CR-2飛行員的創(chuàng)作

大家好，在這個故事我將簡要介紹我最新的作品，CR-2飛行員設(shè)計(jì)的創(chuàng)作過程。 你將得到從最初的概念，一直到最終的組成的所有主要階段的四舍五入。 我希望你喜歡，并找到它的一些使用你的下一個項(xiàng)目。 好吧，讓我們來制作吧...

Hi everybody, in this breakdown I will briefly go through the creation process of my latest artwork, the CR-2 Pilot Design. You will get a round-up of all the main stages from the initial concept, all the way to the final composition. I hope you enjoy and find it of some use for one of your next projects. OK, let's jump right into it...

Step 01: The idea and starting out

So basically everything starts with an idea, right? On a personal project such as this, it is really helpful to have a basic idea of what you're going for, as it gives you a certain direction and a specific goal you're trying to reach. It also prevents you from getting lost in endless possibilities, which could lead you to a point where you might lose interest in your work and probably never go back to finish it, especially on long-term projects. For the CR-2, my idea was to create a sci-fi pilot suit in a hangar or airbase setting at nighttime.

Usually the next step is to find some inspiration and gather as many references as possible to create 'mood boards' for every aspect of the project. A great little helper software here is PureRef. Material wise I wanted the main elements of the pilot to be a coated in with car paint shader, so I needed to assure to get nice reflections and highlights from the environment.

步驟01：想法，開始

基本上一切都從一個想法開始，對吧？ 在這樣的個人項(xiàng)目中，有一個基本的想法是非常有幫助的，因?yàn)樗�給你一個方向和你想達(dá)到的具體目標(biāo)。 它也防止你失去無盡的可能性，這可能會導(dǎo)致你的一個點(diǎn)，你可能失去對你的工作的興趣，可能永遠(yuǎn)不回去完成它，特別是在長期項(xiàng)目。 對于CR-2，我的想法是在夜間在機(jī)庫或空軍基地設(shè)立一個科幻導(dǎo)演服。

通常下一步是找到一些靈感，收集盡可能多的參考，為項(xiàng)目的每個方面創(chuàng)建“情緒板”。 一個偉大的小助手軟件PureRef。我想要飛行員的主要元素是一個涂層與汽車漆著色器，所以我需要確保從環(huán)境中得到很好的反射和亮點(diǎn)。

Step 02: Concept phase

At this stage I'm look for a visually pleasing design language for the piece by using various workflows. Depending on the project I most often start by sketching directly in 3D with ZBrush and occasionally do some quick paintovers in Photoshop to add extra details or to try out different ideas. I always start with basic shapes and large planes, because these elements usually create a certain design rhythm. Purpose is also really important so I always try to think of what function every element serves. At the same time I often check the silhouettes with a constant black material, to get an impression of the overall shape and how it reads. When it comes to detailing, I try to not overdo it, often less is more. Give the viewer's eyes areas to rest while looking at your design. Detailing in ZBrush is a lot of fun, very quick and easy to do, at least for concept modeling, but as much as complexity helps to recreate reality, it still needs some kind of balance to make it really authentic. Also this pilot suit is based on human proportions; therefore I used a 3D head scan as a reference, to makes sure a real head would fit into the helmet, which adds to the believability.

步驟02：概念階段

在這個階段，我通過使用各種工作流程尋找一個視覺上令人愉快的設(shè)計(jì)語言的作品。根據(jù)項(xiàng)目，我最經(jīng)常開始通過草圖直接在ZBrush的3D制作，偶爾做一些快速Paintovers在Photoshop中添加額外的細(xì)節(jié)或嘗試不同的想法。我總是從基本形狀和平面開始，因?yàn)檫@些元素通常創(chuàng)造一定的設(shè)計(jì)節(jié)奏。目的也很重要，所以我總是試圖想想每個元素的功能。同時，我經(jīng)常使用恒定的黑色材料檢查剪影，以獲得整體形狀和它如何讀取的印象。當(dāng)談到細(xì)節(jié)，我盡量不要過度，通常更少是更多。在觀看您的設(shè)計(jì)時，讓觀眾的眼睛休息。在ZBrush中的細(xì)節(jié)是很有趣，非�？焖俸腿菀鬃觯�至少對于概念建模，但盡管復(fù)雜性有助于重現(xiàn)現(xiàn)實(shí)，它仍然需要某種平衡，使它真正的真實(shí)。這個試點(diǎn)也是基于人的比例;因此我使用3D頭部掃描作為參考，以確保真正的頭部將適合頭盔，這增加了信心。

