Maggie Chang | Giant God

GIANT GOD

This piece is a piece created a concept art by Jean-Loïc Fontaine, and I added my own tweak on top of it. 

I wanted to make an environment that would create a silent grand moment in the forest. The environment would bring dramatic lighting that shows a god like atmosphere in a magical world.

Programs used: Houdini, Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Nuke, Redshift.

Giant Modeling

I first modeled the giant in Zbrush to have a base shape of the giant. Then I put it into Houdini for a further rocky look using noise. 

Create Hill

I create different heightfield erodes and build in different layers to shape the form of the hill I want similar to the concept. It also creates a base of the hill so the grass, rocks, plants, stairs, branches, stumps, and trees can place on top of it.

Hair Grooming

This is the diffuse pass. I added some Houdini procedure groom hair on the giant to give more character to the subject. I also have hair on the trees to create more textures and have more breakups on the trees.

I create some attribute wrangle masks and let the hair grow only where the masks appeared. I then add some noise inside the masks so it gives more variety of how long or how dense the hair is going to grow. If I want the specific area to grow, I'll add attribute paint to paint the area I want the hair to grow.

The areas that are showing with colors are different groups of hair that I made for the environment so I can control them differently without being heavily loaded in the scene. 

Scattering Objects

I made some procedure rocks, grass, and stairs with some mega scans plants and just scatter them all around in the scene.

Animating Objects

I used the ocean spectrum for the river. And I cache it out so the river moves.

I have animated the butterflies and boat that would go along with the water sim, so the boat won't be static and gives more liveliness in the scene. 

I rendered it in Houdini Redshift and then comp it in Nuke. 

These are some breakdowns that I did in Nuke. I first graded the objects. I then add God Rays and Particles and animate them. I also add in caustics on the stomach to show the reflection on the water. After that, I made noise for a fog animation to create a mystical atmosphere. I comp in the birds and roto them so the birds fly back and in front of the giant that feels like it is flying around it. Then, I transform and animate the image sequence so it gives a camera movement in the scene. 

Thank you!

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