Мемуари до історії Південної Русі_Вип. 1_XVI ст.

NEW! FREE MIRYE SHADE 8.5 FULL PRODUCT WORTH $249
Practical inspiration for the 3D community
03
www.3DArtistonline.com
www.3DArtistonline.com
CR E AT E THE COV ER
3DS MAX
MODEL
Plus: Stephan Martiniere comes clean on
id's Rage and Knowing with Nicholas Cage
Reviews: Lightwave - latest version,
Bonzai3D, Xara 3D v6, DAZ3D Girl 4
and latest books for Maya and Max
inside
Create slimy surfaces and armour
Materials
in Modo
• Step-by-step tutorial
Ageing skin
How to sculpt faces for wrinklies
• Your questions answered!
How CGI characters are
replacing people in fi lm
ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE
ISSUE 0I3SSN 1759-9636 £6.00
9 7 7 1 7 5 9 9 6 3 0 0 7
0 3
DAZ3D Girl 4
Sexy new base model
Xara 3D v3
Render shiny text logos
Shade 8.5
worth $249
Free 3D software
FREE DISC
WORTH $300
Discover the modelling, texturing and
lighting techniques used to make this image
ON YOUR
FREE CD
WITH
40 Pages of expert
creative guides
Behind the scenes with
Fable II and Knothole Island
LIONHEAD
STUDIOS
Using Maya's
Physical Sun & Sky
Model and light a classic
50s diner from scratch
• Massive two part tutorial
• Feature
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Pass our knowledge
off as your own
Also in this series
Know more with world-leading features and tutorials on everything
from Mac OS X to War Of The Worlds
www.imaginebookshop.co.uk
Bookazines
eBooks • Apps
iPad
Printed full colour large format book
Kindle
TM
High street Kindle Store ImagineShop.co.uk App Store
HIGH
ST.
BUY IN STORE
Personal portfolio site
www.abalakin.de
Country Germany
Software used 3ds Max and
Photoshop
Artist info
Alexander Preuss
Username Vampeta
Cover artist
I think I am most specialised
in classic science fi ction and
fantasy themes. I like this area
and it offers a huge number
of possibilities.
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
2009
ISSN 1759-9636
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
Debbi Allen, Mark Bremmer, Christian Darkin, Lee Davies,
John Haynes, Lance Hitchings, Juan Hoepfner, April Madden,
Thaddeus Maharaj, Andre McGrail, Alexander Preuss, Sarah
Slee, Christof Stanits. Special thanks to Daren Horley, Mark
Lim and Sally Brown at RLYL
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 Hang Deretz
☎ 01202 586442
hang.deretz@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Account Manager Cassie Gilbert
☎ 01202 586421
cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Cover disc
Interactive Media Manager Lee Groombridge
Head of Digital Projects Stuart Dixon
Multimedia Editor Tom Rudderham
3DAxtrahelp@imagine-publishing.co.uk
International
3D Artist is available for licensing. Contact the International
department to discuss partnership opportunities.
International Manager Cathy Blackman
☎ +44 (0) 1202 586401
licensing@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Subscriptions
Subscriptions Manager Lucy Nash
☎ 01202 586443
lucy.nash@imagine-publishing.co.uk
To order a subscription to 3D Artist:
☎ UK 0844 249 0472
☎ Overseas +44 (0) 1795 592951
Email: 3dartist@servicehelpline.co.uk
6-issue subscription (UK) - £21.60
13-issue subscription (UK) – £62.40
13-issue subscription (Europe) – £70
13-issue subscription (ROW) – £80
Circulation
Circulation & Export Manager Darren Pearce
☎ 01202 586200
Production
Production Director Jane Hawkins
☎ 01202 586200
Founders
Managing Director Damian Butt
Finance Director Steven Boyd
Creative Director Mark Kendrick
Printing & Distribution
Printed by St Ives Andover, West Portway, Andover, SP10 3SF
Distributed by Seymour Distribution, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London,
EC1A 9PT ☎ 020 7429 4000
Disclaimer
The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material
lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of
Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced
in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All
copyrights are recognised and used specifically for the purpose of criticism
and review. Although the magazine has endeavoured to ensure all
information is correct at time of print, prices and availability may change.
This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the
companies mentioned herein.
Imagine Publishing Ltd
Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill
Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ
☎ +44 (0) 1202 586200
Web: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk
www.3dartistonline.com
This issue’s team of expert artists…
Mark Bremmer
AI characters are
taking over the world.
The fi lm world that is,
as Mark risks life and
limb to get the story
out into the open
Andre McGrail
Just what do those
traditional enemies
the Alien and the
Predator do when
waiting to shoot a
scene? Play pool!
Thaddeus Maharaj
It’s a crusty old elf
with a bow. Check
out the detail and
follow the tutorial on
how to make this
striking fi gure
Lance Hitchings
Lance runs a design
studio stateside, and
is also the chap
manning the Q&A
help desk for your
3D problems
Alexander Preuss
In the future, will
everything be soft
and fl uffy? No, of
course not, so check
out this galactic
confl ict tutorial
Lee Davies
Lee is employed as a
character modeller
for a Dublin-based
company. He’s here
to answer your
character questions
April Madden
April is deputy editor
on Corel Painter
Magazine and a
graphic artist. We
gave her a pile of
books to review
Rosie Tanner
Investigating the
courses that matter
at a university near
you, Rosie is our very
own blonde-haired
Donald Macintyre
Christof Stanits
Christof and the
Lemonaut crew came
up with this concept
art – a blind chicken!
Get some eggcellent
action yourself
Sarah Slee
If you need to know
what’s going down
on the mean streets
of 3D, check out
pixie-like Sarah’s
community pages
John Hayes
John works as a
character artist for
Sega. He designs
models over
breakfast and is our
go-to Q&A man
Debbi Allen
Rummaging around
in the dustbin of the
3D world in search of
industry news, it’s
guest editor in chief,
Debbi Allen
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!
This issue sees the start of something
we’ve been planning from the very
start – the fi rst tutorial where the
artist has been commissioned to
produce the artwork from scratch.
Lance has been busy getting reference photos and
research material for the Shamrock gas station
diner that sits on Route 66 in America. The actual
building has been restored to how it looked in the
Fifties, and the article will lead you through the
stages in constructing, texturing and lighting it.
Plus, there’s lots more tutorial fi les on the disc this
issue as well as the full version of modelling/
rendering package Shade 8.5 for the Mac and PC.
Duncan Evans,
Editor
to the magazine and 116 pages of 3D goodness
4 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Not just for
dummies
A clear, comprehensive series for people who want to start learning
about iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and Photoshop
Also in this series
www.imaginebookshop.co.uk
Bookazines
eBooks • Apps
TM
High street Kindle Store ImagineShop.co.uk App Store
HIGH
ST.
BUY IN STORE
Create a
spectacular
space battle
INSIDE I S SUE THR EE
Get
3D Artist
every month
Turn to page 10 and
subscribe today!
delivered direct to your
door and save 40%
03
Discover how these images were created…
68
The most important part
of creating an artwork is the
idea behind it
Six-page step-by-step
walkthrough guide
Plus: Scene fi le and
textures on the disc
6 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Problems specific to this job were
trying to re-create the most recognised
creatures in the movie industry
Andre McGrail gives a unique look into an enemy relationship. Page 44
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:
Alien vs Predator Pool tutorial
Six-page guide to an awesome
take on the traditional enemies
50 I made this: Jose Martin,
Fruity flash
Not for the faint-hearted, it’s a
banana on the rampage
52 Step by step: The Old
Elven Archer
Thaddeus Maharaj explains how
to create a Tolkien-esque image
56 I made this: Adrian Guerra,
Space Alien
It’s an alien on a fl ying spacecraft
with a funky background!
58
Main tutorial: Route 66 gas
station diner
Part one of our Fifties-style diner
tutorial. Create it from scratch
68
Behind the scenes:
The Broken Armistice
Check out this six-page guide to
galactic confl ict in the future
74 I made this: Donat Somogyi,
Reforms in my country
Hungarian artist with a political
message on the price of reform
76 Step by step: Blind Chicken
charity campaign
Superb piece of cartoon-style 3D
from the Lemonaut studio
The Studio
Professional 3D advice,
techniques and tutorials
DAZ 3D Girl 4:
Free base model
Get your hands on the latest Victoria 4.2
Unimesh model from DAZ 3D
Free: Shade 8.5
Full program! Turn to
page 110 for details
Plus software, models and resources
worth $300
Turn to page 110 for the
complete disc contents
58
76
44
52
3DArtist ● 7
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
INSIDE I S SUE THR EE
Ocular Production provides high-end
photorealistic architectural and interior
visualisation services
See your
artwork here…
Create a gallery today at
Share your art, comment
on other artists’
images
11 The Gallery
Saliva-inducing images from
around the 3D world
22 Community
News, contests, artwork and
letters from the 3D community
28 Interview: Stephan
Martiniere
Creative director of id Software,
concept artist and graphics guru
34 Feature: Rise of the robots
How AI characters are starting to
take over the fi lm world
40 Interview: Ocular Production
Enter the intricate world of interior
design, Southeast Asia style
44 The Studio
A world of tutorials and insights
into simply fabulous images
80 Questions and answers
Got questions about 3D software
and practices? Pull up a seat
84 Review: LightWave
Can fan-favourite LightWave really
stand up against the big boys?
86 Review: BonZai 3D
There’s a new modelling package
on the block. We check it out
88 Review: Xara3D 6
Possibly the fastest way to create
3D text and logos ever
89 Review: DAZ 3D Girl 4
There’s a new girl on the Unimesh
block for Poser and Studio fans
89 Review: Armari Magnetar
NDX
The workstation for when you
need extra rendering grunt power
90 Reviews: Books
A selection of the best 3D books
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 –
Shade 8.5 on PC and Mac!
94 News
Industry events, awards, courses
and news you need to read
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education
96 Studio access:
Lionhead Studios
The magicians behind Fable II and
Knothole Island reveal all
100 Interview: Daren Horley
What you need to know to get a
job in texture and matte painting
102 College course:
Staffordshire University
We check out the Digital Film
and 3D Animation course
106 Worldwide student gallery
Course students show their work
03
Inspiration • Interviews • Reviews and more
8 ● 3DArtist
© 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
It’s a jungle out there.
Swing through it
DirectoryTM
Also in this series
The definitive review listings for iPad, iPhone and Android apps
www.imaginebookshop.co.uk
Bookazines
eBooks • Apps
iPad
Printed full colour large format book
Kindle
High street Kindle Store ImagineShop.co.uk App Store
HIGH
ST.
BUY IN STORE
This is a portrait of
a girl executioner. She’s
sad because of her job.
I’m trying to evoke a
sense of human emotion
in her expression. I was
inspired by the
MagnaCarta games by
Korean company,
Softmax
Eugene Fokin Girl
with Axe 2, 2008
Featured artists
It’s all about the
expression and
not forgetting the
cloth fabric
Eugene Fokin
Astonishing detail
and colour plus a
great background
story
Rui Shen
Look at the
colours, admire
the sword and feel
the rage!
Julio Rodriguez
Charming and
very colourful,
cartoon style
image
Yurtseven Soner
Complimentary
colours, great
fabrics and
textures
Adi Irawanto
Check out those
watery red eyes!
Superb, striking
image
Pascquale Giacobeli
Another look at a
less than rosy
post-apocalyptic
future
Li Yidong
THE GA L LERY 11 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 high,
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 Pixar-beating 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
It’s a warm and
sunny afternoon
in a sleepy
Portugese village
Hugo Silva
Personal portfolio site
http://eof.cgsociety.org
Country Russia
Software used Softimage XSI,
ZBrush
Artist info
Eugene Fokin
Username eof
Great costume,
fi erce expression
and nice hair for
this angry Elf
Piotr Fox Wysoki
3DArtist ● 11
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Rui Shen YuJi, 2009
This is my new work which originated in an
old Chinese story, Farewell My Concubine. The
man is the king of XiChu and he has just lost a
battle. The woman’s name is Yuji and in order
not to be used against her husband she decides
to kill herself. I used the Beijing opera form to
illustrate this story.
Ross Head of Design
Fantastic detail with
amazing clarity, beautiful colours
and clothing, and a sad
story to tell as well
12 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Personal portfolio site http://
shenrui.cgsociety.org/gallery/
Country China
Software used 3ds Max,
Bodypaint, mental ray,
Photoshop, ZBrush
Artist info
Rui Shen
Work in progress…
Username Shenrui
3DArtist ● 13
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Julio César Espada
Rodriguez The
Soulforged, 2007
The Soulforged was created mainly in 3ds Max, but I
used ZBrush and Photoshop. I wanted to create a cool
character with a strong feeling of power and rage. I had
a lot of inspiration from a variety of great artists
Lora Group Art Editor
Great colours, dynamic
pose, and a real sense of action
and menace from this
scary fi gure
Artist info
Julio César Espada
Rodriguez
Personal portfolio site
www.jhotun.com
Country Spain
Software used 3ds Max,
ZBrush, Photoshop
Username Jhotun
Work in progress…
14 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Artist info
Yurtseven Soner
Personal portfolio site
www.krillstudios.com
Country Turkey
Software used Maya, mental
ray, Photoshop
Username ashiataka
Work in progress…
Charming characters and an
interesting premise for the artwork.
The colours are also very cheerful
and the whole image is
entertaining
Jo Editor in Chief
Yurtseven Soner Priceless Friends, 2008
This was my entry for the CGSociety Challenge,
Strange Behaviour. My wife and I composed a story
about a lonely fairy trying to fi nd friends in an ancient
‘knick-knack’ store, and he used his ability to create
friends in the store. But by mistake he brought a bee to
life – the scariest of all creatures for the fairy!
3DArtist ● 15
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Her name is Kirana. She is the lord of
battle from Java. This is the illustration of
Kirana at the front line of the border. I was
inspired by the story, The Lord of The
Rings. In this character I put Javanese
classic culture with the common Batik
pattern in her cloth
Adi Irawanto Kirana, 2008
Personal portfolio site
idonk.deviantart.com
Country Indonesia
Software used 3ds Max, Maya,
mental ray, Photoshop
Artist info
Adi Irawanto
Work in progress…
Lovely colour palette with
complementary shades
throughout and brilliant
fabric modelling too
Jo Editor in Chief
16 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Pasquale Giacobelli Karma Geisha, 2009
Karma Geisha is a mix between
Oriental and Occidental cultures. I
created the base mesh in 3ds Max then
developed it in ZBrush before
exporting back to Max to render
Duncan Editor
There’s a nice sense of
Eastern style and mystery in this –
why does she have red eyes? The
lighting in the eyes is also
nicely done
Personal portfolio site http://
karma3d.cgsociety.org
Country Italy
Software used 3ds Max,
ZBrush, Vray, Photoshop
Artist info
Pasquale Giacobelli
Work in progress…
Username karma3D
3DArtist ● 17
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
My original intention in creating this work was to cooperate
with friends on a short series about Metalslug (a famous
multiplatform video game). At that time a lot of work was done to
prepare for it, but it had to be laid aside because of other urgent
business. Lately I’ve had more free time, so I was fi nally able to
complete this static-frame work
Li Yidong Relic, 2007
Personal portfolio site http://
student.vfs.com/~3d68max/
Country China
Software used Maya,
Photoshop, AfterEffects
Artist info
Li Yidong
18 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Ross Head of Design
Just feel the rusty materials and the
shattered glass. Super post-apocalyptic
scene with great modelling and
atmosphere
3DArtist ● 19
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
Hugo Silva Obidos Village, 2008
This was inspired by photos of a street in
Obidos, a small village in Portugal. I
used photos from my references gallery
to model the doors and main window. I
also created a few imaginary things like
the arch and street behind
Nice textures and materials in the streets and
buildings. The use of arches leads the eye through
the image. It captures the feel of a rural
Portuguese village
Personal portfolio site
www.hugodesign.com
Country Portugal
Software used 3ds Max,
ZBrush, Vray, Photoshop
Artist info
Hugo Silva
Work in progress…
Username hugosilva
Lora Group Art Editor
20 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
THE GA L L ERY
3DArtist ● 21
Artist info
Piotr Fox Wysocki
Personal portfolio site
http://fox.cgsociety.org/
gallery
Country Poland
Software used Maya, mental
ray, Photoshop
Work in progress…
Piotr Fox Wysocki
Elven Legacy game cover,
2008
It was a challenge to
do this game art cover
because the character on
the cover should be
realistic and at the same
time like the character
from the game. I asked my
friend Marc Camelbeke for
help on the design, and
hired my wife as well as
helping me on modelling
and UVs
Jo Editor in Chief
Nice fabrics and outfi t – it blends superbly
with the background, and the subject herself
looks seriously ready to shoot someone with that
bow and arrow. Bit of a different hair style
you’ve got going there as well
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
03
Fairground
attraction
Student shortlisted for Royal Television Society award
animation,” said Glusiec. “I wanted to show how a child feels
when lost in a fairground.” Karolina’s work has already won
the Best Animation and Audience Award at the Off Jak
Goraco Independent fi lm festival in Poland, and came second
at the Animated Exeter festival this year in the ‘Best of the
West’ category. She has studied at University College
Falmouth for the past six months as part of the European
Commission exchange programme. The course’s leader,
Andy Wyatt, was extremely pleased with Karolina’s success
so far, commenting: “To have students already winning such
important awards in the fi rst two years of the Digital
Animation course is very exciting. It sends out a very strong
signal to the industry that University College Falmouth is
very quickly building a reputation as an international centre
of excellence for animation.”
BA (hons) Digital Animation exchange student
Karolina Glusiec has received an RTS nomination
for her work on a short fi lm Carousel Rodeo. The
Royal Television Society Student Television award is given to
outstanding and innovative work; judges look for originality
and audience appeal. It is the 14th awards ceremony, which
will be held at the Barbican Centre in London.
The piece itself took six months to create and contains
over 5,000 drawings. The striking black and white animation
was inspired by the song Karuzele Skutery Rodeo (Carousel
Skooters Rodeo). “I really wanted to show the emotion of the
song and translate it into the language of fi lm through
The latest news, tools and resources for the 3D artist
To have students already winning such
important awards in the first two years of
the course is very exciting
Andy Wyatt Digital Animation course leader, University College Falmouth
Karolina Glusiec took six months to
create over 5,000 drawings on the
theme of a child lost in a fairground
Discuss what you think of the
latest 3D animated fi lms and more
with other 3D artists at
www.3dartistonline.com
Ian Wharton and Edward Shires won last
year’s RTS undergraduate animation
award with their entry called Solar. Check
it out at www.solarthefi lm.com
22 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
News, tools and resources ●Community
Animeeple, a website offering
artists the chance to buy and sell
characters and animations, now
features an updated interface and
video tutorials. The new additions
are expected to make it simpler to
use the site’s software to create
such things as movies, GamerTags
and animated profi le pictures.
The portal itself has a wide array
of free and paid-for items, and is
perfect for those wanting to make
some extra cash. Meanwhile, the
benefi ts for customers include the
chance to purchase royalty-free
images, try them out before buying,
and then choose from a range of fi le
formats to export to. Visit www.
animeeple.com for more info.
Trading your
wares just got a
little easier
The Alpha 1 release of
MakeHuman is now available on
www.makehuman.org. It is
claimed that by using this software
you can create a photo-realistic
character in less than 120 seconds.
The open-source project provides
free software for artists to use to
create 3D humanoid characters.
This ‘sneak peek’ isn’t a fully
functioning release, as it doesn’t
allow for the fi gures to be posed,
but it demonstrates what the full
version will offer.
MakeHuman is available for
Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
operating systems. Artists and
developers are being encouraged to
offer their support for this project,
so to get involved contact info@
makehuman.org.
MakeHumans
in under two
minutes
New sites and changes to your
favourites – it’s all here!
Alexandre is a Brazilian freelancer who specialises in
modelling and interior scenes. He fi rst got interested in
this area of art as a student, as Alexandre explains: “I
always looked at scenes like this [Room MR] and thought
‘One day I will make pictures like this.’ I think this is the
reason that motivated me to study.”
Inspiration for Room MR was taken from an image
produced by Ramon F. Zancanaro, who is a friend of
Alexandre’s. It was created using 3ds Max 9 and Mental
Ray, with Photoshop used to add his logo. Alexandre has
modelled everything in
this image, plus all its
objects are functional. It
took around 10-12 hours
to create, not including
the rendering time. To
see more of Alexandre’s
work, simply visit www.
evilwata.com.br.
Handpicked beauties
Take your brain to another dimension
European union
FMX/09 event held in Stuttgart
The beginning of May saw Germany play host to
FMX/09. Thousands of people turned up to the
international conference, which took place between 5-8
May. Proceedings kicked off with 3D Stereo screenings
of Bolt and Glago’s Guest, and Watchmen and Coraline
were also shown later on in the schedule. Visitors were
treated to a range of workshops on tricky topics, plus
guest talks from people such as John Scheele and Ron
Frankel. In addition to that, representatives from
companies such as Sony Pictures, Ubisoft and LucasArts
were on hand at the recruitment desks. This enabled
attendees to have a chat with them and also present
their showreel to the potential employers.
The FMX event was fi rst set up back in 1994 as a
European meeting providing a great place to network
with industry peers. The community-based conference
focuses on animation and effects in games, fi lms and TV.
www.3dtotal.com
3D Total
3D Total is a website that started out back in 1999. It
offers a mix of 3D design content, ranging from freebies
to interviews with industry insiders. There is a great
sense of community within its bustling forum, while the
site in general provides users with an easy-to-use
service that is updated daily.
Artists can view the latest trailers, check out new 3D
fi lm or game stills and feel inspired by reading interviews
with design veterans. 3D Total even displays job adverts,
and there’s also the option for users to submit their own
news, wallpapers, gallery images or tutorials.
