Here you will find tutorial series on stylizing entire scenes with MNPRX. The series will showcase the workflow and all the tools involved to stylize example scenes from different productions, with different styles.
The first series features Shot 040 from the short film Run Totti Run by Shad Bradbury. For this production, we needed to produce a watercolor look that comes as close as possible to the desired stylistic reference, but that follows the shot reference–which is not in the production style.
Introduction
We start by introducing the shot and the challenge that we are up to.
Scene Setup
The first thing to do when starting with a new scene, is to set it up accordingly using MNPRX. For this purpose, you should try to reuse any existing stylization and use the Material Presets tool to give all objects an MNPRX material and prepare them for the stylization.
Reusing Stylizations
One should always reuse any existing stylization, as this will save setup time that should be spent refining the style, instead. We can use the Import/Export Tool in the MNPRX toolbox for this purpose.
Initial Materials
Before stylizing, one should setup the scene by assigning MNPRX materials to all objects in the scene using the Material Presets tool.
Initial Lighting
Once the materials are set, one can setup the initial lighting of the scene with one main light and its casted shadow.
Matching Materials
With the initial lighting set, we can modify the materials in the scene to approach the reference shot image.
Matching Lighting
With the materials set, we can refine the lighting in the scene to approach the lighting in the reference shot image.
NoiseFX
Once the materials and lighting have been matched, its time to add procedural watercolor effects that will speed up the stylization process with the NoiseFX tool.
PaintFX
With the NoiseFX in place, its time to refine the materials further and modify the effects locally by using PaintFX.
Proxies
Once the PaintFX are in place, we can refine the stylization using proxies to stylize entire volumes within the 3D scene. Proxies can be added at any stage in the stylization, either at the beginning, middle or at the end. It really depends on every artist’s workflow.
Attaching Proxies Onto Objects (optional)
If you want to attach proxies onto objects, you can also watch this tutorial, where we attach two proxy planes onto the two hero characters, to highlight them.
Rendering
After the stylization is complete, you need to render the stylized scene as an image sequence for best results.