Table of contents for April 2021 in 3D World

This issue we bring you a host of training and insight from the world of animation and visual effects, which I hope will help you to further improve your own skills. What I find really exciting at the moment though is the rapidly developing area of virtual production, where the tools are not just for the major movie studios but also for us mere mortals. If you’ve ever wanted to dip your toe into it for your projects but thought better of it, then it’s now time to think again. The tools are accessible, some even free, like Epic’s Unreal Engine and the motion capture equipment is similarly becoming affordable. This leaves just the skills and experiences left to gain and in this endeavour I hope we can help. Read…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Marmoset Toolbag This dynamic character is based on an illustration of the same name by Daria Leonova and was realised in 3D by self-taught artist Ksenya Timchenkoy. “I started working on it as soon as I saw Daria's concept for the first time as I felt very inspired,” Timchenkoy tells 3D World. It took her just 15 hours to create the character. “I didn't use any special techniques, just sculpting,” Timchenkoy continues. “I start all my work with a sphere, although I already have a fairly large collection of base meshes. This helps me to learn something new every time and achieve the desired forms faster and faster.” When it comes to working on large or medium shapes, Timchenkoy is often distracted by the desire to add unnecessary…

SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, XGen, Arnold Renderer, Photoshop Freelance character modeller Guzz Soares completed work on this stylised likeness of rapper Travis Scott in just 20 hours. He solely utilised sculpting and box modelling techniques to create this stylised character. The creative process began with the search for useful references. “I like to use PureRef to organise everything that will help me with this step,” Soares adds. With everything in place he then began sculpting the character in ZBrush before moving over to Maya for retopology and to create the UVs. “I also use Maya to create anything inorganic,” Soares continues, “like the controller, in this case.” The model was then sent back to ZBrush for texturing with Polypaint. “After that, I created the grooming using XGen in Maya,” Soares adds. “At this…

TAKE YOUR TIME As much as we would all like a turnkey solution to virtual production, it doesn’t exist yet. So be patient and understand that there are many variables. It may take a while to understand them all, and see how they fit together. Sometimes it is just a matter of slowing down and taking your time. I recommend keeping a diary of different things you’ve tried, so you have a record of what worked and what didn’t. DON’T GET FRUSTRATED Sometimes, you may find that something that worked well on one occasion doesn’t always behave the way you expect in other situations. This can be caused by user error, a bug (yes, there are many of those), a driver or something you might never have even thought about.…

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This project was a journey for me to explore parts of the creation process I have very little experience with, namely caustics, water and wet surfaces. To increase the challenge even further, I didn’t want to use a reference; usually I like to work with a movie frame or a photo, which I try to mimic. I had made a digital human asset, Emily, before from the Wikihuman project files, and I had refined her shaders and textures through a few projects. So I thought she would be the perfect asset to use – she didn’t have a body or wet hair, but I could solve that later on. My idea was to use caustics to light the character, as I felt that could be a unique approach. Over the…

instagram.com/swaaaaann Swann Valenza is a third-year animation student at MoPA in France. He is in love with directing and character modelling. CHARACTER MODELLING Texturing Hulk’s skin was very fun. It was done in Substance Painter and Photoshop, and I spent five days working on it. I wanted the skin to be colourful and have a nice amount of detail. After sculpting the displacement map in ZBrush I added a layer of details in Painter, using a simple dirt noise with a tiny blur and a level effect to contrast it. I also made the skin holes more reflective so they could catch the light better. The tattoos are a mix of images I found online and modified with Photoshop and paint layers in Substance. I made myself a smart material…

Rokoko, the creators of accessible character animation and motion capture tools, is putting the future in its users’ hands with the revolutionary Smartgloves. The notoriously difficult art of animating 3D finger and hand motion has historically been out of reach for the vast majority of creators. With pairs available for $995 and a commitment to ease of use, Rokoko aims to make professional-quality finger tracking a reality for all creators. The gloves can even be paired with Rokoko’s intuitive Smartsuit Pro to create a full-body mocap solution. Rokoko’s founder and CEO Jakob Balslev spoke to 3D World about why the community should be excited about this pioneering solution. YOU CAN USE ROKOKO HARDWARE ANYWHERE My graduation project at film school was this super ambitious animation where we used motion capture…

