我很高兴有这个极好的机会来分享我制作机器人的过程。在我开始之前，我知道这不是一个简单的过程，我需要一个明确的行动计划，以及大量的辛勤工作！你必须对你所做的事情充满热情，以便把这大量的时间投入到一个项目中。事不宜迟，让我们开始吧。
I am very glad to have this wonderful opportunity to share my process for making APEX the Robot. I knew before I started that this would not be an easy process and that I would need a clear plan of action, as well as lots of hard work! You must be passionate about what you do in order to dedicate this much time to a project. What made APEX the Robot a huge accomplishment for me was that it taught me discipline and fed my hunger for learning. Without further ado, let's get started.
Step 1: Concept and references
This all started with me contacting Dan Jones, the artist who created the original sculpture. I asked him if I could digitally recreate his robot Apex to use for my demo reel. He agreed, so I flew to meet him in California, USA. I was incredibly lucky to be able to take photos and shoot a video of the original; this is a luxury you don't usually have when working in a big production.
I already knew that I needed the photos in order to create masks for projecting detail in MARI, so choosing the right lens was extremely important. I also gathered references for the different parts and materials to help me with the modeling and look dev.
步骤1：概念和参考
我开始联系创造了原始的雕塑的艺术家丹琼斯。 我问他是否可以用我的演示卷轴重现他的机器人Apex。 他同意了，所以我飞到美国加利福尼亚见他。 我非常幸运能够拍摄照片和拍摄原始视频; 这是你在一个大生产中工作时通常不会拥有的奢侈品。
我已经知道，我需要的照片，来创建掩模在MARI投影细节，所以选择正确的镜头是非常重要的。 我也收集了不同零件和材料的参考，来帮助我建模和外观开发。
Step 2: Modeling
After gathering the reference material I was able to start modeling APEX. This part was fairly straight forward - trying to make sense of topology in every moment and keeping an eye on the volumes and shapes.
Every mesh should hold its shape and not change too much when it is subdivided, otherwise the textures will stretch when you apply them. This is a huge waste of valuable time when texturing because you will have to go back and correct it.
A quick tip: Use a gray Blinn shader with the specular bumped up while modeling, with this you can look for pinching points on the fly.
步骤2：建模
收集参考材料后，我能够开始建模APEX。 这部分是相当简单的 - 试图理解拓扑在每一刻，保持眼睛的体积和形状。
每个网格应该保持其形状，并且在细分时不会改变太多，否则当应用它们时，纹理会拉伸。纹理是浪费宝贵的时间，因为你将不得不回去并纠正它。
快速提示：在建模时使用灰色Blinn着色器与镜面碰撞，这样您可以在飞行中寻找夹点。
Step 3: UVs
When working on the UVs I like to grab a cup of tea and listen to my favorite music. I like it because it is mostly a mechanical process but there is also a fair amount of problem solving. It takes some time, but it's a crucial step for getting the mesh ready for texturing. There are many things to consider, such as how much resolution you will need (this depends on the size on screen), proportion consistency among the meshes, and the orientation in the UV space. In my case I distributed all the parts across 63 UDIM tiles, ordering them in rows by material. All maps are in 4k.
A quick tip: If you double the resolution density for the small metal pieces such as the bolts and nuts, they will look crisper and more realistic in the final render.
步骤3：UVs
当工作在UVs我喜欢拿一杯茶，听我最喜欢的音乐。 我喜欢它，因为它主要是一个机械过程，但也有相当多的问题要s解决。 这需要一些时间，但它是网格准备纹理的关键步骤。 有很多事情需要考虑，例如你需要多少分辨率（这取决于屏幕上的大小），网格之间的比例一致性，以及UV空间中的方向。 在我的案例中，我分布了所有的部分，63个UDIM磁贴，按行按材料排序。 所有地图都在4k。
快速提示：如果为小金属件（例如螺栓和螺母）提高分辨率密度，它们将在最终渲染中看起来更清晰，更逼真。
Step 4: Texturing
Texturing is my favorite part of the whole process. I used MARI because it's the most widely used texturing software in the movie industry. Plus it works like magic and allows me to work in an organized and non destructive way.
My workflow involved creating multiple channels for each material including Diffuse, Specular, Glossiness, and Bump. Some of the objects in the scene, such as the main body piece, have four different layers: an aluminum base, black patina on top of it, and then two more paint layers - cream and red. It is very important to plan in advance for this! I had to create multiple black and white masks in Photoshop to achieve a layering similar to the reference.
A quick tip: If you don't have Photoshop you can use Gimp to play with the Levels and color select for creating masks. It's open code, works great, and it's free.
步骤4：纹理
纹理是我整个过程中最喜欢的部分。 我使用MARI，因为它是电影行业中使用最广泛的纹理化软件。 此外，它的工作原理像魔术，并允许我工作在一个有组织的和非破坏性的方式。
我的工作流涉及为每种材料创建多个通道，包括漫射，镜面，光泽度和凹凸。 场景中的一些物体，例如主体部分，具有四个不同的层：铝基底，在其顶部的黑色铜绿，然后两个更多的油漆层 - 奶油和红色。 这是非常重要的计划提前为此！ 我不得不在Photoshop中创建多个黑白面具，以实现类似于参考的分层。
一个快速提示：如果你没有Photoshop，你可以使用Gimp玩水平和颜色选择创建面具。 它是开放的代码，工作伟大，它是免费的。
Step 5: Look Development
For APEX the Robot, my renderer of choice was V-Ray, it's pretty heavy on the technical side, but the quality you can achieve makes it worthwhile. For the shaders I used both simple and blend V-Ray materials to plug my maps into. APEX has metals, wood, plastic, fabric, glass, and many other materials.
