Outdoor background - shading part 1 (Greeble block first version)

 The very first object got shaded is the floating blocks. 

At first, I want to make some decorative block that have machine and futuristic look just like the reference images below. But I do not know about the keyword for that specific style. I searched for some time then I finally found the word “Greeble”. 

Reference image:

Greeble example:

Although it looks a bit different from my reference image, the word “Greeble” still help me a lot. I find so many tutorial and software plugins that can generate greeble meshes and texture maps. I used them alot for enhancing the details of floating elements and the grand hole.

I found a greeble generator in ZBrush and used it to create a greeble plate. Data of the plate was converted and exported as several data map (normal map, id map, alpha map etc.) and being imported into substance painter for further texturing. This is my first time to use ZBrush, so it takes me a lot of time to watch and learn from tutorials. Luckily, the result is great, so it is worth to spend that time to learn ZBrush.

ZBrush workspace:

Substance painter workspace:

After textured the greeble plate. I exported those texture map and build a shader in Maya with Pixar's RenderMan

Then, I did some color toning on it with Nuke and made the first shaded object of the animation project.

Nuke workspace:

Turntable demo:

I also made a style frame with my main character using these greeble blocks. More process will be described in blog which related to my character.