Cartoon Critters: How to Stylize and Create Animals - Armadillo

Introduction

In this tutorial I will guide you through the process of creating a cartoon animal character. This time the victim is the armadillo!

Apart from being a curious looking animal with a hard shell that gets killed on the roads in Mexico, I didn't know much about armadillos. The first thing to do is to gather references and study the subject. The internet is your best friend on this, so start by searching for armadillo photos from as many points of view as you can. Also search for photos and schematics of the skeleton, as they will provide you with good information on the shape and angle of the limbs, joints, mouth position, number of toes etc. You should also try to read a few webpages about the animal's biology, geographic location and habits.

With the animal photos, skeleton and bio in hand you will be surprised by the amount of new ideas that will come to your mind. Also, you will be able to avoid some simple design mistakes, like putting a pouch on a male kangaroo (which I did on a previous image)!

I have started by sketching the armadillo, trying to include all of its characteristic elements (Fig.01). The nine-banded armadillo variety was my preference and its main characteristics are:

• The long, pointed snout it uses to reach food
• Long ears
• A hard shell made of several bands which allows it to be flexible
• Strong claws that allow it to dig
• Four toes on the front feet
• Five toes on the hind feet
• A long ringed tail.

The process of drawing the character will force you to analyze each of its parts and will make you very conscious of each detail before attempting to turn your armadillo into a cartoon.

Fig.01

Fig.01

Concept

The main purpose of this tutorial is to create a presentation shot of the character, so we should think about how to stylize it, but also how to pose and present it. A character's pose tells us a lot about its personality, so you should avoid using a T-Pose or a neutral pose when the objective is to sell/approve a character.

The armadillo is an animal that exists in Texas and Mexico, so I have decided that a shot of tequila or a Corona beer could complement the character well. As the armadillo has quite short limbs, it was funny to imagine how he could drink from a bottle. I sketched the idea (Fig.02) and simplified the forms a bit. Notice how I have reduced the number of bands on the back and tried to make the snout more geometric. I also gave more importance to the eyes.

Fig.02

Fig.02

Modeling

The character's pose depends a lot on the bottle so we will start by modeling a simple bottle. Then we will pose and build the character around it! We will try to keep the character as symmetrical as possible in the beginning, and break that symmetry at a later stage. Not a very conventional approach, but it will assure you that the relation between the character and the bottle will be perfect in the presentation shot.

Through the tutorial I will assume that you are using ZBrush 4, have installed some free plugins that can be downloaded at Pixologic and have set up GoZ to be connected with 3ds Max.

The Bottle

In 3ds Max, start by creating a rectangle with a height of 0.3m and a width of 0.035m in the Front viewport (Fig.03). Apply an Edit Spline modifier and insert two vertexes to define the shape of the bottle. Keep adding more vertexes and control the Bezier Splines at each vertex to shape the outer surface of the bottle. Delete the vertical line at the center and in Spline Sub-object mode select the remaining Spline and drag the Outline value to 0.003m in order to represent the thickness of the glass. Erase the lines at the top to create the bottle opening. Apply a Lathe modifier, turning on the Weld Core option and setting the align option to Min, so that the revolution axis is at the left margin of the half bottle section.

Fig.03

Fig.03

Move the bottle to make sure that the center of the base is at the 0,0,0 coordinates point. In the left view rotate the bottle 140 degrees counterclockwise to match the sketch (Fig.04). Even though we will export this bottle to ZBrush, save this editable version as you will need to tweak it later. With the bottle selected, from the GoZ menu choose GoZBrush.

Fig.04

Fig.04

3D Sketch

ZBrush will open. For the bottle to show up, drag to the center of the screen and press the Edit button at the top. If you drag on the background while pressing Shift you are able to cycle through the orthographic views. Change to the front view facing the bottom of the bottle (Fig.05). From the Subtool menu choose Append and select the ZSphere. Decrease your brush radius to zero (as it is more practical to edit the ZSpheres) and select the ZSphere subtool. Press X to activate symmetrical editing. Move the ZSphere down to place it under the bottle (Fig.06).

