Look Development for Stylized Characters with Greg Hettinger

Look Development is the process of creating a final appearance for your 3D models via textures, materials, hair/fur and lighting. In this course, you will learn the technical and creative techniques to creating production ready look development, focusing primarily on stylized characters seen in animated features or games.
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By the end of the class, you will have an impressive portfolio piece that captures accurate yet stylistic details that will blow your clients away.

Online Class Details

 Price: $799.00*
​​*Payment Plans are available.

Summer 2020 Class Dates:  Sunday, August 2nd to Tuesday, September 29th 
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​Live Q&A time: Thursdays at 8pm Pacific Time beginning August 6th
* Please note that attendance is not mandatory. Sessions will be recorded for later viewing.

Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced Maya or similar package (Max, Modo, etc.)

What you need:

• High speed internet connection
• Substance Painter Student License is available.
• Maya (or similar package for shader, lighting and UV work)*  Educational License is available.
• We are using Arnold renderer for this class (available in Maya 2017 and newer versions)
• We highly encourage you to bring your own character model to work on in class, however,  a generic character model will be provided.

* The instructor will be teaching how to use Maya to apply technical processes yet the lessons learned can be applied  in most 3D software rendering packages.
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What You Get

Q&A's

Portfolio

Video Lectures

Weekly, live online sessions
with the instructor and the class.
Ask questions and learn in a 
group setting.

Community

Lifetime access to the  private class Facebook group. Learn, network and share with your peers.

Project Based Homework resulting with one solid  portfolio piece by the end 
​of the course.
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Teacher Feedback

 Every student receives personalized recorded video critiques  on their homework assignment every week.

8 lecture videos you can watch online at your convenience with 1 year access.  Filmed in  1080 HD quality.
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Certificate

Students receive a certificate of completion, 
available upon request. Must have completed 6 out of the 8 assignments to qualify.
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What You Will Learn

Fundamentals

Learn the key fundamentals of what makes great look development. We'll also cover how to best use reference photos and inspiration when designing your look.
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UV Creation

You will learn a variety of methods to creating UVs  for your meshes.

Getting Started in Substance Painter

Learn  texture and 3D painting techniques using the very popular and amazing Substance Painter software.

Texture Detailing

We'll teach you advanced topics in texture creation by learning how to apply realistic and stylized details using Substance Painter.

Eyes

You will learn how to create appealing and convincing stylized eyes using a variety of look development techniques that will bring life to your characters.



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Clothing

Learn how to  create realistic looks for  cloth and fabrics

Hair & Fur

You will learn how to use Maya's Xgen to create everything from peach fuzz, eyebrows and hair.
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Working with Shaders

We'll teach you how to leverage shader to achieve industry standard physically based realistic results.
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Creating Appeal

 Learn how to bring life into your character renders to achieve a level of professional look as seen in your favorite animated films and games. 

Rendering & Lighting

Learn how to create simple yet effective lighting setups using Arnold to make your shader and texture work sing.

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Meet Your Instructor

Greg Hettinger is a Senior Surfacing Artist at DreamWorks Animation. He began his career in 2009 working on the animated feature film Kung Fu Panda 2 followed by Puss in Boots, How To Train Your Dragon 2, a few of short films, a handful of other movies that never got released (we call these the dark times), then How To Train Your Dragon 3, Trolls World Tour, The Croods 2, Boss Baby 2, and most recently on the new feature film from Dreamworks titled The Bad Guys.

In another life, Greg used to be a video editor and storyboard artist. He interned at EA Games during the summer before graduating from the Ringling College of Art and Design. He has worked with Substance, Mari, Houdini, Zbrush, Maya, Xgen, Photoshop, and a bunch of other industry programs that make cool things possible.

He is both a character artist and environment artist, but enjoys a good prop now and again as well. Greg has an unhealthy knowledge of Transformers and GI Joe and you will probably hear about it in this class.  As a child of the 80's he learned that Goonies never say die.


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Student Gallery

Class Outline

Take This Class If :

Week 1: Art Fundamentals and Reference Materials

Week 2: UV Toolkit

Week 3: Substance Painter (Part 1)

Week 4: Substance Painter (Part 2) 

Week 5: Substance Painter (Part 3)

Week 6: Arnold Shaders in Maya

Week 7: XGen Interactive Groom

Week 8: XGen Grooming

• You want to learn how to use subtle painting and texture techniques to bring appeal and high fidelity look to your 3D character models.

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• You want to learn how to texture and surface your 3D characters.

• You want to learn Substance Painter for painting characters

• You want a better understanding of the balance of textures and shaders to achieve high quality looks and renders

• You want to develop a portfolio geared towards the Animation industry.​

 

• You are looking for information that is rarely taught in school. 

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• You want personalized feedback and mentoring from a professional instructor who is currently working in the Animation Industry.

Instructor Gallery

​Questions about this class? Contact us here