Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 129 i 3D Artist

Gracing our cover this issue is Jonathan Ching’s melancholic, futuristic android, Eve. Follow the freelance concept artist’s in-depth tutorial, that uses ZBrush and KeyShot, to discover new techniques and more efficient workflows, on page 48. You can check out how Satoshi Arakawa’s real-time render Scarf Girl was created using Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag 3 and Photoshop, in the artist’s step-by-step tutorial on page 56. Elsewhere, we go behind the scenes of Alita: Battle Angel, the US cyberpunk action film based on Yukito Kishiro’s manga. We talk to producer Jon Landau and director Robert Rodriguez, and the Weta Digital team about the challenges of bringing the photoreal character to life. Also this issue, we’ve assembled four masters of abstract CG design to share their advice and experience, so that…

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One of the characters in Alita: Battle Angel is Zapan, played by Ed Skrein, who is tasked with hunting Alita down. Zapan is almost fully cyborg apart from his human face. Skrein was captured on set in same way as Rosa Salazar, but with extra grey material around his face. “Around the outer edge of his face was a prosthetic layer of skin that matches into his skin, just to give him some depth to his skin, and give us an edge to work with,” explains VFX supervisor, Eric Saindon. “Then we had Ed perform on set in his full performance-capture suit interacting with Rosa and the other characters.” Skrein’s body was painted out of the plates and replaced with a CG body. The face performance was retained and effectively…

Robert Rodriguez: “You’re doing something so technologically advanced but you use the mocap technology to free it up. The cast were freer in a technological movie like this than they would be in a ‘normal’ movie. I even thought, ‘We have to shoot really fast’. I like to shoot fast anyway. “We were able to move at a really brisk pace to keep the energy with the actors and we’d show up on the set and that mocap suit just disappears. We could improvise scenes and do anything we wanted.” Jon Landau: “Robert is a pragmatist when it comes to filmmaking but he never lets that practicality compromise his filmmaking, and I think it could’ve been very easy on this film to make it all computer generated or do more…

Tell us about yourself and your background as a 3D artist. I started as an editor, colourist, and VFX artist in 2011, working mostly on concert visuals for Dave Matthews Band. I got into Cinema 4D a year later, obsessively watching every GSG tutorial known to man. In 2014, I went freelance, my specialty at this point is creating overly ambitious, full CG music videos as a one man band. I also do a lot of concert visuals, for the likes of Katy Perry and Deadmau5. I’m also well known for my Octane tutorials and it’s really gratifying to teach, both because I get to do a bunch of R&D for the tutorials, and because I’m giving back to the community that taught me in the first place. That attitude…

Blue Zoo’s short film Ada – out this summer – looks like a throwback to the hand drawn cel-animation era, but it was built using very modern technology. The character of Ada is designed using any number of traditional techniques from hand sketching to graphics software. The animation is then modelled, rigged and animated using traditional CG pipeline techniques including the basic shape, behaviour of motion, and so on. After the elements from lighting and shading, textures, movement and everything else about Ada are finessed, the post processing is applied to give the character a hand-drawn look to match the aesthetic director Dane Winn was looking to achieve. Importing the animated Ada into Unreal Engine lets Blue Zoo artists apply textures and properties that respond to the game engine-designed environment,…

Keeping in mind the different layers of the skin, from the epidermis, dermis to the subcutaneous tissue, you can use the standard brush with a Colour Spray stroke to begin laying down colours. In order to achieve a realistic look, create a blend between desaturated yellows for the outer skin layer and saturated reds and blues for areas where blood is stored beneath the skin. A recommended resource to help develop a better understanding of colour zones of the face was put together by artist, James Gurney, and can be found on his website here: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/05/color-zones-of-face.html.…

Bio I have been a character artist in the industry for around 13 years now. I enjoy various forms of character art, from high-fidelity realistic to low-poly stylised. Software Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag 3, Photoshop Learn how to Createsoftmaterialsinreal-time Create real-time hair Create real-time skin Create real-time eyes Sculpt a fluffy knit cap Sculpt a fluffy knit scarf Sculpt a stylised portrait Sculpt hair in ZBrush Match concept illustration Create final composition and lighting to match illustration Concept I based this piece on a concept illustration called Little Girl by Nutsa Avaliani. I was particularly drawn to the vibrant colours and how soft the materials were rendered. This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a stylised portrait from a concept illustration. The goal is to create something…

