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HOW TO BE
MAKE ROPE
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Modelling for production and games
3
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This issue’s team of pro artists…
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What’s in the magazine and where
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Check out the latest hand-picked
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84 Review: Fusion Turing RTX 5000 for Lego Movie 2, Page 50
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Make stylised rope for production 74 58 Create your own CG animation in Blender
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13
Alexander Svanidze
artstation.com/lagas
Alexander has been in game
development for 15 years,
working as a lead artist and art
director for studios like Pixonic.
Software 3ds Max 2018,
V-Ray 3.60
Work in progress…
Korosh Ghanbarzadeh
artstation.com/korosh
Korosh’s speciality is characters
and creatures. He has been
involved in numerous projects,
from books and film, to
animation and video games.
Software ZBrush, Unreal Engine
Work in progress…
16
This artwork is my look-
development project at Gnomon.
Here, I have tried to match Sergey
Kardakov’s Hunter concept as
much as I could, while adding
some of my own designs to
approach realism in my artwork.
I really liked the story-telling in his
image: Every object in this scene
stands to tell a story. To balance
realism with stylisation was my
main goal for this project
Jimeng Li,
Hunter with Puppy, 2018
Jimeng Li
lyjasmine.artstation.com
Jimeng has a background in
traditional oil painting and
illustration, with a Master in
Fine Arts from RIT, New York.
Software ZBrush, Maya, Mari,
Substance Painter, V-Ray, XGen
Work in progress…
17
In depth
18
Mohsen Hashemi
renderexpert.info
Mohsen is an architecture and
art enthusiast with ten years
experience. He works at his
own independent studio in Iran.
Software 3ds Max, Corona
Renderer, Photoshop
Work in progress…
From a technical
aspect, I tried to show
the appropriate lighting
and mood in the best
way and also keep the
shaders as realistic
as possible with the
natural departure setting
of the camera
Mohsen Hashemi,
Dark Side of the Room, 2018
19
Credit to Evermotion, Bertrand Benoit and Ramon Zancanaro for some 3D models
SET THE COMPOSITION
Making a realistic composition in
the scene is a technique that
requires a lot of practice. Some of
the rules can be learnt while others
can only be achieved by trial and
error; you should observe the
frame buffer canvas to get the
best possible result.
20
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23
24
Anthem image courtesy of BioWare
TOP TEN SECRETS
EXPERTS SHARE THEIR
TOP TEN
SECRETS
Whatever your skill level, this 24-page special CG tips guide will help
you to unlock your creative potential and hone your talents
W
ith the size of the 3D industry to focus time and effort when refining your
growing year on year, it’s more work and techniques to perfect your art.
important than ever to make sure Together, they provide 100 tips to transform
your work stands out from the crowd. And to your CG work into something truly impressive.
stay at the top of your game you need to be This collection of tips and tricks will help you
proficient in a wide variety of skills. However, to focus on what’s important in the CG you’re
finding that extra something to help you get your creating: for one piece it might be the balance
foot in the door or give you the exposure you of colours that sets the work apart, for another,
want can be a challenge. the composition might be the key to success,
So, for our special ten-year anniversary issue, while in the case of arch viz, it might be the
we’ve collected a huge range of tips and tricks way that the reflections are handled that
from industry professionals to help you ensure really strikes the viewer.
that your work is of the highest standard. You can also discover top ten hardware
Over the following 24 pages, CG veterans innovations that have helped to shape the
BioWare’s principal
character artist including DNEG’s head of animation, Andrew CG industry on page 34.
and craft director, Gordon; BioWare’s principal character artist and Whether you specialise in games, animation,
Patrik Karlsson –
responsible for craft director, Patrik Karlsson; Weta Digital’s top arch viz, building environments or creating visual
Anthem’s Exo suits modeller Myriam Catrin; and anatomy guru and effects; or whether you’re into modelling,
– shares his tips on
getting into games ZBrush trainer, Ryan Kingslien, give their top ten texturing or lighting, the advice given here is
on page 30 tips explaining how to avoid clichés, and where guaranteed to take your work to the next level.
