Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Inspiring
CG Artists Pixar's
Lava erupts
Behind the scenes on
Pixar's hot new short
3dworld.creativebloq.com
December 2014
#188
renderman
masterclass
Get started in Pixars free professional renderer with
Harsh Agrawals official step-by-step tutorial!
Welcome
Weather effects
Turn to page 68 to
follow Antony Wards
step-by-step process
to mastering rain
simulation!
Let Pixar put a smile on your
face with our exclusive tutorial
artists
Meet the CG experts and artists who
have contributed to this issue
on the cover
lava director
James Murphy
SoftwarE
RenderMan, Softimage
editorial
EDITORIAL PR
Pr Ii N
nTt & PRPr OoDd UCTI
ucti O oNn
Ian Dean
editor Ian Dean PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Marie
Marie Quilter
Quilter
Kulsoom Middleton
operations editor Kulsoom Middleton marie.quilter@futurenet.com
marie.quilter@futurenet.com
Rob Redman Mark Constance
Art Editor Darren Phillips Production Manager Mark Constance
Darren Phillips mark.constance@futurenet.com
mark.constance@futurenet.com
c
C ont
ONT ribRIB utors
UTORS L I CEN SI N G
CirstynAgrawal,
Harsh Bech-Yagher, Santiago
rs Brczy, Betancur,
Fellipe Cody
Beckman, L i cen si n g
Burke, Erasmus
Matthias Buehler,Brosdau, Neil Crossley,
Rose Brandle, CirstynAdam Regina Erak
licensing regina.erak@futurenet.com
& syndication DIRECTOR
Dewhirst, Renee
Bech-Yagher, Dunlop,
Vikrant Andrew
J Dalal, ReneeFinch, Francesca
Dunlop, Regina Erak regina.erak@futurenet.com
Forzoni, Hugues Giboire, Iaki Gonzlez, Mike Matt Ellis matt.ellis@futurenet.com
Andrew Finch, Mike Griggs, Paul Hatton, Senior Licensing Manager
Griggs, Paul Hatton, Ed Hooks, Rohit Jagadisha,
Richard
Steve Hill, Denis
Jarrat, Dan Higgott,
Koslov, Rohit Jagadisha,
Krzysztof Malec, Joesph Matt EllisEmatt.ellis@futurenet.com
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8 artist showcase
Discover the best digital art from
the CGcommunity
19 Community
20 the lure of the cloud
Our industry embraces the cloud
28 SHORT CUTS
The Legend of the Flying Tomato
34 In focus
Scott Zhaos Porsche Carrera RS 1973 28 short cuts
Discover The Legend of the Flying Tomato
38 artist Q&A
All your software queries solved
by our panel of CG experts
Features
42 head in the clouds
Take a peek at Pixars new short, Lava
46 ohto oinaanp
How the Finnish artist adds intrigue
48 cg with bark & bite
The complexity of Rocket and Groot
8 Artist showcase 34 in focus
53 Tutorials Discover the most outstanding new creative work from the CG art community Scott Zhaos sleek Porsche Carrera RS 1973
Improve your CG skills with
practical tips and tutorials
83 Develop
Theory, research and reviews, plus
industry tutorials from the experts
Regulars
32 Letters
33 digital Subscriptions
74 Next Month
38 artist Q&A 42 Head in the clouds 48 CG with bark & bite
Your software queries solved by our experts Take a peek at Pixars hot new short, Lava Get up close to Marvels Rocket and Groot
Develop
84 theory: normals
Denis Kozlov on the fundamentals
of a normals output variable
86 titanfall cinematic trailer
Spovs Dan Higgott describes the
challenges of creating the sequence
88 bet the farm
The making of student animation
project, Stina & The Wolf
94 cinema 4D r16
Maxon introduces a new motion tracker Reviews
94 Cinema 4D R16
Rob Redman says its the small
changes that make this update great
96 Formlabs Form1+
This stereolithography based printer
offers exceptional high quality
97 Houdini Indie
Now you can use this software
oncommercial projects
100 my inspiration
88 bet the farm: stina & the wolf 97 Houdini indie Ron Thornton, the VFX legend of
The student project with high ambitions offers 10 tips to managing a render farm Is this a low-cost route to success? Babylon 5 fame, shares his story
artist
Thanatos
Artist
Daniel Kho
Software Maya, ZBrush, V-Ray,
Photoshop, Mudbox
Artist
Richie J Mason
Software ZBrush, Cinema 4D,
KeyShot, Photoshop
3d world view
IAN DEAN
editor
I enjoyed creating
thecharacters pose
and studying the
skin shader
3d world view
Darren Phillips
art editor
Saxman
Portrait
Artist
Alessandro Bandinelli
Software ZBrush, 3ds Max,
V-Ray, Photoshop
Space Cadet
Artist
Marco Antnio Nogueira Jnior
Software ZBrush, 3ds Max,
Marvelous Designer, Photoshop
Working for one week and using Marvelous When people make comments about the
Designer for the jacket to speed up the
process, Brazilian artist Marco Antnio
Nogueira Jniors aim for Space Cadet was
niceatmosphere and about how beautiful
wider than to create a great 3D render.
As Marco explains: I love this artwork
the whole composition is, it makes
because it is not just a 3D image, this is based
on the Space Cadet artwork from Hidden
me really happy
Moves and it tells a story. I did not focus only
on the quality of the 3D, but also on how I
could reach peoples feelings. So when people
make comments about the nice atmosphere
and about how beautiful the whole
composition is, it makes me really happy.
Marcos goal is to keep improving and 3d world view
challenge himself with his art, ultimately he
wants to tell stories with his CG and land The simplicity of
arolecreating cinematics. Marcos composition
When creating his CG art Marco starts with underlines its power;
a concept, then asks questions of the image. the tones and
I try to think if the concept will be capable subtle details in the
of touching peoples feelings, and if Ican characters face and
modify something to give my style to the helmet draw you in.
composition, he says. Then I try to figure out
ways I can achieve a nice final composition. Kulsoom Middleton
For more emotive CG art visit Marcos site operations editor
FYI at: www.marconogueirajr.carbonmade.com
3d world view
Darren Phillips
art editor
Robots
Artist
Rafael Amarante
Software Cinema 4D,
KeyShot, Photoshop
Get published
Email your CG ART to
ian.dean@futurenet.com
Y
ou know the age of cloud reasons why we decided to appealing to work for us. Plus, we
computing has arrived when it invest a serious amount of can now hire freelancers in Liverpool,
becomes a pivotal plot point time in this, the first being Manchester or wherever, and they will
in a Hollywood comedy (Sex Tape), that were based in Soho and have access to all the resources weve
even if that movies lead character this area of London simply has no more built over the years. Whats more, the
does end up frantically proclaiming, room, explains company CTO Jeremy data never actually leaves our site, so
Nobody understands the cloud, its a Smith. We wanted to keep our offices its completely secure. I dont have to
mystery. That may well be true of the here, but from an infrastructure point worry about projects floating around
rendering average iUser on the street, but for the ofview we cant do any more with the the UK. All were doing is streaming the
in the cloud computer graphics industry its benefits facilities available. application interface to the thin client.
have quickly become apparent. Over at US studio Atomic Fiction,
From software designed specifically
for cloud delivery (for example,
If you can crack this co-founder and VFX supervisor
Kevin Baillie says that without
Atomic Fiction
utilised cloud
Adobes Creative Cloud suite), cloud
rendering (Octane) and for cloud- technology for the demands the use of the cloud for
rendering the company
rendering for its based creative collaboration (see wouldnt even exist. In
work on Cosmos: A Autodesks Fusion), through to the of this industry, Im confident thebeginning, we didnt have nearly
Spacetime Odyssey. use of remote data storage and enough start-up capital to buy the
Last-minute changes sharing, and on to the use of virtual it can handle any other processing power our artists would
required on three workstations and remote working, need to do the calibre of work we
1,000-frame shots andof course cloud-based rendering, Jeremy says that switching to a wanted Atomic Fiction to be known
were turned around the cloud has the potential to transform cloud-based setup frees the studio for, he admits. Luckily for us, the
the same day via the way the entire industry creates from those physical limitations, allows cloud was just becoming a feasible
10,000 instantly andoperates. for easy scaling of infrastructure and option for our industry, so we took
available processors, processing power, and crucially opens aleap of faith and bet the farm on
using the in-house Bespoke solutions up opportunities for remote working. thecloud concept back in 2010.
cloud management In the UK, Jellyfish Pictures is leading This is ultimately driven by customer Now,by using processing power
system Conductor the charge. With plans to double service, allowing Jellyfish to offer ondemand, our artists always have
plus Googles its workforce this year and launch a our clients increased flexibility, faster enough rendering power to meet
cloudinfrastruture spin-off childrens animation division, turnaround and access to the best eventhe most intense, last-minute
the studio has partnered with cloud artists. It also gives us the chance to deadlines, and we only pay for what
company Exponential-e to build an repay people who might not want to weuse just like you do at your home
infrastructure that allows its artists to commute to London every day. If we for gas or electricity.
work on motion graphics and animation can allow people to work from home Kevin says the biggest advantage
from any location. There are several then it obviously makes it a lot more that the cloud confers to artists and
3ds Max
update
Not impressed
by the latest Max
release? Check out
the bumper update
New OpenSubdiv
Support
The most featured
request by Max users,
Pixars OpenSubdiv
enables you to
represent subdivision
surfaces and
industry interview visualise you model
interactively without
W
hether its the creature design, sense of and its renderer Mantra where the 3D Save memory when
atmosphere or creativity, the classic sci-fi assets were shaded, lit and rendered processing complex
shocker Alien has fans in all quarters. When Axis with the FX before all being composited animations and
Animation was hired to create a new trailer for Sega video in Digital Fusion. simulations, and
game Alien Isolation, the team jumped at the opportunity. As usual with a project based on a you can view large
That movie still feels as fresh, raw and exciting video game, the Axis team were able datasets in the
Richard Scott now as it did thirty-five years ago, says Richard touse the games main character assets Nitrous viewport
Richard has worked in Scott, producer and managing director at Axis as a basis to increase resolution and and transfer them
the creative industries Animation. The team have been charged with fidelity for the trailer. This was vital for toother programs.
for the last 18 years and making atrailer for the forthcoming Sega and Creative Ripleys face as we knew wed be doing
has a broad range of Assembly video game. The director Ben Hibon and I some extreme close-ups, says Graham,
experience in the design, were treated to a demo of the game in its early stages and
animation, advertising,
video game and
even then the mood, the atmosphere, the tension and the
nods to the film were allperfect, Richard enthuses.
