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Insects and organic shading

School . 12 Aug. 2022

Nantes

Used to modeling an insect, the 2nd year students of the CG Animation & FX Master Degree program in Nantes faced this time a new exercise: create their own “bug”, in a natural environment, at a macroscopic scale. The challenge: to realize modeling and organic shading, with vegetation, for a macrophotographic rendering. Back on the exercise with the rendering of Titouan Helias, who accepted to detail his work around the Clades Khion.

A MAJOR CHALLENGE FOR STUDENTS

This is the first exercise for students that requires the mastery of an animated pipeline in its entirety. It is a first confrontation with the animation profession. Making your own creature requires you to study the environment in which it will be located in order to think about its structure, its morphology… You also have to give it life, create its environment and make it evolve in it.

THE CLADES KHION

Titouan Helias invented the Clades Khion, a 3D creature straight out of his imagination. Evolving in a cold environment, his “bug” has been thought for a long time to be credible in its environment.

First of all, scientific research was done by Titouan, to ensure the realism of his insect. Then, research in drawings and sketches was necessary to put his animal in shape on paper. Making his creature evolve in cold environments, Titouan adapted his drawings so that it corresponds to its environment (cold color, carapace, center of gravity, way of moving…).

Once these different sketches were made, it was time to use the software. Starting with Maya, Titouan created his creature in 3D by assembling the different elements that make it up. On Mudbox, he then worked on sculpting, a modeling technique that adds details to the creature’s appearance: reliefs, pores, scars, gel…

He then used Renderman software for shading, a step that consists in assembling all the different textures of an object to make it photorealistic, by adjusting its color, its roughness, its reflection, its transparency, etc. Here, as the scene takes place outdoors, on a macroscopic scale, the importance of the smallest detail is more than essential.

Finally, he riddled his creature to make it take the various desired movements. Once his creature was finished, Titouan focused on the scenery, the lighting, the effects, the filters, the atmosphere… All this to create the most realistic scene possible and a nice coherence between his creature and its environment.

For Titouan, it is a successful bet! His Clades Khion literally comes to life in its icy environment and moves in the snow with agility. A new credible insect that makes sense in Titouan’s animation.