Fig.05

Fig.05

Fig.06

Fig.06

While in Draw mode, if you drag on a ZSphere surface a new connected ZSphere will be created. If you drag at the symmetry line, a single ZSphere will be created, and if you drag on any other point of the ZSphere, two new symmetrical ZSpheres will be created. Use the Move and Scale modes to position the ZSpheres. If you click the chain between the two ZSpheres while in Draw mode, a new ZSphere is created at that point.

Using the ZSpheres create a form that approximates the character in the concept (Fig.07). Imagine that we are modeling the animal without the shell as that will be taken care of later. Start by growing the neck and snout from the base ZSphere as well as the main body shape. Refine the snout, body and neck by adding some extra ZSpheres. Grow a nose in front of the snout and add some ZSpheres in the place of the eyes and also grow a ZSphere on the top of the head to ensure that some more geometry will be generated there.

Fig.07

Fig.07

Grow the rear legs, positioning them as if they were supporting the bottle. Create the front legs and the ears in a relaxed position. Grow the tail in a vertical position, as we will detail it in this neutral pose before curling it around the bottle. From the extremities of the limbs create the fingers and claws, positioning them around the bottle (Fig.08). Remember that the Armadillo has four fingers on the front paw, and five on the rear one (Fig.09).

Fig.08

Fig.08

Fig.09

Fig.09

Press A to see the adaptive skin of the ZSpheres and then press the GoZ button in the Tool menu to export the adaptive skin to 3ds Max. We will use it as a reference to model the shell.

The Shell

In 3ds Max, start by creating a box in the Top view and make sure that it is located at the 0,0,0 coordinates (Fig.10). The box should be three segments long and two wide. Create a Standard material with 50% opacity and apply it to the box; this allows you to see the model and reference simultaneously. Apply an Edit Poly modifier and a Symmetry modifier on top. Choose the Edit Poly modifier and reposition the vertexes to create a rough shell. Delete the polygons representing the lower part of the shell (Fig.11).

Fig.10

Fig.10

Fig.11

Fig.11

Add new vertical and horizontal edge loops between the existing ones and move the vertexes to make the shell rounder. Create two new edge loops between the polygons on the central part of the shell; each edge corresponds to a band (six bands will be created as in the concept) (Fig.12). Also add edge loops to the front and rear of the shell and move the vertexes round the form.

Fig.12

Fig.12

Create edge loops near the edge of each band (Fig.13). Select the new vertexes at the new edges, change the Reference Coordinate System to Local and move along the Z axis to move all the vertexes outwards at the same time (after this operation you need to adjust the vertexes at the mirror plane by setting the X value to 0).

Fig.13

Fig.13

On a side view, select the same vertexes of the newly created edges and, with the Reference Coordinate System set to View, move the vertexes to the side in order to make the transition between bands harder. Create new edge loops at each side of each band (Fig.14).

Fig.14

Fig.14

Adjust the vertexes at the edge of the band near the belly to make the ends curvy (Fig.15).

Fig.15

Fig.15

Select the edge loop at the interior edge and outer edge of each band and chamfer it slightly with the Chamfer tool in Edit Poly mode (Edge Sub-Object mode).

Create a tight loop at the edge of the shell (Fig.16). Then apply a Shell modifier to add depth to the shell (about 0.0015m to the inside and outside). In the Shell modifier options enable the Override Inner Mat ID and set it to two; also enable the Override Outer and Edge Mat IDs and set them to one. This will allow us to easily separate the interior of the shell in ZBrush as it will accept the material IDs as polygroups while importing. We also want to use the Turbo Smooth modifier with two iterations to subdivide the surface. The result of subdividing a surface in ZBrush or 3ds Max produces different results, so I have opted to divide it in 3ds Max first. Set the name of the shell to "shell".

