Behind the Scenes: Captain Archibald Haddock

INTRODUCTION

Good day, my identify is Lucas Coelho and I’m a 3D artist primarily based in Curitiba, Brazil. I began working 15 years in the past as an assistant artwork director at an promoting company and since then, I’ve labored with post-production, changing into a senior within the subject after which determined to journey myself in 3D.  At the moment, I work as a freelancer and a full-time character artist. I’ve used many software program, together with Modo and Maya. However I discover myself far more environment friendly utilizing Blender as my essential software. Other than that, I exploit ZBrush for sculpting.

INSPIRATION

I actually love the collection “Adventures of Tintin” and lately began watching the animation once more which introduced me some fond recollections. So I made a decision to make a personality from the collection. At first, I had no thought which character to do and after a fast search on Pinterest, I discovered the caricature of Captain Archibald Haddock by the wonderful artist Yoann Lori and determined to provide it my very own interpretation.

PROCESS

I might wish to share some facets of this undertaking that may actually assist folks get their work achieved in an organized manner.

Modeling

First issues first, scale is a extremely vital matter in 3D, and that may fluctuate between software program. As a result of I used ZBrush in part of the undertaking (however every little thing I do in ZBrush might be achieved in Blender, it’s simply private desire) I exploit the GoB add-on by Jose Conseco to switch meshes between Blender and ZBrush rapidly whereas sustaining place and scale.

I began making a block form to have the preliminary type of my object within the appropriate dimension.

This fashion, I assure that there will likely be no points importing or exporting meshes between software program. After that, the enjoyable half started till I discovered myself within the want of retopoing the mesh and opening the UVs.

Right here, I already did the retopo and opened the UVs. I used 4 UDIMs for the bust. 

In order that I may very well be extra environment friendly, I set a digicam on Blender from the start of the undertaking and didn’t work greater than what was wanted. That manner, I may use my time and the processing energy of the pc higher, as a result of I solely needed to do one shot of him from one particular angle. 

Garments and Eyes

His garments had been simply easy geometry, aside from his sweater that I modeled in ZBrush and decimated. For his eyes, I used AutoEye that I purchased a very long time in the past and nonetheless works completely to at the present time.

Texturing

The digicam that I set was exported to Substance Painter in order that I may texture the pores and skin and his pipe.

I additionally exported the Displacement map from ZBrush to Blender, and used the displace modifier. This half was crucial, as a result of I may have used the displacement accessible on the shader however I might not have been capable of see or apply its consequence to the mesh within the viewport. And I wanted that, since I might apply hair and fur to his head later. The best way the normals had been going through helped the circulate and origin of the hair strands. Therefore, I used the bumps on his face as one other “variation” issue for the hairs.

Hair and Fur

For the hair, it’s vital to notice that the extra organized you’re employed, the higher. For all his facial hair, I separated the scalps which I may use with center subdivision, after which utilized displacement.

We’ll undergo every part collectively; remember that I haven’t used geometry nodes for this undertaking but, as a result of I needed to achieve a closing consequence, not study a brand new software.

One of the best follow I discovered when doing hair is inserting a information, combing it to the specified form, seeing the leads to one single hair, after which shifting to put one other information/kids. I did the next: Inserting information > combing > Deciding on all (A) > hiding (H) > inserting information… I do that for each information within the undertaking besides those I place randomly.

Beneath you possibly can see every step that I took. 

Additionally, bear in mind you could reuse your particle programs. I reused my Unfastened Hairs particle system many occasions for various components of the face because the hair would have the identical dimension and conduct.

For the peach fuzz (these little hairs we now have on our pores and skin), I adopted a information for the course of the hairs and combed them accordingly:

Beneath are the settings I used for the peach fuzz on the collar.

Please observe that these settings are dependent of your mannequin sized (utilized).

Lighting

The lighting within the scene was quite simple.

First, I arrange an HDRI for the scene. It’s the identical HDRi because the starting of the method, in order that I might at all times see the identical consequence within the viewport. I most well-liked to maintain the sunshine constant; subsequently, I didn’t base my suggestions and modifications to the mannequin within the lighting. The HDRI I used was Carpentry Store 02 from PolyHaven.

As for the lights, it’s fairly easy truly. I used three lights to create a Rim mild, one mild going through the studio, and one other going through the mannequin as a Key mild.

With the HDRI turned off, the mannequin seemed like this.

Render settings

The render settings had been fairly easy too. I had to make use of CPU for the ultimate rendering as a result of the GPU couldn’t deal with the quantity of geometry and textures. However to maintain it easy, I are inclined to make the render massive and use much less samples. This fashion, I’ve extra element per bucket than if I render it with a great deal of samples in a smaller bucket. It’s higher to downscale the render than to attempt to get insane particulars and clear renders from a small picture.

That’s it guys! I hope you possibly can all take one thing out of this course of to make use of it by yourself. I’m actually excited for the following characters.

RENDER – Captain Archibald Haddock

Here’s a breakdown of the undertaking. Sadly, it is in Brazilian Portuguese, however the closed captions on YouTube might assist a bit. We used a variety of slang and regional phrases, so it is likely to be obscure at occasions.

Thanks for all of the assist. Be at liberty to ask any questions, and if you happen to like my work, observe me on social media. Have a superb day!

In regards to the Artist                       

Lucas Coelho is a 3D character artist from Brazil, at the moment working as a modeler for collectibles and video games.