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292Thread Activity
jaegermanjensenFri, Aug 18, 2023
CosmicEnvisionsFri, Aug 18, 2023
jaegermanjensenThu, Aug 17, 2023
Tark_ArkThu, Aug 17, 2023
Foxy 3DThu, Aug 17, 2023
anAltForKnowledgeMon, Aug 07, 2023
Renderhub Fashion Contest Entry:
All are my own original designs. Well, with tons of ideas from Google Images, Pinterest and whatnot.
Fully functional, simulation ready - in Marvelous Designer and CLO3D at least.
Clothing list:
- Bolero / Jacket
- Overcoat
- Some kind of a shirt and an over-shirt (see pic)
- Leotard + body suit
- Shoes (well, a shoe, really, since I only made one side to be mirrored)
- Jeans / Trousers
As you may notice, they're of different styles. The idea here is, you can mix and match them. I was inspired by the clothing system in the game Cyberpunk 2077.
Programs used:
CLO3D, Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
My reference images.
WIP and Breakdowns:
The runway set in Blender. I ended up not doing any alteration to the original meshes save for scaling. I added some light rigs and cables but that's it.
Thumbnail
Thank you Renderhub for hosting this contest Foxy3D for all your help.
All are my own original designs. Well, with tons of ideas from Google Images, Pinterest and whatnot.
Fully functional, simulation ready - in Marvelous Designer and CLO3D at least.
Clothing list:
- Bolero / Jacket
- Overcoat
- Some kind of a shirt and an over-shirt (see pic)
- Leotard + body suit
- Shoes (well, a shoe, really, since I only made one side to be mirrored)
- Jeans / Trousers
As you may notice, they're of different styles. The idea here is, you can mix and match them. I was inspired by the clothing system in the game Cyberpunk 2077.
Programs used:
CLO3D, Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
My reference images.
WIP and Breakdowns:
The runway set in Blender. I ended up not doing any alteration to the original meshes save for scaling. I added some light rigs and cables but that's it.
Thumbnail
Thank you Renderhub for hosting this contest Foxy3D for all your help.
! REPORT
This contest ended ages ago, by now I guess everyone will have moved on and no one would probably ever see my following posts. But this was a big project and I made a promise to myself to post the following materials or else I won't have any closure. 
I wanted to post these together with my contest entry above but I ran out of time. I thought I would have ample time, especially with the contest's time extension, but life once again had different plans for me; sudden family emergency, client work, my 6-year old PC finally biting the dust, relationship issue, contracting COVID, all that fun stuff. I'm lucky I was able to submit what I submitted before the countdown timer ended.
The following are just extras, work-in-progress and breakdown screenshots and renders that I wanted to include together with my entry submission above. I already checked with Foxy3D, the contest mod, if it would be okay to post these here after-the-fact and Foxy said yes.
So for those of you who like trivia, and if like me you love reading other people's production notes, here's a bunch of 'director's commentary' describing my thought processes, techniques, behind-the-scenes stuff specific to this project. I hope it'll help or inspire you, at the very least I hope it'll be entertaining.
To start off with, let's talk about:
THE THEME
The theme here is modular. I wanted to present a functional, multi-layer clothing system for this contest. This obviously meant I had to create more than one piece of garment, but that's okay. I'm a character artist by trade, I love dressing up characters in clothes, armors, making accessories, etc.
I suppose I could've taken some combinations of the clothes I made for this project and submitted them as separate contest entries, but no. All of these need to be one entry as I wanted to show functionality, interaction, interchangeability, compatibility and so on and so forth across all of the garments.
I wanted to post these together with my contest entry above but I ran out of time. I thought I would have ample time, especially with the contest's time extension, but life once again had different plans for me; sudden family emergency, client work, my 6-year old PC finally biting the dust, relationship issue, contracting COVID, all that fun stuff. I'm lucky I was able to submit what I submitted before the countdown timer ended.
The following are just extras, work-in-progress and breakdown screenshots and renders that I wanted to include together with my entry submission above. I already checked with Foxy3D, the contest mod, if it would be okay to post these here after-the-fact and Foxy said yes.
