3DCreative (101) 2014 Jan

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101
Issue 101 | January 2014
Sketch How to
photograph
stylized textures
characters Photographer Scott Davis shares
his tips for capturing images ideal
Cézar Brandão shares how to
for texturing
create a ZBrush sketchbook full
of artful characters
Break into
Sculpt the concept
creepy art industry
creatures 22-year-old Aaron Sims Company
artist, Luca Nemolato explains his
Fabrizio Bortolussi offers
insight into his pipelines for amazing career success
creating bizarre beings
+plus
• 10 of the best digital images
• Post-production in Maya
• Create hyperreal scenes
• ZBrush characters and scenes Learn efficient
prop sculpting
• Photoreal post-production
Joseph Harford reveals top tips
• and much more! for efficient ZBrush sculpting
and creating foliage
How to become a
master modeler
Senior Artist at Lucasfilm Industrial Light & Magic,
Marco Di Lucca, reveals his envious career highlights
and tells of how he developed his 3D talents
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 101
Editor’s letter KEEP UP TO DATE

Happy new year! WITH 3DTOTAL!
To kick-start another year of fantastic 3D creations, we have
loads of inspiring content to get you thinking. Why not begin
2014 by developing your own texture library with Scott Davis,
or hone your prop-sculpting skills with Joseph Harford? • facebook.com/3dtotal
• facebook.com/layerpaint
Also inside this issue, Dan Roarty shares his tips for mastering • twitter.com/3dtotal
• twitter.com/layer_paint
photoreal post-production as he completes his fascinating
series about the creation of Pankrac. Fabrizio Bortolussi • youtube.
com/3dtotalpublishing
sculpts a bizarre creature and Patrick Evrard describes the
EMALEE BEDDOES • vimeo.com/3dtotal
Junior Editor finishing touches of his stylized witch. Our cover star, Marco Di
• vimeo.com/layerpaint
Lucca also chat’s to us about his amazing self-portraits.
• pinterest.com/3dtotal
We hope you’re feeling motivated and ready to start some
new projects; there is plenty to learn inside! • instagram.com/3dtotal
Contributors
JOSEPH HARFORD PATRICK EVRARD
British 3D artist, Joseph Harford has years of experience Patrick Evrard is a passionate 3D artist during the day,
in the games industry and is now director of Airship and he likes to put those skills to use after hours to create
Images, a triple-A game outsourcing company. He is a variety of unique and inspiring characters. This issue, he
passionate about learning, teaching and anything 3D. shares his tips and tricks for post-production.
DAN ROARTY SCOTT DAVIS

Dan was born in Vancouver, Canada and now lives in Scott Davis is an English photographer and videographer
San Francisco, working as a principal artist for Crystal living in rural Brittany, France. His professional work
Dynamics/Square Enix. He shares his secrets for predominantly consists of music video and photography,
photoreal lighting and rendering. but he also experiments with 3D software in his free time.
FABRIZIO BORTOLUSSI MOISÉS OJEDA

Fabrizio Bortolussi is a freelance concept designer Moisés Ojeda is a CG artist from Spain. He specializes in
working in the film and game industry. He works for both 2D and 3D characters and illustration. He works in
various major studios including Mirada and Weta Digital. 3ds Max, ZBrush and Photoshop. Moisés shares how he
He reveals his creature creation pipelines… created his image Wish to Learn (Girl and Grandpa).
CÉZAR BRANDÃO LUCA NEMOLATO

Brazilian artist Cézar studied design and animation at Luca Nemolato is a concept artist, CG modeler and
Anhembi Morumbi University before heading to Gnomon texture artist for the film, video game, commercial and TV
School in LA. Now working as a freelance character artist, industries. His professional credits to date include: The
he has contributed to projects including Halo 4. Conjuring, Falling Skies and USDA Hungry Pests.
MARCO DI LUCCA GUSTAVO GROPPO

Marco’s career has seen him move around the world, Gustavo Groppo is a 3D artist currently living in São
from Italy to New Zealand and London before settling in Paulo, Brazil. He currently works for one of Brazil’s leading
San Francisco where he is a senior artist at Industrial Light animation studios, Vetor Zero, where he specialises in
& Magic. He talks to us about his impressive career. texturing, shading, lighting and rendering.
2 | 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
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Contents Issue 101

006_ Break into the concept art industry
Aaron Sims Company artist Luca Nemolato
explains his amazing career success at just 22
014_ Master modeler: Marco Di Lucca

Senior artist Marco Di Lucca shares his
inspirations and ambitions
025_ Sketch stylized characters

Cézar Brandão shares how to create a ZBrush
sketchbook full of artful characters
036_ Art Gallery

10 of the most inspiring 3D images from the world
of CG, hand-picked just for you!
050_ Learn efficient prop sculpting

Joseph Harford reveals top tips for efficient ZBrush
sculpting and creating foliage
056_ Perfect post-production in Maya

Patrick Evrard reveals how he develops characters
into portfolio quality images
070_ Photoreal post-production tips

3D portrait artist, Dan Roarty shares his pro tips for
perfecting your image
078_ How to photograph textures

Photographer Scott Davis shares his tips for
capturing images ideal for texturing
086_ Sculpt creepy creatures

Fabrizio Bortolussi offers insight into his pipelines
for creating bizarre beings
092_ Forge impressive hyperreal scenes

Gustavo Groppo shares his workflow for creating
high-quality scenes
098_ ZBrush characters and scenes

Discover how Moisés Ojeda developed his fun
ZBrush image Wish to Learn
108_ Digital Art Master: Marek Denko

Learn how Marek Denko crafts incredible scenes
using 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop and eyeon Fusion
4 | 3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
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5
© Luca Nemolato
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Break into the concept art industry
The Artist
Luca Nemolato
Web: lucanemolato.com
Interviewed by:
Emalee Beddoes
Luca Nemolato is a concept

artist, CG modeler and texture
artist for the film, video game,
commercial and TV industries.
Some of his professional
credits to date include:The
Conjuring, Falling Skies and
USDA Hungry Pests.
Break into the

concept art industry
Concept art prodigy, Luca Nemolato shares how he kicked off his career designing
concept art for major titles including Falling Skies and The Conjuring
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Luca Nemolato has a very impressive resume Luca Nemolato: Hi Emalee, thank you for having LN: I was 16 when I found out about digital tools.
for a 22-year-old! He started on his artistic me here. I come from a fine art background; I I was really inspired by Nico Di Mattia, an artist
journey while studying painting, sculpture and studied painting, sculpture and architecture in an really famous around the internet. His speed
architecture at art school in Italy. It was while Italian fine art school from 2004 to 2010. paintings on YouTube were the inspiration that
studying traditional art that he began to teach made me start. I was finally able to study a digital
himself about digital tools, experimenting During the school years I also started to teach painting process, and by slowing down his videos
with Photoshop, ZBrush and Maya. myself about digital tools such as Photoshop, I started to learn how to properly paint in digital.
ZBrush and Maya. I was fascinated by the idea of
Inspired, Luca moved to Los Angeles to study using technology to create art. When I finished Then I discovered ZBrush and artists such as
creature and character design and modeling school, I moved to Los Angeles to attend some Aaron Sims, Neville Page and Jerad S. Marantz.
at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, from courses at the Gnomon School of VFX. There, I That opened up a new word of possibilities to me.
amazing artists such as Jerad S. Marantz and studied creature/character design and modeling; I started to constantly look, draw and sculpt from
Mark Dedecker. learning from great artists such as Jerad S. their artwork (other great inspirations to me were
Marantz and Mark Dedecker. Carlos Huante and Jordu Schell). I never stopped
After graduating, Luca submitted his work to the practice of learning from other artist’s work – I
Aaron Sims, making an immediate impression Then I had the chance to submit my artwork to still collect artworks and books from my favorite
that landed him a position as an intern. Aaron Sims and from that moment on I started artists and I always try to gain knowledge and
Storming through the learning phase of his my professional career as an intern at the ASC. inspiration from them.
role, he quickly began producing concepts I quickly made it through the learning phase
and models. It wasn’t long before Aaron Sims and started producing some good concepts and 3dc: I spotted that you trained as a tattoo artist.
offered him a full-time position. Luca tells us models, so Aaron Sims offered me a full-time Has this influenced your artistic style?
about these whirlwind few years… position there.
LN: I trained as a tattoo artist in Italy and I
3dcreative: Hi Luca, thanks for talking to us – it 3dc: Despite being only 22, you’ve been dabbling attended an apprenticeship at a tattoo studio in
sounds like you’ve had an exciting couple of with digital art since you were 16! What and who Hollywood. I’ve always been fascinated by the
years! Could you tell us about yourself and how have inspired and influenced you along the way? idea of art without boundaries. It is so amazing
you came to be a concept artist at Aaron Sims? how much you can learn from using tools that are
Luca imagined the idea of an alien prisoner that was being tortured and tested © Luca Nemolato
7
“You should definitely begin your
career doing something that you

enjoy, then with time you will be
able to expand your knowledge”
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Artist history
Luca Nemolato’s career
up to this point...
2011: Start of internship at ASC
specializing in 2D/3D concept art,
modeling and texturing
2012: Officially working full-time at ASC

as a concept artist/CG modeler/texture
artist
April 2012: The commercial Hungry

Pests for the USDA was released. It was
his first professional release in the USA
Summer 2012: His alien suit design was

revealed in the Falling Skies S2 finale
July 19 2013: Design work on The

Conjuring, his first theatrical film
Smile is a an ex-cop robot,

reprogrammed to serve a rebel cause
© Luca Nemolato
9
unusual to you. Tattooing taught me a lot; my lines became cleaner and my

knowledge of color mixing improved a lot. Working on a canvas that is alive is
exciting, it forced me to plan all my moves before executing the work, leaving
no room for mistakes.
“I usually start my concept directly in ZBrush,

but sometimes I start with a sketch on paper
or in Photoshop, to figure out the overall idea
before going to ZBrush”
Being able to work with all kinds of media is fundamental for improving your
art; being versatile is always an advantage. But you should definitely begin
your career doing something that you enjoy, then with time you will be able
to expand your knowledge. Don’t try to do everything at once as this will just
be frustrating.
3dc: You work in both 2D and 3D to create concepts. What software do you
work in?
LN: I usually start my concept directly in ZBrush, but sometimes I start with
a sketch on paper or in Photoshop, to figure out the overall idea before
going to ZBrush. After the concept phase is over, I create some fast textures,
usually painting directly on the model and then detailing the maps using
photos in Photoshop. The last step is to pose the model before rendering
using KeyShot or V-Ray. Then I compose all the different render passes in
Photoshop, and there the real magic starts.
I use the technique of photo-bashing in order to make my images more

realistic. Photos are a great tool, but you need to learn how to use them in
order to achieve a realistic look and a perfect blend between 3D and photos.
Painting is the way to blend them. Using numbers, usually 60-percent of the
image is 3D, 30-percent is photographic and 10-percent is painted. This was Luca’s first personal work to be rewarded all around the
web for the use of the photo-bashing technique © Luca Nemolato
3dc: You’ve now worked with a number of the artists that you listed as your
early inspirations, how did you find this? Were you star-struck?
LN: Finding myself working with some of my idols has been a blast. I
TOP TIP
remember my first day of work at ASC; I was so intimidated that I wasn’t able Re-light the image in Photoshop
to focus on what I was doing. I was too nervous. At the same time I was so A cool trick to use in Photoshop to relight your image is to create
excited, I felt so full of energy, I was totally feeding from the presence of these a new layer on top, fill it with black, and then blend this layer
great artists around me. I realized even more how lucky I was when I started with the ones underneath using a Color Dodge layer. The black
to get their trust, so they let me stand behind them in order to learn from tones will become invisible and you will be able to re-light the
observing what they were doing, and this was priceless for me. image by painting the areas you want with white. Then if you
need to erase light, you will just need to paint the areas you
3dc: Lots of our readers are in the position you were in two years ago. What want to erase with black. This is a really useful trick when the
advice would you offer to an artist trying to get their first break and land a job light on your image is getting messy.
or an internship at a big company?
LN: My advice is to believe in yourself and never let yourself down. Work
hard to achieve your objectives, work on refining your skills every day, and if
you fail once just try again and again until you are able to make it. Be ready
to work for free at the start. Most of the time this is how it works for proving
yourself and getting into this business. Give your best on each work that you
do. Every day remember that there is someone better than you, ready to take
your spot – this will push you to give 100-percent every time.
3dc: Your career has come really far over just a few years. What are your big
The re-light trick in Photoshop is great when the light
plans for the future? of your image is getting messy
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
“Work hard to achieve 3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 101
your objectives, work

on refining your skills
every day, and if you fail
once just try again and
again until you are able
to make it”
Luca made this to explore the potential of PolyPainting and

texturing using ZBrush and Photoshop © Luca Nemolato 11
This is one of Luca’s first 3D concepts, created using the combination of ZBrush and Photoshop © Luca Nemolato
LN: Well in this business it is hard to have plans LN: Well this is a really hard question, working like to work on would probably be Constantine.
for the future; with the big changes that are on re-makes is never easy, and it’s always hard To be able to work on a show so full of creatures
occurring in the entertainment industry today it to make a good one especially when the original would be really awesome, I enjoyed watching the
is hard to plan something. But for sure what I will project is already a masterpiece. For sure, I would first and I would love another one.
love to do is to start to teach and work more on really love to work on a movie like District 9; I
video games. For teaching, I’m thinking about loved the designs in it and I would like to prove 3dc: We discussed your previous career in
DVDs – my free tutorials around the web got myself on a show like that. Another movie I would tattooing, which has fed into your digital art
good attention by the public so I hope that will
happen also for the DVDs. Then looking how far
video games are going, I’m getting really excited
TOP TIP
about the possibilities of working on a big triple-A
Photo-bashing on texture maps
console title, this time from the beginning to the
Photo-bashing is usually used on the final image to obtain a more realistic result. However,
end of the project.
I started to photo-bash directly onto the texture maps of my models. The process is pretty
simple; the first step is to paint basic colors on the model in ZBrush, then, on this basic
3dc: If your work at ASC so far has been very
texture map, photo-bash photos such as animal skin and patterns in Photoshop. I usually
much based in sci-fi and horror, were you always
blend the photos with a Soft Light blending mode, but other kinds of blending modes can
a fan of these genres or has it come with your
work too. Then I will use this texture map to create an Intensity mask in ZBrush and create
interest in CG?
the surface details on my models.
LN: Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, I was

really happy to be able to work on so many sci-fi
projects and I hope to keep doing it. Horror is one
of those genres that you will end up doing for
sure if you are a creature and character designer.
I found myself working on scary and creepy
images even though I’m not the kind of person
that is too much into horror; but I do enjoy it – in
those moments my dark side comes out. Another
genre I like a lot is fantasy. I have worked on some
projects in this genre, but I would like to do so
more often.
3dc: ASC have created concepts for awesome

re-makes such as Texas Chainsaw 3D, Clash of the
Titans and Planet of the Apes. If you could work on Photo-bashing on texture maps to achieve great and fast results
a re-make of any film, what would it be?
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
“I started to draw as soon as

