3D Artist (1) 2009

LAUNCH ISSUE DAZ CARRARA PRO 6.2 WORTH £384 FREE ON THE CD
Practical inspiration for the 3D community
Plus: Kieron Helsdon on the fi lm industry,
Danny Boyle and VFX on location
Reviews: DAZ Carrara 7 • e-on Vue 7
Infi nite • Autodesk ImageModeler
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Sci-fi characters
Rig & render Plus: Free model on the CD
• 3ds Max masterclass
Render a toy car scene in Maya
Pixar-style
artwork
• Step-by-step tutorial
Cutting-edge 3D
Blutsbrueder on its vision of the future
• Industry interview
Softimage
01
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Personal portfolio site
www.soanala.com
Country Korea
Software used 3ds Max,
Photoshop, V-Ray
Artist info
Soa Lee
Username soanala
Cover artist
The quality of Soa’s work is a
thing of beauty, and we were
delighted to have her as our very
fi rst cover star. We thought this
image had it all – eye contact,
good composition, fl awless
fi nish – we could go on and on
and on and on!
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
2009
ISSN 1748-7277
Magazine team
Editor Duncan Evans
duncan.evans@imagine-publishing.co.uk
☎ 01202 586282
Editor in Chief Jo Cole
Senior Sub Editor Colleen Johnson
Sub Editor Sam Robson
Group Art Editor Lora Barnes
Head of Design Ross Andrews
Contributors
Mark Bremmer, Lee Davies, Jon Denton, Julie Easton,
Carlos Fueyo, Thomas Hans-Christensen, John Haynes,
Lance Hitchings, Plamen Iliev, Natalie Johnson, April Madden,
Brajan Martinovic, Yuriy Mazurchuk, Adam Smith,
Rosie Tanner, Mike Wilson and Jack Zhang
Advertising
Digital or printed media packs are available on request.
Commercial Director Ross Webster
☎ 01202 586418
ross.webster@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Head of Sales James Hanslip
☎ 01202 586423
james.hanslip@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Advertising Manager Michaela Cotty
☎ 01202 586441
michaela.cotty@imagine-publishing.co.uk
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☎ 01202 586421
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☎ 01202 586436
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Cover disc
Interactive Media Manager Lee Groombridge
Head of Digital Projects Stuart Dixon
Multimedia Editor Tom Rudderham
3DAxtrahelp@imagine-publishing.co.uk
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Web: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk
www.3dartistonline.com
This issue’s team of expert artists…
Mark Bremmer
Whether it’s probing
the Dutch open
source gang or
explaining the
intricacies of Carrara,
Mark is your man
Plamen Iliev
I don’t know what
they feed 3D artists in
Bulgaria, but Plamen
has more talent than
we have hot pies, and
we have a lot of pies!
Jack Zhang
Jack is a character
modeller for EA in
Canada, and this
expertise comes
through in his Mighty
Two Kings tutorial
Lance Hitchings
Lance runs a design
studio stateside, and
is also the man
behind this issue’s
epic Tot Rod step-bystep
guide
Yuriy Mazurchuk
We call it the Table
and Chairs tutorial.
You can call it the
most incredible piece
of interior artwork
you’ve ever seen
Lee Davies
Lee is employed as a
character modeller
for a Dublin-based
agency. He is also the
fastest 3D artist we’ve
ever met
April Madden
April is technical
editor on Corel
Painter Magazine
and a graphic artist.
We gave her a pile of
books to review
Julie Easton
Foraging through the
dustbins of the
industry in search of
news, it’s Julie,
deputy editor of
Advanced Photoshop
Rosie Tanner
Editor of Photoshop
Creative, Rosie has
put together our
education course
feature and gallery
this issue
Carlos Fueyo
Giving the lowdown
on the 1930s Miami
waterfront, Carlos
runs architectural
visualisation
company Insomnia
Mike Wilson
Mike is a graphics
designer working in
Utah, USA. When
he’s not creating
large-scale prints,
he’s busy rendering
Thomas Haas-Christensen
A fan of Maya and
Mudbox, Thomas
explains how he got
an elephant to stand
on a ball and look
sad. No, really!
www.3dartistonline.com
Sign up, share your art and chat to other artists at
Every issue
you can
count on…
1 116 pages of
creative inspiration
2 Behind-thescenes
guides to
images and artwork
3 A CD packed full
of creative goodness
4 Interviews with
inspirational artists
5 Tips for studying
3D or getting work
in the industry
6 The chance to see
your art in the mag!
Welcome to the world of 3D Artist.
Each issue we’ll feature jaw-dropping
artwork and explain how it was made,
we’ll go behind the scenes with
industry professionals, interview
experts in their fi eld and give you the lowdown on
exciting developments in the world of 3D. We aim
to inspire and inform in equal measure, so if you
want to know which course to go on, what
university to attend or what software to master,
you’ll fi nd it all here. At the heart of 3D Artist,
though, is the community spirit that runs so
strongly through the 3D universe. So don’t forget
to sign up to the website and we’ll see you again
next month. Duncan Evans,
Editor
to the first issue of a new magazine for 3D artists
4 ● 3DArtist
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01
Discover how these images were created…
44
The scene was rendered in
mental ray, with the use of a few
unlocked features that I consider the
hidden gems of this fantastic
rendering engine.
Six-page guide behind the scenes of
the creation of this image
Plus: Object fi le on the disc
Create a
sci-fi character in
3ds Max & ZBrush
6 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Although I didn’t keep track of my
time, I estimate it took between 300
and 350 hours over almost a year
Lance Hitchings gives an insight into the dedication behind Tot Rod. Page 58
GUIDES & T ECHNIQUES
Continued overleaf
There’s even
more inside…
Turn the page to discover the
interviews, reviews, industry
advice and more that we’ve
packed into this issue…
44 Behind the Scenes: Modelling
detail and glamorous lighting
Six-page guide to creating a sexy
assassin from the future
50 I made this: Carlos Fueyo,
The Miami River 1930
Design agency boss details the
work in this amazing render
52 Step by step: Go wild with
monkey fighting action
Jack Zhang explains how he
created The Two Mighty Kings
56 I made this: Thomas
Haas-Christensen,
Sad Elephant
Check out the details in this
poignant yet entertaining image
58
Step by step: Create
a Pixar-style garage
scene in Maya
Lance spent a year making the
charming TotRod image
68
Behind the scenes: Create an
elegant room in 3ds Max
Learn how this incredible fi nely
detailed interior was created
74 I made this: Michael Wilson,
Theseus and the Minotaur
See what Mike had in mind with
this classic story retelling
76 Step by step: Creating a cute
cartoon style cybergirl
How to create a saucy character
from modelling to texturing
The Studio
Professional 3D advice,
techniques and tutorials
Video tutorial:
Sculpting in ZBrush
Direct from the video lab at Gnomon, there’s
a crash course in ZBrush sculpting on the CD
Free: Carrara Pro 6
Worth £384! Turn to
page 110 for more info
Plus software, models and resources
worth over £450
Turn to page 110 for the
complete disc contents
76
52
58
68
3DArtist ● 7
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
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INSIDE I S SUE ONE
We love to create scenes that take place
in the near future. For me, it’s a great way to
live my passion for product design
Franz Steiner reveals the motivation behind Blutsbrueder. Page 26
See your
artwork here…
Create a gallery today at
Share your art, comment
on other artists’
images
11 The Gallery
Amazing images from around the
3D world, all for your delectation
22 Community
News, contests, artwork and
showreels from the 3D community
26 Interview: Blutsbrueder
The future will be shiny and
feature robots. Franz Steiner
explains all
34 Feature: Inside Blender HQ
Discover the world domination
plans of the Dutch open sourcers
40 Interview: Kieron Helsdon
You’ll want this man’s job as we go
on location with the Lighting TD
44 The Studio
A world of tutorials and insights
into frankly incredible images
80 Questions and answers
Got questions about 3D software
and practices? Come hither
84 Review: Vue 7
Hollywood studios use it, Duncan
Evans reviews the new version
86 Review: Carrara 7
Easy-to-use 3D package gets
upgraded. Mark Bremmer calls it
88 Review: DAZ Studio 2.3
The easiest way to get yourself
some rendering action is also free!
89 Review: Autodesk
ImageModeler
Make building architecture a
breeze by converting photos
89 Review: 3Dconnexion
SpaceExplorer
Navigate your way through 3D
software with a 3D mouse
90 Reviews: Books
A selection of the best releases
108 Subscribe today!
You don’t want to miss an issue
and it will save you lots of cash
110 On the disc
There’s good stuff on there –
Carrara 6.2 Pro for a start
94 News
Industry events, awards, courses
and news you need to read
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education
96 Studio access:
SPLine Games
A team of Russian artists spill the
beans on their latest game
100 Interview: Leo Santos
Animation supervisor at Blur
Studio comes clean
103 College course:
Hertfordshire University
We check out the three-year 3D
Animation course
104 Gallery: Student showcase
Course students show their work
01
Inspiration • Interviews • Reviews and more
8 ● 3DArtist
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I have always thought of this car as a creature and not a structure of
metal, therefore I decided to design it as such for use in TV promotion. I
used Maya, mental ray and Photoshop for composite and colour correction
to produce this fi nal image
Personal portfolio site http://
htn.cgsociety.org/gallery/
Country United Arab Emirates
Software used Maya, mental
ray and Photoshop
Artist info
Haider T. Najeeb
Haider T. Najeeb F1, 2008
Featured artists
Jose’s rendition of
actor Morgan
Freeman dropped
our jaws when we
fi rst saw it…
Jose M Lazaro
An incredible
cityscape from
Ertug with an
HDR-style lighting
fi nish as well
Ertug Yenidemir
Check out the
distressed sofa
and the superb
character detail in
the fi gure
Stephen Molyneaux
An amazingly
detailed image
from Soa, who
also provides this
issue’s cover
Soa Lee
Down in the
canyon, strange
life forms hurry
here and there –
superbly realised
Eugene Dranov
Max’s homage to
tragic Heath
Ledger in his fi nal,
and compelling,
role as the Joker
Max Wahyudi
It’s a sexy witch
sat on a pumpkin.
What more could
you ask for in a
rendered image?
John Hayes
THE GA L LERY Ten pages of the greatest artwork from the 3D community
W E L C O M E T O
THE GA L L ERY
Get your artwork featured in these pages
Simply send it to the 3D Artist Gallery. Here’s how…
You’ll be missing out on a thriving 3D
community, but if you’d rather submit your
work by email or post, here’s how. Make
sure your image is at least 3,000 pixels on
the longest side, save it as a maximum
quality JPEG or zip it up as a TIFF and email
it to the address below. Please include your
contact details! If you’ve created a Pixarbeating
animation and want to see that
featured on the cover CD, then save it onto a
CD and post it to us. You can also send your
images on CD. The addresses are:
duncan.evans@imagine-publishing.co.uk
The Gallery, 3D Artist, Imagine Publishing,
Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill,
Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ
Email or post
1. Register with us
Check out the website below and click on Register. Choose a
username and password and you’re ready to go.
www.3dartistonline.com
2. Upload your images
Once registered, you can upload images to your gallery –
there’s no limits on numbers but check the size criteria.
3. Tell us about them!
Have an image you feel passionate about? Drop editorial an
email at duncan.evans@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Enter online
Hang your art in our online gallery
and get selected for the magazine
Comment on
more great
3D art…
Head straight over to
www.3dartistonline.com,
register and you can leave
comments for other artists.
Some of the people
featured here already have
their galleries, so get online
and join our club! Create your gallery today: www.3dartistonline.com
Get your spyglass
out and enjoy al
lthe intricate
detail in this
fantasy scene
Radoslav Zilinsky
3DArtist ● 11
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Ross Head of Design
There’s so much that makes this piece jaw-dropping;
it’s the textures, the fi lm grain, the depth of fi eld and, above
all, the perfect capture of Freeman’s expression and
presence. It would be an incredible
photograph – it’s an astounding render
12 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Jose M Lazaro The Last Move, 2007
This is my Morgan Freeman project. I’m very happy with the result.
I’ve been trying to make a fi lm noir tribute with this fantastic actor
Personal portfolio site
www.josemlazaro.com
Country Spain
Software used 3ds Max,
Mudbox, ZBrush, BodyPaint 3D,
Photoshop, mental ray
Artist info
Jose M Lazaro
Work in progress…
3DArtist ● 13
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Ertug Yenidemir Captivity, 2008
This piece took two weeks with scene design, sketch and 3D.
The old houses are the Safranbolu Evleri from Turkey
Lora Group Art Editor
For what could have been a clinical and sterile
architectural piece, it’s the warmth of the light, detailing,
slightly grimy textures and the juxtaposition of almost Art
Deco futuristic buildings and soft, natural elements
that makes this image stand out from the crowd
Personal portfolio site http://
ertug.cgsociety.org/gallery
Country Turkey
Software used 3ds Max,
Photoshop, V-Ray, Color Efex
Pro fi lter
Artist info
Ertug Yenidemir
Work in progress…
14 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Artist info
Stephen
Molyneaux
Personal portfolio site
www.old-boy.co.uk
Country United Kingdom
Software used 3ds Max,
ZBrush, mental ray, Photoshop
Username old-boy
Work in progress…
What Stephen has managed to do here is
nothing short of creating a digital masterpiece.
The use of reference photographs and the
careful attention to detail for deforming the
leather sofa elevate this way above the usual
renders of a pretty girl in 3D. The skin
textures are superb
Jo Editor in Chief
Stephen Molyneaux
Bernadette, 2008
Bernadette was a personal
project made over a couple of months.
I had developed my skills over the
past three years and wanted to
produce a high-quality piece of
artwork of the highest standard. The
project also gave me the opportunity
to use new tools and develop my
skills in new software
3DArtist ● 15
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Soa Lee Angel’s Time, 2008
When I was asked by Legend
Footwear to create a poster, I
envisaged the angel who is ready
to go down to Earth, expecting
some casual meeting in the party
of mankind. She looks like a pure
girl with joyous anticipation
Personal portfolio site
www.soanala.com
Country Korea
Software used 3ds Max,
Photoshop, V-Ray
Artist info
Soa Lee
Username soanala
Work in progress…
This is a beautiful image full of lightness and
texture, from the folds in the dress to the fl uttering
doves to the side. Superb styling and lighting make
it all the more surprising this was a project
for a shoe company
Jo Editor in Chief
16 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Artist info
Eugene Dranov
Personal portfolio site http://
eugendranov.cgsociety.org
Country Ukraine
Software used 3ds Max 9,
V-Ray, Photoshop CS3
Work in progress…
Eugene DranovMicroworld, Microworld, 2008
The main task was the creation of this strange world;
this one is attractive but does not like our world. I found it
very pleasing to create this made-up world, but I had some
trouble with the fog (effect) and with the focal distance. I
solved this with the Z-Depth render element
Duncan Editor
There’s something very charming about
Eugene’s microworld. The characters are
engaging, the colours really pop out and the
semitransparent water looks fantastic.
It’s a work of real imagination
3DArtist ● 17
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Lora Group Art Editor
Fabulous tribute to the tragic Heath Ledger
who turned in a show-stealing performance in
The Dark Knight. The brooding intensity of the
character is captured perfectly here, while the
hair – created using Hair and Fur in Maya – is
astonishingly similar to that of the character in
the fi lm. Defi nitely one of our favourite
images from the launch issue
Personal portfolio site http://
student.vfs.com/~3d68max/
Country Canada
Software used Maya, ZBrush
Artist info
Max Wahyudi
18 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
This image is a tribute to Heath Ledger’s
Joker character. I created this image to fi t with a
dual-screen wallpaper, although it will still work
if the image is cut in half for a single screen. I
sculpted the mesh in ZBrush and rendered in
Maya with mental ray. The hair was created
using Hair and Fur in Maya
Max Wahyudi The Magic Trick, 2009
3DArtist ● 19
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Personal portfolio site http://
zugok.cgsociety.org/gallery
Country USA
Software used 3ds Max,
Photoshop, V-Ray
Artist info
John Hayes
Work in progress…
Duncan Editor
John Hayes
Witch and
Pumpkin,
2009
I made this illustration with
Modo’s modelling, sculpting, UV
layout, 3D texture painting and
rendering features. I then used
Photoshop to clean up the renders,
adjust the colour values and add
highlights to the hair. I
normally use several 3D
software packages,
however, since
Modo offers all
the tools I
needed, this
3D illustration
was made to
test it
Come on, what’s not to like here with our
busty witch sat astride the glowing pumpkin. The
colours are fantastic, as is the detail on the
witch’s outfi t. Just look at those boots!
20 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
3DArtist ● 21
Artist info
Radoslav Zilinsky
Personal portfolio site
www.radoxist.com
Country Slovakia
Software used 3ds Max,
Photoshop, VRay, ZBrush
Username: radoxist
Work in progress…
Radoslav Zilinsky
Worth Enough?, 2007
I created this image primarily to be viewed close-up so
the viewer can discover all the little details
Jo Editor in Chief
Although the overall image is
beautiful, you have to get up close
to really appreciate it. Look at the
rainbow haze over the
water – it’s crazy good!
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
01
Star-studded
awards
WALL-E and The Dark
Knight trump Iron Man in
the 7th Annual Visual
Effects Society Awards
Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion
Picture for its garbage truck crash models, Outstanding
Created Environment in a Feature Motion for the Gotham
City sequences and Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion
Picture overall.
In addition to the 25 hotly contested awards, two special
honours were also dispatched: a VES Lifetime Achievement
prize was presented to Kathleen Kennedy and Frank
Marshall, whose previous work on The Curious Case
of Benjamin Button has been widely acclaimed, while
Phil Tippett was gifted the George Melies Award
for Pioneering.
The Visual Effects Society represents visual effects
practitioners in the entertainment industry. To fi nd out
more about the awards and see who collected the rest of the
prizes, head over to www.visualeffectssociety.com.
The Visual Effects Society (VES) dished out gongs
galore during its 7th Annual Awards at the end of
February. Held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in
Los Angeles, the awards were attended by the industry’s
hottest special effects teams and A-list animators and
celebrated the brightest talent in the business.
The biggest surprise of the night was how the favourite,
Iron Man, backed with fi ve nominations, walked away emptyhanded.
Instead it was the teams behind WALL-E and The
Dark Knight who had the biggest cause for celebration.
Disney Pixar hit WALL-E claimed Outstanding Animation
in an Animated Motion Picture, along with two other
awards, while the latest Batman fl ick scooped the award for
The latest news, tools and resources for the 3D artist
This year’s recipients exemplify true
excellence in the field of visual and special
effects. I congratulate all of the nominees
Eric Roth VES executive director
Previous winners
Outstanding Animation in an
Animated Motion Picture
Ratatouille (2008)
Cars (2007)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse
of the Were-Rabbit (2006)
The Incredibles (2005)
Finding Nemo (2004)
Stuart Little 2 (2003)
The team behind animated hit of
the year, WALL-E, receiving their
awards at the VES Awards
The Dark Knight won an award for its fast-paced scenes in Gotham City
Got an opinion on who should have
won at the VES Awards? Discuss it
with other 3D artists at
www.3dartistonline.com
22 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
News, tools and resources Community
Wayne Robson, author of many
digital sculpting tutorial books and
DVDs for ZBrush and Mudbox, as
well as the brains behind
MudboxHub.com, has announced
the addition of a brand new forum
to the popular site in a bid to make
it more community-focused. The
forum offers a Digital Sculpting
section as well as a General
Category for more communitybased
discussion as well as
Mudbox news and events. Like
other forums of this nature, the new
addition to the site lists forum stats
in addition the posts, such as latest
post and total number of topics. To
check it out for yourself, head over
to www.mudboxhub.com/forum.
Mudbox
gets a forum
CGArena, the computer graphics
community website famous for
offering news, job vacancies,
forums and galleries for the 3D
and 2D world, has announced that
the fourth volume of its popular
eZine series is now available for
download. The February to March
edition of the online magazine
features articles on After Effects,
Photoshop and 3ds Max, as well as
an array of reviews, news and
gallery submissions. The pre-spring
issue also reveals an inspiring
interview offering an insight into the
prolifi c career of Jason Edwards. To
download the feature-packed
community-orientated eZine, users
will require Acrobat 6 (as a
minimum) and you need to register.
To download the magazine, travel
to www.cgarena.com/freestuff/
ezine/feb09_issue.html.
New edition of
CGArena online
New sites and changes to your
favourites – it’s all here!
Italian CG artist, Massimo Righi, is currently working as
a freelancer with his soul mate Silvia Puliè. The two share
their lives and passion for 3D, currently working in the
game and movie industries.
Massimo’s work has a strong
animal fl avour, with quirky and
engaging takes on the animal
kingdom. He explains how it is
the “weird expressions, a funny
behaviour or a common action”
that catches his eye. This is
perfectly demonstrated in his
Lunchtime image, featuring the
hungry giraffe.
Above: Little Green is another
example of Massimo’s
photoreal renders
Animation Insiders
Learn animation skills from the pros
Collector’s edition of
Ballistics’ Oddworld
Limited run of specially produced Folio
To celebrate the reprinting of one of Ballistic
Publishing’s most popular titles, Art of Oddworld
Inhabitants: The First Ten Years, the brand has produced
a limited run of specially produced Folio copies. The
coffee-table book, which achieved cult status upon its
fi rst release, is fi lled with original and pioneering artwork
as well as production design sketches, colour roughs,
storyboards, game screens, CG/FMV stills and features
exclusive artwork from Oddworld inhabitants.
The 256-page encyclopaedic-style book is available in
three editions: hard cover, leather-bound Limited Edition
and now the Folio Edition for collectors, which is expected
to retail at $290. For further information, visit www.
ballisticpublishing.com/books/oddworld/folioedition.
●
http://fantasyartdesign.com/
Fantasy Art Design
Establishing itself as a hedonistic paradise for the digital
art community, with a penchant for all things mythical,
magical and fantastical, the Fantasy Artist Design
website offers an online haven for creative art fans.
Inviting artists of every level, the website serves to
connect, inform and celebrate the achievement and
excellence of its members in all aspects of the genre and
its community. Once registered, members have access
to an extensive gallery as well as its unique catalogue of
wallpapers, free art software, 3D models, animated
desktops and more.
Free models, software,
wallpapers, artwork and more
Some of the biggest names in
animation are collaborating
on a new project aimed at
passing on their invaluable
knowledge. Animation
Insiders is a planned series of
books that bring together the
experience of various
animators. Each book will
concentrate on a theme,
helping to expand your skills.
Some of the participants
include Jason Ryan,
supervising animator at
DreamWorks Animation SKG,
Shahar Levavi from Weta
Digital and Anthea Kerou from
Sony Animation. The fi rst
launch is planned for June and
you can get updates from
www.squeezestudio.com/
SStudiopress.
We shine the spotlight on one artist
who has an uncanny knack for
capturing animal characters
Massimo Righi www.massimorighi.com
Lunchtime
3DArtist ● 23
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
01
The latest news, tools and resources for the 3D artist
Ayanna: Fighter Pilot
Grant began working with 3D models
back in 2004, starting out with Bryce
3D.
