Tabla de contenidos para June 2017 en 3D World

3D World|June 2017

WELCOME

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…

1 min.

3D World|June 2017

WAITING FOR THE BUS... (LEECH GIRL)

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…

1 min.

3D World|June 2017

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

Before beginning work on Kong: Skull Island, ILM animation supervisor, Scott Benza, bought as many nature documentaries featuring gorillas and other primates as he could find. “I did as much research as I could to do the best gorilla ever,” he says. “Then, we learned from the director that Kong wouldn’t be a gorilla. He was an evolutionary offshoot between a man and a gorilla. He would be a monster – half primate and half human. More like King Kong in the 1933 film.” That determination to make this Kong a unique species affected everything from the colour and texture of Kong’s hair to his size and performance. The Legendary Entertainment film – released by Warner Bros, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and with Larry Fong as its cinematographer – sends…

10 min.

3D World|June 2017

MASTER POWERFUL PORTRAITS WITH A ZBRUSH PIPELINE

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…

9 min.

3D World|June 2017

CRAFT A PLANT IN FLOWER USING CINEMA 4D TOOLS

Joseph Herman Joseph Herman is an animator, filmmaker and visual effects artist and production specialist from New York City. He operates his own New York studio, Legend Animation. www.legendanimation.com Cinema 4D’s versatile and powerful hair system is useful for all kinds of things besides hair and fur. One of the things that makes it so powerful is its ability to generate instances of any object in place of hair. You can therefore replace hair with feathers, armour, buds, tassles, or even entire forests. These are just some of the virtually unlimited things that the hair system is capable of. Of course, if you are looking to give your character a stylish hairdo or a distinguished beard, it’s great for that too, but we’ll leave that capability for another day. In…

6 min.

3D World|June 2017

HOW CAN I ENHANCE MY 3D RENDERS?

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…

2 min.

3D World|June 2017

IS THERE A WAY TO RANDOMISE ATTRIBUTES OF AN OBJECT AND MAKE DOZENS OF COPIES WITH INDIVIDUAL VALUES?

FOLLOW THE VIDEO If you see the Play icon, use the link You can use expressions to do this. An expression is a line of code that is used to get an application to perform certain functions. All 3D application packages that I’ve used have some sort of expression system built-in. I don’t know any that don’t. Expressions can be as simple as setting a value to a single attribute, say the Y-axis translation of an object, or they can be as complex as setting up a series of if/else conditions, where your application will make decisions based on these conditions and perform a selected few lines of code according to the instructions. A number of artists, myself included, don’t really like programming. I personally think programming relies on logic…

4 min.

3D World|June 2017

INSIDE THE VFX OF IBOY

Outpost, a UK-based VFX studio, is gaining a reputation for its exacting and fast VFX work; it was the sole provider of the effects for the new Wigwam Films/Netflix project, iBoy, directed by Adam Randall and based on Kevin Brooks’ novel of the same name. The film follows the story of 16-year-old Tom, who wakes from a coma to discover that fragments from his broken smartphone have embedded in his brain, and have turned him into an actualised app with incredible superhuman powers. Outpost was responsible for all 150 VFX shots, which included everything from concept and storyboarding, to creating particle effects. And then there was the creative and complex title sequence. All of the concept work was carried out in Photoshop, as were the hero iBoy shot elements, such…

4 min.

3D World|June 2017

MIGHTY MORPHING VFX

After a 20-year absence, Saban’s Power Rangers returns to the big screen under the direction of filmmaker Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) and VFX supervisor Sean Faden (The Purge). Each Power Ranger has a distinctly coloured armoured suit that morphs on and off, and it was these suits that were the source of the longest R&D period for the project. Legacy Effects did the initial suit designs, which were further developed and practically built by Weta Workshop, while the actual morphing was digitally handled by Pixomondo. “Dean did not want the morphing of the suits to feel too magical,” explains Sean. “He wanted it to feel physical, as if the suit was manifesting out of the air molecules and the clothing of the kids was being repurposed. We had a lot…

6 min.

