Interviews Issue 047 July 2009

Weiye Yin
Tomáš Král

The Gallery
Michal Kwolek, Christophe
Desse, Rudolf Herczog & more!

Next Gen Character

3ds Max, ZBrush, Maya, LightWave & modo

Photoshop for 3D
Photoshop

Mammal-Man
ZBrush

Spider
3ds Max & Photoshop

Waiting for the Storm

3ds Max, V-Ray & Photoshop
 Contents

TutorialOverload! Contents 001

Welcome to the 47th issue of
What’s in this month?
3DCreative – a magazine that
we should probably rename Weiye Yin 006
“3DTutorials”, as we have some CG All-Rounder
great plans for tutorials for the
upcoming issues! We kick things Tomáš Král 016
Senior Artist
off this month with not one, but two
brand new tutorial series for you –
The Gallery 028
alongside the second in our new 10 of the Best 3D Artworks
Manimal Character Creation Series.

So what’s new? Well, our biggest

New! Photoshop for 3D 040
Part 1 – Render Passes by Zoltan Korcsok
new project to get your teeth
stuck into is our Next Gen Character Creation Series, ZBrush ‘Manimal’ Creation 050
in which we have some great talents in the forms of Joseph Harford, Part 2 – Mammal-Man by Jesse Sandifer
James Busby, Gavin Goulden and John Hayes writing for you a
six-part series on how to create a next gen character in 3ds Max (Joe), Spider 060

LightWave (James), Maya (Gavin) and last but not least, modo (John) Project Overview by Andrew Averkin
(p.83). The first chapter in the series is all about the low-res base mesh,
which our artists knock up using ZSpheres in ZBrush and then proceed
Waiting for the Storm 072
Project Overview by George Krallis
into the various software packages to clean it up in preparation for part
two of the series: the high-res sculpt! We’re looking forward to seeing Digital Art Masters: v3 077
how this tutorial goes down over the next six months – we’ve already Free Chapter Book Promotion
seen the final results and it really is worth signing yourself up for a
subscription to make sure you don’t miss out and get each instalment About us 081
3DTotal.com Ltd Information & Contacts
when it’s hot off the electronic press!

Our second new series for you all is – and no, we’re not crazy – a New! Next Gen Character 083

Photoshop tutorial series! Photoshop, I hear you ask?! Well, we can’t Mega Series for ZBrush, 3ds Max, LW, Maya & modo
deny that Photoshop is a valuable tool in 3D when it comes to post-
production of your renders, and the results we’ve witnessed over the Editor Layout Content Proofing
years from artists who utilise Photoshop to give their renders that extra Lynette Clee Layla Khani Lynette Clee Lynette Clee
bite have helped confirm that what we’re missing in 3DCreative is a Matt Lewis Tom Greenway Jo Hargreaves
series on Photoshop for 3D. So here we go: part one of our Lead Richard Tilbury
new series looks as how the most common render passes can be used Designer Marketing Chris Perrins
Chris Perrins Jo Hargreaves
in Photoshop, and we have non-other that post-production pro Zoltan
Korcsok back to teach us all he knows (p.40). Stay tuned for part two
Free Stuff!
next month when Richard Tilbury will be taking us through retouching
Wherever you see
your final renders – another great reason to stay with 3DCreative!
this symbol, click it to
Jesse Sandifer is back with us again this month to talk us through how download resources,
to create a Mammal-Man in ZBrush, in the second instalment of our extras and even movies!
Manimal Character Creation Series. Jesse has gone for
a surprised deer-type creature crossed with a guy, with great emotion
and expression, and he also teaches us a neat trick of how to paint our modestly only sent in just a few of his stunning 3D renders for this interview.
textures in ZBrush to achieve some pretty cool results (p.50). We knew he had more to show off than that, so check out p.16 for a visual

In this month’s interviews we catch up with two artists that we’ve got treat as you step into the mysterious mind of this talented 3D artist.

to know through the creation of our recent book project, Digital Art To wrap this issue up we have two great making of articles by Andrew
Masters: Volume 4 – we thought it’d be great opportunity to learn more Averkin (p.60) and George Krallis (p.72). We’ve also had a play and got our
about them and show off their stunning portfolios in all their glory! Our first moving image featured in Andrew’s making of feature, so prepare to be
first interview is with CG all-rounder, Weiye Yin, who never fails to hypnotised by the seduction of things in motion! Last but not least, we’ve got
impress us with his latest works – be they of the 2D or 3D genre. Weiye our usual great selection of 3D images in the Gallery section – this month we
has a fantastically diverse portfolio that is well worth checking out on feature the latest work from Michal Kwolek and Rudolf Herczog to name
p.6. Second up we catch up with senior artist, Tomáš Král, who rather just two. So enjoy July’s offerings, we’ll be back with more next month! Ed.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 2 Issue 047 July 2009

 Get the most out of your

Magazine!
If you’re having problems viewing the double-page spreads that we
feature in this magazine, follow this handy little guide on how to set
up your PDF reader!

Setting up your PDF reader

For optimum viewing of the magazine, it is recommended that you
have the latest Acrobat Reader installed. You can download it for free,
here: DOWNLOAD!

To view the many double-page spreads featured in 3DCreative

magazine, you can set the reader to display ‘two-up’, which will show
double-page spreads as one large landscape image:

1. Open the magazine in Reader;

View menu, then Page display;
2. Go to the
Two-up Continuous, making sure that
3. Select
Show Cover Page is also selected.
That’s it!
 Contributors

Contributing artists Joseph

Harford
Every month many artists from around the world contribute to 3DCreative An avid artist since
magazine. Here you can read all about them. If you would like to be a part childhood. After
of 3DCreative or 2DArtist magazines, please contact: [email protected] freelancing in
advertising and film,
he worked in the
games industry at

This new tutorial series provides a comprehensive Crytek GMBH, the German games company

guide through the process of creating a 3D behind Far Cry and Crysis. He later moved

character intended for use within a next gen to Ubisoft as a senior character artist, and

console environment. Joseph Harford, Gavin now works as a freelance artist while running

Goulden, James Busby and John Hayes tackle ShineFX, a digital asset company.

this new series providing versions for http://www.josephharford.com

3ds Max, LightWave, Maya, and modo. [email protected]

James John
Busby Hayes
After working in Coming from a 2D
the industry for background, John
about seven years started in game
on everything from development in 1996
games to television as a concept artist and
ads, James setup his character artist. The
own Sheffield based company, Ten24.info, in first few Nintendo games improved his 3D digital
2008, which provides assets for all sectors of skills and techniques for game development. He
the media. He hopes his version of the next gen then joined Capcom as a senior character artist,
tutorial series will be useful to those wanting to moving into character lead, followed by his role
pick up LightWave as a character modelling tool. at Sega as senior character artist and then
http://www.ten24.info character art lead. http://zugok.cgsociety.org/
[email protected] [email protected]

Jesse Zoltan
Sandifer Korcsok
A self-taught digital Graduated from
artist with 8 years the Moholy-Nagy
experience. He co- University of Art
owns Green Grass and Design as a
Studios in Dallas, designer in visual
Texas, which works on communication arts
a variety of projects for films, games, television, (MA). He’s currently a freelance 3D artist,
commercials and in-game arena entertainment. illustrator and book designer, who’s been
Most of his spare time is spent participating in working in the games industry since the 90s.
online challenges, doing personal artwork and He’s a modo beta tester with experience using
dabbling with drawing and traditional sculpting. a variety of 3D software: ZBrush, Cinema 4D,
http://www.jessesandifer.com Maya and Silo. http://www.zkorcsok.hu
[email protected] [email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com page 4 Issue 047 July 2009

Contributors

Weiye George
Yin Krallis
A CG artist who has A graphic designer
been engaged in the from Xanthi, Greece;
art of game research he has an advertising
and development for office and spends
many years, and is most of his time
skilled in all areas of designing graphics for
production from concept design and illustration, companies. His interest in 3D started six years
to 3D modelling, texturing and lighting. ago when he encountered 3ds Max, after which
point he started to work with other 3D software,
such as Vue, Poser and ZBrush.

http://franccg.51.net/ http://geograpcics.deviantart.com/
[email protected] [email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com page 5 Issue 047 July 2009

“I’ve never given up or
stopped traditional paint-
ing. I always paint when
I’m free. Because I think
traditional oil painting is
not only my base, but also
my capital, which I won’t
throw away.”

Switching from the standard canvas to a

digital one, we delve in to the life of Weiye
Yin and discuss his passion for creating both
3D and 2D images.
Weiye Yin Interview

Hi Weiye - now it’s not every day you see an

accomplished 2D and 3D artist, so it’s a real
pleasure to talk to you today. Right let the
probing begin! Could you introduce yourself and
tell us how you got into 2D and 3D?
Before I started doing CG, I was a canvas
painter. In 1997 I began to dabble in the art of
CG production and achieved some good results.
In 2003, I engaged in an official CG art work.

So what made you take the leap from traditional

canvas to a digital one?
The practical reason was that it is easier to
make a living from CG art. Of course, I do love
CG art a lot. Compared to traditional art, CG
art - in particular, 3D art - is a lot more versatile.
You can create more realistic fantasy lands,
and it has removed all of the constraints of 2D
space, giving you more dimensions to play with.
It’s basically a completely new mode of art.

So how did you get into art? Can you recollect

the first image you ever painted?
When I was a child, I was very interested in
painting, and often doodled around. My parents
discovered my interest, so they sent me to a
painting training class. Since then I have met

many good teachers and spent over twenty years cultivating my interest in
art and gaining professional training, which has allowed my entrance into
artistic circles.

“I attach great importance to the final

effect, no matter if its 3D or 2D work.
Every picture in a real-time rendered game
should be as beautiful as a painting ...”
Well, my first image would have been a work from my childhood. It was
quite simple and I’ve almost forgotten it! What I still remember very clearly
is an oil painting teacher of that I met when I was nine years old. He was
the one who truly brought me into the realm of traditional art.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 7 Issue 047 July 2009

Weiye Yin Interview
Browsing your portfolio I can see that you have
a huge variety of work, from stunning portraits
to wondrous landscapes and even to some low
poly game pieces. So what does a talented artist
such as yourself do for work?
From 2003, I became engaged in research
and development art for games. The control of
each stage of the development, from concept
design, 3D modelling and texturing, through to
atmosphere control of light and shadow effects,
is not only my job, but it’s also my hobby.

“Every picture in a real-time

rendered game should be
as beautiful as a painting,
because CG should bring as
much sensory experience to
the viewers as traditional
painting.”
The one thing that strikes me most about your
work is the richness of the colours you’ve used,
making me think that you take great pride in the
texturing side of your work. Could you tell us
how long you typically spend in this particular
area of the creation process?
I attach great importance to the final effect, no
matter if its 3D or 2D work. Every picture in a
real-time rendered game should be as beautiful

as a painting, because CG should bring as

much sensory experience to the viewers as
traditional painting. Rich colour is represented
in the whole picture, while every texture is an
important factor within the piece as a whole.
It does not cost me much time to represent
the details, but harmonizing the factors is very
important and can be pretty time-consuming.

What has been your most accomplished piece

of artwork to date, and why?
Many people have asked me this question and

www.3dcreativemag.com page 9 Issue 047 July 2009

 Interview Weiye Yin

my answer is always the same: the best work

of mine will be the next. Although this answer
seems to be empty, it is a serious answer
because I’m always trying my best to exceed
myself.

Ahh, good answer! Okay let’s try and reword it.

If you had to pick one piece for self promotion
purposes (whether it be for the first image you
place on your website or in a gallery), which
piece would you choose and why?
In aspect of techniques, I will choose the 3D

www.3dcreativemag.com page 10 Issue 047 July 2009

Weiye Yin Interview

character “Red Girl” and the 3D scene “Tower”

because I devoted a lot of time to these two
works. If I have to choose one from these two,
then it would be “Tower” because it reflects
some of my feelings.

As I mentioned previously you’re an

accomplished 2D and 3D artist, but which area
to you favour the most, and why?
Because I used to be a canvas painter, I slightly
prefer 2D. Having said that, in my opinion, 2D
and 3D are just different parts of the same

www.3dcreativemag.com page 11 Issue 047 July 2009

 Interview Weiye Yin

whole. They both show visual art and so 2D and experiment with different viewpoints. Have what we see with our eyes. Relying on 3D to
3D are complementary and indispensable in the you been tempted to mix these two mediums achieve correct perspective tends to make my
creation of my work. together to help in your production of art? work quite stiff.
I’ll mix these two mediums if the perspective is
A lot of 2D artists nowadays use 3D in order very difficult, but it is very rare because camera Putting aside work for a moment, what kind of
to help achieve correct perspective or to perspective in 3D software is very different from things do you do to unwind when you have a
spare moment?
Besides painting, I love to go out sight seeing, to
seek inspiration in the wide world and relax my
body and heart.

Well it has been a pleasure chatting with you

Weiye and I wish you all the best for the future.
One last question before we wrap things up:
With switching from traditional to digital, have
you been tempted to switch back?
I’ve never given up or stopped traditional
painting. I always paint when I’m free. Because I
think traditional oil painting is not only my base,
but also my capital, which I won’t throw away.
We live in a fast-pace society now, and to make
a living, traditional art has to be laid aside as a
hobby. I just hope that someday it will become
an important part in my life again.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 12 Issue 047 July 2009

Weiye Yin
For more work by this artist please visit:
http://franccg.51.net
Or contact them at:
[email protected]
Interviewed by: Chris Perrins
 : volume 3

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 “Mostly I care
about the story
or thought that
I put into the
image to make it
come to life”

range
blic. His broad
fo r UP P in the Czech Repu
rking rking on a
a senior artist wo is currently wo
Tomas Kral is vir onments and he
rk an d en
th character wo d by Jan Bube
nicek.
of skills cover bo e Dragon, directe
d Ch ar ge th
ort film calle
collaborative sh
Tomas Kral Interview

You currently work for UPP, a visual effects and

post production studio in the Czech Republic.
Can you tell us a little about your role there?
Yes, that’s true. I work there as a Senior
CG artist which covers things like modelling,
texturing, lighting etc.

“the clean 3D render is only

half of the job, the post
processing is as important
as a good quality render”
You see, most of the 3D artists in UPP are
generalists, which means that you have to deal It seems as though there are an increasing 3D render is only half of the job; the post
with most types of the production; there are only number of artists using post production more processing is as important as a good quality
a few people specialized in one area of work. So and more now, even when creating stills. How render and it can save a lot of time. I can add
it really depends on the actual request. But most do you regard this process in comparison to contrast and exposure tweaks to my creations
of my work includes the lighting and tweaking pure 3D? very quickly, and in real-time nice colours. I
of the renders. That’s why I find it important to Personally, I like to use all the available use post processing a lot even on my personal
know at least one compositing package and try methods that can help me to achieve the stills, because I find the process of tweaking the
to be as independent as you can. best possible final artwork. In fact the clean shapes, colours and stuff like that, very creative.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 17 Issue 047 July 2009

 Interview Tomas Kral

www.3dcreativemag.com page 18 Issue 047 July 2009

Tomas Kral Interview
I love to use a set of various dirty textures which
I usually blend in Photoshop and combine with
my render.

“Mostly I care about the

story or thought that I
put into the image to make
it come to life”
There are a number of images on your website
relating to the Ashfall game. Can you explain
the idea behind the project and what it involved
on your part?
The idea of making the game came to us some
time ago. We later named the project Ashfall
purely for our own satisfaction. We started
putting together various ideas, thoughts and,
of course, numerous graphical concepts. Our Unfortunately we never found a publisher or care if it is an environment, character or maybe
two game designers then did their best to build investor, so this project will sadly end as an even a cartoon. Mostly I care about the story
something from that crazy mess [Laughs]. unfinished dream. or thought that I put into the image to make it
This game was always meant to be a mix come to life, or some feeling that the image is
between adventure and RPG style of playing, Your portfolio covers both environments and supposed to convey to the viewer. I’ve never
with a very strong story line. There were characters, but what particular subjects interest considered myself as a great artist. I think my
supposed to be fully 3D characters moving you the most and why? pictures are rather decorative or illustrative.
freely in pre-rendered environments. And You know, I don’t really separate it like this. I But in any case I try to put more into my
these environments were my part of the work. just enjoy working on my artworks and I don’t creations than just pretty colours. I think that the

www.3dcreativemag.com page 19 Issue 047 July 2009

 Interview Tomas Kral

viewers will know when there’s something more neat so that others can work with my scenes.
in the picture than meets the eye, when the I’ve come to realized that using correct naming
pictures are made peculiar and with passion. conventions and other things is an absolute
necessity; otherwise the mess will eat you alive!
What areas of CG do you feel you have made Other than that, with programs such as ZBrush,
the most advances in during your career so far? not only has the quality side of modelling
That’s a tricky question. I guess drinking gallons gone significantly up, but also the speed and
of coffee? [Laughs]. No, really, I think I’ve got efficiency. I’m able to model exactly what I want
much better at one thing for sure: I used to be nowadays. The rest is just all about practice.
incredibly careless and any kind of a reasonable
scene management was way below zero level. Which piece from your gallery do you feel
conveys the most interesting story in your
Now, when working at UPP, it’s expected that opinion and why?
my work is not only of a high quality, but also I don’t know; it’s very hard to say. Every one of

my artworks means a different thing for me. In

the majority of cases it’s an expression of some
sort of mood. For example, when I was creating
“Marv” I was feeling angry about something
and I think that this mood soaked through to
the image. But the most valuable artwork for
me is the “It likes candy” picture. This artwork
was created as a series of three pictures with a
“toys” theme. I wanted to create the perception
that even in an innocent childhood environment
there are things which, when looked at from a
different angle, can be perceived as horrifying.
That’s why I took a traditional Russian
Matrioshka toy and came up with a little chicken-
like creature that lives inside it. I didn’t want it to
appear too frightening, so I adjusted the theme
to the cuteness of toys.

Do you do much of your texturing in ZBrush or is

it primarily in Photoshop?
And the winner is, Photoshop! I have to say
that Photoshop techniques are more suitable
for me. As for the textures, I use ZBrush only
for generating some displacement, normal
and cavity maps and then blending them in
Photoshop with my painted texture. ZBrush has
another great function, which is the possibility
of using Zapplink to export any matcap that you
want and enabling you to use it as a background

www.3dcreativemag.com page 20 Issue 047 July 2009

Tomas Kral Interview
for your texture. I often use Cinema BodyPaint,
because of the ability to paint on the actual 3D
model. I know that you can do a similar thing
in ZBrush but at this point in time BodyPaint is
really well connected with Photoshop and when
combined, these two programs give me the
results that I want.

Tell us about Charge the Dragon and the

impetus behind it?
I was given a chance to work on a beautiful
project called Charge the Dragon. It is a short
animated film directed by a great animator, Jan
Bubenicek and divided into three short, funny,
sketches about a bold knight who’s determined
to bring down a dragon. This project is primarily
about characters and so I’m taking care over the
rendering, texturing and the general look of the
characters. It’s a beautiful job.

The project sounds very interesting for sure. Did

you have much input with regard to the design
and where will people eventually be able to see
it?
The essence of this short movie is some sort
of test, to see if we are able to transfer the
freedom and the simplicity of pencilling to the 3D
space. So in that sense we are trying to keep
the designs as simple as possible in the shapes,
but at the same time they have to realistically
describe each other.

