What you'll learn

This tutorial discusses the production of two shots of a CGI photorealistic firefly that can be a part of a movie or a commercial. While this series of tutorials is not a step-by-step guide, it does offer an in-depth look at the key aspects of production that go into creating realistic-looking shots, which would otherwise be difficult to shoot without the aid of computer graphics. These tutorials will cover everything from the concept sketches and visualization to modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering, and final compositing of the photorealistic shots. While the tools used in this series of tutorials are primarily Maya and modo, the techniques discussed are easily applicable to other mainstream applications. Software required: Maya 2012, modo 501, Fusion 6.2, TopoGun 1.06, ZBrush 4.