He now works with 3ds Max, which
has become his program of choice.
Here, we present a quick glimpse of a
work-in-progress.
Ayanna: Fighter Pilot
is a project that
involves not only the main fi gure, but
also the Aura Speeder vehicle. The
models are close to completion, with a
possible option of changing some
decals/shaders. Get in touch with us
and let us know how you would
progress with the images.
Bonzai3d beta
AutoDesSys invites 3D community to help shape its modelling
software for realising conceptual designs
A beta version of Bonzai3d is now available
online for modelling fanatics. The 3D
modeller is being pitched as an easy-to-use
Bonzai3d allows its users to take concept sketches and
turn them into detailed models
and geometrically robust application based
on the needs and requests of design
professionals. The producers hope the 3D
community will help thrash out any glitches
or design issues before the program
launches in April, when the 3D app is set to
sell at an introductory rate of $500.
To coincide with the beta release,
AutoDesSys is offering form.Z RenderZone
Plus at a 25 per cent discounted price of all
new licences until 30 April. The app provides
photorealistic rendering with global
illumination based on Final Gather, Ambient
Occlusion and Radiosity for simulation of
lighting effects and rendering techniques.
To help shape the future of Bonzai3d,
head over to www.bonzai3d.com.
We caught up with Grant, a self-taught 3D artist currently
working in Australia, to discover a bit more about his Ayanna
image and how he specialises in hard-surface models
Grant Warwick http://grantwarwick.com/
Free models online
Take advantage of high-quality models that
cost nothing more than a few mouse clicks
NASA 3D Models
Over 30 detailed replicas of NASA shuttles, satellites,
equipment and more
Web: www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/
3d-models-index.html
If you are a stargazer, then what
better resource of models than
NASA? Visit the site to download a
good range of shuttles and other
space-exploration equipment, all
available in the 3DS format. You
can also pick up images and texture
while you’re there.
Archive 3D
A phenomenal depository of 3D models targeted
at fans of interior scenes
Web: http://archive3d.net/
The Archive 3D site is bursting at
the seams with furniture models.
The search system allows you to
browse by category, which includes
furnishings, doors, windows,
lamps, fi replaces, gardens and
more. You don’t have to register –
just click and download.
Wirecase
Luxuriate in premium 3D models to buy, or even
better, download from the Free area
Web: www.wirecase.com
There is plenty of 3D candy at the
Wirecase website. In addition to
collections that can be purchased,
visitors also benefi t from a
sparkling array of free models. You
do need to register, but after that
you can access cityscapes, cars,
interiors and other model delights.
24 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
News, tools and resources ●Community
Craft Animations has extended its
Craft Director Tools for users of
Maxon CINEMA 4D. Tools provide
real-time camera control for
cinematic results. Vehicles allow
artists to create realistic and
accurate simulation for in-motion
vehicles. The Accessories set lets
you add fi nishing touches to actionpacked
movies, while Craft
Freeware is a toolbox intended for
real-time recording. Find out more
about each product from www.
craftanimations.com.
New tools for
CINEMA 4D
e-on software has made the
Personal Learning Edition of its
fl agship products Vue 7 xStream
and Vue 7 Infi nite available for
free. The Vue 7 PLE is a fully
functional version of the fl agship
products, which are largely
considered leading solutions for the
creation, animation, rendering and
integration of natural 3D
environments for movie, broadcast
and architecture. It is free to
download now from www.vue7.
com/ple.
e-on software
makes Vue 7 free
Software shorts
Get the lowdown on updates and launches
Classic Interior
Viktor has an impressive grounding in 3ds Max – he has
been using the program for over ten years. It’s only in the
past few years, though, that he has been focusing on
architectural visualisations. Take a look at his portfolio and
you will be blown away by intricate interiors and stunning
exteriors. All of his work has an exceptional quality of light,
thanks to his other tool of choice, Photoshop. Viktor explains
that “post-processing is at least as important as the
rendering part to me.” Classic Interior is a departure from
Viktor’s usual choice of minimal scenes, causing him to “pay
extra attention to every little detail in the scene.”
Meet Viktor – an architect from
Budapest with a keen eye for
stunning interior and exterior scenes
Viktor Fretyán http://radicjoe.cgsociety.org/gallery/
New tablet delivers customisable control to everyone
WACOM INTUOS4
Create your gallery, browse the artwork, chat with
experts and artists and get tips and techniques at
www.3dartistonline.com
www.3DArtistonline.com Practical inspiration for the 3D community
02 What’s in next issue
Issue two: on sale 23 April
Learn how this incredible image was created
For more issue 2 information,
visit www.3dartistonline.com
Leading graphics tablet manufacturer Wacom has
unveiled its latest product, the Intuos4. The new
tablet features improved pen performance, offering
2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity. It can be
customised for specifi c tools, as well as shortcuts
and modifi er keys with OLED displays. The tablet is
the fi rst from Wacom that can be used
ambidextrously. All the user has to do is rotate the
tablet 180 degrees and change the illuminated icons
with the driver software. The Intuos4 also features
the Touch Ring, which can control up to
four functions in any program.
The central button
toggles between functions such as zoom, layer
selection and canvas rotation, and an informative
LED highlights the current action. The Precision
Mode is great for 3D users, as it will temporarily
slow down your cursor, making it perfect for
adjusting wireframes.See www.
wacom.com for a full
price list.
The Touch Ring
lets you access
shortcuts for
certain software or
creative workfl ow
The Intuos4 comes
in different sizes
and prices so you
can fi nd the best fi t
The Precision Mode slows
down your cursor, giving a
‘bullet-time’ effect
Extra sensitivity in the
stylus means improved
responsiveness
Ready to go
Wen Lin «
Personal portfolio site
http://coolen007.cgsociety.org/
3DArtist ● 25
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Franz Steiner
Virtual models or characters have a great future in my opinion.
We are currently working on our vision of a female robot
26 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Designing the future ●Interview
Franz Steiner on the inspirations behind his work…
3DArtist ● 27
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Franz Steiner
Franz Steiner, a painter and
certifi cated digital artist, and his
father Gerhard Steiner, an
established advertisement and fashion
photographer, founded Blutsbrueder
Design in January 2004 when they opened
their fi rst offi ce in Düsseldorf in Germany.
From there, they quickly started working
for clients such as Mercedes Benz, Renault
and a host of other car companies, as well as
big names like the software giant Microsoft
and the worldwide advertising agency
McCann Erickson.
In the winter of 2004, they opened their
next offi ce in Berlin and at that time Lane
Tesanovic, a certifi cated lawyer, joined the
Blutsbrueder team, heading the
management, administration and the
organisation of all productions. At the
beginning of 2007, Blutsbrueder opened an
offi ce in New York with a view to
establishing itself in the US market.
Blutsbrueder Design is now an acclaimed
design studio with a roster of international
clients covering a number of different fi elds.
Specialising in art and advertising print
productions with a focus on visual effects,
Blutsbrueder Design provides both the
creative direction and the fi nal
implementation of the image. This service
includes 3D work from its accomplished
team of digital artists, retouching, postproduction
and, available as a special
service, matte painting.
What marks Blutsbrueder apart from
normal design agencies is the complete
understanding and willingness to use
advanced 3D imagery with its inherently
technical nature with the creative elements
of art and advertising. Since 2004, the
company has drafted concepts, created
designs and provided art direction for
prestigious advertising agencies, design/
fashion magazines and PR companies.
3DArtist: What is it that makes
Blutsbrueder Design different from other
design studios?
Franz Steiner: At Blutsbrueder Design, we
combine the aesthetics and themes from the
Duncan Evans talks to Franz Steiner about the futuristic visualisation work of this
New York and Berlin-based design agency. Blutsbrueder Design specialises in
retouching, CGI and photography for the advertising and commercial industries
At Blutsbrueder Design, we combine the
aesthetics and themes from the movie,
fashion and photography industries. My father
is a photographer so I grew up with a sense for
beauty and design
Franz Steiner art director, Blutsbrueder Design on the inspirations behind his work
Company Blutsbrueder Design
Founded 2004
Company website
www.blutsbrueder-design.com
Personal portfolio site
http://franz.cgsociety.org/
gallery/
Country USA
Software used 3ds Max, V-Ray,
Adobe Photoshop
Expertise Art direction, CGI,
retouching
Client list Microsoft, Mercedes
Benz, Renault, DuPont, Braun,
Verizon, McCann Erickson
Software used Maya, mental ray
and Photoshop
c The face paint on the
male model served two
purposes. First, it ensured
a similarly high level of
refl ection back onto the
model’s face. Second, it
gave her a direct image to
interact with that would
be similar to the robot
b A male model was used to
pose in the position that the
robot would take up so that
the pose and muscle
tightness of the model was
completely accurate.
Without something physical
to hold it, the pose would
have been diffi cult
a
a Franz and his father
Gerhard worked on the
photography concept for
this shot together. Franz
himself came up with the
glossy, Eighties-esque
decadent outfi t to signify
impractical and over-thetop
luxurious excess
28 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Designing the future ●Interview
b
c
3DArtist ● 29
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Franz Steiner
movie, fashion and photography industries.
My father is a photographer so I grew up
with a sense for beauty and design. I then
studied at a fi lm school with a focus on
visual effects. I guess all these infl uences
make Blutsbrueder a bit different than a
usual CGI or retouching studio.
3DA: Who are your main clients?
FS: So far, we are working with new clients
a lot. Our clients come from Europe, USA
and the Middle East. We have worked with
the automotive industry through Mercedes
Benz and Renault, with Microsoft and
Braun, with advertising agencies like
McCann Erickson, as well as photographers
such as Terry Gates.
Modelling the future
These projects all start with a basic idea of
the concept that we then develop into what
we want to present, whether this is for a
client or ourselves. It’s usually a
combination of sketches or photographs
with sketched elements that will be
replaced by the CGI. We then move on to
photographing any elements that are going
to be present in the fi nal shot. Then we start
modelling the subjects or objects in 3ds Max
until we have a fi nal wireframe model. The
key part then is unwrapping the meshes
and creating or painting the textures and
setting the high levels of refl ectivity that you
see in most of the pictures. When the CGI
and photography are combined, there is
always a measure of cleaning up and fi tting
together in Photoshop afterwards.
3DA: You’ve garnered a great deal of
attention for your fantastic series of
futuristic images. Were the interiors, the car
shots and the robots all part of the same
brief, or seperate?
FS: Most of these images are our own
productions. We produce them entirely
from concept to fi nal retouching. You can
buy those images though our partner,
Corbis.com.
d This image was for a
series on how we will use
devices and technology in
the future. It suggests the
belief that design
technology will become
more personal and
orientated towards
accessing knowledge
f One of the early rough
sketches for the concept of
the personal robot. Steiner
wanted to get over the
concept of the robot being
a capable hand around the
home, while life for the
humans becomes easier
and more glamorous
e The model was posed in
exactly the right position
for the subsequent
addition of the 3D glasses
in Photoshop. Particular
care had to be taken over
refraction of light through
the edges of the glasses
and also the refl ections
g The detail in this shot is in
the background. It’s part
of the concept series
detailing replaceable
human parts with off-theshelf
robotic parts. Look
at the shelves in the
background – they’re all
robotic components
h The full-modelled
wireframe for the futuristic
New York taxi service was
created in 3ds Max with a
friend of Steiner’s whose
passion was cars. The
concept for this project
was for a superaerodynamic
vehicle
d
f
g
e
h
30 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Designing the future ●Interview
3DA: There are lots of shots of people with
legs and feet being replaced. What was
that all about?
FS: This is another in-house production. We
love to create scenes that take place in the
near future. For me, it’s a great way to live
my passion for product design. Creating all
these futuristic gadgets is just a blast!
3DA: There’s a scene featuring a futuristic
New York taxi. What was the design
thinking for the car, and what software did
you then use to model and construct it?
How was the model added – we assume
she’s a real person? – and how were the
refl ections generated?
FS: I worked on this image with a friend of
mine whose passion is to design cars. I
loved his design and started creating a
world around it. We used 3ds Max and
Photoshop. We shot the model in our studio
in Germany and, as you said, we faked the
refl ections of the model in Photoshop.
3DA: For the series of images on personal
robots, please explain the creative process
that you went through to create them.
There’s a guy with white face make-up
featured in the non-CGI shots – why did you
use him?
FS: First of all, we had a male model on the
set to make it easier for our female model to
interact with someone. Since we knew that
the robot would be white, we tried to have
our real model the same to get some of the
bouncing white light. In the end, we copied
the male model’s eyes into the fi nal images
to bring our robot to life. The white colour
made it easier to paste real parts into the
CGI face.
3DA: Where did you get the idea for the
design of the robots? There’s a certain
similarity with the robots from the Will
Smith fi lm, I, Robot. Was that intentional or
a coincidence?
FS: We wanted the robot to be something
j This is part of the futuristic
leisure series of images
and features a model that
was shot in the studio. The
background is a simple
construct of panels in 3ds
Max with a white refl ective
decoration. The model
was then composited
special and new, but we also wanted to use
a certain aesthetic that was not too new to
the viewer. So we gathered material and
designed a personal robot how we thought
people would like them to look. I was
always amazed by the robots in Björk’s
music video for All Is Full Of Love. We didn’t
want to go too crazy with new materials and
technologies. If you only have a still image,
you have to be very clear and it has to be
understandable at fi rst sight.
Making it all happen
The initial concepts concerned make use of
advanced technology, from utilising
artifi cial parts, to gadgets and
transportation to the ultimate expression of
advanced technology – the personal robot.
To create the images, the humans were shot
i The model was shot in the
studio and the other
elements were all added in
Photoshop once the main
picture was rendered. The
model was composited
into the scene and the
refl ections were mocked
up in Photoshop
I worked on this image with a friend whose
passion is to design cars. I loved his design and
started creating a world around it
i
j
3DArtist ● 31
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Franz Steiner
l In the future, when your leg
starts to show wear and tear,
or if there’s a newer model
that looks better, you’ll
simply drop by the spare
parts shop and pick up a
new one. The concepts of
the future meet retro
Eighties chic in this image
l
32 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Designing the future ●Interview
in the studio, sometimes with another
model mocked up as the robot for reference
and posing. The background scenes were
modelled in 3ds Max to be clean and white,
while the various parts for human
accessories, gadgets and the robot were
modelled individually.
3DA: What software did you use to model
and render these scenes?
FS: We used 3ds Max and V-Ray.
3DA: How many people worked on this
series of images, and how long did they
take to execute?
FS: There were two artists. The creation of
the robot took about one and a half months.
The fi nishing of all the images took another
one and a half months.
3DA: Have you had any negative feedback
on the concept of the robot really being a
very personal robot?
FS: Not so far, I think the fact that it’s a man
who works for a woman in all of these
images makes everybody like it. If it was a
female robot, we would have to be a bit
more careful.
Tearing up San Francisco
One of the more unusual client requests
came from the Bay Area Chapter of the
American Red Cross. It wanted to publicise
the danger of earthquakes in their
region through the use of a series of car
bumper stickers.
3DA: You produced some images under the
theme ‘Supercrack’ for the American Red
Cross’s Bay Area Chapter. What was that
all about? Did it present any unforeseen
technical challenges?
FS: This image was created completely in
Photoshop. The task was to create an image
that can be used as a oversized sticker on
the Union Square in San Francisco. It should
make people more aware of the dangers of
earthquakes in that area. We were limited
to the size of the sticker, which was very
long but very thin, so everything had to be
very narrow. It wasn’t too easy to show the
crack and the cars underneath. We used
photo patches of rocks and parked cars to
get everything fi nished.
3DA: You worked in conjunction with
photographer Terry Gates on some projects.
How did that come about and can you say
what it was for?
FS: Terry Gates is a talented New York-based
fashion photographer. He likes our style and
we love his. So sometimes we just do the
usual retouching (cleaning skin, working on
values and contrast, etc) and, if necessary,
we design a CGI background according to
his needs.
3DA: What’s next in the world of 3D graphic
design for Blutsbrueder?
FS: Virtual models or characters have a
great future in my opinion. We are currently
working on our vision of a female robot.
Finishing up
One of the interesting impressions that
comes out of talking to Steiner about his
work with Blutsbrueder is his passion for
future technology and the implications of
technology on human leisure activity.
Steiner takes almost a complete opposite
perspective from grungy, cyberpunk-style
futures, with the clean lines and white
colour scheme redolent of the Sixties vision
of a happy future. The use of 3D software in
implementing these schemes is essential to
realising the design concepts, though. With
an expanding client list and the merging of
the disciplines of advertising and 3D
artistry, the future looks bright and shiny
for Blutsbrueder.
The creation of the robot
took about one and a half
months. The finishing of all
the images took another
one and a half months
p The ultimate expression of
the personal robot
concept. Steiner was
careful to use a real
woman and place her in
charge of the make robot
to avoid charges of sexism.
Still, next up is a female
robot series of images
o The setup shot with the
actor with white face paint
meant that the muscles in
the model’s arm were
properly defi ned. It also
meant that the model was
looking in exactly the right
place to make eye contact
with her robot partner
n This is just our two
subjects laughing and
joking between shots. By
using a real person to
composite the 3D over, the
model was able to relax
and relate to the subject,
giving more natural poses
in front of camera
m This is the fi nal
composited shot showing
our subject enjoying a
friendly game of arm
wrestling. The eye contact
worked so well between
the pair that the actor’s
eyes were successfully
composited into the robot
m o
n
p
3DArtist ● 33
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Only the gregarious and laid back Dutch could spend 21 years
developing 3D software and then give it away for free.
Mark Bremmer heads to Amsterdam to investigate
Feature● Inside the Blender Foundation
34 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
nlike any software that you’ve
used before, the 3D solution
called Blender is not developed
and managed by a commercial
corporation. Astonishingly, this free and
incredibly robust 3D package is
maintained and grown by the Blender
Foundation (www.blender.org), which is
an independent, non-profi t, public benefi t
corporation. Located in Amsterdam in the
aptly named Amsterdam Blender
Institute, a small team led by Blender
patron saint Ton Roosendaal both develop
and promote Blender to the world at large.
In addition to the core development of
the program itself, the Blender Foundation
hosts its own SourceForge-style project
space at http://projects.blender.org/.
Here, not only is there a starting point to
become involved or create projects
utilising Blender, but also a space where
developers can create experimental
David Kaplan, a Blender enthusiast,
explains why the community ethos
makes the free 3D package unique
I’ve come across images that
demonstrate exactly what I’m trying
to accomplish in my own work.
So I’ll dash off an email with
a question and, most of the
time, a very helpful answer
is sent back my way within a
day or so. This seems to be a
common theme among users, and
one of the reasons for such an
allegiance to the software
Sky Lake City
» Martin Lubich
www.loramel.net
3DArtist ● 35
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Feature● Inside the Blender Foundation
NeoGeo software from scratch. So in
1995 the rewrite began, marking the
genesis of Blender.
To better address the development and
marketing needs of Blender, in 1998
Roosendaal founded a new company
called Not a Number (NaN).
Outrageously, the mission of NaN was to
distribute a compact, cross-platform 3D
tool for free. And not just a basic 3D
solution but a professional-level modelling
and animation toolset that the general
public and pros alike would fi nd useful and
capable. ? In a feat of extreme foresight,
Roosendaal’s method was what later
became the norm for internet businesses
everywhere – to provide commercial
products and services around Blender’s
core functionality. At Blender’s debut in
1999 at SIGGRAPH, the attendee
response confi rmed that some wise
decisions had been made.
Of course, Roosendaal had to eat and
developing software is neither fast nor
easy. Following the favourable reception
at SIGGRAPH and Roosendaal’s
reputation, NaN was able to attract
fi nancing of 4.5 million euros. The NaN
staff grew to 50, with a virtual offi ce of
developers working from points around
the world. Blender v2.0, including a game
engine, was released in the summer of
2000 and the user base swelled to a
healthy 250,000.
But you can’t sail without occasionally
encountering bad weather. A tough world
economy coupled with less-thanforecasted
sales spurred investors to shut
down NaN and terminate Blender.
However, a passionate developer and
large user base has a way of making
things happen. So in 2002 Roosendaal
started the nonprofi t Blender Foundation,
with its hallmark being open source code.
Roosendaal courted the former NaN
investors and was able to get them to
agree with the open source vision and a
unique campaign was begun called Free
Blender. This campaign sought to raise
100,000 euros as a one-time fee so that
the NaN investors would agree on opensourcing
Blender. Astoundingly, the goal
was reached in seven short weeks. On 13
October 2002, Blender was released to
the world under the terms of the GNU
General Public Licence.
Open source is a double-edged sword,
cutting both ways. While day-to-day
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 NeoGeo studio and software created NeoGeo software rewritten for open source
The Blender timeline Blender trees and even complete forks if
they’re so inclined. Additionally, huge
connecting points for both learning and
developing Blender can be found at www.
blender.org/community/get-involved.
Developing Blender
Blender is not new. In fact, in the world of
computers, the starting point for Blender
is practically prehistory. Beginning in
1988, Ton Roosendaal co-founded a
Dutch animation studio called NeoGeo.
Simultaneously winning awards for its
work and churning out copious amounts
of work, NeoGeo quickly became the
largest 3D animation studio in the
Netherlands, while Roosendaal himself
was responsible for internal software
development as well as art direction. But
a developer’s work is never done, and in
1995 the decision was made to rewrite the
The open source
software Blender has
come a long way since
its early days as NeoGeo
Big Buck Bunny
www.bigbuckbunny.org
© Blender Foundation
Blender v2.0… was
released in the summer
of 2000 and the user base
swelled to 250,000
36 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Inside the Blender Foundation●Feature
feedback from users and developers was
outstanding, it was also tough to organise
and manage. A central focus was required
to help channel the development.
Consequently, the Blender Foundation
decided to start a project bringing
together outstanding artists in the Blender
community and challenge them to make
an exciting 3D animation movie short.
‘Project Orange’ was the result of this in
2005, leading to the world’s fi rst and
widely recognised Open Movie entitled
Elephant’s Dream. Created entirely with
open source tools and assets, the results
were published under an open licence, the
Creative Commons Attribute.
Seeing the success of Project Orange,
Roosendaal established the Blender
Institute in 2007. Now the permanent
offi ce and studio, this made it easier to
achieve the Blender Foundation’s goals
while co-ordinating and facilitating open
projects related to 3D movies, games and
visual effects.
In April 2008, the Peach Project Open
Movie entitled Big Buck Bunny was
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Not a Number (NaN)
company founded to
distribute free open
source 3D software
Blender launched
at SIGGRAPH
NaN attracts 4.5 million euros in funding
Blender 2.0 released.