NAME Kevin Taylor JOB TITLE Lead animator STUDIO Flipbook Studio LOCATION Manchester, UK ABOUT As lead animator at Flipbook Studio, Kevin manages the animation team. His skill set spans animation, rigging, modelling, lighting, texturing and rendering. WEB vimeo.com/taylorkevin Kevin Taylor is a 3D generalist that specialises in character animation. Currently he is applying his vast skill set to the role of lead animator at Manchester, UK-based Flipbook Studio, where he manages the animation team. Flipbook utilises high-end VFX, animation and CGI to create stunning and innovative cross-media content. The studio’s portfolio spans commercials, drama and factual TV programmes, film, video game cinematics and cut-scenes, interactive digital campaigns and print work. Kevin has more than a decade’s experience in 3D and has acquired skills in everything from animation and modelling, to…

Another big reason Labs has become so popular has to do with third-party integrations. Labs is the primary way of interfacing with other popular 3D software into Houdini. Throughout the years, tools have been developed with a focus on the popular commercial game engines such as Unity and Unreal. The tools however do not restrict studios from using them with proprietary game engines, which are also a substantial percentage of users in the AAA games industry. Many tools in Labs have a single purpose such as the exporting or converting of VFX into a real-time ready format. We make a big point of staying up to date with what artists use day to day in their pipeline, since game development is complex and has many moving pieces. The most popular…

DEVELOPER OTOY WEBSITE home.otoy.com/octane-x-pr1 PRICE Subscription only: from £18/month / £175/year Later this year Octane X will be available in the Mac App Store for free An unbiased GPU-only renderer. Up until recently you needed an NVIDIA GPU to use Octane. This summer the first preview of Octane X was released, a version optimised for Apple Metal to run on recent Macs. At the time of writing, Octane X PR7 is available and it works remarkably well with the latest MacOS Big Sur. OctaneRender is known for its speed and photoreal results. Users have been building custom PCs with multiple GPUs to get the most out of it, but having this tool available on a MacBook is very useful. The Radeon Pro in my MacBook is not comparable to the…

DEVELOPER Maxon WEBSITE www.redshift3d.com PRICE Perpetual: £365 incl. maintenance for the first year. Maintenance for the next year is £180/year. C4D+Redshift subscription: £715/year Redshift became part of Maxon in 2019, but unfortunately they did not make it their standard renderer. Redshift is a biased GPU renderer which results in the fastest render time on the market, but photoreal results do require a bit more work. The version for Apple Metal is not officially available yet, but you can download a demo (beta) from their website. I did not come across any bugs with the beta version and while it’s not comparable to an RTX workstation, it’s certainly great to finally have access to Redshift on a MacBook. Redshift has become very popular in the field of motion graphics, not only…

Fill the gaps in your collection today! ISSUE 270 MARCH 2021 BECOME A PRO FANTASY ARTIST ● Create a videogame-worthy fantasy character ● Behind the scenes at Animal Logic, Part 5 ● Dive into the fascinating world of generative art ● How to sculpt with dynamic cloth in ZBrush 2021 ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 269 FEBRUARY 2021 MASTER YOUR MATTES ● Learn how to create amazing outdoor scenes with tips and tutorials from the experts in world building ● Transform 2D calligraphy into a stunning 3D neon sign ● Explore the incredible visuals of Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers ● Design a high-tech drone ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 268 JANUARY 2021 BLENDER SPECIAL ● This month, it’s all about Blender!…

SOFTWARE 3ds Max, ZBrush, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop Vincent Moubeche has been creating 3D art for the past decade and currently works as an environment artist for Compulsion Games in Montreal, Canada. He’s been working on this fun Super Mario fan art for two months, taking a break in December. “The scene is not technically impressive,” Moubeche admits, “I did what I know best: modelling and level art. The only unusual thing I did is rework all the metrics from the original Plaza to fit the more compacted idea I had of the area.” The most enjoyable element for Moubeche was simply the chance to recreate an environment from one of his favourite video games, Super Mario Sunshine. “This project started with the idea of…

SOFTWARE Maya, Arnold, Photoshop Concept artist and digital matte painter Saby Menyhei currently works as a matte painting supervisor in DNEG’s Feature Animation division, and he loves to create imaginary landscapes. “It feels like going on a journey, being part of an adventure,” he says. “I had a concept in mind when I started working on this piece but there was a lot of room to improvise.” The creative process behind this elaborate cathedral began, as it always does for Menyhei, with a sketch. “I always have a notebook with me to write down new ideas and scribbles,” he adds. Assets are built using Maya or ZBrush, with Substance Painter and Mari being the tools of choice for texturing. “To be more efficient, I reuse my assets quite often,” Menyhei…

