Introduction

In this tutorial I will go through my usual workflow with simple steps (trying to make it as simple as possible), to build a scene from preparation phase of the project (Pre-Pro) to the final render. As usual, I’m using 3D Studio Max for the modeling, mapping and lighting, and Photoshop/Bodypaint for texturing-based off the great 3D Total collection of textures.
A good habit from the start is to create a special folder for the project, another subfolder for the textures and another for the references. Another advice (I always do it) is to print one of the references so you can look at it, whenever you go to bed or a bathroom break – in this print I usually write some notes and ideas to help me reach the final image.


I start with the modeling by extruding the floor of the building, then I make cuts on the geometry with the “slice plane” tool or also the “cut” tool, and then I extrude in negative to make the windows. Each time I finish the modeling of one of the elements, I also finish the UV mapping. I don’t like to accumulate the UV mapping for the end. A few paragraphs below, I will explain briefly my technique for mapping.
In this kind of symmetrical building, it’s very useful to apply the “symmetry” modifier because this way, we can save a lot of time and work since this guarantees the perfect positioning of windows on both sides.
If the composition of the reference picture satisfies me, I usually lay the 3D model over the picture as perfectly as possible – this way I can fix proportion issues. Using the hotkey “Alt X”, I can make the object transparent to make the overlaying process easier.
For the antennas and cables I usually model it with renderable splines, making sure that I’ve activated the automatic mapping. I also watch my poly count, as I know from experience that a cable of 4 spans is enough if it’s going to be seen from a medium/far distance.
The trees at the bottom of the picture were made using Onix Tree Pro. Only the visible parts were modeled… in other words, they are incomplete trees.

For some reason I found it more simple to deform the bird neck with some bones, and a skin modifier. With this approach, I could move the bones in an interactive way to decide the final pose of the animal (always use the rendering camera, so it has more strength in the composition).


The mapping is without a doubt the heaviest and most boring process when it comes to creating the scene. It is a necessary, but not too creative process. Also the UV maps are not something spectacular to show around saying “Hey check out my cool UV map”. But in the long run, uvmapping is more like a puzzle game (it has its charm). To describe briefly my mapping process, you just have a few simple rules:
1 – You should not have overlapping UVs EVER.
2 – The checker map we put on the object has to represent perfect even squares.
3 – The objects in the UVeditor should have the same proportion as the ones in the scene.
4 – Make sure the orientation of the object is correct in the UVmap editor.
5 – It is convenient to optimize the space inside the map.
A good way to begin the mapping, is using planar maps to unfold the object and then stitch the individual pieces together, also you could equally stitch the pieces from automatic mapping. I’ve assigned the hotkey”S” for “stitch”, where I can select an edge, and hit “S” and stitch pieces together really fast. Always remember that if you put a lot of effort into the UVmapping, it will be less likely to have problems ahead once we’ve painted the textures in Photoshop.
Once I have all geometry modeled and mapped, I bake the Mental Ray ambient oclussion map. Usually I end up using that map as a dirt map. This map is very very important because I use it as a base to fake the GI, reflection masks, specularity masks and transparencey masks, (when it comes to crystals and windows). The aforementioned “baking” can be done with the “render to texture” in Max7, which is finally compatible with Mental Ray
Ok! Let’s think for a moment that we don’t want or we don’t know how to bake the ambient oclussion map (maybe you don’t have Max7) what we can do is use it on the diffuse level slot of an ONB shader (making the roughness 0)
We can combine the layers in Photoshop – underneath color > then the baked AO > in “multiply” mode and in top > “screen” mode the capture of the UVmapping which we can obtain, thanks to the free plugin Texporter.

The next task is to include the textures that I have chosen from the 3DTotal collection, in the mentioned layer of color, make them overlay with UVmap captured from Texporter. Normally I also use photographic maps in grayscale which you can find in TotalTextures Volume 5. Include these layers on a top layer so you can multiply them. Naturally you have to make a lot of touch ups with the Photoshop brushes by hand, so you can paint non-mathematic dirt, cracks, and the like. I also highly recommend a graphic tablet – I use a Wacom Intuous 2 A5.


It is very tough to make the textures overlay perfectly with the model if you don’t have good continuity on the UVs. What I mean by this is that if the UVs do not have seams, you could always use Bodypaint so you can paint directly into your model or use the clone stamp as well. I usually bring the model to Bodypaint to make the final touches adding dirt in those places where the math calculation of AO does not happen.. for example, the oxide rake that leaves the rain under iron elements.

To light the scene I decided to use a target spot light very far away from the models with area shadows, using a yellowish-orangish color. I activate the ambient lighting on Vray with a little bit of blue color, and as well, I activated the GI with some predefined values (I think “High” preset) on the irradiance map.
Usually, I model the shadow casters with the help of the “light” viewport (Shift+$) so the shadows are projected exactly in the desired place.

