Table of contents for May 2021 in 3D World

ARTIST Charly Amani SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, XGen, Mari, Photoshop This expressive piece took character artist Charly Amani around a week and a half to complete. The title Moon was a suggestion from his little sister. “What I enjoyed most about this work was sculpting its expression,” he explains to 3D World. To create the impressive micro details of the character’s skin, Amani used maps from Texturing XYZ. He also utilised ZBrush’s cloth simulation tools for the very first time on this piece. “I first look for references in relation to the work I'm going to do,” Amani continues, “it's a step that I particularly appreciate, it's quite fun.” Once he has all his references Amani begins carving the character in ZBrush, working until he is happy with the result. “I…

YEAR CREATED 2020 SOFTWARE ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Maya, Russian3DScanner, Mari, Texturing XYZ, Substance Painter, V-Ray, Photoshop ARTIST Josephine Rivera LOCATION United States I am fresh out of Gnomon’s BFA programme in Digital Production, my specialty is characters! I don’t particularly lend myself to one style, be it stylised, realistic, or anything in between. I simply enjoy the best of both worlds! This piece was created with the intent to better understand the process of rendering a photorealistic character. Regarding the subject used in this image, he is based off of Wes Studi's role in the movie Hostiles where he plays the titular 'Yellow Hawk'. I chose him because the character depicted in the film is visually eye-catching. jrivera3dworks.wixsite.com/josephinerivera3d The Rookies is a platform to help digital artists get discovered without…

Virtual production utilises real-time graphics to capture a blend of virtual and physical environments live in-camera. Used by the events, broadcast and film industries, these technologies and techniques create immersive experiences that blend performers, presenters, actors and products inside photorealistic or imaginative virtual worlds. 3D designers are often faced with the challenge of working within the limitations of existing live-action footage or having to pre-empt any number of variables when producing content for use in live broadcasts. There’s a tricky balance to be maintained when blending the real and virtual worlds. While virtual production opens the door for creative decisions to be made on set and in the moment, creating a good experience for performers and the wider production team involves preparation and design thinking from the early stages. Virtual…

NO.39 WHEAT FIELD Software Unreal Engine, SpeedTree, Megascans, Substance Designer Year made 2021 WORLD POSITION OFFSET SHADER One of the goals of this project was to mimic real wheat field wind via the World Position Offset shader. I separated the foliage movement into three layers. The first layer is the wind-wave mask, and it is also the mask for the other layers. It controls the big wave shape and the amount of foliage bending down. The second layer is the foliage swing mask that controls the rotation of each foliage. The last layer is the individual swing noise, and it presents the difference between each foliage to prevent a completely unified movement. Yuchun Huang huangyuchun.artstation.com Yuchun Huang is an environment and technical artist with a focus on real-time rendering. He…

Antony Ward replies If nothing else, the release of Cyberpunk 2077 has opened the eyes of the world to just how frustrating software crashes are. You may have experienced it: you’ve spent the past hour doing reconnaissance on a factory before sneaking into it to steal some compromising data from their system, and just as you’re about to leave, completely undetected I might add, the game drops to the all too familiar “this game has encountered an error” screen. You now have to do it all again, for the third time. Yes, this is frustrating, but nothing compared to what we 3D artists have had to endure for years. An application deciding to stop working is part and parcel of this industry. Previously, if you had a day without any…

I’d say our internal approach to content creation is a bit unorthodox, but designed so very deliberately. We’re focusing on artistic control and architectural consistency. Therefore, internally, we’re not focusing on just one specific procedural workflow but rather multiple, with many supporting processes in the entire pipeline. We can utilise all the little nuts and bolts to find a suitable solution for working with clients. We will continue to solely focus on the production of 3D architecture (no games or VFX work per se) and refine our toolsets further, so particularly smaller studios don’t have to invest in an expensive pipeline.…

