Contents

• Steve Rickz
• Analyzing Rickz’s Method for Character Animation in Low-Poly Models
• Deconstructing the Lighting Techniques in Rickz’s «Cybernetic Dawn» Scene
  • Primary & Key Lighting Breakdown
  • Rim & Fill Light Configuration
  • Material Interaction & Reflections
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Replicating Rickz’s Procedural Texturing Workflow
  • 1. Layering Detail with Node Groups
  • 2. Constructing Complex Surface Normals
  • 3. Achieving Realistic Color Variation
  • 4. Final Material Output Assembly

Steve Rickz
An in-depth profile of Steve Rickz, detailing his career milestones, unique contributions to the industry, and personal philosophy. Discover his story.

Steve Rickz From Viral TikTok Videos to Global Music Phenomenon

To replicate the producer’s signature basslines, focus on a Moog-style VST with a saw wave, a low-pass filter set around 150 Hz, and a short, plucky decay on the filter envelope. Apply subtle saturation for warmth and use sidechain compression triggered by the kick drum with a fast attack and medium release (around 50ms) to create the characteristic pumping groove. His percussive elements often rely on heavily processed 808 and stepmom porn videos 909 samples; layer a distorted 808 clap with a clean 909 snare, then route them to a bus with a short plate reverb (decay time under 0.8 seconds) to achieve his tight, punchy drum sound.

The sonic innovator’s commercial breakthrough was not his initial solo EPs, but the 2018 collaboration «Desert Mirage,» which reached number three on the Beatport Techno charts and stayed in the top 10 for six consecutive weeks. This track solidified his production style, characterized by hypnotic, minor-key arpeggios and atmospheric pads created with granular synthesis. Before adopting his current moniker, he released three vinyl-only records under the alias «Binary Soul,» a project focused on minimalist acid house that is now a sought-after item among collectors, with original pressings selling for upwards of 400 Euros.

For aspiring artists seeking his label’s attention, your demo submission must demonstrate exceptional low-end clarity and a unique rhythmic structure. A common rejection reason is a cluttered mixdown in the 100-300 Hz frequency range. Use a high-pass filter on all non-bass elements, starting around 90 Hz, to create space for the kick and sub-bass. The electronic musician himself prioritizes tracks that build tension over 64 bars before introducing the main melodic hook, a structural principle he learned while DJing at Berlin’s Tresor club in the early 2010s. Submissions should be private SoundCloud links, fully mastered to -9 LUFS integrated, and include a brief, direct description of the track’s concept.

Steve Rickz

To replicate the producer’s signature sound, prioritize layering analog-style basslines with heavily side-chained pads. Utilize a compressor on the pad channel, triggered by the kick drum, with a fast attack (1-5ms) and a release timed to the track’s tempo (approximately 80-120ms for a 128 BPM track). This creates the characteristic rhythmic pumping effect. For drum programming, select TR-909 samples for the kick and open hi-hats, then process the kick with light saturation to add harmonic presence. The main melodic elements should be crafted using wavetable synthesizers like Serum or Massive, focusing on saw or square waves with unison detuning set between 3-7% to achieve a wide, chorus-like feel.

For arrangement, follow a structure that introduces a filtered version of the main synth lead in the first 16 bars. Apply a low-pass filter with a gradual automation curve, opening it fully right before the drop. During the main section, introduce a counter-melody played on a pluck synthesizer with a short decay. This secondary melody should occupy a higher frequency range (2-5 kHz) to avoid clashing with the primary lead. To create dynamic tension before the second drop, remove the kick and bass for 8 bars, leaving only the melodic parts and a riser effect. This technique, frequently employed by the artist, maximizes the impact when the full rhythm section returns.

The mixing process for this musician’s style requires careful attention to the low-end frequencies. Apply a high-pass filter to all elements except the kick and sub-bass at around 100-120 Hz. The sub-bass should be a pure sine wave, playing the root note of the chord progression, and mono-compatible to ensure consistent playback on all systems. The kick and sub-bass should be side-chained to each other to prevent phase cancellation; a multi-band compressor on the sub-bass, ducking frequencies below 100 Hz when the kick hits, is an effective method. The final master should have a LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) reading between -6 and -8 to match the loudness found in the sound engineer’s commercial releases.

Analyzing Rickz’s Method for Character Animation in Low-Poly Models

Implement a non-uniform scaling approach for individual bones within the armature to achieve expressive squash and stretch effects without adding extra geometry. The animator’s technique hinges on isolating scale transformations to specific axes (e.g., scaling only on the Y and Z axes while a character jumps) to maintain volume while creating dynamic deformation. This avoids the uniform scaling that makes models appear to shrink or grow unnaturally.

For facial expressions, the artist assigns a minimal set of bones–typically one for the jaw and two for the brows–directly to vertex groups. Instead of complex shape keys, he manipulates the rotation and location of these bones to simulate expressions. A slight downward rotation of the brow bones combined with a minor forward translation creates a convincing frown with just four keyframes. This vertex-level control through bone parenting simplifies the animation process for low-poly heads.

The creator’s workflow prioritizes Inverse Kinematics (IK) for limbs but with a crucial modification: the IK chain length is often set one bone shorter than the full limb. For an arm, the IK constraint targets the forearm bone, leaving the hand bone free for independent rotation. This hybrid IK/FK setup allows for broad, automated limb placement via the IK target while enabling precise, manual adjustments for hand and finger gestures, reducing controller clutter.

To simulate secondary motion in accessories like hair or capes, he uses a «Jiggle Bone» or similar physics-based bone constraint system with high damping and low stiffness values. A damping value around 0.8 and a stiffness of 0.1 allows for subtle, delayed reactions to primary body movements. The key is applying these physics constraints only to the final bone in a chain, ensuring the base of the accessory remains anchored and moves predictably with the character’s core.