User base swells to
250,000
Investors pull out, NaN closes down
Blender
Foundation
formed
13 October: Blender Foundation raises
100,000 euros to buy out Blender and
release into open source community
Elephant’s Dream released. First ever movie made with open source tools
Blender Institute founded to house non-profi tmaking,
open source Blender Foundation
To establish services for active
users and developers of Blender
To maintain and improve the
current Blender product via a
public-accessible source code
system under the GNU GPL licence
To establish funding or
revenue mechanisms that serve
the Foundation’s goals and cover
the Foundation’s expenses
To give the worldwide internet
community access to 3D technology
in general, with Blender as a core
In this day of gigantic corporate
amalgamations, the Blender Foundation simply
sounds too good to be true. But it’s not. The
goals of the Foundation are brief and succinct,
as you can see here:
Good foundations
Dolomites 4
Bertrand Benoit »
www.bertrand-benoit.com
Ton Roosendaal, lead
developer of Blender
and chairman of the
Blender Foundation
Starry Night
Mathias Pedersen «
www.mathiaspedersen.com
3DArtist ● 37
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Feature● Inside the Blender Foundation
completed in the Blender Institute.
Currently, the open source game Apricot is
being developed.
The Blender community
For those willing to learn a professionallevel
3D solution, Blender is the great
equaliser. The only investment needed is
time. Consequently, Blender has a rich
and varied international user base and
community. A full listing of languagespecifi
c communities can be found at
www.blender.org/community/usercommunity.
The accompanying images
for this article have been created by
Blender faithful as young as 18, as well as
professional studios that have integrated
Blender into their daily workfl ow pipeline.
Truly, desire and ability are the only
limiting factors for any user of Blender.
Learning a software as versatile as
Blender is not a fast process, even if you
are fl uent in another 3D package. While
many skills are transferrable between
softwares, documentation is the key.
While the Blender Foundation maintains
the online documentation, the user
tutorials are the heroes. Links from the
documentation pages to both static and
video tutorials reveal common themes
and questions users have. Chances are, if
a new user has a question, its answer has
been provided by another user.
A common theme among Blender
users is the ‘give-back’ mentality that
permeates the community. Many of the
links provided on the Blender site will take
visitors to users’ websites and galleries.
User David Kaplan cites: “In visiting other
users’ galleries, I’ve come across images
that demonstrate exactly what I’m trying
to accomplish in my own work. So I’ll dash
off an email with a question and, most of
the time, a very helpful answer is sent
back my way within a day or so.” This
seems to be a common theme among
users and one of the reasons for such an
allegiance to the software.
Another tier of communities are the
ones that are set up as forums where
fellow users can post questions, show
work and help others. While there are
many forums for 3D in general of which
Blender might be a small part, the amount
of forums dedicated solely to Blender is a
testimony to the supportive and
encouraging environment that has sprung
up. There are far too many Blender user
communities to list them all. Highlighted
in the boxout on the following page are
just a few to show the diversity of
opportunities provided through the
community environment.
City
» Bertrand Benoit
www.bertrand-benoit.com
© Bertrand Benoit
Dolomites 2
Bertrand Benoit «
www.bertrand-benoit.com
Altruism
» Mathias Pedersen
www.mathiaspedersen.com
Evil Frank
www.bigbuckbunny.org
© Blender Foundation
38 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Inside the Blender Foundation●Feature
A typical question in many of the
Blender user forums is, ‘Why aren’t there
more user-driven projects like movies?’
The answer is the reason that Roosendaal
created the Blender Institute – logistics.
Movies and game projects are beguiling in
their fi nished form but are monumentally
complex in their creation. It is rare for
enough people with the requisite skill sets,
time and dedication to be found outside of
a centrally located command post.
The Blender community isn’t just for
artists, however. As evidenced by the
Peach and Apricot projects (http://wiki.
blender.org/index.php/Dev:Source/
GameEngine), there are ample
opportunities for developers as well. And
here lies the strength of the open source
community and the methodology Blender
Institute has established – create a
project, get demands from artists and
producers, relay items to developers then
create or refi ne solution sets accordingly.
A look into the Apricot projects
Wishlist and GameLogic development
reveal how features are conceived,
qualifi ed and then developed for Blender.
Not for the faint of heart, these lists
exhibit the larger picture and goals to
which Blender is dedicated.
www.blendernation.com
www.blender-fi .org
www.steam-train.de
www.blender.it
www.blenderartists.org
www.blendermasters.com
http://blender.doc.fr.free.fr/
http://blender.guanajuato.net
Links to the community
There are many Blender user
communities, including…
Herein lies the strength of the open
source community and the methodology
Blender Institute has established
Tree Frog
Jason Pierce «
www.jasonpierce.animadillo.com
The Silent Killer
» Mathias Pedersen
www.mathiaspedersen.com
3DArtist ● 39
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Kieron Helsdon
I really enjoyed the variety doing 3D from
modelling, texturing and lighting and I
wanted to do some more… I got into the fi lm
side by putting in long hours and building up
a showreel
Kieron Helsdon Lighting Technical Director, Double Negative
Name Kieron Helsdon
Job title Lighting
Technical Director
Company Double Negative
Location London, UK
Work credits Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows, Troy, Kingdom of
Heaven, The Da Vinci Code, Captain
Scarlet, Sunshine, Hellboy II: The
Golden Army, Black Hawk Down
©DNA Films and Fox Searchlight
A
40 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Kieron Helsdon ●Interview
So how do you go from developing
interfaces for front cover discs to
working on big budget Hollywood
fi lms? One step at a time with a lot of hard
work is the answer. In 1994, Kieron was
pretty much just using Photoshop. The
company he worked for had a demo copy of
an application called Simply 3D and he did
do a few logos with that. He also had an
Amiga at home and was using Imagine 3D to
experiment with modelling and rendering.
The only prior experience Kieron had with
3D was at university where he used the DOS
version of 3D Studio while doing a Fine Art
degree. After the graphics job, he took the
sprite work he had done, as well as a series
of sketchbooks, and applied for a job in
London at a games company called Domark.
They liked the sketchbooks and he started
as a 3D artist there in 1995. He worked
extremely long hours and weekends to
develop his 3D skills, which is where we
pick the story up.
3D Artist: What kind of work did you do for
Eidos Interactive?
Kieron Helsdon: Eidos bought Domark
around 1996 and we continued the game we
were working on as part of its internal
development team. By the time our game
was published, I had worked on the title for
about three years. During my time there, I
worked on numerous areas from in-game
cameras, creating fonts, setting up levels to
designing special effects. I later ended up
doing front-end graphics for the game,
which involved modelling, lighting and
rendering different backgrounds in 3ds
Max. I really enjoyed the variety doing 3D
from modelling, texturing and lighting, and
I wanted to do more.
I remember fi nding a website of a visual
effects artist called Brandon Davies, who at
the time was doing fi lm work with 3ds Max
in the US. At the time, I thought it was
impossible to get into that fi eld without
experience of using Silicon Graphics
machines and PowerAnimator. I started
doing particle animations for spells when
we started working on the sequel to the
game. Unfortunately, after around three
months of working on the sequel, Eidos
decided to get rid of all internal
development to concentrate on being a
publisher. In hindsight, though, this
became a blessing in disguise, as with
redundancy I took a chance on a threemonth
freelance job at Pepper’s Ghost doing
FX animation.
3DA: You then worked as a 3D VFX artist
for a number of TV projects on a freelance
basis. Was this just a case of applying for
the jobs as they were advertised, or did you
fi nd that people recommended you from
one job to another?
KH: My fi rst break came from a VFX
supervisor called Alan Marques. I sent a
VHS showreel of the particle work I’d been
doing at Eidos to Pepper’s Ghost
Productions, got an interview there and
took the job. I began working on particle
animation for a TV pilot for an in-house
project. After that I continued to work as a
freelancer, and in my fi rst year of doing that
I only had a few weeks off. At the time,
pretty much every job led into another job
from recommendations.
Kieron Helsdon takes time out from working on the latest Harry Potter
fi lm to talk to Duncan Evans about his progression from disc interface
designer to lighting technical director on major Hollywood fi lms
3DA: In 2005, Gerry Anderson brought
back the classic Sixties marionette series,
Captain Scarlet. What kind of work did you
undertake for the Captain Scarlet TV pilot?
KH: I was creating textures for character
heads and vehicles. The main highlight of
that job for me was working directly with
Gerry Anderson. I used to watch
Thunderbirds all the time as a kid, and
there I was discussing Captain Scarlet’s
eyebrows with him!
3DA: How did you then make the
breakthrough into the fi lm industry?
KH: I got into the fi lm side of things by
putting in many long hours to build up a
showreel. I had been doing TV work as an
effects animator and 3D generalist for two
years, and I worked out at Pinewood Studios
on a Hallmark TV production. Seeing the
shooting going on there motivated me to try
and work in fi lm.
In 2000, I applied for a post at a company
called Magic Camera (later to become Mill
Film) at Shepperton Studios near London. I
spoke to the head of 3D there, Gary Coulter,
and I ended up doing a test shot for them for
my interview. Basically, as I had no fi lm
A Sunshine was fi lmed
on relatively small
budget. Many small
sets had to be extended
to show the size of the
ship. Only the centre of
the airlock was built
for real
B Jolene McCaffrey, Brian
Kranz and Anders Beer
were the 2D, 3D and
animation supervisors
respectively for the
Toothfairy sequence,
which used a proprietary
Swarm system
B
SUNSHINE
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cliff Curtis,
Michelle Yeoh, Cillian
Murphy, Rose Byrne,
Chris Evans, Troy Garity,
Benedict Wong,
Hiroyuki Sanada
Release date: 5/04/07
Genre: Adventure,
Thriller, Sci-fi
Synopsis: Some 50 years
in the future the sun is
dying, so a mission is sent
to explode a weapon to
create a supernova within
it. That mission fails, so a
second team is sent
3DArtist ● 41
Courtesy of Universal Pictures International Home Entertainment
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
D
C
Interview● Kieron Helsdon
experience, I needed to prove I could do
something to the quality they were after. I
worked the whole weekend and put
together a test shot; they liked it and I ended
up working on a fi lm called Pluto Nash.
3DA: What kind of work were you doing for
Mill Film, and what fi lms did you work on?
KH: After a year working at Shepperton on
four or fi ve fi lms with 3ds Max, I wanted to
carry on doing fi lm work but there was only
one place in the whole of the UK using 3ds
Max, so I had to switch software and needed
to learn Maya. After spending a month
learning Maya and armed with a new
showreel, I got a job interview at Mill Film
in London. During the interview I thought
‘there’s no way I’ll get this job’, but a phone
call a few days later and I was working on
Black Hawk Down before I knew it. It was a
frustrating start as I knew what I wanted to
do but wasn’t always sure how to do it in
Maya. They brought the deadline forward
on the project so we ended up working
around 33 days in a row with long hours to
complete the shots. I also worked on Harry
Potter and did some previsualisation work
on the fi lm Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The
Cradle of Life.
3DA: After a period of freelance on projects
like the Jimmy Neutron Shockwave 3D
game, you got a job with the Moving Picture
Company. How did that come about?
KH: Basically, just applying to the HR
department and sending in a showreel to
the company. By this point in 2003 I had two
years of fi lm experience as well as the TV
work I had done. They were looking for
modelling and texturing experience so I
was a right fi t for the position.
3DA: On Kingdom of Heaven, you worked
as a previsualisation artist with the Visual
Effects department on location in Morocco.
What did this entail and what did you then
do for the CGI in the fi lm?
KH: Kingdom of Heaven was one of the best
projects I’ve worked on. I got asked to go out
to Morocco in 2004 by MPC who were set to
do the majority of the visual effects. They
wanted to be able to previs vast armies as
well as to help visualise the city of
C Hellboy II: The Golden Army
was mainly shot in
Budapest, which involved
Kieron travelling to the city
fi rst with the previs team to
work out locations, lighting
and arrangements for
setting up the main set
pieces in the fi lm
Jerusalem. It turned out that Ridley Scott
had very fi rm ideas in mind for the city and I
was impressed with his vision for the look of
the fi lm. Jensen Toms and I worked out in
Ouarzazate, Morocco for two months,
sending and presenting material back and
forth to MPC. We also spent around three or
four weeks taking survey data for locations
and sets. This involved walking the desert
armed with a Theodolite to take
measurements to use back in London. This
was quite important, as we needed to
generate an uneven ground surface for the
armies to sit on. After returning to London, I
joined Dan Neal as co-technical lead for the
creation of Jerusalem. I worked on the
pipeline setup, as well as modelling,
texturing and lighting several shots.
3DA: Next up was a teaser trailer for
Poseidon using Maya again. Why use
Maya in preference to other 3D apps?
KH: A few reasons. Maya is used in all the
visual effects houses in London, mainly
because it’s fl exible enough to allow
companies to build their software pipelines
around it. This, and also because a large
number of freelancers are available
worldwide with Maya experience. VFX
companies also make great use of Houdini
and XSI, as well as other applications.
3DA: You did some sequences for The Da
Vinci Code. Did you need to read the book
fi rst? What kind of preparation work do you
do in previsualisation jobs?
KH: It depends. Hopefully you get a script to
HELLBOY 2
Director: Guillermo
del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman,
Selma Blair, Luke Goss,
Doug Jones, Anna
Walton, John Hurt
Release date: 20/8/08
(UK)
Genre: Action,
Adventure, Fantasy
Synopsis: An exiled prince
from the mythological
Courtesy of and copyright Universal Pictures International Home Entertainment
world is on a mission to
release The Golden Army,
a deadly group of fi ghting
machines that can
destroy the human race.
It’s down to Hellboy and
his usual friends with a few
new faces to thwart the
plan and save the day
D MPC created digital extensions for the city of
Troy. Different city layouts were done for
different shots; the key landmark was the raised
palace in the middle of the city. There were several
versions of Troy on the actual archaeological site
that grew out so we took this idea to help how we
did the street layouts. Damien Dagnou at MPC
wrote custom ‘city builder’ tools to allow us to
build the city with different set dressing
42 ● 3DArtist
© Warner Bros Pictures
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Kieron Helsdon●Interview
read, while at other times there are only a
couple of shots you are working on so you
don’t need to know all the background
information. Previs jobs can work out to be
quite different as well, depending on the
fi lm and at what stage you join the project.
Sometimes you end up doing technical
breakdowns to help the visual effects
supervisor work out technical issues, while
at other times you are doing camera
animation that will go directly to fi nal shots.
I was only working on a couple of shots on
The Da Vinci Code for the Westminster
Abbey sequence. Most of the time you’ll get
storyboards to work from, but at other times
you’ll join before they are drawn and the
client isn’t quite sure what they want yet.
Then you can be fast and loose in order to
show ideas quickly.
3DA: On Sunshine, you had a more
supervisory role, overseeing CG and
lighting. How did this work out in practice?
Did you work directly with the director,
Danny Boyle, and implement a look and
feel on the lighting, which was central to
the overall impact for this fi lm?
KH: Sunshine was another project that I
really enjoyed, mostly because of an
interest in space fl ight and science fi ction
fi lms as well as working with a great,
talented team. Also though, because we
were doing nearly all of the visual effects
and we got to contribute lots creatively to
the fi lm. I worked for a year and a half on the
project, starting as the lighting lead in 2005
and becoming CG supervisor for the last six
months. In the latter part of the project,
we’d see Danny Boyle every day as he was
editing just down the road. It was great to
work with him and the VFX Supervisor Tom
Wood to get the feedback as quickly as
possible. The key objectives we had were to
serve the story through the visual effects,
and to try and create something that was as
believable as we could make it for
something so fantastical. We concentrated
on trying to make it feel like it was shot for
real in terms of exposure and camera
movement.
3DA: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
involved four months in Budapest on
previsualisation. How did this work out in
practice, and what were you looking for
given that it’s an effects-heavy fi lm? Your
role on this fi lm was as lighting technical
director – what did that involve?
KH: I worked for a month of pre-production
and three months during shooting out at
Korda Studios in Budapest with the Visual
Effects department for Double Negative. The
work was very varied and I also helped to
gather and pass on information that we
needed to get back to the teams in London. I
was doing camera animation and technical
E The city was a mixture of
3D city buildings and
projections. A huge set was
built with two different
designs next to each other.
This allowed the scenes
with the Kerak Castle and
the Jerusalem courtyards
to be shot together
breakdowns to help show up any problems
for VFX supervisor Mike Wassel. An
example would be testing a crane shot out
with different lenses etc. We did a big
creature police line-up to help show all the
relative sizes of creatures, as well as
building models for sets so that we could
show exactly how something might look
before it was built with different cameras
angles, etc. There was also an animation
team based back in London at Double
Negative doing major previs for the
Toothfairies, Elemental and the Golden
Army sequences. We had a VPN connection
back to London with our machines in
Budapest that did a nightly sync-up of data
so we could open their scenes to tweak
them directly with Mike. Previs ended up
being very helpful to show other teams how
the sequences were likely to be shot so they
could see what needed to be done.
After I got back to London, I worked back
at Double Negative as a lighting technical
director on the Toothfairy and the Golden
Army sequences in Hellboy II. Double
Negative was using Maya and RenderMan
for lighting, as well as implementing
Houdini for FX work. Personally, I really
enjoy lighting shots, and my favourite was
working on the sequence when the
audiences fi rst sees the Toothfairy
close-up and munching on a molar.
www.groundzerofx.com
www.helsdon.co.uk
Kingdom of Heaven was one of the best
projects I’ve worked on. We spent three to four
weeks taking survey data for locations
E
G This is the actual camera
shot showing a bright blue
sky and the limited walls
that were still standing. A
combination of reused
sets with different
dressings and CGI gave
the illusion of a complete
Middle Ages city
F This is the shot from the
fi lm where the actors walk
through a gateway and
look up at the towers in
Kingdom of Heaven.
Although there were some
walled areas there, most of
the city and even the sky
was reconstructed digitally
F
3DArtist ● 43
Courtesy of Universal Pictures International Home Entertainment
G
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Create a sci-fi
character in 3ds Max
and ZBrush
The latest advancements in computer graphics have
enabled us to easily create all sorts of images,
depicting characters, pieces of machinery and
environments. As long as you have an idea, the time and a
computer, creating a visually pleasing still frame or animation
is possible.
In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the steps of creating
one of my characters, Assassin. She started out as a simple
comic-style drawing, which I decided to further develop and
transfer into the world of 3D computer graphics. The core
application I used during the entire process was 3ds Max,
but I also did some sculpting in ZBrush and texture painting
in BodyPaint and Photoshop. One of the most diffi cult tasks I
faced was making her hair, however, I took a procedural
approach (you’ll fi nd out more about this in the step-by-step
guide). The scene was rendered in mental ray, with the use of
a few unlocked features that I
consider the hidden gems of
this fantastic rendering engine.
Finally, I did some basic
compositing and touch-ups in
Photoshop. This image was a
personal project that helped me learn more about the
different aspects and stages of character creation, and I hope
the tutorial will help you as well.
01 Modelling the body and face
We will begin modelling the face in 3ds Max. Create a single
polygon, then turn it into an Editable Poly object and extrude
extra polygons from the existing edges. Cut into the mesh in
order to add more resolution where needed a. Soft
Selection comes in handy when adjusting the proportions.
Next, create a base mesh for the body in 3ds Max and
export it as an OBJ fi le. Then bring it into ZBrush and add
several levels of subdivision. Now that there is enough
resolution to work with, sculpt out the major muscles B. For
this, use the standard brush with the lazy option turned on.
The sculpt is complete, but it contains so much geometry
that it’s practically unusable back in Max, so start bringing
the number of polygons down. Create a ZSphere rig and start
drawing new edges over the underlying sculpt C. This step
can reduce the poly count by a factor of ten!
02 Clothes and hair
The boot consists of several pieces of
geometry, just like in reality. Make the sole and
heel look hard by adding extra edges, then
follow the form of the ankle and model the
softer parts of the boot. You may want to
Plamen Iliev is a 3D artist with fi ve years professional experience, working in Sofi a, Bulgaria
I wanted to create a glamorous female character that bore
the traits of a classic comic-style heroine with a kinky twist
The Assassin 2009
Model, rig
and render
Concept
The concept began as a naked
fi gure in a rose or fabric covering. I
had the notion of contrasting the
pinks with the green hair. The
pointy ears suggested an alien
character but I dropped that idea.
The studio● Create a sci-fi character in 3ds Max and ZBrush
3D artists explain the
techniques behind
their amazing artwork
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
www.piliev.com
Country Bulgaria
Software used 3ds Max,
ZBrush, Photoshop,
BodyPaint 3D
Expertise Modelling, texturing,
rigging and scripting
Plamen Iliev
b Bring the model into ZBrush
and add several levels of
subdivision to ensure there’s
enough resolution
a Once your polygon has been turned into an
Editable Poly object, you can extrude extra polygons.
Cut into the mesh in order to add extra resolution
when needed
44 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
c At this point the polygon count is
too high, so create a ZSphere rig and
start drawing new edges over the
underlying sculpt
Behind the scenes: Plamen Iliev●The studio
3ds Max 8 V-Ray 1.43 Photoshop
Software used in this piece
The scene was
rendered in mental ray, with the
use of a few unlocked features
that I consider the hidden
gems of this fantastic
rendering engine
assassin_untextured.obj
Save yourself some modelling
time by using the raw model
created here
3DArtist ● 45
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Models
When the model is complete, run a few test renders from
various angles and with different lights to check the polygon
wireframe for any mistakes. Correct these and smooth out
any fl aws.
extract the geometry from the leg itself, which saves time.
Load up the body in ZBrush and use the ZSphere rig to
overlay new polygons for the party dress D. We already
know that it will consist of several pieces stitched together,
so make sure you have edge loops. You’ll be cutting along
these later.
Once you’ve got the party dress and the boots done, you
can move on to spicing them up with some details. Model
straps with buckles and place them across the chest and
back. Then model the rings that will be holding the laces and
add edgings E. All of these add contrast and diversity. Now
detach a piece of geometry from her head and apply Hair
and Fur. Use combing and growing to give the hair form and
fl ow F. When you’re happy with the shape, extract the hair
splines. Use scripting to use them as paths for mesh hair.
03 It’s the eyes
The eye consists of two spheres. The inner sphere has two
submaterials: one for the white of the eye, and one for the iris
and the pupil G. Apply a mat material with some selfillumination
or try using sub-surface scattering. The outer
sphere is transparent and refl ective.
04 Rig the character
Use Biped and Skin to rig the character, then paint the
weights to get a working rig fast H. Select and adjust any
individual vertices that don’t follow the bones properly. Since
The studio● Create a sci-fi character in 3ds Max and ZBrush
. . . . Making test renders while
modelling helps preview
how the whole process is
going and what part of the
model needs fi xing. When
you spot a discrepancy in
the proportions, you can
try to correct it either in
ZBrush, where the tools
are more fl uid, or directly
in 3ds Max.
