Michelle Olsen | 3D Portfolio 2023-2024

Fantasy Norse Shop

Fantasy Norse Shop is my final mentorship project from Think Tank Training Centre.  It is based on lovely concept art by Yang Sohyeon. I completed this 3D project from initial blockout through to final render with the help of my mentor, Gustavo Groppo. I am grateful for his guidance and feedback throughout this massive project.

Breakdowns

Scene Texture Breakdowns: Beauty - Diffuse - Specular - Gloss - Bump Normals

Process

Planning and Reference Gathering

Since this project was a large environment, planning was crucial. When starting any project, I spend time gathering image references in PureRef. It's a great format to add reference images, make notes, and track progress. Besides gathering references, I created a list of all the props I needed to model and figured out which ones I could reuse in the scene. Next, I created a blockout with basic shapes that matched Yang Sohyeon's concept. As I started modeling, I added base colors to get a better idea of the scene's materials.

Modeling & Sculpting

After creating a rough blockout for the main objects, I worked on modeling. It's always best to start with simpler, low poly models and then develop them further with more details and edge loops. I modeled the 3D assets primarily in Maya and took some of the organic elements into ZBrush for sculpting. The cloth assets, such as the sacks, tablecloths, and overhangs, were created using Marvelous Designer and cleaned up in Maya. 

Since the environment was so large, I often modeled my props in a separate Maya file before incorporating them into the larger environment. Proper naming was important to keep all my geometry organized. By the end of the project, I actually used some VRay proxies and referenced several Maya files into my main scene. Referencing allowed for a smoother viewport experience in Maya. 

When sculpting in ZBrush, I started with a base mesh created in Maya. After I sculpted additional details in ZBrush, I brought the mesh back into Maya for cleanup. For complex sculpts, I retopologized the asset using the quad draw tool in Maya. I used this method for the stairs, chimneys, potatoes, and bread. Although I did use quick retopology tools, such as ZRemesher, for a few of the smaller assets, you get much better results when you retopologize manually. For objects with minimal sculpting, I brought the base sculpted object back into Maya to relax/adjust the UVs. Then, I re-imported the updated mesh from Maya to ZBrush, so I could make sure the corrected UVs matched my sculpts and export a displacement map. This back and forth process is essential for exporting displacement maps and avoiding distorted texture maps.

For the wooden beams of the building, I brought small sections into ZBrush and deformed them to break up the perfectly straight shapes. One thing I would change about my project is I would spend more time sculpting the wooden assets and breaking up straight lines. 

UV Unwrapping

I unwrapped my UVs using Maya. When organizing my UVs for large assets, such as the building, I separated the UDIMs by different materials. This makes masking during the texturing process more efficient. For smaller props, I often kept UV islands for the same object near each other for clarity. I tried to keep a relatively uniform texel density for the main building and shop. However, I did increase the texel density for some of the smaller props to allow for more texture details, especially since I planned to do close up shots.

Problem Solving the Roof

One challenge was figuring out how to best model and texture the roof. With the guidance of my mentor and some online tutorials, I ended up using MASH to distribute a few different modeled shingles over the roof surface. Then, I converted the instanced roof shingles to objects to allow for more variation. By breaking the MASH instancing, I could manually adjust the roof tiles and even delete a few random ones. Also, I could create unique texture details for certain areas of the roof in Mari, such as moss or grunge drips. I created some different mask gradients using Flood Fill in Substance Designer and brought these masks into Mari to aid in color and texture breakup. This process resulted in a more dynamic roof.

Texturing

The textures were created mainly in Mari with Substance Painter as a supplement for making different edgewear masks and maps (AO, Curvature, etc). I also created some masks/alphas in Photoshop to use for text and logos. When developing my textures, I used some tileables from Textures.com as bases or masks. I used photogrammetry textures from Textures.com for many of the leaf and foliage elements. I also created a few of my own tileable textures in Substance Designer. When texturing, I like to start with a procedural base and then build upon it by adding different masks, grunge, dirt, and hand painted details. Throughout the project, my mentor and I focused on how to make the assets integrate well with the scene and tell a story through weathering/texturing. 