Design content
and interviews
The Third Dimension is a biweekly
news article produced
by DeviantArt community
member and 3D artist Matt
Mills. He trawls through the
DeviantArt galleries to select
what he believes to be the very
best work on show. He’ll
choose an image based on
originality, high quality and
uniqueness. Each instalment
offers a real treat for the eyes,
provides a great source of
publicity for the featured
artists and, as he says, “Serves
as a platform to promote 3D
deviations that may have
otherwise been lost in the sea
of digital submissions.”
We take a look at an artist who
enjoys capturing the qualities of
vehicle design
Alexandre Watanabe
A view with a room
3DArtist ● 23
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
03
The latest news, tools and resources for the 3D artist
Take no prisoners
Prisoners
is a powerful piece, of that
there is no doubt.
The defi nition of the
muscles is extraordinary, serving to
create a truly eye-catching image. Greg
explains why he chose to design it, “I
wanted to create an image that had a
strong, dynamic feel. This would give
me the opportunity to sculpt muscle
tension and motion.”
So far Prisoner has taken around three
months to produce. Greg dedicates one
to two hours on it before work, using
Maya for building the base mesh,
retopologising and rendering.
Meanwhile, he uses ZBrush for sculpting
and BodyPaint 3D for texture creation.
We can’t wait to see the end result.
New VectorWorks
tutorials available The workbooks are said to offer VectorWorks users a different
and effective method of learning
Users of VectorWorks will be delighted to discover a
plethora of new workbooks with exercises and videos
produced manuals for VectorWorks
Architect, Essentials and Landmark, while
Tamsin Slatter created one on Residential
Garden design. They were written based on
the 2009 version of VectorWorks, but can
also be used successfully with previous
versions of the software.
Both authors wanted to create guides that
were informative, yet entertaining, providing
artists with a learning aid to follow at their
own pace. Each hard-copy workbook comes
with an accompanying CD containing
various tutorial treats such as exercises and
PDFs with embedded instruction videos.
Check out www.vectorworks-training.co.uk.
We chatted with Greg, a 3D modeller from Sydney,
Australia, about how he created a still image with so much
movement Greg O’Connor www.gregoconn.com
Free models online
Take advantage of high-quality models that
cost nothing more than a few mouse clicks
Archibase
An architecture portal that offers daily updates of free
3D models and textures
Web: www.archibase.net
Archibase is a site offering artists
a range of services. Not only does
it provide masses of free textures
and 3D models that range from
cars to cows, it also features a
gallery, job adverts and blog posts.
Users can search for specialists in
particular areas of 3D design by
clicking on the Find Specialist tab.
Rocky 3D
Don’t let the website’s simple design put you off –
there’s a good range of 3D models here
Web: www.rocky3d.com
Rocky 3D is a site with a variety of
free 3D models available to
artists. Once you’ve registered
your email address, you’re granted
access to a wealth of resources.
Models are organised into
categories, such as medical,
weather and food, making them
easy to search through and fi nd
what you’re after.
Quality 3D Models
An eclectic mix of freebie 3D models available to all
artists for use in personal and non-commercial work
Web: www.quality3dmodels.com
Quality 3D Models is a free
exchange directory where its wide
array of models are up for grabs.
Artists can choose from the vast
selection of royalty-free models,
meshes, scenes and graphics to
add to their work. A few tutorials
are on offer to those who’d prefer
to try to create their own models.
A selection of new VectorWorks tutorials
covering a range of topics are now
available to 3D artists. Jonathan Pickup has
24 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
News, tools and resources ●Community
Side Effects software has released
Houdini 10. 3D artists can benefi t
from simulation times and the
ability to produce simulations at a
much bigger scale than would be
possible on a single computer. It’s
available on Mac OS X, Windows
and Linux. Check out www.
sideeffects.com for more.
Houdini 10
The latest version of Daz 3D’s
fi gure Girl 4 is available. It offers
artists more versatility with its
improved joint rigging, increased
texture map resolution and
customisable body shaping.
Another new release is the Betty
Hair collection – now you can create
your own perfect ‘50s pin-up girl.
About a girl
Software shorts
Get the lowdown on updates and launches
Beauty in a new light
American Beauty is a striking yet subtle image from
Heinrich Kimerling. He has created something that mimics
a well-known image, yet manages to ooze individuality. He
says the biggest challenge was sculpting the body, but also
placing the products around the model. The subtlety lies in
the rubbish surrounding Kimerling’s feature female – the
colours hint at the American fl ag. Heinrich is currently
employed as a modeller at Virtual Viewing Ltd. Previous
work he’s created includes adding CG installations to old
photos as part of his coursework for a diploma. See more of
Heinrich’s work at http://pavuk.cgsociety.org/gallery.
Heinrich Kimerling has managed to
create an image that is stark in more
ways than one
Heinrich Kimerling http://kimerling.sk
Complete control at your fi ngertips
SPACEPILOT PRO
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
04 What’s in next issue
Issue 4: on sale 24 June
Learn how this incredible image was created
For more issue 4 information,
visit www.3dartistonline.com
The new SpacePilot Pro from 3D Connexion is a
thing of beauty. Its full-sized wrist rest gives it a
distinct curve, while the dial puts your digits in the
optimum position for long sessions spent working at
your computer. Its tech specs include 21
programmable keys and the patented
‘Six-degrees-offreedom’
sensor technology. However, perhaps the
most notable feature on the SpacePilot Pro is its
LCD Workfl ow Assistant. This full-colour screen
displays emails, tasks and function key commands,
giving you a wealth of control all in the palm of your
hand. SpacePilot Pro retails for around £470. Visit
http://shop.3dconnexion.co.uk for more.
No More Wine
Simon Blanc «
Personal portfolio site
www.simonblanc.com
Function keys are
conveniently located to
make it easier and quicker
to get the job done
This full-sized wrist rest
puts your hand into a
comfortable position, and
its symmetrical design
means it can be used by
left or right-handed artists
The LCD Workfl ow
Assistant displays
information such as
emails and function
key commands
3DArtist ● 25
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
03
The latest news, tools and resources for the 3D artist
Have your say
Write, email or
use the website
forums to get
in touch about
the magazine,
your problems
or triumphs
www.3dartistonline.com
REGISTER AT OUR WEBSITE, UPLOAD IMAGES, CONTRIBUTE TO THE FORUMS
Email the team directly
with your letter
3dartist@imaginepublishing.
co.uk
Log in and leave your
comments on the forum
www.3dartistonline.
com/forum
POST TO:
The Editor, 3D Artist,
Imagine Publishing,
Richmond House,
33 Richmond Hill,
Bournemouth,
Dorset
BH2 6EZ, UK
Send your
letters to…
e-zine version of 3DA?
I wanted to ask if there might be a possible e-zine version
(downloadable pdf) of 3D Artist in the future? Sure, it’s not
as nice as having a print version, but the advantages are that
it’s a fraction of the cost, you have more scope for more
pages and longer tutorials and it is easily/instantly
acceptable for people in remote countries at no extra cost.
Tom, forum post
There’s a few issues about this, the fi rst being that the economics
don’t work. If we charged a fraction of the cost, why buy the
magazine? The PDF version wouldn’t cover the quite high costs
of producing a magazine. If we didn’t print it, there wouldn’t be
as much advertising, there would be less money to pay
contributors, so there would be fewer pages – not more. What
we do at Imagine is bundled say a years worth of content up and
format that into a bookazine project, but this is usually a
premium cost product. The best bet is to take up one of the
subscription offers where you can make a big saving on the cover
price. You’re guaranteed to get a copy, save money and help
support the magazine.
Fantasy art?
I had a look through issue 1 and thought right away it had a
fresh look to it (and the free version of C6 Pro of course). I
wonder though if the content of issue 1 refl ects the ongoing
focus and target audience of the magazine? It had quite a
strong fantasy art feel to it (the digital babe count was
pretty high) at the expense maybe of other things like
architecture, landscapes or whatever. Was this just by
chance, or was it just to launch Issue 1 with a bang
among the male 3D artists so they noticed it, or is it a
refl ection of the magazine’s direction from here?
This is nothing to do with prudishness – I’m just
interested to know what niche you’re trying to fi ll as
you’ve probably done a fair bit of market research
before launching the magazine. If it is aimed at a
fantasy art kind of market it isn’t one for me, but each to his
own I guess.
Craftycurate, forum post
There’s no niche that we’re aiming at, it’s simply a case of what
people have created or are talking about at the time that the
issue is being put together. In issue 2, which went on sale 29
April, there’s a much bigger architectural visualisation content,
with an arch viz company being interviewed, and the Industry
Insider running his own arch viz studio. The content of the
features will give each issue a slant, so if you get robots and girls
in underwear in issue 1 it might make the issue feel orientated
that way, even though it wasn’t specifi cally constructed that way.
Equally, with issue 2 you’ll be feeling the love for buildings and by
this issue it should feel fi lm-orientated. The short answer is that
we aim to spread the aim for all kinds of 3D goodness.
Set up your online gallery
01 Register your details
First click on the Join Now box in the top-right corner. Fill in
your personal details – the ones in blue are mandatory. Think
of a good member name and a password. When you’re
happy, click Create User. You’ll be sent an email with a link.
Click this and enter your password to activate your account.
02 Log in
Your account is now created. Every time you
visit www.3dartistonline.com, enter your user
name and password to log in. If your PC or
Mac allows cookies you can store the
password and log on automatically. Click the
top-left link to access your account. Now click
on Add New Image to add some images.
03 Upload pics
Fill in the title of your pic and describe how
you made it and what it was for. Pick a
category and navigate to the image for the
upload. It can be 1280 x 1024 max, and
must be a GIF, JPG or PNG. Hit Submit
Image. Once we’ve approved it, it’ll be
added to the Gallery and your portfolio.
3DA showcases what
artists are creating,
whether that’s fi gures,
architecuture,
landscapes or
animation
26 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
We don’t keep
secrets
Also in this series Now available on
Learn the truth about iPhone, iPad, Android, Photoshop and
more with the Tips & Tricks series’ expert advice and tutorials
www.imaginebookshop.co.uk
Bookazines
eBooks • Apps
iPad
Printed full colour large format book
Kindle
TM
High street Kindle Store ImagineShop.co.uk App Store
HIGH
ST.
BUY IN STORE
Interview● Stephan Martiniere
B
A One of Stephan
Martiniere’s specialities
is conceptualising
city environments
28 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
●Interview
Stephan Martiniere has the kind of
CV most digital designers and
artists can only dream of. After
starting his industry career on iconic,
traditionally produced Eighties cartoons
such as Inspector Gadget and The Real
Ghostbusters, he moved into fi lms and
digital art and animation, racking up
credits on Star Wars among many others.
His latest fi lm project is supernatural action
thriller Knowing, on which he worked as a
concept artist. He’s created book covers for
sci-fi cult classics such as Neal Stephenson’s
Snow Crash and more recently The Empire
and The Rose series by Kay Kenyon, and
even designed theme park rides including
Star Trek: The Experience. His videogame
credits include Stranglehold and the Myst
series, one of the biggest selling franchises
in videogame history. Currently working as
art director at world-renowned id Software,
famous for its groundbreaking and marketleading
games Doom and Quake, Stephan
Martiniere’s latest projects include multiformat,
post-apocalyptic shooter Rage.
3DArtist: Tell us a bit about your workfl ow,
from concept to fi nal piece
Stephan Martiniere: It starts with a sketch
on paper or the Cintiq. The complexity of the
sketch varies a lot – if it’s for a fi lm or game I
put in a lot more information as it’s all about
shapes and ideas. If it’s for a book cover I put
in very little detail; I let the painting process
dictate the outcome. I like both approaches.
I tend to come up with ideas in two different
ways. When it’s a drawing, the ideas come
from shapes I know, from forms that appeal
to me. When it’s a Photoshop painting, the
ideas come from layering various references,
applying fi lters and seeing what the result
is. I always have an idea of what I’m looking
for, but that process creates exciting results.
When I do a book cover or illustration, the
Multi-talented concept artist Stephan Martiniere began in children’s
animation. April Madden caught up with him to fi nd out more
The photo
elements become
blocks of ideas and
colours. I never quite
know what they will
create. It’s a very
instinctive, organic
process. I always end
up being surprised
Stephan Martiniere Art Director, id
Software, chatting about his work
Job title Art Director
Company id Software, USA
Personal portfolio
www.martiniere.com
Location Mesquite, Texas, USA
Software used Adobe Photoshop,
ZBrush, Corel Painter, MudBox,
Maya, 3ds Max
Expertise Art direction
Project credits Rage, Knowing,
Stranglehold,
Star Wars Episodes II and III,
I Robot, Red Planet, Myst 5,
Dragonheart 2, The Fifth Element,
Titan A.E, The Real Ghostbusters
Bringing
concepts
3DArtist ● 29
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Stephan Martiniere
B
Any artistic 3D tool can
make you a better and/or
more efficient artist
c
D
B Martiniere’s skills also
include character and
creature concept design
30 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Bringing concepts to life ●Interview
most important thing is to fi nd the
foundation for the painting. I start piling
various photos under the line drawing.
They might have absolutely no connection
with the subject – what I’m looking for is a
feeling, a mood. I’ll vary the opacity
between images, resize and fl ip them, until
I see something. When that colour/mood
connection happens it becomes a
foundation, like an underpainting. Using
the colour palette of that foundation, I start
roughly blocking in colour, light and
shadow elements. I then start painting in
details using regular or custom brushes,
and photo elements that I blend into the
painting. It becomes a modelling process.
The photo elements become blocks of ideas
and colours. I never quite know what they
will create. It’s a very instinctive, organic
process. I always end up being surprised.
3DA: How has digital design and painting
changed your workfl ow?
SM: Digital has reshaped my career. For
many years, as a concept artist in the
animation industry I was given the task of
coming up with ideas, mostly in the form of
sketches, black and white drawings or
greyscale rendering – but very seldom was I
allowed to fi nish them as paintings. I never
had the chance to explore painting, even
less fi nd style. I was fortunate enough to be
there at the beginning of the digital shift.
Since I didn’t have a particular technique or
style, moving into digital was easy and
painless. I became very comfortable with
Photoshop fairly quickly. Painting digitally
allowed me to explore ideas and techniques
I don’t think would have been possible
traditionally. Working with layers made the
process even more enjoyable, and you
E The cover of the novel
Multireal by David
Louis Edelman; one of
Martiniere’s favourites
among his book cover
illustrations
certainly don’t have to worry about losing
your work and can redo it from scratch if you
make a mistake. In many ways it made me a
faster and more effi cient artist.
3DA: You worked at Cyan Worlds on some
of the Myst series. What’s it like to work on
games in which the art style is iconic?
SM: Myst and URU are about mystery and a
journey to discover and understand the
long-gone D’ni civilization. Every concept,
creature, environment or machine had to be
thought through all the way to its tiniest
detail and texture. Everything in this
universe was a visual clue to help the player
get a better understanding of that
civilisation. I was already a fan of the game
before being hired as a visual design
director. When I met the creator, Rand
Miller, we connected immediately. It was
easy for me to embrace the Myst universe
and expand from it. Because of the scope of
this world, the challenge as a concept artist
was huge; but refi ning, creating and
expanding such a world was extremely
rewarding. Every new world the player
enters reveals a different side of the D’ni
civilisation; sometimes dark and
frightening, sometimes wonderful and
visionary. It was one of the most enjoyable
experiences I’ve had.
3DA: You also worked for Midway Games.
Tell us about your favourite projects there.
C The artist and designer
works with a variety of
programs including
Photoshop and ZBrush
I was fortunate enough to be there at the
beginning of the digital shift
F Another of his favourite
pieces is the cover
illustration to Autumn
War, written by Daniel
Abraham
E F
D Concept art for the alien
spaceships in Nicolas
Cage’s apocalyptic thriller,
Knowing
3DArtist ● 31
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Stephan Martiniere
SM: I was hired as visual design director for
[Xbox 360 game] Stranglehold. I was
responsible for creating the artistic and
cinematic vision for the game and carrying
that vision through the production pipeline. I
was also responsible for bringing a cinematic
and narrative feel to the project by doing
storyboards and collaborating with the
cinematic team. It’s like having the role of
both production designer and director. That
game was set in today’s world, in Chicago
and Hong Kong, and designing it was more
about story, mood and how to convey
emotion visually rather than coming up
with cool, original sci-fi or fantasy concepts.
It was a very exciting and challenging role.
3DA: What are the unique features of
designing for a videogame as opposed to
other media?
SM: When you design for a videogame you
have to be aware of different visual,
G This cave location,
conceptualised by
Martiniere, was an
element of the plot in
Knowing that didn’t make
it into the fi lm
H He says it’s important
that concept art
provides the feeling of
a movie or fi lm to help
the rest of the art team
capture it
I find that getting feedback is constructive.
You have to let go of some ego in the process,
but the concept always ends up stronger
G
Rage
Project type Game
Year released In development
Rage is an FPS/racing hybrid videogame currently in development by id Software,
where Martiniere works as art director. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic future.
32 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Bringing concepts to life ●Interview
narrative and technical aspects. You have
to know the context in which your concepts
are being used and the importance your
design will have in the story and gameplay.
It’s important to know what visual impact
your design will have, and what that design
will communicate to the player in terms
of emotion. You’ve also got to take into
account the game technology and the
limitation it might impose on your design.
All these aspects will dictate how you
approach a concept or painting and how
you execute it.
3DA: You currently work at id Software as
art director. Tell us what your job involves
SM: There are meetings throughout the
week – some with my art team to review
tasks and discuss issues, some with the
different leads including animation and
design. In between theses meetings I and
the lead concept artist create concepts and
paintings. Twice a week I do a walkaround
to review the art team’s work in progress,
but I also make a point of always being
available to anyone whenever there’s a
need. The challenging part is to keep up
with creating concepts while juggling
meetings all week, but the team is small
and that makes the process a lot easier and
more enjoyable.
3DA: Right now you’re working on id’s
new videogame, Rage. Tell us how you go
about creating concepts for its postapocalyptic
environment
SM: A lot of the visual style was established
before I jumped on board as an art director.
This could be frustrating, but somehow I
always fi nd it exciting to expand a vision
when that vision is cool and creative to start
with. There are still a lot of unexplored
areas in the game that need to be defi ned,
and that makes the process even more
enjoyable. One challenge was familiarising
myself with all the art that had been done,
and getting a good idea of what could be
created from it. It’s very similar to how I did
concepts for Star Wars; there is a visual
universe in place but there is also room for
expansion. Post-apocalyptic environments
are a common trend in games these days, so
another challenge is to be original and
create exciting concepts that are unique to
Rage. I certainly have my vision, but one way
to make a concept really unique or strong is
to involve the team as much as possible.
Different people have different ideas –
someone else will see something you
haven’t necessarily thought of. I fi nd that
getting feedback is very constructive. You
have to let go of some ego in the process, but
the concept always ends up stronger.
I
In his time at Midway
Games Stephan
Martiniere worked on
the iconic Mortal
Kombat franchise
3DA: Tell us about some of your other work,
like the concept designs for theme parks
SM: I made my fi rst foray into the industry
working for Landmark Entertainment in LA.
I was doing concepts for two parks in Japan;
this gave me the opportunity to work there a
second time. Doing concepts for theme parks
is unique; you get to see what you create in
real life, and sometime it even moves! Since
Landmark I’ve done concepts on projects for
companies such as Universal, Paramount
and Disney. I recently worked on a fabulous
project for a park in Dubai. The scope was
mind-boggling. I can’t divulge much, but it
was an architect’s dream come true.
3DA: What’s your advice for 2D artists who
want to move into 3D concepts and designs?
SM: For an experienced 2D artist I’d say go
for it! Any artistic 3D tool can make you a
better and/or more effi cient artist. I started
with Bryce, and it let me quickly set up
complicated perspectives. SketchUp is also
useful. There’s a big community sharing
assets on the web; all these models can be
useful for architectural pre-visualisation or
you can create originals. On top of the highend
3D software, you can turn your character
concepts into sculpture with software like
ZBrush, Mudbox and 3D-Coat. Even GroBoto
opens up really cool conceptual possibilities.
H
J Martiniere’s work on
the Mortal Kombat
series included
locations such as
cityscapes and
military bases
I
J
3DArtist ● 33
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Mark Bremmer discovers how CGI characters in fi lms have
become indistinguishable from real life
With the release of Benjamin Button, CGI has fully transformed from special
effects into an integral storytelling tool by making digital characters come richly
and believably to life. And it’s only the beginning at the new and exciting level of
realism. But it’s not particularly fast, easy or cheap
Feature●Rise of the Machines
he Holy Grail of CGI has been
digital human characters
worthy of close-ups. We’ve
come to visually expect the
unexpected, craved it in fact, seeking the
best ‘wow’ moments from movies like
Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator, Lord of
the Rings (LOTR) and others. But these
movies have been about the unreal.
Creatures, dinosaurs and mechs aren’t
visually constrained by personal
experience. However, humans are
because we are so familiar with how
people move, particularly people’s faces.
While Gollum had his fair share of closeups
in LOTR, he was a fi ctional character
that allowed for suspended disbelief of
human reality.
However, the integration of CGI
characters, whether mechanical or
organic, requires a level of technological
comprehension and planning that can
make traditional fi lmmakers shudder.
How CG characters arrived
Enter Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). In
its quest for better, faster and cooler fi lm
graphics, ILM has long been the genesis
of many technologies and entities that
have become ubiquitous in the digital
entertainment arena, including Photoshop
and Pixar. The leading, bleeding edge of
innovation is never a comfortable place to
be – exciting, but not comfortable,
especially fi nancially. Pixar, a division of
Lucasfi lm, was really about a new
machine that allowed compositing of
digital images with fi lm.
In the name of good business, other
industries were courted as customers for
the Pixar machine, but its capabilities
were fi rst and foremost created for
special effects in fi lm. While
The anaglyph
presentation is
the result of a
two-camera rig
with the cameras
set apart like eyes.