Conclusion

Finally I start the render at 3000 px resolution and adjust little details in Photoshop like levels, and a couple of brush strokes in the sky as a “final touch”. Generally I condition all the work so as a result, it’s closer to an illustration where the focus is the beauty of the form and color instead of an accurate representation of the building.
All the textures of this image were taken from the huge colection of total textures of 3D Total – the color maps, the bricks, wood and concrete as well as the dirt maps.
I hope that this has been useful in helping you to make old buildings. I find it really enjoyable so I hope that you’ve enjoyed it too.

Software Used: 3dsmax

Author: Juan Siquier

Website: http://www.juansiquier.com

::GFXZoOM|Source:9jcg.com::

Step 1

I used two images from 3d.sk to model the base mesh more accurately. I drew 2 planes, one from the frontal view-point and one from the left view-point. With the exact same length and width as the original photos, I applied the photos as their textures, and then used the Move tool to view our image plane as seen below.

Step 2

Start with a cylinder with 5 height segments.

Step 3

From the front viewport delete the half side of your model so that you can add a symmetry modifier. Click on ‘Editable Poly Vertex Level’ and now we are ready to use some very handy tools: move-scale-rotate, and make the shape of the cylinder fit the image body. Press Ctrl+E and then you need to delete the four polygons. Your final result will be similar to image below.

Step 4

Now select and extrude that front edge using Shift + Move; as you can see on below image, in blue color, try to work in both the front and left viewport. When you are near to back part edge, use ‘Bridge’ to connect the edges when both are selected.

Step 5

Now for the leg. Extrude the selected edges by holding the Shift key down on your keyboard and use the move tool as show in the image below. To help them stand out, I colored them in blue. When you are done, try to form the leg from front and left viewports using the vertex sub-object level and like before, move-scale-rotate them.

Step 6

For the arms, use the same method as the leg in the above instruction.

Step 7

For modeling the hand, I used a box with a poly count equal to the arm border. In addition, I also changed the topology by cutting the selected polygon below to have 3 quad Image in order to have all fingers without having more segments from the box. Please note: If you increase the box segment, you will have problems bridging that to the arm because of the different polycount.

Step 8

Select and extrude/rotate each polygon to model the fingers.

Step 9

Attach the body to the hand. As you can see, the symmetry modifer will mirror the hand for the other arm too. Using ‘Target weld’, weld the hand vertexes to the arm vertexes. We don’t need the image planes any more so you may delete them.

Step 10

Now it’s time to model the foot. For this we’ll use a cylinder. Delete the top and bottom polygons and two more polygons, as shown below.

Step 11

Now select those edges and with Cntl + the Move tool extrude them to look something like image below.

Step 12

Create new quad polygons using the cut tool on that polygon.

Step 13

Continue extruding edges and cutting just like before

Step 14

Now for the bottom part of the foot, extrude each side edge. Using ‘Target weld’ again use ‘cut’ for creating new polygons.

Step 15

Now cap the border and create 4 polygons by using ‘cut’.

Step 16

Bevel each polygon to create the toes.

Step 17

Attach and connect feet to body just the way we did before with the hands. Tweak the vertexes using the move-scale-rotate tools and cut ring edges using Ctrl+E. The result should be similar to image seen below.

Step 18

Now it’s time to start the head. Because it is a low poly base mesh, we won’t have many details on the face. Create a small plane and after converting to an editable poly, start extruding edges and moving the vertexes in both front and left view ports.

Step 19

Continue extruding edges and moving the vertexes.

Step 20

This is what we have so far:

Step 21

Continue with the head using the methods we previously used on the body.

Step 22

Select those polygons and extrude them. Create new polygons using ‘Cut’. After that, delete those polygons to start the horn.

Step 23

Add a symmetry modifier to the head object and then select each horn’s border. While holding the Shift key down, scale them in. Cap them and ‘bevel’ them out three times each. Now is the time to make the horn smaller; when you are done, you will need to tweak some vertexes to create something like below.

Step 24

Add two spheres for the eyes and connect the head to the body just as you did the hands and feet. Make sure to create new polygons so that you will have enough vertexes to weld them.

Step 25

Now we have created the monster head with a human body. Delete one finger and one toe, then cap and move polygons. For the foot fingernails, simply bevel them twice.

Step 26

Now it is time to use ‘Unwrap UVW modifier’. Select the body and add UVW modifier from modifier stack, but do not delete Symmetry. Go to the materials panel, select a material and add ‘Checker’ to its diffuse slot. Set the tile for both U and V to something like 20 or 30.

Step 27

Now we are ready to start UV mapping for our character. Turn off the ’symmetry’ modifier then click on the ‘Face’ sub-level of ‘Unwrap UVW’ and select all the leg faces but leave one inner row and foot faces.

Step 28

Now, click on edit (you are in Edit UVWs window). Now, click ‘Quick Planer map’ from Unwrap UVW modifier and use ‘Relax’ from the tools menu of the Edit UVWs window several times. Use the rotate tool to rotate the leg faces making sure that you selected all the faces first.

Step 29

Select the row of faces that you didn’t select earlier in Step 27 and click ‘Quick Planer map’. Relax, rotate and then move them.

