Modeling With 3D Max

	Introduction This model cost me a long time. I try my best to make it perfectly, so sometimes I change the superciliary arches prominent, sometimes I choose to have the eye lids inward or outward, sometimes I have to check the cheek bone to make it proper and sometimes I have to better the musculus orbicularis oris shape, the nose shape, and so on. I always make best efforts to make the structure clear and challenge my limits to making the oriental beauty. Then make a good balance between the structure and the appearance. With the processing going on, I find many things must be discarded. If you make it to be a muscle beauty, maybe it is not beautiful, or the beauty is not unpretentious oriental beauty that what I want to express. I have made models for years, and spend much time in drawing as well. Therefore, I have the most confidence in the structure. I realized that to make a muscle man or woman is not too difficult, but if you want to express a kind of feeling not to show a kind of skill, you have to consider so much else. I know in this part I still have so much to improve, but I will try my best.   I am glad share with you the difficulties and the feelings arising during the making process, if this Making of can give you some help, I will be very joyful. Welcome your e-mails to discuss every aspects of CG, and I hope I can grow with you on the road of making CG together. The Process of Beauty Making The first step, making out the outline Do not consider the five specific organs .the most important is grasping the roles’ features, such as the face shape, the shapes of five organs. Tip 1: For example, when we enjoy a picture drawn by a great muster from distance, we also can be attracted though we cannot see the details. The nearer we close to it, the more details we can see., then the picture be more attractive. So is model-making. The model should be thought good even it seen from distance. Do not pay much attention to the details at first; the most important is considering it as a whole, and then add the details during the process. What the outline is and how to grasp the outline may be two key points. You can imagine that, you can recognize your friends from distance that moment you meet him far away, although you cannot see his appearance clearly. In a similar way, you can imagine your model covered by a cloth. That is my way .If you do like that, you can save two thirds or more time to finish a model. Because most of people think more about the details at first, without considering the outline of the model, they would get lost by the process proceeding, as the lines will become more and more and it is hard to better it.   Tip 2: We cannot ignore the wiring when come to the making model. In the beginning, we would spend much time in wiring. In order to reserve more time to molding, we should find an our own way which can finish wiring most rapidly, not just finish wiring at random, so that we can save a lot of time. My way is writing down the time of your every wiring, the tool you used and their order. Step 2   the modifying and in-depth wiring. The focus here is wiring reasonably. Tips:  Put your design aside, or scanning on the computer and you use ACDSEE to open it when you want a reference. We should not import pictures dimensional software to "descript" a model, unless you have to do an industrial model be exactly like, or else such a description is of little benefit for fostering the ability to grasping the form. From the first day, I insist on form the ability to grasp the form, then when I do mechanical model, I also insisted on that. Finally, import the picture into MAYA, I found no errors here. It built firm confidence in me. I hope you will persist in doing like that. This will very beneficial for you. If you do not rest assured that, you will import the pictures into three-dimensional software and check it after you finished the model. Step 3: To go in deep into the details integrally Tips:  The way that understand the objects in the form of converting the surface into block can be used to eye survey the body whether meets the standard or not. As long as there are ways, all of us can make a very good model. (The premise, of course, Is a certain understanding of human knowledge.), for example: As we all know, can imagine the nose into a trapezoid, cheekbones and jaw can form a trapezoid, the first of the two side of the egg shape, which block surface is summed up by our predecessors. We should try to sum up such laws during the process we do a model by ourselves. Step 4   The process of describing the five sense organs Main points: 1. Eyes: It is in particular point out that the upper eyelids contain the lower eyelids. Many people do not consider such a relationship; Therefore, The eyes of the model are seemed not vivid. 2. Nose: The nose is rotated into, rather than direct into .When making, a lot of people do not pay attention to the nose, in fact, there is a lot of structures. 3. Mouth: The relationship between the upper and lower lips is also containing and being contained. Upper and lower lips rotate when it is to enter the mouth. Step 5    Add eyeballs to the eyes. Why I do the double-eye I believe we all know, so I do not go into details here. Step 6 - This step is very important. To add the eye lashes and the lachrymals gland. We often see a lot of CG masters make their characters vivid. The key is to produce a single model of the lachrymals gland alone, and then adjust Tears into the material. If you are not aware of this issue normally, I hope that this step will give you some small tips. Step 7     Together with the eyes, eyelashes, the lachrymals, teeth, ear rings then look at the results and make appropriate adjustments.   Step 8 - This step is making the hair. Once I was asked how to produce the hair, I use NURBS, mainly on two LOFT curve of a surface, do not delete history records. In that case, you can amend it just by controlling the curve directly. If you want to make the effect of the wind, or want to control it as a whole, plus a fine mesh to control the curve. Using this method is very easy to adjust. Step 9     Add the hair and then make the clothes and the fan. It is easy to finish. Step 10     Finally, add lighting. Lighting can be in accordance with our interests, and then use the FG of MR to render. This is the effect of rendering.(I have got her clothes changed) Finally, coming to map drawing, I have drowned hair, eyes, the color mapping, bump mapping, high-optical mapping, reflect-mapping.  The skin is the SSS skin texture. Many people have talked about 3S material adjustment method before that I do not repeat it. Due to limited space, this time we just mainly talked about the model making. In the future we will have more opportunities to explore the material, lighting and rendering production together. For the time being, the course comes to here, thank you all!

