Lecture notes:
chapter 01: roughs
Before you start any design it’s important to know what the goals are. Video games, films and toys all have very different
parameters and the better you know the limitations the better suited you can make your design. Generally for roughs I start
with a simple round brush on a white canvas. First, I put down rough silhouettes to try and get an interesting profile. If I get
something I like, I’ll develop it further by adding lighter gray forms on top of it and using smaller brushes to tighten up the
shapes. I try to keep the roughs organized so that I can easily see what I’ve done. I use a lot of copy and pasting, free transform
and warp to move the shapes around quickly. I also try to flip my canvas to get fresh eyes on the image. When I have a couple
designs that I think are working, I develop them more than the rest and put them in a more prominent place on the final deliverable
image for a client.
chapter 02: Modeling the Legs
Using 3d Studio Max, I start by modeling the feet. I use poly modeling with symmetry and turbo smooth modifiers for most
objects. This allows me to get a wide variety of shapes by rotating and moving elements about their axis. It saves on modeling
time and often produces unexpected interesting shapes. It’s a very good idea to take time to collect and build some interesting
mechanical shapes in a kit bash file. This is a file that you can merge into any scene to use as a source for objects for your
model. There is no reason to build everything from scratch each time, especially when you are just creating a concept. It’s a
very good idea to remember throughout this stage that you are working on a concept, not a final model. Don’t fuss too much
about the cleanliness of the geometry since chances are you are going to have to redo it.
chapter 03: Modeling the upper Body
Here I continue to grab geometry from my kit bash objects and also pull geometry from other areas of the model. It’s a good idea
to keep in mind how the character will need to move. Try to place parts that look like they would work with the functionality of the
robot. It’s also a very good idea to create forms that hint at human anatomy, especially if you are creating a bipedal design.
chapter 04: posing the Model
Start out by grouping the objects that make up the various parts of the body. Next, link up the groups according to how they
should be connected: hands to lower arms to upper arms, etc... With “autokey” on, move the time slider a few frames so that
when you start posing your model, you can go back to the default pose if you want to. Additionally, for each pose you create
move the time slider so that you can keep all of your poses saved, enabling you to quickly scroll back to see other options. For
a larger robot I would recommend a low angle camera in your final render. Set up a camera in Max or just use your perspective
window to get an idea of how the robot will look in the shot. Once I have a pose that I like, I ungroup the various parts of the
model and tweak the objects so they look good from the intended camera position. Here I try to fix any crashing geometry or
body parts that aren’t quite connecting right.
chapter 05: Modeling the Whips and shield
Now that the pose is locked down, I can start modeling the whips and shield. I start by making splines where I want the whips
to go around robot. Next, I create an object that will be repeated along the splines. Using the “Spacing Tool” I select the object
and the spline and adjust how many objects to repeat along the spline. For the shield I start by making a hexagon and clone it
until I have the shape of the shield. I apply an “FFD” modifier and warp the shape of the shield around the arm. Before exporting
the model as an .obj, I go through and assign unique materials to the various objects. When exporting make sure that it is set
to “group by material” and that “use materials” is checked.
chapter 06: rendering part 1
The program I use to render mechanical objects like robots is called HyperShot. You can download a demo of the program
here:
http://www.bunkspeed.com/hypershot/thanks.html. I start by opening the .obj file I exported from 3ds Max. Once the
model is loaded I open one of the premade HDR “environment images” that will provide the lighting for the scene. I will usually
come back and change this or adjust it, but I like to have one loaded before I assign materials. Next, I open the material library
which displays all of the premade materials and custom materials I have made. By selecting a material and clicking Shift+Right
Mouse button I add different materials to the model. After assigning a material to an object, if you want to adjust that material you
can click the Right Mouse button on it and go to “Material Properties”. I adjust the camera to an angle I like and then adjust
the camera focal length in the Camera tab.
chapter 07: rendering part 2
Here I continue to tweak the materials and lighting to get a look that I like. I try different combinations of materials and
background images. I also rotate the backgrounds about the model to get lighting that works. It’s good to remember that if
something isn’t looking just right you can always take care of it in the paintover stage. I then open a “Backplate Image” of
a black-to-white gradient that will help give the model a simple yet interesting background. I also know that I’ll be adding a
shadow which will set off nicely against the white on the bottom of the background image. The beauty of HyperShot is that
you can get a really good idea of what your final render is going to look like, since the viewport updates in realtime with final
lighting. Before I render the final image I set the size I want it to be, the name and location of the file, and make sure that I
have it set to save out the alpha with the render.
chapter 08: painting over in photoshop part 1
I rendered out two different lighting options from HyperShot, one with a more matte finish that shows the geometry of the
model well, and one with a more reflective finish. I combine the two images to try to get the best of both. Next I add an “over-
lay” layer for panel lines. I use a medium gray to paint in some lines and then open the “layer properties” and check “Bevel
and Emboss”. I set the direction of the emboss to be down and then adjust the lighting angle, highlight and shadow colors.