So for those of you who like trivia, and if like me you love reading other people's production notes, here's a bunch of 'director's commentary' describing my thought processes, techniques, behind-the-scenes stuff specific to this project. I hope it'll help or inspire you, at the very least I hope it'll be entertaining.
To start off with, let's talk about:
THE THEME
The theme here is modular. I wanted to present a functional, multi-layer clothing system for this contest. This obviously meant I had to create more than one piece of garment, but that's okay. I'm a character artist by trade, I love dressing up characters in clothes, armors, making accessories, etc.
I suppose I could've taken some combinations of the clothes I made for this project and submitted them as separate contest entries, but no. All of these need to be one entry as I wanted to show functionality, interaction, interchangeability, compatibility and so on and so forth across all of the garments.
! REPORT
CHARACTERS and APPEAL
I used 2 female models here but proportion-wise they're identical, they come from the avatar I used in CLO3D to build all the clothes on top of. I just applied different face morphs and skin materials in DAZ Studio for the shots.
It's the Genesis 9 figure by DAZ3D with the feminine morph dialed all the way up but I toned down the curves a bit.
"So that they mimic the proportion of those thin real-life runway models", you ask? Well, there's that I suppose, but mostly it's because I find it easier to fit the garment patterns on a model with modest curves.
The picture above is me blocking out my shots, setting up the poses and lighting with proxy figures that will be replaced with the final version of the characters come final rendering time.
I chose the use of realistic looking human models to display the clothes instead using say, grey mannequins; having realistic looking models is I think a big part of the appeal, it enhances realism and dare I say the quality of the assets they are exhibiting, or promoting, displaying... I don't know what the right word is.
Choosing the right poses is also crucial, poses can make or break a shot. I like that the IK of Genesis 9 is like the IK of the old Genesis 2, it makes the figure a delight to pose by hand because I'm a fan of the Powerpose in DAZ Studio.
Just a little trivia tidbit, I like to name my characters, so meet Cecile and Corinne (L-R above). First letter "C" as in "clothes", which is what I called this project; "Project Clothes", clever, right?
Maybe it's just me, but doesn't Cecile kinda resemble Liara from Mass Effect?
I used 2 female models here but proportion-wise they're identical, they come from the avatar I used in CLO3D to build all the clothes on top of. I just applied different face morphs and skin materials in DAZ Studio for the shots.
It's the Genesis 9 figure by DAZ3D with the feminine morph dialed all the way up but I toned down the curves a bit.
"So that they mimic the proportion of those thin real-life runway models", you ask? Well, there's that I suppose, but mostly it's because I find it easier to fit the garment patterns on a model with modest curves.
The picture above is me blocking out my shots, setting up the poses and lighting with proxy figures that will be replaced with the final version of the characters come final rendering time.
I chose the use of realistic looking human models to display the clothes instead using say, grey mannequins; having realistic looking models is I think a big part of the appeal, it enhances realism and dare I say the quality of the assets they are exhibiting, or promoting, displaying... I don't know what the right word is.
Choosing the right poses is also crucial, poses can make or break a shot. I like that the IK of Genesis 9 is like the IK of the old Genesis 2, it makes the figure a delight to pose by hand because I'm a fan of the Powerpose in DAZ Studio.
Just a little trivia tidbit, I like to name my characters, so meet Cecile and Corinne (L-R above). First letter "C" as in "clothes", which is what I called this project; "Project Clothes", clever, right?
Maybe it's just me, but doesn't Cecile kinda resemble Liara from Mass Effect?
! REPORT
THE GARMENTS
I built them almost exclusively in CLO3D. The clothes were simulated there, imported as static meshes into DAZ Studio for rendering at very low particle distances. No optimization, no retopology, as long as the UVs are good and they don't crash DAZ Studio. It's for illustrations and not animation or rigging, so it's all right to be a bit messy.
If the clothes were going to be used for video games or animation or VFX, or should I decide to sell them on RenderHub later, I would definitely optimize them of course.
I built them almost exclusively in CLO3D. The clothes were simulated there, imported as static meshes into DAZ Studio for rendering at very low particle distances. No optimization, no retopology, as long as the UVs are good and they don't crash DAZ Studio. It's for illustrations and not animation or rigging, so it's all right to be a bit messy.
