Table of contents for August 2015 in 3D World

There’s never been a better time to break into the video games industry. Free software, crowd-sourcing and a growing indie scene means artists can scratch that itch and begin creating their own games. This issue we aim to make that a little easier, on page 42 Alex Dracott shares his 25 tips to master Unreal Engine 4, then on page 54 Riyahd Cassiem shows how to concept and model a game mecha character, plus we have pro tips for getting started with Physically-Based Rendering (page 68), rigging better animation cycles (page 64) and we take a look at an impressive Halo CG film. Finally, on page 20, we speak to leading artists at Ubisoft about the challenges of building incredibly realistic game worlds. ian.dean@futurenet.com EMAIL 3dworld@futurenet.com FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/3dworldmagazine WEBSITE 3dworld.creativebloq.com…

I look at aspects such as mood and then I imagine what’s behind a pose, a specific lighting… and keep it simple and clean 3D WORLD VIEW “Jean created this to improve his character modelling skills and here he's managed to make textures quickly, without quality loss.” Production editor ARTIST Jean Marcel SOFTWARE ZBrush, TopoGun, 3ds Max, V-Ray, Lightroom Superheroes often prove a great source of inspiration for 3D artists and Jean Marcel is just one of those artists who has turned his hand to a homage. “I’m a story lover, so I like to capture something that tells the story of the character,” he explains. “I look at aspects such as mood and then I imagine what’s behind a pose, a specific lighting… and keep it simple and clean.”…

The most rewarding aspect has to be revealing all of the tips and secrets to my subscribers 3D WORLD VIEW “Grant has taken Rafael’s Dragonfly model and has given it life by using great materials and lighting. The fire rings are particularly cool.” Editor ARTIST Grant Warwick SOFTWARE 3ds Max, V-Ray, HDR Light Studio, Photoshop Collaborating with Rafael Grassetti, Mastering CGI’s Grant Warwick created this impressive sci-fi inspired character, taking about a month to complete the project. “Grassetti designed the character and provided the model for me to unwrap, texture, shade and light,” Grant explains. “I utilised the 3ds Max render surface map tools to automate a lot of the texturing process. The entire workflow from start to finish is explained in the final lesson of Mastering V-Ray Course.” Running…

The character designer for the famous action game Hitman, Tom Isaksen, says, “As an artist, more than anything, you have to understand how video games and real-time graphics work, it’s not enough to ‘just’ be great at sculpting or painting. You need to have a good understanding of the whole process.” With over 15 years in the industry and best-selling games to his name, his tips are golden to any wannabe game artist. After quitting his job, Tom pursued a career in 3D graphics and in 2000 graduated from Bournemouth University. “I spent some time teaching myself how to make low poly game characters,” he says, and this landed him a job with IO Interactive. TOM ISAKSEN Tom is a 3D character artist from Denmark with more than 15 years…

GET PUBLISHED Email your short to ian.dean@futurenet.com ANDY LEFTON Senior digital artist Andy currently works as a freelance 3D/VFX generalist. He has over 12 years’ experience in the broadcast, film and digital illustration industries. www.andylefton.com VITAL STATISTICS TEAM Writer, animator, effects and compositor Andy Lefton Music Thomas J. Peters Jeff Butta Sound design Lister Rossel Andy Lefton COUNTRY USA SOFTWARE After Effects Cinema 4D PRODUCTION TIME Five years Finding hope in the bleakest of moments, Andy Lefton’s short has been almost a decade in the making, proving that his relentless faith (and a lot of hard work) can lead to great things. “I’ve always been influenced by post-apocalyptic and sci-fi themes, but with hope being the main catalyst,” Andy reveals. “The idea started out when I was a student in…

What do you think makes a good video game cinematic? It’s highly related to your actual game. If you have a good game, there’s a good story, art direction, interesting characters, as well as a good sound score, then it should transpire in your trailer. If you manage to control these assets properly and present them skillfully in your trailer through a highly fined tuned combination of pacing, composition, reveals, action and dialogue then you’re on the right track for a powerful trailer that will resonate with your audience. What was the biggest challenge you faced with Deux Ex? Getting the actual story and pacing right. The toughest things were not the actual 3D assets and rendering… the hardest thing has really been the preconception of the trailer. Making sure…