3D World|June 2017

SiNi SiClone

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…

2 min.

3D World|June 2017

SHOWCASE

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…

1 min.

3D World|June 2017

Aghori

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…

1 min.

3D World|June 2017

CREATE A MAGICAL NEW WORLD

Creating art, in one form or another, has always been integrated into what I do. The ability to take an idea and transform it into a visual image to share with others is something I find powerful. Video games allow players to experience your art, not only visually, but through interactive experiences. This element of interactivity has motivated me to move towards games because they are like nothing else. My Forest Ruin project started as a challenge to make a naturalistic biome, but I also wanted to create the sense of awe that I experienced when playing games like Skyrim. Hopefully, my work creates an emotional reaction – I wanted the overall tone of this scene to be warm and welcoming. This project has helped me grow as an artist,…

5 min.

3D World|June 2017

MAKE FLOATING BUBBLES WITH HOUDINI 16

DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES For all the assets you need go to www.bit.ly/vault-221-VFX Houdini’s Finite Element Method (FEM) enables you to simulate solid objects as if they have a material inside them. This is great for flexible, fleshy, organic simulations, such as muscles and skin, and can create more dynamic deformations in a simulation by allowing the surface to bend before breaking. With the new reworked tools and options of the FEM objects and solver in Houdini 16, you can now use these tools in a wider variety of ways. In this tutorial, David Ertsinian will explain how to push the FEM solids to create a floating organic bubble. The workflow is much less complicated than in Houdini 15.5, and getting the desired look is now just a matter of finding…

5 min.

3D World|June 2017

SPEED SCULPT CHARACTERS IN BLENDER

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…

8 min.

3D World|June 2017

HOW CAN I CHECK MY ZBRUSH MODEL IN A REAL-TIME ENGINE?

Follow The video If you see the Play icon, use the link EXPERT TIP MAKE COPIES A good habit to get into is to always make a copy of the original model before decimating, so you can easily make changes and re-project them to the decimated model. This extends to all the subtools – it’s easier to experiment on a duplicate rather than undoing the original. Sometimes, you might be creating a mesh for a game engine with the aim of retopologising and baking afterwards. When you’ve finished the sculpt and want to see what it will look like with PBR shaders on, the normal process is to export the model for retopology, re-import, re-project the textures and export them along with any normals you’ve baked and curvature maps. However,…

2 min.

3D World|June 2017

DIVERSITY IN THE VFX INDUSTRY

INSIGHT News and views from around the international CG community The fact that certain groups are under-represented in the workplace is an ongoing issue – particularly, it would seem, for the UK’s VFX industry. And while the sector is booming, for it to continue to thrive and create products that reach and engage a broad audience, a diverse workforce is essential. “We’re a truly creative business, we live and die by innovation and aim to push things forward, invest in new technology and come up with great new ideas all the time. And can’t do that without different perspectives,” says head of learning and development at VFX studio The Mill, Simon Devereux. If you can see it, you can be it While there are nine protected characteristics when it comes…

5 min.

3D World|June 2017

LOGAN : DRIVEN BY REALISM

There are no alien invasions nor threats to world order in Logan. Instead, filmmaker James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) explores the family dynamics of two diminishing superheroes, who embark on a cross-country journey to save a hunted mutant adolescent, Laura Kinney (X-23), played by newcomer Dafne Keen. The film also sees Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman reprise their signature roles of Professor Charles Xavier and Wolverine/ Logan; and the grounded approach to the narrative was reflected in the VFX, supervised by Chas Jarrett (The Nice Guys). “We took a great deal of time creating VFX that looked authentic and lived-in, so even though there are 1,055 visual effects shots in the film, it doesn’t feel that way to watch,” notes Chas. “Almost every element was crafted for naturalism rather than…

8 min.

3D World|June 2017

Small form factor workstations

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…

9 min.

3D World|June 2017

BACK ISSUES

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…

3 min.

3D World|June 2017

FIGHT LIKE A GIRL

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…

1 min.