UNREAL ENGINE There are a couple of real-time engines that can be used, Unreal and Unity. I use Unreal, the latest release of which (Unreal Engine 5) is coming this year, and is looking to offer a big leap in visual quality for real-time projects. The engine is like the operating system for your virtual production project – into which all your tools and plugins… well, plug in to. STEAM BASE STATIONS These are used as tracking stations for your cameras and props. You'll need at least two to get good coverage for your filming area – with four you can cover an area of up to 10 x 10 metres. Their only limitation is outdoor shooting: their performance is affected in direct sunlight, but on an overcast day or…

Is learning physics the key to great visual effects? VFX producer Krista Allain and VFX supervisors Bret Culp and Chris Nokes certainly seem to think so. With good reason. For six years now, they’ve formed part of the team behind The Expanse: a sci-fi show so well-known for its scientific accuracy that it was even featured on the front cover of Physics Today by season two. “WE ALWAYS UPDATE OUR EFFECTS TO REFLECT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE. IT’S A CONTINUOUSLY EVOLVING PROCESS”Bret Culp, VFX supervisor For the multi-vendor visual effects team, who are now working on season six, it’s meant delivering an average of more than 2,000 shots per year – the same numbers as Avengers: Endgame. And this is all while ensuring that each and every frame is as scientifically…

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IT’S INPUT AND OUTPUT AGNOSTIC We’ve built a whole new file format tailored to animation assets. We will also open up Studio so that you can use any hardware input device to create assets, not Rokoko solutions. There are built-in, real-time native plugins for all major 3D tools too, so you can stream your data directly onto custom characters in Unreal, Unity, Maya, MotionBuilder, Blender, Houdini, Cinema 4D, iClone, or Cartoon Animator. ADVANCED ANIMATION TOOLS We’ll be adding a bunch of animation tools that have previously been exclusive to the bigger, more expensive engines. There’ll be a retargeting tool, an animation graph editor, an IK solver and much more. This means that you can not only edit and adjust your recordings in Studio, but also create keyframe animations from scratch.…

Can you tell us why you chose to specialise in animation? I was originally a generalist, which is a term used to describe someone who has expertise in all areas of CGI such as modelling, texturing, and lighting. Working more closely with animators, it became clear to me that this was an area of CGI I felt a great passion for. I decided to re-train in character animation and took an online course called Animation Mentor. Although I was a beginner, I had a foundation in CGI and it did not take me long to find my feet. I still do modelling, texturing and lighting, but animation is my passion. What advice would you give to animators just starting their career? Work hard and gain a good foundation academically. It…

WHAT’S THE BEST FIT FOR YOUR NEEDS? The best fit in your situation depends on what features help you in your daily work. Time savings do not come from just the final render time. For me, render time isn’t an issue since I do mostly stills and render the final image on a render farm. Real-time feedback does however make a big difference for me in the creative process. And although I have a rather fast CPU, the GPU renderers really shine here. One other thing to keep in mind is how dependent you are on others in your daily work. When you work as a freelancer for studios it might be a good idea to adapt the tools that they are using. The best way to find out what…

SOFTWARE Maya, ZBrush, Mari, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Marvelous Designer, Photoshop Olakunde, which translates as ‘the brave arrived’, took Brazil-based 3D character artist Jack Malone two months to complete. He worked on the incredibly detailed character in between cinematic and video game projects for a range of companies. Malone immerses himself deeply into each project, always aiming for more than just a simple 3D model. “My commitment is to add different art aspects to my work, like composition, design and art direction,” he explains to 3D World. The most challenging aspect of Malone’s process was discovering and defining the African style, “it was rewarding when I finally got the correct design,” he adds. After assembling a ton of references, Malone made a raw sculpture to better understand the anatomical proportions of the…

SOFTWARE Blender, Marvelous Designer, Substance Painter, Photoshop It took 3D artist and character designer Shin Min Jeong four days to create this beautiful, summery character. “I get a lot of inspiration from other artists' wonderful work,” she tells 3D World. “There are so many amazing artists in the world and they give me a passion to create.” Jeong begins her character creation process by sculpting in Blender before retopologising. After the retopology, she uses the Shrinkwrap modifier to make the sculpt visible to the mesh. “I think this is one of the most important parts of the process,” she adds. If necessary, Jeong will use Blender’s Multiresolution modifier to complete further sculpting. The character’s clothes were built and simulated in Marvelous Designer. “This can have a more realistic effect than sculpting,” Jeong…