If the clothes were going to be used for video games or animation or VFX, or should I decide to sell them on RenderHub later, I would definitely optimize them of course.
! REPORT
THE BOLERO (or Short Jacket)
I mentioned Cyberpunk 2077; if there was a piece of clothing in the game that I had to pick as my favorite, and I could only pick one, it would be Panam Palmer's jacket, or can you call it a bolero? I'm not sure, I'm not a fashion expert. I'll just call it a jacket from here on.
Yes, so Panam's jacket was the inspiration for my jacket. Hers looks like a racing jacket, I designed mine to look more like a motorcycle rider jacket. The collar can be worn high or folded down.
The jacket sleeves have an inner layer and an outer layer, the outer layer can be folded up to expose the inner layer and held in place by a small flap.
The left sleeve, and only the left has a touch screen terminal built into the inner layer.
In the 2012 movie "Dredd", the judges have a built-in, touch-screen terminal on their left gauntlet, as in the reference images below.
I thought it would be cool to add a similar element to the jacket, it adds more visual interest to the sleeve, and giving the impression that it's a "smart" jacket. If you're a Fallout fan, you can think of it as a built-in Pip-Boy I guess.
I actually have a shot that showcases this element in more detail but I didn't have time to render it.
I mentioned Cyberpunk 2077; if there was a piece of clothing in the game that I had to pick as my favorite, and I could only pick one, it would be Panam Palmer's jacket, or can you call it a bolero? I'm not sure, I'm not a fashion expert. I'll just call it a jacket from here on.
Yes, so Panam's jacket was the inspiration for my jacket. Hers looks like a racing jacket, I designed mine to look more like a motorcycle rider jacket. The collar can be worn high or folded down.
The jacket sleeves have an inner layer and an outer layer, the outer layer can be folded up to expose the inner layer and held in place by a small flap.
The left sleeve, and only the left has a touch screen terminal built into the inner layer.
In the 2012 movie "Dredd", the judges have a built-in, touch-screen terminal on their left gauntlet, as in the reference images below.
I thought it would be cool to add a similar element to the jacket, it adds more visual interest to the sleeve, and giving the impression that it's a "smart" jacket. If you're a Fallout fan, you can think of it as a built-in Pip-Boy I guess.
I actually have a shot that showcases this element in more detail but I didn't have time to render it.
! REPORT
THE OVERCOAT
Initially I planned it to be a raincoat, with a hood obviously. But upon seeing some reference pictures of modular hoods, I decided to make the hood a stand-alone piece, because I thought that would be cool, I can layer the hood on any of my garments.
The sash/belt can hang loose or be tied in a knot. The UV will work in either case because of the way I laid it out. There are several good videos on YouTube on how to tie a knot/scarf/etc in Marvelous Designer or CLO3D. I used a combination of pinning and tacking to make my knot.
The sleeves looked a bit bland in my earlier version of the coat, so I added some details to break up the monotonous look of the sleeves and balance the distribution of visual interest on the coat. Before I added the details, I felt like my eyes were always drawn to the center torso area where most of the details are concentrated.
Initially I planned it to be a raincoat, with a hood obviously. But upon seeing some reference pictures of modular hoods, I decided to make the hood a stand-alone piece, because I thought that would be cool, I can layer the hood on any of my garments.
The sash/belt can hang loose or be tied in a knot. The UV will work in either case because of the way I laid it out. There are several good videos on YouTube on how to tie a knot/scarf/etc in Marvelous Designer or CLO3D. I used a combination of pinning and tacking to make my knot.
The sleeves looked a bit bland in my earlier version of the coat, so I added some details to break up the monotonous look of the sleeves and balance the distribution of visual interest on the coat. Before I added the details, I felt like my eyes were always drawn to the center torso area where most of the details are concentrated.
! REPORT
THE PANTS
I knew I wanted a pair of pants for this project but I had no idea what I wanted to do at first. Originally this was going to be leather pants with those decorative laces, but in the end obviously it became a pair of denim pants with some decorative leather elements, and I kept the laces because they look sexy. The small hip pocket/fanny pack/bum bag (depends on where you live what to call it I guess) on the right side is functional, you can put a prop in there if you want. The pack is actually built into the pants and not supposed to be removable.
