3D Creative 116 april 2015

CHARACTER ART FOR VIDEOGAMES

CCP Games’ Andrei Cristea gives us an insight into his work and career

+plus

• 10 of the best digital images • Futuristic concept design • Introduction to SLA 3D printing • Realistic clay creatures • UVs and baking in 3ds Max • Model hard-surface robots • Organic ZBrush sculptures • and much more!

magazine 116

Issue 116 | April 2015

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

Editor’s letter

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH 3DTOTAL!

Welcome to 3dcreative issue 116!

Thanks for picking up this new issue of 3dcreative! This month brings you enlightening interviews with concept designer Eric Lloyd Brown and character artist Andrei Cristea, and a whole heap of brilliant tutorials covering 3ds Max, Maya, and ZBrush, with resource files galore. And if you’re thinking of trying your hand at 3D printing, James W. Cain’s helpful introduction should get you equipped.

MARISA LEWIS Publishing Assistant

Along with a gallery of our favorite images, and some fantastic digital and traditional clay sculpts by Vasil Peychev and Tibor Kéri respectively, we hope this issue has everything you need to get inspired and motivated this month. Keep on creating!

Contributors ERIC LLOYD BROWN Eric Lloyd Brown began his career as a miniature effects artist and set fabricator, before moving into concept design and illustration. Clients have included Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network and Disney.

VASIL PEYCHEV Vasil Peychev is a traditional sculptor and painter currently utilizing ZBrush to 3D print sculpture in polyfoam, following tutelage from his son, Maxim Peychev, game designer at Gameloft.

ANDREW FINCH Andrew Finch is a senior environment and lighting artist at Codemasters Birmingham. He has eight years’ industry experience and is now working on his tenth professional game.

JAMES W. CAIN James W. Cain is a 3D artist and sculptor with a focus on 3D printing., primarily using ZBrush and MODO. He’s a freelance graphic designer by trade, based in Rochester, in the south east UK.

MORTEN JAEGER Morten Jaeger is a CG artist from Denmark, currently working at Cinesite in London as a modeler. Past experience includes work at The Foundry and Nsane. He also really enjoys concepting and drawing silly characters.

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ANDREI CRISTEA Andrei Cristea is a character artist with 16 years of experience in computer graphics. He is currently living in Iceland, working as lead character artist for CCP Games on popular titles such as EVE Online.

TIBOR KÉRI Tibor Kéri is a 26-year-old Hungarian sculptor and goldsmith. He lives and works in a city next to Budapest and is developing his own business, while creating detailed creature sculpts.

RORY BJÖRKMAN With a background in traditional art and sculpture, Rory Björkman is currently studying Media at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, focusing more on the digital arts.

RICHIE JON MASON Richie Mason is a 3D artist living in the UK. He is currently working at Guerrilla Games, Cambridge, as a 3D visualization artist. In his personal work, he likes to create robots and sci-fi designs with ZBrush.

TAMÁS GYERMÁN Tamás Gyermán is a Hungary-based CG artist specializing in hard-surface high-end content. He loves sci-fi, steampunk and Medieval subjects, and would love to work abroad in the film industry.

JORGE CASTILLO Jorge Castillo is a 3D character artist from Colombia.

He is currently working in architectural visualization, and freelance, with experience in character creation for videogames and cinematics.

Publishing Assistant Marisa Lewis marisa@3dtotal.com Sub-editor Adam Smith Graphic Designers Matthew Lewis Aryan Pishneshin

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Contents Issue 116 008_ Character art for videogames

CCP Games’ Andrei Cristea gives us an insight into his work and career

020_ Futuristic concept design

Concept artist and 3D designer Eric Lloyd Brown shares his story

032_ Organic ZBrush sculptures

We explore Vasil Peychev’s ZBrush sketchbook

040_ Realistic clay creatures

We take a look at some of Tibor Kéri’s brilliant rendered clay creations

048_ Art Gallery

10 of the most inspiring 3D images from the world of CG, hand-picked just for you!

064_ Create vehicles with 3ds Max

Tamás Gyermán gives an in-depth guide to modeling sci-fi vehicles with 3ds Max

074_ Model sci-fi cars in Maya

Discover how to model detailed vehicles in Maya with Rory Björkman

086_ Introduction to SLA 3D printing

Digital sculptor James W. Cain shares his 3D printing knowledge and expertise

094_ UVs and baking in 3ds Max

Andrew Finch gives us a detailed walkthrough of his 3ds Max methods

104_ Model hard-surface robots in ZBrush

Learn to sculpt robots in ZBrush with Richie J. Mason

114_ Create vivid illustrations with 3D

Discover how Morten Jaeger achieved the colorful picture-book style of Steve - The Space Explorer

120_ Sculpt insectoid creatures with ZBrush

Jorge Castillo shares his ZBrush modeling skills in this look at the process behind The Bug

126_ Digital Art Master: Repairs

Learn how Andrzej Sykut crafted his detailed sci-fi image, Repairs

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040

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Character art for videogames

The Artist

Andrei Cristea

Lead character artist at CCP Games | undoz.com Interviewed by: Marisa Lewis Andrei Cristea is a character artist with 16 years of experience in computer graphics. He is currently living in Iceland, working as lead character artist for CCP Games.

Character art for

videogames

Andrei Cristea is a seasoned character artist currently working at CCP Games, the developers behind hit MMORPG EVE Online. We chat with Andrei about his role, 3D workflow, and how to excel at character concepts

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Andrei Cristea has lived in Iceland for the last five years, working as lead character artist for EVE Online, World of Darkness, and other projects for CCP Games. Previously, he worked as a freelancer for eleven years on a variety of projects, including videogames, cinematics, commercials, advertising, publishing, animation, architecture visualization, and product design.

This is a concept character made for a series that Andrei calls XNA. The name comes from the xeno nucleic acid and xenobiology

3dcreative: Did you always aspire to be an artist?

How did you get into 3D art?

Andrei Cristea: I don’t think so, at least not in the traditional sense. I would say that I come from a technical background. I am definitely not that type of person that was drawing since childhood.

Back then I was loading videogames from tapes and typing basic code on ZX Spectrum clones.

As a child I was fascinated by games and was curious how they were made. I remember my amazement when I first got 3D Studio DOS, and for the first time I pressed the render button and saw a wireframe model being transformed into an image. At that moment I knew what I wanted to do, and I had to learn it by myself. In the late 90s I started to work on game projects along with my friends, joined the demoscene and became a bit more serious about 3D. Sixteen years later I’m enjoying it just as much as when I started.

I am extremely passionate about anything related to art and technology, and I consider myself very lucky to have spent most of my life doing work related to them.

A character concept Andrei made for his XNA series

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Rendezvous – A personal model 3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Character artinspired for videogames by a photograph from an Apollo program

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Ave 2 – This is a pre-production concept sculpt that served as a style exploration for a female sci-fi character

Girl with Headphones – More of Andrei’s personal work. This bust was sculpted in ZBrush and rendered with V-Ray for 3ds Max

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3DCREATIVE Character forEVE videogames Ran – ThisMAGAZINE character| was madeartfor

Valkyrie and the EVE Prophecy cinematic.

Based on a concept by Börkur Eiríksson and Kári Gunnarsson © CCP Games

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This model started as an exercise in hard-surface sculpting in ZBrush, and was made entirely from a cube

3dc: Which tools and software do you prefer to use, and why?

AC: I use a wide variety of tools, plugins and scripts and I’m always trying to experiment and redefine my workflows. If there was one tool I couldn’t live without, that would be ZBrush. It’s the software that’s had the biggest impact on the 3D field in recent years, and it’s brought so many outside-the-box concepts to this field and redefined everyone’s way of working. I use Maya as a DCC hub, mostly for pipeline and animation purposes. It provides a level of automation that makes it ideal in a production environment.

Photoshop and 3D-Coat are great tools for texturing, and for rendering I’m very fond of V-Ray. 3dc: Could you give us a general overview of your 3D workflow?

A close-up view of the female hero character from the EVE Origins cinematic © CCP Games

AC: I usually start my models with a preproduction stage. I consider this crucial, and I try to allocate a decent amount of time for it. This is where I start developing the backstory, gathering reference, establishing the art style and start sketching the character. I use ZBrush to block out the concept in 3D. This is the most enjoyable part because I don’t have to pay attention to the surface quality, or any other technical aspect, and I can focus solely on design, proportions and rhythm. Most of the work that follows is put into preserving this. When I’m happy with the basic forms, I retopologize and UV the model using 13

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Character art for videogames

A turnaround of Andrei’s personal sculpt, Harotemis

ZRemesher and Maya. After this, I do a final detailmodeling pass, and depending on the purpose of the model, I bake the normal or the displacement maps. For texturing I use Photoshop and 3D-Coat extensively. Finally, I set up the skinning and rigging in Maya, and prepare it for rendering or exporting to the game engine.

3dc: What do you think is the key to a really good design? How do you attempt to pursue that within your own work?

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AC: Good design is a very subjective matter. It depends on your aesthetic sense and how you cultivate it; the things that you find appealing and the things in which you immerse yourself every day. This is what forms your taste and develops your eye. The choices you make during the design process should come from this, and you should have confidence in making them.

Understanding composition, studying design and art history and having a good foundation in traditional art definitely helps. I would say that a

bad approach would be copying whatever design style is trending on that day, without trying to understand why.

3dc: What are the advantages of being able to work with both 2D and 3D? AC: There are practical and conceptual advantages that you gain by working in both mediums. From drawing and painting you can learn about composition, design and color theory

Harotemis – This is a personal piece based around the concept of ‘The protector God of hunted animals’, inspired by Ethiopian tribes

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Character art for videogames

Flame – Andrei was inspired to create this character after seeing a striking photograph from WWI, depicting mounted medical units wearing white blood-splattered coats and gas masks

while focusing on the big picture. It trains your eye into recognizing shapes, proportions, values and colors. 3D develops your sense of perspective, volume and form, and it gives you the tools to understand light and material behavior. I would also like to mention photography, which is another medium that teaches you a lot. On a practical level, using multiple mediums works great for concepting in scenarios where you need rapid iteration, and this has become a very common workflow for artists nowadays.

3dc: You’re currently working at CCP Games, the developer behind EVE Online. Could you tell us about your role and what it involves?

AC: My role is lead character artist and I am part of the team responsible for the characters in the EVE Online IP. This involves producing assets for in-game features, promotional art or cinematics, while working alongside the art director, helping establish and maintain the artistic vision of the characters in relation to the rest of the EVE universe. Our team is pretty autonomous and this gives us the chance to work on a variety of tasks and projects, which makes it fun.

When I’m not working on art-related tasks, I have to make sure that everything goes smoothly from a production and a technical perspective. This means that our workflows and tools are solid and that we communicate well with the other development teams regarding our dependences.

3dc: How does having a studio job compare to working freelance?

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I personally enjoy working in a studio much more than freelancing. I am very fortunate to be working in a great place and be surrounded by amazing people. I love being part of a project and being involved in all the crazy dynamics around it. It’s a very different lifestyle than working in isolation and jumping from project to project. It gives you a different sense of accomplishment.

3dc: Self-improvement is important for every artist. What techniques, tools, or skills are you planning to work on next?

AC: I would like to spend more time drawing and painting. At the beginning of this year I started oil painting. It was something I wanted to do for a long time, but I wasn’t ready for it. It is a brutally hard medium where every small breakthrough feels incredibly satisfying, and I’m loving it.

On the 3D side, I have a few modeling tools and scripts in the works. As a bigger project, I’ve been considering starting to work on an applicationagnostic game content creation pipeline.

3dc: Finally, what do you like to do when you’re not making art?

Artist Timeline Andrei’s career so far 1999: Joined the demoscene and started collaborating on various indie game projects 2000: Started a long freelance career 2004: Worked on his first cinematic for Empire Earth 2010: Joined CCP Games 2011: Shipped the EVE Online Character Creator 2012: Worked on World of Darkness 2013: Released cinematic for EVE Origins 2014: Released cinematic for the EVE Prophecy expansion

The Artist

AC: I enjoy traveling around Iceland and spending time outdoors. This place is breath-taking and I’m trying to take advantage of it as often as I can.

3dc: Thank you very much for speaking to 3dcreative today!

AC: It’s been my pleasure. Thank you!

Andrei Cristea undoz.com

Another piece of Andrei’s EVE work © CCP Games

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© 2014 NewTek, Inc. LightWave is a trademark of NewTek. All rights reserved. All other marks are the property of their respective holders.

Image - Lorenzo Zitta

Download the free trial at www.lightwave3d.com

Italian digital artist Lorenzo Zitta knows how to create thought provoking still images with LightWave 11.6. Whether the still is computer-generated with LightWave, an artful arrangement of digital photos, or a combination of the two, the composition of the scene – with its attention to detail and unusual merging of objects – demands a closer look.

