WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.726 Hi and welcome! I'm Julien Kaspar and almost 00:04.738 --> 00:09.260 two years ago I made this video and also a 00:09.261 --> 00:16.000 course on the Blender Studio website. Since then I created a second character for this 00:16.001 --> 00:19.119 particular lineup of open source characters. 00:19.131 --> 00:22.260 I did all of this live on the Blender Studio 00:22.261 --> 00:28.100 channel and there are even more time lapses on the Blender Studio website. But this 00:28.101 --> 00:32.109 video is meant as one big recap of the creation of 00:32.121 --> 00:35.980 snow. So what did I do differently in comparison 00:35.981 --> 00:39.483 to rain and why? And also I want to talk about 00:39.495 --> 00:42.780 some of the updated features in Blender and 00:42.781 --> 00:45.672 updated techniques that I'm using in comparison 00:45.684 --> 00:48.340 to the first video. And also some more tips 00:48.341 --> 00:54.040 and new things from what I've learned that can maybe also help you creating characters 00:54.041 --> 00:57.179 for film. If you want to learn more in detail 00:57.191 --> 01:00.480 there are various courses on the Blender Studio 01:00.481 --> 01:06.420 website on these topics and of course the stylized character workflow that this video 01:06.421 --> 01:13.300 is still mostly based on. But I hope these tips in this video help you out and this 01:13.301 --> 01:19.260 video motivates you to learn more about character creation. So in the first video 01:19.261 --> 01:23.350 I laid out this workflow of creating characters 01:23.362 --> 01:27.900 step by step. Only that rain didn't have a 2D design 01:27.901 --> 01:30.919 concept. I just went straight to sculpting and 01:30.931 --> 01:33.960 figured out her design there with various head 01:33.961 --> 01:37.314 sculpts. But for snow I actually went into 2D 01:37.326 --> 01:40.840 drawing first to get a good idea of the concept 01:40.841 --> 01:43.501 I want to pursue. For all of this I used 01:43.513 --> 01:46.520 grease pencil in Blender. It also works great 01:46.521 --> 01:49.212 for 2D concepting. This is actually fairly 01:49.224 --> 01:52.120 easy to start with by starting a Blender with 01:52.121 --> 01:55.359 a 2D animation template. Here on you can add 01:55.371 --> 01:58.620 layers to the side for your sketches, colors 01:58.621 --> 02:04.340 or cleaned up drawings just like any other painting software. You can also create 02:04.341 --> 02:09.540 variations by switching to a different frame and drawing. So this will just animate 02:09.541 --> 02:14.400 the grease pencil object. This way I was able to very quickly sketch out various 02:14.401 --> 02:18.567 versions of snow. This then led to a drawing in 02:18.579 --> 02:22.580 pose and in color as my main concept and then 02:22.581 --> 02:26.073 some turnaround line drawings for the head. And 02:26.085 --> 02:29.440 also one feature that I love about concepting 02:29.441 --> 02:32.370 in grease pencil are the editing and sculpting 02:32.382 --> 02:35.260 tools. So you don't need to redraw everything 02:35.261 --> 02:37.548 constantly. You can also just morph it into 02:37.560 --> 02:40.020 something else which can be really convenient. 02:40.920 --> 02:43.766 To start with the sculpting I imported the 02:43.778 --> 02:46.840 drawings or other references by just directly 02:46.841 --> 02:49.277 drag and dropping them into the 3D viewport. 02:49.289 --> 02:51.960 Instead of using dynamic topology like with rain 02:51.961 --> 02:58.820 I only really used the voxel remesher with a shortcut ctrl r and shift r to add more 02:58.821 --> 03:01.615 resolution and geometry. This way you have to 03:01.627 --> 03:04.620 add detail step by step. You're really forced to 03:04.621 --> 03:07.979 it. But still always sculpt the basic shapes 03:07.991 --> 03:11.360 first and refine them equally throughout the 03:11.361 --> 03:14.398 entire character. Even during the sculpting 03:14.410 --> 03:17.600 process I constantly compared the sculpt with 03:17.601 --> 03:23.940 rain to make sure I don't stray too far away from the already established design. 