DEMO REEL 2023 - Natalie Dembonczyk

Pirate "Stylized creation"

I knew from the start I want to do a Stylized Character. Luckily, I already followed a very talented Concept Artist, Cesar Vergara, on Instagram. When my instructor James Schauf agreed to my project's ideas, I did not waste much time and collected all my references with PureRef.

The Base: 

Modeling /Sculpting

With my model references collected, I started with Blockout the Character with spheres in ZBrush. To get the right dimension of a human I used the base mesh to measure the height. By posing Z spheres in the concept pose, I could measure the arm and legs of the character. In this way, I could check if the body proportions is correct.

In the meantime, I worked on the weapons of the Pirate in Maya. I already needed them to be finished so I could sculpt the hand and test if they warp around the handle.

Beauty/Clayrender/ Wireframe

Retopology/ UVS/ Details/ Baking

In this stage, I often asked my instructors and classmates for feedback, because I knew when I start with the retopology in Maya that the base can not be changed. After that, I did the UVs.

So when I was happy with everything and finished the retopology, I went back to ZBrush and started with the details on the clothes, hair, and a little bit on the skins. The most used brushes were base brushes, but also download Wrinkles Brushes for the clothes.

After that, I started to bake the Lowpoly and Highpoly mesh of my Displacement Maps in Mudbox. Some Hair Displacements  I had done in Zbrush, due to some baking issues. With the help of Youtube Videos, I learned other Zbrush tools that helped to fix certain issues. 

The Texture Maps, I had done in Substance Painter. 

Scene/Lighting/Shots/Posing

Finished with modeling part of the character, I already started to plan the Lighting and my camera shots in Maya. To have the character not float in the scene, I created a simple plane with sand texture from Quixel Megascans, and with that, I modeled and textured a rook.

After having some rough ideas for the presentation, I started to pose my character, by uploading my A-Posed Character in Mixamo. With that, I already had a rig and got my character into the right pose. 

Texturing

To finish the Pirate I textured most of the part in Substance Painter. However, the skin and eyes I did in Mari, because I figured out that the projection and textures turn better out than in Substance.

During this texturing phase, I started with the parrot block out. 

Diffuse/Specluar/SSS/Sheen/Normal

Parrot - 

Modeling 

This is the first time I modeled an animal, so I practiced the base form of a bird while working on the pirate. I looked at a lot of references and I even asked a friend of mine if they could send me a picture of their pet bird.

Feathers

I learned a lot in this stage and had to draw a line between a stylized bird and a real bird. In the concept art were many things that you could interpret differently and were not accurate to a real bird. The bird reminded me of the birds, from the movie "Rio", so I decided to go in this direction instead of an accurate bird. I tested out in multiple styles, like Texturing the feathers in Substance Design and Nano Mesh in Zbrush I wanted to focus in this project on sculpting, so I stick to the idea of sculpting the feathers.

But before that, I already retopology the base body of the bird and did the UVs in Maya.

After the feathers were ready, I baked the Displacement in Zbrush and put the bird in Maya back, to see if there were any issues with the displacement.

Texturing/ Pose

I quickly found out that texturing a rough base color with Polypaint in Zbrush is very helpful in the texturing process. This way, I finished the textures fast in Substance Painter and Photoshop.

Finally, I posed the bird in a way it made sense because I noticed that most birds sit like this to have a better grip and balance. 

Render/ Compositing

Lastly, I added volume light to have the character in focus and broke up the light with gobos. With the light ready and cameras animated, I rendered it with Arnold in Maya and edited the background and lights in Nuke.

"Nerdy Girl Room"

This group project is a collaboration with Lena Greiner, who did a great job on the animation part. In this Project, I liked to focus on Lighting.

Layout/ Composition/ Contrast /Blockout

The planning and LookDev were in this project very important. When we decided on the kid's room we wanted that the room fits to the character and lion. So my idea was to mix elements from different concept arts. But the main concept was from Rise of the Guardians. For the Lighting and atmosphere, I took a lot of inspiration from the Movie, Monster INC and Monster UNI. But instead of a monotone light, I went more for a warm-cold contrast to present the warm safety room, where the cold moonlight from outside breaks in.

Right away, I blocked out the room with the necessary objects and send them to Lena so that she could work on the animation. 

Modeling/Texturing

When the Blockout was done, I started with important objects such as the furniture and toys where I knew that the lion walks. After that, I UV unwrap everything and started to block out the light to get a rough idea of how much light sources I need. In the meantime, I created and lighted the little lamps.

Before I did any other toys or filled the desk with details , I textured everything in Substance Painter. For small objects in the background I used Photoshop or shaded them in the Hypershade.

I delivered Lena a new scene where every model was finished so we could check if anything collided with the animation. When everything was fine, I finished the room by modeling and shaded small background objects like books, toys, and plants.

FX 

The curtains, blanket, and pillow, I had created by cloth simulation in Maya. Even though my focus was not on FX or Dynamics, I still was familiar with the functions. In this way, the fabric looked better.

Warm Light

Cold Light

Lighting/ Render/ Compositing

I quickly noticed that the room was too dark, that's why, added more light to have more control over the scene. To have a quick render, I separated characters, volume, and interior in different Render Layers and changed the setting for every layer.

In Nuke, I edited the Lighting and denoised some of the AOVs to have a cleaner render. The background, I merged with images and a textured sphere as the moon. To break up the volumetrics I used multiple noise nodes.

Fantasy House -"Crooked House"

A four-month project that I enjoyed. I want to show that my skills are widespread, so I did a Fantasy exterior and combine it with my passion for drawing. 

Concept Art by Arthur Gorin

Beauty/Clayrender/Wireframe

Modeling

Like the room, I block out everything and already set up the main lights and camera. At the end of the modeling phase, I noticed that the house was slightly diagonal to the right. To fix that, I had to use the lattice tool in Maya for the whole house.

Diffuse/Specular

Texturing

I wanted to keep that painted look of the concept. So I put so much details in the base color how much I saw in the artwork. All that I did in Substance Painter. The plants and grass, I painted with Procreate and edited them in Photoshop.

For the ground, I used the 3D painter in Maya and marked the wakling path. The Uvs of the ground I put then in Photoshop and drew the texture by hand.

Lighting/ Render/ Comp.

To have some dynamic in the scene I animated the windmill.

In the end, I put the house, power poler, and ground in separated Render Layers and rendered everthing with Arnold. In Nuke I color correct the scene and darken the light to match it with the concept art. I painted the hills, sky, and clouds for the background and merged them in Nuke. Furthermore, I added some smoke footage and changed the color to yellow.

(created 2D elements with Procreate)

Thank you very much for reading my Entry!

A big THANK YOU to Lena Greiner again, for working with me.

I hope you enjoyed my work! If so, let's give us a High Five!!! Or not.

In any case, I wish you an amazing day!!!

If you have any questions, you can reach out to me on

LinkedIn, Artstation or send an email to [email protected]