See you waiter, Alligator
A 3D yet painterly interpretation of one of the illustrations made by Thibaud Pourplanche. This is my final project for the foundation term at Think Tank Training Centre. (Time Spent: 4 Weeks)
See you waiter, Alligator
"See you waiter, Alligator!"
Process:
I first started blocking out some major simple shapes for the scene so that I can camera match quickly and proceeded to finish the block-out for all the major objects in the scene. Then I added basic colors to have better clarity.
Post block-out I took the character to Mudbox first and started the sculpting process. Midway I realized that I should've done the UVs before starting to sculpt. But it was a easy fix as I was able to take the base sub division level of the sculpt into Maya and UV it there and importing UVs in Mudbox after. From then the UV process and Sculpting went on simultaneously.
After the sculpting process was done I brought a low poly version and a high poly version of objects to Maya. I made a basic light setup just to get an idea of how things are gonna look and having the low poly versions made this process smoother during test renders. Since I haven't started texturing yet I made sure that I didn't spend too much time with lighting at this stage.
I took my scene to Substance Painter first to get the mesh maps quicker than Mari. Then I began setting up my scene in Mari and imported necessary mesh maps that I got from Substance. I was going for a more hand painted approach so I did not have much work with procedurals. Which in retrospect would've been faster than manually painting everything but I doubt I would've been able to get the painted effect like in the concept. I finished texturing the character first and then the background. Importing the camera to Mari and Mudbox helped a lot even though they tend to be not entirely accurate. After texturing was done it was time to take all the maps to Maya one last time and apply them the objects in the scene.
(Sculpting using Mudbox & texturing using Mari)
Getting the lighting right or at least close to the concept was very tricky. With a lot of experimentation, IPR renders, and light linking I finally reached a point where I was satisfied. With that Vray output I was sure that with some more compositing in Photoshop I would be able to get it closer to the concept. I also used some light blockers (simple planes) placed in a way so that it creates the effect of god rays.
With the amount of lights I had in my scene coming from all directions having a glass or water material was not feasible for me considering the time I had left and my laptop's capabilities, so I decided the best way to tackle this would be by doing it in post with Photoshop.
Post final submission at think tank,since I had some extra time left I wanted to go a bit off from the concept image and try my own lighting for the scene and create an alternate version for the scene in the process, Vray fog gave me that extra depth effect and the way the lights interacted with the fog was really fun to play around with. (The only downside being render time but was totally worth it)
(above)Clay-Normals-UVs-Vray Render
Concept Comparison:
Conclusion:
This was my first ever full fledged 3D project that too only after one term at Think Tank. It was a fun challenge filled with a lot of ups and downs. This project allowed me to make a lot of mistakes and learn from them as well, and I'm surprised by the result myself. Having some experience learning digital painting and concept art before this helped me see how the worlds of 2D and 3D are connected and it is fascinating to have experienced both sides. A major thanks to everyone who helped me through this journey and can't wait to take on a new challenge!
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