Sketchbook: Rik

Rik

As I recreate my portfolio with an emphasis on texture and material creation, I've started learning more techniques than I used in the past. When I graduated, I had only worked with UVW Mappaing and Photoshop for texture creation. I'm working on an animated short with some folks from school and so I've now started using Max's procedural texturing system to see what kind of look I can achieve.

I'd appreciate any sort of critique, comment, or carefully crafted question you've got.

Rik

The following are the final renders for a model that was given to me to work on as part of our final Material and Lighting project. I was responsible for creating a unique texture for each of the rear legs.

Shaders and materials created in 3ds max 2012
Bitmaps and masks created Adobe Photoshop CS3
Rendered with mental ray in 3ds max 2012



Shaders are built utilizing the mental ray Arch&Design material. Instead of using UVW Unwraps and painting texture maps for each piece, UV mapping coordinates were assigned and adjusted for each part to achieve the desired end look. Specific patterns were applied with masks created in Photoshop and placed to allow the scratches and wear to show through the orange paint coat.

Specific dirt patterns were painted on using Vertex Paint channels, and Blend Materials on select components.



Concept by Andez Gaston
Model by Pete Hayes

Rik

I've decided to go back and rework a model I started quite a while ago. I'm aiming for a photo realistic look with the final renders, and so I'll use a combination of photograph textures and customized shaders.

The model is an early 1900's Victor Victrola gramophone. The original version was very clean and lacking in detials, and so I've gone back and dented up the horn. I also added the three indentations on the vertical columns, and rotated the front plate.

gillmeister74

The texture work on the robot legs are really well done. The only part of it I feel could be tightened up is that "knee joint" part of the leg, you sort of lose some hard edges in the part with the chain and gears on the side (I'm really not good at technical talk). But heck it still looks really good. Keep it up : )

Rik

gillmeister74 wrote: »

The texture work on the robot legs are really well done. The only part of it I feel could be tightened up is that "knee joint" part of the leg, you sort of lose some hard edges in the part with the chain and gears on the side (I'm really not good at technical talk). But heck it still looks really good. Keep it up : )

Thanks for the feedback, gillmeister!

I think those gears / belts would stand out more if there was a greater contrast between them and metal behind them. I could have achieved this by adding more dirt to that area, and maybe adjusting the color of the belt itself, to make those pieces pop more.

There are many things I would have liked to have changed and added, but I had to mark it as completed so I could hit the deadline to turn it in. Just means I need to work on my speed.

Much appreciated.

Rik

Here's a map I made for how I'm going to lay down the textures. I've got a large amount of reference photos, both used for creating the model and for the different materials used for different brands and generations of each gramophone.






And I've also done a quick paint over in Photoshop to help flesh out how I want the wear and tear to look. This gramophone has been sitting in storage for years, and so it will have collected layers of dust and dirt; far more visually interesting than one kept in near-mint condition. I'm making sure to add more grime in the areas that would allow it to pool more, such as the cracks between individual pieces and along the corners where vertical board meet horizontal boards, similar to how the dirt collected under the plates of those robot legs.

Rik

Here's a progress update. I've applied mapping coordinates to everything and have started making the base textures.

I'm going for a photo realistic final render, and I think the wooden texture is going to really sell the end result.

I also discovered Neil Blevins Soulburn Script pack and have made heavy use of his BlendedBoxMapMaker script, which basically creates a projected box mapping coordinate by blending six planar maps with fall off parameters, essentially hiding your seams and blending one coordinate in to another. It works great, and I'd suggest you check out his script pack at http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/soulburnscripts/soulburnscripts.htm

I haven't played with the Graident node before, and it seems likes the best way to achieve the sweet transition of colors from the reference photo.

Rik

I'm going to make this metal material with procedural patterns, and no bitmap images, and so there's a ton of trial and error going into this material. Here's the latest and greatest of the metal texture (with the primary material reference). No bump/spec settings have been applied yet, just diffuse.

Also, I'm creating my own record diffuse and specular, so to alleviate any problems that would come with the gloss that always seems to appear when photographing a vinyl record. Temp specular map is in place, and so you can now see the rings going around the record.