03:24.620 --> 03:30.100 I of course wanted to improve some aspects based on things I learned last time but I 03:30.101 --> 03:32.777 couldn't do any drastic changes. These are 03:32.789 --> 03:35.860 these two characters are part of the same lineup 03:35.861 --> 03:38.939 and they need to fit together. Also I reused 03:38.951 --> 03:42.040 the hand model from rain. I really recommend 03:42.041 --> 03:45.296 reusing parts of older models or even entire 03:45.308 --> 03:48.500 characters as a base to save time. The more 03:48.501 --> 03:50.747 you get a hang of sculpting human bodies the 03:50.759 --> 03:53.120 less you should be slowed down by having to do 03:53.121 --> 03:56.072 it all over again and again. The sculpting 03:56.084 --> 03:59.400 tools in blender are powerful enough to reshape 03:59.401 --> 04:04.960 any character as you wish. For the clothing I used a different workflow this time. 04:05.340 --> 04:09.727 Instead of modeling or extracting the clothes 04:09.739 --> 04:14.040 I sculpted solid big pieces first. These big 04:14.041 --> 04:17.609 chunks made it very easy to change and remesh 04:17.621 --> 04:21.200 the objects since it was a very clear volume. 04:21.760 --> 04:27.460 Once I was happy I masked and extracted the surface to get the thin cloth pieces 04:27.461 --> 04:30.289 that I wanted to work with afterwards. And then 04:30.301 --> 04:33.020 I used the quad remesher to get some workable 04:33.021 --> 04:36.180 topology quickly and added more definition via 04:36.192 --> 04:39.500 the multires modifier. Even though I quad remesh 04:39.501 --> 04:43.709 the hands head and body separately since that 04:43.721 --> 04:47.940 was less error prone I joined the objects and 04:47.941 --> 04:50.772 bridged the edge loops in edit mode to make 04:50.784 --> 04:53.760 them all as one object. This way I could also 04:53.761 --> 04:57.246 less resolution on the entire body and more 04:57.258 --> 05:01.000 on the hands and head so when I subdivide them 05:01.001 --> 05:03.725 I would get more detail in the places where 05:03.737 --> 05:06.600 there needs to be more detail because there's 05:06.601 --> 05:10.219 no use in having the same level of resolution 05:10.231 --> 05:13.780 on the belly as on the entire face. Only for 05:13.781 --> 05:18.520 the face did I do a little bit of light remodeling so that I could already add an 05:18.521 --> 05:21.743 mouth and a little bit of preparation for the 05:21.755 --> 05:25.060 expression sculpts. This topology doesn't need 05:25.061 --> 05:28.302 to be super clean it only needs to roughly have 05:28.314 --> 05:31.360 the right direction of loops or edge flow as 05:31.361 --> 05:34.620 it's called around the lips and laugh line and 05:34.632 --> 05:37.760 eyelids for example. To get the details from 05:37.761 --> 05:43.020 the original sculpt back I added a multires modifier and started subdividing it a bunch 05:43.021 --> 05:46.539 times and then I added a shrink wrap modifier 05:46.551 --> 05:50.160 for the head body and hands each with a vertex 05:50.161 --> 05:53.074 group assigned to define where each should 05:53.086 --> 05:56.360 shrink wrap to. With the modifiers then applied 05:56.361 --> 05:58.850 onto the multires modifier I could then smooth 05:58.862 --> 06:01.200 out the transitions between the three areas 06:01.201 --> 06:12.900 and have all the high detail sculpts on one object. Once I was happy with all of the 06:12.901 --> 06:17.480 shape keys for the expressions again like closed eyes and an open mouth. 06:17.880 --> 06:21.980 One of the things I did differently from last time though is that I started painting 06:21.981 --> 06:24.782 and face sets in sculpt mode. These are 06:24.794 --> 06:28.040 great for hiding parts of your sculpt quickly 06:28.041 --> 06:31.267 but also for masking off entire sections 06:31.279 --> 06:34.840 effortlessly. From there on out I added more 06:34.841 --> 06:37.629 and more shape keys for various expressions to 06:37.641 --> 06:40.320 check if the design is appealing or if there 06:40.321 --> 06:45.680 any issues in the proportions. By animating and driving these sliders I could quickly 06:45.681 --> 06:49.900 switch between expressions and mix and match them by scrubbing through the timeline. 