. You can adjust this with the Loops slider. together. This is a really powerful way to stay organised in
your SubTool palette, by keeping things together with
Now we have new PolyGroups to mask with. You can inate them using the Deformation PolyGroups, without sacricing the freedom of DynaMesh. I
menu or your brushes i. apply some additional shapes using Mesh Insert primitives,
like the cylinder and the cube, then cut them into shape with
Clip Curve.
Finish up
Once were happy with the design and the overall shapes we
J can commit to it. Turn DynaMesh of, and begin subdividing
the mesh if we need to. I will now add detail with the usual
10Clean up the mesh

sculpting brushes, as well as alphas. This is also a good time
Weve now dened our mesh with additional Edge Loops, then to use some of our other Insert Mesh objects to add more
creased and nessed it into place with the Move brush and Clip Curve tool. Next well technical details, like plugs and straps.
start subdividing our mesh and smoothing some of the details out. You may notice some of
the creasing afecting areas you dont want it to, or that areas are just too crisp and h A combination of i Edge Loops are j A subdivided
jagged-looking. Divide your mesh more so that the Smoothing brush will have a smaller Crease and used to create mesh will enable
Uncrease when great additional you to iron things
impact on your geometry. Begin brushing some of these imperfections out to make a clean hiding areas to detail in your out without losing
surface without destroying the form j. get hard edges base mesh the overall shape
3D Art & Design 51

Character
Add some detail

Sculpt the small pieces to bring everything to life
11Mesh Insert objects We now

have all of our meshes, complete
with subdivisions and creasing. They are
nally ready for some additional details,
so we will now go through each SubTool
one at a time to add any Mesh Insert
objects that they need. Things like rivets,
straps, buckles and plugs are perfect
candidates for this step. First you will
want to duplicate the surface that needs
these Insert Meshes and delete its
subdivisions. This will act as a temporary
surface to place your objects on. When
you are done, simply delete using Delete
Hidden in the Modify Topology
drop-down under Geometry k. K
12Mechanical creasing With our smaller objects in

place as a separate SubTool, we can go back to our
larger shapes and begin sculpting some mechanical edges
and details. For this step well use brushes like
Dam_Standard once again, and the Pinch brush to create
clean cuts. To better control your brushwork you can turn on
the Lazy Mouse feature in the Stroke menu. This will then
average your hand movements out, making the detail come
out much smoother. You can adjust the efect of Lazy
Mouse by turning up the Lazy Radius slider l.
The little things

Using DynaMesh and Transpose modelling techniques, Ive created some custom Insert
brushes (supplied with this tutorial). By staying in Orthographic mode, you can easily
manipulate vertices and cut through your DynaMesh objects with precision. With this
tutorial you will nd an Insert Multi Mesh of unique bags, as well as buckles. These assets
can be used on just about anything, complete with PolyGroups for further customisation to
better suit your needs. Ive used these objects on the character, along with some existing
Insert Meshes like the IMM_Zipper to add further interest and detail to the character.
k Create duplicates of the

SubTools using Insert
Meshes as placeholders to
13Use alphas Having a large collection of alphas at
the ready is a must for any digital sculptor. If you
draw on without dont have any at hand, you can grab a bunch from the
subdivisions Pixologic Download Center (www.pixologic.com/
zbrush/downloadcenter), or you can create your own.
l Use brushes with Lazy
Mouse to create smooth Its best to create a unique look with your own alphas,
and even strokes but there are plenty out there to choose from. Here were
using the Standard brush, with DragRect as our stroke.
m Dragging out alphas onto
the surface to create subtle This enables us to drag out the details we want in a very
mechanical details precise way m. M
52 3D Art & Design

4 8
Finishing touches crea
hours
tion tim
Resolution e
Wrap up the character for its final presentation 1,252 x 2,016:
pixels
14PolyPaint with Masking To add some colour, start
by turning ZAdd or ZSub of from your brush and
turn on RGB. Once you have lled your mesh with a colour,
by either painting it or going to the Color menu and clicking
Fill Object, you can then add some more interest to the
PolyPaint through masking. Open your Masking sub-menu
under Tool and cycle through the diferent types. You can
invert these to afect other areas of the mesh. Use Mask By
Smoothness to pop details n.
15Custom materials As the artist you can use any

combination of materials or MatCaps that you want.
In this case, well stick to using SkinShade04 from the
Material list. Make slight modications for rubber, metal,
cloth and skin materials. The primary slider that well adjust
is the Specular slider, and the Specular curve. The general
rule of thumb is if the slider goes down, then the curve will
be more towards the centre, making the speculartiy more
subtle and broader. Also play with the Wax Modier for
each material to suit o. N
O
P
16Pose your character Using Transpose Master we

can move all of our SubTools at the same time. By
17Rendering and presentation For the nal presentation, take advantage of all the
clicking TPose Mesh in the Transpose plug-in under the BPR lters to pull out the best in your work. Some of the most applicable include
ZPlugin menu, all of the SubTools are merged at their lowest Sharpen, Orton and Blur. Each lter has settings that will change which part of the image it
resolution to be adjusted together. This is why it can be will afect. Blur works best with its depth sliders tuned to simulate lens efects. Its good to
really helpful to have low-poly base meshes. Through use Orton to brighten the lighting, excluding the shadows to create more contrast. With
Masking and Transpose rotations you can pose your some careful adjustments to the lters, and some additional efects in Photoshop like
character. When nished, click TPose to SubT to transfer the Render Lighting and Curves, you can nish your piece of in a really professional way q.
pose to the high-poly model. With Layer turned on before
transferring the pose back, the new changes will be applied
n Mask by Smoothness, and
as layers on all your SubTools p. Mask Peaks and Valleys to ll
the unmasked areas with colour
Light with LightCaps o Fill your meshes with your

material using Color: Fill with M
turned on your brush
LightCaps are a great way to control your lighting. You can
also use them to capture and render new lights from an p Using the Transpose Master
HDR image by loading them into the Background sub-menu plug-in with the Layers option
under the Light menu and clicking the LightCaps button. I try turned on will enable exibility
to keep it as simple as possible and will use ZBrushs default
light with one LightCap. This LightCap will usually be q BPR Filters and Photoshop
backlighting, with blue colouration and shadows turned of. compositing can be used to
Q enhance your renders
3D Art & Design 53

Character
Design and
create
Cricket Exo-Suit
an exosuit 2012
Explore the 3D and post-production
workow of this mechanical design,
based on the aesthetic of the Roach
Exo-Suit concept
Matthew Burke is a senior concept artist at
id Software based in Richardson, Texas
Download outdoor furniture

models by going to http://
tinyurl.com/bw6rkf8
3ds Max Photoshop
54 3D Art & Design

techniques behind
Artist info
Matthew Burke
Username: MBurke

http://mburke.cghub.com
Country Texas, USA
Software used
3ds Max, Photoshop
Expertise Matt specialises in
mechanical design and
hard-surface modelling
3D Art & Design 55

Character
Concept
I was asked to create a new exosuit to show my
workow when designing mechs in my Exosuit series.
So my goal with this image is to apply similar elements
and style to one of my other concepts: Roach Exo-Suit.
T
his tutorial will illustrate my personal process of
concept design, using only the tools inside 3ds Max
and Photoshop to create a mech exosuit model.
Explore your ideas
Throughout this tutorial you may nd yourself asking Why
didnt he just do that?, Wouldnt it make more sense to do this
Lets kick things off with the concept
instead? Well, gentle reader, if this proves to be the case, I
recommend listening to your gut and following your instincts.
My technique is a rats nest of online tutorials, a jumble of
advice from my peers, added to hours of desperate frustration.
You dont need to travel in my exact path, but perhaps youll
nd a kernel or two of wisdom from my unconventional
experience. At the very least I hope youll pull out a few tricks
to apply to your own workow.
Essentially we will be tackling my personal favourite subject:
designing a mech. Well start with the rough-poly concept,
move to detailing the model, apply some mental ray shaders,
then tackle our lighting. From this point Ill be able to walk you
through my post-production process in Photoshop and, with
any luck, well end up with a killer concept. So lets get started!
01 The essence of low-poly designs

First of all we need a rough foundation, so well create
a low-poly block-out of the mech design. However, before
your pencil hits the paper, or you move a single polygon, you
need to establish a general theme or idea to work from. Are
we creating a lumbering, impregnable war machine or a
nimble and agile mech? Is it fully automated or manned?
How futuristic do we want to go? This example is a
quadruped mech with some motorcycle overtones that
would be able to climb rough terrain and re on enemies
from miles away, since its not overly armoured A.
a Quickly rough out a low-poly concept to lay the foundations of a

your design
Matthew Burke
Matthew grew up in an incredibly small
town in Iowa. Desperate for entertainment
and a job outside of the agricultural
industry, he turned to a career in art. After
college he managed to land himself a
concept artist role at a small studio and he Roach Exosuit 3ds Max, Photoshop (2012) Roach Exosuit 3ds Max, Photoshop (2012)
has been successfully avoiding farming for A manned combat exosuit designed to leap great Here the same combat exosuit is presented in an action
12 years now. distances and release an arsenal of weaponry on pose to showcase his arsenal of weapons and help get
enemies. Here its shown in an inactive stance the idea of the mean machine across
56 3D Art & Design

Design and create an exosuit
02 Base materials and shaders

Convert your model to mental.ray.daylighting in
your renderer presets and then create three to ve base
Balance form with function
As we start dening our design, keep in mind that a healthy
materials for your model. First, convert your standard balance of form and function is needed to inspire the
materials to mental ray Arch and Design materials. Then imagination. To begin, I take one of the predominate shapes
apply an appropriate template for the aesthetic you are from the rough geometry and start working on its general
looking for: dark, dull metal; reective, coloured metal; white shape. In this case I decide to begin with the contoured head
of the mech. Focusing only on the form, I usually start a
metallic; chrome or coloured striping you can always add fresh piece of geometry and shape it into the general
more further down the line. For my base brown reective direction of the concept.
material I have chosen to go with a Brushed Metal template Once I have a solution, I apply a TurboSmooth lter to
with the Reectivity at 0.9 and Glossiness at 0.86. Dont iron it out. Next I place an FFD (box) over the piece and,
forget to turn on the Round Corners option in the Special using the control points, begin to mould the object into
something bold but completely undetailed. From here I
Efects category b. repeat another shape that I will lay over the original rough
03
and form something that supports an interesting design.
Lighting base Now I have
Now we need to create a mental ray Daylight something with
potential, I need
System under Lights. After applying a generous ground
to balance the
compass, angle the DaylightAssemblyHead towards an area form with some
of interest on your mech. This will be adjusted later, but it will function. This
serve our purposes for test renders during our concepts means detailing
development. If you know the environment your mech will parts and objects
with a clearly
appear in, you may want to adjust the ground colour dened purpose.
accordingly under the mr Sky Parameters as well c.
b Establish your material

foundations using mental
ray settings and options in
3ds Max
c Apply your settings in

the mental ray Daylight
System to capture an initial
lighting setup
Sphinx Infestation Vehicle 3ds Max, Photoshop (2011)

Here we have a mighty, interplanetary, pest-control vehicle that
has been designed to exterminate alien enemies of all shapes
and sizes
3D Art & Design 57

Character
Finalise the design

We can now finish the design and render out passes for post-production
04 Detail the ugly geometry

Weve nally got to the part where we dont need to
be embarrassed if someone looks over our shoulder, so lets
Complementary details
The trick to successful detailing and design adjacent to them that suit their form. The
detail the geometry! This is easily my favourite part of the is guiding where and when the viewers eyes hull on the top has an inset shape that
process and where the concept really starts to develop. The will travel in the piece. Regardless of conforms to the drivers shoulder. The
most important things to keep in mind throughout this whether its an epic environment painting, a operators curves are mimicked in an almost
process is positive and negative space, and detail pacing. We character, or even a simple prop asset, mirror-like reection in the padding shape
having a clear read on the images ow is under him. The large, circular engine has
want our silhouette to read clearly, and elements from the often an overlooked step. Breaking a design suitable forward-facing plating and the
foreground, middleground and background to be easily into both form and function will help its bottom piece is arched upwards to ease the
readable. When detailing, remember to let the viewers eyes readability; however, spacing the detail out viewers eyes back into the composition.
rest in spots, keeping in mind that adding details without in breathable areas is just as important.
Complement the existing shapes and dene
purpose quickly kills a composition. You want large areas of a synchronised rhythm that enables a
simplicity with small, intricate details in small pockets. In this smooth transition from one area to the next.
case, our armoured casing is the rest area and the Here Ive tried to complement the
mechanical functionality is the detail d. rounded shapes of the mechs top with the
contours of the drivers back. Move down to
the large, circular shape in the centre of the
design, then to the curved, moulded armour.
To illustrate this even further, in each of
these forms there are additional shapes
d Dene forms and

functionality in your
mech concept
e Our nal geometry

with shader materials
and an initial lighting
setup in place
f Diferent passes at
material renders
g Layer your render passes

in Photoshop
h You can show of your

details with the Poster
d Edges Filter
05 Conclude the geometry

The hardest part of this step is realising when
enough is enough. Deciding what can be left for Photoshop,
what to dene and what is necessary to model is the
diference between hitting a deadline or working long hours
at the weekend. Have you noticed that our character model
hasnt changed since the beginning of the tutorial?
Photoshop will be able to handle this easily. At this stage we
should have nice, unfaceted geometry and our shaders
should all be applied to the appropriate areas. Once our
lighting is nalised, we can pump out a big render and save
the image as a 32-bit TGA le e.
58 3D Art & Design

Design and create an exosuit
Rendering & post-production

Render out the design and bring it to life in Photoshop!
06 Make your render passes

From our xed camera angle we will be rendering several diferent versions of our
model. Aside from our original nal geometry model, we will be rendering a base grey, a shiny
reective, a dark-grey matte and a bare difuse colour pass. These will be layered on top of
one another in Photoshop to give us control of all the aspects of our concept f.
07 Layer in Photoshop
Import all the TGA les into Photoshop and use Channels to select the ground plane
with the shadow on its own layer. Render the TGAs into the scene and remove the mech from
the background. Order your layers as follows: grey background; ground layer with shadow in
layer one; the original fully coloured render in layer two; layer three is your shiny reective
with 100% Opacity in the Overlay option; next its the dark matte for layer four at 35% in the
Multiply option; and layer ve is the shiny reective again, but at 37% with the Pin Light
f option. Open the Difuse layer on top and separate each colour into individual layers g.
08 Make those details pop

After adjusting all the layers to something that feels like a good starting point, grab
only the mech in Photoshop and hit Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+C to bring all the layers into one layer.
Once this is pasted into the top layer, go to your Filters tab and open Poster Edges in the
Artistic channel. Change the Edge Thickness to 0 or 1, the Edge Intensity to 1 and the
Posterization all the way to 6. Once these settings are applied, your details and line work will
be far more pronounced. You may want to lower the Opacity on the layer to around 20-30%,
so it doesnt overpower the image h.
Render setup tips

To begin, change your render presets to mental. value to an appropriate setting. Under Image over your shadows and highlights, though). Now
ray.photometric.with.gl and load the default Control, adjust your highlights to a low setting go back to your Daylight Parameters, change your
settings make sure that all your mr Arch and here I have set it at 0.02 and tweak your Sunlight to mr Sun and your Skylight to mr Sky.
Design materials are assigned to their selections. shadows to a level that isnt overpowering (I chose Finally, we can now adjust the ground colour to
Create a Daylight System light in your scene, drag to apply 0.79). a low, saturated value. Be sure to hit Final Gather
the compass out to cover the entire area, and then Youll want to toggle through your Midtones in your renderer. Now you can simply adjust the
drag again to build the sun. until you nd a realistic value for your render (1.27, previous settings.
Go to your Common tab in the render setup for me). Select your Daylight in the scene and
and switch your Output Size to HDTV (video). change the Position to Date, Time and Location.
Start small for your test draft renders but go large Hit the Setup button followed by the Get Location
for nal renders. button. Here we have a choice of locations all over
Go to Environment under the Rendering tab the world: time of day and month of the year. This
and change your Environment map to mr Physical is a fantastic tool that, with some time-consuming
Sky. Make sure your Exposure Control is on experimentation, can give you fantastic results.
Photographic Exposure Control. Below that is the In my render I have decided to go with Seattle,
mr Photographic Exposure control, where you can Washington. This opens up the Control
switch the preset to Outdoor Lighting, Clear Sky. Parameters le and under Time I have chosen to
Throw up a quick Render Preview under the go with Hours at 15 and Month at 1 (choose your
Exposure Control tab and adjust the Exposure own settings and adjust the hours to have control
3D Art & Design 59

Character
09 Material overlays in Photoshop

Using your Difuse colour levels that have been separated into layers, you can apply Wireframe render tips
a large photo material to each layer, giving it a new level of believability. Apply a low-level
metal texture to appropriate areas, then scratches and dents in others. Adjust the levels and
for mental ray
opacity of the layer until they are just right and you can barely even notice theyre on the
There are a couple of ways you can create
awesome-looking wireframes of your models to
model. I get all of my photo reference from CGTextures.com its a resource that I cant help spruce up your portfolio
recommend enough. Apply warning stickers, logos and even overlay some mechanical
photos on areas that need some additional denition i.
Original mental ray render
j
3
cre
0+ hours
ation t
Resolutio ime
9,722 x 5,4 n: Technique 1
6
pixels 9 Technique 2
10 Polish to
perfection
The concept is close to
CGTextures.com finds
CGTextures.com hosts many wonderfully high-quality
being wrapped up at this
textures that can help you add detail to your artworks. Here
stage, so pick a is a selection of images that Matthew nds useful when
complementary palette for bringing his exosuits to life!
the background that
highlights and doesnt
distract from the mech. Add
some atmosphere and
shadows to help push and TECHNIQUE 1: The rst technique is incredibly simple:
pull the elements, then as a just select a Standard material of your choosing and apply
nal stage add a blue-green it to the entire model. Under Shader Basic Parameters
Overlay layer at 25% check the Wire and 2-Sided boxes. Then, in the Extended
Opacity over the top of the Parameters channel, adjust the thickness of your wire to
piece. This will help unify all your preference. A friendly warning: this is extremely
taxing on most computers so try to apply it to your model
the colours. Flatten the
just prior to your render.
image then play with the
Levels, Color Balance and TECHNIQUE 2: The alternative method just requires a
throw in an additional few additional steps. Select a material and change it from
a Standard to a Composite shader. The preset setting for
Sharpen lter if needed j. the base material is a Standard material and its colour will
dene your mass area in the render. In this case Ive
changed its Difuse to a solid white colour.
Go back to your original parent group and select your
Material #1, just below the Base Material. Click on the
i You can help dene a Channel box and keep it a Standard material. This material
materials qualities with
photo overlays
will dene the Wireframe Overlay. In this example I have
used a solid black in the Difuse colour. Next, check the
j The nal concept Wire selection and then down below in the Extended
complete with post- Parameters channel adjust the thickness of your wire. For
production edits this teapot I have it set at 3.
60 3D Art & Design

Gallery
Artist info
Maciej Kuciara
This concept designer has
recently worked on Naughty
Dogs The Last of Us videogame
www.maciejkuciara.com
Country USA
Software used
ZBrush, Photoshop
Work in progress
[I created this] Alien head concept to practise and learn

the basics of sculpting and rendering passes in ZBrush,
with the ultimate goal to use this software in lm and
videogame production. Having a 3D sculpt allows [you] to
assess your design problem areas much quicker than with a
standard 2D paint or sketch Maciej Kuciara, Alien, 2012
3D Art & Design 61
Character
ZBrush Photoshop
Concept
The idea behind this
illustration is to
create a unique
fantasy character
Ive decided to
concept a female
spirit of a tree. I want
to achieve a very
sculptural, stylised
look to the image,
inspired greatly by
ancient Greek
mythological
character sculptures.
62 3D3DArtist
Art & Design
Sculpt folds and fabrics
Sculpt folds
and fabrics 3D artists explain the
techniques behind
Artist info
Dryad Spirit of a Tree 2012
The goal of this image was to create a stylised, sculptural,
fantasy character with a focus on showcasing the dress folds, the
Andrzej Kuziola
hair and the tree branches in the design and creation process
Andrzej Kuziola is a freelance illustrator and 3D artist and he loves it! Besides Username: ak666
illustration and 3D work, he also writes tutorials and training material for artists
I
www.kuziola.com
n this tutorial we will explain the design and creation This tutorial will explain how to design and create a Country Scotland
process of a fantasy character showcasing the features character from scratch, showing important considerations Software used
in ZBrush. Well explore various ZBrush tools and show along the way while explaining the workow and various ZBrush, Photoshop
how helpful they are to visualise ideas and achieve great techniques used. We will focus mainly on sculpting the Expertise Andrzej specialises
mainly in character creation,
efects. ZBrush gives the freedom of creation in any fabric of the dress, the characters hair and some stylised from concept to render, and
workow, enabling you to experiment and visualise ideas. tree branches to nish. detailed 3D model creation
Create the body with ZSpheres

Lets begin by creating the character in a neutral pose
03 Detail the face Pay the most attention to the face

design, especially the eyes and lips. Switch the model to a
high subdivision level, then sketch the shape of the eyes and the
lips with the Pinch brush. Create eye sockets with the Clay brush
and shape an interior with the Smooth brush. To sharpen eyelid
edges use the Pinch brush with a very small Draw Size. To create
eyeballs, append a sphere as a SubTool, adjust its size, position and
then mirror it to the second eye socket. With the character base
mesh active, use the ZProject brush on the eyeballs. Thanks to that
weve now got spheres projected into the eye sockets, so we are
able to delete the eye SubTools C.
A When working with ZSpheres

you can preview Adaptive Skin
by pressing the A key
A
B Block in the main muscle
masses and establish the
01 Establish your base mesh Using ZSpheres, create an

initial armature and block in the shape of the character. In
these early stages we wont draw ZSpheres in place of the eyes
characters proportions
C Use Slash 1 and Clay brushes to

add details to the lower lip
C
and mouth. Primarily, well focus on proportions, as this will give us
more design freedom in the later stages. When happy with the
result, change the rig to Adaptive Skin, then press the Make
Polymesh3D button A.
Why model the whole body?
02 Sculpt the body Modify the shape of the mesh with Ive chosen to create whole body anatomy even though
most of it will be covered with cloth for two reasons. The
the Move Topological brush and start dening masses
rst is so I can reuse the model in my future projects.
with the Clay, Clay Tubes, Simple and Smooth brushes. Work
Keeping a repository of base meshes and models gives a
gradually from the lower subdivisions to the higher levels, huge advantage when a deadline is short and you dont
subdividing the mesh when necessary and trying to get as much have enough time to create something from scratch. The
detail as possible on the lower polygon densities. Focus mainly on second reason for creating the whole body is that the
the head and hands, because the rest of the body will be covered clothing process is much easier with body armature
with clothes. As were going to create a stylised character, change underneath. Besides these, its always good to practise
proportions by exaggerating the head and elongating the limbs. Do sculpting human anatomy when you have the opportunity.
B
this with the Transpose tool and the Move Topological brush B.
3D Art & Design 63

Character
Design and composition

Establish composition and block general forms for further development
04Pose the character Pose the character with the

Transpose tool and then x deformations with the Move
Topology, Clay and Smooth brushes. In this case its not necessary
to adjust body distortions in some areas due to the fact that they
will be covered with a dress, but here weve done it for the purpose
of the tutorial. We want to create a neutral, balanced and relaxed
pose. This is a framework for the cloth anchor points and will help
us establish interactions between the body and the clothes D.
05 Create the base of the dress To create a base for a

dress were going to use DynaMesh. As a starting point
we want a mesh that matches the shape of the legs as much as
possible. This will help us establish interaction between the fabric
and the body later. To do so, rst duplicate the character, then
extract the bottom part of the mesh by partially hiding it with
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift, the Delete Hidden and Close Holes options.
Convert it to DynaMesh and start reshaping it with the Move
Elastic brush. For smaller areas, use the Move Topological brush.
Also start to use the Standard brush with a large Draw Size to
D sketch the direction of the folds E. E
Principles of 06 Rene the dress

Activate the
DynaMesh function by clicking
good design its button. This creates a new
uniform topology with the
There are a few golden density dened by the
rules that you need to Resolution slider. Make sure
follow if you want to you always start with a lower
create a really impressive resolution and then adjust it to
illustration. First of all you achieve the desired result. Each
need an interesting focal time polygons become
point to pull in the stretched after adjustments to
viewers eye. You also the mesh, recalculate
need to design and place DynaMesh by hitting the
elements in your image in Cmd/Ctrl key and then
such a way that the dragging the cursor onto an
viewers eye will ow empty canvas F.
around the various
details. Creating rhythm
and variety in your image
to keep it balanced is D Use the body as a framework
for cloth anchor points
important. Always think
about positive and E Start shaping the dress with the
negative space, and also Move Elastic brush
about the relationship of F Always start with a lower
light and dark. F resolution and then adjust it to
achieve the desired result
Andrzej Kuziola
Andrzej is a self-taught digital artist
who is currently based in Scotland. He
originally qualied in dentistry, but
decided to give it all up for a career as a
freelance illustrator and 3D artist. Z
Brush, CINEMA 4D and Photoshop are Wild at Heart ZBrush, Photoshop (2012) Tattoo Goddess ZBrush, Photoshop (2011)
now his daily tools to help him create This illustration is inspired by a woman blessed with a A T-shirt design created for Rocknroll Tattoo and
realms that would otherwise exist only truly wild heart and a passion for nature. Its a very Piercing studios in Scotland. The image was also
in his mind. personal image, packed with symbolism published in EXPOS 10 by Ballistic Publishing
64 3D Art & Design

07 Move to the top To create the top of the dress well use DynaMesh again, but in a slightly
diferent way than previously. Mask the area that you want to use for a new SubTool. Go to
SubTool>Extract, adjust Thickness and choose Accept Extraction. This is a good way to create a mesh
around a complex shape. Now start to reshape a new mesh, using the Move Elastic, Move Topological
and Standard brushes to add volume and block large folds. Remember that DynaMesh needs some
thickness. When you get artefacts after re-calculation, undo the action and work on the area with the
Inate brush G.
08 Design the tree Create a curved tree trunk with ZSpheres, adjust its shape with the Move
Elastic brush, then transfer it to DynaMesh and start adding branches with the Curve Multi
Tube brush. This is a great tool for elongated, tentacle-like structures. Re-calculate the mesh often and
also use the Inate, Smooth, Move Topological and SnakeHook brushes. This sketch-like workow is a
good way to create designs and develop ideas straight in 3D without an initial sketch H.
09 Create the background Now well add a background that will play two roles. First it will
show the nal image proportions that will consequently help establish an efective
composition. Were also going to use the background plane as a basis for the hair but rst we need to
add some dimensionality to it. Use the Move Elastic brush to create a recess behind the character, then
move a part behind the head towards it and the bottom edge towards the viewer to create some
ground. After that, sculpt the whole plane with the Clay Tubes brush, then equalise it roughly with the
TrimDynamic brush and Morph Target I.
H 10 Sculpt the hair Now we can start sculpting the hair with a modied Slash 2 brush.
Sculpt the hair strands with loose and smooth strokes on a separate layer. Our goal is to create
an efect of hair lling the background and turning into it. We also want the hair to be tangled with the
branches. At the end, decrease the layers intensity and gradually work with the Morph brush to create
a smooth transition between the strands and the background material. For the loose hair strands,
append a sphere and move it to the head area, also using the DynaMesh and Curve Multi Tube
brushes. After that, atten the strands with the TrimDynamic brush and nish with the Standard brush
with Alpha 38 and Lazy Mouse options turned on J.
G Remember that DynaMesh

needs some thickness
H The Curve Multi Tube brush is a

great tool for elongated,
tentacle-like structures
I Open a new document with the

dimensions of the nal
illustration and then use
Transpose tools to adjust its size
The Discreet Charm of the Butapren ZBrush, Photoshop to the dimensions of the canvas
(2012) J You can nd the Slash 2 brush in
Andrzej says: Butapren causes brain damage; bioluminescence Light Box>Slash Brushes
is the production and emission of light by a living organism
J
3D Art & Design 65

Character
Add the fine details

Create a winding tree and realistic cloth elements
11 Detail the tree Go back to the tree and develop it further.

Use the Curve Multi Tube brush to add roots and vine-like
structures. The Draw Size determines the diameter of tubes
created by the brush, so work here with a smaller size. When a
tube is painted you can adjust its location and shape. Its possible
to draw multiple tubes at once but its handy to update DynaMesh
after each added tube. Also increase the DynaMesh Density to
keep all the new details. When youre happy with the form of the
tree, quit DynaMesh and start detailing with the Clay, Clay Tubes,
TrimDynamic and Dam_Standard brushes K.
M
Crinkle and
fold effects
To create believable
wrinkles or folds you need
to keep in mind a few
factors such as the
interactions of folds and
the forces generating
wrinkles like kinetic
energy and gravity. You
need to know where to
place anchor points
12 Add some wrinkles Start sculpting wrinkles and folds
on the bottom part of the dress. Begin working with the
Standard brush without any Alpha loaded and with Lazy Mouse
areas of retention on a mode turned on. Begin to add volume with the Inate brush, using
body where wrinkle it lightly with low pressure. Also adjust the brushs Gravity Strength
systems will originate. I and start using Alpha 38 for the ner wrinkles. Work with smooth,
highly recommend the loose brush movements, relying on your own intuition and
book Dynamic Wrinkles experience. During this process, smooth and sculpt again until you
and Drapery by Burne get the shapes you want. You can also switch between ZAdd and
Hogarth, where you can ZSub modes L.
nd all this information.
13 Rene the curls

Its also a useful source
Now move to the top part of the sculpt.
for great references.
Initially the workow and brushes are the same as in the
previous part, so create some horizontal folds with the Standard
K Increase the DynaMesh Density brush. Mainly use Alpha 38 here and turn Gravity on and of in the
to keep all the new details
Brush>Depth menu to check your work. To create vertical patterns,
L Increase LazySmooth, use the Clay brush and then develop it further with the same Slash
LazyRadius and adjust LazyStep 2 brush used earlier. Rene the shape of the curls with the Move
for smoother results
Topological brush and add some more volume to the horizontal
M Use Alpha 38 for ner wrinkles folds using the Inate brush M.
66 3D Art & Design

Finishing touches 24hours

cr eation tim
Finalise the model and render it for illustration Resolutione
3,480 x 4,40 :
8
N
14 Complete the dress Add more volume to the folds

with the Inate brush and pull down some parts that are
lacking in gravity. Fine-tune the creases with the Standard brush
and Alpha 38, then use the same brush with a very small Draw
Size to add some texture to the fabric. Work with diferent
Gravity settings and adjust interactions between the wrinkles.
See how they react to kinetic and gravity forces and then tweak
p
the overall owN.
O Q
15 Facial expression Our goal is to show that our Dryad

enjoys the presence of a tree (shes the spirit of a tree,
remember). To change her neutral facial expression to
something with more character, rstly re-sculpt her eye a little
to a half-closed, sleepy shape. Mask the lower lid and lower half
of the eyeball with the Layer brush and then work on upper
parts of the eye with the Clay brush. When the upper eyelid is
lower, use the TrimAdaptive and Smooth brushes to create the
correct curvature of the lid. To nish, use the Pinch brush to
sharpen the edge. To create an elusive smile, decrease the
17 Create illustration Use Best Preview Render to render the image in a few separate
passes: diferent MatCap materials, Ambient Occlusion and Shadow from one main light
source. Fill each SubTool with a diferent colour and render it with a Flat Color material it will be
models subdivision and use the Move Topological brush to the mask for easy separation of each SubTool for post-production. In Photoshop, apply a layer
move the corners of her mouth slightly O. mask to each rendered MatCap layer and experiment with diferent material congurations. To
nish the illustration, import a Shadow pass and Ambient Occlusion and set them to a Multiply
16 Apply materials Im going to re-create materials from

a similar, older illustration. Before we start sampling
information we need to prepare our tools. Choose a Plane
blending mode with customised opacity Q.
primitive, convert it to Polymesh3D, draw it on the canvas and

enter Edit Object mode. Choose a Flat Color material, then in
Practice makes perfect N Be sure to check the ow of the
folds looks realistic
the Texture menu import an image to sample information from At the beginning, without knowledge of fabric dynamics, it O The Layer brush is best for
and add it as a texture to the Plane. Drop it on the canvas and is very difcult to sculpt believable folds. I recommend masking due to its handy
pre-loaded Alpha
choose a sphere an object to check the new material. Draw it studying as many references as possible, observing
on the canvas in Edit mode beside the Plane and choose diferent kinds of clothes, studying sculpture works even P Use the Wax Modier for a
MatCap White Cavity material from the ZBrush library. Pick the taking photos of varied fabrics in diferent congurations translucent efect
MatCap tool and start sampling from the illustration reference. and then trying to re-create them digitally. The more you Q Render the images for
Click the image and drag the cursor until a red arrow points practise, the more believable your efects will be. When you illustration with Best Preview
outwards. Repeat this several times, bearing in mind the understand folds you can create any fabric without relying Render and the highest
on references. Its vital not to focus on one area at a time; Antialiasing Quality
direction of the facing surfaces. When happy with the colour, hit
rst establish larger folds, their direction and placement,
Cmd/Ctrl and start grabbing the highlighted areas. Doing this
and keep in mind fabric qualities and gravitational forces.
we can create specular highlights P.
3D Art & Design 67

Character
Create a
mythical beast Fauno
In this step-by-step guide I will offer an insight into my workow for the
2011
personal illustration Fauno Luiz Alves is a freelance 3D artist based in Brazil
I
ntrigued by mythical creatures, I decided to create one to in Roman mythology and elsewhere. The subject
as a personal 3D project. Over the next six pages I hope presented a great challenge to me as an artist because Modelling
to share some of the techniques I used to produce this there were many diferent elements to incorporate into one
ctitious beast. body. I used 3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop and V-Ray to Texturing
For those who may be unfamiliar with this creature, the tackle the task at hand, the techniques of which Ill reveal Lighting
faun is a man with goats horns, ears, tail and legs referred over the next few pages.
Initial concepts
From rough ideas to designing the model
B
01Seek inspiration First search for

appropriate reference material to 02Build the base mesh Now I have an
idea of what I would like to create, its
C
establish the exact tone and style of what it is you

would like to create. Since the faun is made up of
limbs from both man and beast, its a good idea
time to produce the base mesh. I tackle this by
starting with the face rst, poly by poly. By
drawing the basic face loops and following the
03A question of curves Once I have a basic shape I
move on to rening the geometry. I made the ears with a
basic primitive out of the head and horns. Meanwhile, the
to nd plenty of images of each to familiarise appropriate ow, it prevents any strange curvature of the horns was built with a simple spline it was
yourself with the diferences in anatomy A. deformations in the geometry B. already the shape I wanted and was then converted into polys C.
68 3D Art & Design

Create a mythical beast

techniques behind
Artist info
Luiz Alves

www.kitoalves.wordpress.com
Country Brazil
Software used
3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop, Software used in this piece
V-Ray
Expertise Luiz is a freelance
3D generalist currently based 3ds Max ZBrush Photoshop V-Ray
in Brazil
3D Art & Design 69

Character
Build features
Progress the characters design
04Shape geometry With the head modelling nished, I

move onto the bust creation. I start with a simple box,
adding some loops and making adjustments where necessary to
05Produce the peepers
Since the faun is a blend of
man and beast, I wanted the eyes
create a humanoid shape. Once Im happy, and the geometry is to reect that. I decided to produce
taken care of, I move the arms down to facilitate the rig process a variation of a human eye and a
and minimise deformation during the posing D. goat eye. To do this I made a little
deformation in the eye to look like a
d goat and added an FFD modier to
align the eyes in the face. When
making realistic eyes, its necessary
to have two meshes one for basic
colours and the other to make a
liquid efect. It works well to
e produce the Reection and
Refraction on the eyes E.
06Move on to maps With my basic mesh nished, its now time for UV mapping. I organise
the UV maps and use the chequered map to indicate whether there is any deformation. In
order to economise the space in the UV area, I organise them into groups of similar sizes f.
g
08Use the brushes Once I have subdivided my model to
ve levels, I begin sculpting the volumes and details with
07Sculpt stage After modelling and mapping the base mesh, I export the OBJ le to ZBrush.
Before I start sculpting, I always check to see if the UVs are correct with the UV Check tool in
the Texture Map panel. This way it guarantees I wont have any map-related problems g.
ZBrushs basic brushes (Standard, Flatten, Smooth and so on). I
use alphas to create details such as creases, scratches,
deformation and asymmetrical small details h.
70 3D Art & Design

Lighting and polypainting

Apply realism to your model
i
09Return to 3ds Max Now I have nished the sculpting

stage, I export the displace and normal maps created in
ZBrush back into 3ds Max. Once there, I use the Displace modier Challenges with the project
with TurboSmooth to apply the maps to the model. To test the
maps, apply a simple V-Ray shader with one VRayLight to check Certainly the greatest challenge I faced during the fauns creation was the hair it was tricky
the model over i. to both make and render it. Lighting also took quite a bit of efort, since I needed to test
diferent congurations of setups and rendering specic to him (he didnt work well with
V-Ray). As a result, this had a knock-on efect in the postproduction stage where I had to
composite the two elements to produce a seamless integration of the two. It was tricky,
especially considering both had diferent lighting setups and so on. Despite the difculties, I
learned a lot from my experimentation with these processes and hopefully, with the help of
this tutorial, you can too.
Since the faun itself is a blend of man and beast, I

wanted the eyes to reect that. I decided to produce a
variation of a human eye and a goat eye
10Strike a pose Rigging and skin is next on the list. I make

a basic bone structure and apply the skin modier to
control the mesh. This means I can pose the faun and tweak the
position of the camera j.
11Illuminative advice I decided to stick to a very simple

light setup for this illustration. I tested my light using a basic
l
V-Ray shader in grey and also added an innite background, similar

to whats used in photographic studios. Two lights were present:
one yellow on the head with more intensity and on the right-hand
12Paint the character Now the lighting is sorted, I head back to ZBrush to paint the colour
map and create a cavity map. I use the Polypaint tool to paint my basic channel of colour map,
mixing a large number of alphas Ive created with skin variations and false shadows to raise areas on
side of the character a blue, less-intense one k. the body. I use the cavity map with the colour map to gain more volume and detail on the skin l.
3D Art & Design 71

Character
Add skin and hair

Use shaders, maps and more
13Get dirty Its time to

start the nal textures.
Using the basic colour Ive
made a lot of layers in
Photoshop in order to add more
details with more denition. Ive
mixed all kinds of textures to
create cracks on the horns, dirt,
stains and Ive added the cavity
map so it doesnt look so clean.
All the maps are created at
5,000 x 5,000px m.
14Realistic skin
I complete the shading
process using the maps created
in Photoshop. To simulate more
realistic skin, I would suggest
using VRayFast SSS2 a m
practical and fast V-Ray shader
thats great for translucent
materials. To control the SSS
shader create a SSS mpa. o
Meanwhile, I use the VRayFast
SSS2 to make the translucent
aspect of the eyes, but to give a
reective element I create a
Refraction and Reection
shader applied on the superior n
eyes geometry n.
15A new coat The fauns fur was created in 3ds Maxs Hair
and Fur modier. In order to optimise the process its
necessary to convert the base geometry into a new geometry. This
way it is possible to brush comb it really fast and get control using a
density map I made in ZBrush o.
Chupa Cabras 3ds

Max, ZBrush and
Photoshop (2009)
Luiz Alves The goat-sucker
Im a freelance 3D generalist working in a Bravo 3ds Max, creature was my
freelance capacity. Ive always loved art, ZBrush and submission for a
animation and special effects in movies Photoshop 3D4ALL forum
since I was a kid. My course in Digital (2009) challenge. I tried to
I created this create something that
Media Production gave me a great start on model as a was fantastical but
my artistic journey. Since graduating Ive character study that also carried a
continued to evolve my traditional and to practise strong resemblance
digital art skills and knowledge to improve creating realistic to a common animal
my personal and professional portfolio. facial features. in our lives.
72 3D Art & Design

Achieve the final render

Techniques to combine two assets into one
16Increase
size
the
The nal
render for this
illustration was
generated in 4,000 x
3,072px as an 8-bit
TIFF le. I prefer to use
a larger scale for the
nal render because
p it makes it easier to
make selections
while compositing
everything and I
can see more details
than if it was a
medium-quality
image. If you look
closely, the medium
render always
produces a blur in the
ner details, whereas
this doesnt happen
q often with the higher
quality render p.
17Furry problems The render process was diferent for the

fur because hair and fur doesnt work with VRayLights. In
order to make the fur render, I worked with Scanline render and
Omni Lights in the same positions as the VRayLights. Its important
to remember that when we want to render the fur, the resolution of
it is totally proportional with the tile memory usage so if you want
to render in large scales, you will need to set the tile memory usage
in large values, otherwise it wont render.
To improve the integration of the body and the fur, I created a
render channel just for the fur shadows. I then applied a matte/
shadows material and turned the option of in the panel efects so
that the shadows are only generated on the body q.
Boy Lucas 3ds Max,

ZBrush and
Photoshop (2011)
My nephew inspired
this piece. I realised
that the looks and
expressions of children
are something very
interesting. They carry
a feeling of pure joy
that we gradually lose
as we reach adulthood.
r
I tried to capture this
look in the bust to
make me always
remember what we
18Final touches Now its time to tackle the composition. My postproduction stage was
completed in Photoshop. Using the channels applied on the original render you can control
aspects of light, shadows and reections. With the body setting closed, prepare the fur it will be
once were. necessary to paint the fur and simulate some shadows on the body to make it look more real. Add a
Noise lter, some colour gradients and one layer to paint necessary highlights r.
3D Art & Design 73

Character
LayeredFile_Satyrguy_abaker.tif
Merged_satyrFawnGuy_012.OBJ
Satyr_renderFile_01.PSD
ZBrush Photoshop
Concept
The aim of this tutorial is
to create a fantasy
satyr-type character. I
want to create an overly
stylised face for a fantasy
genre that can be
rendered realistically and
create impact.
74 3D Art & Design

Master Weta character design
Master Weta
character design 3D artists explain the
techniques behind
Artist info
The Satyr 2012
Learn to use ZBrush to create a fantasy character portrait, following
the principles of Andrews 3D character conceptualising workow at Andrew Baker
Weta Workshop Personal portfolio site
http://andbakerdesigns.
Andrew Baker is a senior character/creature designer at Weta Workshop Design Studio in New Zealand blogspot.co.nz
Location New Zealand
A
Software used
bust or portrait is always a great place to start Without getting too focused on the technical aspects in ZBrush, Photoshop
visualising a character. ZBrush enables us to the 3D process, Id like to show how I generally start Expertise Creating and
conceptualise an idea to an extremely high level conceptualising a character by creating a bust and portrait. conceptualising characters and
creatures for physical and
relatively quickly. We no longer have to go through an Due to the speed at which I execute such rened work, this digital pipelines
arduous technical process to create an efective, realistic- is where I begin the conceptual stage of my project often,
looking 3D character. in essence, cutting straight to the point.
Conceptualise with digital clay

Get started on the sculpture in ZBrush
Using 01 Use primitives to establish a base Traditionally, it

used to be quicker to start a 3D sculpture from a base
A
DynaMesh mesh you had already created. Ive always found this process a bit
limiting on a conceptual level, though, as you are technically
wisely pushing and pulling a volumetric shape it feels constraining. All of
my design sculpting now starts from a sphere. With the use of
Insert Mesh brushes and DynaMesh I can experiment with
I start using DynaMesh diferent shapes before locking into the base Ill use to nish the
on a very low level. In this sculpture on. Once Ive got enough primitives there to manipulate, I
case I have it set to 48, use DynaMesh at a low level of 48 and start sculpting A.
but depending on how
large your model is the
resolution will difer. At
the early stages its
B
02 Design considerations I create several lines to
highlight relationships on the face. The ears line up with
the eyes to the point of the nose and from the nose outwards to the
almost like what you do
with sketching: blurring edges of his jaw. I generally think of character faces in triangles that
your eyes to start are largely based on humanoid congurations. This can be pushed
visualising where the as far as you like for example huge noses, tiny eyes, massive
forms are, and quickly chins. Its a game of consideration. Be aware of whats working and
laying down broad strokes what isnt. This will be the design base for the following steps B.
to nd the design.
DynaMesh is extremely C
useful at this stage and
can be used in the entire
sculpting process.
However, I prefer to use it
03 The right geometry With this sculpture were trying
to be fast, but efective. My goal is not to create a
production model; however, ZBrush still enables you to create a
as a base generator and high-res sculpt really quickly, so its worth having enough geometry
subdivide further. Later I to get you there. I nd its essential to get as much information in
want to be able to the lowest subdivision level before subdividing, so that I wont need
drastically pose this DynaMesh again. I keep design elements like horns and eyes on a
character, so having a separate SubTool to move them independently if I need to. I
lower subdivision level
subdivide twice at this stage to begin sculpting further C.
helps with this.
A Using primitives with the Insert B My plans in regards to the C The DynaMesh base created,
and Move brushes to nature of the face I want to with more subdividing needed
manipulate my base eventually create to move it on further
3D Art & Design 75

Character
Form, texture and pose

Lets get the character into pose and refine the sculpt
04 Build the forms

Now, with some extra
subdivision levels, I build up
some of the forms. Using the
Clay Buildup brush I want to
create direction for the surface
and build up some secondary
forms. Doing this on one of the
lower subdivision levels can
create some nice organic
efects on the upper levels. I
often switch between the lower
and higher subdivisions at this
stage to play with the options a
little. I want to create a drastic
pose for this character, looking
over his shoulder, so I dont
want to get too precious about
any forms at this stage, but
rather block out the basis for
his personality D. D
Top shaders
Using diferent shaders is
a great way to tackle
certain aspects of your
sculpting and colouration.
For my primary forms, I
prefer to use a shader like
MatCap Grey, which
shows the forms of really
well. When I start my
secondary forms, I turn
on the Blinn shader, as
this has a nice general
specular highlight, which
is also good for showing
the detail. I ick between
that and MatCap Grey.
The Skin Shader default is
awesome for colouring
esh-toned characters,
and I use this a lot for my
E concepts as it displays
really well.
05 Put the character into a pose As our end goal is

not a symmetrical production model, I want to pose it
right away. I have a clear idea of how Id like to present this
D Build up the forms, keeping the
design base and appending
some horns
character, having him look over his shoulder to create an
e Mask and transform the
asymmetrical bust and an interesting view for the portrait. I use character, while sculpting and
Transpose Master to generate the pose. Be as bold as you can! Its xing broken areas
important not to marry to any forms at this stage and let it come
f Build up secondary forms and
out in the posed maquette. I also sculpt into the mesh while detail the horns
transposing, trying to x any broken anatomy as I go e.
g Sharpen details and add some
06
surface noise
Tighten up the forms Now that the model is posed
and I have some higher subdivision levels, its about h Use a scattering efect on the
rening those secondary forms, like the cheekbones, lips, brows, brush, adding in some extra
pore detail
eye sockets and so on. For me, theres no better brush than the
Clay for this. It creates very nice crease lines, which can start as the I Layer up the colour of the
base for our wrinkles. I nd the Clay brush, if treated right, can give character, masking the cavities
and washing over the top with a
some nice results to the higher subdivision levels, using the Smooth base colour
brush to soften where needed. I also play with the shape of the
J You can still tighten up the
horns, considering how they afect the overall silhouette more, details with your sculpting
F
now theyre on the posed character f. brushes as you apply colour
76 3D Art & Design

07 Detail and texture

I am now happy with
the secondary forms and can
08 Pores and extra texture To create another level of
focused noise in areas, I use the Standard brush with a
Scatter efect and a very small Point Alpha. I turn the Z Intensity
start to see where my detail slider quite low and increase the size of the brush and intensity as
needs to go. DamStandard is needed, especially on the shoulder and chin areas or anywhere I
my new favourite brush for think a specular highlight might appear on the nal piece. I also use
going into these soft forms and DamStandard with a really low intensity to create very ne
giving them some sharpness. wrinkles, going in the direction of the skin compression h.
They fold into the surface and
create a pinched, V-shaped
crease, instead of a U-shaped
crease like the normal Standard
09 Add some colour As colour will greatly afect how
our texture is shown, I want to start adding that in,
treating the detail of the surface and colour now at the same time. I
brush makes. I also add a noise start of by adding a very light base colour, covering the whole
pass to create the pore efect model. I use the default skin shader as this shows up colouring for
on the surface. Playing around skin very well and all in real-time. I layer up the model with reds,
with the scale and intensity of blues and yellows for the underlying blood vessels to wash with a
the noise function can create esh colour and soften in areas. I also mask out the cavities to add
awesome pore- and skin-like some dirt i.
textures. Experiment with this
feature to really get a grasp of
H
just what it can achieve g.
10 Rene detail with colour Because ZBrush enables us to afect the form while adding
colour, I go back to my DamStandard brush, turn the RGB down very low with a brown colour
and start to tighten up some of the wrinkle details. I also use the Inate brush to push all the details
J
tighter together j.
3D Art & Design 77

Character
Final touches and presentation

Finish the painted sculpt and get it ready for maquette presentation
k
11 Add the hair
Another hugely
innovative tool from ZBrush is
FiberMesh. This is a great
addition to the process as
things like hair really add a nice
touch to a character like this. By
simply masking of areas where
I want there to be hair, I turn on
the FiberMesh button and
begin to adjust to the diferent
hair Id like to add. I want some
variation in the hair around him,
but I want it to be quite thin,
sparse and wiry k.
12 Get creative
Without going too far
and crashing your machine, you
can have a lot of fun creating
diferent hair around the face.
Masking areas like the tips of
the ears is a nice touch, I nd,
while creating some scraggly
sideburns can also be efective.
There are lots of options to play
with, so I suggest spending
some time to get used to
whats possible. I always take
13 Give him some ink I want to add another element to this character that isnt necessarily a
costume accessory. Im thinking of a large religious-style tattoo on his back. I create the tattoo
in Photoshop as a at template then use Spotlight in ZBrush to project it onto my character. Spotlight is
time to manipulate with the
brushes afterwards, so I can be
sure to create a much more
another great way to project any other further texture onto characters m. efective look l.
Paint-over
tips & tricks
Depending on how long I
have to get an image
done, I sometimes spend
a bit of time playing with
the hair and positioning
tattoos. These are often
things that can be
explored in 2D for
conceptual pieces, but it
never hurts to have
something 3D there for
the nal render. All of
whats been done so far
has been done very
quickly without getting
too consumed with
technical aspects. If its
not working in 3D, solve
the idea quickly in 2D by
doing paint-overs before
committing to the 3D
render. This can also be
really handy to show a
client for variations. M
k Mask of areas on the head m Use ZBrushs Spotlight to apply n Some layers rendered in ZBrush p The nal ZBrush layers
where you want to create hair the tattoo created in Photoshop. to take into Photoshop composited in Photoshop
Adjust the hue and opacity
L l Add diferent types of hair before applying to the model so o A layer rendered out in ZBrush q Give the nal image some
around the ear it blends in correctly for Photoshop blending post-production work
78 3D Art & Design

Compose the final image Layering

your
Render and capture the essence of the sculpture in post shaders
14 A perfect comp
Having the composition
in mind from the beginning will
Its vital to experiment
with diferent shaders
and efects in ZBrush.
certainly help you get to this Theres no limit to the
stage quickly. This way theres variation of materials and
no unnecessary sculpting and textures you can create in
the entire process is geared ZBrush without the use of
towards aiding what we want photos or alphas.
to show. I aim to create an Designing and creating
interesting pose that isnt characters in 3D and
front-on to the character, getting realistic results
thereby enhancing his doesnt have to be a
silhouette a little. Having the laborious process
sculpt turned to a grey shader
anymore. Also, keeping a
library of references will
(Blinn, in this case) and doing
always aid the creative
some quick BPR renders with process and arm you with
the main light source will also a catalogue of ideas.
help us judge how best to
compose the character. I create
my document in portrait at
about 1,310 x 2,050 pixels,
which will be the nal crop n.
cre
5 hours
ation tim
15 Render
for post
out layers
Once Ive n
Resolution e
established my main light 2,953 x 4,58 :
source, and the shadow that is 4
created by looking at the BPR
pixels
render passes, I start to look at
what else I can take to
Photoshop to help this image
along. I render out a lot of
diferent light passes on the
various standard shaders
turned to black. I use the BPR
render passes, a cavity and
reection pass. For SSS I use a
standard shader set to red and
amp up the ambience. Then I
just need any shader that looks
like it might do something
interesting in Photoshop o.
p q
16 The nal composition I generally experiment a lot

with blending options on the passes Ive rendered out.
Because this guy has human skin and Ive painted the model, the
17 Post-production Once Im happy with the blended
layers, and theyre all doing what I want, I can really start to
have some fun. A background can be used to make the image look
initial render gave me a lot to work with. This is the great thing more of a studio shot or something more photographic. As this
about this process and leaves us a bit of time to spruce up the image could be used as the base for many design passes, Im not
image. Using the Z-Depth map and changing the colour while shy about painting over areas that need further attention even
turning it to Overlay can create some nice depth efects. Reection using photographs although I only ever use photos to add noise
and Light maps can be used to create interesting efects for the or textures where I can. Sometimes its unavoidable, but if Im
o eyes, too. At this stage, be experimental and have fun p. sculpting a character like this, theres really no need q.
3D Art & Design 79

Architectural
visualisation
Find inspiration in the world around you and
achieve some interesting arch-vis creations
82 Master arch vis 106
Begin designing and creating an arch-
vis project a house
88 Visualise architecture
Develop your houses surroundings
94 Apply the finishing touches

Finish your project by rendering your
house to perfection
100 Create superior interiors

Design a dramatic bedroom interior
106 Design interactive interiors

Use Unity to enhance your arch vis
110 Build unique arch-vis assets

Create a model that can be easily reused
116 Fantasy arch vis:

concept design
How to create a fantastical concept
118 Fantasy arch vis: 3D

illustration
Take your concept to the next level by
illustrating it
100
80 3D Art & Design

