I experimented a lot with my lighting and rendering set up to achieve the look I was going for. Ill post a few of my WIPs and explain my thoughts along the way.
This was my first shot, just using the Sky Light and 3-point lighting set up.
This render was a good start, but some parts of my model were too dark. I added in some extra ambient lights to brighten these spots.
I was now happy with the overall lighting, but I tightened up some of the new ambient lights so that they would not over brighten certain areas. The main problem I noticed from my last render was that some of my materials were not reading as well as I wanted them too. The skirt looked too glossy and the shoulder piece on the armour read more like plastic than metal. I adjusted the material properties in Marmoset to fix the fabric and I tweaked the specular map for the metal so the highlights were less intense. The image below is of my final render with all the changes made.
I wanted to add this as a bonus chapter so people could get some ideas on how to present their work. This stage is dedicated to the beauty shot of your render so you can enhance your presentation image and make it more appealing.
When you take your render into Photoshop you may notice a difference in colour and value. Different programs can use different colour profiles so try and find a way to make sure your image look similar to as many screens as possible. A popular solution is to set your colour profile to sRGB. This can be done on Windows 7 by accessing Color Management from your control panel, going to the Devices tab, and adding sRGB IEC61966-2.1 as your default colour profile. You may still have to colour correct your rendered image in Photoshop, but the image you take out of Photoshop should give you a better impression of what other people will see.
My first priority in Photoshop was to set up some masks on my base render. This allows me to create a quick selection of the character or background so I can manipulate these elements separately. This can also be done by saving a selection, but I find this method a bit quicker (I can just control-click the mask to select it).
My next priority was to adjust the colours and values of the image so that they matched the render (as previously mentioned). This was achieved by setting up a Hue/Saturation layer and a couple of Curves layers. I applied a curves layer to the background and one to the foreground so I had more control.
The next step was to add some overlays to enhance my image and improve how good it looked and how well it read. One of the more important tweaks I did was to reduce the specular reflections of the finger nails. This could have been done by adjusting my specular map and re-rendering, but the lighting set up in Marmoset was more to blame, so I just darkened them a little in Photoshop. I added some colour in my background to compliment the foreground and help the character stand out a bit more. The cool blues in the background really helped the warm colours from the character pop. As a personal preference I like adding a subtle noise overlay on my image. I find this helps break up the CG look. Depending on your character, you may wish to add some sort of colour filter so that it looks like a photograph or movie still, so experiment and see what you get. I added some faked Ambient Occlusion around the feet because Marmoset did not able to render this well. This helped ground her in the scene so it did not look like she was floating. There was one final overlay I used to finish my scene and this is another personal preference; I added a vignette. This can be great for framing your character in the image, and if you keep it subtle people should not notice it.
Before you save your image and call it done, dont forget to add your contact details! If someone likes your image and starts sharing it with other people then everyone will know where it came from. You never know, this image could find its way to your future employer! But if they dont see any details on the image they may not be able to contact you. Try and keep your details small and out of the way; you dont want them to interfere with your presentation.
This project felt tough at times and took a lot longer than expected, but I challenged myself with a lot of different workflows, concepts, and even learnt a new program along the way (Mari). Sometimes larger projects can be difficult to finish because of how long they take you, and they can really get you down at times. This affects artists at all levels and often causes people to drop the project to start something new and exciting. If you feel like this then you are not alone. My advice: be stubborn. Just push through and get it finished. If you do this then you will have something to show at the end of all your hard work, and you will figure out new ways to become faster and more efficient. The quicker you can produce high quality work on a regular basis, the more valuable you will become as an artist!
The final model came to 26,804 triangles, used two sets of 4096x4096 texture maps for the character, one set of 4096x2048 texture maps for the weapons, and one set of 256x256 maps for the eyelashes. If you want to see the wire frames you can check out the breakdown on my website:
Thanks for reading! I would like to write more tutorials in the future, so if you have any thoughts on this tutorial and what kind of content you would like to see in the next one, please let me know!
This was incredibly insightful to follow. Thank you for covering your process in such detail. Always makes me smile to see a thread like this pop up.
I do have one question, and it feels kind of dumb, but I can't find an entirely clear answer. How did you go about mirroring those elements on your UV map as you did? I see how useful it can be to do so, but I've run into instances where the part I want to mirror isn't perfectly symmetrical (positionally) to the other part. So I would position it as close as I can in UV space and then align each vert individually so it's perfect. This just feels like the wrong way to do it though.