06:50.720 --> 06:52.930 Some adjustments that I did because of that 06:52.942 --> 06:55.320 was for example lowering the nose bridge a bit 06:55.321 --> 06:58.191 and tweaking the eyebrows and adjusting his 06:58.203 --> 07:01.220 inner mouth. These are the sort of things you 07:01.221 --> 07:04.465 would only know from experience or asking for 07:04.477 --> 07:07.660 feedback or in this case by actually testing 07:07.661 --> 07:11.084 your designs and seeing what is still wrong with 07:11.096 --> 07:14.460 it. Unlike with Rain I ended the testing with a 07:14.461 --> 07:18.159 four pose sculpt. This was actually surprisingly 07:18.171 --> 07:21.340 easy to do without adding a rig this time 07:21.341 --> 07:24.650 by using the pose brush transform tools and 07:24.662 --> 07:28.060 face sets in sculpt mode. I just had to join 07:28.061 --> 07:30.905 all objects together and add face sets to 07:30.917 --> 07:34.400 everything to clearly define the individual limbs. 07:34.401 --> 07:37.348 If the pose brush is not using the option 07:37.360 --> 07:40.680 connected only it will even move near surfaces 07:40.681 --> 07:44.681 together like clothes and hair. Mask expand, 07:44.693 --> 07:49.160 lasso masking and the face sets also made it very 07:49.161 --> 07:51.821 fast to target certain limbs and quickly 07:51.833 --> 07:54.840 rotate them with the transform tools as well. 07:55.360 --> 07:57.458 All of this was also done with shape keys so 07:57.470 --> 07:59.580 the original resting pose would stay intact. 08:00.420 --> 08:04.109 I also compared all of this with Rain so they 08:04.121 --> 08:07.740 both work well side by side. This is where I 08:07.741 --> 08:10.829 wrapped up the 3D design phase and after a while 08:10.841 --> 08:13.940 started the live streams on Retopologizing Snow. 08:14.740 --> 08:17.666 I went into a very different direction than 08:17.678 --> 08:20.820 with Rain. Rain was made with topology that is 08:20.821 --> 08:23.664 very generic that would be easily applied to 08:23.676 --> 08:26.660 any character that doesn't have too pronounced 08:26.661 --> 08:29.905 facial features. Big feature films use this 08:29.917 --> 08:33.400 approach a lot where they have one really well 08:33.401 --> 08:39.420 made retopology and then morph it into any background or secondary character they have 08:39.421 --> 08:42.693 because they already know that this topology 08:42.705 --> 08:45.840 works. This saves a lot of time but I also 08:45.841 --> 08:49.115 made the mistake with Rain to start very high 08:49.127 --> 08:55.595 res with the retopology. This is actually not a good idea since it can get you stuck 08:55.607 --> 08:59.260 with too much geometry too soon. So for Snow 08:59.261 --> 09:02.555 I started with the absolute minimum amount of 09:02.567 --> 09:05.800 loops and then went higher only when needed. 09:06.340 --> 09:12.660 I also made a very custom fitted retopology for him. Each loop is very customized for 09:12.661 --> 09:17.518 his facial features and proportions. This lowered 09:17.530 --> 09:22.100 the amount of loops overall but increased the. 09:22.740 --> 09:28.640 well to not cause any stretching when subdividing. While retopologizing I liked to. 09:29.440 --> 09:32.969 Mark very important loops as seams or sharps 09:32.981 --> 09:39.130 to make them really stick out in as these red and blue lines. This is really just to 09:39.142 --> 09:42.140 help distinguish them visually while working 09:42.141 --> 09:44.684 on the retopology. It doesn't do anything 09:44.696 --> 09:47.500 else. Retopology can be done very differently 09:47.501 --> 09:53.440 and there are no perfect solutions. For Rain I went for very clear patches and 09:53.441 --> 09:56.791 Poles leading into each other. Snow is a good 09:56.803 --> 10:00.240 example of how the structure can be a bit more 10:00.241 --> 10:03.318 messy visually but overall better for this 10:03.330 --> 10:06.860 particular character and as a result with almost 10:06.861 --> 10:09.906 half the amount of geometry on the entire body. 10:09.918 --> 10:12.780 Each limb of the body was also retopologized 10:12.781 --> 10:16.192 as separate mesh and only bridged with a rest 10:16.204 --> 10:19.780 once the loop count matched and wouldn't change 10:19.781 --> 10:23.001 anymore. And here's a good tip for clothing 10:23.013 --> 10:26.320 retopology. Try to place loops exactly where 10:26.321 --> 10:32.560 the real seams on the fabric would be. This will help a lot later during UV unwrapping 10:32.561 --> 10:35.622 and texturing. Even the hair was retopologized 10:35.634 --> 10:38.640 in the same way to keep the style consistent. 