CG allows for
perfect camera
placement
T
Riseof
the
» Transformers
Courtesy Paramount
Pictures © 2009 DW
Studios L.L.C. and
Paramount Pictures
Corporation. All rights
reserved. HASBRO,
TRANSFORMERS and all
related characters are
trademarks of Hasbro ©
2009 Hasbro. All rights
reserved
Machines
» Young Sherlock Holmes
The fi rst full CG character had a screen time of ten
seconds © 1985 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved
34 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Rise of the Machines ● Feature
3DArtist ● 35
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Feature●Rise of the Machines
Fast, cool and oh so expensive. At
$125,000 dollars each in 1985 as well as a
host computer, adopters of the Pixar
machine and technology were few and far
between. This led to Lucasfi lm electing to
sell the Pixar shop and technology to
Steve Jobs.
Viewing older CG movies is a bit like
looking at pictures of yourself back in
school. Sometimes funny, sometimes
painful, but never as sophisticated and
nice as you remember at the time. Some
primitive morphing here, some refl ection
maps there, but nothing that made the
audience think, “I can’t believe what I’m
seeing.” So, in conjunction with Moore’s
law for computing, CG capabilities rapidly
grew. The payoff came a scant fi ve years
later when arguably the fi rst memorable
character came to life, combining
compositing, morphing and human
movement: T-1000, the liquid-metal man
in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. No longer
was CG relegated to the category of
special effects, it was used to tell a full
story in a frightening and realistic way.
While not human per se, it was a fully
realised character in human form – well,
most of the time. Additionally, it was a
technological milestone, utilising the
personal computer as a Hollywood
cinematic tool.
computer wireframes had been used in
various computer-esque displays in
movies prior to 1985, Young Sherlock
Holmes was the fi rst introduction of a
photorealistic character into a liveaction
sequence. That is, photorealistic
for a drug-induced dream sequence
where a stained-glass knight comes to
life and pursues a victim. Ten seconds
of computer graphic heroics in liveaction
fi lmmaking.
» Terminator
Terminator 2: Judgement
Day revolutionised the
concept of using CGI as
a dominant theme
within fi lms
© TriStar Pictures. All rights
reserved
» The Abyss
James Cameron’s fi lm
was one of the early
adopters of integrating
CGI into movies
© Twentieth Century Fox.
All rights reserved
No longer was CG relegated to the
category of special effects, it was used
to tell a full story in a frightening way
36 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Two years later, in 1993, came the fi rst
photorealistic CG character integration in
the form of dinosaurs in Michael
Crichton’s Jurassic Park. The synergistic
relationship of Steven Spielberg, ILM
specialist Dennis Muren, CG master Phil
Tippett and the late modelling guru Stan
Winston created the foundational
methodology for motion capture and
action CG matting requirements. The fi lm
production became a serious case of
experimentation seeing if the ‘uncanny
valley’ could be crossed with these giant
reptiles. The answer was yes.
The production of Jurassic Park also
became a turning point in how to
approach CG. Computers were never fast
enough or powerful enough, but fi nally
the sophistication of CG software had
grown to the point where it was becoming
more about the creativity of the team than
the limitations of the hardware and
software. Gradually, the shackles of what
was previously impossible to create were
coming off.
Mass effect – putting
hundreds onto the screen
After Jurassic Park came an awesome
refi nement and addition to CG toolsets,
including hair, water interaction, vastly
improved morphing and the stunning
digital characters created by ILM for the
Star Wars prequels.
Up until this point, one adjective hadn’t
been used to describe movies using CG
characters: epic. That was about to
change with the brilliant adaptation of J.
R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring. Suddenly, the
impossible became possible, specifi cally
the intelligent animation of hundreds of
CG characters, all interacting and
behaving with real physics.
CG crowds had been born in a software
package called Massive thanks to the
conjunction of the WETA studio and
Stephen Regelous. An industry fi rst,
Massive used genuine artifi cial
intelligence (AI) and a special feature
called User Agents to manage and create
autonomous crowd animation. This was a
huge step beyond the particles and
fl ocking capabilities from earlier.
Massive Software founder Stephen
Regelous sums it up this way: “Massive is
unique in the industry because it’s a tool
that allows artists to create AI.” And
therein lies the beauty of Massive for the
everyday CG artist – it’s a completely
visual node-based system with drag-anddrop
simplicity. Designed to integrate
Rise of the Machines ● Feature
Blending computer graphics animation with
live action is a tricky challenge to attempt
Technical problems
CG/live-action integration requires creating two
believable worlds that agree. In the case of Benjamin
Button, this was especially true. The overall challenge
was to re-create the lighting, camera moves and head
motion to match exactly what was on set. HDR images
were captured and processed by the tracking and
compositing teams. Compositors received the camera,
light positions and survey data, assembled the set in
the Nuke compositing system and textured it using
HDR imagery. A computer-based lighting system was
built, which broke HDR lighting into components
replicating set geometry and controlled them
interactively to enable automatic, photoreal results.
One of the nicest advancements in
human and animal animation is the
use of digital muscles vs morph targets.
The initial setup is longer but
animation is more accurate
David Burgess – head of Character Animation, DreamWorks Animation
» Pirates of the
Caribbean
Motion-matching
software allowed the
placement of computergenerated
effects
directly into moving
scenes © Disney
Enterprises, Inc.
All rights
reserved
3DArtist ● 37
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Feature●Rise of the Machines
tightly with Maya, Massive allows the CG
artist to either keyframe behaviours or
use BVH motion capture. Regelous states:
“There is no programming involved. It’s
simply the artist sitting down and then
trying to decide what the characters
should be doing.”
Such a process is called ‘creating the
brain’ or the AI for a CG character ‘Agent’.
Each Agent has a catalogue of animation
it is allowed to perform. There can be
multiple Agents per Massive session, all
with unique behaviours and responses.
These Agents are then instantiated
(replicated without actually duplicating
geometry) to populate the scene, each
with uniquely combined animation actions
as a result of the AI.
But that’s not all, because it gets better,
as Regelous describes: “As Agents
interact, it is important that the
physicality of their performance is very
realistic. And so we use a technique called
Rigid Body Dynamics, which basically
computes the physics of their body.” He
goes on to add: “But that wouldn’t be
enough on its own. With Smart Stunt (an
Agent capability), the artist gets to
combine the character’s actual
performance – the way he moves,
whether it’s through motion capture or
keyframing – with the physics, and the
two work together to give a realistic and
‘in-character’ performance.”
Even Regelous gets surprised with how
Massive is used. He relates: “The real
thing that was a step forward with usage
of Massive in (the movie) Narnia was the
way they (WETA) used Smart Stunt to
create very violent interactions between
characters in battle scenes.”
But the use of crowds doesn’t always
need to be or look dramatic. In fact, it can
look quite mundane. “Massive was used
in over 600 shots in King Kong and we’re
really proud of it, but most people would
never know that Massive was used on so
much of the movie – it’s kind of an
invisible effect. So most of the time when
you’re seeing people and cars in New
York, they’re Massive Agents, and if birds
fl y by, they’re Massive birds. The bats on
the island were mostly Massive bats. A lot
of the insects crawling around were
Massive insects. It was just used all over
the place.”
Of course, while Massive produces
stunningly ‘real’ crowds, it has also been
used for movies like DNA Production’s
The Ant Bully and Pixar’s Ratatouille. In
fact, many of the ant crowd scenes used
close-ups of Massive Agents, complete
with facial expressions. So what’s the next
step? Well, realistic close-ups.
» Vantage Point crowd ‘after’ shot
Massive’s Stunt Agents allow each character to have
predetermined behaviours yet interact uniquely with
their surroundings. Other Agent behaviours include
mayhem for panicking crowds. Characters interact
intelligently with their surroundings and each other
Up
Disney’s 3D fi lm Up is
going to open the
Cannes Film Festival
© Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
Massive attack
The fi nal battle scene in The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King stands
apart as the most epic of any CG crowd
scenes to date. Incredible in both scope
and detail, the battle had nearly
200,000 characters. A rich palette of 450
motions/animations were created for
the Massive horse Agents. When this
collection of Agents were paired with
the Massive AI logic system, each
character acted uniquely with its
surroundings, exhibiting no
noticeable repeating animation.
» Vantage Point crowd
‘before’ shot
Once this scene from
Vantage was set, a small
collection of extras were
used for a base crowed.
Massive was used to
generate the rest of the
crowd, including Agent
actions that waved fl ags,
jostled one another and
moved their arms and
legs like the ‘real’ extras.
VANTAGE POINT© 2008
Columbia Pictures
Industries, Inc. All rights
reserved. Photo: courtesy
of CIS Visual Effects
38 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Rise of the Machines● Feature
Attempting to cross the
uncanny valley
The uncanny valley, that awkward creepy
space between almost real and totally
realistic, exacts an expensive toll on
artists, technologists and computer
production pipelines.
Reality is a jealous mistress, and CG
artists have kept returning for years in
pursuit of the imperfections and details
that make up the real world. What
Massive Software has done for CG crowd
control, the digital production studio
Digital Domain has fi nally done for
completely realistic human CG characters
worthy of close-ups.
Of course, integrating live action and
real people to CG characters is always an
issue, too. Simply put, actors and
actresses must respond with conviction to
something that isn’t there. It’s like playing
make believe as a child all over again.
Thanks to robust digital compositing,
using blue/green screens and action/
actor doubles with special markers on
their blue/green suits have eased the
ability to get motion-tracking shots and
lens correction information to feedback to
CG creators. This is then used to make
sure the virtual camera is in the correct
place. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not
diffi cult or problematic.
The devil is in the details on CG
projects, and crossing the uncanny valley
into the realm of believability came with
signifi cant headaches for Digital Domain
when producing The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button – a movie about a man
who ages backwards. For the fi rst 52
minutes of the movie, actor Brad Pitt
needed to appear on screen signifi cantly
older, 40 years to 20 years in fact. For
those 52 minutes, his face is 100 per cent
computer generated with no projection
mapping techniques.
Rick Baker, the legendary make-up
artist, made three sculptures of Pitt, aged
to around 80, 70 and 60, which Digital
Domain scanned into a computer. Then
Pitt performed a range of facial
Links to the community
expressions wearing phosphorescent
make-up while he was shot with 28
digital cameras in three dimensions.
That gave the Digital Domain team a
database of every expression that Pitt’s
face could make.
Visual effects supervisor Eric Barba
shares: “The scenes were shot with body
actors wearing blue hoods that would let
artists remove their heads easily later.
Then, totally separately, Brad Pitt
performed the scenes on a sound stage
and was shot with four digital cameras.
The image analysis data from Pitt
performing the facial expressions and the
scenes were then matched and mapped
onto a computer model of Benjamin at
his older ages.”
Animators then applied their artistry to
tip the performance in one direction or
another under David Fincher’s direction.
Once Digital Domain created the head,
they placed it precisely on the body
actor’s spine and integrated it into the
shot with lighting and compositing.
The character of Gollum was one of the standout features of the Lord
of the Rings fi lms, but how exactly was he animated?
Breathing life into Gollum
Amazing is probably the best word to describe the LOTR CG character Gollum. The
creepy, realistic visuals and characterisations were the nexus of WETA’s Bay Raitt and
character actor Andy Serkis. After dressing in a blue body suit with motion-tracking
equipment and using a system that tracked 964 facial controls for Gollum’s CG
geometry, Serkis was free to act and voice the character while everything was being
captured for digital production. Although the production team could have used a
musculoskeletal animation system, they elected to animate his expressions by hand.
Every time I see the movie, I look closely at
those guys and even I can’t tell that they’re not
real. They look totally believable
Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings
3DArtist ● 39
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview● Ocular Production
Duncan Evans talks to Mark Lim of Ocular Production Pte about creating stunning
visualisation images from a base in Southeast Asia
Unusually for a 3D architecture and
product visualisation company,
the founders Mark Lim and
Dominic Chee didn’t meet at university or
in a business environment. They met
during annual camp training in the army.
In Singapore all men have to perform an
active military service for three years. Upon
completion, they have to report annually for
in-camp training of one to three weeks for a
ten-year cycle. It was at one of these camps
that the two founders met up and decided to
found Ocular Production in 2004.
Mark’s educational training includes
graduating with a diploma in Engineering
from Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore,
while Dominic’s background is in
Accountancy and has an MBA from the
National Technological University,
Singapore. They set up the main offi ce in
Singapore because it’s a well-developed and
connected location in Southeast Asia. From
there, they added another offi ce in Malaysia
and then tied up marketing and satellite
offi ces around the world. Now Ocular has an
international marketing effort, which has
resulted in 70 per cent of their business
coming from outside markets.
3DA: What are the main services that
Ocular Production offers?
Mark Lim: We provide high-end
photorealistic architectural and interior
visualisation services. We also produce
concept art for commercial products and
medical services.
One common request is the adding of
‘dramatic’ effects into the visuals, as seen
in our recent renderings for the Singapore
Grand Prix 2008
Mark Lim Chief Creative Offi cer at Ocular Production
Company Ocular Production Pte Ltd
Founded 2004
Company website
www.ocularproduction.com.sg
Country Singapore
Software used 3ds Max
Expertise Architectural/interior
visualisation
Client list Crowne Plaza Hotels;
Kempinski Hotels; Ungasan Resort,
Bali; Pearl InterContinental Hotels;
Pierre Hotels; InterContinental
Nanjing Hotel; Park Hotel,
Chongqing, China; La Moda Café,
Indonesia
b Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta,
is a modern shopping
mall that combines selling
high-fashion brand names
with the traditional stalls
of Indonesia. This image
shows how the building
would fi t into the fastpaced
environment
A The interior of Kidszone,
Indonesia
a
on
theO Aneye
40 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
An eye on the Orient●Interview
B
3DArtist ● 41
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Interview●Ocular Production
c
42 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
An eye on the Orient ●Interview
3DA: Who are or have been some of your
main clients?
ML: We have worked with a number of hotel
chains and international design studios.
Among this number are Hirsch Bedner
Associates, Wilson Associates and
Woodhead International.
3DA: Your portfolio covers a range of styles
from architectural, interior design and real
estate. Is the approach different for each, or
is it always tailored to the project itself?
ML: While our strength is in detailing and
photorealism, we do tailor our approach to
each project. One common request is the
adding of ‘dramatic’ effects into the visuals,
as seen in our recent renderings for the
Singapore Grand Prix 2008.
3DA: Can you explain why your modular
drawing management system is unique?
What are the advantages to it over more
traditional methods?
ML: One of the challenges in our trade is the
maintaining of quality with quantity. This
is made tougher as our trade is a mix of art
and science. It is never easy to quantify
qualitative elements. Our answer to that is
MDM and an effective project management
system. The MDM system allows us to
manage a large volume of work with
consistent quality. At Ocular, artists are
grouped based on their different strengths,
eg, modelling team, lighting team, etc.
Work is then performed in the style of a
conveyor belt.
3DA: What software did you use to model
and render most of your still and animated
projects with?
ML: We use 3ds Max, which is the
standard for those in the architectural and
product visualisation industry.
3DA: How many people typically work on a
project in-house at Ocular Production?
ML: It depends on the project size, really.
For a project’s stills, we will typically use
three artists. However, we do have people
who we can pull in for bigger projects when
the need arises.
3DA: There is a lot of construction in the
Gulf at the moment, even with the current
economic downturn. Are you being
commissioned for interior work for the hotel
and business projects?
ML: Yes, we are. There has been a
slowdown, but those projects that have
been greenlighted still need interior
designs to bring them to life, and this is our
area of speciality.
3DA: Where do most of Ocular Production’s
clients come from, and if this is external to
Singapore, how have you marketed your
company in order to attract valuable
overseas commissions?
ML: We have 30 per cent of our business
locally but 70 per cent comes from overseas
markets. To achieve this we use a number of
marketing strategies, including web-based
adverts, a high-visibility website and
optimised links for search engines.
D The restaurant in the
entertaining complex
situated in the Hotel
Zhenchuzhina, Russia
3DA: Many countries are struggling with
the downtime in the global economy. Do
you fi nd this is affecting the market for
visualisation and interior design?
ML: We have experienced a drop in sales
and the downturn is defi nitely hurting the
industry. We are, however, grateful to our
marketing and support from our global
clients. With a worldwide clientele base, our
business risks have been kept to a
manageable level.
3DA: What are your plans and ambitions for
the company in the coming years?
ML: Ocular Production aims to provide the
full spectrum of visualisation services. We
seek to be ‘better than the cheap, and
cheaper than the good’. As we hone our
skills and processes, we seek to reach the
pinnacle of our craft – delivering excellent
work to our customers at the best possible
value. We are also looking into the media,
movie and gaming markets.
c The Palace Luzern,
Switzerland, is a haven of
hospitality, which combines
old-world charm with the
most modern comforts.
Ocular took part in the
renovation process to update
rooms and areas over 100
years old
Ocular aims to provide the full spectrum of
visualisation services… to be better than the
cheap, and cheaper than the good
d
3DArtist ● 43
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create two legendary enemies in Modo
Easy-to-follow guides
take you from concept
to the fi nal render
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
www.3dcluster.co.nz
Country New Zealand
Software used Modo, ZBrush
and Photoshop
Expertise We specialise in 3D
for print – these include
magazine ads, billboards,
metrolight, posters, etc.
Working on 3D for print gives
us some challenges unseen in
animation and fi lm: there is no
motion to hide things and it
needs to be of a very high detail.
Andre McGrail
Model,
texture, light,
render and
post-process
Software used in this piece
Maya Modo ZBrush
44 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Create
two legendary
enemies in
Modo
Andre McGrail, David Partridge and Benjamin Parry We are a small
group of freelancers working in the advertising industry
Alien vs
Predator:
Pool 2009
This image was created for Sky to advertise the airing of
the Alien vs Predator fi lms. It was to show the two
creatures from the fi lms in a competitive situation
Set of four different resolution
wallpapers for your desktop!
Step by step: Andre McGrail●The studio
3DArtist ● 45
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create two legendary enemies in Modo
First steps
Sketching and modelling the characters
01 Referencing Luckily, the referencing for these two characters was as easy as just going on
Google Image Search. There we found a nice collection of images of the two creatures we had
to model. We also had a McFarlane model of Alien to work from, and watched parts of the AvP fi lms.
02 Sketching of
Alien We made
a front and rough side
sketch of Alien to make the
modelling stage fl ow a bit
more smoothly, as he has a
lot of technical details.
These were quickly drawn
from the McFarlane model,
because we were able to
see Alien from all angles
quite easily.
03 Modelling of Predator Predator, being fairly humanoid, we
were able to use human reference images in the background. These
were very useful for getting the muscle groups right. Starting at the head –
since it’s the most recognisable feature of Predator – then working down the
body using the reference, the basic form was created.
Modelling the characters
We knew creating Alien and Predator would be an epic challenge.
For Predator we used ZBrush; for Alien, we decided that poly
modelling and painted displacements would be enough. With the
reference and sketches, we started blocking out the characters.
For Predator we made a basic human body to work off. Alien
needed an elongated figure and features different from a human
form. Predator was taken into ZBrush and detailing begun; Alien’s
displacement maps were made in Photoshop. Modelling generally
went smoothly. One challenge was getting detail from the ZBrush
model into Modo for rendering, and we spent a while changing
displacement settings; exporting the base mesh helped. Posing
the characters was another challenge. Modo has no rigging options,
but the great range of action centres and fall-offs made it fairly easy.
This tutorial will go through all the key steps we
took to produce the image the client was after. We
needed to create Alien and Predator from scratch,
surface and light them into a scene that was provided to us
as a background image. Modo is the choice of program for
us, as it’s great for producing very high-res images and has
a lot of features we fi nd helpful in print. ZBrush, being
great for organic models, was used to detail Predator. One
of the problems we encounter often is getting the scene to
render, because since it’s for print the minimum res is
generally A4 300dpi, which not only causes problems at
render time but also with things such as displacement
details and texture resolution. Problems specifi c to this job
were trying to re-create some of the most recognised
aliens/creatures in the movie industry at a very high
resolution, and out of their usual dark surroundings.
04
Modelling of
Predator II
Details were
modelled for
Predator such as
teeth, eyes, hair,
armour and clothes.
At this point in time,
only one strand of
hair was made and
it wasn’t posed.
Everything was then
UV’d and exported
as an OBJ to load
up in ZBrush, where
all the detailing
would happen.
46 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Andre McGrail●The studio
Starting to fine-tune
More modelling and a bit of sculpting
05 Modelling of Alien We took the rough sketches into
Modo and started to model the basic forms, starting with
the head then moving down. The head was hardest, as it’s the most
recognisable part of Alien – the mouth was especially hard. The
chest piece was also diffi cult, as it was a single piece that started at
the ribs at the front and carried on to the back with pipes extruding
from it, then over the shoulders connecting back to the front.
06 Modelling of
Alien II Pipes were
made with the Tube tool in
Modo. This tool is a life-saver
because it’s easy to use and
automatically generates a UV
map. The tail was made with a
cylinder and cloning a bone
shape down it; the UVs were
made before the clone to make
it simpler to texture. The whole
thing was then UV’d so a guide
texture could be created to
ease the creation of a
displacement map
in Photoshop.
07 Sculpting Predator in
ZBrush Once Predator
was loaded into ZBrush, the
sculpting began. The fi rst thing to
be done was to add muscle detail
and form, then move on to some of
the detailing. Standard brushes
were used with a combination of
different alphas to create the skin
texture. The armour and weapons
had their displacements
painted by hand in
Photoshop to help keep
the edges sharp.
08 Displacement
painting for Alien
Painting displacement maps in
Photoshop was the easy
choice, as Alien is made up of
many small pipes, holes and
shapes protruding from its
surface. First we loaded up the
guide texture that was created
in Modo using the inbuilt
Painting tools. Painting the
displacements in Photoshop
gave us more control and made
it easy to change the height of
individual shapes and features
when necessary.
3DArtist ● 47
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create two legendary enemies in Modo
Preparing for battle
Posing and rendering, surfacing and texturing
09 Bringing Predator back Once Predator was fi nished,
we had to bring it back to Modo for posing and rendering.
First we had to re-export the base mesh in ZBrush, as changes from
the OBJ were evident. Once we had a low poly in Modo, we exported
displacement maps from ZBrush to apply to the shader in Modo.