Step 30

To have a better understanding about welding vertexes, click the ‘Display’ menu on the Edit UVWs window and check ‘Show Vertex Connections’. Now if you select a vertex, you will see a number that helps you to find the right vertex to weld.

Step 31

Right-click anywhere in the Edit UVWs window and select ‘Target Weld’. Start welding vertexes of the leg and that row, check the process in ‘Max, and move vertexes around if you see any stretching.

Step 32

Complete the same process for the foot. Select the top part faces of foot and then click ‘Quick Planer map’ and then the bottom faces. Weld their vertexes too and use scale to make them smaller. When you look at the ‘Max viewport, the checkers should be almost the same size. You can map the faces between the foot and fingers separately.

Step 33

Continue selecting faces and do mapping the same as before for upper body.

Step 34

Select the back body faces, then the arm and hand just the way we did before for leg and foot.

Step 35

Now move them very close to each other and start welding with ‘Show Vertex Connection’ on.

Step 36

Map the head with selecting faces and welding vertexes. In the image below you can see how this should look.

Step 37

Turn symmetry on – this will create a copy of what you did on mapping. Check ‘Select element’ in the the ‘Edit UVWs’ window. Now select each part and click on the ‘mirror horizontal’ tool. Weld the body and head vertexes. Use the scale tool and then pack your UVs in the work area.

Step 38

Click on the symmetry on top of our modifier stack and then right-click and collapse all. Before exporting the model, make sure the mesh has no holes by selecting/moving vertexes that were across the mirror of symmetry before.

Step 39

Export the model as an OBJ file and import it into ZBrush 3.1. Use the OBJ Exporter settings below:

Day 2 Preview

In Day 2 of this multi-part tutorial we will bring the low-poly base into ZBrush and begin sculpting powerful and realistic muscle anatomy for the Lok Warrior.

:: GFXZoOM | source:tutsplus.com ::

[1]-First of all you will press (ctrl +N) now you will see the new window is open
Click on the Geometry > Standard primitives > Plane and use the following setting
Create a Plane in the top view set like this in the perspective view

[2]-Create a Chamfer Box with the following settings:
Length: 192, Width: 202, Height: 34 Fillet: 3.
Create in a top view

[3]-Select the Chamfer Box convert into the Editable Poly
Select the Element Mode then select the whole object
Open the material window
Make a material like this and assign to the object

[4]-Select the polygon mode in the Editable poly
Then make a selection like this
Open the Material window
Click on the Diffuse Map button then select the bitmap option
Import a Raw Logo jpg and assign to the selection

[5]-Create a Chamfer Cylinder with the following settings:
Radius: 2, Height: 50, Fillet: 3.

[6]-Now select the Chamfer Cylinder drag it and release you will see the clone option window is open
Use the following setting set the Four Chamfer Cylinder at the Edges of the Chamfer box

[7]-Create a Rectangle with the following settings:
Length: 166, Width: 172
Open the Rendering palette
Select the Enable in Rendering and Enable in View port
Set the (Thickness: 3.0)
Create rectangle in a top view

[8]-Select the Rectangle drag it and release you will see the clone option window is open
Use the following setting set the three rectangles one by one

[9]-Click on the line tool and open the rendering palette
Select the Enable in Rendering and Enable in View port
Set the (Thickness: 3.0)
Create a four line like this in the top view

[10]-Now create chamfer box like in the top view
Then create a multiple copies of the chamfer box with help of clone option palette
Open the material and click on the diffuse map button select the Bitmap option
Then Pick the wwe loge jpg and assign to the chamfer box

[11]-Make a material like this and assign to the given object

[12]-After assign the material press (F9) and you will see the final is ready
Save the file in your folder
I Hope you will be enjoyed
Thanks for watching my tutorial

Introduction

The following article isn’t intended to be a tutorial as such but rather a focused ‘making of’ during which I will attempt to explain a lot of my working practices and techniques. I’m going to illustrate this with Videos and images where appropriate. I’ve also included at the bottom of the article a link to the scene file, which includes a version of the scene with a frozen mesh and all the textures in JPG format at full resolution. I have no intention of discussing modeling or sculpting techniques, as there are already thousands of head modeling tutorials out there and I really don’t think there is anything I can tell you that you wont find better demonstrated elsewhere. Instead I want to focus on the Texturing, Shading, Lighting, Rendering and grading of this image.

Projection Mapping

There are various ways to texture a face, a lot of people tend to use 3d paint programs such as Zbrush or Body Paint, some artists still prefer to paint straight onto the unwrapped UV layout, however I prefer to use a Projection mapping / texture-baking technique. The process involves camera projecting a reference photograph straight onto the mesh and then baking the result out to the UV map, this allows me to create a distortion free base from which I can produce my colour, spec and bump maps.

