Table of contents for August 2018 in 3D World

Whether you’re a new artist or an industry veteran, you can still boost your career. We bring you the essential guide to the rapidly growing games industry, helping you to boost your skills and successfully realise your goals. We also show you how to master VFX in FumeFX, 3ds Max and much more. rob.redman@futurenet.com FREE C4D MATS PACK When you sign up to a print subscription – turn to page 38.…

AUTHOR Ian Spriggs I am a 3D portrait/character artist working in Maya, Mudbox, V-Ray and Photoshop. www.ianspriggs.com Even though I have been creating characters for years it is only in the past 3.5 years I have started doing portraiture. Portraits are now my main focus. I love trying to figure people out and what makes them who they are. Portraits are like a window into the subject’s life; you really have to know someone to be able to represent them well, as it is not only facial features you are representing, but also their personality. It is also said that behind every portrait is a self portrait, as it is also the story of the artist; throughout all my portraits hopefully you will also learn a little about myself. My…

JUNIOR ARTIST Your first role; you are good enough to get in. Be productive – you will be working on less important tasks and will have a lot to learn. ARTIST You have a good grounding, and will be progressing with experience and mentoring juniors. You will be working on more important tasks from now on. SENIOR ARTIST Becoming a senior artist can take about five years and there is of course more responsibility, mentoring and you will be handling critical path tasks – helping the lead to implement the vision. LEAD Working with the art director, producer, lead designer and lead code you are now responsible for the artistic implementation across the entire art team. This can be a very managerial position and you are potentially doing less art.…

AUTHOR Vikrant J Dalal I have ten years of experience in the VFX industry and graphic design. I started my own VFX studio called Project01 Design Studio which provides VFX, graphic design, 3D architectural visualisation and tutorial services. After spending nine years in production, I’m now ready to share my knowledge with people who love VFX. project01studio.blogspot.in This step-by-step guide is set to reveal how to go about the creation of realistic clouds. This tutorial is ideal for a ‘travel through the clouds’ scene, for example if you are aiming to shoot an aeroplane flying through the sky. There are also a variety of different cloud effects we can build. There are a number of different types of software and plugins that we can use to create such an effect,…

AUTHOR Mike Griggs 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 No 3D artist particularly ‘likes’ making UV maps, which is surprising as they are one of the fundamental tools in asset creation; a UV map absolutely defines so many parameters of a model. The chore with creating UVs is the fact that so many 3D applications, while potentially having some good UV mapping tools, have so many other things that the developers need to concentrate on. And since not all 3D artists actually use UV maps, this vital toolset isn’t given the love it deserves. The other issue is a lack of standardisation of UV mapping toolsets across 3D applications, which can mean…

PRICE £67/$90 | COMPANY Smith Micro | WEBSITE smithmicro.com An intuitive interface and powerful tools make up this natural media app Procedural texture creation has come a long way, but there are still times when a more naturalistic approach is called for, where artistic flair is more appropriate than design flair. There are a few tools around that replicate traditional natural media and Rebelle is aiming to be top dog, but what does it offer the 3D artist? First the UI is slick, adaptable and easy on the eye, something that is vital for working artists. Palettes can be moved around wherever needed, and high-res Retina displays are supported as is full-screen mode, so you can focus on the task at hand. There is a good assortment of brushes, although…

Josh Naylor Josh is a Unity technical evangelist and on page 40, he shows you how to get started adding the popular games engine to your pipeline. www.unity.com Mike Griggs Experienced 3D and visual effects artist Mike explores the Unfold3D Virtual Spaces tool over on page 68, and reviews Modo 12 on page 92. www.creativebloke.com Paul Roberts Paul works as a training manager at iToo Software. Add detail and realism to your arch-viz renders with his tutorial on page 60. www.itoosoft.com Ian Failes Ian is a regular contributor to 3D World, and this issue he has investigated the secrets of creating forests and woods in the movies, on page 24. vfxblog.com Vikrant J Dalal 3D artist Vikrant J Dalal is a VFX expert, and on page 54 you will find…

Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills AUTHOR Josh Naylor Snr Tech Evangelist at Unity. Josh travels the world meeting the amazing Unity community and educating them on new Unity features. www.unity3d.com AUTHOR Ethan Bruins Ethan is a Technical Evangelist at Unity and has now been creating games in the engine for the past three years. www.unity3d.com Unity is one of the world’s most popular game engines, responsible for powering hundreds of thousands of games all around the world on over 25 platforms. You may already know how easy it is to get started, prototype, iterate and publish to your chosen platform, and over the past few years we have been improving the Unity toolset to be more than a developer or programmer tool. Artists…

Blink and you might miss it, but there’s a huge amount of nerdy detail in every sequence Territory created for Ready Player One, says Popplestone. “We were always trying to find ways to take little snippets of information from the book into the visual details of the film,” he notes. “So we’d constantly be trying to incorporate details like the zip code of where Wade was staying in Columbus, Ohio when he buys his boot suit. Occasionally screenwriter Zak Penn would write things specifically for our graphics, too, just to tie it all in and give it that extra textual detail. Plus we’d also drop in these contextual Easter eggs, which were a lot of fun.” For example, in scenes where characters scrub through their HUDs to select items, Territory…

01 ART FIRST What employers want to see first and foremost is your art. Make sure your work is the main attraction and that navigating your portfolio is as straightforward as possible. Remember, you need to win someone over within the first few seconds they look. Use ArtStation to create an effective and easy-to-use portfolio site. 02 QUALITY OVER QUANTITY One or two great projects is infinitely better than multiple mediocre ones. When you’re putting together your portfolio be sure to include only your best work. Don’t become too attached to old projects, be objective and if you need help ask other artists for their opinions. Keep in mind that you are only as strong as your weakest project. 03 FUNDAMENTALS ARE KEY Employers are looking at your portfolio and…

AUTHOR M.D. McCallum An award-winning graphics artist, 3D modeller/animator and published author with a freelance career that spans over 20 years. www.mdmccallum.com Animation is a competitive field plagued with battling budgets and short deadlines. Throw in the complexity of most animation programs or worse, lose control with the limitations of programs that try to simplify animation, and the frustration levels and costs are amplified. Reallusion’s iClone is a real-time animation environment that provides ease of use to new users, while giving seasoned professionals the tools that they need to deliver timely and quality results. Drag-and-drop motions are a mainstay of iClone, and are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the tools it provides to animators. Keyframing along with the Curve Editor give the animator more choices to…

AUTHOR Mike Griggs 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. Let’s continue exploring materials and shaders by looking at Normal maps. One of the hardest things to do when starting to learn 3D is to model lots of details, and this is for many reasons. First of all, creating the detail is time-consuming, as is adding detail while making sure the…

SOFTWARE: ZBRUSH CAN I POSE A CHARACTER WITH A ZSPHERE RIG? Tabitha Moore, Los Angeles Maya Jermy replies When I work on a concept model or just want to create an interesting image, I try to show my characters doing simple things like walking or holding an object. It is good to make it look a little more dynamic than an A-pose or T-pose would do. ZBrush has a wide range of tools to make artists’ work much easier and quicker, so there are a few posing processes to choose from. Option 1: You can start your modelling right off with a pose, using ZSpheres. This one is useful when you are creating a model that does not need to be in an A-pose for rigging and animation purposes. It…

PRICE £47/$47 | COMPANY Picture Instruments | WEBSITE www.picture-instruments.com Colour correction, look development and grading is, to many, a dark art and one that can take a long time to truly master. There are some fantastic tools out there for doing this work, including in-built tools in many editing apps, but a simple yet elegant solution for matching a look has surfaced, in the shape of Image 2 LUT. The premise behind this software is a simple one: find an image you like the look of, load that into the first viewer window and then let the software match your image to it. It’s really that easy and even the default settings look pretty good. Of course, the image you want to adapt still needs to be well lit, composed…