Prop Texture Breakdowns: Beauty - Diffuse - Specular - Glossiness - Bump Normals

Developing Plants

Another major challenge I faced was developing the foliage, because I had little experience creating plants. I had to figure out what would work best for my scene and match the concept. I spent a couple weeks learning SpeedTree and went through several iterations of the hero trees. It took me a while to get the hero trees to match the overall shape of the concept art. Once I got the hang of SpeedTree, it took me less time to create the pine and conifer trees for the background forest. I also used SpeedTree to create the grass clumps. For the forest and grasses, I distributed the foliage across the ground using a mixture of MASH and hand placement.

For the little foliage in the shop baskets, I used alpha cards distributed via MASH across a hidden plane inside the container. Then, I did some manual cleanup.

Creating the moss involved a lot of experimenting. Early on, I ran a few tests with VRay Fur, but I didn't like the result. Then, my mentor directed me to a helpful Artstation guide by Rafael Chies. I tested this method and it looked more believable (1). This process involves creating alpha card clumps and distributing them across a surface using MASH or the SpPaint3D Maya plugin.

When I went to apply this method to my assets, I struggled to blend the short moss with the hanging pieces. I initially tried distributing the moss clumps across hidden Zbrush sculpted shapes (2) or hidden flat planes (3). Although this worked for flat areas, this did not work for the hanging moss. The hanging pieces had odd gaps and didn't look believable. Instead, I ended up creating new long alpha cards for the hanging moss (4). Initially these clumps were too thin and wispy, so I built them up (5). This led to the final result of the moss over my building and assets. I distributed the small moss clumps using MASH across duplicate (and hidden) planes. I also used the SpPaint3D plugin in a few areas. I hand placed the hanging moss clumps. Finally, I sculpted some little flowers in Zbrush and added those on top to match the concept. 

Lighting & Look Development

Lighting and look development was an ongoing process. I created two lighting setups, so I could have a day and a night version of my scene. I like to keep my lighting setups simple. I used HDRIs from Polyhaven to help light the day and night versions of the scene. I created a main key light. Then, I added a couple additional rim and fill lights. For the night version, I added candle and interior lights. Since I rendered my scene using VRay in Maya, I used VRay materials and VRay Blend materials.

I also experimented with some different background scenarios. I ultimately decided to use a clear sky, because a busy background distracted from the building silhouette. The sky in the final renders partially comes from the HDRIs used to light the scene-with some adjustments and compositing in Photoshop and Nuke.

Rendering and Compositing

I rendered the scene using V-Ray in Maya. Rendering ended up being more of a challenge than I anticipated due to the heaviness of the scene. I ended up using GarageFarm cloud rendering service to render some of the shots. It was my first time using a render farm, so I had to adjust my setup and render layers to appropriately load to the farm. After rendering some of my shots, I ran into issues with flickering on my high specular glass objects. After consulting with my mentor and several peers, I adjusted my render settings, lowered specular texture map values, scaled up some of my lights, and blurred the HDRI to fix the flickering. Then, I re-rendered the offending shots. 

I took my renders into Nuke for some final polish and adjustments. I used Nuke to minimize minor remaining flickering in one shot. I composited in the background mountains. I also made a few color corrections. This helped unify the shots and take them to a polished level.

Finally, I made a video of my mentorship project using AfterEffects. If interested, you can view that video here.

Seth Thomas Mantel Clock

This antique clock asset was created during my 3rd term at Think Tank Training Centre. When I chose this project, I wanted to do something more realistic that would allow me to practice sculpting. 

Breakdowns and Process

In preparation for this project, I created a schedule in Miro. Although I had to revise my schedule, it helped me stay organized and track my progress. I also gathered references of Seth Thomas clocks and clock parts.

After creating a rough blockout, I sculpted the clock feet, lion heads, and ornate face details of the clock in ZBrush. I re-topologized most of these sculpted assets in Maya using quad draw. I modeled the rest of the clock in Maya and added additional damages to the hard surface pieces in ZBrush. UVs were unwrapped in Maya. 

The biggest challenge of this project was getting the displacement maps and settings to work as I expected. I ran into issues with the hard surface areas that I had modeled in Maya and sculpted in ZBrush. When I applied my displacement maps in Maya, the model had some puckering on the sharp edges. A large thank you to my supervisor, Patrick Kilcher, for helping me troubleshoot this problem. We developed a work around that involved adjusting my displacement maps in Nuke and using blend shapes in Maya. It was a great problem solving experience.

Through this project, I developed a much better understanding about ZBrush sculpting, displacement maps, and subdividing at render time.

