Started by placing a camera with the same proportions of the concept image that I’m going to model. I add a camera with Shift + A and select Camera, I arrange it into position and click on Numpad 0, to see from inside the camera. Use N to view the properties menu of the viewport. In View used Lock Camera to View, and move the camera with ease, when the correct position is reached, remove it so could no longer move. This makes it easy to know what will be inside and outside the shot when modeling.

When the object is simple, Polygonal Modeling is sufficient and you can sculpt details at the end. If the form is complex, first make a very basic Sculpture, then a Retopology and at the end sculpt the final details. In this part of the process, I used only 3 modifiers, Solidify to give thickness to planes, Subdivision Surface to subdivide the model and Multiresolution to add details in Sculpt Mode.

Started with some spheres, in Sculpt Mode activate Dyntopo to give it the general shape of the beard and add some detail, then Retopology to give shape to the mesh, finally add the modifier Multiresolution and again in Sculpt Mode give some last details.

With cylinders and boxes I make the base, detailing general forms in Sculpt Mode, making a Retopology and refining the form, at the end I added the modifier Multiresolution and sculpt some details in Sculpt Mode.

The base is a cylinder and a plane, I use the Solidify modifier and the Grid Fill tool, then the Multiresolution modifier to add the last details in Sculpt Mode.

Making the base with a cube and some planes, giving thickness with Solidify and then doing a Subdivision, add Edge Loops. Finally a Multiresolution modifier and add detail in Sculpt Mode.

Added a Cylinder, made holes in zigzag, then added the modifier Subdivision and then the Solidify and apply it.

Add a Curve, give it thickness with Bevel Depth and turn it into Mesh.

• PREPARE THE MODEL:

  In this model, I have a HighPoly bag with the Multiresolution modifier with 5 subdivisions, I make a copy downscaling to 1 subdivision, then apply the modifier. This new one is the LowPoly. (2.4.1)

• MARKING SEAMS:

  To the LowPoly I marked the seams with Mark Seams and hide them as best as possible, it is necessary to do several tests to get a good result when doing the Unwrap. (2.4.2)

• UNWRAPING:

  Select all the faces and then Unwrap with U> Unwrap, there are two methods and I always try both to see which has the best result Angle based or Conformal. Pack everything with Pack Island. Finally, the TexTools Add-On to align and make some islands straight in the UV / Image Editor. (2.4.3)

• TEXEL DENSITY:

  The resolution of the texture is measured with texel density, the goal is that all objects have the same texel density, but sometimes it is not possible. In this case, I made two categories, one with the general objects with a texel density of 2048 px / mts and the Cowboy with the double 4096 px / mts to be able to make shots like Close-ups, for this I used the Add-On Texel Density Checker. (2.4.4)

Select all LowPoly objects, and export the scene as FBX. Then export a selection of objects separately in HighPoly, for this it is necessary to activate “Selected Objects” when exporting. The HighPolys will serve to bake details about the LowPoly within Substance Painter.

Select the output size of 4096 and do the bake of all the maps except the Normal map, for those I make another bake for each mesh, selecting the mesh HighPoly in the Area of High Definition Meshes.

PBR is a physically correct method for texturing and rendering, it is easier to achieve more realism than the previous method (Specular / Glossiness), since it has the limitation that it always looks realistic and that light behaves well in any environment. Within Substance Painter I used the Workflow Metal / Roughness where different types of maps are used.

• Base Color (sRGB – RGB)

  This map is composed of diffuse reflected color (Albedo), and metallic reflectance values.

• Metallic (Grayscale – Linear)

  It is a mask where white is metallic and black is non-metallic

• Roughness (Grayscale – Linear)

  It represents the Microsurfaces, indicating with black the areas that are soft and with white the rough

• Height (Grayscale – Linear)

  This map adds apparent thickness to the surface.

• Ambient Occlusion (Grayscale – Linear)

  It defines how much light from the environment is accessible to the surface.

• Normal (RGB)

  Simulates details by projecting them on the surface based on an RGB map, where the R (red) is the X-axis, the G (green) is the Y-axis and the B (blue) is the Z-axis.

• Emissive (RGB)

  Select where and what color are the emissive materials.

• Scattering (Grayscale – Linear)

  It is a mask where the white is translucent and the black area is not..

Base Color, Roughness and Height are the base of the basic materials (3.5.1). With this basic combination, I solve non-metallic materials. I use three levels of details for each type of map and grouped them into folders. (3.5.2) General Details, Small Details, and Occlusion Details.

This method is used to apply the masks:
1. Add a Fill Layer.
2. Add a Mask.
3. The mask is seen to the right of the Fill Layer.
4. Add a Generator to the Mask.
5. The Generator is below the Mask.
6. Select Mask Editor.

There are several parameters within the Generator – Mask Editor (3.6.3), each parameter has different effects. The most used are the Ambient Occlusion and Curvature, you can see the different parameters working in the image (3.6.2). Also, you can add up to 2 textures and you can combine the parameters.

