Hey,
welcome to Making of waking the forest,
Which was a little image,
a little side project that I was creating during the
eight and 3-7 production here at the Blender Institute.
The first thing that I wanted to do when I when I had the idea was just sculpt away.
Um
I had a really basic idea in my head and
I then just went straight into blender and I added a cube
Um deleted 1/2 of it,
added a mirror modifier.
And that way I made a really simple base mesh which I could use for sculpting.
So um
yeah, my my very early idea was that I wanted to create some
sort of massive forest creature, something that
doesn't really necessarily have to be evil, can be, can be benign, can be,
you know,
quite wondrous to behold. Um it just had to look really organic and uh and
lived in
and it had to somehow belong to the environment that it was growing in.
Mhm.
So the first part of the sculpting is going to be fully um fully symmetrical.
And I started experimenting just with dynamic topology.
And that way I got a really dense,
I got a really dense mesh that I then um just assigned a really basic rig too.
Um you can see me adding a multi rust modifier, which I then just
simply just apply it
to get some
to get some basic geometry there
and then I fired away dynamic topology and I just hacked
away at the thing trying to get some sort of uh
trying to get some sort of image that I had in my head
uh into blender.
So I knew that the surface was probably going to be um
more like a tree bark
in the final result. It ended up
looking a bit like rock, but I don't really mind.
Um
Yeah, the whole
the whole basic idea was just that this thing needed to look like it was grown over
thousands and thousands of years and then uh
it lived there in the forest lying dormant.
And uh yeah, and then
we just witnessed that one moment where the thing comes back to life.
My main
tool for for sculpting here is just the snake hook and the crease brush
increase because it's a it's a really simple way
of either subtracting or adding holes into the geometry
and
the mesh is quiet.
It's not that dense right now. So I don't really,
I don't really um
I don't really care about the brush footprint right now
because the crease brush is fairly sharp at the tip
there. I'm
sort of trying to suggest
an anatomy. Using the clay strips brush.
It's also just a quick way of of subdividing the mess using dynamic topology.
The really really just the clearest part in my head was the face.
I wanted to have this sort of square jaw with this
with his mouth kind of
all over the place.
And uh yeah and then the eyes were also really that important because
they're just empty sockets but they didn't have to look creepy or anything.
They just had to uh
kind of evoked the sense that there is a living breathing creature here.
Still, just trying to suggest some
some sort of grown anatomy using the crease brush.
Now I'm
unhooking the mirroring
to kind of make it more asymmetrical.
I kind of wanted to keep it a bit symmetrical in the beginning. That way I could,
I could more easily rig it.
And then
um
after the rig was done
and it was in place, I just uh did a little pose and on top of that I did some more,
some more dense sculpting, but I'm trying to keep the mesh fairly light right now.
one thing I found really interesting was that
that sort of rich on the head that kind of made the whole thing looked like a tree trunk
being ripped out of the ground with these kind of
pieces that were torn out of it. And then roots grew in that in its place. And
yeah, that was kind of a really interesting image.
Here we go. I'm
I'm just trying to define more features of the anatomy also. Uh
it didn't really have hands in the beginning. So I
I I thought, okay,
well this thing probably got rooted into the ground and these hands turned into
into big tree roots that were growing uh right in front
of the camera and then I sort of had this idea.
okay,
why what if we would just sit there at the
hands looking up and there's this gigantic thing that grows
grows out of the frame into our
uh
yeah,
so here's the rick.
I'm just adding really, really basic bones with the arms,
the torso and the head.
Trying to name name them properly here. So I could use some symmetry
and
just try to snap them
using the volume snapping, trying to snap them into place
inside the arms,
something really quick because I only just care about
to move the arms without distorting the geometry.
So
I just parent the mesh the armature which takes a while because it's fairly dense.
And
that just gave me a really really quick way of moving the arms
as soon as that was done. I I really wanted to get the
this image um
that was just in my head. I didn't really make any concept art for this.
So it was really just important for me to
to get this down into the blend file as quick as possible.
So that's why I'm already placing the camera here.
I had this uh this idea of this uh
hunched over
posture
with this head slightly tilted,
something that would almost give it
mm hmm,
give it sort of a quality as if it was leaning over and looking at us
using the camera passport to to
just so really what is what is in the final render view.
