Rise of the Resistance, Ride Attraction

For my reference library, I relied mainly on Youtube videos, Google search images, and my own photos and videos taken from when I was there. I didn’t want to miss any details, big or small! You’ll see in the samples of my reference library what I wanted to pay attention to and wanted to make sure was a part of the final scene.

Samples from my reference library

For the troopers, I started with a simple human mesh grabbed from Zbrush and exported it to Maya. With the mesh I can extract out and build the armor and the accessories. I also created and optimized the UVs for all parts of the troopers’ armor and accessories to keep the textures and models running as efficient as possible.

Stormtroopers

Environment assets were treated similarly as the troopers. I already knew the basic layout since I had the reference for it - all I needed to do is create the modular pieces that would be put together to fill out the scene. UVs were also created so I could put a bit of dirt and grunge on the models so it didn’t look too sterile. I also needed the UVs to create textures on some elements like the electrical panels with buttons. There was a bit of balance of what was unique and what was repeated.

Environment

Substance Painter was my main for texture creation. Once I had all the models unwrapped, I imported them into Painter, baked in some ambient occlusion, and started adding in the color, shine, grime, and everything else that makes it look like the real thing. Most of the surfaces in the environment were procedural textures to simulate the wear and tear, while other surfaces were hand-painted to match the designs seen in the attraction. For example, I hand-painted the panels with the distinct retro look and light up buttons to match the reference.

Texturing in Substance Painter

The lighting for this scene was heavily dependent on the emissive lights coming from the ceiling, floor, and electrical panels on the walls. I knew this would create pretty complex lighting situations since almost all surfaces in the scene were reflective - especially the troopers’ armor. I feel that seeing all these different lights reflected in the troopers’ armor helped sell the renders. And not only that though, these specific lights are synonymous with the First Order, as well as the Empire. I marked what would be emissive in Maya and exported the scene out to Toolbag to start on rendering.

Utilizing emissives to light the hallway

Once I was satisfied with the lighting, I moved onto rigging. I created a simple rig in Maya for the troopers to get them posed and looking a bit more dynamic. Since the troopers were pretty much all the same, plus or minus some small details, it was easy to carry over the first rig to the others. I also imported my trooper into Mixamo to get a quick walk cycle going and exported it back to Maya to refine it. With a few animations added to camera, I was able to nail the handheld look I was going for. I love the end result, and we'll see that soon.

Character rig and pose in Maya

Utilizing Mixamo for a quick walk cycle

This is one of my favorite stages of the whole process! I'm able to see all the previous work and elements all come together. You can sometimes uncover some issues during this process, but it is fun to problem solve for those. One of the best parts of this is refining the look and getting the scene to look exactly the way I would want it to. A lot of that means tweaking raytracing settings, lights, asset placement, the camera, post effects, denoising, and etc - not to mention it's a breeze in Toolbag!

Setting up in Marmoset Toolbag

Refining the scene