118
82
88
110 94
3D Art & Design 81

Architectural visualisation
Master arch vis

House stage one 2012
Lech Sokolowski explains how to
create a place of residence from
architectural plans
Lech Sokoowski is a self-employed
3D generalist based in Poland
I
3D artists explain the n the rst of this three-part tutorial, well be learning
techniques behind
how to handle a professional architectural visualisation Concept
project using the free and open-source 3D software,
The plan for this arch-vis project is to build a standard,
Blender. This rst part will include some very useful
Artist info
one-oor family house. These types of jobs are commonly

techniques for creating the buildings model, which will be available in studios or as a freelancer, so once youve got the
based on architectural drawings and sketches. When hang of this house style, youll be able to apply what youve
working in a studio or architectural ofce, youll often be learnt to more complicated buildings.
given plans like these by the client or your manager. Having a
good knowledge of how to quickly apply these drawings in
your 3D environment and later create a precise
Lech Sokoowski representation of the 2D concept is highly valuable.
The most popular le formats for saving technical
drawings are DWG and DXF, which can be created by
Username: lechu
almost any CAD software. While Blender supports the DXF
Personal portfolio site format pretty well, probably the best, fastest and most
www.no-triangle.com
reliable way of working with these types of information is
Country Poland
Software used Blender using CAD data exported to a PDF or JPG le. I prefer the
Expertise Considered a 3D PDF output as it can be processed later using 2D software
generalist, Lech most enjoys the and saved in any resolution without losing quality.
compositing and postproduction
stages. He has worked as a For the purposes of this tutorial, Ive already created some
freelancer and as a 3D artist at JPG les ready to be imported into Blender. However, if you
Evermotion. He currently runs
his own studio based in Poland. would like to practice on raw PDF data, this can be found on
the free disc at the back of the book.
82 3D Art & Design

Master arch vis
Part one
Modelling
Texturing Building plans
Finished model of the building
Helpful modelling scripts
Software used
in this piece
Blender
Press N to display this panel

Various display options
Load background images here
01Prepare the workspace Before we start with modelling, its a

good idea to set up the Blender workspace the way you like it. By hitting
the N key while in 3D view, youll open a Display Properties panel in which you Click here to install external scripts b
02Load additional plug-ins

can load a background image. Unfold the Display Options and click Toggle
Blenders modelling tools are still under heavy
Quad View. This will subdivide your 3D window into four orthographic views.
development, so Id suggest using some external plug-ins created by the
This should work perfectly if you have a more technical approach to the 3D
community. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+U to open the User Preferences window. Choose
geometry. I personally prefer to work only in one big window and change the
Addons and at the bottom of the window click Install Addon. Now select the mesh_bevel.
views by using numerical keys A.
py and mesh_knife.py les that can be found on the free disc (these are free to use and
can also be found online). After that remember to switch the tools on by nding them in
A Pressing Cmd/Ctrl with the left or B Not every supported add-on is
right arrow keys enables you to quickly immediately available by default after the correct group on the left-hand side of the screen. Well be using these two quite a lot,
alternate between created workspaces Blenders installation so double-check everything has been set up correctly b.
3D Art & Design 83

Start the basic structure

Create basic geometry and begin window details
c d
Press T to open additional Tool Shelf
Extrude along the walls
04Place interior walls We need to create inner walls

inside the house so it wont look totally empty later when
rendering. The techniques are pretty much the same as in the
previous steps create a cube, enter Edit Mode and, by moving
and extruding the faces, cover all the areas. Well leave the interior
very simple for now and will come back to it much later if some
additional changes turn out to be necessary d.
03Begin with basic geometry With everything set up, create a simple plane and scale it up
by about 20 times. Now add a cube and enter Edit Mode. With the oor_plan.jpg le from
the disc set as the background, start extruding one of the faces along the outer walls of the building.
C Press T in 3D View to open a
panel with more options
E Hold the Alt/Opt key while
selecting edges to mark at once
D You can add a ground plane F For the best efect its good to
Dont be bothered by the cubes height at the moment, well set it up later. While extruding try to mark object for better scene have some reference images of
all the openings, windows and doors by hitting E just where they appear on the building plan c. navigation in later steps the object youre modelling
05Rene the walls

From the disc, open the
elevation_front.jpg drawing and
set it up to be displayed in Front
Orthographic view. Scale both the
interior and exterior walls and
match them to the lines Select and press X to delete Alt+right-click to loop select
Press T for additional
representing the top and bottom panel and choose Bridge
edges of the walls. Next, select the
outer walls and enter Edit Mode.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+R to create edge
loops and match them to the
window lines marked on the
drawing. Repeat this process for e Ctrl+N to ip normals Select all by pressing A
each elevation and delete the
faces, making the window
openings. To join the interior and f
exterior edges in each opening,
select them and click the Bridge
Problems and solutions
button under the LoopTools list, Creating the outer walls was a good starting point for the
located in the 3D View Tool Shelf upcoming steps. Now well be adding more detailed objects
(hit the T key to reveal the list) e. like windows, doors and roof elements. Its good to plan
your work ahead, as a good management of all your objects
06Add window models

The window dimensions
difer quite a lot in each elevation,
is essential when working on bigger projects. Blender gives
us a basic yet very handy layer system, which can be
accessed by pressing the M key. While continuing, try to
so to speed up the work well sort all the elements into separate layers. This will help you
create just one basic model, and in hiding all specic parts of the building, windows for
then copy and adjust it to each
instance, or viewing only solid elements like the walls and
ceiling. Tweaking the display options may also be very
opening. Create a cube, scale it
helpful. Enter the Object menu in your Properties panel,
down several times and place in and under the Display list, change or enhance the ways
the corner of one of the holes. your geometry is displayed. Clicking the Wire type of
Enter Edit Mode and create a display creates a wireframe grid, covering the shaded,
window frame by scaling and normal-looking model. This is very helpful especially when
duplicating the cube. Repeat the adding new elements in Perspective Mode.
process and create a smaller frame In order to quickly distribute the objects through the
inside the window for better detail. scene, just model one of them and later duplicate it into the
Last, apply the Bevel modier (hit desired areas. Of course the duplicate will require some
W to access) but rst, go to Object tweaking and adjusting, but its much faster than making
Mode and press Cmd/Ctrl+A to every window from scratch, for example.
zero the scale of your model f.
84 3D Art & Design

Master arch vis
Detailed modelling Find a proper

detail balance
Add more specific features to your elements
When working on your
scene, its very important
07Window details
Create another cube
and by simple scaling
g to nd a proper balance
for details youre going to
add. Focusing on some
operations, create a thin glass elements too extensively
surface. Duplicate it, select is time consuming and
both objects and hit Cmd/ might result in you not
Ctrl+J to merge them together. nishing the project on
Now create window shutters. time. You may also
Add a plane object and scale it overload your scene with
according to the window surplus geometry and
dimensions. Rotate it slightly in cause signicant viewport
Edit Mode and add an Array slowdown. Adding some
modier. Adjust the Relative basic enhancements to
your models, like the ones
Ofset settings so the plane
weve created in previous
duplicates in the Z axis and
steps, should work ne in
increase the Count number to most cases. However, you
20. This way you can now may also encounter a
randomise the length of each Use Count number to
tweak the shutter length situation when a client
shutter in just a few clicks g. requires high-resolution
renderings or close-ups
h
08Scene-creation
tips Although the
nal result would probably
on some elements. If
possible, its best to have
good-quality models
consist only of one image, already prepared for that
its a good habit to kind of project. This saves
approach your scenes and you a great amount of
models globally. Your client time and enables you to
might want to see their make quick changes
building from totally during the project. The
diferent perspectives and if scene handling also
your model lacks signicant
requires a diferent
approach. As mentioned
details at this point, you
earlier, use Blenders layer
might get into trouble. system to distribute the
Modelling everything from models properly, for
scratch is time consuming, example, according to the
so its common for view location. Its not
designers to reuse models necessary to overload
from past scenes or even to your viewport with
buy some pre-made objects that are not visible
Properly created models objects online. There are at the moment, so disable
are a great material for also many websites sharing their layer.
animation purposes
great models for free h.
09Model a door
The door modelling
techniques are pretty much the
same as with the windows. Ive
even used the basic window
shape to create the entrance
door model. Enhance the frame
by removing the bottom
element and add four
horizontal slats to make the
doors difer from the windows
at some points. However, the
balcony doors are still very
similar to the base shape i.
G Pressing Shift with one of the j

axes (X, Y or Z) while scaling,
moving or rotating, will exclude
this axis from operation
I You can diversify the model by

opening some of the doors
10Add a garage door Copy the entrance door frame and
edit it to match the wall opening. Create one thin, vertical
element and use the Array modier to duplicate it several times.
Add a plane object and place it behind the arrayed boxes. Apply
J You can soften the edges using
both Bevel and Subdivide i the modier and join the parts together. Create details by adding
Surface modiers and scaling cube objects and applying the Bevel modier j.
3D Art & Design 85

Create the covering

Focus on modelling the roof
Lech Sokoowski
I am an architect by education and 3D artist by passion.
11Basic roof model To start the roof correctly, lets rst
create the basic shape. From the disc, load the roof_view.jpg Final
Since my youth I was interested in various forms of
expression, especially drawing. My adventure with 3D
image into Blenders viewport and create a simple plane object.
Subdivide the edges marked on the image and move the newly touches
created vertex into proper position. Now select the triangle vertex
graphics started during my studies and Ive quickly shape and hit the F key to create a new triangle face. This way Angle proles are the
fallen into it. Currently I run my own 3D graphics weve made a roof surface that only needs to be edited in the side most important roof
studio, NoTriangle, and live a happy life in a quiet, view. Select middle vertexes, switch to Orthographic Front camera elements, yet we still
mellow region in east Poland. and move them up as on the drawing k. need to add some details.
Using the very simple
techniques described
k earlier, Ive created the
chimney model and some
additional roof details like
gutters to improve the
nal look. Ive also added
wooden nishings at the
bottom surface and edge
of the roof.
K The roof consists of two similar

models so we just need to
duplicate one weve created
L Cut tiles will have uncapped

surfaces, but well cover them
Art Gallery 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2010) with other elements
This is one of the interior scenes I prepared when working in the M You can include simple details
Evermotion studio. My task was to create a set of complete 3D by adding edge loops, beveling
environments for various product-rendering purposes. them and using the Solidify tool
to extrude
N If possible, try to nd any

reference pictures similar to the
project youre working on
l 1. Tile model
used in this
project
12Add roof tiles Create a rectangular roof tile by scaling
the cube object and soften its edges by applying Bevel in
Edit Mode. Rotate the tile matching the roof angle and add two
Jewish Museum,
Array modiers. The rst one will duplicate the tile along the wider
Berlin Blender,
V-Ray, Photoshop roof edge and the second will multiply all these tiles upwards.
(2011) Tweak the Relative Ofset settings to match all the duplicates.
This scene was Switch to Top Orthographic view and apply the modiers. In Edit
created for light study 2. The rst Mode, select all the elements, hit W and pick the Fake Knife tool.
Array modier Cut the tiles along the roof edges and delete unwanted parts l.
purposes. I always
found this building
very touching and
inspiring and still look
m
3. Rotate
forward to nishing a the tiles
CG animation project
regarding it.
4. The second
Array modier
5. Apply the modiers
6. Use the Fake Knife tool
Youth Hostel Interior Blender, Cycles, Photoshop (2012) 7. Delete

13Roof details Create the angle proles to cover the
uncapped faces of the cut roof tiles. Duplicate one of the
cross edges of the main roof model, hit the P key and choose
This image shows the interior space of a building designed in our unwanted Selection Only to separate the edge. Enter Edit Mode and extrude
studio. Its a multi-functional youth hostel located in one of the elements
the edges upwards. Press Cmd/Ctrl+F, choose Solidify and extrude
natural parks in east Poland. the element in two directions. Select the external vertexes both in
the upper and lower part of the model, and move them down m.
86 3D Art & Design

Master arch vis
Detail the elevations

15minutes
re nder time
Focus on the elevation enhancements and final touches Resolution
5,000 x 2,50 :
0
14Project options It happens quite often that you have to
visualise projects that arent fully nished and dened. A
client might want you to take responsibility and create some of the
Some elements of
this project are
not dened
elements by yourself. In our example, we have very basic elevation
drawings so lets use this as an opportunity to practice. Ill be using
three nishing materials: plaster, bricks and stone tiles n.
15Create the bricks Ive decided to create the brick

elements in the entrance area. Although these are very
repeatable, I wont be using the Array modier this time. Bricks are
usually aligned to certain pattern and almost always need manual
renements when creating the corner sections or openings. We p
could use a texture for this, but a real model representation of each
16Input stone tiles

material will yield better results o.
As youll notice, were using the same, very basic techniques for creating
most of the elements. The tiles wont be an exception. Start from the simple cube model and,
q by scaling and duplicating, create a few tiles of diferent dimensions and match them up. While in
Object Mode, join the elements together, zero the scale by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+A in the Scale options
and apply the Bevel tool in Edit Mode p.
Coming up next
In this tutorial youve hopefully learned some essential skills on how to approach and manage
a standard architectural rendering project. In the next couple well be covering the
environment setup, diferent types of vegetation, scene enhancements together with
Shaders, rendering and nal postproduction. Hopefully youll stay with us and nd out what
amazing things can be done using free and commonly available software.
O Bricks are just
simple cubes scaled
into typical proportions
P The elevation materials

placement is totally up to you
Q The geometry mostly consists

of very basic shapes
17Additional elements To make the building look

complete, we need to add some nal objects. Start creating
a garage driveway by editing the cube and moving its vertexes
under the ground plane surface. To create entrance stairs just add
another cube, match it properly and use some of the stone tiles to
make the covering surface. Copy the whole element and create the
terrace by applying some simple adjustments. You can also create
the ower bowls around the terrace, but the vegetation will be
widely covered in the next tutorial q.
3D Art & Design 87

3D scene with basic

environment setup and shaders
Image les describing some
of the shaders
Sample shaders
Visualise architecture
using Blender House stage two
Starting from proper camera placement and setup, well create the buildings
2012
surroundings, vegetation and the lighting environment Lech Sokoowski runs his own studio
T
his is the second part of a tutorial series buildings surroundings, vegetation and the painting. A common aspect of all these art
in which well learn how to handle a lighting environment. Well also get into the hair disciplines is the need to use proper image
professional, architectural visualisation particle system and study some of the great composition. There are dozens of renders on the
project using the free and open-source 3D features of Blenders rendering engine, Cycles. internet that are perfect when it comes to
application, Blender. In the previous tutorial we The article will also cover some modelling tricks technical issues, yet the overall efect is often
looked at the modelling techniques and skills and other important aspects of creating average at best. Commercial architectural
required for professional 3D building preparation. professional, good-looking images. renderings arent the kind of projects where we
This time well focus on various other aspects of As each render is in fact a 2D image created can apply many artistic values, yet a good
architectural rendering. Starting from proper inside 3D software, it can be considered on the composition will always give us many benets.
camera placement and setup, well create the same basis as photography, drawing or even This will be our starting point for this article.
88 3D3DArtist
Art & Design
Visualise architecture using Blender
Software used
in this piece Camera setup
Blender Shaders
2.62
Lighting
A When adjusting camera

placement, always have the
concept of the nal image in
your head. You can make some
very simple drawings for helping
yourself with that
B Composition guidelines can

be very helpful, but dont let
them limit your creativity!
Camera setup
Good camera placement is essential
a
02Camera
properties The
image aspect ratio used is 1.6:1,
b
giving us a wider picture frame

to cover the whole building and
some surroundings. The
resolution Ive used for preview
purposes was 1600x1000.
Another very important factor
is the camera Focal Length. Ive
used the standard value of 35
as it is very popular in
traditional photography. I also
01Camera placement Good camera placement and focusing on interesting

aspects of the building (or any other object) is essential to achieve a good nal
efect. In part one of the tutorial, our closing image showed the front entrance of the
recommend switching on the
Compositing Guides to
ne-tune the camera
house. However, after some considerations Ive decided to choose a rear elevation. The placement. Choices range from
main reason is that it will look much more interesting after adding the vegetation and standard Center-based image
other details. Secondly, its easier to pick an interesting angle as were not limited by any subdivision to Golden or
surrounding frontal elements that would need to be added for realistic results a. Harmonious Triangles b.
3D Art & Design 89

Building surroundings
With camera placed, well now add surroundings and place the final details
c Setting up the vertical lens shift d
04Surroundings and
building details
I start by creating the wall
surrounding the plot. Depending
on your clients preferences, you
might be asked to create a metal
fence or organic enclosure like
bushes or hedges. This would
require you spending more time
working on the background,
perhaps adding neighbouring
03Lens shift Lens shifting is a technique allowing us to

eliminate the natural distortion efects generated by standard
and digital lenses. Its commonly used, especially in architectural
buildings, vegetation etc.
However, solid walls are quite
commonly used by people and
photography. When using wide camera lenses (usually from 16 to for us are the quickest way to
35mm), we have a wider viewing angle and can capture more create a good-looking
information, but the nal image will also be distorted. To eliminate Although
background. Well also create
this efect, the lens is being shifted out of its natural placement, walls are simple the vegetation behind the wall,
neutralising the distortion. In our example we need to adjust the ShiftY objects, they also have which will diversify and detail
some details and diferent shaders
factor and then rotate the camera in the vertical axis c. the nal image even more d.
e Step-by-step stone creation
05Additional renements The owerpots from the previous tutorial dont look good
enough so Ill extend them through the whole terrace. The building walls also need some
detail. Ive created thin kerbs and distributed them all around the building. Now well ll the gap with
gravel stones. Create the plane object and extrude it along the building walls. Add a cube object, enter
Edit Mode and subdivide it once, adding some random rotation to the newly created faces. The stones
will be very small so the single subdivision should work well. Adjust the object manually by editing its
f Kerbs, walls and
Vertices. Create up to four diferent stones using this technique e. gravel distribution
06Distributing objects Group the stones together and

select the extruded plane from the previous step. Add a
new Particle System and change its type from Emitter to Hair.
Switch on the Advanced options and go to the Render tab. Click
Group and select your stones from the list. You should now see all
four of your objects being randomly distributed throughout the
plane. Go to Emission settings and increase the amount number.
Its also recommended to change the distribution type from
Jittered to Random. Under the Physics tab you can also randomise
the size of your objects f.

After putting the camera in the desired location, well now
gradually add more and more details to our scene. It is really
hard to estimate from the very beginning what will be the
nal object placement, shader setup or lighting parameters.
In order to work efciently, I always try to roughly build up
my scene and later rene each detail after knowing its
placement, dimensions or material. In the next few steps Ill
g
focus on some techniques and issues that you may
07Pre-made models
encounter during your own projects, but keep in mind that
In real-life situations youre very often working within tight deadlines
in real life you should build a workow that will suit your
and many other stressful circumstances thats why you need to be fast end efcient. While
own preferences. Be exible, change the steps order, mix
its quite easy to prepare objects like windows, owerpots and doors by yourself, creating good-quality the techniques together or try to develop your own, basing
furniture models for each scene is totally pointless. Thats why its essential to build up your own library this on the information youve already received. Ultimately,
of 3D models, ready to use at any time. Although most of the models available online are dedicated to thats the only way to successfully learn new things and take
commercial software, you can store them as .obj les, since Blender imports these without any your skills to a higher level.
problems. You may also create a Cycles shader library that might be used simultaneously g.
90 3D Art & Design

Interior design
Glass material for windows, plus curtain-making
i
Material system
In the previous steps Ive very
roughly described the Cycles Step 1
material system. This topic will be
covered more deeply in the next
part of this tutorial series, but
some basic understanding of the
shading system is required for the
next steps of this article.
Cycles uses a node-based
system for creating the materials
and currently it doesnt ofer any Step 2
pre-made setups or shaders its
up to us to build them from
scratch. This approach has both h
advantages and disadvantages.
First of all, you have total control
over the shader. Most 3D
applications have material
08Basic shaders In order to see the furniture weve
just placed, we need to create a glass material.
Although the Cycles shading system gives us a glass-type
systems supporting pre-dened shader on the go, we still need to apply some adjustments.
shader types such as Difuse, Firstly, your glass object must have a thickness, just like in Step 3
Glossy or Translucent. Each of the real world. Secondly, we need to tweak its Ray Visibility
these has its own specic values options. These settings determine which aspects of the
and parameters. In Cycles, every material will take part in the rendering process. For instance,
material you create can be freely we can switch of the objects visibility, but still allow it to be
dened and changed using the visible in the reective surfaces. For glass objects, especially
node editor. For instance, when windows, we need to turn of the Shadow, Transmit and
we choose the Glass type of Difuse properties h.
material, the node editor gives us
the freedom to delete the Glass
shader node and replace it with
Transparent or Emit shader 09Adding curtains The buildings interior looks too
empty so Ive decided to add some curtains. Create
a Bzier Curve object and enter Edit Mode. Select an end
nodes. To create a physically
accurate glossy material, we need point and by pressing the E key, extrude the curve, adjusting
to mix Difuse and Glossy its shape. Convert it to mesh geometry by returning to Object
shaders, using a Fresnel node as Mode and pressing Opt/Alt+C. Choose Mesh from Curve Step 4 Step 5
the input for the mixing value. It and enter Edit Mode once more. Extrude the path towards
may seem complicated, but once the ceiling, add horizontal subdivisions and press the P key to
you grasp how this system works, switch on Proportional Editing. By selecting random vertices,
youll love it. One drawback is the adjust the curtains and diversify their shape i.
lack of pre-made, useful materials
that could be quickly added to the
g Some of the models that i Creating curtains in
scene. This can be solved by Ive been using in this step-by-step fashion
creating your own library of the tutorial scene
most used shaders and storing j The same method was used
h Step-by-step process of to map and texture the
them in one Blender le. creating a glass object surrounding walls, Step 7 Step 6
and material owerpots and terrace
j
10Quick UV mapping
speed up the texturing
process well use the Cube
To
Projection technique to unwrap the

house walls. Cube projection works
quite well with architectural models,
but always check if there are no
visible seams in areas exposed to
camera. If this issue occurs, select
all of the faces directed towards the
camera and use either the normal
Unwrap or Project from View
option. Remember that you dont
need (and, except for game models,
barely ever should) to unwrap all
your geometry at one command.
Instead, select the faces you want
3D viewport UV/Image editor
to texture and use the unwrapping
mode that works the best j.
3D Art & Design 91

Environment Shaders
and
Illuminate the scene using sun and environmental lights lighting
15 seconds using CPU 15 seconds using GPU It can often happen that
a specic shader which
worked perfectly in one
scene doesnt seem to
look good when we try
to reuse it in another
project. This issue is
common to all 3D
applications and in fact
isnt even an error or
software failure. Just as
k Using GPU mode in real life, where we
may speed up the rendering perceive colours,
process by a factor of ten or more! materials and surfaces
depending on the
11Lighting and preview rendering Before we create a lighting setup, lets learn how to preview our scene and render it in
real-time. Next to the Mode button in the bottom tab of 3D Viewport we have a Display Mode button. Choose the Rendered type
of display and after a few seconds you should see your scene with an ambient occlusion type of lighting being rendered in real time. If the
environment in which
theyre located, the
same efect applies to
Rendered type of display is not available, check if youve chosen Cycles from the Rendering Engine tab located in the Info panel. You can the digital world.
switch between CPU and GPU rendering modes in User Preferences>System options k.
l Change the Sun or Textured Icosphere imitating sky m If the sky sphere shader
Environment emitting seems too complicated,
values for ne-tuning check the tutorial les
the lighting for additional
information
Sun location
12Sun and background light Open the World setup

panel and change the Surface colour type from RGB to Sky
Texture. If you switch on the Rendered mode in Viewport, you
Additional background plates with trees
should see a nice-looking physical sky appearing. By clicking and

dragging the sphere in World panel, youre able to dene the
physical sun placement or change the time of day, from midday to
13Environmental setup The default sky system looks nice, but doesnt have any settings
allowing its colour correction or image placement. We could replace the sky in a 2D application,
but this can be also done inside Blender. Create an Icosphere and delete its bottom part, subdividing
evening for instance. Still, there are no shadows appearing in the the object to half. Generate the UV map choosing the Cylinder type of Unwrap and load the panoramic
scene. Press the space bar and from the Add menu, choose Sun sky texture you nd most suitable. Rene the UV mapping so it covers the entire image and return to
lamp. Access its settings and change the shadow size from 1 to Object Mode. Scale the sphere up and rotate it the way that gives the best sky look. Now create the
0.01. Now you should have a fully working sun and sky system l. node material setup based on the attached image m.
Lech Sokoowski Change ZBrush

Im an architect by education and 3D artist (2009)
by passion. Since my youth I was The project that I
interested in various forms of expression, started years ago as a
simple ZBrush
especially drawing. My adventure with 3D
exercise later turned
graphics started during my studies and out to become very
Ive really quickly fallen into it. Currently I personal, describing Lama Blender (2009)
run my own 3D graphics studio and live a some situations Ive Llamas are my favourite animals This image
happy life in a quiet, mellow region of been going through in is a result of rigging and fur rendering
Eastern Poland my life in the past exercises I did in Blender years ago
92 3D Art & Design

Vegetation 30minutes
render tim
With other details finished, we will focus on vegetation e
Resolution
3,200 x 2,00 :
n Trees and bushes o Remember to apply a shader with grass image
0
used in my scene to the plane object distributing particles
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4
Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Step 8
14 Vegetation models database As with the furniture,

you need to have a good, pre-made model library for
vegetation. Compared to more technical objects like furniture, trees 15Grass distribution To distribute grass in the scene wed use the same technique as with the
gravel in step 6. Grass modelling is fairly simple: create one strand and a UV map (simple
and other forms of vegetation are much more challenging to create, Unwrapping should work ne). Bend it using proportional editing and 3D cursor. Create up to ve
even when you have time. There are a plenty of very good-quality diferent strands and mix them together into up to four small, varying clumps you can also change
models available on the internet; but if you dont want to buy them, the scale of each strand. Take these strand groups and create bigger clumps these you can separate
you can use open source software like ngPlant, for instance, to to diferent objects and join them into a group. Use the Hair Particle system to distribute the grass o.
quickly generate your own, nice-quality vegetation models n.
16
Only two 3D models were used to create p Limit yourself to just four tree objects
High-poly geometry Fine-looking trees are usually the foreground vegetation. Each model is and use diferent scale and rotation
very heavy 3D objects, comprising up to hundreds of distributed as an instance parameters for diversifying their look
thousands or even millions of polygons, so we have to use them
very wisely. In Blender we can duplicate or copy objects in two
ways. The standard Shift+D method results in creating two totally
independent objects. During the rendering process each of them is
being calculated separately, requiring more RAM and therefore
slowing down the rendering. However, we can copy objects in a
much less resource-consuming way. For this we should use the
Opt/Alt+D key combination to create an object instance.
Instanced objects will be calculated only once and can be
distributed through the scene countless times p. q A tree in the
foreground has
the displacement
modier applied,
Final thoughts adding some

irregularities
Weve reached the end of the second part. Hopefully youve

managed to learn some new skills that will turn out to be
useful on an everyday basis. For more in-depth information,
especially regarding the Cycles shading system, please
check the materials on the disc at the back of the book. In
the next tutorial well be going over rendering and
postproduction techniques.
Breathe Blender, Octane Render (2011)

Im interested in macro photography and this inspired me to
17Tree placement Gaining some knowledge about proper scene management, lets now add
the vegetation to our image. We dont have to ll everything with trees as it is in real life having
the camera already set up, place the vegetation only where its necessary. Ive made an exception to
create some imaginary owers, place them in a moodily lit this, putting some trees out of view in order to achieve nice, deep shadows being cast on the lawn and
environment and render using GPU technology the back of the house. Using all the techniques described in this and the previous article, Ive created
the foreground to add more depth and harmony to the nal composition q.
3D Art & Design 93

Apply the
finishing touches
House stage three
In the nal chapter of this three-part series, Lech Sokoowski reveals how to apply the
nishing touches to your house-build project Lech Sokoowski is a 3D generalist based in Poland
W
elcome to the third and nal part of Over the next six pages we will cover Cycles While I wont be describing how Ive achieved
this tutorial series. So far, we have rendering settings and an in-depth study of every particular efect for the nal image, I will
covered modelling a house from 2D Blenders new shading system. Well create introduce skills such as material creation, proper
plans, properly distributing high-poly diverse materials from scratch, later separating scene rendering and nishing touches in 2D
vegetation models throughout the scene and we them from the nal rendering as individual layers. software. You can then apply these skills to your
have also given insight into Blenders shading and Well also cover the process of transforming the personal projects, or develop them for use in your
rendering systems. raw rendering using Photoshop techniques. professional portfolio.
94 3D3DArtist
Art & Design
Apply the fnishing touches
Shaders Set up
Materials Review your options
Rendering
01GPU vs CPU options Using the graphics card

(GPU) instead of standard processors (CPU) for the
rendering purposes has both its advantages and drawbacks.
The positive aspects are of course very good rendering
times (often up to ten times faster) and the ability to tweak
the shaders or environmental setup in real-time. At the
moment were limited to NVIDIA GPU units as Cycles
doesnt fully support Open CL technology, which is used by
ATI cards. Another drawback is the GPU RAM limitation,
but this issue can be resolved either by proper scene
management or by rendering the images on separate layers
(foreground, background and so on) a.
Software used
Sample shaders for your in this piece
personal projects
Shader descriptions
Blender Photoshop
Final rendering with 2.62
02Basic settings
postproduction layers
The Rendering panel is divided into
a few categories. The Render tab contains the
available computing devices and buttons starting the
a You can choose the rendering rendering process. The Dimensions tab has all the settings
method in the User Preferences
window under System Settings Before regarding the images resolution, the animations frame rate
b For quick previews, use the

slider of per cent scale for
we begin and so on. The Stamp tab enables us to include various
information on the rendered image, such as the lens value or
render resolution rendering time. The Output tab contains all the settings
The Cycles rendering
engine difers quite a regarding the le extensions and image compression. The
lot from the old and Film tab controls the nal image exposure and anti-aliasing
outdated Blender settings. The Performance tab gives us control over the
Internal. It would be a geometry calculating methods. The Layers and Post-
good idea to learn its
Processing tabs will be described together in the
basic settings rst.
postproduction steps b.
3D Art & Design 95

The shading system

After adapting the basics of rendering systems, its time for materials
c
The Cycles rendering system doesnt really have many options to tweak but requires some
time and individual testing before it achieves nice and noiseless images. I recommend nding
some additional information on the internet about how the unbiased rendering engines work
and what rendering or lighting conditions might be troublesome. As most of the unbiased
renderers work pretty much the same, reading articles regarding other applications is useful.
In the last tutorial I briey mentioned that Cycles works on a node-based material system,
which might seem a little bit confusing in the beginning, but later turns out to be very
03The Integrator tab Ive purposefully omitted one
of the tabs to better describe it now. The Integrator
intuitive and exible. The key to understanding the main concept of this system is knowing
that by joining the nodes inside the editor, we add specic attributes to the base material. For
tab contains the most important rendering settings. Sample instance, if we create a simple Difuse shader, we can mix it with an unlimited number of any
sliders control the noise levels of the nal or preview images. other kind of other shaders glossy, glass or translucent. By using more advanced nodes, we
If the value is set to 0, the rendering would continue forever. can switch of the materials visibility in reections or camera. The possibilities are unlimited
and in the next few steps Ill describe the most important shaders and nodes in Cycles.
This works quite well for the previews and youd rarely need
to go above 1,000 for nal images (with proper scene setup).
04 The Difuse shader Difuse is the simplest shader c Set viewport Shading Mode to
Transparency, Bounces and Light Path settings refer to Rendered for real-time preview
various Global Illumination attributes and I wont cover them you can use in most of the rendering packages. Its
d The Difuse shader with image
in detail. Id suggest decreasing the Light Path bounces to helpful to consider it as a perfect matte layer of the material texture and mapping nodes
eight and switching on the No Caustics option. This setup youre working on. You can determine its colour by applying
e Examples of Glossy shaders
never failed me when I needed a noiseless image in a a specic image texture or assigning RGB values for any
particular tint d. f Glass/Difuse shaders mixed
reasonable time c. using noise procedural texture
05The Glossy shader This shader can be regarded as a perfectly reective material such
as polished metal, or as a coating layer that can be added to difuse material. This shader
has an additional attribute called Roughness which determines the blur amount of the
reections. We can apply image textures to determine both the glossy colour and Roughness
factor. Brighter values will give the stronger and sharper reections, just as darker colours would
result in weaker and more blurry ones e.
06The Mix Shader The Mix Shader is one of the most important nodes available in
Cycles. It enables us to join two independent shaders based on the Fac value. By default
its set to 0.5, which means that materials will be mixed in equal proportions. Various nodes can
be plugged into the Fac slot; for instance, we can use a procedural noise texture to randomly f
mix shaders together f.
96 3D Art & Design

Custom shaders and materials

Create your own assets to suit your piece
g
Glass shader Transparent shader Translucent shader
07Transparent shaders There are three diferent

transparency shaders in Cycles. The Transparent
Shader is simple as its opacity is determined by colour
(white equals 100% transparency) and can be used in
creating alpha transparency. The Translucent shader can be
used for creating the matte transparency efect, visible for
instance on paper surfaces. The last is the Glass shader, h
which has a Roughness value determining the blur intensity.
IOR value generates the refractions in the glass volume g.
08Fresnel and Layer Weight nodes Now lets move to
Input nodes. The Fresnel node is one of the most
important when it comes to creating realistic-looking materials.
In summary By plugging it into the Fac pin in the Mix Shader, we can now
determine the viewing angle from which one of the mixed
With the basic but solid knowledge of the most important shaders would be visible. The Layer Weight node works
shaders and material nodes, you should now be ready to similarly but gives you even more control over this efect, so try
build your own materials. Before you start, its important to both of them when preparing your own materials h.
know exactly what you would like to achieve. Take a grass
strand for example. If we were to examine it close enough,
wed see that it has two diferent shaders Translucent and i
Difuse mixed together. After even closer examination wed
notice that each strand has some value of Glossy shader
added but with quite blurry roughness. By examining the
world around you and applying CG terminology, you can
better understand the processes inside 3D applications.
In these few steps I wasnt able to cover all the aspects of
the shading system, such as light-emitting shaders or bump
mapping, but Ive prepared some basic shaders for your
personal use and further studies on the disc.
g Examples of three diferent types i Two examples of using diferent
09Create a two-sided material

of transparency shaders shaders and a Geometry node
with Backfacing applied To create a grass or leaves shader, we can mix
h A more complex setup where Difuse and Translucent Shaders. When you look at leaves, you can see that they are
colours are used to control the j Similar settings can be tweaked
Fresnel efect for each selected mesh. Go to translucent on one side and more opaque on the other. To achieve this efect inside Cycles,
Object Options and check the add a Geometry node from the Input group. By using the Backfacing property we can plug it
Ray Visibility tab
into the Fac slot, so each of the shaders is assigned to its own surface of the model i.
j Camera view with k

selected border
11Border rendering When preparing the shaders, you

might want to pre-render parts of the scene to check if
10The Light Path node To enhance the materials even more lets now use a Light Path
node. Each of its pins, when plugged into the Fac slot of the Mix Shader, determines
everything works. Press Shift+B in the 3D viewport and
select which region youd like to render. This is also useful for
what would happen to the second (bottom) shade. For instance, lets take two Difuse noticing errors on the nal picture if the changes arent too
shaders red and blue. Blue would be plugged to the upper slot and red to the bottom. If we big, you can render the selected region instead of the whole
choose the Is Glossy Ray property and plug it into the Fac slot, the red Difuse shader will picture and later merge them in Photoshop. To disable
now be visible in all glossy reections, but the basic material would still remain blue j. bordering select the outline of the camera k.
3D Art & Design 97

Postproduction stages
Prepare your piece for rendering
Lech Sokoowski
Im an architect by education and 3D artist by passion.
12Material ID Quite often
objects on nal
Since my youth I have been interested in various forms renderings have a diferent tint,
of expression, especially drawing. My adventure with saturation or values than
3D graphics started during my studies and Ive quickly expected. Masking them in
fallen into it. Currently I run my own 3D graphics Photoshop may take time so
studio, NoTriangle, and live a happy life in a quiet, well use render layers instead.
mellow region in east Poland. In the Rendering panel, go to
the Layers tab and enable the
Material Index option. Now
open the Material panel, go to
Settings and change the Pass
Index to any suitable number.
Repeat this process for every
material youd like to have
l
masked out l.
13Final rendering setup With all objects, materials

and the camera set up, we can run the nal render.
m
Settings used for this scene are simple. A more important

issue is the GPUs RAM. For the best performance, I
recommend switching of the viewports and restarting
Car environment 3ds Max, V-Ray (2012)
An image from a set of 3D environments weve prepared specially Blender. This way we purge the RAM so it can be freely
for car renderings. This kind of scene can easily be used for used during the rendering. For this project I was using an
commercial animations or other forms of visual presentation. NVIDIA GTX 560 with 2GB of RAM m.
l Note that render layers are

available only in the latest
Blender build (2.62) Final
m Bigger resolutions increase
GPU RAM usage
touches
n An easy way of merging two In these nal steps well
separate material masks learn how to extract
Material ID passes and
o A quick guide on how to use use them in
the Material_ID le
postprocessing along with
p Schematic showing how to some useful techniques
extract a Z-Depth pass inside of turning your raw
the Compositing Node editor rendering into a quality
Render layers together
q Small comparison of the raw nal image. with Material Index pass
rendering and nal picture
VFX Studio Blender, Cycles, Photoshop (2012) n

Image showing the inside view of the conceptual project for a VFX
studio located in our city. Both the renderings and interior design
were created in our studio.
14Save the outputs To extract Material ID, switch to Compositing Nodes. Hit Cmd/
Ctrl+A and add an ID Mask node from the Convertor group. Connect it to the
IndexMA slot in a Render Layers node. Add and connect a Viewer node for a preview and
Checkmate Blender, Cycles (2012) change the Index number to view masked material. Colorise each mask and merge them
A frame from a short animation project commissioned by a client together using a Color Mix node. To save the masked output, plug in a Composite instead of
for educational purposes. a Viewer node and save the image in the rendering window. You can revert to the raw
rendering by plugging the Composite node into the Image slot in the Render Layers node n.
98 3D Art & Design

The final steps 5hours

render tim
Make selections and final adjustments within Photoshop e
Resolution
3,200 x 2,00 :
o 0
3 1 4
1 Select the layer 4 Select background

2 Use Magic Wand tool and hit Cmd/Ctrl+J
3 Click on the element 5 Hide unwanted layers
15Enhance the rendering Now move to Photoshop.

Start by importing the raw rendering and Material
p
ID image and merge them. To generate a selection, use

the Magic Wand tool on the Material ID image, switch to
the rendered image and hit Cmd/Ctrl+J. This will save the
selection as a new layer that can be freely modied and
adjusted. After adjusting all of the materials, paint some
light rays and create mood by using a standard brush o.
16Gain an aerial perspective By using a Z-Depth

pass right from Blenders node editor we can create
some perspective. Objects in the background will have a
tint similar to the colours of the sky and overall
illumination. A Z-Depth pass wont support the alpha
transparency applied on leaves for example, so apply
carefully so as not to generate any bordering issues p.
17Colour grading Last

but not least is the Final
colour grading. I used various
adjustment layers, starting
thoughts
with Curves and two Color Even though this whole
Balance layers to create both tutorial was separated
warm cold tints and masked into three quite big
chapters, were sure you
them precisely. Next I added can appreciate that a lot
a Vibrance layer to control more could still have been
the images saturation. Final added. I trust you
touches involved creating an understand it was quite
challenging to cover every
additional Exposure layer to
single aspect of the image
brighten up the foreground weve created here, but
slightly and one more Color even so, I really hope that
Balance layer for the nal tint. with this series many of
Last I merged everything you have been inspired
to try Blender for
together and applied a Smart yourselves. Best wishes
Sharpen lter to enhance the q and happy blending!
overall detail q.
3D Art & Design 99

Create superior interiors

Vintage bedroom 2012
Take your arch-vis skills to the next
level, using 3D and 2D techniques to
create a dramatic bedroom interior
Eugenio Garcia Villarreal is a 3D generalist who
focuses on environments and product shots. Hes also
the co-founder of D10Studio

techniques behind
Artist info
Eugenio Garcia
Villarreal
Username: artecnl

Concept
www.ickr.com/photos/artecnl
This scene is inspired by vintage-style
Country Mexico
bedrooms that heavily feature antique
Software used LightWave 11,
Photoshop, ZBrush materials such as worn wood, exposed brick
Expertise Eugenio is a 3D artist
walls and aged paintwork. The idea behind this
specialising in environments, project is to capture an image with a dramatic
texturing and product shots. He mood through careful texturing, efective cloth
uses a combination of 3D and simulation and atmospheric lighting to create a
2D techniques in his work warm, lived-in environment.
T
his tutorial will show you how to create an interior
bedroom scene, focusing on texturing, cloth
simulation and lighting. Youll learn techniques I
have developed throughout my career as a 3D artist,
Research and sketch
including basic modelling using essential LightWave
Explore the perfect shot for your scene
Modeler tools, and the best way to nd good textures with
complementary maps, such as Bump and Displacement.
Well also focus on lighting and how to make warm scenes
01 Start with a sketch
I use basic 3D shapes to
create a quick 3D sketch. This
with contrast to achieve a dramatic mood. Well also tackle will help me with the nal
the compositing process, exploring some of my favourite compositing later on, as I can
touch up this 3D base in
techniques to ne-tune details, using colour correction,
Photoshop to add objects and
masks, textures as well as simple matte-painting techniques. atmosphere. Along with an
Id like to thank Alejandro Tello, a talented artist at initial sketch, this will give us a
a
D10Studio who helped me with the nal colour correction. solid base for the project a.
100 3D Art & Design

Bed and lamp OBJ models

plus MTL les
Tutorial screenshots
LightWave shortcuts PDF
Also with the disc:
High-quality 3D book models
courtesy of CGAxis.com
LightWave ZBrush Photoshop
Be practical
When I model objects for
a still image I try to add
details but not too
many, as I can do this
later on in Photoshop. An
example is the curtains: I
completed a simple spline
drawing, extruded in Y,
subdivided it and that
was basically it. Ill can
use the Liquify tool in
Photoshop to create the
organic cloth folds. With
time-saving tricks like
these you can be practical
and nish the job in a
fraction of the time, with
all the same results of 3D,
with respective limits. b c
A Create a basic sketch to nd the

right composition 02 Time to model In my workow I tend to use basic box
modelling, cylinders and primitives. For bed clothes I use
subdivided box planes. For the bed and window decoration I work
03 Move to LightWave Modeler I always use the
Spline Guide in the Modify tab, as its great for bending
objects, stretching and twisting. Rail Extrude, in conjunction with
b Models are kept very simple, as
shaders and textures will with Spline Guides using the Rail Extrude tool. Its also a great idea the Spline Guide, is also a great time-saving tool. I use the Bandsaw
improve them later to reuse old models when you can, such as the petrol lamp and the tool to subdivide along with the Knife and Bend tools. Using
c The Spline Guide helps you to radio in this scene. For the chair I follow a simple spline and shortcuts is a big help learn them if you want to save time. Youll
bend, twist and change scales box-modelling workow b. nd a PDF of my top shortcuts supplied with this tutorial C.
3D Art & Design 101

Get stuck into modelling

Find your own working method with LightWaves Modeler tools
04 Use the Rail Extrude tool I model the bed using

splines. This is a great trick in LightWave, as you simply
draw the pattern and use the Rail Extrude tool to extrude a cylinder.
Remember to use only the front face of the cylinder. I put the spline
in a background layer and the face at the beginning of the spline,
then simply click on the bent tubes. I repeat this for all the patterns
of the bed frame d.
d f
05 Research your textures I always recommend using texture sites most of them have a
free quota of textures. Personally, I have a membership with CGTextures.com, which gives
me a quota of 100MB of textures a day. This is more than enough for a single 3D artist so I suggest
06 Tile your textures When you nd a nice texture, you
may discover that it wont make useful tiles to cover the
area you want to texture. A good way to get around this is to use
you give it a look. For this scene, I choose a basic brick texture, a couple of wood maps, white plaster the Ofset tool in Photoshop, which youll nd in the Filters tab.
and some cloth textures. These are only small textures, as well make the magic happen later when we Simply make a vertical and horizontal ofset to create a good centre
get into Photoshop e. for the seams of the texture. You should nd that by using the
Clone Stamp tool you can get
rid of the excess seams. Move
e
the Ofset tool again and try to
use a round brush with your
Clone Stamp tool for really
precise results f.
d The Rail Extrude is an incredible

time-saving tool
e CGTextures.com helped me
with the texture hunt for this
particular scene
f Photoshops Ofset tool is the

key to success for tiled textures
Eugenio Garcia Villarreal

Eugenio Garcia Villarreal is an artist living
and working in Mexico who taught himself
3D techniques by reading tutorials and
watching video guides. Hes now the
co-founder of D10Studio, a digital agency in
Mexico, and he boasts a degree in Graphic Detectives Ofce LightWave, Photoshop (2011) Real de Catorce LightWave, Photoshop (2008)
Design. He loves art, illustration and cars, This was created for issue 28 of 3D Artist magazine. Created after Eugenios travels to Real de Catorce, a
and specialises in environments, The scene is based on a stereotypical old detectives town in Mexico, he wanted to capture the incredible
texturing and product shots. ofce. It involved a lot of 3D modelling and post work mood of the desert sunsets he saw there
102 3D Art & Design

g
Play with
contrast
For a long time contrast
has been used to make
images more interesting,
as it helps the eye to
explore the complete
image. Plain light is your
enemy! The use of good
contrast is eye-candy, as
it can be applied to light,
dark and colour
temperature, as well as
the concentration of mass
objects too. With this
scene I use contrast to
create depth and a warm
environment. You can
experiment with this in
3D using linear grading
lights. Textures will help
with this a lot too.
g UV texture sheets make the

texturing job very easy
h Youll need a lot of patience with
07 UV texture sheets This is an easy task. Before

running the cloth simulation, we need to UV-map the bed
sheets. I basically create a box with lots of subdivisions, then use
ClothFX, but in the end youll
have great results
i I bring in all the depth

the basic planar texture UV-mapping. I export the EPS le too, so I information with Photoshop,
desaturating and playing with
can work on it later in Photoshop. This will facilitate you when you the levels
run the simulations and export a transformed object. The sheets
will look great with folds and a decent texture g. h j Experiment with diferent focal
lengths to get the right look
08 Basic cloth simulation LightWaves ClothFX can

often cause several headaches but dont worry, you just
need to nd that sweet spot with all the variables. Its like polishing
a rough model. All I do is use the ClothFX tool with a rectangle
thats the shape of a mattress to run the simulations on. I make
around 40 simulations until I nd a nice one simply select the
object and save the frame you like as a transformed object, and
youre done. You now have your blank sheets. The best part of all is
that theyre UV-mapped and ready for the textures and
i
Displacement maps h.
09 Use Displacement maps I create a black-and-white conversion in the brick texture

map, then add a Gaussian blur. This will make a good Displacement map combined with the
detailed sharpen texture. This is in the Deform options in the Properties tab on the wall object. Apply a
10 Composition and camera setup Since I already
have my sketch, I just move the focal length of the camera
to 35mm. I want to make the chair and window my main objects,
sub-patch to the wall in Modeler, then in Layout you can increase the subdivision level. I add 60 to the so I move them to get a nice distribution. Good contrast in light/
Sub-level to get nice details in the map. Clone the wall plane four times to get the full efect. To avoid temperature and distribution is needed. The brightest parts of the
freezing frames you can add the subdivision level increase in the render, not in the GPU display i. image are less crowded and the dark areas have lots of objects j.
NY Street LightWave, Photoshop (2011)

An image created for an old project, inspired by the streets of
New York. This one was completed after around four days of
modelling. The cab is the only model not created by Eugenio
3D Art & Design 103

Let there be light

Lets render, colour correct and finish up our scene
11 Set up the scenes lighting As mentioned, contrast is

the key to a good image. I use basic area lights in this scene,
putting one in the window position and enlarging it to get the same
size. I also add a Linear Mode to the light with 300% Intensity and
enlarge the gradient. VPR is a good way to see the increase of the
light in real-time. Youll nd FPrime is also a handy real-time tool k.
12 Add textures and shaders I use the main textures

combined with shaders mostly preset in LightWave. For the
bed I use a simple black shader with Reections at 15%. The oor
is reective too, so 15% gives a good-looking glossy nish. The
wood on the columns and furniture has a Bump map at 200% to
get a nice, rough texture. The bed has Bump and Color maps too
and all the books are sourced images of simple boxes. You can
later touch up the complete scene to get more texture details l.
13 Sculpt in ZBrush I create two objects in ZBrush: the

glass sculpture and the cookies. I export an OBJ base mesh
from LightWave Modeler and import it into ZBrush, subdividing
the geometry and using standard brushes to sculpt. For the cookie
object I use a crumpled Alpha with the Standard brush, combined
l
with the Move tool. For the sculpture, I use the Drag brush to apply
patterned shapes. I later export all to LightWave, with a high
k Linear light helps to create nice l Surfaces with no texture can be m ZBrush is a great program it
polygon count m. contrast in the scene given 3D shaders can help a lot with organic and
sculptural objects
Keep it
natural
In 3D we usually prefer to
be as clean and perfect as
possible, but we also
need to see the nature of
objects. Its the little
imperfections that make
an object real, such as
burnt marks in a wooden
plank, aged efects on
walls, rounded, cool, worn
objects and so on. Just try
to imagine the story of
every object and what
may have afected it over
time. Take the oor for
instance: think about how
many people pass over it,
where they put their feet
and work out where the
worn textures should go.
This will make your work
m even more believable.
104 3D Art & Design

Render and post work 15hours

cr eation tim
Give your image a boost in these final stages Resolution
e
7,534 x 3,304:
14 Colour correction Opening the render in Photoshop, I
adjust the levels and experiment with the values. I nd the
raw render a little plain, so I focus on getting more contrast and
pixels
take out some of the reddish tone. Next I use HDR Toning on the
image, make a photorealistic pass and put that layer over the
colour-corrected one. I change the opacity and set it to Overlay
mode. To nish this stage, I mask the HDR-converted image and
use a Round brush to bring out the light details, such as reections
and areas of contrast n.
15 Matte-painting techniques Well bring some extra

details into the scene, such as the red fabric on the top of
the shelf, crumbs from the cookies and so on. A cracked texture on
the white wall is also added in Overlay mode in Photoshop. Plants
n
outside are textures that are overexposed to match the light o.
o
16 Final details Little details are added now, using the
Dodge and Burn tools to make more contrast. I use the Burn
tool behind the beams and at the edges of the image. Im trying to
mimic the efect of being in a dark room and suddenly entering one
with a strong source of light. When this happens you only can see
limited aspects of the dark spaces. Some glows are also added with
a large round brush. I add this on a top layer, so I can easily
transform its scale p.
17 Colour correction and HDR ltering As in the

previous stage, I make another pass of photorealistic HDR
toning now. Using masks to bring more details in, I put some
yellowish colour in the light source and nally sign the image. This
project has been a great exercise in exploring light and texture. I
hope youll be able to apply these skills to your own projects q.
Render setup
For the nal render I use LightWaves
rendering engine with Adaptive Sampling set
to a level range of 12-12 with Classic q
Reconstruction lter and a low-discrepancy
Sampling Pattern. The radiosity is Monte n Try to get some nice contrast at p Use your Transform tool to
Carlo with three bounces in the nal render. this stage it will be the base of increase the size of the glow,
all the nal details setting a warm tone
The nal resolution of the image is 7,534 x
3,304 pixels, rendered using F9 and saved as o You could add details innitely, q HDR Toning is a great tool if you
32-bit TGA les. so you need to focus on the know how to combine it with
primary ones for times sake your base image
3D Art & Design 105

Tutorial les:
Design interactive interiors

Discover a few of Roald Hyer-Hansens tricks for delity. Gone are all the handy image efects
and real-time shadows are efectively disabled.
creating interactive interior scenes with Unity Lightmapping is still there, but without the
more advanced global illumination, and with its
E
very once in a while artists should take that they will run silky smooth, even on your bouncing photons and bleeding pixels. You can
the plunge and give up their favourite mobile device. also kiss goodbye to visible Normal maps in
tools. Tasks that were once so easy to This way of working can be excused in a lightmapped scenes, as the Directional
solve will become incredibly hard to complete, hectic work environment with looming lightmap feature is greyed out. Optimisation-
forcing your brain to come up with new deadlines behind every corner, but what would wise, both Umbra Occlusion and the mighty
solutions for all sorts of problems. This is really happen if your favourite tools suddenly Proler are taken away, but thankfully we still
what this tutorial is about: learning the disappeared? What would you do if Tool A have the Level of Detail functionality. Youre
possibilities of a limited tool namely the free was no longer accessible and your beloved probably thinking this all sounds pretty drastic.
version of the Unity game engine. Tool B was nowhere to be found? How would Is it possible to create something visually on a
Having used the professional version of this you react if your workow was turned upside par with the Pro version with all these powerful
excellent engine for the last ve years, I have down? This very scenario is pretty much what features taken away? It certainly is, but it will
learnt how to complete tasks in a more- Ill be covering. require some workarounds, clever thinking and
advanced way. Previously dull and at-looking Lets start by comparing the limited free a lot of patience. So lets see how far we can
scenes instantly get a massive visual boost just version with the feature-packed professional take this.
by adding a couple of image efects and some edition of Unity. Unfortunately, most of the As this is a Unity-focused tutorial, I wont go
nice-looking, light-mapped global illumination. features aimed at artists are stripped from the into detail about creating assets, but one
Sloppy and poorly optimised models receive free version of the engine and the few features important thing to keep in mind when
the Umbra Occlusion treatment, which means that are left are pretty limited in terms of visual preparing these is the addition of a secondary
106 3D Art & Design