Fig.16

Fig.16

Create a sphere, place it near the location of the eye and use a Symmetry modifier to create the other eye mirroring the first one. Name this object "eyes" (Fig.17). Select the eyes and the shell and choose GoZBrush from the GoZ menu.

Fig.17

Fig.17

Refining the Body

In ZBrush a new tool will be created containing the eyes and the shell as subtools. Select the shell subtool. Change to the tool with the armadillo body, click on Append and pick the shell from the object list. Go back to the imported tool and this time select the eyes subtool. Change to the tool with the armadillo body and append the eyes. You should now have a tool that contains the body, bottle, eyes and shell (Fig.18).

Fig.18

Fig.18

In order to generate an adaptive skin from the ZSpheres to be sculpted, select the ZSpheres tool. In the Tool menu, under Adaptive Skin, select Make Adaptive Skin. A new tool with the prefix "Skin_" will be created. Choose Append and pick the "Skin_" tool. We will be sculpting this subtool. You can hide or delete the ZSpheres subtool as we won't be using it again (Fig.19).

Fig.19

Fig.19

To block the form we will mainly be using the Clay brush. Select the Clay brush and under AutoMasking enable BackfaceMask so that when we are working on one side of a thin surface it doesn't affect the other side (Fig.20). Turn on Symmetry (press X) and subdivide the body once (under Tools > Geometry).

Fig.20

Fig.20

The bottle influences the pose of the armadillo, so it is advisable to keep it visible during some parts of the sculpting. Using the Clay and the Smooth brushes make the snout curvy and flatten the tip (Fig.21). Carve the interior of the ears and also subtract from the outside to make the ears thinner. Carve the line of the mouth and add volume at the lower lip, as if the lip is surrounding the tip of the bottle. You can also adjust the volumes using the Move brush. With the eyes visible, carve the eye socket and add volume to the eyebrows. Bulge the cheeks and sculpt some wrinkles at the neck. Also don't forget to add the nostrils.

Fig.21

Fig.21

Still using the Clay and Smooth brushes, add some volume to the fingers of the front paw, marking the transition between the finger and the claw (Fig.22). Carve the bottom part of the claw to make it flatter. Use the Move brush to pull up the central part of the claw and make it curve. To add sharp transitions to the claws use the mPolish brush on the top, sides and bottom. With the Clay brush add some folds under the fingers and at the wrist.

Fig.22

Fig.22

Repeat the procedure for the rear paws. Make a nice and round belly using the Clay brush. Also add folds at the places where the skin is compressed. At this stage we have blocked the main form. We will now start detailing (Fig.23).

Fig.23

Fig.23

Subdivide the geometry once more and keep refining the details (Fig.24). Try to put the maximum detail that each subdivision allows and only subdivide it when the mesh does not have enough resolution to support more detail. At this subdivision level, using the Clay and Move brushes, I have added some more skin folds, knuckles on the fingers and a clearer shape to the snout and lips. I have also marked the limit of the shell that covers the head.

Fig.24

Fig.24

Subdivide the body once more. In order to create the tail rings, hold Ctrl and change the mask selection mode to Rect (Fig.25). Still holding Ctrl, click on the brush alpha and select the "Alpha 27" from the list (rectangular gradient). Holding Ctrl go to the Alpha menu and press Rotate to rotate the gradient 90 degrees clockwise.

Fig.25

Fig.25

Now, when you create a mask, you will create a rectangular gradient. Make sure you are on a side view. Mask the base of the tail and invert the mask selection (Press Crtl and click on the background). Press Ctrl + Alt to subtract to the mask and mask all the rings of the tail. From the Tool menu, under Deformation, increase the Inflat slider to 8 and then the rings will be created. You can then discard the mask (Fig.26).

Fig.26

Fig.26



Subdivide the body twice more (you should have a total of six subdivision levels). Smooth the tail rings, add a bit of volume to the edge and use the Pinch brush to sharpen the ring's edges (Fig.27). Start sharpening all the details using the mPolish and Pinch brushes. Notice how I have refined the head shell by using the Pinch brush at the borders.