Setting up projection scene

Setting up the scene is a fairly simple process, for this project I used two cameras, one for the front and one for the side. When setting up the cameras I always try to use the longest lens possible, this helps to flatten out the features of the face and reduces texture distortion due to perspective See Images and video Below

Above Left Lightwave camera layout and settings Above Right Flash video detailing the processes involved in setting up the scene

Above: an example of what the front and side renders should look like

Photoshop

Now I want to show you a technique that I use to match features on a photograph to the features on your mesh without resorting to the clone tool. For this particular project I modeled the face using the photographic reference as a guide, therefore the features are approximately in the same position as those on the texture reference. However they are not exactly right so I used the “Liquify” tool in Photoshop to gently nudge the features on the photograph around until they align to those on the mesh. Take a look at the video below to see how it works

Re-Projection

The next step in the process is to re-project the adjusted reference material back onto the mesh and bake it into two UV maps front and side which can later be combined to create a base for the colour map. In order to re project the textures I used exactly the same scene and cameras as I did to render out the front and side views. The video below shows the how the process works.

Above: Surface settings for front projection

I Set the surface of the mesh to that shown in the above image using the front facing camera to project the front image. The next step is to use Microwave to bake the front projection onto into UV map. Use the settings show in the image below and make sure you check the “Bake Colour” tab and set the Expand to 3 pixels, not including a 3-pixel border may result in visible seams around the edges of the UV maps. Also something that I’ve noticed with Microwave, if you don’t set the resolution of the scene camera to something equal to or higher than that of the texture your baking out then it will blur the baked image. Once Microwave has done its thing and I’ve saved out the baked front image I then switch to the side camera apply the side projection image to the surface and run through the whole process again, not forgetting to change the projection camera to ’side’ in the surface settings.

Above Left : Microwave settings Above Right: Flash video depicting the reporjection process

If you don’t have the microwave plug in you can use LW 9.2’s new Surface baking camera. Its pretty much the same except it doesn’t give you the option to bake out colour only Apply the textures using the same technique as above however make sure you set the diffuse to 0% and the luminosity too 100% this will give you a pure colour output. By this stage you should have two textures that look like something like those shown below

Above Left : Baked front projection Above Right: Baked side projection

Combining baked projection maps

In order to combine the above images into a single map I loaded up the projection scene and positioned a spotlight directly down the x axis and set it to cast ray traced shadows. the purpose of this is to cast light onto only the front facing polygons. I then used Microwave to bake an illumination pass into the UV map. This gave me a black and white image where the front facing polys are white and the side facing polys are in shadow and therefore black. To combine the images I loaded both front and back maps onto individual layers in photoshop the front on top. I then loaded the baked illumination pass onto another layer and used the ‘Select / Colour Range’ tool to make a selection out of the black / shadowed areas of image i.e. all the side facing polygons. This selection was then used to delete the stretched side facing area of the front map. this technique is better illustrated in the video below.

Spec Removal

Removing the specular highlights is a fairly simple if not time-consuming process. I did this by creating a new layer in photoshop set to darken. Using the clone tool set to 50% opacity and sample all layers activated. I selected an area close to the highlight that I wanted to remove and cloned over the top. As you can see from the video because the layer is set to darken, only the areas lighter than those being cloned are affected. Generally specular highlights are fairly bright in comparison to the rest of the skin tone so only the small spec areas are cloned over.

Above left: Photoshop layer settings Above Right: Video demonstration of spec removal

Zbrush touch up

For this project I used Zbrush to touch up the texture map, generally this is all I use it for, I do all my displacement painting in Mudbox, I know its slower and cant handle as many polys but I prefer the interface and in my mind it’s a much more user friendly piece of software. Before exporting an obj from Lightwave you should first make sure you have a map applied to face using the UV map as Lightwave doesn’t export obj UV maps unless there is a texture applied to the model.

Specular Map

The spec map is in my opinion the easiest one to get very wrong, I’ve seen a lot of very nice models ruined by plastic looking skin due mainly to a poor spec map. I have a pretty simple way of generating the correct shades for the correct parts of the face. This is demonstrated in the Video below. Basically it involves rendering the model with a single spot light set to 100% and applying a single grey colour node to the spec channel in the node editor. I then do an FPrime render of the face and adjust the grey until I think the spec looks about right on the cheeks, which are probably the least reflective part of the face. This grey then forms the base colour for the map. Next I move onto a more oily area such as the tip of the nose. Focusing only on this area I adjust the grey again until the spec looks right, this colour can then be used to paint the end of the nose in the spec map. I repeat this process for the forehead, chin, lips, ears etc. once again its probably better illustrated with a video.

Gloss Map

In most cases I would make the gloss map in exactly the same way as I would the spec using the above process. However this is the first time I had used lightwave’s node based texturing system. So I cheated a little bit by simply plugging the spec map into the gloss channel and putting a Colour Tool node in-between, this allowed me to adjust the brightness and contrast of the spec map. As a rule the more oily and reflective the skin is the tighter the highlights therefore the spec map can be used quite effectively with this technique.

