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Hello everyone

I'm Ye-sung Kim

and I'm currently working as a 3D artist at Tendril

a motion design studio located in Toronto, Canada

I started learning on my own in 2017

I started working

at Tendril as a 3D artist in 2018

and I've participated in various projects until now

For my main projects I worked on various Microsoft projects

ESPN

and re-branding film of Maxon

which created CINEMA 4D

Usually I'm in charge of the initial design,

look development,

shading, lighting

and rendering in a project

From the beginning to the end of a project

I participated as a generalist

This lecture will cover

shading,

lighting and rendering

which can raise the quality of the work to the next level

using Redshift

which is also used as

the main renderer in Tendril

I recommend these lectures to those

who want to learn Redshift from the beginner level to the advanced level

and those who are thinking about how to improve

the quality of work after applying a motion

First in this lecture

I will explain about lecture and introduce myself

I'll also explain about tools that are used

And take a look at the process of my personal work

and Tendril

and also the process within the company

Using Redshift

you'll be able to learn about it from the basics to advanced parts

For the advanced part rather than just simply copying it

you'll be able to look at how I apply it to my work

and by watching all lectures

I hope you will be able to make

a design similar to the ones in the lectures

and find a style of your own

In the first lecture

I will talk about the overall process of the lecture, introduce myself,

tools and websites that I use for 3D work

I will also explain about my personal work

and how work is processed within the company

The lecture is divided into 4 main parts

In the first basic part

I will talk about the theory and basic tools

and since the lecture itself

is focused on

shading and rendering

there are some things you should know in advance

So I'll also go over those parts first

For the other 3 parts

I'll officially go over

Redshift, shading,

lighting and rendering

They contain all helpful tips

including exercises

that are very practical and useful

If you look at the table of contents

there are a total of 30 lectures

The first section from lecture 2 to 5

covers the basic parts

I'll go over how I make a visual library

and how to use it for

shading and lighting

We'll go over the CINEMA 4D used in the lecture,

Redshift's basics

I'm sure a lot of you already know the basics

but I hope you can learn something new

after taking a look at my workflow

And at the end we'll go over important technology

OCIO ACES color spaces

which is set as default

in the latest Redshift version

The last part

might be theoretical

but it's an important part as it covers the practical things that designers need to know about