3D World|June 2017

JUST A GIRL

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…

1 min.

3D World|June 2017

MONSTER MAKER

Personal projects give you the chance to step back and try something new: you can use them to challenge yourself, to hone your skills, flesh out your portfolio or learn new ways of working. With Lateralus, CG artist Gordei Krasnov was doing just that; he wanted to explore the humanoid-style monsters in pop horror culture. “The main point of the project was to gain an understanding of basic trends for this type of creature and to expand my visual library,” says Gordei. “I think that analysis of an existing subject is the main way to improve design skills.” Gordei then embarked on a marathon watching spree, searching for the most iconic horror movies with creatures from the ’80s to our present day. “I was trying to find the creatures that…

8 min.

3D World|June 2017

CREATE A SCI-FI SAMURAI

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…

7 min.

3D World|June 2017

HOW CAN I CONTROL VARIABLE HAIR LENGTH USING CINEMA 4D?

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,…

5 min.

3D World|June 2017

HOW CAN I CREATE A CAR PAINT MATERIAL?

FOLLOW THE VIDEO If you see the Play icon, use the link EXPERT TIP DON’T BE SCARED TO EXPERIMENT In the Blender Node Editor panel, you can create new materials and new effects, adding other shaders and setting different values. The key element that helps to achieve realism in your renders is the correct creation of the materials. So, when I start a new project, I create the model and then I create all the different materials that constitute it, studying all the different properties that my object has in the real world, for example, roughness, transparency and reflectivity, and trying to recreate these features in the 3D world. Today, I will show you how to create the car paint material that you can see in this render, using few…

2 min.

3D World|June 2017

LEARN VFX FROM THE CG MASTERS

Whether you want to kickstart your VFX career or hone your skills, Escape Studios can provide you with the environment and vital competencies you need to succeed in the industry. Escape Studios, which was founded 14 years ago, has been part of Pearson College London since 2013, helping over 4,000 artists to realise successful careers. The key to the studios’ success is its close realtionship with the VFX industry: Escape Studios works with professional tutors, ready to pass on their practical industry experience. All of its full-time short courses are mentored, giving students unparalleled industry insight from inside some of CG’s leading companies, including Framestore, The Mill, MPC, Cinesite, BlueBolt, Double Negative, Creative Assembly, Milk VFX, Blue Zoo and Jellyfish. The expertise that collaborations with such well-known and respected companies…

3 min.

3D World|June 2017

FREE PLURALSIGHT COURSE 3DS MAX CHARACTER MODELLING

Joshua Kinney Joshua is a devoted games author at Pluralsight. Joshua was a key author behind Digital-Tutors’ popular game engine training and has devoted his life to creating games, as well as teaching others to build their own fantastic video games. www.pluralsight.com This issue, we’ve joined forces with Pluralsight (formerly known as Digital- Tutors) to offer you a comprehensive video training course that you can download from our online Vault – for free. Simply visit our online content downloads page at www.bit.ly/vault-221-VFX for the files. Characters are a critical part of any movie or games pipeline and are a really popular area of study for artists. Character creation can be a tricky thing to pick up, and modelling will be your first step before adding flair with posing and textures…

1 min.

3D World|June 2017

Substance Designer 6

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…

4 min.

3D World|June 2017

FREE RESOURCES

www.bit.ly/vault-221-VFX FREE Download a complete Pluralsight video course to help you create better characters in 3ds Max VIDEO & FILES GET YOUR RESOURCES You’re three steps away from this issue’s video training and files… 1. Go to the website Type the following into your browser: www.bit.ly/vault-221-VFX 2. Find the files you want from the list Search the list of free resources to find the video and files you want 3. Download the files you need Click the Download buttons and your files will save to your PC or Mac Plus art and resources waiting online… video: Get the video tutorials for a selection of this issue’s training Artwork: Download the extra tutorial images that accompany Showcase files: Download the highresolution tutorial assets for all of our training VIDEO + STEP…

1 min.