Working With Photographic Reference

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Introduction:

This 3 part video tutorial by ten24’s James Busby will show the process of preparing and using photographic reference to create realistic human characters. Part 1 will show the steps taken in Photoshop with parts 2 and 3 focusing on the methods used in Lightwave. Also available for download with this tutorial is the base mesh used.

Chapter 1: Photoshop

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Duration: 09 minutes 12 seconds

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Click Here to Download the Character Head Base Mesh | Size: 64kb

Making of Portrait of a Silent Man

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About the image

There are many rendered portraits in a lot of galleries. I was always impressed by the high quality of the MentalRay FastSkin shader and how easy it was to set it up once you understood the basic concept of how skin works. But as I ‘only’ have Cinema 4D, MentalRay is not an option for me. But isn’t it possible to render realistic skin in Cinema 4D? I wanted to find out with this project.

The modeling

I usually start my 3d models with a simple cube (box modeling). I know that many prefer point-by-point modeling (or poly-by-poly) but I like using a cube and ‘cutting’ the detail in, step-by-step. Box modeling allows me to quickly block out the basic shape of the figure and thus to have a better feeling for the proportions of the model. But because I am using good references, any modeling technique would have worked.

The face finished, I began laying out the UVs (maybe the most annoying part of this job). Fortunately I found UVLayout (by Headus), a free program that flattens 3D geometry automatically. [link]

The textures

I took the model into ZBrush to add a texture to the face. Every inch of the texture comes from high-resolution photos which where projected onto the model with the ZBrush tools. Wesclei Barbosa has written a tutorial about how to do that. All my reference photos as well as the texture references are from www.3d.sk. [link]

This is how the final head texture looks:

I used this same texture to create the skin details. I turned it into a black & white image and created a mask of it in ZBrush. Now I was able to use the Inflate brush and sculpt all the little skin details. This technique is explained in this video tutorial. I also included some volume for the hair with a custom brush. Finally I created and extracted a displacement map of the head.

Making of The Guards

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Software Used: ZBrush 3.1, 3ds Max 8, Mental Ray & Photoshop CS3

Hello, my name is Kashpersky Alexey (aka RIDDICK) (Fig.00).

I’d like present in this article the process of creation of my latest work, “The Guards” (Fig.01).

Fig.00

Fig.01
I outlined a quick sketch using pencil on paper, and then realised that it was necessary to extend the hind legs – so I did (Fig.02).

Fig.02
As I was working on the sketch I remembered the work of another artist, and with that the concept of a jumping creature was born (Fig.03). I even did a sculptural sketch in ZBrush, but gave up on it (Fig.04). I wanted the monster to be of my own design and creation, right from the end of the tail to the tips of the tusks. Which is why, the next day, I started with the primary planning in ZBrush.

Fig.03

Fig.04
I started from ZSpheres, lining them up to create a basic form, and then modelled from there (Fig.05). I continued sculpting and establishing the basic masses. When you model anything in ZBrush, it’s much more comfortable to work with two monitors. On one, have your sketch and reference images on the musculature, and so on, and on the other have your ZBrush work open. Most attention needs to be given to the anatomy of your model. Even if I’m modelling a fantastic creature, I always start off with the anatomy of animals that are most similar to my concept creation, for better understanding whilst I sculpt, making for a more believable model.

Fig.05

At this stage, before creating a model of the horseman, I tried the model of the BMP out with a basic male model to determine the correlation between the sizes of man and beast. Once I was happy, I could continue modelling further (Fig.06).

Fig.06

Here I started to work on the protective leather straps on the body by creating new Subtools. For this purpose it was necessary to mask the areas of the surface which I wanted to extrude (Fig.07 – 08).

Fig.07Fig.08
By the way, I was asked a question: What is the growth protruding from his back? Well, it’s a light, such as some fish have in the deep sea (Fig.09).

Here I made some time to incorporate a horseman and detail his clothing. Taking advantage of the Transpose tool, I gave the man a suitable pose and approximately set where the fabric of his garment would hang on him (Fig.10).

