POMPIERS DE PARIS RIG.B

Here it is, my final update for this entry ! The Pompier de Paris RIG.B unit is out of the assembly line and ready for action !

I wanted the color scheme to reference as much as possible the firefighting suit of the Paris Fire Brigade, hence the chromed-out helmet and red dominant color ; although for composition reasons, I decided on limiting the red to vertical bands running along the model, on a background a blue similar to the one worn on the everyday uniform of the Brigade.

I added a lot of iconography referencing the Brigade as well as French industry ! RIG.B proudly wears the bagde of the Pompiers de Paris and a 1st class sapper rank symbol. It also bears the label of Dassault Systems, which would have engineered it, and that of the (defunct) Manufrance Saint-Etienne factories, where it would have been built.

Here's a breakdown of the different passes :

I wanted RIG.B to look slightly worn, like it has seen some action, but not too grungy and ruined. I tried to be subtle, with mostly to layers of wear : one of roughness and color variations for each different material, and one of general dust, dirt and grease that's applied allover. Here's an example of the process, with IRay renders : first, the base PBR properties for each surface, then the markings and main color composition, then the local wear, then the iconography and decals, and last the general grunge details.

The Maya scene I put together for the renders isn't anything too fancy, as I didn't want it to overpower the actual work done on RIG.B. I wanted to to look like some king of runway or showcase set, simple and elegant. I lit it with SkyDomeLight and two Area Lights. The renders were done with Arnold on my GPU !

Here we go with a smaller update : I feel this is turning out pretty well ! I mostly fixed the smoothing groups and applied the tweaks I was advised to do during the review session.

I also switched the rendering to GPU and it saved my life. It's so much faster !

Next step is going to be minor tweaking and details. I plan on adding a few markings here and there, to make it look more thought-out and techy.

Second update here ! It's been a while, as I've been working on another piece (https://www.therookies.co/projects/46501), but I got it done and over with, so now I'm back working on our friend here !

The last couple days of work have mostly been adding small details and variation to the overall texture work, and improve the environment and lighting of the Arnold scene. I wanted it to be moodier, so it'll jelp me figure put the direction I want to bring the project towards.

I apologize for the noisy renders, but I didn't have much time to make them full quality, as I wanted to have my entry updated for the upcoming review !

First update on the project ! And I may have done a complete 180 with my design in the last week of work. As I started working on the "Designer RIG.B" idea, I came to realize that while it would be a cool exercise in painting weird shapes and colors, it would be a bit restricting in term of material diversity. So I started over again from zero !

I decided to indulge on my patriotic side and do a Pompiers de Paris (Paris firefighting brigade) -inspired design. I pictured a extreme conditions rescue unit, made to pull out victims from raging blazes and polluted environments. Translating the gear of a modern firefighter onto a high-tech robot would provide me with some cool materials to create, all while keeping an interesting variety of colors. Here how it's looking now :

At this point I also took the time to plug it in Maya to see how it should come out in the end ! Here's a quick texturing progress view :

I really like how it looks at this point. I think next I'm gonna add some normal and roughness details on the different surface. I also don't want to make the final result too grungy, like, keep it lightly used and relatively new.

Then, I'll move on to the proper lookdev in Arnold, to make it all come together !

Alrighty ! Let's go for my first entry of my first ever Rookie challenge !

So ! I took some time to shift through the different ideas and inspirations I had, and I came up with this : in my version, RIG.B is an show droid designed to be paraded around conventions and events to display the engineering of the firm that made it. In the spirit of modern luxury hardware, they collaborated with a indie designer to adorn it with his art.

I plan to use the large armored areas of the bot as the canvas. I'll be drawing inspiration from the likes of Takashi Murakami, Nikki de Saint-Phalle or Kaws. I also really dig the work of french contemporary artist Nishe, who's work combining futuristic industrial design and colorful acrylic painting would look really cool on our pal here.

This means bright, saturated colors, flowery and cartoon shapes and busy compositions - maybe mixed with cyberpunk typo and graphics. The difficult part will be to keep it clear and readable, and to that end I'll really take some time to think through my color palettes.

I'm planning on creating the bulk of the texturing in Substance Painter, covering the endoskeleton and the details, and then move on to designer to make a custom "artwork" material, which would allow me for better control of the repeating shapes and patterns. Finally, I'll import it back in Painter to tweak the results and add subtle wear and dirt.

For now, I've mostly been gathering up references and inspiration, and getting familiarized with the model. I also did a rough mockup of the color scheme inside Painter. Here's a quick IRay render :

Next big step for me will be to add detail to the bake both in Painter directly and by going around in 3dsMax adding support edges and turbosmooth modifiers here and there. I want my bake to be as crisp as possible before starting anything else.

Tune in on here if you want to see how it goes !