Introduction
Hi, my name is Hu Xi. I am based in China. I have been in the industry for 10 years and am currently working for Hangzhou, a game research and development company. My love for game animation was found when I was playing FINAL FANTASY VIII. I studied computer programming in college but I didn't like code, so I began to self-study the foundation of art and Maya in my spare time. I bought a lot of related books and learned a lot from the tutorials on YouTube.
Work-Study Experience
After graduation, I worked in a game outsourcing company. I participated in the production of many international 3A level projects and learned a lot of valuable knowledge, which laid a good foundation for my creations in the future.
I have been in touch with the Blender software since 2.8. I was stunned by the real-time rendering effect, so I planned to add Blender to my workflow in the future. After a year of study and exploration, my main tool is Blender now. The process of switching from Maya to Blender is painful, but it's all worth it, haha.
Role creation
The idea of this work is based on the image of my friend, a girl who loves to play games. I used the model that comes with ZBrush to first adjust it to the shape I want because the final body will be covered by clothes, so the details of the body are not carefully portrayed.
Clothing production
After determining the body proportions, import the model into Blender and use the Rigify plug-in to quickly bind the model. Then create an animation to easily import it into Marvelous Designer to simulate clothing operations.
When the cloth is calculated, import it into Blender for Topology processing, and then use Blender's sculpting mode to process and adjust the details.
Material Production
I made the color and roughness of the skin in SubstancePainter, and baked the high poly details that were sculpted in ZBrush, into displacement maps.
This is the shader setup of the girl's skin texture.
The material of the clothes uses a very good Blender plug-in Fluent Materialize, which provides a lot of great texture nodes, allowing me to make the effect I want very quickly.
Here is the shader setup of the jacket.
Hair Making
I used the Blender hair system to make the hair. I had used the XGen hair system in Maya before. XGen uses the modifier method to adjust hair, making the styling more convenient. I hope that similar functions can be added to Blender.
The material of the hair was processed with a simple gradient color change.
Blender is very convenient for fluff production, and a few simple parameters can be adjusted to produce good results.
The material of the carpet is relatively simple, only the color map is given.
Environmental Construction
I conceived a simple room, and I deliberately placed the things in the room a little messy to make it look more life-like.
The cushions were made in Marvelous Designer Personal and didn't take much time to adjust since they weren't the subject of this piece. To add a little more interest, I placed a small doll that I had designed before.
Light Setting
In the lighting stage, I am used to simulating a black and white relationship similar to a sketch. So first, use a low-brightness HDR to ensure that the dark part of the picture is not too dark.
Then start simulating the position of the main light sources in the room, such as the light from the TV and the lights in the room.
After the main atmosphere is determined, you can open the map, adjust the lighting according to the actual effect, and finally add the fill light to properly illuminate the dark places in the scene. If the scene is still too dark, you can adjust the Exposure parameter appropriately.
The Final Effect
Finally, adjust it in Photoshop, and then you are done.
This time, I tried to create a work with a sense of design. It was very challenging. It not only tested my production of the character itself, but also my control of the atmosphere of the whole scene and the interesting design of the story. What strikes me the most is the importance of lighting, which plays a big role in the quality presentation of the entire work.
Thanks for reading!
About the Artist
Hu Xi, a 3D Digital Artist.
