Introduction

There are a multitude of reasons why you’ll want to create a turntable. This could be to show off the shape and form of your model, or how your fancy metallic shader reflects light, or how your skin shader absorbs and scatters light.

For personal projects, you may create turntables to demonstrate your skills to the outside world or to a prospective employer. And if you are working at a studio, you may need to create a turntable for your supervisor to review the progress of your work, or the client may want to assess the current state of play. Generally, at each stage of the asset journey, turntables are created to demonstrate your work, and often, you’ll create new turntables as you version up to illustrate the changes from one iteration to the next.

For example, you may block out your model, generate a turntable and then send it to your supe for review. You’ll then be provided with some feedback, to which you’ll make some changes, render out another turntable and submit that new version for review. And so on, and so on.

The below image is a snippet from Modelling Fundamentals 1001 that covers modelling and also the importance of feedback and iterative workflows.

For personal projects, you obviously have full creative control of your turntables, so you can do whatever you like in terms of framing and rendering. And if you are working for a studio, they’ll generally provide you with a framework to generate your turntable.

Here we’ll provide some guidance on how we recommend you frame your assets for turntables based on what is the “norm” at studios and what we find works best when it comes to ‘communication’. Because at the end of the day, that is what we are using the turntable for:

Communication

Framing your Asset

Whether you are creating a turntable for modelling and sculpting, or surfacing (texturing, look development and groom), or even rigging (a ROM test) our general philosophy when framing assets is to:

Make the asset the star of the show!

One of the reasons we are kicking off with the above statement is because lately, we’ve spotted the primary asset in a number of turntables being pushed to one side and reference kits (grey ball, chrome ball and colour chart) being muscled in on the action.

For example…

Now, we have nothing against reference kits being in the frame and visible in a turntable render. However, if you were photographing a real-world asset, then as a photographer, you would generally frame your asset in the centre and have the asset fill as much of the frame as possible (with a bit of space either side so the asset it not too close to the edge of the frame). If you still have space to have the reference kit on the side of the shot and it is not distracting, then great, go for it. Heck, you could even pop some scale reference into the shot.

Alternatively, you can take separate shots of the reference, shot from the same position as the main asset and then ‘comp’ them into your turntable. But to reiterate, your asset should be the main star in the frame. At CAVE, our shoot order goes something like so (which is what we usually do in a real-world scenario) to ensure the asset itself gets the star treatment:

• Shoot the colour chart
• Shoot the grey card
• Shoot the grey ball
• Shoot the chrome ball
• Shoot the asset

If you would like more info on the grey, chrome and colour chart, you can follow the link here:

• The Grey, the Chrome and the Colour Chart

Have a Photographer Mindset

Continuing on the theme of ‘making your asset the star of the show’, as you set up your turntables, we highly suggest you:

Think and frame your asset like a real-world photographer

For example, imagine you were tasked with capturing some real-world studio photography of George Clooney as your VFX studio has been commissioned with creating a digi-double of him. In such a task, it would be best not to ask George to move to one side, so you could squeeze in the reference kit for the shot.

Instead, you’d ideally have him stand in the middle of the frame, and you’d have him fill as much of the frame as possible as can be seen below. This example has been rendered using our CAVE Academy Character Light Rig 1003.

Before the actor arrives, we would actually calibrate our setup and then shoot the reference, so we are prepared from the offset for the actor.

The actor (in this instance, George), can walk in, stand in position, pose and turn, and we can capture our reference. Once George has left the room, and if we feel we need to, would could also re-shoot the reference at the end of the take. Why re-shoot the reference? There are a number of reasons why. For example, maybe we did have to quickly re-position the camera, or maybe we did have to slightly tweak the brightness of a light, or change a camera setting.

Portrait or Landscape

In terms of framing in portrait or landscape mode, this all depends on the asset itself and the pose you need to capture. If you have a wide asset (like a car), it makes more sense to shoot in landscape mode. But If you have a tall asset (like a giraffe), then portrait mode might be best.

I’m sure many would like a “one-size-fits-all” setup but as assets come in so many shapes and sizes, you’ll find that such a setup may not ‘communicate’ your asset as best it can. Of course you’ll be able to use a specific setup for a selection of assets that are of a similar size, but we’d recommend you create alternative setups for assets of other sizes. For example, a small light rig (prop setup), medium light rig (character setup) and large light rig (vehicle setup).

A huge thanks to Glenese Hand for the exellent Robby the Robot asset, rendered using our CAVE Academy Prop Light Rig 1003.

And here is a spaceship asset created by Christopher Antoniou and rendered using our CAVE Academy Vehicle Light Rig 1003.

