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The development of the “Albert Einstein” portrait began with a commissioned work for Swarowski Crystal Worlds. A new cabinet of curiosities called “Heroes of Peace” was created for them, in which visitors can view hologram projections of people who have received a Nobel Prize. In addition to Einstein, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King can also be seen there.
Einstein as a leisure project
Alexander Beim created the hologram version of Einstein, and once the commission was complete, the artist wanted to share the work he had done. “The resolution of the final images and the level of detail of the model were very suitable for the hologram animation, but they were not sufficient for a presentation in the most important internet galleries and at the animago AWARD. This inspired me to work on refining the model, for which I invested my free time,” recalls Alexander.
As the artist was later planning an animation scene with the 3D model, he decided not to perfect it at first. This was because the face would look completely different under the lighting with the material, textures and other factors in the animation. “Only when all aspects are in play are errors that you don’t notice in the grey ZBrush model visible. That’s why, as soon as I had more or less got the shape of the head right, I started texturing and later corrected the original ZBrush model after lighting.” It took Alexander two months from the first variant to the result of the first final 3D model. He then invested time in rigging, blend shapes and the hair setup for the animated version of Einstein. After around four months, the final animation, including the final corrections for compositing, was ready. After that, the artist continued to experiment and it took another two months until the final version, which can be seen on the still, was ready.
A different look than expected
The biggest challenge in the creation process was achieving a resemblance to the original and using digital means to show the soul and character of Einstein the man. To understand Einstein’s emotional world, Alexander studied many pictures and videos of the scientist. Collecting suitable references turned out to be complicated, as there are not many photos of Albert Einstein. And the ones Alexander did find were of very poor quality and in black and white. It was particularly difficult to find views from all angles. Due to a lack of photographic material, the artist resorted to video stills, which were of course of even poorer quality. “I kept looking at pictures and videos until Einstein’s face filled my subconscious and was able to help me with the sculpting,” says Alexander. “It was interesting to see how my previous idea of his face differed from reality, because I discovered completely different lines and shapes than I had imagined. Nevertheless, his moustache and tousled hair naturally make up 50 per cent of his recognisability. Another important feature is the outer corners of his eyes, which are very deep.”
Using the reference material, Alexander created a front and side view for the basic proportions of the face, the eye lines, the mouth and the nose. The surface transparency effect in ZBrush helped the artist to compare the original Einstein from the photographs with his model. For intuitive modelling, Alexander divided the base model head into eight subdivisions with the correct topology. “I didn’t use high-definition geometry because the polygon density was sufficient for a video,” explains the artist.
To colour the main tones of the facial area, the artist added layers using the Color blending mode
Customised wrinkle look
The specific wrinkles on his face were particularly important for Einstein’s correct appearance. The artist created them manually by first drawing the wrinkles onto the smooth surface of the model’s face using ZBrush Polypaint. The DamStandard Brushes were used for the grooves, while the ClayBuildup and Inflate Brushes helped to quickly build up volume. There were separate layers for the large and small wrinkles as well as the small details such as the pores. As the animation of the eyes also made the back of the eyelids visible, the artist also created an extra layer for this.
Alexander created some of the alphas for the skin structure himself, while some were taken from the ZBrush library. The artist transferred the skin structure from ZBrush by extracting the displacement map and the normal map from the high-poly model. He then exported the low-poly with the UV coordinates and the high-poly version of the model to Substance Painter. Using the Bake Maps function, it was possible to transfer the details from the high-poly model to the low-poly model as textures. “Wrinkles from other people wouldn’t have matched Einstein’s individual facial expressions, so I only created some of the textures procedurally and most of them by hand,” says Alexander.
Einstein’s eyes provided the most work. They consist of two objects: The outer sphere made of transparent material is used for gloss, while the material of the inner model has textures without glossAfter filling the base layer with a skin colour, the artist created a few procedural noise variations. “The human forehead is yellowish, the cheeks and nose are reddish and the beard is bluish. To colour these main tones of the facial area, I added a layer with the Color blending mode. I also drew wreaths, moles and age spots under his eyes and on his forehead.”
Einstein’s eyes consist of two objects: The outer sphere made of transparent material serves to add lustre, while the material of the inner model has textures without lustre. Alexander painted the capillaries onto the white part of the eye; the volume of the iris was created using displacement textures. A lot of fine-tuning of the materials was then required for the final look of the eyes, which ultimately took up most of the time in the process.
Once the artist was satisfied with the look of the model, he exported it to Maya. The UV coordinates were created in the Autodesk software. Alexander used the UDIM method for the largest and most detailed textures possible and divided the UVs from the entire head into three large parts. “The face is the most important part of the head, so I created it in full size. The less important parts such as the neck and ears I placed in a second part of the UDIM and the rest I moved to a third. As the scalp is covered by the hair, I was able to reduce the UV size there, giving me extra space for other parts,” explains Alexander.
In the light of science
For the lighting setup of the scene, the artist in Maya used two basic lights: one from behind and one from the top left. A dome light with an HDRI texture was used for the global illumination (GI). “To emphasise Einstein’s role as a scientist, I coloured the light bluish for a kind of laboratory atmosphere. Once I was happy with the lighting situation, I created the skin material. As I had no deadline, I was able to test numerous tools and techniques during the project, most notably creating the CG skin in Arnold. The recently released Arnold update promised that the skin shader would now appear even more realistic, which the images from other 3D artists seemed to confirm. The Einstein project offered me an ideal opportunity to learn the shader and use it in practice,” says Alexander. “At first I was very happy with the shader, because on a model without textures it showed a believable skin effect. But as soon as I added textures, it created a plastic effect.” The artist therefore experimented a lot with the material parameters and mixed the textures. “I even went so far as to split up the colour texture. There was a layer with a bright colour, a pale one, a light one and an extra layer for small veins and birthmarks. I painted all the textures in Substance Painter and blended them in Maya.” It took the artist a lot of time to create a realistic look for Einstein’s skin.
Grooming for hair and jumpers
Once the head model with textures and material was finalised, the artist started with the hair, for which Maya Interactive Grooming was used. Alexander was very pleased with the performance of the feature: “I copied Einstein’s head model and applied the hair to it.
I only created a description for the head hair. I made a separate grooming for the tousled, sparse hair on the head and an extra description for the moustache, eyebrows and eyelashes.
I created the outer shape of the head of hair using guides, then switched to brushes, which I used to do almost all the rest of the work. I broke the uniformity of the hair with some modifiers such as noise and some textures.”
The base of the jumper was created using a simple nCloth simulation. To emphasise some of the folds, Alexander shaped the jumper model in ZBrush. “In the next step, it was important to create the UV coordinates so that the fabric tile texture evenly covered the jumper. The black and white tile part of a fabric served as the basic texture for the material. I used this both as a displacement and as blending information between two brown shades, which served as the colour texture. I then added the noise and finally used Maya Interactive Grooming. The fine hairs created the tousled texture of the jumper.”
Thanks to Arnold’s good work, Alexander hardly had to retouch anything in post-production. In post-production, the artist only created the background, which consists of a gradient with lots of blurred formulas. He then adjusted the contrast slightly, made a small colour correction and added his signature.
After winning last year, Alexander doesn’t yet know whether he will be back at this year’s animago AWARD: “The level of 3D visualisations is increasing exponentially, and it takes more and more time to create something really impressive. But as soon as I create something good, I’ll definitely be back!”