The background in the movie will be completely

2D, so in the end it will be some sort of mix
between 2D and 3D animation and render.

When it will be finished you will surely see it on

our website and we certainly want to try to send
it to several festivals. But the idea really is to put
it on our site and eventually lengthen it out for
some more short stories. So this short movie we
are working on right now can be considered a
sort of a “pilot” and if it is successful, we will try
to make more funny shorts.

What aspects of the CG pipeline do you find the

most interesting?

www.3dcreativemag.com page 21 Issue 047 July 2009

 Interview Tomas Kral

Mapping! No, that was a joke [Laughs]. As I

mentioned, my work is very miscellaneous and
ranges from modelling to even making some
matte paintings, but what I really enjoy the most
is lighting the scenes. When all your models
and textures are done and you just bring your
hard work to life by adding some beautiful,
atmospheric light. I don’t really seek any sort
of realism in my personal work, I just tweak the
lights long enough to make it look exactly the
way I want. But as for my commercial work,
on some particular shots of course it has to
be hyper-real otherwise it would lead to a bad
visual effect. The best visual effect is that which
you really can’t recognize as an effect.

What techniques do you find most effective

when lighting your scenes and which renderer
do you favour?
For the rendering of my personal stuff I use a
third party render called finalRender, for several
reasons. First of all, I understand it quite well;
secondly it is a fair trade between quality and
render times. I like to use Global Illumination
in combination with my manual lighting and
finalRender has, at least currently, the fastest GI
on the market.

For my work, at UPP, we are using mental ray in Sometimes when I work on a very complex
our pipeline. Of course, in the VFX industry, time scene, I don’t even use the final gather or GI,
is one of the most valuable things so the renders but only manual lights in combination with some
have to be done very quickly. HDR images.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 24 Issue 047 July 2009

Tomas Kral
For more work by this artist please visit:
http://tomaskral.cz/
Or contact them at:
[email protected]
Interviewed by: Richard Tilbury
 Right Image: ATLAS in silico © 2007 Ruth West
Join some of the world’s finest players at SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans.

Exchange insight and inspiration with the animators, artists, researchers, developers, and producers
who are creating this year’s most amazing experiences. In the city that has been inspiring musical
innovation, culinary excellence, visual splendor, and architectural wonder for 300 years. You’ll return
from SIGGRAPH 2009 with re-energized imagination, renewed skills, and insider information to
spark your creativity and surpass your goals for the coming year.
This month we feature:
Zoltan Miklosi
Serkan Çelik
Luis Tejeda
Olivier Defaye
Michal Kwolek
Christophe Desse
Hugo Costa
Ke Weilin
Rudolf Herczog
Raphael Baldini
The Galleries 10 of the Best

Peaceful House
Luis Tejeda
http://luistejeda.tutorial-lab.com
[email protected]

Classic Kitchen
Serkan Çelik
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com page 29 Issue 047 July 2009

The Gateway
Rudolf Herczog
http://www.rochr.com
[email protected]
Eiffel Tower: Growing by Myself
Olivier Defaye (AOKI STUDIO) for CG WORLD
http://www.aokistudio.co.jp
[email protected]

© Olivier Defaye, AOKISTUDIO

The Galleries 10 of the Best

Stylised 1970 Chevelle

Christophe Desse a.k.a Xtrm3D
http://www.xtrm3d.com/
[email protected]

Check back in with us next month here in 3DCreative magazine for an

interview with Christophe Desse!

www.3dcreativemag.com page 33 Issue 047 July 2009

Neorenaissance Girly
Zoltan Miklosi
http://visualworks.atw.hu
[email protected]
 Chinese Girl
Ke Weilin
http://realtuke.cgsociety.org/gallery/
[email protected]
 10 of the Best The Galleries

Compsognathus
Hugo Costa
http://lw4d.com
[email protected]

Sci-fi Elephant
Raphael Baldini
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbgraphicdesigner
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com page 36 Issue 047 July 2009

Minotaur
Michal Kwolek
http://www.kwolek.org
[email protected]

© Michal Kwolek
This series of tutorials provides a comprehensive guide through
the process of creating a 3D character intended for use within a
next gen console environment. As such, the design of the model
will be tailored towards the eventual aim of functioning within a
game engine and viewed in real-time. The series will cover all of
the key stages of the 3D pipeline from sculpting the initial mesh
in ZBrush and optimizing it in the principal 3D packages, through
to texturing and applying next gen shaders. The inclusion of
ZBrush tutorials will address the methods of sculpting both
a low-poly mesh as well as a highly detailed version used to
generate a normal map, and accompany the remaining software
specific chapters that will detail topics that cover mapping,
materials, lighting and rendering.

Follow
The exciting first chapter of our new tutorial series is divided
into two categories, the first of which focuses on using ZBrush
to create a low-poly sculpt from ZSpheres to approximate the
proportions of the creature concept. The second section takes
and imports this mesh into the appropriate software and explains
the principles and importance of optimisation.

So if your interested in seeing the results and want to follow

along with our new set of artist please flip to the back of this
magazine and enjoy.

3dsmax | Page 083

Lightwave | Page 109
Maya | Page 129
Modo | Page 149
 PMS COLORED

116 U

404 U

modo is for artists

3D image
3D image created in modo by Luxology. Credit: created
Gelmi in modo
For more by Luxology.
information, Credit:
visit Gelmi
modo3D.com

TM
Chapter 1: Render Passes
Here we concentrate on the ways in which the most common render
passes can be combined in Photoshop to produce a final image. The
chapter looks at the blending modes appropriate to each and the manner
in which they can be manipulated to the best effect. Specular, Reflection,
Ambient Occlusion and Diffuse passes are covered, as well as the way in
which to apply ZDepth through the Lens Blur filter.

Chapter 2
Blending & Cloning

Chapter 3
Lighting & Special Effects

Chapter 4
Curves, Levels, Colour Balance & Layer Styles

Chapter 5
Layer Masks & Adjustment Layers

Chapter 6
Creating Backgrounds

This series of tutorials aims to show the value of post-production and

more specifically the ways in which Photoshop can be used to aid
the 3D pipeline. Over the course of six chapters we shall focus on the
various tools and techniques on offer in Photoshop that are frequently
used to improve 3D renders. Compositing passes, adding particle
effects, improving lighting and making general colour adjustments are
a few of the topics covered, as well as ways to create backgrounds that
both complement and enhance characters. The methods presented
within this series can provide an efficient alternative to lengthy render
tests and experimenting with numerous settings, and will enable artists
to seamlessly blend 2D techniques into a 3D process, resulting in a
versatile and streamlined workflow.
Photoshop for 3D Part 1: Render Passes

Part 1: Render Passes

Created In: Photoshop

Introduction
This article showcases the tools and settings
typically needed for the compositing of render
passes in Adobe Photoshop. Rendering images
into passes from rendering software makes
it possible to modify tone, colour and certain
effects in the rendered image, without the need
for rendering it again.

Prepare your Layers

To follow this tutorial, we need to have the
following render passes at hand:

• Final Color Pass – We’ll use this pass as a

reference for setting up the layer structure.
It contains all the final effects, direct and
indirect lighting, shadows, specular and
reflection effects (Fig.01)
• Diffuse (Total) Shading Pass – This
contains the colours of the materials in the
scene, and the shadows (Fig.02)
• Specular Shading Pass – This contains the
specular effects of the materials in the scene
caused by the lighting (Fig.03)
• Reflection Shading Pass – This contains the
reflection effects of the materials in the
scene (Fig.04

www.3dcreativemag.com page 41 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part 1: Render Passes Photoshop for 3D

• Ambient Occlusion Pass – This contains the Global Illumination pass, Specular Colour pass,
ambient occlusion effect; it gives shading and so on).
to the areas hidden to the ambient light and
it shades the more obscure parts of the Step 1 – Creating the
models in the scene. Using this pass gives Layer Structure
more depth to the details (Fig.05) Create the base layer structure using the
• Depth Pass – This contains the depth map following order and blending modes (Fig.07):
of the scene measured from the camera. We
use this pass in Photoshop to create a lens • Diffuse (Total) Shading Pass – blending
depth of field effect, amongst other things mode: Normal
(Fig.06) • Ambient Occlusion Pass – blending mode:
Multiply
Other available passes can be utilised to • Specular Shading Pass – blending mode:
achieve more delicate effects (e.g. Fog pass, Screen or Linear Dodge

www.3dcreativemag.com page 42 Issue 047 July 2009

Photoshop for 3D Part 1: Render Passes

• Reflection Shading Pass – blending mode: (Fig.09). The simplest way of correcting this is
Screen or Linear Dodge by setting the opacity of the Ambient Occlusion
pass layer to 30%. The strength of any render
Here are the passes combined after putting the pass is easily adjustable by changing the
above layers together (Fig.08). opacity. The Ambient Occlusion pass can be
used for brightening the midtones by duplicating
Step 2 – Fine-Tuning it, and changing its blending mode to Soft Light
Comparing the Final Color Output with the or Overlay. The strength of this effect can also
image put together using the passes reveals be adjusted by modifying the opacity.
that the ambient occlusion effect is too strong

Here we can see the composited image with

and without the Ambient Occlusion layer with
Overlay blending (Fig.10 – 11).

To change the Opacity or Fill value of a layer:

select the layer in the Layers palette, set the
value using the Opacity and Fill text boxes, or
by dragging the slider. Another method is to go
to Layer (main menu) > Layer Style > Blending
Options, enter a value in the Opacity text box
or drag the slider under the General Blending
section, and adjust Fill Opacity under the
Advanced Blending section. This does not apply
to the background layer; it doesn’t have such
values.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 43 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part 1: Render Passes Photoshop for 3D

Here we have the settings for the Opacity of Create new fill and adjustment layer icon, and
the layer in the Layers palette (Fig.12), and the select Brightness/Contrast. Alternatively, you
setting of the layer’s Opacity in the Blending can of course select Layers > New Adjustment
Options menu (Fig.13). Layer > Brightness/Contrast. Here are the
settings for our Brightness/Contrast adjustment
Step 3 – Adjusting the layer (Fig.16).
Colour
The image put together from the passes looks Step 4 – Using the Depth
a bit pale compared to the Final Color pass Pass to make a Depth of
(Fig.14). We can make the colours more vivid Field (Lens Blur) Effect
using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, Amongst other things, we can use the Depth
and setting the Saturation to +15. To create pass in Photoshop to achieve a depth of field
a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, go to the effect. It can be done using the Depth pass as a
Layers palette, click on the Create new fill mask. First of all, merge all the passes into one
and adjustment layer icon, and select Hue/ layer (Layer > Merge Visible, or Shift + Ctrl + E),
Saturation. Alternatively, go to Layers (main and then create a mask for it (Layers palette >
menu) > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/ click on the Add layer mask icon, or alternatively
Saturation. And here we have the settings for go to Layers > Layer Mask > Reveal all). Turn
the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Fig.15). on and select the Layer Mask on the Channels
palette, and paste the Depth pass into it.
We’ll give a bit more contrast to the image now
using a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. The blur effect can be achieved using the
Set the value of brightness and contrast to +5. Photoshop Lens Blur filter (Filter > Blur > Lens
To create a Brightness/Contrast adjustment Blur) (Fig.17). The dialogue for the Lens Blur
layer, go to the Layers palette, click on the filter contains a preview window where you

www.3dcreativemag.com page 44 Issue 047 July 2009

Photoshop for 3D Part 1: Render Passes
can see it with the current settings, alongside
the settings panel. The Preview section can be
found on this panel, where it can be turned on
and off, or switched to Faster or More Accurate.
Select the Layer Mask (with the Depth map)
from the Source scroll-down menu of the Depth
Map section; the filter will generate the Lens
Blur based on this map. The focal distance
can be adjusted either by using the Blur Focal
Distance slider or by clicking the part of the
preview image we want to focus on. The iris’
shape can be adjusted under the Iris section; we
use Square shape with an Iris Radius value of
25, and Blade Curvature and Rotation both set
to the value of 0.

The Brightness and Threshold of the specular

highlights of the image can be adjusted under
the Specular Highlights section. In this case we
set Brightness and Threshold to 0. The noise
of the blur effect can be set up under the Noise
in the Specular Highlights section; we leave
these at their default 0 values for this task. After
applying the effect, delete the mask.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 45 Issue 047 July 2009

In this example, the composition of the image • Putting the layers into sets makes them is linking the layers belonging in one set
was suitable for a depth of field effect, but this easy to duplicate, so you can always leave with the currently selected layer to it, and
is not always the case. You can see the final a backup copy of the arranged layers in the then selecting New Set From Linked on the
composited image here (Fig.18). file. This can be useful if you merge a set Layers palette
copy for lens effects
Tips for Handling • A layer or layer set can be easily duplicated Zoltan Korcsok
Layers by grabbing it on the Layers palette and For more from this artist visit:
• Another way of setting the layer opacity dragging it down onto the Create new layer http://trurl.cgsociety.org/
is to select the layer, select the Move tool, icon at the bottom of the palette or contact:
and then type in the number you want the [email protected]
percentage of its opacity to be • A new layer set can be created by clicking
• The mask of a masked layer can be easily the Create new set icon which can be found
switched on and off, just left-click on the on the bottom of the palette. You can then
mask while holding down the Shift key simply drag the layers into it. Another option
 June 2009 “...when I started
Part 1: Bird-Man
thinking about which
July 2009 kind of mammal to base
Part 2: Mammal-Man
it from, I was really
August 2009
Part 3: Aquatic-Man torn. I mean all I have
September 2009 to do is create a human
Part 4: Amphibian-Man body and stick on some
October 2009 random mammal’s head
Part 5: Insect-Man
and call it a day, right?
November 2009 Wrong!”
Part 6: Reptilian-Man

Download your free

base mesh here!

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Manimal ZBrush Creation Series Part 2: Mammal-Man

Part 2: Mammal-Man
Created In: ZBrush

Introduction
When I was asked to create something for this
Manimal series of tutorials, I snatched up the
Mammal-Man option and thought I had a really
nice opportunity to design and create something
really cool. But when I started thinking about
which kind of mammal to base it from, I was
really torn. I mean all I have to do is create
a human body and stick on some random
mammal’s head and call it a day, right? Wrong!
I have to think about the expression, the pose,
the character itself … There has to be a reason
why I choose with a certain kind. So I decided
the best bet would be to create something that
isn’t anything specific at all, and so I’m going
with the idea of doing a hybrid. Deer and cows
came to mind as my foundation because I know
that they get spooked, or get “caught in the
headlights” which may lend to a fun pose of
being spooked and recoiling!

Sculpting but once your fingers remember the pattern, with it, though. At this stage I’m just using

Starting off, I do my usual setup of Polygroups. it’s really simple. You’re basically toggling that Move, Clay, Clay Tubes, and occasionally Inflat

To do this, press Shift + Ctrl, and click and drag Shift key after you click and drag. Once you brushes. The Move brush is good for literally

to isolate the polys you want included in a group have the intended polys isolated, you can group transforming polys around based on the brush

(i.e. the head and neck). To hide any polys them by going down to the Tools > Polygroups size and Focal Shift. I like to turn up my Focal

directly, you can Shift + Ctrl-click and drag, rollout and click on Group Visible. Auto Groups Shift to get a higher falloff. It’s great for getting

and then let go of Shift. It sounds complicated will group your model by separate elements so your low-poly base mesh in the right forms
that’s handy too. So after this I continue on by early on. The Clay brush is a good brush for
blocking out major forms of muscle groups. I slowly building up forms, which is what I do in
need to establish the design of the head of the the first 2-3 levels of subdivision before moving
character early on. I pull out the ears, enlarge to fancier details or wrinkles/folds. It’s nice
the eyes, and draw the snout out in order to because it has a nice built in falloff that’s real
make it look a bit more like a deer type animal soft on the edges, but flat in the centre. Clay
(Fig.01). Tubes brush is similar to Clay, but it’s a bit more
rough and excellent for setting up muscle flow.
I thought it’d be fun to give him some hooves I like to change the alpha to a circular one with
on his hands, but only to replace a couple of his a tight falloff and turn up the Focal Shift a bit so
fingers. I don’t want to get too literal or realistic it’s not so harsh. For both Clay and Clay Tubes

www.3dcreativemag.com page 51 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part 2: Mammal-Man Manimal ZBrush Creation Series
brushes, I change the BrushMod. This basically
increases the effect of the brush so you can lay
in forms quicker. I usually only raise up to 30-40,
but I’ve gone a little higher in the example so
you can see the difference (Fig.02). I dock the
main button to my interface so that I don’t have
to dig for it – it’s in the Brush menu next to Mesh
Insert. And to drag the button somewhere, just
go to the Preferences menu, click on Customize
UI, and then click Enable Customize. Then you
can Ctrl-click and drag buttons anywhere on the
interface from menus or wherever else. Also,
keep in mind that when you work in ZBrush,
it’s commonly known to work your way up the
subdivisions and nail your forms down first.
Foundation is important (Fig.03).

Once I get to the point where I’m happy with

the model, and before detailing it with textural
alphas and wrinkles, I go ahead and pose the
character. To do this click on Move, Rotate,
or Scale and mask off areas you don’t want
effected on your model. If you click and drag
up on an area like an arm, the masking will move from that position. So it is actually good realistically rotate. I like to get the pose at about
follow your stroke. You can also Ctrl-click on for tweaking the position of the arm after doing 90% and I leave myself the freedom to change it
a Polygroup and it will mask everything else. the rotation. I then rotate the spine, head, and later on if it isn’t “perfect” (Fig.04).
Very handy! So for the actual posing, I start off upper arms in the same way. At this point I’m
by rotating the lower arms by using Rotate and nailing down the general action line to try and I fiddle with the expression on the face a bit
click-and-dragging the gizmo from the elbow get a nice silhouette as well as strengthen the here. I do most of this work on the face with
joint to the wrist. This way you’re simulating an expression on the character’s face. Then it’s the Move brush to keep the forms intact, and
accurate rotation. I don’t use Move too much about tweaking the arm rotation and span (by go through a lot of different emotions in the
because it stretches the geometry if you click on span I mean how close they are to the sides eyebrows until I find a nice “spooked” look.
the end circles of the gizmo. If you click on the of the torso). Then it’s a matter of rotating the On one side I’m going for a wide eye showing
middle circle, it’ll keep the polys intact but will wrists, but only to the point where they can the whites with the iris being close to being

www.3dcreativemag.com page 52 Issue 047 July 2009

Manimal ZBrush Creation Series Part 2: Mammal-Man

completely exposed; the other eye squinting and SW_Wrinkles_02.psd from the Pixologic To start with, I go to the Tool menu and open
and wincing in anticipation. The eyebrows are alpha library (www.pixologic.com/zbrush/ the Texture rollout. I turn on Colorize. Now I can
pulled up with a worried feel; the mouth corners downloadcenter/alpha) (Fig.06). paint on my colours using any of the sculpting
turned down; the nostrils slightly flared out from brushes. When you’re doing this, just be sure
breathing in sharply. Later on, the detail I add To do the hair, I use the SnakeHook brush with to turn off ZAdd; it’s also usually a good idea
will be to support the pose of the face: wrinkles a pores alpha, a large brush size, and at full to work at a low RGB level, but that’ll depend
above the eyebrow, bulging around the corner RGB intensity I methodically lay the hair effects on what you’re doing. I like to tear off the Color
of the mouth, folds for ear connections, and so in (Fig.07 – 08). menu and dock it to the right so I can pick
on (Fig.05). colours easily as I go. You can either select
Texturing colour by dragging into the colour picker area,
After getting the basic look for the face sorted, I For texturing, I do it entirely by Polypainting, clicking on the modifiers tab and having a lot
go back to sculpting the rest of the body. Since with no texture maps. To set up for Polypainting, of different kinds of swatches, or by clicking
I’ve posed out the character, I can no longer run your model needs to be at the highest on the main colour square and dragging
regular symmetry, so I have to turn on Poseable subdivision because it will be assigning an RGB anywhere on the screen to pick a
Symmetry. I’ll turn it off every now and then to value for every poly – the more polys, the better colour. Also remember that you can
do some asymmetrical work in areas that need the resolution of your painting. For this tutorial, use the Shift key to
independent attention because of the pose. So I I could subdivide my model one more time, blend and blur your
continue to define out the forms and cut in areas but this would put me at 5 million polys and Polypainting
to express the nature of the muscles, bones, my laptop gets a little shaky at this kind of poly (Fig.09).
tendons and skin, now that I have a set pose. I count. So for the sake of my sanity doing this
also add some skin texture effects by using the tutorial, I’m working with the 1.25 million poly The first thing
Standard brush, DragRect, ZIntensity 10-20, model and painting that. I want to paint

www.3dcreativemag.com page 53 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part 2: Mammal-Man Manimal ZBrush Creation Series
is the eyes. I know I want a big iris, but I need
to keep enough white area to get across the
expression of fear. So I paint the iris in a really
dark brown, almost black, and paint the white
areas a pale yellow, since they aren’t really
white in real life. I add some reddish tones in the
corners of the eyeballs and apply some veins
with a very small brush size. If I mess up an
area and want to erase it, I just click on the main
colour square and drag onto a nearby colour,
and then repaint the colour back over the error
in a few strokes to blend it away (Fig.10).

