Maya for 3D Printing - Rapid Prototyping
In this course we're going to look at something a little different, creating technically accurate 3D printed parts.
# 1 27-12-2011 , 10:56 AM
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Alien Nano Portrait

This is my latest work in progress. Base mesh started with the Vol.1 Surfing with the Alien.

Working on the armor and tweaking his eyes.

CC are welcome.

Thank you.

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Last edited by cgisoul; 26-01-2012 at 10:35 AM.
# 2 27-12-2011 , 01:26 PM
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Looking good, because you have put a bump for the nose it looks like its missing nostals, some of the textures are a little harsh were they meet could do with some blending..............dave




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# 3 28-12-2011 , 06:15 PM
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Hi Dave,

Thank you for your feedback. Appreciated mate.

Just finished fixing some sharpness and sort of ended up painting the eyes and lots of post work in PS to come up with the right mood / color theme overall.

About the nose, I though it would be a nice touch actually to have it like the bone is pushing the skin forward, so when you look at it, there's something underneath the skin. It made you wonder I see user added image
I tried to punch two holes to make up the nose holes, but then it wouldn't have the effect I described above. I'm trying to do something different. Well... trying user added image

I attached the updated version, plus the armor and helmet I once modeled for one of my own projects long time ago. I'm not sure about the helmet. The armor are just concepts.

So far, pretty happy with the result of the alien portrait. I need to know how to render ID passes, so I can have more control on the outlook during compositing in PS. Will look at that tutorial later available in simplymaya.

I use one 24" and one 22" , both are not displaying the exact color. Pretty struggling here with this issue. I tend to trust the 22" as it displays the same colors as my 27" iMac at work. I know, I need to get a new monitor and the Dell 30" is in my wish list!.......

2:15 a.m. Cheers.

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Last edited by cgisoul; 28-12-2011 at 06:33 PM.
# 4 29-12-2011 , 07:03 AM
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looks like you have pushed the bump too far around the eyes. its quite distracting imo.
I would do separate bump and displacement for each of your maps. if you have not already.
I'm not really a fan of the texturing either tbh, it looks like he/she is wearing the wrong colour foundation. user added image
you ought to use subsurface scattering to get away from the CG look. the dark shadows are not good, but before you do that...
fix the specularity (does it even have any?) and render a grey scale version. this is called block lighting. it will give you a better idea of what you have actually done. for example the temple is maybe a little burnt out. you should get this right with a good grey shader first.

dont use photoshop to do compositing if you can help it... its crap for that. it might make things harder for you to understand.

# 5 29-12-2011 , 08:21 AM
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Hi honestdom,

Thank you for your feedback. Appreciated mate. I'm trying to give this guy a distinctive look, rather the majority look. But I think I know what you are saying. Perhaps I should just start all over again with your advise about separated layers so I can have more control. Just something to bare in mind, I'm new to MAYA, so there are plenty to learn still.

You can see a more detailed WIP at https://www.mduque.com/blog/nucleusx/index.php?blogid=4

I followed Jason's technique while trying to come up with something mine with a different look.
There's Specular map, cavity, color, bump, displace, epidermal, subdermal...

Still learning still learning. So if you have anymore feedbacks, please feel free to shoot in this direction.
Will work on it as soon I get a minute.

Thank you.

# 6 29-12-2011 , 08:28 AM
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P.S. The displacement map here works more like the bump map. I imported the mesh with around 500k polys and all my maps are 4k. I tried to import from zbrush a base mesh around 2k polys and apply the displacement map in the misss_fast_skin_shader, but no matter how I try, the mesh doesn't seem to get the look as if I import it 500K mesh into Maya. The thing is, I am not trying to convert a sphere into a total mesh with a displacement map (silly here, wouldn't it). So... Still learning.

Besides working on the weight values in the skin shader, I really would like to know how can I increase the constrast / saturation inside Maya.


Last edited by cgisoul; 29-12-2011 at 10:16 AM.
# 7 06-01-2012 , 11:19 AM
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Well, after tweeking around in mr and some color adjustments in PS, managed to come up with something better. Will work on the eyes later when I have more time.

Here's an updated version. user added image More updates when I get more time. Been busy with work projects.

