Final render - Workshop lookdev scene from Jahirul Amin
Lesson 1 : Lookdev basics
Look Development, often abbreviated as "Lookdev," is a crucial stage in the production of images and animations in 3D computer graphics.
It encompasses the entirety of processes and techniques aimed at defining the final visual appearance of 3D modeled objects, characters, or environments.
Table of Contents
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1. The importance of lookdev
2. Pipeline, and production
3. Map management
4. Node Graph
5. Sources
1. The importance of lookdev
Introduction to Look Development
Look Development, often abbreviated as "Lookdev," stands as a pivotal stage in producing images and animations in 3D computer graphics. It encompasses all the processes and techniques aimed at defining the final visual appearance of 3D-modeled objects, characters, or environments.
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Definition of Look Development: Look Development involves creating and adjusting materials, lighting, shadows, textures, and other visual properties of 3D elements to achieve the desired visual rendering. It aims to give a realistic, stylized, or artistic appearance to virtual objects by simulating their behavior within a given environment.
Role of Look Development:
The importance of Look Development in CGI production is fundamental for several crucial reasons:
Creation of Visual Aesthetics: Look Development determines the final visual appearance of 3D objects, characters, and environments. It defines the style, mood, and atmosphere of a scene, essential for conveying the artistic intention of the project.
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Realism and Immersion: Well-executed Lookdev realistically simulates the behavior of light and materials, creating a high level of visual realism. This significantly contributes to immersing the audience in the virtual universe.
Visual Consistency: It ensures visual coherence throughout the production. Whether concerning colors, textures, reflections, etc., Look Development ensures that all elements of the scene appear to belong to the same universe.
Visual Storytelling: Look Development can be strategically used to enhance storytelling. For instance, it can dramatically light a character to emphasize a specific emotion or create a sinister atmosphere to reinforce suspense.
Definition of Material Characteristics: It allows for specifying material properties like shininess, roughness, transparency, etc. This is crucial for accurately representing real or imaginary materials.
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Lighting Control: Look Development offers complete control over scene lighting. This enables highlighting key elements, adjusting the overall ambiance, and creating special lighting effects.
Reduction of Post-Production Iterations: Well-executed Lookdev can decrease the need for major adjustments in post-production, saving time and resources.
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Rendering Optimization: Effective Look Development management can lead to a more efficient and higher-quality final render, using optimized techniques to simulate complex visual effects.
Impact on Audience: Look Development has a direct impact on audience perception. Visually appealing and well-executed looks can captivate attention and leave a lasting impression.
In summary, Look Development is a central pillar of CGI production. It brings imagination to life, visually narrates stories, and creates virtual worlds that feel tangible and immersive to the audience.
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Toy Story 3, Pixar Studio 2010
For example, in Toy Story 3, Lotso, the villainous pink bear, has undergone numerous experiences; he was abandoned in the past by the little girl who used to play with him. The lookdev dirty and inhabited by his bellhop, you can feel that he is old and not very sympathetic. It’s very important.
2. Pipeline, and production
Where does Look Development fit in?
Look Development is an integral part of the production, as mentioned earlier. It occurs at the texturing shading stage in the pipeline. Here's an example:
Pipeline Definition: In the context of production, a pipeline refers to an organized and structured sequence of interconnected steps, processes, or workflows designed to achieve a specific goal. In the realm of digital creation, such as 3D production, the pipeline refers to the path followed by digital data from its initial creation to its final outcome.
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A 3D production pipeline, for instance, might involve stages such as modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, look development, lighting, rendering, and compositing. Each stage is typically handled by specialized teams, and data is organizedly transferred from one stage to another.
Here is a spreadsheet that categorizes the different stages of film production. Lookdev here is paired with surfacing (everything related to the visual development of textures/shading).
Here is a simplified document of a pipeline:
The primary goal of a pipeline is to optimize the creation process by facilitating collaboration between different departments or artists involved, ensuring consistency in quality, and allowing efficient iterations to refine the final result. A well-defined pipeline can streamline production, save time and resources, and ensure artistic coherence throughout the project.
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Here is an example of a pipeline sofware developed by Frederic Dewit (if you want to learn more, visit the Optimization lesson).
Look Development occurs at the production level and aims to develop the visual aspect of a film's global assets. After modeling (including UVs), the modeling artist publishes (Edit: work in progress / Publish: Final work + clean scene the scene so that the Look Development artist can take over.
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You can check the lesson for the Optimization here :
3. Map management
Different Maps in 3D Texturing
3D texturing is a crucial step in creating realistic virtual objects. To achieve a convincing visual appearance, artists use a variety of maps that define various aspects of a material. These maps, also known as textures, are applied to 3D surfaces to simulate properties such as color, reflection, roughness, and more. Let's explore the different maps used in 3D texturing.
Diffuse Map (Color): The diffuse map is often the primary map used, defining the base color of a material. It's the texture that gives an object its fundamental color. It can also contain information about diffuse reflectivity, creating darker areas to simulate less reflective surfaces.
Albedo is the image that will be placed in the diffuse. The albedo is a polarized image (without shadow, without specular) of a texture
Roughness Map: The roughness map influences the sharpness of reflections on the surface. Darker areas indicate a smooth surface, while lighter areas indicate a rough surface. It will always be black and white.
Normal Map: The normal map influences how light interacts with a surface by altering the direction of normals. This creates variations in lighting, giving the illusion of geometric details not actually present in the 3D model. It comes creates volume it is more used than the 2d bump that has less information.
Displacement Map: This map alters geometry by displacing the vertices of the 3D model, adding details to the geometry level. This can be crucial for creating complex surfaces without increasing the polygon count.
Ambient Occlusion Map: The AO map creates shadows in crevices and corners, adding realism by simulating decreased light in these areas.
Here is the result of the material with all the textures connected in the Graph node.
Texture free by : Megascan https://quixel.com/megascans/
In Lesson 2, we will explore using the Maya Node Graph to correctly utilize textures.
4. Node Graph
Here's a brief visual of the node graph and how to connect the maps within it:
Renderman HyperShade
To perform our shading, we use the pxr surface in Renderman, which allows us to input all the values mentioned above.
See you at lesson 2 to see all this in detail !
Arnold HyperShade
To perform our shading, we use the aiStandardSurface in Arnold, which allows us to input all the values mentioned above.
See you at lesson 2 to see all this in detail !
The judicious use of these different maps in 3D texturing allows artists to create visually rich and realistic models. By creatively combining these textures, they can bring captivating virtual worlds to life. Skillful selection and manipulation of these maps are essential to achieve the desired aesthetics in 3D production. We will delve into this in detail in my Lesson 2!
I hope this lesson has served you well !