Making of 'Dream' by Michail Kalinich

Hello, my name is Michail Kalinich and I am very grateful to 3DTotal for the possibility to create a making of my work, Dream. The objective of this project was to create a picture of an old toy. I hope this work will interest a lot of people for whom this image may have reawakened their recollection of their teen years.

References

I own all of the objects that are presented in the picture, but the main object in the piece surely had to be the old robot, Macros. This very toy was the key motif of this artwork (Fig.01).

Fig. 01

Fig. 01

Modelling

All objects were created with the help of polygons. First I created the general shape of objects and then added details. For example, I created a surface, converted it into polygons and gave it a necessary contour. I then turned the flat shape into a volumetric low-polygonal shape, and then itemized it. Fig.02 - 05 detail the process of the general form creation. I used the following tools in this step of the image creation: Slice Plane, Select and Move + Shift, Target Weld.

Fig. 02 d_fig02.gif

Fig. 02 d_fig02.gif

Fig. 03 d_fig03.gif

Fig. 03 d_fig03.gif

Fig. 04 d_fig04.gif

Fig. 04 d_fig04.gif

Fig. 05 d_fig05.gif

Fig. 05 d_fig05.gif

Animated GIF of Figs 01 - 05

Animated GIF of Figs 01 - 05

The general shape was then ready. The main objective of this next step was to get the general proportions (Fig.06 - 07).

Fig. 06

Fig. 06

Fig. 07

Fig. 07

Animated GIF of Figs 06 - 07

Animated GIF of Figs 06 - 07

Fig.08 - 11 illustrate the process of detailing the different parts of the robot. The main method of creation was to work from simple to complex, from the general form to the tiny details. I used the following tools for this modelling phase: Slice Plane, Select and Move + Shift, Target Weld, Cut, Make Planar X Y Z, Extrude, Chamfer, Smoothing Group, Nurbs Toggle.

Fig. 08

Fig. 08

Fig. 09

Fig. 09

Animated GIF of Fig 09

Animated GIF of Fig 09

Fig. 10

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Fig. 11

The model of the robot was created so that it could be animated (Fig.12 - 15). I made a model of the robot in the form of a plane and then converted it into a robot. I wanted everything to be transformed in the right way.

Fig. 12

Fig. 12

Fig. 13

Fig. 13

Fig. 14

Fig. 14

Fig. 15

Fig. 15

Fig. 16 - Fig. 21 detail the modelling of extra objects in the scene. When modelling these objects I used the same principle, working from simple to complex, building up the details. However, in contrast to the model of Macros, I didn't use the Nurbs Toggle here. In order to make the smooth shapes I instead used Smoothing Group. I did this in order to optimise the scene and avoid the redundancy of polygons. Fig.19 and Fig.21 present the models of a TV set and a games console; created by means of this method, they look good and contain only a few polygons.

Fig. 16

Fig. 16

Fig. 17

Fig. 17

Fig. 18

Fig. 18

Fig. 19

Fig. 19

Fig. 20

Fig. 20

Fig. 21

Fig. 21

So all the objects were ready now (Fig.22) - time to move onto materials.

Fig. 22

Fig. 22

Materials

Working with materials I wanted to achieve the maximum expression by means of simple facilities. I also had to show the scratched plastic of the main object - I thought it was important to give the correct impression of this old toy. Fig.23 shows material used for Macros' body; I used a Blend material.

Fig. 23

Fig. 23

Fig.24 - 25 detail two similar materials. The reason for combining them is revealed in the difference of the Refl. glossiness.

Fig. 24

Fig. 24

Fig. 25

Fig. 25

Fig.24 - Refl. glossiness = 0.5; this layer gives mild reflection to the material
Fig.25 - Refl. glossiness = 0.83; this layer gives clear glare to the material
Fig.26 - This shows the material of the blue plastic used for Macros; one and the same material was used to create all blue details - the difference is in the overlapping of the scratches

Fig. 26

Fig. 26

Lighting & Rendering

To render the scene I used V-Ray. Fig.27 details the VRayLight. The intensity of the source was left without any changes; I switched No decay on - this cut off the fading of the source of light. If you turn No decay on the light clears away as if from the direct sun's ray. If you turn No decay off, the sun looks as if it is diffused. When No decay VRayLight was switched on, the light was very intensive and I had to place it a little further from the scene. Fig.28 illustrates this fact. I also switched Store with irradiance map on for the better display of falling shadows. I changed the temperature of the source of light and got warm yellow light. Fig.28 details the position of the source of light relative to the scene.

Fig. 27

Fig. 27

Fig. 28

Fig. 28

Fig.29 shows the VRayPhysicalCamera settings. As I didn't change the force of the source of light, I used the camera as a photographic camera. In reality, the intensity of light doesn't change; we adjust our camera to the conditions of lighting in which we take pictures. So I decided to adjust the camera to the source of light. VRayPhysicalCamera is an ideal tool to achieve this. My goal was to find such a combination of camera settings that could give good illumination of the picture and diffusion of objects in the background of the scene. It was here that it became very important to pay attention to Fig.28 and the combination of the following parameters: f-number, shutter speed, film speed. It is also important to note the real size of objects in your scene, as this is important for depth of field.

Fig. 29

Fig. 29

To light the scene I used an HDRI image. There were two reasons behind this: first, the window in the HDRI gave light, and second the environment gave reflections.
Fig.30 details the render settings.

Fig. 30

Fig. 30

Fig.31 shows the raw render without any corrections in Photoshop.

Fig. 31

Fig. 31

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