For framing a character, such as George, it will depend on what we want to do with his arms. For example, in an A-pose, shooting in portrait mode should do the trick. But… if you are shooting a T-pose, then it would be best to shoot in landscape mode. And if you need to shoot both an A and a T-pose, then we would suggest you stick with landscape mode, so your camera positioning and framing is consistent.

The primary aim here is to have the asset fill as much of the frame as possible but also not to waste time rendering a portion of the image where it does not add any value to the turntable. Rendering may get faster year-on-year, but it still takes time and compute power. So if it does not communicate anything, then does it need rendering?

If you are looking to present your work in a widescreen format and you think you need to “fill” the frame with additional content, remember that you can always add references or other images into a contact sheet.

Here is another example, where the extremely talented Yadnyesh Dalvi has made the most of the frame by setting up a contact sheet.

Although we are talking about a character, in this instance (George), this is also our recommendation for props, vehicles and any other asset too. In a number of turntables, we’ve also spottedmuch of the attention being paid to the turntable itself. For example, a small prop sitting on a turntable as seen below. This makes it difficult to assess the main asset which looks puny on-screen.

For a supervisor or a client, this again makes it difficult to assess the work, so instead, we say don’t worry about the turntable, and push your camera in (or zoom in) so your asset is once again the star of the show.

If you struggle to get into the mindset of what a real-world photographer would do, you can easily set up a test shoot. You can mock up a prop shoot or grab some buddies and set up a full body shoot. Play with the framing and act out how you would treat a real individual and how you would ask them to pose and turn, and consider the lens you would shoot with and the camera position and framing. By experimenting in real-life, you’ll be able to add a level of believability to your digital work.

Here is a snippet from Creating Digital Studio Look Development Environments 1001 that covers capturing real-world reference and then creating digital look dev environments.

Be Consistent with your Framing between Departments

As mentioned in the introduction, the journey of an asset goes through many stages and in a production pipeline. Many individuals will collaborate with you to get to the final result. You’ll have a modeller, a texture artist, a look dev artist, a groom artist, a rigger, and so on. Sometimes, one individual may be responsible for a number of the tasks but all-in-all, it’s a collaborative effort.

To make it easy for your supe or the client to review the asset, we recommend you:

• Lock the camera as soon as possible and have all relevant departments use the same dataset.

This will allow your supe or the client to compare different versions of the asset at any one particular stage of the pipeline and also across the different departments. If you are working on a personal project, it also allows you to clearly demonstrate how your asset progresses from one stage to the next. We also recommend you keep your lighting consistent too.

By doing this, your supe or client is only comparing the changes made to the asset from one version to the next. If you were to also tweak the lighting and/or the camera, then it becomes more difficult to hone in and assess the changes being made. When too many variables are being tweaked, it makes it more difficult to give feedback and this may confuse your supe and the client.

Here is a model turntable of an Iron Man asset, created by Jonathan Reilly. Make sure to check out his fantastic work here: Inner Freak

 

And here is a shaded version of the same asset:

If you feel you are not showing off your asset to its full potential, then create a few more cameras or different light rigs. Maybe you want to do some close ups for example. It is worthwhile for all the departments who will be responsible for the asset to get together and discuss how best to frame the asset and what cameras/light rigs it would be worthwhile creating to best “sell” the asset to the supervisor/client.

Here are more fancy renders of Iron Man, modelled by Jonathan Reilly. In the below examples, we’ve set up a camera for the full body and a seperate camera for the head.

…and by “sell”, I am not trying to imply that you are looking to “dupe” your supervisor/client into thinking the asset looks better than it does, but more you are trying to show the asset under the best scenario to “communicate” the shape and form, and the textures and materials. For example, maybe your characters costume has elements of carbon fibre and this effect is more noticeable as the light moves around the asset or from specific angles.

Summary

So…to sum things up:

• Communication is key.
• Make the asset the star of the show!
• Lock the camera (and the light rig) as soon as possible and have all relevant departments use the same dataset.
• Add additional cameras and light rigs should you need to.

…and one more to add to the list, is:

• Keep it simple.

We understand that adding the reference kit to a turntable can add an element of VFX je ne sais quoi. But do consider the purpose of the turntable. It is to ‘communicate’ to the outside world, or your supe or your client, something about the asset and the progress that has been made.

Until next time, au revoir.

Training

For more information on all things onset and model related, you can check out our courses here:

• Introduction to Maya 1001
• Modelling Fundamentals 1001
• Onset Data Acquisition 1001
• Creating Digital Studio Look Development Environments 1001

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