Cgtuts+

Creating Fireworks With Particles in Maya

Chandan Kumar — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:30:16 +0000

In today’s tutorial Chandan Kumar will introduce you to working with particles in Maya, and show you how they can be used to create a cool looking fireworks animation rather quickly. Topics include, preparing your scene for animation, working with particle emitters, fine tuning your settings to achieve a specific look, creating and apply materials, adding glow effects, rendering image sequences and finally, how After Effects can be used to turn that image sequence into a final animation.

Preparing The Scene

Step 1

Let’s open the Maya software (I’m working in Maya 2011.)

Step 2

First of all, let’s set the Timeline Length to 300 frames, because we want the fireworks simulation to stay longer in the viewport.

Do a Right-click on the timeline and go to the Playback Speed flyout menu, then turn on the Play Every Frame, Max Real-Time option.

Step 3

Here, we’ll use ‘Mental Ray’ for rendering the particles simulation in better quality. So, click on the indicated icon on main status bar to open the Render Settings window.

Step 4

In the Render Settings window, click on the Render Using drop down menu arrow button and then choose mental ray as the renderer.

Now, click on the Common tab and choose PNG(png) as the Image Format and set the Frame padding to 3.

Inside the Frame Range group, keep the End frame at 300 and then close the Render Settings window.

Step 5

Now, since we will be working with particles, change the mode to Dynamics to access the particle menu items.

Step 6

Next, we’ll open the ‘Outliner’ window which we’ll use for organizing the particle objects. So, go to the Window menu and click on the Outliner command.

This opens the Outliner window (keep it open.)

Creating The Particles

Step 1

Now, go to the Particles menu and click on the Create Emitter options box.

This will open the Emitter Options window. Here keep the Emitter type as Directional, and then click on the Create button.

Step 2

It creates a particle emitter on the grid. Rename it as “Pre1_Rocket_emitter” and “Pre1_Rocket_particle” in the Outliner window.

Step 3

Press the Play button to test the particle animation. You will notice the particles travel in the X direction, while the emitter travels in the Y direction.

Step 4

To fix the problem, first select the particle object and press Ctrl+A to open the Attribute Editor. Now on the Pre1_Rocket_emitter tab, keep the Direction Y value at 1.00 under the Distance/ Direction Attributes, and set the Speed to 20 under the Basic Emission Speed Attributes.

Step 5

Also keep the Spread value at 0.300 under the same Distance/ Direction Attributes, to spread the particles properly for the rocket fireworks.

Step 6

Now, inside the Pre1_Rocket_particleShape tab, under the Render Attributes rollout, change the Particle Render Type to Spheres.

Step 7

Again, under the Render Attributes rollout inside the Pre1_Rocket_particleShape tab, click on the Current Render Type button and then change the Radius value to 0.150.

Step 8

You will notice the particle spheres are now looking small. This is what we need.

Step 9

Now we’ll add particles for the rocket trails. So, first select the rocket particles we created earlier, open the Fields menu and click on the Gravity options box.

This opens the Gravity Options box. Here you can change the Magnitude value (or you can do it in the ‘Attributes’.) Then click on the Create button to apply this command.

Take a look at the animation of the particles. It’s not coming out good right now… we need to tweak it more.

Step 10

Again, inside the Pre1_Rocket_particleShape tab, under the Lifespan Attributes group, change the Lifespan Mode to Constant and the Lifespan value to 1.500.

Step 11

Now, for the explosion, we need to create more particles. So, select the rocket particles and open the Particles menu. This time select the Emit from Object options box.

This opens the Emitter Options window. Here change the Emitter type to Omni and then click on the Create button to apply.

Step 12

Now, rename the new particles and the emitter respectively as “Pre1_Fragments_particle” and “Pre1_Fragments_emitter” in the Outliner window.

Step 13

Now take a look at the new particle animation. It’s now looking like trails. But, we need to make a fragmented explosion.

Step 14

To fix this problem, first select “Pre1_Rockete_particle” from the Outliner, then open the Particles menu and click on the Per-Point Emission Rates command.

Step 15

Again, with “Pre1_Rocket_particle” selected, press Ctrl+A to open it’s Attribute Editor panel. Here, inside the Pre1_Racket_particleShape tab under the Per Particle (Array) Attributes rollout, there is one option: 1 Fragments Emitter Rate PP.

Right-click on 1 Fragment Emitter Rate PP, and select Create Ramp in the flyout menu.

Step 16

Again Right-click on 1 Fragment Emitter Rate PP, select <-arrayMapper1outvaluePP and then choose Edit Ramp.

Now, in the Ramp Attributes, change the upper slot to White and the bottom slot to Black. And then change the Interpolation to None. It should now look like this.

Again Right-click on <-arrayMapper1outvaluePP and choose Edit Array Mapper to open it’s attributes.

Now in the Array Mapper Attributes, keep the Max Value at 700.00.

Step 17

Inside the Pre1_Fragments_Emitter attributes tab, and under the Basic Emission Speed Attributes rollout, keep the Speed at 8.00 and the Speed Random value at 1.200.

Step 18

Now, with the Pre1_Fragments_Particles selected, go to the Fields menu and select the Gravity command to apply gravity to the selected fragment particles.

Inside the Gravity Field Attributes group, change the Magnitude value to 3.00.

Step 19

With the same Pre1_Fragments_ParticlesShape selected, change the Conserve value to 0.900.

Step 20

With the same Pre1_Fragments_ParticleShape selected, change the Lifespan Mode to Random Range and then the Lifespan and Lifespan Random values to 1.5 and 0.500 respectively.

Step 21

Now, we need to create the trails for the rockets. So, select Pre1_Racket_particle in the Outliner and then go to the Particles menu and choose Emit from Object to emit the particles.