“Thanks to LightWave, I can quickly test many different approaches for my projects.

I love bringing models into Layout and switching on Radiosity, then start working on shading and lighting, bringing in more elements, and testing and improvising to get the look I want.” - Lorenzo Zitta.

By artists for artists.

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Futuristic concept design

Futuristic

concept design Eric Lloyd Brown has applied his impressive concept design skills to projects ranging from Cartoon Network shows to animated feature films. We learn more about his inspirations and creative process

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The Artist

Eric Lloyd Brown ericlloydbrown.com Interviewed by: Marisa Lewis Eric Lloyd Brown is a concept designer working out of Los Angeles.

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Futuristic concept design

Eric Lloyd Brown has been working in concept art and prop design for live action and animation projects for most of his professional career. He got his first start in the movie industry doing miniature effects, modelmaking and some set construction.

3dcreative: Who or what are your big inspirations as an artist?

Eric Lloyd Brown: It’s a bit varied. Recently it seems I’m very inspired by a lot of the artists coming up and established that I see putting their

stuff out there. It’s hard not to get excited by such a strong community of creatives doing their thing.

ELB: Software-wise I’m using MODO, KeyShot, Vue, SketchUp and Photoshop.

I’d say earlier on, before I became a professional, I was very inspired by science fiction and historical books I read. Whatever got my imagination going.

As for specific artists, I was originally inspired by Ron Cobb, Syd Mead, Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston. They were heavy influences during my youth and still are in many ways.

I’m also learning ZBrush, which I absolutely love, but MODO is great as well. I want to devote more time to being more adept with those packages.

3dc: What are your favorite tools and software packages, and why?

EV1 - Exploration Vehicle 1 – A vehicle used to explore various alien environments

EV2 - Exploration Vehicle 2 – A rough sketch of an exploration vehicle, using both 2D and 3D

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3dc: Could you describe to us your typical 3D workflow, please?

ELB: I usually start out designing a scene or object inside the actual 3D program, but I’m trying to get away from that now. I miss the

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Salt Flats Speeder 2125 – A racing/combat vehicle on the Bonneville Salt Flats, rendered in Vue

Temporalportation Module – A flight-capable module that carries a temporal engine to various places

traditional sketching process and think it’s important, even as a 3D artist, to keep your 2D skillset up to snuff. Once I fully realize a design in 3D, I will do test renders in both KeyShot and

Vue to see what I’ll get. Vue is fantastic for vehicle renders in an outside environment! It’s a grossly underestimated program that started out shaky in earlier versions, but has really come into its own

as of late. After I figure out what package I will be rendering in, I’ll then output the render in the proper format and do all the necessary post-work in Photoshop.

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Futuristic concept design

Survey of Daraxos 17-b – A small survey team estimates a planet’s colonization potential

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Corridor – A corridor design for a secret government facility of some sort

TOP TIPS

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Read a novel or work of non-fiction It’s easy to get inspired just by great images, but picking up a book is another way to really stimulate your imagination. As artists we have an uncanny ability to produce incredible images from mere words. Find a novel you like and read, read read!

Vue for vehicle renders Vue is great for producing 3D environments but it’s actually a darned good renderer too! Although you won’t get the speed of KeyShot in your render times, you do get the ability to create very cool environments for your vehicles, spaceships or futuristic cities to sit in, without the lighting limitations of an HDRI environment. It’s also very affordable and the Esprit version imports most popular 3D formats.

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The Garage – A garage servicing a coalition fighter squad

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Futuristic concept design

3dc: You’ve worked in a diverse number of creative fields, not all of them related to 3D. How have they all informed your work? What have you learned along the way?

ELB: That’s a great question. I’m fortunate to have been immersed in various creative disciplines.

When I was doing miniatures, there was a call to keep the process we used as streamlined as possible, because the earlier movies I worked on

had very small budgets. Making sure the designs could be easily and quickly built but still look cool was mandatory. We did that by selling the design with a strong, iconic form language, without having to rely heavily on exotic, curved surfaces or high amounts of detail. The second you introduce compound curves it becomes a sculpting issue, versus quickly slapping down a flat panel of styrene. It was ultimately about time efficiency and design economy.

As for my 2D animation style, I haven’t allowed it to influence my photo-realistic 3D work too much but it has crept in there a bit! In animation, objects are much more wild and the form contrasts a bit more out there. It’s good to push boundaries in unexpected ways.

3dc: What’s your process for devising vehicle or sci-fi designs? What makes a design strong and memorable to you?

Gunmech – A gun with ambulatory capabilities, made with MODO, SketchUp and KeyShot

Parking meter from the future! – A parking meter from the somewhat near future

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Temporalportation Engine – An engine design that produces temporal displacement. Mostly SketchUp, rendered in Vue

Industrial Vehicle – A vehicle used in harsh industrial environments

ELB: As before, using strong form language. I also make sure the function makes sense. Placement of engines, cockpit, weapons, portals, and so on… if the form is inhibiting the function, I’ll walk the form back until those two things are in harmony. I also try to be careful about placement of details and shapes. Most times I’ll group details next to larger, low-detail areas for nice contrast.

Making sure the design is visually appealing from all angles is paramount as well.

3dc: Which project (personal or professional) are you the proudest to have worked on, and what made it so special?

its kind. Working side by side with top Japanese mech artists and American concept artists was both a mind-blowing and humbling experience.

ELB: They all have had something fun about them but I’d say Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within ever so slightly edges out TRON: Uprising, but just by a hair! Final Fantasy, despite how it was critically received, was an absolute joy to work on as it was the first full-on realistic CG movie of

The movie was very design-focused and in that regard it turned out beautifully. I also got a prominent vehicle design in there: the four-legged Quatro. Of course, it also didn’t hurt that we were in Honolulu in a skyscraper with a view of the Pacific Ocean!

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Futuristic concept design

3dc: You’ve covered a lot of different ground already, but there’s always something new to explore out there. What techniques, tools, or skills are you planning to work on next?

ELB: Movies are my first love. I would like to get back to making short films and writing scripts again. I did a couple of shorts and a PSA a while back and really fell in love with the process.

I did one short that has Anthony Ray Parker (Dozer from the first Matrix movie) in it! I realized immediately that I love working with actors and what they bring to the collaboration process.

Be honest with where your skill level is at and ask professional artists for feedback so that you can always learn and improve. Feedback from your non-artist friends or mom is fine, but you really need to get pro critiques.

Network and meet people, go to events, workshops, and so on, and make friends. It’s a crowded industry. Being a great artist is essential but finding people who want to hire and keep working with you is even more important.

3dc: Finally, and most importantly: if you could be any cartoon character, who would you be?

3dc: If you could offer a key piece of advice to artists hoping to pursue a career in concept design or the entertainment industry in general, what would it be?

ELB: He’s more of a comic strip character but I would say Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes! With his imagination, the sky’s the limit!

ELB: Get your work out there in front of people, and when you do, make sure it is your best effort.

3dc: Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to take part in our interview!

Drone – A detail shot of a deep space drone’s VASIMR engine

Detroit Metal Racer – A design for a futuristic race car driver for a personal project

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The Thousand Year Signal – A scene depicting long-term space travel and hypersleep

TTV - Technology Testbed Vehicle – A vehicle used to test various technologies for automotive and possible military applications

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Futuristic concept design

Remote Arctic Facility – A remote research base in an Arctic setting, created with SketchUp and Photoshop

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The Artist

Eric Lloyd Brown ericlloydbrown.com

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Sketchbook of Damir G Martin

The sketchbook of

Vasil Peychev

The Artists

Assisted by Maxim Peychev

Vasil Peychev

Maxim Peychev

Vasil Peychev’s digital sculpts combine a keen eye for anatomy with an earthy weight and texture akin to real clay. We take a tour through his collection of ZBrush sketches andag.co worksmin progress 3DCreativem

Software used: ZBrush

Software used: ZBrush

Vasil Peychev is a traditional sculptor and painter currently utilizing ZBrush to 3D print sculpture in polyfoam.

Maxim Peychev works as a game designer at Gameloft while also completing his senior year in Animation.

artstation.com/ artist/vasilpeychev

mpeychev.daportfolio.com

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Discover Vasil Peychev’s stunning ZBrush sculpts…

Hello, I’m Maxim Peychev and I would like to share my father’s story and how he got into 3D modeling!

I’ve been a witness my whole life to how my father created amazing art by literally any means – be it painting on porcelain, sculpting statues or even creating huge exterior designs.

In doing so he was constantly putting himself in harm’s way, by having to work with toxic paint or by climbing ladders.

In the past five years I’ve been working as a game designer, where I had the opportunity to meet talented artists that taught me a great deal about the industry, including workflow and best practices. When I saw the potential of ZBrush I immediately thought of how it might help him.

Around three months ago, when I was visiting my parents, I finally managed to sit down with him, show him the basics of ZBrush and left him some tutorials. In the beginning I was giving him tasks that involved anatomy and organic shapes, but within a week I already couldn’t keep up with him – he was completing them before I could think of new challenges.

The latest entry into Vasil’s underwater world. She’s angry

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | The Sketchbook of Vasil Peychev

Vasil tried to challenge myself by creating a dynamic pose with a weight

ZBrush opened a whole new world of possibilities for him and especially now with the high level of fidelity required for games and CG, I believe that a traditional approach is essential. I will help him tell you now how he approaches his work, and the tools that he is using.

Inspiration and ideas For a long time Vasil imagined an underwater world filled with beautiful, scary and contemplative characters. Now he finally has the chance to develop it with the freedom that ZBrush allows. This environment is great to experiment with and explore how weightlessness affects forms, and how all movements seem to appear effortless and graceful.

Materials Vasil started learning ZBrush recently, and it was his first experience with 3D. The switch from a traditional approach to CG was effortless – the only thing that required getting used to was learning to trust one’s eyes, since you can’t touch a digital sculpt. ZBrush put all the tools he needed at his disposal, especially DynaMesh, which allows him to pursue his ideas and concentrate on the art side, instead of topology.

On the rendering side, we use Maxwell Render.

It’s easy to set up and the results are always consistent – if you know a thing or two about photography, that helps!

Sketching workflow Vasil starts his sculpts with a DynaMesh sphere.

Over the course of the sketching phase, he tends to duplicate his sketch to SubTools when trying to

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change something drastic, to see what works best by comparing them. It’s important at this stage to think of this as a sculpt, not as an image, because a sculpt is meant to be observed, guide the eye,

and show the character’s disposition from all angles. When he’s happy with the overall shape, he uses ZRemesher with Polypaint to be able to concentrate on the details.

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Vasil’s first sketch: a decorative piece for an elvish interior

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | The Sketchbook of Vasil Peychev

This originally started out as a frightened mermaid caught in a net, before the net idea was given up on

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For this one, Vasil tried to create a dynamic pose and detail the model with simple mask extractions

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | The Sketchbook of Vasil Peychev

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Would you like to see your sketches featured in 3dcreative magazine?

We’re always on the lookout for talented artists and their artwork to adorn the pages of our magazines. If you think you have what it takes, please get in touch!

All you need to do is email marisa@3dtotal.com with a link to your portfolio and some information about you.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Realistic clay creatures

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The Artist

Realistic clay creatures

Traditional modeler Tibor Kéri creates clay sculptures packed with detail and texture. We chat with him about his work and what inspires him the most 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

Tibor Kéri

behance.net/heliot Software or media used: Super Sculpey Tibor Kéri is a 26-year-old Hungarian sculptor and goldsmith. He lives and works in a city next to Budapest and is developing his own business.

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We take a look at some of Tibor Kéri’s brilliant clay creations...

Baby Velociraptor – A baby velociraptor made of aluminum. Photo by László Kőhegyi

3dcreative: Thanks for speaking to 3dcreative, Tibor! First off, could you introduce yourself with a bit about your background and career?

Tibor Kéri: Well, sculpting has accompanied me throughout my life. This story began in kindergarten along with boys’ typical love of dinosaurs. Growing up, there wasn’t enough money to buy many toys, so I had to keep myself entertained making my own little figures.

Later in school I always kept a bit of polymer clay in my pencil case, to give shape to the many ideas buzzing in my head and thus work off my restlessness since I always had a lot of patience for detailed work.

“As a kid, Jurassic Park went beyond my wildest fantasies.

How was someone able to make those animatronics?”

After high school I decided to go on studying arts and started training in goldsmithing. Two years later I tried to enter university, unsuccessfully.

Therefore I started an apprenticeship with a wonderful master goldsmith who taught me the profession’s basics and honed my precision (0.03 mm was the tolerance margin for any mistakes in my handiwork).

Although sculpting faded into the background during this training, I felt that goldsmithing couldn’t fulfil me completely. Once I left the workshop, I tried out my skills on a larger scale.

Without the painstaking, accurate working method I learned, I wouldn’t be able to create such figures.