For the body, I’m taking an approach that I’ve

learned from the great Scott Spencer, more
specifically from one of his mini-tutorials on
traditional airbrush painting. I’ll admit that I’ve
never airbrushed anything in real life, but the really loose and liberally covering lots of area as these colours a bit and make some variations on
principles seem to be easy to understand quickly as possible. It doesn’t have to be perfect, the primary colours to make some purples and
once you get going. Basically, you first start by and you want to be sure not to completely oranges.
spraying colours to simulate what’s going on saturate any areas besides the real “hot” zones.
underneath the epidermis layer. I like to take a yellow and spray across areas The next step is to take a white, or a slightly
where bone is really close to the surface, such off-white, and start the “noodling” phase. This
Application wise, I grab a nice red colour and as collarbones, the sternum, forehead, cranium, brings a really nice effect to the subdermal work
use Colorized Spray with the Color Mod turned elbows, tendons, the bridge of the nose, etc. I we’re doing here. So either using DragRect
down to 0 (in the Stroke menu), an alpha mask also think it’s handy for some fatty areas like the and Alpha 22, or by doing it freehand, noodle
like Alpha 07, and RGB intensity set to 100 belly to be a bit more orange in colour. I take in with a small brush size some white squiggles
(Fig.11). I continue by just spraying across all some purples and blues and hit the recessed everywhere. I like the effect of doing it freehand
areas of where there are muscles or heavy areas, such as around the eyes and the jaw line/ but it’s a lot of area to cover so feel free to use
blood flow, like the ears, nose, etc. I’m keeping it beard area. I also find it nice to blend some of both methods. Also be sure to keep this really
loose, because it’s only going to be slightly
visible later on (Fig.12).

Once the noodling is done, I throw on a skin

shader – I like to use MatCap_Skin01. Then,
using a Spray application with a very low
RGB level between 4 and 10, and a neutral
skin colour, I start to lay in colour over the
subdermal work. Don’t completely cover it
up though. Just use the colour to blend
it altogether and you’ll start to see the
effect it’s meant to create (Fig.13).

I’ll admit that this technique results in

a lot of work to do all this subdermal
painting only to go and cover it all up
afterwards. But once you’re done, try

www.3dcreativemag.com page 54 Issue 047 July 2009

Manimal ZBrush Creation Series Part 2: Mammal-Man
as a comparison filling the whole character with
a neutral skin colour and you’ll clearly see the
difference! Plus, although the noodling effect is
pretty subtle, it’s also very powerful. It’s okay
to go back over some areas and enhance the
intended colour by using a low RGB level again.
So that’s what I do in the recessed areas and
around the eyes, etc. By keeping the colour
level low, you’re able to keep the intended effect
but change the hue of certain areas. Of course,
if you keep going over areas many times, you’ll
eventually flatten it out with that colour, so watch
out for that.

Lastly, I colour in the fingernails, hooves,

nipples, veins, and dot in some freckles here
and there. And for the hairy areas, I use a
Standard brush, Colorized Spray, Color Mod at
0.7, and flow at 1.0 (Stroke menu) and Alpha
67. Then, with a medium brown and RGB at
100, I start to spray on the hair by stroking top to
bottom (Fig.14).

The hair follows the flow of the stripes in the

alpha. After applying the hair effect to all areas
(don’t forget the fingers), I use a light tan grey
and spray some striped effects on the bridge of
the nose, the arms and down
the back, just to
break up all that
brown and black
(Fig.15).

www.3dcreativemag.com page 55 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part 2: Mammal-Man Manimal ZBrush Creation Series
I’ve also thrown together a ZBrush render
composite in Photoshop to show you the final
results after rendering in ZBrush (Fig.16a –
16c). It’s pretty fun but not quite as powerful as
a Max/Mental Ray render (Fig.17).

So there you have it: modelling and texturing

a Mammal-Man in a nutshell! I hope the
breakdown of this character creation has helped
you. If you have any questions about what I’ve
done, feel free to contact me via email.

Note from the Editor: Jesse Sandifer has kindly

provided us with 8 movies to accompany this
tutorial, which you can download by clicking on
the Free Movies icon. Jesse is also currently
considering doing some private one-on-one
ZBrush tutoring to the beginner or amateur
artist, so if you are interested please feel free
to contact him via email for further details and
information.

Jesse Sandifer
For more from this artist visit
http://www.jessesandifer.com
or contact
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com page 56 Issue 047 July 2009

“I hadn’t done any
animation of mechanical
devices before, let alone
mechanical insects, but
I thought it would be
good training for me.”

Inspired by the concept of an animated mechanical insect, Andrew Averkin discovered a 6-legged spider in an
imaginary vintage watch-maker’s scenario, and he’s here this month to tell us all about the creation process from
imagination to 3ds Max to Photoshop, with some stunning work in progress shots to boot!
Spider Making Of

Created In:3ds Max, Photoshop

Introduction
Hi, my name is Andrew Averkin and this is the
making of my latest image, Spider. By reading
this, you will hopefully uncover something on
your own that will help you in your own 3D art
creation, so I hope you’ll enjoy reading about
how I created this image.

I once had an idea to create a mechanical

beetle, or any other insect, and then make an mechanical devices before, let alone mechanical
animation of it. I hadn’t done any animation of insects, but I thought it would be good training
for me. So I began work not really thinking too
much about which one insect I was going to
build. During the process of design I saw that
the insect looked a lot like a spider, and an
imaginary picture came to me. It was at that
point that I decided to continue work with the
insect taking the form of a spider within an
environment.

Reference
Clock details appeared in my mind. I needed
pictures of spiders, different mechanical clocks,
cogs, wheels, watch-maker’s tools, and also
images of an environment for a scene that
would suit the image. I began searching for
images on the internet, and after a few hours
of research I collected all the necessary
information I needed.

Modelling
I used 3ds Max to create this image. I began I started work by modelling one of the spider’s

by taking a look at the gathered pictures and main joints. Modelling was very simple: I used

thinking about spiders in general. Spiders simple shapes such as lines, circles, ellipses,

usually have eight legs and a body consisting etc., and connected, cut and extruded them to

of just a few parts. However, I decided to make achieve the results I was after (Fig.01 – Fig.03).

a six-legged spider, simply because I wanted to I built up layer after layer of small details –

get a more rounded form to the insect and I felt screws, cogs, wheels, etc. – and connected

that eight legs would have been too much. them in a general form (Fig.04 & Fig.05).

www.3dcreativemag.com page 61 Issue 047 July 2009

 Making Of Spider

Moving upwards I created new details for the

leg, using the shapes already established and
Editable Poly in some places where necessary.
To make the foundation of the leg bigger and
stronger, I created some kind of armour for it
(Fig.06 & Fig.07). Details were simply repeated
to build the forms of the spider, so the modelling
of the leg didn’t take very long (Fig.08 – Fig.12).

When I had one leg ready I linked the details of

the leg to the basic joints so that I could move
and rotate them. I then duplicated the leg to
create six in total, and then started working on
the foundation of the body (Fig.13 – Fig.15). I
made the central part from a sphere I changed
using Editable Poly, cutting off parts for the legs
and other mechanisms (Fig.16 – Fig.21).

www.3dcreativemag.com page 62 Issue 047 July 2009

 Making Of Spider

For the spider’s environment I made it quite

simply using primitives with Editable Poly
(Fig.22 – Fig.25). In the end I had nearly one
million polygons for the spider, and about one
and a half million polygons for the entire scene
(Fig.26).

Materials & Texturing

For textures I used a collection from my library
that I have gathered over time. I didn’t use
Unwrap UVW; I used simple planar, box and

www.3dcreativemag.com page 64 Issue 047 July 2009

Spider Making Of
cylindrical mapping because there were no
difficult objects in the scene. Some additional
textures were created in Photoshop, for example
the picture in the book.

For the decoration on the metal boxes, and also

on the ink pen and clock, I used a displacement
map. For this purpose I created a few models to
make up a pattern and then rendered a ZDepth
pass, which gave me maps of the heights
(Fig.27 – Fig.29).

“The main task was to get

the correct properties of
materials in the scene”
Ispent most of my time at this stage creating
materials. The main task was to get the correct

properties of materials in the scene, in particular

for the metal because there was so much of it
being used (Fig.30 – Fig.35).

Lighting & Rendering

For the lighting in the scene, I chose V-Ray.
I wanted to create a feeling of presence of
the spider in a small room. I used one large
source V-Ray Plane, which was the basic light,
something like a window (Fig.36 & Fig.37). I
also used an HDRI map for GI environment
and reflection, which created nice reflections in
the metallic details and also gave the image an
interesting atmosphere.

www.3dcreativemag.com page 65 Issue 047 July 2009

 Making Of Spider

I pretty much used the standard properties

in V-Ray: I used Adaptive subdivision image
sampler; for Primary bounces I selected
Irradiance map, and Light cache was chosen
for Secondary bounces (Fig.38 – Fig.43). The
picture was rendered at 3600 by 2700 pixels in
size; it tools about 10 hours to render (Fig.44).

Post-Production
With the final render ready, I went into
Photoshop to do some post processing work on
the image. I decided that I needed to somehow
select the spider from the scene, and so to do
this I rendered a ZDepth channel which created
focus on the spider (Fig.45).

For the smoke in the scene, I created it with

FumeFX and applied it above the basic layer
in Multiply blending mode (Fig.46 – also see
Movie.01). I also did some colour correction
and used a glow effect to make the image
not too bright and a little more washed out.
Finally, I used a vignetting effect and chromatic
aberration to make the picture look more
realistic and believable (Fig.47 – Fig.49).
And there you have it, the Spider image was
complete. Thanks for reading!

Andrew Averkin
For more from this artist please contact him at:
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com page 66 Issue 047 July 2009

Chapter Two Productions specialises in high resolution visuals for Advertising, Marketing and Product Design.

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that challenge; we need to be flexible and responsive - and so do the tools we use.

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 OUT NOW!
3DTotal presents the new issue of 2dartist
magazine: a downloadable monthly magazine for
concept art, digital & matte painting for only £2.75 (approx $3.78 - €2.93)

visitwww.2dartistmag.com
to download the free ‘lite’ issue, the full issue, subscription
offers and to purchase back issues.
 “I like working with the
Unwrap modifier and
transferring all of my
unwrapped renders into
Photoshop where I can then
blend many different kinds of
aged textures to my liking ”

Freelance artist, George Krallis gives us an insight into the

making of a scene inspired by the ancient town of Fenghuang in
China. Using 3ds Max, V-Ray and Photoshop, he cleverly creates
contrast by setting his abandoned village against the backdrop of
a luscious mountain – with a much intended eerie result!
Waiting For The Storm Making Of

Created In:
3ds Max, V-Ray & Photoshop

I’m 35 years old and I leave in Xanthi, Greece

where I work as a graphic designer. Xanthi is a
small town in the north part of Greece and the
old part of it is filled with aged buildings, which
are what inspired me to make some 3D scenes.

I’ve been working with 3D graphics with my wife

(www.kouki1.deviantart.com) for six years as
a freelancer. This particular project fulfilled my
personal ambition to create a realistic image
with aged buildings, and the main inspiration
came from a model that I found on Board4All.cz.
I wanted to create it from the beginning, blend it
with water, and give the sense of an abandoned
village, just like the ones we might see in the

“The fun part began when

I started to work with
materials.”
ancient town of Fenghuang, China.
I made some sketches before I started work in
3D. With my chosen sketch (Fig.01), I started
up 3ds Max where I then began working on
the models from standard primitives and
using some basic modifiers like Lathe, Bevel,
and the Unwrap UVW modifier. I created just
four buildings and copied them with different
parameters (Fig.02). Some extra models were
also necessary in order to complete the project
(Fig.03).

The fun part began when I started to work

with materials. I like working with the Unwrap
modifier and transferring all of my unwrapped
renders into Photoshop where I can then blend
many different kinds of aged textures to my
liking (Fig.04).

www.3dcreativemag.com page 73 Issue 047 July 2009

 Making Of Waiting For The Storm

For the lighting in my scene I used a Target elements, like Vray Alpha, Vray Atmosphere,
Directional Light, but I worked further on the Vray Global Illumination, Vray Diffuse Filter and
lighting once in Photoshop because I had to Render ID, which I used as extra layers later on
blend the final render with the background in Photoshop.
image which I used from the stock library by
Pierre Laurent (www.cat-in-the-stock.deviantart. When I was finished with my first render
com). I could have done this work in 3ds Max, (Fig.05) and before I used the materials, the
but I decided I could control the lighting blend scene looked very bright, like a sunny day was
better and more quickly in Photoshop without about to come, but my goal was actually quite
having to render all the time to check the final the opposite! I wanted to portray a sense of
result. abandonment in a small village with a storm on
its approach. So I applied all the basic materials
“I wanted to portray a
in 3ds Max because the light always looks
sense of abandonment”
different after I apply them (Fig.06), and then background image, and in my opinion this
For the scene I used Adaptive DMC as an re-evaluated the image. helps make the scene look a little spookier.
image sampler, the V-Ray Lanczos filter as As a finishing touch I played with Curves
an antialiasing filter, Irradiance map for the The rest of the work was done in Photoshop layers to achieve the most appropriate looking
primary bounces, and Brute Force as secondary where I continued to work with materials. I also atmosphere for the scene and the story (Fig.07).
bounces. The V-Ray Irradiance map was set painted some extra parts, like ropes hanging
at medium with 50 Hsph Subdivisions and 40 from the buildings and some dead trees behind Thanks for reading, please be sure to visit my
Interp. Samples, and no environment lights the buildings. The dying trees work in contrast webpage for further information about me and
were used at all. I also rendered some other with the thriving ecosystem featured in the for more examples of my work. Thank you!

www.3dcreativemag.com page 74 Issue 047 July 2009

George Krallis
For more from this artist visit
http://geograpcics.deviantart.com/
or contact
[email protected]
Here is what’s in next months
issue of 3dcreative

Interviews
Christophe Desse

Tutorials
NEW - ZBrush ‘Manimal’
Creation Series:
Part 3 - Aquatic-Man
NEW - Next Gen Character
Creation Series
for ZBrush, 3dsmax, Lightwave,
Maya, Modo

Galleries
another 10 of the best Images
from around the world!

PLUS MUCH MUCH MORE!!

visit www.3dcreativemag.
com for full information
and to purchase current
and previous issues for only
$4 US each!
Image by Zoltan Miklosi
 With the release of 3DTotal’s latest book,
Digital Art Masters: Volume 3, we have
some exclusive chapters for you...

This book is more than just an artwork

book. Not only does it feature
full-colour, full-page images, but each artist
has given a detailed description, in their
own words, of the creation process behind
each piece of published artwork. And
they’ve done it especially for this book!

This month we feature:

“Gros Nap”
by Laurent Pierlot
The following shots of the “Gros Nap” book pages are featured here in full-resolution and can be read by zooming in...
 3DCreative readers can purchase
Digital Art Masters: Volume 1, 2 & 3 with a special 20% Discount

To claim your discount simply purchase here:

http://www.3dtotal.com/books/
(Note: if a security dialogue box appears, tick ‘Remember’, then click ‘Allow’)
www.3dcreativemag.com
image : © Andrew Averkin

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N OW&
SC R IBE tion!
SU B 25% azing value p ub lica
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6 ISSE OF 5 prox - $19.95 s ave
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3DTotal About us

Is a resource website for the CG community;

amongst our growing number of products for CG
artists, we produce two monthly downloadable
PDF magazines – 2DArtist and 3DCreative.
We are based in the West Midlands, in the UK,
and our intention with our magazines is to make
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www.3dcreativemag.com page 81 Issue 047 July 2009

This series of tutorials provides a comprehensive guide through the process
of creating a 3D character intended for use within a next gen console
environment. As such, the design of the model will be tailored towards the
eventual aim of functioning within a game engine and viewed in real-time.
The series will cover all of the key stages of the 3D pipeline from sculpting
the initial mesh in ZBrush and optimizing it in the principal 3D packages,
through to texturing and applying next gen shaders. The inclusion of ZBrush
tutorials will address the methods of sculpting both a low-poly mesh as well
as a highly detailed version used to generate a normal map, and accompany
the remaining software specific chapters that will detail topics that cover
mapping, materials, lighting and rendering.

Chapter 1 – Low Poly Modelling

This chapter is divided into two categories, the first of which focuses on
using ZBrush to create a low-poly sculpt from ZSpheres to approximate the
proportions of the creature concept. The second section takes and imports
this mesh into the appropriate software and explains the principles and
importance of optimisation.

Chapter 2 – High-Poly Modelling Part 1 | Aug 09

Chapter 3 – High-Poly Modelling Part 2 | Sep 09

Chapter 4 – Mapping / Unwrapping | Oct 09

Chapter 5 – Normal Mapping – Texturing | Nov 09

Chapter 6 – Materials, Lighting & Rendering | Dec 09

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig 00

Part 1a
Software Used: ZBrush

There has never been a better time to create a

next-gen creature. Tools like ZBrush, Mudbox,
and 3ds Max are all weapons in our arsenal,
allowing us to create believable, realistic, and
detailed creatures that were previously too
complex to even be considered.

We will begin this tutorial series by looking at

Fig 01
creating a base mesh for our creature, designed
by Richard Tilbury at 3DTotal (Fig.00). Using
a combination of ZBrush and a variety of
software packages, we will create a base mesh
from ZSpheres, then retopologise and perfect
our mesh in 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave and
modo.

