Groom an irresistibly furry creature

Rss Bot · June 22, 2017

This tutorial will take you through how to design and model a new furry 3D creature. To create this strokable creature we will follow my workflow, working on the base character, blocking the hair and fur in, and adjusting the scene.

In addition, you will see the design process I use to create a new piece, including blending my reference images with renders and how I rework the main subject to step up the overall quality of the design. There's a video of my process below, followed by a step-by-step breakdown of my process.

Download the supporting files here

01. Find a concept

First, find a good reference image to work from

First, I look for a reference image that's natural but strong. I go to unsplash.com, where people put amazing photos up for free commercial use. I want a scene with good lighting that I can use for a backplate. I decide to test a kitchen scene.

02. Set the scene

Work out the shapes of the scene and box model them

Now I have my image, it's time to set the camera and perspective. With Maya it's not that easy to get the angle right – I have to tweak and eyeball a little bit. My workflow here is to get the basic shapes of the scene and box model them.

Once I have the basic shapes, I set the camera and the view angle. It's really important to take your time here and make sure you have the perspective right because this will define the success of the scene.

03. Establish the basic light setup

Use your reference photo as a lighting guide

Now it's time to set up the light. In my reference photo I can see an area of light at the top of my scene, so I put a light there. I add one more physical light behind my camera as a secondary light. For realism and to blend the scene and the backplate, I normally add a dome light with the backplate images, which generates GI and a little ambient light, providing a dim illumination of the scene.

04. Work on character conceptualisation

A basic character gives you lots of potential to play around

I want my character to do something similar to the man in the reference image, and to blend in with the pasta in the photograph. I design a really basic character to play with – just a blob with arms and two eyes. It doesn't even have legs, because this guy will always be behind the counter.

05. Test the scene

Render a quick test to spot any early issues

With everything blocked in and the main character in position, it's time to test the scene. I put all the models in the scene with no visibility to cast shadows and render the first test. I blend the render and the photograph to test the scale, the model, the light and the angle of the camera. I find my backplate has a green and blue tint over the shadows that I'll have to remove later.

06. Do some basic grooming

Use groomable splines if there's no animation involved

It's time to start grooming. I use Core XGen, though this technique will work with any other hair system. When working with hair, the important thing is to achieve a good flow and an interesting silhouette.

For this kind of character, with no animation, I like to use groomable splines. I think about how the character moves and behaves, as this will affect his fur. This specific character has to work a lot with his hands and gets covered in steam often, so his hair will look heavy and not that fluffy.

07. Adjust length and silhouette

With the flow sorted, block out the silhouette and length

Once I have the flow of the hair, I start blocking out the silhouette and the length. I give my creature shorter hair on his hands but furrier, pointy ears and longer hair on his armpits. I block out the eyes and the mouth.

08. Set up the hair

Use a random expression to give the hair some variety

Now I generate the hair for the first time to check its fidelity and how it looks. When you first generate the hair it often comes out in chunks or planes. I test first with a really low density hair, and don't overscale the model.

For the hair, I break the connection on the Width and set up a random expression to define with float rand (float min, float max) to help me control the hair and add some variation to the width, making it look more natural. One the hair is visible, you can adjust the flow and length.

09. Employ the clump modifier

Work out the basic shape of hair clumps

For this groom, I use a short hair with a mid-density on the base clumps and closed tip to enhance the effect of humidity, and a higher density on the second level of clumps with an open tip. I make the clumps thicker than the regular hair, so they appear sticky. I want small groups of hairs with a wavy configuration on the noise, to look thick on the roots and thinner on the tips with a wavy end.

10. Use the coil and noise modifiers

Use coil and noise modifiers to vary your clumps

Once I have the basic shape of the clumps, I need to add a little bit of randomness, as the clumps start to reveal more detail. To add new variations I use the Noise Modifier, and for this case I also add a Coil Modifier with a low influence to simulate the wetness and oil on the hair.

For the noise, I use a base modifier to add the first layer of variation, affecting the tips more than the bases, with a frequency of 4 and a magnitude of 1. This means each strand will move four times from base to tip with a max magnitude of 1 over the tips.

