《血親兄弟》的制作（二）

紋理

食肉龍是在ZBrush中被著色和打開。我只是喜歡打開一個模型。使用polygroups和ZBrush的UVMaster，你可以在幾分鐘內(nèi)得到體面的解包。如果你花更多的時間，你可以得到非常好的結(jié)果。使用多組創(chuàng)建UV島，此外可以通過掩蔽或多色繪制輕松創(chuàng)建，這是一件輕而易舉的事情。這很有趣，我應(yīng)該這樣說，因為我討厭UVW貼圖 - 我鄙視它。當我還是一個初學者的時候，我想我可能永遠也學不到UVW，因為我剛開始的時候，它對我來說太難了。從原來的血親兄弟圖像里的食肉龍獸沒有unwrapped。我使用了投影映射方法。

Texturing

The Carnotaurus was colored and unwrapped in ZBrush. I just love how easy it has become to unwrap a model. Using polygroups and ZBrush's UVMaster you can get decent unwrap in a matter of minutes. If you spend a bit more time you can get really nice results. Creating UV islands with polygroups, which in addition can be easily created by masking or polypainting, is a breeze. It's funny that I should say this because I hated UVW mapping - I despised it. At a couple of points when I was a beginner I thought I would probably never learn UVW because it seemed so difficult to me back when I was just starting out. The original Carnotaurus from the original Brothers In Blood image were not unwrapped. I used a projection mapping method.

由于在ZBrush中展開的過程已經(jīng)被大量的教程覆蓋了，所以我只是跳過基本步驟。一旦你有了你的模型，在最低的細分設(shè)置中將它分成多個組（圖18）。

Since the process of unwrapping in ZBrush has been covered inside out by numerous tutorials, I'll just fly over the basic steps. Once you have your model, split it into polygroups at the lowest subdivision setting (Fig.18).

Fig.18

圖18

然后進入ZPlugin / UVMaster并點擊UVMaster調(diào)色板上的克隆工作按鈕（圖19）。現(xiàn)在，您可以通過單擊“啟用控件涂色”和“保護”按鈕，開始保護要保持接縫清潔的網(wǎng)格區(qū)域。

Then step into the ZPlugin/UVMaster and click the Work on Clone button in the UVMaster palette (Fig.19). Now you are ready to start protecting areas of the mesh that you want to keep clean of seams by clicking Enable Control Painting and the Protect button.

Fig. 19

圖19

一旦你這樣做，你可以另外確保接縫出現(xiàn)在特定的點上畫線，你想要你的接縫出現(xiàn)。您可以通過單擊UVMaster的“啟用控件繪畫”部分下的“吸引”按鈕來實現(xiàn)。在我的恐龍頭上，我也使用密度設(shè)置來使UVW的島嶼變得更大，從而使細節(jié)更清晰，分辨率更高。

一切準備就緒后，ZBrush magic開始。如果您之前沒有做過，點擊Polygroups按鈕，然后點擊Unwrap。一旦ZBrush為你計算UVW，就可以看到結(jié)果（圖20）。

Once you do that, you can additionally make sure the seams appear at specific points by painting lines where you want your seams to appear. You can do that by clicking the Attract button under the Enable Control Painting section of UVMaster. With my dinosaurs' heads I also used density settings to make the UVW islands a bit bigger so the details there ended up cleaner and at a larger resolution.

After everything is prepped, ZBrush magic kicks in. Click the Polygroups button to On if you haven't done that before and then click Unwrap. Once ZBrush computes UVW for you, flatten to see the result (Fig.20).

Fig. 20

圖20

注意：在創(chuàng)建法線貼圖時，可能需要對UVW島嶼進行一些重新定位以獲得更好的結(jié)果，并盡量減少法線貼圖接縫。這是困擾其他偉大模型的東西。這些接縫出現(xiàn)在您的UVW地圖島嶼彼此相遇的模型部分。用于減少或完全去除法線貼圖接縫的一個很好的應(yīng)用是XNormal。

更好的做法是盡量創(chuàng)造盡可能少的UVW島嶼。嘗試找到不太明顯的接縫的位置，并在可能被您正在創(chuàng)建的角色的特定解剖結(jié)構(gòu)隱藏的位置找到位置。這是我自己仍在改善的一個領(lǐng)域。在圖21中，您可以看到我的Carnotaurus模型如何分布接縫。

Note: You might need to do some repositioning of UVW islands to get better results while creating Normal maps, and to minimize the Normal map seams. This is something that plagues otherwise great models. These seams appear on parts of the model where your UVW map islands meet each other. A good application to use to reduce or completely remove Normal map seams is XNormal.