I then continue to draw in the panel lines on the robot. When I draw panel lines I try to place the lines in logical places that
accentuate the forms beneath. After I have all the panel lines drawn I go back and dodge and burn them to match the lighting
of the model. I then add another layer to the file that I use to paint in details and fix errors in the render. I will continue to
come back to this layer throughout the paintover process. I add a “multiply” layer that I use for self shadowing. I like to use a
hard round brush since it gives nice crisp shadows that can really help to separate out various parts. The goal of this layer is
mostly to pop out the outer armor pieces and give some clarity to the design. I then go back in and blur parts of the shadow
edges where the crisp shadow doesn’t make sense - generally I use the rule that shadows are more blurry the farther apart the
shadow caster and receiver are. Next, I add another “overlay” layer to adjust the overall lighting. I like to use “overlay” for this
since it does a good job of retaining the detail and contrast of the image below. Continuing with lighting adjustments I add two
“linear dodge [add]” layers, one for the rim lighting and one for the eye glows. For the film lens light blur effect, I add another
“linear dodge [add]” layer and draw in a horizontal bloom around the eyes. I then use the “motion blur” filter horizontally to
smooth out the bloom.
chapter 09: painting over in photoshop part 2
Here I continue to paint in details. I use the eyedropper to grab colors from the render as I’m painting in new parts. The face,
neck and hands are areas that need a lot of reworking in this image. I go back into the eye glow layer and paint in pin lights
around the robot. It’s important to not go overboard with this, but little lights do help to make robots feel high tech and also
can create nice backlighting for inner mechanicals. I add another “overlay” layer to give some texture to materials. I have set
up a variety of patterns that I can paint down with the paintbrush. These are easy to set up and very useful. I pick one that has
a kind of stainless steel look. I then add a layer mask and just paint the texture into the areas that I want. For the shadow, I
make a duplicate of the base robot layer and darken it to black. This gives me a black silhouette of the robot. I free transform
the layer so that it matches the lighting and perspective to look like the robot’s shadow on the floor. I then use a layer mask
and gradient along with the “Lens Blur” filter to give the shadow a realistic look. The shadows for the whips take some work
and I end up needing to paint most of them in.
chapter 10: new shield
Sometimes ideas just don’t work out. The hexagon energy shield wasn’t working for me so I decide to go back into Max and
make something new for that arm. I know I want something somewhat large to balance the twin whips on the other arm. I start
by grabbing objects from the head of the model and moving them to the arm. The hammerhead look is a key design of the robot
so I think that it’s worth it to explore repeating that form on the arm. I play with the objects until I come up with a weapon that
I like. I then export just the new weapon model as an .obj for import into HyperShot. Back in HyperShot, I start by opening the
file I used to create the original robot render. This allows me to have the same materials and lighting environment for the new
piece. I merge the new weapon into the scene and hide the old hexagon energy shield. I then copy materials from the robot and
apply them to the new model. Using the same settings as before I hide the robot model and render out just the new weapon.
chapter 11: Finishing up
In Photoshop I paste the new weapon into my file. I do some playing around with the forms to get a design that I like. I then add
the same texture and lighting that I added to the rest of the robot. I add a large glow to the front of the weapon to play up the
idea that it’s an energy weapon. As a final polishing stage, I go in and add text warnings and decals to the robot. This really helps
the design to feel man-made. As with the panel lines, glowing lights and texturing, you want to be careful not to go overboard.
I try to add these details to areas that can use a splash of color or detail, and I also try to make them feel logical. I then go back
in and use dodge and burn to match the lighting to the image. I crop the image to try to get the best composition and also the
least amount of dead space. On this image it’s a bit challenging since the whips take up so much space on the left hand side
of the image. I then play with the overall brightness and contrast. At this stage I look at the image on both of my monitors to
give me an idea of what others might see. Finally, I duplicate the whole image and add a sharpen filter to it. Then I adjust the
opacity of the sharpened layer and erase away areas so that the image is sharp but not too noisy.
ROBOT DESIGN
CONCEPT, MODEL & PAINT WITH jOSH NIzzI
Creating a Robot - concept art (NIzzI)
Originally Posted by cptn_star
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