Author Archives: Denis Keman

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3ds Max To Unreal Engine 4 Asset Creation Workflow

  By Denis Keman • December 23, 2018

What will this cover?

From the get go we will jump straight to the point. In the last couple of years Unreal Engine has started creeping in the ArchViz scene. Nowadays though, it’s almost like the next industry standard. With the new standard, we have a new set of challenges we need to address. This post will try and cover the basics you will need to know in order to create assets for UE4.

I went ahead and divided this into five videos so it’s easier to follow.

Modeling The Low Polygon Model

When you are creating a model you can either start from a high poly model, or a low poly one. The main difference is that if you start from a high poly, you will need to do a retopology run. In this particular case since we didn’t have any sculpting, we start from scratch. This is by no means a bad thing. In the first video you will see how to logically divide the model. And then start modeling the base of the model.

After we go over the first video, in the second one we will still be doing the low poly model. The reason here for the two videos was because i didn’t want to have one extra long video. So go ahead and check out the second part of the video.

So if you watched these two videos now you should have a base on which to start.

Modeling The High Poly Model

In the second phase of the creation of the model we go over how to create the high poly model. The main plus that we have going for us is that we have a properly created low poly model. With that model we can create the high poly model with ease. Check how i did it in the video below.

UVW Unwrapping

Ok so if you followed along, you should have both the low poly and high poly models done. Next step would be to prepare the model for baking the textures. What this means though is that we will have to prepare the low poly model by UVW Unwrapping it. So in the next video we will see how to take the Low poly model and unwrap it with Unfold3D.

Preparing And Baking The Model with Substance Painter

In the last part of the process we will see how to prepare the model ready for baking. It is here where we will address the importance of normals.  After that we will do the actual baking inside Substance Painter. All in all an interesting topic to help finish up the whole process. So go ahead and check out the video below.

Conclusion

Provided you followed along with all the videos you should now have an idea about the workflow. You can see everything from the concept, down to the baking of the maps. The only thing missing here i guess would be to do the actual materials. But that’s a whole different topic for another day.

So in short that would be it for this topic. If you found this helpful, and you learned something new then share these videos so it can reach more people.

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Creating a Quilted Leather Chair model in 3ds Max

  By Denis Keman • August 3, 2018 , , ,

In today’s post we will take a look at how we can create a Quilted Leather chair. After finishing with this tutorial you will know how to approach any similar model. This whole topic will be divided into four phases.

Modeling The Backrest

     In the first part we will see how to start with the modeling of the back rest. First thing that we will notice here is that we won’t be modeling from a blueprint, but rather an image. Knowing this it means that we will have to deal with a bit of a perspective distortion. Since this is a simple geometry to create we will start off with a simple plane. But instead of me explaining what you can do is check out the video below and see me doing it.

Modeling The Seat and Legs

     In the second part of the tutorial series we will focus on the seat and the legs of the chair. Similar like in the previous video we we do some basic box modeling techniques. Since there isn’t really all that much to explain you can go ahead and check out the video below.

Modeling the Quilted Leather

     Now for the third part we go a bit deeper on the modeling front. For this we will start by selecting the surface that will be covered by the quilted leather. After this we will add a quick UVW unwrap so we can use SlideKnit. I have covered how to use this script in a previous video, but shouldn’t be hard to figure it out. After we have that we will create a base for the quilting and wrap it around the surface. All in all you will see me use a few tricks on how to fix up some issues and problems. So go ahead and check out the video below to see me do it.

Unwrapping The Model

     In the last part of the series we will go over how to unwrap the model. For this we will use Unfold3D and will see how to get the model ready for texturing. Since this is a pretty straight forward topic as well check out the video below.

Final Thoughts and Resources

     This was a fun model to create, and it did have some challenges but in the end we made it. I did use couple of scripts so here you can go and get those scripts.

Vertex Cleaner / Shiva 3D

SlideKnit Script

And also i would like to leave the reference images that i was using if someone wants to follow along.

