Question for environment artists regarding statues

ioannespavlvsxcix

Hey there! i have been creating a lot of architectural art for 3d environments and i was wondering if all the environment artists sculpt their own statues and sculptures for their cathedrals, or if maybe the character artists give them a hand and they just texture them.

If so, how does that happen? do they know how to sculpt those incredibly difficult statues or do they just photoscan them?

Any advice on how to approach this subject let me know, i'm not a character artist and that makes it difficult for me

switz

Model a figure, pose it then slap a marble texture on it.

zachagreg

Depends on how detailed the figure needs to be, usually with drapery and what not covering most of the figure a posed base mesh is fine since 90% of the work is doing the drapery at that point and then damage and aging. If it's a full nude I'd prefer help from a character artist if I wasn't doing a study on anatomy myself.

If it's a character in a game that isn't at a huge scale a lower LOD posed version of that character with stone materials is going to be the easiest thing. Maybe with a damage and aging pass on it. In which case most of the work was indeed done by a character artist. I would say challenge yourself if its a personal project and see how well you can develop this thing. Anatomy is an important skill to study regardless of area of expertise. You won't so much be applying the things you learn from it but more so the mechanics behind the body's systems and an understanding of how things fit and move together which can greatly help any environment artist.

ioannespavlvsxcix

zachagreg said:

Depends on how detailed the figure needs to be, usually with drapery and what not covering most of the figure a posed base mesh is fine since 90% of the work is doing the drapery at that point and then damage and aging. If it's a full nude I'd prefer help from a character artist if I wasn't doing a study on anatomy myself.

If it's a character in a game that isn't at a huge scale a lower LOD posed version of that character with stone materials is going to be the easiest thing. Maybe with a damage and aging pass on it. In which case most of the work was indeed done by a character artist. I would say challenge yourself if its a personal project and see how well you can develop this thing. Anatomy is an important skill to study regardless of area of expertise. You won't so much be applying the things you learn from it but more so the mechanics behind the body's systems and an understanding of how things fit and move together which can greatly help any environment artist.

I see, I was not sure about it because sometimes the environments have these statues on generals on horses with their military coat on and so, so I was not sure if all the process of anatomy, sewing and clothing in marvelous designer and the horse muscles and correct anatomy are done by the environment artist himself, since it is a skill that character artists master. But anyway, i've been having a hard time with these ancient greek sculptures with all the detailed clothing on them and some handsculpted murals on some walls that show a lot of people, because i wasn't sure if i was doing it the right way...

Do you know any masterclass / tutorial / workflow video that focuses on that specific point?

Alex_J

if you are not a character artist and dont want to spend time learning it, there is so many realistic character models out there you can either get for free or very cheap I see no reason to spend time modeling your own. You can get premade marvelous projects (artstation store has plenty of options) and then all you got to do is fit the sim to your own model.

In short, there is enough content out there for sale or for free that you can effectively kitbash the figures you need. From there if its statue or mural you could dynamesh together and do a touch of hand sculpting for final details.

Setup your final render scene first and get shader setup so you don't waste time on details that wont be seen.

Of course any time you take time to learn a skill yourself that is great, but not always time for that so don't be afraid to leverage the expertise of others (and support them buy purchasing their art) either.