Sketchbook: Merlynn

Merlynn

Starting my sketchbook today! I will mainly use this to post WIP updates of personal work, practise my 3D skills and experiment with new techniques. Feedback and helpful links are always welcome

Merlynn

I always wanted to try out Quixel Mixer. Finally got some time this weekend and I'm absolutely stunned by how amazing and easy to use it is!

I started doodling around, adding layers to an old Zbrush sculpt of mine. Took me no time to get a decent texture done. I love the endless possibilities of the megascans library that comes with it.

Merlynn

Made another one. This time build it from ground up in Mixer using the Layer stack masks.

allmighty_thunder

How do you feel mixer stacks against designer? Just wondering

Merlynn

allmighty_thunder said:

How do you feel mixer stacks against designer? Just wondering

Really good question, keep asking myself the same thing  I think what makes Mixer really strong is that the base functionality is extremely easy to use. Especially when you need variations of "standard" textures for realistic games done fast, it's amazing. But if you have a specific style in mind or a pattern you want to create it can be limiting.

I'm still figuring out where I would fit it into my workflow. But for now I think I would always use it to blend existing textures together and to add a layer of finish. The surface imperfection materials are great.

I think doing a hightmap in Zbrush or Designer and then coloring and detailing it in mixer could be a good workflow.

Merlynn

More Mixer experiments

This time using the paint layers to build a more complex shape. I still like the simplicity but I would really wish for adjustment layers to also work on painted layers!

Merlynn

Some recent things I worked on. I got the levelup digital tutorial on ornaments and followed along. I learned some really cool Maya tricks there:

Then decided to use the created ornaments to start a small Art nouveau jewelry box project, which is still in progress:

Most recently had a look at sculpting and poly painting in Blender. I made this little guy, based on a creature box concept:

Merlynn

Some more blender sculpting I'm experimenting with Mask extract and the Remesh options in 2.9
Based on a concept by Satoshi Matsuura: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9eJ4BO

Merlynn

some progress, sculpting the scales now

Merlynn

Merlynn

Quickly tested a new workflow to get my sculpt into Painter without bothering with retopology, Uvmapping and baking. I imported my blender sculpt into Zbrush to get the Uvs generated and exported the entire highpoly with Uvs to Painter. The remaining maps like AO and curvature I baked directly inside Painter. I'm surprised how well that worked. The whole scene in Painter is running without lags. Ready to start some painting

Merlynn

I had to fix some issues and optimized the UV layout a bit. Also decided to add a floor, since that is quite common on miniatures.

I got a nice floor form the megascans library for that and adjusted it a bit to match the style in blender.

I also watched some videos on painting board game miniatures. I'm curious how well I can translate those techniques into 3D

Merlynn

Progress of the Painting process - I leave it to dry until tomorrow

Merlynn

Another update - more saturated colors and less glossy material.

Merlynn

Wrapping this one up. Here are some final renderings

Check out Satoshi's original concept art here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9eJ4BO

Merlynn

Had to make another one - adding some context. Kinda looks like he rolled high and defeated the other guy

Merlynn

I extracted a smart material for painter from this project. You can get it on my store https://bit.ly/2Em1Klm

Merlynn

Picked this one up again and continued adding some detail. I'm currently working on the dragonfly. Still need to adjust the width of the wings, they are too thin right now. Also want to add some patterns.

I start to like using Substance Painter for doing quick renders of highpolys lately

Merlynn

added more details to the wings