Making Of 'Zitto'

Introduction

Hello, my name is Fernando Faustino Ribeiro (Ferpulha) and I'm Character Animator and Character Designer.  I'm actually working on Renderbrasil, and I generally really enjoy working with animation. On my character, 'Zito', I wanted to create a tiny, non-proportioned character, simply because I like cartoons.  For the environment, I decided on an alien planet.

Modelling

I used polygon modelling for the creation of the scene and character, and I concentrated on the details like the nails and teeth, especially those with edge loops for good deformation.   I worked on the pretence of animating him at some point in the future (Fig.01 - 02).

UV Mapping

A really important process that I took care of was the UV Mapping.  With UV mapping, it is possible to take care of the tiny details in the scene (Fig.03).

Fig. 03

Texturing

With the mapping done, I spent some time working on the details and textures.  I used stained glass effect from Photoshop to create the wrinkles of the skin (Fig.04 - 05).

Fig. 04

Fig. 05

Rigging

I made a simple rig with a spline and used some controls to stand the character in his pose (Fig.06).

Fig. 06

Shader

I used vray materials here, because the native Maya material doesn't work with V-Ray (Fig.07 - 08).

Fig. 07

Fig. 08

Lighting & Rendering

I used two lights: one VRayLightSphere with principal light making shadows, and one VRayLightRect to act as a fill (Fig.09).

To render this scene, I used V-Ray with Maya.  I had worked with it in 3ds Max before, and so I was curious to see its behaviour in Maya.

I used GI for good radiosity in scene, and used a good HDR for reflection (Fig.10).

Fig. 09

Fig. 10

Compositing

To finish the scene, I did some compositing in Photoshop.  I used a paintbrush to paint the clouds in the sky, and I used a moon image to compose the scene.  I thought it would be amusing to put two moons in the scene to illustrate an unknown galaxy (Fig.11).

Fig. 11

Tip: In my quest to find a good result, I came up with a good conclusion: to not be lazy and to create as many details as possible, because it's the small details that can add a lot to your image!

I hope you have enjoyed this brief making of.   Thanks a lot 3DTotal for the Excellence Award!

Fig. 12