Steve Jubinville // Digital Sculptor

Tutorials :: Darkness Monster: Making Of.

We created the Darkness Monster character to test our skills to make a realistic and fantastic creature like the ones in the "Lord of the Ring" or "King Kong".

This short "Making Of" tutorial explains the work flow for creating a high quality character for films or video games .

Research and Concept Drawings:

The first step before starting a character is to find a subject. The look is very important but also, it is  essential to consider some other aspects ; what kind of character you want, in what environment he lives, is he big or small ?

The skin  texture  and color  will greatly depend on those previous aspects.

For this character, we wanted to play with  fantasy. We  researched for great references of tyrex, albinos crocodile, big bird  feet and bull.

We wanted a strong character,  who looks mean and crazy.  Therefore, the albinos crocodile became an obvious choice as a guideline .

It was a big challenge to achieve this kind of skin look in SSS .

Darkness Monster concept drawing.

First of all, it is mandatory to put all the ideas on paper. Many sketches are nessecary to get a great design before begining modeling. For this character, we wanted to know its anatomy first. So to help us, we used many visual references from the animal research we did at the begining of the project.

Darkness Monster modeling.

When your concept is ready, I like to start my model with a low res mesh, this makes it easier to figure out the main features on the character. The good thing about making a low res version first, is that it is possible to send it to the rigging department early on to test the modeling deformations.

When my basic mesh is finished, I like to use Zbrush to get a better shape with the polygons.

Personally, I don't like to start my model with a box . I prefer to start with a simple quad, duplicate the edge and then, I look for the main line. This technique is efficient to get the exact muscle shapes on your character . You could take a look at my other tutorial too see exactly what I 'm talking about. Modeling tutorial for beginner person on Softimage XSI. ( PDF file only -- 29.52 MB )

Darkness Monster head and helmet UnWrap.

When my model is done , I like to unwrap every part of my model before starting with Zbrush. A cool trick : I like to unwrap the pieces with UvLayout and Unfold 3d.

UvLayout: www.uvlayout.com

Unfold 3d: www.polygonal-design.fr/e_unfold/index.php

Darkness Monster body Uv's UnWrap.

The important thing to remember about the Uv's , is to make sure every square on the character is equal. This step makes the texturing part easier. If you work like that, no texture scaling will be nessesary after this step.

Darkness Monster Zbrush.

Every detail is made in Zbruh with different kind of alpha and brush techniques. It is also possible to extract Diplacement maps, Normal Maps and Cavity maps.

Darkness Monster Texture.

The texture choice is very important, Yannick really likes to use basic surface textures and add some paint, mix and color correct with photoshop. He never uses a texture as-is. Some 3d Total Textures are used in this process for the image's creation. This gallery is very complete; for this reason, he used some images from 3D Total for the character.

http://3dtotal.com/ go to products --> Texture cds.

With some photoshop techniques, Yanick changed the look of the base image.

Some samples of the Darkness Monster's maps. This is part of the head and helmet.

Darkness Monster Head: Diffuse Maps.

Darkness Monster Head: Displacement Maps.

Darkness Monster Helmet: Diffuse Maps.

Darkness Monster Helmet: Bump Maps.

Darkness Monster Head Render Tree.

The Render Tree is really simple, a Phong for the shader and some maps. The modeling is really high detail, for this reason, Yanick use a simple Diffuse maps with a displacement maps.

No bump is nessesary for the head, maybe if you have a very big close up. At this time, the SSS shader is not connected. I want to add the SSS in pass.

Darkness Monster Helmet Render Tree.

Same process for all objects in this image. The shader is simple, low render time!

Darkness Monster Lighting.

For the lighting, it is not nessesary to create a complex rig. Just insert some light to recreate an outdoor ambiance- one sun to recreate some really nice rim light on the back border of the head or object.

In real life, the reflexion is to create, with some objects all around, an environment like, sky, ground, cars, people etc... For this reason we need to add an environment maps on a sphere in constant. The image on the sphere takes real object in an environment to simulate reality and natural outdoor details with cool variations.

With a bit of stategy and minding is possible to make the life on your creature.

Lighting and framing test.

Yanick tried some tests to find a great and interesting framing.

Some render passes are nessesary to obtain a great result in 3d.

The first image is a render of the key light (the sun), nice rim with Aria Light shadow.

Second image propose the ambien pass.

The final gathering and the caustics propose this look, but it is very long for the render. It is possible to recreate this look with some light all around your character with little intensity and area light.

Imagine the sun in the sky, push some rays of light on an object and the rays bounce on a second object. This is the phenomen Yanick tried to apply on this character.

Darkness Monster Precomp.

Same lighting ( Key + Ambien ) before comp. This render is from XSI. No photoshop effect in this image.

Darkness Monster Final comp.

All steps finished, Yanick comps all maps, adds blur and a little effect in Photoshop.

This Making Of is made for informational purposes only.

Hope you appreciate Yanick and myself's work.

If you have any question about

Modeling : stevejubz1@hotmail.com
Texture / Lighting: yanickg@hybride.com

Software use for this project: Softimage XSI, Zbrush and Photoshop

Special Thanks to my colleague Pierre-Simon Henri from Hybride for his help with the character conception, Guillaume Gruegg for some UvLayout, Sonia Pronovost and Jason Bohbot for text correction.

---> Tutorial Menu <---

Steve Jubinville
Digital Sculptor
Hybride Technologie

stevejubz1@hotmail.com