Rename the newly created particle system to “Trail1” in the Outliner window.

Step 22

Again, with the Trail1 particles selected, open it’s Attributes Editor. Inside the emitter1 tab, keep both the Max Distance and Speed values at 0.100.

And then under the Basic Emitter Attributes, change the Rate (Particles/Sec) value to 500.0.

Step 23

Now, select TrailShape1 in the Attribute Editor and under the Lifespan Attributes group, change the Lifespan Mode to Random Range and the Lifespan Random value to 0.500.

With the same TrailShape1 selected, go to Render Attributes and change the Particle Render Type to Cloud (S/W) and then click on the Current Render Type button. Also change the Radius value to 0.050.

Step 24

Now, with Pre1_Fragments_Particle selected, go to the Particles menu and choose Emit from Object to create new particles.

This time, rename the newly created particles to “Spark1” in the Outliner window.

Step 25

With the newly created particle emitter selected, open it’s attributes and change the Max Distance value to 0.100 and Speed to 0.100.

Step 26

With the Spark1 particles group selected once again, click on the SparkShape1 attribute and in the Render Attributes group, change the Particle Render Type to Cloud(S/W) and then the Radius value to 0.050.

Again, inside the Lifespan Attributes rollout, change the Lifespan Mode to Random range, the Lifespan value to 1.500 and the Lifespan Random value to 0.500.

Under the General Control Attributes, change the Conserve value to 0.100.

Step 27

Now, we have to hide some particles which should not be visible in the viewport. So, first select the Pre1_Rocket_Particleshape node attributes and then inside the Object Display group, turn Off the Visibility option to hide them.

Do the same for the Pre1_Fragments_Particleshape node attributes, and turn Off the Visibility option to hide them.

Creating The Materials

Step 1

Now we will apply material shades to the particles. So, first select the Trail1 particle group, Right-click and hold it down in the viewport, then choose the Assign New Material command in the fly out menu.

This opens the Assign New Material window. Here choose the Particle Cloud node.

Step 2

Now, rename the Particle cloud to “Trail1_Shader” and also change it’s color to Blue or something as you wish.

Then click on the Life Transparency checker box and in the Texture Node, select the Ramp texture node.

Now, in the Attribute Editor of particleSampler Info1, click twice on the Input/Output connection button to open the Ramp Attributes.

This opens the Ramp attributes panel.

Step 3

Now, in the Ramp Attributes, keep the upper shade as White and bottom shade as Black, as shown in the image below.

Step 4

Now, click on the Input/Output connection button and then jump into the Trail1_Shader attributes. And click on the Life Incandescence checker box to connect the Ramp.

This time change the upper shade to Black and the bottom shade to White.

Step 5

Next, jump into the Trail1_Shader tab in the attribute editor, and change the Glow Intensity value to 0.500.

Step 6

In same way, we have to apply the shader node onto the Spark1 particles. So, with the Spark1 particles group selected, Right-click on the viewport and then choose Assign New Material in the fly out menu.

After applying the Particle Cloud Shade node, rename it to “Spark_Shade1“.

Step 7

This time we change the particle shade color to Pink. Then, click on the Life Transparency checker box to connect the Ramp node.

Step 8

After applying the Ramp shade node, keep the upper shade as White and the bottom shade Black.

Again, click on the Input/Output connection button and jump again into the Spark_Shade1 attributes, and then click on the Life Incandescence checker box to connect the Ramp for this, which was created before in the trail shader. Apply the same Ramp texture node. This time, change the upper shade as black and the bottom shade as white.

Step 9

Again jump into the Trail1_Shader attributes, and this time keep the Glow Intensity value at 0.200.

Rendering

Step 1

Let’s see what it looks like! Click on the Quick Render button in the Render View. It seems that we need to adjust the global glow effect.

Step 2

First click on the IPR render button in the Render View, and then drag to mark the test render area as shown in the image below.

Now, go to Window > Render Editors > Hypershade, to open the Hypershade window.

Step 3

In the Hypershade window, select the Shader Glow node in the Materials tab to open the Shader Glow node attribute panel, as shown in the image below.

In the Shader Glow node attribute panel, you can adjust multiple things as per your needs. Here I have kept the Glow Intensity value at 0.500.

Step 4

For multi-colored fireworks, I have created one more (in the same way) and changed its Shader Color to Yellow to make it look different.

Step 5

Now, we will start the rendering process to create the animated clip of the fireworks. So, open the Solvers menu and then click on the Create Particle Disk Cache options box.

In the Create Particle Disk Cache options box, check On the All radio button and then click on the Create button. It will take a couple of seconds to cache the animation.

Step 6

Now, click on Quick Render to test one frame. It looks quite good now.

Step 7

Now, we’ll render all the frames in sequence. So, first change the mode into Rendering mode and then open the Render menu. Click on Batch Render to render the sequence for animation.

Step 8

Once we have rendered the image sequence, it’s time to make an animated clip with these still images. For this, open After Effects, go to the Composition menu and click on New Composition.

Step 9

Now, import the image sequence which we have rendered in Maya.

Locate the file sequence and select the 1st file and then click on Open. Remember, since you are importing the images as a sequence, always turn on the PNG Sequence option.

Step 10

Now, all the images come into the project area as an image sequence. Select and drag it to the composition area. Now you can press play and see the animation. You can also do color correction and add extra glow if needed.

Step 11

Now, let’s render the animation to make it an animated clip. So go to the Composition menu and click on the Pre-Render command.

Then click on the Render button to render the selected layer.

Step 12

After rendering the clip, you will see a beautiful animation of colorful fireworks. You can always tweak and play with the parameters to get more interesting results.

