Shade 3D tutorial coming up

Yesterday, exactly 12 months on the current gig have passed. Tons of concepts done (and other art-related stuff) and the official website is about to launch. Some of that art was accomplished with an assistance from Shade 3D, pretty kick-ass 3D app from Japan. Since it's relatively unknown to the 'Western audience', I'm cooking a small introductory tutorial, which will be available for free on my Gumroad in a week or two. Later on, if there is any interest, more specific, project oriented tutorials will follow. Cheers.

Forgotten keep - WIP1

Here are two of many elements being crafted for the final environment shot. My first extensive use of ZBrush, hopefully will end up looking halfway decent. More WIPs coming up.

Project 'Absolutum', image 5: nomadic army

United nomad tribes before the attack on the capital in the climax of the story. Although technologically outmatched by the Empress, nomads are able to equal the terms of engagement. Large Monsoons, serpent-like creatures from the far reaches of the Outer Lands, are armored and used both, as a troops transportation and a weapon. Though they are pretty slow and are not particularly dangerous by themselves (apart from their sheer size), augmented with the hoover-engines, they can be used very efficiently as a 'living hovercrafts' and rams. Floating above the ground allows nomads to steer them over sharp rocky terrains that normally keep Monsoons at bay. Smaller units, called Zephyrs, are used typically for combat. These are fully mechanical, usually composed from elements coming from Desert Trains and shot down Frigates.

And some initial roughs:

Project 'Absolutum', image 4: air-frigates

Flying ships powered partially with Arcalum are the main royal vehicles, capable of transporting goods, orb from the Outer Lands' mines or soldiers. There are three types of Frigates - War Frigate, Transport Frigate and Scout vehicles. Basically, powerful turbines provide a push while the strong wings, controlled bio-mechanically, keep the frigate in the air and at the correct altitude.

Project 'Absolutum', image 3: hatchery

Although it was a daunting task, the Empress and meta-alchemists discovered how to artificially breed prestoses, using a variety of substances and quasi- magical machinery to create and keep hatchlings alive. Although such prestoses are much smaller than the ancient ones and don't live long, their bodies still produce a protective lining inside of cocoons that is processed into the precious Arcalum. Entire hatchery is controlled by the Empress and can only be accessed by trusted servants, psionics and meta-alchemists.

And some initial sketches/ideas:

Into the depths - WIP

Here's another WIP, a personal project and a fully digital environment shot.

I built 3D environment, animated the elevator and the camera move. The next stage will be UV-ing and texturing the foreground elements and planning various matte projections, placing them in such a way as to show great depth of the city and many levels below. Once all the projections are created, scene will be rendered in several passes and comped in Nuke. With this project I'll practice some new stuff like DOF pass and 3D motion blur.

Underpass - WIP

New matte in progress, something more photo-realistic this time - an exercise from integrating greenscreen footage into a matte based on a plate. Using myself and my cheap pocket camcorder, I acquired a suitable footage of a wandering bum, that was keyed out and rotoscoped quite a bit (bad lighting, good production practice :) I'll be aiming at post-apocalyptic mood, something in a spirit of 'The Road' or 'The Book of Eli'. I'll post the final matte and comp soon.

Happy New Chinese Year, by the way :)

The Arrival - WIP1

Here's the first preview of the shots I mentioned. 'The Arrival' is a series of six shots, fully CG, accomplished with matte painting projections, live-action and digital sets. I'm putting them together for practice and presentation purposes. Sequence will also include things like particle simulations and 3D animation.

As you can see from this WIP, each shot has been initially layed out in 3D and then concept art was created for each, to figure out basic lighting and what elements are needed to accomplish the task. Some shots are less difficult, some are quite complex, like the last one, Shot 6, where live-action of multiple characters is mixed with 3D foreground environment, 3D matte painting of the mountains, HDRI render of the animated ship and a bunch of other stuff, eventually comped together. Lots of fun ;)

Thyn 3D matte - WIP 6

Continuing - I modified the composition a bit by adding a bridge on the right. The city will be partially under construction and more mine will be visible at the bottom.

The Ministry - WIP 1

Along with Thyn, I'm preparing another matte, slightly more futuristic, in a spirit of 'Equilibrium'. This time it's based on a real plate, a photo I took in Shanghai. Here's the first stage - blocking some buildings and establishing general mood.

Thyn 3D matte - WIP 5

City model is textured and ready for some serious matte painting. I decided to do one big matte with only subtle 3D projection, showing the city from the its mountain side, like below. The wide camera move from the previous posts will be rendered additionally, as a form of pre-viz. I want the matte to be hi-res and full of details and for the camera circulating like that that would require additional weeks of work, which I don't really have.

Thyn 3D matte - WIP 4

Here's another WIP for my Thyn matte. As you can see, UV-ing is pretty much done, now it's time to paint those textures in and than finally move onto the matte projections.

Thyn 3D matte - WIP 3

Here's another WIP. Since the camera move is very wide and revealing, I decided to create a base texture for the architecture in a traditional way, by procedural textures (for small objects) and by UV and texture maps for buildings and walls. Once the base is on, matte painting will be used to add variety and details to the whole city. On the screenshot above, you can see all surfaces with assigned separate shaders, quite colorful and "modern art"-like but no worries, soon it will look photoreal. Part of the BG is already in place.

Thyn 3D matte - WIP 2

Here's the second WIP. I modified the camera move, focusing more on the city and slowing down the speed (it still needs some tweaking), so it wouldn't look like a miniature. I also added hand-held shakes tracked from real-life footage in Boujou, so it's a bit more realistic. Here's a finished 3D model of the scene, ready for projections. Palm trees and bushes are cards, smokes from chimneys and factory/mine are done with particles and sprites.

Thyn 3D matte - WIP 1

Ok, time for the first WIP.

The matte will be an establishing shot of Thyn, a fantasy-like city with a castle built partially into a cliff (actually, a place from one of my own pen-and-paper RPGs I wrote years ago). In general, desert/rock environment, in a mood of "Prince of Persia" or "Scorpion King". Final shot will be a 3D matte with multiple projections to cover long camera move - it will fly over the desert and circulate a bit around the city. The whole animation will be about 16 seconds, so quite long and quite a bit of work :) Additionally, some effects will be added like smoke from various chimneys and some movement (caravan approaching city gates, cranes on the city wall). The final comp will have, of course, things like moving clouds, sun rays and other stuff.

OK, enough for the intro. Here's a first rough scene blockout and camera movement.

Here some simple city buildings that will be multiplied and create base for city projection. They will have procedural shader applied that will serve as a starting point for the matte.