Helirover & Pilot
Hi, my name is Boris Levin, I am a graduate of Think Tank Training Centre. This is my double demo reel that was created for my mentorship. It shows my ability to model softsurface and hardsurface assets to film specifications. I hope it makes a good impression on whoever views it and whoever judges it. Have a good day!
Intro
3D modeling reel featuring a character and a vehicle, it is meant to demonstrate the ability to tackle both ends of the modeling spectrum. Demonstrate ability to model using Maya and Blender, sculpt using Zbrush, texture using Subslance Painter and present using Maya and Vray. I am responsible for all steps of production and scripting involved in the creation of those projects. I thank Fred Richards for high expectations, consistent mentorship and going beyond requirements.
Helirover in Depth
Maya, Blender and Substance Painter were the main software that I used when working on this project. Blender always seemed more capable when it comes to modeling, it has a very useful modifier stack that allows to work non-destructively, geometry nodes allow to create procedural presets and a good Python console to script plugins and tools. I was always aiming to present the project in Vray, as Maya is what I am expected to use professionally, additionally my mentor had no blender experience. All this motivated me to create a GoM, a blender to maya bridge that simply made a scene exportable to maya without any issues. It is by no means perfect, but it covers all modeling that I engaged in, handling any modifiers, curves, linked data objects and instances, as well as maintaining outliner hierarchy and naming convention. No matter how big my scene became, I was able to provide a clean Maya scene within minutes. At the end of the article, I will include a scripting section.
I noticed this concept in the first semester of my education, and even attempted to start working, but was convinced to wait until pre-mentoship/mentorship to tackle it. I had to make realistic compromises while working on this bahemoth; environment, driving animation, secondary copter, interior and sand simulations had to go, but that allowed me to allocate enough time to produce a character. I got very lucky as the concept artist portrayed a real helicopter and I was able to get plenty of image and video references.
I chose to split the project into 4 parts; helicopter, chassis, back and front wheel. As I was aiming to use Substance Painter, I did not want to make texturing difficult by giving it over 50 UDIMs in one go. I aimed to optimize my UDIMs and when space allowed it I was decreasing the resolution of textures but proportionally increasing island scales. Initially, I planned to have overlaying symmetrical/instanced UVs, but lastly turned away from that approach, hence the UDIM 1041 filled with nothing but bolts.
Geometry Nodes
While modeling anything one can find ways to automate, speed up or give user-friendly parameters to help the process, geometry nodes are a good medium for that. I have created a number of those for this project, geometry nodes aided paneling was the most useful.
-> Using easy flat geometry, create fully articulated paneling, with custom thickness, always correct normals, divisions on the side, controlled bevel and ability to remove the start/end side of the extrusion (that works with beveling). The last ability is important as it allows to clean up the meshes during and not after the fact, not creating topology that will not be visible, as well as simplify UVing as backend topology is gone already. Thanks to this technique I was able to finish the entire helicopter part in under 2 weeks, while keeping the entire surface/windows/wings as flat geometry. This works especially well when the flat geometry is live-wrapped onto a another mesh which is meant to hold shape.