Fig.27

Fig.27

Select the shell subtool and make sure that Symmetry is on (press X). Use the Move brush with a large radius to move the shell in order to avoid intersections with the rear legs (Fig.28). Also use the Move brush to move the borders of the shell in order to achieve a tighter fit with the body. Subdivide the shell four times. Save your armadillo tool.

Fig.28

Fig.28

Custom Brush

In order to create the scales on the armadillo shell, we will create a custom brush (Fig.29).

Fig.29

Fig.29

Start a new ZBrush document. In the Document Menu, set the Width and Height to 1000 (do not forget to disable Pro, so that the scaling is not proportional) and choose Resize. The document is now 1000 x 1000 pixels.

From the Tool menu choose the Plane3D tool (Fig.30). Drag on the center of the screen to create the plane, change to Edit mode and then press Make PolyMesh3D from the Tool menu. In Tool, under Geometry, disable the Smt button, so that the plane corners don't get rounded when you subdivide it. Press Divide twice so that you have three subdivision levels.

Fig.30

Fig.30

Load the Dam Standard brush (from the Lightbox, choose the Brush directory and you will find it there - double click to load) (Fig.31). In the Stroke menu raise the LazyRadius value to 65. Make sure that the brush size is around 45 (press S to set the brush size). Facing the plane from the front create an arch that resembles one of the armadillo's scales.

Fig.31

Fig.31

Change to a Standard brush and mask the area outside the line (Fig.32). Choose the FormSoft brush and with a big radius stroke the unmasked area to create a raised scale. With the Smooth brush you can rectify any stretching at the borders.

Fig.32

Fig.32

Set the view to Front and press F to frame the view (Fig.33). Scale in a bit so that the borders of the planes are a bit outside the frame of the document. From the Alpha menu choose GrabDoc and ZBrush will create an alpha based on the viewport depth.

Fig.33

Fig.33

We will create our brush based on the Stitch1 brush, so choose that brush. Press on the BrushAlpha square and choose the alpha we have created (named "ZGrab"). In the Alpha menu, rotate the alpha to be horizontal, set V Tiles to two and Mid-Value to one (you might need to adjust this value so that a rectangular marking doesn't show around the brush; try different values until you find the correct one). In the Brush menu save the brush and name it "ArmadilloScale" so that you can use it later. Feel free to test the brush and adjust the values to your preferences (Fig.34).

Fig.34

Fig.34

Details

Open the Armadillo tool in ZBrush, and load the ArmadilloScale brush that you have just created. Make sure that the VTiles value of the alpha is two (this value resets each time you enter ZBrush). Select the Shell subtool and create the scales at each band (Fig.35). In order for the strokes to affect only one band at a time, mask the bands that you don't want to affect. Reduce the brush size and create a stroke of small scales at the border of the shell.

Fig.35

Fig.35

Select the body subtool and, using the ArmadilloScale brush, create scales on each tail ring (Fig.36). Then use the Dam Standard brush to make the division between the scales. I have also made some little arches between the scales with the Dam Standard brush to simulate a stylized scale pattern. Use the ArmadilloScale brush to create scales at the contour of the head shell. Not very realistic but quite stylish!

Fig.36

Fig.36

To create a brush for the shell and leathery skin, choose the Standard brush. In the Download Center of the Pixologic website ( http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/alpha/ ) go to the Skins section and download the Lizard Scales02 alpha by Marcus Civis. Choose this as your brush alpha. In the Alpha menu set the Radial fade of the alpha to 15. Set the drawing mode to DragRect (Fig.37). Mask everything except the head shell and drag to add texture to the shell. Add the same texture at a tiny scale to the rear and front legs while masking the nails. Then, with a reduced intensity and a tiny scale, add a bit of this texture to the whole body.

Fig.37

Fig.37

Choose the shell subtool and change the alpha to Lizard Scales07, which you can also download at the Pixologic website. Mask the scales of the bands and drag on the shell to create the texture (Fig.38).