TOP TIP I was able to handle a pencil.
My life has always been about
Compositing the renders from KeyShot in Photoshop art and being an artist”
Using KeyShot to render your models is fast and easy. Every artist has his own way of using
it. I personally have my pipeline made of steps and materials that I always use to obtain practice. But if you did not work in the arts world,
good final results. For organic things I usually render a Matte Shadow pass, a Skin pass, a what would you do?
Rim Light pass, a Spec pass, a Color pass and an Alpha. Then I compose all the renders in
Photoshop, using the Matte Shadow pass as a starting point and then I blend in all the other LN: Well I can’t ever see myself doing any other
passes, using the Spec pass as the last one. career. I started to draw as soon as I was able to
handle a pencil. My life has always been about
art and being an artist. If I have to think about me
doing another kind of job I would probably see
myself working in another field of art, maybe as
a full-time illustrator or a comic book artist. But
I definitely can’t see myself not doing art; I don’t
think I’m made for a random office job – I would
be really depressed. I like to be challenged every
day; I want to live doing what I like the most.
3dc: Thank you very much for taking time out to

take part in our interview!
Render passes in KeyShot from Luca’s personal work Hunter Creature
Luca developed this image from 2D sketch while considering the Luca realized this concept entirely in Photoshop using
background story and function as he was sculpting © Luca Nemolato a photo reference of an actor © Luca Nemolato
13
Master modeler:
Marco Di Lucca
Senior artist at Lucasfilm Industrial Light & Magic, Marco Di Lucca, talks about
himself, his career and how he has developed his awesome talents
The Artist
Marco Di Lucca
Web: facebook.com/
marcodilucca
Interviewed by:
Emalee Beddoes
Marco’s career in film has

lead him to move around
the world from Italy to New
Zealand and London before
settling in San Francisco,
where he is now senior artist
at Industrial Light & Magic.
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Master modeler: Marco Di Lucca
Marco Di Lucca’s career began in Italy where he Digital in New Zealand on Peter Jackson’s positions working on incredible films such as
worked in small post-production companies remake of King Kong. X-Men: The Last Stand, Avatar and Noah…
for several years, mainly doing commercials,
music videos, motion and 3D graphics for His 3D career has led Marco on a long journey 3dcreative: You have had an incredible career so
TV shows. In 2005, he eventually realized his around the globe seeking out exciting new far. What would you say have been your proudest
teenage dream to work in the movie industry opportunities, offering him fantastic life moments to date?
when he landed a job as a 3D modeler at Weta experiences, not to mention the enviable
This is one of the many busts Marco

made, starting with a simple cube.
Although he hadn’t planned to do so,
Marco decided to do a quick render of
this exercise © Marco Di Lucca
Marco wanted to create the

appearance of real marble and
spent a lot of time working on
textures, shaders and lighting
© Marco Di Lucca
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
This one was inspired by

one of Marco’s favorite
marble sculpture
called Le Genie Du Mal
(Lucifer) which is in Liege
Cathedral in Belgium
© Marco Di Lucca
17
“I am particularly proud of time and experience there on certainly the best get in touch with the awesome guys at Luxion
having landed my first VFX project I have worked on to to date: Avatar. who kindly gave me a fully-working license for
job in the movies at Weta some time – and that’s when I actually started
Digital in New Zealand” 3dc: We’ve been amazed by your incredibly working on the self-portrait.
detailed photoreal self-portraits. How long do
Marco Di Lucca: Well yes, I’ve been fortunate to they take to create? I was particularly interested in their awesome
fulfill my dream and get to work at the major VFX translucent shader and during that time the
houses out there. It’s been a long path, though if MDL: My self-portrait is a very casual work that I Luxion team was working on the new release
I look back I certainly had to go through difficult happen to work on. The projects are done in my (V4) and luckily again they accepted me in their
moments and make hard life choices. Honestly spare time so during evenings and weekends beta team. I collaborated closely with their chief
though, when I look back I have no regrets – well, mainly, and it probably takes me, between other scientist, Henrik Wann Jensen, who was probably
okay, perhaps if I could go back and change a few things that I’m working on in that very same spare more excited than even myself to see the fruit
things, I would have left Italy much earlier. time, about four months. It might sound a lot but of his years of research on skin shading getting
I tend to be very critical of my own work and so used to produce photorealistic skin rendering. His
Overall though, I am proud of the decisions I’ve I’m never completely happy about this or that enthusiasm therefore helped me stay motivated
made – no matter how tough they were. I am particular part and so I keep on tweaking it until I during those months.
particularly proud of having landed my first VFX am satisfied.
job in the movies at Weta Digital in New Zealand 3dc: Your personal work reference sources from
and all the friends that I made down there – it still 3dc: You worked closely with KeyShot when sci-fi to classical sculpture. What, would you say,
has a special spot in my heart. creating your self-portrait. How has this software are your key influences?
changed your workflow?
It was an amazing life experience firstly, and then MDL: I would say that my sources of inspiration
a huge step forward career-wise having had the MDL: You are correct – I did use and I do mainly have changed over the years, although I have
chance to work with and be inspired by so many use Luxion KeyShot for rendering. I came to know certainly always been interested in sci-fi and
talented and devoted artists. And then ending my about it about a year ago and I was fortunate to fantasy. One thing though that is common across
Marco took a break from

humans here and worked
more in the land of
creatures for once
© Marco Di Lucca
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Unlike Dead Christ, here Marco aimed to try and replicate the actual sculpture as close as he could, starting from a
very simple mesh. You can see here the various stages it went through © Marco Di Lucca
19
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
This was Marco’s first attempt to make a realistic

female head © Marco Di Lucca
21
This is one of the many

renders that Marco
has done during the
development of his self-
portrait, which he tested
under different lighting
environments
© Marco Di Lucca
those different worlds – and always was – is my I know it sounds crazy being Italian myself and missed out all those years when I still lived in Italy
inclination towards realism and the fascination having been surrounded and exposed to so much but I am doing my best to make up for that now.
about the human body. Classical art, primarily art, but the way I explain that is that I wasn’t
sculpture,and then drawing and painting, weren’t completely aware of what my artistic inclinations To answer your question completely, my key
part of my life, at least not until a few years ago. were when I started working with 3D. I feel that I influences when it comes to classical arts are
Artist Timeline Marco’s career to date

1997–2004: Worked in post-production at various 2010: Back to Europe for a year while working on Late 2012: Landed his dream job at Industrial
studios in Naples, Rome and Milan a project at Double Negative Light & Magic, where he had always pictured
himself working
2005: Left Italy to to join Weta Digital in New 2011: Finally got the opportunity to move to the
Zealand US (specifically to San Francisco, a city that Marco
loves), to work at Digital Domain
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
mainly from the Renaissance and artists like

Marco created the original
Michelangelo (my absolute favorite), Bernini, On Ugliness (the first
Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci, just to name version) a few years ago
a few. and went on to develop
that here. He changed the
pose to mimic Leonardo’s
3dc: With your increasing interests in the fine
Lady with an Ermine
arts, are there any different styles, techniques or © Marco Di Lucca
mediums that you’d like to try out?
MDL: I would say that the more I got into fine arts,
the more I got interested in the human form as
a way to express emotion. It’s an ongoing thing
and I am sure it will keep evolving and changing
throughout the years to come.
As a digital artist I felt somewhat limited by the

fact that all traditional mediums were unknown
to me until just a few years ago and so I felt
the need to at least try out some of them, from
simple pencil drawing to oil painting or sculpting
in clay. Not that I mastered them since I don’t
get to spend a lot of time on all of those different
disciplines and we all know that to get good at
something, we really need to dedicate a lot of
time to it, but it has definitely become a nice
refreshing break for those times where I don’t feel
like using my main medium.
On top of all of that I should add that if in the

future I will have the opportunity of taking a long
break from digital art and go back to Italy, I would
love to give marble-carving a go.
3dc: Having established such an awesome career,

do you have any aspirations you’re still hoping to
realize?
think it is all that necessary. As general advice to stay in that environment. Not sure if I would
MDL: I am not sure how to reply to that question I would say that, and this is true I guess for any have been a happy person if I continued down
actually. I pretty much satisfied my aspirations, other thing in life, in order to achieve a goal, first that path – I am happy to have followed my own
without wanting to sound cocky or anything. I you have to have it very clear in your mind and instincts instead.
never really wanted to pursue a supervising role focus on it. It needs to be on top of everything
or anything else more than what I have already else that is inside your head, and then you need 3dc: Finally (and probably most importantly), if
accomplished. I don’t see myself much as a to act towards that, meaning that you need to you could choose one superpower, what would
manager, attending meetings all day and so on. spend time learning and practicing – because it be?
I’d rather do the work and I am happy with that. there are no shortcuts to success.
What I might see for the future is perhaps a shift in MDL: Hmm, the questions are becoming more
the way I will use my skills, maybe pursuing more At that stage I guess the first step is to put interesting towards the end, ha! Well I’ll answer
of a solo career as an artist or even putting myself together a kick-ass portfolio that shows firstly all with the first thing that came to my mind after
to something completely different like having my of your strengths and that will then let the work reading the question once. I would like to be
own pizza business! talk for you when you show up to your first (and able to travel in time – perhaps not so much
second and third) interview. into the future but rather into the past and
3dc: What advice would you offer for up-and- specific periods of time. I would definitely visit
coming 3D artists? Would you say doing a self- 3dc: If you hadn’t been an artist, what do you the Renaissance and do whatever I could to be a
portrait is a good addition for portfolios? think you would be doing? pupil of Michelangelo!
MDL: Well, honestly, I don’t really see the MDL: Ha! Good question! Well I was initially set 3dc: Thank you very much for taking time out of
connection between making a self-portrait and by my parents (mainly my father) to be either your busy schedule to take part in our interview!
becoming a good artist. Sure, most artists (and a civil engineer or an architect since he was a
traditional artists as well) at some stage of their house builder and he wanted one of us (I have
lives make at least one self-portrait, but I don’t one brother but I was the choice in that case)
23
3DCreative magazine | issue 101
a r B r a n d Ao
CEz
y g uru , Cézar
m
l T u to rs’ anato ZBrush
Digita p
is
ens up h how he creates
ã o, o
Brand o explai
n nd
etc hb o ok t
b o th stylized a
sk re
a ra cte rs that a t
ch c
to m ic a lly corre
ana
The Artist
Cézar Brandão
Web: branduarte.cghub.com
Software Used:
ZBrush
Brazilian artist Cézar studied

design and animation at
Anhembi Morumbi University
before heading to Gnomon
School in LA. Now working as
a freelance character artist,
he has contributed to projects
including Guillermo Del Toro’s
The Great Calamity and Halo
4. Cézar shares his impressive
ZBrush sketchbook.
25
Sketchbook of CEzar BrandAo
Explore Cézar Brandão’s 3D

sketches…
I have always loved the feel of a ‘sketch’
piece and was originally drawn to that style
of drawing, though when I was introduced
to ZBrush, I found my real love. To be able to
sketch in 3D, and really quickly, is amazing – I
can just go there, open up the software and
begin throwing all my ideas in there without
any barriers.
With my personal pieces I try to create what

I’m feeling at the moment – it might be sad,
happy or angry. I try to transmit what I’m
feeling in order to draw that emotion out
of me, and by doing that I believe we can
put a little of our soul into that sculpture or
drawing. It’s like transmitting emotion to your
piece, if you’re doing that with your heart. I
believe that’s the reason I sketch, the reason
I do what I do is based on the medium I have
chosen to express myself.
26 3DCreativemag.com
Inspiration and ideas