Since coming onto the market, ZBrush has

revolutionised the video games industry. Detail
that was previously only possible through
meticulous hand painting can now be done
quickly and easily because of this programme.
Organic characters are now able to look just
as realistic and stunning as their high-poly
counterparts. ZSpheres are a wonderful way
Fig 02
to create a quick, simple base mesh that can
be retopologised (the process of creating new
topology on a mesh) and refined in a general 3D
application.

1. To create a mesh using ZSpheres, we’ll first

drag one out onto the canvas, and then proceed
to add more ZSpheres off of the original. This
will build up the character in the same way we
would with bones. It’s important with ZSpheres
to plan out the construction of your character
before you start. The original ZSphere should
act as the pelvis or waist, with additional
ZSpheres coming off to form the limbs and
midsection.

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 84 Issue 047 July 2009

Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 03 First we click on the ZSphere icon in the tool
palette, then left-click and drag to place a
ZSphere onto the canvas. Release the left-
click, and then hit the Edit button [Q]. Now our
ZSphere is placed and editable, and we can
go on to add new ZSpheres off of this original
(Fig.01).

2. To save time and make our job easier we

can use symmetry to automatically create
the opposite side of the model as we work on
only one side. To enable this in ZBrush simply
press [X] or go to Tool > Symmetry > Activate
Symmetry, and make sure the X button is
highlighted. If you now hover over the model,
you will see another cursor on the opposite side
that mirrors the actions of the original cursor that
Fig 04
we’re manipulating (Fig.02).

3. Click and drag on the right side of the

ZSphere to create what will be the hip section
(Fig.03).

4. Create a new ZSphere off of the last one

by using the same click and drag technique.
This new ZSphere will act as the first knee joint
(Fig.04).

5. We’ll now use the brush move tools to

Fig 05
position the section we just created. At the top
of the window (providing you are using the
default ZBrush interface), there are buttons
labelled, Edit, Draw, Move, Scale, and Rotate.
Click on the Move button and right-click over the
model. Make sure the draw size is small, as a
large draw size acts as a soft selection and will
move other parts of the model as well. Decrease
the draw size to the minimum and move your
mouse away from the menu. Select the ZSphere
we just created and drag it downwards and into
position (Fig.05).

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 85 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

6. Now create a new ZSphere on the bottom Fig 06

of the knee joint, remembering to create it on
the ZSphere itself and not on the intersection.
Position this as shown and go on to create
another two ZSpheres to act as the end of the
leg and foot bones. We are going to move on to
creating the mid-spinal sections and the chest.
Create another three ZSpheres on top of the
pelvis and position them as shown, using the
Move tool as before (Fig.06).

7. Create new ZSpheres on the side of the

Fig 07
upmost ZSphere to act as the clavicle, or
shoulder area. I find that creating these
sections, as opposed to just using that last
sphere as the elbow, gives a nicer curvature
for the underarm and shoulder areas once the
model is meshed (Fig.07).

8. Now we go on to create two ZSpheres on top

Fig 08
of the upmost middle sphere to act as the neck
and head. It’s important to position the head
section straight up, as the topology of the top
of the sphere lends itself to the top of the head,
with the face being built on the front (Fig.08).

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 86 Issue 047 July 2009

Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 09 9. It’s now time to create the arms, which will
be built using the same methods as before. We
create three sections to form the elbow, wrist,
and hand (Fig.09a & Fig.09b).

10. The last ZSphere to be placed is the one

Fig 10
on the back of the lower knee joint, duplicating
the bone that sticks out in the concept drawing
(Fig.10a & Fig.10b). Once all of the ZSpheres
are placed, we can move into the refining stage,
part of which is creating the hands.

11. Surprisingly quickly, we now have the whole

Fig 11a
character built and blocked out, and it’s time to
go over it with a tweaking pass. Use the Scale
and Move tools to try and match the concept art
in proportions, pose and scale. The closer we
get now, the easier the retopology work will be.

A ZSphere model is nothing until it’s meshed,

and that’s where Adaptive Skin comes in.
Adaptive Skin is a method for creating a usable
model from ZSpheres. It also comes with the
handy option of previewing the model before
creation. Open the Tool menu and find the
Adaptive Skin palette.

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 87 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

There are plenty of confusing options in the Fig 11b

palette, so here is a quick explanation of their
functions (explanations of almost any tool in
ZBrush can also be found by hovering over the
tool and holding down Ctrl). Under the Adaptive
Skin menu (Fig.11a) we have the:

• Preview button, which turns on and off

our meshing. You can use the hot-key [A]
to enable and disable this. It’s very useful
to keep checking the mesh to see how your
ZSpheres are looking.

• Density, which calculates the number of

subdivisions that the mesh should have. A
density setting of one will be very low poly;
a setting of two will be four times that, and
Fig 11c
so on.

• Ires (Intersection resolution), which is the

number of consecutive ZSpheres that will
be used to create a single object when the
mesh is converted into polygons. This can
be visualised by thinking of one sphere
with a two-segment chain on either side.
With an Ires of 0, each sphere will turn
into individual spheres with a few joining
polygons to connect them together. An
Ires setting of one will turn the three middle
spheres into one flowing cylindrical mesh,
with the outer two spheres still maintaining
their spherical shape.

Fig 12a
• Mbr (Membrane Curvature), which adjusts
the smoothness in the T- and L-shaped
intersections. The higher the setting, the
smoother the curve will be, whilst a low
setting will maintain the shape of the right
angle.

• MC (Minimal skin to child), which ignores

the child* of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 88 Issue 047 July 2009

Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 12b • MP (Minimal skin to parent), which ignores
the parent** of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

• PD (Pre-divide), which lets you specify

a pre-division resolution to match objects
which are attached using connector mesh
or local mesh features.

* A ZSphere created off another ZSphere is

known as a “child” object.
** The original ZSphere is known as the parent
(think of it as a mother and daughter holding
Fig 12c
hands!)

Once you understand the features, Adaptive

Skin is not too complicated, and it’s a very quick
way to block out a character, animal, alien – or
even a car! So now that we have a good set of
Adaptive Skin settings, we need to modify the
mesh a little to make it optimal for animation and
speed up the next optimisation section.

Place new ZSpheres at the join areas of the

model, namely the shoulder, the crotch, and
optionally the neck. Placing a sphere on either
side of the knee and elbow joints gives us
three edge loops close together – the optimal
amount for bending in animation. You can add
Fig 12d
a ZSphere to an existing section by holding
control and clicking on the section while in edit
mode (Fig.11b – Fig.11c).

12. The next – and final – stage is to create the

hand. The process is roughly the same as with
the whole character but it needs to be a little
more precise in the layout of the ZSpheres.
We are creating mid-sections that will serve
to create the palm and finger joints (Fig.12a –
Fig.12d).

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 89 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

13. Follow along using the video and Fig 13

screenshots as references to lay down the
ZSpheres. Once all are in place, it’s important to
check the adaptive skin [A] and adjust the hand
to anatomically correct proportions as much as
possible. Creating a natural, relaxed pose here
will be of great benefit to us later (Fig.13).

Free Movie: You can download the movie here,

or by clicking on the Free Movies icon at the end
of the tutorial.

14. Our character base mesh is now built and

Fig 14a
ready to be exported into our 3D application.
No UVs have been set up yet, as we will do
that inside our 3D application later. Before we
can export we must turn our preview mesh into
a usable one by simply clicking the Make …
(Fig.14a).

This just created a duplicate model, which

Fig 14b
ZBrush swapped the active tool to and began
using as the primary model. This new model
needs to be converted to a PolyMesh3D object
which we can export. Under the Tool menu, click
Make Polymesh3D (Fig.14b).

Now all that is left is to click Export (in the

Tool menu), give it a name, and save into your
project location ready for the next step.

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 90 Issue 047 July 2009

Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 15 15. Congratulations on creating your base
mesh so far (Fig.15). With the knowledge learnt
from this section you will be able to create a
base mesh for almost any organic object and
know how to create an optimal mesh using
Adaptive Skin! In the next step we will take the
exported model into our 3D application, give
it new topology, and perfect the shapes and
forms ready for sculpting and animation. Please
continuing reading for Part 1B.

Next Gen Character

Creation

Creature Concept by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial by:
Joseph Harford
For more from this artist visit:
http://josephharford.com/
Or contact them:
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 91 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig.00

Part 1b
Software Used: 3dsmax

Optimisation and topology are vitally important

in real-time character creation. Whether it’s for
video games, the web, or interactive media,
polygon count and topology should be high on
your priority list. If you have a budget of 10,000
tris for a character (most game studios work
with tri count as opposed to poly count), plus
clothes and accessories, there are a number
Fig 01
of considerations to decide on while building.
Things like: How am I going to spend those tris
wisely? Which areas should have the most tris?
How can I go about creating animation-friendly
topology with as few tris as possible and how
can I keep the silhouette as smooth and edge-
free as possible with the minimum amount of
tris? These questions are vital, and should be
asked all throughout the process of modelling
a character. They should be considered at
each stage and should be present in all your
decisions during this part.

I am using 3ds Max 2009, but older and

newer versions will not be too different. On
the left of the screenshot I have a modelling
Fig 02
toolbar with very useful scripts and features
by a genius Maxscript artist, Remus Juncu
(http://313designstudio.com/rappatools)
(Fig.00). Common selection shortcuts, view
shortcuts, edge loop tools, wire colouring and
much more are all part of this absolutely free
toolset, and I find them extremely useful while
modelling or retopologising models. Feel free to
go and try them out and see if they can improve
your workflow. I won’t be using any of the
functions during the tutorial except the view and
selection shortcuts, so don’t worry if you haven’t
got them installed.

1. We’ll start off by importing the model into 3ds

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 92 Issue 047 July 2009

Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 03 Max. Open 3ds Max and go to File > Import. In
the File Type dialogue, find Wavefront OBJ, and
select the exported model that we created in
Part 1A (Fig.01).

2. When I import with the default options the

model application is flipped 180 degrees, upside
down. In the co-ordinates boxes at the bottom
of the screen, enter 180 into the Y box so the
model will rotate right-side up (Fig.02).

3. Now it’s important to convert our model from

editable mesh to editable poly. There are a few
reasons for doing this: editable poly is a newer
and more complete modelling solution, providing
us with access to the newer 3ds Max modelling
Fig 04a
tools; It also eliminates the possibility of double-
sided polys and extruded edges, which in most
game and real-time engines will cause errors
or fail to export. Right-click over our viewport
and click Convert To > Convert to Editable Poly
(Fig.03).

4. Unlike clay or wood sculpting, 3D artists have

the luxury of symmetry modelling, with one side
automatically updating as we work. To do this
in 3ds Max we need to remove one side of the
model and apply a symmetry modifier. Select
half of the mesh after switching to the front view
(default hotkey [F]). Make sure that the Ignore
Backfacing option is turned off. Selecting half of
the model by using a rectangular selection will
Fig 04b
select both the polygons facing and not facing
our camera (Fig.04a – Fig.04b).

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 93 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

5. On the right of our Max screen we have the Fig 05

modifier stack. This is a collection of all the
modifiers that can be applied to our currently
selected object. Click on the down arrow to
open the dropdown box, and select Symmetry.
You can also drop down the box and start typing
the name of the modifier to quickly select it. The
modifier is applied to the object and we can
adjust the settings.

In the settings for the symmetry modifier, the

correct axis to use is X, as we want the model
to be mirrored in the X plane. We want Weld
Seam to be enabled, as this will weld each
vertex along the symmetry plane together.
The threshold setting decides the distance a
vert has to be from its mirrored version to be
Fig 06
welded together: a too high threshold results in
collapsing of too many verts together; a too low
setting results in un-welded vertices. Reduce
this number to zero, and while holding Alt, drag
the spinner upwards until you notice all the
vertices have been welded (holding Alt while
manipulating a spinner in Max gives you a finer
control of the increments adjusted) (Fig.05).

6. Click Editable Poly underneath the newly

added modifier. We will work underneath the
symmetry modifier for the remainder of this
section, collapsing again when ready to export,
with no asymmetry being put into the model
pre-high poly.

Fig 07
We can move onto cleaning our model now,
ready for adding and modifying the topology.
The area I always start with is underneath the
arms. I want all areas of the mesh to be visible,
with no intersecting polygons. Go ahead and
enter Vertex sub-selection mode [1] and select
vertices in the arm region. Select all that are
intersecting, plus a few more in the surrounding
area to ensure a smooth transition (Fig.06).

7. Now, as we did in the earlier step, find the

Relax modifier from our modifier stack. Apply
this to the model by selecting it from the list
and adjust the settings to match the ones in the
image (Fig.07). As mentioned before, we are

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Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 08 trying to eliminate any overlaps or intersections
to assess the topology properly.

8. With the shoulder area relaxed, collapse

the Relax modifier by right-clicking on it in the
list and choosing Collapse To. We now have a
collapsed object, without affecting the Symmetry
modifier. Go on to relax and collapse any other
areas of the mesh that are intersecting. This
might include – but is not limited to – the elbows,
crotch, backs of knees, and the hand.

In this step I have added edges running from

the lower back to the neck. The head simply
doesn’t have enough detail to provide a clean
and smooth silhouette. The broadness of the
back dictates our need for more edges in that
Fig 09
area (Fig.08).

9. Here I am shaping the new edges into place

while in Vertex mode. If you enter Screen mode
for translation of objects (Ctrl + Alt + Right-click
and select Screen) then you can simply drag
vertices around one by one without selecting
and using the manipulator (Fig.09).

10. I’ve added in an edge in the neck to show

Fig 10
the sternomastoid muscle. This will start off
the flow of topology I want in this area. I’m not
worrying too much about keep everything quads
(four-sided polygons) at this point as I want to
rough out the flow of the edges and then tidy up
once that is in place (Fig.10).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

11. I’m adding a row of edges in to mark the Fig 11

underside of the chest. The edge loop also runs
into the shoulder area to mark the insertion
point of the main shoulder muscles. This gives
great deformation when the character lifts up
his arm. I’m adding in these edges using the
Cut tool, which I have on a shortcut key as it’s a
commonly used tool (Fig.11).

A neat and timesaving trick is to enable

snapping when cutting (default hotkey [S]).
Right-click on the snap icon in the top toolbar (it
will highlight on and off when you press S), then
turn all options off, except vertex and edge.

When you normally cut, it can be difficult to see

if you’re on a vertex or an edge, and many loose
Fig 12
vertices get created due to this, leaving the
model quite messy after a while. It then requires
a lot of welding verts and deleting edges to
clean it up. An alternative is to try the above
method technique of snapping, which will lock
your cut along edges and snap to vertices.

12. I go on to further relax the elbow and wrist

sections. As you can see, the topology of the
hand leaves a little to be desired. The wrist
will not animate well this way and the fingers
need a lot of work to get them to a good stage
for sculpting and animation. The crotch area
topology came out almost perfect, showing the
power of ZSpheres (Fig.12)!

Fig 13
13. I add an edge here to define the wrist and
topside of the hand. I remove a few edges on
the hand by right-clicking, holding down Ctrl and
clicking Remove. By holding Ctrl and clicking
Remove, it removes edges and vertices at once
– a clean remove. In general, you should always
be removing this way to keep the whole model
clean, as we did with our snap cutting (Fig.13).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 14a 14. I’m working on the underside of the hand,
re-flowing the topology to form the two major
padded sections of the palm. It’s important to
note here the flow of the edges around the
thumb, as this will later be very efficient in
pivoting the thumb around. All of this is done
in the same manner as before, adding and
removing edges to optimize the flow (Fig.14a &
Fig.14b).

Fig 14b

15. The top of the hand topology should flow

out of the fingers and into the wrist, just as the
Fig 15
bones and sinews do anatomically. I reduce
the edge loops around the fingers to adjust the
joints and a connector loop near the knuckle. I’m
also making an attempt to clean up the hand by
removing and adding edges. The aim of this is
to end up with all quads. Of course, as this is for
real-time, quads are not as essential as for film
or other models. The main issue is that triangles
and 5+ sided polygons do not smooth well. As
real-time models are not smoothed with turbo or
meshsmooth we do not have that consideration.
In fact, for real-time models, triangles are a tool
that we can use to reduce the overall poly count
or create points like the elbow or ankle bones
without using too many polygons (Fig.15).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

16. To further work on the hand I need to hide Fig 16a

a large portion of the mesh. Sometimes it can
be difficult to see the area you’re working on
when the rest of the mesh is in the way. Select
everything but the hand up to the elbow and in
the modifier stack, scroll down, and press the
Hide Selected button (Fig.16a & Fig.16b).

Fig 16b

17. I create points on each knuckle to reduce

Fig 17a
the poly count and allow the hand to flow into
the wrist without adding additional polygons
(Fig.17a – Fig.17b). Hands are notoriously
difficult to model as they can bend and move
into a number of awkward positions. As people
are so aware subconsciously of the anatomy
of hands, as we are of faces, it becomes easy
for observers to spot mistakes automatically.
Unfortunately, without repeated study we
don’t have enough information in our heads
to fix those mistakes by eye. For that reason I
advocate dedicating a portion of your time to
studying the anatomy of the hand, the muscles
and bones that drive it, and how they interact
with each other. After a number of drawings and

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Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 17b sculptures the information is burned into your
brain for use in the future. The more information
we store, the more we can recall at a later date,
allowing us to work more creatively, efficiently
and with more confidence.

18. I work further on the palm and thumb

Fig 18a
connection point. As this will be the model to
be sculpted in ZBrush later, it’s important to
maintain an equal size of polygons. The only
areas of the hand that need more numerous
and smaller polygons are the joints, wrist and
perhaps the fingertips (Fig.18a – Fig.18b).

Fig 18b

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

19. Select the edge loops that make up the Fig 19a
joints of the fingers and thumb – two around
each finger, and one on the thumb; right-click
over the model and hit the little icon next to the
Chamfer button. Selecting the Chamfer text will
use the default settings without popping up a
menu box, whereas we want to click the icon so
we can dictate those settings ourselves.

Increase the size of the Chamfer to

approximately the size in the second screenshot
here (Fig19a – Fig.19c), and increase the
number of segments to 2. Now we have created
optimal topology for our finger joints that will
also deform well.

Fig 19b

Fig 19c

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Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 20a 20. After doing small tweaks on the model
throughout this entire process, some of the
centre line vertices have been moved off centre.
The welding no longer matches up and a clear
seam is visible. To get this back to an accurate
state go to the Editable Poly level of your model
and press [3] on your keyboard, or select the
Edge Borders sub-selection mode. Click once
on one of the edges on the centreline and Max
will select the whole loop.

With the loop selected, in the modifier panel

find the Make Planar button. On the right of the
button are three letters corresponding to the
various axes. These buttons take the current
selection and line every vertex up in the chosen
axis. As the symmetry modifier is in the X
Fig 20b
plane, we can go ahead and select the X icon.
You should see the edges line up as you click.
We are not quite done, because the lining up
averaged all the vertex locations and now they
all lie in that position. Again in the co-ordinates
input boxes along the bottom of the screen, type
zero in the X box. This puts all the vertices back
along the X axis and our symmetry modifier
works once again (Fig.20a & Fig.20b).

