Indice dei contenuti per November 2020 in 3D World

$99 Annual print and digital subscription offer – turn to page 87 to find out more Architectural visualisation is a big deal for many 3D artists. As well as being a pretty large industry in its own right, it also offers something to the hobbyist or CG enthusiast as a way to expand skills, focus on lighting, and create renders of real-world scenes that are easy to judge, compared to dragons, robots and the like. That’s why this issue we talk to Belle van der Woodsen, our cover artist, to see what is in store for you if you are interested in this field. Not only does she talk about her work but she takes time out to walk you through her process, giving you valuable insights into how to…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Photoshop Damon Woods is the director of character art at Survios, as well as an instructor at the Gnomon School of VFX. “Growing up, the movie Space Jam was on repeat in our house,” he recalls, “so when I heard they were making a new one, it got me thinking about what an updated version of the Monstars would look like. I thought it would be a fun project to do my own take on them with today's super stars.” Woods began by gathering references on his subject matter, in this case NBA star Joel Embiid, before moving into ZBrush. “I use DynaMesh to block out the major forms and proportions, then I start on the face, blocking in the intermediate shapes to work towards a likeness. I…

SOFTWARE Maya, Marvelous Designer, Redshift, Photoshop These slick images took Blizzard Entertainment senior cinematic artist Sengjoon Song two months to complete, working on and off. “I always enjoy making 3D models and renders,” he tells 3D World. “This time around I wanted to depict a culture and vibe related to racing on the street.” Techniques such as cloth simulation, procedural textures, lighting, and random model generating helped Song to achieve his stunning end result. Song emphasised time management and efficiency throughout the creative process on LRP. “There's a specific final composition and lighting I had in my mind,” he explains, “so I put a minimum effort into creating textures. In fact, it's funny that all seven characters in this piece share the same face and body textures. This was totally…

“We had plate photography of the location, the Rezvani driving through the location and of a Jeep outfitted with the same wheels, tyres and wheelbase that the Rezvani had, and blown up in front of the camera at a different location,” states DNEG VFX supervisor Jeremy Fernsler. “All of the camera moves and angles were slightly different. Trying to maintain the mandate to hold onto everything they shot as much as possible proved to be difficult. There was a lot of nudging the plate photography into places using numerous projections, some retiming and in the end, we did extensive augmentation. We ran fire simulations which gave us a lot of elements to help us blend everything together. Once our effects artists had matched the fire that was shot, it could…

Holly has eight years of experience as a freelance VFX artist, and is a lecturer at the University of Lincoln. instagram.com/hollywattvfx With more and more artists moving towards using software such as Substance to create their shaders with a combination of procedurals and hand painting, it can feel quite daunting as a new artist to try to learn another piece of complex software at the same time as trying to learn Maya. This tutorial will show you the workflow to be able to add some simple, yet effective procedural edge wear or dirt to add to your shaders using just Autodesk Maya and its built-in render engine Arnold. Procedural textures like fractals and noise are calculated using mathematical equations and so are quick and easy for artists to create and…

Lily Roberts, Manchester Cinema 4D and After Effects are two applications that have longed worked well together. However, what happens when a third-party After Effects plugin like Red Giant’s Trapcode Form is being used to create UI elements? Cinema 4D’s 3D camera animation control is much easier to use than in After Effects, and thanks to Cineware these camera moves are easy to import into After Effects. Thankfully, it is straightforward to get Cinema 4D, After Effects and Trapcode Form working well together. The trick is to use Cinema 4D’s excellent file export toolset to create an OBJ object, while also using the External Compositing tag to make null objects that can be easily updated from a live Cinema 4D file. This makes it easy to modify the camera animation…