Test
rendering
D Now the ZSphere rig
can be used to overlay
new polygons for the
party dress
Once you’ve got the party
dress and the boots done,
you can move on to
spicing them up with
some details
F Now it’s time to be a
hairdresser, so detach
geometry from the head
and add some hair
e Although it takes
time, adding the details
to the dress, like buckles
and rings, will enhance it
46 ● 3DArtist
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Scripting
Although scripting requires a
certain amount of
programming knowledge, it
can’t be any simpler in 3ds
Max. You may not be a coder
yourself, but there’s the
MaxScript Reference full of
tutorials and examples. When
you’re in a situation that
requires a lot of repetitive
actions (challenging your
sanity), it’s a sign you need a
script. Once we got the hair
splines from Hair and Fur as a
single object, we used a bunch
of scripts to extract the
individual splines and
applied a mesh hair along
each of them using
PathDeform. Scripting saves
time and is reusable.
Behind the scenes: Plamen Iliev ●The studio
her party dress is skintight, you could simply make an
instance copy of the Skin modifi er that’s applied to her body.
05 Adjust the UV sets
This is a routine step and you have to get it right, especially
when there are several applications in the pipeline. Unwrap
the different parts of the body separately using the Pelt tool,
and manually adjusting UV points that go astray I. A UV
set fi ts into a single unit (0,1) UV space. The dress is a UV
set. Working with UV sets allows you to paint several smaller
maps instead of one huge map for the whole model. The
body is divided into eight sets. Also, use a custom pattern
with letters as a test map, to see if the UVs are fl ipped
06 Give the girl a gun
Presumably, laser pistols should look intricate so try to create
that illusion. Model the handle from a box, using Poly Extrude
and Edge Connect. The rest of the building elements are also
modelled from simple primitives. Then use Symmetry and
model just one half of the gun J.
07 Pick the perfect pose
We could have posed the character from the beginning and
skipped the rigging step, but having a working skeleton gives
you the freedom to tweak the pose as much as you want and
whenever you feel you need to change it. Use Skin Wrap to
make the details follow the mesh underneath K.
08 Get the light right
Here, use standard three-point lighting. Place an MR spot
G There are two spheres that
make up the eye – one for the
outer, and one for the iris
K By going to the
effort of rigging the
character, you can
easily make any
adjustments to the pose
or, in fact, pose her in
different environments
to her current one
J Don’t waste time modelling the entire
gun – just do half of it from primitives and
then apply Symmetry in order to copy onto
the other half
I When unwrapping the
mesh, watch out for UV points
going astray
H Use Biped and Skin in
order to quickly rig the model
for movement
3DArtist ● 47
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Lighting setup
The lighting setup is a
standard three-light spot
arrangement. There’s the key
light, a spot for fi ll and a
regular spot with high
intensity above the character
that illuminates the edges. A
couple of additional lights will
create more highlights on the
dress. It is worth studying
classic Hollywood studio
glamour photography from
the Thirties and Forties in
order to get ideas for stunning
lighting arrangements.
Plamen Iliev
A programmer by education and a 3D artist by
profession, I love designing and creating characters. ArtSisthowcase
Smile 3ds Max (2008) This scantily clad character
was a personal project I did for anatomical study. I tried
to explore the muscle and bone structure of the human
body and experiment with skin shading and lighting
Countess 3ds Max (2009)
A self-confi dent character,
inspired by classical literature
featuring contrasts
light with an area shadow that works as your key light,
another MR spot for a fi ll and a regular spot light with high
intensity and decay above the character as a rim l. A couple
of kicker lights will give the image a glam look, too.
09 Wrinkles and shading
Load the dress in ZBrush and store a morph target before
subdividing the mesh a few times. Then start carving in
wrinkles at the seams and stress points m. Go back to the
lowest level, switch back to the original mesh and extract a
normal map with ZMapper.
Shade most of the surfaces with MR Arch and Design.
This shader is capable of simulating all sorts of materials.
Layer several copies of it with the shellac material and
experiment with different settings for refl ection. The skin
uses a regular MR SSS shader with no textures at this point.
10 Good hair day
Opt for procedural texturing of the hair. It consists of
L Add key, spot, fi ll and rim
lights to fully defi ne the fi gure
and produce lots of refl ections
off the shiny dress
Opt for procedural texturing of the hair. It consists
of individual strands to which you need to randomly
assign three slightly different shaders
The studio● Create a sci-fifi character in 3ds Max and ZBrush
M Take the dress back into
ZBrush and start carving
wrinkles into the seam to give it
life and detail
Roger 3ds Max (2008)
This is the famous singersongwriter
Roger McGuinn,
member of the The Byrds
48 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Textures
There are two ways of
approaching this. The hair
texture is created with the
procedural technique,
whereas the skin and face
textures are painted directly to
give a natural, slightly uneven
fi nish, showing pores, etc.
Render
mental ray is a very robust rendering
engine because it’s shader-based. Lots of its
features are contained in chunks of code
called shaders that come in many fl avours.
They control cameras, lights, materials and
so on. For different reasons, some shaders
are locked when you install 3ds Max, yet
they are working and useful. Photographic
is one such lens shader. Go to your Max
installation folder and browse mentalray\
shaders_standard\include. Make a backup
copy of the M I fi les in case anything goes
wrong. Open the fi les in Notepad and
explore the shaders marked as ‘hidden’. If
you delete the tag, they become unlocked.
individual strands to which you need to randomly assign
three slightly different shaders. Make a gradient ramp with
various shades of green and store it in the Diffuse channel N.
The hair draws its transparency from an opacity map, which
is a blend of gradient and fall-off maps.
11 Paint the diffuse maps
Paint 4,000 x 4,000 diffuse maps for the body and face,
then make specular maps to break up the refl ection on the
skin and a map for the back scatter parameter to limit the
effect. A normal map is used for the face, adding fi ner
wrinkles to her lips as well as pores o.
12 Render and process
The scene is rendered with Final Gather set to Low. Use Box
fi ltering for preview renders here, but you may fi nd that
switching to Mitchell or Lanczos makes the image sharper.
Use the Glare shader and the hidden Photographic lens
shader to set the f-stop, fi lm ISO and shutter speed.
Save the render as a 16-bit TIFF, then open it up in
Photoshop and apply some dodging and burning where you
need more contrast. Adjust the Levels and use a photo fi lter
to slightly colourise the image. Experiment with different
blending modes and fi lters, paint a vignette and then
declare it complete.
Behind the scenes: Plamen Iliev ●The studio
o The body and face skin contain specular maps to
break up refl ections and a map to limit the effect
n The hair texture is created
procedurally. Create a gradient
ramp with various shades of
green and store it
Render time
Resolution:
4,096 x 3,072
8.5 hours
3DArtist ● 49
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No unauthorised copying or distribution
3ds Max Fryrender
Software used in this piece
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Incredible 3D artists take
us behind their artwork
Personal portfolio site
www.insomnia3d.com
Country USA
Software used 3ds Max, Fryrender
Username: insomnia3d
Artist info
Carlos Fueyo
“As good old Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe once said,
‘God is in the details’. For
me, this is particularly true
when it comes to CG. I want
to have as much detail as
possible so that the viewer
can be overwhelmed as they
would be when looking at a
photograph. Use details to
help tell the story of your
rendering. I usually make up
stories that can help me fi nd
some rationality to the
placement of objects and
details in a scene, while this
also keeps me entertained.”
50 ● 3DArtist
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No unauthorised copying or distribution
I made this… Carlos Fueyo ●The studio
Model,
texture, light
render and
post-process
“All of the modelling was done by using
many reference photographs of the existing
bridge, while the rest were of the
demolished buildings and miscellaneous
objects. For the bridge, I took photographs
from every angle possible, mainly
concentrating on the structure details. I do
not believe it’s possible to have too many
reference photos.
“My approach to rendering is to output as
many channels as possible. This gives me
more control over the fi nal image and allows
me to quickly modify colours, add depth,
refl ections, etc. Ambient occlusion is a must
when adding more detail to the light solution
and shadows. Material ID becomes very
handy in colour correcting and grade (ie
colour-correcting vegetation that otherwise
would be impossible to pick from a Beauty
pass). Finally, I always render any type of
FX on a separate pass.”
The Miami
River 1930
2009
“Over the years, I have become less of a fan of using
tillable textures and box UV mapping. My typical
workfl ow is to unwrap the meshes right after modelling
and paint the textures in order to test the mesh and the
quality of the texture. This allows for a great level of
detail without the expense of polygons.”
The lighting was done using RandomControl’s Fryrender Sky system, set to
Miami’s co-ordinates, along with an HDR sky to achieve better tone mapping on the
rendered image. In post-production, a separate cloud layer matching the light
source was added to give some depth to the sky
Although the fi nal scene is composed of many different models,
I like to model each element on a separate fi le. I fi nd this very helpful,
not only because the software does not become overwhelmed with
polygons, but it also allows me to archive the different elements in
my model library for future use
I have really got used to modelling with
smoothing groups. This allows me to create
damaged areas and imperfections as well as soft
corners without adding too many extra polygons.
As long as your mesh is properly unwrapped, I
can create all sorts of havoc without ever
disturbing the UVs
3DArtist ● 51
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The studio● Tutorial
Softimage Photoshop
Software used in this piece
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52 ● 3DArtist
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Step by step: The Two Mighty Kings●The studio
The theme was locked in right at the beginning. I had
to do an image based on a legend and give it the style
of the steam age. Here, I combined the Eastern and
Western legend into one. But that’s not how I want to
attract viewers. The goal for me is to create something that
can visually impact the viewers as much as possible.
Striking, that’s the word. I don’t want to hear people say,
“Nice” when they see it – I want to hear them saying,
“Wow!” as soon as they feast their eyes on the image.
I used Softimage for the 3D objects, mainly the
characters, and edited the 2D environment with
Adobe Photoshop. This short tutorial will briefl y
explain how I created the image from designing
and posing the low poly models for rigging to
rendering the fi nal image.
Step by step:
Go wild with monkey
fighting action
Jack Zhang is a character modeller who works for EA in Canada
The Two Mighty Kings 2008
This is my latest work, The Two Mighty Kings, and was
created for the CGSociety’s 23rd challenge, Steampunk:
Myths and Legends
Easy-to-follow guides
take you from concept
to the fi nal render
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
http://jackzhang.cgsociety.
org/gallery/
Country Canada
Software used Softimage
and Photoshop
Expertise Character modelling
Jack Zhang
Username Jackzhang
Modelling,
shaders,
rendering and
Photoshop
Concepts
Rough ideas to models
01 Concept I’m not very good at drawing, so I grabbed a
couple of elements off the internet and put them together to
make my concept. The idea was the Monkey King facing a giant
monster. The concept helped me to nail down the composition,
light and the pose of the giant character.
02 Low-poly modelling I started
with modelling the big character.
A giant gorilla is a nice idea, as I love King
Kong. The reason to model a low-poly
character is that I need to pose him as soon
as I can. A high-poly character would be a
pain to skin and pose.
03 Posing of the low-poly
character I took a default rig in
Softimage and modifi ed it to fi t. The
enveloping was pretty basic; I knew that
what I wanted was the pose, not the lowpoly
surface. I keyed the basic pose at
frame 0, then the main pose at frame 1. I
would model him at frame 0, then switch
to frame 1 to see the result in-camera.
3DArtist ● 53
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Tutorial
Modelling
Creating the component parts
05 Modelling the arm
The arms took me a
good fi ve nights to model.
According to my own concept,
the arms, hands and the face
were the most important parts
of this character. I wanted to
put as much weight as possible
on the arms and hands so the
viewer can feel the strength of
my steamy Kong.
04 Sets of gears Since it is a
steamy mechanical character, I
needed a lot of gears and pipes. I spent a
night modelling a set of 16 gears and a few
pipes. Designing those gears was actually
quite fun. Those gears could be put
anywhere on the character to make him
interesting to take in.
06 Come alive It took me about 15 days to complete Kong.
Piece by piece, I added the gears onto him. This is a trick
to share with anyone who needs to complete a 3D illustration in a
short amount of time – if you don’t see the area through the
camera, don’t make it. The back of Kong is still naked right now.
07 The environment
After completing
Kong, I started to look into the
environment and colour. I had a
huge struggle with those for a
week. I was really frustrated
until one of my friends pointed
out a direction for me by
painting over my work-inprogress
for the postproduction
stage.
08 Don’t unwrap this one Since I was in a
challenge and the time was limited, I could not
afford to take the traditional pipeline of 3D creation.
Unwrapping Kong would take me ages since he weighs close
to two million polygons. Therefore I decided to take a
different approach by using shaders.
09 Metal shaders I created three metal shaders in
Softimage using its Render Tree system. These
three shaders are light and camera-based procedural
shaders. In other words, if I move the lights or camera, the
shader will look quite different. The great advantage of using
procedural shaders is once I achieved the result I wanted, I
could go to bed and let my computer do the rest of the work,
while others sat in front of their screens spending the same
amount of time unwrapping and texturing their characters.
54 ● 3DArtist
Jack Zhang
I was born and raised
in Beijing, China, and
moved to Canada 12
years ago. I’ve been
working in the CG
industry for close to
four years, and
currently work as a
character artist for
Electronic Arts in
Montreal. I also taught
in a private college as a
modelling and demo
reel instructor.
ArtSisthowcase
Little Run-away Princess
Softimage (2006)
Little Run-away Princess was
my fi rst personal work
completed after fi nishing
school back in 2006. It was
created for CGSociety’s 19th
challenge, The Journey
Begins. I received an
Honorable Mention for my
3D work with this piece.
Hiding from the scouts
Softimage (2008)
My character here is in a scifi
setting and is hiding from
some ferocious alien guards
as they storm past. This was
a personal project that I
undertook to improve my
modelling, lighting and
character creation.
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: The Two Mighty Kings●The studio
Final renders
It’s time for passes and Photoshop
10 Modelling the
Monkey King
Although the title of the work is
The Two Mighty Kings, I really
set the focus on King Kong. The
Monkey King didn’t take me
too long to make. I grabbed
different parts here and there
from my old projects and put
together a very rough shape. I
wanted the Monkey King to be
small and blurry – to be honest,
I was only really concerned
with his silhouette.
11 Photoshop work By the time I received a total of 12 renders (two
characters, six layers of render per character), the 3D work came to an
end. And that’s where I had to pick up the 2D mantle, with three main tasks to
face. First, I composited the layers together by using masks to achieve the look
of the metal that I wanted for my characters. Second of all, I painted the fl ame
in Kong’s eyes and mouth as well as the refl ections from the metal. Finally, I
painted the environment. This was completed over various layers to allow for
easy editing if needed later down the line.
13 Evolving of the environment The image explains how
the environment evolves from a black background to a fullresolution
fi nal quality. First I painted a very rough shape, then I
used a few high-resolution forest images that I found on the
internet to paste over. This was followed by some saturation
changing and colour corrections. Eventually, I used some leaf
brushes to paint leaves in the foreground.
Render time
Resolution:
4,050 x 3,038
30 hours
12 Flaming The fi rst task was not a big deal, as I’ve done it
many times before. However, the second task was my
biggest challenge. I came from an engineering background, not art,
so I can’t paint! Well, at least I never seriously painted for fullresolution
work. I spent the entire Christmas holiday painting again
and again. Finally, I started to get the hang of it.
14 Nightmare When I
was about to declare it
fi nished, I had an accident.
Somehow, the PSD fi le got
corrupted during saving and my
image was heavily damaged.
Half of the layers screwed up
and the other half lost their
masks. I had no back-up fi les,
except the one I made 15 days
ago. So I took a cup of coffee
and started to recover my work
layer by layer. Basically, I didn’t
sleep that night but it was
totally worth it. By some
miracle, I made another version
in fi ve hours. I really don’t know
how I did that and I defi nitely
don’t want to test my ability in
such a way ever again!
15 The Two Mighty
Kings So here’s the
fi nal work of The Two Mighty
Kings. I used a large area of cold
blue, green, purple and black to
give the forest a quiet and
spooky feel and look. The small
area of red, orange, yellow and
white represents the high
temperature from Kong’s
burning core. Those small hot
areas also help the viewers to
quickly focus on Kong’s face
when they fi rst glance at the
image. Can you hear the
mighty roar from Kong? I hope
you enjoy the image and fi nish
the battle of the Two Kings.
3DArtist ● 55
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Incredible 3D artists take
us behind their artwork
Personal portfolio site www.thomashaas.dk
Country France
Software used Maya, mental ray, Mudbox, Fusion
and Photoshop
Artist info
Thomas
Haas-Christensen
Using a hard edge on the
elephant’s trunk was a
deliberate idea from early
designs. It put contrast
into the model
Composition,
lighting,
render & post
production
I had various
thoughts on where the
eye should look. The
eyes express state of
mind and emotion. I
ended up having it
look at the POV for
better connection to
the viewer
Using a Desaturation
fi lter makes the tent look
old and dirty. Adding blue
and using a good amount
of blur on the background
gets the elephant centre of
attention
56 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
I made this… Thomas Haas-Christensen ●The studio
3ds Max Fryrender
Software used in this piece
“The idea was to get an old elephant who
has spent his days in the circus and have
him performing a menial trick. I
exaggerated his sad eyes to give him a
really mournful look. There are quite a few
special effects going on, starting with a
quad set of lights pointing up and down
from the corners. This was to give the
image a theatrical feel. There’s a shallow
depth of fi eld so that the viewer’s full
concentration is on the elephant. There are
lots of dust particles in the atmosphere,
which were added in Photoshop.”
Sad
Elephant
2009
To make the
composition a bit more
interesting, I added the
blurred foreground. It
was rendered as a
separate pass and
blurred in Photoshop
The volumetric light
is rendered in mental
ray and post-processed
in Photoshop. Also, dust
particles were painted
and blurred in
Photoshop
There is a slight amount
of glow on the highlights.
This is done in Fusion using
the Highlight Glow tool
3DArtist ● 57
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Model and render a Pixar-style scene in Maya
Although I didn’t keep track of my time, I estimate
it took between 300 and 350 hours over almost a
year. And it was worth every minute
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58 ● 3DArtist
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Step by step:
Create a
Pixar-style
garage scene
in Maya
Tot Rod was created to
breathe life into memories of
growing up in Middle America
in the Fifties and Sixties. The joy of my
fi rst ride, a ’57 Chevy kid‘s car; the cool darkness of a garage
on a hot, hazy day; the fun found in the rich fantasy life of a
child. This tutorial provides an overview of the process,
stepping through the stages from original concepts to the
fi nal composited image. This process consists of four stages:
blocking out the composition, building and texturing all of the
objects in the scene, setting up the lighting and renderings,
then compositing the fi nal renders into a single image.
This type of project calls for the skills of a 3D generalist, an
artist with a high level of skill in most of the facets of 3D
work. One must be an expert at modelling, UV mapping,
texturing, building shading networks, lighting, rendering and
compositing. All of the 3D work was done in Maya and the
texturing and compositing was done in Photoshop.
The two largest challenges in completing a project of this
scope are managing all the assets, including over 2,000
objects, 1,000,000 polys, 160 materials and 258 textures, as
well as staying motivated over the course of the project,
which, although I didn’t keep track of my time, I estimate
took between 300 and 350
hours over almost a year.
This tutorial will take you
through all the steps that
went into creating Tot Rod.
Lance Hitchings, graphics designer
Tot Rod 2008
Tot Rod depicts the pride and joy of a young
petrolhead who has moved beyond his early
attempts at automotive excellence
Step by step: Lance Hitchings ●The studio
Easy-to-follow guides
take you from concept
to the fi nal render
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
www.hitchingsdesign.com
Country USA
Software used Maya,
Photoshop
Expertise I excel at producing
photorealistic images,
particularly of hard-surface
objects. Most of my projects
are product illustrations
Lance Hitchings
Username: lhitch
Model,
texture, light
render and
post-process
Maya Photoshop
Software used in this piece
3DArtist ● 59
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Model and render a Pixar-style scene in Maya
03 Before building the engine, I needed to
collect resource images. In addition to images
of complete engines, I also collected images of the
individual components, since each component was
built separately.
04 Using the engine photo scrap, I then built the engine. Using
templates wasn’t really practical at this stage; I started with the
engine block and just ‘eye-balled‘ it. I then built each of the following
components to fi t onto the existing components.
05 Next, I fi tted the
engine to the car and
tweaked the hole in the hood to
get a good fi t. At this point, both
the car and the engine were
low-res, with a combined poly
count of less than 60,000.
06 At this point, I
increased the
resolution of the car and the
engine. I extruded the edge of
each body panel inward at an
angle of 90 degrees, and
bevelled the resulting corner. I
then converted the polygon
model to a subdivision model,
tweaked that and converted
back to a polygon model using
the Adaptive mode. The
polygon count jumped up to
about 260,000 polys.
02 With the template images of the kid’s car loaded into the image
planes, I then rebuilt the old model of the ’57 Chevy. The passenger
compartment and the back deck were shortened, the height of the body and
the windscreen increased, a large steering wheel and appropriate wheels and
tires were built, and a hole was created in the hood to allow for the engine.
01 I started Tot Rod by
building the car fi rst. I
had an old model of a ’57
Chevy convertible that I
decided to use as the basis. I
rendered the front, back, top
and side views, which I then
brought into Photoshop. I
adjusted the proportions of
each shot to fi t the proportions
of the kid‘s car. These adjusted
images were the templates that
I imported into the image
planes of the top, front and side
orthographic cameras.
Create your first elements
Putting together the pedal car
60 ● 3DArtist
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Step by step: Lance Hitchings ●The studio
07 It was now time to start building
the rest of the scene. Again, the
fi rst step was research. I had a pretty good
idea of how the scene was going to look,
and all of the objects in the composition. I
wanted a retro look, with everything
looking old and used. The search was on
for old garages, craftsman-style houses
and all the junk you would fi nd in a garage.
10 As the camera’s
POV is from outside the
garage, it had to be built with a
missing wall. In reality, it is there
as a separate textured object,
just invisible. This came about
by deselecting Primary Visibility
from the wall’s Render Stats in
the Attribute Editor. The wall still
cast shadows, was visible in
refl ections and was included in
the global illumination and Final
Gather calculations.
08 Then it was time to start
blocking out the scene. I started
with very primitive, low-res models that I
would later replace. These were built very
quickly to allow me to start trying out a
variety of different compositions.
09 Here are a few of the different
compositions I tried. I wanted to
look out of the garage and see the street,
but I also tried some compositions that just
showed the interior. The bottom right
image is the composition I settled on. Here,
I was thinking of going with a retractable
door on the garage and three racers.
Fill the scene
Roughing out the garage and contents
3DArtist ● 61
Lance Hitchings
I started using 3D as a hobby in the early 90s, and did
my fi rst professional illustration in 2000 for Nikon. It
decided to use the design as the template when it
repackaged its Sports Optics range.
Saleen S7 (2008) What can I say, I’m a petrolhead at
heart. This image was built for no other reason than to
do a photorealistic render of a supercar, and the Saleen
certainly fi ts that bill.
ArtSisthowcase
Watch (2006) This image was done when I was
building up my portfolio with product illustrations. The
watch was pretty easy to build. The texture and
displacement maps were much harder.
Monarch 36mm ATB (2004) One of the many
illustrations I did for Nikon. The original binoculars had
a green rubber shell, but Nikon also had a product line
it was producing with Realtree.
