Interactive 3d Concept Adventure.

AJ_L2 · Dec 2015

I have a quest.

The quest is to create interactive 3d concept art, that helps bring conceptual ideas into a more practical light.

My goal is simple. Create super fast designs that can be thrown into a real time render to allow a modelers and art directors get a better idea what they are settling for. The power of concept art in general is to get an idea of what we are going to create for the final product, to save time, and effort for the rest of the project.

So with that in mind here are some concept's that I put together. All taking no more than 1-3 hours of work each. Meaning I can have several of these designs done in a day. I am originally a concept artist, and you can scope out my work here Robotpencil or on my Artstation.

I'm an instructor now at Learn Squared

I'd like to know if there are more things I can do to improve my workflow. Right now I'm not looking to make PERFECT; UV's, Texture Maps, Topo, Etc.

Just something that can be played with by an Art Director, Modeler, Animators, Tech Artists. Allowing them to give me feedback in the most practical way. Ofcourse nothing will still beat the speed of just a quick sketch or painting to get the ball rolling, but this most certainly is the next step.

Here are some of the current images I made, followed below is the links of the images 3d marmoset view.
Image 1 - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qoOqy
Image 2 - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/k22Od
Image 3 - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9ymGQ
Image 4 - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0zn4Y
Image 5 - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ayAV2

-AJ aka Robotpencil

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/gp/ppqrwdqvixeg.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ud/wjng9ym0amnn.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/an/uwenwz2ue5ad.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/dz/wdn9zij7nutu.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/8g/t88qj20n6rst.png

AtticusMars · Dec 2015

I suspect you hardly need lessons in concept art workflows but if you want better work faster then I think the most obvious suggestion would be kitbashing... pre-make stuff (meshes in particular) and reuse it. Right now it doesn't look like you're reusing much except maybe some circular alphas, but you can go a lot farther than that.

A screw or a rivet like you're doing is an obvious example but people can also use insert meshes for things like shoelaces, stitches, teeth, buttons, latches, pockets/pouches, etc... Anything you can think of really. ZBrush has a multimesh spline system that will let you wrap ropes, chains, cords, zippers, belts and such around a character with ease. You can use nanomesh/arraymesh to procedurally place stuff on your mesh as well.

Almost every piece of a character can be reused in some way, even anatomy really and 3D gives you a lot more flexibility in how you can do that than if you were photobashing a painting. Can also reuse materials.

I'd suggest looking at some tutorials and just learning about the features of your software, I see from your artstation that it looks like you're using 3DCoat. Unfortunately I don't know 3DC so I can't give you anything more specific but once you know the tools at your disposal it's easier to come up with ways to exploit them. Right now you're mainly just sculpting, and while that's nice, it barely scratches the surface of what you can do quickly in 3D.

I have to say, 1-3 hours is a pretty aggressive timeline (though not too bad for a bust I suppose). At the very least Vitaly Bulgarov's work demonstrates what it's possible to achieve in 1 day working this way.

AJ_L2 · Dec 2015

AtticusMars said:

I suspect you hardly need lessons in concept art workflows but if you want better work faster then I think the most obvious suggestion would be kitbashing... pre-make stuff (meshes in particular) and reuse it. Right now it doesn't look like you're reusing much except maybe some circular alphas, but you can go a lot farther than that.

A screw or a rivet like you're doing is an obvious example but people can also use insert meshes for things like shoelaces, stitches, teeth, buttons, latches, pockets/pouches, etc... Anything you can think of really. ZBrush has a multimesh spline system that will let you wrap ropes, chains, cords, zippers, belts and such around a character with ease. You can use nanomesh/arraymesh to procedurally place stuff on your mesh as well.

Almost every piece of a character can be reused in some way, even anatomy really and 3D gives you a lot more flexibility in how you can do that than if you were photobashing a painting. Can also reuse materials.

I'd suggest looking at some tutorials and just learning about the features of your software, I see from your artstation that it looks like you're using 3DCoat. Unfortunately I don't know 3DC so I can't give you anything more specific but once you know the tools at your disposal it's easier to come up with ways to exploit them. Right now you're mainly just sculpting, and while that's nice, it barely scratches the surface of what you can do quickly in 3D.

I have to say, 1-3 hours is a pretty aggressive timeline (though not too bad for a bust I suppose). At the very least Vitaly Bulgarov's work demonstrates what it's possible to achieve in 1 day working this way.

Thanks so much Atticus Mars!

You are absolutely right. Not to name drop, but I'm friends with Vitaly, and he told me the same thing. It's me being stubborn and just not committing to making a geniune library of kitbashed pieces.

Currently building a set of alphas/presets for 3d coat, since i can do the bolts and screws using their amazing painting tool and doing something as simple as turning on normal/color/gloss/metalness and just stamp it on then BAM bolt.

But in terms of larger pieces. I need to start saving them or just create a bunch. Thanks for the suggestion/reminder.

you rock

-AJ

AJ_L2 · Dec 2015

Another adventure.

Have yet to implement what was suggested yet, will do next week. Already have a plan of action for certain things I want to control, so more flirting and more testing with my ideas.

Anyway here is a VIEWER of it floating on my artstation. Below are Screen shots right out of Marmoset viewer
Total time around 2 hours. 3d coat for design, texturing, and then Instant meshes for retopo, and Marmoset for renders.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ij/ykt40j260ijf.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/eg/2tuj8gu688rx.png

AJ_L2 · Dec 2015

Latest version

Added more details.

Interactive 3d Concept Adventure.

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