Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 137 i 3D Artist

No matter what tool you use as your main weapon of choice for 3D work, you have doubtless heard of Blender. Version 2.8 is out now and the community seems very impressed, as are we, so this issue we talked to a couple of Blender experts who share their tips for mastering the open-source tool. Everybody has to start their career somewhere and for some that journey begins as an intern. This gets a bad rep from some people, but there are many ways you can benefit from learning while you work, as you can see in our feature. Even the best artists out there can learn new tricks and this issue we showcase some cool techniques to help you level up your CG projects, from using Houdini to build…

“The moment where the little girl Milly gives a hug to Dumbo, and he’s very close to the camera – achieving a photorealistic look of the skin of an elephant when close to the camera was crucial. We started collecting a lot of macro references of elephant skin to study their cells and cracked skin pattern more closely. We noticed different types of patterns living in different areas of the body; we named them and started creating them. “I sculpted some unique high-frequency displaced tileable maps, using a combination of Mari/Mudbox software, dividing them into cells, multicells, pores and cracks, all consistent with each other, which were scattered into different frequencies and combinations depending on the body area. Once this high-frequency tile map system was set up in Mari in…

We can use a nice trick to add multiple materials randomly onto the voxels. As a starting point we can pick the first Copy Stamp node. At first, we need two materials in the SHOP network with a proper naming convention. Afterwards we jump to the Copy Stamp node. The idea is simple. Randomly generated zeros and ones act as a switch between materials. We have a new variable in the Stamp tab in the Copy SOP node with the following expression: round(fit01(rand($PT*3), 0, 1)) and following stamp in a material node under the box: /obj/SM_PacMan_Base/mySHOP/material_name stamp(“../copysop_ node”, “material_switch”, 0)…

This head sculpture tutorial will walk you through finding a balance between face and anatomy references while we analyse which camera distortion (field of view) in ZBrush is most effective for such a sculpture. There will also be a few steps focused on anatomy landmarks to get the correct proportions of the human head, including learning the head length and height and the distance between the eyeballs. It is important to emphasise that there are a lot of different ways to sculpt a face like any other part of the body, but we try to simplify the process into just a few steps for greater efficiency and ease of working. We will also be breaking down the topology so that the finished sculpture can be used in games, animation, and…

For this kind of work it is important to avoid the use of references at the back using Draw>Floor Grid; sure, you will get accurate results, but it will not challenge you to further develop your artistic skill. It is like simply using tracing paper, where you don’t learn how to draw, but just how to copy. So, try to only use references on top, close to your sculpture, but not as a background using transparent views – it is like using a calculator instead of doing the math for yourself!…

Bio Zeyu Ren is an animator at Black Math studios. He is a pioneer of creating animation in virtual reality. His animation shorts have been selected by film festivals worldwide. Software Quill, Cinema 4D, OctaneRender, After Effects Learn how to • Create a complex scene in Quill • Set up Quill to work better with Cinema 4D • Animate in Quill • Use OctaneRender to render Quill models Concept The title sequence is a tribute to the game League Of Legends. I chose a scene where the city was a bunch of ships clinging on cliffs. The concept art is by Patrick Faulwetter.…

KJARTAN TYSDAL artstation.com/kjartantysdal Kjartan Tysdal is a Norwegian CG artist working in the UK games industry. He’s a graduate from The Animation Workshop in Denmark. On page 29 he provides a breakdown on how he created his robot image in Blender 2.8. RAINER DUDA www.rd-innovations.de Rainer Duda has over a decade of professional experience and owns a VFX studio in south-west Germany. Head to page 48 to read his in-depth tutorial on building a professional voxeliser in Houdini. GUSTAVO ÅHLéN www.gustavoahlen.com Gustavo Åhlén is a multidisciplinary designer, matte painter and concept artist with more than five years of experience in the CG industry. On page 56 he teaches us how to create an accurate head sculpture. ZEYU REN zeyuren.com Zeyu Ren is an animator at Black Math studios. He is…

Bio Rainer Duda has over a decade of professional experience and owns a VFX studio in south-west Germany. He is lecturing real-time CGI and VFX at the famous Hochschule Furtwangen University. Software Houdini 17.5, Affinity Photo Learn how to • Use meshes to place point arrays • Transfer colours from textures to points • Randomly spread materials onto meshes • Create volumes from arbitrary meshes • Individually reshape volumes • Place point arrays based on volumes • Transfer attributes in various directions Concept I do love 8-bit style because of its distinctive uniqueness. This tutorial covers the recreation of the 8-bit style, but mixed with modern VFX workflows to enhance detailed areas.…

For a better visual experience it is recommended to create a ROP (render output node network) node. Let’s dive inside and create a Mantra node with physically based rendering as the main rendering method. Afterwards we can jump back to OBJ level in the network editor pane to create an environment light node. With this node we can load some nice HDR maps – great HDR are available at hdrihaven.com – to light our scene. We need to prepare some nice PBR materials as well by using a Material Shader Builder node and adding, for example, Disney’s Principled shader into the flow.…

Head Sculpture, 2019 Bio Gustavo Åhlén is a multidisciplinary designer, matte painter and concept artist with more than five years of experience in the CG industry. Software ZBrush, Maya Learn how to • Gather useful references • Recognise head proportions • Shape facial muscles • Add skin details • Retopologise and understand where the E-poles should be located • Create UV maps • Light Concept This work is focused on teaching how to do a likeness sculpture in ZBrush and how to correctly use anatomy and facial references to get accurate results.…

