Introduction
This little tutorial is focused on the work that I usually do when it comes to keyframe concept creation. It covers my workflow, beginning with creating initial sketches in Photoshop which provide me with enough information to begin the 3D process. That allows the creation of a more realistic illustration using several specialized software packages for each step of the process.
In Maya 2018 I created a polyCube, a default maya camera, and a joint. They all had the same animation on them and were not in a hierarchy. I exported them all as an FBX with default settings. I imported them into Marvelous 8. I see the items in my scene hierarchy within Marvelous, I can set my camera to be the one that I imported. Animation: Entire Area (saves all of the recorded garment animation.) Play Area Only (saves only the play area garment animation.) File: Save With Texture Files (.zip): Exports the.obj file,.mtl file, and texture images used in the garment as one compressed file when exporting animation. To export animation, go to the 'File' menu and select 'Export'. There are different file formats you can export your animation as. Export file formats specific for animated clothes are found under the 'Animation' submenu. If you want to export to Maya (and are using Marvelous Designer 7), then select one of the suitable Maya cache formats. Importing Mo-cap data to Marvelous designer results in the loss of the usual T-pose character model position. This makes designing the garments very difficult. So here’s the workaround to transition from the T-pose into your motion capture animation. Thanks to Travis Davids for making this tutorial and to fvckrender for spreading the knowledge in the Read more.
Final Keyframe Concept
Step 01: Thumbnails, ideation and sketching big
In this first stage, I start by dropping some ideas into the canvas. The main purpose is to stay loose which helps me to focus more on composition and storytelling. It's a more private or personal step where all of the fast sketches are only to ground the ideas.
After that, I start to refine some more of the previous ideas that I have developed. The goal here is to try to achieve a more grounded result by introducing more elements into the composition, such as the background in this case and more dynamism in the characters, this will start to help me building a more readable concept.
After that, I start to refine some more of the previous ideas that I have developed. The goal here is to try to achieve a more grounded result by introducing more elements into the composition, such as the background in this case and more dynamism in the characters, this will start to help me building a more readable concept.
Black and white sketching is useful to evaluate early the shapes and values that you may want for the final image
Step 02: DAZ Posing
Thanks to DAZ, the posing phase becomes more easy and efficient, mainly because the models that it has are already rigged. It's just matter of creating a really cool pose that is also believable and helps to tell the story.
DAZ for quick character base and pose creation
Step 03: Garment creation in Marvelous Designer
In Marvelous I start by importing a new model which is in 'A' pose, this is super helpful because you can easily use the symmetry modifier to create all your garments faster. In this process I always try to start by creating bigger shapes, then medium and finally the details of each one of the pieces.
For the garment creation remember to go Big>Medium>Small shapes
Step 04: ZBrush Sculpting
Inside ZBrush, at least for these characters, I created different props like the boots and the mask that covers the neck and the chin, also the weapons.
Mainly this type of work is done with DynaMesh and the sculpting techniques with the standard brushes such as Clay Build-up, Dam Standard, Clay, etc. For other props like the weapons, the process is more efficient with ZModeler and Live Boleans. I also split my meshes here into different sub-tools depending on the type of material that I will use in Keyshot.
Mainly this type of work is done with DynaMesh and the sculpting techniques with the standard brushes such as Clay Build-up, Dam Standard, Clay, etc. For other props like the weapons, the process is more efficient with ZModeler and Live Boleans. I also split my meshes here into different sub-tools depending on the type of material that I will use in Keyshot.
Here it's important to remember that this is use for concept, which means that some details can be added after in Photoshop more easily
Step 05: Keyshot Workflow.
In Keyshot the process that I use is really basic, just by dragging and dropping different basic materials with minor tweaks here and there is more than enough to get a decent result. The lighting is provided by an HDRI, It's important that it has a great balance between shadow and light. Even with this it's good to have some pins that will help you to emphasize the intention that you want to add to your composition.
I don't spend so much time here; the core of my process is inside Photoshop. Always remember that this is a concept
Step 06: Render Passes
As you saw in the latest image, I usually select all the render passes from my Keyshot render options. That's because sometimes I'm not sure about the exact passes that I may want. In the image below you can see the most common renders that almost every time I work with.
Render Passes. Ready for the most fun part of the process!
Step 07: Composition Part One
In this first part I basically started to mix all my renders from Keyshot and then start exploring the final details that I would like to have in my final image. Using different texture images, such a grunge textures for the garments and some photos from real locations I build the background and the ambience.
