Table of contents for April 2018 in 3D World

Paul Gerrard Paul is a character concept artist, working freelance on many projects. He shares his thoughts on reimagining an icon on page 89. www.gerrardart.com Dora R. Fitzgerald Dora received an MFA in Film from Columbia University and a Ph.D from the University of Texas San Antonio. She teaches visual language on page 28. www.uiw3d.com Simon Edwards Simon has a long history as an artist and is quickly becoming an industry leader in VR art. You will find his fantastic 3ds Max tips piece on page 34. www.3dartvision.co.uk Tom Box Founder of Blue Zoo, Tom shares his feelings about education in the VFX and animation industry. Head to page 90 to read about what could change. www.blue-zoo.co.uk Oscar Juárez Oscar is an archviz specialist, creating in many apps, but has…

ARTIST Jean-Michel Bihorel SOFTWARE Maya, ZBrush, Redshift, Nuke “I used a combination of 3D scan and digital sculpting [to create this image]”, states Jean, who is currently working as lead look-dev in Paris on an animated feature film. Jean has spent the last ten years working for commercials and movies, and explains that “I try to explore uncommon fields of expression in the CG area. [I try to] prove that 3D is just a tool like any other one, and that the technique shouldn’t be a goal by itself when it comes to making pictures.” In terms of his inspirations, Jean confesses that “I’m fascinated by light and materials. The most random object can be a piece of art if the light interacts with it in an intricate way and offers…

Williams wanted the “depth, dimensionality, beauty and movement” of the gold and silver leaf used in the paintings by Kunkle to be carried over into the CG work, so they were filmed with different types of light and objects reflected across them. “There was a combination of using this footage within our CG materials, alongside procedural-based materials that could react to CG lights and surrounding reflections.” Where feasible, Williams likes to get everything in-camera. “When that is not possible, I make sure our CG teams receive tons of references to guide them. Anything imaginative, designed or ‘created’ is at best an extension, rearrangement or combination of something else… something actual. ‘Let’s look back at the reference’ is a line I find myself constantly saying during daily reviews.”…

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 01 CUT OUT A HOLE The cut-away effects in this scene were achieved by using combinations of Slice modifiers and VRayClippers. VRayClippers can cut multiple objects, in any form and all at once, by adding them to the list inside a single ‘cutter’. However, these objects will remain whole in the viewport and the cut-away section will only disappear at render time. Slice is a modifier attached to individual objects but can only ‘slice’ in a straight line. Once applied, the sliced area will disappear from the viewport. This has the advantage of opening up the view to objects that might otherwise be hidden,…

Salvador Bolarín and Iñaki González are both photographers and CGI artists running Leonard Blum. Leonard Blum is a VFX house based in Barcelona. Leonard Blum also runs creative retouching and VFX courses. www.leonardblum.com TURBULENCE FD TurbulenceFD uses a grid to draw a volumetric cloud, generated based on physical calculations inside a container. The detail and resolution of the grid determines the quality of the fire and smoke generated. Settings like up-res’ing are really powerful as they allow us to work on medium or low-resolution simulations to speed up the workflow, and then sizes it up to get a more advanced and realistic-looking simulation without the need to resimulate. TurbulenceFD is a great way of working with volumetrics and for scattering realistic fire and smoke simulations, with intuitive and real-time shading…

Oscar Juárez replies Lighting is one of the most enjoyable aspects of a project once we have finished our model. It’s so common just to keep adding more and more details to our model simply because we love the way the shadows give us cooler ambients. We are so used to using VRaySun and HDRI in our scenes based on experience or because we love the shadows we can create, but what if a client asks for a render with a ‘real’ illumination based on location, date and even time? Well, let’s explore how to make it possible using 3ds Max and V-Ray. STEP BY STEP ADD LIGHTING BASED ON DATE, TIME AND LOCATION 01 CREATE CAM AND ITS SETTINGS Creating a cam is always the first thing I do…

We have all had that moment when the announcement comes in: your favourite movie from yesteryear is getting a reboot/remake. How can they do it! How can they mess with your favourite characters? I have been there too, but I have also been on the other end, being responsible for the designs of reimagined loved characters such as Shredder and Turtles from TMNT, Pinhead from Hellraiser, the BETAS from Videodrome and many more sworn to secrecy. If done right a reboot of a design can add to the richness of the franchise, but if done wrong it can kill any future plans of expanding the world and evoke a mass of fan hatred. The one thing to get right above all else, above any detailing or fundamental design elements, is…

Joren Kandel, owner of The Pixel Lab, has built up a reputation for creating high-quality products for Cinema 4D users, and over the last few years he has teamed up with a number of collaborators to produce themed collections of models and materials. This latest pack is a little different in that it is aimed at making life easier for users of a specific render engine: in this case Octane. Although not a plugin in the truest sense of the word, its implementation can be treated as one. In essence, the pack consists of a number of lighting rigs, all pre-configured to be a oneclick solution for popular ‘looks’. Each ’studio’ can be added to a scene, where you can hit render and get great results, making it simple for…

