Behind the Scenes: Last Banana

INTRODUCTION

Hi, I am Cyril Limoges, a modeler at Tnzpv Studio 3D in France. I graduated from art school as a figurative painter, and was a teacher of applied arts. 

By chance, I discovered 3D modeling 10 years ago thanks to Blender. Encouraged by a friend, I changed my career path. I never thought I'd make a career out of it. Using software with such potential, free of charge, and with an active community, motivated me and pushed me to persevere.

I ended up working for Ubisoft (Raving Rabbits the film), Fnatic, Arte (short film Absence), Tf1 (Gus), France 4 (Coop Troop), and Disney (Magic Campers to be published). 

For an artist, Blender really is a wonderful ideal. However, I wouldn't be where I am today without all the friends I've met in this 3D adventure. 

INSPIRATION

I discovered Marco Plouffe's work on my ZBrush screensaver. I was really jealous; it was just amazing! :D

I didn't want to make a mecha character, but to create environments only with the same level of detail. The perfect dedicated tool was Boxcutter, and this was an opportunity to use it to the full.

Artistically, I lean towards art brut, as Jean Dubuffet presents it in his books and creates it in his paintings. It's more a need to create that drives me—it's visceral. I always feel the urge to create things without any particular message to convey. I experience art as a very personal whim.

I really appreciate this kind of work. The space feels sufficiently filled to me. I also like to add a touch of absurdity to what I do and make things a bit ridiculous. In this case, the idea was that a huge factory exists just to produce a single banana (see the “Last Banana” video). I found it amusing, but maybe it's only amusing for me.

PROCESS

Software:

• - Blender
• -Rizom
• -Substance painter
• -Embergen (few times)
• -Marvelous Designer (few times)
• -Unreal 5

Add-ons:

• -Boxcutter
• -HardOps
• -CoordiKnight

Block-out

Based on a storyboard, I created a blockout to establish my layout and scales, and to get an overall idea of the number of assets (both the ones that repeated and those that were unique).

Layout blocking:

Setdressing Blender

I then distributed all the assets into individual files after properly positioning them in the blocking stage. I rebuilt the scenes using instances, allowing me to focus on modeling each object in separate files while watching my set dressing file evolve "on its own" as I progressed. This approach allowed me to compartmentalize the work and set achievable goals, asset by asset.

Modeling/Unwrapping

I used the Boxcutter addon to quickly add an abundance of details, and also because it's fun to use. It's important for me to have fun when working on personal projects as it helps me stay motivated after coming home from work. I found that the combination of Boxcutter and HardOps is perfect for this. Then, I made a few adjustments in Cycles to see how the render turned out.

Next, I cleaned up the topologies, triangulated some parts, marked the seams, and used Rizom for certain unwraps (This part is definitely less fun, but Rizom is really cool, so it’s manageable.)

After that, I indulged myself a bit by reworking one of my scenes for Sketchfab.

Texturing

I created several smart materials in Substance Painter to maintain overall consistency across the three environments, adjusting them as needed.

I used Blender's vertex paint to create my masks in Painter, allowing me to have just one material per object.

Lighting/Renders

This is the part that took me the most time. I couldn't get a satisfying render in Cycles  due to issues with noise and render times.

Reluctantly, I switched to Unreal 5, which I didn't know. I bought several tutorials from this author to get started, then watched everything I could on YouTube, especially the Unreal Magic and Sarkamari channels.

I was fortunate to be part of a Discord channel where a technical director from a company that uses Blender and Unreal helped me with a lot of guidance. He walked me through all the issues I was facing and explained how I could transfer my set dressing from Blender to Unreal 5 using the Coordiknight addon.

Eventually, I managed to get through it and started working on the lighting, creating particle systems with Niagara, redoing my layout, and more.

Then I finally began rendering but it was crash after crash, my PC shutting down abruptly. Lowering the resolution helped with stability, but it wasn't until the end of the project that I realized it was the antialiasing in Unreal 5 that caused my PC to crash. I disabled the antialiasing, added more samples, and finally, my images could be rendered!

Montage VSE

I did all my editing in the VSE because I had used it several times before for camera animation edits on previous personal projects.

RENDER: Last Banana

Last Banana Animation:

Thank you for checking out my article. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions on my social media. Have a great day!

About the Artist                       

Cyril Limoges is a 3D modeler and Blender artist, currently working at Tnzpv 3D Studio, France.