Designing a Robot in a Post-Apocalyptic Environment Using ZBrush & Marvelous Designer

Introduction

My name is Rafael Amarante. I'm Brazilian and I've been working as a freelancer Concept Designer/3D Artist in the game and film industry for about 12 years. I've collaborated with several companies such as Blur Studio, Mighty Canvas (Housemarque, The Coalition), Ironhead Studio, Tencent Games, Keytales, OtherSide Entertainment, Nexus Studios, Studio 369, W2studios, Timstory, Mario Torres (MonstermaniaFX), Unity 3D, Yotta Games, and more.

Design & Modeling Process

I usually don't plan much when working on personal projects. I like things to happen naturally. And in this case was no different. Basically, I wanted to create a robot built in a post-apocalyptic environment, wearing anti-radiation clothing. Besides, I enjoy this kind of theme and aesthetic, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice and improve my skills in Marvelous Designer.

At first, I looked for some references and started working on the design/concept. I made a rough blockout in ZBrush to find an interesting silhouette, define the main shapes and proportions, using my personal kitbash assets to speed up the process.

After that, I created the base of the fabric over the internal frame and made a UV Map of this base to import as a garment into Marvelous Designer for the next stage. At this stage, there are two key points:

• UV cut lines will define the seam lines in Marvelous Designer.
• After making the UV Map, convert the mesh to a single polygroup, or Marvelous won't detect the seam line automatically.

All metal parts were modeled in Plastcity 3D.

In Marvelous Designer, I created a very thin fillet along the edges of the hollow parts and applied "Freeze" to keep them in place. For the folds and elastic effect, I adjusted the Shrinkage Warp values in the Simulation Properties to achieve the desired result.

In ZBrush, I imported the fabric from Marvelous and added some finishing touches on the edges and seams using the Frame Mesh tool and the Curve Tube brush.

Texturing Process

I usually work on texturing and materials just for design presentation, so I don't make UV Maps. I only use procedural texturing in KeyShot. You can see the material graph below:

Lighting & Render

For the lighting and render setup, I used an HDRI with a very low brightness and placed two spotlights on each side at a slight diagonal angle. Also, I added a basic camera.

Post-Production

The post-production was quite simple. I just applied some corrections to the render using the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop.

Conclusion

My focus and motivation as an artist is to create something original, to contribute something new among so many amazing artists and brilliant ideas, and that's always very challenging.

If I could say something to beginners, it would be that everyone has their own path. Choose something that makes sense to you, be authentic, and follow the fundamentals. The rest will unfold naturally.

Rafael Amarante, Hard-Surface Artist

Interview conducted by Emma Collins