After finishing the first concept, I created a few variations to try out different ideas. Depending on how much time I have, I will usually try to create 3-5 variations using a combination of ZBrush and Photoshop. In the end I stuck with my original concept because I liked the clear overall shape of it.

完成第一個概念后，我創(chuàng)建了一些變體來嘗試不同的想法。 根據(jù)我有多少時間，我通常會嘗試使用ZBrush和Photoshop的組合創(chuàng)建3-5個變體。 最后我堅(jiān)持我的原始概念，因?yàn)槲蚁矚g它的清晰的整體形狀。

The last stage of the concept phase was to translate the design of the helmet onto the rest of the model, to make sure everything fits together. As I really liked the V-shape of the visor, which is very prominent in the concept, I wanted to assure that this shape language reads across the whole model. I then broke everything up in to multiple pieces, which makes it much easier to work on and finalize the model. This was mainly done with the polygroups feature in ZBrush, where I simply paint a mask and convert it to a polygroup (Ctrl + W), or just extract the mask to create a new SubTool. Don't forget to name your elements properly and try to be organized, as it can get messy really quickly and in the end you'll waist a lot of time with searching and cleaning things up. During the process I continue to break up shapes more and more, but at the beginning, it's good to focus on the main shapes.

概念階段的最后一個階段是將頭盔的設(shè)計(jì)轉(zhuǎn)換到模型的其余部分，以確保一切配合在一起。 由于我真的很喜歡遮陽板的V形，這是非常突出的概念，我想確保這種形狀語言讀取整個模型。 然后我把所有東西分成多個部分，這使得它更容易工作和最終確定模型。 這主要是通過ZBrush中的多組功能來完成的，其中我只需畫一個掩碼并將其轉(zhuǎn)換為多組（Ctrl + W），或者只是提取掩碼以創(chuàng)建一個新的SubTool。 不要忘記正確命名你的元素，并嘗試有組織，因?yàn)樗�可以得到凌亂真的很快，最后，你會有大量的時間，搜索和清理的東西。 在這個過程中，我繼續(xù)打破形狀越來越多，但在開始，它是很好的專注于主要的形狀。

Step 04: Model optimization

If this was a hero production asset for a VFX or advertising pipeline, I would need to remodel everything in clean and smooth subdivision surfaces, including most of the small details. However, because this is a personal project I can skip the clean topology step to save time. In production I would be given the concept art and (depending on the project) would have started modeling directly in Maya which would give me clean topology mesh.

I had some very high resolution meshes, so I decimated each object in ZBrush with the Decimation Master plug-in. I wanted to render the pilot close up in 4K so I needed to make sure that the meshes are light enough to work with in Maya and MARI, without getting artifacts in the surface when rendering. Usually if your material isn't too glossy and you render a long shot those artifacts won't be too obvious; so you can decimate the mesh much more, but I ended up with relatively high resolution meshes.

步驟04：模型優(yōu)化

如果這是一個英雄生產(chǎn)資產(chǎn)的視覺特效或廣告管道，我需要重塑一切在干凈和光滑的細(xì)分表面，包括大多數(shù)小細(xì)節(jié)。 但是，因?yàn)檫@是一個個人項(xiàng)目，我可以跳過清潔拓?fù)洳襟E以節(jié)省時間。 在生產(chǎn)中，我會得到概念藝術(shù)和（根據(jù)項(xiàng)目）將開始直接在Maya建模，這將給我清潔的拓?fù)渚W(wǎng)格。

