DESIGN AND CREATE A HIGHTECH DRONE
Get inspired by nature and learn how to create a detailed insect drone design
Nature has always been a source of inspiration for many artists and designers. If we look around, we can find a vast diversity of colours, shapes, and patterns in nature. Despite the incredible ingenuity of engineering, we are continually looking to nature for fresh inspiration and ideas to improve our designs.
This approach to human innovation by emulating nature is called biomimetic design and has inspired many of our designers in different fields. For instance, birds and sharks are inspiring engineers to design lighter and more fuel-efficient aircraft. Therefore, we can use the same approach when designing a complex and innovative drone.
Since paper wasps are one of the most common flying insects, we can find a way to integrate them into a drone design that could help scientists in their research to collect a massive amount of intelligence data from unreachable areas.
In this tutorial, we are going to take you through the process of designing a drone step by step. We will start off with a base mesh inside Zbrush. Next, we’re going to use Fusion 360 as well as Moi3d for our CAD modelling process. Moreover, we will use Keyshot for the rendering parts, and finally, compositing in Photoshop to get the final render.
01 INSECT MORPHOLOGY
The most important thing you need to do before starting is to take time to study the physical form of the insect that you already decided to design. It's crucial to learn about the structural units of the insect’s body before jumping into the sculpting from the references. Furthermore, it will help you to have a perspective of visual hierarchy on your concept that would lead the eye from one focal point to the next.
02 ZEEZOO
There are many different ways to make a base mesh inside Zbrush. Zeezoo is one of the recent features specially designed to help you get started with a project, so you can quickly decide on the animal’s form and pose. Explore the Zeezoo folder in Lightbox under the Projects tab.
03 SCULPT THE BASE MESH
Now it's time to use your references and make your base mesh as closely as possible to your creature. At this stage, try to keep working with lower resolution as much as you can. If you are working with the Zsphere mode, activate the preview mode in the Adaptive Skin sub-palette, then use the Density slider to manage the lower mesh resolution.
04 CHECK THE PROPORTIONS
The Thumbnail or Silhouette view is the best way to check the proportions as well as how the overall form reads from a distance. At this point, we are not looking to the mechanical aspect or designing anything whatsoever! We just want to achieve correct proportions and a nice-looking base mesh.
05 SCULPTRIS PRO
One of the great features in Zbrush is Sculptris Pro. With this mode, you can focus on the visual aspect of your model with no need
to worry about polygon resolution or other technical constraints.
After your base mesh reaches a level you’re happy with, and your creature is looking the same as the references, you can move forward and start having fun with hardsurface sculpting while we're using the Sculptris Pro.
06 HIERARCHY IN DESIGN
At this point, we're going to design our mech base using a hierarchy, which means you should work on the primary shapes first, then the secondary shapes, and so on. Meanwhile, use any brush that you are comfortable with sculpting.
If you have a look again at the wasp morphology, you can specify those parts easily. In the meantime, you have to pay attention to how to make a connection between one piece and another.
Please avoid adding any details at this time. We’re not going to work on any details in Zbrush.
07 TRANSPOSE MASTER
Using the Transpose Master plugin will help you to find a better proportion during the sculpting. You can use it anytime you feel like you need to change the pose or move some parts together in order to get a better proportion.
Press Tposemesh in the Transpose Master sub-palette. A combined mesh will create into the tool palette. Use the lasso mask to
isolate parts of the combined mesh and use the Gizmo 3D to create a pose. Press Tpose>subt to transfer the combined mesh to the Subtools of the original model.
08 POLISH FEATURES
When you are satisfied with the pose, we should move on to polishing our meshes. It will help us to achieve a better result when we are going to use the Zremesher in our next steps.
There are some different ways to polish a surface in Zbrush. For instance, you can use the Pinch or hpolish brushes, which are very useful for adding hard edges to any form. Also, you can combine the Polish features with the Polygroupit to get the best result possible.
Polish by Features Located in the Tool>deformation sub-palette. These sliders evaluate the mesh’s creased edges or Polygroups. When applied, Zbrush will polish the whole surface while maintaining Polygroup borders or creased edges.