21. Finally, it’s time to work on the head again,

Fig 21
and we start by blocking in the eye areas. If
the eye holes are in the right place it makes it
very easy to locate the nose, mouth, and ear
(Fig.21).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

22. I apply a new material to the object to see Fig 22a

how it looks in a silhouette form. During the
whole process of building the model we should
be looking out to make sure the silhouette looks
interesting, proportionally correct, and as close
to the concept as possible. To apply a new
material to check this there are two ways, as
follows (Fig.22a – Fig.22b):

• The first is to simply press [M] to open the

Material Editor and change the diffuse
colour of the applied material to pure black.
Then deselect the model and view the
silhouette.

• The other – and perhaps better – way is

to select the model, and above the modifier
Fig 22b
panel where the model’s name is written,
click on the colour swatch next to it. This
is the colour of the wireframe, the object’s
default colour without material. If you apply
a pure black colour here you can then go to
the Display tab (the fifth tab from the left),
and click on the checkbox for Object Colour.
The model will now be displayed simply with
the colour of the object and no lighting. This
is very useful for working on the silhouette
of the model and versatile in that you can
simply switch back to material colour when
you want to go back to a lit model view.

23. The legs are going to need some attention

Fig 23
before proceeding, and I’m going to start by
simplifying the connection between the sticking
out bone and that second joint – it’s more
twisted than I would like it to be for a simple
base mesh. I go about reworking the area; I
remove a number of edge loops in the bone
section, and in the foot also. It’s important
to think which areas will be deformed during
walking or action with the character and put
more polygons into those sections. Areas that
will always remain static, and especially areas
that will remain straight, need far less polygons
(Fig.23).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 24 24. Flatten out the bottom of the foot and shape
it so it resembles the concept art. It’s important
to note the foot is basically a hoof, and is solid.
There are no toe areas, so the foot will not bend
when walking. This means we can reduce the
polygons on the topside of the foot by collapsing
some edges and forming triangles (Fig.24).

25. Continuing the head, I’m going to put in

Fig 25
edge loops that range from the bridge of the
nose to the bottom of the chin. Even if it’s not
perfectly tidy, it’s important to block out all the
basic topology loops in the face so that we can
later alter the shape and quickly add detail by
inserting new edge loops (Fig.25). Just as with
a nurbs model we might create these sections
separately, stitch them together, and then add
detail through isoparms.

26. Now we’re going to create the base for the

Fig 26
eyes. Creating circular loops around the eyes
makes it easy to add additional loops later,
but also creates the most optimal topology to
animate the eyes. Select the polygons around
the eye and right-click over the model, selecting
Inset. The cursor will change, and click-and-
dragging over the selected polygons will create
a loop inside of the selected one (Fig.26).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

27. Like the eyes, I’m going to create more Fig 27

loops inside of the mouth section. I create
circular loops around the mouth, making sure
to position them at key points that will affect the
silhouette; for example, the top of the upper lip,
which in its circular form will create the bottom
part of the lower lip (Fig.27).

28. I’ve selected the newly created eye polygons

Fig 28
and created another inset. The size of the inset
does not matter here as we will right-click again
on our object and hit Collapse. All selected
polygons will now have been collapsed into a
single vertex. I’m also insetting polygons on
the side of the head to form the ear. We want
the topology of the top and side of the head
to flow into the ear naturally, as without the
benefit of mesh/Turbosmooth, any ugly topology
connecting to the ear at harsh angles will appear
darkly coloured due to the way realtime engines
handle smoothing groups (Fig.28).

29. Add further loops to form the chin and jaw,

Fig 29
making sure it follows the jaw line all the way up
to the ear. As the nose does not really stick out
of the character in the concept, we will not add
topology for it. Rather, we will use the normal
map from the high-poly sculpt alongside a
good texture to achieve a realistic result. Not all
detail needs to be in the base mesh, only detail
that effects the silhouette, or will do when the
character deforms (Fig.29).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 30 30. Let’s not forget the back of the character. It’s
great to work on a specific area for a long time,
but it’s easy to get too focused on a particular
area and go into too much detail before it’s time.
It’s important to work the overall shape of the
model and try to work in stages. Each stage
should add another level of detail to your model,
as if you were subdividing in ZBrush, or adding
another level of smoothing. That means detail
like the eyes, small muscles, or veins should all
come at the end of the whole process (Fig.30).

31. I add a few more edges into the ear and

continue to tidy up the area. As the image
shows, the newly created polygons of the ear
are not smoothing in the same way as the rest
of the model. The reason for this is smoothing
Fig 31
groups, an important part of real-time modelling
as it gives us the opportunity to create hard
edges and smooth surfaces without using more
polygons. Smoothing groups tell the application
how to display the model. A six-sided box with
a smoothing group on each of the six sides
looks like a standard box. If we apply only
one smoothing group to the entire object, the
programme will attempt to smooth it into one
surface, instead of six, making the box appear
somewhat spherical. As this is only a lighting
effect and does not alter the polygon count
or the actual model, it is simply an illusion.
Because a silhouette is a shadow and lacks all
forms of light, smoothing groups won’t affect
the appearance of the model’s silhouette, which
Fig 32a
is just one more reason why it is so important
to use silhouettes and smoothing groups in
conjunction throughout the entire modelling
process (Fig.31).

Setting up smoothing groups is not something

we will do often with an organic character.
It’s much more common to use them for
accessories, weapons, cars, and most game-
ready models.

32. Enter Polygon sub-selection mode and

hit [Ctrl] + [A] to select all polygons of the
model. Scroll down in the modifier panel to
Polygon Smoothing Groups. The number one

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

is invisible, which means that not every polygon Fig 32b

is part of group one. We can therefore deduce
that, because no other smoothing groups are
invisible, the polygons that are not in group one
are also not part of their own second smoothing
group. In order to make sure the entire model
is all part of the same smoothing group, simply
click on the invisible 1 button and see the
ear and eye areas smooth over (Fig.32a &
Fig.32b).

33. Applying the same principles we’ve used

Fig 33
throughout the tutorial so far, I’m working on the
neck area and shaping the back of the skull. I
want the large neck muscles to be prominent in
the base mesh and follow the muscles’ direction
so the area will animate well when the character
turns his head (Fig.33).

34. Continue to work on the model by tidying

Fig 34
up all areas until you are left with mostly quads.
If you do have triangles, ask yourself why they
are there. They should only be there if they
are performing a function, whether it be for
the silhouette, polygon reduction, or to help
deformation (Fig.34). It’s good to ask yourself
these questions throughout. If you don’t, the
programmers will later on.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series :Part1
Fig 35 35. For the final section of this part, I’ve used
a combination of moving vertices using soft
selection and hand pulling the model around
to work further on matching the pose and
proportions of the concept. What we have at
the end is a base mesh that will not only work
well for sculpting our high poly, but also animate
well, run efficiently in our real-time engine, and
look good from all distances due to our care and
attention to the silhouette (Fig.35).

Next up is Part 2 – next month – in which we’ll

be sculpting the real meat of the character,
muscles, veins and all!

Next Gen Character

Creation

Creature Concpet by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial by:
Joseph Harford
For more from this artist visit:
http://josephharford.com/
Or contact them:
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 107 Issue 047 July 2009

 Introduction:
The ‘Eva Wild Series’ – Our aim in this series is to pro-
vide comprehensive lessons to produce a complete fully
rigged, textured and anatomically correct female char-
acter. This series fits well into 3 DVDs with 3 separate
professional 3ds Max instructors taking you through each
if their specialties in very detailed step by step processes
making this training suitable for artists of all levels.

Part 1 - Modelling:
- Complete step by step modelling of the Eva Wild character.
- Teaches the importance of studying human anatomy.
- Provides clear diagrams showing muscle flow and bone structure.
- 14 hours of comprehensive training.
- Suitable for artist of all levels.

Part 2 - Texturing, Mapping & Clothing:

- Complete step by step texturing process of the Eva Wild
character.
- Modelling and Texturing of Eva Wild garments.
- Lighting the character.
- 4 hours and 47 mins of comprehensive training.
- Suitable for artist of all levels.

Part 3 - Rigging & Animation

- Complete step by step of setting up a fully animatable
rig for the Eva Wild character.
- Creating a walk Cycle.
- Creating a simple face morph.
- 7 hours and 43 mins of comprehensive training.
- Suitable for artist of all levels.

for more products in our range visit http://www.3dtotal.com/shop

This series of tutorials provides a comprehensive guide through the process
of creating a 3D character intended for use within a next gen console
environment. As such, the design of the model will be tailored towards the
eventual aim of functioning within a game engine and viewed in real-time.
The series will cover all of the key stages of the 3D pipeline from sculpting
the initial mesh in ZBrush and optimizing it in the principal 3D packages,
through to texturing and applying next gen shaders. The inclusion of ZBrush
tutorials will address the methods of sculpting both a low-poly mesh as well
as a highly detailed version used to generate a normal map, and accompany
the remaining software specific chapters that will detail topics that cover
mapping, materials, lighting and rendering.

Chapter 1 – Low Poly Modelling

This chapter is divided into two categories, the first of which focuses on
using ZBrush to create a low-poly sculpt from ZSpheres to approximate the
proportions of the creature concept. The second section takes and imports
this mesh into the appropriate software and explains the principles and
importance of optimisation.

Chapter 2 – High-Poly Modelling Part 1 | Aug 09

Chapter 3 – High-Poly Modelling Part 2 | Sep 09

Chapter 4 – Mapping / Unwrapping | Oct 09

Chapter 5 – Normal Mapping – Texturing | Nov 09

Chapter 6 – Materials, Lighting & Rendering | Dec 09

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig 00

Part 1a
Software Used: ZBrush

There has never been a better time to create a

next-gen creature. Tools like ZBrush, Mudbox,
and 3ds Max are all weapons in our arsenal,
allowing us to create believable, realistic, and
detailed creatures that were previously too
complex to even be considered.

We will begin this tutorial series by looking at

Fig 01
creating a base mesh for our creature, designed
by Richard Tilbury at 3DTotal (Fig.00). Using
a combination of ZBrush and a variety of
software packages, we will create a base mesh
from ZSpheres, then retopologise and perfect
our mesh in 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave and
modo.

Since coming onto the market, ZBrush has

revolutionised the video games industry. Detail
that was previously only possible through
meticulous hand painting can now be done
quickly and easily because of this programme.
Organic characters are now able to look just
as realistic and stunning as their high-poly
counterparts. ZSpheres are a wonderful way
Fig 02
to create a quick, simple base mesh that can
be retopologised (the process of creating new
topology on a mesh) and refined in a general 3D
application.

1. To create a mesh using ZSpheres, we’ll first

drag one out onto the canvas, and then proceed
to add more ZSpheres off of the original. This
will build up the character in the same way we
would with bones. It’s important with ZSpheres
to plan out the construction of your character
before you start. The original ZSphere should
act as the pelvis or waist, with additional
ZSpheres coming off to form the limbs and
midsection.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 03 First we click on the ZSphere icon in the tool
palette, then left-click and drag to place a
ZSphere onto the canvas. Release the left-
click, and then hit the Edit button [Q]. Now our
ZSphere is placed and editable, and we can
go on to add new ZSpheres off of this original
(Fig.01).

2. To save time and make our job easier we

can use symmetry to automatically create
the opposite side of the model as we work on
only one side. To enable this in ZBrush simply
press [X] or go to Tool > Symmetry > Activate
Symmetry, and make sure the X button is
highlighted. If you now hover over the model,
you will see another cursor on the opposite side
that mirrors the actions of the original cursor that
Fig 04
we’re manipulating (Fig.02).

3. Click and drag on the right side of the

ZSphere to create what will be the hip section
(Fig.03).

4. Create a new ZSphere off of the last one

by using the same click and drag technique.
This new ZSphere will act as the first knee joint
(Fig.04).

5. We’ll now use the brush move tools to

Fig 05
position the section we just created. At the top
of the window (providing you are using the
default ZBrush interface), there are buttons
labelled, Edit, Draw, Move, Scale, and Rotate.
Click on the Move button and right-click over the
model. Make sure the draw size is small, as a
large draw size acts as a soft selection and will
move other parts of the model as well. Decrease
the draw size to the minimum and move your
mouse away from the menu. Select the ZSphere
we just created and drag it downwards and into
position (Fig.05).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

6. Now create a new ZSphere on the bottom Fig 06

of the knee joint, remembering to create it on
the ZSphere itself and not on the intersection.
Position this as shown and go on to create
another two ZSpheres to act as the end of the
leg and foot bones. We are going to move on to
creating the mid-spinal sections and the chest.
Create another three ZSpheres on top of the
pelvis and position them as shown, using the
Move tool as before (Fig.06).

7. Create new ZSpheres on the side of the

Fig 07
upmost ZSphere to act as the clavicle, or
shoulder area. I find that creating these
sections, as opposed to just using that last
sphere as the elbow, gives a nicer curvature
for the underarm and shoulder areas once the
model is meshed (Fig.07).

8. Now we go on to create two ZSpheres on top

Fig 08
of the upmost middle sphere to act as the neck
and head. It’s important to position the head
section straight up, as the topology of the top
of the sphere lends itself to the top of the head,
with the face being built on the front (Fig.08).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 09 9. It’s now time to create the arms, which will
be built using the same methods as before. We
create three sections to form the elbow, wrist,
and hand (Fig.09a & Fig.09b).

10. The last ZSphere to be placed is the one

Fig 10
on the back of the lower knee joint, duplicating
the bone that sticks out in the concept drawing
(Fig.10a & Fig.10b). Once all of the ZSpheres
are placed, we can move into the refining stage,
part of which is creating the hands.

11. Surprisingly quickly, we now have the whole

Fig 11a
character built and blocked out, and it’s time to
go over it with a tweaking pass. Use the Scale
and Move tools to try and match the concept art
in proportions, pose and scale. The closer we
get now, the easier the retopology work will be.

A ZSphere model is nothing until it’s meshed,

and that’s where Adaptive Skin comes in.
Adaptive Skin is a method for creating a usable
model from ZSpheres. It also comes with the
handy option of previewing the model before
creation. Open the Tool menu and find the
Adaptive Skin palette.

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

There are plenty of confusing options in the Fig 11b

palette, so here is a quick explanation of their
functions (explanations of almost any tool in
ZBrush can also be found by hovering over the
tool and holding down Ctrl). Under the Adaptive
Skin menu (Fig.11a) we have the:

• Preview button, which turns on and off

our meshing. You can use the hot-key [A]
to enable and disable this. It’s very useful
to keep checking the mesh to see how your
ZSpheres are looking.

• Density, which calculates the number of

subdivisions that the mesh should have. A
density setting of one will be very low poly;
a setting of two will be four times that, and
Fig 11c
so on.

• Ires (Intersection resolution), which is the

number of consecutive ZSpheres that will
be used to create a single object when the
mesh is converted into polygons. This can
be visualised by thinking of one sphere
with a two-segment chain on either side.
With an Ires of 0, each sphere will turn
into individual spheres with a few joining
polygons to connect them together. An
Ires setting of one will turn the three middle
spheres into one flowing cylindrical mesh,
with the outer two spheres still maintaining
their spherical shape.

Fig 12a
• Mbr (Membrane Curvature), which adjusts
the smoothness in the T- and L-shaped
intersections. The higher the setting, the
smoother the curve will be, whilst a low
setting will maintain the shape of the right
angle.

• MC (Minimal skin to child), which ignores

the child* of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 12b • MP (Minimal skin to parent), which ignores
the parent** of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

• PD (Pre-divide), which lets you specify

a pre-division resolution to match objects
which are attached using connector mesh
or local mesh features.

* A ZSphere created off another ZSphere is

known as a “child” object.
** The original ZSphere is known as the parent
(think of it as a mother and daughter holding
Fig 12c
hands!)

Once you understand the features, Adaptive

Skin is not too complicated, and it’s a very quick
way to block out a character, animal, alien – or
even a car! So now that we have a good set of
Adaptive Skin settings, we need to modify the
mesh a little to make it optimal for animation and
speed up the next optimisation section.

Place new ZSpheres at the join areas of the

model, namely the shoulder, the crotch, and
optionally the neck. Placing a sphere on either
side of the knee and elbow joints gives us
three edge loops close together – the optimal
amount for bending in animation. You can add
Fig 12d
a ZSphere to an existing section by holding
control and clicking on the section while in edit
mode (Fig.11b – Fig.11c).

12. The next – and final – stage is to create the

hand. The process is roughly the same as with
the whole character but it needs to be a little
more precise in the layout of the ZSpheres.
We are creating mid-sections that will serve
to create the palm and finger joints (Fig.12a –
Fig.12d).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

13. Follow along using the video and Fig 13

screenshots as references to lay down the
ZSpheres. Once all are in place, it’s important to
check the adaptive skin [A] and adjust the hand
to anatomically correct proportions as much as
possible. Creating a natural, relaxed pose here
will be of great benefit to us later (Fig.13).

Free Movie: You can download the movie here,

or by clicking on the Free Movies icon at the end
of the tutorial.

14. Our character base mesh is now built and

Fig 14a
ready to be exported into our 3D application.
No UVs have been set up yet, as we will do
that inside our 3D application later. Before we
can export we must turn our preview mesh into
a usable one by simply clicking the Make …
(Fig.14a).

This just created a duplicate model, which

Fig 14b
ZBrush swapped the active tool to and began
using as the primary model. This new model
needs to be converted to a PolyMesh3D object
which we can export. Under the Tool menu, click
Make Polymesh3D (Fig.14b).

Now all that is left is to click Export (in the

Tool menu), give it a name, and save into your
project location ready for the next step.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 15 15. Congratulations on creating your base
mesh so far (Fig.15). With the knowledge learnt
from this section you will be able to create a
base mesh for almost any organic object and
know how to create an optimal mesh using
Adaptive Skin! In the next step we will take the
exported model into our 3D application, give
it new topology, and perfect the shapes and
forms ready for sculpting and animation. Please
continuing reading for Part 1B.

Next Gen Character

Creation

Creature Concept by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial by:
Joseph Harford
For more from this artist visit:
http://josephharford.com/
Or contact them:
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 117 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig 01

Part 1b
Software Used: LightWave

Optimisation and topology are vitally important

in real-time character creation. Whether it’s for
video games, the web, or interactive media,
polygon count and topology should be high on
your priority list. If you have a budget of 10,000
tris for a character (most game studios work
with tri count as opposed to poly count), plus
clothes and accessories, there are a number
Fig 02a
of considerations to decide on while building.
Things like: How am I going to spend those tri’s
wisely? Which areas should have the most tri’s?
How can I go about creating animation-friendly
topology with as few tri’s as possible and how
can I keep the silhouette as smooth and edge-
free as possible with the minimum amount of
tri’s? These questions are vital, and should be
asked all throughout the process of modelling
a character. They should be considered at
each stage and should be present in all your
decisions during this part.

I’m going to be using LightWave 9.6, but if you

are working with an older version please don’t
worry, as we won’t be using any tools or plugins
Fig 02b
that aren’t compatible with previous versions
as far back 8.5. All the plugins/tools that I used
are part of LightWave, so there is no need for
anyone to download any third party tools or
plugins.

We’ll start off by importing the model into

LightWave. Go to File > Load Object, and select
the object created in Part 1A of this tutorial.