Epidermal / Sub dermal

In order to use the simple skin shader node I had to make two more maps Epidermal and Sub dermal. The epidermal colour defines the skin colour without any blood. I made this by simply de-saturating the colour map. The sub dermal map should approximate the layer of fatty bloody tissue below the skin. I made this layer by adjusting the curves, increasing the saturation then blurring the image, because it only defines overall colour of the skin there is no need to have a lot of detail and things like hair follicles and eyebrows can be completely removed using the clone tool. Its also important to remember that on areas such as the bridge of the nose, chin and forehead there isn’t as much fat under the skin so it might be worth going over the map with the dodge tool and de-saturating these areas slightly.

Above: Maps used with the simple skin shader

Bump Map

The Bump map is one of the easiest textures to make, assuming you have taken care when creating the colour map. Its important to get this one right, I’ve seen so many fantastic models ruined by terrible bump maps. The quickest way to make a bump map is to load in the colour map, de-saturate it, then use the high pass filter as shown in the video, after this use the curves tool to adjust the map until there is a decent amount of contrast between the greys. If you need to add more detail to the wrinkles you can go in as I have on this map and paint them on. I like to do this for the areas under the eyes and the lips. For the eyebrows, which are generally dark you will need to invert them. I found the best way to do this is lasso them cut them into a new layer, invert them and change the overlay to screen.

Displacement

As with the modeling I don’t feel its necessary to give you an in-depth rundown of my Mudboxing techniques, there are plenty of digital sculpting tutorial videos out there, and this is the first time I’ve ever really used it on a project so I cant really offer you anything that I’m sure a far more experienced digital sculptor could. I have however included a few videos showing the various layers in Mudbox and also the export settings that I used to get the displacement map into lightwave.

Above left: exporting model from Lightwave for Mudbox. Above right: Displacement layers and map export in Mudbox

Displacement node setup

As you can see from the video below I’m using the shader node system in LW to apply the displacement map, I did consider simply exporting the high-density mesh from Mudbox but eventually I want to animate this mesh so I really needed to keep the low res geometry.

Shading

I started this project with the intention of trying out Lightwaves node based shader system and more specifically the simple skin shader. I had done some work in the past with MISS shader in Maya and was becoming increasingly frustrated with G2’s flaky performance. The Simple skin shader is very similar to MISS in Maya, its fully supported by FPrime so its really simple and easy to make changes and see them update immediately even with multiple bounce radiosity enabled. Before I start applying textures and shaders to any character model I begin by setting up the scene with a single distant light set to 100% if you can get the skin to look good with a simple lighting setup like this its only going to get better when you add some radiosity, rim and spec lights later on.

Above: Node setup as described below

Diffuse

This channel is used to plug the base colour map into I used a setting of about 50%. Diffuse Epidermis and Sub-dermis Visibility should add up to 100%

Respect Bump

This channel controls how much diffuse shading there is on the bump map

Specular Colour

The colour of the specular highlight, I always use a pale blue for the spec colour

Specularity

Plug the Spec map into this channel. As you can see from the diagram I have placed a colour tool into the flow this allows me to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image just in case I need to fine-tune the spec later on. Don’t forget that if your plugging a colour map into a scalar channel like spec then you should use a colour scalar node as show in the flow below.

Glossiness

For the Gloss map once again I’ve used a colour tool node, as I explained before I’ve used the same map for the gloss and spec but cheated but adjusting the brightness and contrast of the gloss until it looks correct, this is made very simple by using FPrime as you can see the updates on the rendered image almost immediately, it also saves a lot of time messing around between Photoshop and lightwave. This type of cheating is just one of the many advantages to using the node shader system. It’s much better

Fresnel

This setting allows specularity to vary according to the viewing angle of the surface, I’ve set it to 35%

Refraction Index

The refraction index is a measure for how much the speed of light is reduced inside the medium in this case the light traveling through the skin. The refraction index of skin is generally believed to be between 1.37 and 1.42 this shader had it set to 1.37 when I loaded it up so I just left it where it was as it seemed to work pretty well.

Epidermis Visibility

The epidermis is the colorless translucent top most layer of tissue; it allows a lot of light through to the fatty sub-dermis layer below. I’ve set the visibility to 30% the distance to 1.5mm, as is the default on the shader. When changing the distance settings you should always take into account the scale to which you model is made. I modeled my head to a realistic scale and as such the default settings were pretty much right from the offset. Gamma I l left at 1.0 and I changed the samples to 4, simple for speed at first but when I did some render tests I couldn’t really see any difference between 4 and 8 so I left them at 4.

Subdermis Visibility

This is the relatively thick fatty bloody layer below the Epidermis it contributes quite heavily to the reddish colour of the skin as the light passes through the capillaries where the light is tinted by the blood. I’ve set this to 20% make the overall value of the Diffuse Epidermis and Subdermis up to 100%. Again I’ve left the Distance at the default 2.2mm and the gamma at 1.0 and as before changed the samples to 4.

Bump Height

The intensity of the bump map, I’ve increased it too 150 percent, but this value depends on how much contrast you have in your bump map the only real way to figure this one out it to do some renders and see what looks good.

