Tutorial: Making of Skullhead Mobster [Archive]

Abhishek

25-12-2005, 05:00 PM

Making of Skullhead Mobster
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Hello My name is Harshdeep Borah. I'm originally from India, and recently finished my CG studies from Vancouver, Canada. I am sharing my knowledge of how I made my latest character SKULLHEAD MOBSTER. I don't intend this to be an indepth tutorial, but more over a 'Making Of'. And I assume you have a good knowledge of your favorite 3d or 2d software.
: Starting off :
I got inspired for this character when I saw a sketch somebody did in my life drawing teacher Stephen's sketchbook. It just clicked me and I thought of making it in CG. As always for my any project, I started off collecting some real life reference images and doing some research on how a human would look if his face skin is dried into the skull. Also I wanted to show the sheer power and confidence on his face. So what came in my mind was mobster. So I thought of mixing both the ideas and make him as a Mobster. Here are some images I collected for inspiration. 
<IMG height=900 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/refrences.jpg" width=650 border="0">
: Modelling the Skullhead :
I started off with box modelling the head in Maya. I paid attention to the bone structure humans have, and also how the muscle flows. Then thought of how if skin dried, would look on the face. But I had to maintain the basic form of the human head. Then I modeled the basic polygon mesh for his clothes and hands. I wanted him to be in relaxed position and not in very T-Pose, because its always better to model the character in the closest pose your final render will be. So that you don't have to fight with rigging to reach you character from one extreme pose to another. I try to keep my polycage fairly simple and lowpoly, then export it into zbrush as .obj format and do a lot of tweaking and then import it back in Maya.

<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/wireframe_head.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/modeling_body01.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
Tips :
1. Its better if you install <A href="http://www.maya3d.dk/Scripts/MJPolyTools/" target="_blank">MJ Polytools</A> before jumping into modeling, as its very handy for modeling and has been a great help for all Maya modelers.
2. I always model my characters using Smooth Proxy, so that I can work on my lowpoly half and see my smooth half as how it is going to be when smoothed.
: Unwrapping :
At this stage I unwrap the complete model and arrange it properly, keeping my texturing needs in mind. So that I don't face any problems later while he is rigged or when I will be texturing him. Also note that it is important to unwrap your model before getting into Zbrush detailing. I mostly use <A href="http://www.wings3d.com/" target="_blank">Wings3D</A> and planar mapping in Maya for unwrapping the models. Then export uvs at higher resolution of 4000 pix. 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/uvs01.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/uvs02.jpg" width=700 border="0">
: Rigging :
I made a simple bone setup in Maya to give him a pose. Rigging with lowpoly is better as while weighting you don't have to worry about heavy mesh and can work with it easily. Also to note, I always make animated frame so that I have basic T-pose in first frame and final pose in like 15th frame or so. This is good so as to interact with zbrush. As if done this way, I can export t-pose in zbrush, work on details and then re-export the final pose again to zbrush, and all the details done on t-pose will automatically transfer to posed model. This comes in very handy and you can go back and forth. I also smooth my model this time to see if all the deformations are good and if needs a change; i change it on lowpoly model.
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/bone_setup.jpg" width=700 border="0">
Tips :
1. For you final pose, always save your tpose keyframe and then another keyframe for desired pose.
2. Do all your modelling before rigging, as its very difficult to do any modeling changes once the model has been weighted properly.
: Mesh detailing, Displacement and Bump maps in Zbrush :
Now comes the fun part. Beforehand I plan everything out. This is very important part of detailing. I plan how much detail is needed from displacements so that it would affect contours and how much from bump maps for fine detailing like skin wrinkles and pores. I export my posed lowpoly mesh to zbrush part by part and first start detailing displacements. Once done with displacements, I load the bump viewer material in zbrush and start painting finer details in projection mode. Note there are few settings you have to keep in mind for Maya and zbrush to impost the mesh before and while detailing.
Some things you need to keep in mind before exporting from Maya are :
1. There should be no overlapping in the UV's.
2. Try to make you model all quads. Ignore triangles and there should be NO n-gons in your model.
3. There should be no holes in your model. Though it works sometimes but try to ignore it.
4. All the uvs should be in 0-1 space of UV editor window.
 