Next page: Give your creature character and add some props

11. Make the hairs more realistic

The cut modifier gives hairs a more realistic look

Now I use the Cut modifier to simulate some hairs to be cut, broken or shortened over a random parameter, giving a better shape at the edges and a more realistic look. I test the amounts depending on the scales of the hair until I'm pleased. I normally reduce 20% of the hair, and the values vary depending on the groom. For this character, I reduce between 0.0 and 0.2 units per hair.

12. Refine the shape

Now it's back to the grooming

With all the basic modifiers in place, it's time to start grooming again. Now I can see how the groom will look in the future, and the shape is clear, I can adjust the basic groom to have more variance, or to be smoother, to have clumps and coils, or to have a different flow, in each part. The groom can change any time but with all the modifiers in place it's better to work out the shape now.

13. Set up the strays

Add a bit of frizz with the noise modifier

Next, I use an expression to define a custom percentage parameter on the Noise Modifier. With this expression on the Magnitude attribute, I can define how many hairs I affect with the noise parameters, giving me a custom stray attribute for a flexible frizz effect. Here I add two new Noise Modifiers on top of the Cut Modifier with different attributes to make the final look.

14. Test assembly

Do a second test to see how it's all coming together

With all the modifiers in place, I do a second assembly test. This time I add a basic colour to my groom and render with the same set-up, with a colour correction for the backplate. I find some problems with the blending between the render and the actual photograph, but can see that the light is working.

In Photoshop I add an exposure adjustment with a gradient to add more light into the render to blend it better into the scene. The model isn't quite working, so I decide to start exploring different options.

15. Explore characterisation

Step back from your character to get a fresh perspective

When working on a scene, you need to explore and to correct yourself, feed your brain and sometimes even stay away from your work for a while so that you can see it with fresh eyes.

For this project, I needed to try out some different methods and add new elements into the scene. Here I try an apron, a chef's hat, different mouths and facial hair and even some weird mouth drawn onto a Post-it note. Finally, I decide to work with the apron and hat.

16. Adjust the pose

A more flexible pose adds life to your character

To make the props work I need to make the pose more flexible. I add movement to the hands and rotate the body, but keep the basic shape from the photograph as I still want to use the pasta from the backplate. I make the ears longer and separate them to give more movement and a better silhouette.

17. Model the hat

A jaunty angle works wonders for any hat

For the hat, I use a really basic workflow. With some references and taking the early concept into account, I model the base shape in Maya and play around with the model to see where it could work.The hat works in the centre of the head, between the ears, with a little tilt to look more relaxed and cool.

After that I take the model into ZBrush to work on the final detailing and use some cloth alphas to make the final look.

18. Model the apron

Realistic aprons are harder to make than you realise

It takes me more time to finish the apron. I work on the base model directly in Maya and test it over the groom itself because it needs to collide with the hairs. I mainly model the basic shape on a really low-poly and set the parts where the stitches should be.

In ZBrush I decide to add a far higher level of detail and put a lot of work into making the apron look as realistic as possible. With the cloth alphas and also using the Dam_Standard Brush, along with stitches alphas, I manage to make a good-looking model and surface texture for the apron.

19. Test the props

Do a props test to see if it all works together

With all of the models done, it's time to test them in the scene. I import both objects and try them directly with the high-res models. I really like the hat but am not sure about the apron. There is still something missing in the main character, a kind of lack of connectivity. I know the image I have in mind but need to make it real in the scene.

20. Redesign the character

Don't be afraid to go back and remodel your character

After some thought and a break from looking at the screen, I decide I need to reshape the main design. I work directly in ZBrush to adjust the eye cavity to make it friendlier. I also decide to add a big mouth with some gigantic teeth, and rework the hands. The main shape is still there but the character has a lot more personality.

Next page: Retopology, final render, and post production

21. Retopology

Rework the topology to ensure the hair still fits

As he now has a mouth and bigger eyes, I'll need to make selections to adjust the shapes of the hair and where it should grow. I work the retopology of the character completely on Maya, as I want total control over the flow of the edges and loops, and the new tools in Maya 2017 make the character animation-ready.

22. Make the UV map

Make a UV map ready for adding textures

I need to paint the textures, and to do so, the UV will be useful – even if XGen uses Ptex it's still necessary to have a good UV map. Once more, I decide to test the new UV tools that come with the Maya 2017 update 3, which are now simpler, amazingly fast and really easy to use.