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Product Modeling and Rendering in Cinema 4D – Part 2

Aleksey Voznesenski — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:15:32 +0000

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Product Modeling and Rendering in Cinema 4D

In this two part tutorial, Aleksey Voznesenski takes you through the process of Modeling, Texturing, Lighting and Rendering a high poly lipstick container in Cinema 4D. Lessons include, box modeling, understanding Hypernurbs, creating and applying materials, setting up quick preview renders to adjust lighting, and finally how to enable Global Illumination and tweak settings for your final high quality product render.

Tutorial

Use the link below to download this tutorial for offline viewing.

Download (Video)

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Deconstructing the Mountains of TRON: Legacy with Joel LeLièvre

Joel LeLièvre — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:20:46 +0000

When TRON was released way back in 1982, it blew people’s minds with it’s cool visual style and cutting edge effects. And it’s sequel, 2010′s TRON: Legacy was no different. The film featured amazing art direction, stunning visuals and some of the coolest effects we’ve seen yet.

Today we’re welcoming one of the men responsible, Visual Effects Artist Joel LeLièvre, who served as a CG Supervisor on the film. In this tutorial, Joel will take you inside Tron: Legacy where he’ll deconstruct one of the many shots he worked on for the film. And show you how he used a combination of 3D Studio Max and PFlow to create a versatile system used to construct the distinct mountains seen in the film’s Solar Sailor sequence.

Additional Files/ Scripts:

Download the 3ds Max scene file(s) for this project
Grab the “Snapshot As Mesh” Script from Scriptspot (courtesy of Bobo!)

Tutorial

Note* All images and references of TRON: Legacy, used in the making of this tutorial are the property of Walt Disney Pictures.

Use the link below to download this tutorial for offline viewing.

Download (Video)

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Model the Canon EFS 55-250mm Zoom Lens in 3D Studio Max: Part 1

Stefan Surmabojov — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:15:11 +0000

In this new multi-part tutorial series from brothers Stefan and Andrew Surmabojov, you’ll learn how to create a stunning 36 second fake video advertisement for the Canon EP-S 50-250mm zoom lens, from the ground up. The first three parts of the series delve into the model’s creation, as you work through the entire process of building the lens from scratch with Andrew using 3D Studio Max. Throughout the modeling process, you’ll use a careful balance of poly modeling and subdivision techniques to accurately re-construct the lens’ many details.

After the model is finalized and ready for the next step, you’ll take it into Cinema 4D, where Stefan will teach you how to add realistic textures and materials, build the scene lighting and prepare the model for rendering. Where you’ll first create a nice pack shot and then setup some animations, which will later be used for the final composite in After Effects.

Additional Files:

Download the Reference Images.

Tutorial

Note: Click the ‘Box’ icon to view the tutorial in full-screen HD.

Use the links below to download this tutorial for offline viewing.

Download (Video)

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Advanced Poly Modeling – Tassimo T-65 Home Brewing Station: Part 6

Ben Tate — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:00:49 +0000

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Advanced Poly Modeling: Tassimo T-65

In the sixth part of the T-65 series, we’ll finally start work on the back portion of the machine and tackle the water tank’s base, this is one of the more challenging parts of the model and will require us to carefully construct the basemesh in preparation for subdivision. With the tank base complete, we move onto create the remaining details on the back panel, and finish things off by adding thickness and supporting geometry.

Project Overview:
In this new tutorial series focused on product modeling and rendering, we’ll create the Tassimo T-65 Home Brewing Station from Bosch. Starting in 3d Studio Max we’ll use a few simple blueprint images to do a block-out of the base, and then begin the process of breaking down and refining the model using more advanced poly modeling techniques to create the final High-res asset. Later lessons will include UVMapping, Texturing, creating V-Ray materials and finally building a suitable studio lighting rig and rendering out the model with V-Ray.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Intro Song “No Way Out” available for purchase from AugleJungle.

Video 1

Note: Click the ‘Box’ icon to view the tutorial in full-screen HD (all videos available in 1080p.)

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Use the links below to download this tutorial for offline viewing.

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Cgtuts+ Workshop #49 Modern Hill House

Ben Tate — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:00:54 +0000

CgWorkshops are an ongoing community project, where we feature work created by members of the Cgtuts+ community, and ask you to provide feedback and constructive criticism on their work. It’s a great way to learn more about the intricacies of computer graphics, express your viewpoint, and have your own work critiqued by your fellow artists!

Quick Ground Rules

Be nice! We’ve deliberately chosen work that isn’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
Feel free to offer any type of advice on – Modeling, Texturing, Materials, Lighting, Rendering, Composition, etc.
You can also link to another render that you feel offers a great example of this type of content done exceptionally well.

So let’s get to it, here’s this week’s entry created by Maximilian Auer!

Modern Hill House

Click To Enlarge

A Little Background

Hi! My name is Maximilian Auer and I’m 17 years old. I’m very proud to show my newest piece of work in this Cg Workshop. I saw a similar house when I was on holiday and that was what brought me back to try doing Architectural Visualizations.

This one is my newest piece of work and I hope that you like it. It contains a new lightning setup that I have created. In addition, I also tried to make the materials more realistic and spend some more time in post. All of the work was created inside 3ds Max with V-Ray and Photoshop.

Thanks in advance for giving me some constructive feedback on my work. And also feel free to visit my website ;)

Also be sure to check out more of Maximilian’s work in his Portfolio!

Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached this project or done things differently? Any thoughts on how it could be improved or taken to the next level. Chime in below!

Interested in submitting your own video or 3D render? You can submit your own work here to have it featured in a future Cgtuts+ Workshop!

Product Modeling and Rendering in Cinema 4D – Part 1

Aleksey Voznesenski — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:50:13 +0000

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Product Modeling and Rendering in Cinema 4D

Tutorial

Use the link below to download this tutorial for offline viewing.