10:39.720 --> 10:43.047 For the UVs this time I relied much more heavily 10:43.059 --> 10:45.980 on the live unwrapping feature of Blender. 10:46.720 --> 10:49.747 It's a bit unfortunate how hidden this feature 10:49.759 --> 10:52.600 is since this is the best way of unwrapping 10:52.601 --> 10:56.185 and editing UVs in Blender. It's really useful 10:56.197 --> 10:59.480 to be able to pin certain UVs to keep them 10:59.481 --> 11:02.748 in place and have others automatically unwrap 11:02.760 --> 11:05.820 instead. For example if you want to stitch 11:05.821 --> 11:13.120 pieces together or you want to straighten certain UVs or rotate and align areas. 11:14.880 --> 11:17.856 This time I also used U-Dems for the main 11:17.868 --> 11:21.220 body. If you don't know a U-Dem is essentially 11:21.221 --> 11:27.180 a one by one UV space. If you use more than one you can also use more than one 11:27.181 --> 11:30.381 texture on that object. So that way the 11:30.393 --> 11:34.100 head, hands and the body could each get their 11:34.101 --> 11:40.060 set of textures with different resolutions for more detail. I also pinned the middle 11:40.061 --> 11:43.264 loop in the center of the UVs so I can easily 11:43.276 --> 11:46.420 mirror the UVs later on. This can be done by 11:46.421 --> 11:51.520 for example using the mirror modifier with the bisect and mirror UV options enabled. 11:52.000 --> 11:55.212 Even U-Dems work with this. And then once you 11:55.224 --> 11:58.520 apply the modifier your mesh and your UVs will 11:58.521 --> 12:01.673 be perfectly symmetrical. And then for the 12:01.685 --> 12:05.000 surfacing. Unlike with rain I didn't texture 12:05.001 --> 12:08.029 paint that much this time to add more detail. I 12:08.041 --> 12:11.080 mainly just painted or generated low resolution 12:11.081 --> 12:14.259 masks to define where procedural or high 12:14.271 --> 12:17.940 resolution patterns should appear. Like a mask 12:17.941 --> 12:21.953 for pores, lip wrinkles or the Iris textures. 12:21.965 --> 12:25.900 Just like with rain I used tileable textures 12:25.901 --> 12:30.278 again to add fabric patterns on straightened 12:30.290 --> 12:34.380 UVs. These I got from various CC0 texture 12:34.381 --> 12:41.640 libraries like Texture Haven, CG Bookcase and CC0 textures. The issue is that these 12:41.641 --> 12:44.542 textures often come with some extra color 12:44.554 --> 12:47.680 variation and details attached. Often I only 12:47.681 --> 12:50.245 want the detailed patterns and add all the 12:50.257 --> 12:53.140 color variation myself. So an easy trick I like 12:53.141 --> 12:56.489 to do is for example in Krita or any other 12:56.501 --> 13:00.100 image editing software to take the image and. 13:00.700 --> 13:07.320 start duplicating the layer. Then blur it until the detailed patterns are gone and 13:07.321 --> 13:10.048 you're only left with the color variation you 13:10.060 --> 13:12.860 want to get rid of. Then set the blurred layer 13:12.861 --> 13:19.580 to gain extract and it will extract the difference. In this case that's the detailed 13:19.581 --> 13:24.820 pattern that was blurred out and then just save the texture and you have exactly that 13:24.821 --> 13:27.869 pattern that you want to use. But I didn't 13:27.881 --> 13:31.160 just make neatly laid out UDIMs. I also added 13:31.161 --> 13:34.401 additional UVs for procedural texturing this 13:34.413 --> 13:37.960 time. Since UVs are essentially just coordinates 13:37.961 --> 13:41.248 in two dimensions, the U and the V direction, 13:41.260 --> 13:44.340 you can use them to add additional effects 13:44.341 --> 13:48.209 For example I unwrapped and straightened UVs 13:48.221 --> 13:52.100 along the sleeves, collar and the hip to add 13:52.101 --> 13:55.335 a darker strip of fabric procedurally with a 13:55.347 --> 13:58.740 seam in between the two colors. It's also much 13:58.741 --> 14:01.614 easier to add non-destructive stitches this 14:01.626 --> 14:04.780 way along the UVs. Almost completely resolution 14:04.781 --> 14:08.387 independent. Basically the only thing I texture 14:08.399 --> 14:11.940 painted by hand on the clothes is a height map 14:11.941 --> 14:14.756 for smaller wrinkles on the clothes and I 14:14.768 --> 14:17.940 mixed that in with the other texture patterns. 