Ashita e - Work In Progress

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Hi geeks!

I finally found time to update an [old artwork project and I try to maintain the progress each week. Most of the elements were initially created in 3ds Max but since I started to feel more comfortable with Zbrush, I decided to handle the character work in sculpt.

Here are some pictures from the recent updates:

(Original poly modelled head)

For the male character, I decided to have a 20/80% Max/Zbrush workflow to avoid headaches on retopology and unwrapping:
Before adding details sculpt to the head I decided to move from the dynamesh to clean topology version. At first the Zremesher from polygroups (using polygroups from paint option) result were kind of good but it lacked some real edge loops around the eye areas therefore 3ds max helped to draw a clean topology for the lower part of the head that needed to keep its symmetry. However Zremesher gave a good result on the top part of the mesh, it only needed a few poly bridge and adjustment in max to stick the two meshes together.

Original Zbrush Re topology attempt

Zbrush + 3ds Max topology before being merged forever

With a good topology it was time to finally start some adjustment way easier to manage a subD 1 like on the eyelids, no more wobbly skin there! Then I could add details with alphas on the skin part.

Topology talking, this is a non animated project however I created a “good” topology for the faces of my characters anyway. It helps in many process coming after the modelling step: easier unwrapping, easier expression editing, good flow of polygons for the displacement in rendered images.

The back of the neck needs to be refined

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These cloth brushes are awesome, no more waiting for max cloth modifier to painfully move faces in real-time. The hands comes from the model created a few months ago, less scary though.

Ah, the geek part… You may remember the method I used a while ago to create cloth wrinkles in the earlier versions of the clothes for that character. Time changes, workflows evolve! Still using Substance software, this time with Designer, I created a new cloth wrinkles collection with multi angle lighted pictures of some fabric, trying light and heavy fabrics to get more variations in the results. It works pretty good and can be easily used in Substance suite or directly in Zbrush as Alphas!

As Zbrush can now deform surfaces with cloth brushes easily, why not use this process to also create Alphas? I may create vector brushes as well for full 3D distortion.

Left: alphas from Zbrush cloth on a plane / Top right : Height maps from texture scanning / Right : Zbrush simulated cloth + cloth brushes strokes + details from generated alphas

One month ago I worked on some problematic elements of the scene. Firstly I tried to find a way to easily model the very soft and light fabric that covers the female character, trying to mimic the cloth you can see on marble statues. This was achieved in Zbrush with the dynamic menu, the cloth hook brush and by adding/exaggerating details with the standard brush using the basic brush or pre-made alphas. The test looks conclusive and will be applied to the final scene.

In the mean time I adjusted characters poses and camera angle, once this step will be validated I’ll be able to play with all the characters and bed clothes. Fun ahead.

Basically using firmness at 1 and added a lot of simulation steps in Zbrush
Then the mistakes are corrected with brushes

The environment so far

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Then I moved on the eye shader. It’s been years I used the same method to create eyes, I thought it was time to learn new things!
The model is half Zbrush sculpted, half substance designer textured then it’s only Standard surface shaders magic occurring in 3ds Max.

Black (original design) and white variant

The characters will be posed with the help of simple rig in Max then adjusted in sculpt here and there when placed in the environment.

I’m actually working on some hard surface elements/props but this is fully done in 3ds Max therefore I’ll come back for an update here when I’ll go back to the characters.

See you!

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I finally found some spare time to work on this project! Many adjustments have been done on the environment, some props were added, other found a new location and the light scenario evolved once again.

One the main goal I had was to finally get the multi 3D hands to be converted as an IMM Curve brush inside Zbrush. after some trials and error I finally got the basic setup and I could even get the original hand UVs and textures created in Substance a few weeks ago! The not really issue I have now is to find a way to texture these longs arms coming from the curves, I’m pretty confident about finding a way to fix this in the coming days.

Next step: create many poses from the original hand model in 3ds Max to convert all of those as IMM meshes.

First steps – Almost there – There

Palm proportions has been adjusted

A few of the many poses that will be needed to complete the set

After some lighting tests I noticed the tissue that makes the link between the window and the air conditioner attracted too much light as its material is translucent, therefore I thought about creating another object: a cardboard with many duct tape stripes. This one was fully modelled in Zbrush with the Zmodeler brush and many Zproject on the different subtools. It will need a few more stripes and the model will be ready: no more attraction for the eye of the viewer!

Placeholder – Zbrush model – Substance designer

Two other news:

• The main character map details could finally be baked with high quality textures
• The couple of paper balls staying here and there in the room are now part of a model pack

I may create some close up render aside the final camera angle

I had some hard times trying to get a correct displacement and normal maps from Zbrush using the re projection method. The details looked good inside Zbrush, however the face had a lack of details once in 3ds Max. As I want to optimize the scene, there is now way I’ll use 8K texture or some render crash will happen with the rest of the models, indeed, many of the furnitures use subdivision and displacement at render time. However I already started to optimize the Ram usage by using 8 bits Jpeg files instead of PNG/EXR but at the price of bad quality on some areas on some models.

My solution to get fine details was to simply bake the HD sculpt of the low poly face in Substande Designer, it was fast and effective! Now the main details are here, I’ll be able to add some on the rock area while also painting the colors in Substance Painter.

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I pushed away this next big step for too long, now it the time to dive in sculpting bodies and make them come to life with textures!The work started by adjusting the bodies poses, once again and also by adjusting some proportions on the female character. Then I finally jumped on the multi UDIM tiles process. I initially thought that 1 UV tile for the the upper body would be enough for this character but after some poor resolution baking results and mostly after seeing the high details results I could get on the male character: The female upper body was split in 3 UV spaces with a large one for the face. This means the baking had to be done in Painter.
The face proportions were adjusted:

Legs proportions adjusted:

At first, the Zbrush baked displacement map looked good inside 3ds Max (minus the resolution) but when I imported the baked results from Painter or Designer, the faceted look knocked on my door. It certainly comes from the way the different softwares internally manage the subdivision. The solution I found was to avoid using the subdivisions option in the Arnold properties modifier, only use the Displacement options and add an Opensubdiv/Turbosmooth modifier below the Arnorld properties modifier. The old way. Indeed, Arnold uses Catmull–Clark subdivision model that is not compatible with baked displacement map generated from Substance.
Zbrush details VS 3ds max 1 UV tile details:

Height map used as “displacement” in Painter VS Displacement inside 3ds Max and Arnold:

Needless to tell the multi UDIM workflow gives great details on the character’s face and the diffuse/roughness/additionnal bump painting works like a charm.
Original low poly mesh – Painter – Arnold:

The skin shading looks great, the details are good enough for the scale the character will have in the frame for the final render: