Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 125 i 3D Artist

Blender 2.8 is set to be a game-changer. There are plenty of new features to be wowed by, but the one addition on everybody’s lips is EEVEE, the new real-time engine. It’s an exciting time for the open-source software and its fans. Some of the more seasoned Blender experts have been tinkering with EEVEE thanks to the regular builds, and we’ve compiled some of them this issue to teach us how to make best use of it. Check out their tips on page 24. We’ve also asked other Blender pros like Gleb Alexandrov and Aidy Burrows to take us through working on hard surface modelling, while Reynante Martinez takes us on a trip into Cycles with procedural crystal creation. You can read their guides on page 32 and 52 respectively.…

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DANIEL BYSTEDT Lead creature artist Goodbye Kansas Studios bit.ly/2zS6pqa Blender 2.8 is being touted as a game changer. Why do you think this is? It’s partly because of the UI overhaul, the development team at the Blender Institute has been working really hard to make interacting with Blender a more user friendly experience. I believe that this will attract a lot more new users in the long run. There’s a lot of new features being introduced, what are your highlights? For me Blender’s new real-time viewport EEVEE is a definite highlight. It makes a huge difference to be able to work in a 3D environment where lighting and shading so closely match the final render. As an artist it enables you to make informed decisions about modelling, shading,…

Bio Heloisa specialises in modelling, cartoon and stylised characters for concept and animation. Software ZBrush, Maya, V-Ray, Photoshop Learn how to Analysetheconcept Plan out the modelling Sculpt proportions and main features Detail skin and hair surfaces Export meshes to Maya Set up basic materials for a digital sculpture Set up lighting for a digital sculpture Post-produce a rendered image Concept The first concept was designed by Gabriel Soarez, in a clean cartoon style. I used it as a base to start off and added some mixed realistic and stylised features.…

In this tutorial we cover how to sculpt and render a caricature. If we wanted to explore it further, a better approach might be to generate a low-poly version, open UVs and then create and export texture maps. It all depends on what the purpose of your image is, in this case the modelling process is the most important one, it is a study that shows observation skills, as well as the capability to make important design decisions while maintaining likeness and a striking appeal.…

Usually an artist starts making fantastic toon renders with a specific resolution like 1080p or even smaller for previewing purposes. When the production rendering with the final resolution starts it is important to check the size and quality of the outlines, including the shadowed areas because there can be a big mismatch. If you want to increase the image size it is important to increase the contour filter in the Arnold render properties to keep the shadow and outline effect working across different resolutions.…

The actual OCIO version of ACES has some limitations and flaws, which are not noticeable in most cases, but v2.0 is coming which is enhanced by the same people who developed the SynColor system at Autodesk (as a certified ACES partner). The latter has an exact implementation of ACES, and is part of the more colour sensitive Autodesk systems like Flame and Lustre. So it’s the best if we use such systems for finishing. The full list of the other certified ACES partners are on oscars.org/aces…

Off the back of supervising major motion pictures throughout the last decade, Morley will work with artists at Outpost VFX’s 80-seat facility in Bournemouth to ensure that they continue to deliver outstanding visual effects. “I couldn’t be happier that an artist of Andy’s calibre is joining our team,” says Duncan McWilliam, founder and CEO of Outpost. “Andy has excelled in supervising a multitude of high-end blockbusters and will bring his extensive experience to bear in our studio as we expand further.” Andrew will be working closely with the production team to support existing clients and build relationships with new ones. Morley says, “I’m thrilled to be joining such a dynamic and forward-thinking VFX company. Outpost is the definition of a genuinely fresh creative studio, where artists and clients are all…

3ds Max 2019.2 The latest update introduces the Fluid Loader, making it easier to load and manipulate fluid simulation data. Alembic support has been updated to version 1.7.5, improving both export and speed. Several usability and performance enhancements come courtesy of updates to Arnold 5.2. A subscription to 3ds Max can be purchased for £1,740 annually. Mari 4.2 The latest instalment of the 3D painting and texturing tool introduces mirror projection features that dramatically enhance artist efficiency. Users can utilise symmetrical painting workflows without the need for UV layouts and employ mirror masking, which prevents secondary projected paint overlap. Mari is priced at £1,468 annually. Notch Notch Builder 0.9.12 is the first update to fully make use of 64-bit capabilities. The highly requested rigid body physics feature has also been…

Maintaining the effect of puppets and sets once they’ve been transferred into the real-time space is far from a straightforward process, but as Hekimoglu explains, the stop-motion aesthetic actually makes things simpler. “We tried to get as close as possible in terms of how things react in the different light conditions. That said, if there’s a little bit missing it’s much easier to get away with than if you were doing a digital human with skin. In the uncanny valley, we know ourselves too well and notice anything that isn’t quite right.”…