Tim Stone, New York FOLLOW THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3DWorld-remote Today I will show you how to create a floor tiles material using Substance Designer. For this type of material, I selected the Physically Based (Metallic/Roughness) Graph Template and I deleted the Metallic output since it’s not necessary for this substance. At this point we can start to add the nodes from the Substance Designer library: the Weave Generator pattern (the main element of the substance), the noises Clouds 3, BnW Spots 1 and Blue Noise Fast, the Height to Normal World Units filter, four Levels filters, two Blur filters, two Blend filters, a Warp filter, an Invert Grayscale filter (you can also invert the grayscale using a Levels filter) and last but not the least the Gradient Map, which will help…

How did you become an interactive designer at MEPTIK? When I first met the founders of MEPTIK, Sarah Linebaugh and Nick Rivero, I was working as a lighting designer in Atlanta, GA with a mutual friend. Without my knowing, he passed my information on to them and we soon met for coffee. We didn’t work together until several months later when they hired me to assist with the install and programming of a large outdoor LED ceiling for an art and technology festival in Atlanta. After that, I worked with MEPTIK as a freelancer for several months before finally settling into the role of interactive designer. What skills and qualities are essential to being an interactive designer? Interactive design can mean a lot of different things. In my case, it’s…

PRICE $379 | COMPANY Smartta | WEBSITE ismartta.com Sliders and dollies have moved on a lot over the last few years. Where previously they had been a tool aspiring filmmakers aimed for, they are now readily available and even motorised examples can be found in hobbyist and enthusiast camera bags. For CG artists they are more of a workhorse, as they allow predictable movement that is also repeatable and measurable, two attributes that can be vital for capturing plates for use in VFX, be it for a large production or an indie project. The Smartta SliderMini 2 aims to bring solid build with simplicity to users of all levels, and it succeeds in many ways. The unibody construction is strong and light with a durable finish, and the motion itself…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag It took 3D senior character artist Charlotte Johnson two and a half months to complete work on this game-ready asset. “Vincent Valentine was created for Retrogasm 2019 which is a global video game art competition run by Jon Troy Nickel and Layna Lazer,” explains Johnson. “You have to take an existing character from the sixth generation of console or prior and remake them with current tech we have today, within the time limit. I am honoured that he came third place amongst all the other amazing entries.” Johnson usually begins by gathering references and breaking down a concept before she gets started in ZBrush, blocking out the character’s shape with DynaMesh before giving it a supportive topology. “Once I have topology, I can…

SOFTWARE Maya, Marvelous Designer, ZBrush, Houdini, Substance Painter, Arnold, Photoshop “I’M A SUCKER FOR FAN ART, I REALLY ENJOY DOING MY OWN TAKE ON EXISTING CHARACTERS” Freelance 3D artist Mikael Andersson crafted this battle-ready character sporadically over the course of a year. “There were a lot of new things I learned and explored during the project so it dragged out a bit in time, but all the new knowledge made the time invested really worthwhile,” he adds. As a fan of working with anatomy, Andersson particularly enjoyed creating the character’s face. “Tweaking the proportions, adding all skin details and hair, you could spend forever tweaking those things,” he adds. “I'm also a big fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe so working on something like this really helped keep motivation up for the…

Construction robot George has a limited cognitive capability beyond laying cables. “George is like a toaster on legs!” laughs DNEG animation supervisor Ben Wiggs. “He is good at his day job; however, that’s his only purpose. We didn’t want it to be goofy but look simple and basic.” George tries to make the people around him feel comfortable through imitation. “George does what he is told and is often mimicking Caleb’s actions,” explains DNEG VFX supervisor Jeremy Fernsler. “You see a lot of micromovements in him.” “They had to feel like robots which is a problem when you do straight mocap as it is just a guy in a suit,” notes Wiggs. “We stiffen things up and what looks like an instinctual reaction, we minimise so it feels more like…