03 04 05 06 07

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Modeling a Chandelier with 3ds Max and Vray

  By Denis Keman • May 9, 2018 , , , ,

Today we go on another modeling tutorial adventure. For today’s topic i have chosen a model that received a request a while back. That was how to model a specific chandelier.

Modeling Phase

Like always, modeling starts with setting up a blueprint to follow. So if you want to follow along with me, get the image from below. Now the actual modeling for this chandelier model took a bit longer then what i initially expected. Due to this  i decided to split it up in two parts. In the first part we will go over how to create the cage of the chandelier. And then we will also create some of the elements for the inner parts. So check it out in the first part of the video below.

In the second part of the video we will continue with creating the rest of the elements. That being the crystals, the light bulbs and the holders for them. You will also see how to get the crystals perfectly aligned on the handing part of the chandelier. So check this out in the second part of the video below.

Texturing And Materials

When creating modeling tutorials i usually don’t go over the materials. Main reason is that to me it seems very simple, but i’ve received some requests so here it is.

Generally when creating materials for a model, first thing you do is separate how many materials will you need. After this you need to go ahead and address those material needs. In this model it ended up being three materials. The metal, the crystal and the material for the light bulb. Before doing any of the materials though you need to see if you have to do UVW unwrapping. For this model, i got away with doing the simple UV mapping with the UV Map modifier.

The metal material will show you how to control the reflections and color of the shader. The crystal material will how you how to get that colorful refractive look that makes crystal unique. And the shader for the light bulbs will show you a few tricks on getting that glow effect. So all in all if you want to see how i did it check out the video below.

Final Thoughts

So if you followed the videos now you know how to model a chandelier like this. It was fun creating it for me, and all i can say is i hope it was helpful to you. Also if there is anything that you would like to see me create a tutorial about leave a comment on the YouTube channel and i will do my best to help you out. So until next time i leave you with the blueprint for the chandelier.

Chandelier

 

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Modeling the Rondo Chair in 3ds Max

  By Denis Keman • April 26, 2018 , , ,

For today’s article we have another modeling tutorial. This time around we are going to check and see the whole process of creation. We will start from the blueprints, the modeling and end up with the UVW unwrapping.

Preparing the Blueprints

This is the first phase of modeling anything really. Usually i don’t cover this phase as i have created a video about this in the past. But since i have received multiple question about the creation process i decided to include it this time around. We will start with creating the front and side views as we are lacking a top view for the blueprints. The creation process is in Photoshop so if you want to see it check out the video below.

The Modeling Phase

Modeling this chair wasn’t really that hard, but it did have a few challenges. We will go over creating each part of the chair separately, the legs, seat, back rest. Since creating these elements is a bit of a time hog i decided to split it into two parts. Main reason for this is because i don’t like creating videos that are over 30 min long. Anyways if you want to see how i created the basic version check out the videos.

After having watched the videos you will have the basic chair model done and finished.

Creating A Tall Version of The Chair

Before going on to the UVW Unwrapping phase i decided to go in and make a variation video. The idea here was to give you an overview on how you can reuse your modifier stack before collapsing it. In this case i only had to do minor adjustments to get the tall version. But actually if you have the modifiers in your model, you can get a much more complex model. And the bonus is that you will have to do half the job. So if you want to see how i created the tall version check out the video below.

The UVW Unwrapping Phase

This is the last video for the chair and it’s going to be about UVW unwrapping. Again this is where most of the people for some reason are having issues. As i’ve said before, UVW mapping is not that complex, and with the help of Unfold3D it’s fast as well. So if you want to see me do the unwrapping for this model check out the video below.

Final Words

So if you’ve went over all of these videos then you know how to model this chair from scratch. So all i have left to do is leave you with one last thing, and that is the blueprints. This is in case you don’t want to create them yourself in Photoshop.

As always i hope you guys had fun and learned something new. If that is the case help with sharing this post so it reaches more people and hopefully helps them as well.

