Table of contents for August 2020 in 3D World

For the past 34 years Pixar has been at the forefront of computer-animated film, pushing the boundaries of technology and storytelling alike. Now, on their 22nd outing, the pioneering studio is finding new ways to hone their craft and enchant audiences around the world. Onward introduces two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, and their quest to spend one more day with their dear departed father, using what little magic is left in the world. The film is a deeply personal one for its director, Dan Scanlon. “The story is inspired by my own relationship with my brother and our connection with our dad who passed away when I was about a year old,” he explains. “He’s always been a mystery to us. A family member sent us a…

Ever since a young Bob Pauley first laid eyes on Pixar’s groundbreaking 1986 short film Luxo Jr. his mind has been made up. “I said, ‘I have to work for those folks’,” he tells 3D World. “You could tell, even way back then, the trajectory of where they were going. In such simple things as a ball and two lamps you felt for those characters.” After some initial setbacks, Pauley landed his dream job in the art department of Pixar Animation Studios, just in time to work on Toy Story, the film that would change filmmaking forever. However, the eventual impact of Toy Story was the furthest thing from his mind. With a small team and a host of limitations, Pauley and his fellow filmmakers remained laser focused on getting…

As a digital artist in the RenderMan group, I have a number of responsibilities including managing marketing, creating demos, interacting with our users, and giving presentations at industry conferences, so I spend a fair amount of time on the road (at least before I started sheltering in place). I also spend a lot of time in RenderMan, making images. I have a lot of freedom to creatively explore ideas and concepts which is great, and there is always new technology to learn as well which keeps things interesting. I will often get to try out new technology before it’s released, like NPR stylized rendering. How do you get started and set yourself up for the day ahead? My routine is simple, and quite possibly boring. I like to exercise in…

When he joined Pixar Animation Studios in 2005, Jim Morris did so to produce Andrew Stanton’s upcoming sci-fi feature Wall-E, the story of a lonely robot who finds love on a trash-covered Earth. Morris’ experience at Lucasfilm, where he produced VFX for numerous sci-fi features, allowed him to help Stanton realise his vision for the film. “Andrew wasn’t particularly experienced in live action,” he explains, “but he had this interest in trying to introduce the feel of cameras and lenses from the 70s.” Morris was able to use his technical understanding of live-action filmmaking to emulate the style of films like Star Wars and Blade Runner. With 39 dialogue-free minutes, Wall-E has much in common with Pixar’s early short films, such as Luxo Jr. and Tin Toy. “It’s not a…

MODELS + TEXTURES FREE ASSET DOWNLOADS Download a set of fantastic textures from and build your own asset library with these incredible models from in our monthly model and texture giveaway. SCENE FILES & HIGH-RES SCREEN GRABS RENDERMAN LIGHTING TECHNIQUES Discover how to use lighting to effectively tell a story with this tutorial by Leif Pedersen. HIGH-RES SCREEN GRABS MASTER NPR Follow along as Dylan Sisson shows you how to use RenderMan for non-photorealistic renders. ISSUE 263 NEXT MONTH Next issue, we deep dive into The Mandalorian ON SALE 14TH JULY Subscribe today: www.bit.ly/3dworld-subs MODELS AND TEXTURES EVERY MONTH Download these models and textures to use in your own projects…

Dylan Sisson Industry veteran and Vertex speaker Dylan Sisson shows you how to use RenderMan to create NPR renders. www.dylansisson.com Eugene Riecansky Eugene is working on launching his new online creative school, but takes a break to write a Houdini tutorial for us. www.wherelightningstrikes.com Dan Scanlon Dan took some time out to talk to us about directing Onward, Pixar’s movie that forced the team to act with their legs. twitter.com/MrDanScanlon WEBSITE 3dworld.creativebloq.com FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/3dworldmagazine INSTAGRAM @3DWorldMag TWITTER @3DWorldMag…

The spark It starts with Dan and I in a room, just two of us, and we start talking about ideas. That’s when we hit upon Dan’s story and realised how powerful it was. That storyline about loss, grief and those people left in your life who support you, we both thought that could connect with a lot of people. Story time We bring on a head of story and slowly add a few story artists. Availability is always an issue at Pixar because we have multiple films in production at once. The goal within the first two years is creating a treatment, an outline, and then a first draft which we use to put the movie up in story reels. It’s a very skeletal crew at that point, we…

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SIDEFX HOUDINI | RENDERMAN FOR HOUDINI v23 (NON-COMMERCIAL EDITION AVAILABLE) SUBSTANCE PAINTER | MARI (OPTIONAL) | FOUNDRY NUKE | THANKS TO TURBOSQUID FOR THE MODELS Having 20 years’ experience of directing music videos and films, I’ve spent many hours on a film set and I wanted to use this real-world experience and convey it across into my other passion… creating imagery in Pixar’s amazing RenderMan. I am currently creating a RenderMan Houdini short for Pixar, so I thought it would be fun to create an image that played on the theme of being on set for that animation; giving a glimpse behind the scenes by using my real-world experience of film sets, lights, camera lenses and so on, I wanted to convey this knowledge into a 3D image. 01 TURBOSQUID…