and also about shortkeys that are commonly used

You will follow the theory class and make a layout

and very simple artwork

We'll also study various theories

looking at

various samples together

From lecture 6 to 10

it will be a lecture that will go with the first exercise

I named the first exercise Sandbox

I wanted the basic set-up of the scene to be simplified

and minimal but wanted to give

more time to get familiar with Redshift

That's why I named it Sandbox

After the lecture

you can use this basic set-up using Sandbox

as a starting point

I think this can be a helpful exercise

even when you make your own artwork

In the lecture we're going to look at the shaders and nodes

that are essential to Redshift

We'll also look at the lighting

and layout process written in the exercise

Rather than focusing on only

shading or lighting

we'll study both of them as a whole

From lecture 11 to 19

we'll look at the second exercise the puzzle scene

and go in-depth

with Redshift shading and texturing

Even when you get used to using Shader

sometimes you might feel unsure about whether

you're doing 3D art or solving a puzzle

We'll solve complicated puzzles one by one

and we'll focus on learning Shader

to create the texture you want

From lecture 20 to 29

we'll look at the third example light and shadow

In this part we'll apply the shading that we learned in the previous example

This will be a lighting and

rendering session

to upgrade our scene to the next level

utilizing the shading we learned previously

We're going to make hair and bubble materials

that we didn't use in other exercise

There's also a part about using 3D scans

We'll go over about 3 different lightings

that are used in 5 exercises

and we'll learn which lighting to use

and how to use it

Especially for this lighting part

you sometimes feel like you're doing it instinctively

so even when I was studying on my own

I couldn't find any tutorials or lectures either

I'll share the methods I learned

and tell you how I gained confidence using lighting

For the last lecture 30

I think it'll be a lecture that will reveal

all the 3D study methods and tips

I earned from my own study

Before we officially start the lecture

I think it'd be nice to tell you how I started 3D

with Cinema 4D

and what made me start studying

I think it'll be helpful for those who

want to get a job overseas

or collaborate with overseas studios

There are a lot of people

who start by teaching themselves in Korea

and there are a lot of people who work on their own

That's how I started

and built my career

Before working as a 3D artist

I used to work as a chef

I majored in cooking in Canada

and worked as a chef for several years after graduation

I had a dream of going abroad

after graduating from high school

in Korea

I happened to get a chance to visit Canada

so I went without giving it much thought

But then I decided that I wanted to live here for a long time

so I thought about going into the cooking or IT industry

which were the two most popular industries for easier immigration

I enjoyed eating and was confident in doing so

but I really disliked math

so I went to a cooking college

But I also wanted to become a movie director when I was young

and I was also really interested in art

So I became a chef

without giving up that artistic dream

I worked hard even after I became a chef

but there was something else I wanted to do

and I kept thinking that working as a chef wasn't my dream

Since I wanted to go into an industry related to

movie editing

or visual arts

I slowly looked into it

But when it comes to editing movies

it requires a lot of people to film with cameras

so I can only work on it with the original footage

and there are a lot of parts that I'd have to rely on other people

So it's definitely difficult to work alone

But then I got to learn about After Effects

and I naturally came across motion design for the first time

And I realized if you want to get out of 2D

and make everything natural

you need to start using 3D

After that I wanted to learn 3D

I started saving up my money

and decided to save up enough money from cooking

so that I could live without working for a year

As soon as I saved up enough I gave my 4 weeks notice

and quit my job as a chef

And got ready to study

Even before that

when I came home after work I studied a little

But it was definitely not easy to study for a long time

after cooking all day

So I wanted to quit and focus on studying

and get a job in the industry quickly

It was a decision with a big risk

But I think the fact that there was a risk

actually motivated me more

Let's take a look at the portfolio

that I prepared to enter the industry

In my case

I prepared my portfolio like this

Somehow I started to learn 3D

Starting with Cinema 4D Octane

I really focused on making my portfolio

and studying within that year

I did daily renders that foreign artists do a lot

while I was preparing my portfolio seperately

I think for 9 months

I only focused on C4D and Octane

After finishing my portfolio

I sent my portfolio to Tendril

the most famous studio in Canada

for motion design

Even when there weren't any hiring posts

I just sent my porfolio to everyone

from directors to producers

And I didn't just email it to them

I sent it through social media such as Instagram

I sent them messages

and I did everything I could

And there was an intern spot open at that time

and they asked for a job interview

and that's how I officially started working

For my portfolio

I posted a reel on my website after making it

with my daily renders

my favorite work

and work created with animations

I sent those pages to directors

After coming to Tendril and talking about it

I think they liked how

there were a lot of work in the portfolio

and how it showed my personal preferences

I saw a lot of students' portfolios

and similar portfolios in Korea

and I think they have similar ones here as well

