Behind the Scenes: Mr. Happy Face

INTRODUCTION

Hello, my name is Libor Batěk, and I'm a CG artist from the Czech Republic. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, I have worked on TV commercials, animated features, and games in various roles including 3D generalist, lookdev artist, and supervisor. Currently based in Prague, I live and work here, dedicating my time to creating 3D art for personal enjoyment and taking on occasional art commissions. Lately, I have been actively involved in the professional development of open-source VFX/animation pipelines for software such as Blender, Maya, and other DCCs (ynput).

In this article (thanks to Blendernation!), I would like to share the many tips and tricks I have learned over the years instead of providing a boring step-by-step breakdown. I believe that the readers are talented artists and already familiar with using Blender, so it's not necessary to guide them every step of the way. I hope you find this information useful for your next great project!

So let's get started!

INSPIRATION

One day, I came across an article on the web about the ugliest dog in the world, and it sparked an idea in my head. I began searching for pictures of poor and ugly dogs and found one that I really liked. There are so many directions you can take when it comes to non-pretty dogs. I even discovered a dog nicknamed "Mr. Happy Face," which I loved so much that I decided to use the name for my character as well. It's a bit twisted and absurd, but it fits the character and overall mood perfectly!

Initially, I had planned to create a head bust sculpture with all the beautiful skin wrinkles, scars, and hair as a way to test the new node-based hair system in Blender. I thought it would be a quick project for testing purposes only. In the end, it turned out to be much more than that.

PROCESS

Originally, it was just a quick sculpt study, as you can see below (approximately an hour of sculpting in Blender). I started with the default sphere and used a few sculpt brushes for blocking. Most of the time, I relied on the regular brushes like "Clay Strips," "Draw Sharp," "Scrape plus Smooth," "Elastic Deform," and "Clay" as my essential brushes.

NOTES

Using the grease pencil's "Annote" tool immediately gave me the idea of what I wanted to achieve later. I highly recommend using this tool not only for notes during work but for all artistic purposes.

Tip: Speaking of inspiration, always carry a notepad with you and jot down anything that catches your attention. You never know, it might become your next big idea or project! The worst-case scenario is losing a bright idea just like a dream right after waking up!

SCULPTING

When I had already shared the rough sculpt on social media, I continued working on the model and sculpted it further. It mainly involved spending more time observing the reference and sculpting, focusing on transitioning from big to small forms. Jumping from one area to another has proven to be a good practice in sculpting in general. This way, you can build the overall form and make adjustments when needed. It's also more enjoyable because you're not locked into one small detail for a long time, keeping your brain engaged.

I have to admit that knowing the final viewing angle also helped me avoid spending unnecessary time on parts that wouldn't be visible in the final artwork—yes, a bit of cheating here and there! Remember, it's important to use your time and energy wisely.

Tip: Plan your project ahead well, take your time, and prepare a "battle plan" so that you can focus your work on important aspects. Use blocking with proxy objects to quickly get an idea, and then "fill in the puzzle pieces" with more detailed objects later.

CHARACTER-DESIGNING

As time went on, I suddenly got an idea for a medium shot portrait with the upper body and a punk rock style characterization. Don't ask me why, it just came to me, and I simply followed that vision in my head.

I placed those "puzzle pieces" one by one until I ended up with a character model and a washroom environment that evokes a rock club or pub.

Tip: Put in as much story as possible into every element present in your artwork. These little details lead the viewer and make them want to know more about the subject. For example, why do you think I included flies? What is the point? What do they communicate to the viewer? Asking similar questions helps create better, story-driven art.

TEXTURING

For texturing, I used Substance Painter because of its ease of use and speed. Painting PBR-based textures is, I would say, a weaker aspect of Blender. Substance was primarily used for the character, while the environment and props were done in Blender/Affinity Photo using procedural shaders by SanctusLibrary (a paid add-on from Blender Market).

There isn't much more to say about it because it's a pretty standard process. I kept it as simple as possible, so I didn't use UDIMs. Instead, I used ordinary 4K single texture sheets for separate parts. I stuck to the "rule of kiss" as some smart artist once said: Keep it simple, stupid!

One texture sheet for the head of the character.

Another texture sheet for the jacket, with a separate one for the t-shirt, etc.

Tip: When texture painting in Substance Painter, I mostly use fill layers with masks into which I paint the areas of influence or paint cover. This allows me to change any parameter of the filling color or texture of the layer later on without any issues and change the masking anytime. It's a non-destructive approach compared to direct painting with color (alla prima) without using masks, which tends to be very tedious when changes are needed.

Speaking of texturing, there were a lot of graphic patterns involved in the surfacing phase, particularly on the wall tiles. I changed the graphic elements multiple times to find the right amount of them, their size, and their placement in the composition.