14:18.860 --> 14:22.318 After I was happy I did some renders for tests 14:22.330 --> 14:25.800 and turntables and then tweaked it afterwards. 14:26.580 --> 14:29.598 And then once that was done I baked the entire 14:29.610 --> 14:32.640 node tree down into a set of PBR textures just 14:32.641 --> 14:35.080 like last time. One thing I didn't mention in 14:35.092 --> 14:37.760 the previous video is that I can really recommend 14:37.761 --> 14:41.935 set any black and white or normal map texture 14:41.947 --> 14:46.040 to non-color instead of sRGB. This will give 14:46.041 --> 14:48.868 you more accurate results especially for normal 14:48.880 --> 14:51.780 maps. And also in the original video I didn't go 14:51.781 --> 14:55.255 that much into the rendering side. So essentially 14:55.267 --> 14:58.540 once I have the post shaded character I set up 14:58.541 --> 15:03.860 a camera and some lights. Most of this is based on the three point lighting principle 15:03.861 --> 15:07.515 and done in Eevee since there I can see the 15:07.527 --> 15:11.620 changes in real time. Once I'm mostly happy with 15:11.621 --> 15:14.536 the results I switch over to Cycles for the 15:14.548 --> 15:17.680 final setup and further tweaking. Since Cycles 15:17.681 --> 15:21.460 and Eevee share most of the settings you don't really lose much in the progress. 15:22.520 --> 15:28.780 For the ground I added a reflective plane as a nice bonus. For rain I added a bit of 15:28.781 --> 15:32.479 placement with water ripples from raindrops. 15:32.491 --> 15:36.200 For snow I originally went for well snow but 15:36.201 --> 15:42.420 this ended up to be way too distracting so I changed it to a subtle frozen texture. 15:43.340 --> 15:47.740 In the end I did a bit of retouches and compositing directly in Blender. 15:48.640 --> 15:51.535 For this I organized the character, his eyes 15:51.547 --> 15:54.520 and the background into separate collections. 15:55.060 --> 15:58.068 Then I created three view layers that will each 15:58.080 --> 16:01.100 render out a different part of the final image. 16:01.600 --> 16:05.018 The first layer renders out snow with a transparent 16:05.030 --> 16:07.720 background. To achieve this you can just 16:07.721 --> 16:12.980 toggle the check Mark on the background collection in the outliner. This check Mark 16:12.981 --> 16:16.026 will only be checked for this particular view 16:16.038 --> 16:18.960 layer. This will just exclude anything from 16:18.961 --> 16:21.239 inside that collection and it will not appear 16:21.251 --> 16:23.540 in the render. In the second layer I rendered 16:23.541 --> 16:26.672 out only the background but with snow still 16:26.684 --> 16:29.900 visible in the reflections. For this you can 16:29.901 --> 16:33.416 toggle the indirect only option in the outliner 16:33.428 --> 16:36.880 on the character collection. This way anything 16:36.881 --> 16:43.120 in that collection will never be directly visible but only indirectly in the lighting 16:43.121 --> 16:46.922 and reflections on other objects. And in the 16:46.934 --> 16:50.920 last layer I rendered only the eyes with a bit 16:50.921 --> 16:54.103 of a different lighting setup so that there's 16:54.115 --> 16:57.380 no distracting reflections. You can enable the 16:57.381 --> 17:00.463 holdout toggle in the outliner on the rest of 17:00.475 --> 17:03.500 the character for this. So anything in those 17:03.501 --> 17:06.217 collections will be rendered as Alpha zero, 17:06.229 --> 17:09.020 essentially like a mask. Then you can stitch 17:09.021 --> 17:11.608 these layers together in the compositor, add 17:11.620 --> 17:14.100 some glare and color correction, some nice 17:14.101 --> 17:16.991 gradients for the background and you're done. 17:17.003 --> 17:19.840 And that's it. Thanks a lot for watching. If 17:19.841 --> 17:22.428 you're interested in more tutorials on this 17:22.440 --> 17:25.160 topic or the files of these characters, visit 17:25.161 --> 17:27.779 the Blender Studio website. Once Snow is fully 17:27.791 --> 17:30.420 rigged he will be made available as a Creative 17:30.421 --> 17:32.903 Commons character for you to use for any 17:32.915 --> 17:35.720 project you like. But until then you can also 17:35.721 --> 17:40.980 get the full access to the entire library of Creative Commons 17:40.981 --> 17:44.040 characters and assets on the Blender Studio website. Enjoy!