10 Surfacing and texturing Alien Once we had the
displacements done in Photoshop, creating colour maps was
easy. They were then applied to the model. As Modo’s materials are
layer based, we stacked layers of procedurals to add to the surface.
These help take the uniform surface and add randomness. Alien was
hard to get right, as in the movies he’s covered in slimy liquid. This was
achieved by having a high refl ection fresnel so the edges were glossy.
11 Surfacing and texturing Predator A colour texture
for Predator was painted in ZBrush over the high poly to help
keep the detail level high. This was then exported out, loaded into
Modo and applied to his shader. From this colour map we created
SSS, diffuse and refl ection maps through fi lters and editing in
Photoshop. Once all applied to the shader, tweaking started by
changing high and low values. Procedurals were also used to help
create realism. Diffuse and refl ection maps for the armour were
painted directly onto the mesh in Modo, because at this point in
the project we were running out of time.
12 Mocking up the
scene Since we were
placing the two creatures into a
photographic environment, we
only needed to create rough
objects of the scene. For this
image we only had to create a
pool table and a ground plane
to catch the shadows. A pool
cue was made for Predator, and
a bar was placed in the image
for Alien to lean on, as well as
a cigarette and pint of beer
for Alien.
Lighting the scene was going to be diffi cult, as having to match
it to an already lit photograph would take some tweaking. First,
when lighting a scene to match a photograph we found a HDRI
that roughly matched the scene. This helped with creating
those super bright points in refl ections. We then re-created
visible light sources in the image. For this we used three
spotlights along with three super bright discs to create the
hotspots on refl ections. Then we checked the scene and added
lights to make the overall image more aesthetically pleasing. A
little fog was added at the end to help with the smoky bar look.
Lighting and rendering
48 ● 3DArtist
3Dcluster
We’re a collective of 3D
freelancers from New
Zealand. We specialise
in print and detailed
stills for advertising. We
use Modo for 3D as it has
a great renderer and it’s
easy to change things.
ArtSisthowcase
All Blacks: Of This Earth
Modo, Photoshop 2008
For the above campaign. The
Tikis were basic; we created
displacements to add the
patterns and rock texture.
Lego Boat Modo 2008
This image was created for
Lego for the company’s 50th
anniversary. Three were
made – the other two were a
sports car and a motorcycle.
Sorted Mouse: Money Jar
Modo, Cinema4D, Maya
2007
This mouse was made for
Sorted – it was part of a large
group of works. The mouse
was rigged in Maya, then
taken to Cinema4D for fur,
and fi nally back to Modo for
fi nal rendering
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Andre McGrail●The studio
Finishing touches
What a couple of posers!
13 Posing Modo hasn’t yet implemented character rigging, so we had to do the poses
by hand. Thankfully, Modo has some amazing tools such as the Flex tool and a great
selection of action centres and fall-offs to aid in doing deformations. After posing, we sent
off a test render to be critiqued by the creative, and tweaks were made until they were happy.
14 Matching the lighting Lighting was created by mapping a HDRI
onto a sphere which has its polygons fl ipped. This sphere was big
enough to contain the entire scene, and once applied as a luminance colour,
the hotspots created light, thus lighting the scene. Using this method helped
make the scene realistic. Spotlights were used to mimic the three lights above
the pool table, and a few directional lights were added to create rim
and fi ll lights.
Rendering
Rendering is always the scary part of the job, as
rendering at print size is sometimes the fork in
the road. Major tweaking to displacement rates,
irradiance levels and the scene in general is
often necessary. For this render to work without
running out of RAM, we needed to split the
render into several smaller sections and stitch
them back together in Photoshop.
15 Final tweaking This was the step where we fi ne-tuned
all the settings, changing minor details to do with shaders.
We added a few more details with procedurals and fi xed image
maps that were distorted or didn’t have enough detail in certain
parts. We optimised the scene so we could get it to render at full size.
Using the Flex tool in
Modo, we posed both of
the characters
It took quite a few tweaks until the
creative reported they were happy with
the fi nal poses
Render time
14 hours
Resolution:
3508 x 2480
3DArtist ● 49
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Design a cute cyber-girl in Maya & zbrush
The initial schedule for the scene was eight (pretty intense)
days, so the banana would take three days to get it done, and
the pear and strawberry two days each. They were modelled
straight in the fi nal pose, so I wouldn’t spend any time rigging
and skinning them.
Incredible 3D artists take
us behind their artwork
Personal portfolio site
www.alzhem.com
Country Spain
Software used 3ds Max, Mudbox, VRay and Photoshop
Username: ALZHEM
Artist info
José María Andrés Martín
About the process: I started with a very
rough shape, mainly to get the volume of
the body and length of arms and legs. Then
I refi ned the mesh to get a decent mesh
(loops-wise), and exported to Mudbox,
where the fi nal details were made. From
Mudbox I exported the new mid poly mesh
and the normal maps.
50 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
I made this… José María Andrés Martín ●The studio
Software used in this piece
For this image I wanted to create quite a
plain background to avoid distracting
attention from the characters. That’s why
it doesn’t have any kind of graffi ti or big
detail. The kerb, street light and sewer
were modelled initially in 3ds Max and
then exported to Mudbox for further high
poly details and texture.
Fruity Flash
2009
This part was quite
tricky. The main light
should come from the
street lights, but then
the strawberry’s face
would be very dark. So I
had an imaginary light
emitter lighting her face.
I also added two rims
per character to defi ne
the volume (one thin
and intense for the
border, the other
spread and softer)
I set the resolution
to 5000 x 3500, and
rendered a bunch of
passes per character
and background, with
VRay, then opened
them in Photoshop. I
then tweaked the image
so in the end it looked
a lot better
I decided on using a spiral composition using
the golden section
My intention has always been not to leave anyone indifferent to this image.
Unconsciously your eyes start on the top left part of the image (occidental way
of reading) and quickly move to the eyes-mouth of the pear. Then the attention
passes to the face of the strawberry, and her eyes make you focus on the body of
the banana whose curve takes you to his face. This looks like a complex process
but takes just an instant for the brain. That’s the moment when you realise how
naughty the banana is, ha ha ha.
3ds Max Mudbox VRay Photoshop
3DArtist ● 51
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
52 ● 3DArtist
The studio● The making of Old Elven Archer
The face rig was the most
important part in order to
sell the believability of the
character in motion
Software used in this piece
Softimage Photoshop
Old_Elf_anim_test.mov
Some movie fi les of early test
renders/animations of Old
Elven Archer as a WIP for the
animated sequence.
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
This tutorial will be focusing on the process of creating
this old elf warrior from the very beginning, covering
design and sculpting, texturing and shading to
rigging and animation, and then the fi nal output of the
print and the composited animation sequence.
Additionally, throughout this step-by-step
walkthrough there will be an overview of the use of
Maya, ZBrush, Softimage and After Effects in the
production of this project, as well as several of the
techniques that I utilised in creating Old Elven Archer.
There are some sample MOV movie fi les on the
magazine CD that show fi nal image test animations
from the rigging process.
Step by step: The making
of Old Elven Archer
Thaddeus Maharaj is a freelance 3D character artist
Old Elven Archer 2009
This was meant as a learning
project for myself. The style was
infl uenced by a lot of popular elven
interpretations, including Lord Of
The Rings, Warcraft and other such
games and fi lms
Step by step: Thaddeus Mitra Maharaj ●The studio
Easy -to-follow guides
take you from concept
to the fi nal render
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
www.thechindian.com
Country Trinidad and Tobago
Software used Maya 8.5,
ZBrush 3.1, Softimage XSI 6.5,
Photoshop, Unfold3D
Expertise I specialise in
character design and creation,
including concept art,
modelling, high-poly 3D
sculpts, texturing and shading
Thaddeus Mitra
Maharaj
Design concepts
Rough ideas to designing the model
02 This is the fi nal sculpt for the head that I
ended up with after about a day or two of
sculpting in my free time. From here, I got the
inspiration to make this quick sculpt into more of a full
project and wanted to see just how far I could push it.
01 This model wasn’t really planned out per
se, but instead it developed quite organically. I
started out with my metamesh for heads (a concept
that I borrowed from Alex Huguet) and was just doing
a miscellaneous sculpt of an old man’s head for
practice. The metamesh is simply a mesh I’ve built
with topology that makes a good base for quick
sculpting in ZBrush.
03 After fi nishing the head sculpt, I then did
a quick sketch of what I had in mind for the
character. I looked at the sculpt and to me he looked
like an old wise elf who has maybe seen his share of
battles. Thus, I wanted to create a scene that portrayed
these characteristics.
Model,
texture, light,
rigging and
render
3DArtist ● 53
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● The making of Old Elven Archer
Implementation
How the elements were put together
04 I modelled the base meshes for the
clothing and accessories in Softimage
very roughly and then brought them into ZBrush
for sculpting. I do the majority of my modelling
work in ZBrush now and just use Softimage for
creating base topologies.
05 The piece of leaf armour was almost
entirely done in ZBrush. I started off
sculpting on a plane, then hid the excess polys and
used Retopo with Mesh Extract to give thickness
to the piece. Afterwards I just did some cleaning
up and fi nishing to achieve the fi nal sculpt.
06 Here is the fi nal sculpt of the elf with
the base topology laid over. This is also
the fi nal mesh that I rigged and animated. From
here, I laid out the UVs and started texturing.
07 All the textures on the elf’s head were
painted by hand as I wanted to see how
far I could push my abilities with hand-painted
textures. It was achieved through various custom
brushes in Photoshop and a lot of layering! I also
used Occlusion, Normal and Cavity maps from the
high-res sculpt to add more details to the textures.
08 The skin shader is one of the most important aspects of realistic-looking skin. I think I
went a little overboard on the amount of maps I used for this, however, it gave me
complete control over the fi nal output. I used the fast_sss_skin shader in mental ray for Maya.
54 ● 3DArtist
Thaddeus Mitra Maharaj
I grew up drawing, and studied Art in high school. I
started off with traditional media – painting,
illustration and sculpting – but later found out about
3D. This has now become the perfect medium for me
to express my creativity, and my art background
defi nitely helps a lot!
ArtSisthowcase
The Beast Softimage, Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop (2007)
This was one of the characters I made for my demo reel in VFS.
It was based on a sketch I had done a long time ago. The beast is
a sort of parasitic monstrosity that is controlled by an evil
mastermind through the machinery on its back.
Woman’s Head WIP
ZBrush, Maya,
Photoshop (2008)
This is a render of a
female head I did for
practice. I used several
actresses and models
as reference to create
this character. The
textures are painted by
hand in Photoshop. No
photos were used.
Rampage ZBrush, Softimage (2009)
This was a sculpt that I started making for Pixologic’s Action
Hero Contest. Unfortunately, I was not able to complete it in
time due to my workload. However, I do intend on fi nishing it in
my free time.
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Thaddeus Mitra Maharaj ●The studio
Lighting and rendering
Putting the final touches in place
10 The blendshape library was very important since what I had planned
was a close-up animation of the face. Most of the major shapes were
modelled in ZBrush and in-betweens were made for some shapes to make the
motion more nonlinear.
11 Next, I did a test of
the face rig to see how
all the components were
working together – the joints,
blendshapes and fl eshy eyes
setup. You can view this test in
the included movies on the
cover disc.
12 Once I was happy with the rig, I started blocking out the
animation. I used Maya Live to capture the camera
movement from some footage I fi lmed with my digital camera, and
animated the elf through traditional keyframing. You can also view
this test in the included movies on the CD.
Textures
The textures on the elf’s head
were all hand painted in
Photoshop on separate layers
and then blended together.
Custom brushes made the job
easier. These needed to be
detailed and to unfold
correctly as the next stage was
to rig the character for
animation.
13 The lighting setup was pretty basic – four lights with
linear decay. I rendered out passes for hair, beauty, depth,
occlusion and background. The background was made of some
pictures I took at a nature reserve and stitched together. Everything
was composited in Softimage’s built-in compositor. I used After
Effects to add some post-production effects, such as lens fl ares,
scratches, fl ickers and dust to give it the look of old footage.
09 Once the texturing was fi nished, I decided I wanted to push this
project further than just a still frame, so I built a simple rig for the character.
The face rig was the most important part in order to sell the believability of the
character in motion.
render time
Resolution:
2800 x 3600
2-3
hours
This project evolved into
something a lot bigger
than what initially started
as just a speed sculpt.
However, it was an
awesome learning
experience. For the
rigging process, to get the
correct movement of the
face I had to employ
techniques I learnt from
the Alias Hyper-Real
Character Creation DVDs,
which I highly
recommend! You can see
the full cut of the footage
of the elf on my site, as
well as links to portfolio
images and videos.
Summary
3DArtist ● 55
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
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
Incredible 3D artists take
us behind their artwork
Personal portfolio site
www.oscurocardinal.com
Country Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Software used Maya, Mudbox, Photoshop
Username: Adrianguerra
Artist info
Adrian Guerra
For modelling I used Maya and I mainly decided to use
polygons, but later I had to combine with NURBS and
subdivision object, then I used Mudbox to add details like
wrinkles, veins and skin detail
For lighting I used primarily
three lights: a spotlight and two area
lights, and a dome with HDRI texture
to achieve refl ex points and
additional lighting
Maya Mudbox Photoshop
56 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
I made this… Adrian Guerra ●The studio
The idea and main purpose of making a
3D alien was because I have always been a
fan of science fi ction. And this specifi c idea
had been going round and round in my head
for days, so I decided to put my shoulder
to the wheel!
Alien Scene
2009
For the render I used mental ray with Final Gathering.
The real work of rendering was divided into layers such as
Tecnos, Mochila, Shadows, Irradiance, Specular, Depth 1,
Ambient Occlusion and, of course, a Master Beauty, to be
composed later in Photoshop
3DArtist ● 57
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step:
Create a gas
station diner
Lance Hitchings, graphics designer
Tower Station and Drop-In Café 2009
In this tutorial, we’re going to go back to the mid-
Fifties in an attempt to recapture a moment from
American motoring history
The studio● Create a gas station diner
Since this is an outdoor scene, we’ll be
using Maya’s Physical Sun & Sky nodes to
create natural lighting
part two
next issue!
TowerStation_pt1_fi nal.mbj
Save yourself some modelling
time by using the raw model,
textures and objects
58 ● 3DArtist
Part one
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
In the American car culture of the Thirties, Forties and
Fifties, taking a leisurely trip by automobile was the
preferred mode of travel. Travelling from Chicago to Los
Angeles was a four to fi ve-day trip, and the only way to go
was by the ‘Mother Road’, which is the famous US Route 66,
also known as the Will Rogers Highway.
Needless to say, a bumper crop of service stations grew
along the route to accommodate the constant fl ow of
tourists. Many were beautifully designed in Art Deco styles,
and one of the most famous is the Tower Station and Drop-
In Cafe located in Shamrock, Texas.
In this tutorial, we’re going back to the mid-Fifties in an
attempt to recapture a moment from American motoring
history. In the fi rst of this two-part tutorial, we’ll compose
and light the scene, build meshes for all of the objects in the
scene and UV map those objects in preparation for the
texturing we’ll do in part two.
We’ll also set up some basic lighting, to get a sense of the
mood we’ll eventually create. Since this is an outdoor scene,
we’ll be using Maya’s Physical Sun & Sky nodes to create
natural lighting, rather than build a complex lighting rig.
And fi nally, we’ll face the challenge of building some
believable terrain to use as a backdrop. We’ll convert terrain
elevation data from the US Geological Service into a mesh
using a displacement node.
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
photo-realistic images,
particularly of hard-surface
objects. Most of my projects
are product illustrations.
Lance Hitchings
Username: lhitch
Model,
terrain maps
and lighting
Maya Photoshop
Software used in this piece
3DArtist ● 59
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create a gas station diner
03 You can’t portray a moment from automotive history without cars. For the
blocking of the composition, I decided to use simple models that I downloaded
from the web. The best place to fi nd lo-res models of cars is the Google SketchUp 3D
Warehouse: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse. I was looking for cars from the
Fifties, and unfortunately the selection is pretty small. After I downloaded the cars, I then
opened the models in SketchUp Pro and exported them in the FBX format.
04 With all the primary objects in hand, I set about to compose the
scene. I built from the ground up, placing the parking lot fi rst and
then the building on top of that. I then began to dress the scene with the gas
pumps, signage and cars.
05 Typically, lighting is one of
the last things that I will do when
building a scene. However, for a scene as
rich in mood as this one, lighting becomes
a major component of the composition. So
I decided to set up some basic lighting at
this stage, to give me a stronger sense of
how the various compositions I intended to
try would actually read.
I was pretty sure that I wanted the scene
to be set somewhere between late
afternoon and dusk, and Maya’s Physical
Sun and Sky nodes were the tools for the
job. These are Mental Ray nodes, so you
will need to have Mental Ray loaded. In the
Render Setting dialog box, under Mental
Ray, scroll down to the Environment tab
and click on the Create button next to
Physical Sun and Sky. This will create all the
necessary nodes, linked together in a
functional network.
02 With great source material in hand, the fi rst step is to lay out the
composition. I start with simple, primitive shapes that I can build
quickly, to stand in for the highly detailed meshes I’ll build later. They still
capture most of the signifi cant architectural shapes of the structure. In addition
to the building, I also built the parking lot, curb, street, gas pumps and signage.
01 I’ve long wanted to
do a series of vintage
service stations and have been
collecting photo scraps of old
stations for quite a while. When
I fi rst saw a photo of the Tower
Station in Shamrock, Texas, I
knew it would be my fi rst
station. Since the station has
been fully restored to its
original condition, it has
become quite famous. As a
result, there is a profusion of
images available on the web –
many of them in high
resolution. I collected as many
as I could fi nd, concentrating on
images that focused on details
of the station.
Setting the stage
Research and blocking
60 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Lance Hitchings ●The studio
By default, several of the
attributes you set in the
sky shader automatically
drive those same
attributes in the sun
shader. However, you can
go into the Attribute Editor
for the sun shader and
break the connection for
the Red-Blue Shift. This
allows you to warm up the
sunlight and cool down the
sky, which gives you cool
shadows. A nice contrast
to the warm sunlight.
Alter the
attributes
06 The Physical Sun and Sky
nodes are connected to your
camera. Maya creates fi ve new nodes: a
sunShape node (directional light), a mia_
physicalsun node (drives the sunShape
node), a mia_physicalsky node (an
environmental shader synced up with the
sun node), a sunDirection node (creates a
renderable sun disk in your sky), and an
ia_exposure_simple node (a lens shader).
07 The primary
attributes that
need to be set for the sun
node are those relating to the
shadow softness. As shadows
become more distant from
the object, they become
softer. A higher value in the
Shadow Softness attribute
increases this softness. A
higher value in the Samples
attribute increases the quality
of that softness, for example:
a low value makes the soft
edge of the shadow grainy.
The Multiplier, Haze, Red-
Blue Shift, Saturation and
Horizon Height attributes are
driven by the sky node.
10 Different choices of lighting Once all the cameras were set up to
represent various compositions that I might use, I created three different
lighting scenarios. This was accomplished by rotating the sunShape (the directional
light) so that the sunlight was coming from different quadrants in the sky. The fi rst
was early morning, with the sun in front of and to the right of the front of the building.
The second was late afternoon, with the sun in front and to the left. The third was late
afternoon with the sun in the back and to the left. In each example, the sun was very
low in the sky, so that it produced very long, sweeping shadows. From each camera I
then rendered all three lighting scenarios.
08 In the sky shader, the
Multiplier attribute
increases the amount of ambient
illumination. Haze creates a
distance haze in conjunction with
Visible Distance. Red-Blue shift
gives artistic control over the
‘redness’ of the light. Values
range from -1.0 (extremely blue)
to +1.0 (extremely red).
Parameters range from 0.0 (black
& white) to 2.0 (extremely
boosted saturation). Night Color
controls the darkest the night sky
will get. Sun Direction is
controlled by the rotation of the
sunShape directional light. Sun
Disk Intensity and Scale control
how bright and large the rendered
sun disk is.
09 When setting up the cameras, I used the Create>Camera>Camera
And Aim. This gives me fi ner control over positioning and aiming the
camera. The Aim locator controls the rotation of the camera. Moving the camera
and aim locator in the top, front & side viewports while watching the result in the
camera viewport allows me to fi ne tune the composition.
3DArtist ● 61
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create a gas station diner
12 Once the fi rst panel
was fi nished, most of
the rest of the building came
together using duplicates of the
various doors and windows
from panel 1, adjusted to fi t
each panel. I was lucky to fi nd a
fairly hi-res photo of the front
of the building, only slightly
distorted from perspective. I
fi xed the distortion in
Photoshop, and then used the
image as a template for the
front elevation.
13 Building the
porticos, or the
‘wings’ where the pumps stood,
started with the support
columns. It’s basically pretty
easy, although the notches in
the corners with the curved
edges were a little tricky.
Building the station
The real work begins
Modelling
Now that we’ve built and
placed simple versions of the
main objects and provided
some basic lighting, it’s time
to pull some test renders to
determine where to place the
cameras and how to compose
the scene. Although it’s
extremely satisfying to be able
to see what our composition is
going to look like, there’s a
much more important reason
for setting up our cameras and
determining the composition
at this phase. Quite simply, we
don’t need to build detailed,
models of anything that the
camera can’t see. By setting
up the camera and doing test
renders, we can save
ourselves a lot of time by
determining what needs to be
11 The real modelling job started
with the main structure of the
building: the walls, doors and windows. I
built it up in panels, starting with the front
wall of the main offi ce. The walls were built
from a poly plane, and the doors and
windows from poly cubes.
15 I was lucky to
have a close-up
photo of the ceiling of the
portico. I started with one
half of a quarter tile,
mirrored that to get the full
quarter, then duplicated
those quarters to get the full
tile. Next I duplicated the
tiles to cover the ceiling and
added the border to it. All
that was left were the lamps
that were hanging beneath
the ceiling.
14 The marquee
portion of the
portico was also pretty easy.
