Developing a 3D Production Pipeline for Render Time

1. Pre‑production

I'm developing the look and feel of character and environment at the pre‑production Stage. This is the moment to get creative and make experiments. All solutions take place at this stage, no U Turns during Production.
Here are some task examples of pre‑production in a typical 3D Pipeline:

Storyboard and animatic

Self explanatory, click on the arrows to advance through the vignettes.

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And here is the animatic, with final timing:

Facial expressions

Showing a selection of expressions from a more extensive Expressions Sheet. The solution here is going beyond the basic briefing by adding more facial expressions than the minimum and prepping the character for an escalated version of the short film:

Turnaround

Showing the posed character in a virtual turntable:

Orthographic views

Making the character usable for 3D modelers by offering a set of orthographic views.

Concept art

Setting up tones, conveying lighting information, and narrative elements:

Once I can count on a finished pre‑production, I finally know what my characters, environments and props are going to look like, what dimensions they are going to have, and what steps I have to take to get the job done.
Only now I am in the position to move into production, where the required investments in money and time become massive: This is the point of no return.

2. Production

These are the most common tasks inside a production pipeline for 3D projects in render time. This is true as well for characters as for environments & props. The Digital Content Creation (DCC) pipeline is the same for real and render time:

Modeling Character and Environment

Sculpting

Sculpting from ZSpheres in ZBrush, Unified Skin, brushing basic details only, focusing on getting proportions right:

Retopology

Manual Retopology on a decimated version of the character's body, in Maya using Quad Draw, focusing on edge loops and prepping the mesh for animation:

Procedural modeling

This is an example of procedural retopology from another project (I'm not using procedural modeling in this project), using ZRemesher inside ZBrush:

This link takes you to this project's page:

Reconstructing Photo-grammetry

Reconstructing, repairing, and cleaning up photogrammetry scan, using ZBrush Dynamesh and ZRemesher to open UVW and clean up textures.

For Sculpting and Retopology, click on the following case studies:

Sculpting Human Body

Modeling a human body using ZSpheres, retopologizing mesh and opening UVW in Maya. Sculpting micro-detail in ZBrush. Exporting normal and displacement maps.

Sculpting Human Head

Sculpting basic detail in ZBrush, applying retopology in Maya using Quad Draw and re-importing into ZBrush for micro detail.

Modeling Mechanic Char.

Modeling a mechanic character with automatic edge loops with ZRemesher, importing as OBJ into Maya, and sculpting detail in ZBrush.

Modeling XReality Prop

Modeling prop glasses assets for an augmented reality app. 3D scanning, adding retopology with Quad Draw in Maya, and setting up with Python tool.

Modeling Prop

Modeling a prop hand grenade asset through references, templates, schematics, modular polygons & UVW in Maya. Sculpting detail in ZBrush.

I'm using VFX to populate the background, making the environment's modeling pretty simple:

If you want to find out more about modeling environments and architecture, click on the following case study links:

Modeling Exterior Env.

Modeling exterior environment for render time by drawing CAD floor plans and elevations, extruding quads in Maya.

Modeling Arch. Interior

Modeling architectonic interior, drawing CAD floor plan and elevations, modeling rooms and furniture using quad extrusions and NURBS in Maya.

Modeling Level Geometry

Modeling real time level geometry using CAD floor plans and elevations, blocking out meshes and adding details in 3D Studio Max with booleans and stacks.

Rigging the character

I'm rigging and animating the character to export a cached mesh version using Alembic. I have too much to show about rigging, so I'm just mentioning this as a part of the pipeline.
If you want to know more about rigging and skinning, click on the following case studies:

Rigging Human Body

Rigging a human body using animator friendly rigging in Maya. Torso, spine, FK/IK, neck, head, pose, fixed elbow, hand, reverse foot, independent pivots.

Rigging Human Head

Rigging a human head with FK/IK minimal joints, creating a user interface, and combining blendShapes to match an expressions sheet.

Skinning Human Body

Skinning a whole human body using Maya Muscle, attaching muscles to joints in Maya, using them as influence objects, and mixing blendShapes.

Skinning Facial Expressions

Using skinning for facial expressions, through quad retopology, minimum Maya joints, importing and combining expressions sculpted in ZBrush.

Here you can see some of the minimal functionalities of a rigged human body:

Skinning

I'm using Maya Muscle to drive the model's deformations, using the NURBS Surfaces as influences on the mesh:

Using skinning for facial expressions

I am rigging her face using a simple blendShape method, importing facial expressions sculpted in ZBrush. Her only expression in this short film is a smile.
As mentioned before (see expressions sheet in pre-production), I am including some additional facial expressions, in case I have to reuse this rig in a bigger production pipeline scale.

If you want to know more about Maya Muscle and Skinning, click on these case studies:

Skinning Human Body

Skinning a whole human body using Maya Muscle, attaching muscles to joints in Maya, using them as influence objects, and mixing blendShapes.

Skinning Facial Expressions

Using skinning for facial expressions, through quad retopology, minimum Maya joints, importing and combining expressions sculpted in ZBrush.

