Dive into this article as Khaled explores his journey in hard-surface modeling with Fighter Pilot. From refining topology to procedural texturing and lighting, he shares his techniques, challenges, and key lessons learned.
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone,
My name is Khaled, and I’m from the Middle East, specifically Syria. I’m a self-taught 3D artist specializing in hard-surface modeling.
Art was never a shared interest in our household, but from a young age, my older brother and I always had an interest in different artistic activities, especially drawing. By the time I reached adolescence, I had stopped pursuing art and was exploring other options in life, while my brother took a leap into a professional 3D art career.
Watching his journey from the beginning—how relentlessly driven he was to learn and push the limits of creativity—has been nothing short of inspiring to me. I’m deeply grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to closely witness his transformation from someone with raw talent into one of the best in his field.
Eventually, I decided to try 3D for myself back in 2021. I started out with Blender, like many beginners, and took a couple of online courses to get the hang of the basics. These courses helped me build a solid foundation in modeling simple objects, learning about modifiers, navigating the program, understanding the interface, controls, and other fundamental tools.
As I grew more comfortable with Blender, my interest leaned more toward hard-surface modeling as opposed to other fields in 3D. My approach to learning shifted, and rather than sticking to tutorials, I began focusing more on the process of imitation and demonstration. I would study other designers’ work, dissecting their models to understand how they achieved functional, believable designs.
Over time, I started particularly honing in on fundamentals—things like topology, essential modifiers such as the subdivision surface modifier, lighting, and material properties.
INSPIRATION
I’ve always looked up to the greats—artists like Mike Andrew Nash, Keos Masons, and Nika Zautashvili, to name a few. However, I’ve been especially inspired by Mike’s Infiltration Unit and his Vested Series – Police Vest (2017).
These two masterpieces, in my opinion, are pretty much the pinnacle of hard-surface artistry. I strive to become one of the greats and to achieve the same level of mastery they display in my own work. I know this project is just a first step toward that goal, but I can’t wait to see what new heights I can reach along the way.
References:
As for references, I have used images that include real-life equipment and machinery, as well as works from other artists, such as Mike’s Infiltration Unit and Vitaly’s Pilot Operator—both of which align with what I aspired to achieve.
Real-life images were primarily used as references for creating certain equipment, such as the oxygen pressure regulator. They also served as a foundation for lighting and materials, as I wanted to create a realistic scene for my project.
PROCESS
I have used only Blender for the creation of this project, Photoshop for post-processing, and primarily relied on just two modifiers—the subdivision surface and mirror modifiers—with no add-ons used.
Modeling:
My process is entirely done in a subdivision modeling manner from start to finish. The first stage is creating the initial shape. Rather than using other methods, such as sculpting the initial shape and then retopologizing it, I opt to create the initial shape using polygonal subdivision modeling.
I view the silhouette as the very foundation upon which I build my character. It is of utmost importance for me to ensure early on that it expresses the shapes and forms I desire with as few vertices as possible, allowing me to easily control the topology and make swift changes if needed.
Meanwhile, I always focus on the flow of topology, as it dictates the potential functionality and sensibility of the design—especially since the helmet features rounded shapes, which are particularly challenging to control effectively.
You can also see that early on, I dissected the model into relatively understandable parts, such as the neck, mask, glasses, etc. This helps me define the role of each part and visualize connections more clearly in order to establish workable structures.
From there onward, I focus on establishing these connections between the parts of the design, which may vary in size and shape depending on the components involved.
Below, you can see how the first part of the design evolved over time:
I continue refining the shapes, making adjustments as I go, while trying to maintain consistency between the edges, sizes of parts, positioning of equipment, and so on. It was also quite challenging to create mechanisms that convey depth and purpose while remaining understandable in terms of function.
Below is the second part of how the design evolved into its final form:
Texturing & Materials:
The materials I created are entirely procedural, except for the secondary layers, such as smudges, scratches, and wear passes. These were added only in post-processing in Photoshop using different blend modes, which enhances complexity and better emulates real-life materials.
As for the main material, it’s entirely procedural and composed of simple textures, all of which are mixed in different ways, then layered and fed into the bump node.
Each of these setups creates a certain texture and plays a different role in the shader. For example, the color variance distributes different shades onto the object, better emulating both the behavior of real-life materials and how lighting interacts with them.
Each texture is shown separately below on the model:
And here is a close-up image of the base shader with the above textures combined:
Lighting:
As for lighting, I have only used an HDRI with some color adjustments using simple nodes. The setup, as seen below, allows me to control the strength, coloring, and direction of either the environment light or the object light by separating them via the background node.
I render the model and background separately using the “Transparent” option in Cycles’ settings. This gives me the advantage of controlling the position, size, lighting, etc., for each in post-processing in Photoshop.
Below are the base renders for the environment and the model separately:
Rendering:
Once I have rendered both the background and the model separately, I begin post-processing in Photoshop. I first work on combining the images to achieve the correct perspective in relation to the positioning of the camera, model, and background.
The next step is to accentuate the direction of the main light source.
Post-Processing:
Afterward, I work on a more general level to further refine the coloring and lighting and correct the gamma using the Color Balance, Levels, and Exposure adjustment layers.
I also use the Camera Raw filter to adjust the temperature, tint, shadows, highlights, color grading, and more. Additionally, I resize the canvas to narrow the height and widen the perspective.
I continue making slight incremental changes, such as adding lens flare and adjusting the settings in the Lens Correction filter to achieve a more realistic feel of the character within the scene.
And that was it! Below you will find the final renders of Fighter Pilot!
RENDER: Fighter Pilot
And below are some clay renders:
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you, BlenderNation, for giving me the space to display my article here!
About the Artist
Khaled is a 3D artist from Syria, specializing in hard-surface modeling. Driven by a passion for mechanical design, he strives to reach the pinnacle of artistry in the field.
