Maestracci Leo - Lighting/ Compositing Showreel 2024

Sorrowful Pierrot 

- All Aspects - 

When I was tasked to create a bust for a lighting/ texturing assignment, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to create a Pierrot. 

For some reason, since 2 years, I've felt a growing interest for Pierrots and other face painted adaptations of them. For this 3D project, my first and foremost inspiration was this drawing I made a few years back, but also the makeup on Piero in "The Adventures of Buratino", a 1970's russian adaptation of Pinocchio.

Thus, I quickly went to work to draw a new, fresh 2D concept that would be used as a template for the 3D development. I found great inspirations in the portraits of Shelley Duval and Claudette Colbert.

Moodboard and 2D Concept

Process

It was the first time I tried to create a humanoïd character inside Maya, and at first it was very intimidating. The hardest challenge by far was trying to get the skin shader just right. On top of that I had to figure out how the makeup would react in relation to the skin. 

It was only the second time I was using Mari as well, which was a challenge in itself. Thankfully, since I was already quite familiar with Nuke's nodal system, I felt like it helped me get the hang of the software rather quickly.

Eventually, after a lot of trial and error (and a lot of fatal errors), I managed to output a result I'm satisfied with.

Made using Autodesk Maya, Pixar's Renderman, Foundry's Mari, Autodesk Mudbox and Clip Studio Paint

CG Integration

For this other assignment, we were tasked to familiarize ourselves with the 3D/2D integration workflow. The goal was to have the smoothest tracking possible, and to integrate assets as best to our ability.

Comp Tree and Scene Analysis

Process

The most fun part of this project was for me the 2D integration. I had to find a way to integrate this sticker on the right, and for that I used a mix of multiple keying nodes to extract in black and white the informations of the surface under it. Thanks to that, I've been able to simulate a bumpy surface for the sticker.

Made using Autodesk Maya, Clip Studio Paint, and Foundry's Mari and Nuke.

That is all, thank you for taking the time to read my article!