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The studio● Model and render a Pixar-style scene in Maya
12 After the
miscellaneous items
were built, I then moved on to
high-res versions of the
soapbox derby racers. I had
originally thought there would
be three, but decided on a
composition that only used
two. Blocking also allowed me
to only build those portions of
one racer that would show in
the composition.
13 Next was the house.
The low-res version
turned out to be pretty
accurate, so instead of
rebuilding, I simply improved
that version. Since the house is
across the street and quite
small in the composition, I
didn’t need anywhere near the
resolution needed for the
objects in the garage.
Improve the neighbourhood
Adding to the content inside the garage
Modelling
Because this scene wasn’t
going to be animated, only the
portion of the older, wooden
racing cars that could be seen
needed to be modelled. The
other areas were left
undeveloped. Each individual
object in the garage was also
modelled separately. It would
save you time if you already
have a library of mundane
objects like these that can be
given a fresh texture and
made to look different. 11 With the garage built, it was time
to start populating it. Using the lowres
models as a basis, I built new, high-res
models of all the objects that would be in
the garage. Thanks to the blocking process,
some items I thought would be in the
garage had been scrapped, while others
were added. I was now working from a
pretty accurate list.
15 At this point, I
was ready to start
bringing all the pieces of the
scene together. I started by
positioning and sizing the
street, garage and houses,
and placing the camera in
the fi nal position. I then
decided to add a second
house. Since only the front
half of one house and the
back of the second could be
seen from the camera, I
reused the same house.
14 The process of
building the street,
the pavement, kerbs,
driveways, steps, etc, was
another task made much
easier thanks to the earlier
blocking process. Although
again I only built those
portions actually visible in
the scene, more resolution
went into these objects than
into the house.
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Step by step: Lance Hitchings ●The studio
16 Next came the trees
and shrubbery. I used
Maya’s Paint Effects to build all
the foliage, selecting trees and
bushes from the plantMesh
and treesMesh sections of the
Visor. I then converted all the
foliage to polys.
19 Using the UV map for the petrol can as a template, I started building up the
layers for the texture. A red layer for the paint and several layers of dirt, grease
and dust that had settled on the top of the petrol can.
Time to start mapping the textures
Bring forth the UV projections and maps
18 The fi rst step in
texture mapping is
to prep the UV snapshot
fi le in Photoshop. I’ll load
the Alpha channel, which
is the UV map, and fi ll with
a contrasting colour
(usually red but grey in this
case, as I’m building a red
texture) on a new layer. I’ll
keep this layer on top, and
it serves as a template for
building all the layers of
the texture map.
17 UV mapping – the most
tedious process of all. I usually
try and keep it simple, and start with
either a planar or a cylindrical
projection and work from there. I also
try to keep all the projections for a
single object on a single map. Export a
UV snapshot in a PSD format, then
start building the textures. I’ve decided
to use the UV maps and textures from
the petrol can, since it’s a pretty good
representation of the process.
3DArtist ● 63
The thing to keep in mind
with planar UV projections
is vertices that lie on the
same axis as the
projection will end up
stacking on top of each
other, and will share a
single pixel in the texture
map. Expand those
vertices out to create
space on the map for all
the faces in the mesh.
Planar UV
projections
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21 I used a layered shader for the
petrol can because I wanted metal
showing beneath the paint where it had
chipped or worn off. I used a blinn for the
metal as the base layer, a blinn for the dirty,
red, chipped paint on top of that, and a
lambert for the dust as the top layer.
22
Here’s
the
petrol
can
shading network
applied to the
petrol can,
rendered with
Maya’s software
renderer
without any
special lighting.
The studio● Model and render a Pixar-style scene in Maya
20 Having kept all
the paint, dirt, dust
and grease on separate
layers, I used these layers
to build transparency,
specular and bump maps
that would be used in a
layered shader.
23 The last step of the modelling phase was to place
and size the Tot Rod, the soapbox derby racers and all
of the garage paraphernalia. At this point, I was ready to begin
lighting and set up my rendering parameters.
Get the final details right
Adding paint, dirt and dust through layers with specular and bump maps
24 While concept and
composition tell the story,
lighting is what sets the mood. I wanted it
to feel like a long, hot and hazy summer
day was drawing to a close, but that it
was cool inside the garage. I decided to
go with Direct Illumination, Global
Illumination and Final Gather. A single
directional light provides the sunlight,
and the garage is lit with photons
bouncing around inside after entering
through the door, rendered with global
illumination. To get the sunset colours,
the primary colour of the light is orange,
the photon colour is a light violet and the
shadow colour, although it looks black, is
actually a deep purple. An IBL node with
an HDR image of an outdoor park on a
sunny day is used for the Final Gather
component, and provides the ambient
illumination outside, with a small amount
entering the garage through the door.
25 It became obvious early on that the only way to
achieve the result I was looking for was to composite
multiple renders in Photoshop. This decision drove the way
the project was built and organised. Objects were separated
onto layers based on how they would be rendered. Some
objects, such as the entire street scene outside the garage,
were rendered separately.
64 ● 3DArtist
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Step by step: Lance Hitchings ●The studio
27 While I wanted different objects as separate layers in
Photoshop, they needed to be rendered together so that all
surfaces would be included in the GI and FG calculations. The
solution was to turn off all layers but the one I wanted, then do a
quick software render. This gave me an Alpha channel I could use
to knock out the object in Photoshop.
26 Inside the
garage was
more diffi cult. I did
four primary renders
of the inside: two GI
renders with different
settings, and two GI
and FG renders with
different settings. This
gave me a range of
different lighting
options that I could
use in the composite.
As you can see above,
this process began
very early, before the
fi nal textures had been
built for most of the
objects in the garage.
Render different light options
Multiple passes were used to create different lighting effects
Render time
RES: 3600x2800
Mac G5 Quad
4.5GB Ram
8 hours
Lighting
Here, you see the basic settings I used
in setting up the lighting and the
renders. The Light Angle and Shadow
Rays setting for the directional light
caused the shadows to soften as they
got further from the object casting
them. Photon Intensity was the
setting that changed the most,
ranging from 10,000,00,000 to
25,000,000,000. GI Photons remained
constant at 500,000. The settings for
the IBL node were pretty simple: Color
Gain was set to 1.0 and Color Offset
was set to 0.5.
3DArtist ● 65
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The studio● Model and render a Pixar-style scene in Maya
28 The render
settings remained
pretty constant throughout the
project. To achieve high-quality
anti-aliasing, the Min Sample
Level was 0, the Max Sample
Level was 2 and I used the
Mitchell fi lter for Multi-Pixel
Filtering. Raytracing was on,
but I kept the Refl ections and
Refractions set fairly low to
save on resources. Accuracy
for both GI and FG was the
result of a great deal of
experimentation, and the Max
and Min Radius is based on the
scene’s physical size.
Put it together in Photoshop
The final stage was to composite all the layers
29 With the various renders
and masks created, it was fi nally
time to start compositing the image in
Photoshop. Here, you see one of the
earliest composites, again before
textures. In the Layers palette, you can
see how the different renders were built
up. A nice sunset photo to provide the
sky started it off at the back. Haze layers
were added to the background and many
of the renders had adjustment layers
added to tweak the brightness, contrast,
hue, saturation, etc. At this point, which
was about halfway through the process, I
was starting to get a real good idea of
what it was going to look like.
30 Here, you can see one of the
early composites after textures
had been applied to all the objects in the
scene. In addition to the textures, the angle
of light coming in the door of the garage
had been altered, and the trees rearranged.
31 Five or six
versions later,
we arrive at the fi nal
composite. A number
of changes have been
made, including new
textures for the fl oor,
both racers, the
stepladder and the
door. Additionally,
there‘s a very different
feel to the lighting – the
back wall is more in
shadow but the
implements stand out
more. The front row of
implements and the
front of the Tot Rod are
lit differently as well.
Over 25 separate
renders were used,
and as you can see
from the Layer palette,
the fi nal composite is
much more complex
than the originals.
Rendering
Tot Rod was built and rendered in Maya
version 8.5. Since then, a number of
changes have been made to mental ray.
This is where I would make the most
changes if I were to render it out today. I
would turn off the Radius Quality Control
option and use Point Interpolation
instead. I would also turn on Secondary
Diffuse Bounces and set the Diffuse
Bounces to 2 or 3. This adds more realistic
light and colour bleeding, and prevents
unnatural darkening of the corners in the
scene. You can increase the amount of
light with the Secondary Bounce Scale by
overdriving the Value (V) setting in the
colour selector.
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secrets
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Create an
elegant room in
3ds Max
This image was created in 2007, with work on it
lasting about six months. The primary goal was to
create a photorealistic picture of a house interior from
scratch without re-creating an existing room. All the furniture
in this image was separately modelled and created by me. All
the materials and shaders were created in 3ds Max, while the
textures were created in Adobe Photoshop.
An important part of this work is the open window, with
the sun passing through the curtains. The wind blowing the
curtain adds to the realism. A sideboard is fi lled with plates,
vases, stemware and other glass objects that would exist in a
real room. The sideboard has been left slightly open,
suggesting that there were people here but they left the
room for a minute. The teapot at the table a was based
exactly like the one on my kitchen table in my home. The
view outside the window is a picture – literally, as I actually
took this photograph from my own window. The colour of
the furniture, walls and other objects was specially selected
to give the viewer a feeling of cosiness, comfort, tranquillity
and warmth.
01 Create the table and chairs
Create a spline for one of the tables with ledges
and indentations on each side b. The
supporting point of the spline must be at
the end of the spline in the centre of the rotation. I applied a
Lathe 360 degrees modifi er to a spline and the upper part of
the table. The basic support of the table is a fi gure of
rotation, and you can create it like the upper part of the table.
You can add other parts to the legs to make them look more
beautiful, then select Clone>Massive 4>360 degrees. To
create a support leg for the table, go to Spline>Path and
Shape>Loft>Deformation>Scale>Twist. Then make four
copies, rotating them through 360 degrees c.
To create the leg of the chair, go to Spline>Path with
curves and roundings. First, we build a spline, point after
point. A spline consists of the direct cuttings from the
polyline. Next, adjust every point on the leg by using Beziers
and fi ne-tuning in 3ds Max. Adjust the smooth transitions
accurately and along a spline a form will pass. A spline is also
a form of a cross-section. Apply a Compound Loft then apply
a Scale Deformation to the form to make it more cone-like.
Twist the object to get a twirling effect.
02 Lay the fl oor
The fl oor looks how I wanted it to look, with plenty of wear. I
think my work looks more realistic
because of it, but I spent a
lot of time to get it that
way, using bump maps,
refl ection maps and
diffuse maps. The
pattern and design of the
b The fi rst thing to do is to
create a spline for one of the
tables so that the indentations
and ledges can be modelled
c To create extra parts of
the four legs at the bottom of
the table, simply duplicate the
one you have already created
four times
a The teapot on the table was
based on one on the artist’s
own living room table
Yuriy Mazurchuk on the inspiration behind his freeze-frame rendering of an elegant lounge
An important part of this work is the open window, with
the sun passing through the curtains. The wind blowing the
curtain adds to the realism
Table and Chairs 2007
Modelling ,
texturing,
rendering
Models
Every single object in this amazing
scene was modelled and created by
the artist. Some were based on objects
in his house, others on objects from
catalogues or photographs of upmarket
rooms.
The studio● Create an elegant room in 3ds Max
3D artists explain the
techniques behind
their amazing artwork
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
http://yur3d.cgsociety.org
Country Ukraine
Software used 3ds Max,
Mudbox, ZBrush, BodyPaint 3D,
Photoshop, mental ray
Expertise Modelling, lighting,
texturing, materials
Yuriy Mazurchuk
3ds Max 8 V-Ray 1.43 Photoshop
Software used in this piece
68 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Behind the scenes: Yuriy Mazurchuk●The studio
3DArtist ● 69
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Wireframe
There are those that say
modelling, arranging,
texturing and rendering in 3ds
Max is quite hard, and they’d be
correct. You can make life easier
for yourself if you keep a library
of all the objects you create so
that they can be reused in
scenes like this without having
to make them from scratch.
fl oor was chosen to give a
typical realistic effect. The
shader used a brown colour
to get the right kind of effect
from it.
03 The little table
This table contains two levels. In the upper part of the table,
there’s an opening through which the vase has been placed.
So this little table doesn’t look like an ordinary table, and it’s
one of the fi rst things to start modelling. Go to Spline>
Lathe>Scale X. In order to create the table legs, go to Spline
Path>Spline Shape>Compound>Loft and then select
Deformation Twist.
04 Construct the dresser
The large dresser occupies the most space in the picture, so
it must look beautiful and original. The dresser was created
from a Box primitive, but the upper part was created by using
Geometry Path>Shape>Loft D. In the middle and lowest
part of the dresser is a carving to make it look more beautiful.
With the carving design, the dresser looks more attractive
and it lends it an additional charm. The carving was created
by modelling it and then using Polygons>Smooth.
05 It’s curtains for you
The curtains were created with NURBS objects E. The effect
of the cloth swaying in the wind requires a Modify Cloth
modifi er. We can start by creating the NURBS surface in the
front view. Use a setting of Point Surface 4 x 6 and add
Modify Cloth. This increases the density of the polygons and
turns them into triangles. Create a box above the curtain and
attach the upper polygons to it using a link and the sim node.
They’ll stay inactive when you begin the simulation and will
stay in place. Select a curtain then add the box and the wind
to the list of Objects in Simulation. Create the group by
following Sim Node>Attach To Box>Start Simulation>OK.
06 Model the teapot and vase
The geometry of the teapot is complex. Modifying the
surface will help us to handle this. First, create a circle. The
radius of the circle is the radius of the teapot. Set the amount
of points in the spline to equal 20. Copy (by cloning) ten
more splines. Position them one above another, and scale
them so that they look like a teapot. And there’s one
important thing – you should attach them only by number,
from 01 to the last one in numerical order. So follow
Spline01>Attach Spline02>… right up to Spline 10. The next
step is to apply our geometry to a cross-section (ie smooth)
surface. The cover of the teapot can be created the same
way, then the other elements of the teapot can be added.
Textures
To get the worn yet highly
refl ective look of the fl ooring,
three maps were created – one
was a bump map to get
surface texture variation,
another was a refl ection map
to get the shiny fi nish and the
last was a diffusion map. The
shader for this material uses
fall-off light to make it look
like a picture.
d As the largest object in the
room, aside from the fl oor, the
dresser is the most important
so it’s worth taking the most
time to create this. It was
started with a simple Box
primitive and modelled from
there, including the carvings on
the front that add to the
attractiveness of the design
e This is where you can link the curtains
to the object box above them. The wind
animation routine can then be linked to
them all and it will disturb them in a
realistic fashion
f This is another vase, which
can be created by making a new
spline then rotating it so the
Bezier dots are in the front view
so they look like a vase profi le. It
can then be edited to form a
vase shape
With the carvings, the dresser
looks more attractive and lends an
additional charm to the scene
The studio● Create an elegant room in 3ds Max
70 ● 3DArtist
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As this is meant to be
illuminated by the sun
from outside, there’s a VRay
plane placed in
window frame. This is
invisible so you can’t see it.
Just feel the effects from
the lighting over the scene.
The shadows were set to
be on and directed on all
surfaces so that the light
source would cast sharp,
realistic shadows from all
the legs of the furniture. A
photo was placed over the
window to give the
impression of where the
light was coming from.
The V-Ray light plane had
a blue cast, while the
interiors had a yellow one.
Lighting
the scene
Behind the window there’s
just a photo. If you want, you
can make it in Photoshop
Behind the scenes: Yuriy Mazurchuk●The studio
3DArtist ● 71
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Yuriy Mazurchuk
Yuriy is a talented 3D artist, living and working in
the Ukraine. His passion is fast cars.
Motion 3ds Max, V-Ray (2008) This car model
contains a million polygons. All the objects in the scene
are three-dimensional, giving an impression of speed.
ArtSisthowcase
Drums 3ds Max, V-Ray (2008) I prefer acoustic
drum sets to electronic sounds.
Ferrari 3ds Max, V-Ray (2008) I’m very interested
in Formula 1 racing, as it brings together technicians,
car design and very skilful drivers.
Once the handle and spout have been created, the teapot is
ready. Next, create a chrome material using the Material
Editor and then assign it to the teapot.
The vase on the right of the dresser was made as a circular
fi gure f. First of all, create a spline. Put the Bezier dots of the
spline in the front view so that they look like a vase profi le.
Select this spline, activate Edit Support Spline so during the
rotation of the spline around the support point we can get a
vase fi gure. Next, we need to create a texture for our vase.
07 Frame
the window
The window frame is a
simple geometry
object. Create a spline rectangle to make the perimeter of the
window plus the upper frame and opening frame. Set the
Spline>Section rectangle to 50-70mm and convert it to an
editable poly. Select the edges of the longest sides and apply
a chamfer. Now select the part of the frame that can be
opened. Put its support point in the place when the frame
hinges should be and rotate it around the Z axis in the
perspective view at 40-50 degrees. Select All Frame Objects
and perform Clone. Move this object at 150mm by the Z axis
in the front view. Add hinges and the handle so that the
frame now looks right but it’s just missing textures.
G This is where the tablecloth
is created. It’s a NURBS Point
Surface with a chamfer applied.
Remember to add a texture to
the surface to make it look like
cloth as well
H The chairs are made from
circles that have been
deformed. The legs are splines
that have been twisted into
shape under the seat area,
which is attractively textured
I’ve chosen a light brown colour for
the furniture. This helps create the
impression of a sunny day
The studio● Create an elegant room in 3ds Max
72 ● 3DArtist
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Render
The properties of light and the
quality of picture are under
the Render menu. There are
plenty of possible variants for
tuning the parameters for
such things as secondary
bounces, light cache,
environment as well as the
qmc sampler
Lighting setup
There is a V-Ray plane placed in
the window frame. Make it
invisible and directional. Set the
Shadows to be V-Ray shadows.
Smooth surface shadows must
be turned on and area shadows
must be on. Global Illumination
Primary bounces the irradiance
map. GI Secondary bounces the
light cache. The colour of light for
the V-Ray plane must be slightly
blue and the directional light
yellow. The light angle is set in
the front render window.
08 Lay the table
To create a tablecloth, we will use Modify Cloth again. Create
a NURBS Point Surface in the top view – this will be our
tablecloth. Set the Tesselation method with Advanced
parameters with v.Tree to a minimum of three but no more
than four subdiv levels. Create a chamfer cylinder, which will
imitate the tabletop. Apply Modify Cloth to the object
tablecloth G and – this is very important – assign a texture
to it. Go to the cloth’s Object Properties, and you’ll see that
the tablecloth is an object with cloth applied to it. Add
Object>Tabletop>Collision object with the applied material,
and then add gravity so it falls off the edges. Go to Cloth
Forces>Add Gravity, then click on OK to simulate it. Apply
the Turbo Smooth option to make it look realistic.
09 Model the little chair and spoon
The form of the upper part of the seat is a circle. I’ve created
a spline to make a cross-section of the seat. The spline
should be modelled on the seat of a chair that has been
handmade. The chair legs and supports are objects that are
created by rotating the spline around its own axis. The axis
can be adjusted by moving the support point in the
geometric centre of our future chair leg.
The round end of the spoon is made using Edit Poly. The
handle of the spoon is made from two parallel splines that
are placed near each other, each with a 3mm diameter. The
amount of segments should be set up to 250 so you should
be able to screw both splines together. Use the Modifi er
Screw by 5,400 degrees (15 x 360 degrees). But before
performing this operation, you should attach spline 1 to
spline 2.
10 Creating furniture materials
I’ve chosen a light brown colour for the furniture to create the
impression of a sunny day. The various materials and this
colour combine to add a fall-off refl ection to the scene.
The material of the decorative elements on the dresser are
yellow with an orange refl ection. The refl ection’s blur of this
material is set to 0.67. The material of the decorative glass is
yellow too, with the refl ection’s blur set to 0.87. The material
of the glass is a green shade. The main part of the upholstery
of the chair is a texture that is assigned in Slot Diffuse H,
while the nails use a metal material.
11 Adding the details
To create a radiator cover, create a frame with a perimeter
then go to Create>Spline>Path and profi le I. Apply a Loft
modifi er to create the frame. The cover is made by tiling one
object. Create a Form>Spline, then apply Extrude. To clone
this object, use the Array option. Clone the object vertically
and horizontally, and that creates the radiator cover.
To create the carpet shape, go to Edit Poly>Smooth>
Displace Map. Details can be added in Photoshop. To
fi nish, add the tassles with Spline>Noise>Edit Spline.
I At this point, it’s time to add all the small details and objects that
are in the dresser and on the tables. The carpet can also be created,
which is quite a simple construction. The tassles should be added
on in 3ds Max, but the patterns and texture can be created in
Photoshop if required
Render time
Resolution:
3,500 x 2,800
6 hours
Behind the scenes: Yuriy Mazurchuk ●The studio
3DArtist ● 73
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
“This image was created for the CGSociety
Steampunk: Myths and Legends contest. I
basically took the story of the Minotaur and
translated it into a steampunk version so
that if you look closely you’ll see the
Minotaur is coal-fi red and driven by steam.
There are little bits of escaping steam in
various areas of the image. I was interested
in creating the shallow depth of fi eld effect
in CINEMA 4D, which was the software
used here, but it’s actually easier to do it
later in Photoshop.”
Theseus
and the
Minotaur
2009
Texture,
render and
post-process
The image was
rendered in three
passes: Background,
Midground and
Foreground. Then the
layers were composited
together in Photoshop
where additional touchup
work was done. I
made the choice not to
render it with Global
Illumination; instead, it
uses a setup of nine
omni lights and spot
lights placed throughout
the scene for more
theatrical lighting
needs to be
supplied Incredible 3D artists take
us behind their artwork
Personal portfolio site
http://miketche.bravehost.com/
Country USA
Software used CINEMA 4D, Photoshop
Username: miketche
Artist info
Michael Wilson
Most texturing was done procedurally.
Some, such as the detail work on the
Minotaur where hand drawn (by my wife)
and projected onto the surface of the model.
74 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
I made this… Michael Wilson ●The studio
CINEMA 4D Photoshop
Software used in this piece
Comment
on this piece
Register with us today at
www.3dartistonline.com
to view the art and chat
to the artist
Most of the smoke and
steam are shapes with a smoky
texture applied. Additional
smoke and steam was painted
in Photoshop
Some effects are simpler to achieve in post-production.
Depth of fi eld was achieved by slightly blurring parts of
the background image in Photoshop.
3DArtist ● 75
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Here, I describe the key stages used to create Pippa,
my manga-inspired cybergirl character. She was
created using Maya and ZBrush, with textures and
post-production tweaks in Photoshop and rendered using
mental ray.
I usually begin any project by collecting visual references
and sketching thumbnails, but this particular piece of work
started out as a bit of fun and took on a life of its own
without much planning. I did, however, use a resin statuette
that I purchased from a Tokyo toy store as reference for the
fi nal pose, which was very useful to study from all angles.