But I prepared my portfolio without going to school

and I prepared it with my favorite designs

so I think they liked it more

From what I have experienced

studios overseas especially studio directors

look at the applicant's style, productivity

and eye-catching reels

rather than what they studied at which school

or experiences,

age or educational background

No one has ever asked me

about where I came from

my age or what school I attended

Of course you need to be able to communicate in English

And even if you're not fluent in English

this is something that everyone understands

For those who want to go overseas

don't be discouraged because of language

It'd be good if you have confidence and go for it

I think my English is like at the level of

elementary and middle school students

And I'm also not that good

This is also based on my experience

but instead of lacking the skill

I think most Koreans lack the confidence

to speak English

This is my Instagram

If you want to get a job overseas

I suggest you to start being active

on social media such as

Instagram, Behance and Twitter

Personally I don't post anything other than work-related things

My social media account itself can become a big portfolio

We live in a world where we can communicate directly with directors

All the foreign artists, directors and producers that I met

were on social media

So I think this is a great way

to get a good opportunity

You can also get a job through this

And when you communicate through social media

you get to speak some English

so that could increase your confidence

I'll talk more about how I studied on my own

how I'm continuing to study

and other various tips

in the lecture later

I hope my lectures could help

you make more and better artwork

and achieve your goals that you have

I'll stop talking about myself now

And I'll introduce tools and resources

that I used for the lecture

In the lecture I used Cinema 4D

R23 version

Of course you can use the previous

or later versions

but since some parts in the examples

use the volume

it'd be better to use the version above R20

The second tool is Redshift

Recently there has been a huge change to Redshift

It has been taken over by Maxon

a company that produces C4D so their website changed

and there are some significant differences between versions

Although I used

Redshift 3.0.53 for examples

as long as it's above 3.0.46

it'll operate the same way

so anything above 3.0.46 will be fine

And in the actual lecture

I'm using 3.0.57

And I think the turning point is that

there is a huge difference

between

Redshift 3.0.45 and 3.0.46

For those who are using the earlier versions

I'll cover the differences in detail in

Lecture 5 - Color Space so I highly recommend you to watch it closely

I also used After Effects

for the post-correction

The version won't matter

but one thing that you need to install is

free OCIO plugin

You can just download and install it

I'll also talk about this part in Lecture 5

and show you how to install it

And for resources

I prepared them in a pdf file under the download folder

Some resources used in the lectures

such as Texture and 3D source

are illegal to copy and distribute

So you should download them yourselves

I think it's going to be good practice for you

When I work

I sometimes look for a suitable texture

for hours

It sounds like it's not a big deal

but I think it's an important skill to have

These are textures and sources

that I used in the lectures

You can download Polyhaven,

Textures.com, Viz People

and Maxime Roz HDRI for free

but you have to pay for Poliigon, Quixel

and ShutterStock to download

I added the names of textures

to the example files that I used

so you can look it up easily

and download the exact files that I used

There are some resource websites that you should look at

but firstly

rather than using a certain texture

the time you spend trying to find the texture you want

and how you adjust it

within Redshift are more important

so you don't have to use it the same way

as me

Of course you don't have to use a texture

There are many Shaders within Redshift as well

I found some textures from

the paid websites that I often use

but this is not a must either

Among all resource websites

I think there are about 4 of them you should look at

Let's look at them together

There is Polyhaven as a free resource

They are from Polyhaven and Maxime Roz HDRI

In Polyhaven

all assets are not for sale

They are all provided for free

but people help them

through donation

So you can just go to Assets without logging in

and download them

You can distribute these assets

and use them for business from Polyhaven

Thankfully everything is provided for free

The quality is actually better than I expected

They have a lot of textures you can think of here

A variety of textures are here like this

They also have HDRI and Models as well

I think models are uploaded as Blender files

so you have to install Blender

and export them as OBJs

Anyways models are very high quality scan models as well

so it's a very useful website

The second one is Maxime Roz HDRI

This person works in 3D

he makes HDRIs himself

and distributes them

But you have to pay for these three

But for the Interior HDRI Free Pack

you can download it for free

and you can use it for your business as well

Especially these HDRIs

look very real when you use it

They're made very well

You can easily adjust the contrast as well

They are very good maps

so I use them often

If you want to use more detailed and various ones

I recommend two websites from paid options

They are Quixel and Poliigon

For Quixel and Poliigon

I've never seen a person who doesn't use them in the industry

At Tendril many freelancers

around the world collaborate

I don't think there are any artists

who hasn't used one of them

Everybody knows about them

Quixel provides 3D scans as well so it's very good

I recommend you to purchase it by saving money from not eating fried chicken once a month