Modeling with 3D max

	Hello everyone, I am Zhang Sheng from China. ‘Meet you’ is my latest work and glad that lots of friends like this. I would also like to thank the CGArena.com for their assistance, so that I can share the production process. CONCEPTION Before I made the various 3d artworks including the robot, variation and so on. At the time in university, I studied painting at the Art Institute. Thoughts and techniques of painting has been affecting me. This time I want to portray a cute Oriental girl, a unique beauty of the Orient. She is fashionable, confident and lively. In my imagination she meets me. I collected some photos as a reference, but I did not want to produce in accordance with anyone. I want to create a girl in my imagination. MODELING & SCULPTING I used Maya to create this Girl. Create a basic model. At this time I paid attention to the proportion of the model and topology. I export the basic model in .obj file and then sculpting the model in Zbrush. Frankly speaking, ZBrush is a very high efficient modeling tool, I can rely on it for the shape I want to model. This will also be benefited to me from my painting experience. Later I will give her clothes to put on, so now I do not want to add too many physical details in sculpting. May be I will add later on. I modeled the hand by taking the reference of my own hand. Ha.Ha, this is a fun process, feel that they become the part of the character. Thank God for giving me a pair of slender hands. For modeling the good sculpture, I start editing the model UVs. Editing the UV mapping now to avoid deformation later. Export the model in .obj, then open it using Unfold3d. Then selected edges are cut open, unfolding, everything is easy. Unfold3d is an excellent software.   Now UV layout was confusing and my own needs in accordance with the re-distribution at Maya. Maya ‘s ‘Move UV shell tool’ and ‘Rotate UV’ tool is useful. TEXTURING ‘I used the photographs as material and use the ZBrush projection master to mapping the texture. Mapping the characters from front, side, bottom, top and back. I also used the Photoshop then get the complete texture. I used to display maps in ZBrush, then find out the problem and correct it. In my opinion this is a very effective way. I also use my ZBrush material to show skin, so I can estimate the final results. In order to get the enough details, I created a map of 6000x6000. POSE If there is no ZBrush, posture adjustment in model would be a troublesome thing because to create a set of skin and bone weights. In ZBrush3.1, using the Transpose tool to regulate the posture is very easy. I used the ‘move brush’ and open ‘Activate symmetry’, to make the smiley face. In my opinion the creation of perfect facial expressions are most important part. I tried to give a charming smile like ‘Mona Lisa’ had. I hope that she can touch everyone. SKIN SHADER I used Maya mental ray ‘misss_fast_skin’ To create the skin shader of the character. The shader is easy, I don’t use mix20layer and other shaders. Since I am now satisfied with the skin.   This is the color mapping, bump mapping and specular mapping. TEST RENDERING I use the maya textures to create the eye texture of the girl. Distinction between the use of ramp and the white of the eye iris. Use the set of noise-node combination to produce the iris texture. The use of a group of marble nodes to produce the bloodshot in the eye. HAIR AND EYEBROWS Hair production is a challenging job. First of all, I draw the draft hair in Photoshop to determine the Hair Style and composition. I think ‘Shave and a haircut’ is the best tool for the production of the hair. Create a polymesh as the scalp to generate hair and use the nurbs curve as guideline to control the hair. Analysis of my hair, and up from the original model to replicate as many block poly scalp. CV curve tool used to create more nurbs curve to guide the hair.   Eyebrows also created in the same way. Use the shave brush tool to Combing hair. The shape of the hair also needs Combing. Adjust the shape but also necessary to adjust hair color, quantity, thickness and other characteristics in order to complete the creation of hair. Here is the final render. I hope this tutorial has been helpful for you. Thanks for giving the time to read my tutorial and thanks to CGArena.com for this great opportunity!