artstation.com/nicolasmorel Nicolas Morel is a French digital sculptor, currently living in London and working in the VFX industry as a creature modeller. DISPLACEMENT PROJECTION IN MARI For this creature I used a Texturing.xyz animal pack, they are amazing quality and I am always looking to improve my Mari workflow. I projected all the maps in Mari, then used them as a displacement in Maya without going through ZBrush, minimising any loss of quality. But I still used these maps as a guide to create all the secondary shapes. I imported them on a layer in ZBrush that I deactivated before exporting my displacement. I then used both my ZBrush and Mari displacement in Maya, so that I could manage them separately. It also helped me to bring more complexity to…

zagan.artstation.com Sonia Mendoza is a 3D character artist who loves making creatures for video games. YANGARDASH Soft ware ZBrush, Subst ance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag 3 Year made 2020 MODELLING This piece is based on a 2D concept by Antonio J. Manzanedo. Once I had the base model I made sure I had a good topology to work with before getting started on the scales. I saved a morph target and started working on the scales in a new layer for better control. When it came to the scales, I wanted them to be unique, so I made my own alphas and was careful to place them so as to avoid a recognisable pattern. I also sculpted in between them to further improve the end result.…

James Simmons, Winchester It is a well-known fact that you cannot get better at something without many hours of practice. Some things can come easy to us and we fall into a trap thinking that the rest should come with it at no cost at all. We might be great at sculpting eyes or clothes, but lack in other areas. Just because we can model a fantastic Ferrari, does not mean we will definitely succeed with a complete character. It may turn out, and it usually does with beginner artists, that it is the little things that become the source of our greatest frustrations. We end up spending way too much time trying to figure out why the things that should be so simple, just do not look right. Sometimes…

“We have a pretty extensive library of ape and chimp reference to draw upon,” states Martin. “Part of the brief for Marcus was that he wasn’t a hyper-intelligent chimp but an animal in a strange environment. We looked at chimps that were looking into cameras and staring at mobile phones. Because it was interesting to see that they had some concept that these were special objects that made noises at them, but didn’t necessarily know what they were for. For Theodore we had recently wrapped up work on Disney’s Lady And The Tramp, so we had built up a small library of dog references. We had some great Japanese noodle commercials that featured a white fluffy dog in space which we referenced heavily for the cute factor.”…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on travel – not just internationally, but domestically. Small journeys that would never have been an issue are now treated with caution, while social distancing has changed how we interact both with others and the environment. Understandably, this has driven a sharp rise in virtual alternatives to physical activities, from viewing a house to hosting an event to filming a show. But for these types of experiences to work, we need compelling visuals that are as lifelike as possible – and that’s where creating highly accurate 3D assets is key. VIRTUAL COPIES OF REAL PLACES The BBC recently ran a report on the uptake in virtual property viewings since coronavirus hit, with VR viewings tripling in the first month of lockdown alone.…

SOFTWARE Blender, Photoshop, Affinity Photo Full-time illustrator and animator Jonathan Ball spent around three or four weeks, on and off, creating his Bladerunner Alley image. Ball was able to draw from his 15 years of experience as an artist throughout the process. “Most of my work is hardcore box modelling,” he explains, “I make everything from the basic geometry and then build in detail. As Blender doesn’t have the best cutting and welding tools I’ve had to learn ways to create industrial-looking geometry the hard way.” Ball sees the scene as a character in itself. “I love creating worlds with lots of detail and with a unified look and feel,” he adds. “Ultimately all my art is part of one giant world that exists in my head.” The process often begins…

SOFTWARE PureRef, ZBrush 2020, Blender, Substance Painter, Maya, Photoshop 3D character artist Manuel De Jorge based this character on concept artist Khoa Viet’s Bard Bat design. “Since the Bard Bat's clothing is a loose object,” Jorge explains, “I realised it’s hard to deal with if the model is rigged and skinned only by bones, because it creates unusual folds and artifacts when posing the arms, shoulders, torso and neck area,” he explains. “To deal with this I decided to use pose space deformers or PSDs on some parts of the clothing, which really helps because you can sculpt the desired shape. This method helps me a lot when posing characters.” Pushing the appeal of the character’s face was a particular highlight of the process for Jorge. “On the original concept the…