Some things u need to keep in mind while importing your mesh in zbrush are:
1. Always check uvs overlapping in texture check.
2. Store your lowpoly mesh as morph target if you intend to export displacement maps.
Here are few renders I achieved using zbrush detailing and then rendering in Maya with a very basic light setup.
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/cap_zbrush.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/coat_zb01.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/coat_zb02.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/clay_render01.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/clay_render02.jpg" width=700 border="0">
: Texturing :
Once happy with detailing, now comes the texturing part. I love it and always been beaten up by mom for messing up my home walls. Also I cannott stress more on how much real life references are useful for texturing. Always refer to real life objects, their surfaces and how they react to light and environment.
So as Uv's are already laid out properly, I apply shader and start painting in Photoshop part by part. Mostly I hand paint all the textures from scratch in Photoshop. Started with the base color, made some custom brushes to add layers of dirt and weathering on objects. Then desaturated the color map and tweaked it to be used as bump and specular maps. Try not to paint too much of darker and highlights in color map, and let the light do that. Pay attention to finer details.
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/clothes_diffuse.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/face_diffuse.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/face_bump.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/face_spec.jpg" width=700 border="0">
Tips :
1. It's a good habit to bake your mesh's shadows from Maya and export it in Photoshop and used it as shadow base for painting darker parts.
2. Try to paint as big texture as your pc can handle, as you can always go smaller for texture size, but if needed to show more details can never stretch it out bigger. For my highpoly models I usually paint at least of 4k - 6k maps. 
: Shading :
For shading I used a basic Blinn shader with color, bump and specular map attached to it. For leather jacket I used Maya's procedural leather texture in bump slot. Though the texture was handpainted and when mixed with procedural bump, it worked well. When ambient occlusion was not included in Maya, I used dirtmap plugin for every shader. It gives softer shadows and gives more depth to scene. Though it's a bit expensive in terms of rendering. Also i use Facing ratio for most of my surfaces. As it gives a little highlight on the edges of your model, which makes your shaders look more real. 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/shaders.jpg" width=700 border="0">
: Lighting :
I always keep light setup very simple. One main source light, one fill light and one rim light sometimes. If there are other objects in the scene, I try to put one bounce light for each object. Cause all my soft shadows are generated by Ambient Occlusion/Dirtmap shaders itself, I don't need to put extra lights to cast softer shadows. I use mental ray for calculation as its really good renderer, though takes a bit more time.
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/light_setup.jpg" width=700 border="0">
 
Here are the final renders. Added smoke,beard and bg in Photoshop with some color corrections and post effects. Hope you enjoyed it.
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/skullhead01.jpg" width=800 border="0">
 
<IMG height=600 src="http://www.harshcg.com/tutorials/images_skullhead/skullhead02.jpg" width=800 border="0">
Thanks for reading.
Harshdeep Borah
<A href="http://www.harshcg.com/" target="_blank">www.harshcg.com </A></TD></TR></T></T></T></T></T></TABLE><edited><editID>Abhishek</editID><editDate>38711.2373148148</editDate></edited>

3d_devil

25-12-2005, 05:02 PM

WELL WELLL this is somethin v all wanted ..... grr88888 goin tantrics !!! 
let's have the tips n tweaks flowin in here !!! <img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"> 
 
THANK YOU HARSHA 

<edited><editID>3d_devil</editID><editDate>38711.233125</editDate></edited>

eaglecypher

25-12-2005, 07:19 PM

VERY USEFUL INFORMATION!  and Superb Modelling <IMG src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"> 
thank you very much Harshdesign

lostworldenator

25-12-2005, 07:54 PM

really very good info....not very much helpfull to understand the whole but grtttt content for all the intermediaters..............................keep postin more more more........

harshdesign

26-12-2005, 01:16 AM

"Abhi thanks for posting this up."
I am glad you liked it. Was looking for some spare time so that i could finish this. As i already said this is NOT step by step tutorial, but an overview of my working process. But if you guys have specific questions, you can write it down and I will try my best to answer them in brief.
Thanks for reading.
Merry XMas and Happy new year to all <IMG src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0">
Harsh.<edited><editID>harshdesign</editID><editDate>38711.5823032407</editDate></edited>

dhruvsm

26-12-2005, 12:54 PM

hi harsh...this is great....and thanks to u for sharing this and also to abhishek for posting this on front page.....great stuff...thanks a lot!!!

