Daniele Collura - 2024 Portfolio

Diorama Vespa Cafè

01_Introduction

This project is the result of the Photorealism 3D module at Skyup Academy, where we were given a concept and tasked with creating a photorealistic replica of it. From the modelling in Maya, to the texturing in Substance Painter and the lightning and rendering in Vray.

This was the concept I was given.

02_References

to start a new project, the first thing to do is definitely to research references

As the Vespa Scooter, was a more complex piece to model and texure, It required a reserch of details of his own.

03_Modelling

The entire modeling phase was carried out in Maya, starting from the blocking phase and then moving on to the secondary and tertiary phases. 
As expected, the most challenging part of the project would be the Vespa, for which I have already provided a turntable in the references chapter.
One of the most challenging parts of the entire project, especially given my lack of experience, was certainly reproducing the sleek curves of the Vespa. nTo overcome this, it took quite a few attempts where I started over from scratch before figuring out how to tackle the issue.

04_Texturing

The texturing phase was tackled using Substance Painter. Initially, I wanted to categorize the materials into Metallic, Non-Metallic, Wood, Glass, Rock, etc. Finding this approach somewhat cumbersome, I opted for three main materials instead: Glass, Non-Glass, and Vespa. For the Vespa, I dedicated a separate material to it, allowing me more freedom in the software since it would be the centerpiece of the entire project.

05_Lightning

The final phase of the project was dedicated to lighting and rendering using V-Ray.

THE GOOSBERUS

Greetings everyone! I'm proud to introduce my first project created during the first module of digital sculpting in the CG Masterclass at Skyup Academy. The theme for this semester was European mythology.

So, drawing inspiration from deities/creatures related to this theme, we were tasked with reimagining the chosen character. I chose Cerberus and decided to merge it with the most aggressive creature found in nature: the goose.

And thus, Gooseberus was born.

Sculpted in Zbrush, lit and textured in Maya and rendered in Vray.

After gathering enough references to start, I sketched out some ideas on paper that would allow me to move on to the next phase.

As this was my first venture into sculpture, getting my hands "dirty" with Monster Clay was definitely helpful at this stage.

Beginning to sculpt the piece in real life gave me a sense of how the volumes would behave digitally.

Happy with the achieved result, it's time to digitize everything. This being my first experience with Zbrush, I initially lost some time getting to grips with the interface, but once I got the hang of it, I understood how much creative freedom the software could offer.

Once everything was finalized, I noticed an issue: my Gooseberus had too much of a horizontal development when I actually wanted a more vertical one. At this point, the quickest method I found was to cut away the necks and redo them from scratch (a similar thing had also happened to me during sculpting with monster clay).

Not a huge change, but enough to satisfy me.

At this point, it's time for the lights! Once I've set up a small photo set in Maya, I move on to rendering with Vray.

If you've made it this far, thank you for your kind attention, and I'll see you on the next project!