LIGHTING Lighting plays a huge role in this work. I wanted to create a still-life mood and for the blueberries to grab the viewer’s attention by clever light direction. As for the lighting of the scene, I did a dome light with HDRI V-Ray map and played with its rotation to create a light direction, and a VRayLight plane on the left side to create some reflection. Moataz El S. Mahmoud moataz.artstation.com Moataz is a self-taught 3D artist from Egypt. He currently works as a full-time 3D artist. Software 3ds Max, ZBrush, Substance Painter, V-Ray and Photoshop Sweet Blueberries ,2018…

FlowScape, a brand-new sketching app enables users to choose from more than 20 landscapes and 60 models to create their own natural landscapes. Creations can be extensively edited by changing the sky, rotating the sun, adding sound effects and adjusting the camera settings. Scenes can be populated with high-resolution models of trees, plants flowers, rocks, logs and animals. The app is available to download for $10, more information can be found on the website pixelforest.itch.io/flowscape.…

Breaking into the visual effects industry comes with its own risks and fabulous rewards. Here Bluebolt’s compositor Josh Parks takes you through how to measure up the ratio of strategy, risk and rewards when you do break through and have to plan what to do next to take your career further. STRATEGY In my experience, mainly in the film VFX industry, there seems to be two main strategies a VFX artist has when working at other companies. The first is staying put at one company throughout your career, this generally results in a slower start to your career, as freelancers are hired in positions above you resulting in a loss of opportunities for you. However, if you work hard you should eventually get that opportunity and if you continue to…

For Westworld, CVD took care of the showdown featuring characters Dolores and William, “We basically approached it with a sculpted 3D asset of a blown-up hand and we did it in a few different stages. So less gory in the beginning and more blood at the end on the asset, and it basically came down to really good matchmove, good lighting and integration, because we were basically compositing it with the prosthetics as well. “A partial piece of it is practical live action and then we take it over to 3D. We’re adding 3D blood hits when his hand hits the ground, and there’s drips and blood pouring down, that’s all comp as well.”…

JONATHAN CHING jonathanching.com Jonathan’s android concept Eve graces our cover this month. You can follow Jonathan’s in-depth tutorial using ZBrush and KeyShot to create this sci-fi figure yourself. Turn to page 48. 3DArtist username jyching SATOSHI ARAKAWA artstation.com/sarakawa.com Satoshi is a character artist at Amazon Games. His training will show you how to sculpt in ZBrush and use PBR materials in real time, to give the render a soft look. See page 56. 3DArtist username ThreeDelite JONAS DICHELLE jonasdichelle.com Jonas has been working with Blender for over ten years. Follow his tutorial on how to create complex fractal geometry in Blender EEVEE using mathematical nodes. See page 62. 3DArtist username JonasDichelle JOSH PARKS compositingpro.com Compositor Josh works at Bluebolt, previously having worked at companies such as DNEG, MPC and ILM.…

HOW ALITA FIGHTS Stunt co-ordinator Garrett Warren and fight choreographer Steven Brown came up with Alita’s fighting style. She has something in the manga called ‘Panzer Kunst’, which is the cyborg martial art of a small opponent taking down a big opponent. The stunt team would come up with concepts for how Alita would move, and at the same time we’d been developing previz. A MIX OF TECHNIQUES The stunts team would do performance capture and we will take that and augment it in animation. Sometimes Alita needed to go further, or the camera was doing some crazy move, so it was all about posing things per camera angle. There was a lot of work with performance capture and stunt capture, to heighten it and augment the final shot. MOTORBALL…

Abstract art is a confusing and often indefinable thing, it speaks an entirely different visual language, one that uses colours, shapes and forms to communicate. The purpose of abstract art is not to depict any kind of recognisable reality, but to make the viewer think or feel a certain way. It exists to be interpreted. It tells a different story to each person that looks at it. To some the idea of creating abstract art might sound like a daunting prospect, that’s why 3D Artist has assembled four masters of the subject to share their advice and experience. Motion designer and educator David Ariew will discuss his forays into abstract art, whilst creator and teacher Midge Sinnaeve reveals his workflow for creating abstract patterns with Blender. Freelance artist Julian Frener…

ALGORITHMS Since Vectron is a tool for creating procedural graphics and its visualisation directly depends on mathematical formulas, I experimented by changing algorithms and trying to achieve the shape I needed. When you just play with it, you can get completely unexpected results. RENDERING I rendered additional passes in order to get as many opportunities as possible to influence the properties of the image during the final compositing. LIVE VIEW WINDOW One of the features of Vectron is that in the viewport, when working, almost no visual changes are visible and the entire result needs to be controlled in the live view window. CORRECT RESULTS For colour correction I almost always use After Effects and Lumetri Color. I recommend studying all the features of this tool, as it provides an…

