Table of contents for February 2016 in 3D World

As Star Wars: The Force Awakens breaks box office records around the world, we pay a visit to Industrial Light & Magic to discover what it took to create the movie’s stunning VFX. On page 40 read how leading artists mixed CG and practical effects to pay homage to the original trilogy. Plus, VFX legend Richard Edlund shares an unheard story about getting the perfect shot for Star Wars: A New Hope. There’s more Star Wars in this issue’s tutorials (page 51), as Pascal Blanché, Josh Herman and Marko Ivanovic reveal how to harness Star Wars to create amazing art – including cult bounty hunters Boba Fett and IG-88! SUBSCRIBE Subscribe to 3D World and get both the print and digital editions. Turn to page 50 for the latest offers!…

Is the CG industry a gender-equal playing field? Why are there so few women at the top, and what are the biggest obstacles preventing women from making it in the industry? These were just some of the questions discussed by Sony’s Tara Saunders, Escape Studios’ 2D head and compositing instructor Davi Stein, and film journalist Helen O’Hara in a recent hour-long live webinar, Women in Industry, hosted by Escape Studios. All extremely successful in their own fields, none of the women reported facing barriers based on their gender. Yet according to CG Architect’s 2015 survey, women represent just seven per cent of the architectural visualisation industry, and it was only a year ago that Marvel’s vice president of post production Victoria Alonso called for more women to work in VFX,…

With all the characters to choose from in the Star Wars saga, selecting the aimchallenged stormtroopers is a left-field choice, but artist Juan Martin Garcia Forn has his reasons. ARTIST PROFILE Juan works as a design and marketing supervisor for a women’s footwear company in Mexico called Mirella, and also takes on projects as a freelance artist. www.behance.net/Juan_Martin “Stormtroopers are formidably introduced in A New Hope, but progressively start losing credibility as they’re blasted by our heroes, and stoned by a pack of ewoks in the last film. People nowadays make jokes about their aiming skills, so it came to mind that The Force Awakens will remind the world how fearless and precise these troopers are intended to be,” Juan explains. “I tried to merge my favourite films with a…

ARTIST PROFILE Jingtian Li Jingtian is assistant professor at the University of the Incarnate World. He is a 3D generalist and particularly enjoys character modelling. www.tiansart.com TOPICS COVERED Cloth simulation Detailing We already know that ZBrush is a powerful tool for creating organic and complex shapes, like clothes. But it may take a lot of tweaking and reference to eventually make the cloth look natural and believable, and this is time consuming, too. In this case, we are going to learn a new workflow that uses cloth simulation to create the basic shapes, and then migrate to ZBrush to do some tweaking and add some detail. Marvelous Design is a design tool for fashion. It not only provides the general workflow for designing cloth, but also gives unbelievably fast and…

AUTHOR PROFILE Rob Redman Animation and VFX industry veteran, Rob is often found speaking at industry events. As well as his duties as a creative director he also runs training courses in house or on location. pariahstudios.co.uk With the power of modern compositing software at our disposal, we can start to think differently about how we approach our projects. In this article I’m going to show you how to make the most of your renders while keeping hold of your creative options for longer. Rather than finishing all your 3D work and rendering out your passes ready for compositing in Fusion, stop and think about what the final shot needs. It may well be that you could set up faster renders to combine in post, and in some cases this…

PRICE $775 | COMPANY Next Limit Technologies | WEBSITE www.nextlimit.com AUTHOR PROFILE Paul Hatton Paul leads a studio in England specialising in creating beautiful and interactive videos and environments. He has been working in the industry for over a decade. www.cadesignservices.co.uk I’ve always loved the Maxwell Render Engine and yet have never used it as part of my everyday workflow. For some reason it’s never surpassed or replaced my love for V-Ray, but who knows, that may well change in the future. If you want a render engine that is obsessed with doing things physically and accurately then this is most definitely the solution for you. And let me tell you, it is excellent at doing that. It focuses on light and ensures that it represents it as it should.…

PRICE $99, £64 (available as part of the $999, £640 Trapcode Suite 13) | COMPANY Red Giant | WEBSITE www.redgiant.com AUTHOR PROFILE Steve Jarratt Steve has been into CG for many years. He’s a regular contributor to 3D World and edited the magazine for two years. bit.ly/steve-jarratt Trapcode Tao, by Swedish developer Peder Norrby, is another wonderful plug-in for After Effects, enabling you to build complex 3D imagery with minimum effort. It’s basically a replicator, which arrays segments along a path – but Tao takes that basic idea and adds a wealth of options to provide almost unlimited scope. You can distort the path or segments using fractals, and then repeat the objects to produce complex geometric or organic patterns. The video tutorials on Red Giant’s website provide a comprehensive…

EXPERT PANEL Francesca Forzoni A 3D artist/visualiser in London, Frankie recently moved from postproduction to branding and packaging and currently works at Design Bridge. www.francescaforzoni.com Paul Hatton As the 3D visualisation team leader at CADS 3D, Paul creates models and renders, visualisations, animations and interactive walkthroughs. www.cadesignservices.co.uk/3d Rob Redman Rob runs a 3D animation and VFX studio, working for clients ranging from governments to rock stars. He’s also an industry commentator and trainer. www.pariahstudios.co.uk Eva Ng Eva is a London-based freelance 3D artist with an emphasis on lighting and compositing. She loves to create compelling imagery to entertain. www.eva-ng.com GET IN TOUCH EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO ian.dean@futurenet.com EXPERT TIP Adjust simulation settings on the fly With the simulation running, you can adjust any of the settings and see your simulation…

