Christopher Pollok
Lead Environment Artist at Zenimax Online
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Stylized Clouds Breakdown

So I've recently been working on a piece with some stylized/anime looking clouds, and searching around I haven't found any decent alternative to hand painting it to achieve the full look. That didn't sit right with me, in no small part because I simply don't want to paint new clouds for every potential lighting scenario, so here's what I came up with. The steps are shown beginning in Houdini, but should work with any DCC capable of creating and lighting volumetric cloud shapes.

This workflow was derived from a combination of these two techniques:
Simon Verstraete's Quick Clouds For Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtsXJKGMLxk
Cody Gindy's Making 3D animation look painterly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8N00rjil_4

Sunset

Sunset

Mid day

Mid day

Night

Night

Make the cloud volume. In this example, I created an HDA splitting the shape into 3 sections, a wispy base, the main central 'poofy' part (technical term), and a tall element to break up the somewhat symmetrical shape.

Make the cloud volume. In this example, I created an HDA splitting the shape into 3 sections, a wispy base, the main central 'poofy' part (technical term), and a tall element to break up the somewhat symmetrical shape.

Create colored lights for the key, rim, and uplight/fill areas. Where these hit on the object will be the masks used to overlay lighting onto the cloud. Render out an image, and make sure to include alpha.

Create colored lights for the key, rim, and uplight/fill areas. Where these hit on the object will be the masks used to overlay lighting onto the cloud. Render out an image, and make sure to include alpha.

Pulling the resulting image into Substance Designer, quantize the image. This creates the look of painting this cloud using a limited number of colors.

Pulling the resulting image into Substance Designer, quantize the image. This creates the look of painting this cloud using a limited number of colors.

Using a few watercolor brushstroke alphas, scatter them onto the quantized image. Make sure the image is plugged into the Color Map Input, and Color Parameterization Multiplier is set to 1, so that the splotches pick up the color of the image.

Using a few watercolor brushstroke alphas, scatter them onto the quantized image. Make sure the image is plugged into the Color Map Input, and Color Parameterization Multiplier is set to 1, so that the splotches pick up the color of the image.

Little bit of alpha tweaking to get a crisp edge on the tops with a fuzzy base, a little warping of the image to break up the uniformity of brushstrokes. Optional art direction stage.

Little bit of alpha tweaking to get a crisp edge on the tops with a fuzzy base, a little warping of the image to break up the uniformity of brushstrokes. Optional art direction stage.

Here is the image split out, to see the resulting masks.

Here is the image split out, to see the resulting masks.

Create a few of these clouds, and scatter them on a texture. Bonus points if you make a few textures, and layer them in. As is evident in the parameters shown, colors and light intensity on each layer and mask area are controllable in engine.

Create a few of these clouds, and scatter them on a texture. Bonus points if you make a few textures, and layer them in. As is evident in the parameters shown, colors and light intensity on each layer and mask area are controllable in engine.

Vibe out to some happy little clouds.

Bonus, you can throw some geometry in there to get specific shapes. If that's what you're looking for.

Bonus, you can throw some geometry in there to get specific shapes. If that's what you're looking for.

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