Peter Sabadotto Portfolio 2024

Hello everybody, I'm Peter Sabadotto from Italy, my journey in the 3D world started with a very technical approach in my previous job, in wich I understand the power of digital creation. Once attended the Skyup's Academy Masterclass, which reunites all the fields of CGI, I had the chance to join their team as teaching assistant and decided to pursue the 3D modeler path, here's three milestones projects I did in the last few months: 

Advanced Organic Shapes

During March of this year I had the huge opportunity to attend a modeling masterclass with the Senior 3D modeler Giuseppe Bufalo. Giuseppe helped me improve vertically on modeling organic shapes in Maya, teaching me tips and tricks of the Pros. After the course I decided to test my new learned skills with this project, made of 8 different exercises, increasingly difficult. Here they are:

Reference

All the references are concepts from the project "Collection of forms 2011" by George Yoo, an incredible library of studies on volumes and shapes, with plenty of incredible challenges. I selected 8 projects, 3 for the low level of difficulty, 3 for the mid level and 2 for the highest. 

Model with method, Think out of the box

Giuseppe always cared about following a method, study the shape, try to visualize it's density or draw it then start with a simple block out, go on with a definition of the secondary volumes and in the end with the third level of details, but the groundbreaking lesson he tought me is that it's not really important how you get there, which tool you use or which comand. Keeping the shapes with the crease tool permitted me to experiment shapes despite the topology, using the cut tool as a pen to directly draw the topology that I needed helped me to proceed more fast in my workflow and why not using a relax brush to correct my curved surfaces in case of pinching? It was unusual for me to think outside the poligonal system of Maya, to think outside the box, but testing this workflow completely open my eyes to a new modelingsystem. Let's see some steps: 

Turntables

Credits

Giuseppe Bufalo: menthor and supervisor of the project;
George Yoo: designer of "Collection of forms 2011";

The Ant Project

The last month of Skyupacademy Master Mars was dedicated to the thesis. Each group was simulating a Studio and the goal was to recreate shots from the assigned films. I had the opportunity to work as “Lead modeler” for the “Drop in size” thesis inspired by the film “Antman” from Marvel Studios.

As Lead Modeler my main goal was to reproduce Antman and in particular my responsibilities were: reference research - evaluation and list of changes of the starting character model gave to us - management of staff and asset division - review of the assets produced - composition of the character by bringing together the various assets - helmet and suit connectors modeling;

My second goal was to help the texturing: creation of height maps - surfacing of the suit;

Work Organization

Before starting my modeling tasks I reasearched all the references and organized the workflow for the creation of the character, asking to each member what they felt more confortable to do, trying to split properly all the assets. I organized everything in a Pureref, let's take a look:

The helmet

my first contribute to the group thesis was the model of the Antman's Helmet. Here it is:

Reference

The reference I took to organize the project have been usefull for the modeling of all the parts, I tried to focus on the shots of the film and on the 3D models of other artists, in this way I had a clear view of each part and asset. 

Modeling Steps

The modeling phase was leaded by a simple method: watch the references, imitate the references and make it become the reference. After a quick block out I started diving deeply into more levels of details of each single part and step by step, the modeling was done. To complete the task, I did the UVs thinking about the texturing phase, trying to help as much as possible my collegues.

Turntables

The Surfacing

my second contribute to the group thesis was the surfacing of all the character. Let's see it:

Reference

once again the references leaded my work, this time I tried to put all my attention to microdetails, scratches and differences of materials.

Process of Surfacing

After studying properly the references I jumped into Photoshop to try to come up with some simple b/w maps. All the process of surfacing has been done in Substance Painter, using different levels and applying the maps I created on Photoshop directly on the UVs.

Turntables

I take this chance to thank all the people involved in the process:

- Jianan Xiang: Supervisor, 3D model of the cuffs, UV’s of the suite;

- Samuele Giunta: Lead Previz and Lighting, 3D model of the gloves and the head of the character;

- Alberto Baldazzi: Lead Texturing, 3D model of the belt and back device;

- Andrea Sperta: CG artist, 3D model of the shoulders device;

- Marco Boscarin: CG artist, 3D model of the suit, boots and pipes of the connections of the devices;

Let me say that I’m very proud of the work we did and once again thanks to all for the huge dedication. Thesis done under the wise advices of Mauro Baldissera and Chiara Rovoletto at Skyup Academy.

The Iconic 80's

my personal project at skyup academy representing the unmistakable Sony Walkman WM-D6 with its headphones and the nostalgic tape casette. This project helped me improve my skills in hardsurface modelling, texturing, shading and lighting implementing in my workflow softwares such as Substance 3D Painter and Autodesk Maya.

Let's start from the Reference

First I researched all the components of my scene and organized everything with Pureref. I tried to pay a lot attention to the technical drawings of the different parts, the measurements and the material technologies of that years. This extremely helped the modelling and the texturing phase.

Givin' it a shape

Once I had all the informations in hand, I started givin' it a shape with a quick block out trying to match the volumes with the camera. Then the deep modelling started taking each single element on it's own, completing the model for each piece and recomposed the scene It was time for the UV's. All the process was done with Maya. Let's see it: 

Texturing

Ended the modelling phase it was time for the texturing phase. All the process was done looking costantly at the references, trying to reach the most realistic behavior of the different materials. All the texturing work has been done with Substance Painter 3D. Let's have a quick look:

The Mood

To finish the project I studied the lighting mood from the reference, played with a simple 2 lights set composed of a neutral HDRI and a directioned key light from the top. In order to recreate that vintage look I post-processed the renderings and added a soft yellow filter. Here's the steps:

Turntables

Before the final deadline I also have been able to reinterpret the scene in newer forms , givin it a new age look. I like to call them "Doodles"

That's it everyone, I take this chance to thank anyone who arrived at this point, I hope you liked it.
See you next time, cheers!!

Peter Sabadotto