FOLLOW THE VIDEO If you see the Play icon, click the link! TOPICS COVERED Initial concept phase Marvelous Designer features Modelling with MD imported geometry ARTIST PROFILE Chris Chui Chris Chui is a freelance character designer specialising in cloth simulation and apparel design. He works with both digital and physical cloth, tailoring custom apparel during downtime. www.mxnarch.artstation.com When creating complex characters it’s important to optimise where time is spent. This ensures we get the best outcome in the least time. For me it’s essential that my characters are realistic and believable, while also having an appealing design. Marvelous Designer is my main tool and allows me to create believable designs in a comparatively short time. Marvelous Designer is a software that enables the simulation of cloth in a way that…

AUTHOR PROFILE Bob MacNeil Senior art director at PlayStudios and New Jersey native, Bob is an illustrator, painter and director. www.taminglight.com AUTHOR PROFILE Alex Patanjo Alex is a CG supervisor, and has worked as a technical director/FX artist for The Orphanage, ILM and Dreamworks Animation. www.bit.ly/197-alex AUTHOR PROFILE Aybars Turan Aybars is a lead 3D character artist based in San Francisco. He uses his fine art background to imbue his sculpts with life and realism. www.bit.ly/197-aybars The thing about ‘casual gaming’ is you have no option but to be original and eye-catching. These games, readily available to players via a simple download, offer fans a chance at total control of their entertainment with little to no cost commitment. To the developers, a fresh approach to the content they design is…

AUTHOR PROFILE Alf Lovvold Alf is co-founder of Gimpville, a small Norwegian-based VFX house doing a mix of feature film work, such as Kontiki, Trollhunter, Headhunters, Ragnarok and The Wave (Norway’s first destruction movie), and VFX/animation for various commercials and short films. www.alflovvold.com I really like to throw things together quite quickly to get them up and running and then send them off for further refinement. However, after several years of creating content for customers at my studio Gimpville, I finally decided to create my own little project. Turns out it kind of snowballed – a lot. Starting point The project itself started as a series of tests to acquire knowledge and see how much I could throw at the engine before it kneeled down. As I discovered, it handled…

VIDEO+MODELS+TEXTURES CREATE A GAME ENVIRONMENT Download Alex Dracott’s video and resources to create his game environment in UE4 VIDEO CHARACTER DETAILS Follow this Marvelous Designer 4 tutorial HIGH-RES ART MECHA MODEL Get the high-res art to follow the tutorial VIDEO GAME ANIMATION Follow the video to animate run cycles VIDEO DIGITAL-TUTORS Get three complete video tutorial courses GET YOUR RESOURCES You’re three steps away from this issue’s video training and files… 1. GO TO THE WEBSITE Type this into your browser’s address bar: www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw197 2. FIND THE FILES YOU WANT Search the list of free resources to find the video and files you want. 3. DOWNLOAD WHAT YOU NEED Click the Download buttons and your files will save to your PC or Mac. PLUS! There are more files, art and…

Trying to create a likeness is the most enjoyable aspect... But it’s also the most challenging part of it too ARTIST Ian Spriggs SOFTWARE Maya, Mudbox, Photoshop, V-Ray Working as a character modeller in the VFX industry, Ian Spriggs is a dab-hand when it comes to producing undeniable likeness. “Trying to create a likeness is the most enjoyable aspect of making a portrait,” he explains. “But it’s also the most challenging part of it too.” Working on films such as Crimson Peak, Warcraft, Pompeii and horror movie Mama, Ian creates his best work using photo references. “I will set up a space with as little shadow as I can since I will also be using these images to help with texturing,” he explains, adding: “I will take 20-30 images in…

Moving a well-known gaming franchise to a whole new world means even more attention on your environmental work than usual – everything will have to be spot on. So with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate moving to the open-world stealth series to Victorian London, how did Thierry Dansereau, art director at Ubisoft Quebec, cope with the high expectations? In a word: research. “We’ve spent months educating ourselves about Victorian London through history books, photo references, movies and old city maps,” Thierry explains. “We want to gather as much knowledge about the world we’re building, from architecture, to the city layout, to technology, to how people lived. We tried to learn as much as we can.” THIERRY DANSEREAU Thierry is art director for Ubisoft Quebec and has worked in gaming since 1997. His…