3dc: Who or what are your biggest inspirations as an artist?

TK: As a kid, Jurassic Park went beyond my wildest fantasies. How was someone able to make those animatronics? As an artist, H. R. Giger inspired me the most because of his daring look at the world: captivating richness of details, unimaginable forms. Later I found out that the figures in the Jurassic Park and Alien films were made by the same team of sculptors, the Stan Winston Studio. I was amazed that somebody’s work could consist of bringing these creatures to life. That inspired me. Of course, classic artists’ technical skills and knowledge of the materials fascinated me as well.

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Realistic clay creatures

Elephant figure – A Super Sculpey Asian elephant figure without a base. Photo by Julianna Nyíri

Elephant figure – Asian elephant figure without any base. Made of Super Sculpey. Photo by László Kőhegyi

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3dc: Could you tell us more about the tools you use? What are your favorite materials to sculpt with, and why?

Australian Tree frog – Tree frog resting on bark.

Made of Super Sculpey. Photo by László Kőhegyi

TK: I use relatively few tools. Most of them were made out of wood myself, responding to some concrete requirement, so I rarely need to use prefabricated ones.

In Europe we usually sculpt with the traditional plasticine, which unfortunately has its limits.

Bakeable plasticines are very expensive and I don’t like their characteristics and malleability.

A new world opened up for me when I was able to get Super Sculpey from America. It has similar properties to traditional clay but remains flexible once cooled off, which is a big advantage. That’s what I’ve been using ever since, though there are lots of other materials I’d like to try out.

“I build the animals’ skeleton and musculature based on their real anatomy, and that way I get to understand their shapes. Then I can apply this knowledge to my own creatures too”

Chameleon figure – A chameleon in action, made of Super Sculpey. Photo by Sára Varga

3dc: What is your favorite aspect of traditional sculpting, compared to other media?

TK: The fact that you make it with your hands and give shape to a thought or feeling using simple materials. For me the greatest joy is to see an object in 3D in front of me just as I pictured it in my head.

Through goldsmithing I became aware that technical knowledge affects designing too. Those who only design on their computer sometimes conceive unfeasible objects. I’d like to learn how to make 3D graphics, though – I think my trade experience would help me in that.

3dc: How do you create such detailed and realistic animals and creature designs?

TK: I build the animals’ skeleton and musculature based on their real anatomy, and that way I get to understand their shapes. Then I can apply this knowledge to my own creatures too.

I tried out several techniques that allow me to create realistic textures, but I am always learning and experimenting. Hence one can observe the technical evolution of my figures over time.

3dc: Lastly, what are you currently working on?

Any cool new projects we should look out for?

TK: I have several projects running now. I’m trying to apply my sculpting skills to metal, combining goldsmithing and sculpture. A number of practical objects are underway, such as individual pen-drive cases, bottle-openers, and even individual realistically fashioned chocolate ornaments. So my works are not only nice to look

at, but can be put to use as well in many fields still not so practical for computers.

At present I don’t have much time to design my own creatures, but I have loads of ideas, so new posts are coming soon on my blog. Watch out for it!

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The Artist

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Realistic clay creatures

Tibor Kéri

behance.net/heliot

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3DCREATIVERex MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116 T-Rex – Mighty Tyrannosaurus posing alone.

Made of plasticine. Photo by Sára Varga

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Art Gallery

Each issue the 3dcreative team selects 10 of the best digital images from around the world. Enjoy!

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

Submit your images! Simply email: marisa@3dtotal.com

Composition #7 Juan Siquier Year created: 2015 Software used: 3ds Max, V-Ray, MARI, Photoshop Web: juansiquier.com

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Art Gallery

Pancake Series Jung In Wang Year created: 2013 Software used: Maya, MARI, Photoshop, V-Ray, ZBrush, NUKE Web: junginwang.com | Credit: Whole strawberry asset by digitaltutors.com

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First Valentine Aiman Akhtar Concept by Pascal Campion pascalcampion.com Year created: 2015 Software used: MODO, Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop Web: aiman3d.com

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Little Monkey Igor Catto Year created: 2015 Software used: 3ds Max, V-Ray, ZBrush, Photoshop Web: igorcatto.com

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Frankenstein’s Lil’ Cousin James Gardner-Pickett Year created: 2015 Software used: MODO, Photoshop Web: james-gardner.co.uk

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Art Gallery

Still nature Maciej Wilczyński Year created: 2015 Software used: 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop Web: wilczynski.co.nf

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Art Gallery

Red King Yuuki Morita Year created: 2015 Software used: Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, MARI, NUKE, 3Delight Web: itisoneness.com 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

Pirate Girl Miroslav Dimitrov Year created: 2015 Software used: ZBrush, V-Ray Web: dorimster.artstation.com

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Art Gallery

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

The legendary moment Mohammad Hossein Attaran Year created: 2015 Software used: ZBrush, Photoshop Web: mhattaran.com

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Art Gallery

Valley of the Monkeys Tamas Medve Year created: 2015 Software used: 3ds Max, V-Ray, SpeedTree, Photoshop Web: m3dve.cgsociety.org

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Create vehicles with 3ds Max

Scene file

Create vehicles with 3ds Max

by Tamás Gyermán Tamás Gyermán guides us through creating a rugged, rusty sci-fi car using 3ds Max. Whether you’re new to creating cars or just aiming to streamline your vehiclemodeling process, you’ll find plenty of useful advice and techniques ahead 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

The Artist

Tamรกs Gyermรกn

cinemorx.cgsociety.org Software Used: 3ds Max Tamรกs Gyermรกn is a Hungarybased CG artist specializing in hard-surface high-end content.

He loves sci-fi, steampunk and Medieval subjects, and would love to work abroad in the film industry.

Concept art by Markus Lovadina

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Create vehicles with 3ds Max

Learn to create a car in 3ds Max with Tamás Gyermán’s helpful tutorial…

In this short tutorial we will run through the processes used to create a post-apocalyptic car design in 3ds Max. You’ll learn about methods and techniques, as well as design/ visual development. I will show you how to prepare your scene, create the car, detail the model’s topology, and understand surfaces and geometry.

01

Getting started: I’m using basic 3ds Max for this project, with no additional plugins applied. First, I open a new scene and save it in its own folder. Folder structure is essential, especially in a team project, where the folder hierarchy gives your team-mates a way to find raws and resources. Even when I’m creating personal works, using a folder hierarchy is a standard step in my creations. Names and paths must be similar and understandable. In this case I create three folders: model, texture, and references. If the project required more phases, like ZBrush or rigging, they should have their own folders. So I save my new scene into the model folder and start to work with it.

Preparing the scene: hierarchy, scene management, background setup

In this step we’ll prepare the scene with all the raws we have. Markus Lovadina did a fantastic job with the post-apocalyptic car concept art, and now we’re doing it in 3D. I push the (default) button 8 in 3ds Max, which brings up the Environment tab. Here, I load the concept art, then grab the channel and drop it into the Material Editor, using the Instance option. This is a linear workflow, so if you change something in the source, the copy is changed with it. It’s important to be able to modify the images’ size or placement in the background. This is very useful when we’re working HDRI panorama images.

The next step is to make our background element visible. Go to Views > Viewport Background and pipe in the environment background. Now we can see the image in the scene. Another way to do this is if we open the Viewport Configuration and choose Background Palette to load up an image. This is more useful for reference modeling, because we can match the viewport size with the image’s size. Now let’s start building.

02

Creating logical topology: I’m creating this great car as a high-resolution model. There are two ways to approach high-res modeling: static and subdivision. Static models have fixed topology that cannot be modified.

So if you created a circle with 20 segments, it would look fine from a fair distance, but worse in

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Creating logical topology

a closer view. Static models work with any kind of wireframe generally, and are very useful for environment parts.

Subdivision topology is different, with many polygon rules, suited for more organic modeling.

This car has surfaces that aren’t so hard to create,

so we’ll build it with quad polygons. Why quads?

Because the subdivision modifier creates more division inside the polygon to get more smooth, fine shapes and surfaces. Five-sided polygons would also work here, because the subdivision modifier creates three good quad polygons from one five-sided polygon.

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Creating shapes, raw to subdivision

Matching the reference, and handling the shape and parts

When creating subdivision models, we have to watch out for the distance between polygons.

This isn’t so important for flat surfaces, but much more so for bent ones. The best way is if we create polygon cuts with almost the same distance between them.

I’m creating now. Very importantly, never forget to merge the shapes into each other, just as if they were real objects. If there are two parts that are meant to connect, we should merge them properly, or they will just go through each other and create holes.

If we can keep more distance between two different polygons on a flat surface, than this increases our polygons’ efficiency. Fewer polygons are much easier to modify, and if we want to skin or sculpt the object later, or number it with a displacement map, than the topology must be in balanced distances.

When you get to the subdivision stage, you’ll have much better results. Of course, we should save time and polygons by interconnecting the hidden or less visible parts of the model as well.

03

Modeling guidelines: Geometry is the one really important step to creating good stuff. The pipeline of subdivision modeling is very simple: create the raw shape, merge or hole out the required parts, and finally create the topology.

I’m creating a small part here to show an example of how my overall workflow goes. In the image, the red line is the shape edge, yellow is the support edge, and green is the subdivision edge. A simple box and two cylinders are what

04

The auto body: I create a camera object and try to capture a similar perspective as the concept art. It looks like a very tight-ranged one, with around a 30° field of view. It looks almost like an orthographic view, which is really useful because it removes perspective distortion and doesn’t cheat the eyes.

I use a subdivided plane and a box object with a visible wireframe to find the perspective. Hit F4 to make the wire visible. I create a simple box and start to modify it with basic tools such as Extrude, Bevel, and Cut. After I create an object, I have to convert it into an Editable Poly, so the software will modify the geometry as I’d like it to.

The conversion also means the software will start to mark modifications in its history, so we can go back if we do something wrong.

I use cuts, extrudes and vertex moves to find the overall shape. There are two main shapes to start with: the front and rear, drawn from the car at the bottom of the concept art.

These are really useful to match the car parameters with the perspective ones. I do the same with other details, creating placeholders until I finish an overall matching shape.

Then I start to work with the level 2 car body’s geometry. I use the same tools: Move, Cut, Extrude and Bevel. You can also use the Symmetry modifier to make modeling the parts faster and easier. The final, full subdivision section is at the end of the modeling phase.

I use the Symmetry modifier to make modeling the parts faster and easier. The final, full subdivision section is at the end of the modeling phase, but for now I’ll show one part of the car in each step. I separate the mesh into several parts, just like how it would be built in real life.

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05

Lamps and glass: As the concept art shows, there are separate plate parts for the lights. I’ll handle the front parts this way too, so just separate a loop from the body by moving to Face mode, selecting a loop and detaching it. With this loop I can easily make the reflector’s covering backplate, using Extrude Edges and the Move tool to create the shape. The best option for this is an 8-sided cylinder shape. 3ds Max helpfully gives us the ability to set the points into a circle, so after you have the backplate, select the required region and create an Inset. Delete the faces, then select the loop edge and round it.

In Graphite Modeling Tools, find Loops > Loop Tools and click on the ‘Circle’ command. The script helps me instantly! If you’re in another software and this feature isn’t available, you can use Boolean cylinders to make the shape, then clear the vertices. When you work in circles, always use circles with an even number of sides: 6 is enough, 8 is perfect, 12 works fine, and 16 is also perfect. These numbers are always defined by the surrounding topology.

For a realistic look, we must create a back structure to the lamp, and the lens geometry must also be double-sided to enable Raytrace rendering (refraction).

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Modeling the car’s lamps and glass parts

Tubes, plates and welding: Working with tubes and plates looks very simple, but a good-looking tube connection requires a lot of time and patience. I use cylinders as a base to create my tubes for the car, and use the Quick Slice tool to create more loops where the tubes are connected. The connecting steps are the same for each of them: cut the lines, weld the points, delete the internal parts, then remove the additional loops. For some other tubes and plates, I use additional extruded, flattened shapes to give the appearance of welded metal.

07

Surface elements and edges: Unfortunately for this car, it’s a postapocalyptic one – it’s not shiny and cool, but looks tough and like it’s survived a lot. The body has been covered with plates, tubes, and planks.

These can be done the same way as before, by cutting up primitives like boxes and cylinders and creating topology.

The important part here is to consider the thickness of materials and roughness of the edges. The plates have sharp, thin edges; wood and rubber are smoother. The geometry’s edges help the brain to recognize the materials. Support edges and control edges are important at this stage. I create some wooden planks whose edges add a softer shape.

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Tubes, plates and mesh connection

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Covering the body and adding edges to materials

Covering the body and adding edges to materials

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Fence and guide Splines: I think the fence object is a really good part of the car, giving pretty fine shapes and details. I create six cubes and place them underneath each other, then rotate them 45-degrees to make a diamond pattern. The touching corners should all be aligned. Select all the cubes and attach them together to make one geometry.