Oh, I UV'd one object, say the left arm, then I mirrored that geometry to the other side (as a new right arm). That way the UV islands lie in the exact same position. Does that answer your question?
Paul...your character is awesome! I seen your progression in the hangouts and this character has come a long way ..congrats on the character and the in-depth tutorial! Can't wait to see your next project
Oh, I UV'd one object, say the left arm, then I mirrored that geometry to the other side (as a new right arm). That way the UV islands lie in the exact same position. Does that answer your question?
Yeah it does, thanks. So essentially what I'm doing wrong is, trying to unwrap the entirety of my mesh with one unwrap modifier. If I unwrap the piece in question, THEN copy it, I won't have to worry about a difference in UV position because its UV's will already be assigned.
What a REALLY inspiring thread!
Awesome stuff man. I feel like I might take a leaf from your book and attempt a similar thing in the future. I really need to get some stuff finished and see the full pipeline through. If you don't mind that is?
Wow nice rundown, I learned some nice things, really great, thanks for the effort
The result is really nice , but 1 mayor thing hurting the image
You go for a analogic color sheme, intended or not, the thing is that you have the wrong yellow for it to work. Cold yellow is a world apart from warm yellow, a common mistake. If you just go to hue and saturation and select yellows, you can make it a warm tone easily, which will improve your overall piece a lot.
(Analogic is like colors close to the main color. In your case, Red > Orange > yellow // maybe also a very little accented with blue which is complementary if you count the nearly black background)
However, taking the wrong yellow is destroying your sheme.
Did a quick edit, my gold is bronze now because I was lazy, but you can easly get that right with 2 adjustment layers hue&sat. and masks.
Right is the original
Also a little brighter lighting on some places would have been nice, but its a good finished piece else. Evil Yellows, it happens so often
@Teessider: Thanks Andy! Going to be working on the Art Jam stuff for a bit, but I'm sure there will be another character in the works soon enough!
@sheckee: Thanks, that's really nice to hear! And yeah that would be awesome if you documented your next piece, I'm sure you'll learn loads more doing it (anlaysing your process).
@Shrike: Cheers, and thanks for the paintover and tips. I see what you mean using a warmer yellow. I spent some time trying to balance the orange-yellows in the specular and I may have slightly neglected the yellow colour balance in the diffuse. I'll definitely keep this in mind for my future projects!
Replies
I experimented a lot with my lighting and rendering set up to achieve the look I was going for. Ill post a few of my WIPs and explain my thoughts along the way.
This was my first shot, just using the Sky Light and 3-point lighting set up.
This render was a good start, but some parts of my model were too dark. I added in some extra ambient lights to brighten these spots.
I was now happy with the overall lighting, but I tightened up some of the new ambient lights so that they would not over brighten certain areas. The main problem I noticed from my last render was that some of my materials were not reading as well as I wanted them too. The skirt looked too glossy and the shoulder piece on the armour read more like plastic than metal. I adjusted the material properties in Marmoset to fix the fabric and I tweaked the specular map for the metal so the highlights were less intense. The image below is of my final render with all the changes made.
I wanted to add this as a bonus chapter so people could get some ideas on how to present their work. This stage is dedicated to the beauty shot of your render so you can enhance your presentation image and make it more appealing.
When you take your render into Photoshop you may notice a difference in colour and value. Different programs can use different colour profiles so try and find a way to make sure your image look similar to as many screens as possible. A popular solution is to set your colour profile to sRGB. This can be done on Windows 7 by accessing Color Management from your control panel, going to the Devices tab, and adding sRGB IEC61966-2.1 as your default colour profile. You may still have to colour correct your rendered image in Photoshop, but the image you take out of Photoshop should give you a better impression of what other people will see.
My first priority in Photoshop was to set up some masks on my base render. This allows me to create a quick selection of the character or background so I can manipulate these elements separately. This can also be done by saving a selection, but I find this method a bit quicker (I can just control-click the mask to select it).
My next priority was to adjust the colours and values of the image so that they matched the render (as previously mentioned). This was achieved by setting up a Hue/Saturation layer and a couple of Curves layers. I applied a curves layer to the background and one to the foreground so I had more control.