As well as revisiting everyone’s favourite toys from the initial trilogy, Toy Story 4 introduced audiences to a host of new characters, each giving art director Bob Pauley and Pixar’s artists an opportunity to flex their creative muscles. The biggest addition is Forky, a loveable spork with googly eyes and pipe cleaner arms. “He’s a very simple character,” Pauley asserts, “I love it because you don’t have to buy one, you can just make your own. It’s the essence of creativity.” Despite his simple design, a material like pipe cleaner would have presented a serious challenge on the first film. Much of the film takes place in an antique shop, roamed by a cat hellbent on getting his claws on our heroes. “We could never have done that cat before,”…

ISSUE 261 JULY 2020 TAKE A LOOK INSIDE INK STUDIO • Discover incredible vehicle visualisations from award-winning production studio INK • How 3D technology is advancing the field of medicine • Create a Triple-A game in Unreal: Part 2, references and colour • Downloads Free video training, files and more! ISSUE 260 JUNE 2020 DETAILED DRAPERY • How to simulate clothes for game characters in Marvelous Designer • Find out how top studios create groundbreaking video game art • We explore the VFX of Altered Carbon season 2 • Create a Triple-A game in Unreal: Part 1 of our new tutorial series • Downloads Free video training, files and more! ISSUE 259 MAY 2020 COOK UP A CG MEAL • How to create a delicious-looking selection of CG food •…

ARTIST Ana Ramirez JOB TITLE Shading artist, Pixar The skeleton images were done during Inktober 2019. I have loved the folklore of the Day of the Dead since I was a young girl. I love this time of year and Inktober was a challenge and excuse to keep painting more skeleton-themed art! I have also been inspired by florals since my mum is a floral designer/decorator, so it comes naturally to me as I grew up surrounded by flowers. Usually for my personal art I am inspired by the beauty of nature, as well as some horror/mystery. My favourite themes! • Instagram: @florecitasdelcampo ELOTE BOY ARTIST Alex Pimwong JOB TITLE Story artist in residence, Pixar Inspired by my love of Mexican food and specifically elotes, I had this weird dream…

Sequels can be a tough nut to crack for any director, prequels tougher still. So when Dan Scanlon made his Pixar directorial debut with a prequel to the beloved Monsters, Inc. it proved a steep learning curve. “A prequel is a hornets nest in a way,” Scanlon tells 3D World. “You get the characters that you get and you can’t change them wildly because they have to hook up to the next film.” As the filmmaking process got underway Scanlon came to realise that the art of a prequel is in meeting the characters as different people and surprising audiences with the backstory of how they got to where we saw them last. Scanlon worked with Kori Rae on Monsters University, kicking off a creative partnership that would continue into…

ADOBE MEDIUM | ADOBE SUBSTANCE | AUTODESK MESHMIXER | RENDERMAN FOR SUBSTANCE PLUGIN | AUTODESK MAYA | RENDERMAN | NEW RENDERMAN NPR PLUGIN As a renderer for high-end VFX, RenderMan can create stunning photorealistic images, which is fantastic… for some things, but what if the end goal is a render that looks like an illustration, a cartoon, anime, or even a painting? What if the art direction is Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR)? If you haven’t been living under a rock (and no offense to under-a-rock inhabitants) then you’ve noticed over the last few years an increasing amount of stylized looks in feature animation. At Pixar, we have been exploring new frontiers of NPR looks and have some updates for you, to photorealism and beyond! To paraphrase everyone’s favourite space ranger. Pixar…

In this training we’ll use a scene from Pixar co-op short film, Only a Dream, where we’ll learn to use some of the most effective RenderMan shot lighting tools. During this process, we’ll understand how to make meaningful artistic choices in order to tell the best story possible, while digging into some of the more technical aspects of mastering shot lighting in RenderMan for Maya. Our main goal as lighting artists is to tell a story, in this case, a coming-of-age thriller. The aesthetic we’re going for is film noir with an analogous blue/green colour palette. In fact, one of the colour inspirations was the Chernabog Demon sequence from Disney’s Fantasia. In order to achieve our look, we’ll mix a couple of different lighting techniques, including low-key and motivated lighting,…

Over the next few pages you will discover some of the stunning art submitted to RenderMan’s challenges, contests that encourage artists from around the globe to push the boundaries of what is possible with CG. The results speak for themselves, so meet the creative geniuses and be inspired by some of the incredible work they have produced. CHALLENGE 1 (AND 2!) WINNER – FABIO ROSSI SCIEDLARCZYK With 13 years of experience in commercials and feature films both live-action and animated, Fabio has filled different roles from generalist to VFX artist. He has ultimately specialised in lookdev, lighting and shading and is currently working as a lighting and shading supervisor for O2 Filmes in Brazil. CHALLENGE 3 WINNER – JEREMY HEINTZ With formal training in computer science and a traditional arts…

Pixar Animation Studios has always believed in making short films. The studio’s first ever short, Luxo Jr., launched an entirely new direction in animated filmmaking using three-dimensional computer animation to tell its story. Since then, nearly every feature film that Pixar has released has included a short beforehand, bringing back a tradition that was once an expected pleasure for filmgoers. Each short also gives Pixar artists an opportunity to push the boundaries of computer animation and solve technical or artistic challenges. Recently the studio has made new forays into the short film space with its SparkShorts program, a series of shorts “designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows,” says Pixar’s president Jim Morris at pixar.com/sparkshorts. “These films are unlike anything we’ve ever…