ANTONY WARD FREELANCE 3D ARTIST On hand to solve your CG problems AXIS ANIMATION ANIMATION STUDIO Discussing their work in games HUGO GUERRA VFX SUPERVISOR Talking 3D in the auditorium BADER BADRUDDIN A BLUE ZOO MASTERCLASS Cartoon character animation for TV MARC SHEPHARD AND CHRIS CHRISTODOULOU SADDINGTON BAYNES On the mass customisation of images ADAM DEWHIRST CHARACTER ARTIST How to build a human in one day MIKE GRIGGS 3D FUNDAMENTALS Workshop on the fundamentals of 3D CHRIS NICHOLS DIGITAL HUMANS A look to the future Vertex is the event bringing together the CG community, where you will find everything from presentations on digital humans, workshops to help you refine your skills, a recruitment fair to further your career and so much more. The speakers at the event are some of…

ARTIST Mohammadreza Mohseni SOFTWARE Corona Renderer Mohammadreza, certified architect and co-founder of Vivid Visual Studio in Iran, has over ten years of experience in architectural visualisation. This incredibly detailed bathroom image was a commercial project for a client, using reference images from the houzz.com mobile app. “Adding lots of detail was my first priority,” Mohammadreza explains. “In order to get some believable renders of a small space, there is no choice except to focus on richness in the details.” The image’s lighting also adds to the believability of the scene, and the artist explains that “one of the ways to make your lighting realistic is by using a high-resolution HDRI – it will help you create realistic, natural lighting with detailed variation, with ease. “You can of course use other…

The Marvel show Jessica Jones is based on the comic book series Alias, which was published in the early 2000s and explores the life and inner world of a damaged ex-superhero who becomes a private investigator. The covers were illustrated by David W. Mack, and the team at Imaginary Forces based the aesthetic concept for the title sequence on his painting style. They built up layers of real paint which were shot and brought into the 3D space.…

Kevin is a VFX supervisor and lead 3D artist at The Mill in New York. With a focus on highly realistic animated creatures, Kevin has led projects such as the critically acclaimed PETA ‘98% Human’, Hallmark ‘Mother Bird’ and Coke ‘Footprints’. www.themill.com The Mill recently created an epic, 50-foot CGI purple monster for Monster.com’s latest campaign. From a full muscle system built under the monster’s fur, to each pore and wrinkle, the team were meticulous and precise in their craft, creating something hyperreal and lovable. Learn how the team crafted this furry purple giant in this step-by-step tutorial. As renderers have become more powerful, the amount of detail that can be added to your CG characters is now endless. When tasked with creating a giant character that will be seen…

Matthias is a 3D artist at MachineGames. His main focus is hard-surface, specifically vehicles and robots. develterematthias.wordpress.com In this tutorial I will be using a mech from Wolfenstein to demonstrate how to efficiently design and build a subD model for use in video games. I will try to keep the techniques as broad as possible so that you can apply the tips and tricks to your own work. Over the course of this tutorial, we will look at some of the steps I go through when I make highpoly models, not only for my Wolfenstein models but also for my art in general. Most of time I design and model vehicles, but let’s take this armoured robot as an extreme example. The idea behind this step-bystep tutorial is to give…

1. Know your audience. This doesn’t mean dumbing down – get to know who will be watching and make decisions accordingly. Don’t simply get carried away with what you think is funny in the moment. 2. Turn the soundtrack off. If you can’t follow the story because it requires exposition coming from dialogue, then the visual narrative isn’t clear enough. 3. Character comes first. As entertaining as a big action event can be, the story should be driven by character. What journey have they been on and what have they learnt? 4. Focus. Every shot, you should know precisely what the audience will be focusing on – don’t let them be distracted. Every moment should have a reason and progress the story forward. 5. Be kind to your characters. Young…

The nature of the animation and VFX business is studios taking on big projects, then having to crew up and hire people with contracts that last the duration of the project. As much as studios try and retain talent across projects, it’s not always viable, so artists frequently move from studio to studio working on a variety of big projects. This creates constant vacancies at studios and huge opportunity for artists. When we post these vacancies, it’s not uncommon to get hundreds of applications. Unfortunately, over 90 per cent of the applicant’s showreels do not demonstrate the skills we need to create work to the standard required by our studio and our clients; I hear similar figures from other recruiters at world-class studios in London. About 98 per cent of…