An even better thing is to practice and try to create as few UVW islands as possible. Try and find places for seams that are less visible, and in places where they might be hidden by the specific anatomy of the character you are creating. This is an area I'm still improving upon myself. In Fig.21 you can see how my Carnotaurus model had its seams distributed.

Fig. 21

圖21

當你決定你已經(jīng)完成了UVW地圖，你很滿意，復制UVWs并粘貼到原來的模型，其中有細分步驟�，F(xiàn)在你需要創(chuàng)建所有的地圖。我通常創(chuàng)建三個地圖：顏色，位移和正常（圖22）。

When you decide you have finalized the UVW map and you are happy with it, copy the UVWs and paste them onto the original model, the one with the subdivision steps. Now you need to create all the maps. I usually create three maps: Color, Displacement and Normal (Fig.22).

Fig.22

圖22

這是您需要在所需的細分步驟中導出地圖和模型的階段。最快的方法是點擊GOZ按鈕，將所有對象和地圖自動導出到您用于渲染的第三方應(yīng)用程序中。

我希望不久的將來，這一步對于我們中的一些人來說就不那么重要了，尤其是考慮到ZBrush的BPR設(shè)置有多快。不久，我們將最終在一個包中提供一個優(yōu)秀的建模工具和一個偉大的渲染引擎。

This is the phase where you need to export maps and the model at the desired subdivision steps. The fastest way to do so this is to hit the GOZ button that automatically exports all the objects and maps into the third party application that you use for rendering.

I hope soon that this step will be less important for some of us, especially considering how quickly the BPR settings in ZBrush are being developed. Soon we will end up with a superb modeling tool and a great render engine in one package.

渲染

回到圖片！渲染是在3ds Max中完成的，我使用了mental ray渲染器。由于我仍然在學習和改善渲染技巧，材料使用和燈光場景，所以我的設(shè)置絕對沒有什么突破，但是如果您處在我以下的某個級別，那么您可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)我的輸入很有幫助。您可以在“材質(zhì)編輯器”中看到我的SSS外觀著色器設(shè)置（圖23）。這是我通過SSS資料分發(fā)地圖的方式。這是非常基本的東西。我不斷地使用設(shè)置，將不同的地圖應(yīng)用于不同的插槽和材質(zhì)，以獲得更好的效果。對于這個圖像，我使用位移和法線貼圖進行位移和凹凸，以及彩色和空洞的地圖的顏色，鏡面反射率和反射率。

Rendering

Back to the image! The rendering was done in 3ds Max and I used the mental ray renderer. Since I am still learning and improving my rendering skills, material usage and lighting scenes, my settings are definitely nothing ground breaking, but if you are at some level below me then you might find my input helpful. You can see my SSS skin shader settings in the Material Editor (Fig.23). This is the way I distribute maps over SSS material. It's very basic stuff. I constantly play with the settings, applying different maps to different slots and material properties to get something better. For this image I used Displacement and Normal maps for displacement and bump, as well as Color and Cavity maps for color, specularity and reflectivity.

Fig.23

圖23

照明是我絕對需要改進的東西，所以我不會花太多時間在這個部分（圖24）。從viewport快照中可以看到燈光是如何布置的。恐龍被放置在具有全景球形地圖的球形物體內(nèi)，作為恐龍皮膚反射的環(huán)境（圖25）。渲染器設(shè)置是默認設(shè)置。

Lighting is something I definitely need to improve, so I'm not going to spend much time on this part (Fig.24). From the viewport snap it shows how the lights were laid out. The dinosaurs were placed inside a sphere object that had a panoramic spherical map that acted as an environment for the reflections on the dinosaurs' skin (Fig.25). The renderer settings were the default ones.

Fig.24

圖24

Fig.25

圖25

合成

Photoshop是合成任務(wù)的主力。這是項目的一部分，你可以做到或打破它。我更喜歡合成不同類型的元素來渲染一切。渲染是你需要更多技術(shù)的地方。我認為，合成是一個更加藝術(shù)化的方法。你需要找到將所有東西無縫融合在一起的方法，而不僅僅是這一點 - 所有的東西都需要看起來很漂亮，并且看起來很悅目。為了能夠混合某些圖層和區(qū)域，您必須知道如何覆蓋它。

這是我在幾個步驟中解釋的合成工作流程。首先，我將所有渲染的恐龍圖層導入PSD文件（圖26）。然后我將它們放在畫布上，并設(shè)置所需的畫布比例。這樣做，有趣的部分開始了。

Compositing

Photoshop was the workhorse for the compositing task. This is the part of the project where you can make it or break it. I prefer compositing different kinds of elements over rendering everything. Rendering is where you need to be more technical. Compositing is a much more artistically dependant method, I think. You need to find the way to seamlessly blend everything together, and not just that - everything needs to look nice and be pleasing to the eye. To be able to blend certain layers and areas you must know how to overpaint it.