UV channel. This will be used to store

lightmap information inside Unity and it will
save you a lot of time later in the process.
Unity can generate secondary UV channels
for you during the import, but if you want
complete control I suggest spending some
time creating these yourself. I also suggest
making a separate low-resolution collision
mesh for the sake of optimisation. Unity
can generate collision geometry during
import too, but this will be based on the
imported mesh and will afect the
performance of your project.
Being limited to only the core tools in
c
Unity can actually be a good thing. Not only
do you have to change the way you work,
but you have to come up with alternative disappeared when Lightmapping. To solve
techniques to solve problems. The lack of Find your inspiration this, most of the objects were given either a
global illumination makes it extremely hard The main source of inspiration for this tutorial is Bookbox Loft, a Bumped Specular or a Reective Bumped
to create nicely lit scenes, but a custom GI modern apartment by mode:lina (www.modelina-architekci. Specular material. These Reective material
rig can certainly do the trick to solve this. com). Be sure to ask for permission before starting a project like types work very well with Normal maps. By
For this project the rig was made using a this. I was given the go-ahead by mode:lina, which meant I carefully tweaking the Alpha channels of
could start the project with peace of mind. Using various
bunch of dummy objects that were reference photos from the website to build the assets in 3ds these textures, they can end up looking
snapped to the vertices of a dome in 3ds Max, I mainly used traditional box-modelling techniques pretty convincing.
Max. In Unity these dummy objects are together with some spline modelling for the walls and wooden Since the free version of Unity isnt
then given a shadow-casting Point light mouldings. Most textures have been hand-made or mixed with capable of antialiasing, sharp and jagged
the excellent free textures from CGTextures.com.
component. By tweaking the Intensity, edges can make your eyes bleed. These will
Range and Color of these, a surprisingly always be visible when running the game/
usable GI solution can be made. Combined simulation, but in screenshots we can get
with coloured lights used to fake colour rid of them. By using a custom script we
bouncing in the scene, this method can render out high-resolution screenshots
appeared to work incredibly well. from the camera and when we downscale
With no way of faking the image efects them back to a normal size most of the
found in the Pro version, getting the most nasty edges will be smoothed out.
out of the materials was a priority in this All in all, you get more than you pay for
project. For added depth, most of the with the free version of Unity. It certainly
textures were given an Ambient Occlusion lacks most of the cutting-edge features
pass inside 3ds Max. Some Normal maps a Even without the b A fake GI setup c Careful attention found in its big brother. However, by
were also generated, but since the free advanced features, makes it possible to details can have thinking outside of the box and coming up
the free version of to create realistic a stronger impact
version of Unity doesnt support Directional Unity can produce lighting in the free than a bunch of with new methods Ive enjoyed spending
lightmaps, most of the Normal map detail nice visuals version of Unity image efects time with the little brother for this project.
3D Art & Design 107

03 Import assets into Unity In

Unity, importing geometry and
other assets is a matter of dragging and
h
dropping from either Windows Explorer or
Finder into Unitys Hierarchy panel. For this
project well be sure to import all textures
prior to the geometry, as Unity can
sometimes struggle to locate these if done
05 Let there be light With the
apartment geometry in our scene
its time to brighten it up a little, so rst well
the other way around. Somehow, Unity create a Directional light by going to
imports objects with a Scale Factor of 0.01, GameObject>Create Other>Directional
so changing this to 1.0 makes our scale Light. This is basically the sun and will often
e
correct. For this scene we also need a set the general mood of the scene. As the
Skybox and a First Person Controller, so free version of Unity doesnt support global
Lets push the limits of the Ctrl/right-click in the Project panel to import illumination, well use an old-school fake GI
free version of Unity these using the Import Package option f. setup. Use a prefab for the indoor lights,
combining a regular Point light and a lamp
d Exporting the
entire model as
one chunk isnt
01 Prepare to export Before
exporting your models to Unity, you
should make sure the scale is correct.
04 Ambient colour and the
Skybox element Strangely
enough, the default ambient colour in Unity
model exported separately. Making a light
prefab like this will certainly speed up the
lighting of the scene, as the changes made
always the best
When Lightmapping your models, you is set to grey. This will make your scenes to one light can be transferred to all the
way, but somehow
it worked ne for should have a second UV channel assigned very at, so by going to Edit>Render other prefabs h.
this project for the best results. This is not strictly Settings this can be changed to a darker
e Creating custom
collision geometry
will make your
necessary, as Unity can do this
automatically for you during the import.
However, you will nd that completing this
value. In the Render settings we can also
choose a regular sunny Skybox. Getting the
geometry in the scene is just a matter of
06 Lightmap the scene When all
the lights are placed in the scene,
its time to perform some lightmap magic.
CPU happy manually will both speed up the model- dragging the models into the Hierarchy The rst thing we need to do is mark all the
f Scale, automatic import process and optimise the lightmaps. panel or straight into the scene view itself. geometry we want to use in the lightmap
secondary UVs Often it can be necessary to adjust and Its recommended that you use the calculation as Static, which in this case
and collision clean up the lightmaps after a bake, so if Hierarchy, though, as the geometry will be means pretty much everything except the
geometry can all
you want full control, custom secondary placed directly in the centre of the scene collision geometry. Next we open the
be found in the
Import settings UVs are a must d. based on the world position the geometry Lightmapping window, accessed through
was exported from g. Window>Lightmapping, setting the Quality
02
g The Skybox does Add collision geometry When
not emit any light,
as its only there making models for videogames
for the visuals and interactive media in general, every
frame counts. Youll nd that creating a
h Using a simple GI
rig, we can separate low-resolution model to act as
produce at least collision geometry will denitely make for a
some semi- better and smoother experience. For this
realistic lighting in
scene, around 30 regular boxes did the job,
the scene
which meant that instead of calculating the
i With the lighting distance to thousands of triangles every
setup used here, frame, the First Person Controller inside
even the interiors
corners get nice Unity would only have to calculate a couple
i
and even shades of hundred maximum e.
108 3D Art & Design

Use Cubemap Maker

For the reective surfaces in the apartment, all the Cubemap
Textures are generated using the excellent Cubemap Maker
plug-in. This free utility makes it very easy to create Cubemap
Textures for the various rooms in the apartment. All I need to do
is place a Cubemap Maker prefab where I want the reections to
be calculated from and then press F12 during Play mode to
capture the Cubemaps. Usually creating so many custom
Cubemaps is an example of overkill, but for smaller scenes like
this one they add some much-needed realism. The plug-in can
be downloaded from tinyurl.com/3DACubeMap.
to Low and the Resolution to a very low

value (5) for quick test bakes. When we
nally nd the perfect mix of fake GI,
08 The rst steps To be able to
walk around in our scene well use
Unitys standard First Person Controller. By
sunlight and indoor lighting, we can boost dragging the Controllers prefab into the
the resolution, get a cup of cofee and wait Hierarchy, we are ready to take our rst
for the nal bake to nish i. steps inside the apartment. By default, the
Walk Speed and Mouse Sensitivity are a
07 Adjust the materials When we

have a nicely lit scene, its time to
dive into the world of materials and
tad too high, so tuning these values down
will give us nice uid motion. For this
particular scene, the FPS camera was
shaders. The reason we do this after lowered a bit, the jumping was disabled and
Lightmapping the scene is because well be the Radius of the Capsule Collider was
creating some Cubemap Textures based on scaled down considerably k.
the diferent rooms in the apartment. These
Cubemap Textures will give us nice
reective surfaces, so they should be based
on a scene that is properly lit. By default, all
09 Remove lightmap noise Even
though the custom GI rig seemed
to work pretty well, it did produce some
imported materials in Unity are plain visible noise in the lightmaps. To quickly x
Difuse, but for this scene most of the this, we can open up our lightmaps with
materials will be changed into Reective Photoshop and use the Surface Blur lter
and/or Bump Specular surfaces j. found under Filter>Blur>Surface Blur. Now
we can really see the benets of our
k
secondary UV channels, as the UV islands
Create a custom GI in our lightmaps are nicely arranged and
rig in 3ds Max easy to modify l.
To create a custom GI rig we only need

a half sphere and plenty of dummy
objects. After creating the sphere and
10 Export the scene With our
scene pretty much nished, we are
now ready to show it of to the rest of the
removing the bottom part, its just a
matter of snapping the dummy objects world. Unity can export to a multitude of
to the vertices of the sphere. When all formats by opening the Build Settings
dummies are in place, these should be (File>Build Settings). Exporting the project
parented to the sphere before exporting
as a Unity Web Player seems to be the
to FBX. In Unity the next step is to
disable the Mesh Renderer of the perfect option if you plan for the project to
sphere, select all the dummy objects be shared with others. Using a simple
and give them all a Light component l
script, we can also capture super-high-
with a Shadow Radius of 2. By adjusting resolution screenshots of our project and
the Scale of the sphere, as well as the
Range and Intensity of the lights, we send these straight to the printing press.
now have a fully functional GI rig. We can also opt to scale them down again
for some fake antialiasing m.
j Using Cubemap l Lightmap UV

Textures can islands being
result in nice cleaned using the
reective surfaces Surface Blur lter
in Photoshop
k We can use the
standard First m When exporting
Person Controller the scene as a
to enter our scene. Unity Web Player,
This is a good way it can be viewed in m
to scrutinise detail a web browser
3D Art & Design 109

Plant & buttery models

(.max format) with maps
Ivy Generator preset (.ivy)
Video overview (.avi)
Learn to create you

r ow
plants for enriched n photorealistic
arch-vis scenes
to the nal render
Artist info
Pawe Podwojewski
www.motyw.com
Country Poland
Software used
Software used in this piece 3ds Max, V-Ray, Unfold3D,
Photoshop
Expertise Pawe believes his
3ds Max V-Ray Unfold3D Photoshop strongest skills lie in lighting
and compositing
110 3D Art & Design

Build unique arch-vis assets
Build unique Concept

The main idea is to create a plant model in a few
arch-vis assets
steps that will add extra detail to your arch-vis
scenes. The skills covered are designed to help
you build your own reference library of assets to
use time and again in your scenes and give them
a unique touch. To keep things efcient I will be
using techniques in 3ds Max and with plug-ins
that are available for free online where possible.
Urban Survivor 2012

Create a plant model that can be easily reused in arch-
vis scenes to enrich your environments
Pawe Podwojewski is an architect and CG artist, specialising in architectural visualisations
I
n this tutorial you will learn how to create realistic-looking plants with simple tools that will
enrich your arch-vis scenes and bring a unique touch to the nal output. We will go through
planning the model and learn how to model, shade, render and nally retouch our image. We will
also take a quick look at basic particle systems for extra details.
References and inspirations

Choose your references, prepare photos and establish a concept
b
02Create a base for future textures

Try to shoot leaves in orthogonal view on an
evenly lit surface. Make sure you dont have any strong
shadows this will be very helpful when creating the
textures in the later steps B.
a 03Key elements in the scene Once you

have all your necessary photographs you can
prepare extra detail for the key elements. In this case,
01Shoot the mood Creating nature in 3D is a great challenge, which makes it crucial to focus your early the leaves will be in our focal point. We have taken two
stages on nding good references. We strongly recommend grabbing a camera even if its on your mobile samples of leaves and made a simple scan. Using
phone or another device and shoot photos. This will give you a much better understanding of the subject and you Photoshop in the next steps we will create all our
will notice much more detail than when looking at images on the internet a. relevant maps. Good quality images will let you render
the created models even on close-ups, which may be a
a Create your own references. By shooting your b Shoot your references in c Create detailed textures by scanning very good way to frame your architectural scene and
own photos you will remember more detail orthogonal view key elements focus the viewer on certain parts of the image c.
3D Art & Design 111

Model your assets

Start the modelling with simple shapes then move to the details
d e
The stalk
after unwrapping
Begin the
modelling with
simple geometry f Create several
copies of the leaf
for a more random
04Plant structure modelling Lets start this step with a plane and a texture showing your
plant reference. Weve used splines to build the base structure. This is a crucial step that will
determine the nal plant appearance. Please be careful to work in real-world units to keep the proper
and natural look
scale of elements. Its very important for physically-correct light distribution while rendering and
rening the scene with Particle Flow. Try to build a low-poly mesh and keep the MeshSmooth as a
modier. This will let you easily edit the model in the next steps when you decide to change, for
example, the composition. Relatively low- or mid-poly models will be easier to use in more complex
scenes and will also save memory while rendering. Remember, your workstation processing power is
always limited and we are working on details that should be easy to use and not stress your GPU d.
05Leaves and stalks

g
For unwrapping the stalk well use
the Unfold tool. This is a simple and easy-to-use interface
for the unwrapping process. Well build the leaves in full geometry,
because without Opacity maps the leaf will render faster. This is
also important because we want to add extra details with a Particle
Flow system, so the particles in this case will stay exactly on the
leaf surface. In the case of using an Opacity map and plate
geometry leaves, this trick might not work and some of the
particles will possibly stay outside of the leaf. Start the model with
a low-poly mesh. Make sure to use modiers to create a couple of
copies of the same leaf for a more random and natural look ef.
Prepare the UVW
template for
future textures
Shoot your own references
06Extra leaf details and unwrapping While aiming for very realistic efects, we may
want to add some splines underneath the leaf to create veins. To do this, select the main
edges of your veins in the low-poly model and detach to shape. Add the Normalize Spline modier and
Working with your own photos has a huge advantage. You
can choose exactly the details you want for model creation.
However, sometimes its impossible to shoot what you
copy the modiers we added in the previous step to the leaf. This will guarantee the spline will want. In these cases there are very helpful resources you
perfectly t the leaf surface. Once you have the model complete, go back to the editable poly level and can nd online, such as CG Textures (www.cgtextures.
add Unwrap. Go to Edit mode, select Planar mapping, pack the UVW and choose the render UVW com) and Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com).
template from Tools. This will be the template we will use in Photoshop for texture creation g.
Pawe Podwojewski
An architect by profession and 3D artist
by passion, Pawes designs and
concepts are inuenced by architecture
from various industries, including
retail, residential and commercial and
urban planning. In 2009 he started
CGWorkshop.org, an online service that Underwater Hotels 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2011) Diving Centre 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2011)
provides training for CG artists in the Waterdiscus an underwater hotel. Pawe is the architect A concept sketch created for the Underwater Hotels
form of video tutorials and workshops. behind the design and rendered concepts project in 2011
112 3D Art & Design

Get realistic and natural effects

Make detailed leaves quickly and easily
07Final leaf
adjustments Once the
leaf models are nished we can
h Try using Particle Flow
for extra details like
water droplets and dust
j
spend time placing them on the

plant. In this example we have
spread the leaves manually. To
prevent them from looking too
similar you can use a simple FFD
3 x 3 modier. A couple of mouse
clicks will rene your general
model look. On some leaves we
also want to add some dust and
seeds, which we can do using the
PArray particle system. Create the
PArray object and choose the leaf
model on which you want to create
particles. Play around with the
particle type, amount and size until
youre happy with the result. Set
the particle percent for the
viewport display to 100 to be sure
of the result. You can decrease this
value later to increase viewport
performance. This is also a simple
way to create water droplets h.
08Level of detail (LOD) While working with detailed

geometry we should keep in mind not all elements will be
equally exposed. Smaller elements will be less visible and also
Use shortcuts
require less detail. To be sure youre heading in the right direction, When you really dont
render a couple of previews; in this case the top leaves are much have time and you
simpler than the larger ones on the bottom i. desperately need a plant
model, use the free Ivy
i Choose the geometry
leaf type according to
size and exposure
Generator (www.
guruware.at). By
adjusting the settings, you
09Use shortcuts In some cases well need to create a
bush or tree quickly. If youre not experienced with
software like Onyx or GrowFX you may want to use the free plug-in
can achieve natural- Ivy Generator developed by GuruWare. This small plug-in lets you
looking plants in seconds. quickly create typical ivy, but also when you play a bit with the
settings you can create great-looking plants. You can have a close
j A quick plant creation using the look at our settings by checking out the supplied preset in the
Ivy Generator tutorial les. More importantly, you can create your own leaves
k Play with MassFX and create a and use them with this plug-in too. This feature enables you to
realistic ground create unique models fast j.
10Final details Good-looking plants need a proper ground, so well create real geometric
branches. First we need mid-poly branches that can be scattered on the ground. We want
them to collide, so to create this simulation you can use MassFX in 3ds Max. Be sure to create a couple
Housing in France 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2012) of branches and then add the simulation to a few elements at once (otherwise you may cause 3ds Max
A housing project in France by Nadau Lavergne studio located in to crash). In the Settings of the Modify panel, you can choose a preset for the material. Also make sure
the Unesco-protected zone to choose the Mesh type as Original. This will make the calculation longer but also the efect will be
much more convincing. Details like bugs and butteries may also make a nice touch k.
3D Art & Design 113

Shading and textures

Add some visceral detail for greater realism
11Stalk shading
Stalk material is very specic. Resolution
To create a physically correct
shader, choose VRayFastSSS2. The versus
light should travel through the
stalk, the same efect we can see
quality
on human skin. This solution
makes sure we get similar results. While painting textures,
Since the stalk is pretty well note that the resolution
exposed, the decision is simple. has a huge impact on the
nal efect. Its best to use
When you look at the shader in the
a tripod while shooting
Material Editor youll see you can
images for crisper
choose from a bunch of presets l. reference. This will
enhance not only the
12Paint leaf textures
Now well prepare our
UVW templates from earlier. Open
Difuse maps, but also the
conversion into
Displacement and
a template in Photoshop and t Normal maps. For
scanned leaf images or creating Normal maps,
photographs. Be careful at the you can use a free
edges, paint a little outside the Photoshop plug-in that
template to avoid strokes on leaf you can nd in the
borders while rendering. Once the Developer Zone on the
Difuse map is ready, create one NVIDIA website.
more for translucency and one for
the bump and reections. For the L We use the VRayFastSSS2
displacement well paint a custom shader for translucent objects
map to increase the visibility of the l m Paint extra Displacement maps
leaf veins m. for higher-quality results
m
13Leaf shaders
Leaves are also a good
example for the VRayFastSSS2
material. To speed up rendering
well use translucency in the
default V-Ray material. Note you
need to add a Color map that will
afect the bottom part of the leaf
in the Translucency channel.
Usually it will be a slightly
brighter map than the Difuse
map. You can use a Color
Correct map to tweak the Difuse
map straight in 3ds Max. Enable
Translucency in the Material
Editor. Use a hybrid model with
Thickness set to 0,002m n.
14Light the scene Well follow this scheme and use a

V-Ray dome light as the main light source. Inside the dome
well use a texture from CGSkies (www.cgskies.com) with a similar
atmosphere to the reference. Note that the dome light produces
realistic light rays and is very accurate. Its most likely youll receive
o a little noise while rendering with low settings, but you can be
almost sure that no splotches will occur o.
114 3D Art & Design

Scene setup and final retouching crea5tiohours

n tim
Its time to set up the final scene Resolution e
4,200 x 2,80 :
0
p r
Now lets set up the

15Set up the camera
VRayPhysicalCamera. This camera enables you to control
the light in the same way as a real one. With the most interesting
features we can add motion blur and depth of eld. You must be
careful with sampling to keep decent rendering times. Please be
careful to select the Depth of Field box as well as the Motion Blur
and Bokeh efect. In Bokeh, change the Bias to 0.5. This makes the
bokeh circles brighter on the edges. Play around with the focal
distance until youre happy with the results. Work on a simple
shader to test the DOF and speed up rendering times p.
With physical DOF its much harder to work with masks in Photoshop
17The nal retouch
since a lot of elements are out of focus and the edges are blurry. What we can do in this case is
basic colour correction by tweaking the colour balance and contrast. Its best to use Curves for this
purpose. Use the Raw Reection Render element with Reection Filter as a mask to better control the
amount of reectivity on the leaves and other selected objects. Also use the FastSSS2 channel to
increase the translucent efect on stalk. You can add some noise for extra photorealism at the end r.
q n Create leaves with translucency.
The rendering setup Save time by using a Achieve a photorealistic look

and decent rendering times
16Rendering and extra channels
is pretty simple. Use a GI Irradiance map and Light Cache
for secondary bounces. Use antialiasing as a default area lter and
great composition o A simple lighting setup with only
one dome light
linear colour mapping with Gamma set to 1.0. For better details use p You have the option of playing
the Adaptive DMC image sampler. The benets are especially
A good composition makes life a lot easier for CG artists.
with depth of eld and bokeh
When we plan a shot correctly we can drop lots of details using the VRayPhysicalCamera
visible when you have a lot of tiny elements in your scene
and at the same time convince the viewer about tons of
(branches, in our case). Thinking about retouching, we should add work that had to be invested to achieve such a result. Mind q Think about render elements
some extra channels like Raw Reections and Reections Filter. In the level of detail that should change on each ground. Think that will help you while in the
the nal steps well control the intensity of reective surfaces. We post-production stage
about framing elements that may enhance the shot and
use DOF inside V-Ray so masking with wire colour or multimatte is also link the viewers focus on a certain point on the image. r Render elements are helpful
now much more difcult q. while nal retouching
3D Art & Design 115

to the nal render
Artist info
Concept
Sonia Foltarz My idea is essentially an
iceberg that combines
Personal portfolio site http://
crystalisedheart.deviantart.com
both architecture and
Location Gdynia, Poland
nature in an abstract way.
Re-creating this in 3D is
Software used Photoshop
going to be quite a
Expertise Sonia specialises in
computer graphics and concept challenge, but the nal
art. She loves drawing cartoon results should make it look
character designs in 2D even more fantastical!
116 3D Art & Design

Fantasy arch vis
Fantasy arch vis

concept design
Breaking the ice 2012
Sonia Foltarz is a student in Poland currently exploring
her concept-design skills to build a portfolio
T
his concept is about combining architecture and I nd it quite difcult to get a perfect icy look when depicting
nature in a very abstract way. The design breaks the an iceberg, so for this specic efect I use observational skills
rules of physics and rational thinking I doubt an and experimentation to create textures in Photoshop that work.
underwater iceberg building could ever actually exist but Another difculty I encounter while working on this concept is
thats what makes it so unique and mysterious. Its a great showing the depth of the interior of the iceberg. Youll need to
challenge for a 3D artist to take on! play around with colours and diferent levels of opacity.
Create a concept 01 Research & make sketches To begin, I search for

lots of iceberg photos on the internet and decide how
I can present the project to be as visually tremendous as
Define your ideas in Photoshop possible. After a little trial and error, I decide to go for a
front-on view. Thanks to this adjustment I dont need to
change the sizes of windows and other small elements
a because everything is more or less at the same angle. This
Always imagine your 2D art from gives a clear view of my project for the 3D artist to follow a.
a 3D artists perspective so you
can get the right shapes and
angles of the details 02 Find the right colours We need to realistically
colour our iceberg. I nd it useful to take a piece of
ice to see how it looks in diferent surroundings. Then in
Photoshop, I divide all levels and layers using foundation
colours, which later on help me develop the depth of my
piece. The dark-blue tone helps the perspective and
demonstrates the complexity of the interior the iceberg b.
Search for the best ways

to express your thoughts
in your concept art. Its
crucial to provide the 3D
artist with a clear idea of
the shapes and textures of
the things presented in
your artwork
Try to create your concept from

b c
other views (front, profile and
03
angled). This is especially useful a Make your sketch engaging and Lighting & particles Lighting is the hardest step in
when your project is complex and clear for a 3D artist to follow this whole process. Ice has a specic glossiness that
overloaded with details. This helps b Experiment with colour to gain makes it look somewhat translucent, so Im using a wide
the ideal depth of your artwork range of custom brushes and white paint to help me form the
the 3D artist create it as details of windows, stairs, columns and a fountain. I later
precisely as possible c Use opacity and light colours to
create a perfect glossiness experiment with the opacity of the diferent layers of my
lighting and nally get an icy look that Im happy with c.
3D Art & Design 117

to the nal render
Artist info
Pawe Podwojewski
http://be.net/simonhc
Location Gdask, Poland
Software used Software used in this piece
3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop
Expertise Pawe specialises in
lighting, compositing and 3ds Max V-Ray Photoshop
optimising scenes
Concept
Sonia created lots of quick
drawings in search of the best
concept. The nal sketch was
a fusion of a few very diferent
ideas that she explored. The
concept looks very complex at
rst glance and shows lots of
details, which is why its crucial A crystal shader and model
to plan your 3D project from A Photoshop le with the
the beginning especially the basic render elements
modelling stage. Tutorial screenshots
118 3D Art & Design

Fantasy arch vis
Fantasy arch vis

3D illustration
Pawe Podwojewski is an architect with a strong
background in CG
T
his tutorial will show you how use 3ds Max, V-Ray memory. Because 3ds Max doesnt have dedicated sculpting
and Photoshop to build a scene from a supplied tools, we will also use a couple of tricks and scripts to make
concept. Following the art provided by the designer, we things go smoothly. Fractured surfaces can be achieved with a
will create an abstract iceberg structure that combines MaxScript and simple modelling tools will enable you to work
architecture and nature. This fantasy structure will be an inside just the one major software.
exciting challenge, because the irregular forms and complex To add a strong atmosphere to the nal image, well explore
geometry will compel us to nd ways to optimise our scene. volumetric lights and environmental fog. To nish up, correct
Well use Normal Bump maps to enhance the impression of use of render elements from V-Ray will help us out in the
detail in our architectural elements, saving time, poly count and post-production stage in Photoshop.
Problems &
solutions
Plan your project
Begin to work from the concept piece
01
The composition of this
concept sets the ground Prepare the scene The initial stages of this project are crucial, so we need to divide
on one level, which means the concept into parts to simplify the workow. I decide to focus on the main shape of
we have far fewer the iceberg, the interior arcades and the spiral staircase. Making a plan and a list of elements
elements to build the 3D
impression with than in a will help you to get the job done and not fall into limbo. Start with simple shapes such as a
regular architectural couple of polygons, to try to t the scale and shape to the iceberg concept a.
02
scene. We need to nd
other elements to build Find the best scale Analyse the concept and look at the single elements. Our main
our atmosphere and to elements are the iceberg, interior arcades and spiral staircase. To achieve the best
give of the solid c
impression that a 3D results when rendering, we need to properly scale the scene to get a physically correct
03
render should provide. If response from the rendering engine. Its not easy to judge scale when working with an
not, the render will be just abstract concept like this, although the arcades can give us an idea of what scale we should Set your camera
a normal, at picture. I use. For instance, assume that one level of arcades will have a height of four metres b. Setting the camera
decide to focus on the
shader, lighting with up at an early stage will help
volumetric efects as well you nd out how much will
as adding a couple of actually be seen. Later on we
elements in the can adjust the level of detail
foreground to better to the view. The concept
describe the distance
between the viewer and shows the iceberg from a
the ice structure. frontal view, which is a nice
Modelling ice isnt that angle that exposes lots of
simple in 3ds Max, either. details. Unfortunately, for a
We dont have precise
sculpting tools and the b 3D scene it wont be easy to
vertex-by-vertex get a great 3D depth
poly-modelling method a Start with simple geometry because we cant divide the
would take forever. A to get the right scale scene into grounds
reasonable way is to adjust following the concept art (foreground, midground,
some modiers to speed
up the process, while background). This means
b Look at elements you are
keeping interesting results familiar with from reality to that all the elements will
and getting close to the nd the right scale appear equally important in
concept. Procedural maps the shot and the lighting will
and displacements will c Consider the composition to
enhance the model. better understand the have a minor impact on the
a
merits of your view space-perception c.
3D Art & Design 119

Begin modelling
With the planning done, we can now build the main elements of our scene
04 Carve out the ice Once we have dened the

correct scale, its time to develop the main
structure. I build simple geometry to keep the dimensions of
05 Add the arcades
The other
important elements to focus
Use VRayProxies
Scenes with plenty of elements usually mean trouble. Using
the concept and on the top of the model I add a on are the arcades. We have
more RAM means longer save times. Also problems with
MeshSmooth modier plus a Displace modier. For the plenty of them visible in the the viewport will often result and cause you issues. There
Displacement map I use a Noise Procedural map. Creating concept sketch, so I start by are solutions that will let you avoid all this trouble, though, if
distortion will break the light rays nicely and provide the ice modelling one module in the scene is suitable.
efect later on. To add extra detail I use the Push/Pull tool high detail. After a rough In cases where we deal with lots of elements that are
copied and scattered all over the scene, like trees or the
from the Editable Poly panel. Using a graphics tablet is very calculation, the scenes total same type of detailed windows, we can use VRayProxies. A
handy at this stage, as this part is very similar to a simple poly count will be at around proxy in its simplest term is a preview of a mesh that is
sculpting process. Now its time to focus on the edges and 100 million, so to combat saved outside the current le. Whats important is that the
the exposed top element d. this I use VRayProxies to mesh, while rendering, will be loaded only once even if in
spread the modules, or the viewport you have billions of proxies. The only
disadvantage is that the preview of the VRayProxy is not as
d optimise them. I nd accurate as regular geometry, so to change the proxy you
optimised geometry better need to edit the source geometry rst and export the mesh
because theres more as a proxy again. From the other side, when you wish to
control in the nal model change all the elements at once, all you need to do is load a
diferent mesh and its done!
and the opportunity to VRayProxies have given artists a lot of freedom. Since
adjust every single element, these options were added, the creation of grass, pebbles,
if needed e. whole forests and more has become much easier, enabling
artists to strive for far better results.
06
e
Mapping & Normal Bumps Once the arcade
model is complete, I unwrap it and render the
Normal Bump map. You can do this very simply by rendering
the object without GI and saving the V-Ray Normals render
element. I then simplify the model using the Optimize
modier and rebuild some elements, like the pillars and
windows, into much simpler geometry. I apply a shader to
the low-poly model with the rendered Normal map as a
bitmap under the V-Ray Normal Bump. Thanks to this action
I can save millions of polygons, while keeping a decent level
of detail at the same time. Also, I nd rendering times are
much improved. So, with the concept angle, distance from
the camera and a planned resolution, I am sure this level of
detail will be good enough f.
d Use modiers to add details

in a procedural way. This will
make the process fast and
far more efcient
e Create a single model of an

arcade to scatter inside the
iceberg structure
f Create Normal Bumps to

save memory and speed up
the rendering time
120 3D Art & Design

Fantasy arch vis
07 Scatter the arcades Its now time to multiply the

modules of arcades along the iceberg. Set the pivot
point somewhere in the centre of the iceberg and use the
Array tool to instance the arcades with 360-degree rotation.
Please remember that instanced elements will not increase
the le size, which will speed up the saving process. I repeat
this step a couple of times, changing the pivot point for each
level to t to the iceberg shape. To nish, in places where the
ice element is open, simply delete the surplus modules g.
08 The spiral staircase The concept shows there is a

communication system between levels with spiral
stairs. Keeping in mind we have an abstract visual, I decide to
use a stock stair element from the Create menu, not paying
much attention to the correct scale or even whether the
stairs will reach each oor. Once I have the general shape of
the stairs ready (I choose a closed type of stairs), I apply the
FFD 2x modier. Selecting the control point on the bottom, I
scale them down with the Scale tool to taper the entire shape
and adjust the radius to the icebergs dimensions h. g h
Fracture &
demolition
09 Give your
structure space
At the very beginning of this
project I knew the shot
When working with wouldnt be easy to sell in a
architectural visualisation, 3D environment, because
in most cases we dont
the composition would make
need much destruction in
our scenes. Most likely our it far too at. The concept
clients will require a clean looks really exciting as a 2D
environment, but there are painting, but its now my job
situations where some to also make it vivid and
damage can be expected.
3ds Max is a very powerful alive in the third dimension. I
tool for this and in recent agree with Sonia that some
versions weve been given foreground elements will let
the MassFX simulation the viewer better judge the
system, which enables a
distance and perceive the
very quick and easy way to
collide rigid bodies. depth of the nal image. The
RayFire and FumeFX give iceberg is oating in a vast
advanced smoke and ocean, so its interesting to
fracture efects, although add some broken ice oating
for most arch-vis stills,
simple scripts will also do around. This gives the
the job. Today, viewer information about the
workstations are very camera angle and
powerful, but its crucial to perspective, giving the
keep scenes optimised. Its
structure the chance it
very easy to go too far with
details and for the needs to really show of its
geometry to lose focus on 3D depth i.
the atmosphere. The
battle between light and
shadow is what makes i
images truly unique.
j
10
g Use Array to multiply the
arcade modules Fracture the ground Creating fractured elements is usually a challenge. I could
h Use a stock stair element in complete this task manually, but again time is always precious so I decide to dig out
3ds Max to add the some handy scripts. This time Ill use a script called Fracture Voronoi (www.scriptspot.
communication system, as com/3ds-max/scripts/fracture-voronoi), which can be found and downloaded for free from
seen in the concept
ScriptSpot. The rst step is to create a plane object, then set the dimensions to t the camera
i Create extra ground angle and canvas size. Set a reasonable segment count for the plane and run the script. First
elements to gain better copy the code from the ScriptSpot site, open the MaxScript window, paste the code, save the
spatial performance script on your drive, then hit the Run Script button and choose the previously saved le. A
j Apply some fractures to the pop-up window will appear with your script options, so set the element count to divide the
ice using MaxScripts selected object into as many pieces as you wish j.
3D Art & Design 121

Bring in light & shade

Focus on the shaders, lighting & atmospheric effects
12 Apply some
environment lights
Lighting is not an easy step
l
in a piece like this. The

glassy ice shader needs to
reect the environment in
order to highlight the shape
details. Photography rules
have solutions for such
scene types and recommend
a black or white environment
with proper black or white
side reections. I decide to
go a little further and engage
the VRayEnvironmentFog for
volumetric-lighting ray
k efects. The main light
11
source for direct rays is a
Use ice shaders The ice shader is key to this scene, VRaySun. A high amount of
as it will obviously get applied to all the elements. I environmental fog is set to
prepare two types of shaders: one for the general iceberg 100m, which produces a
shape and the second for the arcades. The arcade shader will sort of vacuum environment
be exactly the same as any other, except for an added broken by the light rays l.
Normal Bump created at the very beginning to add extra
detail, as well as to keep the poly count low. The ice shader
has 100% Reection, with Reection Glossiness set at level Motion in
0.9 with Fresnel efect and IOR changed to 12. Refraction is still images
totally transparent. Additionally, I add a foggy blue colour
and turn on Translucency mode for the soft water k. Still images have obvious
limitations: we can only
view the scene from a
m certain perspective and
we have no power to look
around the details. The key
is to bring life to the image,
so the viewer remains
attracted to the focal
points that the artist
intended to expose. This
means less work can be
applied in the artwork, but
the impression will be the
opposite. Motion in
images with walking
characters and moving
vehicles can bring a lot of
information about world
13
structure, physics, time
and can also provide Particle efects
information out of context. To represent broken
Taking our iceberg as an ice ying around the scene
example, the extra ying Ill create a blizzard system.
pieces of ice make us feel
we are dealing with Set the Particle Type to
vertical movement. Its just Triangle and adjust the
a captured moment, but Speed to Camera Shutter. If
also provides clues about the speed is too high, the k Create an ice shader with a
what could happen in the fog efect to better achieve
next second. This is all particles will be blurry. The
the depth of the elements
about telling a story and broken ice surface needs
the quality of the image or some debris pieces, so using l Create light rays with
the techniques may play a MultiScatter I spread three V-Rays environment fog
secondary role, if the shot types of crystals regularly
is planned well. m Use particle systems for
across the whole surface m. creating dynamic detail
122 3D Art & Design

Fantasy arch vis
Post-production & compositing

Move into the rendering & post stages to finalise your scene
Find the
right lighting
Build atmosphere with
good lighting efects is
very important. You can
achieve them in your
rendering software, like
the volumetric light rays
created in this tutorial, or
you can apply similar
efects in some scenes
using Photoshop plug-ins. I
recommend the Rays
plug-in by Digital Film
Tools (www.
digitallmtools.com/rays).
Remember: well-balanced
images are friendlier on
the eye, while too many
colours in your scenes
may be distracting. In my
workow I try to nd a
leading colour for the shot.
So on the top of the layer
stack I place a Color
n o Balance adjustment layer
14
to make the colour range a
Choose your renderer Im going to use V-Ray as little more even.
the rendering engine. Balancing the time-and-quality
ratio, I choose the Light Cache and Irradiance map as the GI n Try to save diferent render
algorithm. I need to remember that in post-production Ill passes for the post-
add a couple of main render elements, like RawRefraction, production process
RawReection and WireColor. At this stage I know the RGB o Test diferent post-
pass will not be the main one used while compositing. The production options to decide
environment fog can also be saved with an Atmospheric on the best workow
pass. Combining all the elements on a diferent layer brings p Organise the render
me to the nal result. Please be sure to increase the elements in one PSD le
subdivisions for the fog; in this case 24 works well n.
q Paint bubble efects with
15
p
Scattering brush options
Post-production sketches Usually, rendering tests
17
are enough to give you an idea of where youre
heading with a nal image. Because in this case only the Build the water &
combined passes are present before the nal output, I render add some efects
a sketch shot during the process to see if all the pieces will Water bubbles are painted
work together. The presented post-production set enables using a round brush with
me to decide which colour scheme I should go with for the Dynamics and Scatter
nal production. Perhaps this is duplicating the work, but options enabled in
either way it gives me more control over the concept o. Photoshop. Again, using a
16
tablet gives you lots of
Prepare the PSD le After creating the post- freedom and better control
production sketches and nal rendered passes, I start while painting. Try to create
to organise the layers. On the very bottom lands the black layers on the very top
RawReection pass, which becomes my base. Above, I add a of the stack. Paint blue
masked-out Atmosphere pass, placing the rays and light circles with a large, soft,
around the iceberg and setting this to Screen mode. Using round brush and set the
WireColor on the very top for a quick selection will help, but mode to Soft Light or Screen.
keep this invisible for the nal save. Use Calculations and the This is how you can create
ReectionFilter pass for creating the mask, which can be glowing bowl efects, which
used to control the Transparency and Reection levels of the will add more atmosphere to
q
ice, combined with the RawRefraction pass p. your image q.
3D Art & Design 123

Photorealism
Use our step-by-step guides to achieve what is,
for many, the ultimate goal in 3D art and design
126 50 tips for ultimate 3D
realism 132
Fool the eye and wow your viewers
with our top tips from industry pros
132 Learn to create

photoreal 3D
Find out how to re-create a
photorealistic model of a ladybird
138 Achieve fantastic 3D

realism
Create a realistic 3D model of your
favourite object
143 I made this Sphynx Cat

How Pavel Kondratenko created his
incredible artwork
144 Visualise realistic products Ive always liked

in modo
Achieve photoreal renderings using pictures of the macro world;
modos Pixar Subdivision Surfaces I love the sense of scale and
149 Gallery Taha Alkan incredible levels of detail
A look at Tahas photoreal work
150 Make realistic food

Achieve realistic textures, materials
and lighting
155 Gallery Rod DeWeese

A perfect photorealistic environment
156 Model and render a

photorealistic watch
Produce a realistic render of a watch
143 144 156
124 3D Art & Design

150
3D Art & Design 125

Photorealism
ULTIMATE
3D REALISM
Fool the eye and wow your viewers with our top tips from
industry pros on how to achieve realistic 3D images
Realism is often the ultimate goal of the 3D artist; to render something as close to life as possible and
showcase your individual talent as well as the power and potential of CGI software. Here we compile
a selection of tips from pro 3D artists to help you create your most realistic images ever.
HDR image maps and

photorealistic models courtesy
of CGAxis
50 S FO R
TIPFECT 3D
PEORTOREALISM
PH
Eldorado. At the beginning I wasnt really
sure what would be the hero of the shot. I
was thinking about a tennis ball, golf ball,
pack of cigarettes, bottles and so on, but
in the end one little toy car won
Marek Denko
126 3D Art & Design

Ultimate 3D realism
Good textures and materials make the

model more expressive, bad ones destroy
even the most gorgeous geometry
Dmitriy Glazyrin
MODEL FROM
REFERENCES
Get your project of to the best start
during this crucial stage
01
Its extremely important to have a lot
of references and I request
constant references (from photos to
real objects) whenever a new job or update
arrives in the office. Jacinto
02
The best criteria [when sourcing
references] is the resolution of
photos. It is very important to see the
details of an object in the photo that way
you dont waste your time trying to
understand it. Denis L
03
Not using references may not give
you enough information about the
scale of the objects in your scene In
my opinion scale is the most important aspect
of creating realistic images. Denis O
04
I like to have at least one side view
and a three-quarter view. Even better
would be if you had access to the real
objects themselves, to either take pictures of
or have next to you while modelling. Emre
05
Its a matter of finding the right
balance between a low and
high-poly mesh [initially]. For the
basic model I use Maya, then I switch to
Mudbox for the details and normal maps. I try
to keep the mesh topology flawless based on
quads and loops. Massimo
ARTIST PROFILE
Marek Denko Dmitriy Glazyrin Denis Lebedev Jacinto Denis Pawel Massimo Righi Emre Salihov
Website: www. Website: www. Website: http:// Monteiro Osmanbegovic Podwojewski Website: http:// Website: www.
marekdenko.net glazyrin.com lebedev.cgsociety. Website: www. Website: vema3dart. Website: www. massimorighi.com be.net/emresalihov
Bio: Marek fell in Bio: One of the org/gallery metrocubicodigital. blogspot.com motyw.com Bio: Massimo is a Bio: Emre is a
love with computers founders of Ujean & Bio: After forgetting com Bio: Currently Bio: Pawel has been freelance 3D artist 22-year-old artist
in 1991 with his rst Glazyrin studio, his childhood Bio: Jacinto working at Cryptic involved in the based in Italy, often from Sweden. As a
Atari 800XL. In Dmitriy has worked passion for drawing graduated as an Studios in California, development of working in child his favourite
2007, together with with a range of for many years, architect in 2002. In Denis is an designs and collaboration with his toys to play with
Peter Sanitra, he creatives, including Denis returned to 2007 he radically environment artist for concepts in the eld wife Silvia Puli. They were LEGO cars. He
established the retouching studio the art world and switched profession videogame projects of architecture for are often involved in claims he found his
creative studio Platinum FMD, and began exploring the and has now been a including Star Trek various industries. In various projects calling in life when
NoEmotion (http:// has obtained a series many possibilities of 3D arch-vis artist for Online and 2009 he started CG within the games and Autodesks Maya fell
noemotion.net). of awards. 3D art in 2009. ve years. Neverwinter Nights. WORKSHOP online. lm industries. into his hands.
3D Art & Design 127

Photorealism
Dmitriy Glazyrin
TEXTURES AND
MATERIALS
Choose and apply efects to your
Image by Jacinto Monteiro Metro Cbico Digital
models for the greatest realism
06
Textures and materials are a very
important stage in creating realism in
work, [and] probably the longest
one Good textures and materials make the
model more expressive, bad ones destroy
even the most gorgeous geometry. Dmitriy
07
There are two main types of textures:
custom-made and tileable
textures. Perfect texture should have
a good resolution, good colour depth and
Pawel Podwojewski
details based on the purpose of the texture
in the scene. Marek PRODUCE EXPERT LIGHTING
From rigs to shaders, lighting is vital for realism
08
I try to custom texture everything
13 16
[using] a lot of different custom Lighting will get your project 80 per The right lighting shows all the small
brushes in Photoshop allows me to cent of the way there with some details youve modelled [so] it is
do this. This doesnt mean I dont use textures experience you will understand more useful to use images (pictures and
I find on the internet, but I do use them or less what you can fake later on [but] dont photos) where you can see beautiful lighting,
carefully. Denis O worry about the richness and contrast of the to analyse it and take note of it. Denis L
colours. It is easier to crunch them in post with
09 17
For [texturing] hard-surface objects, I colour correction. Emre Its important to build shaders and
use 3ds Max and Photoshop and for lighting in an organised way. Make
14
organic, ZBrush and Photoshop. In I tend to keep lighting as simple as sure the same group of lights will be
any case, Photoshop is an indispensable tool possible It is really important to instanced so you can easily adjust all of the
for creating textures, both at the stage of study your renderer of choice and lights at [once]. Shaders should be built with a
texturing and [post work]. Dmitriy how it relates to your main program (3ds colour-correction plug-in used for textures. In Student Housing. Project
designed by Pawel for
Max, Softimage, Maya and so on) and most cases this will enable you to adjust the Nadau Lavergne studio,
10
Creating a simple light setup before understand its potential. Denis O shaders without 2D texture editing. Pawel located in Bordeaux,
you start texturing is a very good France in area under
15 The best lighting software

UNESCO protection
idea I always have one key light
where my main light source is and then,
Denis Osmanbegovic
depending on the model, one or two rim lights

and also one fill light that doesnt cast any A rundown of the experts choice for the perfect setup
specular. Emre [V-Ray] is a quick renderer with easy-to-use tools. You have a virtual camera, which has
11
the same options as a real one. Sometimes I check the settings of the camera on the
The textures used to light a scene
should be saved as high dynamic reference images (you can check it in Image Properties) to get an idea about physical
range images (HDRI). This allows conditions and [then] apply them to the VRayPhysicalCamera. Dmitriy
you to control the exposure and luminance at If you are doing one-man projects and want quick, accurate and good results, then
any stage while rendering. Pawel V-Ray is what I would choose. I like mental ray as well but it requires lots more
preparation and clicking of buttons to achieve what you want. Emre
12
The [most] useful texture maps are I prefer to light in 3ds Max and mental ray. mental ray is a really powerful renderer
Color, Specular, Bump and Normal with some pretty easy-to-tweak options. Also, 3ds Max comes with a pack of arch and
[though if you are texturing] fur, design materials for mental ray with a couple of presets that are easy to change. Denis O
sometimes you dont need to create normal V-Ray is the best. Sometimes I use HDR images, other times the VRaySky method, House. Using mental ray,
maps or you only need to create them for the this full scene took four
sometimes just a semi-sphere for the sky with only a sphere light. Jacinto hours to render
visible mesh. Massimo
128 3D Art & Design

Ultimate 3D realism
18
Studio lighting and lighting
environments is very different To
simplify the environment modelling
you can make low-poly objects, or simplify
the plane to stretch the texture of the mask.
Creating the environment in layers means the
lighting will work properly with different
angles and camera lenses. Dmitriy
19
Sometimes I use HDR images to light
my scene. If the HDR image is a
good one, the lighting just looks
incredible (and more credible). Colours and
reflections are rich and you also have more
freedom in post to tune the image based on
those colours. Marek
20
For my main [lighting] I dont use
HDR images so often because its
difficult to handle that type of light
source with fur, but I [sometimes] use it in
27 Realistic render passes

render passes to get realistic-coloured
reflections. Massimo
21
CGSkies (www.cgskies.com) and
Peter Guthries HDRI lighting setups Learn the process used for this professional project
have made the 3D community very Pawel produced this image as part of his concept design for a
happy lately, and each day more and more student housing project by architectural studio Nadau Lavergne.
artists are using it in their normal workflow. In his experience, utilising render passes means you have more
Jacinto scope and exibility with your image: During the production you
may nd the render channels very handy while applying changes
KNOW YOUR or [additional] details to your image. This is particularly useful

when working to a clients brief where the needs of the project
RENDER PASSES may dictate such changes.
Pawel takes us through his render passes for this window
Its easy to believe youre done once view, which is especially interesting for its use of lters to get the
TGV Station. This architectural project is youve rendered out, but the funs reections on glass elements exactly right. He uses psd-manager
located in Ourense and includes just starting from Cebas (www.cebas.com) to organise his passes, nding it
a TGV station, hotel and an ofce block
the fastest way you can imagine [it] automatically saves your
22
surrounding all these buildings
Render elements are very useful and
layers into a PSD format [and] additional masks can [then be
save a lot of time in postproduction,
Massimo Righi
Green Frog. Modelled in added] manually while editing the image. I can recommend it for
Maya, the depth of eld and especially when working with
background were rendered animated sequences. With passes you can Photoshop lovers.
with mental ray
easily change any elements in your image a Pawel used V-Ray for a
without re-rendering. Denis L a e
range of passes that add
detail and atmosphere.
23
You only get [some] of the beauty Each pass had the same
settings as this RGB render
render straight out of the rendering,
the rest comes in when you start to b We added a lot of detail
composite it together with V-Ray it is very in postproduction compared
to the raw render glass
easy to render out with passes and you can reections have been
also render out each light as a separate pass, controlled using [more]
specic passes
which can be very useful. Emre b f
c We used some channels
24
I would say that V-Ray Z-Depth is the to add efects and other
most important pass [for ones as selection masks. For
example, the Reection
hyperrealism]. It can add better lter will be a selection [on
mood, depth and postproduction depth of the] Raw Reection pass
field to the image The biggest danger for me d For reection and
would be to go too far so I avoid doing heavy atmospheric passes you can
postproduction. Jacinto try out the Screen blending
c mode to quickly key out the g
25
black tones
A solid Beauty pass where I can see
my image almost done when I e The Refraction lter is
render it is the better way As extra the colour by which the raw
refractions are multiplied
passes I use Z-Depth, masks, sometimes
extra light passes and when there are f A handy pass for quick
changes, you can alter the
effects like smoke or fire, they are always colour of reections and add
rendered as a separate pass. Marek glows with Wire Color
26
d g Sometimes it is much h
You need to rely on your experience faster and easier to add the
to know if a result is right or wrong. desired [background]
Very common mistakes appear while elements in postproduction,
but to speed things up I
using Z-Depth [passes]. It is a very handy often use the Z-Depth
technique that can save a lot of rendering time [pass] to control the DOF
[and] such effects may enhance your image
h An additional clay render
but when applied in the wrong way can also of the window scene
kill the scene. Pawel
3D Art & Design 129

Photorealism
Lighting Ford E Bike. Emre
advises using as few lights
a possible work with one
light at the time. NUKE
is Emres compositor
of choice
Emre Salihov
28
Woodworker. The carpenter was
I find that using a node-based shot on a Canon Mark II, with the
compositing program such as NUKE wood chips and car modelled in
[makes bringing render layers 3ds Max. The stand was made in
ZBrush with nal compositing
together] much easier. I dont do any fancy completed in Photoshop
blending, I just use overs and plusses.
Occlusion is a good example. Emre
29
The wrong settings for the Z-Depth
pass wont allow you to make depth
of field [so] use the Tape tool in the
Helpers palette in 3ds Max. [Also] some
passes can have rough edges and, in the
postproduction stage will have a bad visible
contour. For this it is better to use the
Multimatte render element in V-Ray instead
of Object ID. Denis L
The nal touches are to
30 add detail dust, light rays, ying
It is necessary to establish the real
behaviour of the camera as precisely
leaves, sparks and dirt a variety of

as possible. Set the depth of field,
anti-aliasing and choose interesting lens
parameters. If you take any picture from the
internet its often possible to get the
information about the lens and the
small details that ll the picture
parameters, so use this when placing the Dmitriy Glazyrin
camera in the scene. Dmitriy
THE ART OF
COMPOSITING 34 The ideal combination
Dmitriy Glazyrin shares how he went about
Seamlessly integrate 3D renders compositing his incredible image Woodworker
with 2D elements for realistic scenes
Dmitriy Glazyrin
31
When I create an environment [for
compositing] I usually like to
matte-paint it [in Photoshop] using a
mixture of photographs and retouching. I
must have in mind what everything should
look like so I create it based on the [renders]
lighting. Massimo
32
Objects that [are] lit in a way that
dont match the scene will obviously Dmitriy carefully analyses his own work to
look fake [so] we [need to] enhance make sure the result is as realistic as possible: Often a side
the lighting using different blending modes view helps to see the defects and bring an objective judgment
and paintovers. It is crucial [at this stage] to
use colours we find in the final scene for better As far as Dmitriy is concerned, the art to seamless software of choice. In handling 2D objects [it is] the
integration. Pawel compositing requires a few main ingredients: The key clear leader. Some use video compositing software
factors are the well-detailed model, the right light and such as After Efects or NUKE, but in my opinion for
33
[When compositing] you can the materials. static [images] it makes no sense and is more
convert the image to a monochrome Light sets the mood of the whole picture, he says, complicated [than it has to be].
version. When the colour does not and cites it as the deciding factor for embarking on a Attention to detail, observation and analysis are
Pawel Podwojewski
distract you can compare the brightness of compositing project. I use a picture to create the basis key, but Dmitriy advises not to go it alone: Put a
shadows and light, the environment and the for future models or nd a reference by the light I like picture of your work online and show your friends, as
models, and seek the similarities. Then bring then you achieve the ideal combination of objects. To the more feedback you can get, the closer you will
the colour back and get the desired result with achieve this ideal combination, Photoshop is Dmitriys come to the ultimate realistic composite.
the shaders. Dmitriy
130 3D Art & Design

Ultimate 3D realism
Denis Lebedev
Its Going to Rain. I wanted to show an
authentic landscape with the post-Soviet
realities. I wanted to train myself to a
higher level, Denis L says
j
Massimo Righi
35
The key steps [in the compositing
Denis Osmanbegovic
process] would be preparing masks

and selections, placing 2D elements
in our composition and integrating them with
the original image, and finally the colour
correction. Pawel
36
Matching perspective and colour
balance are the most important
parts [of compositing]. My advice PERFECT POSTPRODUCTION
would be to avoid fish-eye photographs to Complete your image with last-minute adjustments for maximum impact
Dmitriy Glazyrin
match your 3D arch-vis work. My experience
42 47
was a bit frustrating! Jacinto For me ten per cent or less is done in For postproduction I prefer
postproduction I [adjust] Curves, Photoshop while working with 3D
37
The most important thing is [getting] Levels, Color Balance and its stills and After Effects for animations.
the right perspective and lighting It important because my raw renders always These two work well for compositing as well
is great when you can shoot the need colour and light correction. Jacinto as postproduction. Photoshop can handle
objects in a studio because you can apply the huge files and compositions, assuring a quick
43
virtual camera settings to the real one to Many artists make their final renders and stable workflow. Pawel
obtain a perfect match. Pawel to a very high quality, so often the
48
post work takes about five per cent of The most important thing is colour
38
Compositing is a matter of taste, the time It brings some additional control to correction in Photoshop. I use it on
[but] my feeling is that if a rendering make your work a little better. Denis L the whole image and separate
is looking good without an objects using masks. I always work with a
44
environment then its ready to go for Each image even from the same copy of the layer and use Levels, Curves,
compositing. The first test is always getting it project will require a different Selective Color and Color Balance
right on a neutral background. Massimo amount of postproduction work. In adjustments. Before each touch I create a
my case the average [time dedicated] will be snapshot in the History palette, and then after
39
[For adding photographic characters around 20 per cent. Pawel [I do the same] to compare the result. Denis L
to CG scenes], having high-res
45 49
people is important. Then a lot of About ten per cent of my final [effort] I think too much postproduction may
curves, colour balance, shadow, motion blur goes into postproduction. I tend not stylise the image but not necessarily
and saturation changes should be made in to spend a lot of time adjusting the make it more realistic. Some of the
order to make them realistically fit. Jacinto raw render since I try to get the desired results real-world effects though, like [adding] image
straight out of mental ray [but] I think it grain or chromatic aberration can be a nice
40
Poor composition is unlikely to affect depends on the artist and the scene itself. and quick touch towards a photorealistic
the realism [of a piece]. It may have Sometimes you can have a final image image style. Pawel
impact on the overall impression of without any postproduction. Denis O
50
the picture, but after all, the camera can be Very soft lens distortions may be a
46
bad for the composition of the picture, though You can get the ideal result by good idea to increase the realism.
[still be] quite realistic! Dmitriy rendering but, on the time side, it You may think most viewers will not
[wont] be comparable with working notice this but, believe me, our brains do. It is a
41
Sky is such an important object in the in Photoshop, [which] can correct most of the perfect situation when you feel something is
light and material system, [so] try to render and [do it] much faster. Dmitriy natural without knowing why! Pawel
avoid replacing it [at the compositing
stage]. I render skies straight from 3ds Max i Lunchtime. As he renders all of j Interior Loft. An interior that k Student Housing. A project
his animal characters in Maya, Denis O made to practise an designed by Pawel for Nadau
k for the most realistic results (at least for Shave and a Haircut is image that seems open but Lavergne studio, located in
exterior scenes). Jacinto Massimos go-to for fur feels packed with stuf Bordeaux, France
3D Art & Design 131

Photorealism
Concept
Ive always liked pictures
OBJ les, textures, presets for
modo, a ladybird ZTL plus of the macro world; I love
tutorial screenshots the sense of scale and
An exclusive UVLayout incredible levels of detail. I
techniques behind Hobbyist software trial also particularly enjoy
their amazing artwork using bokeh efects with a
large depth of eld.
Artist info
modo ZBrush Photoshop
Dmitry Denisov
www.dmi3ryd.com
Country Moscow, Russia
Software used
ZBrush, Photoshop, modo
Expertise Character
modelling, texturing and
technical visualisations
Simplicity is the key!