For these two websites

if you have less work for the month you can cancel the subscription

and just use the textures that you downloaded for the rest of your life

Poliigon has a lot of different categories

and materials

Quixel has a lot of 3D scans like these as well

If you're using Unreal you can use these for free

but if you're using C4D you have to pay for them

And I know some of you

might not use Cinema 4D

you can use Redshift

for most 3D tools

such as Maya, Houdini

and Blender

Within Redshift Renderer

there is almost no difference

so you can surely use it in most of the tools

After I started working in the field

I used Maya for a bit

and I officially started learning and using Houdini

I couldn't see the difference

between them within Redshift

So I think

it's a great strength of Redshift

When I moved to a different tool

I didn't have to learn

shading nor rendering

so I could work as a Lookdev artist right away

From now on we'll talk about my personal work

and the process of Tendril

by looking at my personal work

I often make characters,

animations

and these stylized work

as personal work

They're a bit different from

what I do at work or from those commercial ones

because I tend to focus

on skills that I personally

want to achieve from the work

But the basic process

and the important steps that I take for a project

are pretty much the same

By using a tool called Miro

I made a mind node like this

Usually when I work on my personal stuff

I use Miro

and I can make a mind map like this

using Miro

So I made a mind node here

based on my process

When I work on my personal stuff

I use tools like PureRef and Miro

for ideation

and gather references

Of course I sometimes use

an iPad drawing app like Procreate

or Photoshop

to sketch

and organize more

After ideation and reference steps

I tend to select the 3D work that will fit with them

When I want to start the artwork right away

or want to speed up with

a more familiar step

then I use Cinema 4D and Redshift

If it's a complicated simulation

or I want to try and study something new

I use Houdini or Redshift for it

I sometimes use other tools

such as ZBrush and Substance 3D Painter

for my sub-tools as well

Of course for rendering at the end

I always use Redshift

It's not only because my company uses

Redshift as the main renderer

I studied 4 different renderers

the basic renderer of Cinema 4D, Physical,

Octane, a bit of Arnold

and Redshift

Among these I felt that

Redshift provides the most various nodes

and more control for users

Also it was faster in speed

compared to the CPU-based renderers

Physical and Arnold

I experienced a lack of stability

and detailed control from Octane

but Redshift had no issues

Of course I'm not saying

Redshift is a perfect renderer

The preview mode seems slower

than Octane

and there is a difference in speed

for displacement

But for utility and stability

I think Redshift is way better

That's why I finish most of my work

with Redshift

I made the process of Tendril as well

The detailed process for the project

is closely related with Tendril

You can think of it as pretty much the same

Even when I work for my personal stuff

I try to apply the company's process

as much as possible

because of the thought that I should do my best at work

Naming files and selecting tools

are very similar to how I do it at the company

I made it similar to increase efficiency at work

Let's take a look at the recent works done by Tendril

When you look at the recent works

that I was involved in not the old ones

they're like this

At work the directors work hard

to make them feel

like they're Tendril design

as soon as people see them

It's definitely reflected in the work

And since they pursue that the most

they started to add

more complicated rendering skills

and increased the use of Houdini as well

When you look at this project

it's for Microsoft

The volume is used a lot in this

They applied advanced rendering

to make it feel more bouncy

And since Redshift is very fast

for using volumes

this project used Redshift as well

Like this my company

focuses on design

collaborates with various brands

and makes good brand films

toolkits necessary to advertise a brand

and videos needed to promote

new technologies

Tendril's process

is very similar to the process

introduced by Tae-eun's lecture

In order to get work

we go through a pitch process

and compete with various studios

We present it in the direction that the client wants

and make a style frame for it

and if the client is satisfied with it

we'll get the work

We should find a reference we want in this pitch

and we have to show our style frames

that will fit with it

so I keep gathering references

even when I work for my personal stuff

I also consistently look at

other artists' works as well

and I try to speed up my process

I sometimes use those references that I gathered

for the actual project as well

The speed is really crucial these days

Even if I do it really fast I still end up running out of time

so I usually stay until late at work these days

After that when the project is awarded

and goes into the production phase

After the design phase it's the production phase

When you look at the team here

there is

an executive producer on the right

and a producer under them

These two people recruit artists that they want

and plan their budget

They're in charge of

who they're going to hire

and how much they're going to pay them

They can be very powerful

especially for freelancers

And next to it is the structure of the artist team

Creative Director is on top

and then the Art Director

and then 3D Artists like me

or there are 2D Artists as well

It's structured like that

Different from Korea

instead of everyone being generalists

the artists would work

as a designer or an animator

and divide the work

There are designers and animators like this

but Lookdev artists, writers and compositors

are added in the second half

And the film and game industries are very specialized

so the employees never take another job

but I think most people go back and forth

between two things here

In my case, I participate as a designer

in the pitch process

to quickly create concepts

and think about the overall direction together

In the production I first go in as the designer,

create a style frame,

fix the style I want

and deliver the files to the animators

With the files that animators deliver to me

I'll refine the lookdev that is lacking

and fix it to fit the production

After that I do the later steps such as

lighting and rendering

Then I'd send it to the compositor

as an EXR file

I heard that the tools used are similar to mine

Most of the motion design projects

combine

Cinema 4D and Houdini

The main renderer uses Redshift

There are times when Cycle or Octane are used

I think 95-98%

is Redshift

The reason why

the way I do my own work and the process is similar

is to increase the efficiency

when I'm actually working

I think it was because

I wanted to increase efficiency and value

When I was working as a chef

I increased the efficiency in a similar way

When I prepared ingredients at home I'd try similar things

It's like keeping them in the same place

so that I'll save time looking for them

I think I did pretty much the same thing in 3D

I tend not to get so confused with the new project

I think I made a good habit of

preparing as many parts as I know as possible

I want to talk about what I hope you learn from

this lecture

Since I'll cover not only the work process

but also the basics to advanced parts

of Redshift as well as the outputs

I hope you get more familiar to Redshift through this lecture

and I hope this helps you

make the artwork you want

Shading, lighting

and rendering

which can be seen as the most difficult in 3D

are the main contents of this lecture

If you learn it well

and increase your knowledge on this part

I think the more you increase your knowledge on this part

the faster your value increases as an artist

No matter how cool it moves,

no matter how good the modeling is

at the end if it goes through a weird shading

or Lookdev

your work

won't look as good

There could be some node structures that might look confusing

and things that you might not know by looking at their names

You might not be able to remove

the CG style in lighting

or you might just not know what you lack

There are a lot of complicated words in rendering

and there are a lot of buttons so there are parts that are hard to understand

That's it for the introduction

In the basic section of the 2nd lecture

I'll start with

making your own visual library

Thank you