Download (Video)

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Game Character Creation Series: Kila Chapter 1 – High Resolution Modeling

Antony Ward — Thu, 30 May 2013 12:30:31 +0000

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Game Character Creation Series: Kila

Today we’re extremely excited to welcome veteran 3D artist, character modeler and author, Antony Ward to the site as we launch an amazing new software independent tutorial series, for all you aspiring character modelers and game artists.

Over the course of this extremely in-depth series, you’ll learn the techniques and theory behind creating a stylized, high quality female character for modern games. Focused on traditional poly-modeling, rather then digital sculpting techniques, this series will help you build a solid foundation and a true understanding of the character creation process.

With nearly 20 years of production experience in some of the game industries top studios, Antony offers invaluable insight into the various aspects of professional character creation. Staring from the very basics, you’ll learn how to prepare, gather reference and get started in your 3D app of choice. Before moving onto the fundamentals every good character artists needs to know, including understanding anatomy and the importance of working with correct topology. Finally you’ll learn how to add additional detail and bring your character to life by creating clothing, hair and accessories.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Introduction

It’s been over a decade since I released my first book, “Game Character Development in Maya” and as you can imagine, the process for creating game ready characters has moved on quite a bit. With that said, I have to point out that many of the techniques shared in the book are still relevant to today’s game character developers, riggers and animators.

With this tutorial we will bring the game character process up to date as you work through an updated process for creating a re-imagining of one of the book’s main characters, Kila.

In this, the first part of the course, you will begin by generating a high resolution model to use as a base, not only for generating detail maps but also for your actual game model.

Click to Enlarge

If game art isn’t your thing then please stick around, as you can also treat this tutorial as a one off course on high polygon character creation.

Step 1 – Preparation

The first step on any project should be some degree of preparation. Even the most experienced of artists will take some time to assess what needs to be done, and the ideal approach.

Part of this could include evaluating the best application to use, or it could simply involve gathering reference material to work from.

With this project you already have the following concept to work from.

Even though she is quite stylized it’s just as important to refer to real world anatomy rules so search out some good anatomy reference, as well as clothing images too so you can refer to cloth and the way it hangs on around the body.

3d.sk is a great source for reference imagery.

Once you have your reference gathered and ready, your next decision is how you’re going to create this first version of Kila.

Every artist has their own approach to creating high resolution characters. Some will dive right into a sculpting application like ZBrush, while others are more comfortable beginning with box modeling. In this tutorial we will use Subdivision Surfaces, why? Well, we are doing this for a number of reasons.

1. Using Subdivision Surfaces can give your model a high detailed look, while keeping the topology low and manageable.
2. Building Kila from the ground up with Subdivision Surfaces will not only give us a high resolution model, but also the foundations for your game model.
3. Subdivision Surfaces can be found in most major 3D applications meaning anyone can pick up and follow this tutorial, no matter what your application of choice may be.

With all that in mind let’s dive in and start building.

Step 2 – Blocking in the Upper Body

It’s never a good idea to rush ahead and focus all your efforts on a single area of your character. This can lead to proportion issues as you lose a sense of how everything balances out. Blocking out the main forms early can eliminate the need for any major changes further down the line.

Let’s start by blocking out Kila’s torso, arms and head.

Begin with three primitives which will give you the foundations for Kila’s torso, left arm and left breast.

1. First create a Cylinder with 12 divisions around the axis and roughly 8 divisions high.
2. Add to this a Sphere with 6 divisions both around and along the axis.
3. Finally create a second Cylinder, this time with 8 divisions around the axis and 6 divisions high.

Click to Enlarge

You are only creating one arm and breast because the idea is to concentrate on one side of Kila and then mirror this across. You can do this because at this stage both sides are symmetrical, so there is no sense in doing twice the work.

1. With those ready you can now adjust each edge loop in turn to give them a little more shape.
2. Next reposition the arm and chest so they lie roughly where they would naturally be.
3. Make sure you rotate the sphere so you have an edge loop running vertically. This will make it easier to attach to the torso next.

Click to Enlarge

The next step is to combine each element so you have a single model and then begin welding them to create a single seamless mesh.

1. Working on the torso, next remove the geometry which lies in the same area as the sphere.
2. Now delete the back half of the sphere.
3. With the space opened up you can now begin welding each vertex on the sphere, to the closest vertex on the torso.

Click to Enlarge

You may need to stray outside the immediate area, especially for the upper chest, and don’t be afraid to adjust the overall shape as you work so it looks more natural.

1. Now move around to the arm and follow the same steps, welding the vertices which are closet. This will help to keep the topology clean, and organized.
2. Once you have one side pretty much ready, delete the left side of the model, and then mirror and combine to make the upper body whole.

Click to Enlarge

Step 3 – Blocking in the Head and Hands

With the main torso in place it’s relatively easy to add the head and the hands. All you need to do is Extrude, and Reshape.

At this stage you may also want to add a subdivision to your model so you can see how it will look once smoothed.

1. For the head, add extra geometry to close in the open area around the upper body, making sure you leave a circular area to form the base for the neck.
2. Now use an Extrude to pull the geometry up and form the neck and the base for the head.
3. Continue to Extrude the geometry, first out and then up to create a basic head shape.
4. Finally close the top of the head, making sure you use only quads. It’s important to keep the model quad based at this stage to retain a smooth and even surface as you add more detail.

Click to Enlarge

With the base for the head built you can now move on and create the hands. Again you can use Extrudes to help form the fingers.

1. First add a few extra extrusions to the wrist to give you some topology to work with.
2. Next, Extrude three quads, keeping them separate. This will form the base for your first three fingers.
3. Add another two Extrudes to these fingers to flesh them out. Each segment should correspond to a joint in the finger.