The next step was to add some overlays to enhance my image and improve how good it looked and how well it read. One of the more important tweaks I did was to reduce the specular reflections of the finger nails. This could have been done by adjusting my specular map and re-rendering, but the lighting set up in Marmoset was more to blame, so I just darkened them a little in Photoshop. I added some colour in my background to compliment the foreground and help the character stand out a bit more. The cool blues in the background really helped the warm colours from the character pop. As a personal preference I like adding a subtle noise overlay on my image. I find this helps break up the CG look. Depending on your character, you may wish to add some sort of colour filter so that it looks like a photograph or movie still, so experiment and see what you get. I added some faked Ambient Occlusion around the feet because Marmoset did not able to render this well. This helped ground her in the scene so it did not look like she was floating. There was one final overlay I used to finish my scene and this is another personal preference; I added a vignette. This can be great for framing your character in the image, and if you keep it subtle people should not notice it.
Before you save your image and call it done, dont forget to add your contact details! If someone likes your image and starts sharing it with other people then everyone will know where it came from. You never know, this image could find its way to your future employer! But if they dont see any details on the image they may not be able to contact you. Try and keep your details small and out of the way; you dont want them to interfere with your presentation.
So here it is; the final render!
This project felt tough at times and took a lot longer than expected, but I challenged myself with a lot of different workflows, concepts, and even learnt a new program along the way (Mari). Sometimes larger projects can be difficult to finish because of how long they take you, and they can really get you down at times. This affects artists at all levels and often causes people to drop the project to start something new and exciting. If you feel like this then you are not alone. My advice: be stubborn. Just push through and get it finished. If you do this then you will have something to show at the end of all your hard work, and you will figure out new ways to become faster and more efficient. The quicker you can produce high quality work on a regular basis, the more valuable you will become as an artist!
The final model came to 26,804 triangles, used two sets of 4096x4096 texture maps for the character, one set of 4096x2048 texture maps for the weapons, and one set of 256x256 maps for the eyelashes. If you want to see the wire frames you can check out the breakdown on my website:
http://paulp3d.4ormat.com/dark-aribeth
Thanks for reading! I would like to write more tutorials in the future, so if you have any thoughts on this tutorial and what kind of content you would like to see in the next one, please let me know!
I do have one question, and it feels kind of dumb, but I can't find an entirely clear answer. How did you go about mirroring those elements on your UV map as you did? I see how useful it can be to do so, but I've run into instances where the part I want to mirror isn't perfectly symmetrical (positionally) to the other part. So I would position it as close as I can in UV space and then align each vert individually so it's perfect. This just feels like the wrong way to do it though.
Thank you, I'm glad you found it helpful!
Before you get to that step. How did you get the islands on top of each other?
Yeah it does, thanks. So essentially what I'm doing wrong is, trying to unwrap the entirety of my mesh with one unwrap modifier. If I unwrap the piece in question, THEN copy it, I won't have to worry about a difference in UV position because its UV's will already be assigned.
Thanks so much.
Awesome stuff man. I feel like I might take a leaf from your book and attempt a similar thing in the future. I really need to get some stuff finished and see the full pipeline through. If you don't mind that is?
The result is really nice , but 1 mayor thing hurting the image
You go for a analogic color sheme, intended or not, the thing is that you have the wrong yellow for it to work. Cold yellow is a world apart from warm yellow, a common mistake. If you just go to hue and saturation and select yellows, you can make it a warm tone easily, which will improve your overall piece a lot.
(Analogic is like colors close to the main color. In your case, Red > Orange > yellow // maybe also a very little accented with blue which is complementary if you count the nearly black background)
However, taking the wrong yellow is destroying your sheme.
Did a quick edit, my gold is bronze now because I was lazy, but you can easly get that right with 2 adjustment layers hue&sat. and masks.
Right is the original
Also a little brighter lighting on some places would have been nice, but its a good finished piece else. Evil Yellows, it happens so often
@Torch: Thanks a lot!!
@PyrZern: Thankyou, I'm glad you liked it!
@Teessider: Thanks Andy! Going to be working on the Art Jam stuff for a bit, but I'm sure there will be another character in the works soon enough!
@sheckee: Thanks, that's really nice to hear! And yeah that would be awesome if you documented your next piece, I'm sure you'll learn loads more doing it (anlaysing your process).
@Shrike: Cheers, and thanks for the paintover and tips. I see what you mean using a warmer yellow. I spent some time trying to balance the orange-yellows in the specular and I may have slightly neglected the yellow colour balance in the diffuse. I'll definitely keep this in mind for my future projects!