My goal was to create a character with a slight manga
infl uence, while retaining my own sense of character design
and applying this to the piece.
Step by step:
Create a cute cartoonstyle
cybergirl
Lee Davies is employed as a 3D graphics artist in Dublin
Pippa 2008
A cute and mischievous manga-inspired
cybergirl character, created as a personal
portfolio piece just for fun
The studio● Create a cute cartoon-style cybergirl
Easy-to-follow guides
take you from concept
to the fi nal render
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
http://leemale.cgsociety.org/
Country Ireland
Software used Maya, ZBrush,
mental ray and Photoshop
Expertise I enjoy character
design and like to create
celebrity caricature illustrations
Lee Davies
Username leemale
Model,
texture, light,
render and
post-process
Basic modelling
Blocking out basic proportions
01 I began by importing head and body meshes into Maya
from my own library of base models in order to help save
time. I generally switch between Maya and ZBrush quite
frequently, even at this early stage as I fi nd the latter really useful
for deforming models quickly and intuitively, while Maya is great
for editing the geometry, adding edge loops and retopologising
wherever necessary.
02 At this stage I was blocking
out proportions. To give her an
impish appearance, I made her eyes quite
large and gave her a cute sort of button
nose. Next, the body mesh was split into
separate components. A dress was created
by duplicating the body, deleting the arms
and legs and extruding the bottom edge of
the remaining mesh. Then the arms and
legs were separated.
03 A simple helmet was created
(from a poly sphere) and a zip for
her dress was made by duplicating a single
pair of links along a curve following the
profi le of the dress geometry to form the
teeth, with an additional piece for the pull
tab at the top.
76 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Lee Davis●The studio
Maya Photoshop
Software used in this piece
My goal was to create
a character with a slight
manga infl uence,
while retaining
my own sense
of character
design
Comment
on this piece
Register with us today at
www.3dartistonline.com
to view the art and chat
to the artist
3DArtist ● 77
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create a cute cartoon-style cybergirl
Fine-tune the character
Adding the details, posing and shading
05 I then used Maya
for UV mapping
before any subdivision in
ZBrush had taken place, and
while the geometry was still
symmetrical. I generally prefer
to lay UVs out manually, so that
they can later be edited in
Photoshop should the need
arise. The automatic mapping
functions within ZBrush can
work extremely well, however,
they can limit options for
editing in other packages.
04 Next, her goggle
frames were made by
extruding a poly plane along a
curve and other small details
were added, including the
goggle lens, straps, heart
motifs and helmet ‘ear pods’.
06 The component meshes were then imported into
ZBrush as subtools to be individually subdivided, before
painting colour textures and sculpting. Pippa’s face and dress were
both painted freehand, while the stripe on her helmet was applied
in Photoshop via ZBrush’s ZApplink plug-in.
07 ZBrush’s
Transpose
Master plug-in was used to
enable positioning of multiple
subtools as one low-resolution
mesh. The Lasso tool was used
to selectively mask areas and
then the Transpose tool itself
was used to move, scale and
rotate parts of the model
incrementally until the desired
pose was achieved.
08 A layered shader was applied to Pippa’s head in
Maya, consisting of an MI SSS fast skin base, with two
blinn shaders to control levels of specularity and refl ectivity. The
colour map created in ZBrush was plugged into the diffuse and
epidermal channels, and adapted in Photoshop to provide bump
and specular maps. The subsurface effect here is stronger than a
more realistic skin shader might have looked, but this lent her skin a
slightly porcelain quality, which seemed to suit it. The other
shaders were pretty fast to set up, a simple blinn material with
bump for her dress and a glossy mia material for the helmet.
Modelling
When experimenting with
any sculpted deformations or
transposing geometry in
ZBrush, an excellent way to
retain any original
positioning for quick
comparison purposes is to
ensure any such changes are
assigned to separate layers.
This allows the user to switch
between original and
deformed versions of subtools
instantly, and makes
duplicating multiple
variations of deformed
subtools unnecessary.
78 ● 3DArtist
Lee Davis
Born in England, I am a
3D character specialist. I
am currently employed
by PopCap, and live and
work in Dublin. In my
spare time, I enjoy
creating 3D caricatures
of celebrities.
ArtSisthowcase
Björk Everyone’s favourite
avant-garde Icelandic
chanteuse, wearing the
infamous swan dress from
the 2001 Oscar awards.
Daft Punk French electrofunk
pioneers Daft Punk.
This piece allowed me to
practice some hard-edged
modelling techniques. I tried
to evoke their music with it.
The Sicilian A tribute to
Christopher Walken, based
on his portrayal of Vincenzo
Coccotti, ‘The Sicilian’, from
True Romance.
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Lee Davis●The studio
Finishing touches
It’s all in the eyes and the lighting
09 Eyes are
important as they
really breathe life into a
character, as well as creating a
point of focus. In Pippa’s case, I
mapped the iris with a circular
ramp texture connected to the
specular colour channel in
order to achieve a slight
refl ective glow to try and make
her look mischievous and
slightly devilish.
10 Since creating realistic hair
wasn’t important (and because
she’s wearing a large helmet covering most
of her head), all that was needed to achieve
the required look was a simple poly plane
with colour and transparency maps
assigned, duplicated several times. The
same procedure was also used for the
eyelashes.
11 To illuminate the scene,
I used a fairly simple lighting
setup consisting of three spots
(two front and one rear) as well
as a single directional light,
each with Raytracing Shadows
switched on. I then created a
quick series of test renders
for each light in turn in order
to ensure I was getting the
desired look, adjusting the
settings incrementally as
required to get it just right.
12 mental ray was used
to render the fi nal image
in two main passes: a default
pass using the production
quality preset and an Ambient
Occlusion pass to improve the
shadows. The highlight on
Pippa’s right cheek was the
accidental result of a render
without shadows turned on one
of the spotlights, but it
accentuated the shape of her
face a little so I decided to keep
it in. The fi nal compositing was
then done in Photoshop, where
I corrected colours, added
details including the antennae
on her helmet, the bump effect
on her belt, her striped
stockings and added a simple
gradient for the background.
Keeping a library
of useful base
meshes and
textures created
previously for
other projects can
be invaluable. It may sound obvious, but a
well stocked and organised collection of
default heads, anatomical parts and
textures which can be reused will save
hours of unnecessary work during any new
project. One well-constructed eyeball may
be the only eyeball you ever need. By
simply adjusting various attributes and
swapping out fi le textures, it’s possible to
create a huge range of looks very effi ciently.
Recycle elements
3DArtist ● 79
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Lance is responsible for
our toy car tutorial this
issue and is an expert in
other car designs. Here,
he reveals why a simple
bump map isn’t always
the best option for
realistic tyres
Lance Hitchings
www.hitchingsdesign.com
The Advisors
Automotive Characters
John shares his tips for
constructing the ultimate
warrior character, with
advice for form
composition, essential
heroic accessories and
fail-safe techniques for
modelling armour
John Haynes
zugok@sbcglobal.net
I’ve seen a lot of techniques for
tyres involving simple geometry
with bump maps for the tread. In
my opinion, this technique just
doesn’t hold up when doing high-quality
renders. Instead, I build the treads as
geometry, and for the side wall details I
combine a displacement node with a
mental ray Displacement Approximation
node (which is superior to Maya’s default
displacement node by itself). Since
displacement actually creates geometry
at render, the result is much better.
This tutorial was done in Maya, but the
techniques would work in other 3D
applications. The Car Resources thread
(under Tutorials and Resources) on the
www.cg-cars.com/forum has some great
resources for both treads and side walls
for a variety of performance tyres.
01 Build the tread
First, load an image of a tread into the
image plane of the Top camera. Build a
single tread, making sure that the front
edge perfectly matches the back edge and
is of a consistent width along the entire
length a. Use Edit>Duplicate Special to
create a row of treads. If the front and back
edges don’t match, or if the width of the
tread varies, you’ll get gaps between
treads. I duplicated 35 times along the Z
axis with the distance equal to the width of
the tread b.
Your questions answered Have a question about the software you use?
Thwarted by creative block? Contact us and
we’ll help you get back in your 3D groove
?
a
b
Need help fast? Join the I’m working on a concept car and have the
bodywork and details down pretty good, but can’t
seem to get the tyres looking right. Any advice?
Simon Elbourne Buffalo, New York, USA. Working in Maya
Burn rubber
80 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Your questions answered ●The studio
Landscapes Your guide
Moving from a 2D
environment into a 3D
one can open up all sorts
of possibilities. Brajan
shares the secrets of his
workfl ow between both
disciplines in his creation
of other worlds
Brajan Martinovic
http://sittingducky.deviantart.com/
Duncan is your fi rst point
of call if you’re suffering
from a 3D niggle. As
editor of the magazine,
he can arrange to have
your problems sorted
out by talented and
professional artists
Duncan Evans
www.3dartistonline.com
02 Build the tyre
Now to form the shape. Use Mesh>
Combine to turn the treads into an object.
In the Animation menu, use the Create
Deformer>Nonlinear>Bend command to
place a bend deformer on the row of
treads. Rotate the deformer until the bend
axis is curling the tyre in the direction you
want. Input a value in the Bend attribute
that bring the leading and trailing edges of
the row of treads together perfectly C.
Now you need to merge the vertices of
both edges together. Select the entire edge
of the tyre along the beginning of the side
wall and use several extrudes to create the
rest of the side wall. Now mirror this half of
the tyre across the X axis, combine both
halves D (Mesh>Combine) and then just
merge the vertices.
03 Create a shader network
I used three shaders for the tyre – all of
them are mia_material_x shaders. For the
tops of the treads, I used a fl at shader
(topTread), a glossier shader with a
displacement node for the side walls
(tireSidewall) and then a similar shader
(tireTread2) for the rest of the tyre.
Because the tyre is a single object, these
shaders were assigned to selections of
individual faces. I used a planar UV map
for the side wall faces in addition to a
cylindrical UV map for the rest E. Since
all of the faces are on a single map but
don’t use the same materials, it’s
absolutely fi ne to overlap the two
projections. Doing this allows me to use all
of the resolution of the map for the side
wall texture.
04 Set up
displacement map
Assign the shaders to the mesh, selecting
the appropriate faces for each material.
With the mesh selected, go to Windows>
Rendering Editors>Mental Ray>
Approximation Editor F. Hit the
Displacement Create button to create a
mental ray Displacement Approximation
node. Hit the Edit button to bring the node
up in the Attribute Editor, and choose the
preset Fine View Low Quality. Open the
tyre’s Shading Group in the Attribute
Editor G, and assign an image fi le to the
‘Displacement mat’ attribute under
Shading Group Attributes, which will
automatically create a displacement node
for you.
For the tyres in the main image, the
displacement value (height) is
determined by the Color Balance>Alpha
Gain attribute for the image fi le. I used a
value of 0.0015 and I set the fi lter to
MipMap. That’s basically it – you should
be ready to render at this point.
c
d e
f
g
growing community at www.3dartistonline.com
Email the team directly with your problem
3dartist@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Post your worry on the Q&A section on our forum
www.3dartistonline.com/forum
Send us your 3D glitches and we’ll get them sorted. There are
two methods to get in touch with our team of expert advisors…
3DArtist ● 81
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The most obvious
characteristics are big
shoulders, hands and feet. You
can also add heavy facial
features, a thick neck and clothing that is
simple and worn. The personality and
expression of the warrior is often a
seasoned veteran look, the eyes and
brow expressing hardness. Other
features that can help are items such as
multiple weapons, trophies, jewellery and
armour that refl ect the environment the
character exists in.
The most important parts are the face
and silhouette. Select one or two primary
elements for the character’s theme and
place them on the upper body. This helps
draw attention there. Also, make sure that
detail is varied in size and is placed to
create asymmetry – this adds personality
to the character. All the major details
might be the same style or origin so they
belong together, however, smaller details
can be different to add some interest. Just
make sure that they do not distract from
the main theme.
01 The scale armour of our
character’s waist is a normal
map, created from a simple repeated
shape placed in an overlapping pattern
and then wrapped around the body.
The advantage to this instead of using
a painted-on scale is more volume and
realism since the scale geometry can
add to the volume of the base surface.
02 Starting from a leaf shape
with some thickness,
duplicate enough to go around at least
half the body. Duplicate several rows
and have leaves overlap and offset,
much like a brick wall or tiled roof is
put together. Make sure that you have
enough rows to blanket the whole
area to be covered.
03 Select all the shapes and
add a lattice. Make sure the
lattice has enough divisions to allow
for a smooth bend – I used 15 columns
and eight rows. Using the lattice, wrap
the scale around half of the torso.
When complete, mirror the other half,
clean up and the covered section of
the torso base can be removed.
I really love the classic fantasy warrior style – you
know, lots of big muscles and outrageous weapons. I
am struggling to make up my own character,
though, and wondered what the key characteristics
were and how they are modelled?
Samantha Watson Plymouth, UK. Working in Maya and ZBrush
In search of a hero
Your Have a question about the software you use?
Thwarted by creative block? Contact us and
we’ll help you get back in your 3D groove
?
answered questions? questions
Look at medieval
armour for ideas about
what detail to include
Bare feet and battle
never work, so give your
character some decent
footwear to stomp all
over their foe
Any clothes should
look as if they were
stitched together by
honest, heroworshipping
peasants!
Any weapons need to be big, mean and
impossible for a mere mortal to wield.
Go for body-length creations
Armour is a requisite for
this warrior style, be it
full body or just a touch
Don’t get
bogged down in
weapon
decoration – a
bit of texture
will suffi ce
82 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Your questions answered ●The studio
Join the community at www.3dartistonline.com
2D or 3D? That’s the question
I come from a Photoshop background and want
to start incorporating some 3D work into my
Photoshop art. What are the benefits of this?
Keith Waters London, UK. Working in Photoshop and mental ray
The image below was made for
an NVIDIA Artspace
competition. A lot of postproduction
work had to be done,
and it is a good example of using
Photoshop on rendered 3D elements,
which ended up taking about 70 per cent
of the time. I used simple models and
shaders rendered in a standard scan line
(the occ layer was done in mental ray).
The process was simple and it gave me a
lot of space to experiment.
Exporting models to Photoshop means
I don’t have to concentrate on meticulous
UV mapping and texturing on the model.
You can use every technique you can
come up with and don’t have to think
about it in motion. You can also try to
fake a global illumination effect by
painting faint light refl ections and colour
bleeding on the surrounding geometry.
In the image below, I experimented
with colour adjustments using Curves. I
adjust each channel separately to get the
mood I want. I usually make darker tones
colder and highlights warmer, but it’s
often interesting to do the opposite. So
that I can easily spot any mistakes, I fl ip
the image horizontally.
Models
To preserve memory and keep things
simple, I modelled the emitter buildings
by instancing a few fl oor model variations
on top of each other to create a huge wall.
Later, I deformed the whole thing to get
the spiky shape I imagined. I also made a
small tileable model of mechanical detail
that I instanced across the inner side of
the building and around the vents. I
rotated, fl ipped and scaled them
individually to kill the unwanted pattern
effect. A simple particle system was used
to scatter hundreds of small spheres
across the terrain mesh as trees.
Layers
I wasn’t happy with the building’s dull
look once the colour and occlusion layers
were composed; I like to see mechanical
stuff having worn edges. That’s timeconsuming
to UV-map and to texture, so I
applied a simple refl ective material and
rendered the whole structure with it. The
same bump map was used as a base
colour. Terrain material had additional
small noise bump on top of the normal
map to add detail. Mild fall-off in the
colour slot accentuated the bumpness.
Postwork
Now that the layers were done, I blended
them in Photoshop using layer masks. Use
as many layers as you need to make your
models more complex. That would be
much harder in 3D, as you would have to
make mixed materials and do a lot of
greyscale maps to mask them. The raw 3D
renders usually come out too soft and low
on contrast, so I manually sharpened the
edges of the mechanical stuff and the
trees to get more detail.
The trees were created with a simple particle system
Base colour material Ambient occlusion pass Refl ective material
3DArtist ● 83
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Review ● Vue 7 Infi nite
If you recall the seat-of-the-trousers
drive along a cliff edge in the otherwise
execrable Indiana Jones and the Crystal
Cash Cow, then it will come as no real
surprise to learn that the landscape far
below was computer-generated. It was
created with Vue, the landscape generation
program that started as an alternative to
Bryce for the hobbyist and has developed
into a fully fl edged system used by the top
Hollywood studios. There are a number of
versions of Vue 7, from Pioneer for the
Vue 7 Infinite £693.71
Why bother modelling and populating an entire landscape
and ecosystem when there’s software to do it for you?
The good & the bad
✓ Expanded
EcoSystem library
✓ Enhanced terrains
✓ Confi gurable water object
✓ Improved integration for
xStream in major apps
✓ Volumetric clouds and
faster rendering
✘ View system still clunky
✘ Terrain editing tools are
relatively crude
✘ Limited options for
rendering separate skies
It’s easy enough to import
other 3D objects into a Vue
scene. Here, the fi gure of a
girl is added to some desert
beginner at a very affordable price, to Infi nite,
the fully loaded, standalone version and
xStream, which works inside Maya, 3ds
Max, CINEMA 4D and LightWave 3D.
Vue, whatever the version, uses a
standard four-screen display, showing top,
side, front and main camera views. There’s
also a perspective view that can be used in
place of any of the default options as well. As
the front view is often superfl uous, it can be
worth replacing it with the perspective view.
What can be quite laborious is manipulating
the view. There are rotation and zoom-in and
out controls for the main camera view, but
it’s often the case that you just want to zoom
over to another area to check it out. The
middle mouse button defaults to viewpoint
zoom and the right button thankfully is a
drag option, but it isn’t as quick as using the
3D view manipulation in Bryce.
Terrains are usually the starting point and
can be created as either an infi nite
procedural plane or using the height fi eld
editor. The procedural terrains are very
detailed, even close-up, and provide
excellent expanses of rock and stones. The
height fi eld editor, though, is clunky and
lacks sophistication. It uses the old Brycestyle
spray can approach to raising or
lowering the ground, and has defaults for
throwing in mountains, peaks, canyons,
mounds, dunes and icebergs, and can erode
a scene in a number of ways. The effect is
certainly fast and easy to use, offering the
spray can or paint type approach, but it
doesn’t really let you sculpt a terrain into the
shape you might have envisaged. It certainly
feels quite old-school in use and might well
be due an upgrade for version 8.
In terms of what has changed in this
release, it’s mainly an enhancement of
existing facilities rather than wholesale
innovation. The integration with 3ds Max, for
example, in the xStream version is
considerably tighter, allowing all the Vue
functions and objects to be used directly
The metallic material
refl ects the golden
sand surrounding the
fi gure. You can even
add half-moon effects
for the background
The main camera can be
repositioned at will and
also use different focal
lengths to exploit depth of
fi eld and fi eld of view
84 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Vue 7 Infi nite ●Review
inside Max. One notable change, though, is
that the water plane from Vue 6 has been
replaced by a procedural water object, which
can be edited to change the effect from total
calm to the threshing surface of a stormwracked
ocean. The wind direction can be
set to drive the waves and there’s the option
for foam on the waves and along the coasts.
The EcoSystem was introduced through
versions 5 and 6, and while it hasn’t been
rapidly changed, it has been expanded in
terms of content and how it can be used.
There are over 70 new species of plants to
use, including some very large ones that look
great close-up. You can now set the angle
that the plants are placed at, so they can jut
out of cliff faces, for example, which couldn’t 8/10
Features ................................9/10
Ease of use ..........................8/10
Quality of results ............8/10
Value for money ...............7/10
Our verdict
Create sprawling
landscapes with
massive ecosystems
in detail so fine it’s
hard to believe
Action – have total control
over your workfl ow
The standard four-pane view can be manipulated
through zooming in and also using the right mouse
button for dragging
be done before. The actual plants aren’t
displayed on the previews, however, in order
to keep speeds up; they only appear when
rendering. Also, plants now have wind blur
so animations over heavily forested areas
don’t fl icker like they used to. You still need
to design the landscape fi rst before adding
the ecosystem, though, as otherwise
changes in height will leave you with fl oating
plants and trees.
Finally, the volumetric cloud and
atmosphere creation is much improved, the
GI and radiosity rendering is much faster
than version 6 and the quality of the fi nal
result is better than ever. With a version for
every pocket, Vue remains the leading
artifi cial landscape creation package.
It’s mainly an enhancement of existing facilities
rather than wholesale innovation
Final
Score
www.eon-software.com
● Free beta (Pioneer)
● £164.36 (Esprit)
● £693.71 (Infi nite)
● £1,138.86 (xStream)
OPTIMAL SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS (PC)
● Windows XP, 2000, Vista (32-
bit/64-bit)
● 2GHz Pentium 4 processor
● 2GB RAM
Essential info
Camera – get the best
views possible
It’s easy enough to pick furniture up and move it
around. As the output resolution is widescreen, a grey
matte covers parts of the camera view
Lights – lend your room
some realism
The completed rendered room has natural light
streaming in from the south corner, resulting in a
stunning end product
There is a wide choice of
materials available for
most objects. In this one,
a metallic material is
added to the fi gure
The standard height
fi eld terrain editing
leaves a few features
to be desired
The EcoSystem can paint with just
one item at a time or a little bit of
everything that’s been loaded
3DArtist ● 85
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Review ● DAZ Carrara 7
With the release of Carrara 7,
DAZ has taken the easy-to-use
foundation of Carrara, refi ned
it and added some feature sets that blur
the distinction between expensive
cinematic 3D solutions and affordable 3D
for small studios or hobby users.
Several of the new additions have been
long requested, which should give many of
the faithful Carrara users some overdue
satisfaction as well.
To begin with, Carrara users can now
paint directly onto their objects, which is an
extremely powerful feature. When engaging
the painting feature, users are presented
with a variety of 3D texture channels, like
colour, bump, etc, into which they can paint
individually or collectively. These channels
are written to separate texture documents
that can be saved in the format of the user’s
choice and edited separately if needed in an
external paint program. Each of these
documents can be a Photoshop document
that respects layer information. In fact, you
can add new layers from within Carrara.
Painting is accomplished by selecting
from a preloaded set of brushes, which are
fairly varied. Additionally, any user that has
experience with creating brushes for
Photoshop can also create their own brush
sets. Carrara allows tablet/pressuresensitive
capability, so texture detailing on
original or existing models is faster. There
are also native capabilities for cloning,
airbrushing, drawing straight lines, erasing,
colour sampling plus symmetrical painting.
A related improvement to the Carrara
texturing capability is a new set of UV tools.
UVs provide Carrara the digital instructions
of how textures are supposed to map onto a
3D object. Carrara has had basic UV
mapping features for some time, however,
the new ability for UV unwrapping along
with required seam and pin tools have been
added, giving users who create 3D models
control that wasn’t previously available. This
is a signifi cant addition that allows for much
better control of textures for both organic
and hard-edge models.