I see a lot of fashion photos, so I always imagine
that I am sculpting a fashion model and at the
end I will take a photo of the girl as if she were a
real model posing for me. Most of the time I start
with an image/idea in my head, but it always
changes and never comes out the way I was
thinking at the start. This is because I listen to
music as I’m sculpting, and I just go with the flow.
This is a sketch I started with just the

head, then continued to create a knight
Some feelings I had about a girl who ran

and hid instead of confronting her fears
Sometimes it’s easier to just give away

your whole life and quit everything, but
with patience you can have your reward
later on
This piece is about a cold-hearted girl,

who thinks she’s at the top of everything,
like a queen
27
Materials
To sketch, I just use ZBrush and Photoshop – TOP TIP
that’s all I need. ZBrush now gives me all the
freedom to do whatever I want and I don’t need
Starting out
This is what I tell my students when they ask for advice as artists
any other software for sketching anymore. After
just starting out. They always ask what they should do to put their
that, I like to finalize the image in Photoshop and
name out there. I always tell them that there are no secrets to
add some graphic designs in the background,
that, you just have to do what you love to do and be persistent.
change colors and so on. When I’m doing
Don’t be afraid to show your work, do something different, and
production work or functional models though, I
try to be different from other artists.
use 3ds Max, Maya, Topogun, xNormal, UVLayout,
Photoshop and ZBrush.
We don’t like to see the same thing over and over again, so when
someone creates something different it will call attention to
Sketching workflow
you, so do what you love to do. This can be anything: monsters,
I try to use the George Bridgeman techniques
superheroes, robots, aliens, girls, and so on – just do what you This is an old
for my anatomy and in ZBrush. I use a lot
love to do, do something different and do it with passion. sketch of a girl,
of DynaMesh so I don’t have to worry about
and was my
topology – I can just keep on creating. It’s the
second attempt
same whether I want to quickly create armor, a
at sculpting a
helmet or anything else – I just grab a sphere,
female
DynaMesh and keep sculpting, or I use Extract
and DynaMesh. I like to play a lot with silhouettes
This piece was
in my images, so I always select a material in
created with
ZBrush, apply black and play around with that
the memory of
silhouette to create the clothing or hair.
a Californian
girl in mind,
from when I
lived there. I
miss that place!
29
TOP TIP This is an old sketch of a girl, and was just a

loose sketch for fun
Tips on anatomy
Some people say that it is too difficult We always see angels with wings and halos
to sculpt anatomy or to learn anatomy. – I wanted to try something different, but
What I say to my students is that we are this is probably a little bit too weird!
not medics, and we don’t have to know
every single muscle, bone and vein in our
bodies. We are artists, so we just need to
know how to construct the body.
Instead of looking at anatomy in a very

complicated way, try to break down the
forms into shapes instead of muscles and
bones. Train your eyes more than your
brain and look at the body and try to
break that down into planes, like George
Bridgeman does. I can guarantee with a
lot of practice you will see that anatomy
is not that complicated.
31
“I like to play a lot with silhouettes in my images, This one is special to me. It was originally
so I always select a material in ZBrush, apply just a sketch and I was afraid of showing it,
black and play around with that silhouette” but when I posted it online people really
enjoyed it!
This is an old sketch of a girl – I was trying

to achieve the look of a top model
33
Would you like to see your sketches
featured in 3dcreative magazine?
We’re always on the lookout for talented artists
and their artwork to adorn the pages of our
magazines. If you think you have what it takes,
please get in touch!
All you need to do is email

emalee@3dtotal.com with a link to your
portfolio and some information about you.
We look forward to hearing from you!

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Art Gallery
Each issue the 3dcreative team selects 10 of the best digital images from around the world. Enjoy!
Guardian Evok’im
Zachary Schwartz
Software used:
3ds Max, Octane, Photoshop
Web: raelsatu.cghub.com
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Submit your images! Simply email: emalee@3dtotal.com
37
Farewell My Concubine
Gangqiang Yu
Software used:
3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Footprint
Qinchuan Luo
Software used:
ZBrush, 3ds Max, Mudbox, V-Ray, UVLayout,
Photoshop, Multi-Scatter, Photoscan
Web: weibo.com/u/2947521072 39
General Shellshock
Koen Koopman
Software used:
3ds Max, Mudbox, After Effects, Photoshop, V-Ray
Web: tubuh.nl
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Banana Slug
Kurt Papstein
Software used:
ZBrush
Web: ikameka.blogspot.com
41
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
AX-7 Assault Rifle

Paul Paslea
Software used:
3D Studio Max, V-Ray, MARI
Web: paulpaslea.com
43
Chinese ceramic lion

Zhelong Xu
Software used:
ZBrush, KeyShot
Web: flickr.com/photos/lightrender
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
City Life
Benoit Regimbal Cote
Software used: 3ds Max, mental ray, Photoshop
Web: milkpresso.com
45
Corridor
Joey Lenz
Software used:
Maya, mental ray, Photoshop, NUKE
Web: polyplant.co
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
47
Goblin
Zsolt Vida
Software used: ZBrush, Maya, V-Ray, Photoshop
Web: vizso.cghub.com
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
3dtotal presents the new issue of 2dartist
magazine, a downloadable monthly
magazine for digital artists for only ₤2.99
(approx. $4.79/€3.69).
Visit www.2dartistmag.com to see a full preview of the latest
issue, subscription offers, and to purchase back issues.
34
pages o
tutoria f
96
inside!ls
Issue 096 | December 2013
Master
fantasy
scenes
YongSub Noh explores
atmosphere and depth
Tips for
portraying Learn to
emotions paint with
photos
Francisco Albert demonstrates
how to successfully capture anger
Donglu Yu reveals
how to capture mood
Generate
ideas in
Photoshop
Kick-start the creation process
and learn to paint with ease
Learn to paint epic exosuits +plus

• The sketchbook of Mike Butkus
• Paint hard-surface environments
The art of • and much more!

available
matte-painting
Framestore matte-painter Jason Horley reveals his industry
NOW
2dartistmag.com
experiences and shares his incredible portflio inside!
The Artist
Joseph Harford
Web: josephharford.com
airship-images.com
Software Used:
ZBrush
British 3D artist, Joseph Harford

has years of experience in the
games industry and is now
director of Airship Images, a
triple-A game outsourcing
company. He is passionate
about learning, teaching and
anything 3D.
Learn efficient prop

sculpting
by Joseph Harford
Triple-A games industry professional, Joseph Harford shares his tips and tricks for
mastering ZBrush speed-sculpting to generate props. He walks us through the
creation of an unusual exotic plant, from creative sculpting to building the perfect
mesh, clearly describing this essential process for any ZBrush artist
Learn how to create a clean

mesh for your ZBrush sculpts
with Joseph Harford…
Speed sculpting is all about building your
confidence, trying new techniques and flexing
your creative muscles. Creativity and technical
knowledge feed into each other. The more you
know about how a program works and what it
can do, the more you can push your creativity.
Also, the faster you are, the more creativity
you can unleash. This project will teach you
some of the skills that let those ideas flow out
of your head and onto the canvas.
And at the heart of it all was a humble sphere

In the past we had an idea and then spent
days making low-res base meshes and slowly
sculpting them. Now with the evolution of
ZBrush’s toolset we can create our low-
res base meshes as we move through the
sculpting process. The additional speed and
versatility lets us create great art faster and for
production artists and hobbyists alike, extra
speed is never a bad thing.
In this project, I will share with you a variety

of techniques I use regularly to build all
sorts of models for cinematics, games and
illustrations. We will focus on exotic plant life,
our first step looking at what nature has to
offer on our planet. Some of the plants on our
planet, when looked at out-of-context, can Have fun at this stage, often just attacking the mesh can
seem absolutely alien. I did a few short sculpt result in intriguing forms that we can explore deeper
studies of various plants to get them in my
head, and then I was ready to attack the real
thing. Everything in this tutorial was created
in under two hours.
to block out almost anything without the ties of
topology. Sculpt freely on your mesh, Ctrl+Drag-
and-release outside of your model and DynaMesh
02 Getting creative: Now it’s time to get
creative and have some fun. Under the
Transform Menu enable Symmetry and hit the
updates with evenly distributed polygons. radial button (R). Using radial symmetry with
01 Getting stuck in: We begin by adding a

sphere3D and hitting Make PolyMesh3D.
Now that our object is editable let’s enable
At any time you can increase the resolution
to refine and add detail. Bear in mind that
8 RadialCount, we can very quickly build up a
complex organic form, as whatever you do on one
point will happen on all eight at once.
DynaMesh. Under Geometry > DynaMesh, change DynaMesh resolution is dependent on the size
the resolution to 32 and hit DynaMesh. If you of your model, so it’s good practice to press Use a combination of the Move tool, Clay brush
haven’t heard of DynaMesh before, it’s a great way Deformation > Unify after creating your sphere. and Standard brush. The Move tool lets us
pull the mesh into all sorts of unusual shapes.
A mesh reborn Once you find something you like, you can start
sculpting with Clay and Standard brushes to
refine your design further.
ZBrush now has a wealth of brushes to choose

from, but these three are all you need to get
going. It’s great to experiment with all the others
but don’t let it bog you down. Clay sculptors have
just a few tools they use 95-percent of the time
and ZBrush is no different.
03 Remeshing the model: At this point we

should look at remeshing our model. The
advantage of custom topology over DynaMesh is
that we will have access to subdivisions, refining
51
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Learn efficient prop sculpting
and detailing the higher divisions and still retain

Here we can see the stages of the mesh, and a close-up of the tool settings
access to the lower ones to quickly shape the
form as a whole.
Click on SubTool > Duplicate. This creates a

copy of our SubTool. Now open the Geometry >
ZRemesher palette. In here we have a number of
options, but for quick mesh generation a value of
5 and Adapt selected will give good results. The
value is given in terms of 1000, a value of 5 being
5000 polygons. This is only an estimation of the
final polycount, even with adaptive it may differ.
The adaptive setting lets ZBrush use a higher
density of polygons in more detailed areas, rather
than an even density across the whole mesh.
04 Re-projection: Now we have a neat new

topology for the plant, we can add all of
our detail back. We do that through re-projection.
Subdivide our mesh three times by hitting Ctrl+D

or Geometry > Divide. Make sure the duplicated
SubTool from the last step is visible by clicking
the eye icon to the right of the SubTool name.
Next, under the SubTool > Project Palette, hit
ProjectAll. The default settings should cover most
cases, however if some areas are missed we can
increase the Dist from 0.02 to 0.2 or higher.
05 Sculpting the leaves: Moving on to

the leaves, we can use some quick
techniques to build them rather than go into a 3D
modeling package and bring a mesh in.
It’s not always needed to bring in meticulously modeled base meshes
Starting with another DynaMesh sphere, choose
the ClipCurve brush from the brush menu. to sculpt on. We then move to shaping and to the lowest subdivision and start to pose it. I
Turn on symmetry in the X axis and clip from sculpting the leaf with whatever design we have do this with a large Move Topological brush, as it
bottom left to top middle. Continue on from in mind. keeps the polygons distributed closer together.
there, clipping away geometry until you have
a leaf shape. It’s at this point that we ZRemesh
this to give us a low-poly base with subdivisions 06 Adding details and posing: Once the
basic sculpting of the leaf is done, drop
In the Transform menu, turn on Use Posable
Symmetry. This will allow us to add thorns on
TOP TIP
FibreMesh settings
FiberMesh settings are often misunderstood. To get a
hair that tapers from root to tip, rather than adjusting
the ScaleTip which only scales the last vertices, we want
to create a custom WidthProfile.
It’s vital we make any changes to settings like width or

length before hitting accept as there is no way to go
back and change it. What we can change however is the
amount of sides it renders with, and the radius of the
hair strand. This is all done at rendertime, so it has no
effect on viewport performance.
We can also create some wacky alien-looking hairs, or

spores by using custom width profiles. Experiment with all the FiberMesh settings one by one, using a simple plane as the emitter
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
either side, despite having the mesh already

posed. I add thorns by dragging out the side of
the leaf, shaping it into a rough curved spike and
smoothing the area that connects to the leaf. I
then use the Pinch brush and lightly brush over
the tips. After I have added a number of thorns to
the sides, I move them up or down slightly with
symmetry off to create variation. Rather than
create both halves uniquely it’s small tips like this
that get us to a finished product faster.
07 Using InsertMesh: Let’s add leaves to

the base of the plant. A quick way to do
this is to use InsertMesh. It’s much quicker than
duplicating SubTools and positioning each one.
We need to select our leaf SubTool and position The posed leaf, and the process used to create the thorns.
If you like, another ZRemesher could be done at this point
it on the canvas how we want it to stick out when
we draw it on objects – in this case looking down
the tip of the leaf with the root in the distance.
In the brush menu, click Create InsertMesh.

