Table of contents for January 2019 in 3D World

Pascal Blanché Our cover artist this issue, Pascal is senior art director at Ubisoft Montreal with more than 20 years’ experience in the game industry. artstation.com/pascalblanche Maya Jermy Maya is a 3D artist and animator based in the UK. She started her career in 2012 remaking and animating characters for Oddworld. mayajermy.artstation.com Trevor Hogg Regular feature writer Trevor Hogg returns this issue with an in-depth look into the making of First Man, the effects-laden space-race blockbuster. www.linkedin.com/trevorhogg Ant Ward Industry veteran Ant Ward explores the considerations you need to make when venturing into a career as a freelance games artist. www.antcgi.com Ian Failes Ian is a regular contributor to 3D World, and in this issue he continues his series following the work and processes of Double Negative. www.vfxblog.com Mike Griggs…

The robot Jaegers and massive Kaiju monsters in Pacific Rim: Uprising. Giant and small versions of Ant-Man in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The alienesque symbiotes in Venom. The crazy critters of Annihilation. Wade Wilson’s baby legs in Deadpool 2. That’s only a small portion of the many incredible creatures and characters that visual effects studio DNEG has made for some of its recent projects, many of which are some of the biggest blockbusters of the year. In this second part of the insider series on the studio, 3D World finds out more about where creature work sits in the DNEG pipeline, with highlights from Ant-Man and the Wasp and Deadpool 2. FEATURES OF THE CREATURES TEAM It’s the job of the creature team at DNEG to take models made by…

Layer 1: Animation For this scene we built parachute animation rigs that gave the animators control to pose the general shape and position of the parachute and its attachment to the X-Force member. The model and rig needed to be created so that the ropes stayed straight, as they were always under tension. The model for this rig and animation layer should be quite coarse as it is just used for the primary placement and shape, not for any details of the cloth. It also doesn’t matter if the cloth deforms a little in animation as the later sim layers will correct for this. When the animation is ready it can be written out as an alembic cache to keep future layers clean and fast. It also allows us to…

AUTHOR Martin is a freelance artist living in Denmark. He has been working as a 2D artist for 15 years, but since he got his VR headset, 3D is becoming an increasingly bigger part of his work. www.artstation.com/martinity Since I tried Oculus Medium for the first time almost two years ago, one of my only concerns with the program was the lack of grids, guides and snapping tools. Basically, the lack of these tools meant that any time you wanted to make a building, a robot or any other hard-surface model, you’d have no choice but to simply eyeball the required angles. You could still get decent or even great results by working this way, but it took way too long compared to the time it would take otherwise. Now,…

AUTHOR 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 For a long time unbiased rendering was barely touched by a wide range of render engines. This was because an unbiased render solution was computationally intensive and therefore very slow. This was a great shame, as from a user’s perspective an unbiased rendering solution offered ‘true’ physical lighting exactly as would be seen by the naked eye or the lens of a camera. OctaneRender from OTOY was one of the pioneers of moving the computationally intensive tasks of unbiased rendering over to the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU, otherwise known as the graphics card), which is able to divide tasks across a much greater number of…

Whether you’re a freelancer, student or have a full-time job, selling your digital products online can be one of the easiest ways to make money on the side. With the newly released ArtStation Marketplace, some artists have been making enough to earn a living or pay their rent! As the largest community and resource for artists in the industry, what better place to set up your shop? All it takes is a few clicks and you can have your storefront up and running. WHAT KIND OF PRODUCTS CAN YOU SELL? 1. Tutorials Sharing your knowledge and process is a win-win. Make money by helping others learn! 2. Base Meshes Base meshes can be especially useful for students or those just starting out in digital sculpting. Recent graduate, Colton Orr, now…

“I keep seeing more artists go to Tokyo,” explains Armitage. “I think there might be more communities of foreign artists there in future. More studios are looking to hire from overseas and improve the sharing of knowledge. There was a welcoming game dev community when I lived there, who were so inviting and open to talking about their experience.” There’s also a wealth of events held in the city for hobbyists, fans and artists alike, not least the prestigious SIGGRAPH Asia or the Video & CG Production Expo. Armitage goes on to explain that the language barrier can be somewhat of a challenge for newcomers: “There’s so much separation between language barriers that can make it difficult to see the amazing art that comes from Japanese artists, so seeing their…

“The giant pigeons shot was a tough one!” says DNEG creature supervisor Remi Cauzid. “We are not used to seeing pigeons that close up so we had to make sure we used good references! Our build lead, Daniel Axelsson, went out chasing pigeons with his camera. This is basically what you have to do – look for references as much as you can, and do not make things up. “The ‘actions’ for this pigeon were limited, so we focused on the limited range of motion it has to perform, but made sure this was looking as good as possible. And communication was a key thing – assets with feathers, animation and complex shaders always involve more artists than usual.”…

