Table of contents for May 2022 in 3D World

SOFTWARE Maya, ZBrush, Unreal Engine 5, Substance Painter, Photoshop Unreal Engine has transformed the way a lot of people have worked, from indie artists creating in their bedroom to huge vendors with studios in multiple locations. This month we look at how Unreal Engine was used to create The Matrix Awakens, and our cover artist provides a step-by-step guide to his creation process. Elsewhere in the issue, we help you build your rigging skills and show you how to master your matte painting. And for all those looking to shoot their own background plates, we put Blackmagic Design’s BMPCC6k Pro through its paces. Enjoy the issue! rob.redman@futurenet.com…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Substance Painter, Maya, Arnold As a big fan of The Legend Of Zelda franchise, I’ve been meaning to create a tribute piece for years, but I was never able to come up with an idea that was both visually unique and challenging at the same time. That was until I came across Malin Falch’s illustration, which instantly appealed to me thanks to its powerful pose and strong design. I decided to spend a lot of time defining the anatomy and detailing in ZBrush, before experimenting with different rendering techniques, both traditional as well as my signature cel-shaded style. artstation.com/daneder…

SOFTWARE Blender, Clip Studio Paint Here I tried to explore the feeling of immensity and calm of a place that can be reached only by the air. The first step was to make sketches of the architecture and ship design. I modelled everything in Blender and set up the scene, adding enough textures, light and atmosphere for the composition I wanted to achieve. Then I used 3D as a base for the paintover, and preserved my 2D painting style. For someone who comes from 2D art, I can say that 3D allowed me to get the best camera angle, do colour and light tests, and optimise my time. This art was made as a study for the Environment Concept Art class, and I thank the support of master Kevin Gnutzmans.…

nielscvr.artstation.com Senior game art student with a passion for hard-surface props and texturing. REALISTIC TEXTURING I start by searching for tons of interesting references. I don’t try to make it look exactly like the references; I combine them to make the result look as interesting as possible. I focus on one part of the prop and tackle it layer by layer. Make every layer interesting to look at. I start with a base metal, already with some albedo variations. After that I’ve added a brushed effect to get that restored look. Then I start adding damages, keeping ‘big, medium, small’ in mind. Lastly I add dirt, grime and dust.…

Pietro is a freelance 3D artist and YouTuber. An expert in the creation of game assets and environments, he shares many of his creations on his channel. pietrochiovaro.com When building CG mountains, there are many important factors to consider when trying to achieve particular effects and produce a realistic result. We need to take into account the contrast between light and shadow, the depth of field, and scene imperfections: in the models (stones, grass, trees, flowers) and in the compositing (lens distortions, glare, fog etc). For example, in this particular landscape, I choose to give more importance to the centre of the scene, and to do that, I shaded the sides and concentrated the sunlight at the centre. In addition to this, another key consideration is the placement of the…

Glen Southern replies When it comes to sculpting on an iPad, Forger led the way and dominated for many years until Nomad Sculpt came along with many more tools, including the ones you need to prepare a model for print. Let’s talk about a few features you can use to get your models off your iPad and right into a slicer like Chitubox or Lychee. Often you may need to flatten the base of your model to make sure it stands upright and well balanced. You can do this by adding a primitive shape like a cylinder or a cube to the bottom of your model, but that’s not always ideal. Nomad has a tool called Trim that literally trims away geometry that you don’t want. Next, you may have…

The field of photogrammetry – capturing high-definition 3D renders of objects, buildings and people using images stitched together – has taken great leaps forward in recent years in line with camera technologies and computing capabilities. There’s no doubt that it now constitutes its own specialist discipline. From data capture for video gaming assets to virtual production environments for film, TV and XR, the potential applications of photogrammetry are endless. And with the technical advances, we’re seeing the rise of digital humans: accurate or modified renders of real people that can be used in all manner of settings. In recent years, Sony Digital Imaging has been making waves in the photogrammetry arena, by supplying cutting-edge camera technology that allows their customers to capture renders with a level of realism previously unseen…