Once the fi rst of the
rounded, elongated shapes
was built, the rest were
duplicated using Edit>
Duplicate Special, with
distance equal to the width
of the shape. I then adjusted
the lower set of vertices to
the proper length.
62 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Lance Hitchings ●The studio
16 Using elements
from the marquee and
the support column of the
portico, the bottom half of the
main tower came together
quickly. The next element was
a revolved curve. Then a cube
tweaked into a blade shape and
duplicated in a circle about 50
times. The tall piece was boxmodelled
from a cube, and the
piece above was another cube
revolved with four segments.
19 Most of the elements needed to complete the cafe tower already existed, either
in the station tower or in the porticos. It was mostly a matter of duplicating and
tweaking. With the completion of this step, the building was fi nished.
Modelling continued
Working the tower into shape
18 I had no decent photos of the front of the
cafe. But having done the rest of the
building, I had a good idea of the height and sizes
of the doors and windows, so I was able to
extrapolate and put the main structure together.
20 Most of the ground came from re-purposing meshes from a
previous project. The scene from my Tot Rod image (see issue 1)
contained a street, sidewalks, curbs, gutters and driveways, so I imported
these meshes and reassembled them into the concrete surfaces that were
needed for this scene.
3DArtist ● 63
17 For the cap, I began
with the petal shapes. I
created three curves and lofted
them, then mirrored it across the
X axis. I duplicated the combined
pieces three more times with a
90-degree rotation. The top
piece is a revolved curve with
eight segments.
You can use the Bevel tool
to create quick and easy
curved surfaces. You need
an edge to represent the
centre of the curve. Bevel
that edge, then remove the
extraneous edges created
by the Bevel.
Create the
curved
surfaces
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
22 Next, you’ll need to download
all the DEMs that you’ll need. Go
to Geo Community (http://data.
geocomm.com/dem/demdownload.html)
and click on the appropriate state. On the
next page, click on the appropriate county.
On the county page, click on the link
‘Digital Elevation Models (DEM) - 24K’.
From there you’ll be taken to a page that
has links for all of the quads for that county.
The studio● Create a gas station diner
21 I wanted to include some desert hills in the background.
The US Geological Service provides free digital elevation
maps (DEM) of the entire US. Each map is called a quad, and you’ll
have to fi gure out which quads you’ll need. For the US, you need to
know the state and county of your location. In an internet browser,
go to the USGS Quad Index (www.usgsquads.com/mapfi nder.
html). In the ‘Map Finder for Adobe Reader’ section, click on the
1:24k Search link, and download a PDF for the state you need.
Create some desert hills
Add interest to the background
23 You need to convert the DEMs into .raw fi les to open them in
Photoshop, so you’ll need the PullSDTS app. Open PullSDTS, click
Select File, navigate to your DEM folder and open the fi le ending in ‘IDEN.DDF’.
Click Load DEM to create a preview of the 16-bit B&W image. Click the Save
RAW button, and set the options as you see here. For Range fi ll in the min and
max elevations. PullSDTS will equalise DEMs to the same range scale.
24 Open the RAW
fi les in Photoshop.
You’ll need to input the image
size in the Photoshop Raw
Options box. When you save
the .raw fi le, you will get a title
something like: KachinaPoint_
1157x1400_Mac.raw, which
conveniently gives you the
image size in pixels. If you’re
combining several images into
a single map, use the Lighten
blending mode on all layers to
seamlessly fuse them together.
Your fi nal fi le needs to be a
power of 2X (1024 x 1024,
2048 x 2048, etc). Save the fi le
as a 16-bit TIFF.
More bevelling
When bevelling an edge that has already been bevelled,
you can get quite unexpected and unsatisfactory results
(check out the centre image). As in the fi rst bevel tip on
the previous page, you need to remove all the extraneous
edges created by the fi rst bevel, and then proceed to the
second bevel.
64 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Lance Hitchings ●The studio
28 The last steps in
the modelling phase
involved creating a number of
props; smaller objects that will
fi ll out the scene and help
create a sense of realism. The
fi rst of these is tyre display. This
tyre was another object that I
already had, thanks to the Tot
Rod project. I simply imported
the mesh and built the small
display stand. I built it as a fl at
surface, and then used the
Bend Deformer to bend it
round at the corner.
Creating terrains
Converting maps into surfaces
25 Now we actually
create the terrain.
Start with a 1x1 NURBS plane.
Set the Scale of all three (X,
Y & Z) axes to 10 per cent of
your terrain map size. For
example, if your map is 1024
x 1024, set the scale to 102.4.
26 With the plane selected, open the MR
Approximation Editor (Window>Rendering
Editors>Mental Ray>Approximation Editor). In the
Displacement Tessellation section, click the Create
button to create a new displacement approximation
node. Click the Edit button and select the Fine View High
Quality preset. Now re-select the plane and in the
Attribute Editor, under the Shape tab, open the
Tessellation section. Check Display Render Tessellation
and Enable Advanced Tessellation. Open the Advanced
Tessellation section and set the number of spans to 5 for
both U & V.
27 Create a new Lambert shader and assign it to
the plane. In the Attribute Editor select the
Lambert’s Shader Group tab, click on the checkered box
by the Displacement Mat slot to create a displacement
node and load your terrain map into the fi le node. In the
Attribute Editor, with the fi le node selected, the Alpha
Gain controls how high the displacement is, and 1.0
seems to be a good place to start with terrain. With the
plane selected, go to Modify>Convert>Displacement To
Polygons. This will take a while, but when fi nished you’ll
have your terrain as a polygon mesh. If your machine
can’t handle the large number of polygons, reduce the
number of spans in the Advanced Tessellation section.
If the idea of turning map
data into terrain seems like
too much trouble then
there are a couple of
alternatives. One is using
something like e-on’s Vue
to create a sandy plane
and the other is to use a
plane in Maya and apply a
rocky material attribute to
it. You’ll want to
incorporate it all into the
scene at this stage rather
than try compositing in
Photoshop later.
Alternative
landscape
options
3DArtist ● 65
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create a gas station diner
Essential props
Adding the finishing touches
29 I wanted a display
stand for cans of oil to
go between the gas pumps. I
used the model of the gas
pumps to start, removed all of
the pump hardware, made the
basic shape shorter and wider,
and then removed the front
panel and added shelves. Once
again, I re-purposed an existing
model of an oil can.
30 Every old gas station had a
soda dispenser, and I decided on
the type with the lid on top. Almost the
entire model was built using cube
primitives with bevelled corners.
31 I also decided to add an old tyre meter, which was used to add air to
the tyres. I built this model from an old drawing rather than a photo. This
was another model that was built almost entirely using primitive cubes. The
hose was another model that I was able to re-use from the Tot Rod project.
Fun with objects
As well as the Art Deco style of the
building, what really places this scene
fi rmly into the 50s is the use of ageappropriate
props like the soda dispenser
and the style of the gas pumps and signs.
To get a good feel for these you can do a
Google image search for historial
references. Once you’ve identifi ed the
type of props you want in the scene,
either visit resource websites to
download them, or spend some time
creating your own. To help things along,
there are a selection of objects on the
cover disc including a gas pump, an oil
can display and the soda dispenser itself.
There’s also a folder of textures to use.
32 I wanted to add a bit of foliage behind the building to soften the landscape a
bit. I used Paint Effects for this, choosing the Tree Meshes section in the visor. I
used the Birch Tree, the Bush and the Shrub. Since I’m rendering in Mental Ray, which
doesn’t really support Paint Effects, I converted the foliage to meshes before I could render.
Next month (issue 4), in
the concluding part of
Create a gas station diner,
we’ll build textures for all
of the objects we’ve added
here in this tutorial, bring
in a couple of hi-res cars to
add detail and interest,
and we’ll tweak the fi nal
lighting and shading
arrangements. After some
additional tweaking of the
composition we’ll be ready
to render. We will set up
several render passes, pull
the renders and composite
them in Photoshop.
NEXT
MONTH
66 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
We don’t keep
secrets
Also in this series Now available on
Learn the truth about iPhone, iPad, Android, Photoshop and
more with the Tips & Tricks series’ expert advice and tutorials
www.imaginebookshop.co.uk
Bookazines
eBooks • Apps
iPad
Printed full colour large format book
Kindle
TM
High street Kindle Store ImagineShop.co.uk App Store
HIGH
ST.
BUY IN STORE
Step by step:
Create a spectacular
space battle
The broken armistice
over Abalakin 2005
The studio● Create a spectacular space battle
3ds
Max
Photoshop
Software used in this piece
fi nal_scene_untextured.max
Wireframe setup of the main
scene and some of the textures
used to create the artwork.
68 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
In this tutorial I will go over the process and the
workfl ow that I used to create The Broken Armistice
Over Abalakin, which I made for CGSociety’s Grand
Space Opera Challenge: Icons Of Galactic Civilization And
Confl ict (CG Challenge XVI).
This walkthrough will show beginners as well as advanced
users some ideas and techniques that might be interesting
for their own projects, as well as the work I did with different
programs to achieve a perfect result for their own
compositions and the combination of 3D and 2D elements.
The image was made with 3ds Max Version 7 and
Photoshop CS, although this artwork is very simply
constructed so I think a similar result could be achieved with
an up-to-date version of almost any modelling and imageprocessing
software.
The most important part of creating an artwork is the
idea behind it, and hopefully this walkthrough will show you
some hints that could make your work a little bit easier.
Alexander Preuss is the lead
concept artist for Egosoft GmbH
The model of the
battle cruiser took
three weeks to fi nish and
was one of the toughest
models I had made to
this point
Step by step: Alexander Preuss●The studio
Easy-to-follow guides
take you from concept
to the fi nal render
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
www.abalakin.de
http://vampeta.cgsociety.org
Country Germany
Software used 3ds Max and
Photoshop
Expertise I specialise in classic
science fi ction and fantasy
themes. I like this area, as it
offers a huge amount of
different possibilities.
Alexander Preuss
Username Vampeta
3DArtist ● 69
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create a spectacular space battle
Concepts and design
Planning out the scene first
01 I had the idea of this image for a long time in my head,
and the challenge from CGSociety was a perfect reason for
me to fi nally do it! I painted the fi rst rough concepts in Photoshop
in order to have a good working base. Good concepts can help to
speed up your modelling work as you have a defi ned goal.
02 I started on some rough tests with simple modelling to
fi nd out the best way to create the image and all the
details that were needed to make the image realistic. I decided that
the best way was to model a small part of the whole ring, and then
put them in an array with instanced bodies around the planet.
04 As I started to add details like tiny boxes and pipes on
the surface, I was watching the growing poly count very
carefully. I knew I had to place this segment at least 20 times in an
array to achieve the smooth shape of the ring around the planet’s
surface, so I decided to keep the shape as simple as possible.
03 The base shape
of the ring segment
was extruded from a spline
that I painted in Max. I
modelled only one quarter of
the complete body because
the ring was going to have a
symmetrical form. Modelling
only one quarter saved me a
lot of time. I used the
Symmetry modifi er later to
complete the base shape.
70 ● 3DArtist
It had been a long time since I had made
anything in 3D, so I needed a little warm-up
time at the beginning. The hardest part for me
was the model of the battle cruiser. Because of
the complex form and all the little details that
were needed to make this object believable in
shape and size, I had absolutely no clue of the
best way to start and achieve the fi nal model. I
tried different techniques over several days to
create the basic shape, and during this process
the look of the model radically changed. One of
my earlier versions looked like a bad remake of
Captain Nemo’s Nautilus! I fi gured out that the
best way was to combine different techniques,
like box modelling with a combination of SDS
modelling (subdivision surface modelling),
hard surface modelling and nesting standard
primitives like boxes, tubes and cylinders into
each other.
The model of the battle cruiser took three
weeks to fi nish and was one of the toughest
models I had made up to this point.
Modelling the other objects was more
comfortable because of the simpler geometry,
with the exception of the challenging frigate.
Thanks to the training I had with the cruiser
and the ring, it was quite a bit easier to make
this model, and it took only 20 hours to fi nish.
Modelling the space battle
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Alexander Preuss●The studio
Modelling elements
Creating the ring pieces and textures
06 The next step was the ring station, which was planned
as one of the focal points of the image. I used box
modelling to create the base structure of the surface and the
MeshSmooth modifi er to achieve the desired round shape.
08 Another problem was the physical connection
between the ring and the planet. My idea was that six
stations on the planet surface would hold the ring in orbit. I fi rst
wanted to make it a solid construction, but after a lot of critique in
my WIP thread on CGSociety I decided to make it look more like a
plasma beam that holds the ring in its orbit.
07 After fi nishing the
base shape, I started to
refi ne the body (as previously
done with the ring segment),
and I also started to add tiny
boxes and other details. The
main diffi culty at this stage was
in creating the visual
connection between the actual
station and the previously
fi nished ring segments.
09 The next big part
of the image was the
planet. I used some satellite
images from the NASA Earth
Observatory site to create the
surface. The modelling was the
most relaxing part of the whole
challenge – just three simple
spheres. The city shape was
created in 3ds Max and then
used as a stamp to mask out
the Specular and Bump maps.
05 Texturing the
ring segment was
done with a simple repeated
pattern for the ground surface,
including a Specular map, a
Bump map, a Light map and a
Dirt map on a second texture
channel. The textures were
created in Photoshop, using
a wireframe shot of the
surface elements.
The lighting setup for the scene was one
of the more pleasant parts of the
challenge. I used three Point lights for the
whole scene. The sun in the left part of the
background was a very bright white light
with raytraced shadows. The second one
was a very drab orange/brown light that
was placed on the far-right side, and I
placed a blue light in the centre of the
planet to simulate some bouncing light
from the planet surface. It took me about
two days to fi nd the right balance between
these lights.
One of the problems that came up was
to set up the correct render properties for
some of the 3D models, like the plasma
beam or the cloud layer of the planet. My
fi rst test renders showed up some huge
dark artefacts on the planet surface.
The solution was to exclude the planet
haze from shadow casting and to activate
the Global Supersampling. Unfortunately,
activating the Global Supersampling in 3ds
Max with the Default Scanline Renderer
raised my rendering time to Factor 4 for
the background layer. It took
approximately 10 hours to render the
image at a 4,000 pixel resolution.
Lighting
and rendering
3DArtist ● 71
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Create a spectacular space battle
The finer details
It’s time to make your art come alive
11 Finally, the atmosphere
was set up with two spheres
layered over the ground surface of
the planet. The fi rst one contained
the cloud layer and the second one
contained the haze, which was also
realised with the Falloff shader and
with Fresnel activated. The
material was then set to an
Additive Blend mode.
12 The enemy cruiser was the
other main focal point in the
foreground of the image. Again, I
started to play with some test
geometry to fi nd a good camera
position and lighting setup for the fi nal
artwork. In this early stage I wanted to
add a lot more different ships, but I
dropped most of them due to the very
tough challenge deadline.
15 Near the end of the challenge, I realised that I needed another ship in the
foreground to make the image more interesting. I wanted something smooth and
elegant that would fi t with the rest of the piece, and started with a very rough sketch on
paper that I refi ned in Photoshop.
10 For the clouds I also
used NASA satellite
images. The material setup in
this step was a bit more
advanced. To avoid the clouds
looking too bumpy and dirty, I
faked some self-illumination
with the Falloff shader into the
Max material. I did some tests
with more and less clouds to
fi nd out what looked best.
14 The UV layout was
done with the Unwrap
modifi er. I exported the layout
to Photoshop and used my
Wacom Intuos tablet to paint
the texture set, including Bump,
Specular, Dirt, Light and
Diffuse. I then used three
different standard materials
with different map channels
and texture co-ordinates to
texture the ship.
13 The model of the
cruiser was done with
box modelling and Subdivision
Surfaces, using the
MeshSmooth modifi er. I also
used different techniques for
other parts of the ship, like the
giant sphere in the centre and
the engines. I wanted a very
military look and had some
photos of US Navy ships as a
reference guide.
72 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Step by step: Alexander Preuss●The studio
16 The base shape of the model was done again with
simple box modelling. After getting the shape, I collapsed
the stack and started to refi ne the body, cutting holes inside it and
adding additional details. The Shell modifi er was used on some
areas to achieve a solid look of the mech.
17 At this stage I used raytraced material with Falloff and a
texture setup with Diffuse, Bump and Specular, so the ship
surface wouldn’t look too clean. I used Illustrator to create the
Bump map and Photoshop for the rest. The engine fl ares are made
with a coloured fi re texture and an additive material.
19The fi nal scene was rendered in three separated layers:
the background layer with the planet, asteroids and the ring;
the second layer with the cruiser and the smaller attack ships; and
the foreground layer with the frigate. All layers were rendered with
the Default Scanline Renderer from 3ds Max and took
approximately 16 hours to render.
18 I used three Omni lights for the whole scene. The main
light source is a very bright light, the second comes from the
right side and is a bit drab, while the third one is a blue light in the
centre of the planet to simulate bouncing light from the surface.
20My fi nal touches on the image were made with
Photoshop CS. I placed the rendered elements on different
layers and made some colour corrections and some additional
glow effects, which are easier to paint than to set up in 3D.
Alexander Preuss
In order to spend more
time with my family, my
working area is at home
so they can see me
whenever they want. I
work at Egosoft GmbH
where I’m employed as
lead concept artist.
ArtSisthowcase
Abalakin2 3ds Max
(2007) The continuation of
The Broken Armistice. I
wanted to show how the
giant ring looked inside.
Stonetown Photoshop
(2009) I am currently
working on a new release
from Gene Wolfe’s The Book
Of The New Sun. This is an
illustration of the stone town.
Terran_confl ict
Photoshop (2007) This
work was amatte paintings I
made for the intro of the PC
game Terran Confl ict.
Render time
Resolution:
4,000 x 2200
10 hours
3DArtist ● 73
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The studio● Design a cute cyber-girl in Maya & zbrush
Incredible 3D artists take
us behind their artwork
Personal portfolio site http://next.extra.hu/
Country Hungary
Software used 3ds Max 9, V-Ray, Photoshop
Artist info
Donat Somogyi
74 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
I made this… Donat Somogyi ●The studio
Once when I was cycling through my town,
I discovered an old agricultural factory.
This abandoned place triggered my
imagination – the massive structure on the
top of the garage and the whole feeling of
the place made me feel, quite simply,
spellbound. I later returned to the scene
and took some photographs.
Reforms in
My Country
2008
There were two lights in the scene: a
V-Ray Dome light and a V-Ray Sphere light.
I put an HDRI map into the Dome light
All models were created in
3ds Max using editable poly
geometry – a simple and easy
way to model. I used the most
basic tools to modify the
objects – for example, Extrude,
Chamfer, (Target) Weld, Cut and
so on. As previously mentioned
I took some photos as reference
images, but I also looked for
other images to inspire me and
to get some interesting ideas
Software used in this piece
3ds Max V-Ray Photoshop
CS
The render settings were also
easy and simple. After the render,
I applied the necessary postproduction.
This gave the feeling
to the picture
3DArtist ● 75
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Create a
commercial 3D
illustration
This tutorial will tell you about the creation of the
promotional poster for the Blind Chicken campaign,
which was intended to raise awareness of the
problems the blind have to suffer from obstacles in public
spaces. Especially objects that cannot be made out with the
cane, like low-hanging signs or unusual objects like at a
construction site. These make dangerous obstacles for
those with poor eyesight.
There’s a whole campaign running, and this poster is
the key visual.
01 Concept art
The fi rst thing that needs doing is getting the concept right,
using the guidelines given by the client’s agency. The main
character a as well as the background houses already
existed, as they were part of the previously created short
movie for the TV campaign. The poster
had to grab the attention of viewers on
fi rst sight (visually through composition
and emotionally through drama), give an insight of what the
campaign is about and be humorous, despite the seriousness
of the topic.
02 Client targets
It’s always a good idea to write down a list of the goals you
have to achieve before starting thumbnails to rough out the
concept. Keep the list short but complete. If you come up
with an idea you like but it doesn’t fulfi l all of your goals, try
to improve it or scrap it.
As this was a commissioned artwork, most of the
guidelines were given by the client. You do have to stick to
those, unless you come up with a better idea. But if so, you
have to sell it to them in the concept phase B. Clients usually
don’t like to be surprised on deadline day. If you’re working
on a personal piece then you are more fl exible, but don’t
forget about your concept. Generally speaking, in a good
piece of art every part has to contribute to the main concept
or otherwise be left out.
03 Thumbnail sketches
With all this in mind, start your thumbnails. If you come up
with an idea right away, sketch it and try to play with it. Be
quick with those thumbnails, as the most valuable asset you
have got here is time, not paper C. Don’t rush it, but if you’re
sitting at your desk and thinking about it for hours without
getting ahead, start sketching and throw out ideas, even if
you think they are not worth following, as most of the time
b Don’t cram stuff into the
concept art that distracts
from the message you’re
trying to get across
a “Although I really enjoy
doing digital art, I always go
back to working traditionally,”
says Stanits
Christof Stanits on his work for the Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs charity
This poster is the key visual in the Blind Chicken campaign
charity for the blind and visually impaired
to advertise an online game to raise funds for an Austrian
Blind Chicken 2008
Modelling ,
rigging,
rendering
The studio● Create a commercial 3D illustration
3D artists explain the
techniques behind
their amazing artwork
Artist info
Personal portfolio site
www.stan.at
Country Austria
Software used Maya 2008,
Photoshop
Expertise Concept art,
illustration, CG character
creation
Christof Stanits
Maya Photoshop
Software used in this piece
c Don’t feel that you have to
take on everything by yourself.
Consult with others and get ideas
from every place imaginable
76 ● 3DArtist
c
b
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Behind the scenes: Christof Stanits●The studio
At Lemonaut Creations, we
provide illustrations and
animations for the advertising and
entertainment industry
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
A light matter
The only technical problem was
the sun placed in the
background. It was supposed to
be a graphical element with the
blind sign placed onto it, but
this was scrapped and I had to
deal with a real sun, which
would outshine the whole
image. I wanted to use the
whiteness of the chicken to
make it pop out of the image, so
an object that was too bright
directly behind it would spoil
that effect. In the end, I simply
decided not to go for realism
and just composite the layers to
a pleasing colour composition.
something will evolve out of it. If you can’t get to a point
where you’re satisfi ed, consult with friends or co-workers. If
you come up with an idea you like, consult them as well.