Now use Select Edge mode to select the edges on a zig-zag path, as shown in the image. Under Edit Edges, hit ‘Create Shape from Selection’. This will create a perfect guideline for the fence wire.

At each corner of the zig-zag, I create one more segment in the path, then push them to make the wire shape. In the Rendering tab, turn on the ‘Enable in Viewport’ button with Radial selected to transform it into the required 3D geometry. I use low-segmented shapes to create the fence, because the poly counts could become massive after the copying and subdividing process.

I create some copies of this geometry to form the full fence, which I can easily transform using the Skin Wrap deformer, which works by creating a similar geometry that connects with the high-res fence. I create a simple plane object and connect it via Skin Wrap to control the surface of the fence.

09

Creating the chains: The chain is another eye-catching part for each model, and not so hard to create. I start by creating a pair of chain eyes using a Torus object.

I merge them into one, then fix the Pivot point to the rear of the mesh. In the Hierarchy tab, hit Affect Pivot Only, then move it to the right place.

Using Path Deform to shape the chains

Now the mesh can be transformed from this position and space.

The next stage is to create the full chain, using a Spline and Path Deform modifier. From the Modifier list, choose Path Deform, then click the

Pick Path button. The chain eye geometry will shape to the path, but the scale is wrong, so scale it down to the right size.

Using the Move Path button will cause the geometry to follow the direction of the path.

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Making and covering the gun

The blocked-in seats, steering wheel, chassis and axis

Now copy the chain eye, hold Shift, and add the number of copies you want.

Now the chain should work fine, but I find there’s often a problem with the eyes lining up, mainly in corners. So right-click and convert it to an Editable Spline – this creates marker points so you’ll be able to fix the path, or create some more random looks.

10

Hide the gun: The concept art shows something powerful-looking on top of the car – I imagine it’s a Gatling cannon. To be loyal to the concept art, it’ll be covered by some kind of fabric. A major part of this stage is cloth simulation: I create the cover’s geometry with cloth simulation all around the gun. Because all of the gun’s body is hidden, we’re using SimGeometry, which works with bigger shapes rather than fine details.

I start making the simulation’s silhouette using a few boxes and cylinders, and the cover’s base mesh using a cylinder object (I delete the rear and lower parts, where the gun is connected to the car roof). This is a really simple simulation process, and the resulting geometry can be modified manually. I create the simulation geometry from the gun’s group, using the Attach command. The whole mesh just needs to be handled together in the Simulation properties.

I add a cloth deformer to the cloth geometry, and open the Properties tab, where I can also set the collider object. I set a few of the parameters and push the Simulate Local button. Only one thing is important here: I make two fixed parts around the cloth, which will be the parts pinned down by ropes. In Vertex mode, I select the areas that’ll be tied down, and create a group from them. Then I click the SimNode button and click on the gun object – now the fixed points are functional. When you have the final cloth mesh, extrude it slightly to add thickness.

11

Other car details: For a realistic look, we have to handle the parts that aren’t so visible too. To save polygons and time, I create placeholder silhouette geometries for the interior parts and chassis. These parts are created as subdivision models as well, but I don’t add any fine details here.

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Creating the tires and rims using Array and Clone

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Tires and rims: Our car rolls on four beautiful tires, which we’ll handle in this step. First I create a cylinder object – it’s math time again! We need the perfect segment number to get a subdivided geometry that works well. Here, we’ll go for 48 segments, because balancing the faces is always important in bent shapes. If we made an unbalanced topology, the shape wouldn’t look consistently rounded.

I do a few Insets, then select the parts which will become holes in the tire.

I do another Inset on the selected (hole) parts. I use Swift Loop to add a subdivision control loop in a radial shape, then delete the selected parts.

Change to Border mode to make another selection and extrude it, moving

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Handling screws and rivets in a polygon-efficient manner

Breaking up the symmetry and adding environmental damage

the new edges further out to give us a thicker shape. After that, I add more support edges to the corners of the spokes to harden them up.

The rest of the tire is easy now. Use Swift Loop (under Graphite Modeling Tools) to fix the geometry subdivision. The tire has too many surface details to handle it as a connected subdivided mesh – the connected teeth and body would have about 170-200 segments, which would be terrible to handle with subdivision! So we’ll just put the surface details onto the separate tire, by creating cubes and using an array object to place them. The teeth’s pivot placement is very important here, because the array works in accordance with it – the correct place is in the center of the tire’s body.

13

Polygon efficiency: Rivets and screws are always cool-looking on sci-fi surfaces, but we must handle them carefully, as they can dramatically increase our polygon count. I use really low-segmented base geometry to detail the surfaces, which works well enough on subdivision level 1.

If we know exactly which parts of the model will be invisible, I think we can delete these hidden parts. What do I mean by that? In real life, all things have double sides, but here we can delete the back face if we’re really sure about the visibility. A render object can work well with one-sided planes, which is useful, because these parts decrease the polygon count and they don’t occupy UV space.

14

Asymmetrical details: We can enhance our model’s looks with some surface damage. I use freeform brushes to spin, blow, and smear a few parts on the whole mesh, making it look more real and weathered. Soft Selection is also a useful tool here, allowing you to grab and move vertices with the help of a falloff effect.

15

UVs: After completing the whole mesh, we can start UVW mapping it. This is a similar undertaking for each piece of geometry. We have to mark the seams and cut apart the mesh – the seams tell the unwrapping script where we want to cut out the geo. If you don’t understand how it works, just think about when you’re creating a box from paper: you draw six sides in a T-shape, then stick the sides in. UVing is the same, just in reverse.

The UVs and final geometry

When we have all the UV islands, we should attach the parts to get an optimized, balanced full mesh with UVW map. Use the ‘pack’ command to make balanced UV islands, which now become paintable.

Under Modifiers, choose the UVW Mapping deformer. Select the necessary edges, right-click, and then hit ‘Break’. The software will create a readable seam on the object. Now in the UV Editor, find Tools and click Relax. Here you choose the Relax By Face Angles command, and the script will start to handle your object.

I hope you are enjoying this short tutorial about car design, and hope it helps you create your own post-apocalyptic car. In the next part, we will look at texturing and rendering.

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The Artist

Tamรกs Gyermรกn

cinemorx.cgsociety.org

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Model sci-fi cars in Maya

Image planes Scene file

Model sci-fi cars in Maya

by Rory Bjรถrkman

Learn the process behind this sci-fi car: a grungy specimen straight out of a postapocalyptic junkyard! 3D enthusiast Rory Bjรถrkman shares his techniques and tricks for modeling in Maya, from image planes to wheels and chains 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

The Artist

Rory Bjรถrkman

artstation.com/artist/bjorkman Software Used: Maya, MARI, Maxwell Render and Photoshop With a background in traditional art and sculpture, Rory Bjรถrkman is currently studying Media at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, with a focus on digital arts.

Concept art by Markus Lovadina

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Model sci-fi cars in Maya

Rory Björkman walks us through his Maya workflow…

In this tutorial we will model a postapocalyptic sci-fi car, using concept drawings by artist Markus Lovadina as a starting guide.

I will demonstrate all of the basic steps from start to finish. However, to follow this along, it is best you have basic knowledge of modeling in Maya, as my key aim is to tackle some of the more challenge aspects you may come across as a modeler. By the end of this tutorial, we should have a completed car model, ready to export for texturing in MARI.

01

Where to start?: Before we do any modeling we should do a little housekeeping in Maya first. As a rule I always like to turn on any plugins in the Plug-in Manager window. I also set my Maya scene scale to feet in the Preferences > Settings window. (It’s very important when rendering physical materials that your scene is true to life as possible.)

Setting up the image planes and starting to form the main body of the vehicle

I will be using image planes as modeling reference – they are included as downloadable resources with this tutorial. The original concept drawing was of a Ford Gran Torino, but I’ve adapted the design slightly for my own version. I import my image planes and save the project as filename_01.ASCII. For this vehicle I will start by creating geometry around the wheel arches and bridging between them.

02

Beefing out the wheel arches: I think it might be nice to have the wheel arches as separate panels, as if they’re riveted onto the body. The first step is to move our vertices into place and select the faces we want to use for making the arch. After separating the arch we will apply a lattice deformer. Go to Animation Menu > Create Deformer > Lattice. If you click on the advanced settings you can adjust the amount of bars on the deformer cage. By right-clicking you can select the ‘lattice point’ and pull the geometry. Duplicate the deformed geometry and delete the original to preserve a deformed shape with no lattice.

03

Creating smooth bonnet ramps: After creating the arches and roof we can mirror the body of the car. Now looking at the concept sketch I see a smooth ramp toward the headlights. I cannot use the Extrude Faces tool, as it will not blend a ramp. A way around this is to first insert edge loops either side of where we want the ramp. Select the faces of the ramp, then in the orthographic view, select the Rotate tool and hold the D key. This will allow us to move the rotation origin of the faces. Move the rotation

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Using lattice deformers to warp whole sections of geometry

Manipulating the rotate tool origin point to extrude a nice ramp

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Placing the window geometry

Extruding NURBS circles along curves to make a steel cage around the body

point to the top of the ramp and gently rotate forward, pushing the faces at the front of the bonnet down.

“Don’t worry if your car does not fit the blueprints exactly – I encourage you to have fun with this project and add in some of your own design preferences”

04

Placing the window geometry: Now it’s time to fill in those blank spaces and fit the windows. This can be done simply by making planes of geometry and fitting them using both orthographic and perspective views. We can now also put the bumpers on by extruding cubes to fit.

Don’t worry if your car does not fit the blueprints exactly – I encourage you to have fun with this project and add in some of your own design preferences. This way if it makes it to your portfolio or online, it won’t look exactly the same as another student who did the same tutorial.

Don’t forget to save your file as you go!

05

External cage: In the orthographic view, create a CV Curve along the profile of the car, then create a NURBS circle and place it at the start of your curve. Select the circle and then select the curve, and in the Surfaces menu go to Surfaces > Extrude. Then select your tube, go to Modify > Convert > NURBS to Subdivisions, and then Subdivision to Polygons. To join the tubes you must first combine them, delete faces on the intersection, select the edges you want to join and go to Mesh > Bridge. If your tubes do not bridge, check your normals are facing outward.

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Model sci-fi cars in Maya

06

Headlamps: The headlamp itself is a simple process. By removing the middle faces of a sphere, we can bring them on top of one another and add a lip to the bottom piece.

For the socket I start with a cylinder for the center, bridge them together and then build a frame around the two of them. To join the inside to the frame we must have equal edge loops. A useful tool is the Polycount tool. Display > Heads Up Display > Polycount. By selecting the edges this will tell you how many edges are selected – now you can add edge loops to the frame accordingly and then bridge to join them.

Creating the lights and the light sockets

07

Springy aerial: A post-apocalyptic person might need a CB radio! To make the spring in this aerial, we’ll make a polygon helix, which may take a couple of attempts to get the spring you want. To make the spring, start in the center of the coil, select the vertices and press the B key. While holding the B key, slide your mouse left or right, which will adjust the selection fall-off. Using the fall-off, you can slowly tweak and pull the vertices into place. Then extrude the coil up and down, and cap it with a small sphere.

08

Fuel tank: Start the fuel tank by making a sphere. We then slit the sphere in two, separate the sides, and bridge them in the middle. To feed the petrol into the car we can make a CV Curve tool and adjust the control vertices to make it meander in an interesting and natural-looking way. As we did with the cage, we can extrude a NURBS circle along this curve and convert the tube into polygons. I like to convert all NURBS surfaces to polygons so I can UV the polygon tube later.

09

Barbed wire: The first step is to create a cylinder, and delete all but the base.

Making a tank for extra fuel

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Modeling the coil in the aerial

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How to create twisted and barbed wires with curves

How to make a perfect chain that can be animated

Duplicate this and position them side by side, then combine them. Then create a CV Curve the length of your wire, select the faces and extrude along this curve. While the extrude menu is open, add around 1,500 divisions (depending).

Then select your curve and in the attribute menu adjust the twist slider – you may need to ramp this up quite high also to get the desired amount of twists. You can bend your wire by right-clicking the control verts of the wire, and then the barbs we can make from helix polygons and then extrude the ends.

10

Making a chain that can animate: First make a link and center it in the grid.

Duplicate this link, flip it 90 degrees, and position it in the Z axis. With both links selected, freeze transforms, then go to Edit > Duplicate Special advanced options. Duplicate how many links you want so they are evenly spaced. Put all your links in a new layer and hide it. Next create a locator in the exact position of the first link and duplicate the locator double that of the amount of links, to place one at each end. Finally combine the links.