Missing an issue of 3D World? Fill the gaps in your collection today! ISSUE 284 APRIL 2022 CREATE A RENDER IN LOW-POLY ● Transform a 2D sketch into a low-poly 3D render ● What equipment do you need to capture VFX shots like a pro? ● A beginner’s guide to kitbashing, with advice from the experts ● Behind the scenes on Pixar’s Automaton short ● Model a mech in Part 1 of a new tutorial series ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 283 MARCH 2022 NEW YEAR, NEW SKILLS ● Grow your CG toolset with our software guide ● We explore the gorgeous 3DCG visuals of anime film Belle ● Learn how to speed up your workflow for personal projects ● How to optimise game assets…

SOFTWARE Blender MODIFIER STACKS CAN BE A HUGE BENEFIT FOR LETTING YOU EXPLORE SHAPES AND POSITIONING After completing Andrew Price’s (Blender Guru) latest Blender Donut course, I felt comfortable enough in Blender to try and challenge myself. After finding this little guy I knew I had to try and bring him and his sticky toes to life. This little ball of sunshine is based on Guille Garcia’s Wizard Magpie illustration from a couple years back. One thing I really enjoyed about this project and Blender in general is learning and constructing ‘non-destructive’ workflows utilising the modifier stacks. These can be a huge benefit for letting you explore shapes and positioning without having to commit or create back-up/duplicate meshes. artstation.com/marchandventer…

SOFTWARE Maya, Arnold For this project the Transformers films were a big inspiration for me; I have always admired the amount of work the teams put into those films, from the largest vehicles right down to the smallest detail. The characters, weapons and locations were all given so much love, so for me I knew that if I was going to do something of this scale it had to live up to them. One of the main techniques I used was Maya’s Smooth Mesh Preview. By simply moving verts around on a given object I was able to quickly block out more organic-looking shapes, which made up the main muscle areas of the legs, body and head and overall gave the finished model a more techno-organic armour look. I enjoyed…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine 5 I first wanted to create this project back in 2017 when I saw a concept titled 'Kamikaze' by an artist called Puppeteer Lee on ArtStation. I started it but felt my skills weren't up to scratch to do it justice and so I put it on hold. Now that it’s done I feel a huge sense of relief. The most enjoyable part to me is that entire journey of taking on a big project and finally getting through it. As far as the modelling goes, I do pretty much everything in ZBrush and focused a lot on building the hard-surface objects with ZModeler. This keeps me in one program and saves a lot of time. For the haircards I created XGen guides…

Jason Hill is a long-time CG artist. He’s worked on games like Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends, and teaches online. www.artofjhill.com My goal when I set out on the project was twofold. My main objective was to create Nima, an original character designed by Ross Tran, in 3D. The second was to use Unreal Engine and some of its features to bring her to life. I have long been a fan of Ross and the worlds he builds with his art. I’ve always been partial to the character of Nima because I really like her aesthetic and colour scheme. This project was an opportunity for me to try my hand at creating something with a bit more style and simplicity than usual and pay tribute to the work he has…

I am a lead environment generalist TD with 15 years of experience in a variety of fields in digital art, currently in VFX. I grew up on a farm, leading to a close connection and source of inspiration with nature. I love creating atmospheric, rich and rustic artworks. www.artstation.com/cinemorx This project was started back in 2018, and approximately 120 pages of a basic script has been written so far as a first run, introducing the fantasy world. The current gallery showcases some conceptual artwork from the beginning of the story, and a few more of the bigger scenes for introducing the overall mood. A rustic medieval world where magic and science go hand in hand, crystals hold essences to enhance a person to use abilities beyond the ordinary. Machinery and…

Riley is a character modeller at Scanline VFX in Los Angeles. Previously, he built assets at Crafty Apes and Framestore for films, TV shows and commercials. artstation.com/riley_nelson This tutorial is an overview of the entire process I used to create a chimpanzee render, from modelling, texturing and grooming, to lighting and compositing. It requires a basic knowledge of ZBrush, a poly modeller such as Maya or 3ds Max, a texturing package of choice, and Photoshop. My tutorial focuses on creating a still, which will allow us to skip the process of rigging, CFX and animation. However, even if your final output will not be animated, spending time on retopology and UVs is worthwhile. Good topology with no spirals or Ngons will ease the process of creating highquality UVs. Clean UVs…