Front_BP Front_Tall_BP Left_BP Side_Tall_BP

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Modeling a Bar Chair in 3ds Max

  By Denis Keman • April 14, 2018 , ,

Today’s article is going to be a pretty straight forward one as it will cover modeling a bar chair. When i got the idea to make the video, in my head i though it would be a quick one. Well once i started recording it turned out to be a bit longer. But lets start from the start.

Modeling Phase

Whenever you start modeling something, first step you need to make is get some reference. Most of the time that reference will be technical drawings. But sometimes you might get an actual picture of the thing you need to model. The main difference between the two is that the second one has perspective distortion. In the videos below you will see how to get started on modeling the chair.

The modeling phase is basically split in two videos as it was getting quite a bit on the long side. So without actually going and explaining too much about the videos go and actually check them out.

In the second part of the video we will continue adding some details and accents to the model.

 Unwrapping Phase

The UVW unwrapping from what i’ve noticed is where most of my students have struggled at. When it comes down to unwrapping i’ve actually created some tutorials, so if you are struggling check it out. For unwrapping this model i used Unfold3D opposed to using the native 3ds Max unwrapper. Main reason for this is that i am not a huge fan of Max’s unwrapping tools. The thing here is that once you understand the logic behind unwrapping, it’s the same in any software. So if you know how to unwrap in 3ds Max, or don’t have Unwrap3D then you’ll still be able to understand. Anyways without too much further explanation, check out the video below.

Final words

I really hope you guys had some fun with this model, and maybe even learned something new.

So this about wraps up our model for today. And if you do decide to go and model this chair you will probably want to have the blueprints for it. So  go ahead and get them from here.  So i’ll see you all in the next post. Cheers everyone.

BP_Front

BP_Side

 

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Creating a Low Poly Foliage Model in 3ds Max and Unreal Engine 4

  By Denis Keman • January 18, 2018 , ,

The Idea

The idea for this post came from a simple need. That is the need to have a high quality, low poly foliage model. Main reason for this is that if we go in an import raw assets the poly count goes way up. Coming from a 3ds Max background, when needing to create grass and foliage i would use Forest Pack Pro. The main difference is that in Max you are rendering still image so having many instances is not an issue. Well the answer on how to get that quality into Real Time is what drove the idea for this post.

Creating the Low Poly model

fern_felce_bush_20150405_1397521871

When creating a low poly model, or any model for that matter Reference is king. This means that you always want to have an image of what you are creating at hand. We will try to create a fern model like the one above.

Creating something like that means that we will need a texture to start from. In general you can either take the pictures on your own, and prepare the textures. Or you can go over on Google and search for a texture with an Alpha map. Or alternative route would be to go to a site that sells textures like that. In my case i chose a texture from Megascans as those textures are high quality 4k images. You will see me set up the textures, then individually cut out all the leaves. After this i will show you how to get a controlling points with the help of bend modifiers. And in the end we will even see how to add vertex color.  The vertex color will later be used in UE4 for simulating wind. Knowing all this check out the video below to see how i did it.

Creating the UE4 Material

After creating the asset in 3ds Max we will jump over to UE4. Generally creating a material if you have all the nodes is a pretty easy procedure. You take all the nodes and plug them into the material and you’re done. You will see me create a system for the Vertex Color that will control the wind. Another thing that i will show you is how to increase the normal map strength. And we will also see how to control the diffuse strength with the help of scalar parameters. Even though it’s not that complex, some of the tricks there are pretty cool so check them out.

Final Thoughts

Creating this post i have to admit was fun for me. Main reason is that i did a bit of research as well so i picked up some skills. I would like to say one thing to everyone out there, don’t be scared of trying new stuff. I have received multiple messages of people telling me that UE4 looks too complex. Well honestly, it’s really not that complex as long as you approach it with an open mind. Another driving force should be the fact that UE4 is going to be the main tool for Archviz. Maybe this will take some time but it will get there. So with this post i showed you the basics of creating foliage so you can use it in your scenes. I’ll see that in the future i make more videos about modeling, and then using those models inside UE4.

Until then though, everyone stay safe and keep on learning.

