Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 106 i 3D Artist

Fantasy is almost indefinable. It’s a genre that is, unlike the scientific roots of sci-fi, often unconstrained by concepts from the real world – it’s a form of art and media with a limitless imagination. Unlike sci-fi, which can be predominantly traced back to western literature, fantasy cannot be traced to a single geographical location or medium. When it comes to being expressed as an art form, fantasy is not led by a single subject matter or school of thought. Instead, it’s enriched by our own imaginations of magic, the supernatural, gods, beasts, demons – our dreams and perhaps even nightmares. “Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can,“ said fantasy author Terry Pratchett. It’s a…

The cost of commercial software can be an instant barrier to creativity if you’re on a tight budget. Thankfully, many software companies and organisations recognise this and provide free-to-use solutions. Trying out non-commercial versions before paying for a commercial licence has the advantage of giving you the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ and get up to speed for no outlay. With the gradual shift of how commercial software is sold (from perpetual licences to subscriptions) you can save many months of paying ongoing fees while you’re learning and deciding if it’s right for you. Most non-commercial versions have only minor differences from their commercial counterparts. Open-source applications are developed by and for the user community with the source code publicly available alongside the compiled software. Free software that isn’t…

ANDREY GRITSUK Beast, 2016 Software ZBrush, Maya, 3D-Coat, Arnold, Marvelous Designer Learn how to • Research useful reference material • Sculpt dynamic forms • Add minute details • Create cloth elements with Marvelous Designer • Use FiberMesh to create hair • Bake textures • Render with Arnold Concept The original was made for the Polycount contest ‘The Beast’. We had to come up with a creature that is guarding something in the manner of Beauty And The Beast. I made a creature that protects a rare magical plant in the forest that blooms every 1,000 years. This guide will show you how to create a large, intricate scene using ZBrush, Maya, Marvelous Designer and 3D-Coat. We will show you how to create small details on the creature’s body, such as…

AMARU ZEAS HOME, 2017 Software Maya, Arnold Learn how to • Render with the right sampling • Use Arnold’s lights property • Optimise render quality and time • Effectively use Arnold’s shaders • Use AOVs for better compositing Concept I had the idea a long time ago of creating a peace of art with a little story about someone missing home, and since I love astronomy I decided to set my story in outer space. Some of my favourite movies that inspired me were The Martian, Gravity and Interstellar. When it comes to lighting and shading, we can make the most of our CG work with a good lighting rig that includes realistic, artistic shaders. Arnold is a ray-tracing renderer built for feature animation films and VFX. A plugin for…

After seeing the rise of the modelling/sculpting concept artist over the last few years, I’ve been trying to figure out some ways I could play around in this space. A lot of what I have done in the past has been more technical and, frankly, slower than where I needed to be to accomplish this, since speed is obviously an important part of creating a concept. So, I needed to figure out ways to get around having to make production-ready meshes and textures (which is very time consuming), and still try to create something that hopefully maintains a higher quality level as a still image. On the sculpting/modelling side, I’ve been using ZBrush and Fusion 360, and discovered some ways to make more concept-level quality meshes in less time, but…

CrazyTalk Animator from Reallusion is designed for artists to create both simple and complex 2D animations, from storyboard to final rendered animation. Available in four versions – Pipeline, Pro, Standard and Trial – you can choose the right package for you based on your needs and experience level. For the purpose of this review we tested the full-featured Pipeline edition. Accessible to newcomers and professionals alike, some of the new features may seem daunting at first but they soon become second nature. Starting from a blank canvas, you can almost immediately begin animating without any complex technical barriers, which helps make the package very animator-friendly. The 2D character templates that ship with CrazyTalk Animator include the option to make your own characters; G3 (generation three) templates include Human, Animal, Bones…

“VR content will be hosted at the Planetarium Stuttgart, where the audience will enjoy thrilling presentations” Stuttgart in Germany will soon be host to a stellar line-up of Oscar winners that could give Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre a run for its money with the return of FMX 2017. Krzysztof Rost from Pixar will elaborate on the sand simulations in Oscar-winning short film Piper at the Haus der Wirtschaft. Also fresh from receiving their Sci-Tech Oscars in February are Larry Gritz (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Vladimir Koylazov (V-Ray Chaos Group), Maurice van Swaaij (Blue Sky Studios) and Marcos Fajardo (Solid Angle) who will be presenting on the latest innovations in lighting and rendering at FMX. Oscar nominees who will also be in attendance include Robert Valley, who received the Annie Award for Pear…