25
TOP TEN SECRETS
MAINTAIN
A BALANCE
Keep the modelling, texturing and
shading at the same style and level of
detail for all the assets of your scene.
Always use a hero asset to define these
values at the beginning of production, and
use it as a guide throughout the process.
SET DRESSING
LIBRARY
One of the biggest tricks is creating a set
dressing library by producing a bunch of
reusable assets to decorate and populate
your scene, in order to add realism.
Simply take your base models and apply
small modelling and texture changes to
create completely new and different ones
to feed your library.
26
DAMIEN PEINOIT
--------------------------------
Senior generalist at
Industrial Light & Magic
peinoit-damien.fr
WORLD
MACHINE
When you’re doing the layout of your
future project, I strongly recommend
using World Machine for open worlds.
It’s the easiest way to create fantastic
landscapes and bring them into your
favourite 3D app. You can find lots of
good tutorials on YouTube, and it’s nodal,
fast and already UV mapped!
QUICK
LIGHTING
I like to link my dome light rotation to the
HDRI horizontal rotation for a quick
lighting setup. It enables me to quickly
change the direction of my lights and
upgrade my scene atmosphere. Do it
with the Wire Parameters in 3ds Max
using the Animation, Wire Parameter
dialog. Click Vraylight>Zrotation>
SceneMaterials, then HDRI Horizontal
Rotation and finally Connect.
27
TOP TEN SECRETS
GESTURE
SPACE
It’s important to understand the area
a character is gesturing in. Is it inside the
body space, outside, near or below the
face? What is the story point? Does it
read? Does it need a large open gesture,
or is it meant to be a secondary element?
Look for areas to change between gesture
spaces – contrast is a great tool.
WHEN NOT
TO GESTURE
When in doubt, throw it out! Often it
makes sense to just do nothing. I’m not
saying don’t move the character, but look
for moments to tone down the animation
or find other things to do besides
gesturing. In live-action films, some of
the most powerful moments are subtle.
Animation does not need to be overdone.
DESIGN IN
GESTURES
Animation is designed movement, and
all sorts of paths of motion exist in a
character. You have to design movement
to fit the scene. Sometimes the design
of movement in animation is overdone.
Focus on how your gestures move
through space. Look for ways of making
it feel physical but also beautiful to watch.
TEXTURE AND
TIMING A GESTURE
Texture and timing is important. Contrast:
show something tense, relaxing, or a loose
Images courtesy of DNEG
28
REINVENT GESTURE
CLICHÉS WITH PROPS
A cliché used to be a genius idea, but it In animation I love the idea of using things
was used over and over until it turned into to gesture with. You are trying to make
the worst idea; an idea that everyone things in animation look spontaneous.
knows and has seen. Some common ones Gesturing with props feel real. An
in animation are neck rubs, points, W animator needs to find ways of squeezing
gestures. If you’re going to use a popular the entertainment out of scenes – just
gesture or cliché, do it a different way. don’t overuse or overspice the shot. Use
Find a way to make it yours. it as something to accent a scene.
HEAD
GESTURES
Every part of a character can gesture, so
let’s just think about the ways you gesture
if you can’t use hands. If you had to tell a
story using just the head, what do you do?
How do you describe things? What angles
does your head take? When you animate
head gestures, start simple and polish.
Take into account the weight of the move.
REFERENCE
AND RECORD
There are many ways to study gesture.
Make it a habit to plan your work. Look at
people other than yourself. Look at actors
who are similar to your character. “Good
artists copy, great artists steal,” claimed
Picasso. The trick is to not steal from other
animation. Always take from life and make
it the essence of what you referenced.
COMMON WHAT’S
MISTAKES NEXT?
The biggest mistake is just too much. Less I’m interested in interaction – the ability
is more. Another is to not polish it well. It’s to move cloth, hair, etc. Capture tools
important to make gestures feel like they could be useful for gestures; a hand pose
have weight and physicality. Understand capture, a way of moving the character
that we’re trying to create characters that that might be easier than manipulated a
have a truth to them. A toy, a bug, a rig... I want to see animation that pushes
superhero – each will gesture differently, acting ideas in different ways. Be original,
and will have its own language of gestures. entertaining and true to the character.