我有一些非常高分辨率的網(wǎng)格，所以我抽取每個對象在ZBrush與抽取主插件。 我想要使飛行員在4K中接近，所以我需要確保網(wǎng)格足夠輕，以便在Maya和MARI中工作，在渲染時不會在表面上產(chǎn)生偽影。 通常如果你的材料不是太光滑，你渲染一個長鏡頭，這些工件不會太明顯; 所以你可以抽取更多的網(wǎng)格，但我最終得到相對高分辨率的網(wǎng)格。

Step 05: Material layout and UVs

Before starting the UVs, I did a quick material layout in Maya to see how many different materials I needed and which parts shared the same material. For the CR-2 I used five materials: metal, paint (coating), rubber, plastic (carbon) and glass, which I also used as a guide for organizing the UDIMs for MARI. To lay out UVs I mostly used a combination of Maya's UV tools and headus UVLayout, depending on the object. MARI has some great symmetry tools which are perfect for me as I always try to keep my UVs as symmetrical as possible. On this project I ended up with sixteen 4K UDIM's (my computer couldn't handle more than that), but generally speaking for film or advertising work your texture resolution should be double the output resolution of the individual piece. Be sure to keep the ratio of all UVs relatively equal, unless you want certain parts different in resolution, such as very small parts like rivets. The last step here was to merge all objects according to their material assignment so I had only five objects to work with in MARI.

步驟05：材料布局和UV

在開始UV之前，我在Maya做了一個快速的材料布局，看看我需要多少不同的材料和哪些部分共享相同的材料。對于CR-2，我使用五種材料：金屬，油漆（涂層），橡膠，塑料（碳）和玻璃，我也用作組織MARI的UDIM的指南。為了布置UV，我大多使用瑪雅的UV工具和頭部UVLayout的組合，取決于對象。 MARI有一些偉大的對稱性工具，這對我來說是完美的，因?yàn)槲铱偸潜M量保持我的UVs盡可能對稱。在這個項(xiàng)目上，我結(jié)束了十六個4K UDIM（我的電腦不能處理更多），但一般來說，對于電影或廣告工作，你的紋理分辨率應(yīng)該是單個片段的輸出分辨率的兩倍。一定要保持所有UV的比率相對相等，除非你想要某些部分的分辨率不同，如非常小的部件，如鉚釘。這里的最后一步是根據(jù)材料分配合并所有對象，所以我只有五個對象在MARI中工作。

Step 06: Texturing in MARI

For hard surface assets such as this, I start with the diffuse color by creating a diffuse channel and using some procedural color nodes in combination with masks to apply the base colors for the helmet's paint. I try to think of texturing like modeling or painting, thinking from big to small, from blocking to detailing, from rough to fine. In reality nothing is perfect, so I always try to break up surfaces as much as possible. I also mixed some procedural noise layers into the base color for the coated paint; it's very subtle but, in the end, it's one of many little elements which adds up to a more realistic look and feel.

Next, using various techniques (including paint brushes, paint through brush and procedural pattern node), I added scratches, edge wear and tear, tags, signs, dust and dirt layers. I also thought about where the scratches might appear to usage and where dust and dirt would collect. Depending on your shading pipeline, you can extract all those different maps separately to drive the shader network, which makes it much more flexible, but as this is a personal project, I tried to keep things simple and combined some of the maps. A great addition to the MARI toolset is Jens Kafitz MARI EXTENSION PACK 3 - it has a lot of extra nodes and in combination with baked ambient occlusion maps, cavity maps and curvature maps, it is very powerful. After the diffuse channel is established, I duplicate the whole channel and create additional maps such as specular, bump, gloss etc. By sharing layers from the initial diffuse channel, the specular and bump channels get updated automatically, which is a great feature in MARI.