This creates a new brush that will automatically
be selected. Create a new cylinder, make it
polymesh3D and draw this new brush on the
base using radial symmetry. Add a couple of
these ‘rings’, offset to build a base of leaves for
our plant. You can switch between the Rotate and
Translate tool to fine-tune the placement.
08 Masking and posing: Let’s get the plant

posed and looking like its growing from
the roots.
Duplicate the SubTool so we have the original Quickly adding multiple subtools is a breeze with InsertMesh
in case we need it, and make sure the original
is hidden. On our duplicate, Ctrl+Drag from the Now, switching to the Transpose Move tool, push and pull the stem into a curved shape.
bottom to the middle of the plant to mask that Ctrl+Click outside the mask to invert it, drag the Duplicating and slightly adjusting the sizes
area, then Ctrl+Click on the mask a few times to selection downward. Invert the mask, switch quickly gives us a more complex plant.
soften it. The lower the subdivisions, the more the to the Rotate tool and angle the plant about 15
mask will feather. degrees to the side. Now, again at the lowest
subdivision, using the Move Topological brush, 09 Adding FiberMesh hairs to the stems
A final touch to add to the stems of
The softer the mask, the softer the bend when rotating
53
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Learn efficient prop sculpting
the plant is to cover them in fine hairs, perhaps

to stop insects crawling on them, or to siphon
pollution from the air. No matter how loose,
it’s good to think in terms of why your plant or
organic object is built the way it is and what
each part does. The extra depth increases the
believability of the design.
Select one of the plant SubTools and paint a

soft mask on the stem area. Under the Tool
> FiberMesh palette, hit Preview. Turn down
MaxFibers to 10, ByArea to 0.2 and Length to 10.
This gives us some nice small hairs that gradually
get less dense to the edges of our mask.
Now click Save and name it PlantStemFibers.

Click Accept and apply the same process to the
other stems, loading the saved FiberMesh settings Keeping fast preview on and profile 1 in the FiberMesh settings keeps the scene quick
for each.
10 Putting the scene together: The final

step is to put the scene together.
Append a plane3D into our tool. Position it as if it

were a floor and divide it a couple of times. Then,
using insert meshes from rocks and other objects
you have sculpted (see Surface noise secrets tip),
draw these onto the floor. Also position each one
in turn and scale or rotate it to fit.
Once done, we can Ctrl+Click on our plane to

select it, hit SubTool > Split Unmasked Points.
ZBrush has its own floor, which appears the
same color as the canvas but keeps shadow
information. Turn on the floor in the Draw menu.
Using the same technique as the floor plane, I
add mushrooms (that were created using the
same radial tricks), small stones and grass using
FiberMesh on the floor plane. In a short time, I
Bringing the scene together
built a versatile, detailed and complex scene.
TOP TIP
Surface noise secrets
Surface noise is such a quick way to create extremely
complex detail. It’s particularly useful for creating rocks,
stones and wood. Select a tool, or create one in the
rough form of a rock, and then click Tool > Surface >
Noise to enable surface noise. Turn the scale all the
way up. Now the trick here is to adjust the noise profile
similar to the width profile in FiberMesh. You want
some flat areas and some peaks, but don’t try to get
everything in one. We can apply multiple surface noises
to simulate various scales of detail.
The main issue most people have with surface noise is

that when applied to the mesh it balloons it. The trick
here is to instead hit Surface > MaskByNoise, and then
use Deformation > Inflate to add the noise to the mesh. Try adding your surface noises on a layer so that you can adjust the intensity separately
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
The Artist
Joseph Harford
Web: josephharford.com
airship-images.com
Perfect post-production
in Maya
Patrick Evrard reveals his industry secrets for capturing the perfect final image, walking
us through rendering and post-production on a stylized witch character in Maya. This
tutorial offers a useful look at the key methodologies and tools needed to effectively
turn your character into a portfolio image; moving from final texture tweaks and
developing a background to creating render layers, before making final tweaks during
the post-production stage
The Artist
Patrick Evrard
Web: patrickevrard.com
Software Used:
Maya, Photoshop
Patrick Evrard is a passionate

3D artist during the day, and
he likes to put those skills
to use after hours to create
a variety of unique and
inspiring characters.
Wait. There’s
more!
CHAPTERS 01 – 07 CAN BE
SEEN IN ISSUES 094 – 100
3dcreativemag.com
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Perfect post-production in Maya
The final image from the last tutorial, with additional notes
Learn how to develop your

3D characters into portfolio
quality images...
It’s time to finalize the image and there are
still quite a few things left for us to do. At the
moment, the character is textured and posed
and I have a roughly blocked out background.
In this chapter I will make a render at a high

resolution and take that into Photoshop. I will
paint over it and try to look for things that
can still be improved (I will take note of those
and fix them in Maya). Once all those fixes are
done, I will render the final image with all its
passes and composite it back in Photoshop. The model we start with
We will start with this render on which I’ll

make the final notes. I will talk about how I
approach the final steps covering the different
01 Rehearsal image: This is the image I
start with. She is already posed, and I
reused some props I already made in a previous
environment hence I focus on one view in
particular. On the image here, you can see what I
mean by that. Most of the background elements
passes and renderlayers that I will render out. project for the rocks and statues. I also modeled a are placed to fit this angle.
Some of them contain fur and hair which have crow but it just didn’t look right, so I left it out.
been added, so I will cover this as well. I always try to have a foreground, a mid-ground
The main background idea also changed from where the witch stands, and a far background.
Although the main character is still from Maya, mountains to ancient ruins of past kings, where This helps to give depth to the scene and makes
I did use ZBrush for creating some background nature has taken over and giant trees have been the overall image more interesting.
props, so I will briefly cover parts of that. growing upon and destroying the statue’s head. It
fits the witch, though the idea that she is traveling Besides the detailed rocks, I use light blockers
Finally I will gather all the layers and passes to still remains. which are just simple geo blocks to block the final
go back to Photoshop, covering the tricks I use gather coming from the env map linked to the
to create the final image.
02 Camera view locked: The first thing
to do is to choose the camera angle.
I am aiming at a final image and not a game
camera. They will not be visible in the final image
as they are hidden by other objects, or just not in
the frame.
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
These are three main renders used for the rehearsal image
03 Tree renderlayers: Since the total image is starting to get pretty

dense, I decide to render the character and the background on
different renderlayers. I’ll composite them together with the hair layer later
This shows how all the props are positioned to fit the camera angle on in Photoshop.
This image shows the corrections that were Let’s start with the corrections of the general rehearsal image. Normally I
needed for the witch would just scribble some notes on it, but on this occasion I write it cleaner so
everybody can read it. The thing I like about this is that you have a check list,
and once that’s done you should be finished.
First off, here are the three renders I use for this: the background, character
and hair. I will write the corrections according to those. Besides the renders,
I also have some quick color changes and extra layers to see if it can add
something extra to the image. A good example is the smoke which could be
created in 3D, but can also be applied from photo references.
04 The witch corrections: Let’s begin with the witch as she is the main
character of the image. For her, there are some modeling issues that
are mainly due to the default skinning. This can be fixed by adjusting the
skinning or by deleting history on the objects and remodeling it. Because the
pose is locked, the skinning doesn’t matter that much anymore.
There are also ropes that should be aimed more towards the ground due to
gravity. The modeling issues are written in blue. As I looked at the velvet and
the ropes, I thought some extra fur might enhance the worn factor. So I’ll try
this as it will also break the line of her silhouette (written in red).
59
Besides the modeling and fur there are also some

The subtle difference with and without highlight in the eyes
parts that should be lighter or darker, or their
shading should be checked – some of it has to
be re-rendered but some can be easily fixed in
Photoshop (written in orange). I even add some
things that should be done in Photoshop (written
in green).
“I can render different images

with and without lights and
use them in Photoshop to find
the right mix”
05 Deleting objects/highlighting the

eyes: Some of the parts are also deleted
because they aren’t adding value to the image
or the image just feels too messy with them.
Sometimes it really sucks to have modeled a prop
which will not be seen or gets canceled, but it’s
better to leave it out if it doesn’t work. I always
try to comfort myself that someday I might still
use them. This image has quite a lot of props that
actually didn’t make it. Of course, this is the result
of not having a clear concept in the beginning,
but that is part of the journey.
The highlights in the eyes are very important, as

they give the eye a wet look and define a lot of
06 Texture issues: Then there are always
some small texture issues that could be
better. Some could be overpainted in Photoshop
out right, so I’ll have to take a look at that. The
demon’s eyes should also be darker.
the face. I will paint this in Photoshop, this way I and some can just be quickly fixed in Maya. Besides the texturing there is also the lighting
can quickly adjust it. Some parts of the metal on the staff didn’t come that could be more accentuated. I would like a
Renders with and without area lights, which can be blended in Photoshop
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
These are the settings for the hair These are the settings for the hair rendering
rim light on the left and a bit more on the right – I will do this by blending
different renders in Photoshop. I can render different images with and
without lights and use them in Photoshop to find the right mix. These are the
08 Hair – rendering the differences: As I mentioned before, I
rendered the hair on a totally separate renderlayer because there is
too much difference between the masterlayer render settings and the lights.
corrections I had with the witch.
There are two main differences to get better results with Maya hair in mental
07 The hair settings: Moving on to the hair, there is little wrong with
this section. In the previous chapter, I talked about how to create the
curves for the hair – so here are the settings for the hair itself. There are a few
ray. First is to render from ray-tracing to rasterizing mode. To get cleaner
results I change the visibility samples to 8 and 4.
important settings that will define the hair, such as Clump Width and Hair
Width, where you have to find the right balance. The Maya Hairs Multi-streak
can really help to give volume to the hair.
09 Hair – rendering the spotlights: The second thing is to use
spotlights with Depth maps instead of area lights because they
tend to give a lot of noise within the hair. I’ll try to match the position and
the color of the area lights. For these I use mental ray’s detailed Depth map
For shading I tend to keep everything pretty dark. I do avoid lowering the shadows, with the settings shown here. I want the shadows to appear a bit
opacity though because it adds a lot of render-time and even noise. soft, because hard shadows look really unreal.
Using Depth map shadows give better results for rendering hair
61
Due to the thin nature of hair, it is crucial to get

Here is the graph of the matte shadow and
as good an Alpha as possible out of the render, the difference with and without Alpha
which will really help with the compositing.
Sometimes I will double the resolution of this
layer to have an even cleaner Alpha.
10 The shadow catcher: As some parts

are in front and some lie behind, I have
to render the character together with the hair to
mask out the hair that shouldn’t be seen. For this,
I will use a material override on the entire layer.
I’ll also use a matte shadow. This shader allows

us to catch the shadow in the Alpha or just to
mask out the object that has this shader. I can
turn off the catch shadows and this will just give
me the hair. I usually render this layer out both
with and without catch shadow, as this way I
can easily change the amount of the shadow by
playing with the Opacity layers in Photoshop.
11 Adding fur I: I decide to add some fur

on different parts. It is expensive on the
rendering size, but it gives that extra worn effect
and it helps to soften the line of her silhouette.
To evaluate the fur, I usually render the selected

object with the fur on a relatively high resolution.
Because the fur should be really subtle, it will
not be noticeable on small resolutions. Here you
can use the Render Selected Object only, as I did
with the shirt. I always forget to turn it back off
though which gives empty renders when nothing
is selected.
Rendering fur needs to be done

on a fairly high resolution in
order to be able to evaluate it
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12 Adding fur II: Fur is situated in the rendering tab and can be added
by clicking Add Fur. If you don’t see it, it might be that you have to
enable it in the plug-in manager. This will give the default white fur. I change
it to one of the presets that I think best fits the characteristics, though there
are quite a few of them, and you can save yours here too.
The main things to change are the scale and the density. I am not going for a
furry coat so I keep the density pretty low – this will add a few hairs here and
there. I even turn the baldness down, this way I have even less. This can be
painted in or can be driven by a black-and-white image.
13 Adding fur III: The Occlusion pass is also an important pass, as we

can use it to calculate the hair and fur, and it will help a great deal to
integrate those into the image. I add it to the character renderlayer and get
some extra shadow in Photoshop to help me tweak it.
To add it, go to Renderglobals Passes and add Occlusion Pass (double-click

on it to open its options). Rendering occlusions of hair and fur does take
some extra time to render, so I set the distance at a minimal.
The fur is also added in the Occlusion render pass
There are quite a lot of presets that can help you on your way
14 The background: After the witch and

the hair, it’s time to talk about the
background. To cover the background, I will first
talk a bit about how to go about creating the
main assets for it. For this I always try to find a
workflow that works quickly. Re-using previously
built props help with that. The heads used to be
small key chains in another project, but are now
huge statues.
Having already decided the camera angle will

help a lot with the positioning of the assets, and
I will work with that perspective in mind. I can
reuse the same rock and just invert the scale or
rotate them to create a different rock. One thing
to keep in mind when reusing the same rocks is
the texture size of the objects. This can quickly
reveal the duplications which make it look CGI. A
big rock should have relatively more texture then
Here is the background render without the corrections
a small rock.
63
DynaMesh really helps to create ZRemesher quickly creates a

the base form of the mesh clean topology of the mesh
Decimation Master recreates the mesh while