Click to Enlarge

You now have a basic hand, but with only three fingers. Good for some characters, but not Kila.

1. Focus on the wrist area again and use another Extrude, but this time pull the geometry out to the front giving you 8 new quads.
2. This will act as the base for the index finger and thumb, which you can now form by using more extrusions, just as you did with the fingers.

Click to Enlarge

With the hands added you now have a great base mesh for the upper body, and in its current state this could easily be taken into a sculpting application to be subdivided and worked further upon.

At this stage you could move on and begin working more detail into the model, but before you do spend a little time adjusting the shape and the proportions to match the style you are after.

Click to Enlarge

Step 4 – Torso Detail

Now that the foundations are in place you can start to flesh out, (pardon the pun) the upper body.

This is the stage where your reference material is crucial as you will be focusing on building in muscle masses, as well as key anatomic structures.

As you are using Subdivision Surfaces you need to keep an eye on the topology. You can`t simply slice the surface and move the vertices. Every polygon counts and will impact on how the model looks.

This may seem like a nightmare way to work, but you will find it challenging, and in a weird way relaxing, sort of like a virtual jigsaw puzzle.

1. Start by adding in a few extra edge rings around key areas like the stomach.
2. Continue to work in more geometry, but only where you need it, to help define more major muscle masses and skeletal structures.
3. As you work you will find that the edges begin to flow naturally into each other, which is exactly what you are looking for. Just go with the flow.
4. Remember to keep the topology to a minimum, so feel free to revisit an area and optimize it if you are experiencing pinching or bulging on the surface.
5. When your happy with her front, turn around and begin working in the shoulder blades and her spine using the same method.
6. As a final step, push her chest up and together slightly. You are doing this because Kila is wearing a shirt, so we need to adjust the anatomy to reflect the fact her chest is held by the clothing.

Click to Enlarge

At this stage you don’t need to worry about sticking to a purely quad based model. To get the right amount of detail you will need the odd n-gon to achieve the correct surface shapes.

Click to Enlarge

Step 5 – Arm and Hand Detail

You are probably starting to get to grips with Subdivision Surfaces now, and no matter which area you work upon the rules stay the same. Basically keep your topology clean and to a minimum, and remove anything which is not needed.

At the end of the day if you are not sure how to approach an area, experiment. So long as you build up the details in stages, or layers, you can’t go wrong.

You can follow the same steps as you did with the torso now on the arm and hand.

1. Working from the shoulder, move down the arm adding in the main muscle details. You begin at the shoulder because this will no doubt have some stray edge loops left over from the upgrade of the torso.
2. For the hand begin by adding in extra edge loops around each knuckle, this will give you the topology to begin shaping these major joints.

Click to Enlarge

3. If it’s easier, why not focus on one finger and when it’s fully constructed duplicate it for the others?

Click to Enlarge

Step 6 – Head Detail

The final major area to work on now is the head, and again we can follow our simple rules to add some much needed detail here too.

1. Focus on the face first, slicing horizontally and vertically to give you more geometry to work with.
2. For the nose use an Extrude to literally pull it out of her face to give you the main nose and nostrils.
3. Start reshaping as you work to mold the head into Kila.
4. When you are happy with how things are looking, create three holes. One for each eye and one for her mouth. Make sure these are enclosed by edge rings to help retain their shape, and avoid poles.
5. Now you have the main cavities you can continue to reshape the head as a whole. Adding a temporary sphere for each eye will also help as you form her eye lids.Be sure to also keep referring to real muscle reference as you work. How the topology is constructed around the face will dictate how well you can achieve facial expressions so form your edge loops around natural muscle lines.

Click to Enlarge

Step 7 – Building the Ear

The torso and head are built, but she still needs her ears so let’s focus on those now.

1. First create a hole in the side of Kila’s head. This sounds dramatic, but don’t worry, it won’t hurt her.
2. Now Extrude the edges of the hole out to form the foundations for the ear.
3. Fill this hole and begin carving in the major areas of the ear, staring with the outer Helix and working your way inwards adding more detail as you go.

Click to Enlarge

With the ear built the upper body is now completed. Well, I say completed but I am sure you could tweak and adjust it a lot more.

Click to Enlarge

Now you have a torso and head fully built why not put this to one side. Having a pre-built model means you can reuse this on a future project, saving you precious time. All you may need to do is add legs and feet.

Step 8 – Adding the Base Shirt and Jeans

Because you have taken the time to create Kila`s torso first, you can use it to kick start how you build her shirt. Looking at the concept image her shirt is almost skin tight, which is good for us as we can pretty much duplicate the torso and use it directly.

1. Create a copy of the torso and delete any geometry you don’t need. So anything outside the surface of the shirt, including the head and arms.
2. Continue to work on the overall shape now, refining it until you have a nice even model which is more of a “shirt” shape.
3. With the basics in place, and just like we did with the torso, you can start to layer up the details. Adding in folds and creases, plus the seams around the fabric.

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You don’t currently have any legs to kick start the creation of her jeans, but each leg is basically a cylinder, right? So it shouldn’t be too difficult to generate a good starting point.

1. Form the base for the jeans by creating an initial cylinder, and then working down. You only need basic geometry at this stage.
2. It’s then a case of following the same procedure as we have with the rest of the model. Adding geometry steadily, working in the natural folds and creases of the cloth, and removing any topology you don’t need.

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3. Working in layers will allow you to build up the details gradually, so start big and then go smaller before finally building any extra’s you may need like the pockets and seams.

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Step 9 – Building the Shoes

The body and clothing are all in, and pretty much complete, but she is still missing a few key areas. The first of which are her feet, which are tucked into sneakers. Now, I realize in the concept image Kila is wearing boots rather than sneakers but in this instance you can steer away from the concept as these will look much better, and are more in keeping with the original Kila.

