CGNetworks Feature :: Reader Project
The Making of The Joker
Filipes Lopes , 18th February 2005

I'm a big fan of comic book illustrations and always wanted to make a 3D version of my favorite characters. After seeing the Batman image that a friend, Ricardo "Zy" Thiele did, I had the idea to make a 3D version of The Joker, one of my favorite villains. The main task I had in mind was to capture in one image the very sinister and sarcastic atmosphere. To get this effect I would need a good light and a good facial expression to show his wild personality.

For this image I didn't draw any kind of sketch, instead I picked as my main reference an illustration painted by Alex Ross. I tried to make the same details and mood of the scene as he did. But, as I didn't want to make a 3D version of his illustration, I had the freedom to change some things, like the cloth, colors and teeth. I made these longer, to accentuate the smile so it would create more contrast with the atmosphere of the scene.

Before starting the model, I had to decide what camera angle I was going to use, so I could pay attention to that angle, since I was doing a still image, not an animation. I modeled from a simple box, adding edges, cutting and moving points. I always use RC Tools, by Reinhard Claus to make these sculpting tasks easier.

Mapping the face took me quite a while. I used a spherical projection for the face and adjusted it on the texture editor. For the clothes I used planar projections and some sub projections (for the suit) and, once again, adjusted it on the texture editor. All the textures were made using manipulated photos on Photoshop over a RenderMap made on XSI. For the clothes I used only color and bump maps. On the face I used color, bump and specular maps. And for the Sub Surface Scattering effect on the face I used md_SubScatter , a Mental Ray shader written by Mark Davies. To render the hair faster I chose a shader created by Daniel "thebigMuh" Rind, called muhHair, it's a great shader and its optimization parameters make the render a lot faster.