TEXTURING To texture my characters, I used Substance Painter. It quickly let me try out many different looks for each material. Usually I start with a material preset or a smart material which takes away 60 per cent of the texturing work. Afterwards all that remains is breaking the procedural look, and adding hand-painted details and a story with textures. Saurabh Jethani artstation.com/jethani Saurabh likes games and the art of making characters for them Software ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Mari, Marmoset Viewer Chico_V0.R , 2018…

NAZAR NOSCHENKO instagram.com/nazar_noschenko_artist Nazar is a talented character artist who returns to the cover of 3D Artist this issue. He joins other Blender experts who run us through some essential techniques in version 2.8 on page 24. 3DArtist username Nazar HELOISA DUDA artstation.com/heloisaduda Heloisa is a 3D generalist at Fish Films and a ZBrush instructor at Revolution School, Curitiba, Brazil. She’s shown us how to go super stylised with our fan art over on page 44. 3DArtist username heloisa duda REYNANTE MARTINEZ reynantemartinez.com Reynante is a freelance 3D artist, art director and trainer focusing on storytelling, composition and lighting. He teaches us how to create procedural gems in Cycles this issue on page 52. 3DArtist username N/A JURIAAN VAN LINSCHOTEN artstation.com/juriaan An associate tutor at Escape Studios for game art,…

PAUL CHAMBERS CG generalist paulchambers3D.com MODELLING AND SCULPTING WITHOUT ICONS You’ll need to get accustomed to using the Spacebar in 2.8 because it’s more powerful and you will be using it a lot in your shortcuts. It’s like a mobile toolbar. USE COLLECTIONS TO AID SELECTION Collections aren’t just a great way to keep things organised, they’ll speed up your selection workflow. You can now right-click and select all objects in a collection. FOCUS ONLY ON WHAT YOU’RE WORKING ON View Global/Local was handy when modelling and sculpting. In 2.8 it’s not implemented yet and may not be. Instead, use collections and hiding to help you focus. KEEP YOUR HEAD STRAIGHT WHEN SWITCHING 3D VIEWS The new LookDev view is powerful, in fact, it’s very easy to start setting…

“When the Jupiter 2 spaceship was submerged under ice, the Robinson family used the manoeuvring thrusters to melt the ice around the ship in the hopes that the ship would float to the top. My design had to have independent thruster control as well as the ability to move the ship upwards in increments given by the director while shooting. The UI was designed how I imagined a manoeuvring screen would look with a ship in 3D space. I rendered the ship out of Cinema 4D in two different shaders, and added the glow on a variable brightness controller so the operator could show the ship getting hotter as directed.”…

Stylising a character’s features might be a difficult task when the shapes are not clearly represented. Sometimes trying to figure out what the next step is or what to change based on an overly smoothed and rounded surface can be tricky since the light tends to create a much more subtle result, preventing us from recognising landmarks. That’s when the Clay Polish tool comes in handy. By cranking sharpness up and then applying it, the once smoothed surface turns into a faceted one. As a result of that, easier comparisons between the reference and the sculpture can be made.…

Heloisa Duda A graduate of 3D animation and VFX at Vancouver Film School, Heloisa Duda is a Brazilian 3D artist with experience in computer graphics for advertising and interactive media. She currently works as a 3D generalist for Fish Films and as an instructor at Revolution School, in Curitiba, Brazil. It, 2017 ZBrush, Maya, Arnold, Photoshop My cartoony version of It, the clown. Flying Samurai, 2018 ZBrush, Maya, V-Ray, Photoshop A flying samurai based on the amazing art of Bill Otomo.…

TEXTURING Something I really enjoyed while texturing this project was creating secondary maps for the green portion of the saw. I was able to separate the plastic attributes from those of the grime using a single V-Ray material by driving the specular and glossiness values of each, completely through masks making render times more efficient. Rafael Garcia Moheno rafaelgmoheno.com Rafael studied at Think Tank Training Centre and fell in love with texture painting and decided to make it his career path Software Maya, Mari, UVLayout, V-Ray, Photoshop TheMakitaSaw ,2017…

The mask colour in this tutorial is directly driven by the facing ratio. If you plug a range node in between the facing ratio and mask colour input of the toon node, it is possible to thicken or thin out the bigger shadow areas by cutting out specific values. This is extremely important for example to support thin details with smaller shadows just like on the metal catwalk or vice versa with bigger objects. Bigger, stronger objects can visually appear stronger through correct shadows.…

Investing time in preproduction saves tons of work. The infamous sentence ‘we will fix it in post’ when a problem appears, is the path to wasting lots of time trying to fix something that would be million times easier to fix in preproduction or simply testing it before you start producing. During preproduction, you are only investing time (your time and not somebody else), a pen and a piece of paper. It is really helpful to test the pipeline of the project before you start. I always use a frame as a test to calculate render times and computer power to move the scenes.…