This is my compositing workflow explained in a couple of steps. First I imported all the rendered dinosaur layers in the PSD file (Fig.26). I then positioned them on the canvas and set the desired canvas proportions. That being done, the fun part began.

Fig.26

圖26

接下來是背景。一個好的背景可以帶來模型;一個壞的可以把他們拆了。我用我自己的圖庫的照片，這些照片每天都在變大。我是一個狂熱的攝影師，我傾向于隨時把我的相機帶上我（圖27）。

Next was the background. A good background can bring up the models; a bad one can tear them down. I used photos from my own libraries, which are getting bigger by each day. I'm an avid photographer and I tend to take my camera with me whenever I can (Fig.27).

Fig.27

圖27

我嘗試了幾個云背景的天空/云背景。當我滿意的時候，我開始修理云照片，畫出我認為不符合圖像的東西。

最難的部分是地面。我想要的是一個干涸的湖泊，或是一條大河床。你可以清楚地看到潮濕的斑塊和溪流流向更大的水坑。我用了幾張照片來把它們合并成一個更大的圖像。然后，我使用克隆圖章工具，“筆刷鉛筆”和“拾色器”工具將兩個不同照片相撞的點混合在一起。水流在兩個單獨的層上被涂上，以增加在地平面上的混合效果。在圖28中，您可以看到整個圖像的粗略分解。

I tried a couple of cloud backgrounds for the skies/cloud background. When I was happy I started fixing the cloud photo and painting out whatever I thought didn't fit the image.

The hardest part was the ground. I wanted to achieve the look of a drying lake, or a large river bed. You can clearly see wet patches and streams of water flowing towards bigger puddles. I used a couple of photos for the ground and combined them into one bigger image. Then I used the Clone Stamp tool, Brush Pencil and Color Picker tool to blend in points where two different photos were colliding. The water streams were painted on top of that on two separate layers to increase the blend effect across the ground plane. In the Fig.28 you can see a rough break-down of the entire image.

Fig.28

圖28

恐龍的腳印是一個有趣的部分。我用自己的恐龍腳印，在2011年夏天的時候，我用泥土創(chuàng)造了自己的腳印。我把一些泥土放在一個淺的容器里，讓它干燥一點。后來，我用手指在其中印刷了不同的腳印。然后我在不同的時間，從不同的角度拍攝他們。這些對于合成項目如恐龍腳印的創(chuàng)造來說是非常寶貴的（圖29）。

The dinosaurs' footprints were a fun part. I used my own dino footprints that I created in mud over the course of summer 2011. I put some mud inside a shallow container and let it dry up a bit. Later on I printed different sets of footprints in it using my fingers. Then I photographed them at different times of day and from different angles. These are now invaluable when it comes to dinosaur footprint creation in compositing projects such as this one (Fig.29).

Fig.29

圖29

在我的合成過程中，我傾向于最終創(chuàng)建數(shù)十個圖層，在創(chuàng)建過程中，我合并為了保持圖層數(shù)量可以由我和我的機器管理。這就是為什么我會在合并特定圖層之前將其進度保存在單獨的文件中，以防以后再返回到特定的部分。在這樣一個更大規(guī)模的圖像中迷失很容易。人們可以很容易地忽略一些部分，并通知他們幾天，或者在一些情況下，幾個月后，完成的作品。

In my compositing process I tend to end up with dozens of layers that, over the course of creation, I merge down to keep the layer count manageable by me and my machine. This is why I save my progress on separate files prior to merging specific layers in case if I want to return to that specific part at a later time. It is pretty easy to get lost in a bigger scale image like this one is. One can easily overlook some parts and notice them days, or in some cases months, after the completion of the piece.

結(jié)論

創(chuàng)建這個圖像是一個有趣的旅程（圖30）。我喜歡在那里花時間創(chuàng)作古老主題的插圖和模型。我希望這篇文章能夠讓我們更好地理解如何像“血親兄弟”這樣的插圖。下次要注意，要有成效!

Conclusion

Creating this image was a fun ride (Fig.30). I enjoy moments where I can spend time creating paleo-themed illustrations and models. I hope this Making Of article gave a better understanding of what it takes to make am illustration like Brothers In Blood II. Until next time, take care and be productive!

Fig.30

圖30