23. Re-groom

It's time to go back and groom again

I re-groom the new character still using the groomable splines. I repeat most of the process from before but this time I spend more time on the basic groom. I select just the faces that I want to grow hair from, leaving the eyes and the mouth out of the selection. I work even more on the flow of the hair, add eyebrows by making the hair longer over the eyes, and add more noise into the actual groom, not just on modifiers.

For the hair between the character's ears, I make the hair longer and use the Part Brush to give it shape. I also reduce the length of the hair around the eyes and the mouth, giving a gradient effect between the long and short hair.

24. Import the modifiers

Save time by bringing in the old modifiers

I want to use all the old modifiers, so I go to the old XGen scene and right-click on each modifier, hit Save Modifier, and name each one in order as this will affect the result. To re-import them into the new scene, on the Modifiers tab I click on the folder icon and select Load User.

I import my saved modifiers one by one to build up the same result as before. This time I create masks over the clump modifiers to affect less of the face, producing a smoother result with fewer clumps there.

25. Create the moustache

Use XGen's Guides to make a moustache

I decide to reintroduce the moustache. For this kind of hair, the best way to work is using XGen's Guides as it's faster and the results are great. Working with guides is really easy – I draw just half of the moustache guides, repeating the same process of making the shape and adjusting the size with a rand expression as before. When I find a shape I like I just mirror the guides and the moustache shape is done.

For the final detail, I use the Move Guide tool to make some irregularities on the groom. I follow the same pattern with two Clump Modifiers, a Noise Modifier and finally a Cut Modifier, with just a few strays.

26. Paint the colour

This will look less horrifying once it's on your model

To add colour to the groom, I need to create a custom attribute for the render system to read the information. To do so, I go to Preview and Output and in Custom Shader Parameters I create a Custom Colour Attribute using the root_color convention.

Next I click on the option next to the Attribute to create a map. I click the brush icon and with the Maya 3D paint tool options I start painting my textures. I use a fox's colours as a reference for this guy. If you want to create a custom texture you can generate the Ptex map with Mudbox or 3DCoat – just remember to overwrite the map that Maya created for the custom texture.

27. Create material

Use Redshift to create your materials

I use Redshift for this render. The basic material for hair is almost perfect, so I just make the reflection a bit glossier. I create an RS Attribute Lookup to call in the root_color info. I connect this to the internal reflection of the RShair, and with a multiply/divide node connect the Transmission colour and change the value of the multiplier to 1.5. I finally connect the RS Attribute Lookup to the diffuse slot of the RShair and change the weight of the diffuse value until I like the result.

28. Do the final render

Try to match the original photograph's depth of field

Now I set the render configuration. For smooth results with Redshift, activate Hair min pixel width under the OPT tab on render settings, to solve the transparency of the hair and fix the tessellation, making hair smoother and reducing the render time.

For the render settings, I use max samples of 512 and change the adaptive error threshold to 0.01 as I want almost no noise on the render. On the camera I set an exposure photographic lens and a bokeh lens to simulate the DOF on the photograph.

29. Blend the render and the backplate

Now you need to put everything together

With the final render in place, it's time to begin the final assembly. First I remove the colour and try to leave the backplate as clean as possible to make the blend with the backplate. I always try to remove any colour information and use the backplate in its pristine state.

I mix the render and add a mask for the foreground to leave the table and the plates behind the render. Having the render on the scene means I'll need to colour-correct the render so that its colour intensity, saturation and white and black points are close to the backplate's from the image. I put a B&W adjustment on top of everything to help me to fix the values of the render from there.

30. Post-production and effects

The free Nik collection is great for post-processing in Photoshop

With both the render and the backplate under the same lighting conditions, it's now easier to work on the post-production elements. I normally use the Nik collection pack to help me with the process and with blending it better. At this stage, I can also add effects to the scene – I add more steam coming out from the stove behind the character. With a radial blur, I give a motion blur effect just to the arms.

31. Colour grading and cropping

A few final fixes and you're good to go

Finally at the end of the road, I can finalise the colour grading, fix the contrast and give more balance to the tones, including lightening the colour of his moustache. I am still not too sure about the look of the scene, but I flip it around horizontally and it creates the effect I was hoping for.

I work a little bit more on the contrast on the wall to make the character's silhouette more visible and striking. I finally do a crop with a little rotation of the composition to fix the tension points and the render is done!

This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 223; buy it here!

Related articles:

View the full article

Sign In