And as I said, I really wanted to evoke the sense of gigantic scale and the best thing
uh to do
uh huh
to achieve that is to kind of
let it grow out of the out of the camera frame so you don't even see the top part of it.
And there might be much more stuff there that you don't see.
I'm switching on the camera guides for
golden triangle and uh the rule of thirds just to give me a basic guideline.
I don't really
I don't really adhere to those rules that much but it kind
of helps especially to have that little diagonal line here which helps me
find the center of the face and the center of our attention
and
just enable me to guide the viewer's eye
to the most essential part of the frame.
All right. Now that I have the really just basic uh framing of my
subject, I
just applied the camera.
Uh sorry, I applied the armature,
I kept a copy on a separate layer but I just really want to
work on on existing geometry that didn't have a lot of modifiers on it.
So
I applied the armature modifier
and from then on I can just still nudge the model around and sculpt mode.
But
yeah, once the basic
pose was done for me, I really just wanted to go in there and add some, add some detail
here.
I'm using the snake brush which which was really uh
just vital in adding those tree trunks on the top.
And then I sort of had this idea that, oh yeah, what, what if,
what if the back isn't just this sort of scaly pattern,
What if there's over the years and hundreds of years, there's
there's been trees growing out of the back and
it kind of emerged with the forest
at this point.
I'm also trying to uh to introduce more asymmetry and I,
I really wanted to make this look
look more dynamic.
That's why I kind of made those trees
grow all into the same direction because I mean that's uh that's how forests grow.
So there's a there's a strong wind and then for
for maybe a year the trees just grow in that one direction and then
another year also
all the trees growing in another direction. So
yeah, it was really, really important that this
kind of look believable
here. I'm nudging more parts of the mess around to get this sort of
um tree Barkey
torn up look.
And once I had the trees and in in place, I
I wanted to make sure that I can that I can
actually sell this look of trees growing out of the surface.
So
here I just took the scalp draw brush and I quickly tried to suggest some roots
growing on top of the surface
and uh
the way to kind of sell this look is to
have multiple layers of roots growing out of the surface.
But
you'll see that you see that coming up later when I'm
adding curves to to suggest more routes and more smaller details.
But yeah,
we we basically need this one part of the
route that kind of connects with the surface and
then we need we need surface detail on top
and multiple layers to kind of sell this multi layer
effect.
And again, just working with the snake hook brush,
trying to make the hands look like
like a tree that's been growing out of the ground in front of us.
So here I switched from
the sculpt draw brush to the blob brush because it kind of looks a bit more
blobby, if that makes sense.
And that will just help me too
to make the roots a bit more disconnected from from
the ground because I'm not really sure if the trees
are growing on top of the on top of the
character or uh if they're part of the character.
Um
I'm only really,
I'm only really hinting at the possibility here that that this whole thing um
is one
uh one existing,
one existing one consistent being.
But yeah, anyway, I'm mainly just focusing on the face here because that's that's
that's the thing that we're as humans are mostly connected to and the
trees in the background were really just there to fill up the atmosphere.
So they needed to be there. They need to look alive, but it's mainly just about
about the silhouette
and the overall dynamic movement of uh
of the lines in the in the picture
at this point, I wasn't really sure how this uh this image would look like in the end.
I just uh I just had some vague idea of light,
I knew that I wanted to evoke this sort of um after afternoon atmosphere,
something that you just, you could just encounter while you're
on a walk in the in the forest or so.
And then uh later on that obviously changed and you'll also see that change here.
But uh yeah right now it was fairly friendly afternoon atmosphere with
a lot of sun
and we would see all the details and there
would be some sort of missed in the atmosphere.
But
yeah, it was a fairly happy mood I had in mind first.
So most of the facial features are there now, it's it's just about refining,
refining the silhouette a bit
and then uh
adding some sharper details here and there,
kind of nudging the jaws around a little bit.
And I also wanted to make the eyes a bit more asymmetrical because that kind of
gave it this weird sort of look on his face,
adding more routes to the arms.
I'm not really happy how the arms turned out in the end, I mean it's sort of okay,
um I wish they could have connected to ground a bit better.
