Mother's morning is early (母ちゃんの朝は早い)

This is my final foundation term project in Think Tank Training Centre. 

Our assignment was to create a single frame in CG based on a concept of our choice.

I decided to pick this art piece by a Japanese artist called "stkumachip".

Her art is called "母ちゃんの朝は早い" (https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfqar3-BiIP/?hl=en)

After that, I listed down the elements that I see in the art and proceeded to come up with a timetable. My aim is to follow as closely as possible. However, I left a week of buffer time, just in case there are any delays.

Week 1: I started by finding references to the different objects seen in the artwork so it would be helpful during the modeling, texturing and look development stage. I also worked on getting the camera angle as close to the concept as possible before proceeding to work on the rough modeling.

During the rough modeling stage, I started with a basic human model first (model provided by the school) to get the overall scale right.

I added rough colors and lighting to the scene.

Progress for the week:

Week 2: I started polishing the models.

The plants were modeled in cinema4d. The leaves were cloned using cloner. After that, I brought it to maya to adjust.

For the riceballs, I modeled a single grain in Maya and duplicated it into a triangular shape using MASH.

Plants and flower done in cinema4d:

Progress for the week:

Week 3: I continued to polish up the models and proceeded to uv unwrap. The uv unwrapping took a lot longer than expected.

After the unwrapping is done, I proceeded on to texturing.

Texturing was mainly done in Photoshop and Mari. 

I downloaded some watercolor brushes to use in Photoshop and Mari to paint the objects/UV so they would look more like a watercolor painting.

I traced the graphics (for example, the bear and penguin on the water bottle) mainly using illustrator. After that, I brought them to Photoshop to make them more watercolor-like.

Some of the graphics like the ones on the jar and weighing scale were traced in Photoshop.

Textures done in Mari:

Textures done in Photoshop:

Graphics that are traced in Illustrator (screenshots of original artwork at the side/top):

For the food, I use watercolor brushes in Photoshop to paint colors and overlay them on top of real life food images to create the watercolor texture.

Here is an example (left hand side is before painting, right hand side is after):

Progress for the week:

Week 4: I continued on with the texturing and look development of the objects and scene. This is our final submission to our school for our project.

After rendering, I brought the render to photoshop to adjust the colors.

Render for the week (before and after tweaking in photoshop):

Week 5: I continued to tweak based on my supervisor's feedback.

I also did some simple fx in Maya to create the steam that is coming out from the kettle on the left-hand side of the artwork.

I also did some experiments on the fur using xgen, which I decided not to put in because I could not make it look nice.

Render for the week after adjusting the color in Photoshop:

Week 6: My supervisor was very kind to help me see and give his feedback. I continued to tweak.

Final render (after tweaking the colors in Photoshop):

Side by side comparison with the original art by stkumachip:

This project was challenging and through the process, I have learnt a lot.

Special thank you to my supervisor, GunSik Kim, for his detailed feedback and for always being so encouraging! Thank you to my friend too!