Ephere has finally made Ornatrix 5 for 3ds Max available after over a year of development and testing. Some of the improvements include a better guide editing workflow, strand propagation for keeping hair relationships intact, brush-specific settings, hair data channel management and groom flexibility. There’s a new parametric guide data modifier for easy control of groom components, hair from particles object, Alembic cache import, surface comb sink mirroring, push away from surface modifier, single-button decaching, single-button locking, curve ramp diagrams and a single-button vertex colour for guide channel creation. Head over to ephere.com/plugins/autodesk/max/ornatrix/ for further information.…

Motion design may just be one of the more intangible types of animation. Without a character anchoring and expressing themselves like in 3D, 2D and stop-motion animation, it may seem more difficult for motion designers to evoke different moods in film titles and credits, television channel idents, websites and promotional material – especially when you consider that animated text and elements have to be skilfully combined with graphic design. But being unconfined to a single discipline adds another layer of versatility and creative freedom. Indeed, Nic Benns, creative director of Momoco, filmmaker and title sequence designer, typically comes up with seven storyboard concepts for title sequences of projects he describes as ‘great’. “The show has to be interesting, it has to really engage you and from the script, sometimes you…

Andrey Gritsuk I have been doing low-poly modelling for 3D games for a long time, and have worked in two firms in Russia (BIT.GAMES and Tortuga) as 3D artist and senior character artist. At present I am a freelancer doing 3D concept characters for games, CG and movies. Sci-fi concept character, 2013 ZBrush, Photoshop One of the first times I did a concept sci-fi character. I created and visualised this character completely in ZBrush, and then finalised the image in Photoshop. Concept nest, 2016 ZBrush, KeyShot I did this concept of cave nests or houses for a movie project called Umakala, together with Alexey Kashpersky. Sculpt Figure – Albert Schweitzer, 2016 ZBrush, KeyShot After the sculpture was finished it was printed out, painted and…

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a simple kitchen scene based on different references. You will have a better understanding of how to set up materials and shaders for different types of surfaces (wood, metals, plastics and so on) and create lighting setups. We will then prepare your render passes for final post work in Photoshop. I like to use Modo for arch vis because of how easy and fast you can get feedback on all aspects (modelling, lighting, rendering, shading) and apply textures. Getting live feedback while editing all the channels really helps with achieving the final quality faster and with minimum iterations. For this render I used physically based shaders to achieve a realistic output. At first I wanted to do a nice sunny day, but…

Mariano Merchante mmerchante.com I am a 26-year-old environment artist employed at Midgar Studio. I am the lead environment artist on Edge Of Eternity, an indie JRPG. Software Maya, Redshift Deconstruction, 2017 MODELLING The objective of this work was reproducing a photograph that I previously took. Because I knew the exact spot and time I took the picture, I used Google Maps to block out the scene and used Redshift’s Sun and Sky to mimic the time of day. It was then a matter of painstakingly modelling all the objects, taking great care with the silhouettes.…

Autodesk announced in March that from 7 May 2017 maintenance plan renewal prices will increase by five per cent, ten per cent in 2018 and 20 per cent in 2019, with the aim to encourage customers to switch to subscription. Autodesk says that the reason behind the price increases is that “managing two business models (subscription and maintenance plans) is quite costly.“ A spokesperson for Autodesk explained that, “Managing both subscription and maintenance plans is expensive in the sense that we have to pay for, maintain and support two entirely different delivery infrastructures. It’s also costly and time consuming for most customers to manage perpetual and subscription software from an administration standpoint.“ The spokesperson also said that Autodesk has no plans to discontinue maintenance plans. “We are being transparent about…

01 First Come First Served by Benoit Filliat 3DA username sko-one Benoit Filliat says: “I like to create images that show funny and stupid situations. That’s what I’ve tried to do with these two friendly animals.“ We say: We absolutely love this diorama from Benoit. It has a lot of character and the quality of each individual asset is way up there, plus the refraction effect that has displaced the bird’s neck adds a really authentic touch to a cartoon image. 02 Dreams and Desire… by Fatima Mokhtari 3DA username Fatima Mokhtari Fatima Mokhtari says: “Whenever you don’t have enough stuff in real life, you can make whatever you want in 3ds Max. Hope you enjoy it.“ We say: Fatima is totally right – if you can’t have…

“This is personal work; I have had a passion for gorillas since childhood, so I try a new design quite regularly and this guy was my first attempt this year. I tried mainly to get simple effective shapes mixed with a more realistic texture, which seems to have become my signature”Jean Baptiste Vendamme, Alexis, 2017 Jean B Vendamme artstation.com/artist/  jbvendamme Jean Baptiste is a French character designer based in Ireland with a thing for animals Software ZBrush, Photoshop Work in progress… “Usually I like to sculpt my own ideas for personal projects, but in this work I decided to make something based on a concept by the talented artist,Even Mehl Amundsen”Farhad Nojumi, The Old Crow, 2017 Farhad Nojumi bit.ly/2n6FvSV Farhad is a ZBrush instructor and works on characters for…