Design Dream

Introduction

In this tutorial, we’re going to create a 3D Typography based design. All the elements will revolve around the centerpiece and theme: dreaming. The word will dictate the entire layout and control the space by allowing everything else to emerge from within. The trees will grow out of the letters; the mountains will show themselves behind the word and overshadow the glowing moon.
Dreaming often takes you to different places and unites bits and pieces of your memory. It basically takes you to a whole new world, but that is usually made up of real elements. We’ll illustrate this by making everything float in mid air, as if suspended in time, yet maintain realism by using common elements of nature.
Naturally, people dream at night, so the overall lighting will be dark and predominated by a cold color palette: cyan and lime green.
Also, the typography should have a classic, storytelling look; one that would complete the eerie atmosphere.
Feel free to download the PSD at the bottom of the post that contains the final image. Now that we’ve planned everything, let’s begin.

Create the 3D text

The first thing to do is get this free font called Storybook. It’s a font that fits our context well, and that will look well with 3D decorations due to its elegant serifs and bold stature. Type up the first letter of your word and give it this color: 4C3F38.

Now add a 3D effect by going to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel. Play around with the settings yourself to get the angle, lighting and form you want. You can recreate my treatment by using the same settings. Don’t forget to use a ‘Complex 2’ Bevel.

Once you finish the first letter, repeat the process on the remaining letters. The only modifications you should make are to alter the position. Then copy (Ctrl+C) each individual letter and paste (Ctrl+V) them in Photoshop one at a time. Once you try pasting them, you’ll be prompted to choose a method of importing. Choose the ‘Smart Object’ Option. By doing this you can make simple adjustments at all times to the Illustrator file right inside Photoshop by double clicking the layer icon.
Position the letters onto an empty Photoshop canvas. I’m working at a rather large resolution of approximately 6300 x 4500 px at 300 ppi.
Also, fill the background layer with this color: 17151d.

At this point we’ll begin stylizing the letters. Get the Magic Wand Tool (W) and make a selection of the letter’s foreground. Right click, select Make Work Path and specify a tolerance level of 1,5.

Now that it’s a work path, we’ll fill it with a color by going to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Fill it with white. The path should now be a vector shape. Double click on its layer and give it a bevel. Use the settings shown in the image below and choose the highlight color (94aa53) and shadow color (6c6f64).

