Table of contents for February 2021 in 3D World

It’s all too easy to be carried along by the excitement of massive explosions, fantastic characters and alien motherships in visual effects extravaganzas. There is nothing wrong with that of course, but sometimes a change of pace is welcome and a broader look at world building can be equally satisfying for the 3D artist. With this in mind we take you on a journey through some of the fascinating digital environments that either house the big explosions, or that stand as art in their own right. Hopefully by now you have unfolded our special gatefold cover to enjoy the splendour of Ryan Elliot’s stunning artwork. We don’t often get the opportunity to create this type of cover, but what better way to celebrate the wider format than a sprawling landscape,…

SOFTWARE Blender, Photoshop, Affinity Designer Alex Trevino focuses on modelling and texturing assets for short films, but also teaches 3D texturing classes. He spent a month and a half working on this unique character. “The combination of anime with photorealism is something unusual,” he adds, “and it motivated me a lot to finish the project and see the final result.” Poly modelling was Trevino’s chosen method for the project, along with techniques he used to control the edges when subdividing. All the UVs were oriented in the same direction to texture the model efficiently. “Although I only used procedural textures in Substance Painter, I made several alpha images to use as a base for specific areas like the monitor,” Trevino adds. The character’s hair was among the most challenging elements, and…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Arnold, Substance Painter Infinity Studio lead digital sculptor Michael Mao spent ten hours working on this enchanting character, which is based on Glimmer by illustrator Rose Benjamin. “I used mostly classical sculpting techniques while creating it,” he says, “but I tried to integrate some contemporary aesthetics while I was observing the design.” Mao used the creative process behind this character to explore sculpting techniques and create a free tutorial on his YouTube channel. ZBrush was the tool of choice for sculpting the character, a process that utilised Mao’s understanding of human skull anatomy. “For other parts such as colour and style, I think Rose Benjamin’s Glimmer is splendid. I just recreated it in 3D,” he explains. “I think most people have the capacity to do such work. The…

50 pages of drawings of the Lord Protector were produced by Federico Pirovano. “The biggest problem was until late we weren’t sure what kind of personality he had. Sometimes he was mischievous and lanky, or bulky and stupid, or a mix of the two. It helped a lot when they finally decided on the voice for the character [Simon McBurney], which in turn inspired the design.” It was difficult creating continuity between the human and animal forms of the Wolfwalkers. “I struggled with Robyn Goodfellowe and Mebh Óg MacTíre as wolves because they had to resemble their human characters, have a specific style, and look like naturalistic wolves. You have three things that give you little space to move. Designing Robyn was a nightmare at times because she could look…

hadikarimi.com Hadi Karimi is a CG artist based in Tehran, Iran. He works as a freelance 3D character artist specialising in likeness sculpting. CAPTURING THE LIKENESS The character’s head and clothing were all sculpted in ZBrush using the default brushes. I used a lot of references for the likeness. After hours of eyeballing and trying to capture the likeness and the expression, I imported some references and put them on Spotlight to make sure that the proportions were correct. Then I sculpted the skin details, including the pores, wrinkles, and so on, using my own custom brushes.…

romainpommier.artstation.com A freelance 3D character and creature artist from Toronto, Romain Pommier specialises in the creation of characters for games. TEXTURING When working on a 3D design, the texturing process should always start with gathering references. For this piece, I chose to refer to old wooden sculptures, which give me all the information I need. Do not hesitate to use several different software. Here I started by using Polypaint in ZBrush. It enabled me to easily find the main colours and areas I wanted to highlight. Substance Painter allows you to generate a lot of effects and add some dusty information with the roughness map for example. With this in mind, I was able to adjust every aspect in order to polish the textures before rendering.…

SOFTWARE Blender, Marvelous Designer, Substance Designer, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag, Photoshop Robert Farrand currently works as a junior level artist at Ubisoft Bordeaux, creating props and building worlds for a host of AAA titles. Around a year ago he began work on Del Lago Soldier as a side project. “The objective was to try something really new for me, something outside of my comfort zone,” he explains to 3D World. “I wanted to learn and experiment with each step along the way.” Farrand always begins with areas of uncertainty. “I like to break down the challenges and test them out before,” he adds. “I might test the shaders and maps that I need, or see if an effect can be done in Substance or if it requires sculpting.” The…

LOCATION London I am a 3D modeller from Italy, working in London for VFX productions. I have always been passionate about characters and how to create them. I try to push myself in every project I do, learning from the best, and finding new ways to improve my technique. When I decided to create this 3D portrait, my intention was to achieve all the details of the skin of my character. I created these details by hand, but the most challenging part was capturing the soul of the character. In this project I learned so much about skin shaders, sculpting details in ZBrush, and sculpting likeness. • www.davidesasselli.art R THE ROOKIES The Rookies is a platform to help digital artists get discovered without having to compete with professionals for attention.…

Vertex 2021 is the ultimate event for 2D and 3D artists. If you want to master new visual effect processes, learn how film and video game studios work, or network with fellow artists, then Vertex 2021 is the place to be. There’ll be a host of big names in attendance, including artists from Pixar and Jellyfish. 3D World is behind the event, and new subscribers will receive a free Vertex 2021 pass worth £26.25. The event is being held virtually on 25 February 2021, so you can be part of Vertex from the comfort of your own home or studio! You can find out what’s happening on the day by visiting www.vertexconf.com. Option 1: Quarterly print subscription, £16.00* Vertexpassworth26.25 13 issues of the 3D World print edition direct to…