From experience, I understand that in the modelling and
retopology stages it is very important to understand what
direction and ow polygons are. To better understand
polygon ow I recommend you draw topology onto your
model. Try to make the most of polygons with the same
size and equal to the square. If you want to know how
perfect your model is, look at the Density Grid and
compare all its diferent parts.
132 3D Art & Design

Learn to create photoreal 3D
Learn to create
photoreal 3D
Macro ladybird shot 2012
Learn how to re-create a photorealistic model of a ladybird
Dmitry Denisov is a 3D modeller working on game-dev and character projects
I
n this tutorial I will show you how to
create a photorealistic image of a
ladybird using modo, ZBrush and
Model the ladybird
Photoshop. We will discuss modelling Begin with ZBrush DynaMesh in ZBrush
techniques, topology, UV mapping,
sculpting, texturing, applying difuse and
normal maps, lighting settings and the nal
post-processing of the image.
Ill begin by showing you how to create a
simple model using DynaMesh in ZBrush
and then retopologise in modo. Youll learn
how to use Replicators to create convincing
water drops and air particles. Well also
cover how to build a real-world camera,
setting up the focal length, aperture and
bokeh efects.
A
Finally, youll learn the basic aspects of
01Create a simple sphere

composition, photorealism and other
details that can make a nal image far more After using Convert to
DynaMesh, with a medium resolution from 64-80, you can
expressive. This tutorial assumes that you
very quickly sculpt the basic form of the body and other parts of
are familiar with basic skills in modo and the ladybird. If you have references (front and side views) you can
ZBrush, because we will talk only briey import these into the Viewport for better modelling accuracy. Use
about the functions of these programs. the Move and Clay brushes to create the basic form of the body,
Finally you will learn how to work with head, eyes and legs. If your geometry is very stretched, hold Cmd/
the components of the image and fully Ctrl+LMB on an empty area to refresh your geometry with
utilise render passes. Colour correction will DynaMesh. You can also use simple primitives to model the legs.
The point is to create a basic form with a medium resolution and
be reviewed in detail and we will also look sculpting detail. Remember this is a sketch at this stage we dont
at how noise can improve images. B
need a super-detailed image A.
02Use GoZ to move the mesh to modo I recommend you rst draw the topology on
your model and then create the retopology. Add a new mesh and set focus on it. Go to the
Topo tab, then go to Tools>Pen and create the rst quad on your model. As we will very often use a
Topology Pen, its best to set up a hot key. Hold Shift and drag LMB to extrude the edge; you can also
extrude vertexes. Please focus your mind on topology and try to feel the polygon ow. Always
remember that its better to have a polygon as a quad do not stretch polygons and keep all quads the
same size. Try to use this rule and the results will be very accurate and comfortable for sculpting. If you
nd topology terms difcult to understand, as well as retopologising in modo, please take a step back
and draw on your topology using PolyPaint, and then apply Symmetry once more B.
03Create the environment: leaves and water drops

C This is a very simple part of our
scene. Add a plane, divide it as shown and use the Bend tool. Remember, you only need a part
A DynaMesh and the ready ladybird model with retopology of the main leaf, so you dont need to create all of its parts a simple form is the key. Well also need
leaves in the background to create an atmosphere and to show the scene with depth of eld. Arrange
B Good retopology. Blue lines show a polygon ow
the leaves in such a way that you achieve a small bush. Remember that all of your leaf planes must
C Presets of the water drops and a very simple leaf mesh have a small amount of thickness C.
3D Art & Design 133

Photorealism
Create realistic textures and materials

Begin UV mapping the model using modo
05Sculpt the
ladybird detail
Well use the Standard brush
with Alpha 07 or 23 and Spray
options to create surface noise.
Theres nothing special here;
simply create a couple of
subdivision levels and sculpt
them. You can also apply
surface noise to your model
and relax it with the Morph
brush. After that we need
normal and cavity maps to
adjust the realism of our model.
E
In our case we will use Multi
Map Exporter because our D The Unfold tool with cutting F Textures for the ladybird,
model has UV ofset. Now we edges and UV packing set to 0, difuse and cavity maps
1, 2 values
have both normal and cavity
D G The main parts of the materials,
maps we can move to the next E ZBrush sculpting using brushes, the fur settings and their
04Unwrap your model

step: setting up the right scale alphas and normal baking placement on the mesh
To obtain your UV map, use the for the model using the
Unwrap tool. Were using this tool as its perfect for Absolute Scaling tool E.
working with organic models such as
creatures and critters. For the Unwrap tool
UV mapping with UVLayout
we need to specify the Edge Flow (cut). Its UVLayout also has a powerful pack of options that allows
always useful to imagine how you will cut you to place all of your parts inside diferent UV values:
your model beforehand, as getting it right at Step 1: You can use UVLayout as a standalone program or
this stage is vital. Our main task here is to as a plug-in. Open the ladybird mesh in modo and run the
obtain a high-quality map with multiple UVLayout script. In the menu go to Type>Poly and
pieces and to get the minimum stretch. UVs>New. Click Export to UVLayout.
When your UV map is accomplished you Step 2: The navigation and hot keys combination is the
need to package it. Try to do it on one UV same as in Maya: LMB for rotating, RMB for zooming,
map but use the U/V Tile Ofset value MMB for pan. In the Display options in the Up option
equal to 1 or 2. For example, pairs will be choose Y. Move your cursor to the edge and hit C to make
0-1, 0-2, 1-0 for each texture D. F a loop. This is called cutting, which is required when
unwrapping the model.
06Create textures
Step 3: Select all cut edges, move the cursor to a diferent
part and hit Enter (Separate) or Shift+S (Cut). This lets you
Use the Export UVs to cut or separate the model comfortably. When youve
EPS function to create a UV nished, you need to put all these parts in the UV Editor.
wire. Open the EPS le in Hold D and press 1 to move to the UV Editor.
Photoshop with 4,096 pixels. Step 4: Move your cursor to a separated part and hold A
First look at reference images until you like the result. You can also use Shift+F to atten
and imagine the structure of the separated part better. Open Pack, choose Best Quality
your painting. Get a red or and click Pack All. Dont forget to activate Tile UV!
orange base colour, then add Step 5: Hit 3 to see your unwrapped UV model. If all is
surface noise for a better look. okay, click Send and in modo click Import From UVLayout.
Well paint on modo procedure
textures, adding black and
white areas as indicated by
your reference images. Do not
paint with Symmetry on
because we need the model to
be unique. Try to add further
points with diferent layer
styles and layer blending
G modes for various results F.
07Create materials in modo We need three main materials for the ladybird, leaf and
water particles. The structure of the ladybird contains: Difuse, Specular, Normal, SSS and
Procedure maps and textures. You can see the Tree Material settings for the ladybird and leaf. Use a
Material preset for the water particles. Moving to fur, duplicate all of your parts for the legs and body
and move to the meshes. Use the Reduction tool if your geometry has high density. Go to the Paint tab
and Hair Tools tab, then use hair guides and click on the mesh. Refer to the screenshot provided for the
settings. We need to stretch our guides on the joints and the top part of the body. Add a fur material
and move it to the top of the Shader Tree. This is very important because we will manually set Render
options for the fur. Again, refer to the screenshot for the fur settings; I recommend Monte Carlo G.
134 3D Art & Design

Lighting and particle effects

Create a lighting setup and add particles to the scene
08Work with Replicators To add water drops, copy

your leaf polygons to a new mesh and triangulate them.
We need to delete the bottom part of a water drop particle mesh.
H
So delete the polygons under the legs, and the few that are deepest
under the body, and then add a cube and smooth it. This will be our
rst water drop, so scale it on the Y-axis a little. Do the same again
but use a diferent size and add a Replicator. Create a new group
and add the water drop meshes to this group. Choose water drop
meshes 1 and 2, and then hit 7 and move the Center position to the
bottom. In the Replicator settings, set Prototype to the group name
and Point Source mesh with leaf triangulated background
polygons. See all the Replicator settings in the screenshot H.
09Air particles Create a new group, call it air particles,

and then add a very small sphere to your scene. Make an
air particle mesh and apply a plane. Divide it a couple of times with
fractals, select all the polygons and then press Back. Select all the
points and turn on Noise Fallof with a 3-4% Scale. Move the
points to up and down to make a randomised efect. In the new air
10HDRI
particles material set No Difuse and turn on Luminosity to white
and value 1. Now in the Render Preview you can see particles with J lighting &
bokeh efects I. camera settings
Weve taken a preset HDRI
I image from Luxology content.
In the Environment tab add a
new image with an HDRI. Use
the Projection Type as Light
Probe with Projection Axis Y,
then use rotation to get a big
composition result. To improve
placement in GL Reection, use
Environment. Add a Minimum
Spot of about 6-7 in order to
texture. This brings some
interesting blur to the image.
With HDRI lighting we can
capture beautiful global
illumination lighting and
self-shadows in our scenes.
This map will also be visible in
the water droplets to give us
great results. Create a new
render camera and place it in a
H The Replicator placement and position that you like. Were
settings used
using about 150mm focal
I Placing air particles length and 6 Iris Blades. This is
J The HDRI map essential in order for the bokeh
efects to work efectively J.
K Volumetric render pass with the
settings used
Use randomness in your

composition to get even
more realistic results
In the water drops Replicator settings use a Render Density
of about 20-30%. We dont need too many water drops
because that will make our picture too heavy and more
difcult on the point-of-view composition. Randomness is a
K very good solution for creating a good composition. Also,
use the Seed option to get a good result. You can apply
11Add a volume light

Vertex as a particle, but the particles wont be aligned with
Add a directional (main) light source and place it in accordance with the a background surface, so Im applying Use Polygon as a
HDRI map. All you need to do is gather specular and difuse reection to one point. Place it over Source Mode. For even better composition you can add
the ladybird and turn on Volumetric Efect. This efect will be rendered separately from the main stage, water drop presets and manually place them on leaves.
as it will be much faster K.
3D Art & Design 135

Photorealism
Rendering and post

Adjust render settings and make passes
Dmitry Denisov
Currently working at the Kaspersky Lab as a web
12Set up the render Organise your Shader Tree and create groups for all the models parts.
Remember that you can always add a Render Output for each part to help you in post-
production. Choose all textures, set None to Antialiasing and Texture Filtering to Nearest. This is
designer, Dmitry explores 3D as a hobby, spending most important as it gives more sharpness to our textures. Use Indirect Illumination type Monte Carlo and
of his free time experimenting with various projects change Indirect Rays to 1,024. Set Antialiasing to about 256 or 512 samples, Mitchel lter, Renement
Shading to 0.1, Renement Threshold to 0.3 and Ray Threshold to 0.01. Turn on DOF, set FStop to 8,
Iris Blades to 5 and Edge Weighting to 50%. Check the screenshot for all the settings. This will be a
rst render pass with nal colour and AO, but without Specular and Reection passes L.
L
Portrait of a man
13Add bokeh efects

ZBrush, modo (2012)
One of Dmitrys favourite M
themes is head modelling We need to get another
render pass with Reection and
Specular only. In the Render
Camera change Edge Weighting
to 98%. Never use maximum
values, but rather 98.954, as
this gives an interesting result.
The value of 98% creates a
real-world bokeh efect. Now,
lets render our Specular and
Reection passes M.
L The main render and various

N camera settings
M Bokeh settings
N The Volumetric Light pass
O The main render passes

Sunday morning Photoshop, modo (2012)
The inspiration for this picture came from the Pixar movie, Up P Combining air particles and
volumetric light
Q Chromatic aberrations
14Render volumetric light and air particles Choose the main shader, click RMB and set
the Fog type, enabling us to render only volumetric lighting. You can also add diferent types of
noise to Volumetric Density to get an interesting result. Try to nd the optimal value of samples to get
a suitable quality: 256-512 tends to work well. In Environment, set Visible to Camera to None. In
To Windows 7 After Efects, modo (2010) Render Camera Settings I recommend using Edge Weighting with 50-70% to create a nice bokeh
A still from the movie created for a Kaspersky Promo for Windows 7 efect. Next, select the air particles group, isolate it from the scene and render it. These will be small
particles with a bokeh blur applied N.
136 3D Art & Design

15Compare render passes in Photoshop Now we have a nal Difuse pass with all the
lighting, AO, reection, specular, volume light and air particles included. First duplicate the
Color passes and blur them. Use this layer as a clipping mask for the AO pass, making our self-
shadows much more interesting. Next add specular and reection to produce a bokeh efect and use a
blending mode to merge the two. Control the strength of these efects by adjusting the layer opacity.
Remember you can decrease the strength of each pass by tweaking the Opacity or using Adjustment
Layers. For example, you can duplicate the Color passes, blur and append them as clipping masks to
the Reection or Specular pass with Opacity set to 15%, and an Add blending mode O.
17Colour correct the image For colour correction I

recommend using a solid colour (blue) with Screen blending
mode and Opacity at about 20-30%. This gives us a nice tone and
atmosphere. Duplicate the image, atten all the layers and go to
the Channel palette. Choose the Red channel and move them by
one or two pixels to the left and bottom. Duplicate this layer to your
16Even things up a bit

main scene, put it on top and set the blending mode to Color. Youll
Now we need to add some volumetric lighting and air particles. be able to see chromatic aberrations. To add a magical look to the
Above all the layers apply your volumetric light, set to the Screen blending mode. An Add scene, hit Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E and duplicate this layer.
blending mode can give you better colours, mixing with the background layers. Adjust the Opacity and Finally, add some blur, set the blending mode to Screen and nish
Adjustment controls to afect the layer strength P. up by decreasing the Opacity to 10-15%. And youre done! Q
To get a higher-quality result we can use
15+
layers for each mesh and manually add
them to the compositing program
hou
creation ti rs
me
Resolution
3,000 x 3,80 :
0
3D Art & Design 137

Photorealism
3ds Max mental ray Photoshop
138 3D Art & Design

Achieve ultimate 3D realism
Achieve ultimate Easy-to-follow guides
3D realism
to the nal render
Artist info
Rolleiflex camera 2011 Modelling
Texturing Eric Cain
We take you through the main stages Lighting
of creating a realistic 3D model of this Username: cain3d
traditional camera Personal portfolio site
www.cain3d.com
Eric Cain is a 3D artist specialising in modelling and visualisation Country United States
I
Software used 3ds Max, mental
selected this camera as a portfolio production piece I began to make that the focus of the production, I wanted ray, Photoshop
while I was a student. I originally selected this subject to create the camera and have it look as lifelike as possible. Expertise I am a 3D artist
working in modelling, texturing
because I liked the modern interpretation of the original There is a huge industry in commercial art, which many feel and lighting. My passion is
vintage Rolleiex camera, and felt the unique design would is less creative than original art, but the skill required to visualisation and postwork. I
want to make things look as
make for an interesting project. But it quickly became an create 3D images so accurately that they can pass as real, is realistic as possible, and thats
experiment in realism. just as artistic as any other. all in the details!
When people knowingly look at 3D art, they often spend This tutorial will take you through my workow and
their time looking for aws; anything that gives away the design process from start to nish for this camera
fact that its a 3D production. If they dont know its a production. We will go through modelling techniques,
production, their eyes will still often notice anything that is applying UVW mapping, texturing, lighting and nally the
out of place, especially if the object is well-known. postproduction stages.
Know your subject

Start with planning and basic modelling
01Research and
gather reference
Spending time to nd the right
reference is extremely
important. You cannot create
something from your memory.
Its not the overall shape or
general details of an object that
make it look convincing, its the
subtle details, the ones that are
normally not captured in your
memory. Its easy to get excited
about a new project and jump
right in with little or no
reference, but in the end this
results in a lot of reworking, or
an object that does not truly
reect what you were trying to
create originally a.
b
a Gathering as much
02Build the model

reference material for your The entire model needs to be built to
project as possible will
scale with all proportions being accurate to the actual
ensure the greatest realism
real-life camera. Anything of in scale is easily noticeable. When
b Modelling each part to a working on the double bayonet, I started by creating a 72-sided
precise scale is essential for a circle, highlighting 1/6 of the total circle and deleting the rest. I then
the nal render modelled out the detail in that section of the bayonet b.
3D Art & Design 139

Photorealism
Logos, texturing and lighting Be resourceful

Many people have a
Customise the logos and textures for your model morning routine, perhaps
cofee and a paper. My
routine is checking my
03Find symmetry After

modelling that 12-sided
section of the bayonet, I used
c
favourite online 3D sites
and forums for the latest
news in the industry, new
symmetry on the X-axis to create the techniques, inspiration
full 1/3 section (24 sides). Then, from the work of other
using the Symmetry Rotation tool, I creatives and so on. Being
duplicated twice more, reverting the a 3D artist requires you to
be both proactive and
top bayonet shape back to the
resourceful. In 3D there is
original 72 sides. The next step is
so much to learn and the
using symmetry on the Y-axis to industry is constantly
create the bottom bayonet, again 72 evolving, so you cannot
sides. This completes the base for rely on a class or a book to
the double bayonet on the front. Of teach you all you need to
course there are many more things to know, and you can never
model but this is just to illustrate the stop learning. You have to
importance of working smart. be able to research, nd
Planning your process will really help tutorials, experiment and
you see opportunities to use gure out how to solve
shortcuts, such as symmetry c. diferent problems and
apply new techniques
d
04Create text
To create the text for
the brand name on the front of
with each new project you
work on. Also, you have to
be open to criticism.
the camera I started by Without feedback how
choosing Create Splines. I
will you be motivated to
keep pushing yourself to
picked Text, then found the font
the next level?
that matched the brand name.
A Bevel modier was applied,
then a FFD4x4x4 modier. The c You can use symmetry to
FFD will let you move the lattice build the front structure
points to get the curve we are
going for. For the rest of the text d Adding the recognisable text
plate I modelled around a is key to adding realism
cylinder to get a perfect
e Apply the Turbo Smooth
half-circle using Edge Extrude. modier to all your surfaces
Once that was done I used
Symmetry to mirror over the f Create a screenshot
other half on the X-axis d. template for Photoshop
f
05Place wires After having
everything blocked in and all
the locking loops in place, its now time
to start applying the Turbo Smooth
modier to everything. Depending on
the distance from the camera, you can
sometimes set the Iterations at 1 or 2,
but because this is a very close shot,
everything has three Iterations applied
so we will not see any faceting e.
06Apply UVWs The next

stage was adding UVW
mapping to the capture lens. Since the
text around this lens is straight on, we
can select Planar under the Parameters.
Make sure you are looking at your object
in the front view, and not the perspective
view, to take your screenshot. This
screenshot will serve as the template for
07Create text and symbols Once in Photoshop, I used
the Text tool to generate the branding/test details. I then
wrapped that text around the viewing and capture lenses to mimic
the next section, as you move this the reference images. As the lenses are black and the text is white,
element into Photoshop f. I used the same image for both the difuse and the alpha/mask g.
140 3D Art & Design

Achieve ultimate 3D realism
08Make textures in Photoshop

When looking for textures to apply to
h
3.5hours
render tim
your model you will mostly only need to visit the
well-known texture sites. Sometimes, though,
e
Resolution
youll come across something that isnt so 5,124 x 2,939:
common. When this happens, dont be afraid to
just create a new texture of your own. This was
the case when I was making the texture for the
shell of the camera. The original Rolleiex camera
shell was made of leather and then replaced with
a plastic for this newer model. The plastic is made
to resemble the leather from the original.
I brought a reference picture into Photoshop
and drew over it to get a few of the shapes. I then
took those shapes, rearranged them and lled up
the sheet to be used as a Bump map h.
i
09Apply the texture
After creating the
texture in Photoshop, you can
then move it into 3ds Max to
create a plastic mental ray
material. After several tweaks
from the preset material
parameters I was able to get the
plastic to achieve a matte
appearance with the reection
quality I wanted. Under Special
Purpose Maps there is a Bump
Map slot, this is where I put in
the bump texture I created. I
adjusted the amount to .18 to get
the desired height of the bump
on my model i.
g In Photoshop you can use i Bring your new textures into

j the Text tool to add detail 3ds Max and adjust to suit
h Photoshop is also very k Adding a HDR image brings

useful for making textures even more quality realism
Consider the optimal

angles and lighting for
your model
10Lighting and camera angles I rst nd where I think will be the best place to shoot from,
set my 35mm camera into place and make sure to lock it in. To emulate a real-life studio
lighting, I used two target photometric lights. They emit light from the rectangle shape, which I sized to
scale with my camera. To create this setup I rst researched studio lighting to make sure I would get a
real-life studio look. My other light is a Skylight that I used to run my HDR image through j.
Attention to detail
When creating real-life objects in 3D, its extremely important to focus on the details at all
levels of the design and production. The original block-out must be sized and scaled correctly
and the smallest details have to be included in the model work. Textures are also key, so it
wont matter if the model is perfectly clean, if the textures dont look real then the efect will
be lost. The lighting and staging help to create the nal trompe loeil!
11HDR image lighting

The whole goal of realistic 3D art is to create something that looks like a photograph. This step changes the entire mood
When I was in school at the Art Institute of Dallas, the senior modelling instructor, Micheal
and feeling of the scene by using diferent HDR images. The
Eudy (aka Polygrinder), always said, Your work is only as strong as your weakest part. This
really taught me that you have to show the same care for creating a small background HDR image is used as a light pass in both the Skylight and the
element that you would show when creating the hero piece. You cant skip over even the Environment map slot. This one pass does not give all the light
smallest detail! Getting most things right wont prevent the viewer from nding the one aw youll need, only an environmental feel. Render the other lights as
you didnt x, so its worth spending some extra time to work out the kinks. separate passes to give you more control in post should you want
to adjust the light colour or brightness k.
3D Art & Design 141

Photorealism
Final rendering
Bring your model to life with postwork
Eric Cain
My passion for art started at a young age and my eye for
realism and detail was always apparent, whether I was
drawing comic book characters or gure studies. I only
made the transition into 3D art about three years ago
while getting my degree in Media Arts and Animation.
But as I moved from 2D to 3D, I simply changed the tools I
used to create my art.
l
12The Ambient Occlusion pass The Ambient Occlusion (AO) pass is an important step to
create realism, and is one of my favourite passes. The AO pass gives us a Dirt map that helps us
see where light would be naturally occluded. I typically make two AO passes: one with larger Spread
and Fallof than the other. The rst is a general shadow map showing where all the darker areas are on
the model, and the other is only to show extremely dark areas like ne crevices. I then use this in
Photoshop as a multiplier layer in postproduction with a low opacity l.
Los Angeles Country Museum of Art 3ds Max, metal ray,

Photoshop (2012)
I chose to create the LACMA scene because I wanted to create a
whole environment. I was drawn to the intricacy of the staircase and m
loved the lamps as a focal piece.
13The Z Depth pass I used the Z Depth pass to create the auto-focus look that a real camera
would give when taking a photograph. I wanted to achieve a very subtle auto-focus with a slight
blur efect to draw attention the camera. Under Render Setup, add Z Depth and make sure to have
Elements active. Choose your minimum maximum Depth for the focus area. To get an absolute
amount without having to render, you can get out the Tape Measure under the Helpers menu and
measure it from your camera m.
l Make an Ambient Occlusion

pass for accurate shadows
m A Z Depth pass adds the

quality of a real-life camera
Low-Poly 1930s Air Compressor 3ds Max, 3Point Shader,
Photoshop (2012) n The RGB Matte pass isolates
The challenge here was to create a low-poly model that appears to each material for masking
be high-poly. This was achieved by maintaining a strong silhouette
that matched the original streamlined design. o Make nal adjustments to
get the best possible result
14RGB Matte pass

I created an RGB matte
pass to isolate each material on
n
the model, making it easy to

select each material in post for
masking and adjusting, such as
using blue to isolate the shiny o
metal parts. To create the RGB
matte pass you should use the
Material Editor window to
create a standard material for
15Final composition The last step is to layer together all of
the above passes in Photoshop to create the nal product.
This can be done in many ways, constructing your own layer stack.
each colour. Then under I keep all the originals on the bottom in case I need another
Self-Illumination you need to duplicate. I keep my masks (RGB) folder open so I can control and
check the Color box and use select them quickly, the lighting passes and HDR images are next.
pure RGB colours. Disable Final Next, the adjustment layer folder is the most important in the nal
Gather and use the piece. You have all the options to change anything around, colours,
Environment and Efects saturation, exposure and vibrance can really give your piece a new
window to turn of the feel. The AO folder is on top of that, with Opacity at 6-20%. Last
Exposure Control n. add your Z-Depth, Vignette, and a small amount of noise o.
142 3D Art & Design

Pavel Kondratenko
To make the skin appear realistic I painted Website www.texelstudi
o.com
nine different textures. The main colour I painted Country Russia
a,
Software used ZBrush, May
in ZBrush and added some detail with Photoshop. Photoshop
elling,
Bio Pavel specialises in mod for
I blended Displacement and Cavity maps with the ders
texturing and creating sha es
Incredible 3D artists take lms, commercials and gam
Artist info
main colour to create variation k
us behind their artwor
I created the wrinkles in ZBrush by
painting a mask on the cats body, to which
I applied the Inate deformer
twice and a little correction
with Smooth and Dam Standard
brushes. For small wrinkles, I used the
Standard brush with an Alpha
Sphynx Cat 2012

The main point of this work was to study the SSS material in mental ray
To create hair and to model wrinkles in ZBrush. The modelling part was rather quick. I
I used the Shave And mainly used ZBrush, including retopology work. Afterwards, all the
models were imported into Maya where I set up the lights and the default
A Haircut Maya plug- materials for the skin, eyes, fabric and gold. The last step in 3D was the
in. For the growth of creation of the fur on the cats body. To achieve this I used the Shave And
A Haircut Maya plug-in. The nal composition was made in Photoshop.
the hair, I copied the
geometry of the cat,
removed the parts
where I didnt want
any hair and also
created a Density
map in ZBrush
ZBrush Maya Photoshop
3D Art & Design

143
Realistic product visualisation in modo
Photorealism
Visualise realistic
products in modo
Luxurious Fountain Pen 2012
Achieve high quality, photoreal renderings using modos Pixar
Subdivision Surfaces, built-in assets and environment lighting
Wojciech Portnicki is a 3D artist who specialises in product visualisation and hard-surface modelling
T
his tutorial will provide an insight
into my workow for this elegant
fountain pen. It was modelled as
Begin the modelling
part of my personal portfolio. I wanted to
achieve something detailed and realistic.
Start out with a 20-sided cylinder
Over the next few pages I hope to walk
you through the whole process of creating a
the image: from modelling the pen nib, to
applying UV, texture creation, simple light
settings, tweaking the camera, and nally
to the render settings.
To get really smooth results with
geometry well be using Pixar Subdivision
Surfaces (PSub). The benets of using
PSub is that it ofers great features, such
as Rened Edge Weighting and smoother
surfaces with vertices holding more than 01Cone-like cylinder I always like to start my modelling with the parts that look hardest to model that way,
its always downhill from there. When you look closely at the nib its just a cylinder curve-sliced to the desired
shape. Start of by dragging out a 20-sided cylinder. The dimensions of my original mesh were out of scale (1,400mm
four edges (which we normally avoid, but
tall and a radius of 190mm) but dont worry about that now, you can scale it down later on. Select the bottom ngon and
sometimes its acceptable).
scale it uniformly to 220% on XYZ a.
Well also use one of modos greatest
02Use the Curve Slice

features: built-in assets. Youll see how In Left
easy it is to get great-looking materials view select the Curve Slice tool
and lighting with just a few clicks. (in the Mesh Edit tab). Draw a curve
Meanwhile, Illustrator and Photoshop will through the nib. In Wireframe view youll
be used for texturing. see the tool has produced extra points in
our geometry to hold the curvature of our
While the modelling of the pens upper
slicing. We dont need these points as
part is not covered in the tutorial, or in the well be Subdividing the mesh so it cant
nal image, its essentially a 20-sided have ngons. Go to Info & Statistics,
cylinder with three indents at its base, so expand Vertices By Polygon, hit + next to
you could add it to your own version if you the 2 value then Delete. All the unwanted
feel inclined. vertices are gone. Now delete the extra
polys were left with B.
b
03Flatten the sides Grab three

polys on each side of the mesh.
Hit R for the Scale tool, set the Action c
Center to Local and use the blue handle
a Its often best to tackle the hardest bits rst to atten the surface of (ensure your
on a task that way everything gets easier as Negative Scale is unchecked).
the project progresses Now hitting Alt/Opt+C, add three
edge loops in the middle section and one
b Time to delete the unnecessary polygons.
Head to Info & Statistics to do this at the bottom. Draw out a circular shape
for the tip and connect it to the base
c Use the Edge Extend tool or the Pen tool to mesh. You can do it by using the Edge
give your nib a tip Extend tool or using the Pen tool C.
144 3D Art & Design

Visualise realistic products in modo
Modelling
Materials
Lighting
Textures, modo project les

(also EPS and AI les for the
patterns), high-res renders
to the nal render
Artist info
Wojciech Portnicki
Concept
Username: Wojtek
Reference is very important when it comes to re-creating
real-world objects in 3D. Were not doing a specic pen Personal portfolio site
model, but we want it to look real. I often start with www.behance.net/auror
browsing image searches online for pictures I like and Country Poland
Software used in this piece compiling them into a reference folder. From what Ive Software used
gathered up I then work out a couple of design choices I Illustrator, Photoshop, modo 501
SP6 (64-bit)
like: old-style ball nib, gold and silver sections, plus
modo Illustrator Photoshop Expertise Product visualisation
geometric engravings. and hard-surface modelling
3D Art & Design 145

Photorealism
Cut, bevel and thicken

Refine the shape of your pen nib
Wojciech Portnicki
I'm a 27-year-old graphic designer with a passion for 3D.
I try to incorporate renderings into my workow as
often as possible, creating advertising illustrations for
my clients. I always seek out opportunities to do more
and more 3D in everyday tasks. My goal is to join a
professional 3D studio some day.
1 Million PLN Credit

Card modo 501,
Photoshop
(late 2011)
I did this illustration of
a prestigious credit
card with a 1M PLN
credit limit for a private
bank. Its the rst, real
metal credit card in
Poland. The magazine
d
ad said How much
does 1,000,000 PLN
weigh? Just 27.5
grams. The illustration
04Cut a hole in the nib The three edge loops we created will be used to hold a circular
shape of a hole in the nib. Create a new mesh layer and in Front view draw an octagon and
place it between the new lines. Hit W for the Move tool, use Snapping for Background Geometry
was delivered in less Constraint and move your shape back until it ts nicely to the nib. Cut it from its mesh and paste it to
than two days modo the nib layer. Delete the polys around our hole poly and Bridge the edges of the shape and the hole D.
handled it like a champ.
05Bevel the
spine edge
Now select the edge
running down from our
hole all the way to the
tip. Hit Edge Bevel
(with a Round Level of
0) and give it a small
Give your pen
bevel. Select the
nib an edge
by bevelling created polygon row,
its spine the hole poly and last
hit Delete E.
Retro Tickertape modo 501, Photoshop (2011)

My rst major modelling task. This tickertape was made for an
online line of credit calculator. The tape coming out of it was
animated in Flash, printing out the result of the calculations. In order
to achieve the proper reections, I built a small room around the
tickertape with walls textured using photos of an actual banks ofce.
100 PLN Bill modo

501, Photoshop
(2012)
Another illustration for a
bank. It shows a
symbolic 100 PLN bill,
made up of small green
globules a symbol
taken from the banks
logo. This fun technique
is especially
straightforward with
modo Replicators and
Surface Generators. The f
illustration was used for
outdoor campaigns.
06Thicken your mesh While in Polygon mode hit the Thicken tool (in the Basic Tab).
Thicken your mesh inwards by a value you think is best for a fountain pen nib F.
146 3D Art & Design

Visualise realistic products in modo
3hours
Tweak the model render tim
e
Resolution
Sharpen your edges and add detail 3,200 x 2,40 :
0
g
07Radial fallof to round the tip We should round of the pens tip because now it has
become at. To do this there is no better way than the radial fallof. Play with it until you get
the shape you desire. Dont worry if theres very little geometry to shape the tip with. When you hit
Shift+Tab it all smoothens out. Also, set your mesh subdivision level to 3 or higher G.
Use the Loop Slice tool to

h sharpen your pens edges
08Use Loop Slice to

sharpen edges
Select the loop of polys running Think about
on the edge of the nib and add
two extra loops (Alt/Opt+C) to
topology
sharpen the edges. Switch to Think beforehand about
PSub (Shift+Tab) to see the your mesh in terms of the
what efect is made H. proper topology. You need
to have enough polys in
places like the centre of
d Add extra details to your pen the nib, to properly hold
nib, such as the hole in the the shaped hole. When it
middle, with three edge loops comes to drilling holes in
surfaces in Subdivision
f Use reference images or a mode, it comes down to
real-life pen to help determine
the mesh thickness this: draw a shape with the
same number of edges as
g Heres a tip for the tip: use the hole that its going to
Radial fallout to round it. sit in. Only then will the
i Experiment a little to get the Bridging work.
end result you want
09Model the remainder Create the other parts of the

pen. To do the plastic part that sits inside the nib, just
follow the rst steps of modelling the nib itself. Just make it smaller
so it ts inside. The upper part is basically a cylinder with a couple
of indents I.
10Sharpen edges with Edge Weighting Now using

Loop Slice add an extra loop in the nib and then using the
Edge Extrude tool drive it into the mesh (so theres a nice indent
between the golden and silver part of the nib). While in PSub mode
(Shift+Tab) use the Edge Weight tool for all the edges you want
sharper. In Vertex Map view you can see the changes made while
edge-weighting J.
i The upper part of the pen j Adding an indent between

isnt in view but can be built the gold and silver sections
with a 20-sided cylinder and with the Edge Extrude tool j
three indents can provide a nice feature
3D Art & Design 147

Photorealism
Final touches
Apply materials, lighting and rendering
k
12Add details with a custom bump map Select all
the polys on your nib you want to be gold and create a new
material (M) for them. Do the same with polys that will be silver.
Now drag and drop the default Gold and Silver materials (from
11UV creation: Unwrapping To texture our pen properly we need a nice UV map. Go to the
UV tab and create a new, empty UV map for your mesh. Select an edge loop running along the
side of the nib and also the edge we created for separating its gold and silver parts. Now use the
Assets) inside the gold and silver areas on your model. You can
add your own black and white images to these materials and use
them as bump maps. Be sure to use your UV, I used some default
Unwrap tool (set to Group Normal). This should result in a pretty clean UV map to work with K. Illustrator patterns for my nib engravings L.
Experiment with diferent

lighting techniques
Lighting is a major factor here. Often a modo artist may like
to light their objects with luminous polygons. In this case
lighting the object with only the Reection Rays from the
environment (with Global Illumination turned on) turned out
best for me. So keep in mind theres more than one way to
get the same efects; regular modo lights, luminous polys
and Environment Lighting.
k Its time for texturing. Create a m Your lighting setup and

nice, clean UV map for your environment doesnt have to
fountain pen nib be overly complicated. A
default 3 Point Beige 01 was
l For added realism, apply details used here
such as engravings to your
custom bump map. This n Applying a depth of eld efect
m particular design was created to your nal composition can
using Illustrator really enhance your image
13Environment lighting with Global Illumination

If youre happy with your model and your materials, its time
to set the camera for your shot and light your pen. With this
particular project it was super easy. After trying many diferent
light setups I was most satised with a default 3 Point Beige 01
Environment from modos Assets. I only used Reection Rays with
the GI turned on. I unchecked everything else from my
environment. If you choose to you can add a secondary
environment that is only Visible to Camera and set up a suitable
colour gradient for your render background M.
14Depth of eld and render settings A very slight

depth of eld efect for your camera is a nice touch to the
nal render, but it involves some more tweaking of the Render
Settings. What youll denitely need to do is crank up the
Anti-aliasing samples and the blurry reection rays in the material
settings for the Gold and Silver materials. Also lower the
Renement Shading Rate to 0.1-0.3px. Lower the Shading Rate to
0.1-0.5px for your Base Shader. This should help with the noise n
resultant from the Depth of Field camera setting N.
148 3D Art & Design

Gallery
Artist info
Taha Alkan
Username: tahaalkan
http://tahaalkan.cgsociety.org
Country Turkey
Software used Maya, ZBrush,
mental ray, Photoshop
Work in progress
3D Art & Design 149

Photorealism
Texturing
Lighting
Rendering
to the nal render
Artist info
Yasin Hasanian
Software used in this piece Personal portfolio site

http://superhero.cgsociety.org
Country Iran
Maya ZBrush Photoshop mental ray Software used
Two ZBrush brushes Maya, ZBrush, mental ray,
Photoshop
Expertise Yasin specialises in
modelling, texturing, shading
and rendering. He works in the
game and lm industries and
has a passion for character art.
150 3D Art & Design

Make realistic food
Make realistic food

Aroma 2012
Achieve realistic textures, materials and lighting for a tasty digital dish
Yasin Hasanian is a CG artist and freelancer
A
roma was a great opportunity for me drive of this guide is texturing and rendering, we where you have lots of light pouring in or light can
to challenge myself and expand my will look at these in a little more detail before be distinguished from other properties.
skills. Rather than sculpting my usual moving to the compositing stage. In terms of software I used Maya for scene
freaky creatures, I decided to have a go at One of the main challenges of this project was setup, ZBrush for sculpting, mental ray for
creating realistic-looking food. to ensure I captured the right mood for the scene. rendering and Photoshop for texturing and
This tutorial will be divided into sections: the If you look at food photography, youll nd that postproduction. However, the ideas and workow
rst will look at gathering references and briey the camera focus plays a big role in close-up covered in this tutorial can also be applied to
discuss the modelling stages. Since the main shots particularly in dreamy bright scenes other packages.
Build a concept
Find examples to inform your works realism
a b
02Search for detail Since I was trying to make the piece look as convincing as possible I
found a lot of fruit-related references. I tried to observe any surface qualities I could nd of
strawberries, seed orientations, peaches, scatterings of light and so on. From there I roughly planned
the pipeline b.
c 03Start to model
The modelling
stage was a pretty
01Gather references The rst thing you always need to

do is gather references for your work. Without them you
are relying on your imagination. When it comes to creating
straightforward process.
Hard surface objects were
created in Maya whereas
something that is photorealistic, you need to have those references natural ones were
to ensure you capture everything correctly. The risk is always sculpted in ZBrush. For the
getting something wrong and because you are dealing with an strawberry I decided to
object that people are used to seeing, the errors jump out create a few seed brushes
immediately. Photorealism isnt a forgiving form! in ZBrush, which are
included on this issues
disc. You can use these
The plan brushes to stamp seeds
onto the surface of the
My inspiration originates strawberry on a diferent
from how elegant layer and they can save a
close-up shots of fruit or lot of time c.
other food can be. Usually
fruits treat light in a References are your friend
diferent ways. Some
b Use detailed references of
absorb light, some reect, fruits that display good
some refract and most surface qualities
combine all these at once.
c Working in ZBrush
3D Art & Design 151

Photorealism
Let the lights in

Get the right tonality and a suitable mood
Yasin Hasanian
Im a 21-year-old CG artist who also works as a
04Set up the scene
Because this image
was meant to be a stillframe, I
d
freelancer. I got attracted to CG almost six years ago

didnt need to make the most
and since then I havent let it go. Aside from personal of the Decimation Master
works I have worked on TV advertisements, TV series, plug-in thanks to the help of a
movies and also games. I study computer science and normal map. Nonetheless
my ultimate goal is to work for the top companies. some objects, for example the
cake sponge, only have both
normal and displacement
maps. In some conditions you
may experience viewport
slowdown after importing
some high-res geometries. To
overcome such issues you can
always export high-res
geometries as a MI (render
assembly) le format and treat
it as a render proxy d.
e
Problems
Say Cheese to The World Maya, ZBrush, BodyPaint 3D,
and some
Photoshop, mental ray (2010) solutions
The inspiration for this came from a painting I found by chance. I
used Shave and a Haircut and p_HairTK for the fur. There are In order to get a decent
roughly 13 million hair prims divided into ve hair systems. look for the cloth piece I
decided to simulate it
with nCloth by simply
colliding the dish to the
cloth. After that I took it
to ZBrush to add
I Used to be a Hero high-frequency details,
Maya, ZBrush, such as the vertical
mental ray, pattern and pitch fuzz
BodyPaint 3D, pores. One thing to bear
Photoshop (2012) in mind about the
Maya was used for peaches is that there is
05Edit lighting
scene setup, ZBrush another layer of
Before I actually began texturing models I
for sculpting, geometry around them.
created a temporary lighting setup to get the overall mood
BodyPaint 3D for This represents the
for the scene, because it renders much faster and more efciently. water coat layer on any
texturing, Photoshop
The rst thing to manage was setting up the scene, meaning wet surfaces. That layer
for texturing and
applying all the normal or displacement maps if applicable. All also maintains the
compositing and last
rendering was done objects were given mia_material_X_passes as no other shader can curvature at the contact
in mental ray. beat them in accurate behaviour. Usually I keep the lighting setup on areas to catch nice
a separate render layer which has a grey material (mia_material) highlights. To create
override in order to adjust lighting later more easily e. that layer, in ZBrush I
combined all medium
resolution peaches
f together and sculpted
the layer in a way that it
could represent a water
shell around them.
To handle objects
that need some sort of
surrounding, repeating
pattern, I often use
Radial Symmetry. Later
06Use the linear workow After setting up the scene
the most crucial factor not to overlook is LWF (linear
workow). In the recent versions of Maya there are LWF features but
when Im satised with
the look I add another
layer and deform the
I can never get them working the way they should. Its best to assign object to suit the piece.
Miss Mutation Maya, ZBrush, mental ray, Photoshop (2010) a lens shader to the camera and a gammaCorrect node to any This method usually
The model is Ophelia Overdose. Maya was used for the base mesh textures or colour swatches (RGB channels). Regarding shaders and saves a lot of
and scene setup, ZBrush for sculpting, Photoshop for texturing and lights, even blackbody or cie_d nodes produce RGB values rather headaches, not to
nal touches, mental ray for rendering and compositing in NUKE. than Kelvin Color Temperatures therefore they need to be gamma mention time.
corrected if they are connected to the colour input of any node f.
152 3D Art & Design

Make realistic food
Add textures
Complete your lighting, move to materials and shading
h
08Edit environment efects

g
Portal lights are connected to Area Lights to focus FG rays. If
you dont check Use Custom Environment, the program will automatically sample the
07Turn on the lights Going back to the lighting stage, the
scene has an IBL node with a suitable HDRI image for the
environment and a blurred version of it for nal gather. I also based
environment colour that the camera sees by default unless its given a diferent environment look-up,
so not checking it is preferred in this case. These lights also emit photons, as its a close-up interior
shot, to provide even more decent light bounces h.
my camera angle upon the IBL node orientation in the scene. Aside
from the IBL casting nal gather I created two key Area Lights in
places where they can be regarded as light sources in the HDRI
image. Matching these key lights with the light sources in the
Shader setup
image is essential, because with close-up positions where you Note that when you plug SSS shaders in to mia_materials, the difuse weight is exactly the
have so much white reection the viewer expects to see some same as that of the SSS shader. To get best results, turn of any specularity feature on the
difuse contributions g. actual SSS shader because that is supplied by mia_material. As I said earlier, be aware that
any colour values must be gamma corrected. However, remove those nodes in the images to
reduce the complexity of the networks you are viewing.
i Whenever I deal with objects that have cracks, dips, pores, wrinkles or other
imperfections, I switch my model to the highest level and create textures based on the mask
and ambient occlusion. Both of these will come in handy with texture painting, clearly and
easily dening shapes.
In order to achieve the pitch fuzz efect on a suitable object, such as the piece of cloth, I
applied a high-frequency displacement map to simulate pores at render time. In this case I
chose to use displacement maps because light can interact with them much better than with
bump or normal maps. Also dont forget to amplify roughness in mia_material on particularly
rough objects.
09Begin texturing and shading Almost all the models

were textured in Photoshop and the rest in ZBrush. The
maps I prepared for the objects were mainly colour, gloss,
reection, bump and normal maps. For the strawberry object I
created a mask separating its seeds and later used it to separate
the seed shader from the rest of the strawberry with the help of the
mix8.Layer shader (www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/
shaders/c/mix8-layer-for-mentalray). Therefore it consisted of
two shaders, one for the esh and one for the seeds. The mia_
material shader for the strawberry esh had an SSS shader plugged
into its additional colour i.
10Cake sponge and peaches

d Final assembly of the models h Settings of the Area Light on the
left side, including its plugged Many cake pieces had an SSS shader plugged into them to
e The scene lighting setup portal light on the right make them look more convincing. For instance, the cake sponge has epidermal and subdermal
f It doesnt matter which lens i Textures and shaders used for maps, dictating it to get more saturated and reddish the more light leaks inside. There are four diferent
shader is used. The crucial the strawberry with a bit of help types of peach slices scattered around the center, each of them has its own textures to add some
factor is the gamma values from mix8.Layer variations to the rendered image. Each peach slice is consisted of two parts: shell and esh. Knowing
g Two soft Area Lights plus an j Cake sponge textures. Some of that, I used mix8.Layer for them as well to separate the two parts. Both esh and shell have their own
IBL. The key light is on the left them were polypainted SSS shader setup j.
3D Art & Design 153

Photorealism
re
6 hours
nder tim
Render setup Resolution e
1,232 x 1,400:
Finalise the look development and render
11Add jam shading

Now its time to explore
the jam shading. Technically
12Render pass options To have maximum control over
the look of the nal image I rendered it in passes in a single
EXR le. Separate the SSS pass to front, middle and back to have
speaking jam is a refractive/ maximum control over it. When you are trying to get a realistic 3D
translucent type of material, so image, check the 32-bit Full Float output otherwise you will not be
it lets light through but only to a able to get nice burnt highlights in postproduction owing to the fact
certain extent. To do this I that hot spots in 8-bit or even 16-bit images cant be tweaked to
activated Use Max Distance bleed into another colour without crushing down the shadows l.
under Advanced Refractions
and gave a darker red colour to
gradually fall into the material. I
also used translucency to make
it seem more believable. In
addition to jam shading, to
Difuse Indirect Composited SSS
obtain some variations in its
dryness or wetness I created a
glossiness map and added it to
the shader k.
13Avoid shortcuts
my experience you can
achieve burnt highlights by
In
k Incandescence Refraction Reection
either not following the LWF,

with the help of lens shader
(that doesnt grant you the Observation
freedom you have in post) or
Its necessary to observe objects in reality as much as you Specular AO ID
tweaking light and material can and work from their surface properties for inspiration.
attributes too much. As a result l Render passes. The composited SSS pass is the combination of front,
Notice how dirt in diferent climates changes and where middle and back SSS passes which were rendered out separately
its best to render out 32-bit scratches occur on varying surfaces. This way you can
images. We see those extend your knowledge to create new stuf yet have it look
highlights in so many situations The composited image is
convincing and real because it draws from genuine sources. brought into Photoshop as
during our day, its best to have an 8/16-bit image to be
them in our work as well. retouched further
Simply play with the image
levels and experiment m.
14Begin post work

Having the passes, I
went into NUKE to do a simple
composite because Photoshop
is poor at handling 32-bit EXR
les. After that I sent it to
Photoshop to complete the n
nal touches. Usually
postproduction for me is where
I can bring the image to life. I
try to capture the desired mood
as much as possible. This
Conclusion
doesnt have any specic m
It wasnt possible to cover everything in this short tutorial,
formula, just try anything that so I basically tried to demonstrate the key stages of the
works for you, come back to it k Sometimes translucency is very m Even after adjusting levels the process. I hope you have grabbed something from this
sensitive to light changes. As its 8-bit image still cant get close
after a day, ip it and x the a fake approach, often it to the 32-bit. You can also see tutorial to take forward in your work.
aws you nd n. requires experimentation render settings here
Progress of the post work

from left to right 15Go to postproduction
The goal was to achieve a
lush image with vivid colours. In
post the main jobs were
sharpening, colour correcting,
adding DOF with the help of a
zDepth pass, placing some
chromatic abberations, including
grains, rening a few shapes,
painting out a few aws and so on.
To intensify the light brightness
o thats coming from left I screened a
gradient to the whole image o.
154 3D Art & Design

Gallery
Artist info
Rod DeWeese
Rod worked for eight years in the
landscape architecture industry
before pursuing freelance work
Username: RDeWeese
www.rdeweese.com
Country US
Software used
3ds Max, mental ray, Photoshop
Work in progress
This image was created for a contest by the Gnomon Workshop.

