Fig.10
I begin
working in ZBrush, drawing inspiration from characters in other classic
paintings in terms of poses, skin color and shapes, while trying to
bring a modern style to the face and a semi-realistic contrast. In
comparison with the background and environment I decided to make my
character slightly ugly. This was to increase the two opposing sides of
the painting: beauty and ugliness.
I always
export a base mesh from Maya in ZBrush and render a displacement map
for each object. For the tree I decide to use ZSpheres because of the
quite organic shapes. I used some alpha I’d created myself in Photoshop
for the sculpting in ZBrush.
The background in ZBrush was the
terrain, and rocky/herby ground that is so typical of classical
paintings because of the Italian/Roman landscape. Modeling the ground
was quite tricky. Finally I added some props like leaves, grass and
rocks to give the valley some more details (Fig.11 – Fig.19).
|
 |
Fig.11
|
 |
Fig.12
|
 |
Fig.13
|
 |
Fig.14
|
 |
Fig.15
|
 |
Fig.16
|
 |
Fig.17
|
 |
Fig.18
|
 |
Fig.19
|
I defined the pose of my character with a pre-rigging package: SetupMachine plugin for Maya (Fig.20). |
 |
Fig.20
|
The texturing
in the scene was done with Photoshop and mainly Mudbox. The reason I
used Mudbox was because I prefer the simple interface when I want to
texture objects. The sensibility is more realistic in this one I think.
Here are some pictures inside Mudbox. I used mainly stencils and custom brushes to paint from references (Fig.21 – Fig.23).
|
 |
Fig.21
|
 |
Fig.22
|
 |
Fig.23
|
The details on the face include half texturing 3D and 2D details by painting in Photoshop after renders
(Fig.24 & Fig.25). |
 |
Fig.24
|
 |
Fig.25
|
Here is an example of what I used for my Papageno Shader. I always use around four maps for the trees, props and environment (Fig.26). |
 |
Fig.26
|
The lighting
was a simple summer afternoon mood. I decided not to go for a dark
image so that, thanks to the bright lighting, we could enjoy more of
details of the environment and character. That was the main thing here.
So I used mental ray and to achieve the sun light I used an area light
which provided soft and correct shadows. Two fill lights were used to
bring highlights and I managed three bounces from the sky, ground and
tree. I also used an occlusion pass to add some shadow attenuation and
realism (Fig.27).
|
 |
Fig.27
|
I pre-composed passes in Digital Fusion. This software helped me to check all passes, matte and occlusion for my scene (Fig.28).
|
 |
Fig.28
|
Once all
the passes were set up, I began to compose the final image in
Photoshop. I chose to use this software because it allowed me to paint
in a lot of details and to really get the results I wanted. I added
details in the plumes, and on the character. I mainly painted over with
custom brushes, adding details to the face and armor
(Fig.29 – Fig.34).
|
 |
Fig.29
|
 |
Fig.30
|
 |
Fig.31
|
 |
Fig.32
|
 |
Fig.33
|
I also
painted the important matte painting, which completed the image by
bringing the classical effect of an old master’s painting. The little
beetle was completely 2D. |
There is a
lot of symbolization behind this image. I wanted to work with the idea
that I’d had at the beginning: having a mix of traditional and modern
styles and techniques (both 2D and 3D) to provide contrast in the image
and I think I achieved that. Even the two characters are completely
different from each other – one is 2D and the other 3D.
Finally after
this quite technical analysis, which has hopefully given you a deeper
understanding of the creation process behind this piece, this image
exists to look at and suggest a fantasy or a dream… (Fig.35).
Thanks for
reading the Making Of “Papageno”. If you want to look at any of the
other images from this series then they can be found on my website: http://www.vdhalexis.com . The latest image is “Chantecler”, a character inspired by the play of Edmond Rostand ( Cyrano de Bergerac).
|
|