Modeling & Texturing Iconic Footballs Using 3ds Max & Substance 3D

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Ilgis Fatykhov, a.k.a. Ilya Dolgov. In this article, I will share the process of creating my latest work, Football Balls – Adidas.

I had a couple of free days, and in order not to waste them, I started thinking about what to do to diversify my portfolio. I came up with the idea of ​​making footballs. The shape is not complicated, and high-poly/low-poly and UV will not take much time. Most of the free time will be spent on texturing and rendering – this is my favorite part. In general, in this work, as in the last one, I decided to concentrate on texturing and primarily on rendering.

1. Search for References

While searching for references, I came across many articles about how the shape of a football changed to achieve the ideal spherical shape. There are many articles, and they are all interesting. This is the advantage of working with real shapes that are found in everyday life. In searching for references, you can study a lot about why this or that shape has such features.

The shape that I chose consists of hexagons connected to each other that form a connection in a circle, and the centers of the pentagons. So this is the classic shape of a football that was used from the late 70s to the late 90s.

The first thing I decided to do was Adidas Etrusco Único, in my opinion, the best design of a football. Adidas Etrusco Único was designed specifically for the 1990 World Cup and was also used for the European Championship. In general, an iconic coloring, I could not pass by this design.

My second choice was the Adidas Tricolor – the design of the ball that was used at the World Cup in France in 1998, also a very beautiful design made in the colors of the French flag. 

My third choice came from studying the topic of ball designs. I was looking for more references, and the 1974 World Cup ball seemed iconic. It was like a turning point between the old Adidas style and the new one that lasted until the end of the 90s. The ball has the same shapes of individual parts and has a good contrast of black and white parts.

So I had decided on three ball designs. It was time for the modeling stage. 

2. Modeling

I use 3ds Max as my main modeling software. Since the shape of the ball is extremely simple, I don't think it's worth focusing on this stage. Basically, I prepared the model in 3ds Max for further adding damage to ZBrush. Below is approximately what I did in 3ds Max, then I imported this model to ZBrush to add details.

I added the main destruction of the leather surface of the ball in ZBrush. I had a variant with a more damaged surface, but I decided not to use it because it seemed to me that a too-damaged surface would tie my hands at the texturing stage.

I also added a wavy relief between the leather pieces (in those places where the seam goes). Such distortion is typical for the surface of footballs and will emphasize the realism of the final result.

So, using masks and brushes, I brought the final high-poly model to a medium state of destruction. I thought that I would add further destruction and wear at the texturing stage. I will skip the stage of low poly, UV unwrapping, and baking textures, since these are the most boring stages.

3. Texturing

Here, I move on to the texturing stage. The only change I made was that this time I baked the textures not in Marmoset but in Substance 3D. I didn't notice any difference, so I continued texturing. Since the balls are made of different types of leather, I tried to highlight this feature. The 1974 ball does not have a characteristic leather surface, its surface is a smooth base with rare leather wrinkles, I don't even know how to choose the right description for this characteristic, while the 1990 and 1998 balls have a characteristic leather surface. In general, I tried to repeat this feature in the textures using different Quixel materials as a surface base.

I have provided a video with an example of the difference in the surface of the balls. I tried to highlight the differences in the leather material for the old types of balls, based on references. I also based all the wear of the ball material on this. While the 1974 ball will most likely crack with age and use, and the inside will turn black from dirt and other external influences, more modern types of leather will most likely not crack (at least I did not find such references). Still, they will deform in the most vulnerable places, exposing the synthetic insides.

For the balls, I prepared all possible alphas for logos, inscriptions, etc. Also, for the 1974 ball, I added autographs of Gerd Müller and Paul Breitner, and also added a print of the logo of Bayern Munich of the 70s. It seemed to me that in the context of the history of this ball, it would not be superfluous. And for the 1998 Ball, the phrase of the French national team "Vive les Bleus".

When texturing, I tried not to use damage too much; I made an exception only for the 1974 ball. I tried to make it as destroyed as possible in relation to the other balls. In general, I tried to make them destroyed but usable. I also tried not to use the sharp filter for textures. I don't see the point in it, since if something happens, I can use additional sharpness in post-processing after rendering.

As for the dirt, I tried to reduce its impact this time. The only thing I made more visible was the yellowed edges of individual pieces. With aging and use, such materials turn yellow in the joint areas. Also, studying the references, I noticed that the paint used for such balls is extremely durable and does not wear out much, so I did not add strong wear and tear to the paint. From the noticeable wear, I also added black scratches on the surface. This type of scratch usually appears due to the soles of sneakers, and since the ball is often kicked, such scratches should be a noticeable type of wear.

4. Rendering & Post-Processing

For rendering, I used Marmoset Toolbag 4. To diversify the scene, I took two Quixel Megascans assets. According to the theme, I chose a city street view. This sidewalk and pole will diversify the scene well and will add context, although not much. Well, in any case, it is better than rendering balls without a background.

As an HDRI environment, I chose exterior options in the Marmoset library. For each ball, I chose a separate HDRI. For the 1990 ball, I chose a slightly overexposed "Alley Bikes" environment, but which had extra colors. This environment seemed to me the most natural. For the 1974 ball, I chose an environment, "Alley Graffiti Gate," of approximately the same tone, but it seemed to me that it gives a little more contrast. For the 1998 ball, I chose "Alley Highway" – this warmer in tone environment was more suitable for the theme of the World Cup in France. For all three balls, I did not add additional light sources so as not to overload the scene with unnecessary light and not to make it unrealistic.

As for the depth of the field, I did not blur the background too much and chose small values, focusing on the ball. Below are the settings I used in this scene.

As for post-processing, I edited the resulting images in Photoshop using Camera Raw. I didn't make many changes, since the resulting original images were already pretty good in my opinion. I adjusted the white level a little, added a little lens distortion, and added some extra noise.

I tried not to distort the source image too much, but to add a little roughness. For each image, I slightly changed the basic settings, but in general, I followed the template presented below.

Conclusion 

The work is very simple, in forms and sculpting, so I apologize that the article is not large and may not be informative enough, in this work I set myself the task of completing this work as quickly as possible since I did not have much free time, try to diversify the portfolio, practice with the substance painter and rendering. For the next work for the portfolio, I will try to choose already complex forms and choose a complex topic to create a challenge for myself. 

Thank you for reading. I hope this article was at least somewhat interesting and can be useful.

Thanks to 80 Level for the opportunity to share the experience of creating this work.

Ilya Dolgov, 3D Artist