Advanced / Reflection settings

By default the simple skin shader uses reflection as well as specularity, however I really didn’t want to use reflection for this image. You are more than welcome to fiddle around with it and try to make it look good, but I kept getting rendering artifacts in FPrime and it was taking far too long to render out the reflection noise with multiple bounce radiosity turned on so in the end I just went for spec. If like me you decide to turn the reflections off you have to set the Mode to Spherical Map and reflection image to (none)

Lighting / Rendering / Camera Setup

This is my favourite part of the whole process it’s where all the laborious modeling, texturing finally pays off. Personally I could spend days fiddling with lighting rigs and settings. For this image I wanted something that would show the face off but remain fairly gloomy and dark. I wanted him to look lost and alone. In the end I went for quite a stark contrast between light and dark keeping his entire left side in shadow. The rig is very simple, I’ve used one area light for the main light source and a distant light behind his head to hint at some kind of rim lighting. The rest of the illumination is provided by the background Monte Carlo radiosity, set to 3 bounces using only a grey background colour.

The camera setup is also very basic, the focal length is set to 85mm roughly around the same as most portrait photographers use. Because I’m rendering it with Fprime i don’t need to worry about any of the AA settings as FPrime continually increases the quality of its AA with every pass that you leave it to do..

The image was rendered using FPrime, which is in my opinion the single greatest plugin ever invented, I can’t imagine working without it. Being able to render a scene in seconds with full radiosity, reflection, SSS and displacement is unbelievably helpful when your setting up a render, it allows you to tweak until your hearts content and not have to worry about lengthy low res preview renders every time you need to see an update. If your a lightwave user I cant recommend this plugin enough. For the bulk of the rendering I use the FPrime preview but when it comes to the final render I like to use the FPrime Render plugin as it allows you to set things like lighting quality and also seems to render slightly faster and with better antialiasing than the preview.

Above left: Lighting setup and properties. Above Right Camera Settings

Post Processing / Grade

OK so using the above lighting rig and render settings I rendered out the final image which looked something like this

Above Un-Processed Render from Lightwave (FPrime)

As you can see it bears very little resemblance to the final image its going to take a lot of post work to get it there, clicking on the image below will show you an animation of the various different layers used in photoshop and Digital fusion in order to achieve the final image.

Above left: Layers Video. Above Right: Photoshop layers

Levels / curves

I always use lots of adjustment layers, for this image I really wanted to add a lot of contrast so I used an ‘S’ curve and crushed the backs using the levels.

Hair

I did debate using Sasquatch for the hair however this image was only ever intended as an illustration and therefore I thought it would be a waste of time fiddling with hair setting and dynamics when I could easily paint it on in photoshop.

Depth of field effect

You might notice that in the render above his ears are out of focus, I actually created this effect very simply by using the blur tool in PhotoShop. Rendering DOF in LW can significantly increase the render time

Chromatic Aberration

chromatic aberration is caused by a lens having a different refractive index for different wavelengths of light. It creates a rainbow coloured fringe where the light splits into its component colours. I really like the effect as it adds an armature photographic quality to the image. you can see its effects in the image below I’ve exaggerated it quite a lot in this image. I created this effect in Fusion using the Speed six Monsters Plugin ‘Gun’

Grain

The grain was created very simply by creating a new layer in photoshop and applying some nice and setting the adjustment to ‘Colour Burn’.

Background

Because I rendered the character out as a 32bit TGA I was able to use the alpha map to cut him out and insert a background behind. I used an image of a hospital emergency room and blurred it in Photoshop very simple stuff really.

Fusion

The final step of the grading process took place in fusion using the ‘Speed 6 Monsters, Film effects’ plugin which gives you the option to choose from various different film stocks, I chose to under expose this image slightly, hence the greenish tint. you can see the effects in the image below

::GFXZoOM |source:3dm3.com::

Picture 1. This tutorial goes through creation of a 3D chain in 3DS MAX. The end result will look like the chain in the picture.

In this tutorial you create a simple 3D chain like the one in picture 1 by using cone objects in 3D Studio MAX. (Create > Standard Primitives > Cone)

Turn off the Grid

This tutorial doesn’t require using Grid in 3DS MAX. I think it’s best to turn it off always when you don’t need it. Grid can be turned off by taking the following steps: Activate the Top view by right-clicking on it. Press g from keyboard. Repeat the procedure for each four views.

Creating the Cone

Create a cone with the following parameters In the Top view:

• Radius 1: 1
• Radius 2: 1
• Height: 5
• Height Segments: 1
• Cap Segments: 1
• Sides:32

Copying and Modifying the Cone

Picture 2. Place another cone precisely on top of the other cone according to the picture. You can place the cone precisely by using the Align tool.

Make a copy of the cone in the Front view. Set the following parameters for the copy:

• Height: 8
• Height Segments: 30

Use Align tool and place the copy precisely on top of the other cone according to the picture 2.

