Making of: Cute clown

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making of: Cute clown. By Leonardo nahuel belich.



Introduction Hi my name is nahuel belich, y have ben playing around the CG world for more than six or seven years, but i have ben using Blender for less than a year. I hope you find this article useful or at least not todo boring.

How did the whole process startí.

This Project started as a competition, a seven day duel, the idea or concept for the duel was a ver qué sale de una caja the translation is something like lets se what coming from a box referring todo box modeling techniques, y tok the idea a Little bit more literal. The idea was todo do a nice exotic clo, but suddenly while i was modeling it eyes, (the mask eye holes), y felt something, something wasnt right, that was when it popped in my mind, that picture, that soul trapped behind that mask for who knows how long, waiting for who knows what, the only thing that i could do is todo show everyone that there it was, waiting, staring, and Thinking about the next move, no one can be far from a trapped soul.
which ones were my rules todo follow?

I try todo work in the following order, first, modeling, second, light Shading, third, materiales and texture. This is just todo structure my work, this doesnt always work. Often at the Office, im obligated todo mix all the steps because of diferent issues, but i try todo kep an order over things, except naming conventions. If you download the file you Will notice that is a Little bit messy, im still working on that área.

Modeling: clown.

First of all, y usually create a box or a plane todo start modeling from, in this case i used a box and modeled using box modeling, at least at the beginning. Im used todo modeling using poly todo poly techniques instead box modeling, also i made use of the sculpting tools. That is great resource todo refine organic models, Even if they dont have Many subdivisions.



The second thing that i usually do, is todo divide the Mesh and apply a mirror and Subsurf modifiers (fig1). The mirror modifier, as its name says, copies over any selected axis, the Mesh from the other side of the center of the object. It also has a do clipping option which locks the vertex aligned todo the center and avoids any new face creation from any extrude action over the mirror center, and finally this mod mirrors uv`s. So if the model is symmetrical, we only have todo do the half of work and if it is not, this modifier leaves a perfecto base Mesh todo deform and distort, again saving us some time.

Modelando un payaso parte 1.
Modelando un payaso parte 2.
Cloth and candles:.

The tools for this task were the sculpting tools, a great resource that allows us todo give shape extremely fast todo any organic Mesh, in this case Fabric and wax.

The main sculpting tools that i used were, draw, smooth, Pinch and Grab. Using these four modes were more than enough todo do the job.

• draw(d): this mode tends todo move the Faces in the direction of its normal.
• smooth(s): as its name says, this mode tends todo Smooth the Mesh surface relaxing the vertex position.
• Pinch(p): Pinch tends todo drag the vertex todo the center of the brush, its useful todo accentuate borders or creases, be aware that this brush can reach high distorsión levels on the Polygons size, its recommended todo use in wire frame mode.
• Grab(g): this is more or less like the proporcional edit fallof, but much more dynamic.
• inflate: this last brush is a combination (more or less) of the draw brush and a invert and software versión of Pinch brush. It does exactly what it says, its like inflating the Mesh.

During the sculpting session there are a few useful shortcuts. You can change the diferent sculpting tools using, d,s,p,g, if you want todo change the brush size, f. It Will pop up a circle and thats the Radius. To change the strength press shift+f, it Will pop up two circles, but you Will control only the inner one. The bigger the inner circle the less strength, smaller is strongest. To rotate the brush, in case you are using any texture as a stencil, Control+F. These controls are more than enough todo play with.



Even when the overall was done by Sculpt tools, for fun and tests, the Cloth over the Spring was done using Cloth simulation. Essentially i made a hole on the Cloth and set the vértices of that hole as a vertex group, then in the Cloth panel, y used that vg for Pinning them in place, that kept the Cloth in its place for the simulation that was done using the Cotton preset and nothing else, After simulating the Cloth, y sculpted some details.

Cloth and candles video.
Environment.

About the environment, its quite simple really. Using the help of Google, y searched for images of candles, churches, temples and things like that. Once i had those pictures, y just mapped planes that were placed strategically todo give the right reflections, but todo know the right position is a Little bit hard. So i tok the mask and applied todo it a material with full reflectivity, that bien i verified the position and size of the planes.

Lighting was also a simple task, first i identified the main light sources. The candles behind and the pictures of the candles behind the Camera. For the candles i placed thre diferent Omni Lights, and for the plane behind the Camera, y used an área light. A few render tests without osa and half size helped me todo adjust intensity, position of the lights and also very important, adjust the shadows. Especially the bias and software shadows sizes.