29
TOP TEN SECRETS
PATRIK KARLSSON
--------------------------------
Principal character artist/
craft director, BioWare
artstation.com/polygonemperor
A STANDOUT
PORTFOLIO
This is the first thing a potential new
employer/client looks at, so it is very
important. There are so many things to
consider when making a good portfolio,
but the key is that you make sure your
skill shines through in your work. Other
important aspects are that you can
handle a variety of tasks and be flexible.
DON’T BE
INVISIBLE
You can have the best portfolio in the
Anthem image courtesy of BioWare
30
BEN ERDT
--------------------------------
Senior character/creature
atist at Blizzard
artstation.com/benerdt
COMMUNICATION
IS KEY
Making games is a team effort, so being a
team player who communicates is vital.
Be proactive and reach out to co-workers.
For example once you’ve prepared a low
poly of a character, contact the rigging
department to understand their needs.
They’re colleagues you deliver your work
to within the character pipeline.
ENJOY
COLLABORATION
Especially for personal work, I enjoy
collaborating with friends. A former
co-worker and friend of mine is a very
talented rigger and always looking for
new challenges, so we decided to work
together on personal projects to improve
our skills. Collaborating with people can
give you a push when trying new things.
31
TOP TEN SECRETS
LIUDMILA KIRDIASHKINA
--------------------------------
Freelance 3D artist
artstation.com/liu_k
NON-DESTRUCTIVE
GEOMETRY
A Lattice deformer enables you to
smoothly deform a high-density mesh
without having to adjust each vertex
manually. You can also use Soft Selection
with a high radius and Move/Rotate/
Scale tools to transform a specific part
of the mesh.
NURBS SMOOTH
MODELLING GEOMETRY
When making curved hard-surface When modelling hard-surface objects, it
objects, it is sometimes better to use is important to keep geometry smooth
NURBS modelling rather than polygon and clean, especially at the edges and
modelling, as it could be easier to modify junctions. Occasionally, change scene
geometry with the help of curves and CV lighting and use shaders with high
points. You can convert NURBS to specular level, so that you can spot any
polygons afterwards. distortions or unevenness in the surface.
32
MAGDALENA DADELA
--------------------------------
Senior modeller at Framestore
artstation.com/intervain
A S USE
REFERENCES
Always use references. Even if you think
you know what something looks like
you’re probably only halfway there. When
creating your own concept make sure you
STUDY
ground it in reality so that your audience
ANATOMY
can relate to it.
If you want to model characters, make
sure you study anatomy and always think
about the internal structure of the body
first. Consider the outside as something
that wraps around what’s inside. This will
give your characters significantly more
depth and realism.
STEP EYEBALLS
BACK AND EYELIDS
Check your silhouette regularly. In ZBrush
If you’re just starting to model characters,
you can simply press ‘V’ and switch to a
make it a habit to model faces with
black material, which will help you judge
eyeballs in place, and remember that
your work against a lighter background
eyelids are not just flattened circles but
quickly. Rotate the model often and zoom
overlap each other. This will make your
out to make sure that the proportions and
faces more lifelike.
shapes are working.
33
TOP TEN SECRETS
GRAPHICS
CARDS
There was a time when a graphics card’s
only purpose was connecting to a 2D
USB
display, leaving 3D processing to compete
UBIQUITY
for CPU resources with everything else
that was running on the computer. That It’s a testament to the ubiquity of USB that
all changed in 1996 with the 3DFX you may not consider its importance in the
Voodoo accelerator card, which gave rise 3D industry. But the ability to plug any
to today’s powerful graphics cards. peripheral, storage device or accessory
into any port on any computer in the world
and know it will work makes computers
more simple to use, and it is a hardware
GPU feature no artist could live without today.
COMPUTE
There were big ramifications for the CG
industry when someone realised the growing
power of graphics card hardware could be
used for more than just real-time 3D
acceleration. Cuda and OpenCL run specific
general processing tasks across a GPU’s
parallel hardware, which is great for plugins
and filters in all kinds of design apps.
