Table of contents for No. 138 in 3D Artist

This issue we take you behind the scenes of The Lion King with MPC, showing you how they created the stunning visuals for Disney’s latest blockbuster. If you are ready to level up your own projects then look no further. Our training section this month covers everything from amazing hyperrealistic portraits to weapon props and much more. I’m also really excited to let you know that we will be moving home and as of next issue all our top content will be found in 3D World, which has been our sister title until now. The change is a big one but heralds a new era for 3D content, and I hope you are as excited by it as I am. All your favourite features, tutorials and reviews will be found…

Learning different software is a worthwhile endeavour for any 3D artist, but in archviz it’s important not to confine yourself too much. “At the end of the day they are just tools,” says Yadollahpour, “the most important thing is to focus on continually improving your artistic skills.” There is also much to be gained from connecting with successful people in the industry. Yadollahpour adds: “They have valuable experience and advice that can help you to reach your goals sooner.” Inspiration is key to artistic undertakings and Yadollahpour highlights the importance of spending as much time as possible looking through great work by other fellow artists. Creating a categorised archive of work that inspires you will result in an easily accessible bank of encouragement. “Publish your work,” Yadollahpour asserts. “Do not…

With its photorealistic aesthetic, the virtual production model was informed by the visual sensibility of a cinematographer notable for movies that have embraced terrain and wilderness settings: The Right Stuff, The Patriot, The Spiderwick Chronicles and, perhaps most notably, The Black Stallion and Fly Away Home. That cinematographer is Caleb Deschanel, a filmmaking veteran of 50 years (and a film school classmate of George Lucas in the late 1960s). Of the collaboration between MPC and Deschanel, Newman notes how much he and his colleagues valued working with a cinematographer of such experience. ”Sometimes in our work, it can get quite technical and you don’t always experience the moviemaking,” he reveals. “Caleb came and was often in the reviews and was very engaged. He’d lit all the shots on stage, in…

The island and dining table can always be your milestones; with them, you can represent the flow of life. It’s very important to give life to your work. For example, what are the features of a day in the kitchen? A breakfast, magazine, your phone and wallet, the fruits that are being washed in the sink, the food being cooked for dinner. But if you have images with a different time of day (day and night), you will need two different layouts. Dinner table details can be delicious! For example, in our scene we showed that during the day, dinner is cooked.…

You might have heard this so often, but it can’t be emphasised enough: you do not have to re-invent the wheel! Watching closely how more experienced artists work is not copying, as long as you retain your artistic consciousness and don’t restrict yourself to only one source. For example, when it comes to mecha design, there are a lot of good references to look at. You can study the work of Tor Frick and the details and techniques he used for modelling by watching his recorded modelling sessions on YouTube. And there are many more ways to learn best practices out there!…

Bio I am currently a teacher at a high school with a focus on computer graphics. In my spare time I improve my sculpting skills in ZBrush. Software ZBrush, Photoshop Learn how to • Create an anatomically correct model • Use photo references • Boost sculpting skills • Apply different methods for modelling • Use different materials in BPR renders • Compose renders in Photoshop Concept I was asked to make a trophy and a poster for a bodybuilding competition. I decided to make a stylised image of an impressive bodybuilding pose.…

The VFB right-click menu has a Pixel Info option which displays the exact colour value of the pixel under the mouse cursor. This is a great way to identify super-bright regions in the image that are above a floating-point value of 1.0 such as light sources. The Pixel Information window can display colour values in a wide range of formats including web, HSV, 8-bit, 16-bit, and floating-point. You can also view the colour values with colour corrections applied which is handy if you are rendering to a high dynamic range image format like EXR.…

Established animator, illustrator and artist, Niel Bushnell, has joined The Northern School of Art to head up its illustration degree course. Bushnell’s work has featured in numerous feature films and computer games. Beginning his career at Marvel Comics, Bushnell moved into the animation industry where he worked on a broad range of projects from cereal commercials to feature films. He then moved into the computer games industry, working as a concept artist, illustrator and animator. Bushnell’s work for Disney included a Lion King short film, which played at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida for over 20 years. “The illustration degree is a great course and I’ll be working to reinforce its links with the creative sector so that our students have as much exposure to potential clients and…