11 How to snap a chain to a curve

Wrapping a chain: In the animation menu, go to Skeleton > Joint Tool. Click the Joint tool while holding V to snap the joints along the locators. When this is complete, select all your joints, then select your combined chain and go to Skin > Bind Skin > Smooth Bind. If you open your Outliner you can select the joints to rotate the chain. To bind the chain to a curve, first 79

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Model sci-fi cars in Maya

create a curve. Got to IK Spline handle tool, turn off ‘Auto Create Curve’. Select the first joint to the last joint, and then the curve. The chain will snap to the curve!

12

Cloth on the barbed wire: To make this we first need to position a subdivided polygon plane above our barbed wire. With it selected, to go to nDynamics > nMesh > Create nCloth. In the Attribute Editor go to the Nucleus Scale attributes and set the Space Scale to .03.

In your nCloth shape use the preset of Burlap.

Then select your barbed wire, under nMesh select Create Passive Collider. You may need to increase the collision strength and thickness of the wire.

Press play and let the cloth simulate around the wire. Then duplicate the cloth and delete the original to bake the simulation.

13

Dents and knocks: To make our vehicle more weathered we need to start adding some dents and bumps into the geometry. You can do this by simply moving vertices. Small details like this can add narrative believability to a scene, so are important. Try to position them on materials that are likely to dent, and also the car is likely to get dented. I usually save my project under a new name to do this, almost at the end, in case I go too far.

Using nCloth to make a rag stuck on the barbed wire

14

Muscle car wheels: I always like to make the wheels, and for this vehicle I think a classic muscle car wheel will do nicely.

Feel free to have fun here and make something Making good-looking wheels for our car

Adding some narrative to the piece

interesting. I usually start with a cylinder that can be divided into five sections, and start extruding in and out to make spokes. To join a cylinder into any surface you need to have matching edge loops, so first make a hole and then make a cylinder to match, select your edges and bridge them. You can add edge loops to tighten it.

15

Preparing UV maps for MARI: When making UV maps for use in MARI, I separate all objects of the same material into their own UV maps. For example: body panels in one square, tires in another, and glass in another.

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The great thing about MARI is it can handle large multiple UV tiles all at the same time. The first thing to do is go to your UV editor window and under View > Grid and change size to 10 units.

After distributing the UVs we then need to smooth our mesh as MARI will not smooth our geometry, then export a high-poly OBJ of our car to the asset folder. (Note: just auto-UV your chain and barbed wire.)

Next time, we’ll look at texturing our model with MARI and rendering with Maxwell Render.

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Placing our UVs correctly for use in MARI and exporting the high-poly geometry model

TOP TIP Things that go bump!

We want our vehicle to have curves, but not bumps! Sometimes when modeling geometry over image planes, we are pulling vertices everywhere to match the blueprints. Sometimes this can cause bumps in the smoothened geometry. Often these can be rectified with some careful tweaking, but another useful tool is the Average Vertices tool in the Mesh menu. Select just the affected bumpy vertices and some surrounding ones, and applying this tool you will find the average between them help to pull out any bumps. Use this carefully – I advise using a very low setting in the advanced menu.

How to remove unwanted bumps in our smoothened geometry

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The Artist

Rory Bjรถrkman

artstation.com/artist/bjorkman

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3DTOTALPUBLISHING

ZBrush is a powerful program offering digital artists of all levels intuitive and inspiring workflow solutions for 3D models and 2D images. Following on from the success of other ZBrush titles such as ZBrush Character Sculpting: Volume 1, this new book focuses on the design and creation of a variety of character and creature sculpts by world-class artists including Mariano Steiner, Maarten Verhoeven, Caio CĂŠsar, and Kurt Papstein.

Topics covered by the panel of industry experts include alien concepts, quadruped designs, and inventive creatures, while a collection of speed-sculpting tutorials offers fantastic insight into working quickly with this revolutionary sculpting software. Aimed at aspiring and experienced modelers alike, ZBrush Characters & Creatures is a go-to resource for those looking to learn tips, tricks, and professional workflows from the digital art masters, taking you from concept to completion across a variety of imaginative projects.

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Introduction to SLA 3D printing

The Artist

James W. Cain jameswcain.co.uk

Software Used: ZBrush, Form 1+ 3D printer James W. Cain is a 3D artist and sculptor with a focus on 3D printing. He’s a freelance graphic designer by trade, based in the South East UK.

Introduction to SLA 3D printing

by James W. Cain

Curious about 3D printing? What do you need to get started? What’s the difference between FDM and SLA anyway? James W. Cain offers his expertise to get you up to speed and ready to print 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

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Read on to learn your 3D printing essentials with James W. Cain…

I’m a relative newcomer to the world of 3D and am really enjoying the experience! After 10 years working as a graphic designer in the drinks industry I’ve just gone freelance, which has enabled me to explore other areas of my creativity. A few years ago I picked up ZBrush and was amazed at what could be achieved with the software. I also have a traditional arts illustration degree, which has translated quite well into the technical aspects of my digital sculpting practices.

Recently I have been producing 3D sculpted and printed busts, where I have focused on improving my organic sculpting skills, and developed a good working knowledge of 3D printing on my own printer.

01

What is 3D printing?: Although for most people 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing, or AM for short) is a new concept, the technology behind it has been around since the early 1980s. The general idea is to produce something physical from a digital file generated by CAD or other 3D software. Most consumer available printers work by taking

My setup for printing

an object and slicing it across an optimal axis, turning it into a stack of very thin layers. The printer will then print each layer one on top of the other to create the object. How it goes about this will vary depending on the 3D printing technology used by the printer, the two most common and recognizable being: FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling), also known as FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) This is probably the most common type of printer on the domestic market at the moment.

The basic tech behind FDM is like a hot glue gun on rails: it heats a spool of material through an extruder, creating each layer on a build platform from bottom to top.

SLA (Stereolithography), SL or Optical Fabrication Stereolithography printers use a UV laser to selectively cure UV-sensitive liquid polymer resin, creating each layer. The object is gradually lifted out of a pool of resin above the laser by a build platform that rises after each layer is cured.

Printing in process on the Form 1+

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Introduction to SLA 3D printing

The Formlabs Form 1+ SLA 3D printer

The four standard types of resin. From left to right: clear, white, gray and black

Debatably in the past, consumer 3D printers have been mainly the playthings of inventors, engineers and designers. However, a whole new range of artistic possibilities have been opened up with the next generation of domestic desktop printers. Adding powerful software such as ZBrush into the mix, it’s now possible for digital artists to produce physical work straight from their desk.

02

The Form 1+: My focus is on the Form 1+ SLA printer. This is a desktop (and relatively affordable) SLA printer from Formlabs, who successfully crowdfunded the original

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product on Kickstarter in 2012, with a recordbreaking $2.95 million in funding.

What’s great about the Form 1+ is that it finally brings SLA technology to the desktop, where previously it was only available in expensive commercial machines. For artists, this is a great development, because SLA printing offers superior detail and finishing compared to FDM tech, with smoother surfaces straight out of the printer. The maximum resolution (layer thickness) of the Form 1+ is 0.025mm, but even the lowest resolution of 0.1mm is superior in quality to most

FDM printers due to the nature of the SLA process.

It also allows for better casting and mold-making of the prints – Formlabs having recently released a castable resin for this exact purpose. This is especially useful for investment casting precious metals and jewelery.

The downsides for desktop SLA printers in general are that they can be very temperamental, and messy to work with and maintain. Resin is also expensive and there are limited choices in types and brands available compared to the plethora of materials available for FDM printers. Prints

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coming out of the printer need to be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol to remove excess resin, which can sometimes also add to the messy nature of the printing workflow.

The original render of a sailor sketch in MODO

As desktop SLA printers are relatively new in the market, there is less information about workflow and troubleshooting available. As a result it’s important to realize that there is a certain ‘early adoption’ mentality to owning one.

03

Materials: As mentioned above, with SLA printers you are limited to resin as a material. The resin itself comes in 1 liter or 500 milliliter bottles, has a treacle-like consistency, and I’ve found the smell isn’t too intrusive. Resin is great for detailed reproduction and there are several colors and types available, detailed below: Formlabs’ standard resin comes in clear, white, gray and black options.

• White standard resin is a stiffer material compared to the other resins, so is great for objects that require structural integrity. It seems to be very popular with engineers and inventors for that reason, but it can also be a lot more brittle when cured.

• Clear standard resin is great for showing the internal structure of an object. I’ve seen it used in medical applications, dentistry and even printing a working lens! This resin does need a bit more post-processing once cured to achieve a good transparency. Formlabs have recently enabled the lower resolution of 0.2mm for quicker prints on this material.

• Gray standard resin is a good all-rounder and produces detailed results with a gray, slightly translucent finish.

04

• Castable resin is designed specifically for investment casting.

Practical considerations: In practical terms, 3D printing is capable of producing many things that just would not be possible by any other traditional means.

You can print intertwined objects, lattices and large overhangs if supported well. The size and technical restraints of desktop SLA technology are a limiting factor, however, and it’s good to have a working knowledge of these. Managing your expectations on the outcome of any print projects on the Form 1+ is really important as you get to know the capabilities of the printer. The two main limiting factors to know specific to the Form 1+ are:

• Flexible resin creates parts that compress and bend, great for engineering and design work.

Formlabs have recently used this material to create a diaphragm for a speaker system.

Size On the Form 1+ you are limited to a build size of 4.9” x 4.9” x 6.5”. In reality I’ve only ever managed to get a print to use ¾ of that space, because

• Black standard resin is best for finely detailed objects. Because it’s so opaque, the UV laser will not ‘bounce’ as much when curing, giving the most accurate results of all the resins. I’ve also found it’s less brittle than the others when cured, which is a bonus. I seem to go through a lot more resin trays with black, however, and it definitely wears the equipment a little more (resin trays are a consumable product on the Form 1+).

the stresses on the model during printing can cause anything over that size to fail. The way the Formlabs software automatically orientates your model for the best possible print can also affect the way it fits in the buildable region.

Resolution The higher the printed resolution, the more a print is likely to fail at larger sizes. You need to factor this in to your decision making when planning a print, if it fails you’ll waist a lot of time and resin! A resolution of 0.1mm on larger prints is perfectly fine.

Regularly maintaining the printer can also really cut down the chance of failure. This includes regularly checking the mirrors inside for dust, cleaning the build plate and filtering the resin to remove cured bits that sometimes accumulate.

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Introduction to SLA 3D printing

05

Getting set for printing: 3D printing on the Form 1+ is quite an involved process, and maintaining the printer, post-processing and finishing a model after printing require a range of tools.

The level of detail achievable at 0.05mm on the Form 1+ (note the layer lines)

You get a basic toolset with a new Formlabs Form 1+, this includes: 1. Rinse tubs and basket for cleaning the prints in alcohol 2. Spatula for removing the print from the build platform 3. Clippers for removing supports 4. Tweezers 5. Squeeze bottle, great for getting alcohol into hard-to-get places!

On top of those, here are some tools I’ve found really useful to have about with the Form 1+:

The Formlabs finishing kit, supplied with all new Formlabs printers

1. Craft knife, useful for stubborn supports 2. Super Glue for gluing separate pieces 3. ‘Green Stuff’ 2-part epoxy resin for filling holes and small errors 4. Modeling tools – files and sculpting tools for detailed finishing 5. Sandpaper for sanding large areas and removing support marks 6. PEC*PADS, lint-free pads for cleaning inside the printer and mirror 7. Air blower for quickly removing dust from the internal mirror 8. A toolset in case you ever need to get inside the printer 9. Funnel, to filter resin out of the tank and back into the bottle when needed.

You will also need a supply of isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the print after printing. I usually buy a 10 liter bottle of 99% IPA online, which lasts for a while and is really effective at cleaning. You will also need gloves if you’re handling this, which you also get with the Form 1+.

The Artist

James W. Cain jameswcain.co.uk

3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

My extra tools for Form 1+ maintenance and finishing

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My most recent Form 1+ print, based on a ZBrush sketch of a sailor

My first ever print on the Form 1+, based on a ZBrush sculpt celebrating the D-Day anniversary

More examples of my digital sculpts in ZBrush and MODO

91

CHARACTER ART FOR VIDEOGAMES

CCP Games’ Andrei Cristea gives us an insight into his work and career

+plus

• 10 of the best digital images • Futuristic concept design • Introduction to SLA 3D printing • Realistic clay creatures • UVs and baking in 3ds Max • Model hard-surface robots • Organic ZBrush sculptures • and much more!

magazine 116

Issue 116 | April 2015

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | UVs and baking in 3ds Max

Textures & Movies

UVs and baking in 3ds Max

by Andrew Finch

Environment artist Andrew Finch guides us through creating a single videogame asset with 3ds Max and Marmoset Toolbag 2, including physically-based rendering (PBR) techniques that are up to speed with the latest gaming technology. In this part, Andrew shows us how to unwrap the model and bake the maps needed for texturing 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

The Artist

Andrew Finch

andrewfinch.carbonmade.com Software Used: 3ds Max Andrew Finch is a senior environment and lighting artist at Codemasters Birmingham.