I knew I wanted a pair of pants for this project but I had no idea what I wanted to do at first. Originally this was going to be leather pants with those decorative laces, but in the end obviously it became a pair of denim pants with some decorative leather elements, and I kept the laces because they look sexy. The small hip pocket/fanny pack/bum bag (depends on where you live what to call it I guess) on the right side is functional, you can put a prop in there if you want. The pack is actually built into the pants and not supposed to be removable.
! REPORT
THE MODULAR VEST+HOOD
Sorry for calling it a "hoodie" on my 2nd post above. It's not. I was rushing when I was posting my contest entry because I was running out of time, my hands were typing faster than my brain could think.
It's more of a hooded vest, I suppose. It's a standalone garment that can be layered over any apparel.
The hood can be worn in 3 configurations or "modes" so to speak, I'll let the pictures above show you what I mean.
Another trivia here for you; the red LED squares on either side of the zipper are a subtle homage to KITT's voice box, yeah that car from Knight Rider, the 1980s TV show - some of you here probably aren't old enough to remember it. I don't know why but I kept thinking of that show while I was making this garment.
Maybe the LEDs can serve as health bars/indicator were this hood in a video game, or maybe it's a "smart" garment that has a built-in AI-powered computer that can talk to the wearer, and everytime it talk the LEDs flash the way KITT's voicebox does on the show... Yeah, I don't know.
I did an alternate color scheme for this piece and for the LEDs, I changed it from red squares to blue circles, just for the sake of making it look different.
Sorry for calling it a "hoodie" on my 2nd post above. It's not. I was rushing when I was posting my contest entry because I was running out of time, my hands were typing faster than my brain could think.
It's more of a hooded vest, I suppose. It's a standalone garment that can be layered over any apparel.
The hood can be worn in 3 configurations or "modes" so to speak, I'll let the pictures above show you what I mean.
Another trivia here for you; the red LED squares on either side of the zipper are a subtle homage to KITT's voice box, yeah that car from Knight Rider, the 1980s TV show - some of you here probably aren't old enough to remember it. I don't know why but I kept thinking of that show while I was making this garment.
Maybe the LEDs can serve as health bars/indicator were this hood in a video game, or maybe it's a "smart" garment that has a built-in AI-powered computer that can talk to the wearer, and everytime it talk the LEDs flash the way KITT's voicebox does on the show... Yeah, I don't know.
I did an alternate color scheme for this piece and for the LEDs, I changed it from red squares to blue circles, just for the sake of making it look different.
! REPORT
THE 2-PIECE CASUAL TOP
I designed this lot to be casual wear to go under the short jacket. it consists of 2 pieces of garments, an inner shirt and an outer... vest, I guess. It has actual pockets on the outer wear for the character's phone or ATM card or what have you.
This set appears in 2 of my shots in my contest entry, but perhaps not close enough to be noticeable. A bit ironic since these are actually the first pieces of garments that I made for this project.
I really didn't know what to make at first, so I just looked at some references and started experimenting in CLO until I ended up with this.
I have at least one shot that showcases these garments in more detail but I didn't have time to render.
The emblem on the left bosom is using the logo I made for the RenderHub "No AI Logo" contest, if anyone here remembers.
I designed this lot to be casual wear to go under the short jacket. it consists of 2 pieces of garments, an inner shirt and an outer... vest, I guess. It has actual pockets on the outer wear for the character's phone or ATM card or what have you.
This set appears in 2 of my shots in my contest entry, but perhaps not close enough to be noticeable. A bit ironic since these are actually the first pieces of garments that I made for this project.
I really didn't know what to make at first, so I just looked at some references and started experimenting in CLO until I ended up with this.
I have at least one shot that showcases these garments in more detail but I didn't have time to render.
The emblem on the left bosom is using the logo I made for the RenderHub "No AI Logo" contest, if anyone here remembers.
! REPORT
SHOE
I'm not going to go through the entire process of making this shoe, but I do want to mention that the techniques I used for building it in ZBrush I learned a while back from Mike Pavlovich and Ryan Kittleson, just to give credits where credits are due. Feel free to check out their tutorials on YouTube and Gumroad.