步驟06：MARI中的紋理

對于像這樣的硬表面資產(chǎn)，我首先創(chuàng)建一個漫反射通道，并使用一些過程顏色節(jié)點(diǎn)結(jié)合掩模來應(yīng)用基礎(chǔ)顏色為頭盔的油漆。我試著想象紋理像建�；蚶L畫，思考從大到小，從阻塞到細(xì)節(jié)，從粗糙到精細(xì)。在現(xiàn)實(shí)中沒有什么是完美的，所以我總是試圖盡可能多的分裂表面。我還將一些程序性噪聲層混合到涂層油漆的基礎(chǔ)顏色中;它非常微妙，但最終，它是許多小的元素之一，加起來更真實(shí)的外觀和感覺。

接下來，我使用各種技術(shù)（包括油漆刷，油漆刷和程序模式節(jié)點(diǎn)），我添加了劃痕，邊緣磨損和撕裂，標(biāo)簽，標(biāo)志，灰塵和污垢層。我還想到了劃痕可能出現(xiàn)在哪里使用，哪里的灰塵和污垢會收集。根據(jù)你的著色流水線，你可以分別提取所有這些不同的地圖，以驅(qū)動著色器網(wǎng)絡(luò)，這使它更加靈活，但因?yàn)檫@是一個個人項(xiàng)目，我試圖保持簡單和組合一些地圖。 MARI工具集的一個偉大的補(bǔ)充是Jens Kafitz MARI EXTENSION PACK 3 - 它有很多額外的節(jié)點(diǎn)，結(jié)合烘烤的環(huán)境遮擋地圖，腔映射和曲率圖，它是非常強(qiáng)大的。在建立擴(kuò)散通道之后，我復(fù)制整個通道并創(chuàng)建額外的映射，例如鏡面，凹凸，光澤等。通過共享初始擴(kuò)散通道的層，鏡面和凹凸通道自動更新，這是MARI的一個很大的功能。

As I render mostly with Arnold, I like to use the aiShader within MARI, because it allows you to reproduce your shader network to a certain point and this is very useful during the look development process.

由于我主要使用Arnold渲染，我喜歡使用MARI中的aiShader，因?yàn)樗�允許您將渲染網(wǎng)絡(luò)重現(xiàn)到某個點(diǎn)，這在外觀開發(fā)過程中非常有用。

Step 07: LookDev

Before jumping into the shading and look development, I set up my Maya scene by bringing everything to scale. For this rather small scene I used one working unit to equal 1cm. I also repositioned the pilot in the Y axis, so it would fit the height of a person who is around 6'1" tall. Next I grouped the head objects under a locator, so I could turn his head to get a more dynamic pose. At this stage I also testd various camera angles and different lenses to get a feel for the shot. I ended up with four different camera angles. When starting the LookDev process in Arnold, I used the alSurface shader, which is part of a shader collection by Anders Langlands. It is used by many production studios nowadays when working with Arnold, as it offers more flexibility and also some optimizations that can dramatically decrease render times. Here you can see the settings I used for the main material, the coated paint, as well as the shader network where I also added some additional custom AOVs (framebuffer) for later use in the compositing stage.

步驟07：LookDev

在進(jìn)入陰影和看起來發(fā)展之前，我設(shè)置了我的瑪雅場景，把一切都擴(kuò)大。對于這個相當(dāng)小的場景，我使用一個工作單位等于1厘米。我也在Y軸上重新定位飛行員，所以它將適合一個大約6'1“高的人的身高。接下來我將頭部對象分組在定位器下，因此我可以轉(zhuǎn)動他的頭部以獲得更動態(tài)的姿勢在這個階段，我還測試了各種攝像機(jī)角度和不同的鏡頭，以獲得鏡頭的感覺，我最終有四個不同的攝像機(jī)角度。當(dāng)在Arnold中啟動LookDev過程時，我使用了alSurface著色器，它是著色器的一部分由Anders Langlands收集，現(xiàn)在許多生產(chǎn)工作室使用Arnold，因?yàn)樗�提供了更多的靈活性和一些優(yōu)化，可以大大減少渲染時間在這里你可以看到我用于主要材料的設(shè)置，涂層油漆，以及著色器網(wǎng)絡(luò)，其中我還添加了一些額外的自定義AOV（幀緩沖區(qū)），以供以后在合成階段使用。

Step 08: Lighting and rendering

For the lighting I created an extra render layer with a gray material as override. This render layer is not for the final rendering, it just helps to speed up render times during the setup and also to focus more on the lighting. For this scene I just used two area lights with an HDRi plugged into it (key and rim light), as well as a skydome light, also with a HDRi connected, to get some nice reflections and bounce light from the environment.

