ŷ��AV

Great work. Iv been using this workflow the past year but have yet to get close to this finish. Thanks for the extra tips. Keep it up! Wayne

nice pic.

Great work, as always Scott. I love seeing the workflow of other artists. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I especially loved the way you handled the shadows. Only about 10% of my work is done with SketchUp renders. I have always approached shadows by using the black to darken the shaded areas. Your approach looks much more natural.

Andrew, thanks for the tip - for my workflow I would definitely need it to be a hidden-line render. I've experimented quite a bit with the ink 'n' paint effects in MAX and haven't been able to get linework as nice as SketchUp's using the custom Styles feature. MAX just doesn't seem to be built for this. Everything else can be done easily enough within MAX though, and with the improved SKP import in MAX 2012(?) I can see migrating back. The key is being able to have a client-provided SketchUp model (which is usually terrible) hold up to rendering exports. As I mentioned to Joel the workarounds are just not there yet, but we're getting close. Good question about changing the camera position - yes that's the biggest pitfall with my workflow. I make it very clear upfront that it's difficult to change once we get started, so it requires some good decision making right off the bat. There is a cost associated with a camera change once all of the masking, etc. has been set up - every now and then we're forced to change it but (nearly) everyone gets it, and it's very rarely a problem. Thanks for the head's up,

For the folks asking about wireframe render in Max, this is my workflow. 1. Save your file as 'wireframe' 2. Select all objects and open material editor. 3. Create a standard flat white material and apply to all objects. 4. Delete all light sources. 5. Switch your render engine to Scanline. 6. Under the renderer tab check 'force wireframe' and disable the other options. 7. Render. In Photoshop invert the image for black lines and a white background. Here is a sample: [IMG]http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy126/ChippedToothMedia/Wireframe.jpg[/IMG] Great article by the way. I enjoy maatte painting so it seems like a great efficient workflow. Are you ever forced to change angles once you begin painting? That is always a fear of mine. Thanks for sharing.

Andrew, thanks for the tip - I'm all about the shortcuts, it's amazing how many there are in PS. Just learned something new!

Thanks for sharing! I tend to get too tied up with getting a perfect rendering right out of Max, and it's great to see how you brought it to life in Photoshop. Also, you can use the shortcut 'Ctrl+Alt+2' to make a selection based on luminosity. It's really useful for making selections and masks from black and white layers. (The shortcut is 'Ctrl+Alt+~' for CS3 and earlier.) Thanks again!

I want to be more like you.

Thanks Joel - I'd like to know too I've never had much luck getting good linework out of MAX, even with Ink 'n' Paint (?) / toon shaders. There are a couple workarounds though - you can export clean lines and then roughen it up by tracing them with a tablet in PS. It's surprising how little it takes, just go over the main features and blend the two together. Not as automatic as the Sketchup export though. Another option would be to export the MAX model and open in Sketchup, but the problem here is getting the camera position, focal length, etc. to match up. This is a case where it really has to be "gnat's ass", and can take quite a bit of trial & error to get right. More time than it's worth IMO. Don't know if there is an automatic way to get the cameras to sync up between the file formats, that would be nice. So in the meantime, I've been relying on Shaderlight & the new Maxwell Render for Sketchup even though they're both a little clunky. I may have to pony up for Vray for Sketchup at some point, but it still strikes me as pricey for what it is. If you find a good workaround, please let me know - thanks!

That's a pretty solid and effective workflow, Scott. I've always enjoyed the traditional/hybrid look that you achieve with the computer. I'm curious if anyone here knows of a way to render out the hand drawn linework pass that Scott illustrates, but using 3ds Max instead of Sketchup. I know how to render just lines, but a softened, slightly shaky line pass where the intersections overlap slightly would be nice. Thanks for sharing your process, Scott! Joel

Thanks everyone! One of the things I really like about this workflow in particular is how quickly it goes, everything is in Photoshop. (model was provided by the client) The Sketchup exporting and even the Shaderlight renders only take a couple minutes at the most. Total time was about 3 days, but there's a lot of down time in there getting feedback from the team. There were 3 review points - initial viewpoint selection, lighting & materials, and final review of entourage etc. With a smaller group, I can sometimes get these done in 1-2 days.

Fantastic work! I love the style of the image. I'm also curious about how long it took to complete the project.

Great Article!

very nice article, thanks for sharing :) how long did this project take to finish?

Dig the horizontal flip tip/tircl to check composition. ...love the closeups too. Computer screens are not high enough resolution to give the tactile feel of the image justice. The zoomed in views convey this nicely. I wish I could see a print.

Wow, a lot of great insights on this article.