AUTHOR Maya is a 3D artist and animator based in the UK. She started her career in 2012 remaking and animating characters for Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee – New ‘n’ Tasty. artstation.com/mayajermy Rendering an image, animation of a model or even a whole scene is an important step in art creation, and by not taking your work through this process the end result will look unfinished. Even if you are aiming for a rustic style, it looks better when it is actually rendered that way. Whether it is just for a portfolio or commercial purposes, being able to render your work is a valuable expertise. Every artist has a favourite render engine to work with. KeyShot offers a wide range of tools and simple rendering solutions, enabling the user to have…

AUTHOR Greg is a VFX artist and scientist with a passion for cinematic scientific visualisations. Details, along with Houdini resources like the UI mods in these screenshots, are on his ArtStation profile. scivfx.artstation.com Using landscape generator software, and also the terrain module in Houdini – especially with the enhancements in version 17 – we can effectively create fully procedural landscapes. However, none of these procedural workflows can compete with the complexity of the natural processes behind these landscapes in reality. Using real-world terrain elevation data as a starting point not only makes the result more grounded, but can also give you extra inspiration during the work. Although this may initially sound like a complex approach, you’ll be surprised at how simple it is. The renders shown in these tutorials are…

Maya Jermy Maya is a 3D artist and animator based in the UK. She started her career in 2012 remaking and animating characters for Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee - New ‘n’ Tasty. mayajermy.artstation.com Simon Edwards Simon works freelance at 3DArtvision. He has worked professionally both as an architectural visualiser and 3D artist for 20 years in Holland and the UK. www.3dartvision.co.uk Pietro Chiovaro Pietro is an Italian 3D artist who creates 3D assets and environments, and is currently working on an open-source game. pietrochiovaro.artstation.com Antony Ward Since the early 90s Antony has worked for many of today’s top game and VFX studios, as well as written three technical manuals and many online tutorials. www.antcgi.com SOFTWARE: KEYSHOT 8 HOW DO I ACHIEVE LIGHT SCATTERING IN KEYSHOT 8? Greg Radcliffe, Bristol Maya Jermy…

“We helped the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) with some research,” recalls Mitchell, when asked if Audiomotion have had any less-conventional clients. “It was researching the procedure for extracting someone from a crashed car. We put our cameras inside a car then had somebody suited up in the driver’s seat while a fire crew then went through the whole procedure. That data was then used to analyse the effects that procedure has on the body.” Since much of their technology has its origin in the medical field, Audiomotion have contributed to various Oxford University studies – including a head trauma study that involved repeatedly throwing a crash test dummy down some stairs. It’s clear that nothing is too unusual for Mitchell and his team: “We’ve mocapped a cat before, a…

PRICE £439 | DEVELOPER Anycubic | WEBSITE www.anycubic3d.com There are a number of different types of technology used for 3D printing, but in the last couple of years it looks to be LCD exposure masking that has changed the balance between quality and cost, bringing it to levels the keen enthusiast can afford. Anycubic are leading this trend, with their Photon machine growing in popularity as various YouTubers spread the word, especially for those looking for fine detail in areas such as war-game miniatures and terrain, dental printing and other work where fine definition and clarity are essential. The Photon comes well packaged and needs almost no work to get up and running. A simple door handle needs to be screwed on (it’s separate to prevent damage in transit), then…

AUTHOR 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 The Holy Grail of digital creation is transferring analogue skill sets, such as drawing and sculpting, into a seamless digital experience. But what if you could combine the skills learned in 3D applications, such as the manipulation of vertices, edges and faces, in a virtual studio where models can be manipulated by pulling and grabbing with your hands? The virtual reality creation application Gravity Sketch allows artists to do just that using a new paradigm for 3D modelling. It enables you to sketch in a 3D space and then augment with planes and polygons using a unique and intuitive toolset. While still in its early…

AUTHOR 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 If you’re new to CGI, you may feel that there are far too many tools to choose from in a dizzying array of software. This series aims to break everything in CGI down to the very basics, so that every artist can be armed with the knowledge of which tool is best. This month we start our look at cameras and lenses. The camera is probably the single most important tool in the world of CG. It is more important than modelling and animation and if the camera is pointing the wrong way, even the lighting won’t be seen. Therefore, mastering how 3D software handles…

AUTHOR Rob is a 3D artist and creative director, working across TV, film and print. He runs a boutique VFX studio. www.pariahstudios.co.uk These Shortcuts pages are all about giving you bite-sized chunks of useful info to help you speed up your workflow and explore your software’s options. Software like Maxon’s Cinema 4D are massive. They provide a great number of tools, options and customisation, but that can make for a steeper learning curve than you are comfortable with. With that in mind the developers often create quick-access menus, which can be hugely beneficial, especially for tasks you do less frequently where the mental muscle memory hasn’t been solidly created yet. Maxon have added a few of these to Cinema 4D and, although they are great for quickly finding a nested…

Take photo reference. I’ve found that the best camera on a scout is my iPhone using the Artemis viewfinder app. I quickly import the photos into Evernote and write brief shorthand descriptions for what is going on. Often times I measure things so I can model rooms for previs. I also use a Structure Sensor attached to my iPad, along with their little architecture wide-angle lens. For indoor environments, this lets me get quick low-res OBJ scans that I can import into Cinema 4D to quickly model stuff to scale.…