I used Mari and Substance Painter for the texturing. Lighting and look development were done in Maya. The clock was rendered in Maya with VRay. Finally, I made a few minor color adjustments in Nuke.

Feeling Lucky? - Model 1894 Winchester Rifle

After my graduation from Think Tank, I worked on this personal project to practice my hard surface modeling and texturing skills. My Model 1894 Winchester Rifle asset is based on my great-grandfather's lever-action rifle from the early 1900's. I had a previous version of the rifle asset last fall, but after receiving some feedback, I reworked this project.

Breakdowns & Process

Since I had access to this object in real life, I took multiple reference photographs to work from. I used these photographs as my primary reference and organized them in PureRef.

For this project, I used Maya for the majority of the modeling. When modeling an asset, I always model it to real world scale. This helps with accurate lighting later on. I created a reference cube with the exact rifle dimensions and scaled my reference image plane in Maya to match the reference cube. This ensured I was modeling at an accurate size. After creating my base hard surface model, I did some sculpting on the wooden and damaged areas in ZBrush. I applied these sculpted details with displacement maps. I also added more wood grain details with texture bump maps.

For texturing the rifle, I used my traditional workflow. I unwrapped my UVs in Maya and organized them by material. I baked maps and edgewear masks in Substance Painter. I created alphas in Photoshop for the text areas. Then, I used these resources to develop my rifle textures in Mari.

For the table scene, I textured the wall and tablecloth in Substance Painter. I used Mari to texture the playing cards and glass. I photographed old playing cards and stains I made on white paper to help build my textures.

Texture Rifle Breakdowns: Beauty-Diffuse-Specular-Gloss

I did the look development, lighting, and rendering in Maya with VRay. I found the VRay blend material particularly useful for creating the tarnished steel metal. The blend material allowed me to have greater control over each layer of the texture. If I were to change one thing about this project, I would make my masks sharper (less grey) for the differing textures of the metal to improve the contrast. After rendering, I did some color grading and depth of field adjustments in Nuke. I also added a little vignette and film grain. 

Scene Breakdown: Beauty-Wireframe-Diffuse-Specular-Gloss

After a Night Out - An Unreal Engine Project

Scene with Lamp Off:

Breakdowns and Process

Since Unreal Engine is being used more and more, I recently took an Intro to Unreal Engine 5 course with CGMA to learn the basics of UE. This little vintage scene was a project I created for the course. Thank you to Chris Flynn for his feedback and instruction in Unreal Engine. 

As I started this project, I researched and found vintage 1920s-1930s furniture on auction websites to use as references for the props, such as the Tiffany Lamp, shoes, art deco table, and chair. Before starting, I also found inspiration for the overall color/mood from existing television series and games. I created my own rough photobash concept in Photoshop for this project.

I modeled all the assets for this scene in Maya. I took the chair into ZBrush to sculpt the fabric creases and damages to the wood. I also sculpted wood details on the parquet floor. Although I created this project for UE, my base modeling approach was similar to my usual film workflow. For example, my meshes all have control/supporting edges or bevels. I also modeled out a lot of details on the lamp asset. Therefore, my Unreal scene uses nanite.

I unwrapped my UVs using Rizom UV and Maya. I used both Marmoset and Substance to bake my maps (AO, curvature, normals, etc). Unlike my usual workflow, I textured all my assets using Substance Designer and Substance Painter. For many of the textures, I used Substance 3D assets as a base. I adjusted them and built them up to match the look I wanted for each asset. I used texture packing to optimize my textures for Unreal.

Since I was using Unreal Engine for the first time, I learned new workflows for look development, lighting, and rendering in the engine. I used one master material with three instances to apply my textures in engine. I employed the Lumen lighting system for my scene. I kept it simple with a main rectangular key light, two rectangular fill/rim lights, the sky light, and a point light for the lamp. Additionally, I applied an emissive to the lightbulbs and lampshade glass to make them glow.

I used UE for rendering and post. I created several cameras in my scene and played around with their settings and depth of field. Also, I made adjustments using the post process volume to achieve the final result, such as adding a film grain, adding a touch of bloom, and doing a little color grading.

Breakdowns: Beauty - Clay - Diffuse - Roughness

Thanks!

Also, thank you again to Think Tank Training Centre, my mentors, TTTC global mentors, my peers, my friends, and my family for your help and support on my 3D journey.