He has eight years’ industry experience and is now working on his tenth professional game.

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | UVs and baking in 3ds Max

Learn more about UVs and unwrapping in 3ds Max with Andrew Finch…

In the last chapter I guided you through the modeling process from start to finish using a biped for a scale guide. In this tutorial I will show you how to bake ambient occlusion (AO) maps from the asset using 3ds Max and mental ray. We’ll also render out some guide maps to aid us later on in the texturing process. I will then show you how I setup PSD files ready to start texturing.

As this is a personal project for your portfolio, we don’t have to worry too much about budgets, but we still have to keep it realistic.

I will use two separate diffuse texture maps for this asset, at a 2048* resolution; this will provide us with enough detail in our textures, and not be too bloated for a game asset. In a professional production, certain budgets exist, and assets need to follow these budgets for the game to work properly.

If this asset was in a production, depending on which game type it was for, it could be budgeted to just one diffuse material at a resolution of 1024*, but it all depends on the type of game and how close the player/camera will get to the asset. For now we just want to show off modeling and texturing skills, so we will stick with the two 2048* textures. Every second of this tutorial has been recorded and is available to download, so you can follow every step I take to reach the final render.

Editing smoothing groups

Basic unwrapping techniques used to unwrap the asset, one little section at a time

01

Editing smoothing groups: Here’s an example of bad smoothing groups. You can see the faceted surfaces which make the mesh look blocky, low-poly and ugly. Not only do these look bad on the mesh, but they would also make it into our ‘Render to Texture’ bakes. If these flat surfaces make it into the game engine, the light would be fractured when it interacts with the surface of the mesh, instead of being a nice smooth specular highlight.

In Editable Mesh mode, select all of the affected polygons on the surface you want to smooth.

Then navigate to ‘Smoothing groups’ in the Editable Mesh tools, and apply a number. Now the selected surface is nice and smooth.

If you have a hard edge which is unintentional, then it means one of the adjacent polys has a different smoothing group number applied to it. Make sure all the surfaces have the same smoothing group number if you want that part of the mesh to be consistently smooth.

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UVW’s Relax tool

02

UV unwrapping the light fixture: As a guide to help me ensure my UV islands are using roughly the same pixel density, I like to add a checkerboard material to the whole of the mesh. This also aids me with finding any UVs that are skewed or misaligned. Use a checkerboard

color that’s easy on the eye, as we’ll be looking at this material for a long time while we unwrap.

Detach one of the light elements of the asset, as we will be working on this bit only. If you don’t detach the element, all of the UVs for the whole

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asset will be visible in the UVW window, which will get very confusing!

Apply an Unwrap UVW modifier to the Light_Rig and select the row of polygons making up the back of the light element. In the Projection rollout of the modifier, select Cylindrical, as this is the basic shape that best fits the geometry. You can rotate and move the projection gizmo in the viewport to best fit the geometry. You’ll see in the Edit UVW window that the selected polys have now been flattened. Scale this UV island so that the checkerboard material applied to the mesh is as square as you can get it. You don’t need to worry about the size of the UV islands yet, as we want to unwrap all of the polys that make up the light first.

Organizing the UV islands ready to be compiled into the 0 – 1 UV space

03

UVW’s Relax tool: Use the same technique as above to cylindrically unwrap the main cone of the light element. As this surface is tapered, the UVs will warp slightly, which is bad for texture stretching. We could spend a long time manually moving the vertices so they all line up, but it’s hard to get this perfect.

A useful tool that we can use to automatically un-warp the UVs is the Relax tool. Change the settings to whatever works best for that part of the mesh. For instance, here I use ‘Relax By Polygon Angles’. Click ‘Start relax’ and you will see the UVs relax and gently unfold. Notice how the checkerboard material is also updated, and how the squares are now more uniform in size with no stretching or warping. Scale this new UV island to roughly match the size of the squares on the first section we unwrapped. Now we can be certain that these two elements of the mesh will have the same pixel density.

Cutting down the repetitive work to get the job done faster

04

Prepping UVs for re-attachment: Continue to use the techniques above to fully unwrap the light fixture. Don’t forget to scale the UVs so the checkerboard material’s squares are all roughly the same size. Organize the small cluster of UVs so they don’t occupy too much space. This is important when we come to re-attaching the elements to the main mesh – all the asset’s UV islands will be brought back into the main edit window, but this time in a more organized fashion.

We will also need to pack the UV clusters tightly later on to maximize the pixel density. Move the light fixture’s UV cluster out of the 0 – 1 UV space.

Try to move the clusters into different positions when you unwrap each element, so that no UVs occupy the same space when we re-attach elements. This makes it a lot easier to select and move clusters.

Packing the 0 – 1 UV space is like a jigsaw puzzle and requires a lot of thought

05

UV-mapping the tire and wheel: In this image you can see I have removed the symmetrical modifier. I do this often so I can unwrap one half of the model and then, once the symmetry modifier is re-applied, the new half of the mesh will already be mapped for us.

For the wheel, I start by planar-mapping the entire front of the wheel and relaxing the UVs to get rid of any skewed mapping. Don’t worry about the flat surface of the tire yet. Re-apply the symmetry modifier to complete the model of the wheel again, and collapse the stack so everything 97

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | UVs and baking in 3ds Max

is committed to the mesh. Re-apply an Unwrap UVW modifier and you will see the wheel is still planar-mapped. There will now be overlapping UVs, but this is okay as the wheel’s front and back will be sharing the same diffuse texture space.

To complete the unwrap, select the flat edge of the tire (the surface that touches the road) and apply a cylindrical UV projection. Match the checkerboard square scales on all the elements and move the cluster out of the way.

06

Packing the UVs: Once you’ve worked your way through the entire Light_Rig mesh’s elements, breaking them down into clusters and moving them aside, it’s time to pack them all back into the 0 – 1 UV space. If you go outside this UV space you will get tiling, which will be very bad.

It’s best to look at this puzzle in small sections so it doesn’t overwhelm you. Start with the wheel cluster and place it tightly into the corner, trying not to waste any space – the more space we can save, the higher the resolution we can get out of the texture. Slowly bring in each cluster, packing it tightly but also intelligently; try to keep certain material types together if possible. You will find some UVs can occupy the same space: for example, bolts will all be the same, so it makes sense to pack them on top of each other.

Eventually you will have moved all of the different clusters into position and completed the UV stage of that element.

Repeating the previous step to the generator’s main body

07

Intelligent scaling of the UV clusters: In this image you can see I have jumped ahead and completed the UVing of the main generator element, tightly packing the clusters and grouping them with similar material types.

Here I have grouped the metal panels together, as well as the metal framework. There is also some space left for additional details if we feel the need to add anything to the asset later on.

08 Completing the UV stage for the entire asset

Final checks before committing: Notice how some of the checkerboard squares are now larger on some surfaces than others. This is because you have to think about which surfaces will require the most resolution.

What’s going to be most visible to the player?

Here you can see the crane’s arm has large squares, so the pixel density will be a lot higher than the surface of the glass of the lights. I know the lights will be illuminated during rendering time so there isn’t a need for much resolution.

A lot of UVing is about thinking ahead and problem-solving before the problem has the chance to exist later in the project when it will be a lot more difficult to fix.

09

“Render to Texture” bake tool set up

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Ambient occlusion (AO) bake: Select the main generator element and either press ‘0’ on the keyboard or navigate to Rendering > Render to Texture. You need to make sure you have mental ray set as your renderer in the rendering options. Add an ambient occlusion element in the ‘output’ section and select it. Make sure ‘Use Existing Channel’ is selected, because we want it to use the UVs we set up previously, and that channel 1 is also selected. Use 2048*

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resolution, set Samples to 512 for a test (but feel free to up this to 2048), and hit Render. This will churn out the ambient occlusion map. Repeat this step for the Light_Rig element.

10

A bake is rarely perfect: There will always be issues with bakes that you didn’t realize when setting up the UVs, but most of the time they are easy to fix. In this image you can see the opposite side of this cylinder has been rendered out. This is due to UVs being on top of one another and this asset being mirrored.

On the opposite side, this cylinder looks as it should, with the shadowed area facing the crane arm. This is an easy fix – all you have to do is select the hydraulic strut element in Editable Poly mode and rotate the whole strut until the shadow area is facing the arm, and the lighter side is facing outwards.

Fixing up issues that the AO bakes have shown up

11

Continue fixing up AO errors: Here we have a similar issue with the light objects being slightly out of alignment to the ones that were baked. Again simply select the element in Editable Poly mode and move them down so they are in line with the baked shadows. However, doing this will show up another error where the shadow from the wire will now be out of position; I will fix this in the next step.

The AO bake is only a small section of our texturing process. It’s important as it helps to bed in the details of our asset, but don’t be too worried about the errors – most engines, including Marmoset (which is what we will use to render our images) have SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion) which calculates AO on the fly during render time. As this AO pass goes from the screen space and not UVs, it helps fill out the details in the render image.

Moving elements to fix and hide errors in the bake

12

Soft Selection: Now the light elements of the asset have been moved, this means our wire shadow is out of alignment. We need to move the wires down to fix this, but it’s not quite as simple as that. Because the wires have a smooth curve, if we select the last row of vertices and move them down, the wire will look unnatural and kinked. You can use Soft Selection to get around this.

With Soft Selection switched on, select the last row of vertices of the wire. Notice how they are red, but a falloff of colors ranging to blue now appear on the mesh. This is a falloff value which can be edited in the Soft Selection tab. Now when you move the vertices down, it drags the other vertices with it, but not as strongly. It will depend on the amount of falloff you have set.

Editing wires in a naturally smooth way

13

Guide maps: Guide maps are very helpful in the texturing process: they help us to line up the details of the texture map to the mesh of the asset. There can be quite a few guide maps to aid us; in this tutorial I use two different

types, but it all depends on the complexity of your asset. We will be using a wireframe render of our UVs and a Mask which, once in Photoshop, will make it extremely easy and accurate to select certain regions of the texture map.

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | UVs and baking in 3ds Max

Using an Unwrap UVW modifier to render out guide maps

Combining our rendered textures to form our working PSD files

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PSDs completed and applied to the mesh in 3ds Max

Firstly the wireframe map. With the main body element selected, add an Unwrap UVW modifier, and in the edit window select Tools > Render UVs. This pops up a small dialog box. Enter the size of the map (2048* in our case), make sure ‘Visible Edge’ and ‘Seam Edges’ are ticked, and hit Render. This renders out a 2048* map of our UVs. Save this file off for use later on.

Secondly, select ‘Fill color swatch’ and pick full white. Under Mode, select Solid and un-tick ‘Show Overlapping’, ‘Visible Edge’ and ‘Seam Edges’. Hit Render, and this should give us a solid black-and-white map where the white areas are the asset’s UV islands. Repeat this step for the second mesh.

14

PSD setup: In Photoshop, create a new document at a size of 2048*, color it in mid-gray and save it as Generator_texture.PSD. Merge in the three maps we created for the main body generator so they are on separate layers.

I like to have the AO bake at the top of my layer stack at all times.

For the Mask layer, keep visibility switched off until you need to use it to select a region of the map. For the UV layer, set its blending mode to Screen; I normally bring the opacity down to about 50%, but this is up to you and how you like to work. Save this PSD and repeat the process for the other element of the asset, except rename to Light_Rig.PSD as it will be applied to the lights and crane arm.

15

Applying PSDs in 3ds Max: Selecting the main generator body mesh, apply a new material and select the bitmap for the diffuse map. Navigate to the Generator_Texture PSD we just created and apply it to the mesh, making sure diffuse mapping is visible. 3ds Max will ask if you want to collapse the layers of the PSD; I usually just click yes, as it doesn’t really matter to us.

Repeat this for the light rig element.

You should now see a grayed out asset complete with an AO bake! Try switching the UV’s visibility on and saving the PSD – notice how it’s instantly updated in 3ds Max. You should now see the wire

mesh applied over the model, very handy for lining up our textures. If the quality of the textures doesn’t look good in the 3ds Max viewport, it could be that a graphics setting needs editing.

Go to Customize > Preferences settings and in the dialog select Viewports > Choose driver. If using a newer version of 3ds Max you may have Nitrous driver selected, but there is an issue with Nitrous displaying high resolution textures; I switch the Driver back to Direct 3D. You can now configure this driver to use higher resolution textures.

The Artist

Andrew Finch

andrewfinch.carbonmade.com

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Model hard-surface robots in ZBrush

The Artist

Richie Jon Mason

artstation.com/artist/richenks Software Used: ZBrush Richie Mason is a 3D artist living in the UK. He is currently working at Guerrilla Games, Cambridge, as a 3D vis artist.