For this one, I didn't have an existing concept art. I in fact only decided to build a shoe after I found out that the contest deadline had been extended. So I just spent a day gathering a bunch of reference images, stared at them for some time, praying in vain for ideas or inspiration.
When I don't know what to make, such as when a client doesn't provide a concept art and the clock is ticking, I usually just start concepting in ZBrush. Such as the case here, to say I was winging it with the design of the shoe (at least initially) may not be entirely inaccurate... Well, long story short, I settled on this hybrid sneaker/platform shoe.
Platform footwears are usually heavy, despite being a platform shoe I wanted it to look like it's lightweight - like, they're high-performance platform sport shoes... if such things even exist. So I carved out those holes on the heel part for not only weight reduction but for adding visual interest as well. And if you've noticed, I also made the toe part separate in case I want to be able to bend the toes were I to rig this shoe.
Mid way through, I imported the unfinished shoe into Maya for retopology because I love Quad Draw. At this point I had stopped making the pieces in ZBrush and just modeled exclusively in Maya, I still went back and forth between ZBrush and Maya via GoZ though. I'd send it to ZBrush to refine the shape and whatnot and then back to Maya.
I ended up completing the shoe in Maya, including UV-ing the shoe. I wanted the shoe to look great in close-ups, that means it needs extra texture space. So I went for a UDIM workflow for texturing. I laid out the UVs across 3 tiles, every tile has its own lambert material, so this translates to 3 texture sets in Substance Painter and 3 material zones in DAZ Studio, where I would do my renders.
You will notice that the shoe has a symmetrical decal. I only made the left shoe and it's intended to be mirrored across the X-axis to make the right shoe. The UV will be flipped obviously so I don't want to put on any kind of text lest they be flipped on the mirrored shoe.
As you see above, I prepared 2 color schemes, so that my 2 models don't wear uniform shoes. The overall blue one is more subdued in color variations while the red has more vibrant variations. To me the former looks classier while the latter looks more casual/sporty, but that's just me.
I'm not going to go through the entire process of making this shoe, but I do want to mention that the techniques I used for building it in ZBrush I learned a while back from Mike Pavlovich and Ryan Kittleson, just to give credits where credits are due. Feel free to check out their tutorials on YouTube and Gumroad.
For this one, I didn't have an existing concept art. I in fact only decided to build a shoe after I found out that the contest deadline had been extended. So I just spent a day gathering a bunch of reference images, stared at them for some time, praying in vain for ideas or inspiration.
When I don't know what to make, such as when a client doesn't provide a concept art and the clock is ticking, I usually just start concepting in ZBrush. Such as the case here, to say I was winging it with the design of the shoe (at least initially) may not be entirely inaccurate... Well, long story short, I settled on this hybrid sneaker/platform shoe.
Platform footwears are usually heavy, despite being a platform shoe I wanted it to look like it's lightweight - like, they're high-performance platform sport shoes... if such things even exist. So I carved out those holes on the heel part for not only weight reduction but for adding visual interest as well. And if you've noticed, I also made the toe part separate in case I want to be able to bend the toes were I to rig this shoe.
Mid way through, I imported the unfinished shoe into Maya for retopology because I love Quad Draw. At this point I had stopped making the pieces in ZBrush and just modeled exclusively in Maya, I still went back and forth between ZBrush and Maya via GoZ though. I'd send it to ZBrush to refine the shape and whatnot and then back to Maya.
I ended up completing the shoe in Maya, including UV-ing the shoe. I wanted the shoe to look great in close-ups, that means it needs extra texture space. So I went for a UDIM workflow for texturing. I laid out the UVs across 3 tiles, every tile has its own lambert material, so this translates to 3 texture sets in Substance Painter and 3 material zones in DAZ Studio, where I would do my renders.
You will notice that the shoe has a symmetrical decal. I only made the left shoe and it's intended to be mirrored across the X-axis to make the right shoe. The UV will be flipped obviously so I don't want to put on any kind of text lest they be flipped on the mirrored shoe.