YEAR CREATED 2018-2019 SOFTWARE 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, Mari, KeyShot This project was requested during my training at the Animum School. First we study the anatomy of different ethnicities, then we apply the knowledge in a sculpt. I chose actress Danai Gurira for my project. At first I [aimed to create] her fictional character from the series The Walking Dead, but I saw that they had already made similar models, so I was more interested in her than in the character. This image has been my first realistic attempt and I hope to continue improving over time. instagram.com/fransbellart ARTIST Frans Bellart LOCATION Spain The first time I started drawing was at age 7-8, my parents got me a Mickey Mouse projector and I remember spending hours and hours with it.…

Though used mainly as a point of reference, motion capture did influence some of the traits of Harriet. “The mocap performer had a nice, slightly synthetic feel to his performance,” states DNEG animation supervisor Ben Wiggs. “He turned it up a little bit after Harriet gets hacked [by Mauve] because she had to feel slightly more human.” Harriet was not only feminine in name. “Latching onto the idea that she is female gave us a direction into how her body would move in different situations,” explains DNEG VFX supervisor Jeremy Fernsler. “Mauve activates an evade and escape mode that gave us an opportunity to incorporate humanistic traits such as panic when Harriet gets cornered and doesn’t know what to do; she has a lot more frantic motions.” One of the…

Glen runs SouthernGFX, a small Cheshirebased studio specialising in character and creature design. He has been contributing to 3D World for over 20 years. southerngfx.co.uk FOLLOW THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3DWorld-remote I often use VR to rough out designs for a new project. The sketching tools make it very easy to block out my ideas in 3D and then build over the top of those strokes in another layer. It is a very effective way to plan out a design, but with Gravity Sketch I can take it one stage further. I not only sketch the design and block it out for overall shape, but I can add surfaces and more recently polygons with full-on subdivision surfaces. These models can be exported as an FBX and I can use that geometry in…

Missing an issue of 3D World? Fill the gaps in your collection today! ISSUE 264 OCT 2020 THE VFX OF MULAN • Disney details the VFX secrets behind the live-action Mulan • Discover the inspiring world of music video visuals • Behind the scenes at Animal Logic, Part 3 • Create a Triple-A game in Unreal: Part 3, level flow planning • Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 263 SEPT 2020 THE MANDALORIAN • Exclusive behind-the-scenes access with ILM on The Mandalorian • How CG technology is engineering the tools of the future • Discover pro tips for Fusion with our jam-packed feature • Create realistic food renders with Substance Designer • Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 262 AUG 2020 THE PIXAR ISSUE…

Rebecca Stearns, Bulgaria It always amazes me how a model’s topology seems unimportant to some people. I’m not just talking about using the correct edge flow so your model can deform and animate correctly, there’s a lot more to topology than this. For example, it’s important to be aware of how many polygons, edges and vertices you are using. I always work by the rule that less is more, and I am constantly optimising my models to get the best performance out of them. Densely packed topology can be difficult to rig and can also produce surface artifacts like creases, pinches and bumps, which can ruin the overall aesthetic. One company that seems to be finally embracing topology is CLO Virtual Fashion, although it has not always been the case.…

texturehaven.com Rob Tuytel is an environment designer working full time on historical reconstructions, with a focus on the 19th century European city sights. PRINSENGRACHT Software Blender Year made 2020 BRICK DISPLACEMENT Prinsengracht depicts an ordinary city sight somewhere in the Netherlands around 1860. For this scene I experimented with brick displacement to add more realism to the buildings. By mixing multiple displacement maps and materials, I was able to make a blending mix that shows the dilapidated state of the buildings. Working with displacement for the bricks also ensures a better transition blending between the buildings and the sky. This avoids a hard edge fade which breaks the illusion of the image. This displacement method has an impact on performance, but it’s worth it if you want a more engaging…