TOPICS COVERED Concept design Reference Modelling Rendering ARTIST PROFILE Josh Herman Josh is a lead character artist at Marvel Studios and a teacher for www.conceptartworkshop.com. He can be found at www.littlebluebot.com and will be launching www.ecretLabs.xyz with co owners Charlie Wen, Travis Bourbeau and David Finch in 2016. www.droidsforsale.com I always have new ideas popping into my head, as well as hundreds of projects that I want to do – and would – if I had the time. But some of my favourite projects are designing new versions of characters that I love. However, here’s the thing: I don’t like the typical characters that everyone else does. I like the weird ones, the oddballs, the outsiders, the B team or even the C team. It’s just who I’ve always liked.…

FOLLOW THE VIDEO If you see the Play icon, use the link! ARTIST PROFILE Marko Ivanovic Marko is a freelance 3D artist and concept designer whose main focus is modelling and designing characters for movies and game cinematics. www.markvano.com TOPICS COVERED Workflow Texture creation Materials Lighting Rendering Since that first screen engulfing shot of the Star Destroyer looming over our heads, Star Wars has inspired generations of artists. This movie changed the way we perceive science fiction. Through six films we have witnessed countless memorable moments and were introduced to some of the most iconic fictional characters in movie history. Now The Force Awakens is out and we finally get a longawaited sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, I was inspired to draw on my love of the series…

PRICE Free for iClone 6 Pro edition | COMPANY Reallusion | WEBSITE www.reallusion.com AUTHOR PROFILE Rob Redman Rob is an industry veteran, often found presenting at shows like FMX and THU. He runs courses covering VFX, animation and filmmaking. pariahstudios.co.uk Character creation is a particularly specialised task, but Reallusion might have the answer. For some artists, Character Creator might be a solid solution for generating quality humanoid figures. It’s best to think of this iClone 6 add-on as an extensive collection of morph targets, props and textures, for a few humanoid models. Similar functionality is available in other applications but not for free. Nor do they integrate with iClone, which is a big selling point, as that integration is where the power lies. Character Creator is simple to use, but…

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/3dw204 KHALEESI: THE THRONE IS MINE! ARTIST Baolong Zhang SOFTWARE Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, Unreal Engine 4 Baolong Zhang honed his 3D craft working for Architecture VIZ before becoming an environment artist in video games. This broad background means Baolong has a comprehensive skill set, allowing him to create magnificent realistic images. Capturing the likeness of actress Emilia Clarke came easily to UK-based Baolong. Created in just a month-and-a-half, the image of the Mother of Dragons is the latest in the fantasy fan’s set of pictures inspired by George RR Martin’s books. “The most exciting part was using Unreal Engine 4 for the materials and rendering,” Baolong explains. “It was so…

VITAL STATISTICS JOB TITLE Character and creature artist NOTABLE CREDITS The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Dead Island: Riptide, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (posters), Silent Hill: Anniversary COUNTRY Poland ARTIST PROFILE Izabela Zelmanska is a character artist working in the video game and film industry. www.bit.ly/Izabela Meet Izabela Zelmanska, whose story is quite familiar to many artists making their way in the industry. She’s created art for as long as she can remember, starting in 2D and moving to 3D when she began working in the advertising industry. But she was always restless, unsure she was in the right job, “I got bored of flying logos and reusing templates,” she says. “By pure luck I stumbled on a job offer in games development. It turned out to be just the…

AUTHOR PROFILE Dr Ian Palmer Ian develops and teaches programmes in digital media, games, animation and VFX. He has a doctorate in computer animation from the University of Sussex, having developed a new method of collision detection for real-time 3D objects. www.bit.ly/ijpalmer With the global blockbuster Star Wars storming multiplexes across the globe, and all of the promotion and fanfare around the next instalment that is driving massive awareness, let’s take a look at some of the innovations from the world of VFX, VR and AR that the studio have used to engage with its audience. Is this from an entirely marketing perspective, or are there other reasons why the studio has explored new technology and channels, in order to further engage their loyal fan base? And also, what are…

PRICE Currently in Beta (free), $16.99 (Learn licence), $79 (Indie licence), $279 (Pro licence) | COMPANY Nukeygara | WEBSITE www.nukeygara.com AUTHOR PROFILE Antony Ward For over two decades Antony Ward, creative director at antCGi Ltd, has been provoking pixels. In that time he has worked for many top studios and also written three technical manuals. www.antcgi.com These days, computer animation can be an expensive business. Not only do you need to shell out your hard-earned cash on a decent computer, but then you have to decide which of the hugely expensive animation packages you’re going to use in order to bring your creations to life. Fortunately, over the past few years we have seen a growing trend of smaller, independent teams creating more focused software. Whether that focus was on…

PRICE £1,221 / $2,013 / 1,463 Plus VAT | COMPANY The Foundry | WEBSITE www.thefoundry.co.uk AUTHOR PROFILE Mike Griggs Polishing pixels since 1995, Mike is a UK based freelance 3D, VFX and mograph artist, as well as a freelance technical writer. www.creativebloke.com Mari has become the texture creation tool of choice for many artists and studios. And with version 3, The Foundry are concentrating on workflow enhancements. While Mari 2 concentrated on core additions with shared channels and a raft of productivity tools, Mari 3 is concentrating on refining this core workflow while adding many new enhancements to aid its intolerability with other applications. A key addition is the inclusion of a range of shaders. V-Ray, Arnold, Unreal and Redshift are available allowing the preview of new texture channels in…