01 Create the full form Starting with the face, solidify the image of a dragon you want to create. Then, model it by using DynaMesh and draw it out with the SnakeHook brush while focusing on movements. 02 Add mid-level details Start adding details to the whole model with a focus on the face, as it will be the main part. Use the SnakeHook brush and Standard brush frequently. Remember to view the overall image to avoid adding too many details in one spot. 03 Clean topology Use ZRemesher and clean the flow of topology. Then, transfer the mid-level detailed model with the Project All button. You can work smoother if you switch the mode from DynaMesh to SDiv. 04 Add fine details Emphasise the edges and add fine details…

CONTRIBUTORS DANNY DUKE Managing Director GEZ HIXSON Head of Production CALE PUGH VFX Supervisor LASZLO MANDI 3D Artist When we first met the team at Outpost there were seven or eight of them, crammed into a converted cottage round the side of a bar in Bournemouth on the UK’s south coast. Now, as we sit down with managing director Danny Duke not even three years later, Outpost has just delivered shots for Life, the Jake Gyllenhaal-fronted multi-million dollar picture. Understandably, the team has grown since our first encounter in 2014. “I joined after about six or eight months as the seventh employee and now we are around 42,“ begins Duke. “I haven’t done a head count today! I think we had three people start on Monday morning, so it’s growing…

Our experts The best artists from around the world reveal specific CG techniques Houdini 16 Michael Goldfarb www.sidefx.com Michael is currently working as a senior technical director at SideFX Software in Toronto KeyShot David Schultz artstation.com/artist/dtschultz David has been in the videogame industry for nine years. He is an environment artist at Red Storm Entertainment Modo Rakan Khamash www.behance.net/Rakan A 3D generalist who likes to create pretty much everything, Rakan uses Modo for his arch-vis projects Every great animation starts with a great rig, but building that rig can take time and effort. This tutorial will cover the basic steps needed to build a complete biped rig and capture your character’s geometry to that rig. We’ll cover opening the Auto Rigs pane, creating a new Houdini Digital Asset, adding rig…

Ben Nicholas BelgianBooleanCG.com Ben has designed products for Adidas, worked on titles such as Halo 5 and now works at Ubisoft Software 3ds Max, ZBrush HMS Guppy Cargo Ship, 2017 MODELLING I approached the Guppy the same way I do with most of my other projects: kitbashing, modularity and reuse. Any time I’m not working on a bigger project or have downtime, I model little bits and bobs. By doing so, I’ve accumulated a large kitbash scene that allows me to quickly build out bigger pieces. I also reuse parts from older modelling projects.…

“We have consistently been impressed with the quality of applications and the professionalism and enthusiasm of the students” Amy Smith, head of recruitment at Framestore Back for its seventh competition, The Rookies has launched for 2017. Sponsored by Autodesk, the global contest for young creators is bigger than ever this year – not only will award winners be announced on July 2017, but prizes, internships and scholarships could be awarded at any point to entrants. Recruiters are already scouring through entries, looking for suitable candidates to fill internship and scholarship positions. Since 2009, The Rookies has placed over 74 young artists in paid internships at world-leading studios such as Weta Digital, Double Negative, The Mill, Gameloft, Crytek and Framestore. “The Rookies have over the years provided Framestore with some of…

REWIND has been selected as a member of Microsoft’s HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Program and is now one of three production partners in the UK. As part of the programme, the agency delivered an experience to demonstrate the future of live sports viewing. Flight Deck takes the user through the Abu Dhabi leg of the Red Bull Air Race and allows the user to watch a live race with TV feeds and stand next to a 1:1 scale Edge 540 plane as if you were in the hangar. Sol Rogers, CEO and founder of REWIND, said: “We are incredibly proud to be one of three UK companies that made it through the programme. We’re looking forward to innovating in the MR space and taking Flight Deck to the next level.”…

“It’s a question of how you can make CG fit into a pipeline of a wider show, a dramatic vision” Dave Cook, CG supervisor and head of 3D Job title CG supervisor and head of 3D Location London Education BA Hons Fine Art – Slade School of Fine Art Website jellyfishpictures.co.uk Biography Dave Cook started his career drawing cel animation. He’s been in production for 12 years, having worked at Pinewood in Shepperton Studios before freelancing in the West End and Soho. He’s been at Jellyfish for six and half years. Portfolio highlights • Black Mirror, 2016 • Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2015 • The Duke Of Burgundy, 2014 • Your Inner Fish, 2013 • Planet Dinosaur, 2010 • Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet, 2004-5 Jellyfish Pictures is very much an apt name for…