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achieving realism: using Autodesk Photofly

Jay Evans
polycounter lvl 18
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Jay Evans polycounter lvl 18
Ingredients:
Autodesk photofly
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/photo_scene_editor/
camera
Maya
ZBrush
3dcoat
marmoset
xnormal

prime.jpg

I recently experimented with photofly to see how it could fit in to a game asset pipeline. This was a quick test but I came away with quite a few possibilities in my head. Feel free to add your own experimentation to this thread, I hope to be adding to it. It sounds complicated but actually ended up being pretty quick at about 1.5-2 days.

What photofly doesn't do:
-its not a laser scanner
-it doesn't work with glossy reflections
-it doesn't like hair
-you get out what you put in. Take good photos with even lighting.

Step one
-take a bunch of photos and watch the provided tutorials
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YNrQA6eofI[/ame]
rob_head.jpg

step two
-make sure photofly data is mostly correct.
-Export .obj
-before doing anything import into your 3d package and weld all verts. Output from Photofly leaves many verts unwelded.
PSE1.jpg
raw_zbrush01.jpg

step three
-outputted mesh and textures are mostly unusable for our purposes. Mesh is heavily triangulated and textures are very random
outofPSE.jpg
rob02_hi_tex_000.jpg
-import into 3d coat and do a very rough base mesh.
-Subdivide basemesh in 3dCoat to get a nice evenly quad mesh for import into zbrush.
retop01.jpg
-give a simple unwrap to your newly retopoed base mesh

Step four
-import both meshes into zbrush and project all, textures included.
-at this point you should have a nicely quaded mesh which preserves all the detail
zb01.jpg
robmedunwap.jpg
-now let the sculpting fun begin as you clean and 'gamify' the mesh, sculpting as you normally would a high res head

step five
-sculpting in zbrush for final proportions and detailing
zbrushhero.jpg
-back to 3dcoat for final retopo
-final retopo in 3dcoat
retop2.jpg
-bake all in xnormal
textures.jpg
-back to 3dcoat for final normal map and diffuse detailing
3dc01.jpg

step six
put it all together in marmoset for a nice render
screenshot0.jpg
1500 polys
dif\norm\spec\gloss

sooo..
it works.
I think this opens up a whole avenue of exploration.
-stylized realism
-enviro pieces
-props
-heads
-gear

what do you guys think?
I think there are a lot of possibilities this opens up.


thanks to Rob @ slantsix games for being my test case.

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