Analysing Professional 3D Artists (Tyler Smith)

 


Tyler Smith (Artstation 2017)

Tyler Smith is a Senior Environment Artist who has worked on projects such as 'Ghosts Of Tsushima' by Sucker Punch Studios. One piece of work that caught my attention was 'Aurora Night Sky' for its variety of programmes used to develop the piece (Artstation 2020). One software used in the development of the landscape is Autodesk Maya. Using Autodesk Maya here creates low to high polycount models. What I can see in this landscape is that Smith has used flat planes for his tree models. This technique in 3D modelling is effective for optimisation, there is a low polycount for models that are far and do not need a lot of poly detail for their immersion. These models have then been UV wrapped and textured with a tree texture created on software such as Adobe Photoshop. The hills and cliffs of the landscape are created using spot selection and scaling the vertices of a flat plane. For increased detail, Smith has also used programmes such as ZBrush. ZBrush can be used by importing the Maya files and begin sculpting additional detail into areas like the mountains and hills as well as creating a texture from photoshop files to create the detail of the snow. Areas like the stars have been drawn by Smith in ZBrush as Star Map Textures (Experience Points 2020). These Textures are then imported into Unreal Engine 4. Using UE4, the programme supports a tool known as material Editor. This allows for these Star Map Textures from ZBrush to be developed further and produce a dynamic contrast of stars, twinkling stars and shooting stars for the final render. What caught my attention of this piece was its animated final render of a moving Aurora. This Aurora is first created on Maya as a simple Cubic mesh that has been scaled and curved. Using ZBrush, an Aurora Texture has been created as a dynamic moving mesh using dynamic cloth brushes. These files are then imported into the Unreal Engine 4 for panning textures to create brightness and the illusion of shooting light across the moving textures. UE4 can also be used for rendering with tools that allow the change in lighting to create a darker night atmosphere and to increase the brightness and light emitted of the Aurora and starlight.


ArtStation. (2017). Tyler Smith. [online] Available at: https://www.artstation.com/tsmith3d [Accessed 1 Dec. 2020].

‌ArtStation. (2020). Experience Points Aurora Night Sky Tutorial, Tyler Smith. [online] Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QrL6l3 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2020].

Experience Points (2020). EXP Tutorial | Northern Sky Aurora VFX in UE4 | Tyler Smith. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icyVBDnTJzc&feature=emb_title [Accessed 30 Nov. 2020].

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