Table of contents for June 2017 in 3D World

We’ve come a long way since Merian C Cooper’s 1933 version of King Kong. But there is a resemblance to this original Kong in the ILM team’s creation. Like Cooper’s, this Kong is half primate and half human. From the colour and texture of Kong’s hair to his size and performance, the resulting monster lives up to even the most fervent fan’s expectations. emma-lily.pendleton@futurenet.com SPOTLIGHT ON OUR CONTRIBUTORS Gordei Krasnov Russian-born Gordei Krasnov now lives and works as a 3D artist in Melbourne. On page 32, he explains how he animated a monster for his short film. www.artstation.com/artist/gordei Oskars Dzenis Oskars is a 3D artist/generalist at innoWate in Riga, Lativa. He shares his pipeline for making a sci-fi samurai character in ZBrush on page 46. www.artstation.com/artist/oskarsdzenis Yanal Sosak Yanal is…

ARTIST Mariano Steiner SOFTWARE ZBrush, 3ds Max, Substance Painter, Photoshop, Marmoset Toolbag “The goal for this project was to study and introduce Substance Painter into my workflow, and also to test Marmoset 3,” explains Mariano Steiner, a character artist and digital sculptor currently working at Rockstar Games. But in his spare time (when he has some), he produces stunning and strange artwork such as this project. Created in two months, Waiting for the bus… (Leech Girl) was made out of Mariano’s intention to create something that is almost normal. “I wanted to provoke a weird feeling when the viewer sees it,” he reveals. With its realistic setting but unusual character, it’s certainly a piece that will make you look twice. “In my personal work, I always try to input a…

TUTORIALS Practical tips and tutorials pro artists to improve your CG skills CHOOSE YOUR SUBJECT Choosing this Native American character as a subject was a big challenge for Michaela, given the variety of materials and elements in the subject’s traditional clothing and accessories FOLLOW THE VIDEO If you see the Play icon, use the link Michaela Hýbelová Michaela Hýbelová is currently studying Film Arts at a private secondary school in Košice, Slovakia. She is aiming to work in the film/ game industry as a character designer. michaelahyb.artstation.com This tutorial will guide you through a Native American character project and will cover everything from gathering references to give you a better idea about the shape and proportions of your character, to looking at brushes – explaining how choosing the right brush…

Follow The video If you see the Play icon, use the link In issue 214, I talked about how I became hooked on 3D after landing a free copy of Bryce 2.0 back in the ’90s. Back then, I thought the goal with every render was to get it as close to perfect as possible to avoid doing any post-work. This meant that many of my renders ended up in the recycle bin. It seemed that post-work was frowned upon, and I even remember seeing images online being ridiculed for ‘obvious’ post-work. This happened even when the image was great art and when the artist was forthcoming about their methods. I think the 3D purists (apparently, there are such people) felt like post-work was cheating or cutting corners. I found…

Paul Hatton Paul leads a UK-based studio of visualisers. He delivers a whole host of projects including video and interactive environments. www.cadesignservices.com co.uk/services/3d-studio FEATURES Full procedural workflow Fast mesh building on render time Ordered or random Path follow Colour and texture variation Camera clipping IN TUNE Render Compatibility One of the major benefits of the SiNi products is their compatibility with a wide range of third party renderers including VRay, Corona, Mental Ray, Iray, Scanline and Final Render. There are also a selection of other renderers in development, such as Arnold, Redshift and Maxwell. 3ds Max contains a builtin Spacing tool, which enables users to duplicate objects along a spline. The tool contains a variety of parameters that mean you can customise this duplication. SiNi’s plugin SiClone is this Spacing…

D. VA MAINTENANCE ARTIST Antoine Collignon SOFTWARE ZBrush, Cinema 4D, Octane, Photoshop “Antoine Collignon is a professional illustrator and concept artist from Belgium, who mainly works in the entertainment industry for films. Completed in just eight hours of his spare time, D.va Maintenance is a piece of fan art based on the Overwatch firstperson shooter computer game. “I loved compositing this image to make it feel powerful,” Antoine explains. “The painting process was also super fun to do because it brought some life to a synthetic 3D base model.” When it comes to creating his artwork, Antoine has two different approaches. The first sees him taking an inspiring idea and working on it immediately. “It’s like an instant shot of art where you just enjoy what you’re doing.” The second…

ARTIST Aldo Martínez Calzadilla SOFTWARE Zbrush, Maya, Mari, Photoshop With its photo-realistic detailing and variety of textures, it’s hard to believe that Aldo Martínez Calzadilla’s Aghori Portrait only took two weeks to finish. “I try to work as fast as possible,” explains the Vancouver-based 3D modeller, who is currently working in the film industry. “In my experience, moments of inspiration don’t last too long, so I try to go through the process of creating an image as efficiently as I can. I always fear that I could lose the drive and motivation to get an artwork finished,” he explains. This doesn’t mean Aldo rushes his work. In fact, the meticulous groundwork of modelling and sculpting was his favourite part of the project. “I knew that in order to do a…

Yanal Sosak Yanal is a selfemployed character artist living in France. He posts daily art such as character sketches, sculpts and more on his various social media profiles. Check out his YouTube tutorials. www.youtube.com/c/ yanalsosak This tutorial will cover how to sculpt a Trickster character in Blender, from original concept to finished render. I will talk about the process I go through, including what goes through my mind as I work and why I choose one process over another. I will talk about creating the concept, and then move on to sculpting, lighting, materials, rendering and compositing. I have always wanted to create a Trickster. Ever since I played Final Fantasy 9 when I was a kid, the jesters Zorn and Thorn have been burnt into my memory. I thought…

