Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 123 i 3D Artist

The world of architecture visualisation and 3ds Max go hand in hand, so we’re lucky this issue to see the stunning work of Portuguese arch vis studio Oxygen on our cover. Oxygen has kindly given us some great tips for taking our lighting setups to the next level in this issue’s cover feature on page 22. Also in the feature are some brilliant tips for helping you to make your art better and faster so you can spend more time on the finer details. Elsewhere, we’ve spoken to the amazing founders behind KitBash3d to talk about fuelling limitless creativity for artists, whether professional or amateur, with their kitbash kits. Michael Ingrassia has also expanded into part two of his three-part character series – this time he takes a look at…

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JOHN MALCOLM 3D modeller, CG artist artstation.com/luxxeon DANNY MCGRATH Freelance artist for game assets/hard-surfacemodelling/sculpting artstation.com/dannymcgrath MIKE JOHNSON CG generalist/matte painter at Blur Studio artstation.com/mikejohnson OXYGEN Architectural visualisation studio oxygen.pt BORISLAV KECHASHKI Senior character artist at Ubisoft Sofia artstation.com/b_kechashki LUIS GARCIA Freelance 3D character artist and graphic designer artstation.com/luisgarcia_1 PETER ERMOLAEV VFX FX artist artstation.com/ermperson…

NIEL VENTER, lead VFX artist “So if you had to ask me what the one thing I love about the place, [my answer] is actually the people. Some of the most ridiculously talented people are here. So the thing that made me come to this company in the first place was that I looked at this guy’s concept art and I said, ‘Wow, I wanna make that!’, and I came here to do that. That project went a [long] time ago already, but it’s still there – that thing where I go, ‘Oh, I wanna make that!’. You can’t do that stuff by yourself, you can’t have all the ideas, you can’t learn all the programming. You can do only this here, because in a different company you can do…

01 Be laser focused Sharpen one knife. Many artists think being a generalist makes getting jobs easier. Imagine being an Olympic athlete. Would you have better success training for just one event or three? 02 Set your bar Compare your work to that of your heroes. Is it just as good? If not, why not? By practising this method, you will learn to give yourself the best feedback. 03 Get noticed Having great work is useless if no one sees it. Network on ArtStation and social media. Post your work strategically. Do you want potential clients seeing your works in progress? 04 Practice deliberately Don’t stop after posting your portfolio online. Go into each training session with a clear intention. How can you improve quality and technique? Practising on autopilot…

MODELLING This is a personal project for a 1960s racing car created in ZBrush with everything built using the ZModeler tool – the ZModeler is fantastic at creating elements with lots of detail and accuracy – highly recommended! The completed models are then exported to 3ds Max as FBX files and rendered in V-Ray. Edward Price brightsplashes.com  Edward is a digital artist creating a wide range of visuals using 3D software, photography and illustration techniques Software ZBrush, 3ds Max, V-Ray and panocapture.com VintageDrive , 2018…

Bio Michael Ingrassia is creative director of SteamLabs VR, a virtual reality production studio (steamlabsvr.com), and founder/lead instructor of 3DTrainingWorkshop.com Software Substance Painter, Unfold3D, Photoshop Learn how to UnwrapUVswithUnfold3D Create UDIM tiles for each mesh layer Create basic texture with Substance Painter Add dirt and grunge with Substance Painter Use Photoshop alpha stamping to distress texture Concept The primary focus of this course is learning to create convincingly realistic worn, aged and distressed clothing for AAA games and film. Two properties that inspired this design creation were Uncharted 4 and Pirates Of The Caribbean. What better, more fun way to learn to texture then with pirates!…

Bio Rainer is a VFX industry professional as well as university lecturer and he owns a VFX company based in south Germany. Software 3ds Max 2019 Learn how to Use3dsMaxOSL Master rich materials Learn procedural techniques Blend and mix noise Concept In this tutorial you will learn how important it is to analyse photo references and choose the right wood patterns based on three categories – primary, secondary and tertiary shapes – to help us re-create them within the shader.…

Flood fill was a game changing node, it’s hard to imagine Substance Designer without it these days. In order to work properly, Flood Fill needs shapes to be a binary mask with a single border. If your shapes are too complex and have internal details you will notice errors in your flood fill nodes. You can fix this by using an Edge Detect node on your mask. Adjust the Edge Width slider to fill in any internal details until the errors disappear. Now multiply your original mask back over the inflated flood fill shapes.…

When you are handling the rendering processes, it’s very important to make sure that you have enough control during the post process. Often when you’re handling a larger sequence, it helps to do final tweaking in comp rather than going back and spending hours to re-render your sequences. Based on the multipasses you have, you can also really dig in to different passes to find out which passes are causing the noise and simply just use a denoiser in post to clean it up. This way you can make sure the final images are the best quality!…