The results are some truly
television worlds.
www.bit.ly/188-richard Creating tension and fear terrifying expressions that
The brief was to create a trailer with believability; the
Alien needed to feel like a foreboding predator that the help sell the believability
protagonist is ill prepared to confront. Tension and fear Enhanced
were key words in the brief, says Richard. theproject demanded ShaderFX
Lighting proved a key tool in the horror arsenal, says Ehancements to
head of 3D Graham McKenna: There were a lot who explains how the team were able ShaderFX include
Graham McKenna of challenges with choreographing the multiple to work with the games lead actress new node patterns
As one of the co-founders dynamic lights in the scenes. We rendered Kezia Burrows on the mocap shoot. On wavelines, voronoi,
of Axis Animation, out each light pass, which was then used in top of this reference we were able to 3D simplex noise, and
Graham has developed compositing to animate the on/off state of each light. scan her facial expressions in a range of brick as well
his own style in the This allowed us to get quick feedback on the overall look key poses and these were used by our as a new bump
games, commercials and and balance of the lighting. This was particularly useful modelling and rigging teams to deliver utility node and a
broadcast markets. onclose-ups when we wanted to pick out key expressions the complex facial animation tools for searchable node
www.bit.ly/188-graham on the character as she went through her performance. our animators. The results are some truly browser, game artists
The team adopted the Axis pipeline to create the terrifying expressions that help sell the and programmers can
trailer; a combination of Modo, ZBrush and Maya were believability the project demanded. create and exchange
used for modelling. Maya was used for camera, layout Watch the new Alien Isolation trailer advanced shaders
andanimation before caches were then passed to Houdini
FYI here: www.bit.ly/188-alien more easily.
Studio profile
I
ts surprising how many new studios Double Negative studios, Milk may have had a nudge into
are born down the pub. Idle chat with existence, but its wealth of talent and clarity of purpose
Studio fellow work colleagues can turn to madeits debut year something of an unexpected success.
Statistics how youd all do things differently if you The business proposition is a simple one we make visual
ran the show the clients youd bring in, effects for high-end TV drama and films, says Will. That
the creative integrity youd retain, the is apure and unclouded offering compared with large
all-important studio name that would companies who offer multiple skills.
LOCATION spearhead your brand.
London Working for Londons eminent
studio The Mill, Will Cohen and the
One great thing is discovering that an artist
TEAM SIZE
Capacity for Will Cohen
VFX for film and TV team
were familiar with this pub or modeller whos only been here a while
100artists Will is CEO and daydream. In reality its a
executive producer, very hard thing to bring about has amazing untapped concept talents
Known for and one of Milks six as there are all sorts of barriers to entry.
Dr Who co-founders. Will I never assumed it could be a reality. Grant Bonser, lead concept and texture artist, Milk VFX
oversees the company When they found out there were plans
Directors name with co-founder Nick to close Wills department, their hand The day of the Bafta
Will Cohen Drew, Milks MD. was forced and Milk was born. At Milks core are its six founding members, although the
www.bit.ly/188-cohen The Mill was taking a new direction, studio has around 100 creatives working at any one time. This
and Will and co werent part of the plan. intimacy creates trust amongst colleagues and a consistent
They decided around Easter 2013 vision for clients. Its an appealing formula that has allowed
that it wanted to focus its attention on the studio to pitch and work on films like Hercules, Alex
growth through its core advertising Garlands Ex-Machina, and TV series 24: Live Another Day.
business on a global scale, he says. Ignoring the odds that 90 per cent of new businesses
And if you want the truth, you will have dontsurvive their first year, Milk celebrated its first
to buy me a few pints. anniversary by winning a Bafta for its work on The BBC TV
Based in Londons Fitzovia area, ten series Dr Who. It was the studios first work to be seen by the
minutes from Soho and neighbouring public 80 million people around the world, to be precise.
office briefing
A medium-sized VFX company, Milks aim
is to punch above its weight, producing
high-end effects for TV and feature films.
The founding members of Milk worked
at The Mill before that studio closed its
VFX department to concentrate more
on advertising. The team of award-
winning VFX supervisors and producers
has created TV effects for Doctor Who,
Ice Age Giants, Sinbad, Skins, Sherlock
and Merlin, and effects for feature films
including Snow White and the Huntsman,
Les Miserables and Dredd 3D.
Industry interview
A factory process
The team behind Factory Fifteens award-winning films
discuss the challenges facing independent filmmakers
F
actory Fifteen has achieved a lot architectural 3D awards, including fill different roles, but its also great to
in a short space of time. The UK- Best Architectural 3D Film (Golden experience different areas of a project.
collective is made up of directors Age) and Best Architectural 3D
Jonathan Gales, Paul Nicholls and Image(Megalomania). Factory Fifteen What processes help production?
Kibwe Tavares, who together have sharestheir burden of creativity and In Jonah we were invested creatively
shown their shorts around the world, latenights inthe project from the beginning so
including Sundance Film Festival where had big ambitions to push as many
Kibwe picked up the Jury prize for What are the challenges of working aspects of it as possible. I think it really
animation for Robots of Brixton. ina small team? helped that we spent a long time
The last three years have In a small team, a lot of the traditional before the shoot designing the visual
Kibwe Tavares been a bit of awhirlwind;I roles within filmmaking double or triple language and world within the film so
Award-winning director, havent had aminute to up; most members of our team work when we came to undertake the post-
Kibwe created Robots of pinch myself! says Kibwe. across multiple roles both on set and in production we could be really specific
Brixton while pursuing a We have all worked so hard,I feel very post-production. This is not uncommon about what we wanted to achieve.
degree in architecture. fortunateto be part of a group of within short form and creative projects We were also doing the animation
He then went on to direct creatives that, like me, like to aim high. when you are trying to be as efficient and poston the town so we knew
Jonah, with VFX created We all feel really luckyto have had so as possible with budget and time. exactly what assets we had and how
at Factory Fifteen. much supportsince westarted. Its all Working in a small team creates a we could use them. I think its useful on
www.factoryfifteen.com very exciting were all looking forward situation that is challenging as it puts aproduction the scale of Jonah to have
to the future! a lot of pressure on those involved to a team that can see a project through
The Sundance award was added to
more recently with Kibwe being named
vital one of the worlds top young directors.
statistics The director says: It feltgreat;its
beensuch an honour. Theotherwork
in the showcase wasincredible; just to
beincluded was awesome.
TEAM As an independent filmmaker,
Jonathan Gales Kibwe looks to the internet for the
Paul Nicholls future filmmakers: Thereare loads
Kibwe Tavares ofamazingly talented people creating
stuff andpostingit online. Id really
country likefor more people to search and
UK share amazing content it means Directors Paul Nicholls,
a lot to the creators, he says. Jonathan Gales and
Software The young director isnt doing Kibwe Tavares run
3ds Max, V-Ray, Nuke, this alone, however. As a collective, Factory Fifteen
After Effects the three directors have won two
short cuts
Giyu Force
Ringling College of Art and
Design students Michael 1
Michael Yates, Sharon Yates, Sharon Huang and
Huang and Aurry Tan, Aurry Tan (under the team
make up the creative name Giyu Force) have created a
team behind The Legend senior thesis film that has caused quite
of the Flying Tomato. a stir. The short, Legend of the Flying
www.ringling.edu Tomato, has been selected into lots of
film festivals and is gunning for more.
We ask Michael for some inside info
2 3
4 5
6 One of the 7
more technically
challenging aspects of
the film was creating
the impression of a
crowd in the arena
7 Besides using
other programs like
RenderMan and Nuke,
everything else such
as layout, rigging, UV-
ing, animation, hair
and cloth, surfacing,
lighting and rendering
were done in Maya
inbox
in the CG industry
and the popularity
of Warhammer
40K fan movie, Send your mails, tweets and comments
The Lord Inquisitor
have got our
to ian.dean@futurenet.com
readers writing
W
hatever your device,
you can now access
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Please note: Resource files are available from issue 162 onwards.
Vital
Statistics
Software
Maya, V-Ray, HDR
Light Studio, Nuke,
Photoshop
Country
China
Porsche
Carrera RS 1973
Scott Zhao details how he recreated the
smooth shapes of this classic sports car...
C
urrently working in a film post- and made the background motion
production company in China, blur inVirtual Rig Studio.
artist Scott Zhao loves industrial Scott chose to model the classic
products. Making a CG vehicle is a Porsche because of a childhood
very exciting subject matter memory. His first model car as a
Scott Zhao for me, he says. Scott says child was a Porsche, I was deeply
Scott has been working he enjoys making new impressed by its smooth lines and
professionally with CG projects as they enable him the round headlights, which look like
for three years. He works to try new techniques and ideas, and two big eyes, says the artist. So
at Menfond Electronic help him to build up his CG experience. I planned to create an image of a
Art & Design as a Scott worked on this street scene Porsche classic car, the 1973 Porsche
lighting and texturing featuring the famous Porsche Carrera Carrera RS caught my eye when I was
team leader. RS 1973 for between four and six searching some reference images on
behance.net/scottzhao hours a day for a month. He used the internet. It made me so eager to
conventionaltechniques: VrayRT to make a dynamic image of it.
testthe shading and lighting, HDR See more of Scotts portfolio at
LightStudio and V-Ray for lighting work,
FYI www.behance.net/scottzhao.
2 UV and Texturing
The next step is painting the
model. Good UV is very helpful for
texturing. I use planar mapping to
unwrap the car UV from the top and
the side, and sew them together.
Next I use Photoshop to create the
texture of the car, and then I paint
the race stripes using the Pen tool.
3 Setting up
the Materials
When creating materials, I use studio
lighting to test the materials. Doing this
makes sure the final materials are realistic
and can be used in any environments
lighting scene. All the materials used here
are VrayMtl and VrayBlendMtl.
6
5
7 Composting
in Nuke
I use Nuke for compositing,
using the Shuffle node to
separate all the V-Ray render
passes. I then add the Grade
node to correct each pass and
merge them together. I place
the car into the scene, correct
the colour and exposure, and
add the shadow and depth
offield.