Epic games has been selling filmmakers on using the Unreal Engine since 2014, and the company’s Kim Libreri says its adoption in areas beyond games has “skyrocketed”. Tom Box of Blue Zoo says studios are excited about seeing what game engines can offer, but that ultimately it’s going to be up to the creative arbiters of filmmaking – directors – to want to use them. Isabelle Riva of Unity says VFX vendors are also starting to make the approach from their side to see how game engines can help. In many ways, she sees adoption as a process of change management rather than technology. “Given the complexity of a feature film there are groups at many levels that have to manage how new workflows impact them and change how they…

Bio I’m currently working as a freelance concept artist in the games and film industries, having graduated with a degree in illustration in 2016. Software ZBrush, KeyShot, Photoshop Learn how to Createquickyetdetailed character designs in ZBrush Use multiple hard-surface modelling techniques for believable results Utilise KeyShot for materials and surface detailing Achieve photorealism through lighting and camera set-up Use compositional techniques for more effective and appealing final images Post-process renders in Photoshop Concept The idea behind this piece of work was to depict the advent of androids being indistinguishable from organic humans and how such an inevitability has eerie and potentially sinister undertones. Over the next few pages, we will explore methods and techniques in ZBrush that will help you to create quick, photorealistic sci-fi character designs and a…

When applying labels to materials in KeyShot, an effective method of suggesting realism and believability is to apply an opacity map either via ambient occlusion or a standard fractal noise. This will help create more natural edges, suggest dust or dirt, and better light values to blend the label with the object and environment. A specular map applied using the same technique is also useful in certain circumstances and is worth experimenting with. This will save you time in Photoshop applying overlays and textures to your decals and provide you with a randomised and customisable effect with ease.…

While using an alpha can help to save time, it can also be beneficial to sculpt some of these knitted details by hand. This will give your sculpt a more handcrafted, haphazard look which will look more natural overall. Try utilising brushes like Slash3 and Inflate to get a nice puffy look overall. Slash3 is similar to Dam Standard but it cuts more aggressively and can help shape the knitted pattern while Inflate can expand the shapes together and make it feel rounder and softer.…

Bio Jonas has been using Blender since 2010 to make short films and other projects. He enjoys 3D modelling, shading, lighting and animation. Currently Jonas is also working on a VR integration for Blender using Python. Software Blender 2.8 Learn how to Understandfractalgeometry Translate mathematical formulas to math nodes Set up volumetrics in EEVEE Light and render volumetrics Concept The aim here was to create complex and detailed fractals in EEVEE as volumetric really demonstrates the power of the render engine. You can even preview it in real time and animate it. This tutorial will teach you how to visualise 3D fractals in Blender using volumetric materials. Fractal geometry is created using recursive mathematical formulas. This simply means that you take the result of your equation and plug it…

EEVEE is definitely a game changer. It won’t be better than Cycles or V-Ray as these evolve too, but I believe real-time rendering will be a big thing in the next few years and you should definitely give it a try. If you’re a Blender user, it’s very comfortable; you won’t be as lost as if you were to learn a new engine such as Unreal. But if you’re curious, dive into real-time rendering studies as soon as possible. It will help you tremendously for previews and fast presentation, with convincing output for preproduction, or even for full production – as it was proven with shorts such as ADAM by Oats Studio.…

FMX, the annual conference for animation, effects, games and immersive media has revealed more speakers for the 2019 event. Head of Industrial Light & Magic Rob Bredow will take to the stage to talk about the visual and physical effects in Solo: A Star Wars Story. He will also discuss some of the more business-centric elements of the industry. Andrew Glassner of The Imaginary Institute will present a session that focuses on Deep Learning for computer graphics. He will cover a broad overview of the basic concepts, great ideas, and overall language of this impactful topic. Elsewhere, the FMX Forum continues to confirm appearances from the likes of KeenTools, Avid, Chaos Group, and more. Young producers and animation and film production graduates can also apply to participate free of charge…

Eddy for Nuke 2.02 VortechsFX has released the latest update for Eddy, its fluid solving and unbiased volumetric rendering software. Among the new features are improvements to volume emission integrators, as well as support for arbitrary emission integration in implicit volumes. Pricing for Eddy is available on application. Visit the website vortechsfx.com for more information. Corona Renderer 3 for Cinema 4D Render Legion has released Corona Renderer 3 for Cinema 4D. After four years of development, the new edition brings the CPU-based production renderer to Cinema 4D. The renderer tends to be used in archviz and has a reputation for simplifying rendering workflow without sacrificing image quality. See corona-renderer.com for more. Ornatrix V6 for 3ds Max The latest update to Ephere’s popular grooming plug-in has improved many commonly used tools…