Foundry has unveiled details of ColorwayAR, a 21-month industrial research project supported by Innovate UK, which will allow artists to streamline their pipelines by viewing objects in augmented reality (AR) before they produce a physical prototype. The Footsoldiers, one of the world’s largest independent footwear design consultancies, will also be involved in the project. The technology will allow product designers to create interactive AR environments inside the Colorway application. They can then share the environment with internal or external stakeholders, who can interact and collaborate within it. 2D design images and presentations will be automatically transformed into a projected, interactive image that can be viewed on a flat surface. ColorwayAR also reduces the need for physical prototypes, creating less of a burden on the supply chain and granting designers the…

MAXON has unveiled Cinema 4D Release 20, a new version of its iconic 3D design and animation software. Release 20 introduces high-end features for VFX and motion graphics artists. “We are excited to be delivering high-end tools and features that will streamline workflow, and push the industry in new and exciting directions,” says David McGavran, CEO of MAXON. Cinema 4D Release 20 made its debut at SIGGRAPH 2018.…

“I think audiences have been keen to go back to the handcrafted feel, something they maybe even think they could do at home themselves” Job title Cofounder and executive chairman, Aardman Animations Location Bristol, UK Website aardman.com Biography Beginning with Morph, David has helped mould Aardman Animations into a behemoth. Portfolio highlights • Early Man, 2018 • Shaun The Sheep Movie, 2015 • The Pirates! Band Of Misfits, 2012 • Arthur Christmas, 2011 • Shaun the Sheep (TV), 2007-2010 • Flushed Away, 2006 • The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, 2005 • Chicken Run, 2000 • The Wrong Trousers, 1993 • The Amazing Adventures of Morph, 1980 When David Sproxton started Aardman with Peter Lord in 1972, they had already been collaborating on animation at school. Soon, their stop-motion Plasticine sensation Morph would be instantly recognisable around the world. Since…

Tools such as digital SLR cameras and stop-motion software like Dragonframe have been around for a while. As have tablets for drawing and storyboarding, but Sproxton admits on Early Man that director Nick Park was initially hesitant to adopt them. “He still loves drawing,” says Sproxton. “A lot of our artists still draw on paper and some of them will scan stuff in, but increasingly they go straight into a tablet. With Nick, it took him a little while, but now of course he loves it because you can just erase stuff and change it, and you don’t have to repeat drawings.”…

MODELLING This image was part of my mission to teach myself Houdini. I thought it would be cool to utilise the knowledge I’ve gained from Entagma to create something meaningful and not just an abstract piece. In the future I hope to do a lot more with these newly acquired skills. Personally, I would recommend every 3D artist learn some basic programming. With just a little bit of knowledge you can incorporate amazing techniques you would have never thought possible. Simon Telezhkin bit.ly/2KHUv4g Simon was committed to learning CG and worked in 3D for a few years, now he is enjoying retirement Software Houdini, Nuke PiggyKnitted Toy , 2018…

TANYA COMBRINCK N/A Tanya speaks to 3ds Max masters, including arch vis studio Oxygen, to find out their top tips for upgrading art with the Autodesk tool. Check them out over on page 22. 3DArtist username N/A ROB TUYTEL texturehaven.com Environment designer Rob goes medieval with his piece Sunny Town Square. He breaks down his process for creating 19th-century inspired scenes on page 52. 3DArtist username N/A MICHAEL INGRASSIA artstation.com/digitalgepetto Michael is a creative director and 3D instructor. He’s back this issue for part two of his three-part character tutorial. This time he focuses on texturing and UVs on page 58. 3DArtist username digitalgepetto RAINER DUDA rd-innovations.de Rainer is the owner of a VFX studio in Germany as well as a lecturer, he gets into the nitty gritty of shaders…

TIMING Whatever that you’re doing, try to work without any distractions for at least one hour, this will help get your engine started and be more focused. Every work is an experiment and learning experience. So, for each piece, I like to make early render tests and paintovers to get an idea of how the light will affect the sculpture detail, the composition and so on. Andrés Ríos artstation.com/artist/andresrios Andrés is a freelance 3D concept artist/digital sculptor and has found that 3D sculpting is a way to tell stories through his images Software ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, KeyShot and Photoshop HollowKing,2018…

Debris and rubble materials are inherently busy. There is a lot going on but it is still important to keep composition in mind. It’s easy to get to the point where there is just too much detail that it becomes noise. You can add areas of rest by blending in sand or dirt over objects. In some cases you might need to introduce some bigger objects to help break up the detail. Keep playing with your Random Seeds until you find a composition you are happy with. It’s also a good idea to occasionally check your tiling in the 3D view to make sure your material isn’t obviously repeating.…

“We are still constantly blown away with the quality and diversity of new talent”Alwyn Hunt, co-founder of The Rookies With The Rookies receiving a total of 9,971 digital projects created by 2,914 students from more than 87 countries worldwide, choosing this year’s winners for the Autodesk-sponsored awards was no small task. “It always seems so cliche to keep saying that the quality and standard of entries keeps getting better, but it simply keeps happening,” says co-founder of The Rookies, Andrew McDonald. The judging panel was tasked with picking a winner for the following: Feature Animation, Digital Illustration, Visual Effects, Game Development, Virtual Reality, 3D Motion Graphics, Architectural Visualisation, Product Visualisation, Film of the Year, and Game of the Year. “It was really eye opening to see the variety of artists…