As you see above, I prepared 2 color schemes, so that my 2 models don't wear uniform shoes. The overall blue one is more subdued in color variations while the red has more vibrant variations. To me the former looks classier while the latter looks more casual/sporty, but that's just me.
! REPORT
THE GILLS-LEOTARD
I call this the gills-leotard, for a lack of a better name, because those flaps on the flanks make me think of shark gills.
This started as a one-piece swimsuit type underwear, but eventually the design evolved into this leotard because i decided I wanted to make something sexy that can be layered on top of something else.
The design of the collar and upper flaps were actually inspired by Emily Pope's shirt/blouse from the 2019 video game, Control. I just thought that design was very eye-catching and I wanted to see if I could emulate it in one of my designs, well here is one.
Emily Pope from "Control" (2019)
It was tempting to add a pair of bunny ears and a fluffy tail - should be super simple, just slap on a sphere and apply a fur shader on it - as accessories. I decided against the idea.
I call this the gills-leotard, for a lack of a better name, because those flaps on the flanks make me think of shark gills.
This started as a one-piece swimsuit type underwear, but eventually the design evolved into this leotard because i decided I wanted to make something sexy that can be layered on top of something else.
The design of the collar and upper flaps were actually inspired by Emily Pope's shirt/blouse from the 2019 video game, Control. I just thought that design was very eye-catching and I wanted to see if I could emulate it in one of my designs, well here is one.
Emily Pope from "Control" (2019)It was tempting to add a pair of bunny ears and a fluffy tail - should be super simple, just slap on a sphere and apply a fur shader on it - as accessories. I decided against the idea.
! REPORT
THE FISHNET SUIT
This was very easy to make being a form-fitting, skin-tight, one-piece suit. I could've faked with a texture map to be layered on the skin material, maybe via the Layered Image Editor (LIE) in DAZ Studio, but in close-ups it would look, well, fake.
I designed this to go with any apparel in this project. Originally, I didn't intend the arms and the legs to be fishnet but rather a shiny wetsuit type material. But after some experimentation, I decided that fishnet looks better especially when worn with the leotard above. The torso part I didn't bother to put a lot of details on since it's always going to be covered up by a garment.
This was very easy to make being a form-fitting, skin-tight, one-piece suit. I could've faked with a texture map to be layered on the skin material, maybe via the Layered Image Editor (LIE) in DAZ Studio, but in close-ups it would look, well, fake.
I designed this to go with any apparel in this project. Originally, I didn't intend the arms and the legs to be fishnet but rather a shiny wetsuit type material. But after some experimentation, I decided that fishnet looks better especially when worn with the leotard above. The torso part I didn't bother to put a lot of details on since it's always going to be covered up by a garment.
! REPORT
THE LIGHTSABER THING
It's supposed to be a toy and thus I modeled it to look like one. This piece is really just a spur of the moment thing.
In this shot, I just thought it would be cool for this model (Cecile) to be holding 2 of these as though she was blocking/guarding the runway entrance from Corinne. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" kinda deal... yea, that's from a different movie, I know.
I didn't want to spend a lot of time modeling it, I think it took me about 10 minutes. I didn't even bother UV-ing this prop but I did ensure that it has proper bevels, chamfers and thicknesses and material zones where needed for the Iray shaders in DAZ Studio.
I wanted it to look like one of those telescopic lightsaber toys and not an actual lightsaber. This is a fashion show afterall, maybe with a bit of theatrics. I went with a Sith-style curved grip because I think it's sexier. - Yes, them Sith get to play with all sorts of cool looking sabers while the Jedi have to be content with their boring straight-gripped sabers, but I digress.
Anyway, the saber illumination comes from an actual emitter, a mesh light in the form of a sphere with an emissive shader that I stick inside the cylinder/blade.
It's supposed to be a toy and thus I modeled it to look like one. This piece is really just a spur of the moment thing.
In this shot, I just thought it would be cool for this model (Cecile) to be holding 2 of these as though she was blocking/guarding the runway entrance from Corinne. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" kinda deal... yea, that's from a different movie, I know.
I didn't want to spend a lot of time modeling it, I think it took me about 10 minutes. I didn't even bother UV-ing this prop but I did ensure that it has proper bevels, chamfers and thicknesses and material zones where needed for the Iray shaders in DAZ Studio.
