Designing a Functional-Looking Spy Drone with an Insect-Like Form

Introduction

My name is Sandro Bonfanti and I'm a 3D Hard Surface Artist with almost 6 years of experience in the videogame industry. My passion for videogames came out when my parents gifted to me my first laptop in 2006. I remember playing Lineage 2 with my cousins and Medal of Honor Allied Assault ( with blood mode deactivated ). When I recently graduated from my art’s Bachelor degree, my art portfolio got attracted to Gameloft Barcelona and that was my first step in my journey as a developer working for Disney Speedstorm.

During these years I had the privilege to participate in multiple AAA projects like Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, Killing Floor 3 under recognizable companies like Ubisoft, Room 8 and NetEase. So after this experience working for shooters, I have a strong interest in sci-fi action / adventure games on both sides, realistic and stylized.

The Project

The B.E.E project is a good example of how I wanted to evolve my skills as a Hard Surface Artist not only on ready game assets but also on Concept Designing in 3D. The main goal was to create a spy drone with an insect appearance closer to a bee and sell it as a "real" functional product.

So I started to think about what are the main components I wanted for my drone, like the battery, 4k camera, carbon fiber propellers, LED lights, Night vision system, Mic and more. So I started to spread all these ideas into a PureRef to help me to visualize it in a better way.

The Basis

Since Plasticity became my main software for game production, I decided to try its real time bridge with Blender. For me, it worked really well.

The flexibility of being able to move back and forth between both softwares and iterate on changes without losing much time is incredible.

Since this project is only  for concept designing purposes, the model doesn't necessarily need clean, production-ready geometry or proper UV layout. Blender is also very useful for adding the final touches through procedural, nodding textures and decals.

Before starting a new concept, I usually break down the design into a few key points:

• Conception: It always starts by asking myself what I want to create. Is it a device, a vehicle, a weapon, a robot, or something else?
• Functionality: What is it going to be used for? A drone, but what kind of drone? I keep iterating on the idea until I have a clear purpose for the design. In this case, I ended up with a small, silent 10 cm spy drone equipped with a 4k camera and a microphone to capture conversations.
• Silhouette: Lately I liked translating my curiosity for biology into my projects, so the B.E.E drone is a mix between a bee and a dragonfly. So the silhouette communicates those influences while still maintaining the essential components and functionality of a conventional drone.

Color Palette & Materials

Plasticity offers several different shader options, but there is one that I especially like. It gives the model a flat color with a noticeable black outline, almost like a cel-shaded cartoonish look.

I usually change the preferences settings and set the background to a light gray or white and then assign the color palette I want for the project. This helps me establish the overall color direction of the concept before translating those colors into more realistic materials later in Blender using Cycles. For the final touches, I also use Photoshop to clean up some lines, create new ones, and add additional decals.

The Textures

Coming from a traditional game-ready background, it was initially a challenge for me to understand how textures could be properly applied to the asset without laying out UVs.

So the key to have a proper adaptation of the texture into the model is setting the texture node projection from Flat to Box and adjusting the Blend slider. Basically Blender projects the textures across three axes. This helps hide tiling artifacts and texture seams, even on complex hard surface geometry.

To achieve more realistic results, I recommend starting with high quality base materials, such as those from Quixel Megascans, and then tweaking them to fit your artistic vision. Instead of using them straight out of the box, I built a modular shading network:

Color Variation: I used the Color Ramp node on the Base Color channel to introduce subtle color variations and break up the uniformity of the procedural tiling.

Roughness detail: By plugging the Megascans maps into the Principled BSDF node, it's possible to adjust their values using a Color Ramp node. This allows me to control the roughness range and add more variation to the material.

Ambient occlusion: Using ambient occlusion or curvature data mixed with noise textures allowed me to proceduralize edge wear and dirt accumulation, adding depth to the final polish without a single UV island.

Decals: I particularly like the Decal Machine addon for Blender, as it makes it very easy to adapt custom decal designs to the main mesh.

Note: Since this is concept design, some specific details are easier to achieve in Photoshop for the final render image, such as scratches, unique details, and other small elements.

Render Settings

To prepare the render scene, I start by setting the Render Engine to Cycles in the Render Properties panel.

I usually set the Max Samples to 1024, although 512 or lower can be used depending on your hardware. I generally avoid Denoise, as it can slightly blur small texture details. However, enabling it can significantly reduce render times if preserving higher quality is not a priority.

To improve your performance while rendering it's a must to go to Edit / Preferences/System and at the OptiX panel make sure you have your GPU activated.

For clean renders intended for Photoshop composing, I usually enable the Transparent option. I'll cover composition and how to present and sell your Concept Design like a product later.

Lighting and Composition

For me, Marmoset Toolbag is still the best option for fast, high-quality renders, as it is specially designed for this purpose. However, Blender also offers addons that can speed up the lighting process while maintaining great results.

I usually avoid using add-on as I like to work with standard tools and keep the artistic decisions within my own workflow. However, while exploring Blender's lighting workflow, I discovered a free add-on called Easy HDRI by Code of Art. 

At first, I thought tools like this could take away from the artistic process. Eventually, I changed my mindset and saw them as a way to combine efficiency with my own artistic vision.

I worked with the lights provided by the addon, adjusting their rotation to achieve the desired rim light and key light, while adding the top light and fill light myself. Combining both approaches creates an efficient pipeline where I can quickly make changes and preview how it looks.

After creating the first simple renders with transparency, I focused on how to sell the idea. It doesn’t matter if the product can't be done in real life, I wanted to present it as if it were a real product. I started thinking about what I wanted people to understand when seeing the drone for the first time.

I focused on its most impactful features and used them as key points in the presentation. Since it's a spy drone, I wanted to communicate what it can do: Its size, speed and omniscience.

For the "Beauty shot",  I decided to place the drone in an environment where it could be useful for a military secret mission: a dense, hidden forest. I picked a realistic environment texture from Quixel Megascans and used the Displacement and Bump settings in the material to add more 3D volume. I then used the Subdivision modifier to smooth the geometry and achieve a more realistic result.

Another add-on I liked and think is worth buying for Blender is Photographer. It helps a lot with managing different camera settings, such as the lens, depth of field, camera type, focus range, and more, all with just a few clicks. It also includes post-processing effects, but I don't recommend overloading the camera with too many settings. Keeping it as simple as possible will help you achieve more realistic renders.

And last but not least, I wanted to show the drone handled by a person, as I had seen many similar references on Pinterest and added them to my moodboard. I decided to build a unique scene specifically for this composition, using different lighting setups and cameras.

Note: As I’m not a character artist, the hands are from a third-party model by Big Medium Small called S.W.A.T.

Conclusion

After five months of learning Concept Design in 3D, I'm really proud to add this new skill to my collection. Coming from six years in the game industry, I've seen how quickly the way we learn and create is changing.

New tools and technologies are making it easier than ever to explore new disciplines, and while this can mean more competition, I believe it also creates more opportunities for artists willing to adapt and keep learning.

If there's one thing I've learned from this process, it's that you don't need to be an expert before you start. Be curious, experiment, and use the tools available to you to bring your ideas to life. Skills can be learned, but creativity, curiosity, and the motivation to keep doing are what will always make your work unique.

I hope you enjoyed the article and found something useful for your own workflow.

Thanks for reading!

Sandro Bonfanti, 3D Hard Surface Artist

Interview conducted by David Jagneaux