09 ZREMESHER
Basically, the Zremesher can do retopology calculation
automatically for the visible pieces of the selected sub tool. The first thing we have to do is avoid using a low polygon count and allow a higher value. That gives Zremesher the necessary freedom to manage these topological changes.
First, create Polygroups based on the model’s normals by using Tool>polygroups>group By Normal and adjusting the Max Angle Tolerance slider as needed. Use those Polygroup borders to create curves via the Stroke>curve Functions>frame Mesh feature. Don’t overlook the usefulness of the Border and Creased edges modes.
Use those Polygroup borders to create curves via the Stroke>curve Functions>frame Mesh feature. Don’t overlook the usefulness of the Border and Creased edges modes.
10 ZMODELER BRUSH
You can use the Zmodeler brush at this stage. Try to add more holding edges around your shapes in terms of keeping them contained when we are going to convert them to T-spline meshes in our next steps.
Before moving forward, please make sure to check your meshes by using the Dynamic Subdivision function, which can allow you to apply dynamic smoothing to your models without actually dividing the polygons.
Meanwhile, any changes in the base mesh topology will show you the immediate result in the higher resolution surface.
11 PANEL LOOPS
The Panel Loops feature is located in the Tool>geometry subpalette. You can use it to add the bevel to your surface. Modifying the panel loops bevel profile will help you to change the shapes of the bevels. Moreover, you can make
empty spaces between any panels that are next to each other.
Keep it in mind, the Polish slider will apply a polish effect on the resulting mesh, especially to the border of the Polygroups, so change the default value to zero.
12 MAKING CABLES
We're going to design some cables as our last step in Zbrush. Cables can help the eyes to follow the forms and lines as well as fill up some negative spaces between the parts.
The Curvetube brush is the easiest way to make cables, but you have to use the Curve mode features alongside this brush. Try to use The Look start along with the Lock end to get the job done as fast as you can. These functions will freeze the cable starting and endpoint in place, restricting it from being moved while you edit the curve.
13 FUSION 360
There are some benefits when we are adding details over the Nurbs instead of poly modelling. On top of everything, you don't need to deal with high-res meshes all the time. Aside from that, you no longer need to use the decimation
process as well, which will save you time in the long run. Moreover, the quality of details is way better than adding them inside the Zbrush.
So, we need to use Fusion 360 to convert quad meshes to T-splines at first, then we convert them again into a Brep. You also can improve the design inside Fusion by using the Edit form functions, but you have to be aware this process must be before your meshes turned into the Brep.
14 MOI3D: PART I
It is much easier to design the wasp wings inside Moi3d instead of Zbrush or other poly-modelling programs. First off, go to the view tab and select the image, then load your wing reference as a background and change the Transparency to around 50%. Select the Freefrom tools from the Draw curve tab and start to design the wing.
Playing around with the shapes would be fun since you have much more control over each point.
It will help you to come up with interesting shapes.
After you are done with it, use Extrude to have a solid 3D surface.
15 MOI3D: PART II
Let's pick up where we left off and design the propeller blades so we can have a complete wing. We’ll use the same tools that we already used to make the wing. You only need to make one blade, then go to the Transform tab and select the Circular function from the Array tools, afterwards you will have multiple blades.
At this point, we need to think up an idea on how to make a better transmission between the wing and the propeller blades. We begin with some blocking up shapes around the propeller blades until we are satisfied with the design. Please avoid adding any details at this stage.
16 MOI3D: PART III
When it comes to hardsurface design, Moi3d is one of the most powerful tools for adding details. For instance, you can draw a line or a curve as the cutting object, then use the Boolean difference
to divide them into different solid pieces, then filleting the edges, which take only a few seconds to put together.
The Object snap will help you accurately place your details on the target in the easiest way possible, which will save you a lot of time during this stage.
At this point, you should focus on adding details where things are connected instead of adding them all over the place. Otherwise, you might get a noisy and unpleasant design by the end.
17 ADD COMPLEXITY USING KITBASHES
Import your model into Maya, Zbrush, or any other 3D program that you feel comfortable with and start designing complex mechanical parts with kitbashes. I already uploaded a free set of kitbashes on my Cubebrush store, so you can download this set from here and use them on your design. https://cubebrush.co/amin/ products/qwrbta-gyst/sci-fidevices-kitbash-set-free
I hope you enjoy it.