Creating a game is one thing, but selling the idea of that game to millions is another skill altogether. That’s why Square Enix has its own CG movie studio, Visual Works – creators of the cinematics for the forthcoming Deus Ex: Mankind Divided for Eidos Montreal. The team begin by understanding the game, discussing with the developer the key ideas, themes and story elements that need to be conveyed in the trailer. “A really in-depth understanding of the game universe and world really helps when making a cinematic,” says Kazuyuki Ikumori, chief creative director of Visual Works. “It’s vital that the cinematic team really understands the game and its feature set to ensure we can showcase them in the trailer.” KAZUYUKI IKUMORI Chief creative director of Visual Works, Kazuyuki has…

RECORD BREAKING MOCAP ATTEMPT Motion capture technology specialist Vicon, joined forces with Audiomotion Studios to set a new world record for the most people motion-captured in real-time: 19 people. The attempt, which featured two UK based hip hop dance crews, took place in Oxford on 9 March this year and was adjudicated by Gary Marshall, motion capture supervisor at Framestore, and The Imaginarium Studios’ Rebecca-Louise Leybourne. Go to www.bit.ly/197-vicon and watch the record breaking feat. RENDER FARMS SOLVED PipelineFX has launched Qube!Tube, a free online service providing training on using render farm management software. Visit www.pipelinefx.com/qubetube to catch up on free resources, video training and tutorials to get the most from Qube!…

AUTHOR PROFILE Ian Dean 3D World editor Ian has been writing about video games, film and digital art for over 15 years and has edited eight magazines on the subjects. www.3dworld.creativebloq.com A big fan of Microsoft’s Halo, Robert J Merritt found the closing moments of Halo 4 raised more questions than answers, and sort to solve its cliffhangers himself, with a little help from his friends. “Master Chief begins to question his humanity. He’s attempting to uncover the meaning of being human and he struggles to cope with the death of his companion, Cortana,” says Robert. “This is the beginning of an exciting and unexpected journey, for all of us.” The original idea for Halo: Humanity came from co-director and writer Dayton Neuburger. It was a film he had even…

PROCESS: CREATE A TRAILER Alf Lovvold shares his planning and production tips ONE SCRIPT Always have some sort of underlying idea written down. I will often try to break it down and simplify it. It’s easier to build upwards than downwards. TWO SIMPLE STORYBOARDING Needles to say, even if you are not a storyboard artist just doing basic layout and shot planning will help a lot when trying to tackle them in 3D. Even if it’s just sketches. THRE BLO CKING/PREVIZ/EDIT Always block out your shot/sequence with low-poly geometry. I often use objects as simple as cubes to get a feel for the timing and not the actual asset itself. It helps me focus on the timing/motion rather than giving the OCD a chance to kick in. FOUR FINALISE HERO…

Apart from merely achieving the likeness, I wanted to portray Dana Scully’s personality in my artwork ARTIST Jeen Lih Lun SOFTWARE ZBrush, Photoshop, After Effects, V-Ray “I had been working on this piece on and off for a few months in my spare time,” begins Cambridge-based artist Jeen Lih Lun. “I spent roughly three weeks sculpting in ZBrush to achieve the likeness and created the low poly model with UVs, two weeks setting up Maya skin shaders, creating the eyes, lashes, brows and textures, a week to create the hair using Maya nHair, and another week or so for clothing, peach fuzz creation and rendering.” Jeen is a character artist, who loves to capture the essence of the character’s disposition in her accurate renders. “Apart from merely achieving the likeness,…