I wanted it to look like one of those telescopic lightsaber toys and not an actual lightsaber. This is a fashion show afterall, maybe with a bit of theatrics. I went with a Sith-style curved grip because I think it's sexier. - Yes, them Sith get to play with all sorts of cool looking sabers while the Jedi have to be content with their boring straight-gripped sabers, but I digress.
Anyway, the saber illumination comes from an actual emitter, a mesh light in the form of a sphere with an emissive shader that I stick inside the cylinder/blade.
! REPORT
ENVIRONMENT
Well, there's the runway set, the mandatory piece in this contest. It's decent enough despite its simplicity.
I asked Foxy3D if I may widen the runway a bit, Foxy said it's fine, but in the end I didn't tweak anything save for scaling-up the entire set to real-world scale. I imported a Genesis 9 as a scale reference in Blender.
I redid the UVs of the runway and the back walls in case I wanted to apply my own textures.
I left those studio lights above the set alone, no alteration, just duplicated a few of them. I built some light rigs and hanging cables for a bit of set dressing but that's it.
Well, there's the runway set, the mandatory piece in this contest. It's decent enough despite its simplicity.
I asked Foxy3D if I may widen the runway a bit, Foxy said it's fine, but in the end I didn't tweak anything save for scaling-up the entire set to real-world scale. I imported a Genesis 9 as a scale reference in Blender.
I redid the UVs of the runway and the back walls in case I wanted to apply my own textures.
I left those studio lights above the set alone, no alteration, just duplicated a few of them. I built some light rigs and hanging cables for a bit of set dressing but that's it.
! REPORT
LIGHTING
I have 3 types of lighting at work here, a dome light, scene lights provided by the hanging spotlights and character lights.
I use the dome and scene lights mostly to light the background and they remain constant across all my shots. Since the characters and camera are going to be all over the place, rather than relight the whole set in every shot, which would've been utter madness, I gave each character her own light rig; it not only saved me time but provided me the freedom to light each character as I see fit easily for each shot.
For the dome light, I used a black and white, high-contrast HDRI that I set to a low intensity. I use it more as a fill rather than key light, in some shots I even disable it completely because the scene lights are adequate.
The spotlight props that come with the runway set has a material zone called "LightBulb", I gave it an emissive material to mimic an actual light bulb. There's a lot of these lights in my set, while they contribute much to light the set, I didn't make them bright enough to contribute to character lighting.
For the character light rig, it's just a simple setup consisting of 5 spotlights parented to a null, that is parented to the root node of each character. This way the entire light rig will follow the character wherever I move her; I can translate or rotate the entire rig around the character by manipulating the null, or move each spotlight independently if I need to.
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I have 3 types of lighting at work here, a dome light, scene lights provided by the hanging spotlights and character lights.
I use the dome and scene lights mostly to light the background and they remain constant across all my shots. Since the characters and camera are going to be all over the place, rather than relight the whole set in every shot, which would've been utter madness, I gave each character her own light rig; it not only saved me time but provided me the freedom to light each character as I see fit easily for each shot.
For the dome light, I used a black and white, high-contrast HDRI that I set to a low intensity. I use it more as a fill rather than key light, in some shots I even disable it completely because the scene lights are adequate.
The spotlight props that come with the runway set has a material zone called "LightBulb", I gave it an emissive material to mimic an actual light bulb. There's a lot of these lights in my set, while they contribute much to light the set, I didn't make them bright enough to contribute to character lighting.
For the character light rig, it's just a simple setup consisting of 5 spotlights parented to a null, that is parented to the root node of each character. This way the entire light rig will follow the character wherever I move her; I can translate or rotate the entire rig around the character by manipulating the null, or move each spotlight independently if I need to.
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! REPORT
TEXTURING AND RENDERING
Texturing the garments is pretty straightforward.
I exported the garments in neutral pose at mid resolution, not too low that it's lacking definition, but not too high that it would bog down Substance Painter. I used the OBJ format but FBX will work as well, it doesn't make any difference in my case. I only baked World Space Normal, Curvature, Thickness and Position maps in Painter for the assets.