UV Master lets you create UVs quickly trying to maintain the form as much as possible
15 ZBrush DynaMesh: Once I position them, I go over to ZBrush using

the GoZ button in my shelf. In ZBrush, I convert them to DynaMesh;
this lets me modify the base form without having to worry too much about
create UVs quickly. Once that’s done it’s time to re-project the details from
the DynaMesh back on this newly retopologized object.
topology. If my mesh is too deformed, I just mask the canvas – this way For this I usually hide everything except the DynaMesh and the retopologized
ZBrush will retopologize the entire object, giving me clean topology again. one. I select the retopologized one and then click Project All. I add some
subdivisions by pressing Shift+Ctrl+D and retopo again. I’ll do this until they
For sculpting, I’ll sculpt until I am happy with the base form. I usually use both have roughly the same polycount. Then I don’t need the DynaMesh
the Clay Tubes with the DamStandard brush, together with Trim Dynamic to object anymore so I delete it. On the other one I can now subdivide even
sketch out the rock. more and add some extra details. I also add some textures using Spotlight.
16 ZBrush ZRemesher: From now, there will be no more big structural

changes. It’s time to retopologize the model again because the
DynaMesh model is a bit too high in polygon count which won’t be easy to
18 ZBrush topologies: Once I am happy with it, I move it back into
Maya. There are different ways to do this, though I like to decimate
the model using Decimate Master. This is besides DynaMeshing and
UV. This used to be time consuming but that was before ZRemesher. Now ZRemeshing, yet is another form of changing the topology. As DynaMeshing
with one click I can have a clean topology, certainly clean enough for a is focused on having a quick geo to work with that can be easily by changed,
prop. Before I ZRemesh, I duplicate my SubTool as I will need it later for re- and ZRemeshing is mostly for good topology that can be used in other
projecting the details from DynaMesh to the newly retopologized mesh. applications; Decimate Master’s aim is mainly to preserve the high res form
while decimating the polygon count as much as possible.
17 ZBrush UV master: Once it is retopologized I UV it. This could also

be time-consuming, but ZBrush has UV Master which allows me to
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Needless to say this geometry won’t be nice, but

for a non-deforming prop it will do. I can easily
decimate an 8million object into a 50k object
while most of the form is maintained. You can
even set the amount you want.
19 ZBrush – adding moss: To add the

moss, duplicate the decimated object,
inflate it using the deformation very slightly (click
the name to enter, and number -1). This will
hide the object in the inside of the other. While
keeping this object selected I will push it through
where I want the moss to be using an Add brush.
This is how all the rocks and roots are made for
the background. I will then export both objects
and give them a different shader.
To add the moss, duplicate the object, inflate it a bit

and then sculpt it back through the original object 20 The background corrections: For the
background, I am looking for parts that
are revealing its 3D nature too much. This can
be because the texture is stretched, or there is a
too sharp line between one object and another.
Either way I’ll try to hide this as much as possible.
I can add some grass to break the line, or I can let

the moss come through a bit more. There used
to be some water which got hidden but it looked
better with it, so I will add it again.
One overall comment was that the colors are way

too defined - there is rock moss and a trunk with
clear obvious colors. This is something I will do in
post-production on a different layer.
To emphasize a path going to the woods, I like to

add some stairs that would suggest this. Some
parts are also too dark in my opinion; I will render
a lighter version and reveal it using masks in
Photoshop. I will also add some depth of field
This image shows some of the corrections that needed to be done using a ZDepth mask. And that is basically it for
the background.
21 Extra renderlayers – fog: I thought

I would add some fog as this helps to
create the depth effect. For fog I use a fluid. Like
many other things, I like to check the presets to
have a good starting point. For this I use clouds
and fogs, but delete the atmosphere fog and
desaturate the clouds.
To render, I render it on a separate renderlayer.

I just want the fog, which will be added in
Photoshop. Unfortunately I cannot use a material
override to speed up the renders as I did with
the hair, because it will also override the fluid
material. However, I can disable RayTracing and
shadows and remove all the lights – this will also
speed up the renders.
The fog renderlayer is there to add a subtle fog
65
I use Incandescence on the fluid. The materials

that have incandescence are still visible, but I
can paint most of it out or perhaps even use it to
accentuate some parts. In the end I didn’t use this
in the final image.
22 Extra renderlayers – ZDepth: Another

renderlayer I felt I needed was the
ZDepth. This will allow me to blur my image in
Photoshop with the Lens Blur tool. Lens Blur is
based on the impression of distance from the
camera, and can really help to guide the focus of
the image.
Every object in the scene will be given a gray color

based upon its distance from the camera. I only
need it on the background because I don’t want The grey scene, allocated a tone depending on its distance from the camera
the witch to be blurry. I can just use a different
renderlayer with a material override because I
don’t use any displacement.
Once I am happy, I group all these layers (Ctrl+G)
and make a merged copy using Shift+Alt+Ctrl+E.
On this I will use the ZDepth renderlayer to apply
25 Combining in Photoshop – final
touches: The last thing I do is check the
different adjustment layers. In this case I used
Besides the ZDepth layer there is also the clay the Lens Blur. Vibrance to tweak the colors, and a photo filter to
render that I want for compositing. This captures give a subtle warmer feeling to the whole image.
the light of the scene on a gray material.
24 Combining in Photoshop – character:
Next up is the character. I have imported
I add a little haze that I put on screen to make the
fire glow more.
23 Combining in Photoshop –
background: So let’s complete
this image by bringing the final renders into
the different renders in and added them on top
of each other. Because I feel some parts are too
dark, I screen her on top of herself and mask out
The next step is to merge and copy again using
Shift+Alt+Ctrl+E. On this layer I will use a high
Photoshop. Start by creating the background. the parts I don’t want. pass filter (Filter > Others) and put this on Overlay
which will sharpen the image. I merge and copy
For this I will blend the different layers together I also use two types of over-paints: one normal, everything again and put the layer to Soft Light
using Overlay or Multiply, or just masking parts. just making small corrections and adding the with a low opacity to add some contrast.
Because some of the textures are stretched, I add highlights; and another that I put a soft light on
an extra rock texture on top of the background to tweak the lighting. The smoke and fire are The last thing I do is merge and copy again and
and stamp it wherever I feel the render could use textures from www.cgtextures.com that I put on try out the Lens Correction filter to add some
it. I am actually using the same techniques as I screen and change the hue. vignetting and a subtle chromatic aberration.
used in the texturing chapter earlier.
Start the compositing stage with the background
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Add the character into the background
The very last tweaks
26 The final conclusion: Well as I said in

the beginning it was quite a journey – a
lot of things changed along the way but that
The next step would be to post it on different
forums and get some feedback. At the moment
I am too close to the project to evaluate it
or participate with a challenge. As a final note
I would like to thank 3dtotal for giving me the
opportunity to share some of my work processes
made it entertaining. In the end I did learn a lot objectively. Maybe in a few weeks I’ll take with you. I do hope you find it interesting and that
and I hope you did the same. As a result I have yet another look at it. Meanwhile I’ll hop on another you learned something from them.
another piece to add to my portfolio. project, maybe something more sci-fi this time
67
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Post-production
Perfect post-production
for character
in Maya
images
The Artist
Patrick Evrard
Web: patrickevrard.com
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Wait. There’s
more!
3dcreativemag.com
69
The Artist
Dan Roarty
Web: danroarty.com
Software Used:
Mudbox, Maya, V-Ray, Knald,
Photoshop, Shave and a
Haircut
Dan was born in Vancouver,

Canada and now lives in
San Francisco, working as
a principal artist for Crystal
Dynamics/Square Enix. He
has also worked for studios
including MTV, Midway,
Radical (Activision), 2K and
Lucas Arts.
LIGHT AND RENDER

PHOTOREAL PORTRAITS
CHAPTER 05 CAN BE SEEN

IN ISSUE 100
3dcreativemag.com
Discover photoreal post-

production techniques
by Dan Roarty
Dan Roarty is well-known in the industry for his ability to capture photorealistic faces.
We’ve drafted him into 3dcreative magazine to share a host of handy hints and useful
tips! In this tutorial, he guides us through post-production – from applying layers to color
correction. Dan then reveals how to use ZDepth images to add realism to your scene and
offers general advice on the final touches that will take your image from good to incredible
Discover how to finish

your image to photoreal
perfection…
It’s been a long and exciting six months of
tutorials so far, and I hope these sessions have
provided you with a better understanding
of creating realistic looking portraits. In the
first chapter we went over creating the actual
likeness and sculpt of the face using Maya and
Mudbox (3dcreative: Issue 96). In the second
chapter we covered texturing all the necessary
maps in Mudbox and Photoshop, and then
went on to learning about shaders in V-Ray
and how to best set them up for maximum
realism(3dcreative: Issue 97). The next
chapter we went over creating realistic hair
using shave and a haircut in Maya (3dcreative:
Issue 98).
In the fourth chapter we went over the

creation of eyes and eyelashes, and the
materials used to texture them (3dcreative:
Issue 99). And lastly we covered setting it all
up in Maya with realistic dome lighting and
rendering it all out using specific settings
(3dcreative: Issue 100).
With everything all rendered it’s time to cover

the last bit, which is post-production. In this
chapter we will cover applying layers we’ve
rendered out of Maya, and also do some
blemish fixes and color corrections. We will
also talk about how we use the ZDepth image This is a shot of all our rendered layers – we won’t use most of them, but they’re always good to have
we rendered out to give nice depth and focus
to our final image.
01 Look at rendered layers: Before we

start, let’s look at the render layers we
created in the last chapter. At this time, take a
look at what you will have available and ask
yourself if you need anything else in addition
to what you have. I would recommend taking
time to go through them and ensure you haven’t
missed any you’ll need later on.
This is especially important for your ZDepth map.

In this chapter we will be using this for creating
proper focus, so if you don’t have it at this point
I would recommend rendering it out now. All
this said, I don’t use many layers afterwards in
post-production, though some prefer to use quite
a few.
If your image has a lot of issues to fix in post then it may be worthwhile re-rendering it
02 Open render in Photoshop: Start by

opening up Photoshop and going to the
folder with all your render layers. Open up the
hair elements that don’t look correct, as well as
clashing geo that might have been missed earlier.
to fix the issues in post or to re-render it after
making the adjustments.
final combined layer that V-Ray gave us and take This will be the image we start to layer elements
a look. At this stage we are looking for glaring on as well as clean up blemishes and artifacts.
issues that should be addressed. I tend to look at Take a look at your image and gauge if it’s better
71
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Discover photoreal post-production techniques
03 Fix blemishes I: With our image open,

we can start to fix some of the blemishes
or areas that we want to fix that didn’t come
through well in the render. For this first step I’m
going to fix some of the specular and tear line
issues. There seems to be a bit of artifacting with
the reflection of the tear line so I want to fix it.
I start by simply duplicating the background layer

and renaming it ‘fix1’. I don’t plan on making a
tremendous amount of changes and fixes to the
image so fixing the issues directly on the layer is
fine. For the tear line fix, I’m just using the clone
brush and getting rid of some of the areas that
seem to look a little strange. For the spec fix, I
create a new layer with the ‘darken’ blend mode
and paint the skin tone on areas that are a bit hot
for specular. I name this layer ‘specfix’. Don’t get rid of all the spec – just level out the forehead so it’s a little more natural
04 Fix blemishes II: The second area I want

to fix is some of the stray hairs. For this
step I just create a new layer and call it ‘hairfix.’ At
this stage I am just going through and seeing if I
can fix or add any further stray hairs. There are a
couple on the top of the hair line and eye brows
that seem to need a little attention.
I use the color picker and start painting small

hairs in areas I want to fix. I then go to the
beard area and do the same. I don’t want to go
overboard with the fixes as I shouldn’t need to fix
too many areas. If you notice that you need to fix
a lot of hairs and issues you may want to fix the
areas in Maya and re-render.
05 Fix blemishes III: The last touch-ups

I will make will be to the skin texture.
There are some parts of the skin that seem to be
You can fix small issues in post-production
missing some variation and redness. I don’t want

to spend too much time fixing this but there are
some spots that could use some minor adjusting.
For this, I’m going to create another layer and call
it ‘fix2.’ I’m going to use the standard paintbrush
and go in and paint some small areas red where
bumps and moles are present. I’ll apply the
blending of this layer to multiplier and change
the opacity so it’s slightly visible.
06 Adjusting the levels of your ZDepth

image: With things starting to take
shape, we can add a bit more realism to the
photo. For this step, open up the ZDepth image
we rendered out. It’s important to have an image
that is 16-bit to be able to nicely control the
levels. If you only have an 8-bit image and need to There was a lack of red in some areas so a few red marks and adjustments were added
make some substantial adjustments then I would
recommend re-rendering it at 16-bit. to push things a little further. For this, I create the ears) to be in full focus (white) and the
a duplicate of the image and go to Levels and background and parts of the shirt to be out of
With the image open we can see that although adjust it so the whites and darks are more focus (black). Here, you can see a before and after
there are things that are working well, we need prevalent. I want most of the face (other than shot of the adjustments I have made.
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Rendering out your ZDepth layer as 16-bit enables you to adjust the levels further in Photoshop
The red halo around his head will represent what is out of focus; you may need to make adjustments
07 Using ZDepth in your image: With

the ZDepth image adjusted, go back to
your colored image and create a copied, merged
pasted into a new layer. Once it’s been pasted,
select the image and go to Layer > Layer Mask >
Reveal All. Next, go to your Channels and you will
ZDepth image and copy it. Go back to the
combined mask layer and paste. If done correctly,
you will see a red halo appear on your image.
version of everything as a new layer. This will be see a combined mask layer appear. Turn on the
a copy of all the adjustments you have made and layer. Now go back to your previously adjusted
73
08 Using lens blur with masks: With our

ZDepth mask ready to be used, we can
apply a lens blur to it. To do this, select your layer
with the mask you’ve just created and go to Filter
> Blur > Lens Blur. Here you will see a range of
options to adjust the image. To start, ensure that
under Source, Layer Mask is selected.
Next, select Octagon for Shape and adjust the

