Blender Tutorials: Production Process of 3D Artwork Crazy Fans(1)

Blender 2.90 is out now! Building on the success of the 2.8x series, Blender 2.90 continues to polish the user experience, introducing improvements to EEVEE, Cycles, sculpt, VR, animation, modeling, UV editing and so much more. Watch the video and tell us how you like the new features. More: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-90/?fbclid=IwAR0xXP7iBgou01jc1PjA_aWFAaLnAG3GCdD4P_UXg2oXgd8Rae77I_1m_28

Fox Renderfarm, a powerful but affordable Blender render farm. This article is compiled from 3D artist Leroy's sharing of Cycles for Blender to create pixel style. The focus of the pixel style performance is on the coloring, that is, to extract the required pixels from a delicate picture and make it with a pixelated style. Although in Cinema 4D, the coloring using MotionGraph can be quickly completed, but Leroy wants to achieve it in Blender. And Blender's Cycles renderer is very powerful. Since Cycles comes with a mapping sampling node, making pixel-style things is also very simple. The mapping sampling of the material uses the From Dupli function of the UV Map node. As for production, there are two ways to achieve: 1. Use parent copy, 2. Use particle copy; Two ways, the controllability of particles More, it can simply produce more complex and many effects of changes. The production steps are as follows: Method 1 Create a new plane in the scene, magnify it 5 times, and enter the edit mode for the third subdivision. Return to the object level, create a new plane (the default state is selected after new creation), hold down Shift to select the plane just now, and select Object from the menu, that is, set the large plane as the parent object of the small plane. Select the parent object, in the object properties of the properties panel, set the copy mode to Faces, check Scale, and set the zoom value to 0.4, as shown in the following figure， Select the parent object and keep it selected by default in edit mode, then select Unwrap on the menu. If the model is relatively simple, just use auto split UV, The production of the model is almost complete. The texture part will be started below. Next, you need to select the sub-object, click New in the material node to create a new texture, delete the default diffuse shading, and add a self-illuminating shading. Create a new image texture node (here you need to use the image material to be pixelated), add a UV texture node, check the From Dupli option, and connect it to the texture node, Shift + R preview rendering in 3D view, the effect is as follows, Is it very simple? Of course, you can also use video animation and other materials to create pixel animation. Next, let's look at the method of making particles, or use the above scene and material. Method 2 Select the child object of the scene, then add the parent object, select clear parent in the pop-up menu, and set the copy in the parent object attribute to None, select the child object, G10 will move it to the side, as shown in the figure below, Select a large plane, in the particle properties panel properties, click New, create a new particle system, set the particle type to Hair, and set it to Object in the Render tab, select the small plane, uncheck Emitter, as the picture shows, Turn on the advanced hair, and set the initial orientation to None in the spin tab. The preview effect is as follows, The next step is to adjust the particles: size, distribution, number, etc. Only some important operations are demonstrated below. The default particle distribution is messy and needs to be adjusted neatly. In the emitter, cancel randomization and set the particle/face to 1, so that only one particle is generated on each face, and finally adjust the size of the particles as needed. The plasticity of the particles is very strong. Although the pixels in the above case are all square, they can be made into various shapes such as triangles, quadrilaterals, and circles after adjustment, and they can also increase in size, rotation, and random distribution particle. In addition to using UV map nodes for texture mapping, texture coordinate nodes can also be used, and there are also options from the copy. When copying particles, in order to avoid overlapping of particles, it is best to set the number of particles emitted to the number of faces of the mesh emitter (in edit mode, you can see in the information panel).

As soon as Nintendo Switch launches Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it has been loved by game fans all over the world. Due to the epidemic, many people can enjoy traveling abroad through games during quarantine, which makes the Switch a hit again. And many CG artists eager to create many fan art or amazing creations. Korean designer Seungho Jeong (Neon3D) was invited to talk about his latest work "Miniature style cute character 3d artwork" (Soondol) and talk about the toy model made for the animation of "Molang". Seungho Jeong (Neon3D) Seungho Jeong, from South Korea, is good at product design and 3D printing. Most of them are created in Fusion360 and Blender. He is currently designing toy models for "Molang". He also runs a YouTube channel to share the process behind the scenes. Miniature style cute character 3d artwork (Soondol) Year of completion: 2020 Software: Blender Tell us about the artwork. Seungho Jeong: Recently I was playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and I was attracted by the cute graphic style in the game, so I proposed a series of creative projects, with my original character "Soon-dol" as the main character, and designed a series of The miniature style house in Mori. I use Cycle render in Blender to create. It is worth mentioning that instead of using texture mapping, I changed the color of the object or made some images using Illustrator, and used Blender's Shrinkwrap modifier to place the image on the character's face. The most difficult part of this work is the lighting effect. After all, to create "emits natural light from the outside of the window" is a test of the creator's Lighting skills. At first, I put a glass on the window, but then I found that no glass looks more natural, so I had to take it away. What is your usual job? Seungho Jeong: Mainly making character toy models. For example, the "Molang" series is currently on sale. I designed many different sets of costumes for the character, including Halloween, New Year, Hanbok and other styles. The main creative process is the use of product design software Fusion 360. It has a free-form modeling function, similar to Blender's modeling method. I also made an introduction video for the company's YouTube channel "Behind Molang". First, I redesigned all 2D characters into 3D. Since our company is not an animation studio but a character commodity company, most of the 3D creation process of characters is the process of making plastic models, such as Fusion 360 (some are designed directly in Blender). When creating images in 3D, as mentioned above, instead of using texture mapping, we change the color of the object or use Illustrator to create the image, which is created in accordance with the process of making dolls and doll models. Is animation different from product design? Seungho Jeong: Making animation is very difficult, after all, that is not my major. Although product production and animation look very similar, there are still some system differences. Therefore, I have to learn by myself and complete the animation creation, so I simplified the character movement as much as possible. Can you share your creative tips? Seungho Jeong: If you want to create on a hard surface, Fusion 360 is recommended, which can be modeled for the accuracy of the size, which is very convenient. In addition, the ShrinkWrap modifier is used to attach the image to Blender without any texture drawing. Who is your Favorite artist? Seungho Jeong: Absolutely my boss Hye-Ji Yoon, he is the character designer of "Molang". And Molang's animation is currently being played on Netflix, which is receiving the attention of the global audience! I respect my boss very much and want to be a well-known creator like him. Seungho Jeong’s Artstion: `https://www.artstation.com/neon3d`