Making Of 'Star Wars Fan Film Poster'

Introduction

This image is a work for a Star Wars fan short movie, called Star Wars: The Holo Experience or SW: THX. Most of the designs were made with some guidelines from the director, but I had a lot of freedom as well. The director also provided me with the AT-ST vehicle and Moto Jet model, because they had to be on the poster.

The Making Of shows some steps for the design of the scene and changes made for promotional reasons, the model construction, the image passes and other assets and props.

Starting the General Design

I started by coming up with different concepts and designs, first painting and the moving onto modeling until the idea of the scout trouper was established. Once the model was finished, I did some more research to help develop the final look, painting over the image and using less geometry to speed up the process, and then I showed it to the director (Fig.01 - 04).

Fig. 01

Fig. 01

Fig. 02

Fig. 02

Fig. 03

Fig. 03

Fig. 04

Fig. 04

The Model Construction

The figure started from a ZBrush human model. I modeled the general look while taking care over the geometry and topology (Fig.05 - 08).

Fig. 05

Fig. 05

Fig. 06

Fig. 06

Fig. 07

Fig. 07

Fig. 08

Fig. 08

After the sculpting, when I had the shapes clear I made a shape separation and retopologies for the elements. I also selected the hard surface ones and the ones that were going to be sculpted, and started thinking about the colors. Here are some model renders in 3ds Max to test the render shaders (Fig.09 - 11).

Fig. 09

Fig. 09

Fig. 10

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Fig. 11

Next I started posing the model. I used a dummy to find the pose I liked and then applied it to my model. I also modeled the weapons; in this case they were made with materials and some dirt maps, with not too much texture work on them (Fig.12 - 14).

Fig. 12

Fig. 12

Fig. 13

Fig. 13

Fig. 14

Fig. 14

Taking the geometry, I made the texture for the speeder bike. I used a very basic material and basic texture work because I wanted to make some over paint to make it more interesting, knowing it was going to be in this position in the final image (Fig.15).

Fig. 15

Fig. 15

Final Layout

Here is the final composition and distribution of the elements for the image. I had to leave a space on the middle top of the image for the logos and possible text. The image has a full set, but just uses basic materials with no lights (Fig.16).

Fig. 16

Fig. 16

For rendering and testing I made different groups on foreground, background and mid-ground layers, so I could use certain lights, levels of detail and, of course, be able to handle the scene in a more organized fashion and have it be less heavy to work with (Fig.17).

Fig. 17

Fig. 17

Defining Style

I used a low poly version of the model and overpainting to find the look for the final image, making sure the sizes worked and also that there would be space for the text (Fig.18 - 19).

Fig. 18

Fig. 18

Fig. 19

Fig. 19

Render Passes

These are the basic render passes I used for the image. I had to make a few more for the lighting of the weapons and others for masking the figures, the foreground etc (Fig.20).

Fig. 20

Fig. 20

Model Turn

The model was my favorite part and also the most challenging. I wanted to achieve a result that I felt proud of and the director liked (Fig.21 - 24).

Fig. 21

Fig. 21

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Fig. 24

Fig. 24

And here's the final image (Fig.25).

Fig. 25

Fig. 25

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this article and I hope you found it useful. I would like to thank 3DTotal for giving me the opportunity to share this Making Of and also for giving us tutorials from other artists, which I learn a lot from.

To see more by David Munoz Velazquez, check out Digital Painting Techniques: Volume 5
Digital Painting Techniques: Volume 6
Sketching from the Imagination: Fantasy
Digital Art Masters: Volume 7
and Prime - The Definitive Digital Art Collection

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