Modelling for CG Films?

martynball

I have never done this before and i'm confused to as how you make a high detailed object and still being able to unwrap it for texturing. As wouldn't you use sub'd modelling?

Anyone have wireframes of models for films?

System

Bump maps and displacement are used alot. The object will still be high poly compared to game engine stuff but not as high poly as you were thinking.

Check out Dr. Manhatten http://www.fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/09Mar/watchmen/wireframe_hd_vd8-1138.jpg

It's basically a really smooth game model with mostly unique textures at high resolution.

martynball

403 Forbidden

You have no access to the requested URL

System

Strange, I'm clicking it right now and can view with no problems in Firefox.

here is the full url "www.fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/09Mar/watchmen/wireframe_hd_vd8-1138.jpg"

BradleyWascher

Yeah I got the error also, but if you copy and paste the link into the browser seemed to work just fine. Interesting the amount of detail... figured it might be a bit more smooth but Ive never really looked into cg modeling and texturing. Cool Example by the way GCMP

System

Yeh, your right I just cleared my cache and it's access denied. Go to google images and search "Dr. Manhatten Wireframe" it's the first image and you CAN view it.

Bradley hehe yes Watchmen is an awesome film

[SF]Three9

for my major, I was the lead character artist. Basically what I did when modeling the characters, was keep it as low as possible, but put enough edge loops and detail into the model so that when a smooth is applied to it it looks great.

From this point, you unwrap the low poly version, and when the smooth is applied to the mesh, the UV's basically "absorb" the high poly density into it. This may not be the "professional industry" way to do it, as I'm still a student, but it worked great for me and the characters look amazing if I do say so myself

martynball

Ah it works now, needs "http://" at the start. Thanks Do you know of any examples of hard surface objects, such as machinery with metal panels on, as I can't figure out how to do it

System

martynball wrote: »

Ah it works now, needs "http://" at the start. Thanks Do you know of any examples of hard surface objects, such as machinery with metal panels on, as I can't figure out how to do it

Your probably not going to find that kind of stuff as characters or super complex stuff usually gets the spotlight. Although, you may be able to find some sci-fi vehicles on google images.

Either that or go to Autodesk Area website http://area.autodesk.com/inhouse/custstories they have all sorts of stories, some from the film industry and most include some tech shots of some kind.

Oh, by the way if you can get your hands on Transformers Special Edition, disc 2 has wireframes of the robots and some good info, well worth the buy imo.

martynball

Awesome thanks, i will look into that. I have got this weekend to learn the techniques used to create the assets and actually create one lol

benji

Hmm this is relevant to my interests!

I'm also a student, and I'm working on a CGI film in my uni at the moment - (www.stinaandthewolf.com if anyone's interested to check it out)

The unwrapping method I've been using so far is what Three9 mentioned - to unwrap the low poly mesh before applying subdiv - but I am convinced there must be a more effective way of doing it, as this method introduces some bad stretching occasionally.

Any further info would be great!

[SF]Three9

yea Benji I hear you

the two different smoothing types that Maya has gets different results, one always better than the other, but both usually end up with some stretching around the seams. I didn't really notice this on the characters for the film, probably because they were stylized, but on the tree house i made for the film, and other characters ive created for personal use, whenever i texture them in mudbox i encounter this annoyance

only thing i can suggest to fix this issue is adjusting the UV's while smooth preview or a smooth is on and taking it back down. Idk about you though, but I don't want to adjust tons of seams like that

bonds0097

Maya supports Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces, commonly called Pixar Sub-D's or PSubs. They use a different sub-d algorithm and have greatly reduced UV distortions when you apply the smoothing algorithm to your low-poly mesh. Additionally, you can use edge creasing instead of adding geometry with edge loops.

leslievdb

lowpoly->unwrap->Turbosmooth->unwrap just for wireframe and work from that smoothed uv

martynball

I don't know what you mean by the smoothing types as i'm a max user and of course, dislike Maya. lol

7mch

Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) in Fight Club

I would model

• a base mesh (about 12 000 tries) with a good topology of course,
  
• unwrap it
  
• detail it in Zbrush or Mudbox, and export the second subdivision with its normal map or bump.

From there on it’s a matter of shaders to make your model look realistic.

martynball

problem there is that I have never used zbrush or mudbox and not got time to learn them lol but thanks

AnimatedApe

7mch wrote: »

Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) in Fight Club

I would model

• a base mesh (about 12 000 tries) with a good topology of course,
  
• unwrap it
  
• detail it in Zbrush or Mudbox, and export the second subdivision with its normal map or bump.

From there on it’s a matter of shaders to make your model look realistic.

With the displacement map you have to be very careful that any undercuts in your high-res geometry are also present in your low-res second SD.