Table of contents for March 2023 in 3D World

COVER ARTIST Thomas Le Marchand (AKA Geosyrup) artstation.com/geosyrup SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter In this month's issue we've delved into the wonderful world of fan art, where artists like to pay homage to their favourite characters and franchises. Some like to stay true to the originals, while others choose to create their own visions of the classics they know and adore. What's so enjoyable about discovering these pieces is the huge range of inspirations that are out there, not just from other 3D artists, but a wealth of areas from anime through to costume design. This issue we're focusing on this in a big way and bring you a huge selection of some of the best fan art out there, along with insights and training from top artists to help…

“I recently became immersed in the lore of Warhammer Fantasy through YouTube, and while browsing ArtStation came across Rinehart Appiah's Dwarf Slayer concept for the Total War: Warhammer game, instantly feeling the urge to make it. I started by blocking everything out in ZBrush, utilising masking and extracting, and ZRemesher, as well as ZModeler to create the blockout mesh. While I could easily do the tertiary details during the texturing stage, I opted to sculpt them in ZBrush as this wasn't a production asset, and I had time to give the sculpt more love. I did the retopology and unwrapping in 3ds Max and moved on to Marmoset Toolbag for baking and some lighting setups. After that I brought the model into Substance Painter and began making the textures. The…

The Gallery CG art to inspire ARTIST Logan Kehoe Power SOFTWARE ZBrush, Blender, Marmoset Toolbag, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine 5.1 “After watching Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, I was inspired to make a nasty ore. My end goal was to make a full character that ran real-time in Unreal Engine 5.1, and looked like it could be from a next-gen Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor game. I started with a bust in ZBrush to figure out where the character was going. From there I went into concepting the armour in 2D. I wanted to show visual elements of a balrog face without going over the top into World of Warcraft territory. I'm a long-time Maya user, but for this project I wanted to deep dive into…

Fan art special edition SOFTWARE ZBrush, Blender YEAR CREATED 2022 ARTIST Vincent Luu LOCATION France My goal is to be able to share my imagination with others, whether it's emotions, ideas or stories, just like the great Eiichiro Oda does. www.therookies.co/u/bruceluu For this personal project I wanted to explore and deepen my knowledge of Blender. I really liked the design of the character Ekko in the TV series Arcane, so I wanted to recreate him in my own style. The sculpt was made in ZBrush, which I then imported into Blender to try out the rendering system. The texture of the material was made by Jama Jurabaev, so thanks to him! The Rookies is a platform to help digital artists get discovered without having to compete with professionals for attention.…

1 The perfect pose The first thing I do is use a base mesh to pose the character and see if it works in the 3D space. Sometimes an idea can look really cool in 2D because you're focusing on one angle, but in 3D you have to try to make it look cool from several angles. I always try to have at least three good angles to look at it. 2 Modelling the character I start in an A-pose; working in a symmetrical way makes this stage easier and faster. Once I have the overall model, primary shapes, correct proportions, suit, and some of the texture details done I'll take it back to the pose that I figured out at the very beginning. 3 Refining At this point I…

• technique locus Cloth modelling for 3D-printed collectibles SAMURAI SCARECROW Software ZBrush Year made 2022 CLOTH MODELLING FOR 3D-PRINTED COLLECTIBLES I like to sculpt these cloth parts in ZBrush using DynaMesh. Cloth forms are a product of gravity, what lays beneath – the character's face – and what is on top – the ropes. Once you have all of the basic elements (image 1) you can start to define the forms and folds (2), and finish the modelling (3). Next, Polygroup and ZRemesh it, and assign UVs (4) before adding textile details, stamping an alpha using layers (5). Finally, you need to make sure the details hold up and can survive the printing process and production (6). bit.ly/3VPqIv9 Freelance concept artist and 3D modeller working in the video game and…