Fig.38

Fig.38



Choose the body subtool. With the Clay brush, create the cartilage of the ears (Fig.39). With the Dam Standard brush create some cuts around the nostrils and at the lips. With the Clay brush fill between the cuts to make the flesh bulge a bit. Also add some cuts along the nails to represent the nails' structure.

Fig.39

Fig.39

UVs

Let's set the UVs with the UV Master plugin. Launch the UV Master from the Zplugin menu. Select Work on Clone. Divide the model into polygroups as in Fig.40, separating the hands, feet, arms, legs, tail, body, head and ears. Make sure the Symmetry and Polygroups buttons are enabled in UVMaster. Choose Unwrap. You can check the layout of the UVs by pressing Flatten (press Unflatten to leave). Choose Copy UVs. From the Tools menu select the armadillo body subtool and press Paste UVs to transfer the UVs to the original model.

Fig.40

Fig.40

Select the Shell subtool and launch the UV Master plugin. If you remember, the polygroups of the shell are already separated into inner and outer shell. Make sure the Symmetry and Polygroups options are on. Choose Unwrap. Once again copy the UVs and paste them on the original shell (Fig.41).

Fig.41

Fig.41

Polypaint

To start the painting process, choose the SkinShade4 material. It is a great material for polypainting because it is white while keeping some specularity, not interfering with the perception of the painted colors (Fig.42).

Fig.42

Fig.42

Select the Shell subtool and fill it with a beige color. In the Masking sub-menu (under the Tool menu) select the Mask by Cavity option and then press Inverse. Select a dark brown color and fill with this color (choose Fill Color in the Color menu). Clear the mask. All the little cavities are now dark. This way we will keep all those details in the texture.

As the cavities are too dark we can now paint on top of them with a reduced RGB intensity which will allow for the detail to be kept (Fig.43). Choose a dark color and mark the interior edges of the bands. Also mark the outer edges of the shell. Change the painting mode to Spray and choose Alpha07 as the alpha. Paint with varied tones of gray all over the shell to add some variety to reduce the impact of the cavities.

Fig.43

Fig.43

Select the body subtool. Fill the body with a medium brown and paint the tail, nails and head shell with the same beige color as the outer shell (Fig.44). Mask the cavities and invert the mask as we did before. Fill with a dark color to reveal the cavities. Once again, using a variety of grays with a Spray brush paint the tail, nails and head shell. Also use some desaturated browns to paint the body and reduce the cavities' visual impact.

Fig.44

Fig.44

Choose varied tones of pink and paint the interior of the ears, nose, lips and around the eyes. As this armadillo loves tequila so much, I have decided to paint the cheeks with a deep red and spread a little bit of redness all over the face (Fig.45).

Fig.45

Fig.45

The painting is over so we will transfer the polypaint to a texture. In the Tool menu, under UV Map, set the size to 4096. In the Texture Map sub-menu press New from Polypaint to generate the map. Press Clone Txtr. In the Texture menu (at the top of the screen), choose Export and save the texture as "armadillo_body.PSD". Choose the Shell and generate the texture the same way and save it as "armadillo_shell.PSD". You can see the resulting textures in Fig.46.

Fig.46

Fig.46

Just before proceeding to posing the tail, we will export two textures that we will need for the material creation: the cavity maps for the shell and body (Fig.47). To do this, make sure that your selected color is white, go to the Masking menu and choose Mask by Cavity. Then, under the Texture Map sub-menu pick New from Masking and ZBrush will generate a texture with the masking. Press Clone Txtr, go to the Texture menu and export. Save the maps as "armadillo_shell_cavity.PSD" and "armadillo_body_cavity.PSD".

Fig.47

Fig.47

Posing the tail

In order to pose the tail we will use the Transpose Master plugin. However, to keep the bottle as a reference and unaffected by the ZSpheres rig, a few weird steps will have to be taken.

Make sure the body, eyes and shell subtools are visible and that the bottle is invisible. In the Transpose Master menu (at the Plugin menu) enable ZSphere Rig and press TposeMesh (Fig.48).

