today we're going to be taking a look at some amazing breakdowns and renders from studios and professional artists from around the world. I think you can learn quite a lot from these. How they're made, how they set up things, and some new concepts you might not even be familiar with. But that will be useful in your journey.
Riot Games – Breakdown & Concept Art
So let's start with a fun look back from Riot Games, showing us some breakdowns and concept art from Episode 1 and Episode 2. If you're a big fan of the series, you're going to love the Untold Stories, the Cutout Scenes, and basically a general recap of the series. And if you're a 3D artist, you can look at the concept art and how the trick scenes were set up, how these amazing renders were created.
Impossible-Looking Render
Every time I want to improve in render, I always look at what 3D artists are doing and try to replicate it in render. That's where some of my renders come from.
But this render looks impossible in render. He's using multiple solvers to create the effect he's looking at. An ambient solver for the thick mud underneath, and a fluid solver to create that air-like effect. And then a power solver, which is basically a smoke simulation on top of all of that.
If there are no fluid effects, then it's there. There are several ways you can do that in 3D by using volume advection. In render, we now have something similar called volume advection, which allows you to transfer various pieces of a smoke simulation or any other simulation into 3D props. So you can use it to add effects to the game.
Making a render like this in 3D is complicated. So in there, it's going to be even more complicated.
A Massive Multi-Artist Collaboration
Next up, we have the best collaboration I've ever seen. This is a tutorial made by gleb Alexanderov, David Cohart, Alistair News. Everyone with their respective profession, they collaborated on this tutorial, making this kind of feature, rendering it specifically in 3D.
Indeed, I hope to see more of these collaborations on YouTube, because you can learn quite a lot in one video. So modeling, texturing, lighting, and 3D.
3 major lighting tips
Next up, we have Max Hay, who has been one of my go-to guides if I want to learn something new in lighting and setting up my environment. His techniques are unique, and you can learn quite a lot in one video. A large in-situ light source set up, which I thought to produce the best lighting ever.
So if you want to learn some new techniques, he has released a great easy lighting setup tutorial, bringing back some of his best renders.
Ai inspired Environment Art
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/JrKlon
Next up, we have Lena Danilova, the developer, who used a combination of blender, Unreal Engine, Substance Designer, ZBrush, SpeedTree, Pixel Vegas Stamps, and Substance Painter to create this amazing, rich art.
Looking at her inspiration board, it's a great reminder of how seriously you have to take inspiration and resources. You see, they used SpeedTree to generate their own trees for the close-up shots. Once absorbed, or you cannot look, and the other trees are going to be trees for their stamps. The materials are custom, with Substance Designer and Substance Painter.
Rapid Rally Challenge Breakdown
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wrom46
So, for the original Alita movie, I would in doubt use it for a second. It also gave us a great breakdown, which was worked fully on his isolation channel. He is using Cascada, which is great for animation, since it gives you physically accurate poses, adjusting the poses, depending on the physics of the body. Also, created his custom flares and upper effects, then the other compositing in new. Check out the full breakdown in the description.
Why Cinema 4D Still Leads Motion Graphics
Now, this is why Cinema 4D is the best motion graphics software. Look at this render made by RED. Of course, you can still do this in Blender, but in Cinema 4D, all these tools are available out of the box. You are not installing any add-ons to get these functionalities. They are using a lot of cloners and defectors, which are basically modifiers in Blender. Thankfully, in Blender 5.0, we are starting to see some improvements, because we are switching a lot of modifiers to geometry nodes, giving us more functionality and control, similar to what you see in Cinema 4D.
Iron Man 1 – Recreating a Legendary VFX Shot
Iron Man 1 kicked off the Marvel Universe, as we know it today, and also came with some amazing new effects. Eric Dahl's VFX tried to recreate some of the VFX from that movie, and I think he was super successful at it, recreating one of the best shots from the movie, where Tony Stark is showing off his new visor. Check out the whole video on his channel. It's a quick first tutorial of the things that you have to do.
Houdini’s Recurring Role in Epic Renders
https://www.udemy.com/course/houdini-for-every-artist/?couponCode=TOPCHANNEL1ON1
A quick recurring theme of these epic renders or recreations you will see is that Houdini is used almost in every one of them. So, if you want to learn Houdini, I have a beginner's course that will take you through the basics, so that you can start making your own effects without any limitations.
Spider-Man Blockbuster Scene in Blender
Another great breakdown, similar to the Iron Man breakdown, is done by Nerodoesfuff. He gave us a blockbuster scene from Spider-Man, creating the animation, rendering, buildings, materials, and setup inside Blender, showing us how much a single artist can do in this day and age with free software.
And that's all I have for you this week. If you want to see more breakdowns and renders, hit subscribe, like, and let me know what you think. See you in the next one.
My Addons & Tools
You can check out my new album, Look Clothes, which is a collection of clothes that are animated and looked. You can change the width, speed, fit them on your characters, move them around with the clothes on and animated. And also my Everything Park collection, which is a collection of my individual setups that I've made over time, and I'll be adding more to that.
Also, my Look Clothes now gets some static clothes that are fully state-set, and I'm adding new clothes every single day. These are also going to be available to my patrons and YouTube members, if you are interested in that.
Thank you, and see you next time.
blender courses:
Blender advanced effects
https://www.udemy.com/course/advanced-effects-in-blender/?couponCode=TOPCHANNEL1ON1
on SuperHiver: https://superhivemarket.com/products/advanced-effects-in-blender?ref=311
Geometry Nodes Course:
https://www.udemy.com/course/mastering-geometry-nodes-in-blender/?couponCode=BESTOFFER
https://superhivemarket.com/products/mastering-geometry-nodes-in-blender?ref=311
on udemy:
Master Geometry nodes 2:
Houdini for blender Artists COURSE: https://www.udemy.com/course/houdini-for-every-artist/?couponCode=TOPCHANNEL1ON1
Blender Vfx Course:
https://www.gamedev.tv/courses/blender4-visual-effects?ref=zgjln2y