Its something I had wanted to do for a while but never got around
to, so the contest was the perfect excuse to do it. By the way, I took
second place in the competition! Rod DeWeese, Old World Alley, 2012
3D Art & Design 155

Photorealism
RolexYachtmasterIIMaterials
(LWO les)
Model and render

a photorealistic watch Final render of the Rolex
Yacht-Master II in
24-carat gold
This masterclass will introduce a workflow to Ambient occlusion render

pass of the Rolex
help you model and render a Rolex wristwatch Yacht-Master II
T
his tutorial will focus on the Pro Suite. You can grab trials for these from
production of a photorealistic the respective websites: www.keyshot.
render of a wristwatch. Workow com/try and www.bunkspeed.com/
is always important to avoid back-tracking software/trypro. Both are very capable and
and repeating steps as much as possible. very fast rendering solutions, which for
Part of what will be specically looked at is many projects provide a much faster
the process of completing the work with turnaround than LightWave alone.
the best tools for the job. In this case well Taking that into account, the basic
use LightWave for modelling because its a workow well cover is the setting up of
rock-solid polygon modeller. Breaking out of reference images and the modelling of the
a simple LightWave workow even watch. Modelling will include the assigning
though it has a good renderer well step of surfaces ready for shading. This requires
into other software to render. some consideration with regard to the
Why move out of LightWave, you ask? model going into the third-party renderers.
Well, as simplicity isnt always a good This is because the surface assignments
reason to limit your options, its important will dictate how the model is editable within
to understand all the tools you have at your the other renderers. There is also some UV
disposal, and when to use them. mapping to do.
As well as LightWave, I often use Once all the work is done in LightWaves
Luxions KeyShot Pro and the Bunkspeed Modeler, our workow will split. For
156 3D Art & Design

Model and render a photorealistic watch
Its all about the

materials you use
The thing with CGI is that no single
aspect is going to hold up on its own.
Creating a stunning model is part of the
requirement, but no matter how good
your model is, on its own it will have little
impact beyond showing you can model
well. Dress it in poor textures and
shaders and itll render up being a
disappointing mess. More often than not
there is no complete shortcut to
shaders. You can build a library, but
often they will be to a greater or lesser
degree shot-specic and need tweaking
each time you use them.
continuing work in LightWave, we will start a With the backdrop B Modelling is

working on shaders, which may mean set up we can completed and
begin the basic geometry frozen
starting by loading up a library preset or blocking-in for rendering and
starting from scratch. There are texture process exporting
maps to create for the watch face as well.
For rendering in KeyShot or Bunkspeed,
we have a little extra work to do. Neither
renderer will import LightWave LWO les,
so we need to translate to a compatible
format. This can be either OBJ, FBX, or little diferent, there are distinct parallels
Collada (Bunkspeed only). My personal between them.
experience with LightWave is that the FBX The common factor with all the options
exporting works well and will export covered here, is that you will spend a fair
animations with reasonable success, amount of time tweaking and rendering.
though some parenting can cause issues LightWave now has VPR, which is a
along with the use of sliders. LightWaves real-time updating render preview. This can
OBJ exporting isnt great and my preference be a real help when working with shaders
is to use Deep Exploration. This enables the and is very similar to both the other
exporting of an entire scene as an OBJ, renderers, though they are much faster and B
which seems to be the best compromise more responsive.
01Prepare to model
for most situations. A workow consideration that might not
Whichever method you use, its worth apply to everyone is compatibility with First you need to nd a suitable
pointing out that it represents pretty much CAD systems. LightWave can handle OBJ, reference to use as a foundation for the basic modelling
the end of any LightWave input to the end Collada, and FBX, but these dont directly process. In an ideal world we would have side and front views of
result. This means you need to be really help with CAD. The other two go a step a wristwatch. Although decent-enough front views are easy to
certain that your modelling work is nished, further. Bunkspeed ofers a free plug-in for nd from a Google Images search, I couldnt nd a decent side
that all your surfaces are correctly assigned use with various other software systems, view for this Rolex. My reference is plentiful enough for the job,
and all required UV sets have been created. with Pro/E being one of the main ones in though, and I can gauge the depth of the watch, so its not the
Failure to do so can see you needing to go CAD terms, but it requires a licensed copy end of the world. With the front view set as the backdrop, basic
back to LightWave to do further work, and of Pro/Eand not everyone will have a model blocking can now begin A.
efectively write of a lot of time spent licence for it. KeyShot also has the native
02Freeze the model

working on the model in KeyShot or ability to load Pro/E les, keeping all the
Bunkspeed. Not only that but youll also sub components and hierarchies intact. We have quite a complex
have to spend time copying and pasting This is a very nice tool to have at our watch to model, so for rendering in close the SubD
shaders onto the newly re-imported assets. disposal, and a big consideration if you deal levels need to be quite high. I nd even for rendering in
This isnt the end of the world, but it can with CAD assets a lot. LightWave it can be benecial to freeze the model, as it saves
become frustrating quite quickly. Having looked at the workow LightWave having to freeze the model each time at the point of
Once your model is imported into considerations, lets check out an overview rendering. Not only that, but for rendering in KeyShot or
KeyShot or Bunkspeed, the workow from of creating the asset to be rendered, and Bunkspeed PRO, the model needs to be frozen anyway. Just be
this point on is pretty much the same. then the processes involved in rendering it very sure that you have completed all modelling and UV
Although the shader congurations are a in three diferent renderers. mapping before doing so B.
3D Art & Design 157

Photorealism
C D
E F
03 Set up the scene For this

subject matter, a typical scene
shader collection used in this Rolex
Yacht-Master II model D. KeyShot or Bunkspeed which
one is the best for me?
05
doesnt need to be complex at all and for
the main render featured here, its not. I Render the scene A few years
The thing to remember is that they are only renderers, so in this
have three light cards arranged cylindrically ago you wouldnt have been
example neither can replace LightWave completely. There are
around the watch, which I have set as tempted to render something like this in also some key diferences to each that are worth being aware of.
unseen by radiosity. Their purpose is just LightWave. All the reections and First, there is the power for rendering. KeyShot primarily uses
for reections. An HDRI map in the texture refractions added to radiosity would have your system CPU and RAM. No matter how fancy and high-end
environment plug-in provides the lighting. made render times prohibitive. LightWave your video card is, the most itll be used for is bloom and vignette
efects. Bunkspeed, however, enables you to specify the use of
Ive used one of Doschs Chrome Studio 11 has made things faster and simpler. All system resources for rendering. It can use your system CPU,
maps set to 90% Intensity. However, any the major rendering-related settings are your video card GPU, or a hybrid mix of both. This is great but
with good light and dark contrasts would now in the Render Globals panel. For this you are restricted by how much memory your video card has.
work well for our purposes C. scene, shading and light samples can stay
04
at 1. Also, interpolated GI isnt the fastest Deep Exploration. The main reason is that it
c A simple scene
Arrange your shaders The option, so with it turned of, GI set to Monte can read a LightWave scene, including with an HDRI map
screenshot for this stage shows Carlo and the RPE set to 4, were good to animation, and enable you to export to is all well need
you the major settings for the 24-carat gold go. I usually keep the adaptive threshold at Collada and FBX. This is great if you want to
D Shading in
shader. When it comes to shaders you may 0.01 for nals. Minimum Samples on the render an animated sequence outside of LightWave try to
wish to remain relatively old-school and camera are kept low, but maximum LightWave. It also makes it a snap to export keep it simple
keep use of nodes is minimal when it can samples need tweaking for your scene E. any frame of the scene as an OBJ le. As a
06
be. Never make it more complicated than it user, you will rarely render sequences E Major render
settings in
needs to be! In the case of the gold shading, Export and render outside of LightWave, so OBJ is the way to LightWave
its not the most complicated thing to do There are several options available go. LightWave will export Collada natively, grouped together
and really comes down to getting the colour for getting geometry out of LightWave and but for reasons not entirely clear, the le
F Using Deep
right along with the balance of difuse and into KeyShot or Bunkspeed Pro. My sizes are in excess of ten-times the size of Exploration to
reection. Provided is the full LightWave favoured method is Right Hemispheres those from Deep Exploration F. export the watch
158 3D Art & Design

Model and render a photorealistic watch
07
H
Import into either KeyShot or G Import options for
both KeyShot and
Bunkspeed On account of their Bunkspeed
similar product specs and pipelines, there is
not a great diference in how you get the H Working on the
model into KeyShot or Bunkspeed. Both model in KeyShot
ofer you options as to how the object will I Working with
be organised after the import has shaders inside
completed. The default options work well in of Bunkspeed
both cases, giving you a separate entity for J Adding realism
each material from LightWave. This means through grading
its worth giving consideration to this when
surfacing the model in LightWave to avoid
restrictions later. If any applied texture
maps are placed in the folder with the OBJ
le, then both renderers will load the
textures in while importing the model G.
08 Begin shading and rendering

in KeyShot
Once the model has imported, shading is
I
where the workow gets quicker compared

to LightWave. You can simply drag and Pitfalls with LightWave radiosity
drop materials, environments and
When you render using radiosity with LightWave, its best to throw your
backplates from the library right onto the assumptions aside. When rendering this scene, using interpolated Final
model in the main window. The materials Gather would seem a logical way to go. Interpolation after all is lling in the
can be tweaked and saved as new library blanks between dened ranges. However, by switching of Interpolation and
items, but for the major part the presets are using Monte Carlo instead, along with some other tweaks to the settings
such as a low RPE setting along with shading and lighting samples, the
great as they are. If you dont require
render times are brought down from in excess of 16 hours to under 3.5
renders in excess of your active screen hours. This is worth remembering when using LightWave if you are
resolution, you can simply save the preview rendering in it.
render. If you need high-resolution output
10
then the ofine render can be used for
nished output H. Grade your renders There is no J
09
doubt that the results that can be
Alternative shading and obtained from LightWave, KeyShot and
rendering in Bunkspeed Pro Bunkspeed are fantastic, but one of the
After importing into Bunkspeed Pro, as with biggest mistakes to make is to assume that
KeyShot, you start by dragging and the process ends there. I nd just adding a
dropping materials onto your model. The little chromatic aberration and noise to the
library of supplied materials, environments, image is enough to take away the clean CGI
and backplates is enough to cover most look. Also adding a colour tint to make it a
requirements. Parts of the model can be little less neutral is a great way to achieve
hidden to gain access to parts otherwise this. With the aid of a depth pass, you can
blocked from drag-and-drop operations. also add depth of eld, which is pretty
For rapid turnarounds without crucial for LightWave renders, as rendering
compromising quality, its a great tool to DOF in LightWave is still prohibitive of your
use, even if its not exactly cheap I. precious time j.
3D Art & Design 159

Environment
Whether theyre realistic or fantastical,
develop your environments with our tutorials
162 20 steps to better
environments 184
Improve your terrains from concept
to completion
169 I made this Rue de Seine

Viktor Fretyn talks through his art
170 Underwater landscapes

Create a realistic underwater scene 162
175 Gallery Dennis Kaya

Iversholt
Taking a look at Neon City
176 Create a desert landscape

Blend 3D & matte painting techniques
to produce a Mars-like landscape
181 I made this Under the

Southern Highway
A bleak yet beautiful scene
182 Create trees in Unity

Get to grips with Unitys Tree Editor
184 Futuristic cityscapes

How to create a floating city
190 Sculpt beautiful terrains

Create picturesque terrains in Unity
192 Design an epic Vue 169

landscape
Key steps to building an epic
landscape
197 Gallery Lee Griggs

We look at Lee Griggs spooky scene
From planning to
rendering and post-
production, you will learn
all the techniques 176
160 3D Art & Design

Lighting can make or
break a scene, whether its
a realistic, fantasy, surreal
or sci- landscape
192
3D Art & Design 161

Environment
20 steps to better
environments
Consumed 2012
The concept for this image came from wanting to
create a piece dedicated to a person who lived below my
apartment, who suffered from Alzheimers disease
Toni Bratincevic is a senior environment modeller at Blizzard Entertainment in the
Cinematic department. Hes a self-taught 3D artist with almost ten years of
professional experience
his tutorial will cover the making of Consumed, focusing mostly on my personal
T approach to the modelling process. I will show how basic modelling is done in 3ds Max
using some simple techniques, and how ZBrush is used to sculpt the character and additional
objects featured in the scene.
To finish up I will quickly go over some procedural texturing techniques to add dirt layers on wood
and will show you how V-Ray RT can be used to set up lighting in an interactive way.
Im using ZBrush primarily as my sculpting tool, but I also often rely on its texturing and UV
unwrapping tools, as well as its geometry optimisation tool, Decimation Master. So lets begin!
162 3D Art & Design

20 steps to better environments

techniques behind
Artist info
Toni Bratincevic
Username: InterceptoV
www.interstation3d.com
Location California, USA
Software used
3ds Max, Photoshop, ZBrush,
V-Ray RT
Expertise Toni works with
environments professionally,
and is currently focusing on
character modelling in his spare
time to introduce more variety
into his portfolio
Find screenshots of Tonis

detailed edits, including his
render settings
3D Art & Design 163

Environment
Concept Software used

in this piece
A basic concept for this
image was drawn on
3ds Max Photoshop
paper with pencil a few
years ago. It was just a
simple sketch that
captured the general ZBrush V-Ray RT
idea. I later added colour
in Photoshop.
Always be
Start the layout and modelling prepared
Establish the scene and create models for the environment The rst steps are usually
the most important when
creating an image
especially one that is more
complex. These are the
stages where everything is
established in a broad
sense: the composition,
distribution of objects,
forms, basic light setup
and colour correction for
the nal image. Its
essentially a simplied
draft version of what the
end result will be. After
this point its just a matter
of being patient and
detailing all the objects,
textures, materials and
light to bring the image to
the nal version. If you
A dont feel comfortable
with the layout youve
01
completed and you cant
Scene blocking After gathering my various pencil sketches together, I set up the imagine it as a nal work,
a Simple objects to stage the
scene and build the layout
then try starting from
basic layout of the scene and stage the camera. This step takes me around ten scratch and beginning
minutes. Im not wasting time keeping topology clean and making good UVs. At this point Im everything again in a
b The basic lighting setup to
starting most of the objects from a simple box and using poly-modelling tools like Cut, check which objects are diferent way. Imagine this
Extrude, Bridge and Connect. Im aiming to model all objects that will serve as starting points more in focus process as paving the way
to the nal product after
for the high-poly modelling. Its also during this stage that I dene the basic camera position
c Models from the layout are which you only need to
so that Im building the scene based on what I see. I will also establish the basic composition exported into separate take steps forward!
during the process a. assets for detailing
b 03 Organise assets I prepare separate les and

model objects for the scene. The fridge, which in
02
layout was a simple re-modelled box object, is exported to a
Basic lighting Next I establish the overall lighting of the scene. Although some separate scene named Fridge_V01_01.max where I can
artists tend to create lighting in later stages, I usually decide to work on it as soon as I re-model and detail the object. The layout model of the
create the layout. Lighting along with camera view will dene what parts of the scenes are fridge is positioned to t the layout scene but when I export
more visible, what will be in focus and what I should concentrate my time modelling and this placeholder object into the new scene I reset all the
texturing. This basic lighting is done with a couple of V-Ray area lights. One light uses a transformations so its positioned at the origin where I did all
warmer tone and serves as a primary to illuminate areas where the character should be, while the re-modelling. I merge this model back into the original
others are used as ll lights with cooler colours b. scene and align it to the layout model of the fridge C.
164 3D Art & Design

Detailed modelling
Re-create your models from the initial layout to perfect the level of detail
04 Pose the character Although my original layout

didnt have a character, in the later stages I decide
to add one. My intention is to sculpt a character in ZBrush, so
06 Shape rocks
In ZBrush I start
with a Cube3D made into a
I create a base suit model in 3ds Max, starting from a box mesh by pressing Make
and using standard Edit Poly tools. If youre using ZBrush, a PolyMesh3D. I subdivide it a
base model can also be created simply using ZSpheres. After couple of times while having
completing an unposed base model I use the Move, Rotate Smooth turned of for the
and Scale tools with Soft Selection active to position the rst two levels of
D
character in the scene. I make the helmet completely in 3ds subdivision. After that, using
Max. It has a totally clean topology since I use a the hPolish, Clay Buildup,
TurboSmooth modier on top of the model to achieve Pinch and Dam Standard
smoother surfaces d. brushes, I sculpt a couple of
05
variations of stones that I
Sculpt detail with ZBrush I export the base use around the scene. UVs
character model into an OBJ format (using the are also done in ZBrush
ZBrush preset). In ZBrush I merge the OBJ, subdivide it a using the UV Master tools. I
couple of times and, using brushes like Move, Clay Buildup, use the Decimation Master
Smooth and Dam Standard, I sculpt all the wrinkles and plug-in for ZBrush to
details on the suit. Once Im done sculpting, on the rst level optimise meshes and reduce
of subdivision I use UV Unwrap in ZBrush to create simple mesh complexity. Once the
UVs for the character. I could export back to 3ds Max on one objects are decimated I
of the lower subdivision levels of the objects and create a export them as OBJ les and
Displacement map. This time I choose to export the highest merge them all into a 3ds
level to keep all the details Ive sculpted, since with Max le where I can
e
displacement you always lose some sculpted details e. continue texturing f.
08 Tear of the light box panel To peel the light box

panel above the clock Ive developed a simple
technique. Once the panel is modelled and textured I make a
duplicate of the same object and apply a Subdivision
modier with a value of 0.2. After that, I convert it back into
Edit Poly object and cut areas where I want the peeling paint
to appear. Then, using Soft Selection and Move/Rotate tools,
I move the inner edges of the mesh so it looks like its peeling
G
from the original object h.
07 Set dressing Objects used for set dressing are relatively simple to model. Some of
them are created by drawing a prole curve and using the Lathe modier to revolve it
around its axis, like a few bottles and a teapot. Other objects are created from a simple box
d The character is modelled
and posed in 3ds Max
g Objects for set dressing
created in a separate scene
and later scattered around
and extruding and cutting the mesh to make the shapes needed. At this point I also create e Sculpt the character from the base scene
simple UVs using the UVW Map modier with box mapping. These objects are later merged the base mesh
h More details for the top
into the original layout scene and distributed around the image to add complexity where f Rocks are made in ZBrush, light panel are added by
needed g. including the base mesh copying the original object
3D Art & Design 165

Environment
09 Model the clock Before I even start modelling the

clock I already know that it will be geometry thats
repeated radially, so I just have to model one part and copy it
around seven times to get a complete shape. Because of this
I model only one part that covers 45 degrees and later copy
another seven elements around its axis point. The nal frame J
is merged into one object and shared vertex points at the
edges are welded. The frame of the clock is started as a
prole curve with the Lathe modier, plus some additional
modelling. The round gears inside the clock are created using
modied cylinder curves to get nice shapes and are
converted into objects using the Bevel modier i.
10 Create cobwebs All the cobwebs around the scene

are made using free scripts from http://jokermartini.
com/2012/05/09/cobwebs. I pick the scene area where I
want to have a cobweb, create a couple of polygons that are
placed on top of the surfaces where webs will connect and
then select these polygons in order. I save a selection for
these polygons because it takes a lot of tries to get the right
result. Next I enable Radial Mesh in Editable Spline and apply
small Noise and Displacement modiers on top of everything
to add some randomness to the shapes of the strands in the
web. As for the options, I use Type Order for main strands,
and Radial for substrands. I also set Subdivisions to 4,
Number of Substrands to 6 and Random Gaps to 50% j. K
11 Break up wood Areas where I want broken wood are

modelled using ProCutter. I decide what parts of the
objects to break and detach them from the originals. A plane
12 Model with displacement While most of the objects in the scene are created using
standard modelling tools, to add small stones around cabinets I use a 2D
Displacement map with a water level feature. I do this by adding a Displacement modier
is then made with a high level of subdivision, like 100 x 100. with a map to a simple plane object and set the water level in the Displacement map to
Its placed perpendicular to the wood object and, using Move 0.5cm. This cuts the object where the maps value is lower than 0.5, while leaving the rest of
with Soft Selection, is shaped to dene the base form of the the displacement visible. This plane is then copied and placed around the scene to bring in
cut. After that I apply a Noise modier to the cutting object additional details. Depending on its position in the scene, parts of that at displaced plane are
(plane) and change the settings to deform only in axes deleted to t objects behind them l.
perpendicular to the wood object. Using ProCutter tools on
the base wood object, I pick the plane object as a Stock
Object and play with settings to get a clean cut. For a better
distribution of polygons I turn on Make Quadrilaterals and
convert everything back into Editable Poly objects k.
2D Displacement in V-Ray?
Although nice efects can be achieved with 3D Mapping
Displacement mode in V-Ray, whenever I can I try to use
the 2D Displacement feature, which is much faster and
more predictable. It can also produce more detailed
displacement than the other two methods, and is especially L
useful for surfaces that are relatively at like a grass eld or
tileable ground covered with small stones. The limitation of
2D Displacement is that it can only use Displacement maps i Model only one section of the clock and k The ProCutter compound object is used to
that are based on the UV space of the object, which means copy it seven times to get the full shape break the wood boxes around the scene
3D textures like noise cant be used. In this case the 3D
method is the only way to go. j The cobwebs are made using a free script l 2D Displacement is used to add geometry
from JokerMartini.com details over the scene
166 3D Art & Design

Texture the scene

Use procedural techniques with bitmaps to texture your environment
13 Wood textures For the wood I use a tileable texture

in combination with a Vertex map to add dirt. Using
the Vertex map modier applied to an object, I paint with
black where I want dirt to appear. Inside the material
assigned to that object I add a Composite map in the Difuse
channel and use wood as a rst layer. In the second layer I
add a dirt texture, change the second layer to Multiply and
set the Opacity to 80. As a mask for the second layer I use
another Composite map. In the rst channel I use a Vertex
map and in the second I put a Black-and-White map, setting
the channel to Overlay. This gives me all the exibility of
using a Vertex map to paint dirt directly on the objects
around the scene, while still using only one material for all
m
these objects m.
14 Texture the fridge The fridge texture is created by

painting all textures without using any procedural
techniques. Using UV tools in 3ds Max I can create nice
non-overlapping UVs. A screenshot of these UVs is brought
into Photoshop where I paint 4,000 Difuse, Reection,
Glossy and Bump maps. I also paint a Scratches Mask map,
which is used to blend two diferent materials in 3ds Max
with a VRayBlendMtl. The base material is the one using the
n textures I painted, while the coat material is a simple one,
similar to aluminium, which uses the mask I painted in
Photoshop. This mask is also used to create a Negative
The power Bump map for the aluminium material n.
of procedural
While painted bitmaps can
be used to produce ne
15 Detail the back wall When focusing on the back
wall I bake an Occlusion map to gure out where the
contact points are. Doing this makes it far easier to paint
details on objects, its not
efcient to paint every textures later when moving to Photoshop. To bake I create a
single texture for all VRayLightMtl, put a VRayDirt texture inside the Color map
objects in the scene. of that material and set a proper Radius value for the
Because of this, a lot of the VRayDirt texture. This is then applied to the back wall and
time I try to use tileable
textures with additional baked using the 3ds Max Render to Texture feature. In the
dirt layers placed in a Render To Texture menu, I select the VRayCompleteMap
procedural way to element and bake a 4,000 texture directly into File. I use
randomise the visual o this in Photoshop as a base where I paint Difuse, Bump and
appearance. To achieve an
Reection maps. One thing to keep in mind while baking
greater level of texture
complexity, I rely on these p Occlusion maps is to have good non-overlapping UVs that
maps: Noise Texture, are arranged inside UV domains o.
16
Fallof, V-Ray MultiSubTex,
Composite and Cellular. Clock material To detail the clock object I use three
key materials that are mixed together to get the most
m The procedural approach efective look. To mix these materials I use a VRayBlendMtl
using the Vertex Paint
modier to add dirt with a base material set to a metallic copper. The second
one is set to a more difused green material (the more
n Fridge textures painted in oxidized areas of the metal). The third and nal material is
Photoshop. A scratch
mask is used to mix the highly reective and used to add scratches on top of the
aluminium material in the previous two materials. For Material Mix maps I bake an
VRayBlendMtl settings Occlusion map from 3ds Max and use that Occlusion map
in Photoshop to rene it into a nal Mix map. Based on
o Paint textures for the back
wall. I bake an Occlusion occlusion intensity, I paint both Mix maps. Where its more
map for contact points occluded I add extra dirt into the rst Material Mix map so
that it looks like its more oxidised. However, in areas
p The clock material is a
combination of three exposed and not occluded (white) I add more scratches for
diferent materials the second Material Mix map p.
3D Art & Design 167

Environment
4
crea
+ hour
Lighting and rendering tio s
Reso n time
Use V-Ray RT to light the scene quickly and efficiently 5,000 lution:
p
wideixels
17 Lighting with V-Ray RT Before the nal stage of
modelling and texturing changes, I use V-Ray RT to
lock down lighting in the scene. For the Active Shade render
engine I set V-Ray RT. To make everything more interactive, Raw render
in the Active Shade Render menu I do a material override of
the scene with a classic grey VRayMtl. I change the Viewport
or post-
from Standard camera view to Active Shade. Once the scene production?
is translated and I start to render on screen, I can tweak
lighting, add new lights and modify the intensities and Although I prefer to make
the nal render as good as
colours of lights. After every change, V-Ray RT renes the possible, trying to get a
image, instantly showing the efects of changes q. perfect image out of 3ds
Q
Max would consume a lot
of time, since for every
18 Physical camera V-Rays camera is used instead of single modication I would

have to render a new
the classic 3ds Max camera. I decide not to use image, which takes a
exposure inside the VRayPhysicalCamera, which is on by while. Because of that, I
default. Instead, exposure is added in the V-Ray Color dont bother getting a
Mapping menu in Render Settings. I use a Cubic method with great-looking image from
3ds Max and instead
a 0.05 value to get a nice distortion around the image focus on doing
borders, which gives a more dynamic composition to the compositing in Fusion
scene and looks more natural. Depth of eld is also used in where I can tweak colours
the camera to get a nice blurred foreground. I always use in a matter of seconds.
DOF in the camera for still images because it gives better
image quality than doing it in the post-processing phase r. q V-Ray RT is used to make
19
quick changes to the
Rendering in V-Ray I render with the Adaptive scenes lighting
DMC sampler with Subdivisions set to Min 1 and Max r Testing V-Rays camera
10. An Irradiance map is used as the primary bounce for GI with diferent distortion
while Lightcache is used for secondary GI bounces. The values. For the nal image
it is set to 0.05
Irradiance map is set to High and I use Ambient Occlusion
set to the default value. For Lightcache I use Subdivs set to s Settings for the nal render
r 1,500. In the Render Settings menu I set Global Subdivs (screenshots supplied)
Multiplier to 4 to get decent sampling for glossy reections
t Fusion is used for colour
and DOF. All render tests are done in 2,000 resolution while corrections on the raw
the nal image is rendered in 5,000 s. OpenEXR-rendered image
20 Final compositing The nal image is rendered in OpenEXR format so that I dont
lose any information from the colour values, like TGA or PNG formats do. This is
then taken into Fusion where I apply several colour corrections to get the values I want. I also
use masks in combination with colour corrections to darken parts of the image in the
foreground while areas around the clock and the character are corrected to be more visible
and to attract attention from the viewer. While doing post work I tend to ip the image often
t
to get a fresh perspective. The nal image is actually a ipped version of the original t.
168 3D Art & Design

I made this Rue de Seine
Viktor Fretyn
Artist info
Website
rg
http://radicjoe.cgsociety.o
Country Hungary
, V-Ray,
Software used 3ds Max
Photoshop
Incredible 3D artists take
ed in
Bio Viktor is a 3D artist bas
Budapest, Hungary
k
Try not to use

plug-ins
[from] experience
its so easy to nd
a cool look with a
plug-in and use
the same trick on
all your images.
Its better to
do everything
manually, for me. I
Software used in this piece feel more
Rue de Seine 2012 3ds Max V-Ray Photoshop in control!
I was always in love with this city, so I wanted to create

a series of scenes from diferent locations, all in Always try to do something original. Even if its
diferent styles and all with a little comedic relief. So
far this is the rst image of this series and I hope Ill
not perfect, its always better to appreciate
have the will power to go on, as it took me six months something original than a perfectly clean image
just for this one image! I really dont feel like starting
all over from scratch on another scene right now
thats a copy Nowadays there are quite a few
studios and artists with a distinctive style
3D Art & Design 169
Environment
Distribution
Software used
in this piece
Lighting
Rendering
Vue
A Add a single-blade plant

and animate its wind
parameters to give it a slight
curve at zero seconds
Free full copy of Vue 9 B Animate the wind
Frontier, worth $99, courtesy parameters again, this time at
of e-on software and three seconds to the
Cornucopia3D maximum curvature you want
Full Vue Scene with materials,
atmosphere, render settings C Add a standard terrain
and all objects included. and use the Old Rock material
as displacement to create
overhangs and caves
170 3D Art & Design

Underwater landscapes
Underwater Easy-to-follow guides

to the nal render
landscapes
Artist info
Conrad Allan
Aquatic Vue Personal portfolio site

www.extremeprojects.com.au
Create idealistic and realistic underwater environments in Vue Country Australia
Software used Vue
Conrad Allan is a freelance environment artist and matte painter Expertise Using World
Machine to create highly
realistic terrains for projects
I
n this article well be covering theres a current flowing through. Next huge and lighting settings sensitive. and creating environments in
Vue for matte paintings and full
advanced techniques for creating well look into using terrains in a unique With the advent of Vue 10 came a new 3D animations
scenes in Vue. While well be way to get rock overhangs in our ocean physical water system. It meant
building an underwater scene, the scene for coral to grow on and fish to relearning the entire water-rendering
techniques youll learn are easily swim through. experience. Hopefully by the end of the
transferred to many other, above- Veterans of Vue will understand article we will have removed the
ground creations in the software. First rendering underwater scenes in it has shroud in your understanding of the
well be preparing a plant to use as our always been a challenge. The ocean new physical water system.
seagrass where well use the animation material is easy enough to set up Were covering a lot of elements and
phasing to make the plant look like initially, but render times can often be have a lot to get through, so buckle up.
Set your scene

Prepare for the animations
b c
02Timeline and grass bend Now we have

our initial plant and animation start 03Create the base terrain Open up a new
scene and add a standard terrain. Well
position, move the Time slider to 3 seconds and need to smooth it out by using the Difuse and
a drag the blue triangle even further to create our Wind erosion efects.
maximum bend in the grass. Make sure to drag Were going to take a diferent approach to
01Animation preparation We need to

prepare a grass le before we can use it in
the triangle in the same general direction, as we
dont want to have the grass bend back on itself or
normal for creating our underwater terrain. Load
the material Old Rock and in the Bump tab, enable
Displacement. If you render now youll notice the
our main scene. Add an Acacia Tree Seedling turn in a diferent direction.
plant and turn on the Timeline (F11). You can Next, go to 6 seconds on the Time slider and terrain should look something like the image for
cancel out of the animation wizard, but this wont copy the initial frame setting to the end. With the this step. Now is a good time to play with the
help us. Make sure your current time is set to 0 plant selected, hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+B to open the depth of the bump to increase the displacement
and drag the wind control (the blue triangle next Animation toolbox and set the Repeat Mode to and the smoothing slider. Try setting the Depth to
to the plant) so it is just out of its middle point a. Loop. Finally save your object as a VOB le b. 0.4 and Smoothing to 50% c.
3D Art & Design 171

Environment
Advanced ecosystem distributions

Create and control the plant life of the sea floor
d
04Coral ecosystem On the terrain weve just added,

edit the material and add an ecosystem layer. On this 05Basic seagrass ecosystem Add another
ecosystem layer, ensuring it is below the previous one
D The settings we used to create
the variations in scaling of the
coral ecosystem
add two types of aquatic plants: Red Coral and Anemone, in the list. Add the animated grass object we created earlier,
increasing the presence of the Anemone to 2. In the Density setting the Scale to 0.8 and Density to 100%. For scaling, set E The density settings for our
seagrass. The distribution
tab, turn of Decay Near Foreign Objects and turn the the Overall Amount to 0.5 and the Maximum rotation to 0 fractal is created in step 7
Density up to 100%. Depending on the size of your scene degrees. We need all our instances to line up. Also, change
F The Animation Ofset tab
youll need to turn down the overall scaling (in the next tab). the Direction From Surface to 50%, this will make the enables us to create sweeping
For this scene it is set to 0.095. Turn the maximum X instances tilt a little with the terrain. currents through the grass
variation to 1.3 to give some variation in the sizes of Finally, ensure the Presence tab of this layer is set to the G The distributions cause the
instances. Finally in the Presence tab, change the Maximum maximum. For the desired efect we want this grass to grass animation to ofset. This
will look more realistic under
slope to 45 degrees d. appear at all heights and slopes e. our ocean

Dealing with ecosystems can sometimes be time consuming. If youre trying to get your
distribution patterns correct, increase the scale of your plants temporarily. This will save you
time when populating as there wont be so many instances. I try to avoid using dynamic
populations because they tend to take longer on the rst render than their static
counterparts, but using a static population will use more RAM so be aware of this. Make sure
to only populate ecosystems you need to work on, saving your memory and test renders.
This segment of the tutorial covers a lot of advanced techniques. As such, you should
check how your ecosystem looks at each stage, this will help you learn more about the
efects as well as ensure youre on the right track. Each scene is unique, youll have to check
the scale of your fractals as they may be too big or too small.
If in doubt, check the scene le on the disc for reference, youll be able to cross check your
scene with mine.
f 07Distribution of seagrass Currently our seagrass

will appear everywhere on our terrain. We dont want
this. In the Density tab, tick Variable Density and edit the
H Using a hyperblob, we can
create brain coral by controlling
and ltering a standard
06Create currents To control the grass to simulate
sea currents, head into the Animation tab and tick
function. Add a Noise node and set the type to Sparse
Cracks. Change the Scale to 3, Wavelength to 3 (X,Y,Z) and
density fractal Variable Time Ofset. Set the Time Ofset Range from 0 to 6 the Crack Width up to around 0.22. This will create big
I Mix materials to create brighter seconds and Number of variations to 60. Tick the Loop sweeping black lines for our ecosystem to grow on. Add a
areas at the tips of the coral Animation Phasing box. Now we need to set how the current Smooth Threshold lter and edit it to make the black values
L By setting the lighting model to appears, so click on the lightning icon next to the Random stronger. Accept these changes and back in the Density tab,
Global Radiosity we can control option to bring up the Function Editor. Here, replace the ip the lter horizontally. This will make the maximum
it better
Constant Node with a Noise Node and set it to a Perlin noise density occur in the black values instead of white. Finally, in
M In the Sky, Fog and Haze with 0.5 scale. Again, depending on your scene, this scale the coral ecosystem above this ecosystem layer, set the
settings we can control the light
to darken areas of our image may have to be tweaked f. Repulsion from layer to 50% g.
172 3D Art & Design

Underwater landscapes
9hours
Ocean and lighting render tim
e
Resolution
Ocean
rendering
Atmosphere and ocean setup for lighting 2,828 x 3,88 : quality
6
When you come to
h
render your nal image,
youll most likely have
trouble with the noise in
the water, but there are
several diferent settings
which can be tweaked to
improve the quality. If you
i are not worried about
rendering time, crank the
08Brain coral displacement Add a sphere to your scene

and Ctrl/right-click on the Create Metablob Object 09Create materials for the coral Next, jump
over to the Hypertexture Material and load a
quality of your water
material layer to 4. Using
depth of eld and
button to create a hyperblob. Enter the material and in the mixed material with Old Rock and Old Limestone. Enable
distance blurring will help
Colour & Density tab load the Soft Spots fractal preset. Change Inuence of Environment and change the settings so that immensely. As water
the lter to a Multi-hill fractal, which will create the high, smooth the limestone material appears on the at, higher surfaces difuses light so much,
ridges. Set the Overall Density to 4.5. We dont want holes in of the sphere. Itll require a little tweaking but the result distant objects can look
our sphere so tick Use Distance Field and set it to 10%. This sets should be that the white limestone is on the top ridges of great if theyre blurred out
and will also enable you
the deepest point to be 10% engraved into the sphere h. the Coral i.
to keep render times low.
Post efects software
j
10Optional details If you want to add a bit of life to
the coral system, repeat step 1 but this time with a
like Photoshop, Lightroom
and After Efects have
some fantastic options
sh species of your choice and, instead of animating the
for reducing noise in
wind, animate the rotation about 15 degrees and back. specic areas. Using
Once you have the le exported and have added a terrain, third-party programs in
make the material fully transparent and add an this way means you can
ecosystem. On this ecosystem, follow steps 5 to 7 to get your image out of Vue
quicker and into another
create the same kind of distribution for the sh. Once piece of software for
Create animated sh using a populated you can move the terrain to get your sh into xing. Just remember
transparent terrain to control smalls caves in the terrain and also erase certain areas of youre not limited to one.
height displacement
sh where you dont want them to appear j.
11Add the ocean

We now have our scene pretty much
k
complete with all of the elements present.

Before we get the lighting right and
change our atmosphere, we need to add
an ocean (top-left button). Double-click
on the Water plane and check both
Displace Water Surface and Underwater
Caustics. Next go into the Material Editor
and on the Default Water layer in the
Transparency tab change the Depth to m
12 metres and Anisotropy to 0.80. This is
all we need to do here k.
13Sky, fog and haze While these settings dont occur
in real life, they will certainly afect our lighting in Vue.
12Atmosphere and lighting Its

time to dive into the Atmosphere
There are many tweaks here so check the image or the scene
le for more options. We want to increase the Fog and Haze
settings. Firstly, change the Lighting Enabling Underwater Caustics for to around 20% and 5% respectively to block more light.
model to Global Radiosity. Bump down the water creates strong light rays Change the Aerial Perspective to 10, increasing the
the Sky Dome Lighting Gain to -0.10, this atmospheric scale to fade more of the background m.
is so we avoid ooding the scene with
light. Change the Light Balance to around
60%, as this again will help control where
our light is coming from a little more.
The key to realism
Last, in order to ll out the dark areas, Dont rely on your imagination to come up with realistic
bump the Global Radiosity Gain up to 0.5 nishing touches. Study underwater photography and
or 1.0 depending on your preferences. really try to analyse what makes it look that way. Learn
where the imperfections are in the image: that is the key to
This will cause light to bounce onto other realism. It is all too easy to have clean images in computer
objects and will pick up the diferent graphics so try to reproduce the quirks of photography.
l
colours rather than being at light l.
3D Art & Design 173

Environment
Final touches
Depth of field and render settings
Conrad Allan
I started my career as a structure modeller for
n
14Displace the
hyperblobs We
architects. I then discovered Vue and fell in love with need to add some framing to
the quick results I could achieve. From the very our scene. To do this, add a
beginning I strove to separate myself from the crowd cylinder and Ctrl/right-click
and achieve the highest level of realism I could with on the Metablob icon again
pure 3D scenes in Vue. More recently my work has to create a hyperblob.
begun to focus on matte painting for various elds. Accept the change of
15Hyperblob
o material, well use this as our
materials default material. In the
Change the material Colour &
material mapping Density settings,
for the cylinder to enable Use
World-Standard, as Distance Field, set
this will give it to 95% and the
variations when we Overall Density to
duplicate the cylinder. 2. This will take
We need to improve some tweaking
the bump for depending on your
Hypertexture Material. particular version
In the Bump tab of the fractal n.
Halo: Faith Vue, Photoshop (2011) change the Bump to
This was made for an independent short lm, Halo: Faith. It is a -25. Finally, duplicate this object so
frame from the nished trailer that aired late 2011. It was made
there are a couple of iterations on the left and right Use Z-depth
mostly inside Vue with Photoshop colour corrections, compositing
efects and addition of the live-action soldier. of your image frame and at diferent distances from the post rendering
camera. Each instance should look diferent o.
If youre applying depth of
eld in another software,
16Add a depth of eld

Underwater photography is
check your Z-depth
before nal rendering.
Currently in Vue, any fully
not generally strong in depth of eld
transparent object will
or focal efects, but if used properly, still appear in the
the depth of eld will add a nice, Z-depth. It makes sense
p slight distance blur. because youll want to
To do this, select the camera and have the ocean material
change the Blur to 7%. Make sure to check the Focus (for instance) included in
your Z-depth. However, if
distance as this will set the origin from where the depth of you have chosen to add
eld will begin processing p. sh in step 10, your
terrain will block other
Z-depth details. To get
Alpine Matte Painting Vue, Photoshop (2011) around this, hide the sh
A matte painting made in a few hours with Vue and Photoshop. terrain from the render
(which will hide the sh
too) and do a second
render just for the
Z-depth. Disable the
lighting and materials so
you dont waste time
when rendering.
q
17Final render settings and options

n The basic displacement
Now were material with a bit of
nally ready to begin our render. To speed up render customising does well here
times well be using a custom version of the Preview Render o Create a hypertextured
cylinder with a world-
settings. Select User settings in the preset box and load the standard mapping to frame
preview URS le. Check Enable Super-Sampling and also the scene
Depth of Field, setting the algorithm to Fast Hybrid 2.5D with p For depth of eld settings, set
1 or 2 passes. In the Anti-aliasing area check all four boxes the Blur to 7% and make sure
Costa Rica Vue (2010) to pick a focus distance
Created as proof that the book Realism In Vue, for which I was the and click the Edit button. Change the Texels per ray to Min 3,
editor in chief, teaches some great techniques. Max 8 and the Quality to 60%. Finally, set your resolution q With custom render settings
we can focus our render time
and hit render q. where we need it
174 3D Art & Design

Gallery
Artist info
Dennis Kaya
Iversholt
Dennis is a 32-year-old 3D
generalist working at Cadesign
in Aarhus, Denmark
http://latter.cgsociety.org
Country Denmark
Software used 3ds Max, V-Ray,
Mudbox, Photoshop
Work in progress
This is the type of scene I wanted to create for years. My initial idea
was to create a present day or futuristic scene, but as I started modelling
the character I changed my mind and made this scene, which is
inspired by New York in the 50s Dennis Kaya Iversholt, Neon City, 2012
3D Art & Design 175
Environment
Create a desert
landscape
Mars Desert 2012
take you from concept Software used in this piece
to the nal render
LightWave ZBrush Photoshop
Artist info
Blend 3D and matte painting techniques to produce a landscape

reminiscent of the Red Planet
Eugenio Garcia Eugenio Garcia Villarreal is a graphic designer and 3D Director at digital media agency D10 Studio
Villarreal
T
his image was inspired by the landscapes of Mars and My toolset included LightWave for the basic geometry,
deserts on Earth. The mix of diferent arid ZBrush to get a base mesh for the nal rocks in the image and
Username: artecnl
environments enabled me to expand on the tonal range then Photoshop for the nal integration of the base image and
Personal portfolio site and structures in the scene. I added an element of natural textures. I also included some matte painting techniques to add
www.ickr.com/artecnl
Country Mexico
greenery to provide a contrasting colour and shape it to the overall efect.
Software used represents the moment a plant found its way to the surface in a
LightWave, ZBrush, Photoshop
Expertise Eugenio is a texture
deadly environment.
Over the next few pages I will share my workow and
Concept
and environment artist with Films and comics such as John Carter of Mars and Roger
experience working in the techniques for producing the nal image using a mixture of 2D
advertising industry. He is a Dean landscapes, plus Earth-based deserts and the Red
and 3D techniques. This approach meant I could produce a Planet itself, inspired this scene.
co-founder of D10 Studio.
commercial-quality image while working to a tight deadline.
176 3D Art & Design

Create a desert landscape
Modelling
Texturing
Retouching
01Research Before you embark

on a project such as this, its
always worth searching for diferent
a b
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
desert types, moods and light. Search

engines such as Google and stock
photography sites are useful. The
diferent colours and shapes help to
provide inspiration for the initial sketch.
02Sketch out a concept

Another recommendation Id make Its important to digest all your
is not to limit your research to one reference material before you tackle the rst sketch. Use
particular source or site other this stage to try to nd a good composition I prefer to put my
mediums such as television main feature to the right, rather than the left or the centre of the
documentaries, games and movies can workspace, but experiment and see what suits you.
also help inspire your projects. NASA Throughout this point in the process you should test out colours,
has a great stock library of reference block shapes, add and delete stuf to get a composition you like b.
images you can browse through (www.
nasa.gov). Even photographs of famous a The main references for the B The initial sketch. Notice
places such as the Grand Canyon can image combining elements the nal image has slightly
be a great help A. from Earth and Mars diferent details
3D Art & Design 177

Environment
Build your environment

Start shaping the elements to occupy your scene
04Move to ZBrush sculpting As I mentioned, I made the basic shapes in the LightWave
modeller. I then exported the OBJ les and imported every piece into ZBrush. While Im not
an expert user of ZBrush, I understand the basic sculpt tools which is all you need for this piece. Import
some jagged rock alphas to achieve nice detail in the objects. First subdivide them all, then use the
Move tool, Drag and Rock brushes to create the canyon walls, mountain and rocks.
To save time I only created ve diferent objects then cloned some of them throughout in the layout.
This is a very practical approach since I knew I was planning to do a matte painting on the 3D base d.
d
c
03Use 3D blocking I used simple shapes to reproduce

the composition I created in the sketch. I used an 18mm
camera in the LightWave layout and built simple shapes of the
main canyon as this is the most prominent of the models.
Everything was completed with box modelling, later subdivided in
faces. Here the lighting is a simple distant orange light at 150% c.
Basic box modelling, exported in OBJ,

is turned into canyon walls
f
06Arrange your
layout object
Since this is a matte painting
base, we only need the
high-resolution objects with
simple red rock texture. Export
everything from ZBrush to OBJ,
with level 5 of subdivision.
Only replace the proxy
e objects with the ZBrush
exported objects, already saved
05Add stones and particles A good way to achieve

little pieces of debris or stones is to use the Spray Point
tool in the modeller. The next step is to have a good amount of
as an LWO. By previewing the
render with FPrime (a great
plug-in to work in real-time
points, later change the scale in Y axis to have all points in the oor. rendering) arrange objects,
Use the Box Modelling tool and do a subdivision (metaform). Later change shapes and rotate
on you can use the Noise or Jitter tool to get a random stone. objects to get a nice
Next go to Point Clone Plus in the Multiply tab. Here you can composition. Meanwhile, the
clone the stone based on the Points Cloud you made. Tweak the water is created with a simple
values of Scale and Rotation to get random stones e. plane and a water shader f.
Eugenio Garcia Villarreal

Im a 29-year-old graphic designer, with
nine years of experience in digital art.
Reading tutorials in magazines and online
helped to hone my 3D skills. I later applied
this knowledge by creating environments
for web campaigns, providing me with Desert Gas Station LightWave 3D 10 (2011) Laundry Room LightWave 3D (2009)
invaluable experience. I then co-founded Classic B Movies, old gas stations and the work of This is an old image made for a client. It was used on an
D10 Studio a motion graphics and web Mauro Scardini inspired this image. I wanted the nal animation for a web-experience site; the goal was to
design studio. result to be a complex environment. create a Seventies-style laundrette.
178 3D Art & Design

Create a desert landscape
Use photo 07Final

render
light and
To achieve
the lighting you want, use a
g
sources to distant light tinted to orange at

150%, enabling you to get a
add realism nice exposure. The render was
done in FPrime with Monte
Its always best to gather Carlo Radiosity at 100%. Use
as much reference as you the Backdrop gradient to get a
can. If you are creating a
suitable atmosphere of colours
canyon then its important
bouncing on all the geometry.
to check out lots of
high-resolution images to For this project doing a
get an idea of the details large-scale render (10,000 x
that make up the 3,500px) enables you to add
environment. Everything little details in the matte
from dust, fog, plants, painting stage. It also means
colour and shape of the you can crop parts of the image
Heres the main arrangement in
rocks, diferent colours if you need to redo the the LightWave layout
according to the daylight composition for any reason g.
and colour of the shadows
can make the diference
between a realistic and an
unrealistic scene. Once
h
08Hunt for textures Once
you have the nal render, the
next task is to get nice textures to use
C Simple shapes according
to the sketch are good
proxy objects
you have the background in the nal matte painting. These are
knowledge, use it to put e Transforming random
easily obtained from CGTextures points in diferent stones
your own spin on the (www.cgtextures.com). Since were saves a lot of time
landscapes features. creating a Mars-inspired desert
Dont forget you can G This is the basic light
landscape well need mostly red,
also experiment with setup: a distant orange
diferent textures and jagged rocks. Some are used in modes
and others are colour-corrected to light at 150%
shapes. At this point in the
process you can crop the match the render colours. Use masks
h The main textures used in
base 3D mountain to have and grunge brushes to give this image
a better composition. natural-looking edges. While on the
Always mirror your image site, look for good sand, water, j The nal sky, altered to
to get another point of caustics and sky textures h. suit the landscape
view and you will notice
some faulty details that
you didnt before. i
Another approach is to
ask for feedback from your
colleagues or friends.
Their opinions will bring a
fresh perspective on your
work highlighting things
you may not have
considered before. If you
become tired from
working on one particular
area take a break, go for a
walk and get away from
the screen. It will ensure
your mind is refreshed,
enabling the creativity to The initial 3D base
ow a little better. rearrangement
09Start to polish the base 3D Now is the time to x the details youre not entirely happy
with, such as the sand shapes. Tweak this with a simple brush where the sand is dispersed.
You will later replace it with a real sand texture, the brush is simply used as a guide for the nal texture.
For the rocks I used a jagged rock texture that was colour-corrected to match the image. I then
applied red dirt textures to create the dust and make a more realistic foreground i.
Guanajuato Alley
LightWave 3D
(2007) j
Guanajuato Alley is
one of my rst
images combining
3D and 2D
techniques. Inspired
by the old colonial
city in Mexico, it
was created with
box-modelling
techniques and
simple UV mapping.
10Look to the sky The original sky was made using base colours of the render, but I decided
to change it to a greenish colour later on. It is composed of real photography of an afternoon
sky in Overlay mode to have a nice fusion. The moon is a simple texture with Screen mode, masked to
show only one side it was later cloned to have the two-moon efect j.
3D Art & Design 179

Environment
Final retouch and render 3

render rs
hou
Add life to the scene with plants and water time
Reso
10,000lxution:
k l 3,452
12Insert
plants
water and
Now its time to
apply the images collected in
the texture stage, with
Photoshop modes. Add a
caustic image in Overlay mode
and add little details in the rock
borders to see the water level.
A Soft Round brush was
used for the waterfall and the
11Detail sand and rocks A plain dunes texture was used

for the sand. Some of the dunes were from the base 3D
image applied by a procedural texture, the mask technique was
cloud of water rising from its
base. For the plants create a
creeping vine shape with a
used for the close-ups. Overlay textures of rocks were used for the similar, basic brush. Once you
boulders and mountains. A jagged texture in Multiply mode helped are totally happy, add a shadow
to add a little more detail according to the scale and distance k. to x the position. For the
plants leaves use a texture
modied in shape, cloned with
Overall thoughts rotation and light changes
according to its place in relation
to the sun.
Once your image is nished, a good way to get feedback is To nish, add a layer under
to use forums and 3D gallery sites. Try not to take criticism
the plant layer and make the
personally instead use it to let you grow as an artist. Use Photoshop to
Remember to do what you enjoy too. contact shadow according to
add your winding
plant textures
the suns position with a Soft
Round brush l.
k Comparison of the base 3D n You can get nice details
model and the mix of using photolters and the
textures and this base HDR Toning pass
The brushes used in

the retouch process
while working with
a Wacom tablet
HDR Toning Pass, photorealistic m

setting. Overlay mode at 53%
13Begin to retouch Now we can work on ambient details, such as fog, to add depth, detail and
emphasise the scale efects. Adding some clouds in the ground helps make some sand storms.
To achieve this efect simply add some volumetric light on the top-left side, use the Selection tool with
a white colour combined with the Overlay mode and Gaussian Blur m.
The nished image

= Result
14Make more corrections Play with the reds and

yellows to get a more saturation on the objects in the
foreground and less on the efect on the background. Use the
o
Color Burn tool to add highlights to the edges of the rocks and
mountains. For contrast you might like to do a HDR Toning pass.
With a mask bring some of the rock highlights to the surface n.
15Finish image details Once youre happy with the nal result, atten the PSD. Mirror the
image again and add more highlights with the Burn tool. Use the Sharpen tool on some
foreground rocks to get a nice crisp efect. Now your Mars desert should be complete o.
180 3D Art & Design

Marek Denko
ko.net,
Under the Southern Website www.marekden
www.noemotion.net
Country Slovak Republic
Highway 2012 Software used 3ds Max
2012,
Ive tried to capture some sort of greyness of life. As a man gets older V-Ray, Photoshop
ion
Bio Marek founded NoEmot
and older as he starts to burn down, slowly. Tired of the world and its Incredible 3D artists take Studio in 2007
Artist info
ridiculousness, looking around and seeing things that Ive never noticed k
or needed to notice before as life goes on day after day and the priorities
of everyday life are changing. Just for the record, this is not meant to be
some sort of protective image of mothers or old architecture, but the I rendered with the great Chaos
coalition/composition of slightly contrasting elements that do exist
together and create special places.
Group V-Ray renderer. Colour correction
was done in Photoshop
3ds
Max V-Ray Photoshop
The whole scene was created as

models. No photography [was] used
all modelling and texturing was done
in Autodesk 3ds Max 2012
I used VRayEnvironmentFog
directly in the render, so the
render time was a little higher,
but it was completely worth it.
No extra plug-ins were used
3D Art & Design

181
Environment
The Freehand tool

For added control over shape and
placement of the tree branches and
leaves, the Freehand tools really come
in handy. Using these tools, you can
quite easily move and rotate the
branches and leaves to your liking. The
Freehand tool also enables you to draw
the branches as splines, which can
speed up workow and lead to some
really interesting tree shapes. Just
remember that once you start using
these tools, you cant go back and
Create trees in Unity

adjust the procedural settings of your
node without losing your freehand edits.
It is therefore a good idea to create a
main tree base rst and work on cloned
copies of this one for freehand edits.
B
efore the Tree Generator was works seamlessly with Unitys own Terrain branches will often take some time but, as always with 3D work,
introduced in Unity, the only way to engine. This means you can create dense patience is king.
populate your virtual worlds with forests with diferent types of trees As the Tree Editor is node-based, the main workow evolves
trees would involve a lot of manual work without even leaving Unity. For textures around the creation and connection of nodes. These nodes have
using external 3D applications or and leaves you will most probably use an their own separate settings and can either be adjusted using
dedicated tree generators. Not only would external 3D and image application, but numerical input, sliders or by applying curves. At rst these
this complicate the main workow, but other than that most of the work can be curves can seem a little daunting, but once you understand the
some of that software costs a lot more done in Unity. basic principle behind them, you will start to wonder how you
than a handful of Unity licences. With the For this small tutorial we will guide you managed to work without them. Not only do curves give you full
release of Unity 3.0 though, this has through the creation of a simple birch tree. control over the placement of leaves and branches, but you can
changed, as the main coder behind the It has a pretty basic structure and should also use them to control scale based on their placement on the
generator joins forces with the Unity be quite easy to create using the Tree branches and so on.
developers to include the powerful Tree Editor. You can create pretty much any The Tree Editor has its limitations though and cant, in its
Editor into the Unity engine. tree type with this tool, but some types current state, be compared to dedicated programs such as
Not only is the Tree Editor fully will require more time and patience. The SpeedTree. As it comes free with Unity, the Tree Editor is still an
implemented in the Unity editor, but it also creation of custom mesh leaves and extremely powerful addition to the toolset and the more time you
182 3D Art & Design

Create trees in Unity
c d e f
spend with it, the more impressive your

results will be. This tutorial wont cover all
of its features, but will hopefully give you a
glimpse of what this tool can do. On
mastering these simple techniques, you
will be able to apply them to your much
larger projects.
01Create the tree base Trees are

generated by going to the top
menu bar and selecting GameObject>
Create Other>Tree. We now have a tree
trunk in our scene and the Tree Editor is
open in the Inspector panel. Before we do
anything else, we should also add a
capsule collider to our tree in the
Component>Physics>Capsule Collider
menu. This is not only good for collision, g
but it also makes it easier for us to set the
height of the tree. In this scene were also
view. A branch appears on the trunk, but textured mesh for our leaves, as this tends to be more realistic.
adding a human reference model for
lets add a bunch more by increasing the For trees to be used in the distance, textured billboards could be a
realistic measurements A.
frequency and changing the Distribution faster option e.
mode from Random to Whorled. This will
02The new tree editor Being
node-based, the Tree Editor is
place the branches in circles around the
trunk and we can choose how many 05Bring in further textures Selecting the trunk and
branch nodes, we can now drag and drop our desired
extremely intuitive. By selecting nodes bark material onto the Branch Material slot of each node. For
should be in each circle using the Whorled
from the Node view, we get access to their added ufness, we will also add a leaf node to the outer-branch
Step slider. We will also use curves to
individual settings such as Scale, Materials node. The twigs will be added as a leaf node on the main trunk
control the Distribution, Growth Scale,
and Distribution across the trunk or and are using a simple mesh as geometry. We will also do some
Growth Angle, Crinkliness and the Seek
branches of the tree. The root node also minor adjustments to the Scale, Distribution and Growth Angle of
Sun settings d.
gives us access to advanced quality the leaves and twigs f.
settings such as leaf translucency, shadow
quality and ambient occlusion. Most of the
settings are curve-controlled, which 04Apply more branches,
twigs, and leaves Our base tree 06Alter Wind Zones and nal tweaks Our tree is
pretty much done, but we can still do some nal
means more power and control Bc. is pretty much done, so now its adjustments by transforming the individual branches and leaves.
time to add some twigs and leaves. Before doing these nal tweaks though, we should always save a
03Add branches Lets add some

branches to the trunk by selecting
Selecting the newly created branch node,
we will add both branches and leaves to
master version of our tree and work on copies. For this tree, some
of the branches are moved around and edited for a more random
our trunk node and clicking the Add this node the same way we did in the look. Finally, we will add a Wind Zone to our scene by clicking the
Branch Group button below the Node previous step. For this tree we will use a Create Wind Zone button found in any of the nodes g.
3D Art & Design 183