1. When I import with the default options the

model is flipped 180 degrees, so simply press
Shift + F6 to change the pivot mode to Origin,
and press the R key twice to rotate the model
180 degrees (Fig.01).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 03a 2. The next step is to make the model
symmetrical. To do this we need to remove one
side of the model and mirror it. Select half of the
mesh in the front view using the Lasso selection
(right-click) and press Delete (Fig.02a). Now
simply press Shift + V to activate the Symmetry
tool, followed by the N key to bring up the
numeric options window. Make sure the axis
is set to X, centre is set to 0 metres on all 3
axes, and Merge Points is ticked. To activate
Symmetry when you’re modelling all you have to
do is click the Symmetry button at the bottom of
the screen, or press Shift + Y (Fig.02b).

3. We can move onto cleaning our model,

ready for adding and modifying the topology.
The area I want to start with is underneath the
Fig 03b
arms. I don’t want there to be any intersecting
polygons on the mesh. Enter Point Selection
mode (Ctrl + G) and select vertices in the arm
region (Fig.03a). Select all that are intersecting,
plus a few more in the surrounding area to
ensure a smooth transition. Bring up the Smooth
polys options by pressing Shift + M, and set
the Strength to 1.0 and Iterations to 70. Hit OK
(Fig.03b).

4. Use the same technique as previously

Fig 04
described to relax the points or overlapping
polys on the backs of the knees, elbows and
wrists (Fig.04). You might want to use the point
Drag tool (CTRL + T) to clean up some of the
geometry after you’ve smoothed it out.

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

5. In this step I’m using Add Edges – Detail > Fig 05

Edges > Add Edges – to insert edges running
from the lower back to the neck (the Add Edges
used throughout this tutorial is standard with
LightWave versions 9.3 and up; I haven’t used
any plugins that aren’t standard to LightWave)
(Fig.05). The head simply doesn’t have enough
detail to provide a clean and smooth silhouette.
The broadness of the back dictates our need
for more edges in that area. You will notice that
the edges tool doesn’t work with symmetry, so
once you’re done repeat step 2 to restore the
symmetry.

6. Here I am shaping the new edges into

Fig 06
place while in Point mode, using the Drag tool
(Fig.06).

7. I’ve added in an edge in the neck to show the

Fig 07
sternomastoid muscle. This will start off the flow
of topology I want in this area. I’m not worrying
too much about keeping everything quads at
this point as I want to rough out the flow of the
edges and then tidy up once that is in place
(Fig.07).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 08 8. I’m adding a row of edges to mark the
underside of the chest. The edge loop also runs
into the shoulder area to mark the insertion point
of the main shoulder muscles. This gives great
deformation when the character lifts up his arm.
I’m adding in these edges using the Add Edge
tool (Fig.08).

9. As you can see, the topology of the hand

Fig 09
leaves a little to be desired. The wrist will not
animate well this way, and the fingers need a lot
of work to get them to a good stage for sculpting
and animation. The crotch area topology came
out almost perfect, showing the power of
ZSpheres (Fig.09).

10. I add an edge here to define the wrist and

Fig 10
topside of the hand (Fig.10). Now I’m starting
work on the underside of the hand, re-flowing
the topology to form the two major padded
sections of the palm. It’s important to note here
the flow of the edges around the thumb, as this
will later be very efficient in pivoting the thumb
around. All of this is done in the same manner
as before, using the Add Edges tool.

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

11. The top of the hand topology should flow Fig 11a
out of the fingers and into the wrist, just as the
bones and sinews do anatomically. I reduce
the edge loops around the fingers to adjust the
joints and add a connector loop near the knuckle
(Fig.11a). I’m also making an attempt to clean
up the hand by removing and adding edges.
The aim of this is to end up with all quads. Of
course, as this is for real-time, quads are not as
essential as for film or other models. The main
issue is that triangles and 5+ sided polygons do
not smooth well; triangles are a tool that we can
use to reduce the overall poly count or create
points like the elbow or ankle bones without
using too many polygons (Fig.11b).

Fig 11b

12. In order to add the loops for joints on the

Fig 12
fingers, I remove the existing edges by using the
BandGlue plugin. Simply select a polygon on
either side of the edge you wish to remove, and
select Construct > More > BandGlue (Fig.12).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 13 13. To put the edges back in I use Bandsaw
Pro, which is pretty much the opposite of
BandGlue; once again simply select the
polygons on the loop of polys that you wish
to add a new edge to, and go to Multiply >
Subdivide > Bandsaw Pro. You can use the
value slider to select the position of your new
edge (Fig.13).

14. Here I’ve added additional edges to the

Fig 14
joints using the same Bandsaw technique
(Fig.14).

15. Finally, I add more edges in-between the

Fig 15
joints, just to give a bit more resolution to our
ZBrush mesh (Fig.15).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

16. It’s time to work on the head again, and we Fig 16

start by blocking in the eye areas. If the eye
holes are in the right place it makes it very easy
to locate the nose, mouth, and ear (Fig.16).

17. Apply a new material to the object to see

Fig 17
how it looks in a silhouette form. During the
whole process of building the model we should
be making sure the silhouette looks interesting,
is proportionally correct, and is as close to the
concept as possible. The quickest way to check
this is to simply set the Diffuse value in the
Surface Editor to 0% (Fig.17).

18. The legs are going to need some attention

Fig 18
before proceeding, and I’m going to start by
simplifying the connection between the bone
sticking out and that second joint – it’s more
twisted than I would like it to be for a simple
base mesh. I go about reworking the area; I
remove a number of edge loops in the bone
section and in the foot, also using BandGlue.
It’s important to consider which areas will be
deformed during walking or action with the
character, and to put more polygons into those
sections. Areas that will always remain static
– and especially areas that will remain straight –
need far fewer polygons (Fig.18).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 19 19. Flatten out the bottom of the foot and shape
it so that it resembles the concept art provided.
It’s important to note the foot is basically a hoof,
and is solid. There are no toe areas so the foot
will not bend when walking (Fig.19).

20. Continuing with the head, I’m going to put

Fig 20
in edge loops that range from the bridge of the
nose to the bottom of the chin. Even if it’s not
perfectly tidy, it’s important to block out all the
basic topology loops in the face so that we can
later alter the shape and quickly add detail by
inserting new edge loops (Fig.20).

21. Now we’re going to create the base for the

Fig 21
eyes. Creating circular loops around the eyes
makes it easy to add additional loops later,
but also creates the most optimal topology to
animate the eyes (Fig.21).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

22. Like with the eyes, I’m going to create more Fig 22
loops inside of the mouth section. I create
circular loops around the mouth, making sure
to position them at key points that will affect the
silhouette; for example the top of the upper lip,
which in its circular form will create the bottom
part of the lower lip (Fig.22).

23. I’m insetting polygons on the side of the

Fig 23
head to form the ear. We want the topology
of the top and side of the head to flow into the
ear naturally. To do this I simply selected the
4 polygons on the side of the head and use
Smooth (Shift + F) to extrude the geometry
(Fig.23).

24. Now I tidy up the shape of the ear and weld

Fig 24
the points in the middle (Fig.24).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 25 25. Continue to work on the model by tidying
up all areas until you are left with mostly quads.
If you do have triangles, ask yourself why they
are there. They should only be there if they
are performing a function, whether it is for
the silhouette, polygon reduction, or to help
deformation. It’s good to ask yourself these
questions throughout (Fig.25).

26. And here is the final silhouette (Fig.26). Next

Fig 26
month we’ll be sculpting the high-res model in
ZBrush, and I’ll be back in Part 4 of this series
for more LightWave work.

Creature Concept by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial originally created by Joseph Harford in

ZBrush & 3ds Max; translated by James Busby
for LightWave.

Tutorial by:
James Busby
For more from this artist visit:
http://www.ten24.info

Fig 30 Or contact them:

[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 127 Issue 047 July 2009

Introduction:
The aim of our training DVD’s is to provide the artist with the most comprehensive set of lessons available. This is
achieved by presenting the training material in the form of:

- step-by-step tuition.
- on-screen visual and audio instructions.
- ongoing forum support from the author.
- full-screen resolution flash movies.

All aspects of creating the finished projects are taught in a way that artist of all levels will be able to learn at their own
pace. Once these techniques have been learnt , they can be equally applied to all your future modelling and texturing
projects.

- Section 1: The Basics - Using the Interface.

- Section 2: Modelling - Head, Nose, Horns & the Eyes.
- Section 3: Mapping & Unwrapping.
- Section 4: Texturing - Painting Skin, Eyes & the Horns.
- Training by in-house 3D Artist Richard Tilbury.
- Over 3hrs 30mins of comprehensive training.
- Printable step by step PDF.
- Suitable for all levels of artist.

- Section 1: The Basics - Using the Interface.

- Section 2: Modelling - Head, Nose, Horns & the Eyes.
- Section 3: Mapping & Unwrapping.
- Section 4: Texturing - Painting Skin, Eyes & the Horns.
- Training by Julian Sarmineto - Sony Picture Imageworks.
- Over 3hrs 30mins of comprehensive training.
- Printable step by step PDF.
- Suitable for all levels of artist.

- Section 1: Modelling.
- Section 3: Mapping & Unwrapping.
- Section 4: Texturing.
- 8hrs 30mins of comprehensive training.
- Suitable for all levels of artist.

for more products in our range visit http://www.3dtotal.com/shop

This series of tutorials provides a comprehensive guide through the process
of creating a 3D character intended for use within a next gen console
environment. As such, the design of the model will be tailored towards the
eventual aim of functioning within a game engine and viewed in real-time.
The series will cover all of the key stages of the 3D pipeline from sculpting
the initial mesh in ZBrush and optimizing it in the principal 3D packages,
through to texturing and applying next gen shaders. The inclusion of ZBrush
tutorials will address the methods of sculpting both a low-poly mesh as well
as a highly detailed version used to generate a normal map, and accompany
the remaining software specific chapters that will detail topics that cover
mapping, materials, lighting and rendering.

Chapter 1 – Low Poly Modelling

This chapter is divided into two categories, the first of which focuses on
using ZBrush to create a low-poly sculpt from ZSpheres to approximate the
proportions of the creature concept. The second section takes and imports
this mesh into the appropriate software and explains the principles and
importance of optimisation.

Chapter 2 – High-Poly Modelling Part 1 | Aug 09

Chapter 3 – High-Poly Modelling Part 2 | Sep 09

Chapter 4 – Mapping / Unwrapping | Oct 09

Chapter 5 – Normal Mapping – Texturing | Nov 09

Chapter 6 – Materials, Lighting & Rendering | Dec 09

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig 00

Part 1a
Software Used: ZBrush

There has never been a better time to create a

next-gen creature. Tools like ZBrush, Mudbox,
and 3ds Max are all weapons in our arsenal,
allowing us to create believable, realistic, and
detailed creatures that were previously too
complex to even be considered.

We will begin this tutorial series by looking at

Fig 01
creating a base mesh for our creature, designed
by Richard Tilbury at 3DTotal (Fig.00). Using
a combination of ZBrush and a variety of
software packages, we will create a base mesh
from ZSpheres, then retopologise and perfect
our mesh in 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave and
modo.

Since coming onto the market, ZBrush has

revolutionised the video games industry. Detail
that was previously only possible through
meticulous hand painting can now be done
quickly and easily because of this programme.
Organic characters are now able to look just
as realistic and stunning as their high-poly
counterparts. ZSpheres are a wonderful way
Fig 02
to create a quick, simple base mesh that can
be retopologised (the process of creating new
topology on a mesh) and refined in a general 3D
application.

1. To create a mesh using ZSpheres, we’ll first

drag one out onto the canvas, and then proceed
to add more ZSpheres off of the original. This
will build up the character in the same way we
would with bones. It’s important with ZSpheres
to plan out the construction of your character
before you start. The original ZSphere should
act as the pelvis or waist, with additional
ZSpheres coming off to form the limbs and
midsection.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 03 First we click on the ZSphere icon in the tool
palette, then left-click and drag to place a
ZSphere onto the canvas. Release the left-
click, and then hit the Edit button [Q]. Now our
ZSphere is placed and editable, and we can
go on to add new ZSpheres off of this original
(Fig.01).

2. To save time and make our job easier we

can use symmetry to automatically create
the opposite side of the model as we work on
only one side. To enable this in ZBrush simply
press [X] or go to Tool > Symmetry > Activate
Symmetry, and make sure the X button is
highlighted. If you now hover over the model,
you will see another cursor on the opposite side
that mirrors the actions of the original cursor that
Fig 04
we’re manipulating (Fig.02).

3. Click and drag on the right side of the

ZSphere to create what will be the hip section
(Fig.03).

4. Create a new ZSphere off of the last one

by using the same click and drag technique.
This new ZSphere will act as the first knee joint
(Fig.04).

5. We’ll now use the brush move tools to

Fig 05
position the section we just created. At the top
of the window (providing you are using the
default ZBrush interface), there are buttons
labelled, Edit, Draw, Move, Scale, and Rotate.
Click on the Move button and right-click over the
model. Make sure the draw size is small, as a
large draw size acts as a soft selection and will
move other parts of the model as well. Decrease
the draw size to the minimum and move your
mouse away from the menu. Select the ZSphere
we just created and drag it downwards and into
position (Fig.05).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

6. Now create a new ZSphere on the bottom Fig 06

of the knee joint, remembering to create it on
the ZSphere itself and not on the intersection.
Position this as shown and go on to create
another two ZSpheres to act as the end of the
leg and foot bones. We are going to move on to
creating the mid-spinal sections and the chest.
Create another three ZSpheres on top of the
pelvis and position them as shown, using the
Move tool as before (Fig.06).

7. Create new ZSpheres on the side of the

Fig 07
upmost ZSphere to act as the clavicle, or
shoulder area. I find that creating these
sections, as opposed to just using that last
sphere as the elbow, gives a nicer curvature
for the underarm and shoulder areas once the
model is meshed (Fig.07).

8. Now we go on to create two ZSpheres on top

Fig 08
of the upmost middle sphere to act as the neck
and head. It’s important to position the head
section straight up, as the topology of the top
of the sphere lends itself to the top of the head,
with the face being built on the front (Fig.08).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 09 9. It’s now time to create the arms, which will
be built using the same methods as before. We
create three sections to form the elbow, wrist,
and hand (Fig.09a & Fig.09b).

10. The last ZSphere to be placed is the one

Fig 10
on the back of the lower knee joint, duplicating
the bone that sticks out in the concept drawing
(Fig.10a & Fig.10b). Once all of the ZSpheres
are placed, we can move into the refining stage,
part of which is creating the hands.

11. Surprisingly quickly, we now have the whole

Fig 11a
character built and blocked out, and it’s time to
go over it with a tweaking pass. Use the Scale
and Move tools to try and match the concept art
in proportions, pose and scale. The closer we
get now, the easier the retopology work will be.

A ZSphere model is nothing until it’s meshed,

and that’s where Adaptive Skin comes in.
Adaptive Skin is a method for creating a usable
model from ZSpheres. It also comes with the
handy option of previewing the model before
creation. Open the Tool menu and find the
Adaptive Skin palette.

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

There are plenty of confusing options in the Fig 11b

palette, so here is a quick explanation of their
functions (explanations of almost any tool in
ZBrush can also be found by hovering over the
tool and holding down Ctrl). Under the Adaptive
Skin menu (Fig.11a) we have the:

• Preview button, which turns on and off

our meshing. You can use the hot-key [A]
to enable and disable this. It’s very useful
to keep checking the mesh to see how your
ZSpheres are looking.

• Density, which calculates the number of

subdivisions that the mesh should have. A
density setting of one will be very low poly;
a setting of two will be four times that, and
Fig 11c
so on.

• Ires (Intersection resolution), which is the

number of consecutive ZSpheres that will
be used to create a single object when the
mesh is converted into polygons. This can
be visualised by thinking of one sphere
with a two-segment chain on either side.
With an Ires of 0, each sphere will turn
into individual spheres with a few joining
polygons to connect them together. An
Ires setting of one will turn the three middle
spheres into one flowing cylindrical mesh,
with the outer two spheres still maintaining
their spherical shape.

Fig 12a
• Mbr (Membrane Curvature), which adjusts
the smoothness in the T- and L-shaped
intersections. The higher the setting, the
smoother the curve will be, whilst a low
setting will maintain the shape of the right
angle.

• MC (Minimal skin to child), which ignores

the child* of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 12b • MP (Minimal skin to parent), which ignores
the parent** of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

• PD (Pre-divide), which lets you specify

a pre-division resolution to match objects
which are attached using connector mesh
or local mesh features.

* A ZSphere created off another ZSphere is

known as a “child” object.
** The original ZSphere is known as the parent
(think of it as a mother and daughter holding
Fig 12c
hands!)

Once you understand the features, Adaptive

Skin is not too complicated, and it’s a very quick
way to block out a character, animal, alien – or
even a car! So now that we have a good set of
Adaptive Skin settings, we need to modify the
mesh a little to make it optimal for animation and
speed up the next optimisation section.

Place new ZSpheres at the join areas of the

model, namely the shoulder, the crotch, and
optionally the neck. Placing a sphere on either
side of the knee and elbow joints gives us
three edge loops close together – the optimal
amount for bending in animation. You can add
Fig 12d
a ZSphere to an existing section by holding
control and clicking on the section while in edit
mode (Fig.11b – Fig.11c).

12. The next – and final – stage is to create the

hand. The process is roughly the same as with
the whole character but it needs to be a little
more precise in the layout of the ZSpheres.
We are creating mid-sections that will serve
to create the palm and finger joints (Fig.12a –
Fig.12d).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

13. Follow along using the video and Fig 13

screenshots as references to lay down the
ZSpheres. Once all are in place, it’s important to
check the adaptive skin [A] and adjust the hand
to anatomically correct proportions as much as
possible. Creating a natural, relaxed pose here
will be of great benefit to us later (Fig.13).

Free Movie: You can download the movie here,

or by clicking on the Free Movies icon at the end
of the tutorial.

14. Our character base mesh is now built and

Fig 14a
ready to be exported into our 3D application.
No UVs have been set up yet, as we will do
that inside our 3D application later. Before we
can export we must turn our preview mesh into
a usable one by simply clicking the Make …
(Fig.14a).

This just created a duplicate model, which

Fig 14b
ZBrush swapped the active tool to and began
using as the primary model. This new model
needs to be converted to a PolyMesh3D object
which we can export. Under the Tool menu, click
Make Polymesh3D (Fig.14b).

Now all that is left is to click Export (in the

Tool menu), give it a name, and save into your
project location ready for the next step.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 15 15. Congratulations on creating your base
mesh so far (Fig.15). With the knowledge learnt
from this section you will be able to create a
base mesh for almost any organic object and
know how to create an optimal mesh using
Adaptive Skin! In the next step we will take the
exported model into our 3D application, give
it new topology, and perfect the shapes and
forms ready for sculpting and animation. Please
continuing reading for Part 1B.

Next Gen Character

Creation

Creature Concept by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial by:
Joseph Harford
For more from this artist visit:
http://josephharford.com/
Or contact them:
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 137 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig 01

Part 1b
Software Used: Maya

Optimisation and topology are vitally important

in real-time character creation. Whether it’s for
video games, the web, or interactive media,
polygon count and topology should be high on
your priority list. If you have a budget of 10,000
tris for a character (most game studios work
with tri count as opposed to poly count), plus
clothes and accessories, there are a number
Fig 02
of considerations to decide on while building.
Things like: How am I going to spend those tris
wisely? Which areas should have the most tris?
How can I go about creating animation-friendly
topology with as few tris as possible and how
can I keep the silhouette as smooth and edge-
free as possible with the minimum amount of
tris? These questions are vital, and should be
asked all throughout the process of modelling
a character. They should be considered at
each stage and should be present in all your
decisions during this part.

