Piaggio Vespa 125

Inspiration

I wanted to practice making game-ready assets and rendering in cycles blender, which I switched to not so long ago from 3Ds Max. For inspiration, I often browse Pinterest, where I find interesting concepts and ideas. So, I came across a Vespa.

References

When searching for references, besides google, I recommend paying attention to thematic auto/moto forums, where you can find more technical information and detailed photos. Of course, remember Artstation and Youtube.

There is always a possibility that someone has made a similar Asset and you can see some tricks. So, for example, I really liked Tod Ryan’s render of the scooter. It looks cool and has its own story and by the way, I got his idea to make a light render. And on Arvid Schneider Youtube channel I saw a technique of texturing wheels. So, don’t be lazy to look at these resources before starting work.

What software did I use

• PureRef to collect reference
• 3DsMax and Blender for modelling
• RizomUV for UVing
• Marmoset Toolbag for baking textures
• Substance Painter for texture painting
• Blender Cycles for lighting and rendering
• Photoshop for postproduction

Modeling

My asset consists of two textures sets, each of 4k, scooter, and sidecar separately.

I work by this pipeline: I make a high poly, then make a duplicate of the geometry and adapt it to the low poly. When the low-poly is ready, I make a Uv in RizomUV.

After RizomUV I assign smooth groups in 3ds max using the free TexTools plugin.

Next, I logically broke down the entire scooter into elements and numbered the Hight and Low-poly parts. I don’t bother with names, I use simple numbering.

Then I exported to FBX with triangulation for further baking in Marmoset.

Some parts of the scooter I used several times, such as the right handlebar, rubber pads, reflectors, bolts, and some other parts were later just duplicated and installed in the right places. There was one wheel, I later used as a rear wheel on the sidecar as well. I purposely made it separately so that when baked there would be no shadows from the other elements.

I baked all the textures in Marmoset. By the way, there you can also assign different materials to the color ID card. When all elements are properly numbered, Marmoset sorts them into folders by itself. This saves a lot of time.

Texturing

After baking, we jump into Substance Painter. I textured the scooter and the sidecar separately. In the future, already in Blender, I combined them together.

I didn’t want to make a very shabby scooter and often looked at the work from Tod Ryan so as not to overdo it 😉 For the base color, I chose one of the standard colors these bikes were painted in – blue.

I first made a base layer, then I duplicated it and made a second layer a little darker, adding a Light generator to the top layer (In the example photo I specifically highlighted the layer in red) to achieve a burned paint effect.

Then I started adding dirt and dust using generators and masks. But here it is very important not to overdo it and leave the dirt only where it would actually appear. For this, look at the references.

I also wasn’t planning on doing close-ups, so I didn’t spend much time on the textures. Also, during the texturing process, I added some stickers to the frame and peeled them off a bit. This gave more naturalness and history to the scooter. Don’t forget about little things like that.

As I wrote above, the texturing of the wheel is something I picked up from Arvida Schneider, I recommend checking it out, it has some interesting techniques.

The logos and tire size I applied using masks, having made them in Photoshop beforehand.

I already had the basic paint materials ready for the sidecar, I just reused them.

The suitcase also has stickers on it, which gives it some kind of story. And I also made some small details, locks that you can’t even see in the rendering. I didn’t remove them. Only I knew about it, but now you do too.

Light and rendering.

As I said, I’m into photography and used to shoot a lot of motorsports and sports events, as well as working in studios. As for the frame, sometimes the idea for a shot comes by itself, sometimes you can see something in the photos online, create a board on Pinterest and save the pictures you like there. With artists, this is called “observation”, so look for more beautiful works 😉

But back to the studio, as they say, the complexity is in the simplicity 😉 So I put together a simple studio, it’s just half the sphere.

As a light source, I chose a bright HDRI card with soft shadows and one plane light.

I set the intensity of the HDRI card to 0.8, increased the Area light source to 5 meters, and left its power low. In fact, the lighting is individual and depends on the selected frame. In my scene, I had a few more sources of light in the form of a plane with which I just experimented and for different frames turned them on or off.

Camera setup

Basically, I used a 35mm focal length for the camera, but depending on the angle, it could vary from 28mm to 100mm. By the way, you can use depth of field to give the picture a realistic look.

To make your work interesting, always look for a shot that shows your model at its best or adds some dynamics to the frame. So, I added red circles and changed the camera angle a bit. I spent about 10 hours on renders until I came up with a result that I would have liked. And the red circles didn’t actually appear right away and weren’t red at all 😉

Render

I used the cycles render engine. I had almost standard settings. The only thing is that in the Color Management parameters I’ve chosen the Medium Hight Contrast profile for more saturation of the frame. But I will adjust this later on in Photoshop.

Processing in Photoshop

I always add some sharpness to a photo. I used to double layer and sharpen it and make it 50-60% transparent, but I saw another method in some tutorial on YouTube once and found it more interesting.

To do this, you also have to duplicate the layer and select Unsharp Mask in the filters. The parameters are individual, but they are always around these values.

After sharpening, I always add a mask with brightness and contrast, and you can make the image a little warmer by adjusting the color balance.

Thank you very much to those who read to the end and to the Game Artist for inviting me to write this article. Do not be afraid to experiment and you will succeed!