Environment
Futuristic Easy-to-follow guides

cityscapes
to the nal render
Artist info
Floating City 2012 Neil Maccormack
www.bearfootlms.com
A conceptual 3D illustration for a oating futuristic city, complete Country Switzerland
Software used
with landing platforms and foliage LightWave, Photoshop
Expertise Neil says his greatest
Neil Maccormack is a freelance 3D artist from the UK living and working in Geneva, Switzerland strengths lie in composition,
scene setup, lighting, modelling
and digital painting
T
his tutorial will demonstrate how to go about creating a large-scale sci- scene, using LightWave 11 for the main
3D part and then Photoshop as the post-production and painting program.
The idea is to create a conceptual design for a oating city and then model, texture, light and render it all out ready
for post-production in Photoshop. We will add in other 2D elements along the way with some basic matte-painting
techniques and make nal retouches to complete the scene.
Composition, layout and scene setup

How to compose a scene and find the best angle
01Establish your composition Creating a a An early

a b attempt to
large-scale scene can seem daunting at rst, create the right
but as long as you stick to some basic rules then it composition
neednt be. First of all, know your layout format. I was using some
basic geometry
working within the restrictions of the magazine
pages, so I knew the dimensions of the image would b A background
be portrait rather than landscape. Second, I always is painted in
Photoshop to
try to frame the image using something to draw the use as a
eye to a focal point, so make sure you decide where backdrop.
Nothing but
you want the eye to focus. Finally, try to create depth basic brushes
in the image by placing your objects in such a way so and a few
that they fall back into the image, giving depth and overlaid texture
images are
retaining the interest of the eye a. used for this
02Create the background

c At this stage it
Next is to isnt necessary
decide on the background of the image. As to do too much
this is to be a oating city I know the background will modelling: use
low-res objects
be the sky, but rather than just use images of clouds, I and renders to
want to create a painting in Photoshop that is nalise your
moodier and slightly more stylised. I create a basic basic layout
painting, using a muted colour palette and some
overlaid textures, to paint the image at the c
dimensions required. I then take this into the
LightWave Layout to start setting up my scene b.
03Scene setup and layout Start by setting

the camera options to the same dimensions
as the background image. Im using some placeholder
or low-res objects from my personal asset library to
make some test renders to gure out the best angles
and placements until Im happy with the overall
composition. Normally this process takes some time,
and many renders are done in low resolution to nd
something suitable c.
184 3D Art & Design

Futuristic cityscapes
Concept
The concept for this
image is to design a ying
or oating city with
water and forest features. Software used
in this piece
We will be aiming to relay
a sense of gargantuan
scale and futuristic design Photoshop LightWave
in the nal illustration.
3D Art & Design 185

Environment
Time to get modelling

With the composition complete we can now begin the modelling stage
d
05Basic city modelling The city modelling is done in a similar way to the platforms. I use the
platforms in a background layer as a guide and create a at poly, which is then divided into
uneven squares using the Knife tool. Squares outside of the boundary of the platform are deleted and
the others are then bevelled up to create the buildings. These bevelled buildings can then be knifed
horizontally and vertically to create random sections, which can then be highlighted and bevelled
again. The more times you can do this the more geometry can then be generated, and the more detail
you will appear to have e.
04City platforms and structures Knowing that the

city itself will be based on platforms, I start to model them
in LightWave, using the Pen tool to create basic at structures.
Once I have these complete I can then bevel the polygon outwards
and, using the Knife tool, begin to cut some extra lines in the poly to
Smooth Shift out and create some bulk on the platform. The
platform, once done, can then be mirrored in the Y-axis to create
the full structure d.
06Detail the city Just having the basic buildings isnt

going to be enough, so its important to have one or two
hero buildings to stand out and break up the city. I use a very
similar method as before: with a singular start polygon and
subdividing a few times to create more geometry. If you can do this
for three or four diferent buildings and place them on the same
layer, they can really begin to make the city feel realistic f.
d The platform nished of with f Here you can see some of the
some extra bevels and Smooth hero buildings that were
Shifts. Its not necessary to modelled, as well as some roof
create super high-res geometry Nurnies added in
basic polys will be enough
g I create three diferent layers of
e The more randomly these trees to avoid repetition. Repeat
buildings can be bevelled and the process, remembering to
cut, the more realistic they will use a diferent poly and UV map
appear in the nal image each time
Backgrounds
Normally I like my images to have a certain style or look,
but in a studio environment this isnt always possible. In
early versions of the image I tried to use diferent skies and
diferent cloud images before deciding to paint my own.
07Add some trees There are many ways to model trees, so in order for this tutorial to be
usable in versions other than LightWave 11, Im going to map tree images to at polygons.
Again, with the platforms and buildings in the background layer, I use the Spray Points tool to create
Existing cloud and sky images have an advantage of there points where I want the trees to be. Each point will then represent a tree. I create a very simple at poly
already being an evident light source (the sun) so you can and a planar UV map for this poly and, with the points in the background and the poly in the
match the 3D lighting with that of the background image. foreground layer, I use the Point Clone Plus tool to create the trees. We now have multiple tree objects
all cloned so we can texture them using one UV map g.
186 3D Art & Design

08Basic texturing
The texturing for
the city buildings is really
quite simple. Divide the city
up into three or four
diferent surfaces, and for
the main body of the polys
simply cubic-map an image
of some industrial
containers as the base
texture. Repeat this layer in
the Difuse and Bump
channels. For the platforms,
use an image of a dirty,
leaking wall and again
cubic-map them in all three
channels, as mentioned
before. The trees have
actual Images of trees
mapped to them using the h
UV maps created before.
Then, once brought into
Layout, well create a
black-and-white version of
the tree texture to use a Clip
Clip Maps
Map in the Object Creating trees using the Clip
Properties. This way Map process can be an easier
LightWave will only render low-poly alternative to using
what the Clip Map leaves actual tree objects. Keep an
behind on the poly, which in alpha image of your tree
this case is the tree h. texture available to map to
the object properties in the
Clip Map section. Alternate
09Scene layout
Now that we have
the majority of the
ways could be instancing in
LightWave 11 or using a point
cloud and then clip-mapped
modelling, we can go back hypervoxels to create the
to our basic scene setup various foliage.
and start to bring in our
higher-res objects. Because h In LightWave 11 there is also the
its easier to work with option to create trees using the new
models in layers, make sure Instancing system
you separate your i The scene layout. Note the
higher-res objects into i colour-coded objects that are all
parented correctly
layers and then parent them
in the scene once you have
imported them. Also
remember to colour code
each object to make
selecting them easier. If you
clone layers to have multiple
copies in the scene you can
organise them easier i.
10Light the scene

Lighting the scene
isnt too complicated in this
case. By default I tend to
use an Area light as my
main light source. I then
tweak the colour and
strength of the light to suit
the scene. Ive positioned
the light to shine through
the gaps in the higher city
platform to the lower, as this
creates some interesting
areas of focus between the
lit and shaded parts. In this
case I nd the orange
My full lighting setup
sunset light colour complete with volumetric fog
highlights the objects well (again set to the same as the
and really helps to create background), the GI setup
j and the Area light values
the mood I want j.
3D Art & Design 187

Environment
Progress the scene

Prepare the scene for rendering and post
Neil Maccormack
Neil is a 38-year old freelance artist from the UK living 11Use Global
Illumination I set the
Image World environment to
and working in Geneva, Switzerland
be the same as the
background image. This way
the colour of the bounce light
takes on the colour of the
sky, which is what happens in
reality. Try to adjust and play
with the brightness and
ofset the background image
for diferent results.
Alternatively, if you have a
sky HDR image, use it as the
Here is my full GI setup. Notice Image World source instead
that I activate the Viper window
to check the brightness of the 2D painting. As long as
Finlake the image matches the
LightWave, k background pictures lighting,
Photoshop it will give great results k.
(2012)
A conceptual piece
for a clif-based 12Render the image
Once we have everything Global
landing port.
The same methods
set up in the scene, were ready
to render. I always post process
Illumination
in this tutorial were a render, so at this stage I am Sometimes using GI at
used for this piece, all isnt an option due to
not too concerned if the colours
including the same high render times.
are not perfect, or if my lighting
lighting and Alternatives can be to
methods for
is slightly of. I edit the camera
properties and change the fake the illumination by
creating the creating a light dome of
background Resolution to 100% and the
Samples up to 20. I can also add luminous polygons all
some Irradiance Fallof, which facing inwards, with the
gives the image a slightly darker background mapped as
a texture. As this scene
edging and helps the
isnt animated you can
composition. If I need diferent
cache radiosity, so you
render passes I can add the dont have to render it
compositing bufer export that l every time.
will export these for me l.
Osaki LightWave, Photoshop (2012)

A design for a oating ship. Neil wanted to frame the image by using
near-camera objects to create a natural frame. The foreground
objects dont need to be too detailed here, as the eye doesnt really
concentrate on them; its simply a way to highlight the focal point
I normally save my render as

a Photoshop native le or
PSD. This should natively
have the Alpha embedded as
a separate channel
m
Trans LightWave, Photoshop (2012)

A futuristic design for a mobile war machine. Neil used Photoshop to
13Prepare for Photoshop With this image there isnt really much to do before post-
production, but one thing to look out for is to ensure your nal image has an Alpha map when
rendered. The Alpha map is very valuable in Photoshop as it will enable you to select certain parts or
create the background and a simple ground poly object to catch the objects of the image that you can paint or alter in Photoshop without disturbing other parts of the
shadows, showing the integration between 3D and 2D image. Once you render out the nal image in LightWave you can save the Alpha map separately from
the Image Viewer window just to be sure you have this m.
188 3D Art & Design

Perfect your post-production 20+ hours

crea tion tim
Use Photoshop to process the 3D-rendered image Resolution e
3,000 x 3,80 :
0
Non-destructive
layers can be altered
without harming the
15Matte-painting techniques Next I begin to add in
some extra 2D elements to the image to really take it to the
next level. I use some images of waterfalls to integrate with the
n original render image, just selecting the water and copying and pasting onto my
image. I can then tweak the contrast, colours and shadows to
14Colour balancing and tweaking To kick of the post-production I Sharpen the image
once and add the Noise lter. I then create a new group of adjustment layers to tweak the tone
and value of each colour until Im happy with the results.
match my picture. I then overpaint using a simple Scatter brush
with some foam and falling water. The clouds are added using a
simple Soft Round brush in the lower and mid part of the image,
For me (and my style), I like to include a layer to slightly lower the vibrancy and saturation of the each time selecting colours from the image itself to use as the
image. I also like the image to be lower in these values to give a grainier, more sci- feel. The other cloud colour. Lights on the buildings and aerials are also added with
layers are colour adjustments, a colour channel and a slight gradient layer to boost the contrast n. a small square brush as well as the white-painted birds o.
16More colour correction With the nal image I still

want to tweak the colours even more by giving a warmish
(redder) right side to the image and a cooler (bluish) left side to the
image. This will help the viewer read the image from right to left. I
add two more layers both with Layer Masks to do this and set
the red layer to Color Dodge and the bluish one to Hue. This will
slightly subdue the colours on the left side and slightly warm and
enhance the colours on the right. Overlaying with photos of metal
is often a good way to change the mood of an image. Play with the
Opacity and Layer Mode until you nd something that ts p.
l My full GI setup shows the p After going through many

camera properties and variations, I nd these two
compositing options colours work well
o I add in one or two extra trees q The nal two sun layers are
using the same methods as the added over the other layers, so
clouds and water that they are all afected
A little sunshine
q
Sun rays can be done in your 3D package. LightWave uses
Volumetric lights in order to do this. The process involves
cloning your 3D scene, matting everything in black and
enabling the Volumetric light so you only render the light to
a black background. This can be composited over the top
17Final touches To completely nish the image I want to add in a couple of sun rays in the
middle of the image to try to show the sun shining from above, through the gaps in the
platforms. I paint these rays with a large round soft brush in yellow then set the layer to Divide, which
in Photoshop or your compositing package. turns them a slightly bluish hint which works quite well but isnt enough. So I duplicate the layer and
reduce the second layers opacity slightly to portray the efect q.
3D Art & Design 189

Environment
Sculpt beautiful terrains

How to create picturesque terrains in Unity
C
reating realistic terrains in Unity Just as important as sculpting the basic
isnt rocket science, but as with terrain geometry is painting quality
most 3D design work, it will take textures onto it. These textures should be
some time to get right. Not only are as tileable as possible and the fewer you
reference images important, but having a use the better, as they tend to slow down
library of good-looking trees, rocks, the process by adding drawcalls to your
textures and other props is crucial to get scenes. You can also blend these textures
impressive results. A tablet is also handy together, so in theory four core textures
for terrain sculpting. could give you plenty of variations.
Sculpting basic terrains in Unity couldnt Not only limited to sculpting and
be easier, though, as the built-in terrain painting textures, the Unity terrain engine
engine ofers sculpting features similar to also enables you to paint trees and detail
those found in programs such as ZBrush objects such as grass and rocks onto your
and Mudbox. The limitation in Unity is that terrains. These objects are automatically
you can only sculpt the terrain in its added to the terrain systems level of detail
vertical axis, as the core system is based calculations, so this makes creating dense
on greyscale heightmaps. This means you forests and detailed landscapes a breeze. a
cant sculpt caves and other concave Creating terrains based on real-world
features, and in heavily distorted areas of data is also possible by importing A quick search on the Unity Asset Store and Google will give
your terrain you can experience some heightmaps into Unity. This is an you access to some of these features, adding to the already
texture stretching. With this in mind invaluable feature if youre making a game robust toolset.
though, a good workow should start with or scene that needs to be as accurate as
sculpting the main terrain features using
the basic sculpting tools and then adding
fancy details such as rocks, clifs and
possible, as it can produce some
extremely realistic results.
Clever users of Unity can add to its
01 Creation and setup We create the terrain base object
by selecting the Terrain menu and choosing Create
Terrain. We now have a terrain object in our scene, but before we
custom-imported 3D objects last. This is core features by writing their own plug-ins, start sculpting we need to adjust the terrain objects base settings
usually how its done in game engines and since the terrain engine has been using the Set Resolution menu. This is basically where we set the
nowadays, but hopefully well see some lacking some major ones such as normal physical scale and resolution of terrain, textures and heightmaps.
major improvements to this technology in maps and river/road generators, there are I suggest playing around with these settings to better understand
the not-so-distant future. quite a few free and cheap ones out there. how they work a.
190 3D Art & Design

Sculpt beautiful terrains
Importing External
Terrain Data
A quick and easy way to generate
realistic-looking terrains is to import a
greyscale heightmap from dedicated
terrain generators such as Terragen,
World Machine or Geo Control. These
programs are extremely powerful and
can generate some incredible terrains
methodically, based on complex
mathematical algorithms. When
importing these into Unity though,
using Terrain/Import Heightmap-Raw,
you must make sure the
measurements of your Unity terrain
matches the external terrain. Not
paying attention to this minor detail is
guaranteed to give you unexpected and
b c imprecise results.
d e
02The Terrain Component

Selecting the terrain object in the
scene gives us access to all the various
terrain tools and some important terrain
settings. This is where we dene which
textures, trees and detail objects to use
and, depending on the tool, this is where
we choose which brushes to use. There
are 20 built-in brushes, but we can also
add our own custom brushes. The terrain
settings are mostly used for optimisation
and controlling the nal result b.
03Initial sculpting Picking the

Raise/Lower Terrain brush, we can
now start sculpting our terrain and, based
on the brush settings, the terrain object f
can slowly be shaped to our liking.
Pressing Shift while sculpting lowers the Textures/Add Texture button. The rst they should preferably be made into prefabs with a simple
terrain and adjusting the opacity afects texture we select will cover the entire capsule collider. We will also place some rocks and grass in our
the strength of the brush. To be able to see terrain, so in this case we will select a scene using the Paint Details tool and nally add a small lake
depth and details in our terrain better, its grass texture to begin with and then paint using the standard Unity water e.
also a good idea to add a shadow-casting over with other textures later on. A skybox
light in our scene c. is also added in this step d.
06 Final polish Our scene is now nearing completion, but
lets add some fog and clouds in the distance and a
04 Add textures With the main

features sculpted, its time to add
some textures to our terrain. Selecting the
05 Apply details Selecting the
terrain and choosing Place Trees
in the Terrain Component, we can now
couple of image efects for added realism. Fog can either be
added as an image efect or by going to the Edit/Render Settings
menu. Adding a blue tint while playing around with the fog
Paint Texture tool in the terrain add trees using the Edit Trees/Add Tree opacity can add to the realism. For this scene were also adding
component, we can now add the textures button. All the trees should use the Nature some minor colour correction, bloom, lens vignetting and a sun
we want to use by hitting the Edit shaders to be able to work properly, and shaft efect f.
3D Art & Design 191

Environment
Vue 10 Frontier
Free terrain and materials
from D&D Creations
Tutorial les:
The atmosphere le Drea
used in her scene:
Abandoned_atmo.atm plus
tutorial screenshots
Concept
When I rst saw some
top-down reference
photographs of ruins and
clifs overgrown with
vegetation, I had a
specic workow in mind
to get the best results in
3D using Vue.
192 3D Art & Design

Design an epic Vue landscape
Design an epic Easy-to-follow guides

Vue landscape
to the nal render
Artist info
Abandoned 2012 Drea Horvath
The focus in this scene is an old ruin in a natural, picturesque
Username: Drea
environment. The image depicts the discovery of forgotten places Personal portfolio site
Drea Horvath is a 3D landscape artist www.dreahorvath.com
Country The Netherlands
W
Software used
hen I was assigned to write this tutorial, I was Throughout the tutorial youll notice that Im using Vue, Photoshop, Filter Forge
happy to learn that it would be based on a lush, commercial products to build the environment. Dont worry: Expertise 3D artist Drea
rocky environment from a top-down view. I the tutorial focuses on methods that can be applied to any specialises in creating detailed
and realistic landscapes using
love creating environments from a birds-eye view, so a kind of content you have in your library. For example, grass Vue. She has particular strengths
concept came to me quickly. from AsileFX is my personal choice, but Vue ships with when working with atmospheres
and lighting
This tutorial will illustrate the key steps to building an epic several kinds of grasses you can use without having to
landscape. From planning to rendering and post-production, purchase extra items. Well focus on EcoSystem
you will learn all the techniques I use. Ill describe how manipulation, atmosphere and lighting settings, render
terrain is generated as well as how I set up multi-layer setups, optimisation, material tweaking and so on. All of this
Filter
material distribution, achieve realistic lighting, optimise is important when it comes to building scenes in Vue, Vue Photoshop
Forge
materials for greater believability and shorter render times. regardless of what content is used.
Initial steps, terrain and materials

Set the foundations of this large-scale environment
b
02 Control material distribution
The terrain has three layers of material:
in the riverbed we have a wet, sandy area; the
clif walls are sandstone; while the at surfaces
have a green, mossy material. Before loading
these, I set the material distribution with the
help of highlighting the materials with diferent
colours so I can see and control the distribution
easier. First I set the terrains material to Mixed
Material: material 1 becomes the riverbed;
material 2 becomes the rest of the terrain. I set
the Distribution dependent on Altitude (100%)
only and set the Mixing Proportions to 72% b.
c
03 Assign your proportions
Next I select the second material and
change it into a Mixed Material; its second
material becomes the moss layer. This time the
material distribution is dependent on Slope
a
(100%) only. The Mixing proportions are set to
31%. After setting up the distribution, I can load
01Choose your terrain Ive chosen the Eroded Canyon terrain from my
(D&D Creations) Canyon Terrains for Vue pack, as it perfectly ts the scene
(available online at http://tinyurl.com/canyonvue). This detailed terrain has a curvy
materials: a darker sand from the RealSand pack,
our own sandstone material (supplied) and Grass
n Rocks from the Clifhangers product by Mark
riverbed and steep, highly eroded clifs. The shape is based on a procedural terrain Lawson. You can nd Marks products on
created in Vue using the terrain fractal with Canyon and Strata lters. The erosion Cornucopia3D: www.cornucopia3d.com/
was added using the World Machine 2 terrain generator (www.world-machine. purchase.php?item_id=11447 c.
com). You can nd the terrain supplied with this books disc (also found at
www.3dartistonline.com/news/tutorial-les/). With the terrain loaded, I nd a
spot with a clif wall that looks iconic enough to be in focus with the ruins. I can then
a A distant shot of the spot b A shot illustrating the rst c The highlights show how
add my ruin components (a model purchased from Renderosity.com) next to the on the terrain where the steps of controlling the materials will be
wall and adjust the camera angle to suit a. ruins will be placed material distribution distributed in the scene
3D Art & Design 193

Environment
Add some vegetation

The next few steps will focus on EcoSystems manipulation
d
04Add a murky river
Before getting fully
stuck into Vues EcoSystems
e
feature, lets quickly discuss

some tricks for handling water
in Vue. After loading water
into the scene, I tweak the
material to make it look more
like a river youd nd in a
canyon. Check out some
reference photos for examples
of this, as there really is a
distinction to be made. Try
using a physical water model
with a darker-brown
Absorption colour and a
light-brownish Scattering
colour to help it t the
environment. The Depth
05Overgrown clif I set up the EcoSystem of the clif in
the middle. On the clif wall (sandstone material) I use
three layers of ground-covered EcoSystem: a layer of long grass
where the light can reach in from AsileFX Grasses (www.asilefx.net), a layer of hanging
the water is set to 6.2 metres. roots also from AsileFX plus a layer of small eld-grass
I increase the Highlight plants. Due to the scale of the terrain, even Dynamic Population
Intensity to 84% and isnt an option, so I apply the EcoSystem Painter on the clifs to
Highlight Size to 80%. To distribute the foliage manually. I set the Direction to 100%
nish I change Highlighting to Perpendicular and due to the steepness of the clif I also enable
81% Anisotropic D. 360-degree Population e.
f
How to
achieve
realistic
lighting
Realistic lighting is one of
the most important
factors in a scene.
Lighting can make or
break a scene, whether
its a realistic, fantasy,
surreal or sci- landscape.
Even if you look at the
most surrealistic image
possible, if the lighting is
bad it can make you g
question what youre
looking at. The Global
Radiosity lighting model is
the only model that
perfectly imitates realistic
06Populate the ruins The goal of the grassy
groundcover EcoSystem is to help the clif and ruins
blend together. This is an efective way to unify the whole scene
lighting with indirect light and draw the viewers eye around all the details. On the ruins I
and colour-reected light. use a similar EcoSystem: a layer of the same long grass plus a
This means the only light layer of hanging roots. The grass layers direction from the
source you need to use to surface is set to Perpendicular, while the roots are set to
light up the whole scene Vertical. The Density of the grass is set to 100%, while for the
is the Sunlight. ruins its set to 93%. Before populating, I make sure I set the
Slope Inuence to 100% f.
D How the scene looks after
loading materials and water
e I paint the EcoSystem onto the

rocks using the new EcoSystem
07Insert bushes Since I want the bushes to grow on at
surfaces only, I add this layer to the mossy material. In
this EcoSystem I use three shrubs from Xfrog (http://xfrog.
Painter in Vue 11 com). To achieve realistic distribution I tick Variable Density and
f Settings for the roots layer of load the grainy fractal. To save resources, I use Dynamic
the EcoSystem on the ruins EcoSystem Population. On the leaves I set the Highlight colour
to white, increase the Highlight Intensity and make it duller. In
g Settings used for the Variable
Density of the bush layer in the the Efects tab I set Backlight to 100%. To speed up rendering I
Function Editor reset the Bump map and disable Caustics g.
194 3D Art & Design

Design an epic Vue landscape
Lighting & atmosphere

Take a few steps to shed realistic lighting and atmospheric effects
Use static
plants for
more
realism
Professional versions of
Vue ship with a huge
library of detailed
SolidGrowth plants and
you can also browse
hundreds of other plants
available for purchase, like
those on the Cornucopia
store: www.
cornucopia3d.com.
These are prefect for
distance shots, but due to
lower-quality Alpha
i mapping on their leaves,
theyre not suitable for
close-up views. This is
09 Atmospheric efects
h
In the Sky, Fog and Haze tab why many studios pick
of the Atmosphere Editor, its vital to enable the static plants, such as
08Global Radiosity Now its time to add some
atmosphere using the Light tab. The rst step is to
enable Global Radiosity, with Indirect Skylighting and Optimize
Volumetric Sunlight option. This is essential to achieve realistic
lighting. With higher Haze (30%) and Fog (50%) levels I can
generate subtle rays where the terrain blocks the sunlight. Its
Xfrog (http://xfrog.com)
or SpeedTree (www.
speedtree.com) models.
for Outdoor Rendering ticked. I set a low Gain value of 0.4 and a also important to set a dark Haze tone, since particles in our However, you cant edit
very dark-greenish Bias colour (RGB 21, 25, 23). To get efective atmosphere are dark. The Glow Intensity is set to 56%, them in Vues Plant Editor
contrasts I set Light Balance towards Sunlight (90%). The Scattering Anisotropy to 0.4 and the Aerial Perspective value to and they tend to render
ambient light comes entirely from the sky, providing a realistic 5.77 to give more depth to the scene. Finally, Quality Boost is very slowly.
and rich ambience h. set to +8 to avoid noise i.
After tweaking the atmosphere its time to take

a few steps to speed up the rendering process
without any virtual quality loss
10 Add some low fog I want a sparse, low fog layer over the river in the background, so to
begin I add a stratus cloud from AsileFXs Spectral v2 Clouds Low Altitudepack. I set the
Altitude to 27m and the Height to no more than 75m. I increase the Detail amount and the
Altitude variations, then set the Density to 29%. In the clouds Material Editor I set the Volumetric
colour to white j. k
11
h Settings in the Light tab, j The cloud and cloud material
Get ready to render After tweaking the atmosphere to a point where it can be considered activating Global Radiosity in settings being tweaked in the
ready, its time to take a few steps to speed up the rendering process without any virtual the Atmosphere Editor Atmosphere Editor
quality loss. In the Atmosphere Editor I reduce the Lighting Quality to -0.5, then open the clouds
i Settings used in the Sky, Fog k Settings in the Light Editor
Material Editor and in the Lighting & Efects tab disable all four options. In the Light Editor I also and Haze tab of the Shadows Softness quality is
reduce the Shadows Softness Quality to -1 k. Atmosphere Editor set to -1 for quicker rendering
3D Art & Design 195

Environment
4-5hours
cre ation t
Resolutioinme
Rendering & post-production 3,000 x 3,80 :
We can now take our final steps to finish up the work pixels 0
12 Render settings After going through the usual

optimisation steps ensuring the lighting is exactly how I
want it and so on the scene is ready to be rendered. In the
Render Options I select User Settings and disable Depth of
Field, as this isnt something we need for this particular project. I
set the Advanced Efects Quality to 40%. You may think this
sounds low, but with the right atmospheric settings its enough.
Of course, feel free to go your own way and see what works l.
13Anti-Aliasing and rendering Since the scene needs

to be rendered for print in a large resolution, I choose to
use a soft Anti-Aliasing method, with Min 3 and Max 9 Subrays
per pixel. With these settings we save a lot of detail and, due to
the low Subray count, the rendering process is quicker. With
l these settings applied I dont need Texture Filtering, so I disable
it. The scene was rendered in a little less than 19 hours at a
l A screenshot of the render resolution of 3,000 x 3,800 pixels. I used a single machine with
settings used in this scene an i7-2600k CPU and 16GB DDR3 RAM m.
14 Post-production in Photoshop
m A screenshot of the
Anti-Aliasing settings When a render is
applied to the scene done, I always load the image into Photoshop for a little
n A screenshot illustrating post work. With this project I adjust the contrast, make the
the Photoshop Levels and highlights more powerful with Levels adjustment layers and
Curves adjustments further enhance the image with Curves. To help the vegetation
o See how the settings on the look more realistic, I slightly saturate the green and yellow tones
left changed the image? on the leaves n.
n o
Post-production enhancements 15Filter Forge tweaks If you want to give a really nice
boost to your renders, Filter Forge (www.lterforge.com)
is a perfect choice. I mostly use the Dreamy lter on my images,
Its a never-ending controversy among Vue users whether to use any post work on renders because it provides more control over the highlights, contrast
or not. In my opinion, what counts is the end result and the process of creation is not and colours. I dont want the highlights too strong in this project,
supposed to stop when the picture is rendered. Tools such as Photoshop dont just enable because that way Ill lose details in the background. However, I
you to enhance your render, as you can use them for xing minor issues as well. For example, still want to make the atmosphere more powerful to give a real
in this scene I used the Clone tool to cover some areas with grass. I also use this a lot to hide impact and complement the piece. To do this, I set Highlight
oating roots, x materials and artefacts on rocks, or to remove sharp lines where two Coverage to 9, Highlight Strength to 57, Highlight Radius to 100
materials meet. Its possible to x these issues in Vue, but leaving some xes for post work
and Dreamy Colors to 35. This gives a bit more contrast and
saves a lot of time.
vibrancy to the overall efect o.
196 3D Art & Design

Gallery
Artist info
Lee Griggs
Lee works as a technical author
at Solid Angle, producing
documentation and tutorials
www.solidangle.com
Country Madrid, Spain
Software used
Maya, ZBrush, Arnold
Work in progress
3D Art & Design 197

Vehicle
Inject some movement into your 3D projects,
whether on land or in the air
200 Model vehicles for
animation 212
Use basic modelling theories to build
up a car's assets
206 Rig vehicles in Maya

Create the rig for the car you've made
212 Texture a realistic vehicle

Create a texture for a stealth plane
214 Model a luxury car

How to master a vehicles presentation
219 I made this Black Drone

Nick Kaloterakis marries vehicle and
environment design in style
220 Sculpt a space vehicle

A space-opera-inspired mash up of
different vessels
226 Create vehicles with open-

source software
Design impressive sports cars using
free software
214 200
198 3D Art & Design

219
The more you have to

feed the eye, the more
wow factor it brings
206 226
3D Art & Design 199

Vehicle
Model vehicles
for animation
Sunbeam Rapier Mark IV
2013
200 3D Art & Design

Model vehicles for animation
to the nal render
Artist info
Software used
in this piece
Maya
Jahirul Amin
www.warpeaceandpixels.com
Country UK
Software used Maya
Expertise Jahirul is an expert
animator and rigging genius
About When Jahirul isnt
Tutorial les: teaching computer animation
The project_rapier folder at the NCCA at Bournemouth
consists of Maya scene les University, hes running an
and reference images independent animation and
Video references design studio to provide various
solutions for his clients needs
3D Art & Design 201

Vehicle
T
his tutorial will run through modelling To briey explainthe process, well rst draw
a classic car, namely a Sunbeam
Rapier Mark IV, while focusing on
over the reference to get a basic topology
before hitting CG. This is mainly
Concept
hard-surface modelling techniques. preparatorywork that will stand you in good The Rapiers of the Sixties were built by hand and
therefore have an almost organic look to them. This ts
Throughout the process were going to stick stead later on. In this tutorial the draw-overs in perfectly with my modelling techniques of manually
to basic modelling theories such as using provide the image planes in Maya and act as a pushing each point around to get things feeling right.
quads and achieving evenly spaced faces. The rough guide as you block out the model. The
latter enables sculpting in Mudbox or ZBrush if further we progress, the more we have to rely
you need to, while also reducing the risk of on our wits and intuition to get a good edge
stretching textures. There will also be an ow. Just as with a drawing or painting, well
insistence on creating plenty of bevelled edges. block out the major forms to provide a solid
This is in order to stick closely to real-world foundation before going anywhere near ner
examples and avoid a at CG version of reality. detail.The elements of the car are all
I must give huge thanks to Graeme Jenner modelled separately, as they would be in the
(www.classiccarportraits.co.uk) who has real world, which makes it easier to rig for
kindly allowed me to use his beautiful portrait animation if needed. The good news here is
of the Rapier being reproduced here. I also that you only have to model half a car, as you
used an Oxford Diecast model to have a can mirror it over.
physical reference, as well as numerous One piece of advice that Ill leave you with is
images and videos Ive found online to help me not to be afraid to abandon ship. By this I mean
piece the model together. The more that if something isnt working, dont be scared
information you gather, the less guesswork you of scrapping it, putting the kettle on and
have to do inside Maya. If youre looking to starting again. The time lost trying to rework
model vehicles, planes, buildings and so on, and tweak a section thats got of to a bad start
then do check out www.the-blueprints.com for can be huge and soul-destroying, whereas
more inspiration. second-time-around edits can be quicker.
Dont be afraid to abandon ship. If

something isnt working, dont be scared of
scrapping it and starting again
Model from references

Set up your guides for accurate modelling
01 Bring in the reference Create a new scene and

navigate to the front orthographic view. Reset the camera
by going to View>Default View in the viewport Panel menu. Now
a go to View>Image plane>Import Image and select referenceFront_
v1.tif when the Open screen pops up. Open up the Attribute Editor,
check Use Image Sequence, then take the Alpha Gain down to 0.4.
Reference
Move to the side orthographic view and set it to Default View.
Import referenceSide_v1.tif and give it the same settings as the
front image. Do the same for the top view, loading in
Always draw guide lines referenceTop_v1.tif as the reference. Once all three reference
b
over the references in planes are in, check that they line up in the perspective view. Push
Photoshop to help match the Center attributes of each image plane along their
up the position of the corresponding axes so theres plenty of space to model in the
front, side and top images centre of the world space a.
in Maya. Make sure that
02 Use back & front references together

all the planes are the
same size to ensure the Now the reference has been set up in a manner that
references input to Maya enables us to switch between the original image, the topology
are at the correct scale, c
draw-over and a coloured draw-over, indicating the separate
otherwise your references
pieces. This will provide the optimal level of accuracy as we
will be randomly sized.
progress, ensuring our model is believable. Set the Animation
Range Slider to go from frames 1 to 6. Now if you scrub between
frames 1 and 3 you will view the front of the car and frames 4 to 6
03 Block out the base Go to Create>Polygon Primitives
and create a plane. Under its inputs in the Channel Box,
take down its Subdivision Width and Height to 1. Now position and
will reveal the back. To rotate the model to match this, create an orient it against the side of the car. Go into Edge mode and use the
empty group node by hitting Cmd/Ctrl+G. Rename the group Extrude tool found under Edit Mesh to begin blocking out the main
car_grp and set a key at frames 1 and 3. Now scrub to frame 4, put base. Use large shapes to ll out the silhouette as much as possible
a value of 180 in its Rotate Y channel and set another key. Every with as few polys as you can. Personally, Im a big fan of edge
object we create (excluding lights) will be placed in this group so it modelling, but I see no reason why you couldnt use a box-
follows our reference correctly b. modelling technique to rough out the form if preferred c.
202 3D Art & Design

Block in & continue modelling

Build up your cars assets to complete your model
04 Continue the blocking Now you can proceed to

block out the base in the front and top view. Remember to
check your model constantly in the perspective view. At this stage, f
youll probably nd that the reference does not line up completely.
If this is the case, I prefer to decide on one key image, in which I will
line everything up and the remainder of the images will act as more
of a loose guide. As well as extruding edges I also like to use the
Insert Edge Loop Tool found in the Edit Mesh menu tab. As long as
the model is in quads, this will cut through cleanly. As you add
more and more details, make sure you keep the faces of a similar
size to one another d.
05 Use Duplicate Special To reduce our workload and

get a better impression of the cars proper shape, lets
mirror the model over. First, activate Translate and hit the Insert
key (or hold the D key) on your keyboard to be able to edit the
position of the pivot. Now hold the X key on the keyboard and
grid-snap the pivot to the X plane in the front view. Hit Insert again
to come out of Edit Pivot mode. Next, go to Edit>Duplicate Special
(Options) and set the Geometry Type to Instance, Scale in X to -1
and hit Duplicate Special. As we go through the modelling of the g
car, we will be using this method many times e.
Lights,camera, reaction! 06 Model the door & roof Start blocking in the door
and the roof panels. Again, I begin each piece with a
single plane, then extrude or add edge loops for more detail. To
Its worth setting up some lights in the scene as you go, so get the ow between the separate elements working, hold down
a Bring in your key reference that you can see how the surfacesof the model and the V key to point-snap the border vertices of the door and the
b Free up some working space by components react to light. I throw in a few spotlights, which roof to the main base. To nish, use Duplicate Special to mirror
pushing aside the reference stay in place and are used as ll lights. I also add one the geometry over f.
directional light, which will be my key light and will have
07 Add window rims

c Extrude the edges to rough out shadows turned on. Every
the base To get the window rims in place,
now and then I change the draw a curve using Create>CV Curve Tool. Holding the
d Add more detail to the base direction of the key light to V key again, point-snap each CV to a vertex of the window and
get a feel for what is and isnt the base of the car. Next, create a polygon cube and shrink it
e Make sure you centre the pivot
on the X plane before working. Another tip is to use
down to be similar to the size of the rim. Now place it at the
duplicating the model Viewport 2.0 with Ambient
beginning of the curve you have drawn and activate Face mode.
Occlusion turned on and of.
f Block in the door and roof using
This indicates how well Select the face thats adjacent to the curve and also Shift-select
the Edge Extrude method the curve. Go to Edit Mesh>Extrude, increase the Divisions to
objects are juxtaposing by
g Extrude a face along a curve to revealing the harsh shadows. around 20 and the extrusion should grow along the curve. Shape
quickly form the window rims the front and side window rims with the same technique g.
3D Art & Design 203

Vehicle
Layer on the details

Give your vehicle some windows & bumpers
08 Place some windows Once the window rims are in,

create some windows using polygonal planes as well as
inserting the front window frame. As you move around the model,
continue to check the car from all angles, smooth out the ow of
the edges and keep the model as clean as possible. At this stage I
select all the geometry and go to Edit>Delete By Type>History.
Deleting the history frequently will keep our scene le nice and
light. You can also delete the curves used to create the window
rims, as the link-up between them and the polygon faces has now h
been broken h.
09 Apply bonnets
& bumpers
To create the bonnet, select a
11 Attach your tyres
& hubcaps
Although they may look pretty
range of faces from the main complex, the hubcaps are very
base of the car where the quick to create. First shape a
bonnet should be situated, then cylinder and delete all the faces
go to Edit Mesh>Duplicate other than the top, then add
Faces to make a copy of those extra edge loops to help dene
faces. This enables us to get j the areas that will need pulling
the ow between the main out or pushing back. These
base and the bonnet working sections can then be extruded
well. Add some tight edges
around the border of this new
piece to add some solidity and
10 Insert lights & grills At this stage the initial blockout is acceptable, though tweaking will
continue and well begin to add some of the key details that make this car distinct. For the
headlight, select some faces at the front and extrude them into the car. After some point-pushing to
out and the entire model can be
smoothed using the Mesh>
Smooth tool. Select a row of
depth to the bonnet. For the get this region as round as possible, place a semi-sphere into the cavity. Further basic polygon cubes faces, disable Keep Faces
bumper, begin with a default can be shaped to form the Rapiers eyelids and some tight rims around the headlights to sit them in Together under Edit Mesh
cube and insert edge loops to more realistically. The grill and indicator lights can also be pushed from simple shapes such as and perform another extrude.
match it to the reference image. cylinders, cubes and spheres that are rened by adding edge loops or extrusions. To get them to sit This time, scale in the faces in
The bumper can be duplicated ush against the front of the car, use a lattice deformer from the Animation panel. With the lattice X and Y and extrude the new
onto the cars rear i. points you can quickly and efectively reshape the mesh j. faces inwards. Finally, to get
rid of the roundness of the
detailed areas, add two edge
When you cant see the loops around the recessed
woods for the CG trees areas. The tyre is created from

a torus shape and under its
inputs you can use the Section
I nd that the number of parts created in this kind of Radius to help block out the
modelling process can make your workow feel awkward,
initial shape k.
as they simply get in the way. Using Isolate Select enables
you to hone in on the areas required. You can nd this
setting under Show in the viewport Panel menus. h The upper body of the car
Additionally, using layers lets you show and hide objects to blocked out
achieve the same efect.
i Create the bonnet and both of
the bumpers
j The beginnings of some details
k Progression of the hubcaps
l Form the wings of the Rapier
m Add some depth to the base and

the roof
n Bevel the door, as well as rear

elements of the car
k
o Keep adding further details
204 3D Art & Design

Add your finishing touches

With a little bevelling & polishing well have ourselves a rich model
12 Create the wings To build the distinct wings of the

Rapier, extra edge loops are needed. As we dont want all
the edge loops to cut through the side of the model, well use the
l
Split Poly Tool. Extruding out from the back of the wings also
enables us a base to sit the rear lights on. Adding a tight edge in the
region helps to hold the unique shape when its smoothed. Next
you can hollow out the boot, as it would be in a real car. This will
also enable us to sit the boot door nicely into the cavity and create
a believable tight shadow in between the surfaces l.
13 Bevel the base & the top Now that we have our main
forms in place, we need to start adding some solidity to
them and layer on some thickness. To do this we need to bevel the
edges of the components. Begin by adding tight loops around the
main base and the window frame, then extrude out the outer
edges and pull them in. The metal rims around the window frames
will also need a bevel added to them. Leaving them without one
either makes them too at in Unsmoothed mode or too rubbery in
Smoothed mode. For the roof, select all the faces and make a large
extrude inwards. This enables us to use the depth of the roof to rest
the side windows against m.
14 Bevel the door

Continue to bevel the
door and the bonnet of the car.
Check your Normals
The lights at the rear and the Once the model is complete and one side has been
majority of the metal work mirrored over to the other, using either the Edit>Duplicate
around the car can also have Special tool or Mesh>Mirror Geometry, you will need to
their edges bevelled. This helps check that the Normals are facing outwards. Its important
the light hit the edges and to do this so that the surface can be afected by lights
create nice highlights, adding to correctly. Youll spot when the normals need inverting as
n the realism of the model n. the surface will appear black. To view the normals, select
the mesh and go to Display>Polygons>Face Normals. If
they are pointing inwards, you can invert this by going to
o the Polygons menu and activating Normals>Reverse.
15 Finalise the model To add some richness to the model,

its important to add the ner details, such as the strips
running along the model and the logo on the door. We can also use
some simple geometry for the side mirrors, as well as model the
window wipers and the door handle. Once were happy and have
tweaked to our hearts content, we can delete the duplicated side.
Again, use the Duplicate Special option to create the missing half,
only this time set the Geometry Type to Copy in the Options box,
or use the Mirror Geometry tool found under Mesh. If you are
using the Duplicate Special tool, youll need to combine the
individual halves by going to Mesh>Combine and then merging the
centre vertices that are sitting on top of one another o.
3D Art & Design 205

Vehicle
Rig vehicles
in Maya
Sunbeam Rapier
Mark IV 2013
Jahirul Amin is a freelance rigger, animator and an
associate lecturer at the NCCA in Bournemouth
take you through the
creation process
Artist info
Jahirul Amin
www.warpeaceandpixels.com
Country UK Tutorial les:
Software used Maya Maya scene les
Expertise Jahirul is an expert Video tuition
animator and rigging genius Tutorial screenshots
206 3D Art & Design

Rig vehicles in Maya
The nal rig
3D Art & Design 207

Vehicle
I
n this tutorial well be creating the rig for the to see as a car drives over a cobbled street. Well pivot locators around the car to enable us to tumble
Sunbeam Rapier, which was modelled in the also need to have the car follow a path. Finally, well and rock it from the wheels upwards. Well
last tutorial. The scene les youll need to follow give the animator the chance to add drag to the car. additionally give it suspension.
the tutorial can be found with the disc or Just to reiterate what I feel is a crucial point: the To create our rig, well use a range of connection
downloaded from www.3dartistonline.com/les. animator will be able to disable all of the automated methods; for example constraints, expressions, the
The way I tend to approach rigging an inanimate controls and animate by hand, if needed. Aside Connection Editor and the Hypergraph. And that
object is to see the model as a character, or part of a from automated controls, well add a number of should be enough to unleash your inner geek.
character. Once the model and rig are in the hands
of the animator, they will begin to give the model life
and personality. As a rigger, Im already imagining
how that something is going to move.
Basically then, were going to treat the car as one
big reverse foot setup with a few bells and whistles
thrown in for good measure. The car needs to tilt
and shift in a similar way to a foot, so the pivot
points will be arranged in the same sort of fashion.
A good rig is one that is t for purpose, by which I
mean it will be able to perform in the way required.
During the tutorial well be adding a good few
automated controls to help the animator, while also
enabling the controls to be disabled so the animator
can work on top. Essentially, the rig should provide
the animator with the freedom to work as they
choose and push the rig as far as desired.
Lets consider some of those bells and whistles.
Well add a device to automatically rotate the
wheels with the translation of the car. Another
A preparatory sketch of the intended rig
control will bring the kind of jitter that youd expect
Move objects into place Check the suspension

Throughout the rigging process, it will be important to
make sure our objects controls and locators are correctly
Establish the correct levels for the car
placed. On many occasions, we will need to match the
01 Create the suspension

pivot of one object to another. To do this, I like to use point We will start by working on the front passenger suspension.
constraints. First select the object of the position you would Create four locators by going to Create>Locator. Rename them fpSuspensionBallA_loc,
like to match, Shift-select the object you want to move and fpSuspensionBallB_loc, fpSuspensionBallParentB_loc and fpSuspensionPlate_loc. Now position
go to Constrain>Point (Options). Uncheck Maintain Ofset
fpSuspensionBallA_loc to the same place as fpSuspensionBallA_geo. Next move both
and hit Apply. Once the object is placed, delete the
Constraint node living under it in the Outliner to break the fpSuspensionBallB_loc and fpSuspensionBallParentB_loc to the same place as fpSuspensionBallB_geo.
connection. You can do this for orientation also, if need be. Position fpSuspensionPlate_loc at the front end of fpSuspensionPlate_geo. Now select
fpSuspensionBallA_loc, then Shift-select fpSuspensionBallB_loc and go to Constrain>Aim (Options).
Set the Aim Vector to 0, 1, 0 and hit Apply. Select fpSuspensionBallB_loc, Shift-select
fpSuspensionBallA_loc and again create an Aim constraint. This time set the Aim Vector to 0, -1 and 0.
Now parent fpSuspensionBallB_loc under fpSuspensionBallParentB_loc. Select
fpSuspensionBallParentB_loc, Shift-select fpSuspensionPlate_loc and go to Constrain>Aim. Make sure
Maintain Ofset is turned of and set the Aim Vector to 1, 0 and 0. Now Parent Constrain
fpSuspensionBallA_geo to fpSuspensionBallA_loc, fpSuspensionBallB_geo to fpSuspensionBallB_loc,
fpSuspensionPlate_geo to fpSuspensionPlate_loc and nally fpSuspensionRodE_geo to
fpSuspensionBallParentB_loc.
02 Include the spring Turn on Snap to Points and

go to Create>CV Curve Tool (Options). Set the
Curve Degree to 3 Cubic and begin creating a curve from the
top to the bottom of the spring, snapping a new CV on each
01 vertex. Once the Curve is created, turn of Snap to Points,
rename the curve fpSuspensionSpring_curve and go to
Modify>Center Pivot. Now scale the curve to t into the
centre of the spring geometry and then go to Modify>Freeze
Transformations. Now turn on Snap to Curve, make sure you
are using the Translate tool and either hit the Insert key on the
keyboard or hold down the D key and move the pivot to the
topmost point on the curve. Now go to Create
Deformers>Wire Tool. Select the fpSuspensionSpring_geo
and hit Enter on the keyboard. Select the
fpSuspensionSpring_curve and hit Enter again. Now, if you 02
scale the curve in the Y axis, you should afect the geometry.
208 3D Art & Design

03 Squash & stretch Go to Create>Measure Tools>Distance Tool. First click at the root of
the fpSuspensionSpring_curve and then click again at the end. Using Snap to Curve, make
sure the locators are sitting right at each end of the curve. Rename the start locator
Define the controls
fpSuspensionStart_loc and the end locator fpSuspensionEnd_loc. Also rename the Distance node All of the controls will be made out of NURBS curves,
fpSuspension_dist. Parent fpSuspensionStart_loc under fpSuspensionBallA_loc and enabling controls to be easily editable in Component mode.
fpSuspensionEnd_loc under fpSuspensionBallB_loc. Select the fpSuspension_dist and hit the down Please note well: once your control has been correctly
arrow on the keyboard to pick-walk to its shape node, fpSuspension_distShape. Now go to placed, only edit its shape in Component mode. Every
Window>Rendering Editors>Hypershade and within the window click Graph>Add Selected to Graph. control will be grouped to itself twice to create a small
Next go to Create>General Utilities>Multiply Divide and rename the new node fpSuspension_md. hierarchy. The top node (_ofset) will be used to position
Select the fpSuspensionSpring_curve and go to Graph>Add Selected to Graph to bring it into the work and orient the control. The next level down (_sdk) will be
area. Now connect the distance from the fpSuspension_distShape into the Input1X of the
used to drive automated attributes, such as the jitter
efects. The lowest level is the control curve (_ctrl), which
fpSuspension_md. Copy the same value that is in Input1X into Input2X and also set the Operation to
the animator will use directly.
Divide. Finally, connect the OutputX from the fpSuspension_md into the scale Y of the
fpSuspensionSpring_curve.
04 Add some spin control To nish of the spring, Parent Constrain both the
fpSuspensionSpring_curve and the fpSuspensionSpring_curveBaseWire to
fpSuspensionBallA_loc. Now create a locator and rename it fpTyreSpin_ctrl. Group it to itself twice by
hitting Cmd/Ctrl+G, rename the topmost group fpTyretSpin_ctrl_ofset and the group below
fpTyreSpin_ctrl_sdk. Use the _ofset group to position the control at the centre of the tyre. Now select
fpTyreSpin_ctrl, Shift-select fpSuspensionBallParentB_loc and go to Constrain>Parent. Select
fpTyreSpin_ctrl, Shift-select fpTyre_geo and again go to Constrain>Parent. We will use the Rotate X of
the fpTyreSpin_ctrl to spin the tyre only.
03
05 Create the main tyre control Create a NURBS

circle and rename it fpTyre_ctrl. With the control
selected, hit Cmd/Ctrl+G twice to create the control hierarchy.
Rename the topmost group fpTyre_ctrl_ofset and the next group
down fpTyre_ctrl_sdk. Select the fpTyre_ctrl_ofset node, position
it at the same place as the fpTyreSpin_ctrl but then pop a 0 into its
Translate Y channel so it sits under the tyre. If you need to edit the
shape to make it more easily selectable, go into Control Vertex
mode and edit its shape. Now parent fpTyreSpin_ctrl_ofset under
fpTyre_ctrl. To tidy things up, select all the locators, the suspension
curves, the fpSuspension_dist and the fpTyre_ctrl_ofset then hit
Cmd/Ctrl+G. Rename this new group fpSuspension_rig_grp. In
the same manner, create the suspension setup and controls for the
remainder of the tyres. Create a NURBS circle and rename it
fpTyre_ctrl. With the control selected, hit Cmd/Ctrl+G twice to
04 create the control hierarchy. Rename the topmost group fpTyre_
ctrl_ofset and the next group down fpTyre_ctrl_sdk. Select the
fpTyre_ctrl_ofset node, position it at the same place as the
fpTyreSpin_ctrl but then pop a 0 into its Translate Y channel so it
sits under the tyre. If you need to edit the shape to make it more
easily selectable, go into Control Vertex mode and edit its shape.
Now parent fpTyreSpin_ctrl_ofset under fpTyre_ctrl. To tidy things
up, select all the locators, the suspension curves, the
fpSuspension_dist, the fpTyre_ctrl_ofset and hit Cmd/Ctrl+G.
Rename this new group fpSuspension_rig_grp. In the same
manner, then create the suspension setup and controls for the
remainder of the tyres.
01 The position of the locators

for the suspension
02 The curve and the wire
deformer for the spring
03 Setting up the squash and
stretch of the spring
04 The basic setup for the tyre
spin control
05 The hierarchy for the main 05
tyre control
3D Art & Design 209

Vehicle
Rig the main body

Continue to set up the main controls for the body of the car
06 The main controls Using the CV Curve tool with its Curve degree set to 1 Linear, draw a
square around the car. You can use Snap to Grids and draw down from the top view to get a
clean rectangular shape. Rename the control main_ctrl. Create another control using the CV Curve
06
tool. This time make it a unique shape that can be easily read as a path follow control. Rename the
control attachToPath_ctrl. For both controls, make sure their pivots are at the world centre and then
go to Modify>Freeze Transformations. Parent main_ctrl under attachToPath_ctrl. With attachToPath_
ctrl selected, hit Cmd/Ctrl+G and rename that group main_ctrl_ofset. Create another rectangular
control in the same manner as the main_ctrl but make it larger. Rename this control globalSRT_ctrl
and with it selected, hit Cmd/Ctrl+G twice. Rename the topmost group globalSRT_ctrl_ofset and the
next group down globalSRT_ctrl_sdk. Parent main_ctrl_ofset under globalSRT_ctrl.
07
07 Adjust the body control Create a new NURBS circle

and rename it body_ctrl. Group it to itself twice, rename
the topmost group body_ctrl_ofset and the next group down
body_ctrl_sdk. Select the body_ctrl_ofset and position it so its in
the centre of the car. Parent Constrain mainBody_geo_grp under
body_ctrl and also parent all the xxSuspension_rig_grp nodes
under body_ctrl. Next parent body_ctrl_ofset under main_ctrl.
08 Add pivot locators Create six locators and rename them fPivot_loc, rPivot_loc,
dPivot_loc, pPivot_loc, fWheelPivot_loc and rWheelPivot_loc. Position the fPivot_loc and
rPivot_loc at either end of the car and at the centre of the X plane. Position the dPivot_loc and pPivot_
08
loc on the outside of the tyres, either side of the car. Position fWheelPivot_loc and rWheelPivot_loc in
between the front and rear tyres and centred to the X plane. Zero out the Translate Y on all the
locators so they sit cleanly on the Y plane. Next parent rWheelPivot_loc under fWheelPivot_loc.
Parent fWheelPivot_loc under pPivot_loc. Parent pPivot_loc under dPivot_loc. Parent dPivot_loc
under rPivot_loc. Parent rPivot_loc under fPivot_loc. Then parent fPivot_loc under main_ctrl and
nally parent all the xxTyre_ctrl_ofset groups and the body_ctrl_ofset under rWheelPivot_loc.
09 Bonnet, door & boot Create three new controls and call them bonnet_ctrl, pDoor_ctrl,
dDoor_ctrl and boot_ctrl. As before, group each control to itself twice to create the _sdk
and _ofset nodes. Use the _ofset nodes to place the controls. When the controls are placed, Parent
Constrain bonnet_geo to bonnet_ctrl, pDoor_geo to pDoor_ctrl, dDoor_geo to dDoor_ctrl and
boot_geo to boot_ctrl. Take all the _ofset groups for the controls and parent them under body_ctrl.
09
Naming conventions
Before beginning a project, I like to establish some naming
10 conventions that will be used throughout. This will help
ensure consistency as well as clarity for all involved. Here is
a breakdown of some of the naming conventions used in
this tutorial:
geo = geometry, ctrl = control, loc = locator, grp = group, f =
front, r = rear, d = driver, p = passenger.
10 The jitter control Create a new control curve and name it autoJitter_ctrl. Dont create the
_sdk and _ofset setup for this, as it will just be a placeholder for some custom attributes.
Position the control above the body_ctrl and parent it under the body_ctrl. Highlight all the Translate,
Rotate and Scale attributes in the Channel Box and go to Channels>Lock and Hide Selected.
210 3D Art & Design

Use automated attributes

Give your animator some toys to keep them happy
11 Add extra attributes Select the main_ctrl and go to Modify>Add Attribute. Create an
attribute called tyres and set its Make attribute to Displayable. This will act as a Divider. Now
create an attribute called autoSpin, set its Make attribute to Keyable and give it a Data Type of Integer.
11
Set its Minimum value to 0, its Maximum to 1 and its Default value to 1. Add another attribute and call
it frontWheelsTurn. Make it a Data Type of Float and leave its Min/Max parameters empty. Create
another Divider and call it dragAndPivot. Now create the following attributes with a Data Type of Float
and leave the Minimum, Maximum and Default values empty: frontDrag, rearDrag, sidePivot,
frontWheelPivot and rearWheelPivot.
12 Apply auto-jitter attributes Select the autoJitter_ctrl and go to Modify>Add Attribute.