8 Final touches
The final step is to do the
post-production amends in
Photoshop. I correct the colour and
tone with the Magic Bullet
PhotoLooks filter, and add lens
effects to make the results better
and more realistic. I also add some
8
lens flare to the scene. Finally, I
create another two renders with
different camera angles for variety.
Q&A
Cirstyn Bech-Yagher
Cirstyn is a freelanceCG
artist and educator,
with over a decades
experience in 3D art. Her clients
include AMD and Daz 3D.
www.northern-studios.com
Your software queries solved
by our CG experts
Fellipe Beckman
Fellipe specialises in
character development,
sculpting, modelling,
topology, texturing and lighting,
colourist, edit, post production and VFX.
fellipebeckman.carbonmade.com
Mike Griggs
Mike Griggs is a
freelance 3D, VFX,
mograph artist and
technical writer working across
television, exhibition and digitaldesign.
www.creativebloke.com
Paul Hatton
As the 3D visualisation follow
team leader at CADS
3D, Paul creates models the video
and renders, visualisations, animations
and interactive walkthroughs. If you see the Play icon, click the link!
www.cadesignservices.co.uk/3d
3ds Max
How can I perfectly match my camera angle to a background image?
Simon Arnold, UK
objects and backdrops by eye are over to the viewport, just press [Shift]+[F] with
the viewport selected, and this will bring up
your safe frames.
because they often drove me crazy three Set the perspective
perspective of the image. You do this by adjusting X, In the Utilities panel, click Perspective
Y and Z gizmos, which the camera then uses to know Match, then turn on Show Vanishing Lines
how it should position itself. to show gizmos for the X, Y and Z axes.
Perspective Match is perfect for jobs where you want Drag the lines to move them. Place them
to set something in a photographed context. If you want at right angles and line them up with your
a more scientifically accurate camera match, you will image. The blue gizmo needs to align with
need to also survey key points found on the objects in the vertical lines in your image. As you
your photo and use those to align your 3D model. adjust the gizmos, your camera will adjust
That being said, lets dive straight in to see the few to align with the image. Any objects that
simple steps that make up the Perspective Match utility. you add to the scene will fit in perfectly.
Expert tip
Adding drama
For dramatic lighting use
mib_blackbody in Portal
Light Environment and
change the key light
temperature to a light
orange and a light
blue tone for the
back light.
Expert tip
Keep it simple
To be creative, I believe that
before going after actual
facts and techniques, just a
piece of paper and a pencil
to write down your ideas
V-Ray and thoughts can get
you far enough.
How do I achieve a
toy art lighting style?
Sarah McDonald, UK
various
Fellipe replies
To illustrate my points Ill be using How do I create depth in my light setup?
my take on Maleficent. To make this
character look like a toy, I had to be
David Anderson, UK
extra-careful while working with the
models proportions, pose and facial expression,
because I wanted her to be charismatic, yet soft Rohit replies primary light source that provides most
and cartoonish at the same time. One of the oldest lighting of the illumination on your subject.
The lighting setup is reasonably simple. In the techniques in the book is called You place this light about 45 degrees
background, use Spline, Extrude, Bend, Turbo three point lighting. Once you to the models right or left and about
Smooth and four VRayLights, three VRayPlanes understand three point lighting 45 degrees above, aimed straight at
and one VRayDome. you are well on the way to understanding the face. Feel free to adjust it later if
I apply an HDR file. I recommend using the all lighting. The three different points in necessary. Its providing most of the light,
HDR image in the render studio it saves time. this type of lighting are the key, the fill it needs to be extremely bright. Make
For instance, use the VRayDome with the HDR and the backlight. sure that you havent burned out your
image to get more natural and softer tones in The goal of three point lighting is to whites. You should get strong shadows
your lighting. create the illusion of a three-dimensional and a good tonal range.
While using the VRayPlane, change the colour subject in a two-dimensional image. The fill light is the secondary light
to green and reposition it from the base to While you can create dimension in a source, usually the same height, and
create a spotlight: this gives a silhouette of the number of different ways, theres no it is placed on the side of the camera
character. Shading and lighting are two very doubt that using light and shadow is just opposite to the key light. Set this to
important elements: they need to be paired apowerful way to accomplish this. about half the intensity of the key light;
andbalanced. To set the scene (in 3ds Max) create an its main purpose is to soften shadows
For mapping, work with VRayFastSSS2 and area light with Use Light Shape switched created bythe key light.
only the Specular, Diffuse and Normal maps. on and in the Lights shader, under Finally, the back light illuminates the
InPhotoshop, use simple techniques like double Custom Shaders, assign Mia-portal- space above and slightly behind the
layers, the Lens Blur filter, soft lighting and light. EnableSky portal and change the model. Its purpose is to give some sense
overlays, with minimal changes to the Contrast, intensity according to the lighting. of separation between the model and
Hue and Saturation aspects. The key light, as the name suggests, the background, and provide a three-
is the most important light and is the dimensional look.
Head
in the
clouds
Mark Ramshaw says aloha to Pixars
latest animated short, a millennia-spanning
tale of love, lava and Hawaiian song
3D
3DWorld
World September
December 2014 42 3dworld.creativebloq.com
S
uch is the all-conquering for development, so its little wonder that
nature of Pixars feature film the few that do go into production tend to
output that its easy to forget allow the studio to flex both its creative and Pixars
the studio first gained acclaim technological muscles. Thus, while the 1997 Shorts provide
(and Oscar recognition) with short Geris Game looked like a charming a testing
aseries of groundbreaking acting masterclass, it also provided a launch ground
short films. Few also tend pad for newly developed subdivision surface
to recall that the studio modelling and cloth simulation. Fast forward
only began this journey into to 2013, and while audiences focused on Beginning with Pixars
computer animation production for marketing the pristine beauty and charm of The Blue second film A Bugs Life,
purposes back in the late 1980s it was hoped Umbrella, that short also enabled Pixar to all subsequent Pixar
that the likes of Luxo Jr and Tin Toy would put RenderMans new global illumination feature films have been
boost sales of its own core product, the Pixar technology through its paces. shown in theatres along
Image Computer. The studios latest short, Lava, is another with a Pixar-created short
While much has changed at Pixar in the inspired creation with no small level of
years since, the companys dedication to short- technical ambition. And like so many of Lava was the second
form animation has not. In fact as the company Pixars shorts, its also a perfect exercise in short film at Pixar to test
has expanded and grown more successful this minimalistic storytelling, allowing the artists Katana with RenderMan
sideline has positively flourished, providing involved to focus on performance and fine
a vital creative outlet where talent can be detail in the way that so often separates the Lava provided the studio
fostered, new ideas tried out and techniques studios work from that of its competitors. with valuable data to
toyed with all free of the commercial Lava was written and directed by James help steer the current
considerations that inevitably come into play Murphy, a Pixar veteran of some 20 years development efforts to
when developing feature-length productions. whose credits include almost every one of its use the new Katana 2.0
Pixars shorts programme famously allows feature films and a supervising animator role version and the new RIS
for anybody at the studio to pitch an idea on 2000s For The Birds. James may now head renderer in RenderMan
up the entire animation department, but he for [2016 release]
still had to pitch just like everybody else Finding Dory
At Pixar anyone can pitch short film
james murphy ideas, but there is one stipulation
Head of animation at Pixar you cant pitch just one idea, you
Animation Studios, James have to pitch three, he says. So
was an animator for A Bug's when I decided I was going to pitch three
Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, ideas I had one goal for myself: to create
Inc., Finding Nemo and stories about things I loved, and about things
countless other animations. Icould really connect with emotionally.
www.pixar.com James says he road-tested all three pitch
ideas on friends and colleagues, with Lava
edging ahead as the clear favourite. I think a
musical love story, with Hawaii as a character
really seemed to resonate with everyone. The
scale of the characters and the scale of time
combined with the musical narrative gave this
age-old story an original take, one that my
friends and colleagues seemed to enjoy.
[ Project title ]
Lava
[ Studio ] Pixar, www.pixar.com
[ Software ] RenderMan, Softimage, Arnold, Nuke, Vicon
Blade, Marvelous Designer, Qube, Faceware
[ Development length ] Three years
[ Supervising TD interview ]
Pyro Techniques
Supervising technical director Bill Watral discusses
how RenderMan helped the Lava team go with the flow
research everyone was willing to go to a tropical The film was, in part, a fact-finding
mission. Our goal was to use Katana
the way RenderMan handles space
transformations made this a fairly
and RenderMan together to help quick development cycle for our
island for the sake of the film, of course explore new workflows for the technical artists.
who first became fascinated with Hawaii via One challenge with
old Elvis movies, and then got the basic idea lead character Uku was
for his short when honeymooning on Hawaiis to find a way to make
Big Island some 25 years ago. a mountainous form
Ever since then, Ive loved tropical islands, carved out of lava
active volcanoes and Hawaiian music, he says. flows, look appealing
The first time I heard Israel Kamakawiwooles and still be able
version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow it tofully emote
completely floored me. I recognised this song
from The Wizard of Oz and I thought, if I could
ever write a song that makes me feel like Izs
version does and feature it in a Pixar short film,
then that would be an amazing combination.