Fig.09Fig.10
Whilst creating the fabric, I decided to stop detailing it; I had it exactly where I needed it, covering the man’s torso, flowing in the wind. I make a few trial sketches of the fabric in ZBrush and realised that something was missing … it didn’t look vivid enough. To fix this, I exported the low poly model of the man into 3ds Max and used the SimCloth plugin, simply putting the fabric on a low poly “doll”. The result was already much better, it was still not quite what I needed. I then made an attempt to make the fabric more dynamic, and I created a short animation of the doll, turning him clockwise and a slightly sideways. To reflect the flow of the wind on the fabric I created a few animated objects; I tried playing with the variants of their motion, but the final result didn’t really satisfy my needs (Fig.11). The only option was to complete the desired effect in ZBrush.

Fig.11
I applied a Shell modifier to the designed piece of fabric which gave the material its thickness. I then took it back into ZBrush where I smoothed out any excessive unevenness, and continued with the detailing. Here’s how it turned out for me in the end (Fig.12).

Fig.12
When the design was finished, the most labour intensive process came: retopologising, starting with the stone, making make sure that the textures would all fit properly and to avoid the texturing process becoming too complex (Fig.13). With the stone retopologised, I did the same for all the other objects in the scene (Fig.14).

Fig.13Fig.14
I used the programme Unfold3d to generate the UV maps, and then loaded the unfolded objects back into ZBrush (Fig.15).

Fig.15
Fig.16 shows the stage with all objects combined.

The time then came to start incorporating the textures. First and foremost, I took everything apart in local colours, making it easier to do the work (Fig.17).

Fig.16Fig.17

Making Of Old Elf

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Software Used: Softimage XSI 6.5, ZBrush 3.1, Maya 8.5, Photoshop CS3, Unfold 3D

The making of the Elven Archer was quite an organic process. Unlike most of my modelling projects, I didn’t start this one off with a set goal in mind. In fact, the model just started off as a doodle in ZBrush. I had no idea when I started that I would take it so far!

I was developing my own ‘metamesh’ of sorts – a concept that I picked up from Alex Huguet – which is basically a mesh topology that is generic and serves as a good base for quickly starting sculpting in ZBrush. I made a couple of head meshes and was doing a couple of quick head sculpts to test how flexible they were and how well they worked (Fig.01).

Fig.01

Sculpting:

The elf started off just as a sculpt of an old man. I started off first gathering some quick references from the net on older men’s faces and just pretty much went to town on the ‘metamesh’ base. I used the Clay Tubes brush to build up the base shapes and quickly lay down the major facial anatomy. Then I did a quick smooth pass – then more clay tubes and standard brush to start defining details in the face such as major wrinkles and creases.

Once I was happy with the overall look of the face – using the Move brush to make adjustments to proportions at lower subdivisions – I started tightening up details using the Standard, Smooth and Pinch brushes. You have to be careful with the Pinch brush though, since it redistributes your polygons unevenly, so it’s best to use this last as a sort of final refine pass.

Also, a neat trick I discovered is to go back down about 2-3 levels from your highest subdivision where your polygons are more evenly distributed and hit the ‘Reproject Higher Subdiv’ button, which will more evenly distribute your polygons on the higher levels and project the details back onto the mesh. However, make sure to save a morph target or create a new layer when you do this – since sometimes it does mess up in some places.

At this point I looked at the model and a sort of story started emerging from the character; I saw him as being this veteran warrior – an archer maybe (Fig.02). He had seen his fair share of battles and had the scars and stories to match them. Although he had seen much hardship in his life, he still managed to remain positive and hopeful. I wanted to convey that through this project.

Fig.02

The next day I continued refining the sculpt, adding some asymmetry to the model – something which I think is very important to making believable CG characters – and adding some high frequency details, like pores, with some custom alphas I had.

Once I had the sculpt of the head pretty much done, I drew a quick concept sketch of what I had in mind for the character then imported it into XSI to build the base meshes for the rest of the character (Fig.03). It was here that I decided I wanted to put some life to him and animate him. I didn’t want to do anything really drastic – just enough to convey the personality and make him seem believable. Knowing that I only wanted to do a medium shot of him, I didn’t bother to model what would not be shown in the final animation, so I didn’t model hands or legs.

Fig.03

Once the rest of the meshes were modelled in XSI, I exported them back to ZBrush to start detailing and sculpting. I used ZBrush’s mesh extraction to produce some thickness to the cloth and using mainly the Standard and Smooth brushes I began to rough out the cloth folds and wrinkles. I painted some custom alphas in Photoshop for the design on the shirt and applied it via the UVs, and used Inflate to raise it a bit.

For the leather straps I did the fine engraving by using ZAppLink to project masks I painted in Photoshop onto the geometry then deforming in inward.