One of the signifi cant advantages Carrara
has over some of its more expensive
brethren is the ability to work with both
Poser and DAZ rigged/boned content
natively, vastly accelerating both scene
creation and animation. Adding to this
powerful feature is the new Levels Of Detail
(LOD) for DAZ content. Users can now work
more effectively with dense DAZ poly mesh
content, but preserve their system resources
by assigning a lower LOD for characters in
the background. This frees up computer
resources, effectively making the scene less
heavy, allowing for older computer systems
to handle rich 3D scenes more easily.
A long-awaited feature has been the
ability to integrate the polygonal/vertex
DAZ Carrara 7
Affordable, full-featured 3D modelling and
animation solution that allows for direct manipulation of
Poser and DAZ fi gure content directly in the program
There are four main
sections to the
program, starting with
Assemble where the
scene is put together.
The next stages cover
editing objects and
primitives, then
there’s animation,
adding textures and
fi nally, using the
rendering engine from
any of the windows or
the camera view
This is the front view of the scene, not
the camera view, so it can easily be
manipulated without changing the
render view
View scenes in single or multiple view
modes, each window having the ability to
render textured OpenGL previews to basic
geometry and wireframes
Carrara 6.2 Pro – full version
Check out the PC version of this
full product on the cover CD to
discover Carrara for yourself!
86 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
DAZ Carrara 7 ●Review
modeller in the Carrara main Assembly
Room. While the original Vertex modelling
room is still there, it is now possible to also
work with multiple, ungrouped mesh objects
simultaneously. This a huge advantage when
modelling things like clothes and
accessories, while seeing the main character
at the same time.
Another signifi cant addition in Carrara is
the Multi-pass (MP) rendering output.
Aimed squarely at the pro and advanced
users, rendered output from Carrara can
now include an industry-standard range of
additional rendered information for use in
video editors and Photoshop. The MP
renders now include a full range of lighting
and colour information as separate fi les.
For users that use multiple 3D solutions,
Carrara now exports to what is quickly
becoming the industry standard, Collada.
Invented by Sony, this format transports 3D
www.daz3d.com
● £303 Pro (£137 upgrade)
● $549 Pro ($249 Standard)
OPTIMAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MAC)
● Mac Intel or Power Macintosh 700MHz
(1.6GHz or faster recommended)
● Mac OS X 10.3.9 or above
● 1GB RAM min (2GB recommended)
● OpenGL-compatible graphics card with at
least 128MB RAM
● 600MB free hard drive space for installation
OPTIMAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (PC)
● Pentium III processor 700Mhz (1.6GHz or
faster recommended)
● Windows 2000 (Service Pack 2), Windows
XP, Windows Vista
● 1GB RAM min (2GB recommended)
● OpenGL-compatible graphics card with at
least 128MB RAM
● 600MB free hard drive space for installation
Essential info
9/10
Features ...............................8/10
Ease of use ...........................9/10
Quality of results ............8/10
Value for money ............10/10
Our verdict
Given its price
point, capabilities
and render output,
it’s hard to find fault
with this app
Painting textures directly
into channels
Texture painting presents a dialog for choosing what
channels to paint in and whether to save the textures
as layered Photoshop fi les or fl at fi le formats
Photoshop and Carrara
work together
Users can choose to paint on single channels or all
channels at once. If working in Photoshop format, new
layers can be added in Carrara
Reworked UV unwrapping
for easier texturing
New UV unwrap tools make it easy to precisely
manage 3D geometry for organic and hard-edge
meshes for ease in texture development
and texture information into a variety of 3D
and game-authoring environments.
For animators, another notable addition is
the ability to group and collapse the display
of Non-Linear Animation (NLA) clips, vastly
easing management requirements in rich
animation scenes.
At the time of writing, a public beta test of
Carrara 7.1 has been released, with additions
to the painting features and signifi cantly
improved caustic renderings. The team
behind the scenes at DAZ are apparently not
waiting long to extend this new release’s
capabilities even further.
For new users, Carrara is one of the most
approachable, feature-rich and powerful 3D
software solutions available bundled at a low
price. For advanced and pro users, Carrara 7
Pro has fi nally added some of the features
that make it quite easy to integrate into
pro pipelines.
One of the most feature-rich and powerful 3D software solutions
This image by
author Mark
Bremmer has
been rendered
with Carrara’s
Indirect lighting
for natural
‘bounced light’
Final
Score
The good & the bad
✓ Full landscape/vegetation
replication system
✓ Good render engine with
many options
✓ Direct manipulation of
Poser/DAZ rigged
content
✓ Simplifi ed GUI compared
to other 3D solutions
✘ Global Illumination, while
good, is not very fast
✘ Doesn’t allow for
alternative render engines
✘ Polygonal modelling tools
adequate but not great
3DArtist ● 87
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Review roundup l DAZ Studio 2.3
DAZ Studio 2.3 Free
It is said that the best things in life are free, but does this sentiment apply for a 3D artist’s work tool
of choice? The latest edition of DAZ Studio comes under scrutiny
www.daz3d.com
l Free download and upgrade
Optimal system requirements (mac)
l Power Macintosh or Intel Macintosh
l 700MHz (1 GHz or faster recommended)
l Mac OS X 10.4 or above
l 256MB RAM min (512MB recommended)
l 50MB free hard drive space for installation
l OpenGL-compatible graphics card with at
least 128MB RAM
Optimal system requirements (PC )
l Pentium III/AMD Athlon processor running
at 700MHz
l Windows XP, 2000 or Vista
l 25MB RAM min (Windows XP, 2000),
512MB RAM (Vista)
l 50MB free hard drive space for installation
(free content bundle requires 350MB)
l OpenGL-compatible graphics card with at
least 128MB RAM
l Drivers supporting OpenGL 1.3
recommended
Essential info
8/10
Features.................................7/10
Ease of use...........................8/10
Quality of results..............7/10
Value for money................9/10
Our verdict
DAZ Studio is a
great starter program
for the enthusiast to
sharpen their
teeth on
Final
Score
Offering users an easy-tocomprehend
user interface and
workflow, DAZ Studio is
everything the 3D novice needs to create
3D environments and characters. DAZ
Studio 2.3 really makes CG art an obtainable
goal for even the most elementary of users,
thanks to the Quick Start option. However,
even if you ignore this, it isn’t hard to
understand how DAZ Studio operates.
Building your characters in DAZ Studio is
very simple. Accessories, such as hair,
clothing, lighting and scenery, are easily
applied by activating presets, and DAZ
Studio loads it to your project. All features
can be defined through common slidebar
functions, within the Morph panel in the
Parameters tab. Also, there is now the
addition of the Favorites group, which allows
your best effects to be used in other projects
instantly. Another new feature is the Smooth
Angle option. This, available to access from
the Surface Tab, provides a specific and
faster way to define edges.
All image elements can be easily altered
through a set of axes. Simply click on the
control points and move your mouse to alter
them. The green axis establishes vertical
movement, while the red axis controls
horizontal movement and the blue
commands depth or scale. This helps quickly
establish perspective and scale within
project elements.
Designating the body parts to move is the
easy part. With the Active Pose tool
selected, click the desired joint or limb. Your
selection is displayed as active by a yellow
cubic grid. All you have to do is move the
mouse to position your model into any pose
you imagine. However, we will say that
movement still isn’t any more fluid than in
previous editions. Again, with all DAZ Studio
software, practice makes perfect here, but
this is still one of the easiest ways to get into
3D modelling and rendering.
This is still one of the easiest ways to get into 3D modelling and rendering
The fun part of DAZ Studio is in the modelling
studio. DAZ characters are automatically rigged so
all you have to do is grab arms and legs, head and
torso and twist, pull and bend them into position
The new Favorites group is split into two. Local
Favorites are node-based and are applicable to
selected elements. Figure Favorites are active at all
times, even when you select another figure node
The ability to create lip-syncs is now available in
DAZ Studio 2.3. Just upload your figure and sound
files and Lip-Sync does the work, although you can
amend lip speeds and tempo
As if it wasn’t easy
enough, there’s help on
hand to explain the best
way to manipulate the
figure, including using
some of the preconfigured
poses that can
be applied directly
The torso can move back
and forth and also twist,
but be careful doing this
because there are no
limits on what movement
you make - you can soon
leave a slew of contorted
figures in your wake
88 l 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Autodesk ImageModeler, 3Dconnexion SpaceExplorer ●Review roundup
Autodesk ImageModeler 2009 £875
A complex but powerful program, especially for architectural 3D
Autodesk’s ImageModeler 2009 takes
regular photos and, with a little computer
magic, turns them into 3D models. It
doesn’t mean to say it’s all plain sailing, though,
because the use of co-ordinates and axes will be
daunting to the average enthusiast. The best place
to start is the user guide, which lends a helping
hand from pre-production through to postproduction
project practices. Those familiar with
either the previous versions, or modelling in
general, will pick it up easily enough.
Uploading your pictures into the ImageModeler
workspace is easy with a simple browse and load
function. Straight away, you will notice how the
software provides detailed options. You have a
choice of loading single shots, full 360 panoramic
images or a mix of both. The interface may seem
confusing at fi rst, but workspace options are
presented in the order they need to be applied,
from Calibration through to Export. This makes the
application very easy to follow.
Spacial relations are established simply by laying
matching 2D markers or Locator Markers across
your sequence of images. Initial Locators represent
different views of the same point in space, and after
laying multiple examples then pressing Ctrl-click,
ImageModeler runs the Calibration process.
After defi ning reference distances, you can make
distance and angle measurements directly from
your image using the Rule tool. This is especially
handy for geometric shapes like buildings. Snapping
onto your 3D locators lets you calculate real-world
distances and angles between points.
Photo texturing in ImageModeler is also very
good. Texture mapping is an automatic one-click
process, while photorealism is built-in. Textures can
be extracted either on a mapping group or an entire
object, while retouching textures is pretty simple
too, as you can make amendments in Photoshop.
Once you have fi nished and saved, the amended
textures are automatically reloaded into your
ImageModeler workspace.
ImageModeler can be used to calibrate pictures and
generate a 3D model from 2D pictures, then export to 3ds
Max or Maya to be amended. A new smart blending
option allows the creation of smooth, blended textures
3Dconnexion
SpaceExplorer
£272
A 3D mouse that justifi es its price tag if
you are serious about your 3D work
SpaceExplorer, produced by 3Dconnexion, a
Logitech company, is an impressive-looking
piece of hardware. This 3D mouse screams
professionalism, with gloss buttons, smooth fi nish
and a vibrant blue LED light. There are a number of
3D mice in the range from 3Dconnexion, with
cheaper options for enthusiasts and this top-end
model for professionals.
This sophisticated piece of hardware is very
user-friendly, from setup through to actual use.
Kick-start the installation process and
SpaceExplorer runs 3Dconnexion’s Confi guration
Wizard. This is an interactive tool that uses
animation and imagery, running you through a
diagnostic of how your 3D mouse should respond.
Movement and confi guring your preferences are
presented in an entertaining and assuring fashion.
Itemising your SpaceExplorer options is really
easy. Clicking the Panel key opens the
3Dconnexion Control Panel, allowing you to
designate a specifi c function to all buttons by
accessing simple drop options. Rotation, Pan, Save
and key shortcuts are all applicable.
The ergonomics of the SpaceExplorer are very
good. Its soft, sculpted palm rest equals great wrist
support, letting your fi ngers do all the work. The
key positions feel natural and can be rapidly located
by your fi ngers. Using SpaceExplorer together with
a mouse fundamentally engages both your hands
in a natural, intuitive way. We took it for a test drive
in DAZ Studio and 3ds Max, the environments that
it’s designed for (a full list of compatible software is
on the 3Dconnexion website), and being able to
rotate and manipulate 3D objects with a 3D mouse
made the process a lot faster and a lot easier.
7/Features ................................7/10
Ease of use ..........................6/10
Quality of results .............9/10
Value for money ...............7/10
Our verdict
Environmental
and architecture
artists will get the
most out of this
impressive program
Final
Score
www.daz3d.com
9/10
Final
Score
Features ................................9/10
Ease of use ..........................8/10
Quality of results .............9/10
Value for money ..............8/10
Our verdict
The SpaceExplorer
is a great design, with
maximum control
http://shop.3dconnexion.co.uk
10
8/3DArtist ● 89
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Wiley’s For Dummies imprint
is an iconic, if somewhat
ridiculed, one. Its striking
yellow-and-black livery stands out by a
mile on any bookshelf and, despite the
deliberately dumbed-down branding,
the For Dummies imprint always
delivers. Whether it’s a simple or a
complex subject, these books manage
to break it down into manageable and
crucially memorable chunks, set out in
clear, logical terms and with a defi nite
and achievable progression through
each chapter. This is particularly
important when it comes to open
source software like Blender. Rather
than being developed especially for
consumers by programmers with a
specifi c goal and demographic in mind,
open source projects are created as
labours of love, by coders, for coders.
It’s for this reason alone that you
should put all notions of snobbery
aside when looking at Blender For
Dummies. Blender’s complexity is on
the same level as its imaging prowess,
and it’s likely that despite the
friendliness of its open source
community, any form of tech support
will consist of hurling a random and
probably prime number of acronyms at
you along with some esoteric
command line prompts. This handy
guide takes you through a process that
literally starts with getting your head
around the software (you’ll see), moves
you through the processes of 3D
modelling, animation, rendering and
exporting, and fi nishes up with your
own creativity.
Along the way, it takes in eminently
useful subjects, such as the most
common problems you’ll face with the
program, the best resources you can
fi nd on the web (at the time of
publication, anyway) and other thorny
little issues that more high-end tomes
would perhaps gloss over. What’s even
better is that it does this without
oversimplifi cation or patronising the
reader. Written by Blender artist and
open source evangelist Jason van
Gumster, this book takes the fi endishly
obtuse Blender interface and actually
tells you what it does in transparent
and realistic terms. This is particularly
useful for newcomers to 3D graphics,
drawn in by the fact that Blender’s free
and then baffl ed utterly by its unique
nuances. For these users in particular,
this book is invaluable and working
through it can yield tangible and
satisfying results.
Review roundup
● Book reviews
Blender for Dummies
£22.99
Blender gets cut and diced in this simple recipe for 3D success
HOT KEYS AND SHORTCUTS
In traditional For Dummies style, the book
opens with an eminently useful list of
keyboard shortcuts and hot keys. For a
program like Blender, this is very handy
FULL PROGRAM INCLUDED
To save you negotiating the complex path of
SourceForge binaries, the most up-to-date
version of Blender (at the time of
publication) is included on a free CD-ROM
QUICK FIXES
Essential subjects are covered in a logical
progression, but useful real-world tips, such
as creating lighting that will render fast, are
where Blender For Dummies really shines
CLEAR LAYOUT
Blender For Dummies breaks down the
process of working with the program into
manageable chunks, and includes frequently
asked questions at every major step
EXPLANATION
AND INSPIRATION
AUTHOR
● Jason van Gumster
PRICE
● £22.99/ $34.99 US
PUBLISHER
● Wiley
ISBN NUMBER
● 978-0-470-400-18-0
info
Blender for Dummies provides
a great mix of inspirational
ideas and easy-to-understand
technical information
90 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Book reviews ●Review roundup
D’Artiste: Character Modelling 2
A showcase of 3D art from videogames, movies and more
Ballistic Publishing’s glossy art
books are always a joy to
behold. The D’Artiste series in
particular is one of this publisher’s
highlights, mixing the beautifully
reproduced artwork we expect from
Ballistic with interviews and tutorials
from the featured artists.
In D’Artiste: Character Modelling 2,
those artists are Kevin Lanning, Timur
Baysal and Zack Petroc. Lanning was
responsible for much of the primary
artwork in the Unreal 3 game engine,
which powers many of today’s PC
games. Animator Timur ‘Taron’
Baysal’s credits include cult smash
Dogma, while Zack Petroc is behind
many of the Gnomon Workshop’s 3D
tutorial DVDs. Between them, they
provide a showcase of personal art and
inspirational works by invited artists,
along with step-by-step tutorials. For
3D artists, this is a great insight into
working processes.
Exotique 4 £40.99
The fourth collection of the fi nest digital art
eye candy
H ere’s another treat from
Ballistic Publishing in the
shape of Exotique 4. Where
D’Artiste: Character Modelling 2 provides
some useful information and insights in
its showcase of 3D graphics, Exotique 4
is an exercise in pure digital eye candy.
This is the fourth in Ballistic’s series
of ‘the world’s most beautiful CG
characters’, and it encompasses
artwork created in a variety of
programs. From Photoshop, Painter,
ArtRage and ZBrush to Maya, Poser,
Bryce, mental ray and 3ds Max, this is
a capsule collection of some of the
fi nest digital portraiture out there.
Photoshop, thanks to its sheer ubiquity,
is overrepresented on these pages, but
the artworks themselves are of
stunning quality and really do represent
some of the best character art in the
world right now.
Despite its rough chapter headings,
this is an aimless albeit gorgeous
collection, but it’s sure to fi nd a home
on the coffee table if not the bookshelf.
3D TUTORIALS
Unlike other Ballistic books, the D’Artiste
series includes tutorials, and those in
Character Modelling 2 are particularly relevant
to 3D artists
INVITED ARTISTS
Each of the 3D artists in Character Modelling 2
has picked a set of portfolio pieces from
invited artists to showcase what can be
achieved in 3D graphics
TOP 3D ARTISTS
Kevin Lanning is one of
the people behind the
almost ubiquitous
Unreal 3 engine, and
his recent credits
include Xbox 360 top
seller Gears of War
CG CHARACTERS
Like the rest in the series, most of the
characters portrayed in Exotique 4 are fantasy
females, although there are a few monsters,
robots and scary people
3D SECTION
A section of 3D artwork breaks up the
monotony of scantily clad ladies and adds
some variety to the pages, but it isn’t exactly
well ordered
THE FINEST DIGITAL ART
Ballistic books always provide a showcase
of some of the world’s fi nest digital art
AUTHOR
● Zack Petroc, Kevin
Lanning, Timur Baysal
PRICE
● £54.49
PUBLISHER
● Ballistic Publishing
ISBN NUMBER
● 1-921002-35-2
info
AUTHOR
● Daniel Wade, Paul Hellard
PRICE
● £40.99
PUBLISHER
● Ballistic Publishing
ISBN NUMBER
● 978-1-921002-54-0
info
£54.49
3DArtist ● 91
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Learn in style
Also in this series Now available on
www.imaginebookshop.co.uk Kindle Store ImagineShop.co.uk App Store
Bookazines
eBooks • Apps
Discover more with the Book series’ expert, accessible tutorials for
iPad, iPhone, Mac, Android, Photoshop, Windows and more
The
Series
High street
HIGH
ST.
BUY IN STORE
iPad
Printed full colour large format book
Kindle
TM
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion and education
Goblin
Alexey Kuznetsov «
Personal portfolio site
http://leshiy3d.com
3DArtist ● 93
inside
We ask a leading industry light what you
need to do to get into the business and get
a job like theirs. This issue, it’s Leo Santos,
lead animator at Blur Studio in California
Leo Santos
100 Insider interview
Industry news
Make sure you are up to date with the latest
shows, tools and products in the 3D biz
094 News
SPLine Games
Take one basement full of feverishly busy
Russians and you have the recipe for a small
developer taking on the world with a
new point-and-click adventure
096 Behind the scenes
To advertise in workspace please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
I N DU S T RY ● E DUC AT ION ● R E C RU I T M E N T ● C A R E E R S
The more crazy stuff you create, the
more breathtaking your game is
Boris Chuplin allows 3D Artist a look at what’s on the horizon from SPLine Games. Page 96
Hertfordshire
Want to get in on some learning? Head to
Hertfordshire University for an animation course.
Rosie Tanner discovers what it has to offer
103 Uni Focus
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Henry Selick, director and producer of the
acclaimed 3D stop-motion animated fi lm
Coraline, will keynote at the annual NAB
Show in April. The NAB (National Association of
Broadcasters) Show is the
world’s largest electronic
media show, taking place
in Las Vegas from 20 April
to 23 April (with the
conferences starting two
days earlier). Selick will be delivering his thoughts
on the Monday afternoon on how digital technology
has helped to revitalise the handcrafted approach of
stop-motion animation.
Coraline, the fi rst-ever completely stereoscopic 3D
feature fi lm was released in the United States to
much admiration and a solid box offi ce performance
in February, with high hopes of a similar reception
when it hits UK shores in May. Selick is well known as
a director for his debut feature fi lm The Nightmare
Before Christmas in 1993, and went on to create
James and the Giant Peach in 1996, combining stopmotion
animation with computer graphics. He joined
animation studio LAIKA in 2004, which is behind
Coraline, written by international bestselling fantasy
writer Neil Gaiman.
Other key speakers at the NAB Show this year
include Rob Cohen, director of XXX and The Fast And
The Furious, David Eick, co-creator and executive
producer on Battlestar Galactica and Bud Alders, CTO
of Disney Interactive Media Group.
Coraline director to
give keynote speech
Henry Selick will share
his thoughts at the NAB show in Las Vegas
A fully immersive three-dimensional
movie-going experience
Director of The Nightmare Before Christmas,
Henry Selick promises a great deal from his
latest fi lm, Coraline
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & educationNews
94 ● 3DArtist
The show fl oor at NAB 2008
b Content Theater: Horton
Hears A Who! directors
Jimmy Hayward and Steve
Martino discuss the
making and production of
the animated fi lm.
Moderated by David
Cohen, associate featured
editor, Daily Variety
a Henry Selick will
be talking about
stop-motion
animation in the
afternoon of the
fi rst day of the
NAB Show in
Las Vegas
a b
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The Visual Effects Society
Awards are among the biggest
in the industry, and this year it
presented its fi rst-ever student
accolade. Sponsored by Autodesk and
designed to honour outstanding
achievements in visual effects, the VES
invited qualifi ed students from around
the world to send in submissions at the
end of last year. The winners were
announced during the seventh annual
VES Awards show in Beverly Hills.
Sandy Widyanata and Courtney Wise
are the fi rst recipients of the
Outstanding Effects In A Student
Project prize for their short fi lm
PLASTIC, a graduation project created
Visual Effects
Society unveils first
student winners
Autodesk representative presents
Sandy Widyanata and Courtney Wise with
its coveted award
while studying at the Australian Film,
Television and Radio School. PLASTIC is
a live-action fi lm about the obsession
for a perfect body image and was
developed using Autodesk’s Maya,
among other technologies. The duo
beat off worldwide competition from
three other nominees from the US,
France and Germany.
“This award is a wonderful
opportunity for us to inspire the next
generation of design professionals,”
says Joe Astroth, Autodesk vice
president of Learning and Education.
“As visual effects become more
technically complex, the need for welltrained
talent in the entertainment
industry continues to grow. We’re very
proud to partner with prestigious
international organisations like the Visual
Effects Society to encourage students to
hone their digital technology skills and
prepare for exciting careers.”