The second part of lighting belongs todo my favorite pass, AO (Ambient Occlusion). Im not sure how or why, but in Blender, AO, an internal render pass that afects directly from the world options, this property of AO inside Blender allows us todo use it for lighting purposes.

You may think, why put the lights first and then use the AO pass for lighting? Well, the answer is simple, y know that im going todo use AO, so all the lighting is darker than it should be. Alos i dont care much about it because at the last, its going todo go th rouge a node Rig todo make a color balance and contrast adjustment. The only thing that im careful with is todo avoid any white or black extremes. As long as the picture has enough color información, we Will be able todo correct contrast and highlights by using nodes.

Ao video.
Uv and Texture Paint: the clown.

After finishing the general setup, its time todo detail textures. Before i start painting or texturing, its neded todo Unwrap the UV map. This is because we are going todo place a 2d texture onto 3d Mesh, so each vertex of the 3d Mesh neds coordinates todo know which píxeles should be used in which Polygons. Using the LSCM, Unwrap is a really easy task. Just select the Edges todo become seams, press Control + eh, choose marque sems, then select all polys and press u and select Unwrap p. There it is. If it would be necessary, the Unwrap can be refined later.



To start painting, its neded todo assing a texture todo Paint. If you want, you can start painting over that texture, but lets suppose that that wasnt done yet. Hit tab todo switch todo Edit Mode, hit a todo select all, then inside the UV/Image Editor create a new or open an existing image. Thats it, now switch todo Texture Paint mode, and start painting.

Uv Unwrapvideo.
Shaders for face and candles s.

The face (the área around the eyes) and candles both have a similar shader. They are both s(sub surface Scattering) and node composited. The Skin Shader was worked from the Skin Shader in the blendermag issue 16 vaya factor, (written by Victor malherbe). My versión didnt have bak face Scattering and i added a Paint layer instead. If you look closer, there is red Paint around the eyes, the candles dont have a dermis layer, but they have a s base for a wax effect and a procedural map todo add that grunge. The fire of the candles is a geometry with a Flame shape, but rendered in a diferent layer using compositing nodes like blur, color mix (add mode) and a few things more that are all thrown over the background and there`s fire. (a mensaje effect, se below ;]).





Left candle wax shader, right face Skin Shader.

Face Shading video.
Candles fire comp video.
Final composition.

The last step, mensaje production, as you Will se down below the node network, its not so complicated (if you are new in this, it may look as an ancient enigma, but its not so complicated). I used the usual defocus node, Glare effect, added a sepárate layer for candle fire and a sepárate layer for the corner shadowing (i think it was called vignette but i`m not sure)and something that is not a great thing but in this first time, it loked interesting todo me.

As a common use, AO (Ambient Occlusion) in Blender can be used as a complement for lighting, but im a los used todo using AO todo add detail todo creases, small holes details, etc. The problem was that the AO configured for lighting was right, so i had todo create a diferent one without changing the original.

I have ben using Blender for 6 todo 9 months, so this was a quite a pleasant surpresa, especially for sequence composition environments, Blender is capable of managing diferent scenes inside the same blend file. So Even though AO is global for the entire scene and you only can have one, it is posible todo create another scene, copying all objects, and set there a diferent AO, render the setup etc, that later Will be combined by Node Editor (alos se below and blend file).

Url:8.
Multi AO guide.
Final thoughts.

I did two versións of this Cute clo, most of the videos that you Will se are from the first versión, the only diferences are only a few more hours of work, nothing else.
With every new render i do, y try todo learn something new, every new image should have a new technique, a new challenge or a new knowledge, and Even when the process is not complete in these pages and videos, y hope that this would be useful as a guide or a lesson todo anyone who neds it.

The main reason for writing this article, is that this was a kind of lesson. Resuming it helped me todo fix knowledge and opens the probabilities todo someone more experienced than me todo take these techniques and refine it or develop new ones, allowing more resources for artists todo create.



Finally a phrase that i fel like a motivation todo kep going (but kep in mind that i`m not a poet :]).

I teach todo learn and learn todo teach, a circle that only leads us forward.

Enseño para aprende y aprendo para enseñar un círculo vicioso que solamente nos hace avanzar.

Thanks for reading.

Leonardo nahuel belich.
casillapforos@yahoo.com.ar. www.blenderart.org.