3D
3DWorld
World September
December 2014 44 3dworld.creativebloq.com
[ Inspiration ]
Creating lava's Mood board
How the real Hawaiian landscape helped inspire Lava's lead character
rock face Ukus peakS brows and eye lids An enchanting face
This area Vertical rock effects Ukus peak, brows For Ukus face the
is softer, and upperlids. Then around the region horizontal strata,
with amore indicated by a soft blue line, it transitions and warm and cool
eroded look to the more horizontal rock type greys of the rock in
Waimea Canyon, Kauai
aretargetted
Ukus coastline
On the coast line
wefind darker,
wave-beaten rock
covered in forest
spectacular gorges Ukus chest and mid-body
Kauais Napali coast up has a rock similar to
is Ukus arms, elbows what is on his face. Its
and this continues darker, becasue it is wet,
around the back, as covered in many areas
in Gregs sculpt byrain forest and ferns
On a technical level, the level of detail character storytelling. And creating a story that I dont want to give anything away, but
required to depict the two mountains threw works within the confines of a limited running I love the shot right before the end, when
up a number of challenges. Theres a serious time throws up its own challenges. Success, we see the back of our main volcano, says
amount of vegetation on show, along with the hebelieves, lies in three key ingredients Andrea. Its so moving emotionally and
depiction of a range of naturalistic effects. The first is heart and emotion, but it has stunningly beautiful too. The team made it
The required sense of scale also introduced to be genuine and earned emotion. I really look like you are just flying by, witnessing the
challenges on the animation side, not least with have to believe in what I feel, so when Im moment in person.
the need to animate such huge characters. pitching or trying to inspire people to work There was a man in one of our recent
The biggest challenge involved balancing on my short, the love and passion I have is audiences who was in tears by then end, telling
the gigantic mountain scale of a place
with the intimate charm and appeal of a
character, explains James. We needed
The fun involved trying to blend the anthropomorphic charm of classic
our characters to be believable as iconic land
formations, but have the range of motion Disney or Warner Brother cartoons from the 1940s and 1950s with the
and emotion we needed for acting without
squashing or stretching the rock surface or appeal of a National Geographic documentary on Hawaii
the vegetation on the character. The more we
moved them, the quicker we broke the scale James Murphy, director, Lava
and believability. Animating these characters
was a lesson in subtlety and in less is more, pure and genuine. The second is clear, simple us that it resembled his own story. Knowing
while turning a place into a character was and succinct storytelling. You really need that people enjoy seeing it, especially when it
an exercise in deconstructing the ingredients to utilise every second of the time you have resonates, is incredibly rewarding, she says.
that make a place like Hawaii recognisable as and waste nothing. The last thing you need Lava made its debut via the festival scene,
Hawaii, and then using those recognisable is a great, satisfying ending. Whether it is a debuting at the Hiroshima International
ingredients to inspire the design of an surprise ending, an emotional ending, or an Animation Festival on June 14, 2014. A full
animated character. ending with a punch line, its very important. airing will follow next year on 19 June 2015.
As head of animation at Pixar, its little With the limited time you have, youre setting Turn to page 54 for this issue's Pixar-created
wonder James has such a firm grasp on everything up for a great payoff.
FYI step-by-step RenderMan tutorial.
Artist portfolio
Ohto Oinaanpaa
Shunning shortcuts, revisiting old art, and trying not to make a joke of everything,
this Finnish 3D artists work is a unique blend of personal peccadilloes
3D World December 2014 46 3dworld.creativebloq.com
The muted palette
in Six Stones for
the Goddess helps
create layers of
detail and intrigue
F
or a 3D artist with a clear talent for detail, traditional artist who picked up 3D to become
order and harmony, its a surprise that more proficient at it. He doesnt want to over
Ohto Oinaanps creative process starts egg his surroundings as an influence on his art,
in chaos. Having left pencils behind long ago, but admits, Maybe you can see some hints
he strives to be a pure 3D artist, building up of our four completely different seasons in my
blocks of small detail like a sculptor chipping work, and that innocent curiousness of a highly
away at his marble block to reveal the image observant country boy.
inhis mind. Ohto has his own metaphor: Though Ohto would congratulate you in Artist insight
I stare at a horrendous mess of seeing those seasons in his choice of colours, Getting technical
artist Profile unfinished constructions on the his palettes are more out of necessity than With a spruced up setup,
Living in Kuopio, screen with my jaw slightly hanging design. I admit that colours are sort of a Ohto breathed new life into
Finlands eighth open, heavily pondering the many strain for me, Ohto explains. Black and old work, starting with this
biggest city, Ohto possibilities. Its like a chess match between whiteseems the easiest way to attain a heart-stopping piece
considers himself two not-too-bright fellows. pleasant outcome, otherwise I pick a couple
a traditional artist Having studied engineering before throwing of colours that dont take the attention away Six Stones for the Goddess
that just got fond himself into art in 2008, Ohto realises this may from the content. You may think hes joking, is worthy to look at, since
of computers. He not be the most pleasurable creative process; but the muted metallic hues trick the eye to this piece was the first
freelances in both hes knows there are quicker approaches. suggest flat surfaces where theres detail and one I created with my new
2D and 3D. However, if he were to use shortcuts in his depth they force you to peer a little bit closer technical setup, and I kind of
www.ohto.fi art the viewer might not have the teaming at every rivet and wrinkle. reference that in the art.
life in whichto immerse themselves, piecing Humour, it turns out, is this artists weakness. I bulked my PC out to
together each mangled limb, animal texture, Sometimes my humour can go too far. Ive include six core processors
and weird biomechanical oddity in an echo turned some of my more serious projects in and 12 threads, with 64
ofits creation. to clumsy farce at the very end of the process gigabytes of RAM with a
just because I can, he says. Whether you see water cooling system so I
Vital
Maybe you can see some hints these flaws or not, you can at least expect a
change in his future work. Ive just recently
could use it more than five
minutes at a time... The
Statistics
of that innocent curiousness of started to practise my serious modelling face
to bring some variation to my repertory.
fish in the Goddess scene
symbolises the last addition.
What attracts Ohto to 3D is that producing The motherboard is an Asus
a highly observant country boy good work as opposed to all right work P9X79 and I use a GeForce
Job Title is simple. He says that he finds identifying a GTX 760 graphics card, but
Freelance graphic Its not easy, but its a conscious decision. good piece of 3D work pretty easy: Its quite those arent particularly
designer (2011 I remember being quite small when I decided a straightforward route; I think theres not that represented in the scene.
to present) the more the merrier, says Ohto about his much room for subjectivity when seriously I consider this piece
packed compositions, I still think that the reviewing 3D works, he says, and therefore most of all as a relieving
Software ability to manage information, especially if its quite impossible to be truly good in this step up, since the update
3ds Max, ZBrush, theres huge amounts of it, is probably the field without being both technically fluent has opened many new
Adobe products most essential skill to possess when crafting and also artistically advanced. Translating creative opportunities for
an all-around successful piece. his 2D work into 3D is not yet done, however. me. It certainly would be
Country It was managing information that led the Happily theres still a long way for me to go. a greaterachievement to
Finland Finnish artist to revisit some of his older Visit Ohtos website, www.ohto.fi, to see reach wonderful results
works recently. Having added 64 gigabytes
FYI more of the his personal 3D artwork. through even heavier
favourites of RAM to his PC, he got rid of some final optimising, however, I can
2000 AD comics, restrictions, then revisited the original notes also see utilising current
Warhammer 40K, and ambitions for earlier pieces. Of course, technology to the fullest
Eino Mikkonen, only the clearly incomplete works will get the toalso be quite appropriate.
Ilya Repin special treatment, as theres no reason to try This piece is a simple salute
and go over the shaky first steps of bad art, to my new computer,
he says. For software, 3ds Max is the one for built with allegories and
Ohto, but ZBrush is also there to spice up gratuitous respect.
ourrelationship, he says.
Currently based in Kuopio, a small city
in East Finland, Ohto considers himself a
The Intergalactic space navigator with his kittens Rise of the robots
CG with
bark Bite &
Rocket and Groot burst onto the big screen in Marvels Guardians
of the Galaxy. The movies success lies in its ability to sell
non-human heroes to an audience, reveals Renee Dunlop
[ Film title ]
Guardians of the galaxy
[ Studios ] Framestore, MPC
[ Software ] Houdini, Furtility, RenderMan, Arnold
[ Development length ] 18 months
[ Websites ] www.bit.ly/188-guardians-framestore,
www.bit.ly/188-guardians-mpc
he latest blockbuster from Marvel, running on two legs, it always looks weird, so
Guardians of the Galaxy, posed the challenge was to make it look natural and
one major question: how do you portray believable without being completely human.
the personality of a bio-engineered, Rocket still had the occasional scene where
cranky raccoon who walks on two legs it made sense to have him on all fours, like
and carries substantial firepower? where he had to cover distance quickly or
Its all about attitude, according to climb whilst dodging bullets.
Framestores animation supervisor
Kevin Spruce. Director James Gunn was Handy additions
very clear on having Rocket not Once the team had a default walk they began
Kevin Spruce just be a gun-toting tough guy. experimenting with side-to-side weight
With over 20 years His multidimensional character shifting and adding expressive hand gestures.
experience in digital film develops through the film, despite That was when we began to see Rockets
and video technology, his often harsh exterior. Rocket was not just a character appear, says Kevin. The hand
Kevinis head of talking animal interacting with humans, he was gestures extended to details such as Rocket
animation atFramestore. a fully rounded character with a backstory
www.framestore.com who doesnt see himself as a raccoon. We
had to make sure the audience related to him We had to make sure the audience related
the same way as they would with the human
characters. Rocket had to have soul. to him the same way as they would with the
Solving this requirement meant asking such
questions as, what behaviours are human-like human characters. Rocket had to have soul
and what behaviours have a raccoon influence,
and how does a bio-engineered entity blend Kevin Spruce, animation supervisor, Framestore
The space the two? How did Rockets walking pose and
raccoon body attitude relate to his character?
While Framestore began its Guardians of the Galaxy journey with Rocket,
MPC handled the task of animating a humanoid tree. The prospect had
many pitfalls, how do you avoid making a tree less wooden? As with
Rocket, the challenge laid down by director James Gunn was to make the
character as lovable as possible, help people forget he is digital so he
becomes another character in the film.
Groot only has three words so it made this difficult. Greg Fisher,
our animation supervisor played Groot as we didnt have the voice track
... When we were looking at Greg we noticed the feeling is in the eyes,
we knew we had to limit the shape of the facial features so the eyes
were very important, says Nicolas. The VFX supervisor then spent time
studying x-rays of eyes and medical files.
We discovered the key was in the iris ridges, shadows and rugged
detail exists in the sclera its subtle, but its there. So we textured and
displaced these details so we could get these nice shadows in the render.
We added tissue between the iris and the eyeball to make the transition
smoother. It looked good, but it wasnt there; what really made it was
we off-centered the axis, we made Groot a tiny bit cross-eyed; nobody
is perfect and that kind of thing just gave him the edge and changed his
face, Nicolas explains.
It worked, I could watch that character for ages! I think thats what
makes him a really interesting character. A lot of Groots connection is
inthe eyes, the eyes are instrumental in adding depth to the character
its become astandard at MPC of how we want to do eyes now. They
are impressive.