Feedback is very important and most helpful in the concept
phase, as a great concept is much more likely to save a bad
execution than the other way round. Also, the more you like
your concept and the more concrete it is, the easier and
more fun it is to get the image done.
04 Modelling
The modelling of the chicken was done after a concept by
Lemonaut co-founder Stefan Halegger. No big secrets here,
as the modelling of cartoon characters is straightforward
most of the time. Have all your separate parts line up nicely
by using the same edge fl ow where they join up D. Try to get
away with as few polygons as possible, but always think of
providing enough vertices for a decent character setup. Most
important of all is remembering to check your character’s
silhouette from all different angles in order to get a nice fl ow
in form.
05 Rigging
The chicken uses a custom-made character setup allowing
for squashing and stretching of the body and the limbs E.
Even if they’re not used in an animation, I tend to rig the
characters rather than modelling them into a pose. Even with
a very basic rig you do have more control. Also, if you are not
sure about the pose you want to go with, you can store
several poses on different frames and try out which one
works best. If you are not into character setup, you should try
one of the autorigging plug-ins that are available.
06 Background elements
The modelling of the background houses was pretty simple
as well. We started out with loose hand-drawn concepts as
rough guides and took it from there F. It is important to stick
to the given style and to keep the modelling and texturing as
effi cient as possible. Don’t place polygons or texture space
where it’s not necessary, as evenly spread detail on
background elements is not only benefi cial for the render
times but also for the composition itself.
07 Curved background
It was important to evenly subdivide the houses’ wall
polygons, because each of the buildings was stuck into a
lattice deformer to get that cartoonish look into them. All of
the houses were then placed along a curve to provide the
curved background necessary for the image. I was aided by
co-workers Michi Brandstetter and Harald Oesterle with the
modelling of the buildings.
08 Repetitive construction
Also, one repetitive street piece was constructed. The
textures on this one are pretty high-res, as I knew from my
concept that the street would be pretty close to the camera
G. As a general rule, make your diffuse texture big but your
bump bigger. For example, when using a 1,000 colour
texture, I use a 2,000 bump texture for a good result.
g Think of
creating
repetitive
pieces as
saving time,
allowing you to
focus on other
elements more
The studio● Create a commercial 3D illustration
D
Feedback is very important and helpful in the
concept phase, as a great concept is much more likely
to save a bad execution than the other way round
F
E
78 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
The fi nal rendering started with each light in a separate
render pass and one pass for the refl ection with all lights
turned off, but only the HDRI dome visible. The passes
were rendered with Final Gathering on, so set the
camera background colour to black to avoid extra
brightness on each pass. Also, a Z-Buffer pass was
rendered to add the depth-of-fi eld effect in Photoshop.
Lighting the scene
Behind the scenes: Christof Stanits ●The studio
09 Test render
With all the elements fi nished, a new scene was created
where all the parts were combined for the fi nal composition.
The scene was lit with directional and point lights to create
the basic light setup. I did some test renders by which I could
judge the model and texture quality and see where
improvements were necessary. Each night before I went
home during the time creating the image, I started a test
render in full resolution H so I had a new starting point in the
morning from which I could plan my next steps.
10 Displacement map
The manhole was fi rst placed with only a cylinder stuck into
the street to test its position. Once it was decided, a hole was
punched into the street and the manhole was modelled
directly in this scene i. The manhole cover is the only
element that is using a Displacement map. It could have
been modelled just as well, but I thought it would be quicker
this way. The map was simply created in Photoshop using a
black-and-white image.
11 Final render
When all the basic elements were in place, I worked on the
fi nal render setup j. An environmental sphere was placed
and mapped with an image to be used as a refl ection. Be
sure to choose an image that fi ts your colour scheme, as the
elements seen on the image aren’t that important. For
instance, I was using a dawn beach scene. The light on this
image was just right and no one realises it’s actually palm
trees that are refl ecting in the windows. Be sure to turn off
Primary Visibility and cast shadows on the sphere. Even if
the sky was eventually placed in Photoshop, I added it to the
scene on a plane in order to have it visible in the test renders
right away.
Christof Stanits
I am currently working
as the art director at
Lemonaut Creations in
Vienna, where we
provide illustrations
and animations for the
advertising and
entertainment industry.
ArtSisthowcase
Bipa Voodoo Dolls Maya,
ZBrush, Photoshop 2008
This was a collaborative
piece with co-worker Harald
Oesterle. Created for an
advergame, it represents
different cliché characters
that could be tortured
Skeletons, Snakes and
Spirals SketchBook 2009
Drawn with markers in a
sketchbook. I like to do
images like this one from
time to time to help me relax
Test Drive Unlimited Car
Maya, Photoshop 2006
During my time in the games
industry, I was creating a lot
of real-time content. It was
mostly character work, but I
did some of the cars for Test
Drive Unlimited
H “I am running
the company
with partners
Stefan Halegger
and Michi
Brandstetter.
I got into CG as
a digital artist at
a games
company ten
years ago and
have enjoyed it
ever since,”
states Stanits
12 Background fi llers
The test renders also revealed there wasn’t enough going on
in the background. The fi rst thought was to place characters
into the scene, but I soon realised this would raise new
problems. When placing other chickens into the scene, the
main character would lose some of his unique personality
while humanoid characters would be somehow confusing K.
So I decided to go with a truck, which wouldn’t distract too
much. As you can see, only the visible parts have been done
and the truck was fi nished in less than two hours.
K
j
i
3DArtist ● 79
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Lance is a guru on all
things Maya-related.
He’s also the man to go
to for car questions. This
issue he’s tackling the
problem of getting muck
and dirt onto your shiny
metal surfaces
Lance Hitchings
www.hitchingsdesign.com
The Advisors
Automotive Game design
John works on characters
for games at Sega in
California, so there’s not
much he doesn’t know
about detailing low-poly
models. Want to add
fabrics to game models?
He’ll show you how to do it
John Hayes
http://zugok.cgsociety.org/gallery/
Mud splatters and other forms
of grunge can go a long way to
creating a sense of realism in
any render. The best way to
apply mud to car paint is with a Layered
Shader. The main problem is that we want
the car paint to be shiny and refl ective,
and the mud or grunge to be matte and
non-refl ective. Although you might get
there using complicated refl ective and
specular maps, the Layered Shader is a
much easier way to apply these different
types of materials to the same mesh, and
it provides far more control.
01 Create the texture
Of course, to apply any type of texture,
you need a decent UV map of your mesh.
A Bring that into Photoshop and use it as
a template to build your mud or grunge.
There are numerous ways to create
mud or grunge. You can search the web
for images of splattered mud etc, you can
take your own photos or you can paint it in
Photoshop. If you do a search for
‘Photoshop grunge brushes’, you’ll fi nd a
large selection of free brushes to
download that can create some wonderful
grunge and splatter patterns.
I chose a photo of splattered mud for
this example. The fi rst step was to knock it
out from the background and bring it into
the texture fi le with the UV map template.
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
? Need help fast? Join the I’d like to paint some grimy and
grungy textures to use on the hard
surface of a car model. How do I go
about doing this, from creating the
texture at a high enough resolution, to
getting it on the car?
Tomas Berger Bruges, Belgium working in Maya
Creating textures
80 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Your questions answered ●The studio
Characters Your guide
Lee works as a graphics
artist in Dublin and is an
expert at creating funky
fi gures. In his spare time
he creates celebrity
caricature pics and here he
answers your characterbased
Maya questions
Lee Davies
http://leemale.cgsociety.org/
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
I then used the Edit>Transform>Warp tool
to reshape the mud splatter to fi t the
wheel well of my UV mesh.
02 Create the texture fi les
Next, you need to create a couple of
texture fi les: a colour fi le that we’ll plug
into the Diffuse Color slot of our material,
and a B&W mask that goes into the
Transparency slot. For the colour map, I
make the background the same colour as
the car paint, which in this case is black B
with dark purple highlights. That way, if
any edge pixels get into the Shader, they’ll
disappear against the colour of the paint.
03 Build the shader network
Now it’s time to build the shader network.
I started with a Lambert for the mud and
plugged the colour mud map into the
Diffuse Color slot and the transparency
mask into the Transparency slot.
One approach is to start with a mental
ray Car Paint Phenomenon and plug your
mud map into Dirt Color in the Dirt
Parameters, but I’ve never got that to work
very well so I use a Layered Shader. C
First I created the two materials for the car
paint. I used a Ramp Shader for the base
coat, with a sampleInfo node controlling
the purple highlights. I used a transparent
Blinn with very strong highlights as the top
coat, and another sampleInfo node to
create fresnel-like refl ections.
Then I created a Layered Shader. In the
Layered Shader, the left-most material is
on top, so I loaded the ‘Mud’ Lambert fi rst,
the ‘Top Coat’ Blinn next and the ‘Base
Coat’ Ramp Shader last. This gives me the
Ramp Shader on the bottom providing the
colour, the Blinn on top of that providing
specular highlights and refl ections, and the
Lambert on top of that, giving me the mud
and killing highlights and refl ections. The
transparency mask in the Lambert masks
out everything except the mud, letting the
car paint show through where needed.
04 Apply shader and render
Finally, I applied the Layered Shader to the
fender. Maya is inconsistent in displaying a
Layered Shader accurately in the viewport
in the Smooth Shaded mode, so you may
not be clear on how it’s coming together. D
A render is the only way to know for sure.
The consensus is that Layered Shaders
don’t work very well in mental ray, but I’ve
never had much of a problem. You can’t
load mental ray materials into a Layered
Shader, and Caustics & Global Illumination
don’t support Layered Shaders. But there’s
a great workaround for the mental ray
materials. Plug the mental ray material into
the Out Color slot of a Surface Shader, and
plug the Surface Shader into the Layered
Shader. The Surface Shader will inherit the
attributes of the mental ray material and
pass them on to the Layered Shader. You
can use this for any Maya Shader network
that doesn’t support mental ray materials.
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…
A
B
C
D
3DArtist ● 81
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
A good way to simulate clothing
on a character is to start with a
nude body and add costume
detail on top of it. With the body
beneath, it’s easier to get the fabric to look
natural, as it would rest on the body. For
tight clothing it’s quicker to copy the
covered body sections and add edges for
the loose ends; for skin tight clothing you
might need to only add surface wrinkles at
joints etc. For looser/thicker clothing I like
to defi ne the whole volume and silhouette
of the clothing sections. Each added-on
part represents a part of the clothing, eg
one for a shirt, another for pants.
When creating clothing on a nude,
consider the silhouette – clothing should
break up and add to the body shape. Areas
that break up the form as well as help
defi ne the clothing are the sleeve and collar
openings, the waist, belt or pants cuffs. For
thicker fabric, model a few big folds at the
knees, elbows and waist. Bear in mind that
thin fabric usually has many small folds
with sharp bends; thick fabric has fewer,
larger folds with minimal creasing.
01 Tight clothing
A nude base body is used as a
template for clothing volume and form.
Skin tight clothing details are mostly
represented as texture, with volume
added for accessories/edges. For very
tight clothing, it might affect the body by
compressing the surface on fatty or
muscle areas. Line up compression
detail with the body edge loops, then
adjust the body to get a very tight effect.
02 Looser clothing
Using the base body as the
template, looser clothing is created
by using both the base geometry as
well as including additional geometry.
The silhouette and volume change
is much greater, and the clothing
material has a more marked effect
on the shape and folds. Heavy and
loose clothing hides the body
silhouette much more.
03 Adding clothing folds
Using folds effectively to add
fl ow to the clothing helps to complete
the look of the clothing geometry.
Folds should originate from the body
where the joints are near the surface
of the skin, as well as areas of fl exing
and compression. I prefer to defi ne a
few large major folds fi rst and then
add smaller folds if needed, to help
refi ne the clothing.
What’s the best way to go about creating cloth/
fabric clothing for low-poly game models that still
looks realistic and has some movement?
James Cunningham Dundee, Scotland
Soft fabric fun
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
?
Any additional clothing
geometry roughly lines
up with the body
geometry; for very thick
clothing, the body parts
underneath are removed
The folds are defi ned into the
geometry as well as the normal map
and textures. Clothing folds improve
much of the fabric’s fl ow
The fi nal surface of the
clothing helps fi nish off
the look of clothing,
such as smoothness or
roughness, depending
upon the material
it represents
82 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Your questions answered ●The studio
Join the community at www.3dartistonline.com
Ageing skin
Most skin textures I see are very young
and line-free. How do I create a character
that has a much older skin?
Fernando Gomes Austin, Texas
When modelling any character,
regardless of age or appearance,
it’s vital to collect good reference
material at the start, especially
when trying to capture wrinkles and
sagging skin. ZBrush has powerful tools
that allow these to be created quickly and
simply, but sometimes wrinkly models
don’t seem believable. This is often due to
a lack of reference and understanding how
such features move and change according
to facial expression. Photographic
reference was used extensively in our
example. Images of Christopher Walken
from every angle were vital in establishing
the position of forms at the start of the
modelling process. Jowls and folds were
created by subdividing the head several
times, masking edges and cavities, then
extruding, moving and manipulating
geometry to get the right look.
High-res photographic reference of skin
was used during the texturing process.
Firstly to create a colour map (combined
with hand-painting in Photoshop), then
adapted to create an alpha mask for
further detailing in ZBrush. A sub-surface
skin shader was then created, combining
colour maps with bump and specular
maps, and rendered using mental ray.
Sculpting wrinkles
Once basic forms are established, ZBrush
allows the detailing of wrinkles with ease.
Some default alphas and brushes can be
very effective on their own in achieving
bumpy skin effects, but one method
allows the creation of fi ne, accurate wrinkle
detailing that corresponds precisely with a
colour map (photographic or otherwise). By
modifying a high-res colour map (creating a
greyscale version with increased contrast to
emphasise wrinkles) and using the Mask By
Alpha command, details can be brushed
on, using standard and Infl ate brushes to
extrude geometry through the mask.
Converting a
colour map for use
as an alpha mask
to allow precise
wrinkle detail
Using textures
Photographic or hand-painted colour
maps can be applied directly in ZBrush or
via Photoshop using the Zapplink feature.
To achieve effective skin, the surface
should never appear uniform. Create a
base of warm and cool tones by gradually
building up layers (low opacity Scatter
brushes are good for this). For olderlooking
skin especially, you can add
blemishes such as liver spots, capillaries,
etc to further break up any uniformity.
Fine lines, pores and scales can be
achieved through bump-mapping (ideally
these should match the corresponding
colour map). Pay attention to distribution
of pores across the nose and jaw (less
across smooth areas such as cheeks).
Getting the rendering right
When using mental ray for rendering, the
SSS fast skin shader can really bring a
character to life. It replicates the way light
is scattered through layers below the outer
surface of skin by allowing control over a
wide variety of attributes. There are many
good online tutorials that describe this in
detail – but for older looking skin, consider
accentuating translucency by mapping sub
surface layers with further blemishes.
3DArtist ● 83
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Review l Lightwave v9
Lightwave is a huge 3D application with
a dedicated following. Since first
bringing 3D into the mainstream with
the effects for Babylon 5, Lightwave has
ploughed its own furrow with an interface
that looks nothing like any other Windows
package, and a toolset that competes
powerfully with the likes of Maya and Max.
But can it hold its own in a world dominated
by Autodesk?
Unlike other 3D apps, Lightwave is split
into two packages – one for modelling and
one for layout, rendering and animation.
While this does lead to a fair bit of juggling
back and forth as you add elements to your
scene and work on models, it also means
less clutter on the desktop.
Lightwave manages to give over virtually
your whole monitor to workspace, with just a
strip of menus down the left-hand side, a
couple of buttons at the bottom for selecting
Edit modes and a few tabs at the top. The
left-hand menus change depending on the
Lightwave v9 £707
A staunchly independent 3D application with its own
approach to just about everything comes under scrutiny
tab you select and package you’re operating
in. They can also be altered, allowing you to
choose preset layouts depending on your
needs. However, they’re pretty quick to pick
up, and you soon get to know where you can
find what you’re looking for.
Another of the idiosyncrasies of Newtek
and Lightwave is that it doesn’t progress in
quite the same way as most packages. With
most programs, you’ll get version 8 followed
by version 9, and if they fix a few bugs in the
meantime you might get version 8.5. With
Lightwave, there’s not the slightest
correlation between the version numbers
and the extent of the upgrade.
Version 9.5 was a massive overhaul from
9.4. Version 9.6 is an upgrade but not a
revolution. 9.7 might be a minor tweak or a
totally new package – or they may just decide
to call it 5.2 for a laugh. It makes no sense.
Lightwave does stand up to its
competition in general terms. It contains
everything you’d expect from a professional
3D application. It has fast, usable subdivision
modelling tools (they could be more
comprehensive, but they’re up to the job). It
has a raft of other modelling options, strong
dynamics, IK and animation toolsets. There
are powerful lighting, materials and
rendering functions, and enough detailed
control over everything to satisfy even the
most demanding studio.
Over the last few upgrades, under a new
programming team, Lightwave has really
focused on rewriting the core code of the
program to make it faster, stronger and more
stable. Version 9.6 is really the culmination
of that work.
The render engine was rewritten a while
back, but now the results of that rewrite have
made their way fully into the UI, so rendering
is much faster. However, you still need to
know your way around the renderer before
you can get the best out of it.
Optical rendering is the big news here,
with the ability to mimic the properties of
Lightwave can produce
some stunning images,
and it’s faster than
most of its competitors
84 l 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Lightwave v9 ●Review
any camera or lens. This is useful if you’re
hoping to match CGI with shot footage, and
can also add an extra touch to pure CGI
renders. Optical rendering also means
motion blur and depth of fi eld are part of the
core of the renderer, so they don’t cause the
crippling render times you may be used to.
Photometric lights were introduced about
a year ago, and have now been upgraded to
give more accurate lighting if you’re working
with real-world scenes.
Lightwave’s Dynamics and IK are both
better than they used to be (although Maya
still beats them in a straight fi ght) and the
hypervoxels tools have been de-bugged.
Hypervoxels are one of Lightwave’s most
eye-catching tools – they’re a simple method 8/10
Features ...............................8/10
Ease of use ...........................7/10
Quality of results .............9/10
Value for money ..............8/10
Our verdict
An underrated
3D application with
its own unique way
of doing things
of modelling effects that are complex but
transparent. Effects such as smoke and fi re.
By using hypervoxels you can create a cloud
which is realistic in full 3D, and you can fl y
the camera around and through it
(something you can’t do with traditional
opacity mapping). Lightwave’s hypervoxels
are easy to use (although they can be slow
to render).
All in all, Lightwave is a strong contender
and cheaper than its rivals, Max and Maya.
It’s unique in its layout and approach, and
its manual seems to be designed to hide
rather than highlight its features. However,
it’s not as tough to learn as this would
suggest, and the power and range of its
features is impressive
There is enough detailed control over
everything to satisfy the most demanding studio
Final
Score
www.newtek-europe.com
● £707 (795 euros)
OPTIMAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
(PC)
● Windows XP, Windows Vista,
● 1GB RAM
● 128MB Video RAM
(MAC)
● Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther
● Power PC G4
Essential info
Hypervoxels allow
for realistic smoke
and fi re effects
Unusually, Lightwave’s
modelling and layout tools
are divided into two
separate packages
The IK system enables the
user to have fi ne control
over their characters
3DArtist ● 85
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Review l Bonzai3d
Bonzai3d $500
This easy-to-use modeller makes fast work of man-made objects
Bonzai3d is a simple modelling
program aimed at creating quick and
easy 3D sketches. If you want to build
objects for use in other 3D packages, it’s a
rapid and reliable way to do it. In terms of
complexity, the package sits somewhere
between Daz Studio and Carrara, but its
style owes more to Google Sketchup.
Bonzai3d offers a robust toolset designed
to make short work of most modelling jobs,
along with an easy system for adding extra
content and export options compatible with
all the most popular 3D applications.
The interface becomes second nature
pretty quickly. Icons at the top right allow
you to navigate. Tools down the left-hand
side let you create and manipulate objects,
and palettes to the right give you detailed
numerical control over your scene, tools and
currently selected objects. It’s all quick to
learn and fairly self-explanatory.
You can also have more than one model
open at the same time, and you can copy
and paste models and elements between
them, so it’s easy to work on parts of a
complex model in separate windows.
Bonzai3d’s concentration on modelling
means it can keep its toolset relatively simple
and focus on making objects that
are geometrically robust, so you don’t have
to spend a lot of time messing about with
your model once you get it into your
rendering package.
Drawing 3D shapes in 2D is surprisingly
easy – just click to create a line, then drag to
extrude it out into a 3D object. Manipulating
objects once you’ve created them is simple
too – just decide whether you’re altering
points, lines or faces and drag away. There
are basic chamfer, taper and offsetting tools
for creating detail, but not a huge amount of
fine control over extruding, bevelling and
adding new surfaces, edges and points.
Functions such as mirroring and Boolean
operations allow you to carve and duplicate
parts of your model, and basic nurbs tools
along with pretty comprehensive curve
drawing options are also included.
The Bonzai3d approach does succeed in
making very clean models, but it’s limiting if
you’re used to a full subdivision surfaces
toolkit. You can create soft, organic shapes
with Bonzai3d, but its tools do lend
themselves more to man-made structures
and straight lines.