Model hard-surface robots in ZBrush

by Richie Jon Mason

We follow Richie J. Mason through the creation of this ZBrush droid, using hard-surface sculpting techniques to create smooth paneling, and custom brushes for quick and easy detailing 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

Master ZBrush sculpting fundamentals with Richie J. Mason hard-surface tutorial…

This tutorial will hopefully help you gain skills and techniques that will streamline your future projects. I will take you through the basic steps I use when creating speedy robot models: we’ll start with blocking out the entire model in ZSpheres, then move on to sculpting, Panel Loops and Slice Curve. At the end of the project we’ll export everything into the amazing KeyShot to achieve a more realistic render, and then finish with a few small touches in Photoshop.

In this tutorial, the most valuable thing to learn is the Slice Curve / Split Hidden / ZRemesher technique. I have ended up using it in nearly all of my personal and industry work.

Once you have that mastered, you can pretty much use it on everything.

01

ZSpheres: We’ll start by using ZSpheres to block out the body shape. Make sure you have symmetry turned on (X-key). Sometimes it helps to have a good reference to get inspiration from while doing this stage. Once you have the body how you want it, click the A-key and scroll down to make adaptive skin. You should now have a clay base to work with.

Blocking out the robot’s design with ZSpheres

02

Clay brush: Using the Clay brush, start drawing out where you want the panels and main features to be, and then use the hPolish brush to gently smooth out the areas you built up. I would recommend downloading the free MAHcut brush, although you can also use the Dam Standard. Go round all the edges with either of those brushes. When you have done that, use Geometry > Clay Polish – but be aware that every time you use Clay Polish it makes a mask around your edges, so make sure you get rid of the mask before moving on.

03

Making panel shapes: First we need to fix the topology. All you need to do for that is go to Geometry > ZRemesher, though before clicking it make sure you turn the total polycount up to 100. Now you should have a nice clean mesh to start slicing into.

First we are going to start with the head by using the Slice Curve tool (which you can access by holding Ctrl+Shift) to do curves. You have to also press Alt to make a bend. Once the lines are made, hold Ctrl+Shift and click on the head, then hit Split Hidden (located in SubTool > Split > Split Hidden). This will give you two SubTools: the body and the head.

Roughing in more detail with the Clay brush

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04

Panel time!: Alt-click on the head to select it in the SubTool panel. You can do this next part by painting on the head in Polypaint, then using ‘Polygroup from Polypaint’, but for this tutorial we are going to slice it. So again, grab the Slice Curve tool and start cutting out the shapes you want. We’re going to mirror everything over, so just cut what you want it to look like on one side.

When you’re happy with it, Ctrl+Shift-click on different parts of the panels and keep splitting them with Split Hidden. Then highlight the first piece and press ZRemesher to mirror that piece with the opposite side. Do this for all pieces of the head, then merge all the head pieces together.

Use the Move Topology brush to slightly move out the panels so some are not touching. Then all that’s left to do is use panel loops, which can be found under Geometry > Edge Loops > Panel Loops. Turn the bevel and polish down, and you should have a good paneled head ready for some detailing. Go over some parts with hPolish just to give it a more refined look.

05

Body paneling: Same as the last step, start by cutting out your arms and use Ctrl+Shift-click and ZRemesher to mirror them. On the body, you will want to Ctrl+Shift-click and use ‘Del hidden’ to get rid of hidden parts. Do this for the shoulders, elbows, knees and hips. In this step we’re going to get rid of most of the torso as well, which will be replaced in the next step.

Making the head using panel loops and hPolish

3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

Using ZRemesher and Slice Curve to create base panels

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Make sure you leave enough room to show the pipes underneath the plates. When you’ve got all the cuts and split them, just merge them together again. Then, using the same setting in the Panel Loops panel, hit Panel Loops, but change the elevation to -10, loops to 8-9, and thickness to about 300. You may need to subdivide to make this look right, depending on the look you want.

Go to Deformation and use the polish slider and Clay Polish.

06 Making the head using panel loops and hPolish

Building the missing torso: Select a part of your model with no sub levels, and use the Insert Sphere brush. Now you should have a robot with a round torso. Grab Trim Curve and start slicing away parts like in the image

Panelling the rest of the body and making sure you have working joints

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Adding torso structure with Trim Curve and inserts

Insert spheres for fast and cool-looking eyes!

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

Make robotic tubing easily using Curve Tube

shown, until you get a straight boxy shape with clean edges. Now use ZRemesher to make sure you have symmetry, basically the same as before: Slice Curve, Split Hidden, and ZRemesher. Merge the torso together, apply Panel Loops, and you should have something that looks like the torso pictured in the image.

Adding extra detail with head vents, using Polypaint masking

We’re going to add slightly more detail now.

Duplicate your torso, then Ctrl+Shift-click on a piece and hit ‘Del Hidden’, then use ZRemesher and Panel Loops. Now you should have your original torso with an extra panel over it. You can keep duplicating it and use the Slice Curve tool to continue putting extra parts over the panel loops, but we aren’t going to add much to this one.

07

Robo eyes: The eyes can be created in lots of different ways. I usually create them in Maya or CINEMA 4D and bring them into ZBrush using the cool GoZ™ plugin. However, on this model, I know there will just be lights with a glass shell, so there’s no need.

First, go to the eye area and use the Insert Sphere brush again. Draw out your eyes, Ctrl+Shift-click and Split Hidden to give them their own SubTool.

Duplicate the eyes and make the second pair slightly bigger to form the glass shells, and then turn them off so you can return to working on the actual eyes. Grab hPolish and flatten the area of the eye where you want the lights to be. (You could also use some circle alphas to create the rims if you want.)

08

Fast robot hydraulics: To create the robot’s under-details we are going to use the Curve Tube brush. It’s a great tool for making fast wires and hydraulics. As you can see in the image, all you do is draw out where you want the wires or pipes. Once drawn out, you can change

the size of them by changing your brush size and clicking on the dotted line.

Once you make one subdivide a few times, you can duplicate it and slice lines across it. Ctrl+Shiftclick on the pieces, use ‘Del hidden’, ZRemesher and Panel Loops, then merge down and you should have your first pipe! Unless you want some variety to your inner pipes and workings, you can just duplicate them and move them next to each other. When you have enough, just duplicate and do the same for the legs, neck, and any other gaps you have left. It’s always good to keep a few bendy ones in their own SubTool for KeyShot later.

With most models you may see the knee joint, and in this one you can, so I use the Insert Cylinder option with a few subdivides on it, as it won’t be seen much.

09

Head vents: I feel the head’s looking a bit bare, so let’s add a vent up there. Altclick your main head, duplicate it, Ctrl+Shift-click on the top of the head and use ‘Del hidden’.

Grab your Slice Rect tool and draw a rectangle down the head just like in the image. Ctrl+Shiftclick and delete hidden again, and use ZRemesher for symmetry. Then use Panel Loops with a good thickness.

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Using custom tools to create realistic bolts and screws

Posing the robot ready for export

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Now we need holes in it, so we’re going to Polypaint in black on the piece. Once you’ve painted the holes you want to make, go to Polygroups > From Polypaint. To smooth them off a bit, go to Tool > Deformation > Polish by Groups and move the slider slightly. Finally, Ctrl+Shiftclick the piece, use Split Hidden and ZRemesher with the same hole pieces, and Panel Loop the main piece with a thickness of 1. Now you have a head vent!

10

Fine details: For this step I’ll be using a free tool download from BadKing (www. badking.com.au/site): a rivet brush. Although you don’t need this step, it will add more realism.

Start by looking at the panels and where they would need bolts to hold them together (or maybe you just want to put bolts everywhere).

I love the bolt brush as it saves so much time! The same brush can be used to make the lights; just make sure they’re on their own SubTool before making the lights, and remember to put two bolts or screws on the eyes for the pupil lights.

11

Transpose Master: Even though this robot isn’t going to be posed drastically, we might as well move his head and arms so that he isn’t so static. Start by going to Zplugins > Transpose Master and click on TPoseMesh.

This will put all your SubTools into one low mesh that is easy to move. Mask off the body, leaving the arm out, then use the Move tool and rotate the arm into the position you want. You can then mask off the top of the arm to the elbow and rotate the lower arm, and do the exact same for the head so you can turn it slightly.

When you have the position you’re happy with, go back to Zplugins > Transpose Master and hit TPose > SubT. This may take a while, so don’t panic – it will give everything its own SubTool level back, only now in their new positions.

12

KeyShot: Now it’s time to use my favorite software: KeyShot 5. Start by merging all the SubTools that you think will be the same color and material, then select each SubTool and hit export in the top right corner of ZBrush. Do this for all your SubTools, making sure they all go to the same folder location.

Open KeyShot, import your first SubTool. In the import options dialog box, choose ‘Add to Scene’ and ‘Keep Original’. Do this for all the SubTools.

Once they’re all in KeyShot, highlight them all in the scene list and click the Position tab, then select ‘Snap to ground’. Now you’re ready to add KeyShot materials to your robot.

Exporting to KeyShot for rendering

For this one I’m going to use Metal > Steel and the Axalta set. Start by adding Axalta > Gun Metal to the main parts of the model, and then choose a secondary color that you like (I’m choosing yellow). Use the Steel material for all your bolts, joints and pipes. If you have a few pipes on their own SubTool, make them a different color, like red or blue. I use KeyShot’s basic glass material for the eye shell, and use Light > Emissive material for the lights.

Now all you need to do is choose a backdrop image that suits it, and then the environment, which will add awesome real lighting to your scene. Now you’re ready to render, so hit the render button and set the size of the image you want to produce – KeyShot is fast, so it’s a good idea to make it big. On the quality, we’re just going to turn the shadow and samples up slightly and turn the ray bounces up to 20-30. Time to press render!

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Adding a few wear and tear marks in Photoshop

13

Scratches: Depending on your result, you might want to add a few markings like text and dirt. We will do this in Photoshop.

Bring your image into Photoshop, make a new layer, and use scratch brushes or photo textures to put them over your image. Use the eraser to make sure they stay within the model, then change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay.

Make a new layer, go to Image > Apply Image, and this will put everything under that layer into one. Now go to Image > Adjustment > Curves, make a slight ‘S’ curve in the red, green and blue, and then go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen.

Change the opacity of that layer to about 55. All you need to do now is add any text decals you want, but remember to change the text layer to Overlay as well. Now the robot is complete.

3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

The Artist

Richie Jon Mason

artstation.com/artist/richenks

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Create vivid illustrations with 3D

The Artist

Morten Jaeger

mj-design.dk

Software Used: Maya, ZBrush, V-Ray, Photoshop Morten Jaeger is a CG artist from Denmark, currently working at Cinesite in London as a modeler. He also really enjoys concepting and drawing silly characters.

Create vivid illustrations with 3D

Morten Jaeger combines his 2D and 3D skills to make his alien explorer Steve, using a blend of Maya, ZBrush, and Photoshop 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

Morten Jaeger reveals how he created this stylized illustration in ZBrush…

01

Concept sketching: Steve came about from a tiny sketch. The main idea behind him was to make an alien who was really tired of his life, his job and just does what he has to, to get by. I wanted to explore it a little further and decided to make a more complete illustration in Photoshop. No fancy shading and this was something I came to represent in the final render as well, initially though this wasn’t my intention.

02

ZBrush base: I wanted to stay true to the quality of the line in the design. I kept all the quirks, everything that essentially gives Steve his strange and slightly messed-up look.

Everything was pretty much made from a DynaMesh sphere. It’s such a great tool and allows for a lot of freedom and exploration. I started by trying to get the silhouette down, and basically aimed to match my concept as closely as I could.

This meant that asymmetry was a big part of what I did, and because he was drawn as flat as he was, everything was done without perspective.

The birth of Steve

Capturing the essence

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An incomplete picture

03

Choosing what to show: The final 3D model was really an incomplete model.

Whenever I do these kinds of projects I tend to focus on the part you will actually see. There’s something to be said for exploring a character completely, but working as a full-time modeler in London doesn’t quite leave for a lot of time. So doing selective projects like these gives me time to learn, grow and explore new things.

04

Shading: In terms of shading this really comes down to simplicity. I used the Shaded Brightness Toon Shader, which works based on the angle of the light. For this project I only used one directional light, which helped give me the form of the shadows I was looking for.

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For the shader, everything was driven by one shader. There was one texture for what received light and another texture for the shadows; I used the same texture for both inputs, but used the Color Gain for the shadow texture in Maya to give it a darker color. This just saved having to load in two textures, and if I decided to make any corrections, both textures would be updated.

05

Photoshop: To make this as painless and as fast as possible I didn’t really want to do anything advanced in terms of the shading, so the rough and sketchy look that the shadows have are just a cheat. This was just an overpaint done in Photoshop – sorry, no fancy magic here!