The final character on screen, together with Rocket, proved a success
and helped ensure Guardians of the Galaxy beat expectations. One really
cool thing with this movie is that when critics discussed this movie they
didnt talk about these amazing CG characters but the characters they
are talking about Groot and Rocket in the same way as Chris Pratt, adds
Nicolas. That was a great achievement, to make people forget they are
digital and embrace them as characters.
Tutorials
Practical tips and tutorials from pro
artists to improve your CG skills
in the
Vault
www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188
All you need
for our tutorials
www.creativebloq.com/ 54 render photoreal skin 60 create a favela scene 64 create explosive FX
vault/3dw188 Get started in Pixars RenderMan 19 Procedurally model a detailed cityscape Vikrant J Dalals training on realistic effects
Visit the Vault to add this issues
video tutorials and associated
screenshots and source files
toyour personal library
create a photoreal
model in RenderMan
Harsh Agrawal uses the new RIS framework in RenderMan
to render a production-quality human head
T
his tutorial will show you how Well explore the workflows a detailed breakdown of
to create a photorealistic involved in manipulating the scan RenderMans advanced skin
human head using the data in ZBrush to extract texture shader, which is a fully ray-traced
advanced features of RenderMan, maps for our shaders. Then well solution, and highlight some
version 19. This version delivers a set up our scene in Maya using important techniques for getting
Artist profile new rendering mode called RIS, the physically based shading the most realistic skin possible.
Harsh Agrawal which is designed to be fast and and lighting tools in RenderMan I have included a link to a head
Harsh Agrawal is a easy to use, while generating Studio. Well use new workflows scan, with a basic skin shader
19-year-old CG artist production-quality renders. and traditional techniques to attached. Download the asset
interning at Pixar. Well start with a raw scan render out different components from www.bit.ly/188-renderman
He likes to combine of a real person, and because and combine them together for and use RenderMan 19 to light and
aesthetics with his RenderMan can handle extremely our final high-quality image. shade your own head using the
technical skills to complex datasets, we can quickly This tutorial is structured techniques shown in this tutorial.
create digital content. render high-quality images using the familiar CG pipeline, The raw scan data is provided by
www.harshagrawal.co straight from the original scan from sculpt to render. To fully Ten24 (www.3dscanstore.com).
without bothering with topology, demonstrate how to create Download the resources from
displacement maps, and so on. photorealistic skin, Ive included creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188
Expert tip
Defining details
You can sculpt details
like pores and cavities
in the skin with a
higher depth because
small details like that 3 Choosing a camera lens 4 Physically based lighting
get diffused out The camera is placed looking up at the subject. I want to create modern stage lighting with saturated
with subsurface I match my Maya camera settings to a Canon EF colours, so I use RenderMans physically based spot-
scattering during 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM lens. Being a zoom lens lights and set their colour temperatures to achieve
the final render. it gets rid of convex distortions in the image. After a the warm and cool contrast I desire. I place bright
few adjustments I come up with a length of 170mm warm key lights pointing down onto the head, and
in Maya, with a wide aperture to give a shallow depth add fill lights to provide cool contrast. I use a rim light
of field that pops the head out from the background. to accentuate the stubble on his face. Progressive
RenderMan provides camera controls for stylising re-rendering in RenderMan speeds up my process as
bokeh, which I use to achieve the final look. it allows me to light interactively.
Radical rendering
Re-rendering using RIS
One great benefit of RenderMans
RIS mode is being able to use
re-rendering or incremental
rendering to get immediate
feedback and quick interactive
render times. You can
immediately see if you have
chosen SSS parameters that are
wrong: colour or diffusion lengths
are simple to tweak and carry out
look development.
6 Shading skin reflections
To give the skin a more realistic response, I paint
aspecular map based on the skins cavities to
remove the highlights in the cavities, giving it
more detail by modulating the specularity over
thesurface. I also paint a roughness map (left)
basedon specific grey values to control the wetness/
oil on the skin. Getting the specular response correct
is a key component in creating photorealistic skin.
7 setting parameters
The skin shader allows you to connect weight maps
to control the penetration of rays at each point.
I paint a far length map to control the amount of
subsurface scattering at different parts of the face.
Parts of the head like the ear and thin cartilage
showmore subsurface scattering because they
Parts of the head like
are thin, but you also have the option to control
the weight and length of penetration to increase
the ear and thin cartilage
scattering as desired.
showmore subsurface
scattering because
they are thin
follow
the video
If you see the Play icon, click the link!
game environment
PART 2: TEXTURES
In part two of our six-part series, Andrew Finch takes you through the
steps to texture a professional-looking environment for a video game
P
art one of this series guided This can be tricky to do, but its to manipulate photographs
you through the process important to get this part of the to create diffuse and specular
of creating a professional process correct in order to get textures. I tend to create most
portfolio piece a realistic the most pixel density for your of my own textures but there are
environment in a short space of textures possible. a lot of free photo galleries on
Artist profile time, with very basic assets, using UVs are also important in the web that you can use to make
Andrew Finch the brand new Unreal Engine games engines because you your own images.
Andrew is a senior 4. We also looked at modelling can use a second UV channel for I use CrazyBump to create
environment and modular assets and exporting light baking, which Unreal uses normal maps because its a
lighting artist them into Unreal Engine, texturing when building the lighting the powerful piece of software
at Codemasters in Photoshop and setting up the more UV space used the higher and is very good at converting
Game Studio in PBS shaders in Unreal to apply resolution the shadows will be, normal maps from photo-sourced
Birmingham. He has to the assets. Finally we looked which will in turn improve the textures; via its user-friendly
been in the industry at lighting the scene and setting end result of your work. Textures interface you can create a wide
for seven years. up the assets properties, adding for games engines are always range of normal maps for hard
www.andrewfinch. that extra level of polish to your made to the power of two due to or soft edges, making it ideal for
carbonmade.com artwork to make it stand out from fundamental rules in the hardware environment artwork. This tutorial
the rest and look professional. of games consoles, so making will cover unwrapping an asset for
The next step is to create the sure your textures are sized at texturing and lighting and also the
Topics covered textures for your assets, one of my 1024x1024 pixels (for example) is process of creating the diffuse,
UV unwrapping favourite tasks in creating game very important. specular and normal maps used in
Creating diffuse maps art. In this part, we will cover I use two pieces of software for the game engine.
Creating specular maps unwrapping your assets UVs to creating my textures, Photoshop For all the assets you need go to
Creating normal maps use the most UV space possible. and CrazyBump. I use Photoshop creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188
Making a natural
wall surface
Click TO PLAY Video Colouring your brick
www.bit.ly/188-unreal2 work with different
shades of white, grey
3 Creating the Diffuse map 4 Finalising diffuse map and black will give your
Render out the UVs from Max using the Render Add weathering to the wall by importing greyscale normal map an uneven
UV tool in the Unwrap modifier. I rendered to grunge maps and multiply the layer in Photoshop surface, pushing and
a 1,024x1,024 texture and imported this into so they blend in with the wall texture. I like to fake pulling the individual
Photoshop. Search for suitable free textures online ambient occlusion to some areas of the walls by bricks in and out and
and import them into Photoshop. Here I used a brick painting in soft black areas and setting opacity to enhancing the natural,
wall photo. Using Clone, mask areas of the photo to low, this helps to give the asset some definition when realistic look we are
create a seamless section of brick wall. Next, move its baked in the engine. Its quick and dirty, but gives attempting to achieve
the wall section to the 1,024x1,024 texture page and the effect I am looking for. Adding details like graffiti
clone it until it fills the brick wall UV area. to the texture page gives it more realism.
follow
the video
If you see the Play icon, click the link!
Create a procedurally
modelledfavela
Matthias Buehler takes you through his pipeline
for creating a stunning photorealistic favela scene
C
reating 3D cities is a But CityEngine is still unknown steps of the project. First, we
daunting task. The to many, especially in regard to will see how the city layout was
modelling and texturing what it can deliver. The reason designed. Secondly, youll learn
to achieve a believable style and why I started my Favela project how the buildings, faades and
variety of buildings is complex, was to get this information out roofs are organised in CityEngine,
Artist profile and so is handling the huge there. The setting of the project and how details are added to
Matthias Buehler amounts of data created. We is a fictional hobby room, where those. Then, we will have a look
After graduating in 2007, have all seen the many stunning a group of people are creating a at street, vegetation and cable
Matthias worked in cities created for video games miniature Favela city model. Soon creation. Next, the pipeline
landscape architecture, and movies; almost all of these after I started this project, I asked design: geometry export and
arch-viz and was part were created manually, using all my friend Cyrill Oberhaensli, if automatic material creation.
of the CityEngine sorts of tricks. However, by using he wanted to join me and help Lastly well cover how to use
development team CityEngine, this process becomes me out: I was keen to utilise his MEL to load all the created data
for almost five years. much more efficient: For the invaluable knowledge from his into the manually modelled room
He now he works at first time, there is an application own indie game Bunker 16. setting in Maya for rendering.
Garsdale Design. available that is solely dedicated In this training, I will guide you For all the assets you need go to
garsdaledesign.co.uk to modelling cities. through the most important ten creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188
Expert tip
Analyze Graph Tool
Select some street graphs
and run the Analyze Graph
Tool to automatically
calculate and then set
realistic street widths.
Expert tip
Facade Wizard
The Facade Wizard
is an efficient tool
to create procedural
facade rules with
a series of simple
mouse clicks.
3 FACADE LIBRARY 4 ROOF TYPES
A library of 60 procedural facade rules are created, Favelas have all sorts of roof types, so I add
using the Facade Wizard, which can adapt to any some realistic randomness to the various types
facade dimension, based on 60 facade image of buildings; using certain percentages, gable,
snippets collected. After postprocessing each rule, hip and flat roofs can be created. Then I add wall
each facade produces additional polygons that serve structures that imply that the top floor is still under
as placeholder regions to scatter different assets: construction. The according roof type attribute can
pipes, ACs, cable connector points, electric boxes, be manually set to a specific type. Additionally, for
peeling off plaster, scaffolds and other things to rooftop walls, the material can be defined (metallic,
improve the facades volumetric appearance. mineral and so on).
Expert tip
Low-poly modelling
Creating assets to be
distributed throughout the
favela model is similar to
creating game assets.Visit
www.bit.ly/188-gamejolt
to play Cyrills indie game
Bunker 16 to see an
example of these
assets in use.