This time you are treating the shoes as a separate element, so they will need building from scratch.

1. Start with a cube and adjust this, while also adding more divisions, to form the basic shape of the sneakers sole.
2. From this you can duplicate key polygons and reshape them to form the main panels which will lie over her feet.
3. With the basics in place you can then begin adding more details, like the studs the laces will be threaded through. These are simply formed from cylinders.

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With the laces we don’t literally need to create a single long piece of geometry and thread it through each stud. All you need is the illusion that the laces are a single piece when in actual fact they will be made up of lots of detailed cylinders.

1. Again, use a cube to define the main shape for the lower three sections of the laces, making sure they are tucked into the studs correctly.
2. Now add some details to these, making them look flatter and also wrinkled where the fabric is being compressed.
3. You now have a choice. You can repeat this process all the way up the top of the sneaker, or cheat a little and duplicate the section you have already created and reposition them.

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1. Continue to add as much detail as you like to the shoes, but once you are happy bring them into the same scene as the rest of Kila and position them under each opening of her jeans.
2. You will also need to rework the base of the jeans so they sit nicely upon each sneaker.

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Step 10 – Adding Hair

The next key area to add is her hair. As this model is destined to be used to generate normal and diffuse maps on a game model, building the hair may seem a little redundant as it will eventually be replaced with polygon strips.

At this stage it is up to you, but feel free to skip this step if you like. Adding in some basic hair geometry will help as you review the model as a whole. Plus it may give you the opportunity to experiment with a few different styles.

1. For a quick hairstyle begin with, you guessed it, a simple cube.
2. Adjust this to gradually form a single strip of hair.
3. Once the basic shape is in place add a few edge loops to help give the smooth surface some variation and detail.
4. Once you have one piece of hair, simply duplicate this, reposition and reshape until you cover the head.

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Like I said, this isn’t a final and polished hair style, and will most likely be discarded in the next stage, but it helps to form Kila as a whole and possibly highlight any other issues with proportions or basic body shapes.

Step 11 – Adding Extras

Through this tutorial you have created all the main elements of Kila, from her upper body to her sneakers. In this section it will be up to you to work on the accessories and further detail the model.

Below are a few key areas to focus on, but remember the main rules as you work.

1. Start simple.
2. Work in more geometry only where you need it.
3. Keep the topology clean, and remove anything which is not used or needed.

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Step 12 – Final Review

Your high resolution model of Kila is now complete, and at this stage you are free to continue adding in more details to get the model as polished as you can.

The idea behind this model is you will use her to give you the major surface details, which will be transferred through a normal map onto a lower resolution model. The plan being to then add in a finer detail pass through textures, which will allow you to give the cloth even more detail like fabric patterns, finer folds and creases.

So this is just the beginning, you still have lots to do before you complete this real time model, but for now continue to tweak and refine the model and get ready for Part 2, where you will take what you have created and chop it right down to a much lower polygon limit.

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Tutorial Amendment: Jumping Lamp – Tackling Recent Changes to Cinema 4D

Aleksey Voznesenski — Wed, 29 May 2013 11:00:28 +0000

In this tutorial, Aleksey Voznesenski will go over some of the changes that have happened in recent versions of Cinema 4D. The particular focus of this lesson will be how these changes have effected Aleksey’s previous Jumping Lamp Animation in C4D tutorial here on Cgtuts+. These tips are especially useful if you are having issues following the tutorial, or other tutorials created with earlier releases of Cinema 4D. Aside from that, they are still very handy tips that will likely be helpful in your day to day usage of C4D.

Topics include:

Adjusting area lights proportions, i.e. how to make them rectangle and why the handles don’t show up sometimes.
Default key interpolations and how to change them.
Why objects aren’t showing up in the expanded timeline window
The layer panel in short.
Broken Parent Tags in recent versions of C4D. How to use PSR tags with nulls to compensate, with joint snapping.

Tutorial

Use the link below to download this tutorial for offline viewing.

Download (Video)

We’ve published a few related tutorials you might also be interested in:

Creating a Jumping Lamp Animation in C4D

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UV Mapping a High Poly World War II Willys Jeep in Modo – Part 4

Michael Ciesielski — Mon, 27 May 2013 11:00:14 +0000

This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series WWII Willys Jeep

In Part 4, we’ll continue mapping the remaining parts of the jeep. This lesson will cover creating UVs for the seats, handles, dials and steering wheel. By this stage you should feel much more comfortable with Modo’s unwrapping workflow and toolset, so let’s continue.

Project Overview:
This tutorial will teach you how to unwrap a hard surface model. For that we will use the model from my previous “Modeling a High Poly World War II Willys Jeep in Modo” tutorial. We will unwrap the Willys jeep using the default Modo tools and the ETEREA UV tools which are a great addition to the Modo toolset.

For most people unwrapping is a tedious task. When you grasp the idea and learn the tools the process will become easy and comfortable. Modo helps in making the process smooth and painless. It gives you only a few tools, but they can easily get the job done. I hope that after you complete this tutorial you’ll understand the UVing process and will feel more comfortable unwrapping.

Mapping the Seats

Step 1

As you can see in the image below, we are close to the end of the UVMapping on the Willys Jeep model. First up, I will show you how to unwrap the seats. I will only go through one of them, since the they are virtually the same.

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Step 2

Add a UV Map and name it body, just as we did before. As you can see all the seats are a single object.

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Step 3

Let’s hide all the geometry in the scene, except for one of the front seats. Here I’ve selected the cushions, and added UVs to them by running the UV Projection Tool with Atlas as a projection type. The Unwrap is pretty solid, but we get a lot of unnecessary seams.