Media products are everywhere, they are all around us. Morpheus said similar things about the Matrix, back in the original film. As the creators announced the fourth sequel, Lana Wachowski mentioned that, in our reality, this is even more relevant now. Well, most of us have a ‘pocket Matrix’, yet hardly anybody can imagine the global amount of them. Infographics give no clue to comprehend the real extent, so let’s use VFX tools to visualise them in a more tactile way. Indeed, the real essence of the internet and social media are not simply the devices themselves, but in the case of this image, using a smartphone swarm to reveal intangible things can be even more exciting. In the first part of this tutorial we’ll learn how to use MOPs,…

In this breakdown we will go through the steps I took to create the piece ‘Guiding Light’ and cover topics ranging from composition, modelling, shading and lighting. We will explore some techniques and practices that you can apply to any 3D piece you’re creating in the software of your choice. Sprinkled in the breakdown will also be some tips and tricks that I use on a daily basis in order to streamline my work process. 01 Model the lighthouse I began modelling the main asset in Cinema 4D using subdivision modelling with the goal of staying as true to the fundamental characteristics of a normal lighthouse as possible. The ‘bulge’ deformer also came in handy to create the shape of the glass that was needed. Scale was a major factor…

Building on the previous 2020 release, 2020.2 introduces new viewport features that present users with automated options and more realistic visuals to speed up their workflow. Elsewhere the SketchUp importer now supports all file versions, enhancing performance and visual fidelity for artists. There are chamfer improvements that allow modellers to work more accurately and reduce the need for complex workarounds. For more information on 3ds Max 2020.2’s numerous performance updates, visit area.autodesk.com.…

COMIC BOOK STYLING Using the tone map of Arnold’s Toon Shader, I individually controlled the highlights, midtones and shadows of my surfaces. The line-hatched shadows and printer-stippled highlights and midtones are created by repeating linear and circular ramps. Projecting these ramps from my camera’s POV using Maya’s Projection node helps this piece of fan art feel like it hopped off the comic book’s printing press. Stephen Candell artstation.com/scandell Stephen Candell is a senior visual designer at Google. Software Maya, Arnold, Marvelous Designer MaryJaneWatson: FaceitTiger, 2019…

Before we create particles within polygon meshes it is important to take the texture information of our mask and project the details onto the mesh points. To do so we take an attribute from the map node and append this one right after the mesh, with open subdivisions applied. We choose a black and white mask texture, put the correct UV attribute name in the corresponding line, and then define which attribute we want to export from that node. In our case we want to export the colour attribute called Cd – stored in the points. A proper subdivision level is required.…

There are actually different paths you can follow to colourise the detail voxel. Either you can use the same method with the random material placement via randomly stamping switch values, or by using the Attribute from Map node. The UVs must be preserved until the VDB from Polygons node. Afterwards it is possible to conserve this colour information in the volume by choosing Surface Attributes in the VDB from Polygons node. The surface attributes must be converted back to primitive colours so that you can transfer the information via the Copy Stamp back to the voxel.…

Some 3D artists tend to subdivide the base mesh at the beginning before getting a correct head proportion and basic forms. Using a high subdivision level at the beginning isn’t a good idea for any sculpture, as you will spend a lot of time trying to get the correct forms while accumulating layers without reaching an accurate base mesh. It is important to keep in mind that high subdivision levels should be mostly focused on small details such as wrinkles, pores, eyelids etc, but once you’ve built the base forms first.…

Bio Greg is a VFX artist and scientist with a passion for cinematic scientific visualisations. Check out his ArtStation site at artstation. com/scivfx for visualisation videos, details and resources. Software Houdini, MOPs Learn how to • Use basic MOPs nodes for quick visualisations • Reveal dry data in meaningful ways • Use some advanced MOPs nodes Concept If you remember the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, it looks like a giant smartphone. We tend to behave in a similar manner as the apes in that film if there are countless opportunities to use our opposable body part.…

Outpost VFX has announced that Amy Wixson has joined the company as executive producer. Based in Los Angeles, Wixson will service clients locally in the US and also internationally to support Outpost VFX’s facilities in the UK, Montréal and Singapore. “I’m delighted to welcome Amy to Outpost VFX,” says chief operating officer, Gez Hixson. “Her devotion to exceptional client service and the robust relationships she’s built with key people in the sector make her an extremely valuable member of an already strong global team.” Wixson adds: “It was with great pleasure that I accepted an offer to join the Outpost VFX team on their journey, especially at such an exciting time following expansion into Montréal and the Asian market. Their artistry, ambition and culture really resonated with me, and I…

Substance Designer 2019.2 Notable updates to the latest version of this material authoring tool include the addition of dot nodes, a faster library and new tools for creating high-quality, customisable HDR maps. Substance Designer is available across a variety of licenses to suit the artist’s needs. substance3d.com Bella Diffuse Logic has revealed its new spectral, physically based renderer, Bella. This next-generation engine presents users with a flexible nodal scene description, intuitive yet powerful material model, and real-world camera model. Bella is currently available to test drive in an open pre-release beta. bellarender.com Katana 3.2 This new release from Foundry introduces an artist-focused material node graph UI with faster workflows. 3Delight NSI now allows artists to render from multiple cameras at the same time and has increased speed and reduced memory…

nua.ac.uk Location Norwich, UK Project VFX for Good Project description VFX for Good is a classroom experiment with VFX degree students, intended to see if VFX can have positive uses beyond the blockbuster cinema screen and the entertainment industry. Studio Norwich University of the Arts Company bio Norwich University of the Arts has established itself in arts, design and media education for over 170 years. It has developed a national reputation as an innovative and creative academic community, with a firm commitment to offering vocational courses that afford students the space to develop their skills and pursue their passion. Contributors • Saint John Walker, course leader • Karolis Arbaciauskas, lookdev • Ryan Prendergast, 3D and compositing • Lucy White, 3D modelling and matte painting • Tom Howells, 2D and 3D…