Case Studies — John Bacile

In this video tutorial, I cover how to set up Light Filters and Light Group AOVs, both powerful lighting tools and workflows in Maya Arnold that are often overlooked. From creatively shaping your lighting with filters to optimizing your efficiency and gaining more control, I walk you through how to set up this system in a clean, production-ready way.

You'll see how this workflow enhances control in compositing, allowing you to isolate specific lighting contributions, and helps fine-tune your renders with precision. Whether you're focused on lookdev, lighting, or compositing, this tutorial will help sharpen your skills.

Autodesk Maya | Autodesk Arnold

LookDev Studio

This is a fully production-level Lookdev studio built in Maya and Arnold. I had made this open source in order to give artists a reliable, clean space to showcase their assets, test lighting setups, and explore look development techniques. I originally designed it for the personal use although after some turbulent industry shifts, I released this to support artists who might need accessible tools to stay sharp or build out skills.

Autodesk Maya | Autodesk Arnold

LookDev Studio

Copper Oxidation Material

This project was a look development material exploration, focusing on creating a fully procedural copper oxidation material. I developed three shaders, along with curve maps and ambient occlusion maps as the foundation. By layering various noise patterns and utilizing the base maps, I introduced more natural variations to the material. Then fine-tuned it using range adjustments, color correction, and parameter tweaks to achieve the desired look.
To evaluate the material, I tested it in my CG Look Development Studio under three different lighting setups to analyze how it reacts in various lighting conditions.

Autodesk Maya | Autodesk Arnold

Theia | Lookdev Kit | Part 1

This kit, named Theia, focuses on Lookdev optimizations while offering other useful tools such as scene setup, cleanup tools, shot tools, and more. This is a project I’m very happy to revisit, especially in an ever-changing industry with powerful new tools constantly emerging. Revisiting this project has allowed me to redefine some goals I had for the toolkit. It has also provided me with a better perspective on how tools should and could be used in the industry, and I've generated many new ideas for enhancing this pipeline. This newfound curiosity has led me to explore innovative techniques such as implementing USD, LookdevX, AOVs, and various other methods to create a Lookdev kit intended to increase efficiency and achieve project goals.

Assets provided by PolyHaven

Autodesk Maya | Autodesk Arnold

Asset Studies | CG Boss Distortion Pedal

This work was focused on making a photo realistic Boss distortion guitar pedal. I focused on proportional & detailed modeling combined with realistic Texturing and Look Development. The aim was to do this efficiently while achieving high quality results. Luckily I own this pedal so it was nice to have a real-life model to work from. I was also able to get feedback from artists such as Logan Pittman and others.

Autodesk Maya | Autodesk Arnold | Adobe Substance Painter

Asset Studies | CG Pabst Blue Ribbon Bottle

This was a Asset study focused on achieving photo-realism in Look Development along with precise Texturing. I was able to hone in on a lot of new and techniques to get me to a closer result of photo-realism. The Asset was able to give me a lot intriguing areas to focus on that helped challenge me. I was able to experiment more with programs such as SideFX Houdini and Maxon Cinema 4D.