Divinity: Original Sin II was put together with Larian Editor, an in-house tool for scripting and building the product. “There are a lot of issues that can occur,” says Dubrovina. “Sometimes your mesh can just not appear, and this can be for any number of reasons: you forgot to tick something in the exporter, you have a problem with skinning, you forgot something in the layer in Maya. You really need to fail 15 times so you can discover how to fix it.”…

Blender gemstone files The BLEND file for the procedural gems tutorial 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…

Whether you have used Blender in the past or not, you won’t want to miss out on the latest version. “I think this new version is going to really impress you,” says Blender veteran Mike Pan. Version 2.8 is set to make the free and open-source software a much more serious contender for seasoned artists and newcomers alike. 3D Artist has assembled several members of the Blender community, most of whom are already well versed in 2.8, for this essential guide. The next few pages encompass the answers to all your burning questions, professional advice for character creation and environment work, as well as how to get the most out of all the new features. So if you’re a seasoned user making the transition or a newcomer looking to dive…

NAZAR NOSCHENKO Character artist instagram.com/nazar_noschenko_artist QUICKLY RETOPOLOGISE YOUR CHARACTER Take an already retopologised model and edit it to proportionally fit your sculpted character. Next, add the Shrinkwrap modifier and choose your sculpt as a tangent object. Now smooth and move the topology to emphasise the details of your character. Then apply the Shrinkwrap. FAST BOOLEAN Applying Booleans in Blender can be pretty time-consuming, especially if you have more than two objects. To speed this process up install the BoolTool add-on. CHANGE THE MESH RESOLUTION WHEN SCULPTING In order to reduce or increase the resolution of your whole mesh when using dynamic topology, change the detail type method to constant detail. Now choose the desired resolution and press Detail Flood Fill. EASY UV DEFORMATION When you UV unwrap your character…

Hard-surface modelling in the CG industry is forever booming. The amount of opportunities are immense in concept art for sci-fi and cyberpunk movies, props for videogames, even real-world robotic design and 3D printing. It seems like an extremely attractive career for modellers all across the board, from ZBrush and Modo to 3ds Max and Blender. It may even be possible that someone could be thinking – what even is hard surface modelling anyway? Do rocks count? Well that’s actually a good question! Hard surface modelling almost always refers to some sort of deliberate design and manufactured object. The contrasting modelling style to hard surface wouldn’t be ‘soft surface modelling’ or ‘chewy, squeezy modelling’, although that would be awesome! The contrasting style would instead usually be considered ‘organic modelling’, and rocks…

Never underestimate how much personality an ear can add to a character. Generic ears are for generic characters, so in order to depict likeness correctly and exploit a character’s style to its full potential, pay close attention to it and go for something unique. Furthermore, even if you’re not modelling a full body character, it is always valid and actually essential, to block the torso and shoulders in order to get the neck and head proportions correct, as well as the placement of resting cloth pieces.…

Bio Juriaan van Linschoten is an Associate Tutor at Escape Studios Game Art. To find out more about a career in the creative industries visit escapestudios.com. Software Unreal Engine, Maya Learn how to Brainstorm Prototype Understand blueprint logic Interact in VR Iterate Create a toolkit Make your environments fun Concept The idea of the VR interaction toolkit was to develop base interaction events for the students of Escape Studios. It was to explore VR interaction for myself while creating content for the students.…

Some modern comics work with strong outlines, a bit of shadows and smooth colour transition effects. Smooth colour transition effects can be achieved with environmental lighting and or with colour gradients which will be plugged into the base colour map directly. If you are making use of legacy 3ds Max maps, then it is recommended to activate the support of legacy texture maps in the system field within the rendering properties. You should be aware that the light colour plays a significant role in building scenes for a comic style, so the light colour can hold a coloured gradient as well.…

CGAxis Plans is a new subscription-based model that lets users access every 3D model and HDRI map available on the service. Subscribers will have access to a library of 4,000 3D models and HDRI maps with new assets added monthly. A professional subscription costs $49 (per month) with 100 downloads a month, and a standard licence at $39 provides 50 downloads. Alternatively an unlimited subscription is $349 annually.…

“PiXYZ is a relatively small company, and so they have had a small but intensely loyal group of customers… we get a lot of value bringing PiXYZ to a wider range of customers. Also it provides our customers with confidence, our endorsement of PiXYZ makes them feel more confident and they really see a future in our partnership together. And the other thing is having our technical teams work together… and make that a more seamless process, it’s actually been a very fruitful discussion.”…

The world is a very large place, and the world is a very small place. The difference is a matter of perspective. In a very large world, artists are huddled together in vast, dark rooms, fed mediocre food, provided strong coffee and expected to keep long hours. In a very large world, ideas come from that one young, smart guy with a vision – I think they call him the creative director. In a large world, the pay cheque is regular, but it’s often not enough. Sometimes it doesn’t include the other 40 hours worked during that week. When the world is a small place, those buildings don’t exist. In a small world, all ideas are on the table to make a better product. In a small world, everyone is…