Radius to where you’re happy with the focus
of your image. For Noise, I like to add some at
Uniform - the amount will vary depending on
your image. I am setting mine to 4 for this image.
“It is up to you how much

noise you want to be visible
but it’s important to ensure
that it’s not monochromatic”
09 Deleting your lens effect: With our

lens blur adjustments complete, apply
them. When you go back to your layers you will Don’t be afraid to add some noise to the image, as it really adds to the realism of the piece
notice that nothing has actually changed. This

is because it is still applied to your layer mask.
To make your adjustments visible click on the
actual mask on the right on your layer and drag
it to the trash bin on the bottom of your layers
window and select Delete when it asks you. You
will see the changes appear. One thing to note is
that depending on your image size, it may look
differently to what you viewed while making the
adjustments in the lens blur section. This may
require you to do a little adjusting back and forth.
10 Adding some noise: I would still like

to see a little more visible noise in my
image. At this stage I am going to create another
layer and call it ‘noise.’ Next, flood the color white.
This will give us a base color that doesn’t affect
the overall color of our image. Now go to Filter
> Noise > Add Noise. This will bring up several
options. It is up to you how much noise you want You may need to turn up your blur radius and noise due to having a large resolution to your image
to be visible but it’s important to ensure that it’s
not monochromatic.
When complete, go to Blur > Gaussian Blur and

pick a blur that is most appropriate for your
image. Then choose a blend layer of Soft Light for
the new noise layer and play with the opacity so
it’s only slightly visible.
11 Adjusting brightness and contrast:

Our image is almost there! At this step
I want to adjust the brightness and contrast of
the image. Here, I create an adjustment layer
by simply going up to Layer > New Adjustments
Layer > Brightness/Contrast. These settings are
really dependent on how you want your final
image to look. I notice that my render is a little bit
Add another noise layer using a Soft Light blend mode on top of your image
dark so I increase it by about 20. I also see that
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
the image on my monitor has a little too much

contrast, which can sometimes take away from
the realism of an image. I set this to about -21.
12 Adjusting the color: Following the

same advice with the brightness and
contrast, try to save out a few versions of the
image and see how the color holds up on
different monitors.
“At this stage I would

recommend showing it to
friends and family to see
if they can pinpoint any
major errors you might have
overlooked”
How you determine your brightness and contrast is all up to you. Try saving out a few different
13 Chromatic aberration: The last step
that I think helps to sell realism is to fake
a little bit of Chromatic Aberration. To do this,
versions of your image with multiple brightness and contrast settings and see how the image looks
create a copied flatten layer of everything in your
on different computer monitors
scene. Now select your flattened layer and go to
channels. Select the Red channel, and using the
arrow key, move it to the right by pressing the Left
arrow key once. For the Blue channel move it to
the Right.
Once this is complete, go back to your flattened

version and see how it looks. You might notice
that it may be a bit too strong. If this is the case,
simply bring the Opacity down on the new layer
and find a suitable setting for transparency.
14 Save and reflect: The image is now

complete! You might want to go
back and make some additional layers and
adjustments. At this stage however, I would
recommend showing it to friends and family to
see if they can pinpoint any major errors you
might have overlooked.
Try creating different color variations and ask

which one looks the best to them. After all the
hard work you’ve put in you can now go post it in
various forums to get people’s eyes on it. I hope
Experimenting with color adjustments on the image that these sessions have been useful and helpful
with creating a realistic portrait!
You don’t want to overdo the chromatic aberration but it does help to sell the realism
The Artist
Dan Roarty
Web: danroarty.com
75
There are always going to be issues to fix and

tweak, but at some point it’s going to be time to
‘put your pencils down’ and call the image done
Wait. There’s
more!
3dcreativemag.com
TOP TIP
Keep improving and try new things
There is something to be said about following a certain recipe or approach to creating realistic images and portraits. With all that being said,
technology is ever-evolving and with that comes new software and approaches of tackling artistic challenges. I have outlined the ‘current’
approach I take when creating realistic portraits, but I am still constantly looking for new ways of making my images look better and for software
that can aid me in creating better images. Having a recipe is always good for getting the basics down but always be willing to try new approaches
to creating art pieces and don’t get to comfortable with the same old way or you won’t improve.
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Master photography for texture mapping
The Artist
Scott Davis
Web: facebook.com/pages/
Scott-Davis-Independent-Films-
Photography/172224689595225
Software Used:
3ds Max, ZBrush, V-Ray,
Photoshop
Scott Davis is an English

photographer and videographer
living in rural Brittany,
France. His professional work
predominantly consists of music
video and photography, but he
also likes to experiment with 3D
software in his free time.
Master photography
for texture mapping
by Scott Davis
Mastering texturing is an essential part of any 3D artist’s skill set, but it is far from
simple! An amazing model can be ruined by poorly captured tileables, while simple
sculpts can be brought to life with great texturing. To help you on your journey
to texturing perfection, professional photographer Scott Davis explains some of
the factors to consider when building your own texture library, including lighting
conditions, scale, lens distortion, resolution and camera attributes
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Discover how to create your

own texture library with
photographer Scott Davis…
There are many factors involved in taking
photographs for 3D texture mapping, most of
which are simple, and a few of which are down
to personal preference. In this section we will
be looking at good photography practices and
capturing great images for use as textures.
The main objective is to capture sharp, clean,

balanced images that can be edited into a tile
format that will be used for mapping later in
the process.
The average histogram display that will allow you to check for clipping
By sharp, we mean that everything in the
image needs to be in focus with no blur. By
clean and balanced, we mean that you need
to have detail in all aspects of the photo with
no clipping.
01 Checking for clipping: Clipping

refers to the level of exposure: white
clipping means that you have over-exposure in
the highlights, resulting in loss of detail; black
clipping means that you have under-exposure in
the dark areas, and this will also result in a loss
of detail.
Most modern cameras have a histogram display

that will enable you to check for any clipping
immediately after capturing your image so that
you can adjust accordingly. An overexposed image is defined by a bright washed-out saturation
02 Exposure and lighting: If your chosen

subject has particularly high contrast,
then you might find you need to take multiple
images at various exposures and then blend them
afterwards. For this photo-merging technique to
work successfully, you should always use a tripod
when taking the shots.
As soon as you start researching into 3D Texture

Mapping, you’ll realize that there are many
conflicting comments about lighting. Some
photographers will state that bright sunshine
overhead is the optimum to aim for, while others
will be just as convinced that morning or evening
TOP TIP An underexposed image is much darker and it becomes difficult to see the scene
Whenever you’re capturing images

for later use in texture mapping, light is your best bet. From personal experience, manual and have a complete understanding of
there are three key elements to bear I’d tend to go for the second option of morning the flash and its filling capabilities.
in mind: and evening light, preferably with a little cloud
- Even exposure
- Fast shutter speed
cover for diffusion purposes.
TIP: Try to stay clear of using a flash when

03 Shutter speed and F-stops: A high
shutter speed is essential whenever you
are not using a tripod. Most camera movement or
- 90° angle from object
capturing a texture, unless you are shooting in shake can be eliminated by shooting at 1/200sec.
79
If the subject matter is non-moving – such as with If you are using a DSLR, then a little research
a brick or wooden block – then hand-held should on your particular lens will tell you the best TOP TIP
be fine, but if your preferred subject involves settings for sharpness and you might even find Always use the best settings avail-
movement – such as with grass or sand on a information on how to avoid lens distortions such able on your particular camera.
beach - then a tripod or a much higher shutter as chromatic aberration. This means that if you’re shooting
speed is always recommended. in JPG you should opt for jpeg-fine
A budget DSLR camera normally comes with a

kit lens, which is typically an 18mm to 55mm or
04 Composition: Always try to shoot
your subject as close to a 90° angle
as possible. Not only will this save you a lot of
or, if your camera offers the option,
shoot in a Raw format such as NEF
(for Nikon) or CR2 (for Canon). By
105mm starting at f/3.5. For these techniques, it editing later in the process but it will help to keep choosing the optimum settings,
is the f-stop number that you will really need to the maximum initial information in your picture you are giving yourself the biggest
concentrate on. With budget lenses or compact file which will ultimately give you more flexibility. possible file that will contain the
cameras, the optimum sharpness is going to be maximum information and this will
around f/4; this should give a good, sharp image, Once you have understood the basics involved always give you the most flexibility
even in the corners. in capturing a suitable image that will work with for your texture-mapping.
My own texture libraries consist

of nothing but Raw formats which
are edited uniquely for specific
photography projects. This means
that a wealth of detail is held within
each file, providing me with plenty
of options for later use as well as the
scope to adapt and modify.
It is worth noting that there are

some huge games in the market
place at the moment that use very
small multiple-layered textures and
give amazing effects. This just goes
to show that used correctly, even
small files can get a good result.
This shows movement and blurring created by a slow shutter speed
This image is taken with a tripod and fast shutter speed
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
(a) The bad example: using a tilted angle warps the texture
texturing, you then get to consider your own

preferences. Whereas the elements of contrast,
sharpness and balance are must-haves, the other
aspects are purely subjective, so you should play
around with them and get a feel for what you
prefer and how adapting certain aspects gives
you stronger results.
“As a standard practice,

always try to keep your
pictures sharp with as much
detail as possible”
05 Personal preferences for point of

focus: Wherever possible, shoot at a
90° angle to the surface – this is an absolute rule
to ensure that you get great texture-mapping
results. In case you’re already asking yourself the
question, yes, it is possible to adjust perspectives
in an external editing package such as Adobe
Photoshop, but although it remains an option,
nothing can ever be as good as when the initial
image has been correctly captured.
Yet again, there are conflicting ideas when it

comes to focusing. Some photographers prefer
the very close f/1.8 setting or even the macro
photography setting, while others opt to keep
their distance and use the full optical zoom to fill
the screen sensor.
NOTE: When you’re zooming in on an object,

make sure that this is optical zoom (meaning
that you’re zooming with the lens) and not digital
zoom (which simply means you are magnifying
the pixels). Digital zoom will, in fact, ultimately
(b) The good example: a straight 90° angle allows a clean flat capture
give you an inferior image quality.
81
The bad example: using a tilted

angle warps the texture
Having a perspective shot

can warp the texture
I personally go with a 35mm f/4 so everything

is tack sharp, then I post-edit using Photoshop,
but you should go ahead and experiment with
06 Conclusion: This overview should give
you a good platform with which to start
taking better photographs for Texture Mapping.
The more experience you can gain, the more your
style and preferences will emerge, streamlining
the whole process and enabling you to find your
different settings until you find one that really As a standard practice, always try to keep your own photographic voice.
works for you. pictures sharp with as much detail as possible.
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
The right way to position

your camera
Positioning your camera straight-on

will create a clean, flat texture
Coming next
issue...
CHAPTER 02 will cover
converting photographs
into tileable textures
3dcreativemag.com
The Artist
Scott Davis
Web: facebook.com/
pages/Scott-Davis-Inde-
pendent-Films-Photogra-
phy/172224689595225
83
Exclusive FREE Digital Art Masters: Vol 8 article + 20% discount code
101
Issue 101 | January 2014
Sketch How to
photograph
stylized textures
characters Photographer Scott Davis shares
his tips for capturing images ideal
Cézar Brandão shares how to
for texturing
create a ZBrush sketchbook full
of artful characters
Break into
Sculpt the concept
creepy art industry
creatures 22-year-old Aaron Sims Company
artist, Luca Nemolato explains his
Fabrizio Bortolussi offers
insight into his pipelines for amazing career success
creating bizarre beings
+plus
• Post-production in Maya
• Create hyperreal scenes
• ZBrush characters and scenes Learn efficient
prop sculpting
• Photoreal post-production
Joseph Harford reveals top tips
• and much more! for efficient ZBrush sculpting
and creating foliage
How to become a
master modeler
Senior Artist at Lucasfilm Industrial Light & Magic,
Marco Di Luccia, reveals his envious career highlights
and tells of how he developed his 3D talents
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3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Sculpt creepy creatures
The Artist
Fabrizio Bortolussi
Web: fabriziobortolussi.com
Software Used:
ZBrush, Photoshop
Fabrizio Bortolussi is a freelance

concept designer working in the
film and game industries. He
has worked for major studios
including Mirada and Weta Digital.
If you like
creatures...
Check out the back issues of
3dcreative for even more!
3dcreativemag.com
Sculpt creepy creatures

by Fabrizio Bortolussi
We all love a good monster design, but they’re harder to get right than you’d think!
We’ve brought in Digital Tutors’ creature-sculpting master Fabrizio Bortolussi to
take you through his workflow. He explains the processes behind creating bizarre
creatures, from the concepting stage all the way through to the ghoulish texturing
and lighting. Fabrizio gives you all the guidance that you will need to take your
character concepts to a whole new level
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
Fabrizio ‘Digitalfreaky’
Bortolussi shares his creature
creation pipelines…
In this tutorial we’re going to design a small,
evil and horror-styled creature called The
Biter. We will use ZBrush for the sculpting,
texturing and rendering while we will add the
final touches using Photoshop.
01 Basic mesh: The first thing we will do is

use ZSpheres to block out a really basic
mesh. This process should ideally take no more
than 15 minutes.
02 Getting creative: Once our basic

mesh is complete, we can use what I
imaginatively call the ‘The Sparkling Passion
Factor’, which means just playing and having fun Blocking out the basic mesh
with the main shapes without caring too much
about what we have in mind.
Also, prepare a couple of levels of subdivision

– this instantly shows the beautiful materials of
ZBrush and, of course, smoother shapes.
“I believe that using the

extract approach or the
Rorshchach technique is a
very creative way to start
building up masses and
shapes to our design”
03 Extract forms to create the sculpt:

