Role: 3D Artist - Real-time Assets
Project Summary
Inspired by the movie Up, I wanted to bring to life a drawer of knick-knacks belonging to Ellie, which serves to provide more background to her story. To achieve this, various tools were utilized for modeling, texturing, lighting, animating, and rendering. The goal was to create a realistic look while maintaining some of the original art style, resulting in a captivating hero image and animated videos.
My Responsibilities
Software
Before jumping into any program, I’ll have an idea of the final image in my head which normally consists of basic lighting concept, composition, and storytelling elements. Keeping a reference library for the elements I want to include will help with design direction. This could include (but not limited to) film stills, photographs, and my own sketches. Since the goal had a realistic approach, I could always go back to these images to make sure I didn't stray to far from reality.
Samples from my reference library
I did the bulk of my ideation process inside of Zbrush. I block in basic shapes as placeholders to establish the type of composition I'm looking for based on my initial mental model. Once the scene's weight and placement felt good, I iterate on the basic shapes and flesh out the details. Lighting is very important to me and to storytelling as a whole - so early on, I'll take my scene with these placeholders and conduct some lighting tests in Marmoset Toolbag. If there's anything that needs additional adjustments, I'll go back to Zbrush.
Placement of basic shapes and some hero assets
Texturing using Substance Painter is super vital because I wanted the wear and tear to be realistic. It should feel as if the props developed organically from within a child’s bedroom. In order to do this, I pay specific attention to layering in the details one at a time.
Using Substance Painter to create PBR materials
For lighting and beyond, I move to the project into Marmoset Toolbag.
Lighting is key for storytelling and helping direct the "eye flow" of the composition for the viewer. What do we want the viewer to look at? Which elements pertain to the story? Lighting can answer these. For my scene, I use a key light, fill light, and an accessory light that represents Ellie's presence. One of my favorite details of the film is the use of the color magenta to represent Ellie - it indicates her influence and spirit, and I wanted it represented here.
Building atmosphere and storytelling with lighting
Leveraging Marmoset Toolbag, I’m able to create a render that supports the initial concept. This would include adjustments to the camera, depth of field, global illumination, ambient occlusion, and post-effects.
Refining settings
Using post effects
Takeaways
This project really showed off my texturing abilities and how I could achieve a realistic look. I did run into some challenges, like making the embroidery on the book look just right, but I think it all came together nicely with a bit of trial and error.
If I were to do it again, I'd go bigger – this time it was all about a specific, intimate shelf, but I'd love to dive into what Ellie's whole room might've been like. I’d also rework the embroidery on the adventure book more, as I still think it can use some iterating.
Working on this boosted my confidence in texturing, especially seeing how layering in tiny details paid off. From the start, I wanted to think creatively and give a new spin on a popular film, and I'm happy with how it all turned out. This project has strengthened me as an artist, and I had a blast doing it!
The TLDR
