This is the Death Trooper helmet from Star Wars Rougue One. (Personal Project)

Classic black helmet

Wooden helmet variation

White helmet variation

Project Break Down:

Below is a breakdown to show some of my process.

Modeling the Helmet:

I wanted to keep this model low poly and give it clean topology. I started out using image planes and modeled one side of the helmet, then I mirrored and welded the verticies in the center to complete the model. After welding the 2 halfs together, I cleaned up edge loops and added some imperfections to the outside of the helmet to give it a more realistic look.

UV's:

After modeling, I setup UV's for all of the parts. For this process I cut and sew seems where needed so I can use the unfold and optimize tool to unwrap each part. As I unfold each part I scale and adjust to enusre texel density. The final step is packing and organizing the shells for Substance Painter.

Substance Painter:

After UV's are setup in 0|1 space and have no overlapping shells, I check my materials and make sure my shaders are setup correctly. In this case I seperated the glass from the rest of the model. For exporting out to substance I apply basic phong materials and assign them to the different parts. I can then export an FBX out from Maya and import it into Substance Painter. Once I have the model in Substance I go about baking my mesh maps. I review the maps after baking and check for errors. If there is any baking errors I would go back into Maya and adjust any parts or UV's that are not working. Then just rinse and repeat fixing things, exporting out of maya, bringing the model back into substance, and checking the baked maps again until I'm ready to start texturing.

After I'm happy with the baked maps, I setup my folder structure and start making layers and applying materials, masks and generators to achieve the look I'm going for. I continue layering and adjusting until I'm happy with the look. I created 3 variations in seperate folders so I can easily turn on and off the materials for exporting the textures.

I then export out PBR textures usually in 2048 or 4096 depending on the project. The main maps usually used are BaseColor, Roughness, Metalic, Normal, and Height. Sometimes there are others that are needed such as Emissive, Opacity, Transmission.

Scene Setup:

Back in Maya, I setup Arnold shaders and import the textures to apply to the model. I modeled a floor, and some pillars in the background then create and apply materials for the background objects. I import a spaceship asset I downloaded, which I then cleaned up and create materials for. I just wanted a background object that was Star Wars themed. Once I had the scene setup, I was ready to light and render.

Lighting:

I used a Arnold Skydome Light for the initial lighting with an HDR texture assigned. I added Area Lights for some accent lighting to illuminate the areas I wanted to be more emphasized. I then tweaked the light settings until I had it looking how I wanted it in test renders using the Arnold Renderer.

Rendering:

I created a camera and setup my shot. I wanted the helmet to be the main focus with the background elements slightly out of focus. I used focal length and depth of field to create a more realistic photographic effect.

Comparison:

The final look of the model is less shiny than the real prop image to the right. I wanted to add more wear and tear to the model so I added additional dust and dirt in places.

Reference:

Below is some of the reference I gathered for this project. When gathering references, I like to have lots of images to look at. This includes, screenshots from the film, orthographic prop shots, 3d images, and other interesting variations of helmets. I like to use Pur ref to organize my reference as I'm working on a project.