I used a combination of Substance Painter and Photoshop for texturing, but mostly the former. I use Photoshop mainly to make decals and custom alphas. In Painter, as long as you lay out your UVs right, you can do all sorts of neat stuff with the materials that come shipped with Painter.
I had quite a few assets to texture as you can see, but I was able to texture all of them fairly quickly thanks to Substance Painter's materials. I didn't need to reinvent the wheel much, I just used what's already provided. Just slap on a material, and then another, mix them together, see what happens, add more channels, disable those that you don't need, and tweak the values as necessary. If you've used Substance Painter for some time I'm sure you know what I'm talking about
I do want to say something about the new Path tool, it's such a delightful tool. I used it for the first time when I was making the stitches on my shoe asset. It's awesome.
Obviously I used DAZ Studio for rendering. The textures I outputted from Painter usually work right out of the box, as was the case here. Mostly I output them at 4K.
I said at the start that my old PC has died, my replacement is a modest i5 rig with 64GB RAM and an RTX3060. On average, each of my 11 shots above took around 20-30 minutes to render, a couple of them about an hour. It wasn't too bad.
I took the renders to photoshop for a bit of postwork and that's all there is to it.
I mentioned above that there are some missing shots, those that I didn't have time to render before the deadline of the contest. I will probably render them out and post them here one day.
Well, if you made it this far, thank you so much for stopping by and reading.
I hope this was helpful and entertaining.
-Jaegermanjensen
Thumbnail
Texturing the garments is pretty straightforward.
I exported the garments in neutral pose at mid resolution, not too low that it's lacking definition, but not too high that it would bog down Substance Painter. I used the OBJ format but FBX will work as well, it doesn't make any difference in my case. I only baked World Space Normal, Curvature, Thickness and Position maps in Painter for the assets.
I used a combination of Substance Painter and Photoshop for texturing, but mostly the former. I use Photoshop mainly to make decals and custom alphas. In Painter, as long as you lay out your UVs right, you can do all sorts of neat stuff with the materials that come shipped with Painter.
I had quite a few assets to texture as you can see, but I was able to texture all of them fairly quickly thanks to Substance Painter's materials. I didn't need to reinvent the wheel much, I just used what's already provided. Just slap on a material, and then another, mix them together, see what happens, add more channels, disable those that you don't need, and tweak the values as necessary. If you've used Substance Painter for some time I'm sure you know what I'm talking about
I do want to say something about the new Path tool, it's such a delightful tool. I used it for the first time when I was making the stitches on my shoe asset. It's awesome.
Obviously I used DAZ Studio for rendering. The textures I outputted from Painter usually work right out of the box, as was the case here. Mostly I output them at 4K.
I said at the start that my old PC has died, my replacement is a modest i5 rig with 64GB RAM and an RTX3060. On average, each of my 11 shots above took around 20-30 minutes to render, a couple of them about an hour. It wasn't too bad.
I took the renders to photoshop for a bit of postwork and that's all there is to it.
I mentioned above that there are some missing shots, those that I didn't have time to render before the deadline of the contest. I will probably render them out and post them here one day.
Well, if you made it this far, thank you so much for stopping by and reading.
I hope this was helpful and entertaining.
-Jaegermanjensen
Thumbnail
! REPORT
Well you can still enter the future contests. I'd be interested to see a world with outfits like this.
! REPORT
jaegermanjensen
Karma: 906
Thu, Aug 17, 2023Thanks for the comments!
I might come up with a little something for the future contest.
I might come up with a little something for the future contest.
Congratulations on being selected as an Honorable Mention in the contest! Great work.
Someone will be in contact with you soon regarding the prizes.
Thanks for participating.
Someone will be in contact with you soon regarding the prizes.
Thanks for participating.
! REPORT
CosmicEnvisionsFri, Aug 18, 2023
Account Closed
Congrats on the honourable mention, well done. Thanks for the read, I enjoyed it, gotta say those camera angles and poses top notch. Really stands out, superb work
! REPORT
jaegermanjensen
Karma: 906
Fri, Aug 18, 2023Thank you for the compliments! I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed my work, it really made my day.