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Step 4

With box like shapes, you can always unwrap them as shown in the picture below. One shell with seams at the corners, and three of the longer edges. For this one, I selected the edges as shown in the image, and ran the Unwrap Tool. As you can see, the shell is a bit distorted though.

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Step 5

Let’s run the UV Relax tool. I used Unwrap mode, with around 200 iterations.

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Step 6

We will do the same for the upper cushion. Just define the edge selection, and run the Unwrap Tool again.

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Step 7

A bit of Relaxing and we get a very clean unwrap.

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Step 8

Scale the two cushions in UV window to more or less match the checker scale.

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Step 9

Isolate the bar running around the cushions. Here I used Project from View to add UVs to the geometry.

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Step 10

Since this bar is built from two feet (a box like shape) and a pipe like part, we will split them into two simple shapes. Select the feet geometry and isolate them.

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Step 11

We will break them into main planes. I could have made the selection less strict and use the Unwrap Tool. I know that the unwrap won’t work well if I do, the object is too irregular in shape. Instead I selected the edges shown in the image, to break the object into main planes.

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Step 12

After running the Unwrap Tool, I get a bunch of separate shells. So let’s stitch them together.

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Step 13

Selected one of the feet in the 3d viewport, and move the corresponding shells down.

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Step 14

First let’s stitch them into three shells as shown in the image, using the sewing tools we used earlier (choosing Selected/Unselected depends on your selection, by now you should be using these tools freely).

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Step 15

I sewed the side planes by selecting only two edges from each side.

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Step 16

As you can see the shells overlap. We will fix this by introducing some distortion. We could leave it to Modo, by stitching the whole side edge loop. It would distort our shell to compensate for the UV distortion. But I want to have nice 90 degree angles in my shells though.

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Step 17

To fix the overlapping, select the vertices shown in the image. Be sure you don’t have any action center selected. You can use different action centers if you like. For example, you can use Element like we did before. Then you could snap the rotating gizmo to the vertex highlighted in blue. But since we don’t need that much precision here, I just clicked on the vertex (blue) with the Rotation Tool activated, just to show that you can move the gizmo with no action center selected.

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Step 18

Now Rotate the vertices around this point. Below you can see how it should look.

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Step 19

Let’s now use an Averaged sewing method on the selected edges.

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Step 20

Below you can see the distortion we introduced into this element. It’s really minor, but if you want, you can try Relaxing specific vertices to get something a bit better. Taking into consideration the scale (size) of this element, decide if you think it’s worth it.

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Step 21

Unhide the rest of the geometry. As you can see, the parts we just Unwrapped are huge.

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Step 22

Scale them down, so you don’t have a huge size difference. Now we will tackle the framing running around the seat. I will unwrap it using the UV Peeler.

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Step 23

First isolate this piece of geometry and select the edge loop running along the bar. I choose the edge loop facing down, so the seam won’t be visible.

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Step 24

Now activate the UV Peeler.

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Step 25

Once again by using the blue ‘+‘ signs, work on the proportions in the UV window until the checker pattern looks OK. It won’t look perfect, you’ll see some skewing. Unwrapping this part in a single shell won’t give us a perfect result.

You can improve the unwrap, by breaking the shell on the corners. It will give you more shells and more seams, and it’s also easier to texture one shell. So you have to see what will work for you. It also depends on how much detail you want to put into this element. But be aware, more detail will make the distortion easier to spot.

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Step 26

Below you can see how I have broken this shell. I selected the top part of the tube, and moved it with the Tear Off option checked.

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Step 27

I relaxed the shells with Adaptive relaxing. You can see the checker pattern looks much better now, but the shells look worse.

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Step 28

I also straightened the edges, as we did in the previous parts of the tutorial, using the ETEREAS palette.

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Step 29

Unhide the rest of the seat geometry (besides the bolt holding the seat to the car’s main body, we won’t unwrap that yet.) Using Pack UVs, unify the scale. I didn’t use Orient here, because I was pretty happy with the shell’s orientation.

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Step 30

Unhide the rest of the model to be able to compare the checker’s scale. Scale down any shells to match the overall size. Remember that we will use Pack UVs later, to make the scale more consistent (it won’t create a mess when the scale is more or less similar.)

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Mapping the Accessories and Handles

Step 1

Now let’s jump to the box below the car. Here I just used Atlas projection and Modo broke this boxy shape into several planes. Just sew some of them together, and be sure the seam is hidden.

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Step 2

Scale this shell down and move it away.

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Step 3

The next element is a handle. I will show how I approach this element. By doing so you will be able to unwrap the rest of the handles on this model.

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Step 4

Below you can see the selection I used for the Unwrap Tool. If you are comfortable with how the tool works, you can easily predict the results by looking at the selection. Try to look at the main shapes of the element. For this one, it’s a tube and two boxy shapes.

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Step 5

Since there is some distortion on the corner of the tube, I relaxed it a bit.

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Step 6

I also oriented the shell horizontally, and straightened edges (only the horizontal ones.)

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Step 7

And that’s it… The Unwrap Tool will often be enough, if you choose good edges for the seams. Just as before, Scale it down and move it away.

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Mapping the Steering Wheel

Step 1

Let’s jump to the steering wheel. First let’s unwrap the bolt on top of the steering wheel. Notice I deleted the geometry which is seated inside other geometry. You can’t see it, and there is no point in wasting UV space for those polygons. To flatten it, I just selected the two objects and ran the Unwrap Tool. As you can see, the result is a bit distorted.

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Step 2

Adaptive relaxing made this unwrap a bit more consistent. As you can see, it’s not perfect but it’s easy to texture. The object is so small, it’s really not worth creating fancy UVs.

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Step 3

Let’s continue by selecting the top cap and using the Unwrap Tool. Hide the geometry you have already UV’d.