The package contains instant tools for
building roofs, stairs and windows, and 2D
stylised figure and tree cutouts are available
for sprinkling around your scene at a
moment’s notice. If you want more content,
you can search and download additional
models online from within the package. This
You’ll find that Bonzai3d offers a fast and reliable method of creating quick
3D sketches, with an easy-to-follow interface and strong toolset
Bonzai3d allows you to
view your models with
basic shadows
86 l 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Bonzai3d●Review
www.bonzai3D.com
● $500
OPERATING SYSTEMS
● Windows Vista, OS X
OPTIMAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
● Not available
Essential info
7/10
Features ...............................6/10
Ease of use ..........................8/10
Quality of results .............7/10
Value for money ..............6/10
Our verdict
Easy and quick
to pick up, but
expensive and
lacking in features
Quick and easy
You can produce basic models very quickly with a combination of sketching and
other modelling tools
Convenient copying
Having several fi les open at once allows you to copy and paste object elements
between models
Bonzai3d is most suited to modelling geometric
shapes rather than natural ones
Bonzai3d
is really aimed
more at the
architect than
the artist
The package
offers oneclick
creation
of stairs, 2D
people and
other
architectural
elements
Final
Score
The good & the bad
✓ Fast modelling
✓ Easy to pick up
✓ Strong range of import/
export fi letypes
✘ Relatively pricey
✘ Limited subdivision tools
✘ Limited UV mapping
✘ Viewport rendering could
be more developed
makes building a more complex scene a
much quicker process.
Bonzai3d’s focus on modelling means
there are no animation tools and no
rendering engine. You can display your work
as a line drawing or add basic textures
(image maps, but no bump or opacity
mapping). Simple shadows are rendered
so that you can see what you’re working
with as you model, but don’t expect ZBrushstyle
previews.
All this means the product is absolutely
dependent on its ability to swap models with
other programs. It has 3ds Max, OBJ, DXF
and Lightwave formats built in, and they all
work very well. It’s also able to produce STL
fi les (for 3D printers) and a good range of
other formats if you need them.
In short, Bonzai3d is a strong but simple
modeller. It would make a good companion
to, for example, Poser or Vue, but it’s aimed
more at the architect than the artist. If you’ve
got a lot of buildings and machines to
construct quickly, it’s a worthwhile piece of
kit to have around. If you’re into 3D humans,
there are better tools out there.
3DArtist ● 87
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Review roundup l Xara3D 6
Xara3D 6 $29
The easy way to create 3D text for use as logos, web banners, buttons and titles has
just been made more affordable
www.xara.com
l Download
Optimal systems
l Windows 98+
Optimal system requirements
l 1GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 50MB HD space
Essential info
7/10
Features................................6/10
Ease of use............................9/10
Quality of results..............7/10
Value for money................7/10
Our verdict
Very easy to use,
lots of options, some
pretty impressive
results but still a little
limited
Final
Score
Xara3D version 6 wasn’t exactly
expensive, but Xara has decided to
come up with an even cheaper
version. It’s time for a download, sans CDs,
box, manual and Webster CD, but saving
you $20. If you still want the box copy it’s
there, but this is the no-frills option. Xara3D
creates text headlines and logos in 3D, but
does it instantly, in real-time, so any changes
will show up instantly. It’s also the easiestto-
use 3D app you’ve ever seen.
For example, there’s text on the screen
when you start. Just click on it to change it to
your own lettering. It’s also presented in one
of the five styles available, so from this point
it’s just a case of tweaking and changing the
presets to get the look you want.
Text options are at the top of the display
window, allowing font choices, alignment,
kerning and leading and size. The simplest
option is to fit the text to the pre-defined
object area. Down the left side are creative
options for colour, extrusion, design, bevel,
shadows, textures and animation. Selecting
one brings up its options on the right side
and activates the relevant tool, so aspects of
the image can be edited in real-time.
The five display options are to present the
text as is, to place it on a button, to make the
button into a board so that text stands off it,
to use a board and knocking the text out of
it, and finally to use the text and the border
from the board to go around it. This is rather
like a house number sign. If this sounds good
but limited, you’re missing the bigger picture.
The program has an inbuilt collection of
shapes for the board design and can also
import totally freeform shapes. There is a
great collection of whacky designs to throw
at the text, and they aren’t constrained to the
limits of the text – they can be any shape.
Now we did say this is 3D text, and indeed
it is. Not only can the edges and depth of the
text be tweaked, the entire logo can be
rotated through 3D space, which impacts on
the light. Yes, there are three lights that are
equally movable, though limited in terms of
power, but as they operate in 3D space as
well, you can move a light around the back of
the logo and get it to shine through the holes
in it. This all happens in real-time, which is a
very powerful and handy way of working.
Finally, text can be exported at your
specified resolution in a variety of formats
(but not PSD or TIFF). It can also be set up
for animation, so the file formats for the web
(GIF and Flash) can make use of it. There are
presets for animation that get the text to
jiggle around in a large number of ways.
Xara3D is a one-trick pony, but it does
that trick so very well that if you need a still
or animated logo for print or web, you’ll be
hard-pressed to find another package that
does it better or faster.
There is
a great collection
of whacky
designs to throw
at the text
There’s a wide
range of
surface
textures to add
to the text –
here’s a woodlike
finish
Arranging the position of the lights in three-dimensional
space so they can shine through cut-out holes
88 l 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
DAZ3D Girl 4, Armari Magnetar NDX Workstation ●Review roundup
DAZ3D Girl 4 $29.95-$99.95
There’s a new girl on the block and she’s ready for action
Say what you like about DAZ, the company is
all about value. Here’s the latest Unimesh
fi gure to be released that works as an add-on
to the Victoria 4.2 model for DAZ Studio. Victoria
4.2 is a free download, so you then have the choice
of the Base pack at $29.95, the Starter pack at
$49.95 or the Girl 4 Pro bundle at a more walletstraining
$99.95. Well, that’s what regular folk have
to cough up – because we’ve got the Base pack
on our disc for you for free! And next month we’ll
have a pile of goodies to go with it, so you can all go
Girl crazy.
So what’s this character all about then? Well,
one look at the fi gure should give you an idea that
it’s not realism that’s the order of the day, it’s
curves and cleavage to the max, with over-large
eyes and a cutesy expression. The install is pretty
simple, going straight into your DAZ Studio content
folder and then the fi gure is available in the DAZ
People folder inside the program, though if it
doesn’t appear then do a search for content.
Of course it’s not the fi gure that’s the critical
element here, it’s the stuff you get with it. In the
case of the Base pack that includes 15 poses, 15
expressions, Puppeteer presets, a Toon texture and
one set of hair. The Starter pack really ramps things
up with 30 additional poses, a make-up pack that
can really differentiate your model, a couple of
character variations, another hairstyle and two
sexy outfi ts. For those with deep pockets, the Pro
bundle offers pretty good value, with over $262
worth of stuff. There’s everything from the Starter
pack, another 30 hand poses and face poses each,
a Long Toon Braids hairstyle, Caramella hairstyle,
two new character variations and three sets of
fantastic clothing outfi ts.
As usual, it’s down to you what you make of this,
but the fi gure is a light-hearted, full-fi gured model
that’s there to create sexy images. Load the base
model on our disc and add elements you need.
Here she is stripped down
to the basics. Add clothes
and props and backgrounds,
then pose away
Armari Magnetar NDX
Workstation £3,214.25
Get a super-charged PC for your rendering needs
If you move into architectural visualisation or
are knocking out renders for profi t, time is
money and investing in a dedicated workstation
could pay dividends. That’s what we have here from
Armari, a dual-CPU motherboard with each CPU
slot hosting an Intel Xeon E5530 2.4GHz Quad-core
CPU. It supports DDR3 1066/1333 ECC memory
with four sets of three DIMM slots for maximum
effi ciency. It can support two sets of three at
DDR3-1333 with one set per processor, or
four sets of three at DDR-1066 with
two sets per processor. In this
installation you get 2GB
of DDR3-1333 ECC
registered SDRAM
which, considering
you’re paying over
three grand and
memory is cheap,
is a little tardy.
You do get a fast PNY QuadroFX1800 PCIExpress
graphics card with a handsome 768MB of
on-board DDR3 RAM with a bandwidth of 38.4GB/
sec and 64 CUDA processor cores. Plus it’s OpenGL
3, DirectX10 and Shader Model 4.0 compliant.
The Samsung SATA-II hard drive offers 1TB (yes, a
terabyte). There are two other features you need in a
workstation, and that’s a big chassis so there’s plenty
of airfl ow and a top-rated PSU. In the
Magnetar you get one big case fan
for sucking air in and three big ones
for pumping warm air out. The PSU
is rated at a wire-melting 1000W
and it all runs quietly enough.
There’s a clutch of USB, Firewire
and Flash media inputs. The system
runs Windows Vista Business 64-
bit and has a year’s on-site warranty
and a second year RTB, parts and
labour service. Workstations aren’t
cheap, but for rendering power
allied to a relatively quiet machine,
the Magnetar’s worth consideration.
Features ................................7/10
Ease of use ..........................8/10
Quality of results .............7/10
Value for money ..............8/10
Our verdict
Bringing sexy
back to the world of
inexpensive posing
and rendering
7/10
Final
Score
www.daz3d.com
8/10
Final
Score
Features ................................9/10
Ease of use ..........................8/10
Quality of results .............9/10
Value for money ............76/10
Our verdict
Plenty of
processing bang for
your buck, a fast prolevel
graphics card,
massive HD and a quiet
performer too
www.armari.com
The Armari
Magnetar means
serious business
3DArtist ● 89
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
If you only ever buy one book on
designing 3D art for videogames,
make it this one. Game Art Complete
is exactly what it says. As the cover
states, it will help you to learn “Maya,
3ds Max, ZBrush and Photoshop
winning techniques.” So if you want to
succeed at three-dimensional game
design, think of this as the tutorial level
at the beginning.
Edited by Andrew Gahan, the book is
broken down into sections based on
both tools and particular effects. Some
of these are written by Gahan, some by
other experts in particular fi elds, and
the tutorials have been collected from a
number of specialist titles from the
same publisher, Focal Press.
Nonetheless, this isn’t a simple
rehashing of old content – Game Art
Complete aims to be a potted guide to
the essentials of 3D for games, and it
fulfi ls this brief admirably.
The book kicks off with the simplest
task of all – creating a plain box in
Maya. From there, you’ll move onto oil
drums. You might think this sounds
about as inspiring as week-old milk, but
think of the shapes involved. The cube
and the cylinder form the basis of many
other shapes and many other objects –
and anyway, think about the amount of
boxes and oil drums you see in the
average FPS game.
From there, it starts to get far more
interesting. You’ll learn how to create
texture maps from photos and how to
map objects in general. The book then
diverts into the territory of concept art
and refreshingly shows the build-up of
a concept design from fairly lacklustre
hand-drawn sketches into something
much more polished. From concept art
you’ll then move on to creating
accurate anatomy, useful for creating
both realistic and deliberately
unrealistic models.
It’s only after this point that you hit
the chapter entitled A Basic (Game)
Art Education, and this looks at the
fundamentals of more traditional art
and design and how you can use and
apply them. It’s at this point that the
book really starts getting to grips with
more advanced software and
techniques – up until now it has kept
you in the nursery playground of basic
object design and mapping. The rest of
the chapters are heavily focused on
Maya, but you will be able to fi nd some
great resources on modelling in ZBrush
as well as combining Photoshop and
3ds Max.
Review roundup ● Book reviews
Game Art Complete £34.99
An essential all-in-one guide to object-based game design for beginners
FIGURES
Much of the more advanced content in
Game Art Complete focuses on designing
characters, both realistic and unrealistic as
the broad spectrum of games incorporates
both equally
TEXTURE MAPPING
Environment design is largely limited to
creating texture maps rather than full-scale
in-game worlds. Once you have mastered
the art of these, you may become frustrated
at not being able to test yourself further
MAYA TECHNIQUES
A lot of the content in this book is based
around Maya, but there are also tutorials for
ZBrush, Photoshop and 3ds Max. As these
are the key programs used in the industry, it
gives the reader a great starting point
START SMALL
A chapter on concept art starts with simple
line drawings done by hand, reinforcing the
need for good illustration skills. After all,
most digital artists come from a background
of traditional art
Iis GREAT FOR BEGINNERS
AUTHOR
● Andrew Gahan
PRICE
● £34.99
PUBLISHER
● Focal Press
ISBN NUMBER
● 978-0-24081147-5
info
With its potted guides to the
basics of 3D design, game
modelling and the products
you’ll be using, the book is
ideal for beginners
90 ● 3DArtist
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Book reviews ●Review roundup
Introducing Maya 2009 £26.99
A beginner’s guide to using Autodesk Maya
This is Maya 2009. It’s pleased
to meet you. Yes, with a title like
this, the subject matter and
authorial stance of Introducing Maya
2009 is completely obvious. That
makes it another technical tome that’s
great for beginners just getting to grips
with Autodesk’s Maya software. It’s
published through Autodesk’s own
imprint at Sybex, so you can be
confi dent that it has been created by
someone who knows their way around
the product.
Like Game Art Complete this is
another slow burner, taking three
chapters to introduce you to the
concepts behind 3D design and the
ideas that infl uenced the software
before actually allowing you to get your
hands dirty. This slow progression can
be a bit frustrating if you want to dive
straight into designing in Maya, but it’s
worth taking the time to read right the
way through it.
Deconstructing the
Elements with 3ds
Max £29.99
Discover how to create earth, air, fi re and
water – without expensive plug-ins
The dramatic elements that
make up both the real world
and any number of imagined
ones continue to fascinate 3D
designers. Fire, wind, water, volcanoes
and their ilk can provide stunning
backdrops or help to create immersive,
dramatic scenes in movies, animations
and games. The aim of this book, now
in its third edition, is to teach you how
to produce effects like these in 3ds
Max without using plug-ins. It jumps
straight in there and teaches you how
to make fi re.
Other subjects include soap bubbles,
ice and the surface of Mars. Tutorials
are simple step-by-step affairs and
each chapter ends on a ‘Taking It
Further’ advisory, which suggests more
ways for you to build on these effects.
RENDERING TIPS
Introducing Maya 2009 is a slow starter but
progresses through Maya techniques
logically, ending with information on rendering
and dynamics
SOURCE FILES
The accompanying disc is packed full of
source fi les and projects for the reader to
work through, helping them get to grips with
the 3D program
INSPIRATION FOR
BEGINNERS
The Beginner’s Gallery
showcases what is
possible for beginners
to produce with Maya
after only a relatively
short time
TRANSPARENT BUBBLES
Not all of the subjects covered are dramatic
ones. This chapter looks at how to create soft,
drifting soap bubbles – normally complex to
create without the use of expensive plug-ins
ROCKY TEXTURES
Deconstructing the Elements with 3ds Max also
looks at rocky textures such as planetary
surfaces, as well as how to create the effect of
weathering on mountains
SOLAR FLARE
The fi re segment includes fl ames, sparks,
afterburners and the surface of the sun
AUTHOR
● Dariush Derakhshani
PRICE
● $39.99US
PUBLISHER
● Autodesk Maya Press/
Sybex
ISBN NUMBER
● 978-0-470-37237-1
info
AUTHOR
● Pete Draper
PRICE
● £29.99
PUBLISHER
● Focal Press
ISBN NUMBER
● 978-0-240-52126-8
info
3DArtist ● 91
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
£250 OF STOCK IMAGES
PLUS: 5 CS4 VIDEO TIPS
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
FREE ON CD
To order your copy or set up a subscription online visit www.imagineshop.co.uk
Every issue includes / Free CD / Insightful interviews
/ Skilful tutorials / Latest products reviewed And much more…
ON SALE NOW!
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
• • Photoshop cutout techniques
• Edit video in CS3/CS4 Extended
• Retouching architectural images
• In-depth feature on retro graphics
• £250 worth of stock imagery on the CD
Head-to-head masterclass
Issue 57 includes:
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion and education
Little Runaway Princess
Jack Zhang
Personal portfolio site
http://jackzhang.cgsociety.org/gallery/
3DArtist ● 93
inside
Daren Horley
Industry news
All the software releases and updates, events and
prize-giving news from around the 3D world
094 News
100 Insider interview
Each issue we quiz an industry pro on
how they got to be where they are today.
This month, the lead texture and matte
painter at Framestore is in the hot seat
Lionhead Studios
The people who brought you Fable II and
expansion content Knothole Island explain how
they went about creating the sumptuous
graphics for the game
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
No mixing messy paint,
no cleaning a clogged
airbrush or cutting masking
film with a scalpel. An Undo
button, brilliant!
Daren Horley, lead texture artist at
Framestore on moving to Photoshop from
traditional media. Page 100
Staffordshire
University
Come to the Potteries to
see the BSc (Hons) Digital
Film and 3D Animation
Technology course. It
delivers a wide range of
topics, using industrystandard
technologies
103 Uni Focus
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
It has long been argued that videogames may be
responsible for the failing health of today’s
youngsters, but a recent survey shows this
might not be the case.
In fact, research now seems to point towards the
general health, social and career benefi ts gaming
can provide. Chief among these are improved handeye
coordination, faster reaction times, and
improved patience, creativity and precision.
In tandem with this
report has come the news
from Autodesk of the
release of 3ds Max 2010
Software. Previous
incarnations have been
used to create 3D artwork
for videogames including
Fallout 3, Gears of War 2
and Prince of Persia, and
this latest version
introduces around 350
additional features aimed at the 3D modelling,
animation and rendering segment.
At a pricey £3,050 for a 3ds Max 2010 licence, this is
likely to appeal to professional artists and graphics/
VFX companies only. There will be a special four
page review of Max 2010 in the next issue of 3D Artist.
Among key new features are a graphite modelling
and texturing system that has introduced hundreds
of creative tools over previous versions, as well as a
near photo-real quality from the render effects in the
viewport display. This will allow users to view
render-like effects including soft-shadowing,
exposure control and ambient occlusion.
Another big new addition is the xView Mesh
Analyzer that lets programmers quickly identify
overlapping vertices or open edges, and helps ensure
projects are correct and ‘game ready’ more easily.
Available from spring this year, more details and
product videos can be seen at www.autodesk.com.
Autodesk unveils
new application
New 3D software will provide ultimate
gaming experience
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & educationNews
94 ● 3DArtist
C View videos of the new
software on Autodesk’s
YouTube Channel or via
the developer’s website
B Tweak every
aspect of your
project using the
sliders. Alter
refl ections,
shadows
and more
B
C
A Check render-like effects as
you work – here Exposure
Control can be tweaked
to perfection
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Having been used in the
creation of mega movies such
as Monsters vs Aliens, The
Curious Case of Benjamin Button,
Watchmen and the Matrix trilogy, the
Houdini family of animation
software has a great 3D track record.
Now Side Effects Software, the
makers behind the magic, has released
Houdini 10 for individual artists and
creative studio setups alike. Designed
to increase productivity by allowing
users to slice up and distribute fl uid
simulations over a network of
computers, Houdini will enable 3D
artists to create projects at a much
larger scale and size than a single
computer can usually handle.
Priced from $99 (or free as part of the
Houdini Apprentice program), it’s not
aimed only at the professional market
though, and this is proven through the
Houdini makes
3D magic
For lone users or creative studios
integration of some pre-made effects.
Pyro FX, part of the tenth Houdini
edition, will help artists to create great
smoke and fi re effects, including the
ability to use the presets of Billowy
Smoke and Fireball – so even those new
to 3D can create something spectacular.
Another handy new function is the
Interactive Photorealistic Rendering
feature, providing feedback to 3D artists
so that when objects are tweaked,
changed or moved, the software will
highlight this and help identify what
lighting changes need to be made.
Our other favourite new function is
the Crumpling and Tearing simulation
in the Cloth Solver feature – which
affects dentable and elastic surfaces in
3D imagery, giving a realistic fi nish.
Available for all the major platforms,
you can download the software now.
Visit www.sidefx.com for full details.
Houdini will enable 3D artists to create
a single computer can usually handle
projects at a much larger scale and size than
3DArtist ● 95
e Create realistic fi re
and smoke effects
with ease, or choose
from the presets for
a click-and-go
option
To advertise in workspace3D please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or
cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
d The Cloth Solver
helps you map dents
and tears in your onscreen
material for a
realistic end effect
Ozone open beta
E-on Software releases Ozone 4.0
Calling all 3ds Max, CINEMA4D, Lightwave, Maya
or Softimage users: E-on Software has released a
free, open beta version of its Ozone 4.0 plug-in.
Fully functional, the Ozone 4.0 atmospheres
behave exactly like natural elements, giving artists a
more realistic 3D project. These elements include
realistic 3D clouds as well as accurate lighting. And
for those users still getting to grips with 3D reality,
there are 150 predefi ned atmospheres to choose
from, giving you accurate weather, sunrises, nighttime
effects and more, and 140 preset cloud shapes.
For full details and to fi nd out how to get your free
beta version, visit www.e-onsoftware.com/ozone.
Gaming centre of
excellence
Abertay and Peking join forces
2009 sees the start of a new era in videogame
creation, after Peking University’s School of
Software and Microelectronics signed a partnership
with Abertay’s Scottish Centre of Excellence for
Computer Games Education. Proving the high regard
for both universities in their fi eld, this move will gain
further recognition for the UK games industry.
Globally, the computer games and interactive
entertainment industry is worth $47 billion, and is still
growing, providing both income and employment to
thousands in many countries around the world.
Find out more about the partnership via Abertay
University’s website at www.abertay.ac.uk.
D
NEWS ● WOR K SPACE
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
It was in the autumn of 2004 when players of
Microsoft’s initial version of the Xbox video
game system were treated to their fi rst
glimpse of Albion, the otherworldly setting of
Fable. It quickly became the fastest-selling
game on Xbox. Sales of the game in which a
player’s every decision defi nes who he or she
becomes exceeded three million units.
Now a division of Microsoft, the team at Lionhead
Studios has upped the already formidable ante with
the release of Fable II for the Xbox 360. Packed with
new life and character-altering choices and
decisions, Fable II provides epic enhancements to the
larger-than-life story, innovative real-time gameplay
and sumptuous-looking environment famous from
the fi rst version.
After six years of mind-bending work, most people
might like to take an extended break. However, even
before fi nishing the fi rst Fable game, the Lionhead
team members already knew how they wanted to
improve the game experience, as well as the way
they created the game. “Yes, we were pretty tired,”
admits Ian Lovett, technical art director at Lionhead
Studios. “Fable was a six-year-long monster of a
project for us, but it was also the greatest experience
most of us ever had. The success of the game didn’t
change the fact that we wanted the sequel to be more
creative and open than the original. At the same time,
we knew we didn’t want to spend another six years
on this one. We needed to fi gure out where we were
wasting time.”