Digital artists need powerful and reliable workstations to work at their best, in an ever-evolving 3D industry. With this in mind, leading computer technology company Lenovo has built a brand-new product range – the Lenovo ThinkStation P series – specifically to accommodate the needs of 3D artists. MIKE LEACH A graphics workstation evangelist with over 15 years’ experience, Mike works as a product technologist for Lenovo UK, specialising in Lenovo’s ThinkStation P Series and ThinkPad W Series products. www.lenovo.com “We’ve completely gone back to the drawing board and reengineered it from the ground-up,” says product technologist Mike Leach. “What we have now is the world’s best designed workstation.” Unparalleled usability Based on the latest Intel Haswell processors and powered by Nvidia Quadro Professional 3D graphics cards, the Lenovo ThinkStation P…

NEW RELEASE Modo 901 launched to a fanfare in San Francisco in May as artists from Wolverine, CoSA VFX and PlayStudios demoed the app’s new features… VIEWPORT TWEEKS You can manipulate geometry and materials in a realtime setting that accurately displays lighting and shadows, BRDF materials, reflections, gloss, screen-space ambient occlusion, high-quality transparency, anti-aliasing, supersampling and a number of 2D post-processing effects. BETTER TEXTURES A new option in the Parametric Ink tool enables you to use surface parameters to vary the opacity of the applied paint, while a new texture switch node and wireframe shader extend texturing possibilities. RENDERING Modo 901 offers a new choice of BRDF material that better matches specular highlights on real materials, and offers control over blurry reflections. The material is compatible with the new advanced…

GET PUBLISHED Email your CG ART to ian.dean@futurenet.com Visit the online Vault to download extra process art for these projects: www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw197 INTERVIEW IT’S NOT ALL DOOM Veteran video games artist Brett Briley shares his passion for 3D printing with Ian Dean Though Brett Briley began his career as a merchandise artist at Disney, he has spent the last 16 years working in video games after he attended the E3 Expo and thrust his portfolio at anyone who would pay attention. Is it just as easy to catch a break for an artist fresh from college today? “I think there is always a possibility of someone breaking into the games industry by attending a conference, especially if you have the portfolio someone is looking for,” says Brett. “Having the opportunity to…

JAVIER GARCÍA UREÑA Javier is a freelance CG modeller and 3D print artist who creates game miniatures for Corvus Billi and Privateer Press. www.bit.ly/197-javier VITAL STATISTICS LOCATION Spain SOFTWARE ZBrush PROJECTS Infinity Warmachine For some artists the path to a career is a straightforward one, but for Javier García Ureña it’s been a long journey. As a child Javier loved to draw, but… “my father told me to study something useful at university, so I studied physics and ended with a specialisation in theoretical physics, nothing to do with arts,” says Javier. However, the call of the artist continued to persist and he took freelance illustration jobs and soon decided to risk all and “leave a good stable job to follow a dream.” After teaching himself digital art from online…

Dayton T. Neuburger is the project’s founder, co-director, editor, lore enthusiast and writer. He loves Halo, philosophy, music and storytelling. Milorad Petkovic, 3D artist, is from Serbia and lives and works in Belgrade. He has very extensive experience in the VFX Industry. Togrul Alekperov is a self-taught 3D artist with over eight years’ experience in CGI. He specialises mainly in environment creation and visualisation. Zack Smith is one of the writers, an actor and lore specialist for the film. C.J. Franks is an experienced storyboard artist, illustrator, and graphic design specialist whose work spans films, book covers, and comics. Maria Rubel from Dreamsfall Music is a self-taught composer, who specialised in writing hybrid orchestral music for films and video games. Martyn Tranter is the project’s lead graphic designer. He is…

Price £3,100 (one-time licence). Ongoing subscriptions are available. | company Autodesk | website www.autodesk.co.uk AUTHOR PROFILE Paul Hatton Paul Hatton leads a studio of visualisers based over on the East Coast in Great Yarmouth. He delivers a whole host of projects including video and interactive environments. cadesignservices.co.uk/services/3d-studio Many people were understandably frustrated with Autodesk for releasing 2015 and taking away some beloved features, only to introduce others which could be accessed through plug-ins already on the market. Even messing with the Layer Manager and removing the Plus button was criticised. Let’s see how the 2016 version shapes up in comparison… Some people believe Autodesk release a bad version of their software to then release a later version which performs better by comparison. I think this is a little harsh but…