Rik

Been a while since I've posted an update, but here's the latest and greatest.

I've changed the wood pattern to one with a more distinct grain and richer colors. The layers of dust on the top were increased and I threw in some finger marks to add more character, as though someone was clearing the dust to check the condition of the wood underneath. The horn has 4 or 5 layers of discoloration, dirt, rust and blemishes.

My material editor is a maelstrom of nodes, but I like where its going so far. I'm done with the modeling, and am tweaking the textures and lighting. Vertex painting the body was a horrendously slow process with the poly count, and so I used masks in a lot places where I originally planned on using paint.

Right now the scene is being lit with an HDR environment map with Final Gather cranked up (mental ray). This is providing the global illumination. The specular highlights are coming from a photometric target light coming in at an angle.

This is my first time working with Final Gather and and HDR light source, and so it is a lot of hit and miss as far as parameter changes go, especially combined with the Exposure Control. The textures are looking a bit blown out right now because of the lighting, and some of the detail and bump in the wood grain is not showing though.

I'd love to get some thoughts on how its looking!

Rik

More final renders.

Crits definitely welcome

Rik

I've been working on a scene mimicking a photograph I took of a some Gerbera Daisies I took a few months ago at the Dallas Arboretum. I need to finish this guy up so I can get back to the game props, and I need me some feedback! Not a real-time asset.

Using Max2012 with mentalRay, and its built in Depth of Field feature for the first time. Still tweaking those render settings and textures.

Rik

Here's an update to what I've now got. I have not added the stamen yet; I've spent some time reworking the diffuse and ended up using an Sub Surface Scattering material to get some more depth. I think the color vibrancy is much better now. My next step is to get the unbloomed (word?) stamen in there and rework the small flowered stamen to be more lush. Even with a high Anti Alias, the Depth of Field blur looks very dirty. I'm going to render a ZDepth pass and composite the green background in separately. I'll also make the petal adjustments that Aga brought up.

Shadows have been softened and given a dark burgundy color and so they don't look near as sharp.

The few hair and fur tutorials I've gone through have not given information on how to replaced a generic hair fiber with a mesh; the foreground flower's stamen do a have a bud at the top of the strand, and so I don't think a thin hair fiber will look legit. I'll keep looking for tutorials that can help me do this, but I may end up just manually placing them as needed. If anyone has a suggested website or tutorial to achieve this, please throw a link up.

Rik

I ended up modeling the smaller stamen and manually placing them around the inside perimeter of the petals. Also remade the blossomed stamen more lush and threw some omni lights in to brighten their white.

Waaay better results with a Z Depth pass compared to mental ray's built in DoF camera settings, and I composited in After Effects for the first time. Good stuff. Still tweaking the blur settings and it needs an AO, and some petal rotations but it's close.

Here's a pre-final version. It's a bit small but, we all know size doesn't matter.

Rik

Here's the latest and greatest. I'd say it's on the cusp of completion.

Ended up compositing the background in separate. I had no idea After Effects had such great compositing tools. The Luminosity Lens Blur saved the day when it came to selling the depth of field. I ended doing a few touch ups in Photoshop, including some additional blur where my DoF map fell short and some color highlights on the petals.

AO map came out much darker than I wanted, and so that was tweaked before going into AfterEffects as well. Also some minor color correction with the Curves Editor.

If anyone has any more suggestions or sees something I missed, please do tell.

Also, I'm not sure if I should put the reference photo in my portfolio to show what I was aiming for, or if it would better leaving it out.. On one side, it shows how close I was able to get, and on the other it also shows where I may have fallen short. Anyone thoughts?

Rik

Made some more tweaks. I increased the size of the bloomed and non-bloomed stamen, and bumped up the color saturation for the bloomed ones.

Also added some color abberation and more noise imperfections.

Rik

Had some time to start a new personal project today, so I'm working on this guy. It's just about ready for ZBrush, once I figure out how to make the knot around the strap. I've never used the hair feature in ZBrush, but I might try it for the fur.

riotorange

Hey how's the hammer coming along?
I've seen tutorials that use the Helix in Zbrush, and mess about with Initialize and Deformation to make knots. Might give that a try if you like