I am using Maya 2008, but the principles of

this tutorial will be relevant in all versions of
this software. As I use Maya more at work than
Fig 03
at home, a lot of the commands I mention in
the tutorial can be accessed through Maya’s
Hotbox, which can be accessed by holding
down the spacebar to access all of the menus
at the top of your screen. Like many features in
Maya, it’s essentially a duplicate of something
else somewhere else in the programme, but
many advanced users rely on it for speed.

1. We will begin by importing our model into

Maya, making sure that .OBJ is enabled in
Window > Settings > Preferences > Plug-In
Manager. Select the model that we created in
Part 1A (Fig.01).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 04 2. When we import the model into Maya using
the default options, it is clearly flipped upside
down. To make this model easier to work with,
and more relevant to Maya’s world coordinates,
select the model and enter Rotate mode. On
the right hand side of your screen will be the
channel box. Enter “180.00” into the Z rotation
value (Fig.02).

3. Next, select the model, clear all of the history

(Edit > Delete by Type > History) and Freeze/
Reset the model’s transformations, which can
be found in the modify menu. The reason why I
always do this is to keep the model (and scene)
as clean as possible. Having information such
as rotation values in the model’s history stack
can cause problems later on and can make the
Fig 05
scene bloated and hard to manage. That being
said, Maya’s history is a nice way to enable/
disable actions on your model, and once the
model’s history is cleared all changes made to
your model are final. So, be sure to have your
model in a state you are happy with before
clearing the history!

Unlike traditional sculpting mediums, we are

able to work in symmetry within Maya. With one
side automatically updating in reference to the
other, this enables 3D artists to work much more
quickly during the modelling process. To work
with symmetry on this model, select half of the
faces. In this case I am using the Y/Z axis as
a mirroring edge, so I have selected all of the
Fig 06
faces on the –X side of the Y axis. With the left
half of your model selected, delete the faces
(Fig.03).

4. Now, select the model and click Edit >

Duplicate Special Options, enable Instance
rather than Copy, and then enter -1.0 as the
value for Scale on the X axis. This will duplicate
our current model and still reference the new
copy to our original model. Entering -1.0 as
the scale value on the X axis will mirror our
model on this axis. Once we are done with
the modelling stage, we will combine these
two models into one single mesh and weld the
vertices on our seam together (Fig.04).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

5. We can now move onto cleaning our model Fig 07

and making it a useful base for sculpting.
Glancing at the mesh we can begin to spot
problem areas. Issues to watch out for are
overlapping edges, twisted faces and uneven
polygon distribution. We’ll start with the area
underneath the arms. Select all of the vertices
in the arm pit area, select Mesh > Average
Vertices Options, and reduce the Smoothing
Amount option that appears. With the vertices
selected and with your smoothing amount
entered, press Apply. You may need to shrink
your selection, focusing on a smaller amount of
vertices to really smooth out troubled areas that
are pinching too strongly. Shrink your selection
by pressing SHIFT + <. This will attempt to
even out the spacing between vertices and will
Fig 08
help us in eliminating overlapping edges. As
you can see, the result is a bit too extreme, so
after selecting Average Vertices we will need to
manually move a few of the vertices around to
eliminate any protruding (Fig.05).

6. Like in step 5, we will repeat the process of

relaxing vertices in problem areas and quickly
touching up the geometry to have smooth
transitions in joints with minimal overlapping of
edges. Areas that will need this attention are the
knees, elbows, hands and feet (Fig.06).

7. We will now begin adding edges to our model.

A nice, clean mesh with evenly distributed
polygons is essential to create a problem free
Fig 09
base mesh. In regards to sculpting packages,
squares do not subdivide the same way as
rectangles. By this I mean if you have one
mesh that has a square polygon and beside it
is a long rectangle, and you divide this mesh
twice, the newly created polygons will retain
the original shape. When sculpting this will
create nice, smooth results on the area from
the square polygon, but slightly muddy details
on the rectangular area as there will be less
geometry for you to work with. So, you will
end up subdividing this mesh more times than
necessary to get satisfactory results. To avoid
this problem try to make the density of polygons
within your model as even as possible.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 10 I start by adding an edge running down the
character’s back and to the base of the skull.
I am adding edges by using the Split Polygon
tool. In Object Model, you can press Shift +
RMB (Right Mouse Button – or right-click)
to access the Split Polygon Tool, and then
continue to select the areas of an edge that you
would like to add a vertex to (Fig.07).

8. Next, I create an edge to define the

sternomastoid muscle. This will begin the
topology flow that I want in this area. For the
moment, keeping the model fully in quads isn’t a
high priority as triangles can be converted in the
final steps of modelling (Fig.08).

9. Next, alter the edges in the chest area to

Fig 11a
define what will be the underside of the chest
and shoulder muscles. I often model using this
method, defining the chest and shoulders with
these edges as when deformation time comes;
having the chest and shoulders connected in
this way allows the muscles to retain shape
when moving, especially in extreme poses like
when the characters arms are raised (Fig.09).

10. As you can see, the topology of the wrists

and hands could use some improvement. The
wrist will not animate well this way, nor are the
fingers in a state to be sculpted or animated.
We begin by removing a few edges on the top
of the hand (Edit Mesh > Delete Edge/Vertex)
(Fig.10).
Fig 11b

11. Continuing forward, we begin to work on the

underside of the hand, defining the two major
padded sections of the palm. It is important to
note the flow of edges around the thumb in this
area as the thumb will need to pivot and deform
in the future. We do this following the same
methods as before, deleting edges/vertices and
using split polygon to add edges that we need
(Fig.11a & Fig.11b).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

12. The topology of the hand should flow from Fig 12

the fingers, much like how the bones in our
hands do. Reduce the edge loops around the
fingers, using the techniques from previous
steps; adjust the joints and a connector loop
near the knuckle. Now is also a good time to
clean up the surrounding area, attempting to
make the entire hand quads (4-sided polygons)
and avoiding poles in areas that will need to
deform (a pole is where more than 4 edges
connected to a vertex; having too many edges
meet at a vertex can cause pinching, shading
errors in-game, and can also be a pain to rig).
Another issue regarding triangles is that they do
not smooth well, or at least not as well as quads
do. For real-time models, creating triangles can
be an effective way to define areas while still
Fig 13a
keeping a poly count within budget (Fig.12).

13. Next, we create points on each knuckle

and allow the hand to flow into the wrist without
drastically changing the poly count. Hands are
notoriously difficult to model as they can bend
and move into a number of awkward positions.
There are many subtle details to the hand, as
on any creature, which makes it one of the most
difficult areas to develop in character creation.
As people are so aware subconsciously of
the anatomy of hands, as we are of faces, it
becomes easy for observers to spot mistakes
automatically. Unfortunately, without repeated
study we don’t have enough information in
our heads to fix those mistakes by eye. For
Fig 13b
that reason I advocate dedicating a portion of
your time to studying the anatomy of the hand,
the muscles and bones that drive it, and how
they interact with each other. After a number
of drawings and sculptures the information is
burned into your brain for use in the future. The
more information we store, the more we can
recall at a later date, allowing us to work more
creatively, efficiently and with more confidence
(Fig.13a & Fig.13b).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 14a 14. Now we continue on with the hand, further
working the thumb and palm area and adjusting
proportions even more to match a more
“humanoid” appearance. Key parts to take
note of are lengthening the palm, adjusting the
fingers and generally cleaning the topology of
the model. I also added some volume to the
fingers and apply Average Vertices at a very low
strength. Since this mesh will later be used in
ZBrush, as I mentioned earlier, it is important to
keep the polygons roughly the same size and to
make sure that the polygon density throughout
your model is fairly consistent (Fig.14a &
Fig.14b).

Fig 14b

15. We are now going to give the knuckles more

Fig 15a
definition. Select the edge loops that are in the
rough area of the character’s knuckles on all
fingers and thumb – I use the Select Edge Loop
feature within Maya by entering edge mode,
holding Ctrl and pressing RMB – and then
select Edge Loop Utilities > Select Edge Loop.
By holding down Shift and clicking on multiple
edges, you can retain your previous edge loops
selected. Once all of your edges are selected,
select Bevel Options from the Edit Mesh menu.
In the dialogue box that appears, I enter a low
value for the width of my bevel (the amount of
space that will be created between the extreme
edges) and enter 2 for my amount of segments,
or edges that would be created. By default,

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Maya needs to have 1 entered; by entering 2 Fig 15b

we are just adding an edge in the middle of the
bevelled edge that we have created (Fig.15a &
Fig.15b).

16. Next, we move back to the head and we

Fig 16
begin by blocking out the eyes. The eyes are the
most important landmark on a characters face. It
makes a character instantly recognisable to our
mind as being “believable” and is also a solid
way of predicting where the rest of the facial
features will go (Fig.16).

17. I apply a new material to the object to see

how it looks in a silhouette form. During the
Fig 17
whole process of building the model we should
be looking out to make sure the silhouette looks
interesting, proportionally correct, and as close
to the concept as possible. Having no lighting
information applied to your model allows you
to see your model in a totally different way;
shadows being cast and highlights on your
model can distract from how your model actually
reads from afar in its most simple form. To
create a new material, I open the Hypershade
menu (Window > Rendering Editors >
Hypershade), click on Surface Shader and with
the model selected, right-click over the Surface
Shader ball in Hypershade, and then select
Apply Material to Selection (Fig.17).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 18 18. Glancing at the model in this form we can
see that the legs are going to need some
work before we move forward. Let’s start
by simplifying the second knee and how it
protrudes from the leg. Remove a few of the
edges to simplify the area (doing the same to
the foot as well). It is important to consider how
this character will move. Areas that will need
to deform should have more geometry to avoid
stretching or having a “rubber limb”, collapsing
effect. Areas that will remain static have no
twisting effect or will not have muscle definition
reacting to joint movement can have much less
geometry devoted to them (Fig.18).

19. Now, flatten the bottom of the foot and

Fig 19
shape it to roughly match the concept art
provided. This character’s foot is actually a
hoof, and because of this we do not need toes
and therefore deformation in this area is fairly
limited. Considering this, we can collapse some
edges on the topside of the foot to simplify the
area (Fig.19).

20. Moving back to the head, we’ll place edges

Fig 20
that reach from the bridge of the nose to the
base of the chin. At this stage we are practically
just setting up landmarks on the face that we will
later refine and polish in future steps (Fig.20).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

21. We will now further define the eye region Fig 21

that we marked in previous steps. Creating
circular loops to define the eye sockets allows
us to add edge loops much easier later on, if
needed, and also creates the ideal topology for
animation in this area. To do this, I select the
vertex that would mark the centre of the eye,
select Edit Mesh > Chamfer Vertex (Options)
and enter a value of 0.5 in the dialogue box
that appears. Once this is done, I add edges
using the Split Polygon tool and manually tweak
some vertices to give the eyes a rounder shape
(Fig.21).

22. Fill in the eye polygons with the Split

Fig 22
Polygon tool to leave it in quad polygons. Once
this is done, we move onto the ear area. Using
the same methods noted in previous steps, we
will add geometry to this area to help mark and
define the ears and how they are connected
to the head. We want the topology of the top
and side of the head to flow naturally into the
ear. Ears are a trouble area in characters
with regards to shading as too many edges
connecting into one vertex and with geometry
protruding out of faces, and in this case can
cause shading errors in real-time engines. So,
be sure to keep this area as clean as possible
(Fig.22).

23. Continue to add edges in the jaw/chin area,

Fig 23
making sure that they flow smoothly into the
ear. As the nose does not actually protrude from
this character, we will not add geometry for it in
our base mesh. When creating a base mesh,
the only details that are needed are the large
volume shapes in your character – other details
can be added quicker and more efficiently in a
sculpting package (Fig.23).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 24 24. It is easy to focus too much on one specific
area of a model, for example I often view my
character from a three-quarter view and tend
to neglect the front view. That being said now
is a great time to check the proportions and
silhouette of our model and move onto an area
that we have neglected so far, and the last
formal stage of modelling in this section of the
tutorial: the back. Straighten out edges where
you can, touch up the base of the skull, possibly
adding edges to make the area as clean as
possible (Fig.24).

25. When exporting an object for sculpting or

for use in a game engine, it is important to be
Fig 25
aware of soft and hard edges. Defining soft
and hard edges does not create more polygons
on the object, but it does, however, affect how
engines render the object. Essentially, if a hard
edge is defined, double the amount of rays will
be shot out of the vertices connected to the
edge to define how the object will be shaded.
Sometimes they are necessary to define hard
surfaces, for organic characters it is rare to
have any. Just to be sure and to avoid any
complications when exporting, select all of the
edges on your character, hold Shift + RMB and
select Soften/Harden Edges, finally clicking
Soften Edge. You notice a visual difference on
your model as all of the hard edges that would
have been created in the modelling process are
Fig 26
no longer there ... and by using this tool, all of
your edges will now appear orange until you
switch tools. Generally speaking, for characters
you will avoid having hard edges in a next
generation engine as the hard edge shading can
contradict lighting information applied by normal
maps (Fig.25).

26. Using the methods outlined in this section,

continue to plug away at your model and tidy up
any areas that may cause problems down the
line. If you do have triangles in your model, ask
yourself what their function is. If they are serving
no purpose, try your best to turn them into
quads cleanly (Fig.26).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

27. Once you are happy with your model, select

Fig 27a
both halves and then under the Mesh menu,
select Combine. This essentially turns your
model into one piece. With your model selected,
delete its history. Select the centre edge loop
of the model, hold Ctrl + RMB and select To
Vertices. This will convert your selection to the
connecting vertices. Under Edit Mesh, select
Merge (Options) and enter an appropriate value
– mine was about 1.3. Once this is done you will
notice that there is an obvious seam still running
down the centre of your mesh; this is a hard
edge causing by combining the two meshes, as
mentioned earlier. Once again, select all of the
edges and convert them to soft edges. At this
stage I also like to select all of my edges and
use the Average Vertices tool again. I find that
Fig 27b
this helps smooth out any trouble areas and will
help avoid a “boxy” model once it smooths in
ZBrush (Fig.27a & Fig.27b).

For the final section of this part, I’ve used a

combination of moving vertices using soft
selection and hand pulling the model around
to work further on matching the pose and
proportions of the concept. What we have at
the end is a base mesh that will not only work
well for sculpting our high poly, but also animate
well, run efficiently in our real-time engine, and
look good from all distances due to our care and
attention to the silhouette (Fig.28).

Next month in Part 2 we’ll be sculpting the real

Fig 28
meat of the character, muscles, veins and all!

Creature Concept by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial originally created by Joseph Harford in

ZBrush & 3ds Max; translated by Gavin Goulden
for Maya

Tutorial by:
Gavin Goulden
For more from this artist visit:
http://www.gavimage.com
Or contact them:
[email protected]

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This series of tutorials provides a comprehensive guide through the process
of creating a 3D character intended for use within a next gen console
environment. As such, the design of the model will be tailored towards the
eventual aim of functioning within a game engine and viewed in real-time.
The series will cover all of the key stages of the 3D pipeline from sculpting
the initial mesh in ZBrush and optimizing it in the principal 3D packages,
through to texturing and applying next gen shaders. The inclusion of ZBrush
tutorials will address the methods of sculpting both a low-poly mesh as well
as a highly detailed version used to generate a normal map, and accompany
the remaining software specific chapters that will detail topics that cover
mapping, materials, lighting and rendering.

Chapter 1 – Low Poly Modelling

This chapter is divided into two categories, the first of which focuses on
using ZBrush to create a low-poly sculpt from ZSpheres to approximate the
proportions of the creature concept. The second section takes and imports
this mesh into the appropriate software and explains the principles and
importance of optimisation.

Chapter 2 – High-Poly Modelling Part 1 | Aug 09

Chapter 3 – High-Poly Modelling Part 2 | Sep 09

Chapter 4 – Mapping / Unwrapping | Oct 09

Chapter 5 – Normal Mapping – Texturing | Nov 09

Chapter 6 – Materials, Lighting & Rendering | Dec 09

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig 00

Part 1a
Software Used: ZBrush

There has never been a better time to create a

next-gen creature. Tools like ZBrush, Mudbox,
and 3ds Max are all weapons in our arsenal,
allowing us to create believable, realistic, and
detailed creatures that were previously too
complex to even be considered.

We will begin this tutorial series by looking at

Fig 01
creating a base mesh for our creature, designed
by Richard Tilbury at 3DTotal (Fig.00). Using
a combination of ZBrush and a variety of
software packages, we will create a base mesh
from ZSpheres, then retopologise and perfect
our mesh in 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave and
modo.

Since coming onto the market, ZBrush has

revolutionised the video games industry. Detail
that was previously only possible through
meticulous hand painting can now be done
quickly and easily because of this programme.
Organic characters are now able to look just
as realistic and stunning as their high-poly
counterparts. ZSpheres are a wonderful way
Fig 02
to create a quick, simple base mesh that can
be retopologised (the process of creating new
topology on a mesh) and refined in a general 3D
application.

1. To create a mesh using ZSpheres, we’ll first

drag one out onto the canvas, and then proceed
to add more ZSpheres off of the original. This
will build up the character in the same way we
would with bones. It’s important with ZSpheres
to plan out the construction of your character
before you start. The original ZSphere should
act as the pelvis or waist, with additional
ZSpheres coming off to form the limbs and
midsection.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 03 First we click on the ZSphere icon in the tool
palette, then left-click and drag to place a
ZSphere onto the canvas. Release the left-
click, and then hit the Edit button [Q]. Now our
ZSphere is placed and editable, and we can
go on to add new ZSpheres off of this original
(Fig.01).

2. To save time and make our job easier we

can use symmetry to automatically create
the opposite side of the model as we work on
only one side. To enable this in ZBrush simply
press [X] or go to Tool > Symmetry > Activate
Symmetry, and make sure the X button is
highlighted. If you now hover over the model,
you will see another cursor on the opposite side
that mirrors the actions of the original cursor that
Fig 04
we’re manipulating (Fig.02).

3. Click and drag on the right side of the

ZSphere to create what will be the hip section
(Fig.03).

4. Create a new ZSphere off of the last one

by using the same click and drag technique.
This new ZSphere will act as the first knee joint
(Fig.04).

5. We’ll now use the brush move tools to

Fig 05
position the section we just created. At the top
of the window (providing you are using the
default ZBrush interface), there are buttons
labelled, Edit, Draw, Move, Scale, and Rotate.
Click on the Move button and right-click over the
model. Make sure the draw size is small, as a
large draw size acts as a soft selection and will
move other parts of the model as well. Decrease
the draw size to the minimum and move your
mouse away from the menu. Select the ZSphere
we just created and drag it downwards and into
position (Fig.05).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

6. Now create a new ZSphere on the bottom Fig 06

of the knee joint, remembering to create it on
the ZSphere itself and not on the intersection.
Position this as shown and go on to create
another two ZSpheres to act as the end of the
leg and foot bones. We are going to move on to
creating the mid-spinal sections and the chest.
Create another three ZSpheres on top of the
pelvis and position them as shown, using the
Move tool as before (Fig.06).

