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3DTotal: What methods do you use to get the dirt and scratches in all the physically correct areas, and does it involve unwrapping all the geometry and texturing the wear and tear to specific areas, or do you use masks and generic metals, for example in a more procedural fashion?
André: I’m really a friend of hand-painted textures and I think it is the only way to get a certain degree of realism. Procedural textures are very comfortable to use because you don’t have to open Photoshop and start painting something, but they also look like it. For sure, I use them as well, but only on stuff which is far away from camera, or I use them for the displacement of a rock, like as can be seen in the underwater scene in my gallery. On my models, I don’t use them at all, except maybe for some small, subtle bumps, but even these should be better painted ones. All the scratches, dirt and bumps have a reason why they are there and this can only be fully controlled by painted textures, in my eyes. For placing them in the right position, you have to un-wrap all the parts of the model. All faces have their own texture space, and if you unwrap all of them in the same scaling and place them accurately, it is easy to paint on them later. I’m sure there are people out there who can achieve stunning results with procedural textures and I’m open
to every new experience. |
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3DTotal: I notice that there is an underwater scene in your portfolio and a WW2 submarine anti-aircraft gun. Is this an indication of a wartime scene that we may see some time in the future?
André: Indeed there was a wreck of a WW2 submarine conning tower, including the anti-aircraft gun planned between the rocks, but there were so many other things to do it was never finished. I hope one day that I have enough time to make something out of it. The gun itself was also more intended to be a texturing exercise initially, so it is not very accurate.
3DTotal: Which 3D package do you find the most effective, or do you use each for different tasks?
André: At the moment, 3ds Max is my personal and most effective tool as it is the package I’ve been using for years now. But currently I’m also learning Maya to benefit from all its very great functions. |
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3DTotal: Which renderer do you use in Max and how much of your final renders involves post production work in Photoshop?
André: The renderer I prefer is FinalRender
Stage-1, as it gives me the amount of control I want to have. It can be so-called “physically correct”,
but if you don’t want it then you can tweak everything and mix “incorrect” stuff into it, as I always do to get the result I have in my head. I always try to get the most final result out of 3ds Max, but for sure there is some post production work done in Photoshop, like adjusting the colours and contrast.
3DTotal: Are there any other vehicles that you really want to model but just haven’t found time to do, yet?
André: Ha ha, yes, for sure! There is the Canso Catalina, a very old boat seaplane in a yellow/red painted fire fighting version, the CH-53 “Super Stallion” helicopter, and ... many more! But first I have to find the time for them... And besides this mechanical stuff, I’m also very interested in nicely rendered cartoon characters. This area would also be a nice challenge! |
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3DTotal: Finally, can you give us with some tips on getting a realistic and convincing lighting solution, and what are the staple methods you use regularly in your work?
André: Hmm, that’s difficult to answer... Generally, it really depends on the stuff you do. It is always good to study panoramic photographs of landscapes to see the colours in the sky which illuminate your
model, besides the sun. Using these colours, maybe generated with the help of a physical sky system, gives you a good start. If you want to break up the perfectness of this sky, you can mix a similar HDRI into it to get some variation.There’s not really a special staple of methods I use, as all the tasks differ from each other. But something that I regularly use is my very big collection of textures and Photoshop
brushes I have gathered and generated over the years.
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