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# 8 06-01-2012 , 12:49 PM
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Now it looks spooky and awesome. O.O Those eyes! And the scars!

# 9 06-01-2012 , 10:07 PM
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Dude

I'll have a look at your scene asap. Just very busy....

Jay

# 10 07-01-2012 , 06:16 AM
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Hi Silverfeather

Thank you for your inputs. Yiap, need to work on the eyes and those scars. Just finding it a bit hard to find some spare time with latest projects.

Hey Jay,

I almost thought you ran away with the Alien hhahahaha. j/k. user added image
I'm still trying to find the right settings with the weights values. Trying to get the same result in mr without relying heavily on postwork.
Damn it, mr is teddiously slow.
I know you are busy, that's why i didn't recall you, but appreciated definitely for the help.
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# 11 07-01-2012 , 09:28 PM
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Hi Silverfeather

Thank you for your inputs. Yiap, need to work on the eyes and those scars. Just finding it a bit hard to find some spare time with latest projects.

Hey Jay,

I almost thought you ran away with the Alien hhahahaha. j/k. user added image
I'm still trying to find the right settings with the weights values. Trying to get the same result in mr without relying heavily on postwork.
Damn it, mr is teddiously slow.
I know you are busy, that's why i didn't recall you, but appreciated definitely for the help.
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I don't know what else can be done, but I like them even as like this. Would be amazing if they can get even better.

# 12 08-01-2012 , 04:49 AM
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The previous images were tweaked with PS like color corrections and such. I saw a video of Vray in youtube showing you color correcting the image by tweaking the curve like in Photoshop. Pretty awesome.
The color changes accordingly how you set the curve. e.g. the image can look more saturated or vivid colors.

Still trying to figure this one out inside mr..... Mr. Jay ?? user added image user added image

This last one is raw from maya / mr render. Added the specular map, which makes him look less and less CG, which is what I want. But I'm still not happy with the washed un-saturated colors.

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# 13 08-01-2012 , 01:00 PM
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The previous images were tweaked with PS like color corrections and such. I saw a video of Vray in youtube showing you color correcting the image by tweaking the curve like in Photoshop. Pretty awesome.
The color changes accordingly how you set the curve. e.g. the image can look more saturated or vivid colors.

Still trying to figure this one out inside mr..... Mr. Jay ?? user added image user added image

This last one is raw from maya / mr render. Added the specular map, which makes him look less and less CG, which is what I want. But I'm still not happy with the washed un-saturated colors.

Yeah looks realistic, but like you said, lacks those bright purple/red colors that were cool. Also the glowing eyes looked cool / scary too.

# 14 08-01-2012 , 03:12 PM
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Got a spare minute in hand.

Did some tweaking and test renders, here's the latest progress. In this one I gave particular attention to the lighting and shadows, however, there's one big issue as you can see in the image below.
I have 2 monitors, one 24" (Monitor A) and another 22" (Monitor B). The white line you see in the middle is to divide the image when I dragged the window photo viewer right in between the two monitors to show the difference.

Q1. My question is simple....... which of the image are you seeing?
Q2. Are those white dots photons? user added image

However, on the second image, there are no white / yellowish dots around the image.
After some testings and trials, I noticed that when I save the file as RAW, there are no white dots around the black space, but when I save it as Save Color-Managed Image (from Save Image Options), the white dots around the alien is visible.

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Last edited by cgisoul; 08-01-2012 at 05:02 PM.
# 15 08-01-2012 , 05:05 PM
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An Update

UPDATE: I just cranked some values and set the render to production quality. Straight from MR. No PS.
I'm quite happy with the way how the shadows are fading and the lighting.

1st image:
Still trying to figure how to make those colors more vivid (rather than the washed out)... that's pretty much the missing step........ Then the eyes and the armor, background setup (some stars or fog on the background), maybe will add some minor pros like an eye visor...... for now, this is what it is.

2nd image
This one had some color correction in PS, which it looks better I believe. But with that, however, the highlights became stronger and the shadows darker. Need to tweak some more. But this last one is definitely closer to what I'm after.

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Last edited by cgisoul; 08-01-2012 at 05:34 PM.
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