Fig.48

Fig.48

A new tool with the "Tpose#1_" prefix will be created with a ZSphere and a transparent version of your model at the lowest subdivision level (Fig.49). Select the original armadillo tool and select the bottle subtool. Select the "Tpose#1_" tool, choose Append and select the bottle. As the bottle is in a different subtool it will not be affected by the ZSphere rig.

Fig.49

Fig.49

Position the ZSphere at the bottom of the armadillo and grow a chain of ZSpheres at the tail (Fig.50). Also create some ZSpheres with the rough volume of the rear legs and some to represent the rough volume of the body. These ZSpheres will keep the body and legs in place while we pose the tail.

Fig.50

Fig.50

In the Tool menu, under Rigging, press Bind Mesh. Move the ZSpheres of the tail to position them around the bottle (Fig.51). When you are satisfied with the position, select the bottle subtool and delete it. Go to Transpose Master and choose Tpose > SubT. The position of the tail and body will be transferred to the original model.

Fig.51

Fig.51

Export

In order to export the model to 3ds Max, we will first optimize its polygon count with the Decimation Master (Fig.52). Before proceeding, save your tool or you'll lose it later. Select the Shell subtool and in the Decimation Master menu (under Plugin menu) enable Keep UVs. Press Pre-process Current and wait for the process to finish. Slide the % slide bar to about 6% and choose Decimate Current. The shell subtool has been converted to triangles with a much lower polycount. Select the body subtool and repeat the process.

Fig.52

Fig.52

Everything is set for exporting, so press the All button near the GoZ button. This will export all the subtools to 3ds Max (Fig.53).

Fig.53

Fig.53

3ds Max will open with the armadillo model (Fig.54). You can then delete the bottle and merge the original bottle you created at the beginning of the tutorial. If you've followed all of the steps correctly then the merged bottle should fall into exactly the same place as the exported one.

Fig.54

Fig.54

Eye Lid

At this time I have noticed that the character could be improved with an eye lid. To create the eye lid start by creating a sphere with the hemisphere setting set to 0.5 and adjust its position to the eye ball (Fig.55). Then delete the lower faces of the hemisphere and apply a Shell modifier to give it some thickness. Press the GoZ button and subdivide and sculpt it in ZBrush with some horizontal wrinkles and a thicker edge. Use polypaint to match its color to the remaining model and generate the UVs with the UVMaster. Then export the polypaint as a texture named "armadillo_eyelid.PSD". You can also generate and export a cavity map with the name "armadillo_eyelid_cavity.PSD". Press GoZ and you will be back in 3ds Max with a new sculpted eye lid.

Fig.55

Fig.55

V-Ray

Choose V-Ray as the render engine. Set the output size to 1000 x 750. Set Adaptive DMC as the image sampler and the VrayLanczosFilter as the Antialiasing filter. Under Color Mapping change the type to Gamma Correction and set the Gamma value to 2.2. Turn on the GI, under Indirect Illumination and set Irradiance map for the primary bounces and Light Cache for the secondary brushes. As we will be working with gamma correction, in 3ds Max's Preference Settings, under Gamma and LUT, enable Gamma/LUT Correction. Make sure the gamma is 2.2 and enable Affect color selectors and Affect Material Editor. Set the Bitmap files input gamma to 2.2 and the output gamma to 1.0 (Fig.56).

Fig.56

Fig.56

Camera

I have created a "Target Camera" and placed it in order to see the armadillo from the side so that his action is clear to the viewer. You can check the position of the camera in the image (Fig.57). I have set the camera lens to 40mm and tilted it to the left. Do not forget to turn on the Safe frame in the camera viewport.

Fig.57

Fig.57

Light

I have opted for a lighting situation similar to a studio setup (Fig.58). I have created a background plane with a curve that extends to the floor plane, as in a studio "ciclorama". The material of the plane is a simple VrayMtl with a light gray color (R,G,B:100). In the image I have made an image showing the lights' position and numbered them so that it is clearer.