5 ASSET DISTRIBUTION
To distribute the many roof assets that I have
hand modelled, I create an asset distribution rule.
In functions, define the asset mix, distances and
maximum array sizes in which an asset could appear.
This means that some assets are placed only as
individual objects, while others are placed in groups.
This distribution rule can then be used on balconies,
Expert tip interiors and on rooftops.
Recursions
Using recursions (rules
calling themselves
multiple times)
can offer creative
results with just a
little code. Try it!
Creating cities
Procedural modelling
uses algorithms to
produce intricate
geometry quickly from
a set of specifications 6 STREETS 7 VEGETATION
I keep the street geometries rather simple: the Just as an exercise, I write a plant creation rule to
two main features are the broken stone slabs and create my own vegetation assets. It is complex
the distribution of rocks. Procedural rules work on and features about 100 attributes of things I want
arbitrary input geometries, so you can create an to control, such as branch length, trunk diameter,
infinite variety of precise geometries. Driven by well- number of leaves per twig and branch generations,
defined randomness, some slabs are split into smaller and even gravity. My export pipeline (see step 9)
pieces, then slightly rotated and scaled or deleted. allows each leaf material to be translated into a
The rocks are not simply instances of pre-modelled sophisticated shader with translucency, normal map,
rocks: each one actually has a unique geometry. roughness map and thin-poly SSS.
9 RENDER PIPELINE
I create a one-click exporter Python script that Expert tip
directly produces exported files for final-quality Set your pipeline
geometry and material definitions, based on the .obj No matter how big or
file format and Maxwell Render. When exporting the small your CG project is,
vegetation, instead of just exporting all plants as raw define the full pipeline
geometry, I use a reporting workflow to get position before starting the work.
and type for each plant in the scene. The result is Especially with iterative
new MEL code that can directly be run in Maya to design work, you will
efficiently instantiate plant objects. save a lot of time
this way.
Render pipeline
Matthias pipeline is based
on the .obj file format and
Maxwell Render, because
.obj is an Ascii format that
can be parsed, and Maxwell
10 Finalising the scene 11 Using Maxwell Render Render has a Python API
The artistic goal of this project is the creation of a As myself and Cyrill are using Maxwell Render, I (pyMaxwell) that enables
hobby room, in which imaginary people are creating am confident that every render we start will work him to create the final
a physical miniature model of a favela. You may as intended. It is crucial that if two people create material definitions needed
notice that the model is not yet completely finished. assets independently, that the material definitions
Everything in the hobby room setting except the will just work, regardless of asset size, scene size or
actual favela model is created manually, most of test scene lighting. Maxwells unbiased nature allows
it modelled using Cinema 4D. All elements in this this to work, but due to the strong DOF, we have to
interior scene are modelled with as much detail as abandon our goal of rendering the animation that we
possible and textured as realistically as possible. have prepared, and instead create a set of stills.
follow
the video
If you see the Play icon, click the link!
Create realistic
Explosions
Create explosive effects in 3ds Max using
the FumeFX plug-in with Vikrant J Dalal
T
his tutorial will look at how would need a lot of time to go of the effect. The first step in this
you can make explosive through, so as far as this particular process is to clarify what type of
effects, like those seen in scene is concerned, we will learn explosive effect you are going to
war films, game cinematics and as much as required for this create a fire, an explosion on
sci-fi films, such as Transformers, particular tutorial. an oil rig, a bomb going off so
Artist profile Pearl Harbor, Battleship and There are different techniques do your research and gather
Vikrant J Dalal many others. you can use to make this effect in extensive reference before
Vikrant has worked in There are number of plug- FumeFx, such as Simple Source, starting work on the actual shot.
the VFX and graphic ins in 3ds Max that can create Object Source or Particle Source, Creating explosive effects
design industry for these explosive effects, such as but for this scene we are going to in FumeFx is very interesting,
eight years. He has FumeFX, Afterburn and Phoenix use Simple Source. because you cant define one
started his own VFX FD. Many big animation and VFX Before you start working on certain pipeline to create the
studio, Project01 studios use FumeFX software in this kind of effect, you should effect. Depending on your own
Design Studio, which their pipeline as it gives good have good knowledge of real- understanding of the tools and
provides VFX, graphic effects, is trustworthy and most world scale. You must know what techniques, and how you use your
design and tutorials. importantly user friendly. the height and diameter of the creativity and these tools, you
project01studio. To create this effect, we explosion will be, what type of will generate different types of
blogspot.in are going to use 3ds Max and explosion you want to create, and effects every time. So now, lets
FumeFx. I am not going to cover what the speed of the explosion get started!
each and every parameter of this should be. A combination of all For all the assets you need go to
software, as this is very vast and these factors will decide the scale creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188
Making an impact
Use particles for explosions
In this tutorial we have used
FumeFX Simple Source, which is a
good option to create explosions.
But if you are good at using the
Particle Flow System, this can 4 Simulation settings
also give you a good output. This Under Simulation, change the following settings:
is because its easy to control make the Quality 7 and Iteration 100. In System, set
particles for speed, turbulence Gravity to 0.5, Vorticity 1.0 and Turbulence should be
and so on, and then you have animated (Frame 1 to 15, Turbulence 2.0 and after
to just add these particles into that 0.1), for Turbulence Noise set Scale 1.0, Frame to
FumeFX Particle Source. Particles 5.0 and Details 5.0. X, Y and Z should be set to None
will help to create a better shape in Blocking Sides. Under Fuel Parameters, make burn
with more impact. rate 15, increase the expansion to 3.0, turn on Fire
creates Smoke and increase the amount to 10.0.
Expert tip
Use real footage
In this tutorial, we have
created our explosion on a grey
background. Another option is
to shoot any live scene using
a camcorder and try to add an
explosion into that footage this
will give you a better idea of real
lighting, compositing and also
how to create a complete visual
effects shot, from shooting,
camera tracking, FX and
9 Rendering compositing. Also remember
For the final rendering of fire and smoke, we will to add extra elements,
use the Default Scanline Renderer. To render fire such as dust, debris
and smoke elements separately, press F10 and go and objects.
to Render Element Section, then add FumeFX Fire
and FumeFX Smoke elements into this tab. Set the
Frame Range and Output Resolution as per your
requirements. Now save the Render Output Path
and hit the Render button.
follow
the video
If you see the Play icon, click the link!
Maya 2015
W
hen it comes to working Event Editor, Bifrost Liquid simulations interactively in
with particles or fluids, Simulation and Particle Caching. Viewport 2.0, helping you to
the results can be as You will take a prebuilt model develop photorealistic results
unpredictable as the weather. of a girl out for an evening run quickly andeasily.
Trying to control them can often and use nParticles to add dynamic Its been designed to be
Artist profile feel like shouting aimlessly into and interactive rain. In addition accessible even to non-technical
Antony Ward astorm; your voice vanishing into to this you will also enlist the use directors, and adds a high level of
Antony has been a clap of thunder. of Bifrost to create and simulate a realism to animated scenes. What
provoking pixels In this tutorial we will be puddle erupting as she splashes you will see from this tutorial is
since the early throwing caution to the wind as through it. that creating dynamic rain and a
1990s. In that time we look at creating two, yes two nParticles have been a part detailed, animated splash doesnt
he has worked for dynamics simulations in the same of Maya for a while now, but always have to come down to
some of todays scene, (not counting the other Bifrost, a powerful yet simplistic modelling or sculpting. Not when
leadingstudios existing system, her hair, which is fluid simulation system is a you have nParticles and Bifrost to
and written three another tutorial entirely). more recent addition and well do all the hard work for you.
technical manuals. Over the next few page we will worth investigating. Essentially For all the assets you need go to
www.antcgi.com cover nParticles, Particle Collision Bifrost enables you to preview creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188
cube emitter
Once created, simply
scaleyour new cube
emitter so the character
fitsnicely inside it
Expert tip
Particle attributes
If you adjust your
particle attributes once 3 Create Wind 4 Rain Collisions
they have been cached Your streaks of rain are now falling towards the The rain is now falling towards your character, but its
to disk, make sure you ground, but ideally you want them to be blown not interacting with her or the ground just yet. You
recache them or disable towards the character. To add wind to the scene you next need to make the scene elements collide so the
the cache. You wont need to look at the Nucleus node, which was created rain particles will interact with them. To do this select
see your changes with the rain particles. Select the nucleus1 node and the floor mesh and go to nMesh > Create Passive
unless you do. scroll down to the Gravity and Wind tab. Set Wind Collider. Also repeat this step for the character
Direction to -1 in Z axis and then adjust Wind Speed model. Your models will now have nRigidShape
and Air Density, which activate and control the nodes connected to them meaning that the rain
power of the wind. willnow hit and interact with them as it falls.
7 Wind Influence
Now you have the rain exploding as it hits the
ground, but the wind you added earlier is effecting
the droplets, pushing them back at too fasta rate.