Again, youll need to create a Divider attribute and call it masterCtrl. Next create two attributes
called speed and size with a Data Type of Float and a Minimum value of 0. Another Divider next, this
time called bodyRock followed by another two attributes called bodyRockSpeed and bodyRockSize
with a Data Type of Float and a Minimum value of 0. Continue to create the following Dividers:
bodyTilt, bodyUpDown, bonnet, boot, dDoor and pDoor. In between each of those Dividers, create the
following attributes using a Float Data Type with a Minimum value of 0: bodyTiltSpeed, bodyTiltSize,
bodyUpDownSpeed, bodyUpDownSize, bonnetSpeed, bonnetSize, bootSpeed, bootSize, dDoorSpeed,
dDoorSize, pDoorSpeed and, nally, pDoorSize.
13 Set up the tyres Select the fpTyre_ctrl and go to Modify>Add Attribute. Call the attribute
spin and give it a Data type of Float. Leave the Minimum, Maximum and Default values empty.
Next highlight the Rotate X attribute in the Channel Box and go to Channels>Lock and Hide Selected.
With fpTyre_ctrl still selected, go to Window>General Editors>Connection Editor. Now select
fpTyreSpin_ctrl and click Reload Right. Connect the spin in the left column to the Rotate X in the right 12
column and do the same for the remainder of the tyres.
13 14
14 Achieve automatic wheel spinning To have the

wheels spin automatically with the forwards and
backwards translation of the car, go to Window>Expression Editor
15
and create the expression that you can nd on the disc at the back
of the bookazine.
15 Drag, pivot & auto-jitter expression To set up the

drag and overlap, create the expression found on the free
disc at the back of the bookazine. Load it up and nd the PDF le
that contains what youre looking for. Afterwards, create another
expression for the jitter attributes, which can also be found on the
disc. Rename this expression autoJitter_expr and you should be
good to take the car out for a spin. Happy rigging!
06 The main controls in place 12 Further custom attributes for

automated jitter efects
07 The body control with its
pivot at the centre of the car 13 Using the Connection Editor
to control the spinning
08 The locators used for the animation of the tyres
pivoting of the car
14 This is the expression you
09 The door, bonnet and boot need to create the automatic
controls in action spinning of the tyres when the
car is translated
10 Locking and hiding the
transformation channels for
the autoJitter_ctrl 15 These are the expressions
used for the pivot and jitter
11 Use custom attributes to add controls. Find the image on
drag and pivot the disc for more detail
3D Art & Design 211

Vehicle
A simple model of a B-2

stealth plane to challenge your
texturing skills in MARI
Texture a realistic
vehicle Create a quick texture for a stealth plane
and maintain a flexible workflow in MARI
M
ARI is a relatively new The risk of having too much freedom is a
software, but its quickly that you can quickly get lost in the
becoming the new standard process. The rst thing that every texture
for texture artists in the industry. I use artist should create is a well-organised
it almost every day at work and it has library; a place to keep all the reference
now become an essential tool in my images (generic and project-related) and
texturing workow. the textures that they can directly use and
Its designed to work with a vast project onto the model. It takes some time
amount of textures at high resolution, in the beginning but its totally worth it,
enabling artists to focus on the artistic since it prevents you from having to leave
process without having to worry about the the software and look for more references,
technical issues of working with an object losing you time and concentration.
with multiple UV tiles. MARI is very Its also very important to keep the
similar to Photoshop for certain aspects: workow as non-destructive as possible,
you can directly import PSD les since it especially if youre part of a team where
uses the same blending modes in its other people rely on your work. Its also a
shaders, and most of its image-editing huge time-saver, since its hard to predict
tools and lters will be very familiar to what your client or supervisor will ask you the diferent aspects of the colour. If you keep things separated it
Photoshop users. to modify next. will also be easier to reuse those layers in the creation of the
Even though texturing with MARI feels The most efcient way to proceed is to secondary maps, such as Bump, Displacement and Specular.
very easy and uid, it remains very analyse the texture you want to re-create In this tutorial well discuss how to create a quick texture for a
important to plan what you want to and divide it into layers (or channels, in stealth plane and how to set up MARI in order to maintain a
achieve before even opening the software. MARI), so you can have a lot of control on exible workow.
212 3D Art & Design

Texture a realistic vehicle
d e f
01Gather your UVs and

texture references First
import all the references and the textures
02Add a base colour For the base colour of your
vehicle, create various Masked Constant Colour shader
modules. I then create diferent Scalar channels and use them to
05Apply displacement For
more control of the displacement,
instead of drawing lines in MARI, create a
well be using into the Image Manager, so mask the at colours in the shader. In this way everything remains new channel, ll it with a 50% grey and
that everything is one click away. To get quickly editable, if needed. To create a quick colour variation and then use the Camera-layered Painting
the most out MARI, always make sure that make the base more interesting, add a Fractal Noise shader Unproject function. In this way MARI
every piece youre about to texture has module and blend on the other layers in Overlay mode with an creates a PSD le with a screenshot of
some UV co-ordinates. MARI is designed Opacity of 60% b. your viewport and sends it directly to
to work with multiple UDIMs: in this Photoshop. Create the displacement lines
tutorial well use ve tiles a.
03Bring more detail MARI gives you the possibility to
create a vertex-based ambient occlusion very quickly;
using paths and reproject them onto the
model using Camera-layered Painting
Project from the same menu. You can also
Mind the Paint Bufer you can then use the result as a mask or bake it to a channel.
Here well use it as a channel and multiply it on the other layers. preview the displacement in the MARI
MARI projects all the painting and To create a higher-frequency colour variation, add a Tri-Planar viewport using Displacement or Bump
images you create onto the geometry shader module to project a metallic pattern seamlessly onto the shader modules e.
through a Paint Bufer. The Paint Bufer geometry. Use a Hard Light blending mode to mix it with the
06Bring in a specular map

works like a transparent plane where
you paint and edit your textures before other layers c.
baking them to the mesh and its UVs. Having all the colour components
Its very important to set an
appropriate resolution of the Paint Bufer
before starting work. If youre working on
04 Use lines and Decals To add the lines, create
a new Black channel and set it to Screen. Then switch
to the top orthographic view and paint them by Shift-clicking
already separated in layers, its easy to
create a Specular map. Duplicate your
shader and use the components that weve
4k textures but youre using a 1k Paint
Bufer to project your painting onto the all the corners in this way MARI will create only straight already created to generate a black-and-
geometry, you will end up with some strokes. For the other Decals, create a 4K map in Photoshop white map. In particular, reuse and
very low-resolution bakes. Before or with all you want to project in it, and then use the Paint Through contrast the Fractal Noise and the
after you paint on it, you can also move tool to project them on the mesh. Once thats done, make sure Tri-Planar modules. If you want you can
and stretch it using the Transform Paint
Bufer tool. you copy and mirror the right side to the left side in the UV space, add other non-colour-related channels to
to speed up the process d. enhance the interest of the shading f.
3D Art & Design 213

Vehicle
Model a
Jaguar xkx concept
luxury car
The objective was to design a concept car inspired by the
Jaguar E-Type, and give a rebirth to the original brand
Hussain Almossawi and Marin Myftiu A graphic designer and architect
respectively, both 3D and car enthusiasts
to the nal render
Artist info
3ds Max V-Ray Photoshop
Hussain Almossawi
P
Marin Myftiu resentation is always a key factor when
a
you want to sell an idea; sometimes a
great idea can be presented poorly while
Username: mossawi09
a bad one can seem greater than it is. This
Personal portfolio site tutorial will guide you through the preparation of
www.skyrill.com
modelling a car, and then how to present it in the
www.marinmyftiu.com
Country Bahrain/Albania best way. The aim is to have a great design with
Software used smooth presentation, to pay of for all the hard
3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop work on your car, or any other model.
Expertise Hussain is a graphic
designer and currently
As we progressed through the various stages
completing his masters degree of the design, we found the unavoidable need to
in Industrial Design at the transform our concept-creating, modelling and
University of Alberta. Marin is
an architect in his nal year at presentational skills to a level that would reveal
the Polytechnic University of the full boldness and innovation of the original
01Inspiration and brand study

Tirana. They both have their
diferent interests, but what idea. As we were developing some nely detailed As part of the analysis, we
brings them together in this geometry, a more direct vertex editing was wanted to get diferent views of the lines of the E-Type Jaguar
project is the love of 3D and
cars. Together they have been required, as well as recursive checks and test and then see where those lines could lead. In Photoshop, a side view of
able to come up with a great renders, just to see how every aspect of the the car was placed on the bottom layer and on a second layer several
collaboration for you to follow.
model behaved in diferent lighting conditions. path strokes followed a.
214 3D Art & Design

Model a luxury car
Concept
Modelling
Lighting
b c
02Design the rims Several sketches were done for the rims, but
directly playing with simple functions such as scaling and moving
points on circles began to give the most satisfactory results, with an
03Prepare the blueprints The nal sketches, together with the
path analysis were then combined into sketches of the main
orthogonal views and subsequently cleaned up to blueprints in Photoshop.
X-shaped inner part. This emphasises both a sense of raw power and a Those blueprints were subsequently used in 3ds Max to aid with the
gentle pulse of energy b. modelling stage c.
3D Art & Design 215

Vehicle
Set up the model

Bring out the true beauty of your car
04Model the jumping jaguar

A straightforward approach was followed in
modelling the leaping jaguar logo. Vertices were extruded
around the silhouette and along all the contours that were
relevant from the backdrop image. Every single line was
raised or lowered accordingly. In the end the faces were
formed, followed by a nal adjustment d.
05Find the best camera angle Finding the

best angle to render your car in can be a tough
challenge, you could be doing your creation an injustice by
rendering it at a bad angle. Place three cameras at diferent
heights, and animate them to revolve around the car,
rendering at very low quality which will give you a good idea
of the best angle(s) to work with e.
Work with complex geometry

There were several challenging aspects we faced during
diferent stages, but none more so than dealing with the
undened geometry. During several steps of the
development, we found that using standard editing tools
just wouldnt yield the desired geometry. When modelling
an existing vehicle you can rely on precise blueprints and
countless pictures to help you decide the best techniques,
but when building from scratch this is mostly not possible. e
To tackle this we manipulated geometry vertex by vertex
and face by face.
f
Rendering in high quality can

always be tempting, but at a really
low quality gives you a good sense
of how things are looking
06Set up the lighting Lighting could get quite

tricky and complicated. Create a simple backdrop
to your car with a smoothed corner. Place V-Ray lights
above the car, one in front and one in the back, to make sure
it is completely covered. Experiment with having more than g
one light plane around the car f.
07Bring out some details Since this car is

going to be rendered in a dark studio scene to bring
out its curves and lines, some important details can be
missed out. You can use as many additional lights as you
wish, pointing to certain details, but excluding all the other
objects to prevent them from lighting up g.
216 3D Art & Design

Model a luxury car
08Render in V-Ray Rendering

in high quality can always be
tempting, but using a really low quality to
give you a good sense of how things are
looking and turning out is a big time-saver.
Setting your Image Sampler to Fixed with
low values, and lowering all the sample Hussain Almossawi
sizes on your Materials, Lights and Render I am 23 years old with lots of passion and love for 3D. I
settings speeds things up when you come always try to keep an eye open for things being done by
others, thats what inspires me and makes me want to
to testing h.
move on and explore all kinds of different things in the
09Add materials
3D world. I run Skyrill.com alongside my brother.
The main
matte material for the car was
made using a V-Ray Blend Material. The
main idea is using the base material and
coat material, with similar settings, but
having slight diferences in the reective
settings, to enable the light to spread
h
better on the matte nish i.
i Color Revolution 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop (2011)

In collaboration with Anthony Giacomino. We came up with words
to base the typography on and a scene that would t the word. The
type has more of a frozen look and its placed in an icy, cold
environment. The idea also depicts new and foreign colours being
introduced to the scene. This was created for Intrinsic Natures
latest online exhibition, Experiment 11.
Love Potion
3ds Max,
Photoshop (2009)
A poster that
visualises the
metaphor of love
being medication for
the ailing heart. This
poster was selected
as a Daily Deviation
on deviantART on
28 March 2009.
A lifetime without
10Work with diferent passes Working with passes is essential to love is of no

account, love is the
postproduction as it gives you much more freedom to make quick changes water of life, drink it
and adjustments. Render Elements is one way, but we were after a unique look where down with heart and
we could have some sharp reections mix with our matte nish. Rendering the car soul! Rumi.
with both materials and overlaying them in Photoshop worked well j.
3D Art & Design 217

Vehicle
Add atmosphere
Time to give your car that finished shine
11Perfect the
headlights These
lights are sometimes the
k
12Polish the
surfaces The
brake lights in the back of
l
trickiest to create. Often the car were repainted in

they just dont get the right Photoshop with a much
kind of exaggerated stronger red. The
reections to make them reections on the side
stand out in a studio windows where smoothed
environment. We used out, and some of the cuts
about ve passes over the where cleaned up if they
original render, along with had any noise. Exaggerating
the reection on the cover some parts and making
by adding a gradient to everything crisp is essential
45
make it stand out more k. for presenting your work l.
The mood of the scene is one of the most important elements; it minutes
needs to ow very well with the lighting on the car to add a greater render time
sense of realism Resolution
4,000 x 1,304:
13Unify the
overall scene
The mood of scene is one
m
of the most important

elements; it needs to ow
very well with the lighting
on the car to add a greater
sense of realism. Using
diferent radial gradients
in Photoshop at diferent
opacities on the oor and
backdrop created a nice
sense of harmony that
matched the lighting on
the car very well. A slight
tint of the backdrop colour
can also be added to the
car to match the new
scene colours m.
Marin Myftiu
I am a freelance designer and architect
with experience in architectural, interior
and product design. Also competent in 3D
modelling and rendering, my
experiences include graphics design,
programming and journalism.
SKIN Blender, Photoshop (2011) VW PASSAT S-Revision 2 Blender, Photoshop (2011)
Recently I have become more and more Inheriting the most distinctive morphology of the Revision 2 of the Passat S model tries to carve a distinctive
interested in car design, studying Renault 4, SKIN tries to go one step further than visual character for the Volkswagen Passat name. I am
current trends and trying to anticipate other retro designs by preserving the main taking the previous project towards a more rened
future ones in personal, commissioned silhouettes of the car. The piece is interpreted using geometry, while also taking into account hexagonal trends
and competitive projects. current Renault design trends. in vehicle design.
218 3D Art & Design

Nick Kaloterakis
com
Website www.kollected.
Country Australia
tal ray,
Software used Maya, men
Photoshop
VFX
Bio Nick has worked in the his
runs
industry for 12 years. He
Incredible 3D artists take ney
own design studio in Syd
Artist info
k
I used Maya for hard-surface

modelling and textures, mental ray for
lighting in a physical, accurate scale
and for rendering (HDRI with mib_
ray_switch). Photoshop was
used for the nal comp and
colour correction
Detail, detail,
detail. In my experience
Black Drone 2010 the more you have to feed the
eye, the more wow factor it
The Black Drone was a project assigned to me back in 2010 to
Software used in this piece brings and makes a huge
illustrate the latest technology in autonomous engineering and design.
The environment was a crucial part of the project to bring the impact at the end result
Maya mental ray Photoshop
secrecy and mysterious vibe with a futuristic feel!
3D Art & Design

219
Vehicle
Sculpt a space vehicle

Ballade of the Lucanus 2012
The result is a space-opera-inspired mash up of
vessels, all created using the same workow
Istvan is a digital artist and illustrator based in Geneva, Switzerland
to the nal render
Artist info
Three ZBrush brushes

Three videos showing the
hard cut method, Group
Loops method plus masking
and texturing techniques
One .vue le (the planet) and
a PSD of the nal composition
Istvan
I
www.behance.net/
chaotic_atmospheres n this tutorial well create an insect- Once youve secured the skills, youll be a
Country Switzerland inspired battleship; a vehicle that ows hard-surface sculpting master in no time.
Software used ZBrush, through space curled into itself like a Before even opening ZBrush, always think
Photoshop, Illustrator, Vue
Expertise I use 3D as a way to
cocoon, but when attacking opens up its through the details of the project using photo
create nal artwork; Im not wings and gigantic claws. references. In this case, try to imagine the
necessarily specialised in any Remember, even though were making a universe where a concept like this would have
eld, I tend to switch between
techniques and software to battleship here, the method described can also evolved. Try to set your objectives in context.
create the objects I need to be used to model a whole host of other types Here were not thinking about specic designs
nish my illustrations.
of vehicles, buildings, weapons and more. for a battleship, just about the details imagine
220 3D Art & Design

The hard cut

method
The hard cut method consists of
modelling using only Clip brushes.
Activating BRadius (Cmd/
Ctrl+Shift+ Spacebar and click on
BRadius) enables a very powerful
tool to create shapes with a
hard-edged look. But be careful: if
you want to achieve the efect of
an insects shell, you shouldnt cut
randomly. The cuts should look like
those of real insects. For example,
the cut lines of the abdomen are
often repetitive, becoming
increasingly tighter as they
approach the body (such as on the
abdomen of wasps). So for this
concept, we must achieve the nal
shape of the battleship without
forgetting the strong lines found on
real insects.
Software used
in this piece
ZBrush Photoshop
Illustrator Vue
youre looking at an image so closely that you can

understand all of its detail without having to see the entire
image in full. This process enables us to dene our needs:
Concept
the techniques well use, the outlines to be used in ZBrushs The concept originated with a moth-
ShadowBox, the textures and so on. It also helps to get your inspired battleship model that I originally
references rmly in your mind which in this case includes created to ght in the game EVE Online.
the anatomy of insects and the functions of a battleship. Based on its success I decided to create
other battleships using the same
Once this ground work is set, we can then start work in workow, to start a small eet!
ZBrush, remaining open to interpretation as we create.
3D Art & Design 221

Vehicle
Lay the groundwork The Group

Loops
Watch the details but dont worry about the battleship yet! method
The Group Loops
Use photo references to decide what a
techniques to employ and how they method can easily create
should best be used structures that look like
insects legs or pipes. On
the Lucanus battleship, I
use this method for the
claws and for the tubes
that run along the
surface of the ship.
I create a web frame
using ZSpheres and
export it as a new tool
with Adaptive Skin. I
then go to
Tool>Geometry and
click on Group Loops.
This creates divisions
b between each branch of
the frame. Group Loops
02Set up a base outline I begin by drawing a basic body have the same
Group Loop Hard cut
of the ship in Illustrator. The shadowboxbase.ai le is Polyframe, so I simply
method method select a Polyframe and
supplied as a tutorial le with this issue. Basically, you just rough out
modify it with the Inate
silhouette images for the front, side and top views and then export
deformer and Inate
the le as a JPEG. We can then use the image to create the base balloon. See the
form using ShadowBox in ZBrush. You can also design the wing supplied video le for
shape in Plan view. Well use these shapes with the Make 3D Group Loops.
function of the Alpha menu in ZBrush (covered in Step 5) b.
01Key points and references The battleship is going to

have the resemblance of an insect. We will model using the
hard cut method, which will be described in the following steps. In Transforming vehicles
this way we can replicate the hard-edged look of an insects shell.
The Lucanus has two modes: an attack mode with open wings, deployed weapons and a
We will also use ZBrushs Group Loops method to create the parts
threatening appearance, and a cocoon mode where the ship is curved into its shell. This
of the ship that will resemble legs and antennae. makes it strong and stealthy. As the attack mode is fully open, its easier to start by creating
Ive chosen an insect species that has extraordinary features as the battleship in this mode and then fold it into a cocoon after.
our focus: the Lucanus, Britains largest known terrestrial beetle. To switch to cocoon mode, I move all loose items (wings, clamps, weapons) with the
This insect has huge claws and a thick and sturdy look. Using these Transpose tool to the nearest surface of the battleship. I then use the deformers
distinguishing features helps us dene the function of our (Deformation tab) on exible areas like the wings so that they curl around the ship. I nish
battleship: a lightly armed ship thats strong and capable of the placement of the wings with the Move Elastic brush.
inicting heavy damage a.
c
04Sculpt some elements With an interesting basic
shape established, we can add the elements of the
battleship: reactors, weapons, shells and any other specic parts
such as claws, in the case of the Lucanus. For this, we append
03Model the battleships body The rst thing to do is load in your textures which is the
image weve exported from Illustrator. Create a ShadowBox in medium resolution, around 512
pixels. In the Texture tab of the Tool menu, apply the previously loaded image as a texture to your
(SubTool tab) a simple object that well distort using the Transpose
tool to achieve the volume needed. Then model the object using
the hard cut method.
ShadowBox. Then, in the Masking tab, create a Mask By Intensity so that the texture of the ShadowBox For the claws, append a ZSphere and create a frame that we
is used to retrieve the mask. We can now disable the ShadowBox and start working with the hard cut work on using the Group Loops method. Finish the look with some
method dont forget to Activate Symmetry in X on the Transform menu at this stage c. hard cutting, so that they integrate well with the other elements d.
222 3D Art & Design

Hard-surface modelling
Pick from several tools to produce consistent results
Give a sense of dimension

In space, there is no atmospheric efect. Its difcult to distinguish if your
object is a small battleship placed in the foreground or a huge one
located thousands of miles away. Its therefore important to add in one
or two elements that illustrate your battleships size. Ive added doors to
the sides of the Lucanus to show that the vehicle can also carry
numerous other vessels.
You can also help readability by overlaying elements: if the reactor
ame of a small spacecraft passes in front of your battleship, your mind
will interpret that the battleship is located on the background, and is
therefore much larger.
B Create the basic shapes d At this stage the basic g If we hide the battleship,
in Illustrator so we can structure of the the pipe structure should
build variations with ease battleship is complete bring up its outline
c Load the image as a e Wings are not totally h Retopology can help you
texture into the at, so give them a get more accurate and
ShadowBox provided slight curve lighter objects
f
e
05Create the wings For the wings, once again use the image created in
Illustrator. Loading it as an alpha enables us to extrude it through the Make 3D
tab of the Alpha menu. Work on the wings using the hard cut method to make them
look like the other elements of the battleship. Append the wing to the battleship and
dene the point where it must be attached. Use this anchor point to precisely position
the wing with the Transpose tool and add some curve with the options on the
Deformation tab (particularly SBend, SSkew and Twist) e.
06Modify the battleship with a rig The claws and mouth arent open
enough, so use the rigging function to distort all the SubTools in one step. Use
the Transpose Master plug-in (ZPlugin menu). Activate the option ZSphere Rig and click
TPoseMesh. This creates a ZSphere with a ghost of the battleship. Create the rig with the
ZSpheres and then go to Tool>Rigging and click on Bind Mesh. Move the ZSpheres to The rig in the
change the geometry of the battleship, then go back to Transpose Master and battleship will distort
all SubTools together
TPose>Sub. Transpose Master will apply the changes to each SubTool in just one step f.
g
08Retopologise the model The jaw area should be more detailed, but
we dont want to subdivide the entire model. So instead, well
07Add detail with pipes Append a ZSphere inside the battleship and create
a web frame (with X Symmetry enabled) by going in and out of the battleships
surface. This adds density to some key points the junction between the body and
retopologise. Open a new ZSphere, select Rigging in the Tool menu and click on
Select Mesh to open the battleship as a ghost. Then go into the Topology options
and click Edit Topology. Create the new topology directly on the model and, when
claws, for example and highlights the strong lines of the battleship. Once the basic the new jaw is ready, go to Tool>Adaptive Skin and then Make Adaptive Skin.
armature is complete, turn of X Symmetry and add some more pipes. Then use the We can now increase the polycount of the new part and nish up with the
Group Loops method to nish the look of the structure g. Group Loops and hard cut modelling methods h.
3D Art & Design 223

Vehicle
Texture your vehicle 10+ hours

Create fine detail using custom brushes crea tion tim
Image resolu e
09Add detail with the MicroMesh tool We want
the new jaw to be lled with a bunch of circular saws. The
MicroMesh function in ZBrush is perfect to obtain many recurring
10Masks and
deformations Mask
each part of the model with the
6
tion:
,000 x 3,500
items without weighing down your model. Open the new tool we Mask By Smoothness function
created, select only the part where you want the saw detail and (Masking tab) with a low range
hide the rest of the object. Now create a new SubTool from the and a high fallof. This will mask
visible section normally it should look like a skin that is placed just a thin line along the edges of the
above the model. In the Geometry tab, click on MicroMesh to model. Then, with the Grow,
select the object that will replace each polygon of the mesh i. Blur and Sharpen Mask options,
widen the mask until it becomes
The size of the MicroMesh thick enough around the edges.
object depends on the size Then use the Inate deformer
of the polygon it replaces
(Deformation tab) to slightly
lower the unmasked parts into
the structure. This gives us a
structure in two levels that can
be textured independently with J
your brushes j.
11Detail
brushes
with custom
We can now
use custom brushes (supplied)
to add detail between the two
parts separately masked. The
contour will be made of rigid
plate steel and the inside will be
made of thin strips. The wings
should look like they are made
of small plates that slide when
they close. For all these details,
use the default brushes in
ZBrush (mostly in the Scales
and Pattern directories).
Choose one where the ow
matches what youre looking
for and change the Alpha to
i images created in Illustrator or k
Photoshop (les supplied) k.
12Add matter with Noise Use the Noise function to give

matter to small parts of the ship. Noise is not as realistic as Create a
custom brushes for objects that have large at surfaces (like
wings) but it is very efcient and fast for small objects such as
mask with
pipes. In the Surface tab (Tool menu), click on Light Box>
NoiseMaker to bring up the Noise presets and then select the one
Illustrator
that comes closest to what you want. We want to add rust to the When I change my object
pipes, so I choose Noise04. From the Surface tab, click on Edit to mask with the Grow,
customise the noise efect l. Sharpen and Blur mask
functions, the corners
between the edges can
be rounded and I may
need a sharper result.
I Print Screen my
model from above and
from below (by disabling
the perspective). I can
m then paste the screen
grabs into Illustrator and
13Use a background as an environment map

draw my mask on top. Ill
Create a LightCap so your battleship is well integrated in the then export the image to
nal image. I make the background for this illustration using Vue, use as an Alpha with my
since it enables planet rendering as well as spherical rendering to Mask tool. This method
takes a little longer, but
use as environment maps in ZBrush. In ZBrush, in the Background
the result is more
tab (Light menu), load your environment by clicking on Texture.
accurate. Furthermore,
Make sure the framing of the environment is the same as the if I have to clear my
background of the nal illustration, and click the LightCap button mask, it will be easier to
l (the Reect option must be enabled). The LightCap just created is recover it.
editable as a MatCap from the Material menu m.
224 3D Art & Design

Render in ZBrush
Use BPR to capture lots of vessels for a space opera mash-up!
Lucanus: 1/5 n
Picked
colour
Lucanus: 5/5
Lucanus: 5/5
Lucanus: 2/5 Normal Gradient and Without light With light

map mask efects efects
Use your Normal map in

Lucanus: 3/5 Photoshop
Moth: 2/4 Moth: 3/4 I want the hull of the battleship to reect the lights from the
Moth: 4/4 reactors of small starships that revolve around the main
ship. To do this, I realise a BPR with the NormalRGB
MatCap included in ZBrush. Once in Photoshop, I can then
create a Radial Gradient placed on the light source (the
reactor of the small starship). I select a colour range on my
NormalRGB render (Selection>Color Range) by clicking on
a point that should have a reection. I add a mask to my
gradient with this selection. This way the gradient will
appear only on the faces pointing in the same direction.
14Render several battleships We want to create a

scene with several starships, but ZBrush doesnt enable
BPR with multiple objects. There are several possibilities to
p Merged nal
illustration with
16Apply the nal
touches Choose the
overcome this drawback, however. The easiest way is to merge the all corrections nal look for your image,
nal battleship and append it several times on the same tool, but deciding whether it will be cold
that requires a powerful computer. Lights and
or warm, fuzzy or sharp, dirty
Instead, make a BPR of your battleship and, in Photoshop, put efects or clean. Add a few layers of
the render on your background, estimating where to place the real photographs to give a little
second most important battleship. Go back to ZBrush for the BPR substance to the image (dust,
and repeat the operation as many times as necessary to gather all First group of starry background, lasers,
battleships ares and so on). The
the ships you want for the nal illustration n.
Distortion tool, like Puppet
Warp in Photoshop, is very
o Second group of
Group 5
Group 2 battleships useful to give curvature to the
trails of reactors, for example.
Once the composition is
Group 4 Third group of complete, atten the image,
Group 1 battleships nalise the colours and perfect
the general appearance using
Photoshops post tools p.
Group 3
Background
battleships j You can get diferent types of
structures by playing with the
Mask options
Merged
background with k Add the nal details with
colour correction custom brushes
l The Noisemaker creates organic

Planet extra matter on small objects
texture
m The background of the nal
15 The nal composition Equalise your composition to artwork and the associated
environment map
achieve a balanced outcome between your starships. Stars
However, when theyre moved, even slightly, it can distort their n The rendering time can be
perspective. If the integration seems wrong, go back to ZBrush to optimised by lowering the level
of subdivision for the small
render it from the new location. background vessels
After some back and forth between the two programs, youll get Vue background
render o Each group of battleships should
the desired result. A simple technique to check that your have a diferent size for even
composition works is to ip the image horizontally in order to better readability
check it as a mirrored image. Once in reverse, all the errors of
p Here is a map of the nal
perspective will become obvious. If after this little test everything composition with all the various
seems okay, turn to the nal stage of the image o. types of layers
3D Art & Design 225

Vehicle
porsche_911_3DArtist.blend
textures.zip
reference.zip
Plus tutorial screenshots
Create vehicles with

open-source software
Learn to create impressive sports cars using free software
I
ts good news for open-source software in mind to get good results. The high-beam lights, for example, unmanageable and each new change could
lovers; a new version of Blender is ready require accurate modelling. This is particularly true with the inside become a disaster.
for download! Version 2.64 features of the vehicle, otherwise the reections will look unrealistic. To reduce the use of RAM and the
many important innovations, including a Proportions must be as accurate as possible, so its essential to workload of the video card, its important to
new mask editor, new nodes in compositing have good reference images. Ideally youll use a blueprint with all use diferent layers. For this project, well
(box mask, colour correction, re-route and the views of the car (front, rear, side and top), but often these les place the wheels, body, interior and stage
more), colour management (Blender 2.63 are not easy to nd, especially for newer car models. If you dont with the lights on diferent layers. The
only supports two colour spaces, linear and have blueprints, make sure that photo references are well aligned design of the car is full of soft lines, so well
sRGB) and scene loading optimisations for and that the diferent views are exactly the same size if necessary, use only the vertices needed and let the
Cycles renders. A new non-progressive re-size them with the free image editor, GIMP (www.gimp.org). algorithm of subsurface do the work for us.
integrator has also been added and These images will be placed as a background image one for each Once a piece is nished and the result
panoramic sh-eye cameras, new mesh view so make sure they are perfectly centred. satises us, its better to put the subsurface
tools and sculpting improvements are now While modelling, well use Blenders modiers to simplify work. of the Viewport to a minimum level.
available. So before you begin this tutorial, The Mirror modier will be used a lot and will enable us to do half For all the pieces that have a radial
download the new free version from www. the work by taking advantage of the symmetry of the car. The most symmetry (such as the wheels), well model
blender.org now. important rule to follow is the KISS principle (Keep It Short and a single slice and then clone it with the
Creating a car with 3D software is a Simple). We must not forget to KISS, so during the modelling never modier spin. Its important to give the right
challenge as there are many details to keep add more vertices than needed as the mesh will become thickness to the body of the car, otherwise
226 3D Art & Design

Create vehicles with open-source software
it will look toy-like. For simple pieces well Blenders node compositor is good, but using graphic-editing Create a sports car in ten
use the Solidify modier; for more complex software like GIMP makes post-production work more uid and simple steps
objects well extrude edges by hand. immediate. The nal image is balanced with an AO layer and glossy
Its very important to save often,
especially before making a radical change.
Backups use space on the disk, but they will
reections added to give more detail to the shadows and to
emphasise reections where needed. The very last edit well make
is the addition of a lens are on the high-beam light. This adds an
01Blender windows The rst
step is to set the reference images
in various windows. Open your reference
enable you to save valuable time. eye-catching ash to the result. photos (supplied on the disc) in GIMP and
Another very important aspect is the make sure they are horizontal and aligned
creation of good car paint, as luxury cars c with the oor. Enable the rulers in GIMP
have three-layered paint with iridescent and cut the images so that the height and
reections. Our car-paint material will width of the car are the same in the front
consist of a Difuse shader mixed with a and rear view. It would be nice to have a
Glossy and another Glossy material that picture from the top, but if you dont have
will simulate the iridescent reections. one we will need to study the diferent
Chrome or shiny materials are composed of views to understand the structure of the
a Glossy shader with a diferent roughness car. Youll nd reference images are
index and two colours blended. supplied with this tutorial, so theres plenty
We want a car with a racing look to it, so to work from d.
were going to add a stripe on the hood and a The nal render.
the side. Lighting is also crucial: well use a Lens are was
big ll light on the car, two front lights (one added in
with warm light and one with cold) and a post-processing
using the free
series of emitter oors that will inuence software GIMP
only the reections of the car paint.
Well use a three-quarter view of the car b In this wireframe
render the
with the headlights turned on as the main subsurface level
image because it gives an overall has been reduced
impression and is a good way to emphasise to make the
mesh structure
the beauty of the car. During rendering well more evident
save glossy reections, ambient occlusion
images and, with the node editor, create a c A wireframe
JPEG with the reections generated by the render of the
interior view
headlights. These images are then
d
combined in GIMP. d Reference setup
3D Art & Design 227

Vehicle
Model the tyres

Well use two modiers to model the
tyres in Blender: Array and Curves. From
the top view prepare a slice of the tyre
with a tread pattern, apply the Array
modier to obtain copies, add a Bezier
Curve of the size of the tyre and use it as
a base object for the Curves modier.
Now apply the modier and extrude the
side vertex until you have the correct
width of tyre.
02Model the wheels

the side view, add an empty
Choose
section at the centre of the wheel, move the

cursor to the empty area (Shift+S then
select) and add a circle. The wheel has ten g
spokes, so well use a circle of 80 vertexes
05Add a bonnet and bumper

(three for each spoke and ve between and extrude. Apply some extra cuts to
each spoke). Model a single spoke and With the Mirror
create the holes for the pins. To make round modier active, begin to shape the bonnet and the
then, with the Spin modier, well create the holes, select vertices and hit Shift+Opt/
necessary copies. Remove the double bumper, following the curves of the car as closely as possible to the
Alt+S. Enable Boltfactory in Blenders reference photo. Its better not to use too many points, as any
vertices and proceed with the extrusion e. Addons (go to File>UserPreferences> changes can make it difcult to maintain the soft curves of the car.
Addons> Boltfactory) and place the wheel Occasionally turn on the level of the wheels and make a clay render
03Continue the wheels Add axles. Well use a cylinder for the disc brake to check if your model contains errors h.
another circle in the central part of and then shape the brake caliper. To model
the wheel, scale the vertices to the centre the clamp well enable a Mirror. The holes
in the discs will be added with a texture f. Compositing node editor benets
The node editor is another of Blenders very powerful tools that
04 Model some tyres First,

create the prole of the wheel
then use the spin with the cursor in the
has greatly improved in the latest versions. We could complete
all the post-production in Blender without using GIMP, but I
prefer to use the node editor only to create the layers and then
export them into GIMP. This way I have more control over the
centre of the wheel as the centre of
areas to be processed (lights, shadows, sharpening, curves and
rotation. We want the car to have a sporty/ level adjustments). For our scene it will be used to create the
racing appearance, so well use slick tyres. If glare efect on the high beams.
you want road wheels youll have to model
the footprint of the tyre and then bend it
along a circle g.
e Modelling the g Final modelling of

wheels note the the wheel
empty centre
h Be sure to follow
f Creating the the curves of the
h wheel interior car as closely as
you can
228 3D Art & Design

Create vehicles with open-source software
06Sculpt the body Using the

same procedure as the previous
step, well model the side of the car now,
the spaces between the pieces are right. As
you can see, all the parts are diferent
colours to highlight the various edges i.
j
including the rear bumper and doors. Be

sure to keep the diferent parts separate so
any changes that need to be made will be
far easier and save time. Right now its
07Add details Now weve
nished the outer body, well add
more details including door handles, rear
important to create the shape of the car wings, the plates, the front vent, the
the details will be added later. Once exhaust system and front and rear lights.
youve nished the body, extrude the edges The front lights are composed of a glass
of the meshes to create thickness and with a mesh inside a reective material and
activate the Subsurf in Viewport to check if a spherical light. The rear lights are made of
small emitter spheres (LEDs) on a Reector k
plane. The correct placement of these
Texture advice elements is essential, so at this stage
paying close attention to your reference
Textures can make a big diference to a
3D scene, meaning with a simple stripe, material is vital j.
our car has a racing look. I used the
symmetry of the car to unwrap the
model in a very easy way. Simply go to
the side view, select the parts of the
08Model the interior
new layer well now begin to
On a
model the interior of the car. Start from the

body and, in Edit mode, hit U then select
Project From View. This way I can basic plan, then the central transmission
quickly apply the texture to the model. tunnel. Well model the seats in another le
and then import the mesh. Add the
dashboard, the gear lever, the rear-view
mirror and all the details on the inside of the
doors. Assign a red material to the interior, l
apply black to the plastic and give grey to
the aluminium surfaces k. slightly shiny to give reections on the oor. The upper ll light
doesnt inuence the Glossy channel, so well use other lamps only
09Set up your materials

will use Cycles as the render
We
engine, so rst open the node editor to set

for glossy reections. The front lights are both warm and cold lights
to make the image less at. Well need extra channels for the
post-production stage, so go to the Layer menu and enable the AO
the materials. The car paint will be a mix of and Glossy direct channels. After rendering, open the image, the
Difuse and Glossy shaders, both mixed Glossy channel and AO pass in GIMP, and overlay them to obtain
with a Glossy with violet hues. Wheels and the nal result m.
aluminium details are a Glossy material. For
the seats well use a red velvet with a black i Car body meshes
reection. The plastic material is a mix of j Mesh details
two Difuse and a Glossy shader with a
Noise texture as a Bump map l. k Detailing the
interior elements of
10Time to render
the car
After
assigning the materials, well create l A map of the
the scene for rendering, using a classic car-paint material
studio setup with a rear plane and m Use a simple setup m
three-point lighting. The plane will be for the lighting
3D Art & Design 229

Animation
Get to grips with 3D animation with these
practical step-by-step guides
232 Learn to animate a
bouncing ball 240
The essential first steps of animation
236 Realistic character rigging

The creation of a joint structure for a
biped character
240 Learn to animate a walk cycle

Take the basics of 3D animation a few
steps further
244 Animate a character

lifting weights
Add realism to your animations
248 How to animate a jump

Make your animation move from point
A to point B in style
252 Animate action moves

Put all you've learnt into action with a
540-degree tornado kick!
252
230 3D Art & Design

236
Joint placement is
the most important part
of creating a rig
3D Art & Design 231

Animation
Maya scene les

Video reference
Final animation render
Learn to animate a
bouncing ball
Jahirul Amin guides us through the essential first
steps of animation: the bouncing ball
T
his tutorial is going to be the rst in a initially seem simple but is an invaluable rst step. As with all animation, getting good reference is
series that will take you through the rst The bouncing ball demands an adherence to the essential rst step. Watch how diferent kinds
steps of animating in CG. Well be using some of the key principles of animation, namely of balls drop and bounce, compare the behaviour
Maya but the same principles and techniques can timing, spacing, weight, squash and stretch. of the diferent balls and see Newtons laws of
easily be transferred to whichever package you Also, the motion created by the ball may be motion in action. Record the balls bouncing watch
prefer. To begin, well focus on setting foundations: seen as a somewhat primitive precursor to a them on repeat. You can then take your footage
introducing tools such as the Graph Editor, Dope moving character, making the bouncing ball into the fabulous and utterly free and open source
Sheet and Motion Trails. Well then go through a exercise a useful preparation for a walk cycle. Kinovea (www.kinovea.org), break it down and
workow, using these tools to animate a ball. Finally, the exercise will help you get used to some draw over it to get a feeling for the key poses,
The main outcome of this rst tutorial is an of the animation tools in Maya such as those timing, spacing, the way the balls lose energy and
animated bouncing ball. Its an exercise that may mentioned above. so on.
232 3D Art & Design

Learn to animate a bouncing ball
Use Newtons Laws of Motion

for animating CG
An object at rest will stay at rest and a moving object will keep
B
on moving in the same direction and at the same speed, unless
something comes along to change that uniformity. F= ma, or in
other words, when a force acts on a mass, acceleration is
produced. The degree of that acceleration will depend rst on
Its essential to note that while observing that are created. Having smooth, clean arcs
the magnitude of the force that hits the object, and second on
reality is vital, its not absolute reality that adds uidity and keeps things moving as the mass of the object being hit. For every action there is an
youll need to re-create in CG. Bizarrely, a naturally as possible. equal and opposite reaction.
totally faithful mimicry of reality actually As mentioned before, one of the tools
looks unreal. Youll need to push the poses, that youll meet during the next ten steps is
as whats imperative is that the movement the Graph Editor. This tool is a visual
looks and feels right, not that its representation of each keyed attribute and d
mathematically correct. the interpolation between keyframes, and
I personally nd that before beginning to though it may at rst seem intimidatingly
animate in CG, planning on paper really complex, get to know it and itll be your
helps. The organic nature of paper and best friend for life. The Graph Editor enables
pencil lends you complete freedom to plan you to do a million and one things from
and explore ideas. The rig, however well shifting keyframes to cleaning up motion-
created, will always be something that you capture data. It enables you to do these
will have to work around to maximise its tasks in often the most efcient way
potential. However, this can feel like a possible, so its well worth getting past its
restriction on your creative freedom. perhaps distractingly technical appearance
Then its time to take it all into Maya or to nd its inner charm.
your preferred package and get animating A second tool well look at is the Dope Let the balls bounce!
in CG. Regarding a general approach to Sheet, which would be called the Exposure
animating, I like to rst block in the Golden
Poses, making sure that the poses are clear
Sheet in 2D. Its a device for shifting keys
around to rework timing so it comes in very 01Animation preferences Open up
the scene le bb_start.ma and go to
and readable for the audience. I then move handy when blocking out a shot. Window>Settings/Preferences>Preferences.
on to getting the timing right. Finally I rene For this exercise Ive provided a ball rig. In the Preferences panel highlight Settings
it again and again. Its pretty simple, but youll nd it will be and change the Time to PAL (25 fps). I work A A nal render of
As this exercise uses a ball, rather than a able to do what you need it to do. Theres primarily in PAL but you will need to adjust the ball bouncing
character with arms and legs, well break no sense complicating a rig; it needs to be your settings in accordance with your
B Arcs are beautiful,
down the process into rst working on the t for purpose. I recommend having a quick regional requirements. Next highlight so try as much as
translation of the ball, then the rotation, and play around with the rig to get comfortable Animation and change the Default in tangent you can to
lastly adding squash and stretch. Squash with it before beginning the exercise. and Default out tangent both to Spline. Next incorporate them
highlight Time Slider and change the into your work
and stretch, by the way, is something that As a last point before we get going, I
can be overused; it is important that the would really advise you get feedback on Playback Speed to Real-time [25 fps]. When C A screenshot of
audience feels it as opposed to actually how your animation is looking throughout changing your animation time units, you will my referencing
nd that Maya will either compress or process using the
seeing it. the process. A fresh pair of eyes can help free Kinovea
To animate the bouncing ball, were going you to identify areas that may need expand your current Playback Range, hence
to keep our animation curves in Spline reworking. If no fresh eyes are available, the importance of checking these settings D Make sure your
mode, though Clamped is also ne. The leave your work for a while, refresh your before you start animating. Set the Start ball animation
preferences are
reason for this is that we need to see the own eyes, and then compare your work Time of your Playback Range to 1 and the End set accordingly as
transitions from pose to pose and the arcs again with your all-important reference. Time to 80 D. your rst priority
3D Art & Design 233

Animation
02 Set the keys When setting the

keys its important rst to move
to your desired frame, move/rotate the
object and then set the key. To set a key,
you can hit S on your keyboard. This will put
a key on all the attributes in your Channel
Box as well as a notch on the Timeline.
There may also be occasions where we
would only like to key specic channels. To
do this, we can highlight an attribute in the h
Channel Box, Ctrl/right-click it and pick Key
Selected. We can also key all the Translate
attributes solely together by hitting Editors>Graph Editor. Navigation in the timing. You can move keys on individual
Shift+W. The same works for Shift+E for Graph Editor is the same as in the 3D channels as well as globally by editing the
the Rotate channels and Shift+R for the Viewports. Use Opt/Alt and the third top-most notch. By holding a Ctrl/
Scale channels E. mouse button to pan, then hit Opt/Alt right-click over a key, we have another heap
again and Ctrl/right-click to zoom in and of editing options such as Copy, Cut and
03 Playback settings Now, on the

bottom-left of the screen, you will
see the Playback controls. I nd it more
out. On the left you will see the object you
currently have selected and all the channels
that have keys on them. Running up the
Paste. To save you having to drop down to
the Timeline to play or scrub through your
animation, you can hold down K and drag in
efcient to use shortcuts, so here are some vertical we have the value of the attributes, both the Dope Sheet and the Graph Editor
E Setting keys on all useful ones. To play your animation you can while the horizontal displays the time. Make for playback H.
the individual hit Opt/Alt+V. If you place your mouse sure you have the Move tool activated and
channels enables
you to have less
pointer in the Viewport, you can also scrub
through the Timeline by holding down the
select a key. By clicking the third mouse
button and dragging you can reposition that
Even timing
clutter in the
Graph Editor K key on the keyboard and click-and- key in both value and time. You will also When blocking out a shot, I always
dragging in the Viewport. Holding down notice that two tangent handles are time out the poses in multiples of two
F The Playback frames. This enables me to have the
controls are as Opt/Alt and pressing the comma or editable for each key, enabling you to easily ability to go in and add a breakdown
youd expect, but full-stop on the keyboard will also enable control the spacing and behaviour of the pose bang in the middle of my two key
try to use the you to scrub frame by frame. Another movement while preserving your timing G. poses. For example, key-pose 1 will be
shortcuts to be on frame 1 and key-pose 2 will be on
more efcient useful shortcut is to go from keyframe to
05
keyframe. To do this, make sure the object The Dope Sheet Open up the frame 17. They are 16 frames apart so I
G The Graph Editor can go in and add a breakdown pose at
has some keys on it and press the comma Dope Sheet by going to Window> frame 9. We can then go in and add
will be your best
friend, so get used
or full-stop on your keyboard F. Animation Editors>Dope Sheet. Again, two further poses between frames 1
to using it navigating in here is the same as the Graph and 9 (frame 5) and frame 9 and 17
04 The Graph Editor For this stage Editor and the 3D Viewports. With the (frame 13). When it gets to the nal
H For a quick tool to clean-up of the animation, the timing
its essential that you have a third Move tool activated, you can highlight any may alter, but I nd this a good start to
shufe around
your keys, use the mouse button enabled. To open up the of the keys, and with the third (or middle) the initial blocking stage.
Dope Sheet Graph Editor, go to Window>Animation mouse button drag them to rework the
234 3D Art & Design

Learn to animate a bouncing ball
i
For this j
exercise Ive
provided a ball
rig. Its pretty
simple, but
k
youll find it will
be able to do
what you need
it to do
06 Lets Get Bouncing! Begin by

making sure there are no keys on
the ball. If there are, you can either delete
able to see how this curve relates to our
keyframes in the Viewport J.
translate the ball over in the X and set
another key. Play back the animation to
check that you are happy with the distance
them in the Graph Editor or hold down Shift
and drag in the Timeline to create a red
selection window. You can then hold down
08 Apply weight In the Graph
Editor, select all the keys on the
curve and go to Keys>Free Tangent Weight.
it travels. To add rotation, using the same
control rotate the ball in the Z axis. For the
rst few bounces, I know that I will be
a Ctrl/right-click and pick Delete. Well start Next select all the keys where the ball hits adding a small amount of squash and
by working on the up and down movement the ground and go to Keys>Break Tangents. stretch later so I make sure that the ball
of the ball. Go to frame 1 and translate the This will enable us to manipulate one side lands on its poles. This enables me to get
BALL_Move_Rotate_Ctrl around four units of the tangents without afecting the other. clean deformation without the texture
up in the Y channel. Highlight the Translate Now edit the shape of the curve, so as we stretching in an odd manner. You can also
Y in the Channel Box and key just that approach the frame where the ball makes add some subtle roll back on the ball so
channel. Then go to frame 13 and put a contact, we get a sharper drop. By doing that it feels slightly more natural l.
value of 0 in the Translate Y I. this we are changing the spacing to give us
07 Include more bounces Next

move to frame 23 and translate the
more weight and impact, and our mountain
range now looks more like the Loch Ness
Monster. You can also create a motion trail
10 Squash and stretch Reveal
the Ball_SandS_ctrl_layer to
make the Squash and Stretch controls
I Add the rst two
poses for our
bounce animation
ball up in the Y channel to a value of 2.3 to check your arcs: select the BALL_Move_ selectable. Add some squash on the rst J This curve shows
and back to 0 at frame 33. Continue to do Rotate_Ctrl and go to Animate>Create few contact poses by pushing and pulling the result of our
this until you have quite a few bounces. For Motion Trail (Options), set the Time range the controls either side of the ball. key settings
each bounce, I make sure that it takes the to Time Slider and the Draw style to Line. If Remember not to go too wild with this as it K Add more impact
same amount of frames to go up as it does youre using Maya 2012 or 2013, you can can be easily overdone. Then go through by editing the
to come down. This will provide bounces also use the Editable Motion Trails tool, and add some stretch as the ball goes in diferent tangents
that are even and arcs that are clean. I also which is like having the Graph Editor in the and out of the contact poses. When the l Apply some
reduce the amount of frames that it takes 3D Viewport K. ball is at the apex of each bounce, there rotation and alter
for each bounce by two, to give the feeling should be no squash and stretch acting the motion trails to
09
view the arcs
that upon each contact the ball is losing Include rotation Lets now get upon it, so make sure the controls all have
energy. When you have all your bounces, this ball moving in the horizontal a value of zero at this point. As the ball m Some subtle
your animation will look pretty weightless. axis as well as adding some rotation to it. stretches, you also want to make sure that squash and stretch
If you open up the Graph Editor youll see Go to frame 1 and set a key on the Translate it is doing it along the arc. Use the can always add
more to your
that the curve looks a little like the Alps X channel for BALL_Move_Rotate_Ctrl. Go BALL_SandS_Rotate_Ctrl to help orient animation when
mountain range, but you should also be to the last frame of your animation, the controls to do this m. its required
3D Art & Design 235

Animation
You will nd a host of scene les

as well as two videos
Realistic character
rigging In this tutorial we will cover the creation
of a joint structure for a biped character and
its importance in getting good deformation
J
oint placement is the most end of the ten steps, you will be able to les provided, there is a skeletal structure
important part of creating a rig. The create skeleton structures for any realistic that has been placed within the body to
majority of a characters deformation biped character, though the concepts can help position the joints, which is a
comes from the translation and orientation easily be transferred to other types of technique that is very useful, whether
of joints, so without good joint placement, characters such as quadrupeds or more rigging realistic or cartoon characters.
a A rendered image you could be setting yourself up for hard cartoon-like characters. At the outset planning is essential, so its
of a series of work later on in the form of shape xers to When considering realistic characters, a good idea to take front and side images of
poses using the
nal rig remedy local problems. The idea is that the its vital that our rigs are based on anatomy; your model and sketch over them. Think
better your joint placement, the simpler, we are trying to replicate the articulation of about the following questions: How many
b A draw-over to cleaner and more efective the whole the human body, so anatomical reference is joints are there? Where should they go?
help gure out
process becomes. the key to believability. There may be What kind of spine do you need? Will you
where to place the
diferent joints This tutorial will explain how to create occasions where we stray away from the need any shot-specic rigs? Be as thorough
the skeleton for a biped character. We will reference for example, we will reduce the at this stage as you can.
c The rig in a quick mainly be focusing on joint placement, but number of joints in the spine the reason For this particular example well be
pose using IK
handles to keep throughout the process we will be adhering for this is to simplify wherever possible, creating what is known as a broken
the feet planted to some key rigging principles. So by the without sacricing credibility. In the scene hierarchy rig. The body will be divided up
236 3D Art & Design

Realistic character rigging
Add twist joints?