PRICE £2,090/$2,495 | COMPANY Blackmagic Design | WEBSITE blackmagicdesign.com The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro is a development of the original 6K model, which saw the Aussie firm move away from using the small MFT sensor into the big league with a much better Super 35mm sensor, which needed a new lens mount. Blackmagic went for Canon EF, and there are lots of lenses available at all budgets and in all styles, from bargain, AF nifty 50s to premium cinema primes and everything in between. With its large but fixed five-inch rear screen, internal 12-bit Blackmagic RAW as well as 10-bit ProRes codecs, the original BMPCC 6K was a fine video camera that went a long way towards being a professional filmmaking tool. It had lots of the bells…

Follow the link to download your free files https://bit.ly/3D-world-matrix MODELS + TEXTURES FREE ASSET DOWNLOADS Download a set of fantastic textures from and build your own asset library with these incredible free ‘furniture’ models from in our monthly model and texture giveaway. HIGH-RES SCREEN GRABS CREATE PORTRAITS IN UNREAL ENGINE 5 Follow along with our cover tutorial by J Hill as he details how to make dynamic portraits. HIGH-RES SCREEN GRABS + MAYA FILES RIG A MULTI-JOINTED ROBOT LEG Download the files for Ant Ward’s step-by-step tutorial on rigging robotic joints. ISSUE 286 NEXT MONTH Learn how to create incredibly realistic character designs. ON SALE 26TH APRIL Subscribe today: www.bit.ly/3dworld-subs…

SOFTWARE 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, Redshift I started the Mighty Mongrel Mob project for an annual competition held at Sperasoft. I came across an article about a bandit group called Mighty Mongrel Mob. There was a photo session organised by John Rothman. Among these pictures, I found an image of Greco Notorious. And my choice fell on him. The most difficult stage of this project was the cloth texturing. I used a method in which only the base colour is textured, and the texture of the fabric was added during the shading step. Groom artist Nadia Jiltsova helped me with XGen work. For the render I used Redshift. xeno.artstation.com THE MOST DIFFICULT STAGE OF THIS PROJECT WAS THE CLOTH TEXTURING… ONLY THE BASE COLOUR IS TEXTURED…

SOFTWARE Maya, Yeti, Mari, Substance Painter I undertook the grooming and lookdev for this project by commercial company FABLEfx. Since I started grooming, I have created many kinds of animals, and I feel how lucky I am when I work; it makes me really happy to look at photos of cute, furry animals and then re-create them with my own hands. To help make the cat look more real, I referred not only to photos that the client sent, but also used my own cat as a helpful real-life reference. The detail I was particular about was the crack of the fur that occurred depending on the area. Several mask maps and expressions in Yeti were needed, not just clumping but also added horizontal cracks to help achieve greater realism.…

Be it game development, rigging or recording in-depth courses for his YouTube channel, Antony boasts experience in most areas of 3D. www.antcgi.com When you search for tutorials on rigging, the majority tend to focus on more organic, biped type characters and creatures. If not two legs, the next common limb type is a quadruped one, with tutorials on limbs constructed with more than four joints being rare. This is mainly due to the popularity of more conventional characters and creatures seen in today’s films, TV shows and games. One request I receive more than any other are for more mechanical rigging tutorials. Now this can range from something as simple as a vehicle or a piston, right up to a more complicated robot with lots of moving parts, like a…

artstation.com/toivohuhtaniska Environment artist at Shapefarm. LIGHTING I pushed Unreal Engine 5 to its limits with this personal piece, built to be viewed from specific angles for maximum artistic control. I wanted to achieve a concept art-esque look that would make the viewer go "Ah, it’s a painting" – and then be surprised when it starts moving. Unreal’s new lighting system Lumen does wonders, but ultimately most of the compositional heavy lifting was done by hand-curated lights and fog cards, which were used to highlight certain areas and push back unnecessary elements, much like if you were painting in Photoshop.…