Because I didn’t need this for animation, or a

turntable, I could do whatever I wanted in post.

I like to work this way, especially when doing an illustration. It’s fast and efficient, and most of the time you don’t need to re-render as you can simply makes changes in Photoshop. And as long as it looks good, no one is going to complain.

06

Render passes: Because everything was rendered out completely flat with only a harsh shadow, it really took away a lot of the depth that 3D offers. This was exactly what I wanted, but I tried to experiment a little and ended up adding a bit of depth with an occlusion and normals pass. The occlusion was primarily used for darkening shadows, and the normals pass helped create some interesting

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Simplicity is key

The shading

Occlusion and normals pass

color overlays. You can how see the normals pass adds some nice green and purple – a sort of ‘fake’ bounce light.

07

Final touches: But the ‘cheating’ didn’t stop there. If you compare the raw render to the final image you can clearly see a big difference. In Photoshop, I corrected the shadows, painted highlights on the body and eyes, and added some ‘paper’ scratches to tie it in to the original illustration even more. A last and really important tool is color correction: even minor 117

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tweaks can have a profound effect on how your image is perceived, so keep that in mind as well.

08

Have fun! In the end I think it’s important to just have fun and experiment. Don’t let yourself be restricted by the medium, because the possibilities are endless. 2D is really a powerful tool, and I feel like it is often overlooked, especially by people who are just starting out. It’s always a good exercise to see what you can accomplish with post-production – try comparing your before and after pictures and you’ll be amazed!

As our beloved friend Steve would put it, EXPLORE! Try something different today and challenge yourself.

Bringing it all together

The Artist

Morten Jaeger

mj-design.dk

3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Sculpt insectoid creatures with ZBrush

The Artist

Jorge Castillo

georgecastilloart.com Software Used: ZBrush, KeyShot, Photoshop Jorge Castillo is a 3D character artist from Colombia. He is currently working in architectural visualization, and freelance with experience in character creation for videogames and cinematics.

Sculpt insectoid creatures with ZBrush

Learn how Jorge Castillo made his menacing insect The Bug using ZBrush for sculpting, KeyShot for rendering, and Photoshop for post-production 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

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See The Bug’s process, from the concept sketch through to the final render…

Thumbnailing is an evolving process, as illustrated. Here I was looking for a humanoid insect

01

Developing a concept: The hardest part of this process is to create something from nothing. For that reason, I get my inspiration from different web-pages, look at different artists and concepts for inspiration, and also draw ideas from books, movies, and videogames.

My goal here was to design a humanoid insect.

My starting point was asking myself a series of question, such as: What is the role of this creature? Is it hostile? Is it a worker insect, or a warrior, or maybe the colony’s queen? I answered all these questions before I started drawing.

For The Bug, I began by analyzing real insects and crustaceans through sketching. I paid close attention to their segmented bodies, exoskeletons, number of limbs, and mouth types.

Then I made my own creations by mixing and matching those features. I made some silhouette studies to understand the insects’ proportions, and again tried to create new creatures by changing the size and shape of their body parts.

With this exercise, I got a strong sense of what makes an insect an insect.

The block forms can be created from 3D polygons or a ZSphere

For this humanoid insect, I wanted it to be 60-percent human (bipedal, with hands and fingers) and 40-percent insect (big beetle horn, claws and exoskeleton) – an armored hunter.

02

ZBrush basics: Once I was satisfied with the preliminary design, the next step was to sculpt. I used ZBrush and didn’t have a specific technique to begin – I just started to sculpt the body from a 3D sphere. Then I made the first gesture of the body using DynaMesh (who doesn’t love it?) with the help of the Move, Clay, and Dam Standard brushes. I used ZSpheres for the limbs.

Once I had a skeleton defined, I created the adaptive skin, and with the Move brush I tried to build up the gesture, volume, and form of the different parts. At this stage, details don’t matter; I am to work from the general to the particular.

When the sculpting phase is completed, I used DynaMesh and tried to get more details, and define the big planes.

The first pass on the legs looked exactly like the sketch, but in 3D they looked more like chicken legs! So I started again on a new design that I would be happy with. (It doesn’t matter how much time it takes – if the design does not look right, keep doing it until it feels right.) At this point I had the block-out ready for the adjustment of proportion, gesture, and size.

Once the gesture is ready, use DynaMesh to give a better finish to the model

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03

Adding details: This is the first pass of details, using the Dam Standard, Clay, Move and Inflate brushes to give more quality to the surfaces. While sculpting the exoskeleton, I kept in mind that it must provide protection and mobility. I divided the body into SubTools (head, chest, and abdomen) in order to make finer details later. Likewise, I divided all the limbs into three separate parts each.

Design constantly evolves: there is nothing stopping me from re-evaluating ratios and improving the creature. In this case, the central claws seemed very big to me, not in harmony with the rest, so I reduced their size. I wanted the outer hands to be those that caught the prey, and the central claws smaller, or something.

Once I was happy with what I saw, I continued to reassess the topology and add detail. I used ZBrush’s great tool, ZRemesher, with the following process. With the creature all segmented, I took the hand for example, and made a duplicate.

I applied ZRemesher to this duplicate (with default options), then Projected the subdivided The insect’s separate sculpted body parts

3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

Here I’m focusing on large forms, changing planes and volume, and also starting to give some texture to the surfaces

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The bug is taking shape!

Different views of the model, selecting the most suitable for the final image

hand and used DynaMesh. This resulted in a very manageable polygon count, along with a clean topology. So after doing this for all the body parts, we’re ready for the fun part: details!

04

Using Alphas: For the details, I had a number of parts with over a million polygons apiece, for the alphas to look good.

Using the Dam Standard brush, I started making cuts on the surface, trying to follow the direction of the shape or the fibers, and using alphas (very simple ones such as Alpha 58 and Alpha 07).

For the spikes, I used the Standard brush with DragRect stroke and Alpha 38 with high intensity.

When sculpting details, the key is to work in layers, thinking in areas of visual rest. I considered where the creature really needed certain elements, such as areas of the shell and body having more spikes for protection. Sometimes when we begin with the details, we just add details like crazy; instead, I tried to think in terms of three (large, medium and small) details, scattered around the area.

Once the details were ready, I ended up with a model that had a very large weight of polygons, so I used Decimation Master on all the parts before creating the pose. (The advantage of making an insect is that all of its sections will be separated anyway.)

05

Posing: For the final pose I just used the Transpose tool. Because the creature is segmented, it was no problem to simply move and rotate its limbs. It was difficult to decide the final pose and position of the camera, because 123

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the detail (on the back, for example) would be missed out of the final render.

Once happy with the pose, I saved the different parts of the creature as an OBJ and exported it to 3ds Max for rescaling. I wanted to render it in KeyShot, where the illumination algorithms work best with real measurements. The floor is nothing special: just a stretched box, carved with rock alphas I found online and a ZBrush noise plugin.

06

KeyShot rendering: The software used for the final render was KeyShot, which is very easy and fast to use. I simply imported the creature, created a camera, and started to play with the materials and environments.

I had no clear idea of what I wanted, so it was an opportunity for further exploration. While trying various materials, I discovered that the red velvet material actually made him look like a photomicrograph – like an image of a bug taken under a microscope – so this was my choice.

07

Editing: When I finished rendering, I used Photoshop (the best friend of a

Making post-production tweaks in Photoshop

The Artist

Jorge Castillo

georgecastilloart.com

3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

Rendering The Bug in KeyShot

graphic artist) to do final touches, amplify light, color correction, and contrast adjustment. I also added an almost shadowy background, thanks to www.cgtextures.com – different types of smoke were added to the image with transparency.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I hope I’ve been helpful for those who want to create creatures and need a clear starting point or defined workflow. Thanks to 3dcreative for this space and the readers for their support. Goodbye!

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Digital Art Master: Andrzej Sykut

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by Andrzej Sykut Discover the processes behind a stunning 3D masterpiece with a sneak-peek look inside the pages of Digital Art Masters: Volume 8. Learn how Andrzej Sykut crafted his wonderful sci-fi scene in 3ds Max, V-Ray, ZBrush, Wings 3D and Photoshop 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

The Artist

Andrzej Sykut

azazel.carbonmade.com Software Used: 3ds Max, V-Ray, ZBrush, Wings 3D, Photoshop

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Digital Art Master: Andrzej Sykut

Concept I have always found images of things being built fascinating. I love those ‘cutaway’ illustrations that show the insides of ships and planes – I can stare at them for hours. Seeing the feats of human engineering, like a big ship or a space shuttle, from the inside always stimulates something in my head.

On a purely visual level, these images have a lot of interesting shapes, textures, light patterns, surface definitions and details. Next, you notice contrasts – of which there are many – but for me the biggest one is between the vehicles’ outward appearance of sophistication and sleekness compared to the very utilitarian, often surprisingly crude-looking, structures that make them work.

The shuttle is a great inspiration on many levels.

Aesthetically pleasing from a distance but, as

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you get closer, you’ll notice that it’s amazingly complex and not smooth and shiny as you might expect. Parts of the surface look surprisingly like fabric and although it seems so old-fashioned, the fabric is actually an efficient and modern

thermal shielding. Within a shuttle, there are contrasts within contrasts: old computers are mixed with cutting-edge technology, held together with duct tape. That’s the spirit I wanted to capture here (Fig.01).

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I wanted the scene to depict a protagonist trying to fix his broken ship. The scene shows that the ship is not much bigger than the engine that powers it, which has come from a bigger, more powerful, machine. The engine is barely compatible and had to be fitted asymmetrically, creating a sprawling, almost organic shape.

Composition I started, as usual, with a simple scene mock-up, a camera, and some light sources. This gave me just enough complexity to depict the scene, but was simple enough to build quickly and modify without too much impact. After the first iterations, the composition began to unfold and the scene became more and more complex.

Next I started to focus on the shapes and the way the lines lead the eye around the image (Fig.02 – 03). All the seemingly random wires hanging everywhere were actually far from random, as a misplaced wire could have had a surprisingly negative impact.

Since I was lighting, modeling and eventually texturing simultaneously, it was easy to see where I needed to add detail and where something more generic would do. As complex as this image looks (and is, if you count the polygons), the actual library of elements used is quite small and fairly simple (Fig.04), not to mention the many recycled components from other projects.

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Digital Art Master: Andrzej Sykut

The principal objects are also simple, with some minimal texturing. I think there was a moment when I found it hard to add any meaningful details anymore, so I focused on the textures and shaders. Texturing proved to be both simple and quite tricky. It was simple in the sense that I mostly used tileable or generic maps with some photo-sourced details, but at the same time it was tricky not to overpower the scene with noise, which was important. I spent a lot of time simplifying and balancing them in relation to each other. The main detail was mostly handpainted, while the smaller stuff was an overlay of photo-sourced textures that were carefully chosen to be interesting, without causing too much contrast or noise.

I highlighted some of the edges to compliment certain objects; mainly to emphasize the shapes rather than to suggest any wear and tear. I prepared bump, specular and shininess maps only where necessary, but not every shader has a full set of maps as there was no need for such extreme measures.

As mentioned, I was lighting the scene from the outset. At some point, the lights inspired me to 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM

add some plants to the sunlit part, which led to further subtle lighting tweaks. The lighting supports the theme of contrasts, with strong light against dark shadows and the warm orange of the new engine against the cold, gray of the original structure.

The contrasting light and colors make it look as if it is made from two separate images, with a dividing line running vertically through the center of the image (Fig.05). This came about subconsciously, I think. Technically, the scene is

lit by one directional light, some spots, a bunch of area lights, and some GI, but it took a lot of work to make them work together nicely.

Much of the final look came from the compositing stage where I added lots of little 2D texture details such as labels, texts, stripes, and so on (Fig.06).

Most of that stuff was photo-sourced to save time.

The atmosphere is also 2D as it’s much faster to do it this way for a still image. I added layers of sparks, smoke and particles, mostly sourced

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from real photos (Fig.07). I really like the way the smoke on the right-hand side turned out.

A lot of post work was devoted to removing unwanted highlights, bright spots and jagged shapes along the edges of the image. I kept an eye on these throughout the process, but new ones always spring up and sometimes it’s faster and easier to fix them during post-production instead of hunting down which of the many lights was producing the highlight and excluding it.

Finally, I did quite a bit of color correction, some vignetting and graining, and so on, to take the CG edge off (Fig.08).

My favorite part of the image is the duct tape.

In reality, it is used to hold things together in even the most unlikely of places. In this image, it communicates the haphazard nature of the whole contraption our hero is trying to fix.

I don’t make this kind of image very often, but when I do, I like them to be related in some way to my personal series, The Journey. From the character, through to the shape and layout of the

ship, this scene would easily fit into that world. I like to work with a wider background and story in my head that reaches beyond the borders of a single image.

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Digital Art Master: Andrzej Sykut

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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 116

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