 

 

 

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Creating rounded edges in 3ds Max with VRay

  By Denis Keman • December 31, 2017 ,

The idea

Here we are for what is probably the last post of the year. This post actually came up as a sort of a way of me making it easy on myself. I had to explain how to help get smooth rounded edges without adding extra geometry. And on top of that there needed to be some randomness to the edges roughness. With this in mind i decided to create this tutorial that might help some of you ou there as well.

The Video

For the video i actually decided to go with a simple model of a table and bench. I’ll go over the difference of using chamfered edges over sharp edges. After that we will see how to get the illusion of rounded edges without actually adding in extra geometry. We will see how using a VRay Edges Texture can be used in the diffuse and the bump slot. And later in the video we will also see how to take this one step further and add variation. All in all it was a simple, yet fun video to make so i hope you guys enjoy it.

Conclusion

After watching this video you probably have an idea of how to use this in your future projects. And with this we end today’s post and this year’s last video as the date this got posted is 31 of December. So as i am finishing up this post i would like to wish everyone a Happy New year and may the next year bring you happiness and prosperity.

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Creating a Car Paint Material with 3ds Max and VRay

  By Denis Keman • October 8, 2017

What is all this about ?

Well in short this post came to be as a direct request from one of the subscribers. Namely i was asked how to create a realistic car paint material. Initially i thought it would be a short and boring topic to cover it for a video. Needless to say i was wrong, so very wrong.

 Starting at the base

As soon as i started taking a better look into the car paint shader it started to get interesting. To get a realistic car paint shader you would need to approach this as it was in real life. If you have ever bothered to read about car paint, you will learn that it’s a multple layer color.

D01

In the image above you have a case where the paint of the car is getting damaged. This actually allows us to see that even though this is a metallic shader, the base is actually very glossy. This means that the first layer will control the color and doesn’t need reflection. As soon as we get that done we can go over and create an additional layer for the coating. Once we have both of the layers created we can call it done or we can push on.

D02

The next step was to create the flakes you see in the metallic color when it’s sunny outside. To get this result i used Vray stochastic flakes material. This is a new addition to Vray since 3,6 . That means that if you want to get the same result as me you would need to have that version.  So if you want to see how i did the basic shader for the car paint material check out the video below.

 

Creating the Pearlescent color shader

After creating the basic shader i thought about pushing it a bit more and create a pearlescent version. That is basically a paint that changes color depending on the angle of viewing. You can see how that looks check out the image here.

PS03

 

As you can see it looks cool and it’s really not that hard to achieve. What i did was mix a different diffuse color base with a different mix curve and got the result. But since rarely are things in Max that simple you can see me doing it in the video below.

So if you followed the two videos you now know how to create a basic and a pearlescent shader. And with that we put a end to today’s topic. As always if you enjoyed it make sure you like the videos, comment and share. And don’t forget to come back for more next time.

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Modeling Assets in 3ds Max for Unreal Engine 4

  By Denis Keman • September 12, 2017 , ,

What is this post all about ?

First of all, this is going to be a rather long post split into six parts. The reason for the lengthy size is that we will take a look at the whole workflow. This workflow means starting in 3ds Max and ending with our model inside Unreal Engine 4. Alright then lets start !

Modeling the Custom Chair

The first thing that we need to create is going to be the HP ( high poly ) model. This is a given if we want to have a good quality model when we later bring it into UE4. For this case i decided to go with a custom chair. If you read the FB group you will know that i kinda messed up with a NDA issue. This meant that i had to rerecord everything from scratch. So to make it safe i decided to go with something that doesn’t exist. The modeling of the said chair will show you how to use couple of different techniques. These techniques are like box modeling, modifier stacking, cloth simulation and a few others. Anyways you can see all of this in the video below so go check it out.

Creating the Low Poly

The second video will cover the creation of the LP ( Low Poly ) model. In the past i have created a few videos that were about retopology. Well this time around it was more of a simplification rather then retopology. This is because when you have a HP model that was created with proper box modeling it’s faster and easier. In the video below you can check out the whole creation of the LP model.