Once I test my rigging and deformations, I am animating my character, first blocking out the main translations, and later adding some subtle variations, like:

• Stretching her legs before landing
• Lowering down the arms
• Opening her eyes, looking at the camera, and smiling

Visual Effects

My solution for flowers, plants, and bugs flying towards her, at the beginning of the short film, consists of simulating 4 tunneled force fields, swirling particles in her direction, and using an animated Alembic low‑res version of her body as attractor and collider:

I am retouching photographs, adding some procedural dust to the particles inside the tunnels, and simulating them using nParticles.
I'm using Paint Effects for vegetation, including wind simulations:

I am using Nucleus Tools, namely nHair and nCloth, to solve dynamics on her hair, dress and wings:

If you want to find out more about VFX, check out these case study links:

Grooming Human Head

Grooming a human head using XGen in Maya, linking geometry to descriptions, simulating, caching, applying shaders, rendering and compositing.

Maya Muscle for Skinning

Simulating Maya Muscle on a rigged human character, using them as deformers on skinning and letting it drive Maya Nucleus nHair and nCloth.

Simulating Clothes

Simulating clothes using nCloth in Maya. Mesh with motion capture drives dress & necklace. Cached shirt simulation drives a vest.

VFX for Environment

Simulating nParticles and force fields in Maya for an exterior environment including wind on vegetation, air particles, volumetric lights and water.

Simulating Fluid Injection

Simulating a fluid injection for a shoe sole using nParticles in Maya. Understanding the briefing, developing simulation tactics, caching and rendering.

VFX Workflow

Letting animated characters drive VFX using Maya Nucleus, including flexible cables, molten metal, smoke, sparks, and optical effects.

Rendering the short film

I am dividing the render fields of my short film into foreground, middle‑ground and Background.

• Foreground includes the character and the pampas grass waving in the wind
• Middle‑ground includes water, ground, bigger trees, etc., and
• Background includes sun, mist, water in the back and far trees, etc. I'm using a 2D cardboard style Paint Effects for the farthest trees.

I'm rendering for compositing. I know from experience that they are going to need the following buffers (I'm using Mental Ray) for every element in the fields:

• Direct lighting
• Indirect lighting
• Diffuse
• Reflections
• Speculars
• Refraction (transparency)
• Subsurface scattering (SSS) / translucency
• Volumetric lights
• Depth of field
• Motion blur

Here you can see some of the passes already composited:

For lighting, I'm adding a High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) for general lighting, a directional light to reinforce sunlight, and a spotlight to light up the speculars in her eyes.

Texturing

For materials and textures, I'm using specific shaders, depending on the properties of the asset. Here are some of the textures I am using for her body, applying on a PBR Material later in Arnold:

If you want to know more about texturing a character or building up a PBR material, visit the following case studies:

Texturing Character

Texturing a character for render time by opening UVW in Maya, hand painting and extracting PBR textures in Substance Designer/Painter, rendering EXR.

Rendering Interior Env.

Rendering an interior environment through animatics and concept, HDRI lighting, texturing, simulating VFX with Maya Nucleus, rendering EXR, Nuke comp.

Texturing Buildings

Texturing buildings for real time environment, modeling and UVW in 3DS Max, hand painting textures, applying to materials.

Compositing Short Film

Compositing short film using Nuke by rendering EXR and grouping background, character, volumetric lights, simulations and optical effects.

Rendering Prop

Rendering and Compositing a Prop Asset Skateboard Bag, Using Maya, ZBrush, Mental Ray, EXR, and Nuke.

Once my lighting, textures, and materials are ready, I'm rendering HDRI into Open EXR format file sequences, importing, and compositing them in Nuke.

3. Post‑production

I'm identifying compositing with post‑production in this project. A VFX Pipeline for live‑action‑footage is different than one for animation or real time. Some studios even understand post‑production as dialog and foley.
That being said, I have been using Nuke for years and its nodes‑based architecture and direct compatibility with Python, make it an irreplaceable tool for render artists. That's why I'm including Compositing as a part of the Rendering pipeline in the rest of this portfolio.
Here you can see the compositing phases in this short film:

Once the whole scene is composited, I can render a final, retouched version and edit it (in this case) in a program like Premiere Pro. From there, I can export the rendered film to any format or size.
If you want to know more about compositing and post‑production, check out this workflow‑breakdown link:

Compositing Short Film

Compositing short film using Nuke by rendering EXR and grouping background, character, volumetric lights, simulations and optical effects.

And that's the end of the 3 phases in 3D Production Pipeline for a render time animation short film.
If you want to know more about Management and pipeline development, click on the following case study links:

Guidelines for Real Time

Establishing guidelines for a real time 3D production pipeline. Research, One Page Design, developing environment, characters and programming interaction.

Mentoring Video Tutorials

Series of tutorial videos for junior colleagues, training on modeling, rigging and texturing assets for an augmented reality app using Maya.

Prototyping Modeling Tool

Prototyping a prop glasses modeling tool based on Maya rigging. Defining a standard workflow from existing modeling pipeline.