Sam Passmore is creative director at Fire Without Smoke. His team loves games so much, they built a creative studio specifically to deliver the best content possible for the industry, from trailers to in-game cinematics and beyond. Recent projects worked on include Tomb Raider Reloaded, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Rainbow Six Siege, Death Stranding, Outriders, Watch Dogs: Legion and much more. Fire Without Smoke is also part of Keywords Studios – the games tech giant that provides everything from art to audio, animation, development and other vital services, with 60+ facilities in 21 countries. Now, Sam Passmore talks through his entry into the games industry, offers advice on how to create the perfect trailer and reveals how Fire Without Smoke pulled together stand-out content for Watch Dogs: Legion, Ubisoft’s latest addition…

ARTIST Ümral Ismayilov SOFTWARE Blender 2D and 3D artist Ümral Ismayilov spent two days working on this stylised cityscape with the goal of exploring animation. Ismayilov chose to forgo any complex effects or simulations, modelling and using paid assets to create the scene instead. “Most of all, I enjoyed the atmosphere and vibes that this look gives us as well as a smooth animation,” he tells 3D World. The evenings are Ismayilov’s favourite time to work, as his motivation is higher. “I mainly use ZBrush to sculpt extra detailed models, Substance Painter for textures on the models, and Adobe software for cool effects or 2D design and animations,” he explains. “I also use Blender or Maya for 3D techniques and scene setup, rendering with Cycles, Eevee or Arnold.” When he becomes…

Unless you’ve been holed up somewhere very, very remote, you’ll have noticed that the world is changing. Our ever-increasing awareness of environmental issues has put pressure on every industry to take steps towards sustainability and limit their pollution. This has seen multiple industries go digital, leveraging cuttingedge technology to improve the way things are done. The fashion industry is certainly no exception and right now a plethora of talented individuals are working hard to replace traditional methods with 3D tools and software. As the capabilities of fashion design software improve and new manufacturing options begin to emerge, 3D World is suiting up and taking at our of the fashion industry’s innovations, from digitally sculpting footwear and apparel to 3D printing dresses. “I THINK HUMAN AND DIGITAL MODELS ARE GOING TO…

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In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to use heightfield tools and the Vellum Grain Solver to create realistic sand elements. We will go through various methods to properly art direct the scattering of grains throughout the terrain and techniques that will cut down on simulation time significantly. We start the tutorial with pre-made terrain geometry and create an occlusion mask to control where the sand is generated. We will then convert this to geometry and create depth using VDB tools and attribute paint nodes. From there we split the geometry that will be static and the elements that will interact with the animation. We pre-solve the simulation to ensure the grains are natural and settled within the terrain, and then simulate the necessary frames. Finally we’ll go…

Mike Griggs Mike Griggs is a 3D and visual effects artist with vast experience across the industry, as both a creator and a technical writer. www.creativebloke.com Glen Southern Glen runs SouthernGFX, a small Cheshire-based studio specialising in character and creature design. He has been using and training ZBrush in the UK for over 15 years. www.southerngfx.co.uk Antony Ward 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 Pietro Chiovaro 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. www.pietrochiovaro.com GET IN TOUCH EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO rob.redman@futurenet.com Mike Griggs replies Redshift from Maxon is a versatile, non-biased 3D render…

This is the first article focusing on ‘procedural cities’, in which we will dive into some of the general challenges of managing the creation of procedural architecture. There are multiple tools for the task out there, such as SideFX Houdini and ArcGIS CityEngine, though the artistic and managerial challenges are the same in every tool. Creating a gazillion 3D buildings procedurally is quite easy – creating good buildings procedurally is difficult. Good in the sense of variety of types, consistent architecture, and optimised data (e.g. ‘levels of detail’ or ‘draw call optimisation’ for realtime use). With everything challenging, good management is key. Which is why, in this month’s article, we’re focusing on the often overlooked strategic aspects of planning procedural systems. Let’s dive in! 1. MANAGEMENT 1.1 Team The most…