Now that we have some resolution to
work with, let’s start sculpting using the Standard,
Clay and Move brushes. Extract shapes that will
eventually turn into anatomical features. I use
the same process when painting a 2D creature in
Simply having fun with the main shapes to create the image
Photoshop from scratch.
I believe that using the extract approach or the

Rorshchach technique is a very creative way
to start building up masses and shapes to our
design. My friend Neville Page often uses this
technique to start sketching in both 2D and 3D.
We can start to use the anatomical features being

created here as a reference for some more high
resolution sculpting. We’ll also add two spheres
as eyes and push them inside the geometry.
For now, we don’t want to add any more

subdivision levels, but we’ll try to optimize and
maximize our current subdivision level since we
don’t want to end up with too many millions of
polygons without having some proper and neat
sculpting beforehand.
Refining the sculpt without adding subdivision levels yet
87
This is one of the most important parts of

digital sculpting. Maximize, and use the current
resolution you’re working with as much as you
can, even if it’s low res.
Subdividing a basic mesh six or seven times and

then sculpting on it is a destructive workflow
because you have no control whatsoever on your
design and you’ll end up with a disaster.
04 Refining the sculpt: Let’s continue

sculpting. Now that we can see our
shapes pretty well, we can begin to refine what
we have and add more features like wrinkles,
folds and basic details. We won’t focus on tiny
details at this phase but we’ll keep having fun
sculpting more and more shapes, and adding two
eyeballs and some teeth (as separate SubTools)
using just spheres without exaggerating – since More skin and eye detail on the sculpt
we don’t want to end up with a creature that has
too many different features.
For this design I want the creature to be pretty

simple but original and not super detailed. I
usually go nuts when the texturing phase comes
up since I tend to use textures also as sculpting
material. This means texturing and sculpting
at the same time. But let’s talk about texturing
later on and for now let’s keep sculpting and
maximizing our subdivision level at 100-percent.
05 Preparing for a new subdivision

level: Okay, now it’s time to add a new
subdivision level. Here we’ll have to deal with
both cleaning up and smoothing the mesh,
polishing everything. Hence, we’ll start to add
smaller details without going crazy since, like I
said, I don’t want this creature to be too detailed
sculpt-wise. The real deal will come later on with
Preparing the sculpt for a new level of subdivision
the texturing.
06 Ways this could go wrong... A very

common error that some sculptors do
is to get too excited when resolution starts to
be high and to add too much detail, losing the
overall idea and form of the design.
I know that detailing is a very fun process but

please be careful not to destroy your design
with tons of details and Alpha maps that will
eventually cover up your sculpted features and
wreak havoc on your sculpt.
This being said, let’s keep adding smaller shapes

and refining what we have. This process can take
quite some time since we’ll have to orbit around
our sculpt making sure everything is at the same
level of detail, getting rid of what we don’t like.
Checking over the sculpt to make sure it’s ready for subdivision
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
07 Subdivision: Okay, now that we have a

decent design and we can understand
what’s going on with the body, we can add
another level of subdivision and here we can start
adding small details with our favorite brushes or
our custom brushes.
At this phase I don’t recommend using any Alpha

maps since the mesh is still too low-res to hold a
high-res Alpha map.
Continue sculpting and orbiting around the

sculpt to check if everything is alright and has the
same level of detail from every angle, until we are
happy with our design.
08 More subdivision: Once we are happy

with our creature we can add one or two
more subdivision levels and refine everything
Adding more detail with another level of subdivision
using a combination of brushes and, if you’d like,
a bunch of Alpha maps to give the creature a
Subdividing and refining the sculpt Making sure the lighting is okay
slightly more organic look.
to prepare it for texturing before texturing
I usually use two or three Alpha maps just to

break up the surface to emulate skin so that it
doesn’t look like plastic.
This is the final process of our sculpting session

and, as you can see in this image, we reached
quite a lot of detail without covering our sculpt
with Alphas. Wrinkles are in the right place,
there are some areas more detailed than others
on purpose and there’s neither artifacting nor
polygon stretching, which is fundamental for the
texturing part.
09 Check the lighting: Before launching a

first render (without textures) let’s play
a bit with the lighting without adding too many
of them.
As you can see I just add two lights and with some
AO we have a clean and nicely shaded render.
10 A few words on texturing: Now let’s get

ready for the real deal; texturing. Before
jumping right into ZBrush I’d like to say a few
words on texturing.
Texturing is what gives life to a creature so before

texturing a sculpt you should think about what
type of skin you want, how many color patterns
you want and how much color is going to cover
up your sculpted detail.
In my opinion, textures should never entirely

cover up what you’ve sculpted since it wouldn’t
make any sense (though sometimes it happens
and it’s not destructive every time).
Preparing the sculpt for texturing by assigning the Toyplastic material to the model
89
PolyPainting the image

creates the desired result Using photo references to set the foundation for the texturing
You should gather some very good references on

Final touches and posing the creature
the internet, decide your type of texturing and before adding a background
start the process. Or, if you prefer, you can also
PolyPaint everything by hand (I have used this
method in production a few times) but it does
take forever and it’s not really useful for deadlines
if you know what I mean!
My method is a bit different to normal texturing.

I usually use my textures also as surface detail so
that it actually blends up perfectly. I don’t really
use ZApplink but I rather prefer using Spotlight
since it’s more user-friendly and I can also sculpt
while texturing.
To prepare for the texturing process, the first

thing that I need to do is to fill the sculpt (both
the creature and the eyes) with the Toyplastic
material since it’s a good material for glossy and
wet surfaces. Before texturing I’ll also add a bit of
a scattering effect using the Wax Preview module.
During this phase, I often move the lights around Let’s finish up our texture by adding details here
11 PolyPainting: Now that we have our

creature ready, let’s start with what I call
Color Coating. I activate PolyPaint and basically,
and orbit around the model to check if everything
works out well. If I’m not happy with the result, I
simply choose another photo reference and try
and there and by playing with the lights and
render settings to achieve a neat and detailed
image that could be ready for a client.
in this first phrase, I pick up a main color and fill that as the skin foundation. At the end it’s all a
up the creature with it. matter of trial and error and I believe it’s a very If you’re not happy with your lighting, try adding
creative process. It’s like discovering your design more lights or create a Lightcap setup using the
I then start to carefully add different shades of and slowly giving him life. Lightcap system, which is pretty amazing. For the
paint on the main areas until I reach a result I like. purpose of this creature though, I just use three
12 Using photo references for texture:

Now that we have our main colors
13 Final touches to the texture: From
here, keep adding color shades, little
details and constantly orbit around the model to
simple lights in the right place and, as you can
see, the lighting plus the SSS and AO does quite a
great job just using ZBrush.
painted on the surface, let’s open up Spotlight check if everything looks good. At the end, you
from the Texture menu and import some photo can achieve some pretty hardcore texturing using I rarely use mental ray to render a personal design
references gathered over the internet. I then just Spotlight, a bunch of photos gathered on the nowadays since look what you can achieve with
create a more detailed color foundation using the internet and a few Alpha maps. ZBrush, and clients/producers do not like to wait!
first photo reference as the main skin tone. Why make life harder?
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
I then quickly jump back to the lowest subdivision

level and pose my creature to break that T-Pose
look. Ten minutes of posing does the job!
14 The final image: So, as you can see,

creating a valuable design is really not
that hard. You just have to constantly practice, get
inspired but most importantly, have fun!
If you’ll like your design at the end I guess you did

a valuable piece of work.
Remember: we are artists and not lawyers. Do

not stress yourself spending tons of hours in front
of a design. I never spend more than a week and
only then if I have to do a very complex creature
for a client.
But, speaking of personal work, do not worry

yourself. If you’re not happy with what you’re
doing, don’t trash away your design or get
frustrated! Take a break, drink a coffee and do
something else. When you’ll get back to your
creature, you’ll notice that you’ll want to keep
going on with the design.
This being said, I hope you really enjoyed this

tutorial and got something from it, and I hope to
see you soon for more monsters!
The Artist
Fabrizio Bortolussi
Web: fabriziobortolussi.com
91
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Forge impressive hyperreal scenes
Forge impressive
hyperreal scenes
Hard-surface texturing and shading specialist, Gustavo Groppo shares how he creates
incredible hyperreal scenes using ZBrush, 3ds Max and After Effects
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
The Artist
Gustavo Groppo
Web: gugroppo.com
Software Used:
ZBrush, 3ds Max, V-Ray,
After Effects
Gustavo Groppo is a 3D artist

currently living in São Paulo,
Brazil. He currently works
for one of Brazil’s leading
animation studios, Vetor
Zero, where he specializes in
texturing, shading, lighting
and rendering.
93
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Forge impressive hyperreal scenes
Gustavo Groppo describes the

processes behind his impressive
scene Trianon…
01 Inspiration and references: When I

was planning this project, I felt the need
to create something that referred to São Paulo,
which is the city I live in. Also, I wanted to depict
a scene that could be thought of with fondness
by popular artists who make their money on the
streets, squares and subways.
I chose a fat clown – the man who makes the

people smile with his jokes – in order to show the
contrast between his happiness and the sadness
he experiences back home with only a few coins
for his survival.
The most important and hardest step of this

project was the search for references. As I decided
to recreate one of the São Paulo subway trains,
I had to take my own pictures of all the details,
spending many weeks on it.
02 Modeling the train: This step was

quite simple to do after gathering good
references. Technically, I used some boxes,
My reference images taken of the São Paulo subway trains
splines and planes to build just one segment of
the train.
Having the model done, I copied this segment

a few times to get the train finished. When I
had all the major structure of the train, I started
modeling the details, such as bolts, signals,
emergency buttons and windows.
03 Character modeling: For the character,

I tried some body and costume types
until I finally chose the figure on the right, holding
the pole.
I first sculpted the character in ZBrush using

Modeling the sections of the train
Standard and Clay brushes. Then I exported the
decimated mesh into 3ds Max. As it is a still image
I opted for this workflow, rather than tweaking
Displacement maps to achieve the same result as
the ZBrush model.
04 Texturing and shading the train:

Bringing clays to life is one of the steps I
like the most.
The subway trains here in São Paulo are some of

the cleanest in the world, even when millions of
people use it daily. For that reason, the texturing
work was moderate. I used lots of tiling maps in
the glossiness of metal, plastics and glasses to
give them a used look, trying to avoid making
them appear worn out.
Experimenting with characters using Clay and Standard brushes
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
The textures I use to create a slightly used look PolyPainting the clown’s skin texture
On my work I usually unwrap most of the models, After Effects for the first adjustments. I usually
but in this one I wanted to follow an optimized render the image as a 32-bit openEXR file to get
workflow, so all the texturing maps are planars, more color depth and make the post-production
boxes and procedurals. accurate. This way I can play with a great range of
color corrections.
05 Texturing and shading the character:

I painted the character’s skin in ZBrush
using PolyPaint. First, I made a color base for
I do not tend to render the image in many
passes. For this work I just rendered the color, the
the skin tones and later applied some skin crops Ambient Occlusion pass, ZDepth and some masks
using the DragRect mode brush. For the skin for separate color adjustments.
shader, I used VRaySSS2.
06 Lighting and rendering: Indoor

scenes are always hard to balance
08 Finishing touches: Having the color
correction done, I used the ZDepth pass
to create a depth of field effect. For this, I used the
between quality and rendering performance, Frischluft LensCare plug-in.
due to the high amount of bounces and shadow
information. In this work I tried to light the scene To finish the post-production I used Magic Bullet
as it is in real life. I used one V-Ray Light for each Looks to add a bit of Chromatic Aberration.
light source, so I had an expensive render time in
5k resolution. I hope you like and understand my workflow!
Thanks for reading!
07
Recreating a realistic light
Post-production: When everything
scene using V-Ray lights
was rendered I brought the image into
The various passes rendered for my image
95
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | Master
Forge impressive
hyperreal scenes
hyperreal scenes
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
The Artist
Gustavo Groppo
Web: gugroppo.com
97
ZBrush characters
and scenes
Moisés Ojeda walks us through how to apply traditional 2D character illustration skills
and techniques to 3D, creating stylized characters within a full scene
The Artist
Moisés Ojeda
Web: vimeo.com/moiojlo
Software Used:
ZBrush, Photoshop
Moisés Ojeda is a CG artist

from Spain. He specializes in
both 2D and 3D characters
and illustration. He works
in 3ds Max, ZBrush and
Photoshop.
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ZBrush characters and scenes
The original 2D sketch created for this project
An in-depth look into Moisés