KeyVR Luxion has announced the fall update for one-click VR solution KeyVR. The latest version introduces photorealistic reflections, refraction, and colour transmission for more realistic virtual reality experiences. The update is available now for subscribers, and KeyVR can be purchased for $995 annually. keyshot.com/keyvr Appleseed 2.1 beta The latest release of the open-source production renderer includes a new set of AOVs for full Cryptomatte support. There is also the addition of render checkpointing for multi-pass renders, the ability to compile Open Shading Language shaders on the fly, Filter Importance Sampling and much more. appleseedhq.net Nuke 12 Foundry’s latest update for Nuke brings improved interactivity and performance across the Nuke family, from additional GPU-enabled nodes to a rebuilt playback engine. There is also the integration of GPU-accelerated tools for camera solving,…

corridordigital.com Location USA Project Bosstown Dynamics Project description Bosstown Dynamics is a spoof on the real-life robotics company Boston Dynamics, who design and test the manoeuvrability of bipedal and quadrupedal robots. But in Bosstown Dynamics, the scientists are unhinged, subjecting the robot (an actor in a motion capture suit) to a series of cruel and torturous physical tests. Studio Corridor Digital Company bio Corridor is an independent content studio with over two billion worldwide video views and ten million online followers. Founded in 2009 by Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer, Corridor has evolved into a small team of artists who are known for visual effects and creative storytelling across multiple YouTube channels and other platforms. Contributors • Clinton Jones, director and VFX artist…

When it comes to presentation, you have to look at your scene like the real world. For example, the layout of furniture should not be too precise and orderly. Soak the environment a bit! It looks like the floor, the kitchen table and the island have just been cleaned, but there is little trace of wet. If you have close-up rendering you can put your fingerprint on your glass of water. You can reduce the metal windows slightly. Don’t forget the water drop on the sink, the grease on the stove, and the wet glass during the rainy rendering.…

Bio I studied Industrial Design at first, but then quickly switched to 3D art. After building my portfolio I got my first job and have worked as a 3D artist for three years now. Software Blender, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator Learn how to • Come up with unique ideas • Find the best composition for your work • Model complex mechanical shapes • Texture procedurally almost without UVs • Create a realistic pilot character • Add some magic with Photoshop Concept The current retro 80s/90s trend offers a ton of inspiration for artists. I wanted to create a mecha scene in this style that would differ from the leaden atmosphere usually typical for that genre.…

When it comes to complex and large scenes, a clean pipeline and structure is your best friend. A consistent file structure is a must when you work on projects regularly. Split your project into separate assets that you can then link into your master scene. It’s recommended first to copy each of your blockout assets from the blockout file to the different asset files, and then link them to the scene file. This will help you to keep your files small and your workflow comfortable. If your workstation runs out of memory while rendering, you can always nicely split up the scene into separate layers and merge them later.…

For better control you can add the most-used brushes icon into the bottom shelf in ZBrush. Go to Preferences, and under Config turn on Enable Customize. Once that is turned on, hold down the Ctrl+Alt keys to tell ZBrush that you want to move items around. Now go to the brush menu and with Ctrl+Alt held down, simply click and drag the brush you want to move to the bottom shelf. Once satisfied with your interface, press Ctrl+Shift+I to set it as your custom user interface, which will be loaded every time you launch ZBrush. Finally turn off Enable Customize in Preferences.…

In this four-part tutorial series, we’re going to discover how to harness the power of V-Ray, by breaking down a series of shots in a television commercial created in Maya. V-Ray is an Academy Award-winning production renderer used to create blockbuster movies, high-end television commercials, and everything in between. This project will involve a wide variety of lighting and rendering challenges that will give artists a solid understanding of the many powerful features found in V-Ray Next for Maya. Using V-Ray to create photorealistic renders has never been easier. By the end of the project, you will have a good understanding of the workflow used to light and render a television commercial using V-Ray Next for Maya. Along the way, you will learn numerous helpful tips and tricks that are…