Cone with a Bend Modifier

Picture 3. Add Bend modifier to the upper cone and bend it 180 degrees according to the picture.

Add a Bend modifier to upper cone according to picture 3:

• Select the object
• Click Modifier List in modify panel
• Choose Bend from the modifier list. Set the following parameter in the Bend modifier:
  Angle: 180

Edit Mesh: Remove Caps

Hide the curved cone. Select the straight cone and add Edit Mesh modifier to it. Activate polygon sub-object mode. Choose both caps of the cone and remove them by pressing delete from the keyboard.

Unhide the curved cone and hide the straight cone. Add Edit Mesh modifier to the curved cone and remove both caps also from it.

Copy Cones

Picture 4. Complete piece of a chain is an Editable Mesh object.

Make copies of both cones and place them precisely according to picture 4. Use Mirror function in 3DS MAX to copy the curved cone.

Edit Mesh: Attach Cones

Attach all four cones into one object by using Attach function in Edit Mesh.

Remove Duplicate Vertices

Now the object has duplicate vertices. Use Weld function in Edit Mesh to remove duplicate vertices:

• Select all vertices
• Click the Weld button in Edit Mesh modifier

Centralize the Axis of the Mesh

Centralize the axis of the mesh by taking the following steps:

• Select the object
• Click Hierarchy Panel
• Click Affect Pivot Only
• Click Center to Object
• Click Modify Panel

Copies of the Piece of the Chain

Now one piece of chain is complete. Take three copies of it. Create a plane object below the model. Place objects as realistically as possible on top of the plane for example like in picture 5. If you want you can also create a longer chain.

Material: Chrome

Create a new material and attach it to the pieces of the chain:

• Shader Basic Parameters:
  Metal
• Metal Basic Parameters:
  Specular Level: 100
  Glossiness: 70
• Maps:
  Reflection: Raytrace (REFMAP.gif)

Create Lighting in 3D Studio MAX

Create a light (target directional) and turn shadows on. Place the light so that it points directly downwards. Place a camera and change the Perspective view to Camera view.

Turn SuperSampling on

Picture 5. Supersampled rendering of a complete chain.

Turn SuperSampling on and render the picture. Supersamping can be turned on in material settings in SuperSampling section. Set the following parameters:

• Enable
• Adaptive Halton
• Quality 1

SuperSampling is one antialiasing technique in 3DS MAX. In this case SuperSampling considerably enhances the quality of reflections and bump map. The material should look like in picture 5.

Add Bump Map to the Material

Picture 6. Dent as bump map brings more realism into the rendering.

Add more realism into the picture by adding little roughness to the surface of the chain. Set the Bump Map amount to 20 and choose Dent as Bump map in the Maps section of the material. Set the following parameters to the Dent map:

• Size: 10
• Strength:1
• Iterations: 10

You can also try other values. With these settings the material of the chain should look like in picture 6.

::GFXZoOM |source:secondpicture.com::

Finalizing the Eye Lids

Picture 1. Eye lids are created by copying edges inwards.

Activate border sub-object mode and select all edges surrounding the eye hole and create new polygons by copying edges inwards according to picture 1.

3D Modeling Inside the Mouth

Picture 2. The mouth is created by copying edges inwards.

Picture 3. Polygons inside the mouth.

Select 9 edges surrounding the hole in the mouth and create new polygons by copying edges inwards according to picture 2.

Activate polygon sub-object mode and use Editable Poly’s “Hide Selected” and “Hide Unselected” buttons to hide all polygons except the ones surrounding the mouth. Create new polygons inside the mouth according to picture 3.

Finalize the 3D Model of the Head

Picture 4. Complete 3D model of a human head.

Unhide all polygons and finalize the head. The head is now easier to finalize because all polygons have been created. The complete 3D model could look for example like in picture 4.

It should be fairly easy to modify this model for example to more realistic or more stylized direction. If you wanted you could use this 3D model as a base for many different 3D characters. Let your imagination fly!

::GFXZoOM |source:secondpicture.com::

In this tutorial the goal is to create as simple as possible but still moderately realistic 3D model of a head. Because of this the ear has been simplified a little and therefore is not completely realistic. If you would like to create fully realistic 3D model of an ear I recommend reading Krishnamurti Martins Costa’s tutorial about modeling realistic 3D ear. From www.3dtotal.com site you find also many other high quality tutorials about 3D modeling of a character.

3D Modeling an Ear in 3DS MAX

Picture 1. Start the modeling of the ear by creating polygons according to the picture.

Hide the 3D model of the head and create a new plane object in the Right view. Change the width and height segments in the plane object to one. Turn the plane object into Editable Poly and create new polygons by copying edges according to picture 1.

Remember to use Editable Poly’s Target Weld function to weld polygons together when necessary.

Modeling Inner Parts of the Ear

Picture 2. Create new polygons inside of the ear.

Create 4 new polygons by copying edges and place them according to picture 2. Remember to check the location and orientation of the polygons both in the Right and Front views.