For the leaf shoulder armour (Fig.04):

I started off with a plane and quickly sculpted some leaves onto it
I then hid and deleted the excess polygons
I retopologized the mesh and added thickness to it using Mesh Extract in the SubTools menu
The holes were created by exporting the mesh to XSI and adding them in there; I then continued to refine and sculpt the leaves with the new topology

Fig.03

Here is the finished elf in ZBrush (Fig.05 – click to enlarge).

Fig.03

Texturing:

The UVs were quickly done in Unfold3D and refined in Maya. For me, I prefer to spend less time on making perfect UVs and focus more on painting good textures. For this project I wanted to try painting all the textures by hand – there was minimal photo texturing used. For the sake of time I’ll just walk through painting the face textures (Fig.06).

Fig.06

Making of Chesney Baker Caricature

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Hey all, in this tutorial I’m going to show you how I created the final render of my Chesney Baker caricature. First thing, I got the inspiration to do this piece after looking through “Stars,” a book of caricatures by the very talented Sebastian Kruger; you should definitely check it out (www.krugerstars.com).This is not my original concept. It is based on one of his drawings.

This is going to be more of a demonstration on my general approach and workflow. All of the actual sculpting was done using Skymatter’s awesome new modeling program, Mudbox (www.mudbox3d.com). Since this program is still in beta testing, I can only show so much. Also, when I work, I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel, I use what works for me. My workflow is setup to spend as much of my time sculpting the model. When it comes to rendering, I think it is most effective to render out passes separately and composite them in post. Ultimately, there are many ways to approach your work; I’m not saying that mine is the approach that you should take; it’s just what works for me. Try a bunch of options and find what you are comfortable with and what works for you.

Okay let’s get started. So going into this project I knew exactly what I wanted as an end result which was a front view render, not photoreal, more of a casted maquette look, kind of like a bust. Knowing this allowed me to focus exactly on what was going to be seen and saved a lot of time in the end. I think that it is extremely important to know what you are trying to accomplish ahead of time. It really allows you to focus on the end result and spend the greater part of you time specifically on what is necessary to reach that final look.

I started by creating a low resolution base mesh in Maya based on Kruger’s Drawing and just roughed out the exaggerated proportions. I wasn’t focusing on anything other then the major structure and silhouette. The exact positions of the eyes, lips, nose and such would be adjusted later in Mudbox.

The clothing and hair were also done first in Maya as separate meshes. I’m like box modeling so it wasn’t hard keeping this model all quads for the Mudbox import.

The final sculpt which includes all of the finer details such as the pores, fine wrinkles, and eyebrows was done using pre-made alphas and a lot of hand sculpting. The final model was subdivided to about 3.5 million polygons. I added smaller details like the carunculas and little individual eyebrow hairs lastly in Maya.

At this point I exported out my displacement map from Mudbox to use in my shader network in Maya. I learned how to render displacements from various Gnomon DVD’s, friends, and from one excellent tutorial in particular written by Scott Spencer, called “Zbrush to Maya Pipeline Guide”

(http://zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=25542&highlight=displacement+exporter)

Definitely check it out. He explains how to render out displacement maps in Mental Ray in great detail, so I’m not going to go over all of that here. These are settings that I used to export my map out of Mudbox. I tweaked the levels of the map so that it is easier to see.

click image for larger version and settings.

Now since I was only going to be rendering out one view, render time wasn’t exactly a concern, though it should always be in the back of your mind when working. In any case, I like to work from a level where the mesh that you apply the map to is of a high enough resolution so that it doesn’t have to be displaced too far to reach the final look. For that reason, I decided to work from the highest level that Maya would allow me to import, this turned out to be about to be the level 2 mesh at about 200,000 polys.

Since there is no camera move or change in our light direction, we can reach the same result in a fraction of the time by using a bump map instead of a displacement map. Sometimes I use both, but for this specific single view render, the bump map alone will work fine. This will not work in all cases but since the Level 2 head includes the majority of the larger wrinkles, the only thing we need is the fine skin detail which the bump map will illustrate. Here’s an image of an early test I did to realize this. As you can see here, there is very little difference between the two other then render times.

Now that we have the render matching the original sculpt, let’s move onto the shader network and lighting setup. I am using a modified shading network that a buddy of mine gave me back when I was in school. I had to alter it a bit to get more of the brushed plaster cast look that I was going for.