Ojeda’s cartoon design
pipelines…
03 Modeling the head: I’m going to explain
my general modeling workflow using the
grandpa’s head as an example.
The image Wish to Learn was a final exercise I started with a simple sphere. I got the general
for a ZBrush course that I attended in head shape using the Move brush and DynaMesh
Barcelona. So my goal was to use as many for remeshing (1).
ZBrush features as possible.
After that, I applied ZRemesher. That step is
Also, I was looking for some cartoon-style important because the more ordered the mesh
characters of different ages to complete my is, the more comfortable your work will be. In
reel (www.vimeo.com/70333582). As I have this case, I didn’t focus on carrying out a correct
a 2D illustration background, I was aware the animation topology, because my goal was to
final image had to work in this context. have an illustration (2).
01 The concept: Working to an order is very

important. If you have to do a more or
less complex scene, you need to know what you
After applying ZRemesher, I made subdivisions in
order to define shapes and details. Moving back-
and-forth between subdivision levels as I model is
want to get out of it. So, I did this concept sketch very useful. It allows me to work on head details
in order to choose the composition, expressions in the higher levels and general head shapes in
and image reading. the lower ones. This is the easiest way to get a
clean and polished surface (3).
02 Modeling: I began modeling the

grandpa character first of all. I used
different SubTools for every part of him. In this 04 Modeling braids: For modeling the
braids I used a cylinder and some
way, you can have head, eyebrows, arms, body, different options in the sub-menu Deformation.
legs and shoes easily separated. That seems to I increased the Size slider value in Z in order to
Modeling various aspects of grandpa
me the most comfortable way to work. scale it (1).
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
The workflow involved in modeling, using the head as an example
An example of how to model and scale the braids
After that, I increased the Twist slider value in Z (2), and the Inflate Balloon
slider value in X, Y and Z (3). Finally, I increased the Size slider value in X in
order to make the image a little bit flatter (4).
After adding some details, I duplicated the braid SubTool in order to get a
longer one. I merged and welded these SubTools (5). To get the other half-
braid I used the Mirror deformation option on a duplicated one (6).
If you are trying to repeat these steps and it doesn’t work, you should try
scaling your cylinder.
05 Modeling feathers: Modeling feathers was really easy. I just

used the Shadowbox ZBrush feature and a feather shape Alpha.
I transformed it in a Polymesh 3D SubTool and I added details. Then I
Creating the feathers using a feather shape Alpha
duplicated it as many times as I needed.
101
3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ZBrush characters and scenes
06 Modeling the girl: I started by working on the girl’s face. Later

on however, I realized this first approach didn’t work at all (1).
In a second attempt I got the face features to match the drawing more
08 Texturing: Before preparing UVs with the UV Master, I painted every
SubTool using PolyPaint (1) so I could just export those textures to
Photoshop to adjust colors. But, in order to enhance those color textures I
successfully (2). However, I was aware that the shapes should be simpler. needed to add an Ambient Occlusion layer to them (2).
Ultimately, I found a nicer one (3).
I created an Ambient Occlusion map using the Masking tool option called
Something interesting regarding the girl was her hair. I used several SubTools Mask Ambient Occlusion, and after that, created a new texture map ‘From
in order to get a more cartoon-style look to it (4). Later on, I merged them Masking’ in the Texture Map tool options (3). I exported them to Photoshop
because having just one hair SubTool seemed to me more comfortable to and used the Photoshop’s layer blend modes to enhance those original
work with. However, I maintained the hair locks separated by polygroups. It color textures (2). After that, I applied these enhanced textures to their
allowed me to hide some of them in order to keep on working on the rest (5). corresponding SubTools (4).
07 Modeling the totem: For modeling the totem’s ornamental shapes

I used the Panel Loop option after doing polygoups. This is the case
for the bird wings and body for example (1). I also used Clip Curve and Trim
09 Posing: For posing these characters, I used the ZPlugin option
called Transpose Master. I posed them at the same time, but I hid
the rest of the scene in order to work in an easier way.
Curve brushes for achieving the feather shapes that you can see on the base
of the bird’s head (2). In order to get nicer three-dimensional poses, I changed them from the
original concept. This is the case with the girl’s line of action and the
Using these brushes, I had to use masks for protecting some parts of the grandpa’s left hand.
model. After painting it in a normal way (3) I realized it needed to look age-
worn (4). I achieved this appearance by masking it ‘By Cavity’ in the Masking
tool options. After inverting the mask I painted over it with another color. 10 Rendering: For rendering the whole scene I used the ZBrush BPR
Render Passes tool. The totem and the rocks were in two different
SubTools. That allowed me to quickly hide those elements that shouldn’t be
in some particular render passes.
Refining the hair and features of the girl in

order to create more of a cartoon style Creating the shapes and colors on the totem
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PolyPainting the model and using Photoshop to refine the textures
The characters’ poses

changed a little from the
original scene
Rendering passes from the scene
103
In order to get a warmer 2D illustration render I avoided using realistic
materials. Therefore, I applied the GW_SkinCore material to all the scene
elements to get that effect.
Later on, I exported color, shadow and alpha render passes to Photoshop,
corrected the colors and played with Photoshop’s layer blend modes.
11 Conclusion: The most important thing with any project is enjoying

and learning, and I’ve enjoyed and learned so much in carrying
out this illustration. Also, I’ve enjoyed seeing how 3D can approach a 2D
traditional illustration.
It has been a ZBrush course final exercise, and so it has been my first ZBrush
illustration. It has allowed me to realize how powerful this software is. I hope
to keep on learning in order to get better and better works.
I’d like to thank the 3DTotal team for promoting my work, Toni Mena for
conducting the ZBrush course at FX Animation Barcelona 3D School,
Illustrator Sergio Sempere (Sempereman) for his suggestions through the
process, and my parents for supporting me.
I hope you found this tutorial helpful and you learned some useful tricks to
use in your own work.
The Artist
Moisés Ojeda
Web: vimeo.com/moiojlo
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DIGITAL ART MASTER:

Under the
southern highway
by Marek Denko
Discover the processes behind an incredible photoreal masterpiece with a sneak-peek
look inside the pages of Digital Art Masters: Volume 8. Learn how Marek Denko crafts
panoramic scenes using 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop and eyeon Fusion
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The Artist
Marek Denko
Web: marekdenko.net
Software Used:
3ds Max , V-Ray, Photoshop,
eyeon Fusion
109
Story and Inspiration The textures were created and adjusted in Adobe Bridge and Fence
My intention was to capture the grayness of life. Photoshop, whilst the color corrections were I dug out some reference pictures from Google
Getting older and older, we start to slowly burn done in both Photoshop and eyeon Fusion. and then moved on to modeling. I used Path
down, tired of the world and its overwhelming Deform modifiers on the upper main bridge
futility. But as life goes on and priorities change, Modeling structure and placed the columns equidistantly.
we see things that we have never noticed before To begin with, I created the base scene with proxy Creating details was straight forward using lots
and life has new meaning. geometry including boxes, cylinders and other of displacements to create a rough, aged look. I
primitives to block out the composition and set also used numerous Boolean operations to give
The main inspiration for this work was a up the temporary lighting and mood (Fig.01). the column edges and main structure a damaged
photograph I took on a trip to a beautiful castle After establishing the camera angle, I started to effect (Fig.02).
near Prague. Using this image I did a quick work on the elements.
paintover in Photoshop, adding the bridge and a The fence was quite an easy model to create.
few other elements. While creating the proxy scene, it is very I started with a few primitive objects and then
important to maintain the correct proportions copied them, using a lot of Boolean operations to
Software Used and give the composition depth, which was my create the detailed damage around their edges.
The main tool I used was Autodesk 3ds Max 2012. main concern – I wanted to create something I tried to avoid repetition and so created a lot of
For the rendering I used Chaos Group’s V-Ray. static and hypnotic. uniquely destroyed fence elements (Fig.03).
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Grass and Plants

I created several types of grass clumps using
different techniques. For some of these I used
HairFX, replacing hair strands with simple plane
geometry and then brushing them into the
desired shape. Another technique I used was to
model a few simple strands using straight, bent
or twisted shapes and then paint these onto
deformed hemispherical surfaces to create nice
variations (Fig.04).
Then, using Advanced Painter with a brush used

to paint source objects (grass clumps) onto
geometry (ground surface) with randomized
transform values, I painted/scattered grass
clumps across the appropriate areas.
“In the final image the trees

are mainly in silhouette and
you can’t see much of the
wood, so creating a good
variety was necessary”
I also added some custom grass strands to

enhance the overall variety (Fig.05 – 06). I then
combined these to create quite a dense grass
surface, which mimicked real grass (Fig.07).
I used a tree generator called OnyxTREE, along

with additional enhancement in 3ds Max. Using
Scattering, I spread several different types of
leaves and small branches across the generated
tree to make them look more realistic (Fig.08). In
the final image the trees are mainly in silhouette
and you can’t see much of the wood, so creating
a good variety was necessary.
Castle Wall
Creating the castle wall was quite fun. Some parts
were built brick by brick, using a lot of variation
within the texture and geometry detail to achieve
the best results (Fig.09). Again, I destroyed
several parts of the wall with Boolean operations.
I also applied hue and saturation variations on
the brick textures, which helped.
111
Woman
The main reference for the figure was my wife, who was kind enough to
pose for me with our baby buggy. I used 3ds Max to create the model and
photographic textures for displacement, which worked out pretty well in the
final pose (Fig.10).
Textures and Shaders

Most of the textures were downloaded from CGtextures.com, which really is
the best texture resource I’m currently aware of. I also created a lot of custom
textures using my own photos, mainly for the bridge, the dirt on the ground,
the tiles, grass and bricks (Fig.11 – 12).
Using V-Ray as a render engine gives limited but powerful options for base
shaders. I mostly used VrayMtl shaders and standard stuff like masked
3DCREATIVEMAG.COM
reflections, fresnel and bump maps, etc. I also of these parameters everything was affected. It using both Fusion and Photoshop. The Fusion
used the vray2side material for the grass to give it was all about how light travels through fog, how output can be seen in Fig.14. The Photoshop
a translucent look, but that’s pretty much it. different angles impact upon this and how light version, which became the final image, is Fig.15.
intensity is affected.
Lighting and Rendering
As it is an exterior scene with lot of fog, I used I used V-Ray as my render engine, as well as I used Fusion for the first step of post-production
a directional light with very soft shadows to an irradiance map and Light Cache for global as it has better tools for color correction with
simulate a foggy, overcast, early morning light. illumination – so nothing special to mention 32-bit formats. As I was doing lots of corrections,
I set the color of the sunlight to a saturated here. I rendered the image at 5000px wide, which I needed to keep the color information perfect
orange, which I balanced out later during post- took about 15 hours. I used a distributed render without any bends and washed out, clamped
production. Another obvious source of light is on four machines so the test renders and final areas. I then finalized the image in Photoshop,
the sky itself and for this I used a Skylight dome renders were done pretty quickly. The final render making slight color changes as well as adding the
with a slightly blue tint. To create the foggy was saved as 32-bit OpenEXR format. No extra sky layer.
atmosphere, I used V-Ray fog, which was quite a render passes were used.
challenge and cost a lot of render time. It took me a few months to finish this piece as I
Post-production Touches was busy with other aspects of life, but I always
Finding the correct balance of visibility, light The raw render seemed washed out (Fig.13), but enjoy working on my personal artworks. Thanks
intensity and light angle in the fog was quite a this was easily fixed in post-production by adding for reading!
drawn-out process, as every time I changed one color corrections to the sky and some light rays
113
Under the Southern Highway © Marek Denko
“An integral part of my own
drive for self improvement
has always been admiring
and scrutinizing the work
of others. Getting to
see brilliant works of
art broken down and
explained step-by-step is
always a pleasure, and a
captivating glimpse into
the minds and processes of
the artists behind them.”
Charlie Bowater
Concept Artist
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Exclusive FREE Digital Art Masters: Vol 8 article + 20% discount code

Issue 101 | January 2014

Editor’s letter KEEP UP TO DATE

DAN ROARTY SCOTT DAVIS

FABRIZIO BORTOLUSSI MOISÉS OJEDA

CÉZAR BRANDÃO LUCA NEMOLATO

MARCO DI LUCCA GUSTAVO GROPPO

Sales & Marketing Manager

Special thanks to 3DHype,

Contents Issue 101

014_ Master modeler: Marco Di Lucca

025_ Sketch stylized characters

036_ Art Gallery

050_ Learn efficient prop sculpting

056_ Perfect post-production in Maya

070_ Photoreal post-production tips

078_ How to photograph textures

086_ Sculpt creepy creatures

092_ Forge impressive hyperreal scenes

098_ ZBrush characters and scenes

108_ Digital Art Master: Marek Denko

Luca Nemolato is a concept

Break into the

career doing something that you

2012: Officially working full-time at ASC

April 2012: The commercial Hungry

Summer 2012: His alien suit design was

July 19 2013: Design work on The

Smile is a an ex-cop robot,

unusual to you. Tattooing taught me a lot; my lines became cleaner and my

“I usually start my concept directly in ZBrush,

I use the technique of photo-bashing in order to make my images more

your objectives, work

Luca made this to explore the potential of PolyPainting and

LN: Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, I was

3dc: ASC have created concepts for awesome

“I started to draw as soon as

3dc: Thank you very much for taking time out to

Render passes in KeyShot from Luca’s personal work Hunter Creature

Marco’s career in film has

This is one of the many busts Marco

Marco wanted to create the

This one was inspired by

Marco took a break from

This was Marco’s first attempt to make a realistic

This is one of the many

Artist Timeline Marco’s career to date

mainly from the Renaissance and artists like

As a digital artist I felt somewhat limited by the

On top of all of that I should add that if in the

3dc: Having established such an awesome career,

Brazilian artist Cézar studied

Explore Cézar Brandão’s 3D

With my personal pieces I try to create what

Inspiration and ideas

This is a sketch I started with just the

Some feelings I had about a girl who ran

Sometimes it’s easier to just give away

This piece is about a cold-hearted girl,

TOP TIP This is an old sketch of a girl, and was just a

Instead of looking at anatomy in a very

This is an old sketch of a girl – I was trying

All you need to do is email

We look forward to hearing from you!