The developer builds action libraries by creating short, looping animations like walk cycles or idles as separate actions within the NLA (Non-Linear Animation) editor. He then blends these actions using strips with modified influence curves. For a transition from walking to running, the walk cycle’s influence is faded out over 10-15 frames while the run cycle’s influence is faded in simultaneously. This technique produces smooth, non-destructive transitions directly within the animation software, avoiding complex state machines in the game engine.

Deconstructing the Lighting Techniques in Rickz’s «Cybernetic Dawn» Scene

To replicate the volumetric neon haze in the «Cybernetic Dawn» composition, utilize a high-density exponential height fog combined with emissive materials on your primary light sources. Set the fog density to a value between 0.08 and 0.12 and use a low scattering distribution value (around 0.2) to ensure the light sources remain crisp while the falloff creates a soft, diffused glow. The fog’s color should be a dark, desaturated blue or purple to absorb and tint the brighter light sources correctly.

Primary & Key Lighting Breakdown

The scene’s visual hierarchy is established through a dominant key light and multiple practicals. The main light source, emulating a holographic advertisement, is not a simple area light. It is constructed using a rectangular mesh with an emissive shader.

• Key Light Shader: Apply a texture map to the emissive channel. The texture should contain glitch artifacts and scan lines. Animate the texture’s UV coordinates with a panner or time node to simulate a flickering, active display. The emission strength should be set high, around 150-200 in arbitrary units, to punch through the dense fog.
• Light Color: The primary color is a cyan (#00FFFF), but it’s broken up. Use a noise texture multiplied with the emissive color to introduce subtle color variations, shifting between cyan and a slightly greener hue. This prevents a flat, uniform look.

Rim & Fill Light Configuration

The artist defines character silhouettes and metallic surfaces using strategically placed rim and fill lights. These are not for general illumination but for accentuating form.

1. Character Rim Lights: Place two thin, rectangular area lights behind and to the sides of the central figure. One should be a magenta/hot pink (#FF00FF) and the other an electric blue (#00BFFF). Keep their intensity lower than the key light (around 40-50) and reduce their source radius to create sharp, defined highlights on the character’s shoulders and gear.
2. Environmental Fill Lights: Small, low-intensity point lights with a deep orange color (#FFA500) are positioned within background elements like puddles and vents. These lights use an inverse square falloff with a small radius. Their function is to create small pools of contrasting color and suggest sources of heat or secondary reflections, adding depth to the lower half of the frame.

Material Interaction & Reflections

The photorealistic quality hinges on how light interacts with the scene’s materials, particularly the wet asphalt and chrome elements.

• Wet Surfaces: The ground plane uses a PBR material with a high metallic value (around 0.8) and a moderate roughness value (0.3). A separate roughness map, depicting puddles and damp patches (black for smooth, grey for rough), is used to create varied, mirror-like reflections of the neon signs.
• Screen Space Reflections (SSR): Enable high-quality SSR to capture the emissive light sources in the surface reflections. Increase the SSR quality and intensity settings beyond default values to achieve the sharp, vibrant reflections seen in the creator’s work. The combination of a detailed roughness map and high-quality SSR is the specific technique for achieving this effect.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Replicating Rickz’s Procedural Texturing Workflow

Initiate the process by generating a primary Noise Texture node, set to a high frequency, to establish the base surface imperfections. Combine this with a Voronoi Texture node using the ‘Distance to Edge’ output to simulate micro-cracks and cellular patterns. Feed both outputs into a ColorRamp node to precisely control the value range, creating sharp transitions for scratches or soft gradients for wear.

1. Layering Detail with Node Groups

Create a dedicated node group for material wear. Within this group, mix a Musgrave Texture (set to ‘fBM’ type, with high detail and low dimension) with another Noise Texture via a MixRGB node set to ‘Multiply’. This technique isolates edge wear and surface grime. Use the object’s Geometry node, specifically the ‘Pointiness’ output, as a factor for the mix. This method concentrates the effect on convex edges, simulating natural abrasion. Pass the ‘Pointiness’ value through a ColorRamp to clamp the influence and sharpen the mask.

2. Constructing Complex Surface Normals

Generate detailed normal maps procedurally. Chain multiple Bump nodes together. Connect a high-frequency Noise Texture to the ‘Height’ input of the first Bump node with a low ‘Strength’ value (e.g., 0.05) for fine grain. Feed the ‘Normal’ output of this first Bump node into the ‘Normal’ input of a second Bump node. Connect a lower-frequency Voronoi or Musgrave texture to the ‘Height’ of this second node with a higher ‘Strength’ (e.g., 0.2) to create larger deformations like dents or warping. This stacking method preserves high-frequency details while adding macro-level surface variations.

3. Achieving Realistic Color Variation

Use an Ambient Occlusion (AO) node combined with a Noise Texture to drive color variation. Multiply the AO output with the factor from a Noise Texture and plug the result into the ‘Fac’ input of a MixRGB node. This node should blend two distinct color variations of your base material. This ensures that dirt and discoloration accumulate logically in crevices and recessed areas, adding a layer of grime that follows the geometry’s form.

4. Final Material Output Assembly

Connect the final layered color information to the ‘Base Color’ input of the Principled BSDF shader. Plug the stacked Bump node chain into the ‘Normal’ input. Use a separate, simplified noise setup–often a single Noise Texture passed through a ColorRamp–to control the ‘Roughness’ input. This decoupling of roughness from color and normal information allows for independent control over light scattering, which is fundamental to the artist’s photorealistic results.