7. Create new ZSpheres on the side of the

Fig 07
upmost ZSphere to act as the clavicle, or
shoulder area. I find that creating these
sections, as opposed to just using that last
sphere as the elbow, gives a nicer curvature
for the underarm and shoulder areas once the
model is meshed (Fig.07).

8. Now we go on to create two ZSpheres on top

Fig 08
of the upmost middle sphere to act as the neck
and head. It’s important to position the head
section straight up, as the topology of the top
of the sphere lends itself to the top of the head,
with the face being built on the front (Fig.08).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 09 9. It’s now time to create the arms, which will
be built using the same methods as before. We
create three sections to form the elbow, wrist,
and hand (Fig.09a & Fig.09b).

10. The last ZSphere to be placed is the one

Fig 10
on the back of the lower knee joint, duplicating
the bone that sticks out in the concept drawing
(Fig.10a & Fig.10b). Once all of the ZSpheres
are placed, we can move into the refining stage,
part of which is creating the hands.

11. Surprisingly quickly, we now have the whole

Fig 11a
character built and blocked out, and it’s time to
go over it with a tweaking pass. Use the Scale
and Move tools to try and match the concept art
in proportions, pose and scale. The closer we
get now, the easier the retopology work will be.

A ZSphere model is nothing until it’s meshed,

and that’s where Adaptive Skin comes in.
Adaptive Skin is a method for creating a usable
model from ZSpheres. It also comes with the
handy option of previewing the model before
creation. Open the Tool menu and find the
Adaptive Skin palette.

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

There are plenty of confusing options in the Fig 11b

palette, so here is a quick explanation of their
functions (explanations of almost any tool in
ZBrush can also be found by hovering over the
tool and holding down Ctrl). Under the Adaptive
Skin menu (Fig.11a) we have the:

• Preview button, which turns on and off

our meshing. You can use the hot-key [A]
to enable and disable this. It’s very useful
to keep checking the mesh to see how your
ZSpheres are looking.

• Density, which calculates the number of

subdivisions that the mesh should have. A
density setting of one will be very low poly;
a setting of two will be four times that, and
Fig 11c
so on.

• Ires (Intersection resolution), which is the

number of consecutive ZSpheres that will
be used to create a single object when the
mesh is converted into polygons. This can
be visualised by thinking of one sphere
with a two-segment chain on either side.
With an Ires of 0, each sphere will turn
into individual spheres with a few joining
polygons to connect them together. An
Ires setting of one will turn the three middle
spheres into one flowing cylindrical mesh,
with the outer two spheres still maintaining
their spherical shape.

Fig 12a
• Mbr (Membrane Curvature), which adjusts
the smoothness in the T- and L-shaped
intersections. The higher the setting, the
smoother the curve will be, whilst a low
setting will maintain the shape of the right
angle.

• MC (Minimal skin to child), which ignores

the child* of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 12b • MP (Minimal skin to parent), which ignores
the parent** of the section of the object,
using it to connect two parts together but
not contributing any polygons. This allows
smooth transitions between new branches
and can help eliminate twisting and
collapsing.

• PD (Pre-divide), which lets you specify

a pre-division resolution to match objects
which are attached using connector mesh
or local mesh features.

* A ZSphere created off another ZSphere is

known as a “child” object.
** The original ZSphere is known as the parent
(think of it as a mother and daughter holding
Fig 12c
hands!)

Once you understand the features, Adaptive

Skin is not too complicated, and it’s a very quick
way to block out a character, animal, alien – or
even a car! So now that we have a good set of
Adaptive Skin settings, we need to modify the
mesh a little to make it optimal for animation and
speed up the next optimisation section.

Place new ZSpheres at the join areas of the

model, namely the shoulder, the crotch, and
optionally the neck. Placing a sphere on either
side of the knee and elbow joints gives us
three edge loops close together – the optimal
amount for bending in animation. You can add
Fig 12d
a ZSphere to an existing section by holding
control and clicking on the section while in edit
mode (Fig.11b – Fig.11c).

12. The next – and final – stage is to create the

hand. The process is roughly the same as with
the whole character but it needs to be a little
more precise in the layout of the ZSpheres.
We are creating mid-sections that will serve
to create the palm and finger joints (Fig.12a –
Fig.12d).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

13. Follow along using the video and Fig 13

screenshots as references to lay down the
ZSpheres. Once all are in place, it’s important to
check the adaptive skin [A] and adjust the hand
to anatomically correct proportions as much as
possible. Creating a natural, relaxed pose here
will be of great benefit to us later (Fig.13).

Free Movie: You can download the movie here,

or by clicking on the Free Movies icon at the end
of the tutorial.

14. Our character base mesh is now built and

Fig 14a
ready to be exported into our 3D application.
No UVs have been set up yet, as we will do
that inside our 3D application later. Before we
can export we must turn our preview mesh into
a usable one by simply clicking the Make …
(Fig.14a).

This just created a duplicate model, which

Fig 14b
ZBrush swapped the active tool to and began
using as the primary model. This new model
needs to be converted to a PolyMesh3D object
which we can export. Under the Tool menu, click
Make Polymesh3D (Fig.14b).

Now all that is left is to click Export (in the

Tool menu), give it a name, and save into your
project location ready for the next step.

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 15 15. Congratulations on creating your base
mesh so far (Fig.15). With the knowledge learnt
from this section you will be able to create a
base mesh for almost any organic object and
know how to create an optimal mesh using
Adaptive Skin! In the next step we will take the
exported model into our 3D application, give
it new topology, and perfect the shapes and
forms ready for sculpting and animation. Please
continuing reading for Part 1B.

Next Gen Character

Creation

Creature Concept by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial by:
Joseph Harford
For more from this artist visit:
http://josephharford.com/
Or contact them:
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 157 Issue 047 July 2009

 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

Fig 01

Part 1b
Software Used: modo

Optimisation and topology are vitally important

in real-time character creation. Whether it’s for
video games, the web, or interactive media,
polygon count and topology should be high on
your priority list. If you have a budget of 10,000
tris for a character (most game studios work
with tri count as opposed to poly count), plus
clothes and accessories, there are a number
Fig 02a
of considerations to decide on while building.
Things like: How am I going to spend those tris
wisely? Which areas should have the most tris?
How can I go about creating animation-friendly
topology with as few tris as possible and how
can I keep the silhouette as smooth and edge-
free as possible with the minimum amount of
tris? These questions are vital, and should be
asked all throughout the process of modelling
a character. They should be considered at
each stage and should be present in all your
decisions during this part.

1. We’ll start by importing the ZBrush Polymesh

into Modo. File > Open... Make sure All Formats
is active in the option box and select the OBJ file
Fig 02b
that was created in Part 1A (Fig.01).

2. When you import an OBJ model made with

the default ZBrush options, the model will be
flipped 180 degrees upside down. So in ether
Vertices, Edges, or Polygons Mode, use the
Rotate tool (E key), to rotate the model 180
degrees on the Z axis (I prefer to use Polygons
Mode most of the time). To be precise, you can
enter 180 degrees in the Z Rotation Offset input
boxes at the bottom left panel; this will rotate to
the correct orientation. The model should now
be facing towards positive Z, and the head is in
the Positive Y direction (Fig.02a).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 03 Note: Action Center is one of the most powerful
and misunderstood features of modo. Most
applications, such as Maya and 3ds Max, have
only two variations on space axis: World and
Local. Action Center offers far more than that,
and combined with all the tools in modo greatly
extends their power and flexibility. For simplicity
of this section of the tutorial, keep the Action
Center on Automatic without a check mark. The
manipulator will then always keep world axis
orientation and centre itself on your selection,
just like the many other 3D applications such as
Maya and 3ds Max do (Fig.02b).

3. As the image shows, the newly imported

model has some edges that are not smoothing
in the same way as the rest of the model.
Fig 04
The reason for this is because the Default
Smoothing Angle is set to 40 degrees.
Smoothing is an important part of real-time
modelling as it can smooth the surface edges
of connected polygons without having to
using more polygons. As this is only a lighting
effect and does not alter the polygon count or
the actual model, it is simply an illusion. The
Smoothing angle can be adjusted in the Shader
Tree Material Properties for the selected mesh.
Adjusting the Smoothing angle to 180 degrees
to display the model, without hard edges, is
helpful for viewing the surface to locate problem
areas.

Because a silhouette is a shadow and lacks all

Fig 05
forms of light, smoothing groups won’t affect the
appearance of the model’s silhouette, which is
just one more reason why it is so important to
use silhouettes throughout the entire modelling
process (Fig.03).

4. By using symmetry modelling, only one side

of a model needs to be worked on, as a mirrored
half will be automatically updated, greatly
speeding up our workflow. In the perspective
view, switch to front view, then to wireframe,
and then select one half of the mesh and
delete. Switch back to shaded view when ready
(Fig.04).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

5. Before we set up the mirror half it is important Fig 06a

that the model centre line is exactly centred on
the X axis. Switch back to perspective view, and
in Edges mode double-click the open edge and
use Center Selected > X in the Basic tab of the
tools palette. This will align all the vertices to 0
along the X axis only (Fig.05).

6. In the Duplicate tab of the tools palette, select

Mirror. Make sure the Axis is set to X and all
values are set to zero, and then click the Apply
Button. Finally, activate Symmetry for X in the
top tool bar. As we mirror the mesh in the same
layer, the vertices will be automatically joined to
once again form a seamless mesh (Fig.06a).

Note: During mesh editing, it is sometimes

Fig 06b
possible for the mesh to become unsymmetrical
even with Symmetry active. The common way
to fix this would be to select the most favourable
side and follow steps 3 to 6 again. However,
a quicker method is to use the Symmetry
tool in the top Geometry menu to re-align
corresponding vertices. To use this tool, make
sure Symmetry on X is active, and then click on
the mesh. Any non-aligned vertices in negative
X will be highlighted. By scrubbing, clicking and
scrubbing the surface the Threshold value will
be adjusted and will eventually start to re-align
the corresponding vertices to each other. This
tool will only work on vertices that have similar
vertices on the mirrored side (Fig.06b).

Fig 07
7. It is important to eliminate any overlaps or
intersections of polygons to assess the topology
properly. The mesh will need to be relaxed in
the shoulder, knees, elbows and groin areas
where the overlapping occurs. To get an overall
relaxed smoothing of the mesh, go to Tools
> Deform > Smooth. By clicking Apply or in
the viewport, most of the overlapping will be
removed; however the shoulder underarm area
will need additional adjustment to remove any
overlaps (Fig.07).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 08 8. Switch to the Sculpt/Paint tab. modo’s sculpt
tools function very similar to the ones in ZBrush.
Smoothing will be active when the Shift key is
held down with all the tools. Select ether Inflate
or Move tool, with the Smooth brush shape
preset, and then click onto the shoulder area
when holding the Shift. By using the Inflate and
Move tools combined, with and without the shift
key, the shoulder area can then be relaxed,
smoothed out and cleaned up (Fig.08).

9. The broadness of the back dictates the need

Fig 09
for more edges in that area. By using the Edge
Slice tool (C key), add edges running from
the lower back to the neck. This section of the
model simply doesn’t have enough detail to
provide a clean and smooth silhouette (Fig.09).

Note: The Edge Slice tool can be found in the

Basic as well as Mesh Edit section of the Tools
palette; however, I prefer to use the hotkey C
as it is one of the most commonly used tools.
Experiment with the Snap value setting; the
default is .5% but something closer to 5%-10%
might be more helpful to start with.

10. Start to shape the new edges into place. By

Fig 10
using the Element Move tool (T key) you can
simply drag vertices, edges, or polygons around,
one by one, without selecting and using a
manipulator. Be aware that the elements will be
dragged along the work plane dominant axis, so
rotate the perspective to see your adjustments
as well as to change the work plane’s dominant
axis. Much of the time, I prefer to move vertexes
only, so changing the tools Element Falloff
Mode from Auto to Vertex is helpful (Fig.10).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

11. Add an edge in the neck to show the Fig 11

sternomastoid muscle. This will start off the flow
of topology that is important in this area. Don’t
worry too much about keeping everything in
quads (four-sided polygons), at this point just
focus on getting good flow of the edges and
then tidy up once that is in place (Fig.11).

12. Add an additional row of edges in to mark

Fig 12
the underside of the chest. The edge loop also
runs into the shoulder area to mark the insertion
point of the main shoulder muscles. This gives
great deformation when the character lifts up his
arm (Fig.12).

13. Additional relaxing to the elbow and wrist

Fig 13
sections will help towards improving the
topology of the hand. The wrist will not animate
well this way, and the fingers need a lot of work
to get them to a good stage for sculpting and
animation. The crotch area topology came out
almost perfect, showing the power of ZSpheres
(Fig.13).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 14 14. Sometimes it can be difficult to see the area
you’re working on when the rest of the mesh is
in the way, so it is helpful to hide large portions
of the mesh. Before working on the hands,
select everything but the hand up to the elbow
and go to the top menu View > Hide Selected (H
key) (Fig.14).

15. Add an edge here to define the wrist and

Fig 15
the topside of the hand, and remove a few extra
edges on the hand, such as on the fingers.
When editing complex shapes it is helpful to
have only the minimal amount of geometry until
the overall form is complete, and then fill in to
resolve the form (Fig.15).

16. On the underside of the hand focus on

Fig 16
re-flowing the topology to form the two major
padded sections of the palm. It’s important to
note here the flow of the edges around the
thumb, as this will later be very effective in
pivoting the thumb around. All of this is done
in the same manner as before, adding and
removing edges to optimize the flow (Fig.16).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

17. The top of the hand topology should flow Fig 17

out of the fingers and into the wrist, just as the
bones and sinews do in your hands (Fig.17).

18. Another technique is to use the Edge Slide

Fig 18
tool to move and duplicate edges. In Edge
mode select the edge at the wrist, make sure
Duplicate is active and add an additional edge.
The aim of this is to end up with mostly or all
quads, as the main issue is that triangles do
not flex and animate very well, and can create
a valence point on the surface. If triangles are
needed, try to arrange the topology to keep
triangles in areas that will flex very little. Hands
can be notoriously difficult to model as they
have a large range of motions. As people are
so aware of the anatomy of hands, it becomes
easy for observers to spot mistakes. It can be
very helpful to have plenty of photo references
of hands in both open positions and in various
poses. A well made toy or action figure can also
Fig 19
help for reference (Fig.18).

19. It is important that there is enough geometry

where there might be a lot of detail, or in areas
that might bend. In Edge mode, double-click the
edge at the knuckles to select the full edge loop,
and then use the Geometry > Bevel (B key) to
double the edges in those areas (Fig.19).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 20 20. To move onto other areas of the model,
go to View > Unhide (U key) in the top menu;
now the whole mesh is visible again. It is also
a good time now to make sure the model is still
symmetrical by using the Symmetry tool, as
outlined in step 6 (Fig.20).

21. During the whole process of building the

Fig 21
model, paying careful attention to the silhouette
is important. The silhouette needs to look
proportionally correct, interesting, and as close
to the concept as possible. It can be helpful to
see the model in pure outline without shading,
so simply switch to Solid display from time to
time (Fig.21).

22. The legs are going to need some attention

Fig 22
before proceeding. Start by simplifying the
connection between the bone sticking out and
that second joint – it’s more twisted than it
should be for a simple base mesh. Also remove
a number of edge loops in the bone section,
and in the foot. It’s important to remember that,
just like for the hand, there should be enough
geometry in areas where they might flex or bend
(Fig.22).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

23. Flatten out the bottom of the foot and shape Fig 23
it so it resembles the concept art. It’s important
to note the foot is basically a hoof, and is solid.
There are no toe areas, so the foot will not bend
when walking. This means we can reduce the
polygons on the topside of the foot by collapsing
some edges and forming triangles in the corners
(Fig.23).

24. Moving onto the head, face detail will need

Fig 24
to be blocked in now. Start by using Bevel (B
Key) on the face to form edge loops around
the head that range from the bridge of the
nose to the bottom of the chin. Even if it’s not
perfectly tidy, it’s important to block out all the
basic topology loops in the face so that we can
later alter the shape and quickly add detail by
inserting new edge loops (Fig.24).

25. The first detail to block in is the eyes. If

Fig 25
the eye holes are in the right place it makes it
very easy to locate the nose, mouth, and ears.
Creating circular loops around the eyes makes
it easy to add additional loops later, but also
creates the most optimal topology to animate
the eyes (Fig.25).

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Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
Fig 26 26. Like the eyes, the head needs more loops
inside of the mouth section. Create circular
loops around the mouth but selecting the
central polygons and bevelling, making sure to
position them at key points that will affect the
silhouette. The top outer edge of the upper lip
loop also forms the bottom edge of the lower lip.
Additionally, make sure there are at least two
edges in each corner of the mouth that will flow
back towards the ear, so the mouth has enough
edges to maintain its volume with deformation
(Fig.26).

27. Select the newly created eye polygons

Fig 27
and add another Bevel, then go to Polygon
> Reduction Tool > Collapse. The selected
polygons will now have been divided into
triangles with a vertex in the middle. Also bevel
polygons on the side of the head to form the ear.
We want the topology on the top and side of the
head to flow into the ear naturally, as any ugly
topology connecting to the ear at harsh angles
will appear darkly coloured due to the way real-
time engines handle smoothing groups (Fig.27).

28. Add further loops to form the chin and jaw,

Fig 28
making sure they follow the jaw line all the way
up to the ears. As the nose does not really
stick out of the character in the concept, we will
not add topology for it. Rather, we will use the
normal map from the high-poly sculpt alongside
a good texture to achieve a realistic result. Not
all detail needs to be in the base mesh, only
detail that effects the silhouette (Fig.28).

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 Part1: Next Gen Character Creation Series

29. Applying the same principles used Fig 29

throughout the tutorial so far, refine the neck
area and shape the back of the skull. The large
neck muscles should be prominent in the base
mesh and follow the muscles’ direction so the
area will animate well when the character turns
his head (Fig.29).

30. For the final section of this part, it is time to

focus more on the overall volume and silhouette
to match the concept. Start by using the Sculpt,
Move, and Inflate tools with Shift-Smooth to
quickly adjust the mesh, and then edit edges
and vertices as needed by using the Element
Move, Edge Slice and Edge Slide tools.

One final and very powerful tool is found in the

Fig 30
Deform tab in the Tools palette. The Flex Tool
will allow you to apply transformations that have
the centre aligned to the selection boundary
with an adjustable fall-off. This tool functions
very similarly to the Transpose tool in ZBrush,
allowing for quick posing and mesh adjustments.
What we have at the end is a base mesh that
will not only work well for sculpting our high-poly
model, but also to animate well, run efficiently
in our real-time engine, and look good from all
distances due to our care and attention to the
silhouette (Fig.30).

Next month we’ll be sculpting the high-res model

in ZBrush, and I’ll be back in Part 4 of this series
for more modo work.

Creature Concept by
Richard Tilbury

Tutorial originally created by Joseph Harford in

ZBrush & 3ds Max; translated by John Hayes
for modo

Tutorial by:
John Hayes
For more from this artist visit:
http://zugok.cgsociety.org/
Or contact them:
[email protected]

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 168 Issue 047 July 2009

Next Gen Character Creation Series Part1:
PMS COLORED

116 U

404 U

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Rendering and animation improvements head

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www.3dcreativemag.com Page 169 Issue 047 July 2009