A 3D Concept Process
After we read his fantastic post where he shows off some 3D illustrations & concepts, we asked Artem 'X-Convict' Volchik if he'd mind writing about the process of creating these images. More importantly, he touches on the benefits of creating concepts with this method that we think you'll appreciate.
A 3D Concept Process
by Artem Volchik
These 3D Concepts, or 3D Illustrations, are something that I started creating recently to attempt to generate a quick workflow that helps translate an idea into a 3d space I can explore into a concept and share.
Where to start?
The starting point for these pieces started with just trying to nail down an interesting part of that idea and start exploring it. This could have been a focal piece in the scene, the general scale, or a starting camera angle. Some of the ideas that I wanted to form were a ground floor look at a unique future city, a sci-fi dock with a take on the ‘edge of the world’, and a mysterious event taking place. Translating those ideas to 3D helped me form them into something that was a foundation to build on. This exploration got me really excited about continuing on and ideas started flowing in.
What’s the purpose of these 3D illustrations?
These are conceptual ideas, and the process is to help visualize ideas. These aren’t real-time environments so there are extra freedoms that you can flex but also go back and re-use the scene to elaborate with different angles. This shouldn’t be looked at as in-game art but more game-art ideas.
The benefit I saw in these is that it allows a quick iterative way of achieving a real sense of scale and depth to an idea and explore it from many different angles and approaches. The freedom that came with this helped pick a camera angle that I was happy to iterate on - changing a bit as the scenes were built to work better for the pieces and their composition.
What works? What doesn't?
I wanted the best 'bang for the buck' way of creating these, so I started with blockouts, played with high resolution geometry, tiling elements, lighting, camera angles, render passes, etc.. Trying to find an efficient balance and what was worth doing. I ultimately ended up with a mix between blockout, semi-detailed, and modifier based geometry. I went between 3DS Max and Photoshop quite a bit on the first piece to test out what was working and what wasn't.
Some conclusions I had come to were that it was not necessary to spend a lot of time on details but more-so to focus on the interesting shapes. Incorporating some lighting helped push the mood and scale of the piece. Setting up an initial camera angle to work from focused the work and time that needed to be spent.
Keeping things consistent and interesting (not necessarily detailed) was a goal of mine for the 3D side. I utilized the 3D elements to help hint at details and ideas to keep me focused and thinking about the world while working on it in Photoshop.
Process and Momentum
Blockout geometry, semi-detailed focal points, and modifiers. Interesting shapes, composition, lights, render passes. These were the focus of the 3D side to build a good base to enter photoshop with.
Specific geometry went through a detail pass to make it unique and interesting, some went through just a greeble for implied details, and some stayed blockout. All this was after building the idea and finding that angle I wanted to commit to. These details needed a foundation so the shapes, composition, and lights took priority. The render passes helped to start putting the image together. Some passes I tried and used throughout were atmosphere, zdepth, self-illumination, lighting, and ambient occlusion.
Time to paint away
The mindset going into Photoshop was that it was time to explore again and try things out to bring the piece to the next level. There is a lot of room to play here and I spent a good portion of the time exploring different ideas, colors, pushing values, and painting in different lighting - really exploring bringing it to life.
Starting with compositing the different layers of passes rendered out, and using those as a base to give atmosphere and lighting. I already had consistency in the shapes and some detail to pick through so I could easily transfer new details to other parts while maintaining the main shapes. Using color balance and other post effect on top of the piece helped bring the different parts of the piece together.
The Photoshop side played a huge roll in re-focusing the details and composition of the piece and keeping the elements cohesive. It was also a more laid back process filling in the piece and making what I had more interesting and unique.
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