V-Ray includes comprehensive documentation filled with all sorts of detailed information. Simply click on the question mark icon in the V-Ray shelf and your web browser will open up and take you to the V-Ray for Maya documentation. The help website includes information on installing and configuring V-Ray along with in-depth articles on how each feature works. There are many technical terms used when rendering in Maya. A quick search on the help site is a great way to learn what new terms mean and to find useful images that illustrate how to use them.…

When texturing an asset, it’s extremely important to always collect reference prior. In doing this, you will understand how materials behave in the real world and be able to copy them directly to your asset. Depending on the asset you are texturing, it’s important to collect reference of material decay such as rust, oxidation and general wear and tear. Collecting reference will also allow you to obtain images that show detailing such as grinding marks, discolouration, varying gloss values and so forth.…

ReDefine, the new animation and visual effects services offering from DNEG, has announced that industry veteran Bill Schultz has joined as executive producer, animation. Schultz brings over 25 years of experience in the industry, with a credit list that includes The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, Garfield and He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe. “I have always enjoyed working with creators to bring their vision to a global audience,” says Schultz. “Together with the talented and motivated team at ReDefine, we are establishing a substantial presence in the independent animation marketplace. And as part of DNEG, ReDefine brings both impressive resources and a proven pipeline to its projects.”…

STAY SHARP The archviz profession is growing rapidly, so it is important to always keep your information up to date and learn new things. Otherwise, you will be behind the competition. GET PAID You should always try to get some sort of prepayment from your client before starting on the project. I don’t give my work to the client until I have received full payment for the project. KEEP CALM Avoid arguing with your clients. Offer them suggestions and informed opinions, but do not insist and know that they are always right, they are the business owner and are paying you for a service. CHERRY-PICK As an archviz artist, you usually have a limited amount of time, so try to choose the best project out of the available work. KEEP…

For Newman, the stand-out challenge for MPC was in the animation and environment work undertaken for the emotional scene depicting the tragic death of Mufasa, Simba’s father. Newman explains how it was one of the scenes that the studio worked on in the earlier phases of their work on the movie. As such, securing approval for it gave the crew a level of confidence with which to move forward. “The visual storytelling has to be very subtle and those subtleties can make or break a shot,” he states. “Having a shot of Mufasa and Simba just sitting required a lot of tricky lighting: for example, we didn’t have a key light to work with and the work was additionally difficult because of the dust that features in the scene.” The…

“I think the reason we have not been using caustics is that it’s really an artifact of the technology that you’re using to compute it. And when you think about it, caustics are not so difficult to compute; it’s that the algorithms that you’re using to compute them are very difficult compared to the usual ray-tracing or path-tracing algorithm. So you really have to start tracing rays from the light sources toward the camera, which is not what you would be normally doing when you render your image. “And that’s why caustics have always been something that has traditionally been handled on the side, something completely separate from the main render. And this, I think, created this notion that it’s something like a separate light effect; as if it was…

Bio I was born in 1986 in Qaemshahr, Iran. I graduated in architecture at university. My enthusiasm was high and even the lack of 3D facilities didn’t stop me from learning. Software 3ds Max, Corona, Photoshop Learn how to • Read architecture maps • Model in AutoCAD • Light your scene effectively • Layer all objects • Use precise materials Concept I love the combination of classic and modern architecture. In this image we have some minimal classic detail in the corner and in the cabinet of the kitchen, combined with some modern furniture. And don’t forget the plant……

Post-production is the most important action after you finish your render. You can use many tools for this. Photoshop is great, but for better post-production you need render elements like reflection, refraction and self-illumination. We have good news! Corona VFB is a great tool for post-production, featuring bloom glare, exposure, LUT, contrast, curves, and great light mixer! Because it’s a 32-bit controller you can play with exposure parameters and change every light, enabling you to even convert day to night!…