Adding in some convincing characters has always been the best way to make any scene come to life. Architectural visualisation especially can really benefit from adding crowds of people to a walkthrough or still in order to help sell a design. Unfortunately, up until recently the disciplines for creating a convincing 3D scene and rigging human characters have been quite different, especially when crowds or a street scene are involved. Then when it comes to animating, making sure the characters do not bump into each other can be yet another chore, especially when the 3D software does not have any bespoke crowd or character tools. Luckily, the crowd animation software Anima from AXYZ Design has been through a rapid upgrade path over the past couple of years; it has only…

ARTIST Romax Lalu SOFTWARE Blender 2.79, Cycles Romax works as a 3D artist in India, and used Blender for the creation of this charming character. “To get the realistic grass look I used Blender hair simulation. The rest of the modelling was basic sculpting only,” he explains. “I always enjoy modelling. So in this particular work I really enjoyed sculpting the head and also the expression of the main character. “Back in 2006-07 when I was introduced to the world of 3D games I instantly got inspired by the way the characters and the amazing 3D environments were developed to look so realistic. This made me eager to know more about how it was created, so I joined an animation studio and am now living my dream of creating characters…

Dora R. Fitzgerald received an MFA in Film from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas San Antonio. Her academic interests include film spectatorship and grammar, and race and representation in cinema. www.uiw3d.com “WHETHER THE INTENTION IS LOVING, MENACING OR ANY EMOTION IN BETWEEN, THE TWO-SHOT CAN REALLY DELIVER IF RENDERED APPROPRIATELY” The two-shot is the shot of character interaction. Whether the intention is loving, menacing or any other human emotion in between, the two-shot can really deliver if rendered appropriately. In Toy Story, there are multiple themes that dominate the film. Competition, jealousy, community, acceptance of difference, friendship and love are a few of the subjects that the film unpacks for young and old viewers alike. We are led into a magical world of toys who…

Todd is an FX supervisor and a lead member of the The Mill’s 3D team. Todd manages a team of specialists who focus on simulation-related effects such as smoke, fire and water. www.themill.com Flesh and fur were included in the same setup and usually run in sequence by the same artist. Animators exported skin, bone and muscle geometry to the FX team, where they used Houdini 16’s tissue solver framework for volume-preserving skin and flesh simulations. This tissue simulation would in turn drive a hair simulation, which would simulate the guides from their rest pose into place to follow the shot animation, then export those curves back into Maya for rendering. 01 TISSUE PREPARATION First, the animated bone and muscle geometry was made watertight (using VDBs), and was then simulated…

ARTIST Q&A Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills 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 Oscar Juárez Oscar is a 3D generalist based in Mexico City. He has been running Fibrha Studio since 2010 and specialises in archviz rendering, animations and Unreal Engine. www.facebook.com/FibrhaStudio Antony Ward Since the early 90’s 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 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 GET IN TOUCH EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS…

Pietro Chiovaro replies Today I will explain how to create a realistic fluid simulation like this one. For the correct creation of fluid we first have to understand which elements will be interested in the simulation; in this case the main elements interested are the cup, the ice cubes and the straw. Once you have defined the ‘list’, you have to indicate the relation that these objects have with the fluid. To do this, select an object interested in the simulation (for example the cup). Next select the Physics panel, and from here select Fluid. Now you have to indicate the type of participation in the fluid simulation, and select Obstacle. This process must be done with all the other objects that should be seen as obstacles by the fluid…

“When doing things like this we think, ‘What would make people enjoy working here more?’ The shorts very much set the direction of our future work, because a lot of the TV work we get comes from people seeing those shorts around the world. It really aligns with our ethos as a company. We think that if everyone is enjoying working in our studio, then they’ll be happier and make better work, which means we get more projects in – so it’s kind of a selffulfilling cycle. “It’s been a game-changing way of getting our studio on the map because we’re known for making kids TV series animations and as we make a few series a year, you can be seen as a bit of a factory – just churning…

Experts in providing high-end visual content for agencies and brands for use across multiple platforms, The Operators’ portfolio ranges from everyday essentials to the damn right bonkers, working with brands such as Toyota, Volkswagen and PlayStation, as well as agencies all over the world. Combining broad skill bases and a modern approach to all things production, The Operators maintain a uniquely integrated pipeline to bring their ideas to life. The team is led by Ben Le Tourneau and Scott Freeman – united by their passion for film, animation and photography, and their eclectic knowledge of all these different mediums.…

Sometimes an item pops up that you just didn’t know you needed, but once it arrives it makes perfect sense. The Logitech Craft wireless keyboard is one such item. When unpacked and plugged in (for charging or permanently if preferred) the Craft software is needed. It’s a small app that enables you to define certain characteristics and keep the drivers up to date. The keyboard itself is a solidfeeling but very low-profile one, with a lightweight keystroke that still has good positive feedback. Another handy feature is the sensors – if you are in a dimly lit area and approach the keyboard, the backlight will turn on. It’s a good, clear light but remains subtle enough to not feel intrusive if you are in a colour/light-sensitive environment. So far so…