Polygons Inside the Ear

Picture 3. Create new polygons according to the picture.

Select 8 edges and create 8 new polygons by copying the selected edges inwards according to picture 3.

Polygons to the Ear

Picture 4. Create new polygons according to the picture.

Create 8 new polygons to the deepest part of the ear according to picture 4. Notice that all 8 polygons are four sided (quads) even though some of them might look like three sided.

More Polygons to the Ear

Picture 5. New polygons inside the ear.

Select 11 edges and create new polygons by copying selected edges inwards according to picture 5. Notice that two vertices must be welded by using Editable Poly’s Target Weld in the location marked with yellow circle.

::GFXZoOM |source:secondpicture.com::

Picture 1. Create 10 new polygons to the forehead by copying edges according to the picture.

Create 10 new polygons by copying edges according to picture 1. A hole will be left to the location of the ear at this stage. The ear is modeled and attached to the model later as a separate object because of its complexity.

Modeling the Side of the Head

Picture 2. Create new polygons to the side of the head by copying edges according to the picture.

Create 12 new polygons by copying edges according to picture 2. Remember to use Editable Poly’s Target Weld when necessary.

Modeling the Back of the Head

Picture 3. Finalize the back of the head.

Create 20 new polygons to the back of the head by copying edges according to picture 3. Remember to use Editable Poly’s Target Weld when necessary.

3D Modeling of the Neck

Picture 4. 6 new polygons to the neck.

Create 6 new polygons to the neck by copying edges and place them according to picture 4. Remember to use Editable Poly’s Target Weld when necessary.

Complete 3D Model of the Head

Picture 5. 3D model of the head is complete besides the ear.

3D model of the head is now complete besides the ear. This is a good stage to fix characteristics of the head if necessary. Finalizing the forms of the head is easier now that the model is complete. The model should look like approximately like in picture 5.

::GFXZoOM |source:secondpicture.com::

Picture 1. Create new polygons according to the picture.

Create 8 new polygons by copying edges and place them according to picture 1. Remember to use Editable Poly’s Target Weld when necessary.

3D Modeling the Jaw

Picture 2. Create 6 new polygons to the jaw.

Create 6 new polygons by copying edges and place them according to picture 2. Like you notice the location of the polygons doesn’t exactly follow the profile in the reference picture. The less polygons there are in the model, the more the form must be exaggerated.

In this tutorial the goal is to use as little polygons as possible but still to create reasonably realistic head. Remember that the final surface is formed only when the Meshsmooth modifier is turned on. You should try the effect of the Meshsmooth modifier every now and then.

Polygons of the Side of the Face

Picture 3. Create new polygons according to the picture.

Create new polygons by copying edges and place them according to picture 3. Remember to use Editable Poly’s Target Weld when necessary.

Complete the 3D Model of the Face

Picture 4. Create new polygons and finalize the face.

Fill the hole in the face by creating new polygons according to picture 4. Now the face is complete and it should look approximately like in picture 4. This is a good stage to fix characteristics of the face if necessary. Next you will model the back of the head, the neck and the ear.

Polygons to the Jaw

Picture 5. Polygons in the lower part of the jaw.

Create 10 new four sided polygons to the lower part of the jaw and place them according to picture 5.

::GFXZoOM |source:secondpicture.com::

Picture 1. Cut function in Editable Poly is an easy way of creating new polygons.

Divide the two upper polygons into three parts according to picture 1 by using Editable Poly’s Cut function. Using the Cut:

• Click Cut button in polygon sub-object mode.
• Click on the left edge of the left polygon.
• Click on the shared edge of the polygons.
• Click on the right edge of the right polygon.
• Click the right mouse button twice to stop using the Cut.

After cutting the polygons place them according to picture 1.

Polygons with the Create Function

Picture 2. Create new polygons by using Create function in Editable Poly and by copying edges.

Fill the hole in the nose by creating 9 new polygons according to picture 2. Create the new polygons by copying edges and using Editable Poly’s Create function. Use Target Weld to weld vertices together when necessary.

Polygons by Copying Edges

Picture 3. Create two new polygons. Remember to weld edges of adjacent faces when necessary.

Create two new polygons by copying edges and place them according to the picture 3.

Editable Poly: Target Weld

Always remember to weld edges or vertices of adjacent polygons by using Editable Poly’s Target Weld function. There should never be duplicate vertices or edges in a 3D model.

The Lower Part of the Nose

Picture 4. Structure of the lower part of the nose.

Fill the hole in the lower part of the nose by creating 7 new four edged polygons according to picture 4. There will be a hole in the middle of the new polygons for the nostril.

Nostrils with the Extrude Function

Picture 5. Nostrils are easy to model with Editable Poly’s Extrude function.

Fill the hole with one three sided polygon and one four sided polygon. Select the two new polygons and create the nostril by using Editable Poly’s Extrude function according to picture 5:

• Find a view like in picture 5
• Click on the Extrude button
• Click and hold on top of the selected polygons and move the mouse

::GFXZoOM | source:secondpicture.com::