Select the new nParticleShape2. Now you need to
goto the Dynamic Properties tab and check the
box next to Ignore Solver Wind. The global wind
will no longer effect these particles, yet they will
stillmaintain some of the initial momentum of the
first particles descent.
next month
Take a deep dive! Discover an ocean of new
CGskills with next issues pro tutorials!
key technique:
Add decals and details
Shaun Redsar reveals how to liven up your modelswith simple labels, badges
and sticker decals using KeyShot 5s Labels feature
A Applying a decal
dding logos, stickers and images onto any
3Dmodel is fast and easy with KeyShots
Labels feature. This tutorial will demonstrate
how quickly a label can be added to any surface, and ONE Adding labels
also how to manage all the labels in your scene. To add a label to your scene, find
Artist profile Located within KeyShots Material Properties the Labels tab within the Material
Shaun Redsar tab, labels in KeyShot support the most common Properties. Choose your label
Shaun has developed file formats such as .jpeg, .tiff, .tga, .png, .exr and image file by clicking either the
product and graphic .hdr. You can place an unlimited number of labels Add icon or the Folder icon, or by
visuals with Disney onto a surface, with each label containing its own double-clicking the empty image
Consumer Products set of properties and mapping types that you can swatch. KeyShot will prompt you
and Nectar Design, adjust tofit within your scene. Labels in KeyShot also to click the location on your model
and has taught at recognise embedded alpha channels, so you can surface where you would like
theOtis College of incorporate any shape into your placed images or the label to appear. Click Done
Art and Design. adjust their opacity level. to confirm. You can reassign the
www.redsar.com Tired of having to reapply labels to a surface after location of your decals at any time
changing a material on a model? In KeyShot 5 you by clicking the Position button.
can swap out different types of materials on your Manage your labels with the Add,
model while retaining label settings and placement, Delete and Reordering arrows.
by holding the [Alt] key while dragging a material
onto the surface. In this way, you can create fast and TWO Scale and Orientation
easy colour studies without having to reapply the After applying your label, adjust
labels toeach material youre using. it to suit. Normal Projection is
With these simple toolsets, KeyShot enables you the default mapping type, with
Topics covered toeasily add depth and detail to help bring your other options available from the
Labels in KeyShot scene to life. dropdown. To adjust the size of
Scale & orientation Download the high-resolution screenshots from your labels, drag Scale to the
Label properties www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188 desired size. If you would like to
fine-tune the location of your label,
use the Shift X and Y sliders to
nudge your label incrementally. To
rotate the label, use Angle. Labels
can also be flipped vertically,
horizontally or repeated by ticking
the associated options.
follow
Artist profile
rs Brczy the video
rs has studied 3D
art and animation If you see the Play icon, click the link!
for four years, the
past two as part of
the BA Animation
course at Budapests
BKF University of
Applied Sciences.
www.barczyors.hu
Topics covered
Procedural terrains
Fractal settings
Atmosphere settings
Rendering
Post-production work
build a mountain
range with Fractals
rs Brczy explains how to use Vues fractal nodes to create a mountain range,
then choose material and atmospheric settings to render a photorealistic image
O
Click TO PLAY Video ver the next four pages it has quite different tools and complete, we will adjust the Aerial
www.bit.ly/188-vue I will show you how to menus,it is very logical and easy perspective setting to simulate
use Vue 2014 to render to understand. the effect of atmospheric haze,
aphotorealistic mountain range. The realism of the image set up the lighting and select
We will be using the xStream depends on creating enough suitable render settings.
edition of the software. This is fine detail and achieving a good If we do everything right, Vue
normally used from within another balance of snow and rock. I will render an almost perfect
3D application, such as 3ds Max, will show you how you can use image. A little post-production
Maya or Cinema 4D, but it can the Terrain Fractal settings to work will make it even better still.
be used on its own, which is generate the detail, and how to I will show you how to
what I decided to do here. While create a two-layer material to composite the render passes
simulate the snow-covered rock. in Nuke, and adjust the overall
Once this is done, I will show brightness and contrast. We
you how to position the cloud will make the final adjustments
layer correctly in the valleys and in Photoshop, adding a little
to generate enough detail in more grain and adjusting the
the clouds. When the scene is colour balance of the image. The
walkthrough in the magazine
shows you the process in detail, or
you can watch a breakdown video
at vimeo.com/101334596.
For all the assets you need, go to
creativebloq.com/vault/3dw188
Expert tip
Built-in randomness
Even if you use the
same parameter values
as me, you will get
sometimes a different Click TO PLAY Video Click TO PLAY Video
result. Dont worry: www.bit.ly/188-vue1 www.bit.ly/188-vue2
thats normal.
1 Create the base mesh 2 USe THE TERRAIN EDITOR
The base mesh for the mountain is a Procedural Left-click on the mountain to select it. It will go red.
Terrain. To create one, choose Object > Create > Right-click on it and choose Edit Object. The Terrain
Procedural Terrain or select the icon that looks like Editor window should appear. From here, you can
a mountain with the letter f beneath it from the sculpt or add details to your terrain. You can set your
left-hand toolbar. To rotate the view, hold down [Alt] brush Size and Falloff values from the Paint tab.
and the right mouse button. You can zoom in or out I turned off the Zero edges option by toggling the
by scrolling, or hold down the scroll wheel to move icon at the top of the editor and raised the resolution
the view. You can see also a rendered draft preview of my terrain to 512x512 by selecting Double terrain
in the small box on the right. resolution (the x2 icon)
8 Choose an aTMOSPHERE
Using the top toolbar, Copy and Paste the mountain
three or four times, complete with material settings.
Vary the fractal settings slightly for each copy.
Position each copy: I pushed them back, rotated
them, and sometimes moved them down below
the default plane. In the top toolbar, select Load
Atmosphere (right-click the Atmosphere Editor icon).
A new window will open. Choose the Everglades
option from the Daytime/Spectral Sunshine folder.
CLoud Parameters
What the cloud settings do
You can find the clouds settings in
the Clouds tab of the Atmosphere
Editor. Lets look at what they do.
Altitude controls the altitude at
which clouds appear in the scene.
Height controls the height of the
cloud layer. Cover controls what
percentage of the sky is covered.
Density controls how deeply
light penetrates the clouds. It
can be set higher than 100%
Click TO PLAY Video I used a value of 440% here.
www.bit.ly/188-vue9 Opacity controls how far you can
see objects through the cloud.
9 set the clouds Sharpness controls how sharp the
The Everglades option doesnt include clouds. edges of the clouds appear. Detail
Add them from the Clouds tab of the Atmosphere amount controls the amplitude of
Editor. I used one of AsileFXs cumulus presets, but the cloud details. (Note: some of
the default cumulus will work fine, too. The most these settings are only available
important settings are Altitude and Height. Choose in when using the spectral
a low value (10 to 100m) for the Altitude at which atmosphere model.) To add a new
cloud appears: youll need to type it into the box cloud layer, click the Add button
rather than dragging the slider. Height is the height to the right of the hierarchy.
of the cloud layer: 100 to 200m worked for me here.
Develop
Theory, research and reviews plus
industry insights from todays experts
Get published
Email your CG ART to
ian.dean@futurenet.com
Author profile
Dan Higgott
Dan is the managing
director of Spov, the
London-based design
and visual effects
agency. Dan has many
years experience
working within the
creative industries.
www.spov.tv
vital
statistics
Studio
Spov
Format
Opening game
cinematic sequence
Client
Electronic Arts/
Respawn
Project length
Seven weeks of
production time
team size
11 people for
theduration
Software used
After Effects,
Cinema 4D, Maya,
Premiere
Release Date
March 2014
The Spov team took
their inspiration
for the long vista
sequences from
Lawrence of Arabia
S
pov has a long-standing One Acquiring assets
relationship with Titanfalls Given that the story we were telling was one based on the
developer, Respawn. We game, and reflected scenes, machinery and ships for the most
were invited to pitch a couple part seen within the game itself, our starting point for many
of alternative creative routes shots was to obtain game assets already created by Respawn.
around the concept of mans The challenge was that Respawn were so focused on finalising
journey to the stars, and out and polishing the game, that we would get the assets we
towards the planetary systems needed as and when Respawn had the opportunity to share
where Titanfalls action occurs. them with us, rather than on a perfectly smooth schedule.
Spov worked with the director We tried to avoid bugging them, but as we wanted to make
of the sequence, Gavin Rothery the best use of their fantastic designs we inevitably ended up
to develop these early concepts. having to be somewhat persistent in asking for specific ships or
The two ideas we pitched were weapons, then checking the FTP the following morning to see
contrasting one was tense and if they had arrived. For specific shots that featured close-ups of
Respawn assets we had to do additional work to the models
Sometimes the ships to up-res them. This occasionally made scheduling shots
challenging and we had to shuffle them between artists so
that we didnt lose any time when waiting for specific assets.
appear tiny, dwarfed
bythe mass of planets TWO Tracking the work
As Ive just explained above, there was a good deal of shot
they are passing re-assignment to keep all of the artists fully occupied while
we were waiting for assets, either from Respawn, or from
our 3D team to deliver final versions of our design work into
character-focused, like the three- the pipeline. Waiting whilst the clock is ticking was hard on
way shoot-out in The Good, The the animation team as everyone was focused on making the
Bad and The Ugly. job the absolute best it could be. We ended up creating a lot
The other was based on of shots using placeholders and swapping those out for final
beautiful alien vistas and views of assets at the last minute. It certainly added stress to the job,
the stars, taking the long cinematic but by that time we were all expecting it and the team took it
shots from Lawrence of Arabia on the chin, powering through the final pressured few days at
as inspiration. After discussions the end. To be honest, it could have been a lot worse.
with Respawn, we focused on the
second route,which then took
on board influences from the
footage of Nasas Cassini mission
to Saturn, and particularly an edit
ofstills from the mission created
by Chris Abbas.
To see the cinematic visit: Three Making big spaceships look big
FYI spov.tv/portfolio/titanfall. We played with scale throughout the solar system and deep-
space shots. Sometimes the ships appear tiny, dwarfed by
the mass of planets they are passing, while others appear as
huge, rumbling behemoths, passing the camera like a freight
train. It was obviously important to these close-up shots that
the ships had weight and presence, and that the camera was
appropriately set up to capture their size and scale. To help
achieve this the director, Gavin Rothery, placed the cameras
onto other ships adjacent to those in shot. This gives the
viewer the feeling of being part of a fleet, and also allows
the camera to take on some slight shake and movement that
would occur from being mounted onto the outside of another
enormous machine.