1. Add a Generator to the mask and choose the Mask Editor.
2. Add a Fill and select a map in Grayscale.
3. Again add a Fill and select a different map in Grayscale.
4. Repeat the previous step, but on the Grayscale Map use a smaller scale.
5. Add the Levels effect.
6. Finally add a Fill and select a map in Grayscale.

To solve this I used the same .FBX file, and made different .SPP files of Substance Painter, for this project I divided the scene into six files of Substance Painter:

FILE 1: Bags, belts, and other objects.
FILE 2: Clothing, glasses, hats, gloves and arms.
FILE 3: Main weapon.
FILE 4: The girl.
FILE 5: The train.
FILE 6: Floor, money and bags.

To export the textures, go to File > Export Textures, create a new Preset and name it Blender Cycles (3.9.1)

With the Add-On Node Wrangler activated, I used the Control + Shift + T shortcut and load the basic PBR maps. Selected the BaseColor, Metalness, Roughness and Normal Map maps, they connect automatically. Manually you have to add maps such as Ambient Occlusion, Emissive or Scattering.

As for the textures, I made a collage of my references for each character, in this case the cowboy. Defining the type of hair, then deciding which part is smooth and which is rough.

Divide the hair into three areas: In green the beard, in blue the hair and in yellow the moustache. Each area has 2 particle systems.

The beard (in green) has more roughness, the hair (in blue) is smooth and the whiskers (in yellow) are between smooth and rough.

Any type of mesh can be an Emitter, it can be visible or invisible.

Here the length and number of particles are decided, also the roughness and style.

With the new Principled Hair BSDF material, it is easier to be more realistic.

Material:

1. Activate the use of hair.
2. Use Principled Hair BSDF.

( Principled Hair Shader is only found in Blender 2.79 Experimental onwards )

Particle System:

3. Went to the particles and selected the Hair type.
4. Selected the material, and left the same amount in B-spline and Display Steps.
5. Selected Interpolated, and match Display and Render. Finally used Clump and Roughness Curves.
6. In Kink selected the style.
7. Decided the length and left the number at zero.

Particle Edition:

8. Activate Particle Edit, turn on the Selection by Points, and in tools I select Add.

9. Select Count to define the number of hairs per click, Keys is the number of vertex per hair. I matched Draw to the last Path Steps (8) and mark Children.

10. With Add you can insert a hair and move it with Comb, finally used Clump Curve to decide the thickness of the hair.

Material:

1. Used Principled Hair BSDF.

( Principled Hair Shader only works in Cycles )

Particle System:

2. Went to the particles and selected the Hair type.
3. Selected the material, and leaving the same amount in B-spline and Display Steps.
4. Selected Interpolated, match Display and Render.
5. Used Clump and Roughness Curves.
6. In Kink selected the style.
7. Decide the length and left the number at zero.

Particle Edition:

8. Activated Particle Edit, turned on the selection by points and in tools I select Add.
9. Selected Count to define the number of hairs per click, Keys is the number of vertex per hair. I match Draw to the last Path Steps (8) and mark Children.
10. With Add insert a hair and move it with Comb, finally use Clump Curve to decide the thickness of the hair.

The area where the simulation is located, the smoke can not leave this area.

It is the mesh where smoke, fire or both are produced.

The Principled Volume BSDF material is the PBR material for making smoke.

This generates a constant force in only one direction.

1. Domain

Select Smoke and then Domain. I start with 64 Divisions. Adaptative Domain makes the simulation faster. High Resolution increases the resolution to the details. I make the Bake in OpenVDB format.

2. Flow:

Choose Smoke and then select Flow, upload Surface to have more smoke in the scene.

3. Material:

The material Principled Volume combines all the components of Volume in a single node. In this case, I increase only Density so that the smoke is thicker.

4. Wind:

It generates a force field in only one direction, the power is indicated in Strength and it is noted in the distance between each circle.

To use the Depth Of Field in Blender, it is necessary to have a Camera and an Empty Object, this is used to Focus. Blender 2.79 Use Size to Focus, but in Blender 2.80 Emulate a Camera and use F- Stop. (4.5.1). I did several tests on Size before deciding which one I would use. (4.5.2)

Make sure that the resolution is correct and to 100%, The minimum necessary Samples, in case of using Hair have selected that option, in case of simulating smoke it is necessary to have a number in Volume. The Passes option that suits you best. Finally, Denoising to remove the noise.

Normally I use the GPU to render, but I have a limit of 8 Gigabytes of VRAM Memory when the scene passes that amount of memory it gives me a Memory error. With the new option in Blender User Preferences, we can use GPU + CPU, with that the memory limit is ruled by the CPU. In this new project, I upgraded the memory of the PC to 64 Gigs of RAM to take advantage of this specific option.

I divide the post-production into three methods:

Color Correction With Camera RAW I seek to balance the colors, modifying the lights, shadows and sharpness of the image.

Color Grading Using LUTs improving the visual tone of the image for aesthetic and narrative purposes.

Emphasis Use Vignetting, Gradients and Masks to focus the eyes on the most important parts of the image.