The Pipeline Make a 3D render from a 2D concept ZBRUSH | MAYA | ARNOLD | PHOTOSHOP Fan art special edition DRIVE I chose this concept from Gabriel Soares to tearn new software, and master modelling, textures and light 3D character artist with a traditional background, always interested in exploring new technigues or software. artstation.com/martamacedo In this tutorial you'll discover how to translate a 2D concept into a 3D render, capturing the storytelling behind it, and exploring the best techniques and key elements that will make a beautiful image. For this render, we'll be using ZBrush for sculpting details, making the retopology and UVs in Maya, and learning howto use Substance Painter in order to improve the appearance of your characters with awesome textures. Then back in Maya with all…

SCULPTING I started sculpting with DynaMesh, producing a rough sculpt. ZRemesher was then used for the clothes to make nice and clean topology. Next, I used the ZModeler brush to develop more sculptural detail. The symbols were made in Photoshop and imported into ZBrush for alpha masking. I created a basic alpha mask of that symbol on Append, used Extract to make it a 3D shape, and then used Live Boolean to create an inner cut of the metal forehead piece. I used Sculptris Pro for the hair details. I am freelance character artist from Bangladesh and specialise in modeling; sculpting, texturing and shading. Fan art special edition NARUTO UZUMAKI Software ZBrush, KeyShot, Photoshop Year made 2019…

What advice can you give to animators that want to land a role like yours? For artists getting into animation that don't know what to focus on, research the companies and studios that make your favourite shows, games, and so on, and see what jobs they have listed. They might not have the one you want on the day you look, but see what requirements their jobs have. Some might say a minimum of three years of experience. How can you get a job if entry-level requires experience? Sometimes companies will just hire you if your reel is good. You need four things to get a job: you need to be in the right location; have a good portfolio or reel; a good attitude; and a bit of luck in…

• The Gallery CG art to inspire ARTIST John William Crossland SOFTWARE ZBrush, Marmoset Toolbag, Photoshop “I have always been a big fan of Doom and I was really excited when I saw the original concept art piece from Hugo Martin. This was my take on it, in which I wanted to create a render inspired by the original game's box art colours and feel. I sculpted entirely using DynaMesh, which is a way of creating geometry and adding detail without topology limitations. I then used ZRemesher to generate the topology to take all the way through to the final render. It's a great way to sculpt freely in ZBrush.” artstation.com/johnwcrossland…

Feature House of the Dragon High fantasy – that's those fantasy stories set entirely within their own worlds, far from ours – is popular. It always has been on some scale, but in the past couple of decades its visual potential for film and television has flourished. One of the high fantasy stories that has enjoyed huge popularity has been Game of Thrones. The original series concluded in 2019, and in autumn 2022 a prequel series entitled House of the Dragon reached TV screens. Its rich fantasy-world palette has again captivated audiences. The series has provided a dazzling opportunity for visual effects and animation to be showcased in the creation of a medieval-inflected world of castles and coastlines, elemental powers and, of course, dragons. 3D World recently had a conversation…

1 Concept The first step is to choose some good concept art as the basis. A lot of research was done to determine which would be the best choice, and it became obvious that it should be a comic book cover. The best choice was to use a DC Universe Rebirth cover, illustrated by the super-talented artist Jorge Jimenez. This cover has a great action scene with the characters in dynamic poses and good elements to compose the base. The goal now was to make this illustration a statue that would work from all angles. 2 Modelling My workflow is very simple. First of all I work on a base mesh in ZBrush, to find the simplified forms of the characters. I gradually evolve this base form and block out…

The Pipeline Building Iron City UNREAL ENGINE 5 Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills WATCH IRON CITY https://vimeo.com/755581311 IRON CITY The two-minute pilot for Iron City teases an engaging sci-fi storyline on a mysterious world The pilot episode of our new sci-fi series Iron City tells the story of one of the setting's heroes. A completely ordinary-at-first-glance character acts as a narrator. It is from him that we learn about the opposing factions, a vindictive security drone, and the specifics of his work as an engineer. The series explicitly ridicules the established clichés and templates used in dystopian science fiction films. The only question remains: will the hero follow the beaten path, destroying the established order, or will another ending await? Created in Unreal…