Author profile
Mark Ramshaw
A freelance writer
with33 years of
publishing experience,
Mark has been the
editor of magazines,
authored books,
and has extensive
experience as a games
producer, programmer
and reviewer.
markramshaw.
wordpress.com
T
he gulf between academia Southamptons Gregg School With a full-CG, performance
and the VFX and animation effectively working at an on- capture-driven approach chosen
industries has been steadily campus cutting-edge animation, for the fantasy tale, Foam Digital
shrinking over the last few years, effects and post-production has been built drawing on Pauls
with students generally now in facility, dubbed Foam Digital. experiences at professional studios
a better position than ever to (including Weta Digital), on Alexs
deal with the demands of real- A pool of talent experiences in the industry as a 3D
world production once they leave Stina & The Wolf began life as generalist, and expertise gained
the confines of the classroom. apersonal project for director running the universitys motion
Nevertheless, the scale of ambition PaulCharisse, who joined capture studio, and with the
Portsmouth University after input of a number of key industry
We realised if we hand animated all ten years working on numerous
feature films, including the
sponsors: PipelineFX, Vicon,
SolidAngle, Faceware, IKinema,
one render using Two run multiple jobs Three automate the process Four invest in storage
your workstations Run more than one job per host Improve your success rate Ensure your pipeline has the
Todays desktops are powerful where possible. Learning how with automation. Automate as throughput required to handle
multicore machines with to maximise your farm through many processes as possible. the load from your render farm
enough RAM to operate as multiple jobs per host can vastly Automatically retrying failed and workstations accessing
great render nodes as well as increase productivity. Use cases frames, forcing retries to a information simultaneously to
workstations. Many jobs can
include running lightweight 2D different host and auto-wrangling prevent system overload. Look at
be running in the background
even while an artist or student jobs (requiring IO) on machines bad jobs and machines all increasing the storage I/O. A smart
is working. running heavy 3D renders improve the chances of success render manager will overwhelm
(requiring CPU). for your render queue. underspecified storage systems.
budget. We then decided to all of the performances we worked at the BlueGFX expo in London
do as much as we could with on developing our pipeline in and told him about the project, and
performance capture, handled Softimage, as our facial rigs were how we needed sponsors to give
in-house, he adds. all developed using ICE, though free software due to the limited
And so, in August 2011, they we are now we are looking at budget. He told me to email him all
shot the entire screenplay on a moving to another package since of the details, so I sent him every
custom mocap stage, with the aid Softimage has been discontinued. visual we had at the time and all the
of 180,000-worth of equipment information about the project.
loaned to them by Vicon, plus Render wrangling
VFX work on
custom-build head cameras for the
facial capture. This raised our
The next task was to find render
management software that would It has always been the goal of the
Stina has been next challenge, which was how be up to the challenge, which led
completed using to track and process all our facial Alex to the doors of PipelineFX. project to hire industry people to have
Softimage ICE, video, he continues. This led me We were looking for an industry-
but the team is to approach Faceware, and they proven render management them working alongside our students
currently shifting also agreed to sponsor the film! We system, says Alex. I approached
toanother package were on a roll. Once we had shot Richard Lewis, CEO of PipelineFX, Alex Counsell, principal technician, Portsmouth Uni
can be installed on all the available is obviously also relevant to their speed, he explains. It has always The approach to
machines and fine-tuned to only careers, and gives them an edge been the goal of the project to facial animation
use only certain hosts at certain ontheir CVs, says Richard. hire industry people to have them is undoubtedly
times, he says. This means Looking ahead, Alex says the working alongside our students informed by
that you could easily schedule biggest challenge they now face and sharing the knowledge. Paul Charrises
rendering in the departments that with the project is one of funding, Despite such strong industry experiences
are not in use and on machines for while valuable sponsors such support, Stina & The Wolf is animating Gollum
that have been logged out. as PipelineFX have been able clearly an incredibly challenging
to provide the necessary high- proposition. Even the most modest
The use of Arnold Real-world experience end software and hardware its
for rendering and
Qube! for render
For the students working on the
project, one of the key advantages
ultimately going to be necessary
to hire some of the development
[Working on this] teaches students
management
has allowed the
of Qube! is the fact it gives them
the ability to submit their own
team. Our intention is to hire the
best graduates once they finish to that there is no magical place where
students to push renders, which in turn frees up stay on the project, plus we need to
through some very time for the faculty/technicians. hire pipeline and tool developers their work goes to be rendered
ambitious shots The experience the students get so we are ready for full production
Richard Lewis, CEO, PipelineFX
Software review
Cinema 4D R16
Price 2,600 | company Maxon | website www.maxon.net
Author profile
Rob Redman
Rob Redman is a 3D
artist with working
in VFX and motion
graphics for print, TV
and film. He works
ascreative director
and producer and
spends way too much
time on twitter.
pariahstudios.co.uk
C
inema 4D has been on a 4D R16, promises to add further and world locators, makes adding Cinema 4D R16 is
bit of an upsurge recently, refinements, enhancements and 3D toyour footage a doddle. subtley different to
in terms of features and additional tools. Next up is the Polygon Pen tool. previous versions
capabilities, as well as in its user This update introduces many This takes a standard type create but existing users
base and position in the industry. new tools, some that are small polygon tool and supercharges should be right
A few releases ago, when it still workflow-oriented ones and others it. Its too versatile to cover all its athome
had a modular-based approach that are brand-new feature sets, options here, but you can draw and
to tools so you could buy along with bug fixes and UI tweaks. manipulate polygon objects with
functionality as you needed it Lets start with the big wow it, by using defined by points, edges
Maxon introduced the mograph features that people are talking or even gestures of the cursor. You
module, which brought about about now. The biggest news is
a bitof a revolution for motion
graphics artists, with its intuitive
the addition of a motion tracking
system built directly into C4D.
You can draw your geometry based on
interface belying its immense
power and versatility. New motion tracker viewport or directly on another mesh,
Successive releases have Although lacking some of the
taken this approach and added high-end tools, like rolling shutter making this the king of retopology tools
that usability to other areas of compensation, the motion tracker
the software, building it into a is a joy to use and very accurate. can draw your geometry based on
fully featured 3D package that Capable of a full 3D camera solve viewport or directly on another
covers the whole pipeline, from with just a handful of clicks, mesh, making this the king of
modelling, texturing and lighting, this alone is worth the upgrade retopology tools. It uses a simple
Although not to animation and rendering. price, especially for VFX artists. keystroke/button combination
modular these The last few releases have As with many areas of the app, it to move quickly between modes,
days, you can buy also seen the veteran texture is intuitive, well presented and allowing users to work unhindered
Prime, Broadcast, painter, BodyPaint, being bundled extremely easy to work with. It will by menu choices or settings.
Visualise or with Cinema 4D. And now set up a basic composite, camera There are really too many new
Studioversions Maxons latest release, Cinema and with user-definable up vectors tools and tweaks to mention
Hardware review
Formlabs Form1+
Price $3,299 | company Formlabs | website www.formlabs.com
Houdini Indie
Price $199 / 153 / 123 | company Side Effects Software | website www.sidefx.com
W
hen we reviewed Houdini Indie within the same
Main
Houdini 13 earlier Houdini Indie offers the facility as full versions of Houdini.
in the year, we were However, this should not impact
Features delighted with the improvements
that Side Effects Software
power of Houdini FX at standalone freelancers who are the
main market for Indie, who should Author profile
Nodal 3D
had made to the application to
improve both the feature set and a fraction of the price be able to leverage Houdini Indie
and its FX workflow into their
Mike Griggs
Mike is a freelance
application accessibility, especially with the projects through various formats. concept 3D, VFX
Orbolt asset system. for commercial projects For many artists this means that and mograph artist
Full dynamics There were only two Houdini Indie could become the working across
system disadvantages to integrating With the release of Houdini default FX and fluid package for television, exhibition
Houdini for freelance artists, one Engine for Unity, alongside an most types of work. And while the and digitaldesign.
Range of fluid was the learning curve of studying impending release for Cinema 4D, learning curve can be very steep, creativebloke.com
solvers a new application, and the other Side Effects is changing its product Houdini Indie now makes the
was the price of the full version. dynamic substantially with the training investment worthwhile as
While there was the $100-a-year announcement of Houdini Indie. it can be used for professional work.
Houdini Apprentice that you Since Houdini Indie comes with
could use on personal projects; for A wider range of projects a full license of Mantra Render, we
commercial projects, you needed to $199 a year buys you Houdini think Blender artists should have
pay the full price. Indie, a full commercial version a serious look at this software as it
This was a shame, as Houdini with nearly full feature parity to allows greater compatibility with
FX is a significant investment, and the more expensive editions, with other artists and studios.
as Side Effects was also offering only a few limiting caveats over Houdini Indie offers a stepping
Houdini Engine that allowed the much more expensive Houdini stone for CG artist to improve their
Houdini assets to integrate with FX; the main ones being how much FX output and the potential to
Maya and 3ds Max, there was the you earn as a freelancer, a 1080p work on a wider range of projects.
potential to make Houdini most maximum output for animations,
artists only other 3D tool. and the fact that you cant use Verdict
Houdini Indie
offers the full
range of excellent
FX and fluid tools
as its big brother,
Houdini FX
Houdini Indie
Engine allows
the use of Houdini
Indie assets in
packages like
3ds Max
My inspiration
Ron Thornton
The VFX legend of Babylon 5 fame shares his inspirational story
ITV/REX
T
he early 1960s in England the science fiction book cover art, Ron was I really think the future
was a great time for me especially that of Chris Foss. influenced by (especially for TV and low-budget
as a kid. I was bombarded I started as a traditional shows like Fireball shows) is in real time. The render
with the likes of Fireball XL5, modeller well before the days of XL5, Stingray, engines for games are getting
ARTIST profile Stingray, and of course the CGI. But in the late 1980s, working and the original (rapidly) to the point where they
Ron Thornton original Thunderbirds. Those on Captain Power in Toronto, I was Thunderbirds are production ready. Real-time
VFX designer/ great Gerry Anderson shows, introduced to the Amiga computer, tracking and compositing is
supervisor with with Derek Meddings and Mike and its accessible CG applications. available now, and will improve
more than 25 years Trims fantastic designs made a in quality at an astounding rate. I
experience. Multiple
award winner and
great impression on me. Huge,
colourful, and everything seemed
I wanted to capture some of the see a time soon when there will be
massive crossover between game
pioneer of CG on
the desktop. Now
to have a propensity to explode in
a spectacular fashion! My design spectacle of the science fiction book and VFX creation pipelines.
I have been blessed with the
developing real-time sense for Babylon 5 was greatly opportunity to work with several
pipeline options with influenced by Thunderbirds. (I was cover art, especially that of Chris Foss of my heroes, John Dykstra, Grant
Red Earth VFX for TV always bummed that there wasnt McCune (Star Wars veteran), Bill
and movies. a Blue Thunderbird though.) Its amazing to think that you Pearson, Todd Rundgren, and the
ronthorntonvfx.com The world of sci-fi TV was, have more computing power late great Gerry Anderson. But
at the time, dominated by dull in your smart phone than our working with Gerry was amazing.
grey spaceships, and I wanted B5 workstations back then and when I will never forget that experience.
to break that trend. I wanted to we started B5. (Our computers had Read Rons spaceship design
capture some of the spectacle of a massive 2Mb of memory!)
FYI tips: www.bit.ly/188-thornton