Also, its ideation and creation took quite a bit of time, painting them by hand (using Affinity Photo and Rebelle app for simulating leaking/dripping color effects).

LIGHTING

When all the textures for the scene were done, I built a lighting rig for the scene. Most of the time, I used area lights for their light quality and natural feeling. I slowly built up the complexity and nuances, starting from the main strongest key light and adding very faint small light sources to act as local fill lights here and there. Again, following the practice of starting from large to small. It's worth mentioning that people often forget about atmospherics/volumetrics, which contribute a lot to the scene, so I also used the Principled Volume shader in my scene. I also used some geometry objects as bounce cards or shadow casters, similar to a real studio setup.

Tip: Selectively turning off the contribution of lights to volumetrics is beneficial. In my scene, only the mirror fluorescent light tube was contributing to the volumetrics, while the rest of the lights were not. Forget what is correct in the real world and bend the rules to your artistic needs. There are no rules, just tools!

Below, you can see the progression of my light setup, although it may not follow the lighting process chronologically, so take it with reserve. Still, this breakdown animation could be useful for you.

Tip: When lighting a scene, isolate each light so you are perfectly aware of what each light contributes to the scene. Also, never light a scene against a black background, but use a natural one; otherwise, you will experience value shifts later when the background is present.

HAIR-MAKING

The very last part of the creation in Blender was the hairdo and hairs in general. It was the original purpose of the whole artwork :) As I mentioned, I used the new Blender node-based hair tools for that. There isn't much to say about it, besides the fact that it really opens up many possibilities when doing hair from now on in Blender, thanks to the new toolset for hair.

I used separate hair curve objects for each type of hairdo and hairs for better and easier control. I used an alternate groom mesh (hidden for render) with a lower polycount for flexibility, without being limited by the character model itself. Each hair curve object had a different density of child hair and settings/types of modifiers.

Tip: When creating hair curves, use "Duplicate as Instance" (Alt+D) for secondary hairs. This way, you can groom the original hair curves and the instances will also update. You can differentiate them by using modifiers. It's good for layering multiple hairs driven by a single groom. As shown in the example below: the "Hair" node drives the shape, and the "Hair Messy" follows it, even when it's scraggly and much sparser. This way, whenever the main hair mass changes, the secondary sparse hair follows the grooming.

It was then just a matter of tweaking the hair modifiers and groom curves until I was happy with the end result. Again, stepping back from the work for some time helps tremendously. Then it was time for the final render and fine-tuning it in 2D composition.

HANDLING WIP

A very good practice is to take notes during the creation process, noting what needs to be addressed, similar to what a client or art director would do. Keep doing it, and you will achieve better results. Here you can see my notes on what's missing or needs attention/resolution. Also, note how drastically different this older version image looked. Thanks to these kinds of notes and practice, new levels were reached, not to mention the experience gained. The best way is to step away from the work, take your time, and come back. Call it a luxury, but if you have it, it's a big win-win in the end, believe me!

Below is one of my work-in-progress images with self-made notes in Affinity Photo to keep things on track. Even though not all the notes made it to the final artwork, it is still very helpful to get to the finish line!

DETAILING

Usually, there are hidden details in the image that aren't visible to the viewer at first glance. However, spending time on those brings believability and credit to the artwork.

Words of wisdom: As my grandpa once said, "Nobody will ever ask you how long the thing took to make but who did it!” This counts for anything you do in life! Take it or leave it :)

Adding surface quality and story to the objects in the scene by incorporating wear and tear, funny elements, or even some message is essential to achieve the aforementioned goals.

Speaking of details, I initially modeled the wall tiles as physical objects, using actual tiles. However, after trying the Sanctus Library addon, I immediately purchased it and switched to a fully procedural wall tiles material instead.

In some screenshots, you can still see the geometry-based tiles, but they were not used in the final render. Adding little stories here and there is the key to a successful artwork, such as the fly sitting on the light tube, evoking a nasty and smelly toilet environment for the viewer. It's a small touch, but it counts.

FINAL RENDERING

The final artwork is 95% straight from Blender's render and compositor, with a touch of compositing done in Affinity Photo. I made slight color corrections, added lens effects like vignette, and included lens dirt/flares around the neon light tube. I also adjusted the contrast slightly within the eyes to make them more vivid, with slight highlights as if caustics were happening inside them.

Tip: Flip your artwork horizontally for a fresh view and make artistic decisions often. It's easy to get used to a certain orientation and become blind to any issues or elements that may not be working well.

RENDER - Mr. Happy Face

Thank you for your attention!

Hope it was interesting, and you learned something new. Have a nice day!

About the Artist                       

Libor, an experienced CG artist specializing in 3D work for TV commercials, animated features, and games, currently based in Prague, Czechia.