P ersonality can bring so much to a sculpt, which is why the facial expression, shapes, proportion and lines were the focus for my stylised model based on Josh Brolin's depiction of Cable. As a result, the observation and sculpting process will make up the most vital steps for this tutorial. We'll start off by blocking out the character from scratch with primitive geometries and DynaMesh, followed by sculpting all of his features by hand using standard and custom brushes to achieve a more appealing look. After that, we'll dive into Decimation Master for a quick, straightforward export of meshes to Maya, and use V-Ray to create a custom shader and lighting setup to emphasise the surface nuances of the character's face. Lastly, we'll briefly explore Photoshop's tools to create…

PRICE From £l.100/$1.000 COMPANY Microsoft WEBSITE microsoft.com AUTHOR PROFILE lan Dean Editor of Digital Arts and Design at Creative Bloq, and former editor of both 3D World and ImagineFX, Ian has over 25 years’ experience in writing for film, games, art and technology. bit.ly/iandean + PROS Excellent design and quality Runs full software Works with old accessories Beautiful screen and keyboard – CONS Small folders and tabs SQ3 model is poor The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is the latest all-rounder out to challenge the iPad Pro for the crown of the best high-end tablet. There's always been a marketing fudge around the Surface brand; for example, Apple clearly believes the iPad Pro is a tablet first while Surface Pro is a laptop and tablet, and perhaps does both well and…

The Gallery CG art to inspire ARTIST Anne-Sophie Baeza SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, KeyShot “For this piece, everything started with Jessica, who I chose to sculpt for a modelling class. Then I thought it would be even better to show her with her dear husband, and immediately had in mind the famous dip scene from the end of the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I wanted to find an interesting pose that showed the bond between the two characters while also keeping the essence of their personalities. For this, I took several screenshots from the movie to use as references in order to create my own version. During the process I mainly used ZBrush to sculpt both of the characters. I began with symmetrical T-poses, then posing them, adding expressions, details,…

ARTIST Konstantin Gdalevich SOFTWARE ZBrusli, Maya, XGen, Substance Painter, Marmoset Tootbag 4 “As an avid, 500-hour Overwatch gamer, I always wanted to do a proper fan art series of the characters. When the cinematic for Kiriko dropped I realised that now was the time! She is the first of my series, with more to come. I was heavily inspired by the lighting and mood changes of the character, so my plan to attack this style of artwork developed instantly. I wanted to end my era of offline rendering for good. I have rendered in V-Ray and Arnold for my whole life, treating real-time engines such as Marmoset Toolbag and Unreal Engine strictly as game engines, not suitable to render high-quality still images as I loved them. Well, that all belongs…

TEXTURING While texturing this in-game character, I tried to add some variation to its solid skin, such as stains and colour variations on the horns and arms. By adding more dirt and using darker colours on the lower parts and lighter ones on the upper parts, I've achieved a gradient effect that can add volume to your final image and make your character's silhouette more readable. Substance Painter was used for the entire texturing process. Also, I want to thank Sergey Chebotok, who helped me with the VFX. I am a character artist from Ukraine. I work in the video games industry and have been part of various AAA projects including Call of Duty: WWII. HELLBOY Software ZBrush, Substance Painter, Maya, Marmoset Toolbag Year made 2019 Fan art special edition…

Antony Ward replies Rigging can be as frustrating as it can be rewarding. One day you can be problem-solving an issue with how your rig performs, the next you are coming up with a unique set of tools to speed up the animation pipeline. Then you have days where for no apparent reason, the limbs on your painstakingly constructed rig start to flip. In almost all poses the rig holds up well, but there is one extreme position that causes the arm to suddenly twist, distorting the model. This also occurs when blending between your IK and FK controls with the joints twisting in transit. So, what do you do? Well, don't panic, as with everything related to computer graphics there are several things that you can check, most of…