NAME Klaudija Cermak JOB TITLE VFX compositing lecturer STUDIO Escape Studios LOCATION London, United Kingdom ABOUT Klaudija Cermak is a VFX compositing lecturer at Pearson College’s Escape Studios in London. She is currently celebrating 35 years in the industry. WEB klaudijacermak.com With a CV including roles at major postproduction houses such as MPC, The Mill, Framestore and DNEG, Escape Studios’ VFX compositing lecturer Klaudija Cermak has 35 years of experience to bring to her teaching – along with a deep understanding of what is needed to succeed in the industry. Her feature credits include Gladiator, which won an Oscar for Best VFX, as well as Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Captain America and Jason Bourne. Broadcast credits include Virtual History, which won…

I received my education as a traditional painter and am fluent in oil painting, drawing and traditional sculpture. I have always tried to do things that surprise and amaze the public, and have always looked for tools that help me in this. Of course, I turned to modern digital imaging techniques. Before I was fascinated by modern technology, I was inspired by the paintings of artists from the past, with their attention to detail in clothing. My childhood was spent in museums and carefully studying fashion magazines. There, I realised that clothes are not just a way to cover up our nakedness, they are a way to express yourself, to express your attitude, to find supporters and outline the boundaries of your world. When creating 3D clothes, I strive to…

Fantasy and reality are often never really far apart; one informs and inspires the other, and in the cultures of South East Asia the tradition of dragons is rich, wide and deep. Indeed, dragons have a longstanding place in movies and, in part, that’s surely because it’s a beast with such visual potential. Tapping into that visual possibility is the new movie from Disney Animation, Raya And The Last Dragon. It’s the studio’s 59th animated feature and it takes various points of inspiration and influences from the images of South East Asia in the creation of a brandnew fantasy adventure. 3D World had an opportunity to get more of an insight into how the breath of animated life brought a fictional world of beasts and humans to life on the…

It can be a real challenge for someone new to modelling to know where to even begin. Do you start with sculpting, then retopologise your model? Do you begin with Boolean tools like Hard Ops or Box Cutter and use cutting tools to make your models look amazing? Or do you perhaps poly model them in a way that’s been very common since the industry began? This tutorial will help you start your journey by exploring a very basic polygon workflow. If you grasp all these basics, you can move onto the more challenging topics listed above. You can then begin to combine the different types of modelling and start to expand your skills in new and exciting ways. We will start here by making a little robot with a…

Glen Southern replies DynaMesh has been available in ZBrush since the mid 2000s and is a very well-established part of the digital sculpting process. Sculptris Pro on the other hand is a much more recent addition and was brought in as a new feature after the acquisition of Sculptris by Pixologic. Let's start by understanding each mode and how to use it. DynaMesh is a feature you turn on once and then call repeatedly with the stroke of your stylus. It allows you to remesh your entire model with an averaged set of polygons across the whole surface, meaning that if you had stretched out a finger, for example, it would even out the polygons across the entire mesh, thus removing the stretched polygon issue. You can use it in…

BAFTA award-winning London animation studio Blue Zoo recently teamed up with Oculus and Facebook Reality Labs to create The Beast, the new VR short film for the Oculus Quest and Rift. The film is the first Blue Zoo has created entirely in Quill VR. A story of extraordinary willpower in the face of a challenging journey, The Beast follows a lone cyclist powering up the side of a giant snow-capped mountain. “The creative was inspired by the saying ‘mind over matter’,” says co-director Grant Berry, explaining The Beast’s origins. “It’s about trying to overcome your demons, and adventurers trying to conquer their dreams. We liked the idea of allowing viewers to fill the gaps, leaving them to conclude the story for themselves. We felt the VR experience really lent itself…

MAKING DREAMS INTO GAMES Software Blender, Photoshop Year made 2020 3D FOR STYLISED ILLUSTRATION I start to block out things roughly with simple box modelling. I model similar to how I paint, trying to capture the feel of the image with just simple low-poly shapes. We don’t have to spend a lot of time on geo or materials for stylistic images, as most will be overpainted. But I do spend a lot of time on getting the lighting right because this is what 3D can help us with. Finally, I use a Photoshop plugin called AKVIS OilPaint to add some paint stroke effects. I put it on a low opacity layer and then paint on top of that. Tony Holmsten (character design and poses by Marcos Ramos) tonyholmsten.com Tony Holmsten…

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