Originally, ‘wolfvision’ was going to be a self-contained sequence. “But as the animatic and story progressed it became clear to us that we needed to have this throughout the film,” recalls McNamara. “There is about three minutes and 20 seconds in total. One of my biggest challenges was trying to coordinate with everyone else. My shots were sandwiched in-between backgrounds being done by Cartoon Saloon and an overseas studio [Mélusine Productions] so I had to ensure that I had the most up-to-date assets.” “I started off working in VR using Quill with Oculus Rift and ended up modelling some of the woods with Medium,” states McNamara. “That helped us pilot the initial stage of, ‘What do you want the camera to look like?’ There were some problems trying to translate…

kaikizzle.artstation.com Kai Mergener is a 3D environment and material artist from Germany. He is currently working on a project called Endzone – A World Apart. PROCEDURAL TEXTURE GENERATION This material is part of the Nodevember 2020 series. My goal was to push myself and Substance Designer to the limit. Usually, the software is used in the CG industry to generate materials and textures, but simple modelling by displacement in the Y axis is also possible. For this material, I built single procedural generators which allowed me to create and vary colour clusters. The colour palette and paint tube were created in single graphs and combined with the main graph and the generated canvas afterwards. To create the mood, I took a cinematic approach in Marmoset Toolbag and added post-processing in…

At DIGIC the pipeline is based on Autodesk’s Maya and Foundry’s Nuke, supplemented with various tools developed in-house. Among other things, we have our own instance tool for repetitive tasks that appear with large crowds. With this tool, it is relatively easy to design blades of grass, flowers and vegetation on the battlefield, or even a chain mail armour with numerous chain links. We also use ZBrush, Substance Painter, Houdini, Marvelous Designer, Blender, RV, Golaem, among many other tools. We established a fully cached pipeline during the pre-production stage to reach better performance and faster turnarounds. That means almost every asset, from characters to environments and effects, on-screen is based on some type of cached data – geometries, instances, clothes, fur or hair. This in itself doesn’t sound too complicated,…

ISSUE 268 JANUARY 2021 BLENDER SPECIAL • This month, it’s all about Blender! The team behind the community-focused, open-source software deliver in-depth tutorials, take us behind the scenes on their exciting Open Movie projects, and provide expert tips for improving your workflow • Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 267 CHRISTMAS 2020 DISCOVER SYNTHWAVE • Experts from across the synthwave scene take a look back at the history and influences of this retro futuristic art movement • Behind the scenes at Animal Logic, Part 4 • Discover Netflix’s beautiful animated musical Over The Moon • Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 266 DEC 2020 ZBRUSH CHARACTERS • How to create stylized cartoon characters full of personality • Game art special: we delve into the…

FREE ASSET DOWNLOADS Download a set of fantastic textures from and build your own asset library with these incredible tree models from in our monthly model and texture giveaway. RECREATE OUR COVER ART Ryan Elliot shares his process for creating stunning exterior environments, step by step Q&A Use Substance Designer to set up a realistic cookie material, with clever node trees. NEXT MONTH Next issue we show you how to be a master of fantasy art ON SALE 26TH JANUARY Subscribe today: www.bit.ly/3dworld-subs…

SOFTWARE Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Mari, V-Ray, Photoshop “I REALLY ENJOY SCULPTING CARTOON AND STYLISED CHARACTERS AND GIVING THEM LIFE, FROM SURFACING TO FINAL RENDERING” Freelance 3D character artist Javier Pedreño based this breathtaking CG character on a concept by Spanish animator Sergio Pablos. “I did this project during my mentorship at Think Tank Training Centre Online whilst I was working freelance,” he tells 3D World. “It took approximately eight months during my spare time.” Pedreño wanted the character to remain faithful to Pablos’ concept in terms of proportions and silhouette. “That’s why I hand-sculpted all the folds of the clothes in ZBrush,” he adds. “I used the Dam Standard, Move and Standard brushes with Gravity Strength enabled.” Creating a range of complex materials and testing them with different types of…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, KeyShot, Marmoset Toolbag, Photoshop “I HAVE A PRETTY STANDARD WORKFLOW – CREATING SOMETHING UNIQUE, SOMETHING INDIVIDUAL, IS THE REAL CHALLENGE” This detailed fan art took Gameloft senior artist Gerard Kravchuk a month and a half from start to finish. Kravchuk was able to draw on 15 years of experience in the video game industry, as well as his freelance portfolio, throughout the process. “I do a lot of freelance work, which is a great way to keep my skill set up to date,” he explains. “The most noteworthy examples are sculpts for Prime 1 studio which were used for 3D prints. I also have experience with animation, which is especially useful and valuable knowledge when posing my characters.” He continues: “I have a pretty standard workflow –…

How did you become a character and creature modeller at Ziva Dynamics? I was always passionate about creatures and animals, characters in general. I'm fascinated by how things work inside, differences and similarities between species. I remember when I saw the first muscle sim video from Ziva. I was amazed by each wrinkle in the skin, all folds of fat, and through my head went “this is it, this is what I want to do”. Since then I have been developing my skills in anatomy, hoping that one day I will see my creatures move like that. And now it feels like a dream come true. What advice would you give to young modellers? Being a generalist before helped me the most. I had the opportunity to see deeper into…

By now, we’re all well-versed in what augmented reality can do. It lets us place virtual objects in real environments and interact with them through a handheld device. Ever since Pokémon Go’s launch, the capabilities of augmented reality have become more and more sophisticated. But there are still limitations – and visual quality is one of them. That’s why, at Immersive Studios, we’ve been experimenting with ways to augment the visual assets in AR experiences without overloading the devices used to view them. Technical director James Burrows explains. STRIVING FOR MORE A little while back, Nvidia shared a demo for its 5G-based Cloud XR where it streamed highly detailed CAD models to VR and AR devices. What was striking was seeing AR being able to support the level of detail…