“I think what’s interesting at the moment is you have a bigger playing field which leads more boutique studios to get in [to TV], who have a different take on how to do things. With Kiss Me First and Happy, it’s a more stylised approach. It’s not a photoreal dragon like in Game Of Thrones, and I love that kind of work, it’s fantastic. “We are doing more stylised, art-directed material and I think that’s where we see our niche. Something like Happy, five years ago, no one would have had the guts to make a show like that, but now we’re in an era where that can happen.”…

01 Light reading by Jason Knight 3DA username jsgknight Jason Knight says: “My beautiful wife really loves to read. She was my inspiration for this artwork. I set out to create a Disney-esque rendering of her in her element (pun intended). Modelling was primarily done in Cinema 4D, with a few of the models made or tweaked using ZBrush and Marvelous Designer.” We say: It’s heartwarming to know that your wife is your inspiration, and it’s good to see the skills that you have in getting your figure close to your wife’s likeness. 02 The Archean by Neil Mahmood 3DA username Neil Neil Mahmood says: “This was my entry for the 2ndGen Archean competition. I used Modo for most of the image; modelling, texturing, lighting and rendering. A…

HARD SURFACE DESIGN IN ZBRUSH I created a lot of custom objects in Fusion 360 and Blender to be used as boolean meshes and alphas. Then the boolean meshes could be imported as STL or OBJ files into ZBrush, where they would then be created into IMM brushes and alphas. Nelson Tai artstation.com/nelsontai Nelson is a concept designer working in the entertainment industry. Software ZBrush, Fusion 360, Blender, Keyshot motoREAPER2.0 , 2019…

CGAxis premium model & HDRIs A common lime tree model and HDR sky maps Renderhub UV test images & models Models to use in your work and UV test maps 26 textures from 3DTotal.com Download a selection 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…

JUST START CREATING You might feel unmotivated, uninspired or even insecure and think that it’s best to wait for the right moment. But in reality that’s rarely the case. The best thing you can do is just to start creating. As simple as it sounds, it will get the ball rolling. GO WITH THE FLOW When you are getting somewhere with your work it’s important to keep going in a natural way. Change what you think has to be changed, delete what you think has to be deleted. Don’t be afraid to start over, you can come up with fresh ideas in a new project. FINISH YOUR WORK Finishing your work is crucial to growing as an artist. It might not always be easy, you might not like your artwork…

01 Volume over topology We’ll start by creating a cube and subdividing it. The first step is all about defining an overall volume for the pattern. Add an Edge Split modifier to split the cube at its sharp edges. Next it’s time for a Displace modifier with a texture. You can play around with the texture types and size, or just use the same one I did. 02 Remeshing to create patterns Add the Remesh modifier and set it to Blocks mode. You can use the Octree Depth to increase or decrease detail. Don’t forget to go back and try different textures for different results. Next add a Decimate modifier and set it to Planar. Because the model is built up of sharp edges you’ll end up with interesting geometry.…

Aech (Lena Waithe) and Parzival (Tye Sheridan) are being shot live on a motion capture stage and we are seeing their avatars in real-time in the virtual set. This image shows the composition framed by Spielberg using the virtual camera rig. The virtual camera shot of Aech’s garage (the partial Iron Giant is visible in the background). The original visualisation was for the scene to be set during the day, but it was changed to night later in post-production. The game engine-generated environment let Spielberg change the ambient lighting from day to night in the virtual set, along with many other factors like the position of characters, set orientation, placement of props, and camera placement, all without stopping the data flow. The final shot. Maintaining the framing from the Unity…

Using a combination of simple geometric shapes and striking a cohesive balance between them is essentially what you should be aiming for when designing any form of sci-fi object. Cutting into or combining separate geometric shapes is also an effective method of creating new and interesting forms. You should constantly be trying to develop your visual library – the collection of shapes, patterns and objects in your mind – that you can call upon when creating anything new. Studying references, consistent sketching, practice and experimentation will equip you with a strong visual portfolio that will empower you to produce stronger designs more freely.…

You don’t have to understand the maths behind this to follow along. In fact, I didn’t understand much of it at all when I started making the Mandelbulb. But along the way I did learn a great deal about the maths behind fractals. I ran into a few problems at first but was helped by someone known online as “fredlllll”, who really knows his stuff. So don’t get overwhelmed by the complicated code and maybe just download the final file and try to understand the different components or just play around with it.…