Fig.58

Fig.58

Light 1 is the main or key light. It is a spotlight with shadows set to VrayShadow. The intensity is 1.66 and the color is a light orange (RGB:255,211,153). The decay type is set to Inverse Square with starting at 0.52m. Under VrayShadows I have enabled Area shadow with a sphere size of 0.05m.

Light 2 is a warm fill light. It is a Vraylight plane with an intensity of 5 and color temperature set to 5070. Half-length is 0.23m and half-width is 0.29m.

Light 3 is a cool fill light. It is a Vraylight plane with an intensity of 2 and color temperature set to 8300. Half-length is 0.28m and half-width is 0.28m.

Light 4 is a rim light. It is a spotlight with shadows set to VrayShadow. The intensity is 4 and the color a light blue (RGB:195,244,253). Decay type is set to Inverse Square with Start at 0.33m. In this light I have also placed the "ciclorama" in the Exclude list in order to have a strong rim light on the character without burning the floor.

Materials

The material base for the body, shell and eye lid is the same. Create a VrayFastSSS2 material with the "Skin(pink)" preset (Fig.59). Change the prepass rate to 0. Reduce the scatter radius value to 0.25. Set specular glossiness to 0.6, enable trace reflections and reduce the reflection depth to 1. In the Maps section, place the "armadillo_body_cavity.PSD" in the specular amount slot, but be careful to set the gamma to override 1.0 when you open it, otherwise the values will be affected by the gamma correction. Also place this map in the bump slot with a value of 5.0. Place the "armadillo_body.PSD" in the sss color slot (you might need to adjust the colors a bit in Photoshop; in my case I had to increase the image's brightness).

Fig.59

Fig.59

Apply the material to the body. Copy the material to create the new materials for the shell and eye lid, replacing the bump, specular amount and sss color maps with the ones for each body part.

For the eyes I have opted for a very simple solution: a black reflective material (Fig.60). It is a VrayMtl material, with the diffuse color set to black. Set the Reflect color to white and enable Fresnel reflections. Unlock the Highlight glossiness value by pressing the L button and set the value to 0.85. Apply this to the eyes.

Fig.60

Fig.60

The bottle material also started with a VrayMtl material. Set the diffuse color to black. Set the Reflect and Refract colors to white. Enable Fresnel reflections and set Reflection glossiness to 0.9. Increase the Max depth of the Reflection and Refraction to 8 as there are a lot of inter-reflections in the bottle. Enable Affect shadows and change the fog color to a very light green (RGB:212,231,210). Apply this to the bottle.

Remember that I asked you to merge the original bottle into this scene? Make a copy of the bottle and edit the Spline of the bottle shape, leaving the interior shape to create the volume of the liquid (Fig.61). Lathe again and use a Push modifier to expand the liquid volume just a bit, so that it intersects the walls of the bottle - this will make the refraction work properly. With a slice plane, cut the liquid horizontally and delete the top polygons. Use Cap to close the hole. Then apply an inset to the capping polygons and push the polygons down so that there is a bit of a curve where the liquid meets the bottle walls. Then add a few spheres, with the normals inverted, inside the liquid to create some air bubbles.

Fig.61

Fig.61

For the tequila material, just copy the material we have created for the bottle and change the fog color to RGB:255,208,127. Apply it to the liquid and air bubbles.

To finalize, I have created the bottle label. The material is a simple VrayMtl with the diffuse texture of the label and a Reflection glossiness of 0.65 with Fresnel on.

Conclusion

I have rendered the final image at 4000 x 3000 pixels. In Photoshop I have made some minor color corrections and added some little bubbles to add to the idea that the armadillo is drunk (Fig.62).

Fig.62

Fig.62

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial. If you wish to download the ArmadilloScale brush created during this tutorial, please visit my website: www.artofjose.com and you can find it in the Goodies section. See you next time!

To see more by Jose Alves da Silva, check out Digital Art Masters: Volume 9 and ZBrush Character Sculpting

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