It’s now time to create a pattern that will cover the front of each letter. I’m using a Go Media vector freebie: Seamless Swirls. Go on and download it if you haven’t already, and open the provided Illustrator file. Change its color to this: 94aa52 and copy (Ctrl+C). Open a new Photoshop project with the clipboard size (235 x 235 px) and fill the background color with another color: ebe77f. To make it into o a pattern go to Edit > Define Pattern. Your new pattern will be saved in the pattern set that is currently opened.

Now that you’ve created the pattern, you need to add the pattern to the face of the letter. Double click on the white shape’s layer and add a Layer Style: Pattern Overlay. Your newly created pattern should already be selected.

One last touch is a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer that we’ll place on top of the letter’s body. While having the layer selected, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Then play around with the colors until you get a similar result. My colors, from left to right are: d8c67f, 94aa53, 262628, and 141416. Make sure that the Adjustment Layer Applies only to the letter. To do this, make it a clipping mask for the letter layer by holding Alt and clicking right in between the two layers.

Now copy the layer style of the letter face and duplicate the Gradient Map. Apply these effects to the remaining letters.

Draw the scenery

The text is now finished. Let’s add the trees and foliage.
This technique I’m about to show you is what I have developed for myself. It reduces complex imagery to simple shape. A simple splatter, when grouped in a pattern begins to take a certain role, thus resembling an element of nature. You may find it useful or dull, but it’s what we’ll use for this design.
All you need is a standard Photoshop round brush and a mouse. Choose one using your Brush Tool (B) and input the settings found in the images below.



Now that your brush settings are all ready, begin painting a tree. It’s important to know that you shouldn’t create the whole tree with the same brush settings. There is one adjustment you need to make along the way. If you look under Shape Dynamics in your Brushes Window, you’ll see a setting we’re using: Fade. This fades out your brush depending on how much you put in the adjacent field. A Fade set at 100 will end faster than one set at 250. You can use whatever settings you find appropriate. I used 100 for the trunk, 150 for extensions of the trunk, and 250 for thick branches. As you increase the fade, reduce the brush size at the same time.

Continue using this technique in creating the rest of the trees and draw some roots too. Reduce the size considerably for the thin branches and add even more fading when necessary.


It’s time for foliage. Prepare a separate brush using these settings.


Now begin painting. Begin with a larger size using this green: 94aa53. In a layer underneath, with a smaller sized brush, paint with a darker green: 55612f. Again over the light green layer, use the same color (94aa53) with an even smaller size. For highlights, use the same size as the last one, but with this yellow: e3e07d. Here is an image you can use as a reference in creating your own trees.
I drew my inspiration from acacia trees, while coming up with the shape of the trunk and volume of the foliage.

Following the branches as a reference, draw away!

Add more nature elements now. I added a mountain and a moon. They will give depth to the image, and prevent the composition from being scarce. Use the pen tool (P) and create them as vector shapes.

Make the mountain fade out on the bottom. An easy way to do it would be to create a new layer on top, clip it to the mountain layer and paint with a large soft brush with the background color. I also added a glow on the moon. To add one yourself, add a layer style: Outer Glow. Keep the standard color, increase its size and reduce the opacity to 25%.
Some more improvements include adding dark accents to the lower part of the tree trunks and shadows that stretch across the face of the letters. You can create those in the same way – clip a new layer to the one you want darkened and paint with a soft brush using a dark color. This applies to the mountain, trees and roots. Use a sharp brush to draw the tree shadow though.

Finalize the design

In order to complete the artistic feel of this design, add this texture to your canvas. Simply paste it on a new layer, over all the other ones. Set the layer’s blending mode to Linear Burn and its opacity to 30%.

Now invert the texture (Ctrl+I) and change its hue by going to Image > Adjustments > Hue and Saturation. Change the hue to 153 and saturation to -73.

One last touch – add the watercolor texture inside the mountain and moon, once more, with clipping masks. Put their layers on Overlay (Mountain) and Multiply (Moon). Adjust the opacity.

And that concludes it. Now go on and create your own, one of a kind, dream design.

Download Dream.PSD