James Morris James has been writing about technology for two decades, focusing on content creation hardware and software. He was also editor of PC Pro magazine for five years. www.webmediology.com UP DATE NVIDIA’S QUADRO P4000 IS FINALLY HERE For a brief period, AMD’s Radeon Pro had a window where its priceperformance balance made it the sub-£1,000 professional graphics of choice. That window has now shut as NVIDIA’s Quadro P4000 draws back the curtains, sporting 1792 CUDA Cores and 8GB of GDDR5 memory, for blistering performance. When buying a 3D content creation workstation, size usually matters. You can get some pretty potent notebooks these days, but if you really want top-end modelling and rendering capabilities, you generally need to go large. This month, however, we’re going to challenge that idea with…

ISSUE 220 MAY 2017 EXPLORE SCI-FI IN ZBRUSH • Discover the VFX secrets behind Ghost in the Shell • Upgrade your futuristic ZBrush characters with pro advice • Embellish your models with our Quixel tips • Sculpt an ibex in just one hour with our speedy sculpting tips • Downloads Free video training, files and morel ISSUE 219 APRIL 2017 IMPROVE YOUR VR GAME MODELS • How Epic Games’ VR games artists created Robo Recall • Pro advice for getting more from Substance Designer • Learn how to texture realistic skin using our tips for Mari • Master Cinema 4D’s new Voronoi fracturing tool • Downloads Free video training, files and morel ISSUE 218 MARCH 2017 THE MAGIC OF HOUDINI • An exclusive look at the new tools and features…

ARTIST Aliel Rocha Prates SOFTWARE ZBrush, Keyshot, Photoshop Self-taught illustrator and graphic designer Aliel Rocha Prates shows what it really means to fight like a girl with her boxer artwork based on an original concept by her friend Rayner Alencar. Taking 12 hours to create, Aliel’s determined fighter was an exercise in getting the pose and character right. “I also enjoyed reproducing the lights and reflexivity of the slightly wet skin,” she explains. “The composition and postproduction in Photoshop takes longer for me. I like to explore all the possibilities, you can completely change the mood of an image by just editing it in Photoshop,” Aliel adds. Drawing inspiration from artists from all walks of life, Aliel is a sucker for a good story, no matter the media. “If I…

ARTIST Kanat Nurmanov SOFTWARE 3ds Max, ZBrush, V-Ray, After Effects “I like to dream up ideas. Also the desire to create something new inspires me a lot,” reveals Kanat Nurmanov, a 3D designer, who works for a small 3D mapping company in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Taking a month and a half to complete during the evenings after a day at work, Just A Girl was an opportunity for Kanat to explore and test various features and software. “The things I enjoy most are modelling, lighting and rendering,” he explains. Inspired by his work and other artists in the CG community, Just A Girl took its lead from the work of Mexican artist Carlos Ortega Elizalde. “Also, I’m inspired by idleness,” he confesses. Sourcing inspiration is the first part of Kanat’s creative…

Oskars Dzenis Oskars is a 3D artist/generalist at innoWate in Riga, Latvia, and worked on a 3D mobile game Moana: Island Life last year in partnership with Disney. He has 16 years’ experience in computer graphics. www.artstation.com/ artist/oskarsdzenis Olympia is a sci-fi samurai. Before we start with this tutorial, let’s talk about reference. When an idea is starting to form in your mind, it’s imperative to collect all available background resources. For this project, I was inspired by HR Giger’s biomechanical world for the film Alien. I created an inter-galactic samurai, who values loyalty, asceticism, martial arts mastery and honour. I started my process by finding a good silhouette, balancing all the shapes and details, as well as assessing movement for functionality. For the silhouette, I drew black and white…

ARTIST Q&A Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills Rob Redman Rob is a 3D artist and creative director working across TV, film and print. He also presents at events such as Siggraph and FMX. www.pariahstudios.com Jason Knight Jason is a freelance digital artist with over 33 years’ experience. He enjoys the flexibility of working with various styles and mediums. www.knightgraphics.daportfolio.com Francis-Xavier Martins Francis-Xavier is a character artist and CG generalist based in Brighton, with over a decade of experience in video games, media and TV. www.polyjunky.com Pietro Chiovaro Pietro is an Italian 3D artist. who creates 3D assets and environments, and is currently working on an open-source game. www.bit.ly/PietroChiovaro Syawish A Rehman A motion graphics and VFX artist from Pakistan with nine years’ experience,…

Cirstyn Bech-Yagher Cirstyn is a freelance CG artist and educator, with over 15 years’ experience in 3D. Her clients have ranged from AMD to Daz 3D and Future. She is currently collaborating with AMD as technical artist for Radeon ProRender for 3ds Max. www.twitter.com/cirstyn FEATURES Curve Editor 32-bit compositing and HDRI Scan Processing UI and workflow tweaks Text node SD STARS BEST FEATURE ? loved working with the new Curve Editor node, I wasted way too much time happily exploring how I could detail my Materials. However, for me the stars were the new 16- and 32- floating point outputs. Being able to generate studio IBLs in SD just made things easier in my project. Procedural texture generator Substance Designer has taken two years to go from version 5 to…