Flowbox 1.7 Flowbox has a spent hundreds of hours working with Roto artists across the globe, resulting in an intuitive and comfortable new interface complete with industry standard and internally engineered solutions such as rotoDraw and rotoSnap. It also includes the Integrated Mocha Planar Tracker. A Flowbox licence is available for $37 per month. Unity 2018.2 The latest update introduces a range of improvements, including 2D Sprite Shape, which gives designers the power to sculpt and bend worlds using a visual layout tool. There’s also a new 2D animation system that makes it easy to create animated characters. Personal licences are free, Plus licences cost $25 per month and Pro licences are priced at $125 per month. Unreal Engine 4.20 4.20 combines the latest real-time rendering advancements with improved creative…

KitBash3d Warzone demo kit Test drive this high-quality kit from KitBash3d 3 Premium CGAxis models A collection of images to use in your work 25 Textures from 3DTotal.com Download plenty of high-quality textures Log in to www.filesilo.co.uk/3DArtist Register to get instant access to this pack of must-have creative resources, how-to videos and tutorial assets The home of great downloads – exclusive to your favourite magazines from Future! Secure and safe online access from anywhere Free access for every reader, print and digital Download only the files you want, when you want All your gifts, from all your issues, in one place Free for digital readers, too! Read on your tablet, download on your computer…

1 Man in suit Actor Doug Jones performed the role of the alien Cochise (among several other characters) on the TNT series in a full or partial practical suit. By season four of the show, effects facility MastersFX, headed up by president Todd Masters, implemented its own digital enhancement process, called dMFX, to mix that practical on-set work with tools that could add minor eye darts, slight breathing and other nuances to the character, all via compositing, with 3D tracking still a major part of controlling the right facial features to deform. 2 Going digital “Rather than build complex shape morphing or muscle/bone setups – standard for a 3D effects house – the rig used a make-up effects approach of digital cable pulls, digital bladder gags and waldo systems,” says…

When you hear the phrase “company values”, it’s easy to roll your eyes. Most of us have heard the faux-motivational term come out of an executive’s mouth and immediately sensed the dishonesty in it. But at Splash Damage it somehow seems to have become grown outwardly from within the developer, rather than forced onto it from the higher-ups. “We didn’t know what values were when we started, I’ll be honest,” explains Jolly. “And so we went to everyone in the company, ‘well... what are Splash Damage values? We’ve seen them at other companies, what do we hold dear?’ And so we went through a several month process of calibration and came up with our values.” There are seven of these core values in total, “We’re intensely loyal, we’re friendly and…

The goal of computer generated imagery is to re-create natural environments with rich details and the simulation of physically plausible interaction between light and matter in digital scenes. The most important aspect of this, after physically based rendering, is probably feature-rich textures. In this tutorial you will learn how to utilise the capabilities of OSL in 3D Studio Max to create a realistic-looking and heavily used mosaic parquet floor. All details including scratches, colour variation and many more will be created with procedural textures. The start of this tutorial will cover how the underlying geometry must be prepared in order to have a proper base for an advanced shader setup. The tiles of the mosaic parquet will be composed of polygonal sticks in their original size to create 16 by…

As you start to build your debris graphs think about how each object might have aged over time in this environment. Instead of building objects that are pristine, try to make them damaged and worn. Bottles and cans become dented and crushed. Plastics break and fade. Wood on the beach becomes more rounded and cracked. If this debris pile has been here long enough then it might be sun-bleached or have barnacles growing on parts that used to be submerged. All these details add up to create a much more believable material.…

MODELLING This piece was sculpted in ZBrush, I was aiming for the look and feel of clay. In KeyShot I modified the lighting from basic to interior mode so it could be expressed in this beautiful way. To me the most important thing, besides the fine details, is creating the overall silhouette and the feeling of dynamism within the piece. Keita Okada artstation.com/yuzuki  CEO of Villard Inc, Keita is primarily a creature artist, based in Tokyo. He previously worked as a digital sculptor in the video game industry Software ZBrush, Keyshot, Photoshop Squirrelphantombeast,2018…

Remote VFX work is mostly egalitarian – almost any trained artist can do it, but the unique rigours and quirks of the career may not be right for everyone. Ready to work alone in a dark room with no one around to support or talk to you? Let’s break down some of the skills you’ll need to thrive in this space. Visual effects is an interesting field. Even when seated in an office full of people, most of your fellow employees plug in their headphones and work on making the magic that we all see on the screen. How is it any different at home or in a private office? Like cooking, studying a new language and any other ‘taught’ skill, VFX artistry requires training, learning and practice. The best…