Step 08: Composition part two
After I had a good start with the composition itself, here I'm more focused on the little details that make my image more believable, like the character's hair and face. This is more a 'zoomed in' working process, where my goal is to build the main areas of my composition with more details and also fixed the ones that I think that don't look how I think they should.
Step 09: Final Looks
For this last part, my goal is to make the image more atmospheric, that's why I like to use some fog, lens flares, and ambient effects. In this case I added some rain FX and some light and flares photos from photobash.org and also I played more with the values which helped me to get a better mood and look.
Top tip 01: Photoshop Layers Work
This is a small breakdown of the way that I use to work with layers inside Photoshop. The process varies depending on the image that you are working with, but the structure is almost the same in all of my artworks. If you want to know more about this workflow, you can visit my gumroad page where you can find a go through process video about this.
Photoshop breakdown
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Discover the best technical breakdown videos from 2019, from movie and broadcast effects to animation, motion graphics and personal R&D work, as determined by over CG Channel 120,000 Facebook followers.
Marvelous Designer Keyframe Animation After Effects
Each day, we scour YouTube and Vimeo for the best, boldest and most beautiful breakdown videos to showcase online, created by anyone from the world’s largest VFX and animation studios to individual artists.
And each January, we take the ones that get the most reaction – views, likes and shares – from over 120,000 followers of the CG Channel Facebook feed, to compile our list of the best breakdowns of the previous year.
This year’s list includes some amazing work from right across the CG industry, divided up by sector: from movie and broadcast visual effects to motion graphics and personal R&D projects.
Most of the categories are unchanged from our 2018 run-down, but there were also some great breakdowns of music videos and games art this year, so we’ve reinstated those categories from previous years’ lists.
It goes without saying that all the CG on display is excellent, but bear in mind that this isn’t a list of the biggest or best movies or TV shows of 2019: it’s a run-down of the best breakdowns. Editing, presentation, and the quality of the making-of material on display all count for a lot here, too.
For a daily selection of CG shorts, cinematics, demo reels and R&D tests, follow us on Facebook or Twitter. But to discover the 10 best VFX and animation breakdowns of 2019, read on…
Best Movie Breakdown (VFX)
Click the image above to watch the breakdown video on Vimeo
Title: Bottleship’s work on Shanghai Fortress
Studio:Bottleship VFX
It was a great year for Chinese blockbusters, with both sci-fi epic The Wandering Earth (see breakdown videos here and here) and Russian-Chinese fantasy Viy 2 (see a breakdown here) featuring in our shortlist.
Ultimately, Bottleship VFX’s breakdown of Shanghai Fortress won out, with its epic city destruction sequence getting more response than even DNEG’s breakdown of its Oscar-winning VFX on First Man.
Tech notes: Bottleship VFX used 3ds Max plugins thinkingParticles for destruction sims and Fume FX for smoke; and Houdini for water. Rendering was done in V-Ray and compositing in Nuke.
Best Movie Breakdown (Animation)
Title: Making of TKWWBK
Studio:Glassworks
Although Disney’s Frozen 2 and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 dominated the box office, it was a more unusual movie animation project that produced our most-viewed breakdown.
Glassworks’ beautiful title sequence for underrated Arthurian fantasy movie The Kid Who Would Be King draws inspiration from 1970s childrens’ books, blending 2D and non-photorealistic 3D to great effect.
Tech notes: 3D characters were rendered with toon outlines and split into CMYK channels in Photoshop to mimic halftone printing. Glassworks used a range of 3D tools, including Cinema 4D, Houdini and Maya.
Best Broadcast Breakdown
Title: The Man in the High Castle Season 3 Visual Effects Breakdowns – Barnstorm VFX
Studio:Barnstorm VFX
Although Game of Thrones made the shortlist for the fourth year running, it was Amazon’s Philip K. Dick-inspired alternate history series The Man in the High Castle that generated our top TV breakdown.
Barnstorm VFX’s Emmy-nominated effects included warships steaming under the Golden Gate Bridge, digital crowds filling the streets of Manhattan, and – most spectacularly – the destruction of the Statue of Liberty.
Tech notes: In the Statue of Liberty shots, the statue, water, boats and planes are fully CG. Barnstorm VFX adopted Blender as its primary 3D tool for previous series, using the software again for Season 3.
Best Commercial Breakdown
Title: BMW Legend – Making of
Studio:MPC
Strictly speaking, our most-watched ad breakdown of 2019 was Thai studio Yggdrazil Group’s making-of for this utterly bonkers commercial for Chia Tai fertilizer, but the video itself had been released earlier.
Of the breakdowns posted this year, MPC took top spot for its VES Award-nominated ad for the BMW X7, showing the car facing storybook hazards from floods to giant construction worker ‘Roy the Destroyer’.