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Step 4

Select the other caps, and use the Unwrap Tool to quickly unwrap them and then hide the geometry. This is a good way of unwrapping more complex objects. Unwrap the simpler shapes first, and then hide them.

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Step 5

The next simplest shapes are the two cylinders. Again I used the Unwrap Tool with Planar mode. If your result isn’t as clean, just mess around with the Pinning Axis and Projection Axis. Depending on the orientation of your model, you may get different results.

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Step 6

The final simple shape is the cylindrical part to which the steering wheel connects to. To flatten it, just define a vertical seam and run the Unwrap Tool.

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Step 7

Now let’s tackle the final part. This part is pretty complex, but once again you can think of it as three boxes and a tube. Unfortunately the boxes aren’t that regular in shape. So I started with the selection you see below and ran the Unwrap Tool, which separated the boxy shapes from the tube. It also broke them each into four main planes. The wheel itself doesn’t have any specific edge selection, which would help when unwrapping.

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Step 8

So hide those boxy parts. Select edges as shown in the image, and use the Unwrap Tool again . It should give you three nicely unwrapped shells.

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Step 9

I then Relaxed them using Adaptive mode , to get a better result.

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Step 10

You can now sew the edges (marked below) and create one long shell.

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Step 11

The vertices where I stitched the shells were still a bit wonky. Remember you can always select specific vertices and relax them separately.

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Step 12

Lets use the Pack UVs feature now, to unify the scale and sort the shells.

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Step 13

Using ETEREAS tools, you can align them better, but for now I just matched the scale to the rest of the model, and moved them away. I will align them when we pack this whole model into 0-1 space.

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Mapping the Bolts and Dials

Step 1

Now let’s tackle the bolt I mentioned before. It’s obvious you won’t need to unwrap each bolt separately. The best workflow for such things, is to unwrap one or two bolts and then place them on the model. By using overlapping UVs, you can texture one or two bolts and then copy them all over your model. You don’t need that much variation in your bolt textures, so if you texture two unique bolts, it actually gives you four variations, because you can use both sides of each bolt.

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Step 2

Unwrapping a part like this is really straight forward. Just use Atlas Projection or the Unwrap Tool, and sew some parts.

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Step 3

Now let’s jump back inside the jeep. With the dials you can do something similar. You can model one dial and unwrap it, then duplicate it and just scale it down. By doing so, you won’t have to unwrap five versions of the same part. Since you want different things on your dials when you texture them, you will need to move the UV shells so they don’t overlap.

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Step 4

For the dial, the Unwrap Tool + the UV Relax will do. There is no need to break it into a series of cylindrical stripes which go around the shape, because the distortion is unnoticeable.

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Step 5

Here I have moved all five of the unwrapped dials outside the 0-1 space. Later you might want to scale these dials up, since they might need more resolution for the detail you want to put on them. Or you can also use a separate UV map and texture for them.

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Step 6

The next part we will unwrap will be the reflective part at the back of the body.

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Step 7

Using the Sharp… edges selection, you can quickly select the edges for the Unwrap Tool. It won’t be able to cut the cylindrical planes though.

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Step 8

You can add a few edges to the selection, to allow the Unwrap Tool to flatten those.

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Step 9

Just like many times before, just align and pack the shells. Then Scale them down and move them away.

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Mapping the Petals and Gearshift

Step 1

Now we need to unwrap the pedals and gear shifting stick. Let’s start with the pedals. I selected the sharp edges using the automatic method and used the Unwrap Tool. The UVs are pretty flat, but we most definitely need fewer shells.

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Step 2

Isolate the main pedal geometry, and define the selection like in the image below. (It’s the same selection I used for the previous box like shapes.)

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Step 3

Below you can see the final unwrap. It seems like the jump between the previous and current layout is huge, but if you look closely, I didn’t skip too much though. The four top shells belong to the pedal (the first from the left in the 3D viewport.) Just two shells for the polygons running around the pedal, and two shells for top and bottom.

Then there are two shells I got from the previous step. Then finally we have four shells for the part on which the pedal sits. But where did the caps of this part go? I deleted them. There is no reason to keep them. Also the geometry that is not selected in the 3D viewport, is just duplicated polygons with overlapping UVs. As you can see, I didn’t do anything new. Just old tricks used the right way.

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Step 4

The final element for this part of the tutorial will be the stick. First I used Project from View, just to give it some UV information. Sometimes it’s easier to start from something, than from blank UV space.

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Step 5

Here you can see the selection I defined for the Unwrap Tool. The top ball is split horizontally in two. The stick itself is just a bent cylinder, but those UVs are pretty messy though.

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Step 6

Relaxing those gave me a bit better of a result. But I’m still not happy with the shape of the base of the stick.

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Step 7

Lets use the Uv Projection Tool with Cylindrical as the Projection Type. As you can see, it treated this part as a cylinder and filled the 0-1 space.

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Step 8

Let’s Scale this piece down. You can see the UVs are now pretty solid, but they get worse where this part tapers.

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Step 9

To fix this, select the top polygon loop and move it up. By doing so, you’ll give the loop below it a bit more space. Move it up and down and watch how the checker pattern changes.

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Step 10

Do the same for the top edge loop.

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Step 11

Also straighten the stick’s vertical edges (horizontal in the UV window), and pack those pieces together.

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Step 12

Just like before, match the scale of the checker pattern with the rest of the model and move the shells away.

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Step 13

That’s it for this part. We got almost everything unwrapped. I will unwrap the rest of the main shapes like the seats or handles, so I can show you packing with more parts.

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In next part of the tutorial, we will unwrap the wheel onto it’s own UV map. We’ll also pack this whole model into the 0-1 space, which will conclude our unwrapping in Modo tutorial.

Thank you for reading this tutorial. If you have any questions leave a comment or write me an email.

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