3d_devil

26-12-2005, 01:36 PM

hey harsh, 
 
after detailin the low poly mesh in zb did u export the mesh in to maya
as high res mesh or the low res mesh with bump, normal or displacement
maps ? 
 
i can c the high res model in the image where u r showin ur lightin setup, n i guss it's in maya... 
 
so if u used the the high res model for the  final render n low res model for paintin the UV maps in ps.... 
 
how did u manage to get the postions of the wringles n other details in the texture to the exact place on the model ? 
 
coz there r deformations in the higres model n the positon of the uvs
would have changed a lil due to that, when compaired to the uvs u have
layed out at first for the same model... 
 
n can v c the final render in maya, b4 u added the background, beard n other details in PS ? 


<edited><editID>3d_devil</editID><editDate>38712.0966550926</editDate></edited>

shivesh

26-12-2005, 03:33 PM

hi harsh ,
 First of all thanks for posting such a gud tutorial <IMG src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><IMG src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"><IMG src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0">. i have some queries : have u modelled the full character with single polygon or u made it seprately and then u have combined . and if u made it separately  then hw u have managed nicely to combine  that. i mean i have tried a lot of times to make it separately n combined them later. but i didnt get d gud result. as u know in combining loops should be maintained. ad

angad

27-12-2005, 01:27 AM

out of this world.... probably a wiseguy straight from hell.... gr8 work... according to me you r the best character modeller in here and you inspire a lot of begginers and experienced ppl here...

nilesh shah

28-12-2005, 11:55 AM

VERY NICE TUTORIAL
 THAT'S IT I AM LOOKING FOR LONG TIME.
 THANKS HARSH AND ABHISHEK<IMG src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
 HARSH would u give me some more good tutorial for Zbrush too?<IMG src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0">
 <A href="http://www.splineworks.com" target="_blank">www.splineworks.com</A> my portfolio.

Earth_Craft

28-12-2005, 12:39 PM

THANKS HARSH .....
That one is great...very nice tutorial.
Iam totaly new to Zbrush...and the information u shared  helped me a lot.
looking forward to see more from ur excellency.
thanks dude.

harshdesign

29-12-2005, 02:52 AM

thanks for your words guys...really appreciate it...
now about some questions:
3d_devil: good questions...
1. yes i exported high detailed mesh from zbrush to maya, but only displacement details as mesh, not the bumps details as mesh. just cus displacement takes a very long time to render, compared to render a highpoly mesh. also this was not animated so i had the privilage to render highpoly mesh
2. for painting on lowres uvs, as i already mentioned i had displacement and bump maps having contours and wrinkle details in them, so i used them as my base layer in photoshop to be used as dark areas.
3. beard was in maya, paint effects. only smoke and bg was added in psp. here's the raw render from maya...
<IMG src="http://www.harshcg.com/stuff/skullhead/skullhead01_dec28.jpg" border="0">
 
shivesh: all of this was modeled in one scene, but part by part so that i can model it with correct proportions. head, body, hands are saparate mesh as they dont have any cntinous seams. it really depends on modllers ease if he wants to model one mesh or saparate and then combine them later.
i recently got one screen capturing software...so i will try to make a video tutorial of my zbrush process...hope this helps...
cheers<edited><editID>harshdesign</editID><editDate>38714.6421412037</editDate></edited>

eaglecypher

29-12-2005, 02:56 AM

wow, great..... waiting for ur ZBRUSH TUTORIAL...   it is definitely going to help us a lot 
thanks harshdesign,

shyamshriram

04-01-2006, 04:25 PM

Sorry for being soo late..Thanx for sharing Harsh :) And congrats for the first prize <img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0"> Keep rocking :)

mailu_anil

07-01-2006, 07:22 PM

GR8 WORK

sanjibandey

10-01-2006, 11:42 AM

thanks for nice posting.....I am agree with mahiwal this is very good
 modeling....and info....but not very much helpfull to understand the
 whole...who dont know maya...add some more information about
 texturing method...

mitra4u

01-10-2006, 12:08 AM

thanx harsh,  ur words are going definetly to help my ongoing project nice job

blackocean

01-10-2006, 12:26 AM

Hey thanks for the making

don_rulez

21-07-2008, 12:33 AM

great . thnxx mate .