There’s nothing like success to boost confi dence,
and Lovett admits that Fable’s obvious popularity
made the Lionhead team much more daring for the
sequel. “More than anything else, we wanted to
break down the barrier between player and game,”
he says thoughtfully. “Role-playing games (RPGs) can
be very intimidating to new players, and we hoped to
open their minds and get them involved in the
shortest period of time. In retrospect, we probably
didn’t anticipate just how challenging that would be.”
To bring the new game to the Xbox 360, Lionhead
needed to rewrite its tools. It therefore seemed like a
good time to re-evaluate its toolset to ensure what it
was using fi tted as closely as possible with its
requirements and would allow it to achieve
everything it envisaged for Fable II.
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Feature
2008 Fable II Xbox 360
2006 The Movies Stunts and
Effects PC (add-on)
2006 Black & White 2: Battle of
the Gods PC (add-on)
2005 The Movies PC
2005 Black & White 2 PC
2005 Fable: The Lost Chapters
PC and Xbox
2004 Fable Xbox
2002 Black & White: Creature
Isle PC (add-on)
2001 Black & White PC
Here’s a quick guide to
Lionhead’s gaming
résumé, which includes
the classic Black & White
96 ● 3DArtist
Duncan Evans talks to Ian Lovett and the Lionhead
team about Fable II and the new download content
Fable II
A Despite nearly six years of
imaginative and technical
development, the Fable
creative team of 30 artists
at Lionhead Studios –
previously known as Big
Blue Box – possessed
modest expectations for
their labour of love
a
b
Lionhead is a
developer in
England and is
now a part of
Microsoft Studios
Project Fable II plus download
content
Description A third-person
fantasy adventure with a
massive sprawling landscape,
weird and wonderful creatures
and lots of moral choices.
Knothole Island download
content was released in
January, and new DLC, See the
Future, in May
Country UK
Publisher Microsoft Studios
Software used Softimage
Key people
Ian Lovett
Fable franchise
art director
Ian Faichnie
Character and creature
art manager
Mark Smart
Lead environment artist/art
director DLC
www.lionhead.com
effi cient, more organised and, as a result, even more
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
“We looked at a lot of packages,” continues Lovett.
“But Autodesk’s Softimage seemed to be the best fi t. It
had excellent modelling tools as well as extremely
fl exible animation. It also allowed our artists to
easily write bespoke tools. This was great for helping
us to create a customised pipeline quickly and
effi ciently. Getting up and running quickly was a
primary concern but moving over went very
smoothly. The tool is easy to pick up and our new
pipeline was implemented very quickly. New artists
joining the team now can get up to speed with the
software in just a couple of weeks.”
One of the biggest challenges the team faced in
making Fable II was the sheer volume of creatures
and characters they needed to create. “We had
hundreds of villagers – who were split into heads,
torsos and legs – as well as a bunch of secondary
Fable was a six-year-long
monster of a project, but it was
also the greatest experience
3DArtist ● 97
B Changing the software
wasn’t something the
Fable II crew decided on
lightly, particularly as
none of the team had any
experience in the recent
versions of the software
C It’s worth noting that a team
of just two technical artists and
two riggers accomplished the
enormous task associated with
handling, rigging and exporting
objects to the game itself
D Since the Fable II hero or
heroine changes
appearance throughout
the game, the team had
morphs to consider. They
created a single rig to get
the best performance,
using tools developed in
Softimage
E See the Future will give
players the chance to come
face-to-face with new
characters, creatures,
events and legendary
artefacts
d
f
To advertise in workspace3D please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or
cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
E
c
WOR K SPACE ● F E ATUR E
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
One of the biggest challenges the team faced in
making Fable II was the sheer volume of creatures
and characters they needed to create
Looking into every dimension of making money from your hard work
F Ian Lovett points to
Softimage’s interoperability
with other applications: “The
fact that we can talk to other
applications, including 3ds
Max, ZBrush and Adobe
Photoshop, has given us a
powerful framework for jobs
like Fable II”
h The Lionhead Studios team
wanted to allow players to
choose their gender and to
add more freedom to fully
explore a world that is far
bigger, richer and deeper
than the original
Feature
98 ● 3DArtist
i Lionhead’s production pipeline is
seamlessly integrated into
Softimage through custom
toolbars and support tools. “All of
our rigs and meshes are
annotated with custom properties
containing valuable extra
information for the game engine,”
says Ian Faichnie
G
I
H
g As well as the vast amount of
characters involved, central
to Fable II is each player’s
faithful companion – an
unerringly loyal canine to
accompany players from
childhood through the life of
the game
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
characters, creatures and enemies,” says Ian
Faichnie, character and creature art manager on
Fable II.
The characters and creatures also varied
drastically in size and fundamental characteristics.
This meant the team was faced with a potentially
prohibitive number of animations. “We created a
deformation hierarchy in our principle rig,” says
Faichnie. “We would read out all transformation data
in XML. Instead of reading straight transformation
data, however, we calculated the size of the offsets
between our template character and the specifi c
character being animated. That way, we were able to
export all our individual characters, regardless of
their proportions, to the correctly sized skeleton.”
One feature of Softimage that helped out was the
Generalised Attribute Transfer Operator or GATOR.
“GATOR has been especially useful,” says Lovett. “It
allowed us to transfer vertex weighting data from
one model to another with one easy method. We also
had huge amounts of assets that required complex
skinning. GATOR helped us form a base from which
to start, saving us a massive amount of time.”
In January 2009 Lionhead released Knothole
Island, the fi rst free content download for Fable II. For
Mark Smart, lead environment artist/art director
DLC, it posed a number of challenges. “We wanted
Knothole Island to be different from the main game
but still retain the main elements that make Fable II
fantastic, such as multiple quests and moral choices,”
says Smart. “To achieve this we had to create a
unique setting, as well as fi nding a clever way of
giving the player more items, costumes
and weapons.”
The success of Knothole Island
cemented the team’s decision to
create another download. Released
in May, See the Future gives players
the chance to heed the call for a
hero to restore colour and balance to
the world, or else let Albion fall to
the wayside. If they succeed
they’ll get the ultimate
reward – a quest that
provides a vision of
Albion’s future.
The Lionhead team
had to overcome
considerable challenges
in the making of such a
complex game, and
needed an engine with a
fl exible pipeline like Softimage
to make it happen. The Fable
franchise is on a roll, and with the
addition of two new downloads,
Albion’s future looks bright.
k The Knothole Island
download challenges the
Hero to lift the curses of two
items that have come into
possession of Murgo the
Trader, undergoing
challenges unlike anything a
Hero has ever faced before
to do so
l See the Future is not only
about the future, but also
the past and present. It
allows players to revisit
places and memories from
their past, experience an
alternative present and
look into the future to see
what the Fable world has in
J
K
L
j Fable II now allows the user to
choose male or female
characters, which automatically
doubled the character count
To advertise in workspace3D please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or
cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
WOR K SPACE ● F E ATUR E
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Daren Horley is head of Texture Painting at
Framestore where he has multiple roles,
including texture painting, matte painting
and concept designing. Sometimes he also creates
artwork for promotional print images on projects. His
most recent high-profi le projects have included The
Dark Knight, The Golden Compass and The
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
3D Artist: What kind of university course did you do
and training have you had?
Daren Horley: I did an HND course in Illustration,
where I learnt how to paint photorealistically with
oils, gouache and acrylics. This was a skill that was in
demand, before Photoshop changed everything. I
gained computer skills at Eidos a few years later. I
started to do some illustrations using Photoshop and
fell in love with it. No mixing messy paint, no
cleaning a clogged airbrush or cutting masking fi lm
with a scalpel. An Undo button, brilliant!
3DA: For today’s generation of students,
what is the kind of educational
grounding they need to get a fi rst job in
texture or matte painting?
DH: Today, most people who want a
career as a VFX artist specialising in
texture or matte painting would enrol in
a digital VFX course. They would gain
general training in all the disciplines
involved, create a reel and apply for
work in the industry. Unfortunately, this
usually isn’t enough to become a VFX
painter. Most of the people I have hired
have come from a different route such as
a traditional art background and have
moved into digital art, then into VFX. It’s
essential to learn how to draw and paint
using natural media to a highly realistic
level fi rst, then aim to make the move
into texture/matte painting.
Unfortunately, digital VFX courses don’t give
anything like the artistic training required. A
texture/matte painter has it hard because they need
to undergo training twice. Once to learn to be an
artist, then again to learn to use digital tools.
3DA: How did you get it and what was the
motivation for getting a job at Framestore-CFC?
DH: I saw an ad placed by Framestore for a texture
artist to work on an ambitious TV series for the BBC
about dinosaurs. This eventually became known as
Walking with Dinosaurs. At that time I had no VFX
experience but I was passionately interested in
dinosaurs through buying a book called Dinosaurs: A
Global View. The BBC series was a chance to get
involved in dinosaur computer animation, a dream
for me. Despite no VFX experience – all I had was an
illustration portfolio and a few digital paintings –
Framestore saw potential and hired me.
3DA: What software packages and tools do you use
at Framestore?
DH: For texture painting, primarily Adobe
Photoshop. We also use Maxon Bodypaint. It’s the
best 3D paint package out there, I can’t believe I used
to paint textures without it. The things we used to
have to put up with. Life got so much easier with a
decent 3D paint app. Matte painters also use Maya.
There are some proprietary matte painting tools also
used. Photoshop is a really powerful tool.
3DA: Do you think there is a shortage of skilled
texture artists working using digital media?
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Interview
2010 Clash of the Titans
2010 Prince Of Persia
2010 The Spook’s Apprentice
2009 Heartless
2008 Primeval 3
2008 The Dark Knight
2008 The Chronicles of Narnia:
Prince Caspian
2007 The Golden Compass
2007 Primeval
2007 Blood and Chocolate
2006 Superman Returns
2006 Ocean Odyssey
2006 Prehistoric Park
2005 Walking with Monsters
2004 The Last Dragon
2004 Space Odyssey
2004 Thunderbirds
2003 Underworld
2003 Sea Monsters: A Walking
with Dinosaurs Special
2002 Land Of Giants: A Walking
with Dinosaurs Special
2002 The Giant Claw: A Walking
with Dinosaurs Special
2002 Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets
2002 The Hound of the
Baskervilles
2001 The Lost World
2001 Dinotopia
2001 Walking with Beasts
2001 The Ballad of Big Al
2000 Jason and the Argonauts
2000 The Beach
1999 Walking with Dinosaurs
Have a look at these
amazing projects that
Daren has worked on
since joining Framestore
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
Daren Horley
a Medusa concept art for a
movie that didn’t get made
Head of Texture Painting,
Framestore-CFC
Job Head of Texture Painting,
Framestore-CFC
Education Art college
Illustration courses, then
learned digital tools on the job
Company website
www.framestore-cfc.com
Personal website
www.darenhorley.com
Biography Digital artist, lives in
a small village in Southeast
England. Trained as an
illustrator, switched career in
the mid-Nineties to digital VFX.
Has an unhealthy obsession
with dinosaurs. Needs to be
within sight of a tree to be truly
relaxed, which is a problem
working in London. Married
with two kids
About
the insider
A
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
DH: Oh boy is there a shortage. I get very few CVs.
Generally the profession is well stocked, but good
texture painters are a rare breed. It’s because of the
shift in training. Realistic illustration has died.
That’s where most of our successful texture painters
came from. The push from VFX schools is for artists
skilled in the use of tools like Maya. That’s great for
VFX jobs, but few people have the art training
needed for texture/matte painting. Most applicants
can paint hard surface textures, but to do photoreal
hero creatures is another level.
3DA: What are the key skills required to work in
today’s computer graphics industry, with particular
relevance to fi lm and TV work, for texture and matte
painting?
DH: First and foremost observation. You need the
ability to observe, absorb, store information & then
apply it in your work. Look at the way colouration
changes in an animal’s skin. Is it surface
pigmentation, or underlaying translucency? Maybe
dirt or weathering, how does the texture affect the
way an elephant’s skin weathers. How does light
react to a surface? You need to gather a library of
images that will be useful in your work. You need to
think laterally, how can you transpose one detail to
fi t the brief that requires something different? You
also need to be able to understand a brief even if it’s
not made completely clear. Be prepared to have what
you think is a great idea rejected in favor of a less
appealing one. In other words, don’t get overly
attached to your work. You need to work well in a
team, be aware that you will be providing assets that
will be used in a pipeline, make life easy for others
by understanding their requirements.
3DA: Professionally, what’s the most satisfying
project you’ve worked on and why?
DH: The original series of Walking With Dinosaurs
was a life changing event for me. The second project
that I liked was the Golden Compass. It was great
source material. The fact that we got to do the main
characters, the bears was great.
3DArtist ● 101
d Two-Face
B The Golden Compass’s Iorek
posed for a magazine cover. He
doesn’t fl oss by the look of it
To advertise in workspace3D please contact
Cassie Gilbert on 01202 586421 or
cassandra.gilbert@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Harvey Dent from The Dark
Knight. The schedule was insane
for this. Four painters were
involved in this texture
B C
D
F
E
C Concept art for series three of
Primeval. A dinosaur (Dracorex)
is mistaken for a dragon
E Concept design for series
three of Primeval
F Concept painting for Prince
Caspian. Making water look like
hair ain’t easy…
WOR K SPACE ● IN T ERV IEW
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Uni focus
102 ● 3DArtist
BSc (Hons) Digital Film and 3D Animation
Staffordshire University
The best course and freshest talent from universities around the globe…
Course details
Tel +44 (0)1782 294000
Web www.staffs.ac.uk
Duration Three years (part-time route available)
Fees £3,145 a year
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
All candidates are individually assessed on their
qualifi cations, skills and experience. However, a typical
three A level or BTEC National Diploma offer will be
280 UCAS tariff points
Staffordshire University is in the
heart of the West Midlands,
bordered by Warwickshire,
Leicestershire, Derbyshire,
Worcestershire and Cheshire. With
major cities such as Birmingham and
Manchester on its doorstep, as well as
great attractions like Alton Towers and
the V Festival to brag about, it’s easy to
see why thousands of people sign up to
study here each year.
What’s more, Staffordshire University
is home to some of the top 3D degree
courses in the country. One such course
is BSc (Hons) Digital Film and
3D Animation Technology, which has
been running since 2003. This award
delivers a wide selection of topics
within the 3D animation and postproduction
spectrum, using industrystandard
technologies like Maya, Final
Cut Pro and the Adobe Creative
Suite. “People often don’t realise the
number of roles available in the
industry, so it’s nice to see students
who initially want to model and then
become interested in the role of
a lighting technical artist or setup
artist,” says Daniel McCarthy, award
leader for Digital Film and 3D Animation
course at Staffordshire University.
The fi rst year of the course develops
core 3D, 2D and fi lmmaking skills.
Students learn to shoot and edit short
fi lms and produce 3D scenes. The
second year is focused more on motion
graphics, with a detailed study on After
Effects animation and green screen
shooting. 3D animation is further
developed in this module, using 3ds
Max and Maya.
The fi nal year is focused on visual
effects covering match moving,
compositing and lighting in CG. During
this year, students create a major fi nal
project. Both student and tutor decide
upon the topic, and students are
actively encouraged to focus on the
area they’d like to pursue as a career.
All the awards are modular and
contain some great options, enabling
students to work more specifi cally on
3D skills such as character modelling,
animation or motion-capture work and
rigging. Other study topics such as
cinematography, digital editing and
live studio production can also be
chosen as areas to specialise in.
The beauty of this course is that it
prepares students for a range of roles
within the 3D industry. On completion,
they have a broad range of skills that
will help them make the transition
from study into full-time employment.
If this sounds like the type of course
for you, see www.staffs.ac.uk for more.
Learning the pipeline behind a visual effects
shot was really useful to give me an idea of the
kinds of roles available in the industry
Robin Brown Rotoscope artist
B Cityscape
» Richard Mason
Time taken: Four weeks
Maya, mental ray
This piece was created as part of a module
where students were asked to build a futuristic
cityscape.It was built in Maya with building
replication and alteration to provide a varied
cityscape.
A
A Living Room
» Tim Hawker
Time taken: Two days
3ds Max, V-Ray and Photoshop
This scene was created to familiarise
myself with the V-Ray renderer. Due to the
complex lighting, rendering times were
quite high and this image took two and a
half hours to render.
A
A
B
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
3DArtist ● 103
C Henry’s Grandma
» Anthony Gregory
Time taken: About eight weeks (with others)
3ds Max
Animation to study characterisation. Squashand-
stretch cartoon-style rigs and models
were animated to create a short sketch of the
interaction between characters driven by
goals and needs. In particular, status play
was used to govern their behaviour.
D XK Jag Full
» Graham Linefi eld
Time taken: One month (with other assignments) to build the model,
and one month to fi nalise and add materials
3ds Max and V-Ray
My fi nal-year project is fuelled by my passion for cars. I have drawn
them since before I went to school, and creating them in CG is the
continuation of this endless obsession I have for these expensive but
wonderful machines.
E Robots
» Ian Baird
Time taken: Two months
3ds Max 2009, V-Ray, and Photoshop
I created these robots with the intention
of animating them for my fi nal-year
project. I aimed to create two detailed
robotic characters that express emotion
and personality through movement.
D
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
104 ● 3DArtist
H Sony Camera (DSC-H10)
» Tim Hawker
Time taken: Five days
3ds Max, V-Ray and Photoshop
After creating the phone, I went on to create a
more complex object with relatively diffi cult
organic-like curves. It was far more diffi cult to
model than the phone, but I completed it in a
shorter time due to my improved modelling skills.
A
F Housing Estate Vis
» Ben Wright
Time taken: Seven days
3ds Max Design 2009, V-Ray 1.50 and Photoshop CS3
This image was created in the style of modern housing
development billboards and building site visualisations.
The building was simple, but the window refl ections,
lawn and trees were tricky. The scene is lit by a Global
Illumination Skylight simulating an overcast day effect.
G Central London Offi ce
» Ben Wright
Time taken: Five days. Render time: About four hours
3ds Max Design 2009, V-Ray 1.50 and Photoshop CS3
The aim of this image was to try and simulate the look of a modern
stylish offi ce environment. Most objects in the scene offer a degree of
refl ectivity, and the frosted glass desks were used to further the openplan
theme. The scene was lit by a large invisible area light at the front
window, with Global Illumination systems providing secondary lighting.
F
G H
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
3DArtist ● 105
I found the nature of assignments we were
given was flexible enough to allow me to develop
my skills in the areas I wanted to pursue
Joe Whittingham – Vehicle artist, THQ
I Tripod
» Daniel Adeyemi
Time taken: A week
Maya, PFTrack, Combustion, PS
I saw a rough 3D model of a War
of the Worlds tripod. PFTrack was
used to match move the scene,
and HDRI for lighting. I used
Combustion 4 for compositing.
J Sony NWZ-A828K Walkman
» Ben Wright
Time taken: Four days
3ds Max Design 2009, V-Ray 1.50, PS CS3
I wanted to replicate a macro photo of a small
detailed object. Lighting setup was several VRay
Area Lights for general illumination and an
HDR environment map to pick out highlights on
the metal parts.
I
WOR K SPACE ● UNI FOCUS
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
Check out the 3D galleries of students from courses and universities all around the world
Global student galleries
Welcome to the new Global
student gallery section in
3D Artist where we take you
around the world to see what is being
created in the land of learning. Each
issue we’ll select the works of a few
individuals who have produced
interesting, exciting or just plain
excellent work and showcase it here.
Do you think your portfolio is good
enough to appear in the Global gallery?
Well, for a start you must be a student,
whether that’s full time, part time, by
mail or online. All are equally valid.
Also, if you graduated from a 3D
graphics course within the last 12
months then that’s great as well. In the
fi rst instance, get in touch with editor
Duncan Evans (duncan.evans@
imagine-publishing.co.uk), preferably
with a link to your portfolio so he can
have a quick look at your work. List
your name, what university you went
to and the course you did or are doing.
Inside guide to industry news, studios, expert opinion & education Uni focus
106 ● 3DArtist
A Alien Universal Explorer
» Martin J Knight
3ds Max 2009
This is a part of an animated short called Chupa (Chupa)
that a fellow student (Philip Mehr) and I are
working on, about an alien who fi nds an island on Earth,
full of things to explore and document. It was created in
3ds Max, rendered with mental ray, Final Gather,
Global Illumination and a depth of fi eld on the camera.
B Chamber of Commerce
» Khaled Amer El Ashry
3ds Max
The project is designed to be the new
face of El Alamein in Egypt, attracting
new business to the city. It was
rendered with the V-Ray engine.
A
Personal portfolio site
http://kworld.cgsociety.org/
gallery/
University website
www.alex.edu.eg
Country Egypt
Software used Rhino 4.0, 3ds
Max 2008
Artist info
Khaled Amer
El Ashry
Khaled is a fourth-year
Architecture student at the
Fine Arts College, Alexandria
University (Architecture
Department). He is working
on his graduation project, The
Performing Arts Center, in
addition to architecture
design and Rhino 4.0 courses,
which includes parametric
design with the Grasshopper
plug-in.
Personal portfolio site
www.martinjknight.com
University website
www.tvu.ac.uk
Country England
Software used 3ds Max 2009
Artist info
Martin J Knight
Martin is currently studying a
BA (Hons) degree in Digital
Animation at Thames Valley
University, London.
B
© Imagine Publishing Ltd
No unauthorised copying or distribution
We don’t keep
secrets
Also in this series Now available on
Learn the truth about iPhone, iPad, Android, Photoshop and
more with the Tips & Tricks series’ expert advice and tutorials
www.imaginebookshop.co.uk
Bookazines
eBooks • Apps
iPad
Printed full colour large format book
Kindle
TM
High street Kindle Store ImagineShop.co.uk App Store