2/3 x neck
2 x thoracic
joints
2 x lumber joints
Broken
hierarchy rig
FK spine
(maybe add an Maybe add
IK spline later) rib joints?
Independent
shoulders
Independent
hips
FK/IK legs
and arms
into segments, namely the torso, neck and help others to read and navigate through Let the rigging commence
head, arms, legs and nally hands. The your scenes more easily. For example, we
body will later be fused together using
orient and point constraints. The reason for
will use the sufx _jnt for all joints and _geo
for all geometry. Although we will, for the 01Create the spine Open up scene le 01_start.ma and, in
the Animation panel, navigate to the Skeleton>Joint Tool. Go
this approach is rst to make the rig more majority of the time, try to stick to these into the side view and create a ve-joint chain that follows the
manageable and more easily editable, guidelines, there will be times when we will curvature of the spine starting from around the belly button.
simply because each part is smaller and have to bend these rules also. One example Rename the joints from the root to the tip, as follows:
separate. Also, by having the ability to turn will be for the positioning of the scapula spine_a_jnt, spine_b_jnt, spine_c_jnt, spine_d_jnt and spine_
the weighting of the orient constraints on joint. As we will want to maintain the end_jnt. Select spine_a_jnt and go to Skeleton>Orient Joints
and of, we can play more freely with the orientation values for this joint, we will (Options), set Orientation to XYZ and Second World Axis to +Z.
behaviour of each segment, which can translate both the parent and the child joint Make sure Orient Child Joints is checked on and hit Apply. Select
produce interesting results. to position it. the spine_end_jnt, go to Skeleton>Orient Joints and set the
Throughout the process we shall be A nal point with respect to joint creation Orientation to None d.
02
setting ourselves some guidelines to is to ensure that joints are drawn in
maintain consistency in the rig. First, it will orthographic (front, side or top) views, but Root and hips Using the Joint tool, create a single joint in
be desirable to have the Rotate Z as the are positioned in all views including the the side view and hit Enter. Rename the joint root_jnt and
forward-driving motion for each joint, using perspective. This technique will help increase its Radius in the Channel box to make it larger. Holding
the Orient Joint tool. By so doing, the achieve correct placement and will also down the V key, point snap the root_jnt to the same position as the
animation curves on the graph editor will be enable joints to be mirrored over more
easily understood by an animator. Second, accurately, saving time later on.
to position the joints, we can translate in X, For this tutorial, we will only be creating
Y and Z for the parent joint of the joint the skeletal structure for the rig. This initial
chain, but for all children joints we will only step can be developed by adding a control
use the Translate X, which is also the length rig with features such as FK/IK blending
of the joint. To rotate the joints, we will use and reverse foot setup, which will make it
Joint Orient in the Attribute Editor in order more suitable for animators. The rst step
to keep the Rotate channels and Translate Y of the tutorial will be to focus on the torso,
and Z at 0, enabling an easy passage back as it is the central and main driving force of
to the creation pose. Last, its advantageous the character and therefore needs to be as
c
to use naming conventions, as these will accurate as we can make it.
3D Art & Design 237

Animation
d A side view spine_a_jnt. Next go back into the Joint tool to make their behaviour consistent to
breakdown
for the spine tool and create a two-joint chain for the the spine. Parent the jaw_a_jnt under
hips. You can point snap the start of this head_jnt f.
04
e Highlight the chain to also begin at the root joint.
independent spine
and torso
Rename the new chain hip_jnt and Arm and clavicle Move into
hip_end_jnt. Using the Orient Joint tool, the front view and create a
f A perspective change the orientation of the hip joint so its four-joint chain starting close to the
and side view of
Positive Z rotation opposes the spine centre of the body, travelling down the
both the neck and
jaw chain rotation. Parent spine_a_jnt and hip_jnt arm to the wrist. Rename the joints: l_
under root_jnt e. shoulder_jnt, l_upper_arm_jnt, l_lower_
g A breakdown of
03
Arm_jnt and l_arm_end_jnt. Use the Joint
the arm and
clavicle chain Neck and head In the side Orient and the Translate X of each joint to h
positioned using view, create a ve-joint chain for position the arm correctly, making sure to
Joint Orient and the neck and head. Begin the chain by check in all views. Also, in the front view, scapula geometry. Parent the l_scapula_jnt
Translate X tools
holding down the V key and point create a two-joint clavicle chain using the to l_shoulder_jnt. Now select spine_end_
h The scapula joints snapping to the spine_end_jnt. You geometry as a guide. Rename the joints: jnt and duplicate it twice. With both
in position should draw three joints for the neck, one l_clavicle_jnt and l_clavicle_end_jnt. selected, hit Shift+P to bring them out from
for the head and an end joint. Rename the Once both chains have been positioned, their current hierarchy. Rename the two
i Checking the
consistent joints from root to tip: neck_a_jnt, make sure to set the Orientation to XYZ joints l_shoulder_root_jnt and r_shoulder_
behaviour in the neck_b_jnt, neck_c_jnt, head_jnt and with a Second World Axis of +Z in the root_jnt h.
orientation of the
06
head_end_jnt. Again, in the side view, Orient Joint tool. Select the l_arm_end_jnt
leg joints
create a three-joint chain for the jaw. and set its Orientation to None using the Leg joints In the side view, create
j Creating the Rename these joints: jaw_a_jnt, jaw_b_ same tool g. a ve-joint chain starting at the
05
nger joints jnt and jaw_end_jnt. Use the Orient Joint femur bone and ending at the tip of the
Shape the scapula Select toes. Rename the joints as follows: l_
Avoiding Gimbal Lock the l_shoulder_jnt and duplicate
it. Translate it back slightly onto the
upper_leg_jnt, l_lower_leg_jnt, l_ankle_
jnt, l_ball_jnt and l_toes_jnt. Move into
Gimbal Lock is the result of two axes sitting on top of each other scapula geometry and delete the elbow the perspective view and move the l_
and therefore both producing a similar rotational result. To see
the efects of this, double-click the Rotate tool to open up its joint on that new chain. You should now be upper_leg_jnt into place. Again, using the
settings and change the Rotate Mode to Gimbal. Select the l_ left with a two-joint chain. Rename them Translate X and the Joint Orient of each
upper_arm_jnt and rotate it in negative Y. You will nd that the Z l_scapula_jnt and l_scapula_end_jnt. For joint, translate and orient the joints into
and X axes overlap as we have gone into Gimbal Lock. With the the scapula, we want to leave the position using the skeleton as a guide.
l_upper_arm selected, go into the Attribute Editor and change orientation as it is so we can drive it using Select l_upper_leg_jnt and use Skeleton>
the Rotate Order to ZXY. Orient the arm again and you will nd
that you no longer hit Gimbal Lock using the Rotate Y. the l_shoulder_jnt. To position it, just Orient Joints with the Orientation set to
translate both joints to sit within the XYZ and the Second World Axis set to +Z.
238 3D Art & Design

Realistic character rigging
k Component By
Cleaning up the rig Type and Local
Rotation Axes
Its important that should anyone else need to continue with the
rig that they are able to understand how things have been l The Mirror Joint
structured and set up. I like to create groups for each section of settings used
my rigs. For example, we could group together root_jnt and m The weighting
neck_const_jnt and call that group torso_rig_grp. We could for the orient
also select both leg chains and group them together, calling that constraints k
group leg_rig_grp. We could then take these new groups and
group them all under one group and call that rig_grp.
l m
Select the l_toes_jnt and use the tool again, only this time set come out of Component mode. Now In the Outliner select l_arm_end_jnt,
Orientation to None i. parent all the nger and thumb _a joints to Cmd/Ctrl-click l_hand_const_jnt and then
07
l_hand_jnt k. go to Constrain>Point then Constrain>
09
Hands and ngers Select the l_arm_jnt and duplicate Orient. Next select l_shoulder_root_jnt,
it. Un-parent it from its current hierarchy and rename it: Mirror the joints Select l_ duplicate it and delete all the children.
l_hand_geo. Duplicate l_hand_geo and use Translate X to slide it upper_leg_jnt and go Rename the joint l_shoulder_const_jnt.
towards the end of the palm. Rename the duplicated joint: l_hand_ Skeleton>Mirror Joints (Options). Set Parent l_shoulder_root_jnt under l_
end_jnt and parent it under l_hand_jnt. Go into the top view and Mirror across to YZ, set Mirror Function to shoulder_const_jnt. Select spine_end_jnt,
draw a ve-joint chain along the pinky nger. Rename the joints: l_ Behaviour, search for: l_ and replace with: r_ Cmd/Ctrl-click l_shoulder_const_jnt, go to
pinky_a_jnt, l_pinky_b_jnt, l_pinky_c_jnt, l_pinky_d_jnt and l_ then hit Apply. Repeat this step for l_ Constrain>Point and then Constrain>
pinky_end_jnt. Use the methods mentioned earlier, position and shoulder_jnt, l_clavicle_jnt and l_hand_jnt. Orient. For the leg, select l_upper_leg_jnt
orient the joints into place. Once the pinky nger is done, duplicate Parent l_shoulder_jnt and l_clavicle_jnt and duplicate it twice.
it and replace the word pinky with ring. Again, position and orient under l_shoulders_root_jnt. Do the same Delete all the children in both new joint
the joints to sit in the ring nger geometry. Do this for all the for the right shoulder. Select neck_a_jnt chains to leave two single joints. Rename
remaining ngers j. and duplicate it. Delete all the child joints them l_hip_jnt and l_upper_leg_const_
08
and rename the single joint neck_const_ jnt. Parent l_hip_jnt under hip_jnt. Parent
Thumbs In the top view, draw a four-joint chain jnt. Parent neck_a_jnt under neck_const_ l_upper_leg_jnt under l_upper_leg_const_
along the thumb and rename the joints. Position and jnt. In the Outliner, select spine_end_jnt, hit jnt. Select l_hip_jnt, Cmd/Ctrl-click l_
orient the joint into place. To curl the thumb inwards using only the Cmd/Ctrl, select neck_const_jnt, go to upper_leg_const_jnt, go to Constrain>
Rotate Z, we will manually edit its orientation. In the Status Line Constrain>Point then Constrain>Orient. Point and then Constrain>Orient. Make the
toolbar, click the Select By Component Type button. Then Ctrl/ Now select l_hand_jnt and duplicate it. exact same alterations for the right-hand
right-click over the question mark icon (select miscellaneous Delete all of its children and rename that side of the rig. Finally parent the skeleton
components) and check Local Rotation Axes. You can now select single joint l_hand_const_jnt l. geometry to its relevant joint. Give
10
the thumb joints and, using the Rotate tool, orient the joints everything a last check over to ensure
manually. When you are happy with how the thumb rotates Constraints continued Parent everything is correct, then you should be
using only the Z axis, click the Select By Object Type button to l_hand_jnt under l_hand_const_jnt. ready to test out the rig m.
3D Art & Design 239

Animation
Maya scene les

Video reference
Image reference
A
Learn to animate
a walk cycle
Jahirul Amin guides us through the creation of a walk cycle
in Maya, although the principles apply to other software, too
T
his time, were going to create a walk be focusing on timing, spacing, weight shift, drag Moreover, I suppose because we are used to
cycle. Well be using the principles of and overlap. All the principles of animation seeing people walk every day, a clunky walk cycle
animation that we looked at in the bouncing identied by the Disney masters in the Thirties will sticks out like a sore thumb.
ball animation exercise, and take them a few steps be in action here, which is why the walk cycle is So in order to get it right, as ever, the rst step is
further no pun intended. Once again, were going such a valuable exercise to learn well. to gather good reference. Watch people walk;
to be using Maya, but obviously feel free to use The creation of a walk cycle may seem relatively watch kids toddle, the elderly hobble; watch skinny
whichever software package suits you best. simple but its deceptively tricky. We have many of legs stride and watch stout legs waddle. Walk
Last time we met the Graph Editor and in this the same issues that we faced with the bouncing around the house yourself. Work out how many
exercise itll be our main tool. We also used motion ball here too, but now we have to contend with frames are needed to take a step. Get a feeling for
trails and theyll be used here to check for arcs and limbs, a head and a neck. How all these parts work which parts of the body are leading and which are
gure of eights at diferent points of the body. Well together as a single unit is of huge importance. following (for instance, the arms will follow the
240 3D Art & Design

Learn to animate a walk cycle
movement of the torso). Gauge how and
when weight is transferred from one leg to
another. Look for the subtle details such as
the slight bob of the head, as these small
points add such depth to the nished piece.
For this exercise we have kindly been
given permission to use reference material
from Endless Reference (www.
endlessreference.com), which is a treasure
trove of reference for animators to work
from. As with the bouncing ball exercise,
weve taken the footage into Kinovea
(www.kinovea.org) to break down and
analyse. Youll nd a stack of videos and
images that have been supplied with this
bookazines free CD.
When youre studying the references,
look for key poses that can then act as a
guide for your walk cycle. However, please
bear in mind that these poses should be a
guide only and by no means should they be
set in stone. Reference cannot be followed
100 per cent, as the camera is only a
representation of the real world. You may
B
nd that the poses will need to be pushed
further in order to produce a walk that
actually looks natural or that is
aesthetically pleasing. As an animator,
you have to go in there, make your
selections and feel whats real behind the
reference. Use your instincts and
experience to set the poses.
Moving on to the process more directly,
so as to simplify working from reference,
weve taken a few images from Kinovea into
Maya and used them as a backplate. In
doing so, there is no need to switch back
and forth between two diferent
applications, which makes life easier.
Well be using pose-to-pose animation,
although if you prefer to go straight into
Spline mode then do whatever suits you.
Its really important to make your work as
organic as possible in order to keep things
interesting. Either way, well be working to
ensure that each pose is clearly readable.
Additionally, well want to bring contrast C
and change to every pose, because if poses
are held the result can be a jarring staccato frame to get your curves moving well. For Again, we will be working in PAL (25
efect. Think about whats leading and example, well be using IK for the legs to frames per second) and as were operating
whats following the poses should be set keep them planted on the oor, but the pose to pose well also set the Default Out
working from the root outwards, as disadvantage of IK is that it works in a linear tangents to Stepped. You will nd this
whatever you alter in the root will afect the fashion from A to B, so no arc is created. As setting under the Tangents tab in the
rest of the body. a result, theres no choice but to go in frame Animation category. This will hold each
Once your poses are in place, you can by frame and create some arcs. Fear not, pose until we hit the next key without any A A nal render of
the contact pose
move on to splining the keys and going though, the arms will be easier: well use interpolation between. Throughout the from three
through the rening process. Again, rening forward kinematics, which uses rotation, to process make sure the arms are in FK mode diferent views
will have to be from the root outwards. create some natural arcs. As you rene, and the legs are in IK mode. For this walk
Please dont leave the computer to decide dont be too precious about making cycle every step will take 12 frames, making B Analysing your
reference is the
how its going to transition from pose to changes; sometimes you can delete whole the full loop 24 frames. essential rst step
pose, as the result will be poppy and lack sections and re-work them to produce For this tutorial were using BoxBoy,
weight. Youre going to have to go in there some delectably clean arcs. rather than an enveloped mesh, to enable C A screengrab of all
the key poses
and manually rene each curve. There may Before beginning the animation, be sure us to see more easily how each body part created for the
be times when you need to work frame by to check your Animation Preferences. moves independently. nal animation
3D Art & Design 241

Animation
beneath the body, straightened up, and the

Walk this way bodys weight should shift onto the side of
this supporting leg as well as slightly moving
01Bring in the reference Open up

the supplied scene le: 00_
up. Have the back leg coming through and
add some drag in the toes, using the Toe G
boxBoyRig.ma and lets begin by bringing in Wiggle attribute on the foot control.
our reference. Go to the Panel bar on the Straighten up the spine as well as the hips
Viewport and create a new camera by going and shoulder. This will give a nice contrast
to Panels>Orthographic>New>Side. In the going from the C-shaped spine in the
new cameras Panel bar go to View>Image contact poses to the straight spine in these
Plane>Import Image and select frame1.jpg passing poses. Next rotate the arms down
from the Source Images folder. Next go to to the side, working from the shoulder down
the Attribute Editor for the camera and to the hands. Once happy, create the
scroll to the imagePlane1 tab. For Display, mirrored pose at frame 19 F.
check Looking Through Camera. Go down
to Image Plane and check Attached To
Camera and then turn on Use Image 04Add a down pose Go to frame 4
for the down position. Have the
H
Sequence. Translate the camera out of the hips go down as the weight is taken onto the
way from the main action and split your leg and make sure the forward foot is at on
layout into two panes side by side, enabling the oor. Use the Roll attribute on the back
you to work with your reference D. foot to bring it onto its toe ready to come of
the ground. Add more drag to the hands as
02Contact pose For the contact

pose ensure the hips are evenly
they try to catch up with the rest of the arm.
Use the reference images as a guide but
spaced between the legs. To translate the push this further if you wish to do a more
hips use the root_ctrl and to rotate them exaggerated walk. Again, we need to mirror
use just the hip_ik_ctrl. For the front leg use the pose at frame 16 G.
the Roll attribute on the leg_ik_ctrl to roll
Playblast away!
05
the front foot onto its heel. Use the same Move to an up pose Step to D Taking reference
directly into Maya
attribute on the back leg to rotate the foot frame 10, translate the root slightly Playing back your animation in the can be more
onto its ball. Slightly rotate both feet up and add some roll to the back foot. Dont Viewport is never the best way to efcient than not
outwards so they dont end up doing the push the root up too much here as it can check for timing. Depending on how
march of the penguins, and add rotation to look forced and unnatural. We dont lift too heavy the scene is, it may play too slow E An illustration
or too fast. A Playblast will create a highlighting the
the hips to favour the forward leg. Work much of the ground but again this will be quick video of your animation, enabling areas of focus
your way up the spine to get the angle of the down to your personal taste. Add some you to view it at the correct speed.
shoulders contrasting with the hips. Add the rotation to the hips to favour the forward- Throughout the animation process, F Notice the weight
from blocking to the nal polishing shifting to the
swing of the arms to oppose the legs and moving leg and do the opposite in the supporting leg
indicate the efects of drag and overlap in shoulders to get that contrast. Add some pass, its vital that you Playblast your
animation often. To do so, hold the right G The weight comes
the hands. Create this pose at frame 1 and drag to the toes of the forward-moving foot, mouse button over the timeline and down as the foot
25 and create its opposite at frame 13 E. then create its opposite pose at frame 22. click on Playblast. You can also bring up catches the body
Make sure we only have 24 frames on the the Frame Count to give you an
03Use a passing pose Now move timeline now as frames 1 and 25 should be indication of the Viewport playback H The back leg
speed. To do so, go to Display>Heads moves forward,
to frame 7 to create the rst passing identical. We dont want to view the same Up Display>Frame Count. ready to get into
pose. The front leg should now be directly frame twice as we play back H. the contact pose
242 3D Art & Design

Learn to animate a walk cycle
a constant speed. This is to help reduce the
through and delete any curves that have no
slipping and sliding of the foot should we
inuence whatsoever. These will be the
end up moving this character through space
curves that are totally straight I.
as opposed to on the spot. Again, use
07Rene from the root Go to motion trails to create decent arcs and if you
Window>Settings/Preferences> have to, go in and animate frame by frame
Preferences and highlight Animation in the to do so. The legs can be the trickiest part to
left column. Go to the Tangents tab and get right. Make sure that you spend time
change the Default Out tangents to either here to iron out any severe popping and get
Spline or Auto. Whenever we add a new key the co-ordination between the hips and the
now we will get the interpolation in the legs right K.
curves. Now we start rening and again
well start at the core and work our way out.
Use your Graph Editor as much as possible 09Work up to the spine Getting
the spine to work well shouldnt
from now on and massage each curve. We take too long. We mainly want to focus on
want to end up with hips that create a gure getting the movement clean without any
of eight as the bodys weight shifts from one jerkiness. Take out the majority of the key
leg to the other. At this stage you should use frames that are not adding too much and
motion curves as much as possible. Select really smooth out the curves. Also add
the hip_ik_ctrl, go to Animate>Create some twist to oppose the hips and gradually
I
Editable Motion Trail and use it as an increase the amount of twist to propagate
accurate guide to create transition from one up the spine. Moving to the neck and head,
J leg to the other J. add delay to these parts so they feel as if
they are always playing catch up. An easy
08Move down to the legs

Currently for the legs it takes
way to do this is to take the keys for the
neck and head and shift them back two
four frames to have the foot completely at. frames. Select the keys for the head and
To add more impact and weight, take the shift them back a further two frames L.
Roll attribute to 0, two frames after the
contact pose. Also add some delay in the
toes to slap down around a frame later. 10Adjust arms and hands Start the
rening process from the shoulder
While the foot is at on the oor, its also and work your way to the hands. Select the
important to make sure it translates back at controls and create the motion trails to help
you make those arcs that naturally occur as
06Step on to spline Select all the
control curves in the Viewport and
we rotate our joints. Add some subtle
movement to the ngers so they dont feel
open up the Graph Editor. Go to View and
rigid. Shift keys back to add delay to the
turn on Innity. Select all the curves in the
lower arm and the palm. This makes the
Graph Editor and go to Tangents>Spline.
walk more uid and less mechanical. From
With the curves still selected, go to Curves>
this point its a case of going through again
Pre Innity>Cycle and Curves>Post
with a nal level of polish. Check each curve
Innity>Cycle. If you hit Play now, your
for every control and ensure the transition in
animation may look pretty oaty and also
and out is smooth. This will reduce any
have quite a bit of popping happening. If you
popping as the cycle loops. Finally, the basic
look at the tangents of your curves as they
backbone of a generic walk should be there
come in and go out at frames 1 and 25,
so try giving it some personality M.
youll notice that they can be pretty sharp in
places. This will all need to be smoothed out
L
by editing the tangent handles to enable the
loop to work smoothly. You can also go
Getting personal
By the end of the tutorial you should
have a fairly generic vanilla walk. From K
here, you can start adding in some
personality, because as Samuel L.
Jackson would say: Personality goes a I Cleaning and rening the L Try to get the shoulder to
curves will give us much oppose the hips to give you
M
long way. See what happens if you
bring the feet up higher on the up pose. smoother results plenty of contrast
Does it make the character feel
angrier? What happens if you reduce J Focus on getting the arcs and M Capture the natural arcs that
gures of eight occur in the human body
the swing on the arms and rotate the
head lower? Does he seem depressed? K From the contact to the roll of
Go ahead: experiment a little and make the ground, try to make the
your walk a Royale with Cheese! speed constant
3D Art & Design 243

Animation
Maya scene les

Image and video references
Animate a character
lifting weights
Jahirul Amin helps us add realism to animations frames in order to help transitions from
pose to pose and to add subtle detail. This
in Maya, although any software can be used is something that the computer cannot
achieve by itself. This is simply the way the
I
n this tutorial, were going to be looking at how to First well consider the physics behind what were exercise is approached here, however. Its
create a believable interplay between a character trying to achieve. Well look at the centre of gravity of by no means the only way to skin this
and a heavy object, to convey a sense of weight. an object and a character and see how the latter shifts particular cat, so please nd your own
Our character is going to lift a heavy ball from the oor during their interplay. Well also revisit Newtons Third preferred way and try diferent methods.
and place it on a plinth. Not an everyday activity, I grant Law of Motion, which states that every action has an The centre of gravity, as youll all
you, but if you want any character to interact with its equal and opposite reaction. Well then as ever remember from school, is the average
environment open a door, make a cup of tea, then sit move to the essential step of gathering and analysing position of weight distribution in an object
down and read a copy of your favourite magazine good references. After that itll be time to block out the or character. In this exercise the balls centre
youre going to have to be able to master the ne art of key poses. of gravity will be its geometric centre, while
animating weight. Here well be using Maya, but the Sorry to disappoint, but we wont be seeing too the centre of gravity for our friend Box Boy
same techniques can be transferred to a 3D package of much of the Graph Editor this tutorial as by the end of at the beginning of the animation when
your choice, so youre not conned to one program. the animation well have keyed in poses every 2-4 hes standing upright will be around the
244 3D Art & Design

Animate a character lifting weights
As we get into the animation process,
consider the crucial roles of spacing and
timing when creating the illusion of weight.
In lifting a ping-pong ball, spacing would be
large and timing fast, as the efort is
negligible. In this exercise, to create a sense
of weight, the precise reverse will be true.
Spacing will be tight and timing slow. Keep
weight consistent as the ball travels
upwards or the illusion will be broken.
Carefully consider how youre going to
approach the animation before you begin.
Will you constrain the ball to the hands or
vice versa? We need to determine what is
leading and what is following. In reality the
ball will be following the hands but
technically it would be easier to constrain
the hands to the ball. As we want the
freedom to have the hands to be on and of
the ball and dont want to be faced with
the hassle of setting keys on the extra
attributes for the constraints well simply
parent two locators to either side of the ball
and point-snap the IK hand controls.
Break up the motion as you animate, as
b the body doesnt move as one lump mass.
Have the spacing diferent on the hands, for
height of his box belly button. However, as to reproduce his material. It provides invaluable reference and you example, so one hand leads quicker than
Box Boy lifts the ball, the centre of gravity will nd it accompanying this tutorial for your benet. See the the other. Vary the tempo and delay some
shifts but has to remain over his base of subtleties involved in this great exertion: watch the hands shift movement, as this will reduce any twinning
support, otherwise in reality hed fall at on around the ball in search of a strong grip and observe the feet of the poses where the left and right look
his box bottom. So, to get a successful shufing to attain better balance. These small details add such mirrors. Remember to use your references
animation that conveys the lifting of a texture to the nal look. However, always bear in mind reference is as a guide only and push the poses further
heavy weight, we will have to demonstrate a guide rather than a template, as the proportions of the character if you wish to achieve a cartoon-y efect.
an understanding of how the centre of are going to be diferent. Constantly ask yourself if your pose is clear.
gravity travels. This ground work will ensure For this exercise, as in previous tutorials, reference footage was So were ready to start, once the admin is
that we can achieve the most realistic taken into Kinovea and drawn over (please refer to the supplied out of the way. Well be working in PAL
results possible. les). The yellow drawings indicate the key poses that well want to (25fps) and as were beginning pose-to-
We also need to keep Newtons Third make clear throughout the animation and will be part of the rst pose well set the Default Out tangents to
Law of Motion in mind. If every action has pass when blocking out the shot using the pose-to-pose method. Stepped. Also, were going to be putting all
an equal and opposite reaction, then in The red drawings show the breakdown and in-between poses that four limbs in IK mode because itll enable us
order to move a heavy object, the force will then come with the second and third passes with the curves to edit the position of the hips and spine
exerted on the object must be greater than set to Spline. without afecting the hands.
the force exerted by that object. The ball in
our example is very heavy, therefore the c
efort exerted by Box Boy must be seen to
be very great in order to convey that sense
of weight.
Now to the all-important gathering and
analysis of reference. Once you nd solid
reference, watch it over and over again to
get a good feel for the motion of the body
and the mechanics of lifting a heavy weight.
Analyse the arcs in the back and the
wave-like motion that runs from the hips
a Final render of the
and up the spine as the weight moves key poses
upwards. Observe how the weight is taken
not just by the arms, but by the whole body. b Analysing and
drawing over the
Note which parts lead or follow.
reference image
Observing power-lifters is extremely
useful, as those guys really know what c The control rig
theyre doing when it comes to lifting. Rob used throughout
this tutorial, which
Orlando from Hybrid Athletics (www. you are free to
hybridathletics.net) has kindly allowed us experiment with
3D Art & Design 245

Animation
d Take your
references into
Maya to view
e Animating to h
camera enables
you to cheat
f Loosen up the Expect the

character and
make it seem unexpected: using
more relaxed
anticipation
g Consider the Anticipation lets the audience know
centre of gravity of
the character that something is about to happen.
Before a pitcher releases the ball, he
h Think about which pulls his arm back. A car rolls
part is leading or backwards ever so slightly before it
e pulls away. In essence, anticipation
following moves
ensures that your point wont be lost as
the audience will be ready.
Time to get heavy Position it and when you are happy with the
view, lock all the Translate and Rotate
01 Take in the reference Open up

00_start.ma to nd the Box Boy
rig, a sphere, a pillar and a ground plane.
attributes. This will be the view that we will
mainly work with to check our animation
and also do all our playblasts from.
see so lets make sure it has some interest. Start adding in the rst
set of key poses, using the reference as a guide to help with the
timing. Analyse how one hand moves faster than the other and
Put the pillar and ground plane on a layer Although we recommend checking the observe the slight roll of the ball towards the character as he begins
called environment so we can show and poses from every angle, working with a to weigh up the challenge f.
hide them if needed. Go to Panels> camera will also enable us to cheat some
Orthographic>New>Side to create a new
camera and call it referenceCam. With the
camera active, go to View>Image Plane>
things to get stronger silhouettes if needed.
For example, the arm further away from the
viewer is slightly distorted, which was a
04 Move it down As he moves down to get closer to the
ball, think about where his centre of gravity is. Move his
hips out to help his balance and stop him from toppling over.
Import Image and select deliberate move to get a better silhouette. Once you have him at his lowest point, really wrap his body
atlasStonesREF_000.jpg from the Now go to View>Camera Settings and turn around the ball and get the strongest C shape through the spine
referenceImages folder. Under Image Plane on Resolution Gate. This will help you frame that you can. Spread his knees to really bring the ball closer to his
Attributes, edit the Display to Looking your animation as well as make it clearer hips and get both holds rmly below the ball. Remember the
Through Camera and also check Attached what is in and out of the shot e. principles of the bouncing ball exercise and consider this to be the
to Camera. Now translate the reference squashed pose that will nicely contrast the big stretched pose
camera away from the main scene and
have the view as a oating window by going 03 Weight it up Begin by loosening
up the main character and
coming up g.
to Panels>Tear Of d. breaking away from the default T-pose.

Add some weight to the initial stance by 05Move up slightly Before you make Box Boy lift the
weight up, slightly lower him, then begin the up movement,
02 Set up the camera Go to

Create>Camera>Camera and
rename that new camera renderCam.
moving his weight to one side, relaxing the
ngers and adding some curvature to the
spine. This is the rst pose the audience will
leading with the hips, working down the spine and running down
the arms. Keep the ball close to his chest but also straighten the
arms to help sell the weight of the ball and the efort needed to
246 3D Art & Design

Animate a character lifting weights
i k
move it. Were translating both IK hand

controls and the ball together, while setting
keys so as not to cause any oatiness
between them. Having him rest the ball
on his knees will also help to reinforce the
idea that this is a heavy ball. Try to bend the
straighten the legs, slightly lifting them onto
the balls of the feet. Were really using the
entire body now to get this ball up, so we
10 Clean up and nish the animation To keep the hands
rmly on the ball, create two locators and hold down V on
the keyboard, point snapping them to the hand controls wherever
legs as much as possible to again contrast can bring it down onto the pillar. This they need to hold the ball rmly. Parent these locators under the
the straight legs of the approaching should be the pose where the body is at its ball geometry so they follow the ball correctly and then point snap
stretched pose h. most stretched. Were using this broad the hand controls to these locators. This helps reduce the odd
shape, while before we used the small sliding that can occur. When dealing with the hands, try to keep
06 The push of So, with the ball

resting on his legs, we should now
be ready for the nal push. You could also
squashed pose to really add contrast and
texture to the animation. Also, think about
the line of action. Is the pose clear, strong
them fairly close to the ball almost penetrating if need be.
Sometimes its better to penetrate the ball rather than have the
hand slightly oating of it. Last, add some rotation to the ball so it
reorganise his feet slightly to show the and well-dened? j feels as if it is being rolled up the chest with more conviction.
audience that he has to redistribute his Happy animating! m
weight to manage this large mass on his
legs. Once his hands are rmly placed,
again lower the body slightly and really get
08 Add the breakdown poses At
this stage, the timing should be
rmly set and the animation reading well. If i Alternate the
l
his hips under the ball before moving up to not, I recommend you re-jig the poses until arc of the spine to
add contrast
anticipate this big move ahead. Add you are happy, as it will be more difcult to
contrast by switching from the C-shaped make broad changes later. Next, open up j Capture the
spine to a U-shaped spine and begin to use your Animation Preferences and change the wave-like motion
the legs to help lift the ball by straightening Default Out tangent to either Spline or of the body
during the lift
them out i. Auto. Select all the controls, open up the
Graph Editor and convert the Stepped k Convert the
07 Wave motion With the hips curves to Spline or Auto. Now go through interpolation of
your curves from
leading and pushing the ball up, we the entire animation again, adding in the Stepped to Spline
now want to create a wave-like motion breakdown poses. Here you can add further as you add poses in
running up the spine that rolls the ball up as anticipation to the poses if needed and also between
opposed to purely lifting with the arms. start delaying parts of the body k. l Use the tools to
Really arch the spine backwards and check your arcs
Squash and stretch

09 Check your arcs When
checking the arcs, start at the hips
and work your way out, as most of the
m Check to see if
the hand intersects
the ball
As I animate, Im constantly thinking of motion for the entire character will feed of
when to add squash and stretch, as from there. Bear in mind that any changes
wise use of these two concepts adds a we make to the hips will generally have a
great deal of interest to a piece by knock-on efect to the rest of the body. As
varying its form. In this exercise the we are using Inverse Kinematics for both
squash is when the character bends to
pick up the ball. The stretch is when the the arms and the legs, it will be important
ball is at its highest point. In both these to check our arcs, as IK will have a linear
examples, the character isnt physically interpolation from one pose to the next.
squashed or elongated as its not a Also, check the arcs created by the ball
cartoon feel Im after. Both poses form
a nice contrast to the default standing itself and make sure the path of action is
pose by taking the body to its limits. clean. To do this, select a control and go to
m
Animate>Create Editable Motion Trail l.
3D Art & Design 247

Animation
Maya scene les Scripts

Video references Final
render Reference images
How to animate
a jump A giant leap for geek-kind: Jahirul Amin
helps you animate a jump
I
n this tutorial we will be creating a jump animation process using the pose-to-pose method, admin goes, we have very kindly been given
animation. This will involve acquainting so my Default Out tangents are set to Stepped in permission to use and tell you about the fantastic
ourselves further with many of the principles of my Animation Preferences. Third, I have the legs bhGhost onion-skinning tool created by Brian
animation that weve been looking at in recent set to IK to enable us to have the feet planted on Horgan. Please check it out with his other
tutorials. The jump itself will only last a few the oor, but the arms set to FK to take advantage impressive tools at www.graphite9.com.
seconds, but achieving that brief movement in of its naturally occurring arcs. Theres an issue with As usual, at this point in the tutorial, Im going to
CG will necessitate a sensitive and skilled the FK arms, because as we are using rotations at wax lyrical about the beauty and importance of
handling of timing, spacing, weight, drag, overlap, some point we could hit gimbal lock. This is where getting good reference. Unfortunately we werent
moving holds, squash, stretch, anticipation and two axes sit on top of each other, leading us to lose able to reproduce the reference used in this article.
arcs. As a result, its a great exercise to ex your one axis. However, do take a very good look at Eadweard
animation muscles. If you want to do your best to minimise this Muybridges Human And Animal Locomotion (1887)
Before the fun starts we need to go through the sticky situation, get familiar with arm rotation to and there is reference aplenty on the net. During
admin. Im working in 25 frames per second using work out which rotation is going to work best. For this exercise more than any other, I found myself
Maya, although the same techniques apply to any what its worth, Ive set my rotate order as ZXY on getting up out of my chair to replicate the
3D package of choice. Second, I will begin the the upper arm control. Last but not least, as far as movement and jumping across the rug myself.
248 3D Art & Design

Animation
D F
See the forest and

the trees
Getting an animation like this right is a
time-consuming process. Sometimes
you may feel like you havent moved on
very far at all and no forest is visible for
all the darn trees. However, a simple
solution is to save multiple les
throughout the process. This means
youll be able to compare your before
and after shots and perhaps give
yourself some pleasant surprises.
spread apart further either side of the apex

as he pushes of and lands. Delay one leg
and ofset the arms slightly so we dont
have any twinning issues. At this stage you
get a huge C-shape running down the can already start to indicate the efects of
spine, up the neck and head, then swing drag on the ngers and toes as he begins to
the arms out as we prepare to push him of. fall, if you wish F.
For the stretched pose, try to straighten the
leg and start bringing those arms through.
Have the back straighter, as this will
produce a nice contrast to the C-shaped
04 Make a safe landing As he
lands, have him go down as you
would squash the bouncing ball. Really
E squashed pose E. compress his body to take the impact and
push the spine into a strong C shape to
Prepare to lift of
03 The apex & landing Once he is
of the ground and in the air, try to
once more contrast with the previous
stretched pose and its straight spine. Going
01 Loosen things up Open up 00_

start.ma (supplied) to nd the Box
Boy rig and a rough environment. The
think about what is leading and what is
following. Rotate the core (here, the hips)
as you would the bouncing ball and think
from these bigger to smaller shapes and
back again will also add to the appeal of the
animation. Really push these early poses,
environment is in a layer called about how the speed of him reaching the making sure they are as clear as can be.
environment_geo so we can show and apex of the arc should be the same as the Spend time making your poses fully
hide it if needed. Lets create our rst pose speed of him coming back down again. As readable and, if needed, create a playblast
and make the character a little more a result, the spacing should be more and draw over it in Kinovea (www.kinovea.
comfortable. Relax his arms and ngers, bunched at the peak of the jump and org) so you are not restricted by a rig G.
add a slight angle to his hips and oppose
that angle in the shoulders. Move his hips
D Get him a little to rest slightly over one leg and rotate his
more prepared for head so it seems as if he is looking at the
the occasion
gap in front of him. Also, put a slight angle
E The squashed and in his feet and bend in his knees otherwise
stretched poses as theyll feel too tense D.
Box Boy lifts of
F What goes up
must always
come down
02 Create the squash & stretch
poses Now we will create the
rst two of our extreme poses: squashed
G The landing and stretched. Begin with the former by
G
squashed pose really compressing his body down. Try to
250 3D Art & Design

How to animate a jump
H I
05 Rework the timing So far, if we

follow the timing set by our
bouncing ball animation, everything will be
J H Re-time the
animation using
the Graph Editor
L
a bit too fast. Since we are using Stepped I Adding some

mode, we can easily go into the Graph anticipation will
enable the
Motion Trail a vertex
Editor or the Dopesheet and start pushing
audience to
these keys around in order to re-time the prepare for the When we create a Motion Trail on a
shot. When you are all set, select all the action theyre control, we want to make sure that its
about to see creating the trail from the correct place.
curves in the Graph Editor for every control
For example, if we make the trail for the
and go to Tangents>Auto or Spline. Also go J Arcs are hips, it will work ne as we want it to
to Window>Settings/Preferences> stunning as well happen from the controls centre.
Preferences and change the Default Out as naturally However, if we create it on the foot
occurring make control, we dont get the right result. As
tangent to Auto or Spline in the Animation sure you manage we use the Roll attribute on the foot, the
tab. If you hit Play now you may have quite to get them in geometry actually pulls away from the
a at, weightless animation H. control and so the trail is incorrect.
K Hiding parts of Luckily for us a colleague of mine,
the geometry
06 Anticipation & weight Once Constantinos Glynos, has kindly created

can help you
a Python script, CG_VertexMotionTrail_
the main poses are in, we can start focus closely
V2.py (supplied), that will enable you to
adding some anticipation. Place a key create a Motion Trail on a selected
L Use the tools to
between pose A and B, then slightly lift the check your arcs vertex. I like to view the arcs being
character up on the balls of his feet. Have created in places such as the tip of the
him bring his arms up also, ready to swing M Just a small ngers or the end of a toe, so this tool
movement can enables me to do that with more
them back into the extreme, squashed help keep the accuracy and condence.
K
pose. Then, as he lands on the other side of character alive
the jump, push him down further than the
squashed pose and as his hips lift up have to issues in another. Having the ability to the path of action. Also add some drag and overlap to the toes
his spine continue to go down. The hide parts of the geometry can really help as they go through the jump. Then on the land, have them slam
opposing action here will help soften the you focus on the areas that need cleaning down in a couple frames to help bring some weight and impact to
potential rigidity of him standing up as one up. For example, you may want to get the the landing L.
lump mass I. spine working well without viewing how the
07 Arcs, arcs & more arcs

At this stage, we should really start
arms are afected. Then you can unhide the
arms and focus on them, knowing that the
spine is how you want it. If a Hide/Unhide
10 Use moving holds Right now, when our animated
character hits his nal pose, he stops dead. This really
appears very CG, so to reduce this well add a Moving Hold. To do
thinking about getting our arcs as clean as feature is not part of the rig, you can this, copy the same pose another ten frames ahead, then make
possible. Again, well work from the core generally achieve the same efect by some minor changes but try to have the movement ow in the
outwards, as changes to that region will selecting the geometry that you want to direction of the pose before. If the arm is swinging from left screen
have a knock-on efect on all four limbs and hide and go to Create>Sets>Quick Select to right screen, continue that movement from left to right. I have
the torso. Try to mimic the parabola that we Set. You can then easily nd that geometry made this quite subtle, but feel free to experiment and see what
would expect to see on a bouncing ball. To in the Outliner and hit Cmd/Ctrl+H to hide works best for you M.
help with this, select the root_ctrl and go to the pieces. When you want to reveal them
Animate>Create Editable Motion Trail. again, select them from under the set in the
Once you have the hips worked out, move Outliner and hit Shift+H K.
to the feet. As they are set to IK, you will
most probably need to set quite a few more
extra keys to reduce the linear transition
from one key to another. This will be
09 Drag & overlap To make the
jump more uid, lets apply some
drag and overlap. Start by adding some
created by default J. delay to the spine, neck and head. Ofset
each section by a couple of frames and you
08 Focus in on areas
Animating the entire character at
once can sometimes become
should quickly get a more natural-looking
animation. Work your way down the arms
to the hands. For this exercise Ive also
M
overwhelming and xing one area can lead added drag to the ngers so they ow into
3D Art & Design 251

Animation
Tutorial files:
Maya .ma scene files
Video Reference .mov
Final animation render .mov
Reference images to use in Maya
CG_VertexMotionTrail_V2 script
Animate action moves Hong Kong GUI: weve bounced, walked, lifted and jumped,
so lets put it all together in a 540-degree martial-arts kick!
W
rapping up our lessons on obvious addition of limbs not to mention the In previous lessons Ive encouraged you to try
animation (see the previous spin will give us plenty to get our teeth into. the moves youre intending to animate. However,
tutorials for more helpful guides, As ever, the initial work must be devoted to in this case it may not be such a wise idea if
including walk cycles and weightlifting), we reference. There is an abundance of excellent procreation interests you in any way. So in place of
should now feel brave enough to experience reference online, so when you nd some this Ive provided some 2D reference that can be
the creation of an action move. In this case, the examples that you like, make sure you analyse taken into Maya (supplied). This is essentially a
tornado kick. them over and over. Its a very complex move series of loose drawings using a stick man, which
This 540-degree move, practised in and youll need to focus carefully on weight-shift, can mainly be used to gure out your timing.
Taekwondo and other martial arts, sees the the spacing of the feet as they move through the When it comes to the poses, these can be pushed
body at its nest. It is, without doubt, a very air, as well as the natural arcs and ow. further to make the whole piece more dynamic
challenging piece to animate, but itbrings Listen to martial-arts trainers online talking and appealing. In the drawings, the key poses are
together the work that we have already done to about the move: how weight shifts and which in red and the breakdown poses are in green. The
a pretty impressive crescendo. Theres so much parts of the body lead and which follow. I guess images also each have a frame number to help you
here: timing, spacing, anticipation, weight, path youll always be against the clock when work out where to put the initial poses although
of action, arcs you name it! The poses are very animating, but its always worthwhile doing the this rough timing can very likely change.
dynamic and there are opposing tilts between prep, as once youve started the animation Because theres so much going on in this piece,
hips and shoulders, as well as twists in the spine. process, having to go back on yourself is even it becomes imperative that we decide which
We will be using the principles of the bouncing more time-consuming not to mention kinematic mode the limbs will be in, before
ball, which we covered on page 232, so our dispiriting. Make use of free tools such as starting. You should nd arms fairly
timing for this piece can be established using the Kinovea (http://www.kinovea.org) to make straightforward to animate. The hands do not
ball as the hips of this character. However, the your life easier. make contact with anything, but only follow the
252 3D Art & Design

Animate action moves
think opting for IK legs results in less
arduous reworking.
Now lets get the admin out the way so
we can start animating. Ill be working in
PAL (25fps) and as Im animating using the
pose-to-pose method to begin with, Ill set
my Default Out tangents to Stepped.
Kick of!
01Use references Open up 01_

start.ma (supplied) to nd Box Boy
in his default pose. Lets start by bringing in
our reference so we can work alongside it in
Maya. Go to Panels>Orthographic>New>
Front to create a new camera. Call this
referenceCam and in the active viewport
go to View>Image Plane>Import Image and
select frame_01.jpg from the Reference
Images folder that accompanies this
tutorial. Under Image Plane Attributes, edit
the Display to Looking Through Camera
and also check Attached to Camera. Now
translate the reference camera away from
the main scene and set the view as a
oating window by going to Panels>Tear
Of d.
b 02Add key poses Ill now scroll

through the timeline and put in all
the key poses using the red images from
motion of the rest of the body, so forward A third option would be to use FK/IK the reference as a guide. Im mainly looking
kinematics will enable us to use the blending, but if there are no features in the to ensure I put in all the contact poses for
naturally occurring arcs. Your decision rig that enable us to match the positions the feet as they shufe around, to get a
a A nal render
including some of about the legs is harder, however. Your rst and orientations of one mode to another, better balance. Ill also want to make sure
the key poses and last poses have the feet in contact with this could lead to popping. Of course, you
b Its all in the arcs! the oor, which would suggest IK, while the could wing it and do it by eye, but Id advise
fact that the legs often follow the hips against this.
c A further suggests FK. If we opt for IK, well have to My decision is to go IK, as my major
breakdown of the add the natural arcs that are provided priority is to get the feet touching the oor
key poses in the
nal animation bythe FK mode and manually move the without having to counter-animate. The
controls to enable the legs to follow the price of this decision is having to force the
d Pre-planning your rotation of the hips. Whereas if we use FK, arcs and getting the legs to follow the hips,
animation can
save all the well be obliged to counter-animate the even if it means sometimes animating the
guesswork later legs, as any changes to the hips will result in legs frame by frame. You have to weigh up
d
on in the process sometimes undesirable changes to the legs. your own personal pros and cons, but I
3D Art & Design 253

Animation
e
Tools & scripts
I am using the bhGhost tool,
created by Brian Horgan, which can
be found at www.graphite9.com.
This is what I will use to check how
one pose leads into the next
through the blocking stages. To
check the arcs of a selected vertex,
I use CG_VertexMotionTrail_V2.
py (supplied), created by
Constantinos Glynos. By default,
Maya doesnt enable you to
f motion-trail a vertex, but this tool
will do just that.
that they are following the translation and that in my animation I need a few extra
orientation of the hips as the body spins. At frames on each spin, as they occur too fast
this early stage I want to make sure I get and cause some popping especially when
some interesting and strong poses the legs cross for the rst time. To add the
happening, as well as to play with opposing extra frames, I select all the controls and g
lines, such as those created by the hips and open up the Dope Sheet, which you can
shoulders and the reverse C-shape in the nd under Window>Animation Editors. In when the legs are in the air. Be sure to
spine. At this stage, try to consider which the Dope Sheet Summary bar at the top I create motion trails not on the controls,
body part is leading and which will be grab all the keys that I need to move along but on a vertex on the model, such as the
following. Later on we can think about in order to give me the extra frames and ankle or the end of the foot. This will
delaying some body parts to loosen the push them to the right g. create an honest representation of the arc e The many key
move up e. being created by the legs swing. Also, as poses used in this
complex shot
the feet will be pivoting from the toe or the
03 Insert breakdown poses For 05Work from the core Once you
are happy with the timing, select
ball, its important that when this happens
there is no popping. I like to create a locator
f The various
breakdown poses
the second pass through Ill start all the animation controls and convert the to nish the initial
at the point where the foot will pivot from, blocking process
adding in a breakdown pose between each tangents in the Graph Editor from
then use that as a guide to position and
key pose. Adding these poses will enable us Stepped to Auto or Spline mode. As always, g If the animation is
orient the foot. If the foot slides around, we
to better anticipate how the animation will I begin from the core outwards when not clear and
will lose believability in our animation i.
look when we transition from Stepped rening, so my rst port of call will be the readable, look at
retiming what you
tangents to either Spline or Auto. As the hips. For this move Im mainly using the currently have
character is spinning and we are working root_ctrl for translating the character up,
with the legs in IK mode, well also start down and rotating him, then the hip_ik_ctrl h Work from the
core outwards,
creating the arcs that we can then nesse to get some extra rotation in the hips, if
implementing the
later on in the process. Focus on the path of needed. I start by going through and principles applied
action for each limb so they ow from one deleting any keys that are not doing much to a bouncing ball
frame to the other without any sudden for the animation or are adding too much
i Focus in on the
popping. We can also begin to indicate noise. We can then go through and try to arcs and check the
principles such as drag on the hands and mimic the motion and arc we would h movement when
toes, as well as anticipation of the expect to see on a bouncing ball. Also, Box Boy pivots
movements to come f. you can add extra keys if you need to get
the arcs owing well in other areas, as
04Get the timing right Once all

the main poses are in, Ill go
Box Boy shifts his weight about.
Remember, its all in the hips, so getting this
through and create a playblast of the as rened as possible will be crucial for all
animation. My main aim here is to check the other elements h.
that the poses are clear and readable or if
the action is too fast, too slow or possibly
just right. I like to stand back from my 06Adjust the legs & feet In this
move the big arcs will be created
monitor when doing this, as I think it reveals by the legs, so as I am working in IK mode
quite a lot that we just cant see with the for them I will most probably end up setting
screen right in front of us. In doing so, I nd a key on nearly every frame, especially i
254 3D Art & Design

Animate action moves
j
Reference
Some people will sometimes frown
upon the use of reference and will tell
you that a good animator should be
able to work without it. However,
everyone from the early Disney
pioneers to the brains behind Avatar
have used reference. Whether its
photographic reference that you will
draw beside, or mo-cap reference that
you can take into a 3D scene
whatever will get you to your goal in the
most-efcient manner and give you the
best results, do it. Be exible and in the
words of the mighty Bruce Lee: Be like
water, my friend.
07 Animate the spine, neck and make sure the arms hit the pose a few k
head Were starting to work up frames later and also have one arm hit the
the torso, so as all the upper limbs are nal pose a frame or two before the second
children of the spine well start there. arm does l.
Again, begin by cleaning up the curves and
getting rid of any keys that arent helping.
Push the shoulders and hips to really get 10Keep on moving As we hit
the nal frames, well want to keep
some striking poses from the opposing the motion and the character alive. To do
lines. Also, add twist to the torso, orient so, we can employ the technique of using
the chest in one direction, the hips in Moving Holds. For the hips, the upper-
another and the head in a third direction. body and arms, Ill add a small amount of
This will add further interest to the poses motion, continuing through to the nal
and make them more dynamic. Try to delay frame of the animation. Its important to
the neck and head slightly, making sure the keep this motion, moving in the direction l
path of action on the head is smooth and that the body is travelling. The change in
clean as it swings j. movement from the nal pose to the
nal frame may be barely noticeable,
08Work those arms When

dealing with the arms, I like to
but the diference between subtle
movement and no movement can be huge
work on them separately as I can really to the naked eye. Finally, good luck and
ne-tune one arm without the other happy animating! m.
distracting me. I use selection sets to hide
some of the geometry and focus on those
arcs once more. Although the arms will Show & tell
follow the torso, we will still need to go in
I like to focus on a particular aspect
there and clean out some of the poses as without my mind being side-tracked.
they may be jittery in places. Also, make For example, when cleaning up the
sure to edit the spacing, as in some spine, I dont want to look at the arms
instances we will want to ease in and out of or even the legs. To help, I use selection
the key pose to reduce what could be some sets. Simply grab all the geometry that
you want to hide and go to Create>
very quick movement in a small number of Sets>Quick Select Set. By the end of
frames. This applies, for example, when the the animation I have a selection set for
right arm reaches the peak of its move k. each part of the body. To select the
geometry in the set, either go to the
Outliner and open the specic set you
09Add drag & break up the
timing At this stage I want to
want to hide/reveal or go Edit>Quick
Select Set to pick the group.
make the motion as smooth as can be, as
m
well as begin ofsetting some parts so we
dont come to the nal pose and hit it as
j Use contrasting l Add some drag to
one lump. Ill delay the arms by a couple of shapes in the torso the hands and
frames from the spine and in the odd and be more ngers to create a
frame. Ill then push the lower arm further dynamic by adding exible and
strong twist poses natural animation
back than naturally possible to really help
sell the drag. Ill delay the hands and also k Work on each arm m Apply a subtle
really push the ngers back to help sell the individually and amount of motion
further rene to the nal frame
path of action that theyll be following. To those naturally to keep the
loosen up the approach to the nal pose, Ill occurring arcs character alive
3D Art & Design 255

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Welcome to

Imagine Publishing Ltd

Senior Art Editor

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Photoshop is either a registered trademark or trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated

30 Animate characters 88 Visualise architecture 138 Achieve fantastic 3D realism

62 Sculpt folds and fabrics

68 Create a mythical beast

74 Master Weta character design

6 3D Art & Design

Environment Vehicle Animation

182 Create trees in Unity

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197 Gallery Lee Griggs

3D Art & Design 7

Pieces of expert advice to help

Improve your images

SHAPES them Artist: Pascal Blanch

3D Art & Design 9

Irulan Pascal Blanch

For every single image I create, I

10 3D Art & Design

Keep the faith

I try to create at least one

personal piece per month, when

NEW time allows it. It helps me to optimise

3D Art & Design 11

Portfolio tips SPECIALISE

category and interpret the character

how you like. Although you cant

12 3D Art & Design

Protect yourself Think ahead

Why would you want to from his home in Melbourne,

Australia. With a varied career as

g BACK UP an artist, cameraman and

The Greatest Show On

Earth Richard Yot

what about for a book?

Sven Juhlin The colours on display on a

Why does my image look different

Yeti Sven Juhlin

16 50 tips for better characters

36 Create a high-res creature

42 Sculpt an epic beast

48 Design striking characters

68 Create a mythical beast

74 Master Weta character design

14 3D Art & Design

3D Art & Design 15

16 3D Art & Design

Jos Alves da Silva

your characters with personality!

as day. To help you overcome these

human looks like, so even the smallest

50 tips and tricks that will help you instil

in the eld of character creation to gather

errors or inaccuracies will stand out as clear

Even with cartoon images, depicting the correct anatomy

Getting started 02 Create more than one sketch. I

04 You need to pay attention to