As mentioned at the beginning of this breakdown, I had a certain mood in mind and I had to ensure that my background image and the 3D lights matched, so the viewer can see where the light is coming from. It wasn't too hard because most of the materials were glossy and it was night - it was more about the reflections than the direct and indirect diffuse. I my mind, there was a lot of light coming from behind as this guy is inside a big hangar, or airbase, I needed a backplate that fits this idea.

步驟08：照明和渲染

對于照明，我創(chuàng)建了一個額外的渲染層，灰色材質(zhì)作為覆蓋。 此渲染層不是用于最終渲染，它只是有助于加快在設(shè)置過程中的渲染時間，并且更多地關(guān)注照明。 對于這個場景，我只是使用兩個區(qū)域的燈與HDRi插入它（鑰匙和rim光），以及一個skydome光，也與HDRi連接，以獲得一些很好的反射和反彈環(huán)境的光。

如在開始分解時提到的，我有一定的心情，我不得不確保我的背景圖像和3D燈匹配，所以觀眾可以看到光從哪里來。 這不是太難，因?yàn)榇蠖鄶?shù)材料是光滑的，它是夜晚 - 它更多是關(guān)于反射比直接和間接漫反射。 我的腦海里，有很多光從后面來，因?yàn)檫@個家伙在一個大機(jī)庫或空軍基地，我需要一個背板，適合這個想法。

Step 09: Compositing

I used NUKE for the compositing because I like to work in a non-destructive way. This is very handy, especially when you're working with an image sequence such as here (four camera angles = four frames) and you need to re-render passes or update to a new version, it's as simple as just one click. The NUKE script for this project is fairly simple; I split it into four sections to keep things organized: masks, pilot (foreground), backplate (environment) and atmosphere. To have more control over the environment, I exported the camera via FBX from Maya in to NUKE and added a 3D environment sphere to the NUKE scene. As a result I was able to turn the right detail of the background directly into place within NUKE and keyed the transformations for each frame.

步驟09：合成

我使用NUKE進(jìn)行合成，因?yàn)槲蚁矚g以非破壞性的方式工作。 這是非常方便，特別是當(dāng)你使用像這樣的圖像序列（四個攝像機(jī)角度=四幀），你需要重新渲染通行證或更新到一個新的版本，它只是一個簡單的點(diǎn)擊。 這個項(xiàng)目的NUKE腳本相當(dāng)簡單; 我把它分為四個部分，以保持組織：面具，飛行員（前景），背板（環(huán)境）和大氣。 為了更好地控制環(huán)境，我通過FBX從Maya將相機(jī)導(dǎo)出到NUKE，并將一個3D環(huán)境球體添加到NUKE場景中。 因此，我能夠?qū)⒈尘暗恼�確細(xì)節(jié)直接放入NUKE中，并為每個幀鍵入變換。

Step 10: Final retouch

In the final step I took all four images into Photoshop for some minor adjustments here and there. It was basically like a final beauty retouch step, although the differences are barely visible. Technically this could also be done in NUKE, it's just a personal preferences to use Photoshop here for the finish.

步驟10：最后潤飾

在最后一步，我把所有四個圖像到Photoshop中進(jìn)行一些小調(diào)整。 它基本上就像一個最后的美容修飾步驟，雖然差異幾乎看不到。 技術(shù)上這也可以在NUKE中完成，它只是個人喜好使用Photoshop在這里完成。

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun with this project and I really hope that this breakdown was helpful in some way. Thanks a lot for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!

結(jié)論

這個項(xiàng)目我有很多樂趣，我真的希望這種細(xì)分在某種程度上是有幫助的。 非常感謝閱讀，我希望你喜歡它！