But yeah,
here I'm just trying to to use the snake brush to get some connection
points with the ground that I could later use to to grow some,
some curves and some roots on
to make it a bit more uh
more believable that this actually
is connected with the ground itself.
Here, I'm using the snake hook brush to kind of
um at some more sharpness uh to certain features on the surface.
It's also really important to have a very,
very good balance of sharp and sort of soft features on the surface.
It's also really helpful to kind of make
certain parts uh look like they've been eaten away
either by
little forest insects or or the weather.
I'm also leaving some free uh and open spots there because I knew I wanted to
add lots of vegetation and little uh little details such as rocks on top of it.
So I needed to have some free space uh to add more things on top.
Um
but also it's important to not only just add unnecessary detail all over
the place because then your eye doesn't know where to look at.
Certainly. And then later on, when you're lighting and when you're
doing the shading, you have, you have some problems trying to,
trying to get to guide the viewer's eye too
to where you want them to look at. So
it's really important to it
not spend the detail everywhere. Otherwise
the final result just gets too busy.
And again using the crease brush to, to add more sharp edges.
I really like crease because you can, you can add sharp edges just by inverting it.
Bye.
I think it's either control or shift by holding control or shift down while you're
while you're drawing.
And
you can also just add a little creases in the surface
at the same time. So it's a, it's a really versatile
brush and especially by using a small amount of pinch,
you can really get away with a lot of uh
less geometry than
if you just got everything
and sub divide everything by hand.
Now
here is the point where I am,
I'm kind of, I'm happy with the sort of detail in the overall look
but I'm really, I really just need a bit
sort of an inspirational push if you can call it that way.
Um That's why that's why I just assigned a really basic material
um
because
yeah it's really hard to,
to imagine that you're working on something
on a forest or something
ah
something organic if it's just shaded grey.
And uh that's why I also,
I frequently tend to just go to the open jail lighting and tweak the lighting
settings a bit to reflect more the overall light direction I have in the end.
Um you can do that with matte caps,
you can do that with real lights if you're using blender internal for,
for displaying your view port.
But yeah, I just wanted a really quick way of evoking the sense of uh,
the final sense of the image in my head
to just keep me going while I was working on this
here in the back. I really don't don't care about the details so much.
It's just about the overall forum
and
most of the details will just get at it and post or
by by adding some
some more elements to it. Like we
do later on with some rocks from coming under us
and some grass from Project Gooseberry.
But yeah,
and I'm also relying on the fact that most of the
most of the image just gets completed in the viewer's imagination.
I think those are the most powerful images. The one way you can look at and
you can sort of
get your mind into it and
the, your, your brain just kind of fills in the gaps,
adding some more routes to the hand.
Now, here's the point where I really need a ground mess.
Um,
without that, the whole composition what
just not be finished.
So I'm just adding a little plane
and applying a subset of modifier
just to get the sense of the terrain that this
thing is in
trying to adjust the camera rotation slightly.
See if we can get a better
composition out of this
here. I'm doing a
really dirty. Uh, well that's not dirty, but it's a cheap little trick.
I'm adding a plane and
changing the transparency of it.
And then I'm using an era modifier to kind of
instead she ate the plane. And
that way
I can get a really, really cheap
sort of volume effect in the view port.
Just to help my imagination a little bit.
Obviously we're not going to use that to render anything,
but it just helps us to it
to kind of get more ideas while you're working with this.
Also to find
to find our focus point of the image here
and to see how many of things we still need to add in the background.
Obviously at this point I'm starting to realize that I need to name things
otherwise I'd be lost.
This is something that we really try to enforce
here at the studio while people are obviously collaborating,
collaborating with each other day,
I need to open their files.
So it's it's really good to have some naming conventions and also to
uh, to keep yourself sane because if you have 20 planes dot or something in the scene,
you don't really know what you're working with right now.
So we have,
I'm just trying to kind of loosely adhered to the
naming scheme that we use at the studio currently,
which is a prefix of geo and capitals with a dash.
Uh, and then the name of the geometry
and e N V for environment objects and things that don't get rendered or
things that just contribute to the atmosphere of the final of the final result.