18 MAKING FABRIC COVERS
Zbrush 2021 was released recently with a significant new feature that allows you to have
more control over cloth sculpting, by using the new cloth brushes, which make the whole process easy. So we can use this feature to create some fabric covers for our design.
We need these fabric covers for the joint parts, as well as the back of the torso. This trick gives the viewer the feeling that there is some mechanical joint beneath the fabric covers or something more complex that would help this mech to move. Making these covers with those brushes is so simple, so we don't need to review the process again.
Now, our concept is ready for the rendering stage.
19 RENDERING IN KEYSHOT: PART I
Presentation is everything – the more time you spend at this crucial stage to set the scene up correctly, the better your design ideas will come across. You can subtly manipulate viewers to look where you want at the right time.
On the other hand, if you set up the scene poorly, it could destroy the whole thing, so your design wouldn’t be easy to understand.
Luxion Keyshot is one of the most popular pieces of rendering software in the CG industry. Keyshot has a friendly user interface that makes things easy to use. The only thing you need to get started is importing your model as an FBX or OBJ file into Keyshot.
20 RENDERING IN KEYSHOT: PART II
The first thing you should do after loading your drone into the scene is to unlink materials. In Keyshot, several parts will often be material-linked if the parts have the same colour or name in your 3D modelling software. To unlink all materials, first go to Project>scene. Right-click your model’s top-most level and select Unlink Materials.
Afterwards, you can assign the materials by dragging and dropping materials from the Materials library onto a part in the Real-time View or the Scene Tree.
Quick Tip: To achieve highquality rendering, go to the Edit Material and increase the Samples to the highest. It might affect your render time, but the outcome will be great.
21 RENDERING IN KEYSHOT: PART III
In Keyshot, there are two ways to light your scene: HDRI, and physical lights. HDRIS are the default method, and they’re easy to use – you can just drag and drop an HDRI from the Keyshot library into the scene, and the new lighting environment will appear.
You can use the Keyshot HDRI Editor as well, which will help you to make modifications to your lighting environments or build your own. The HDRI Editor gives us a unique system of adjustable light, image, and gradient Pins to light your scene.
Go to the Project window and check the Environment tab for the HDRI editor.
22 RENDERING IN KEYSHOT: PART IV
In Keyshot 9, if you have an Nvidia GPU card, you can drop down
the CPU usage by running the GPU mode. GPU is roughly three times faster than the CPU, which offers us a huge difference in the performance metric.
At this stage, set up your cameras, then go to the Render output tab to render out your images.
Change the type of output format to PSD or PSD32, then select the checkbox that appears in the Layers and Passes section to Add to PSD, which would give you all the render passes that you want in one file. For this particular design, we only need Clown Pass, Depth Pass, and the Ambient Occlusion Pass.
In the end, Keyshot has three output options for quality based on your needs. If you have a powerful
GPU card, try to render out with 3K samples or more.
23 COMPOSITING IN PHOTOSHOP: PART I
When you open up the PSD file inside Photoshop, you will see the render passes folder inside the layer tab. Select the Ambient Occlusion Pass first, then go to the Blend Mode option, and change Normal to Multiply, and reduce the opacity to around 50.
At this time, select both layers first, then right-click and choose the Duplicate layer, afterwards hit Ctrl+e to merge them into the one.
Now you can go to the Filter tab and use the Camera Raw Filter to use the Smart Filter feature to enhance saturation, clarity, contrast, and more in your images.
24 COMPOSITING IN PHOTOSHOP: PART II
At the end of this process, open up the EXR file in a new tab as transparency. Now you can see the depth map but it needs to be modified, so go to Image>adjustments>hdr Toning>press Yes>change the method to Equalize Histogram.
Copy the image by pressing Ctrl+a, Ctrl+c. Then go to the Channels tab and create a new alpha layer, then hit the Ctrl+shift+v.
Again move to the Layers tab, choose the image, then go to Filters>blur>lens Blur. From the Depth Map tab, change the source to the Alpha, then you can play around with the radius of blur till you are satisfied with the final shot. •