Introduction
On this tutorial, I’m going to elucidate the method of making The House Pirates 3D illustration, beginning with the idea, sculpting in ZBrush, modeling with Blender, retopology and UVs in Maya, and utilizing Substance Painter to use the textures. The lighting and the render was made in Blender, and at last post-production with Photoshop.
Step 1: Choosing the idea
The Picture is predicated on an idea by the good Samuel Smith, who’s an Illustrator and Visible Growth Artist. I knew his work some time in the past and I simply beloved the storytelling on his pictures, the lighting is wonderful, and the way in which he composes the pictures generates a deep reference to the viewer.
Concept Art by Samuel Smith
Step 2: Blockout & camera perspective
First in Blender, move the camera and set up the concept as a background image, adjust the resolution if necessary and then with basic shapes (using mainly primitives) start the block out. This part is very important because you need to organize volumes and place the objects in order to have the essence of the scene. Also in the camera options you have to adjust the focal length and the depth of field according to the concept.
Location of base objects (WIP)
Step 3: References
I Search for an object and characters that could help me with the shape, materials, and textures. It helps to give more clarity about how to adapt the concept to a credible and realistic scene. In this case references like the gun, the spaceship, and the hair shape are very important.
Moodboard in PureRef
Step 4: Modeling & sculpting
For this project I modeled the objects in Blender except for the Girl character which I did in ZBrush. I invested some time creating a clean topology and good loops because those could affect how the geometry looks, and will also facilitate your work later when starting with the Unwrap Process. In this step I would recommend always starting with a consistent silhouette, basic shapes, and making sure your proportions are correct before you start on the details.
Modeling and sculpting process
Step 5: Particle Hair System
One of the challenges for me in this scene was the hair. I reviewed a lot of references from incredible 3D artists to understand how the hair works and how they made it. For this project I decided to use Blender’s particle system which has several options where you can adjust the size, the length, radious, the kink type, and other properties.
Particle System Panel
Step 6: Retopology
My principal 3D software for modeling is Blender but in this particular part of the process I chose Maya because I feel more comfortable with the Modeling Toolkit Panel, it has excellent tools like “Quad Draw” that allows us to be more efficient, and so far it’s the easiest way I know to do it. In this case I did the manual retopology only for the Girl character.
Retopology process in Maya
Step 7: Texel Density & UVs
Just like the previous step I used Maya to create UVs. Before starting to unwrap the meshes I recommend applying the Checker Map (you can find it in the top of UV Editor) to be sure that UVs are correct and have the same orientation for the textures. Next, in the UV Toolkit Panel I use the Texel Density Property to apply the same density to three different groups of meshes.
UV Enhancing – Maya
Step 8: UDIMs & Textures with Substance Painter
I made a decision to work with UDIMs to have a better and higher high quality within the ultimate render with 4K tilesets. This challenge was divided into three components for the texturing course of: The Lady, the spaceship, and the remainder of property, to keep away from any lag (it additionally is dependent upon your graphic card) and to lift the efficiency. Be sure you use PBR – Metallic Roughness template and OpenGL once you import the mesh. Step one is baking the textures and checking 4096 for the decision in response to the tileset. It’s vital to spend as a lot time as it is advisable create an excellent group of textures, all the time following your references.
Import and baking textures
Step 9: Lighting
First I created a HDRI node connection for the general atmosphere, and then I added the Key light, Fill light, and a Rim light focusing the character. For those lights I applied temperature using BlackBody Node looking for the best option that matches the result I had in mind.
Lighting setting
Step 10: Render & post-production
For the final render, I used Cycles Render using 1000 samples, 300% of resolution, Adaptive Sampling, and rendered separate layers for each object group with the transparent option checked on the Render Properties, then I composed everything in Photoshop. I made a color correction and added the cigarette smoke.
Last Render vs Submit Manufacturing
Prime tip 1: Respect your course of
It’s essential to maintain practising and studying new stuff on each challenge, accepting your limitations and dealing in your weaknesses, so it is advisable respect your course of and don’t evaluate your self with others.