But yeah, really,
any naming scheme works as long as you stick to it and it's clear to you after,
I don't know after five years when you open this file again.
So with all this uh sort of render prototyping,
I realized that I need more trees in the background to kind of
fill the space and to get more sense of depth in there.
So here's that's why I'm just
snake cooking some
trees out of the
out of the back.
Really just rough shapes.
Yeah.
But yeah, I'm not really concerned
about anything that's outside the frame or
in no way related to our final result.
I could have probably just deleted the back and
save some memory
here,
I'm increasing the details size of the dynamic topology because now I want to go in
there and add some more fine detail uh only in certain places where I think that
I need to direct the viewer's eye a little bit
nudging all the details back a little bit
to make the flow a little bit more dynamic.
And then we're focusing on the eye sockets
because
I knew that I wanted to put some lights in there to make it very glowy and mysterious.
Like this could be this could be either an eye or just a cave in the forest
somewhere.
And since the viewers, I would be directed
just immediately
into those eyes, I have to make sure that the geometry doesn't
doesn't tessalit there or there is no no rough edges, no
nothing. That's really really um disconnecting you from the subject
I guess with this whole image I wanted to um
I don't know, might sound really pretentious to say it after the fact.
But uh yeah, I really I I drew a lot of childhood memories. I I grew up in a very
not in a rural area,
but we had lots of forests around the house and uh I was strolling
around the forest for hours and hours at any time of the day.
And uh really when you're a kid you're kind of you can imagine
you can imagine these things
and uh yeah
sort of parallel life that
happens
and the forest right of in front of our doorstep.
And I think that's what that's the sense that I
the feeling that I wanted to evoke with this image that there is something
uh parallel a parallel universe that we can stumble
upon that just happens to grow right in front of our eyes.
And
I think that's that's also why I add those uh those kids in there later on,
because I want to evoke the sense of uh wonderment and discovery.
Yeah,
I hope I managed to do that.
Okay,
I'm mostly just working from the camera point of view here,
just trying to be very efficient about it,
adding details where we really just absolutely need them.
And it was also very uh
adding a little tree trunk growing out of the ground here. That was fun.
Yeah, I was saying that,
I think it's I think it's really vital to
this character that the face doesn't look too,
it kind of has to look
ambiguous if you if that's a word for that.
Um
you're you shouldn't really be too sure.
Is this and is this uh an evil forest giant or is he friendly?
I think that was the biggest balance that I had to strike.
And
yeah,
that's why you can see me zooming out so much because I I really
just had to look at the big picture and see i is this looking to
to darken to sinister now or does it still look
sort of borderline friendly?
Does it have a stern look in his face or
I know isn't happy that that's uh that's woken up or
is it going to destroy everything?
I'm still adding more roots here.
And those are mainly just the routes that that
connects to the roots that I will be growing later on using curves
uh that connect those routes to the surface because
if you just place curved on top of that,
uh they won't connect.
They don't,
they don't look like they belong to the mesh
even though if you just use the same material,
it's really hard to make it look like
they're the same object.
So uh that's why you need some some sort of
uh suggestion that the geometry that you're adding later on,
connects with the mesh underneath.
And that's why I'm indicating those roots there only to connect
them with the bigger routes that are actually part of the mesh
again. Doing a tiny little pass with a snake hook brush
just because I like the
that sort of pinched look
that it creates.
All right.
I think
for now I'm almost done with the sculpting,
just really tiny. A just a tiny camera adjustments right now
to make sure that we can we just got the best possible composition.
Of course, of course we can change it later on.
But
yeah, I'm just rotating the camera here slightly to
to remove the top part of the character from the frame.
That's again
to make it look bigger
that it possibly
have done it and then looks right now.
And I'm just trying to nudge the hand down a little bit because it's
two dominant right now.
And then I'm just smoothing out the last little bits
just by pressing shift and stroking over the surface to
make sure that there is no no polygon artifacts.
one more camera adjustments and then
adding the rule of thirds to the camera guides,
just to make sure that we can
we have the best possible composition here and then then I'm nudging the face
to see if I can get it more into the upper third
uh doesn't really work.
But yeah, that's
it for now.