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The Smoking Gnome
April 04, 2025
The Smoking Gnome is a creation of artist Rémi Perrier and originated as a school exercise supervised by Baptiste Lebouc, where students had to choose a fictional character. Rémi's ambition was to bring to life an interesting character, with a look that was both enigmatic and captivating, using intentional lighting to emphasize his mysterious personality.
The RenderMan for Maya project was edited by Pixar's Leif Pedersen to adhere to Pixar-standard rendering practices.
For texturing, I worked with Texturing XYZ's Multi-Channel textures to capture maximum details in the skin. Using ACES color management proved crucial, as it allowed me to integrate physical values into the shading and enhance the realism of the lighting. The lighting studio, included with this project download, is ideal to calibrate the shading without chromatic interference, guaranteeing lighting fidelity.
Smoking Gnome material and lighting passes
This project taught me a lot, especially about the importance of physical research. I learned a lot about making an eye and its specific refraction values, which helped me refine my rendering and make my character more believable.
I drew color inspiration from Rembrandt’s use of chiaroscuro, particularly in paintings like Philosopher in Meditation and The Holy Family, to enhance the mystery and depth of my character. In one of the lighting rigs, I also played with Shatner Lighting, which always brings out the film noir drama!
Smoking Gnome mood board
The Smoking Gnome is a great opportunity for users to dissect a RenderMan centric project, designed to take advantage of interactive workflows in RenderMan XPU. Play with the project, create some interesting lighting, and have fun!
Rémi has always been fascinated by animation and CGI, especially how to bring characters to life, a passion nurtured from an early age by his parents. Currently a student at ESMA, in Lyon, France, he’s looking to work in Lighting and Surfacing. "My dream is to inspire people and make them dream the way other artists have inspired me."
This project is available with a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. This allows you to share and redistribute for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the original author.