A wonderful opportunity for us to inspire
the next generation of design professionals
3DArtist ● 95
d PLASTIC is a fi lm
about the obsession
with body image
and uses visual
effects to help tell
the story. Maya was
primarily used to
help integrate the
effects into the fi lm
To advertise in workspace3D please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or
cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
c Sandy Widyanata and Courtney
wise step up to the podium at
the VES Awards to receive their
Autodesk prize for Outstanding
Effects In A Student Project for
their short fi lm, PLASTIC
Camera Tracking
For VFX course
Escape announces ‘groundbreaking
online learning format’
Escape Studios, provider of training and reseller
support services, has announced a new online
course to help teach professional camera-tracking
techniques as required by aspiring 3D artists. The
course looks at the art of mixing computer-generated
objects into real-life footage.
“Camera tracking, also called match moving, is one
of the most important and fundamental techniques for
3D artists to master,” says Dominic Davenport, CEO
and founder of Escape Studios. “Our Camera Tracking
For VFX course has been meticulously planned to
provide students with a thorough professional
grounding in the theory and techniques required for
seamless camera moves.” Priced at $299/£199, you
can fi nd out more about the course or register at www.
escapestudios.com/en_GB/training/online-courses/
online-camera-tracking-vfx-course.html.
Unis to benefit from
Craft partnership
Animation tech developer announces
Academic Partner Program
Craft Animations has announced its new Academic
Partner Program, which will enable colleges,
universities and 3D animation schools subsidised
access to its Director Tools. The program enables
qualifying colleges and universities to receive free
licenses for Craft Director Tools, early access to select
upcoming technology and technical and supervisory
support for select academic projects. The aim of the
program is to provide the opportunity for students to
stay ahead of new technology and techniques.
Educational institutions wishing to enrol should
contact Lou Badju (lou.badju@craftanimations.com).
See www.craftanimations.com for more information.
c d
NEWS ● WOR K SPACE
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Deep within the frigid Steppes, a small
team of Russian programmers and
artists are busy reimagining the closing
days of the Third Reich. This isn’t Castle
Wolfenstein, though, since Telltale Games
and its Sam & Max revamp brought the pointand-
click adventure back from the dead. There’s
one keen difference between the two – the
adventure is now in three dimensions. But can 3D
visuals communicate the character and subtlety
necessary to tell a great story? Boris Chuplin of
SPLine Games certainly thinks so.
“A Stroke of Fate is a classic point-and-click
adventure game. The German patriot Gerhard Mayer
can’t see any way to stop the Second World War other
than killing Adolf Hitler,” Chuplin tells us. Not exactly
Monkey Island, we’re sure you’ll agree. Such subject
matter is pretty in vogue at the moment too, with
Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie tearing up the box offi ce charts.
So what sort of tech has SPLine Games used to help
communicate this potentially fascinating story?
“For this project we’ve used the WME engine.
There are no big graphics features, like normal
mapping, advanced lighting, HDR, real-time SSS and
so forth,” Chuplin passionately explains. “This
engine is more script-orientated for better and
quicker scripting. Our game is not just fun but kind of
an encyclopedia of the Third Reich. It means that we
are focused on very detailed and historically
accurate graphics.”
The SPLine team is pretty small – just fi ve people –
so how many people does Boris think you need to get
a small project off the ground? “One at least. They can
create a genius Flash game, although two people can
easily do an adventure game using a free source
engine. All they need is some to make the graphics
and have the motivation.”
How were the background graphics in Fate
created? “The 2D background is a rendered image,
which was done in 3ds Max, and sometimes Maya.
But Max is more suitable for this, because of V-Ray.
The V-Ray rendering engine has pretuned materials
and very good standard lighting settings for interiors.
So 90 per cent of backgrounds were made in Max.”
For any bedroom coder and graphics artist combos,
though, what software do they need? Boris doesn’t
think they need to break the bank: “I think all they
really need is Photoshop or an affordable alternative.
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Feature
2009 A Stroke of Fate
2008 PT Boats: Knights of the Sea
With typical Russian
secrecy, SPLine can only
own up to working on PT
Boats: Knights of the Sea
96 ● 3DArtist
Jon Denton talks to Boris Chuplin, project manager
and lead artist for SPLine Games
A Stroke of Fate
a Standing up, from left to right:
Roman Vlasov (scenery writer),
Maxim Budzavin (scripter) and
Boris Chuplin (project manager).
Sitting down at the computer is
programmer Stas Ponomarenko,
who bears a striking resemblance
to Russia and Arsenal’s star
footballer, Andrei Arshavin…
b Boris collected historical
photos, newsreels, paintings
and newspapers for two years
to collect all the source
material for the main historical
fi gures in the action so that
they could be rendered with
some accuracy, even on lowpolygon
models
a
, b
SPLine Games is a small
developer in Moscow
www.spline-games.com
Project A Stroke of Fate
Description A PC point-andclick
adventure game, set in
Nazi Germany during the
Second World War, due for a
spring release worldwide
Country Russia
Publisher Akeller in Eastern
Europe, Ubisoft worldwide
Software used 3ds Max,
Maya, V-Ray
Key people
Boris Chuplin
Project manager and
lead artist
Sergey Balistov
Game concept artist
and producer
Olga Zhukova
Artist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
To create 3D graphics without paying much, there’s
the free Blender program that could be used as well.”
With a game set in a real-world locale, or a
simulacrum of one anyway, rendering recognisable
touchstones is vital, regardless of which program a
team chooses to use. Chuplin doesn’t hesitate to
agree: “There are two sides to this coin,” he
elaborates, in slightly broken English. “In fantasy
worlds, you have no ‘good’ references. You need to
create everything new by combining items and
images from real world. The more crazy stuff you
create, the more breathtaking your game is. The
other side of the coin is the photorealistic,
historically accurate world. Our purpose was to recreate
the atmosphere of the Third Reich.”
Aside from the obvious moral ambiguity of trying
to re-create the Third Reich, Chuplin and his team
The more crazy stuff you create, the
more breathtaking your game is
3DArtist ● 97
c Most of the backgrounds were
rendered in 3ds Max thanks to
the power of the V-Ray
rendering engine. This shot of
Hitler’s offi ce is uncannily
accurate in terms of colour and
content. The only changes
made were to facilitate things
in the gameplay
d The inset image is a photo of
the actual room so you can see
how close it is to the rendered
version. For fl edgling games
developers, there are freeware
alternatives to major software
apps – GIMP for Photoshop
and Blender for the 3D
graphics creation
e As well as being an
unpleasant weasel in charge
of the SS, Goebbels appears
in very few historical photos
relative to the other main
players in the Third Reich.
That, and his distinct
shortness caused the team
some diffi culties
f One of the many concept
sketches that the artists drew
in preparation for creating the
characters that populate the
3D environments. Remember,
all you need to get going
yourself are one person to use
a freeware engine and another
to do the graphics
d
f
c
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E
WOR K SPACE ● F E ATUR E
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
There was no problem rendering the Führer.
We’ve got many photos of him from any side and any
age. The Führer was not a pain in the arse for us
Looking into every dimension of making money from your hard work
g Another of the precisely
modelled backgrounds that
forms the scenes in which
the player’s character will
wander in search of
achieving the main aim of the
game – to kill Hitler. Just like
the fi lm Valkyrie, in fact, but
without good old Tom Cruise
h Although these shots are
combinations of the
wireframe and the rendered
model, they show the detail
that can be created, even on
low-polygon models that are
required for in-game play.
The outfi ts are all historically
accurate, too
Feature
98 ● 3DArtist
i While Adolf looks like he has been
prodded with a broomstick in this
image, the team at SPLine Games
had little trouble fi nding resources
for the little corporal, as Hitler is
one of the most photographed
fi gures of the Twentieth Century.
The characters needed
lip-syncing as well
G
H
I
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
ran into problems just trying to do justice to the
source material: “The fi rst problem is trying to fi nd
actual references. Most of them are really low
quality,” he explains. “The second is in re-creating
really accurate items. We’ve got more than 100
backgrounds, though, from over 40GB of pictures
dedicated to WWII on my hard disk.
“There’s no doubt, that for best results, references
are the key! We read a lot of memoirs of the people
who lived in that time. We’ve examined thousands of
photos of the Third Reich. We’ve watched many
hours of old newsreels, too. After that, we basically
got the vision how the setting of the game should
look. If you want to create your own games, research
is defi nitely the key.”
Of course, at this point, there’s only one question
on our lips. Just how does one go about rendering the
Führer himself? Thankfully, not in Wolfensteinesque
robot vision, as Chuplin happily divulges:
“There is no problem rendering the Führer. We’ve got
many photos of him from any side and any age. The
Führer was not a pain in the arse for us,” he laughs.
“Goebbels, he was the problem. First of all, there are
no really good photos of him. The second problem is
that Goebbels was very short; he was 154cm tall. So
it’s really fun to see him as a two-metre tall soldier.”
Laughing at the Third Reich aside, there’s a serious
point here in how an art team must render their
game characters, not only so they look believable in
static shots, but so that they move and behave in a
way that looks right to casual observers and helps
drag players into the story: “Mostly, our characters
open with dialogue. They show their soul by talking
about the world’s situation, their attitude to world
leaders, the events in their life and so on,” he tells us,
before getting to the real meat of the matter.
“What about modelling, you ask? We divided our
characters into three groups, starting with the
famous ones of Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Muller
and Eva Braun. All of them were made by using
photos. The common characters, soldiers, offi cers
and civilians, their faces were made by combining
features of regular people from the time.
“But for the main characters, those that carry a big
role in the game and are in contact with the player all
through the game, well, we drew sketches for them.
After three to ten days of sketching, we were happy
with the results and began to model them in Maya.
All the characters were made and modelled in Maya.”
Chuplin and SPLine have achieved a great deal on a
modest budget, and A Stroke Of Fate has the potential
to make waves in the resurgent point-and-click
genre. It’s clearly a subject that Chuplin is passionate
about: “The future of adventures is movies where the
viewer controls and becomes the hero.” Well, if Tom
Cruise eases up on his likeness rights, it may be
sooner than we think.
m The unassuming outside of the
entrance to the Führer Bunker
could easily pass as a
photograph, although the
lighting on the abandoned
crates hasn’t been fi nalised in
this pass so they are too light
k This is a composite to show
that the scene is, in fact, CGI
and not a photograph. The
wireframe is relatively
simple since the scene is
largely made of oblong
shapes, but it is the texturing
and lighting used here that
makes it look so realistic
3DArtist ● 99
l Here’s the completed
render of the underground
scene. As well as research
photos of the actual places
that the team were recreating,
they also referred
to countless ordinary
photos of life in the Third
Reich for objects
J
K
L
M
j There’s a big jump between what
can be achieved on low-poly
game models compared to the
backgrounds that can be
rendered as photorealistic, thanks
to both the extra resolution and
3ds Max’s excellent V-Ray
rendering engine, which the team
used to the full
To advertise in workspace3D please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or
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WOR K SPACE ● F E ATUR E
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Leo Santos is an animation and layout
supervisor at Blur Studio in Venice,
California. His current job is directing a
campaign of 10 commercials for Pepperidge Farm’s
Goldfi sh Crackers. He has worked on theme park ride
animations, CGI animation in adverts and game
cinematics. Santos is also doing a new short fi lm
whenever the Blur people fi nd time to work on it.
3D Artist: What kind of course did you do at
university, and was that helpful in getting into the
animation industry?
Leo Santos: Animation schools weren’t as popular
and common as they are now when I went to
university, so fi rst I went to a fi lm school but then
switched to a Graphic Design course. I always shaped
my studies towards animation, though, so I ended up
landing an animation-related job before I fi nished
school. It was at a small company in Rio de Janeiro
that did mostly 2D animation and had some
amazingly talented artists who inspired me
tremendously. At the same time, I made many friends
at university who shared the same interest in
animation, which also helped me to build some
momentum and made me more confi dent in the
direction I wanted to follow.
3DA: For today’s generation of students, what is the
kind of educational grounding they should be
looking to undertake to get
a fi rst job in the fi eld of
computer animation?
LS: This has become some
sort of cliché, but it is still
true: they need to learn the
basics. They need to learn
timing, acting,
staging… they need to
branch out and watch fi lms
they would never have
watched before, read books that stimulate new ideas,
study drawing, comics, videogames, even TV. They
need to know what makes a work of art timeless, but
also what makes it work for today’s audiences.
3DA: How did you get it and what was the
motivation for getting a job at Blur Studio?
LS: Actually, I wasn’t looking for a job at the time, but
a website posted a link to my demo reel and Tim
Miller, one of the studio owners, happened to be
looking for animators for an upcoming direct-to-DVD
project that Blur was making for Disney. So he sent
me an email asking if I wanted to work there, and I
said ‘Sure!’
3DA: What software packages and tools do you use
at Blur?
LS: Mostly 3ds Max for layout, modelling and
rendering, Softimage for rigging, layout and
animation, and Mudbox and ZBrush for sculpting.
We’ve also developed many pipeline tools that hold
the whole studio together, with Python as the
scripting language of choice.
3DA: Is there a shortage of new CG animators, or are
you wading through them from the car park to the
front offi ce?
LS: Tim does most of the work going through the pile
of reels that we always receive. There’s quite a lot of
people coming out of animation schools nowadays,
so I wouldn’t say there’s a shortage.
3DA: What are the key skills required to work in
today’s computer animation industry?
LS: Knowing your craft well. From a supervising
perspective, I’d say the best animators tend to be the
ones that need less baby-sitting, the ones you can
talk about the scenes in broad terms and they will
know the necessary techniques to accomplish what
you want. I want to say ‘the spacing here is too even’
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Interview
A Gentleman’s Duel In the Rough
2008 The Simpsons Ride
2008 Niagara’s Fury
2007 Transformers: The Game
2007 A Gentleman’s Duel
2006 Coca Cola
2006 Sonic the Hedgehog
2006 Warhammer online
2006 Shadow – The Hedgehog
2004 In the Rough
Leo Santos has worked on
many projects to date,
including the ones on this
recent timeline
100 ● 3DArtist
Each issue, 3D Artist fi nds out how the top people
in the 3D industry got their jobs and what you
need to know to get a foot in the door
Leo Santos
This shot of Opus, below, was a
little test animation for an
abandoned feature fi lm project
Animation and layout supervisor, Blur Studio
Job Animation
supervisor, Blur Studios
Education Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Company website
www.blur.com
Personal portfolio site
www.leosantos.com
Biography Born in Brazil, son of
a writer and a teacher, raised in
beautiful Rio de Janeiro and
currently living in sunny Santa
Monica, California. Since he
was a child, he was fascinated
with fi lms, animation, comic
books and videogames, so it’s
natural that he ended up
working with them
About
the insider
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
or ‘the weight is in the
wrong place’ and have the
animator understand
exactly what’s wrong
without me trying to teach
him what these terms mean.
Sometimes it’s diffi cult to look at your shots and see
where the problems are, so the supervisor will be
there to point those out for you, but he can’t make the
animation for you. You need to know how to deal
with those issues. You need to know the basics well,
and you need to know what those basics are. Having
a good and fast workfl ow also helps a lot. Some
animators can get their ideas on the screen in a quick
and clean fashion without wasting unnecessary time
on things that do not matter. That’s extremely
helpful, especially when you are under the pressure
of a tight deadline.
3DA: Professionally, what’s the most satisfying
project you’ve worked on and why?
LS: That’s a diffi cult one. I started at Blur as an
animator and layout artist and eventually began to
supervise projects, but I don’t think I was entirely
ready to supervise because I quickly realised it
required a different set of skills I didn’t necessarily
have. So with each project I learned to do it better,
and it was rewarding even if the end result wasn’t,
for one reason or another, as satisfactory as I wanted.
Looking at it that way, I tend to like the more recent
projects, because I felt like I was doing a better job at
them. It’s hard for me to look at those things with an
objective eye.
3DA: What would be your dream project to work on?
LS: That’s easy – a feature fi lm! Longer deadlines, full
creative control, more visibility – who wouldn’t want
that? We have a little taste of what that means when
we do our shorts, but that’s still being paid out of
Blur’s pockets without any direct return, so it’s still
done under more pressure and budget constraints
than a feature fi lm would be.
You need to know the
basics well, and you need to
know what those basics are
I don’t think I was entirely
ready to supervise because I
quickly realised it required a
different set of skills
3DArtist ● 101
A Gentlemen’s Duel This was one
of our short fi lms – it was a lot of
fun to animate!
a This was a quick commercial
for a Coca Cola campaign.
Santos has applied his skills
across a variety of mediums,
including short fi lms,
storyboards, special effects,
television commercials,
computer games and even
music videos
To advertise in workspace3D please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or
cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
a
Niagara’s Fury Character
animation created for a ride
at Niagara Falls, Canada
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It’s a jungle out there.
Swing through it
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BA (Hons) 3D Digital Animation
Hertfordshire University
The best course and freshest talent from universities around the globe…
Course details
Tel +44 (0)1707 284800
Web http://.uhanimation.co.uk/
www.herts.ac.uk
Duration Three years
Fees £3,225 (although bursaries
available)
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
240 points from GCE A Levels (or
equivalent Art qualifi cations plus
GCSE English grade C)
Portfolio required for interview
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Uni focus
3DArtist ● 103
If you’re serious about making
money from your 3D passion,
then the 3D Digital Animation
degree course at Hertfordshire
University is for you. Located in the
east of England, this Home Counties
university is bordered by Greater
London, Buckinghamshire, Essex,
Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
The three-year curriculum equips
you with all the skills you need to forge
a career for yourself in 3D animation.
With a focus on creativity, you will fi nd
yourself immersed in 3D character
design, storyboarding,
cinematography, SFX and compositing.
Build and refi ne your digital modelling
skills, then bring your creations to life
thanks to professional training in
character animation. Key skills such as
virtual lighting and camera work are
covered in depth to help you create
professional, fi nished animations,
which will stand you in good stead for a
future career.
To give you the best start in the
industry, the course also teaches you
about the practical aspects of buying
and commissioning music, sound
effects and voiceover actors to help
create a complete animated product.
Year one kicks off with intensive
software training and animation
techniques. You will share much of
your study with 3D Games Art students
and have the option to switch to this
course at the end of this year if you
wish. As you progress to year two, you
will really get involved in the world of
3D animation, as you get to grips with
post-production techniques to help you
achieve the best 3D SFX. Special
emphasis is placed on the most up-todate
3D CGI practices used in modern
cinematography and animation. Your
fi nal year really prepares you for
employment and sees you producing a
complete short fi lm project right from
pre-production through to postproduction.
You are also taught to
create a showreel and professional
website to enable you to have the very
best start in your career.
During your studies, you are
encouraged to actively seek and
complete work placements within the
industry. This is not compulsory, but
strongly recommended to give you the
very best chance for future
employment. A strong team of support
staff is on hand to advise and
recommend possible work placements.
This course is also available as a
postgraduate Masters for those who
already have a relevant degree or have
suitable professional background.
This course proved to me that I could make
my interest into a career, and at the same time
have the fun, laughter and enthusiasm that
continually inspires me to be creative
Max Taylor BA (Hons) 3D Digital Animation
Hunter
Chris Andrews «
Time taken: Four days
ZBrush and Fusion
Hunter was a character piece by
Chris Andrews in 2008. It took four
days to produce, using ZBrush for
modelling and animation and
Fusion for compositing.
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Uni focus
104 ● 3DArtist
a A Tale of Rock
» Stephen Payne and Jon Godwin
Time taken: Five months
3ds Max and After Effects
A Tale of Rock was a short fi lm produced in 2007 by Stephen Payne and Jon
Godwin. It took fi ve months to produce, using 3ds Max for modelling and
animation and After Effects for compositing. It has been nominated for fi ve
awards internationally, as well as winning the World Student Animation
Award in 2007.
c Viking
» Mathus Matharis
Time taken: Eight days
3ds Max and ZBrush plus Fusion
Viking was a character piece by
Mathus Matharis in 2006. 3ds Max
and ZBrush were used for
modelling and animation and
Fusion for compositing.
b World War
» Vincent Chai
Time taken: Five months
Maya and Fusion
World War was a short fi lm produced in 2008 by
Vincent Chai. Maya was used for modelling and
animation and Fusion for compositing. It has been
nominated for two awards, winning the Games Art
Award at the 2009 Animex animation festival.
a c
b
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Course details
Tel +44 (0)1707 284800
Web http://uhanimation.co.uk/
www.herts.ac.uk
Duration Three years
Fees £3,225 (although bursaries
available)
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
240 points from GCE A Levels (or
equivalent Art qualifi cations plus
GCSE English grade C)
Portfolio required for interview
3DArtist ● 105
f Touring Car
» Simon Reeves
Time taken: Four days
3ds Max
Touring Car was a visualisation
piece by Simon Reeves in 2004.
It took four days to produce,
and used 3ds Max for modelling
and animation.
e Climap
» David Rolfe, Ben Purkis and
Sophie Wood
Time taken: Three months
3ds Max
Climap was a short fi lm produced in
2008 by David Rolfe, Ben Purkis
and Sophie Wood. It used 3ds Max
for modelling and animation.
d Powerless
» James Pavitt, Matthew Gally and Satwinder Dahaliwal
Time taken: In production
3ds Max and Fusion
Powerless is a short fi lm currently in production by James Pavitt, Matthew
Gally and Satwinder Dahaliwal, using 3ds Max for modelling and animation
and Fusion for compositing. It will see its premiere at the University of
Hertfordshire’s Animation Exposé on 2 June.
d
f
e
WOR K SPACE ● UNI FOCUS
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Uni focus
106 ● 3DArtist
g Recluse
» Chris Andrews, Sophia Avgusti and Nile Hylton
Time taken: Five months
Maya, XSI, Flame and Nuke
Recluse was a short VFX fi lm produced in 2008 by
Chris Andrews, Sophia Avgusti and Nile Hylton. It took
fi ve months to produce, while Maya and XSI were used
for modelling and animation and Flame and Nuke were
used for compositing.
i Daf
» Matthew Allen
Time taken: Five days
3ds Max and Fusion
Daf was a visualisation piece by
Matthew Allen in 2007. It took fi ve
days to produce, using 3ds Max for
modelling and animation and
Fusion for compositing.
h Hit!
» Xi Gong
Time taken: Five months
3ds Max and Fusion
Hit! was a short fi lm produced in 2008 by Xi Gong. It
took fi ve months to produce, using 3ds Max for
modelling and animation and Fusion for compositing. It
has been nominated for two awards internationally. To
see this fi lm, http://visit uhanimation.co.uk/.
The first and the
second year consisted of an
in-depth study of the art of
animation and how to
convey emotion into the
digital characters that we
were making
Max Taylor BA (Hons) 3D Digital Animation
G
H
I
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Course details
Tel +44 (0)1707 284800
Web http://uhanimation.co.uk/
www.herts.ac.uk
Duration Three years
Fees £3,225 (although bursaries
available)
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
240 points from GCE A Levels (or
equivalent Art qualifi cations plus
GCSE English grade C)
Portfolio required for interview
3DArtist ●