Bio Emerson worked as an art director for advertising agencies for over ten years, and now he’s a full-time freelance character artist for AAA games and animation. Software ZBrush, Maya, Mari, Marvelous Designer, Substance Painter Learn how to • Achieve likeness • Sculpt skin details • Paint skin textures • Create realistic hair with XGen • Set up a quick studio light with Arnold Concept A 3D portrait of legendary Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna.…

When you’re unsure how to exactly start a new project (which is naturally almost always the case), do the exact opposite: think from the end! Think about what you want to achieve and mock it up as quickly as possible. This can be a very simple overpainting on a rough blockout render, or a moodboard put together from various resources found, for example on Pinterest. Your work won’t exist in a vacuum anyway, so why not think about the ‘world’ it might live in? Having set your goal, you will be more confident and capable of actually finishing your project, and finishing it successfully.…

In ZBrush you can’t enter the exact size of the render image when you click on the BPR Render button. The size of the render image is dependent on the document size. So if you want to change it, increase the render size, go to Document on the upper bar in the ZBrush menu and change the Weight and Height parameters. You can enter a new size of the document you want to render. Then click on the Resize button. Now click Ctrl+N to clean the workspace, then drag and draw your model in the new document. When you click on BPR Render, you create a render image with the size you entered.…

Bio Rusty Hazelden is a visual effects artist, writer and YouTuber based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He makes YouTube videos about movie visual effects techniques using Maya, RenderMan and V-Ray. Software Maya, Phoenix FD, V-Ray Learn how to • Render images with the V-Ray Frame Buffer • Explore the V-Ray IPR viewport renderer • Save time with V-Ray shelf tools • Speed up renders using test resolutions • Access Maya view bookmarks • Select materials in the VFB • Adjust V-Ray material attributes • Enable the ‘Use default material’ display mode Concept This project features dramatic high-contrast studio lighting, a technique often used in product photography. The studio background helps to focus the viewer’s attention on the colourful cans of paint.…

Ziva Dynamics has revealed Ziva VFX 1.7, its most user-friendly tool yet, introducing Art Directable Rest Shapes (ADRS). Users can now adjust a character’s silhouette with simple sculpting tools, quickly achieving the desired look. Once the shape is established, Ziva VFX can morph it, maintaining all of the rich dynamics. ADRS can work with any shape, eliminating the need for complex setups and corrective work. Ziva VFX 1.7 can be purchased in monthly or yearly instalments. More info can be found at store.zivadynamics.com.…

“It was our first time using anything like this and within two days we had a ready-for-render robot” It seems like every other day that another video from Boston Dynamics goes viral, leaving viewers to marvel at just how far robots have come; they can open doors, leap through obstacle courses, and more. Recently, VFX firm Corridor Digital released a parody in which the robots start fighting back. According to Clinton Jones, director and VFX artist at Corridor, the idea of specifically spoofing Boston Dynamics came later in the day. “We received a motion capture suit from Xsens and our goal was to come up with funny ideas that utilised this special piece of technology,” he tells 3D Artist. “About three weeks later we ship out to Portland, Oregon for…

Although Clinton Jones and the team at Corridor always intended to create the most realistic robot possible, they never thought people would think their spoof video was real. “We were blown away by the sheer number of believers,” Jones admits. Within hours of being uploaded the video was ripped and reuploaded to Twitter by a nondescript Russian account. “The 16 million people who saw that video believed it was real,” adds Jones. “Lack of context or a reputable name to tie it to only helped. But on the Corridor Digital channel, most of the comments read something like, ‘Oh I thought it was real up until insert moment from video’.”…

COLOUR TEXTURES Do more with less, that’s what I have in mind when I create colour textures. ZBrush helps me to create simple flat colours with a basic colour variation when necessary. The trick here is to use a procedural approach when you build your shaders. You can mix those colour textures with a tileable map for more colour variation, and Arnold is perfect for this job because you can isolate in the render viewer the nodes you are working on. Giovani Kososki artstation.com/giovani Giovani Kososki is a Brazil-based freelance art director and 3D modeller. Software ZBrush, Maya, Photoshop Pony, 2019…