Introduction

Just a quick note that although this document is hosted under ‘Surfacing’ (Texturing, Look Development and Groom), we’ll primarily be setting up a model turntable. We’ll be using the following 2 setups for this walkthrough:

• Maya Character Look Development and Lighting Rig 1003
• Maya Studio Look Development and Lighting Environment 1003

For this example, we’ve been provided with a fantastic model of a cyberNinja by the extremely talented artist, Burjis Shroff.

…and the output will be something like so:

If you want to go about creating your own setups, check out the following course:

• Creating Digital Studio Look Development Environments

01. Introduction Prepping your Asset

To kick things off, we’ll look at prepping our asset. This includes checking the asset scale (it should be in real-world units), and adding some generic shaders, of which you can find here:

• CAVE Library Materials – Generic (Maya/Arnold)

02. Importing the CAVE Studio and the Light Rig

Here, we’ll be importing the CAVE Studio 1003 and Chracter Light Rig 1003, and checking that all comes in as expected.

• Maya Character Look Development and Lighting Rig 1003
• Maya Studio Look Development and Lighting Environment 1003

03. Framing your Asset and Depth of Field

In this video, we cover how to go about framing your asset and setting up your depth of field (DOF). Please note, DOF will slow down your down your renders but it sure does make things feel photographic. For more info on DOF, check out this doc:

• Rendering with Depth of Field

04. Shader Tweaks and Test Rendering

Here we will modify the base shaders and then kick off some test renders.

05. Rendering your Asset

With everything good to go, let’s look at rendering out our frames.

06. Rendering a Clay Shader Turntable

Here, we’ll take a step back and render a neutral grey clay shader. Please note that I usually render in this order for supervisor sign off:

• v001. Clay neutral grey shader pass
• v002. Grey generic materials pass (metal, plastic, etc.)
• v003. Look dev and beyond

07. A Very Quick Shader Pass

In this video, we kick off the look development of the asset. Please do note that this is not intended to be a look dev lesson and is more to demonstrate the idea of re-using the light rig and cameras for all stages of the asset creation pipeline (model, surfacing, rigging, etc.)

08. Conclusion

In our final video, we’ll give a summary of all that we have covered and look at the final output.

Onset Training

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

• Creating Digital Studio Look Development Environments
• Onset Data Acquisition 1001
• Introduction to Cameras and Lenses 1001
• Shooting HDRIs and Panoramas 1001
• Shooting Texture and Look Development Reference 1001

The Connection Programme

If you are a fan of mixing science with art, or maths with creative thinking, then join our Connection Programme, where we’ll be exploring VFX, animation and games from the core fundamentals:

• The Connection Programme

Links

Support CAVE Academy

Here at CAVE Academy the beauty of giving and sharing is very close to our hearts. With that spirit, we gladly provide Masterclasses, Dailies, the Wiki, and many high-quality assets free of charge. To enable the team to create and release more free content, you can support us here: Support CAVE Academy