This may not be the right area to post this question, but after looking through the forum, nothing appeared to fit.
I’m wanting some clarification on workflow process. I’m looking to create a workflow that mirrors what is done in the industry or comes close. After a model is complete and finalized, should the next step be rigging or texturing? I would guess that it would be rigging so that the movements can be viewed & tested to determine if mesh goes wonky.
And once texturing is complete and the animation is shot, then rendered; it goes on to compositing, sound, editing, etc? How different are workflows? For now, I’m modeling a character, but my plan is to rig, texture, animate and compsite it. I’m taking each one at a time to understand each step of the process. Any insights are appreciated
Model it, texture it and rig it. Render until you like the result /some ‘feel’ and touch are mainly achieved with rendering, is it NPR (non photo realism) or is it a photorealistic character etc/
then if you are animating towards a client it might be good to “block” out the animation, just move him/her and have the char in key positions, if it’s ok timing and fit the story. do a second block, check again and just add more and more animation until you’re happy / out of time
I don’t know how much compositing you want to do but it’s good to maybe do a render pass separate for the character so you can change lightning etc.
Animation often takes a lot of time, if you’re beginning aim to model, and texture and comp a turntable of the character. like so.
angela’s portfolio form the durian team.
Otherwise interviews with artists are always good to watch.
I suspected that would be the process. As for the rendering, this is where I get a bit confused about layers and separate passes. I’m planning a static non-photo realistic image, though later on I would like to animate a turntable and perhaps a walk/run cycle. My goal is to obtain a “Pixar” like look with the rendering.
My plan is to separate out the foreground, middle & backgrounds into layers and render each one. I’m not certain if the lighting should be a separate layer or to have it coincide w/each of the three ground layers and suspect this will be put together during the compositing stage. At present, I’m considering two light sources; one coming from a hallway (yellowish bulb light) into a darken room and the secondary will be the moon light coming through the window into the room. The moonlight will shine on the main character and the hallway light will shine on the second character contrasting the two characters as well as the warm and cool colors.
No concept sketch @ this time, as I keep rethinking the composition and doodling it on note pads at work.
Now, to figure out the maps–those really confuse me.
I find it myself really important to REALLY work out what you have started. otherwise you gonna end up with something you are ashamed of within a year.
Maybe lightning if that’s the fokus? you could wait and get a scene from sintel /if you bought it! i hope so / and just fokus on the lightning.
Here’s Ben Simonds, a really talented CG artist and his insightfull post on lightning.
read that! to get a more handson approach on how to achieve the hallway scene you’re planning with a cold moon fill-light, and a warmer bulb key-light.
That’s a really spot on NPR setup for me. if you get the shaders/materials right and really get the mix of cold moonlight /maybe have the moon visual in frame, or that is more a must-have/
etc. the pixar look in generall needs more than just area-lights and key-lights. I’ve read some indepth articles on it’s art magazine from a pixar creative. Or was it cgtalk? I don’t remember.
Anyway it was indepth about their Point Cloud approach for Global Illumination and how it was used in the film UP.
I can’t find the link atm but google and see if you find any reference articles. To achieve the pixar look you need good GI.
In blender 2.5X you’ll find that under the world settings. Even more reason to get hands on a already modeled set and play around w/ just the lightning.
Turntables are defacto standard to show of modeling. I’m myself trying to use shader nodes to make a nice diffuse + wire material w/o success so far. To be honest I haven’t spent that much time on it either.
Nevertheless whatever workflow works for you and your team is the right one. But It’s always good to do some research how to present your work with little or no more effort In a total new way.
To seperate render passes you can use the Object Index. It’s an easy way to separate each object in the scene of interest with a index number, you get then the alpha chan and can mask it out.
if you need a totally clean plate, then use the render passes. or layers as it’s called in blender.
it’s the “slots” you have in your 3d view, two rows. 20 in total. Under the render tab you have as many render passes. those passes can combine any “slot” you have in the 3d view.
it’s really easy to get to know if you try. Imagine having an old tape recorder and just switching on and off knobs for diffrent render passes.
to get a more handson approach on how to achieve the hallway scene you’re planning with a cold moon fill-light, and a warmer bulb key-light.