With 5518 Studios, learn how to make the Mammoth sci-fi creature with the Round Edge Shader in Modo and the texture sets in Substance Painter.

We decided to make a model of an epic Sci-Fi creature to consolidate the working skills with the Round Edge Shader in Modo and the texture sets in Substance Painter. It took 100 hours to complete, from the idea to the finished promo materials. Sergey Tyapkin, Lead 3d Artist at 5518 Studios, created the artwork.

Before starting work, like any artist, we create a mood board with cool artists’ references for inspiration. The images were collected in PureRef - this helps form the model's initial image. The starting point for the Mammoth's style was the Horizon: Zero Dawn game, but during the work process the style changed, the forms became coarser, and new elements were added.

We do not worry about the accuracy of the grid and geometry while sketching a blockout. There are a lot of Boolean operations, which allows smoothing. The main point is to show shapes and silhouette: they will give the first impression of the model.

It took Sergey a day and a half for blockout, and there you are!

From our point of view, this is one of the most interesting days of the whole process - at this stage we added the average refinement and can see how the hi-poly model will look like.

"It's only blockout!" - you might say. We use the Round Edge Shader, which lets us add smoothed chamfers to any geometry on the render. There's another interesting feature, a smoothed conversion, which also forms while using the intersection of objects. This is a huge benefit and convenience for artists: you can assign different width options of chamfer for different materials. This allows you to control the thickness of the chamfers as well as the smoothing between the mesh's elements. As a result, we get complicated smooth forms without embedding geometry.

In general, you need to get used to working with the Round Edge Shader. Sometimes the results of shader manipulations are visible only on the render. But there's a plus - smoothed chamfers can be baked on a normal map! And this is exactly what we need!

Note that this technique is not a Modo-specific feature: a similar method is applicable in any modern 3D package.

And so within three days, we chose the design and made a basic hi-poly model, which allowed us to save a lot of time that would have gone to cutting the support edge for Subd.

Another day and a half and we finalized the design and functionality of all parts and model modules. In our studio, we wanted it to look mobile and balanced, really solid - not just as a static model. For this, it was necessary to thoroughly review all the details, to improve the corner pieces so that everything would fit correctly.

By the end of the fifth day, the hi-poly model was ready!

Sergey spent these days making the low-poly model and dreaming about the time when this process will be fully automated. At the output, 65 000 tris were obtained, which is quite consistent with the polycount in modern games for similar gaming models.

We normally do an unwrap in UV Layout - in this program, the process is fast and visually simple. To increase the details, we chose to make three texture sets (head, legs, body) and test the UDIMs in the Substance Painter. UDIM is a unique unwrap square with an identifier that can be converted into a texture set in SP. In this case, there were three of them (1001, 1002, 1003).

Here's how it looks:

At this stage, you can assess the quality of the Round Edge Shader's baked chamfers. After baking, we added the detailing of normal maps using alpha in Substance Painter. By the way, an excellent set of Sci-Fi alphas can be found on this websitehttp://jrotools.com/ .

The result looks quite convincing and we have saved a lot of time.

We began texturing and divided the model into materials and colors. For us, in the Studio, it is always a complex and interesting process which requires true virtuosity, knowledge of color theory and perception.

By the evening of the 11th day, we had something close to "Star Wars” style.

We decided once again to work through this issue, to explore more color solutions and combinations. We settled on option №8.

The texturing process has now become a lot simpler, because we chose Substance Painter and we have the opportunity to optimize all processes using procedural generators and smart materials.

Here is the description of the process step by step, for those who have not worked in Substance Painter yet.

When working with textures, it is very important to adhere to a simple and clear structure. It makes life easier for both the performer and the client.

A competent presentation of the model is very important! Think about interesting lighting, poses, camera settings and AfterEffects. Show intermediate results of work to fellow artists in order to get feedback and improve the final result.

We use Marmoset Toolbag 3 for real-time model rendering, which allows achieving a good result in a short time. Flexible camera settings and AfterEffects help make quality renders without subsequent post-processing in Photoshop.

The possibility of animating and various parameters is particularly pleasing.

5518 Studios are production partner for game developers with a broad range of services including concept art, illustration, 3D modeling, animation, cinematic, AR/VR and marketing.

Our business development leads in Los Angeles, USA and production offices in St. Petersburg and Ulyanovsk, Russia.