For lighting I used a classical set up: an HDRi very similar to the location where I took the photos, and a couple more area lights to highlight specific points ever so slightly. I also created a white backdrop to bounce light on the back of the figure, as I used a real one when I took the photos in San Diego.
A quick tip: Use GGX for the BRDF in the metals, as it's the most accurate micro facet model. It makes a whole world of difference compared with Blinn and Phong.
第5步：看发展
对于APEX机器人，我选择的渲染器是V-Ray，它在技术方面相当强大，质量可以达到很很棒。 对于着色器，我使用简单的混合V-Ray材料将我的地图插入。 APEX有金属，木材，塑料，织物，玻璃和许多其他材料。
对于照明，我使用了一个经典的设置：HDRi非常类似于我拍摄照片的位置，和几个区域灯光，突出具体点。 我还创造了一个白色的背景，反弹的光线在图的背面，因为我使用了一个真正的一个图片，当我在圣地亚哥拍照。
快速提示：使用GGX作为金属中的BRDF，因为它是最准确的微面模型。 与Blinn和Phong相比，它使得一个整体世界有所不同。
Step 6: Rendering
As I needed the light to bounce from the backdrop onto the back of the robot I had to use GI (Global Illumination). For this, it was very handy to cache a fly-through pass on the very first frame of each camera and then load it for the rest of the sequence. It worked like a charm! For the image sampler I went with Adaptive and kept an eye on the subdivision threshold. I was lucky to count with more computers, so I used distributed rendering and lowered the render time from 70 to 10 minutes per frame.
A quick tip: Before doing the final render it's wise to playblast the cameras in the Maya scene, export them, and edit a first rough cut. This way you make sure what you are rendering is what you need.
步骤6：渲染
由于我需要光从背景反弹到机器人的背面，我不得不使用GI（全球照明）。 对于这一点，它是非常方便缓存飞越通行证在每个摄像机的第一帧，然后加载它的序列的其余部分。 它工作很有魅力！ 对于图像采样器，我用自适应和保持眼睛的细分阈值。 我很幸运地计数了更多的计算机，所以我使用分布式渲染，并将渲染时间从每帧70到10分钟。
一个快速提示：在做最终渲染之前，明智的做法是在Maya场景中播放相机，导出它们，并编辑第一个粗略剪辑。 这样，你确保你正在渲染的是你需要的。
Step 7: Comping
Once all the renders were finished it was time to comp all the passes in Nuke, one of my favorite pieces of software. A slight color adjustment, defocus, and a background did the trick perfectly. It's always a pleasure to work with nuke, as the possibilities are endless if you have the proper render passes. In my case I had the renders in multi map open .exr files. This way it's very easy to shuffle all the passes directly from the read node.
A quick tip: Remember to set up the distance in the ZDepth pass in the attribute editor before rendering, so you can properly use the ZDefocus node on Nuke.
步骤7：比较
一旦所有的渲染完成，是时候把所有的通行证在Nuk调整，我最喜欢的软件之一。 轻微的颜色调整，散焦和背景完美的把戏。 使用nuke总是很高兴，因为如果你有正确的渲染通道，可能性是无穷无尽的。在我的情况下我已经呈现多地图打开EXR文件。这样就可以很容易地从读取节点直接洗牌所有的通行证。
快速提示：记住在渲染之前在属性编辑器中设置ZDepth通道中的距离，以便可以正确使用Nuke上的ZDefocus节点。
Step 8: Editing
After comping, I edited the video in Premiere - keeping an eye on timing and rhythm. I already had a couple of music pieces selected, so I used the one that best fit the theme. Finally, I added the titles and created a brief animation for the credits. It was so nice to see APEX come to life!
A quick tip: The last part of the creative process - how you present your work - is 50% of the whole project for me. Don't rush things at the end just because you want to deliver or post your work faster, take your time.
步骤8：编辑
完成后，我在Premiere中编辑了视频 - 注意时间和节奏。 我已经选择了几个音乐作品，所以我使用最适合的主题。 最后，我添加了标题，并为学分创建了一个简短的动画。 很高兴看到APEX的生活！
快速提示：创意过程的最后一部分 - 如何呈现您的工作 - 是我整个项目的50％。 不要急于事情结束只是因为你想提供或发布你的工作更快，花时间。
Step 9: Final thoughts
It's when we push ourselves to the limit that the best work happens and we grow both professionally and personally. All the hard work, long hours, troubleshooting, laughing, and struggling paid off big time. Having amazing friends and colleagues around also makes a huge impact on how you deal with the days spent in front of the computer.
Thanks to everyone that helped, supported, and believed in me, especially my mentors Justin Holt and Paul H. Paulino.
第9步：最后的想法
这是当我们把自己的极限，获得最好的工作，让我们成长。 所有的辛勤工作，长时间，故障排除，笑和奋斗得到回报。 有惊人的朋友和同事在周围也对你如何处理在电脑前花费的日子有巨大的影响。
感谢大家帮助，支持和相信我，特别是我的导师Justin Holt和Paul H. Paulino。
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