Guillaume Vicidomini

My first project on LightWave. I did the modelling, lighting, UV mapping, texturing, and studio background. I used 3 different water drop models that I also made on LightWave, and instance them randomly with different weight and size. I worked quite a lot on the reflection of the can and glossiness to find the right look.

Project done for one customer who wanted a DNA structured logo. Procedural modelling on HOUDINI. Using basic mantra surface shader for the material and tweaking the settings. Editing on NUKE.

Shot made on HOUDINI. I imported ready made models from LightWave. I used a half sphere combined with a mountain node with the right frequency for the ground. Then I used a snow shader that I build from the scratch as a material. I used a ray node combined with attributes to make the reindeer’s' and snowboard’s steps in the snow. I used an environment map as global lighting, there’s also a rim light and an area light.

This is a game asset made in modo. I learnt how to use MODO by building this model. This is the high res model. I followed this path/Low-res model/high-res- sculpting/UV/Painting/retopo to low res model/baking texture to low res model. I started by building a low res model. The bridge has a size which matches the one of the game character who is supposed to walk on it. Then I changed to multires mode and started to sculpt the basic shapes of the rocks. I created a brush with the shape of a brick in Photoshop. I imported the brush and started placing the bricks one by one to get a more random and thus realistic shape. Then I used the push tool with procedural brush to create the bumpy effect on the wall stones. I used the carve tool to separate the stones. I used the flatten tool to create the edgy look which will make great reflections in the game since the model will be looked at from quite a distance. The path was too straight so I used the smudge tool to add a bit of distortion.

The high res model has 1003520 poly. I froze it and created a UV map. I packed the UVs to use all the space. Then I painted the model. I used 2 colors given by the technical artist. I added a new image and I painted the bridge in black (area of the first color) and white (area of the second color). Then I used this image as a layer mask in a constant layer where I would set the second color. The first color being set in the material of the bridge itself. I used a "dented" noise to add some effect of old stone. I used a constant layer and an occlusion layer set as layer mask to enhance the edges of the stones. Therefore I could choose the color of edges. I used another constant layer and an occlusion layer inverted set as layer mask to have more relief on darker area like when the wall and ground join or in beetween the stones. Therefore I could choose the color of darker areas also. Then used the topology pen to create a low resolution model. The model has now 1394 polygons.

Final Game Asset. I created a UV map for the new low res object using the unwrapping method, UV, fit and UV relax tools. I assigned a material to all the polygons of the low-res object. I assigned a checker image so correct the UV map. Baking texture: Since the model is meant to be placed in a tablet-game the lower polygon the better. But I needed to have the nice details and color from the high resolution model to the low-res one. I then created a new "bake" group in the shader tree and added 2 new images. One for the normals and one for the colors. I baked from object to texture onto the normal map. I baked from object to render output for the final color map. Then I assigned the normal map and the diffuse color map to the low res object, completing the process.

Fur test on ready made model. I did a big work on the fur with density, length, frizz, color and comb. In this project I also got to learn about displacement map since I had an issue with the fur once I added a displacement map to the skin. NUKE for color correction.

Snow shader made on HOUDINI. The difficulty remained in having the sparks of sun reflection changing position with the camera angle, and also having the right displacement for the snow surface (built with a mix of different noises).

Still on HOUDINI, I used a Mantra surface shader for the frame and I modified the opacity and reflection of another mantra surface shader by acting on the fresnel.

Panoramic map made for the background of another project in Houdini. I used a sunlight and a skylight. Then I created a sky rig and 4 different clouds. I also had to create 2 cameras, one for the preview in my project scene and the second one as panoramic to be rendered in 8000x4000.

Practicing UV mapping in HOUDINI. I set up an environment light, rim light and area light for better result. I used NUKE for post-production.

I created the textures for the bindings. The goal was to have a plastic look for the belts. I wanted to have some metal (with a touch of chrome) for the base of the bindings. Work done on HOUDINI. I used NUKE for color correction.

Simple starting flag for a tablet game. Low poly model done on LightWave. Creating a UV map. Then creating a checker texture on Photoshop. I exported the UV map to Photoshop. I placed the wooden and checker texture on the UV map and then imported the UV map on LightWave.