UVW Unwrapping

This is where it starts getting interesting. A lot of people for some reason find this complicated and hard. For this phase i wanted to show you two ways for UVW Unwrapping. In the first video i decided to go ahead and do the UVW Unwrapping inside 3ds Max. You can see how i did it in the video below.

Now if you watched the video above you heard me saying that i hate doing unwrapping in 3ds max. It’s not that it’s hard, it’s simply tedious if you ask me. This is why i decided to throw in a bonus video about Unfold3D. This is a piece of software that is used only for one thing, and that is UVW unwrapping. So if you want to see how that worked out, check out the video below.

Texturing the chair with Substance Painter

For the texturing phase i decided to go with Substance Painter. If you have never seen or used Substance Painter you are missing out. It’s an amazing software that makes texturing assets an easy task. Since i haven’t made any prior videos with the software i will stick to the basics. This means we will use already existing materials that come with the Substance Painter. So if you want to see how i did it, check out the video below.

Exporting the model to Unreal Engine 4

In the last part of the mini series we will see how to get the model to Unreal Engine 4. We will also see how we can prepare the model so we have no issues with the transformations. How to prepare the model for use of multiple materials in UE4. How to compile the materials so we can use the textures from Substance Painter. In short all the things that you have to do to your model to get it working inside Unreal. Again, if you want to see that check the video below.

 Is that all ?

Well with this we covered the whole process of preparing an asset to go from Max to UE4. If you followed the videos you will have an idea of the steps you need to do. So i do hope you guys found this entertaining and educational. You guys learned the workflow, and i learned the importance of an NDA 🙂

In any case, if you liked the post like and comment on the videos and help spread the word around.

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Blocking out a Scene and Materials in Unreal Engine 4

  By Denis Keman • August 16, 2017

After the last post about the Installing and Introduction to Unreal Engine 4. We are going to take a look at the process of Blocking out as well as Materials in Unreal Engine.

Scene Blockout

   In the first video we are going to take a look at the process of blocking out the scene. This is rather helpful when you are starting out a scene and don’t really know how everything will fit together. For this we will be using the basic Geometry, as well as the BSP Brushes. More importantly we will see the difference between both of them, and when to use them. We’ll get to see how to change the viewports, as well as use operations equal to boolean in Max. As an added bonus we will take a look at stacking multiple assets together and moving them around. And at the end we will see touch a bit on basic lighting before finishing the video. So all in all an interesting topic, and if you agree check the video below.

Materials in Unreal Engine 4

   First of all i want to note that materials in UE4 is actually a pretty big topic. There after saying that, what you will see in the following two videos here will be the sheer basics. When creating these videos i had the average 3ds Max user in mind. I tried to make a comparison between Max and UE4, and explain how both of them can be similar. Now the very first thing that you should know is that UE4 uses PBR Material workflow. This means that opposed to the workflow we use in VRay the maps for UE4 will be a bit different. I didn’t want to make a whole video about PBR materials as there already is a solid number of those. So if you have checked out anything in the past you will know the basic differences. So for now back to the videos at hand.

Material Creation

   In the first video about the materials in UE4 we will see how to create a material. After this how we can change the color, monochrome or RGB. We will see what are constants and how to create a simple material. We will see why it’s important to save your material, and what does the save actually do. On top of this we will see how to add textures and how to link them to the material. So if this is something that you are interested in check the video below.

   In the second video we will continue where we ended in the first one. In this one we will take a look at material instancing and what is the advantage of using it. We will see how Converting a node to Parameter will affect the Material Instance.  Also, see why we should convert to parameter, and which nodes to convert. We will go over how to create a interchangeable texture node, and how to control tiling. At the end we will briefly go over the different material modes and blending modes. So if you want to see how this was done check the video below.

Summary

With all of the things mentioned here we have to bare basics covered. My idea here was to do a few videos that will be an intro for things to come. And with this covered i have the door opened for more interesting videos. Anyways that would be all for today, and if you enjoyed the videos leave a comment and a like. And like always i’ll see you all in the next one.

 

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