Ryuga Tjew │ Environment Generalist Demo Reel 2023

[home.ward] – toward home

“their homeward journey"

PART I – HOW IT STARTED

I was influenced to create a boat-interior CG scene - right after I watched the classic JAWS (1975) by Steven Spielberg. As my aim is to become an Environment Generalist for Visual Effects, it got me thought that I must deliver some sort of generalist-technicality and show my range of skills through a single demo reel. 

PART II – REASONABLE CONCEPT

This is the main concept image that I have used:

For me, this image is completely inline with my personal goal.

When I saw that photo – these are potentials that I felt I could do in single reel:

• Hard surface modeling with a bit of sculpting.

• Texturing various props with different materials.

• Ability to add more props to existing concept.

• Integrating the interior element versus exterior element, they’re complementary.

• Learn how to simulate ocean and managing big scene.

• Playing with different lighting scenarios.

• A core-basic compositing for environment.

Overall, I felt like it’s a proper amount of work to show my generalist skillset towards environment. 

PART III – BLOCK OUT AND 3D MODELING

The aim of this process is to identify the correct scale, size, and proportions as in real life. I followed the concept image and other references to add architectural features for the cabin interior.

As the model progressed, I wanted to give an impression that someone has occupied the boat cabin, not just an empty CG interior. Therefore, I went with more images references and modeled more assets. These are some additional references that I found interesting for storytelling.

I started to block some light rigs. It is to give me a rough idea of how the volume will look on grey-shaded shader, then I identified which area should be darker or brighter according to real-life lighting and lighting fixtures in my scene, this is very useful later for night lighting setup.

Next, there are minor assets that need extra treatments.

For the chair, I modeled the low-poly mesh in Maya, then I brought it into ZBrush and ZRemeshed it, so I will have evenly quad faces to sculpt the surface. For sculpting I only used 3 common brushes:

• “Clay Build Up” to get the main shape - to get the base mesh.

• “Dam Standard” to sculpt the wrinkles - for generating displacement maps.

• “Smooth” to averaging the displacement of vertices with neighboring vertices.

Then I applied V-Ray Displacement Node into the base mesh in Maya.

For the cloth wiper, I ran the nCloth simulation in Maya and used the window sill as a collider.

PART IV – STORYBOARD

PART V – UV MAPPING

At this point, I divided all the 3D assets into 3 categories:

• Hero asset: anything in close-up shot.

• Secondary asset: wall, door, ceiling, etc.

• Background asset: exterior elements such as sky, ocean, and anything visible. 

In that way, I know where I can spend my energy and focus more on particular area, especially for close-up shot which carry more pixel information. While working on a close-up shot, I determine how close the camera will ever get to the object. The rule that I adopt is to double the final resolution of the piece in texture resolution. If my screen output will be 2K, then UV tiles are going to be 4K. The pieces that I see on my Maya screen should be doubled in my UV view.

I always keep my UVs in consistent scale to avoid any discrepancy by checking the value of the texel density. It doesn’t have to be same value everywhere, but it must have a similar-looking density. In some areas, more density would be needed if I need to show extra detail in particular shot. Therefore, no fixed rules – just find the middle ground.

I always organized the UDIM tiles. I categorized them accordingly by asset’s material. Most of the time, one asset has more than one material. 

I put it side by side per asset, it is also easier to track which asset need to be painted in Mari or Painter. 

PART VI –TEXTURING

I gathered other photos as references. The goal this time is to find interesting color palette and paint some details on surfaces to tell how the situation inside the cabin. 

For cabin part, I used Mari because it contains many UDIM and Mari is very good on handling enormous amount of UDIM and the ability to paint-through texture image. While for the smaller assets, I used Substance Painter, it’s quicker to paint extra details since some materials are already pre-made. 

One of many assets which I painted in Substance Painter, the workflow is similar with Mari.

This is the compilation of the photographs which I have used as references.

Here are some highlights of my texturing work:

PART VII – EXTERIOR ELEMENTS

For island, I used GAEA to model procedurally. Since it is a far object from the camera, I didn’t really concern about high resolution texture. In GAEA, it is possible to get a quick texture through “SatMaps”.

I started with my first Geo Primitive Node, then I applied some profile nodes like terracing and erosion. After I like the shape, I exported the island via Mesher node and Output node to generate the OBJ file and 2D texture maps respectively. In Maya, I modeled the lighthouse and I placed it on top of island. 

For the sea, I used V-Ray Water. V-Ray Water is a procedurally generated texture. It can be used along with Vector Displacement in order to simulate waves on the surface of water.

PART VIII – LIGHTING & RENDERING

Day time lighting.

Night time lighting. 

PART IX– COMPOSITING

PART X – ANOTHER ENVIRONMENT PROJECT

I uploaded another work that I had recently worked on. It’s called KAPELLE.  It's inspired from a real site in Switzerland and I was a bit influenced by THE LAST OF US's ivy while making it.

For better viewing, choose QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution. Enjoy!

I was inspired by this photograph. I used this image as my main composition and framing.

PART XI - SCATTERING USING "MASH NETWORK"

Before I start the scaterring process, I already had some vegetation assets which some I made myself and some are from Xfrog Package. To make sure they work, I did look-dev test with HDRI dome to verify the texture maps and shader. 

I utilized MASH World node called "Terrestrial Ecosystem", Random node, Avoidance node, and Mesh Distribution node to make it plausible scattering for grass on foreground and trees on the background part.

PART XII - LOOK DEV

PART XIII - MATCHING THE LIGHTING REFERENCE & COMPOSITING 

Thank you so much! You have read my presentation until the end.

Cheers!