Tech notes: MPC used Leica scanners during tech scouting to previs Roy based on the real-world location. 3D work was done in Houdini and Maya, and rendered in Arnold. The spot was composited in Nuke.
Best Game Cinematic Breakdown
Title: Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming – Breakdown
Studio:Realtime
Yoozoo Games’ browser-based strategy title Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming generated our two most popular cinematics breakdowns this year, including this one of the Dragonstone and Winterfell castles.
For Realtime, the most challenging aspect of the 135-second full CG trailer was recreating the characters from the original TV series accurately – a feat accomplished entirely without 3D scans of the actors.
Tech notes: The characters were sculpted in ZBrush based on photo references and textured in Mari. Environment modelling was done in 3ds Max, texturing in Substance Painter and rendering in V-Ray.
Best Music Video Breakdown
Title: Making of for Ed Sheeran’s music video ‘Cross Me’
Studio:MPC
MPC’s promo for Ed Sheeran’s ‘Cross Me’ makes motion-capture both the medium and the message, as a mocap-suited dancer morphs into a 3D avatar of Sheeran, recreated from his Madame Tussaud’s waxwork.
The gleefully freewheeling video experiments with both tech – iPhones were used for markerless facial capture – and visual styles, dissolving the characters into semi-abstract clusters of lines and shapes.
Tech notes: MPC used a range of tools, including Cinema 4D, Houdini, Maya, Unreal Engine, X-Particles and ZBrush. Houdini’s Vellum solver created a cloth-like tearing transition between the characters.
Best Game Art Breakdown
Title: Spider-Man PS4 Keyframe Animation Reel
Artist:Chris Lalli
Wired’s game of the year for 2018, and the second-best-selling PlayStation 4 title of all time, Marvel’s Spider-Man is that rarest of things: a genuinely great game based on a superhero comic franchise.
Insomniac Games senior animator Chris Lalli’s breakdown takes the characters from previs to final animation, including cinematics and combat moves for Doc Ock, Mr Negative – and, of course, Spider-Man himself.
Tech notes: The action is completely hand-keyed – there is no mocap involved – with Lalli handling both character and camera animation. All of the work shown is either a Maya Playblast, or running in-engine.
Best Motion Graphics
See the breakdown material for the film on Behance
Title: R I G H T – A Reverse Film
Artist:SOMEI
R I G H T, Somei Sun’s mind-twisting brand film for Vivo’s reversible, twin-screened NEX smartphone, sets itself an unusual creative challenge: to make sense when watched either backwards or forwards.
The resulting full CG animation makes full use of time reversal, depicting the protagonist in two alternate futures: as a masked salaryman drone, and realising his childhood ambition to become an astronaut.
Tech notes: The film uses a classic motion design pipeline: Cinema 4D and OctaneRender, plus Adobe’s Creative Cloud tools and Mixamo stock animation, with Marvelous Designer for clothing.
Best Technical Reel (Studio)
Title: WeFX Studio Tiger Showreel
Studio:WeFX Studio
Taiwan’s WeFX Studio has created photorealistic big cats for a range of projects, from feature films to Korean fantasy TV series Hotel del Luna – and even an ad for condoms.
Its technical reel shows off one such creature, created as a digital double of a real female tiger for a Chinese movie, elegantly breaking down the CG cat’s character rig and render passes.
Tech notes: The tiger was sculpted in ZBrush and retopologised, rigged and animated in Maya, using Ziva VFX for muscle simulation. ZBrush’s FiberMesh was used to generate hair curves, and Yeti for final hair work.
Read more about WeFX’s creature pipeline on InCG Media
(Read an English version of the story via Google Translate)
(Read an English version of the story via Google Translate)
Best Technical Reel (Individual)
Title: breakdown
Artist:Mike Poretti
VFX artist Mike Poretti’s resume includes spells at Mr. X, Pixomondo and Intelligent Creatures, but he features in this year’s run-down for one of his personal projects: Elektra.
The photorealistic human character is a long-term development project, but this early breakdown of the muscle system proved so compelling that it becomes the first work in progress to top our list.
Tech notes: Poretti used Ziva VFX, Ziva Dynamics’ Maya soft tissue simulation plugin, to simulate the character’s muscles, fascia and subcutaneous fat. Rendering was done in Redshift.
Trace the evolution of Mike Poretti’s Elektra character in a thread on the Ziva VFX forum
(Includes newer demo videos)
(Includes newer demo videos)
Know of a gem we missed? Post a link in the comments. For more videos like this, follow us on Facebook.
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