MULTI-CORE
HIGH-DEFINITION CPUS
DISPLAYS
Parallel processing – running two
The HD revolution ushered in three computing tasks simultaneously – once
innovations in display hardware: flat required a computer with two separate
screens; widescreen aspect ratios; and physical processors inside it, which was
much higher pixel counts. Each boost messy and expensive. In 2005, Intel and
in resolution, from 1080p to 4K and AMD introduced processors for general
soon 8K, improves image quality and PCs with two processor cores in a single
precipitates a rethink of how our work chip, and later increased this to four, six
is rendered and presented. or more cores, improving rendering times.
34
VIRTUAL
REALITY
A killer app for VR may be yet to arrive,
SOLID-STATE but the availability of high-quality,
STORAGE affordable VR headsets such as Oculus
Rift is still a breakthrough for 3D. No
The shift to using fast flash memory longer are we restricted to seeing a 3D
rather than hard disks for an operating world via a 2D window on our desks, but
system and applications has made that world can come alive and interactive
a huge difference to overall computer in a way that truly does feel magical.
performance, with considerably faster
load times. If you store your 3D project
and all its assets on an SSD, editing will
be much smoother and quicker too.
3D INPUT
DEVICES
The 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse is a
pointing device that attempts to work in
3D – a concept that hasn’t taken off yet
but still has potential. The PlayStation
Move controller and even Microsoft G-SYNC /
Kinect could fit into this category – a
reminder that 2D pointing and clicking
FREESYNC
may lose its monopoly on interaction.
Adaptive sync technology is a hardware
solution to a problem most of us are
unaware of. A computer renders frames at
a variety of frame rates, but displays are
THE traditionally fixed to 60fps. The result is an
ugly ‘tearing effect’. Adaptive sync displays
INTERNET match the display refresh rate to the
computer, so animation becomes smooth.
The internet counts as a hardware
innovation, as it has made a huge impact
on the evolution of computer design and
continues to transform how we use them.
It’s humbling how we can send work
around the world in microseconds, and
that the potential of internet technologies
has still to be fully realised.
35
TOP TEN SECRETS
JONATHAN BENAINOUS
--------------------------------
Senior texture artist
artstation.com/jonathan_
benainous
WORK BY
ITERATION
As a game artist, working iteratively from
large to smaller shapes is fundamental.
It’s true for materials, but it’s also true
for modelling and level art. Creating
a block out, with grey box assets, is
always the first step in the completion
of any environment. Then, once your
composition is working in the big picture,
start to iterate and add more details layer
by layer.
36
ROB HODRI
--------------------------------
Senior 3D/environment
artist, id Software
artstation.com/robhodri
WORKING TECHNICAL
ON MAPS SKILLS
As an environment artist, focus on the It is not only your artistic skills that are
overall scene, composition and layout. important as an environment artist. Try
Your first read looks at silhouettes and to understand how the engine you are
shapes, your second read is about adding using works. Texture streaming, LOD
props and details, and the third read is the system, memory, draw calls, poly count
little high-frequency things the player limitations – all those things need to be
sees close up. Easy-to-read layouts are kept in mind while you are working on an
very important for multiplayer levels.. environment scene.
PREPARATION
IS PARAMOUNT
The preparation phase is important. If
you don’t have a concept to rely on,
gather reference images, prepare some
quick modular proxy meshes and
assemble them in the game editor. Think
about what parts need to be a unique
mesh and where you can use modular
kit pieces.
37
TOP TEN SECRETS
OLIVIER BUCHERON
--------------------------------
Co-founder and master of
creation at Bisous Production
bisous-production.com
PATH
TRACING
Use Octane’s Path Tracing mode, which
enables you to have a physical GI. With
physical rendering engines, it is
particularly important to work well with
textures since materials reflect light
according to their physical properties.
TEST, TEST
AND TEST
The way you’re going to light up your 3D
scene depends a lot on the mood and
feeling you want to create. Once you’ve
worked out the ambience you would like
and lit it appropriately, you have to test,
test and test again to find the right
settings to match your idea.
VISUAL
HOOKS
Find some small visual details, such as
luminous materials – on the character in
particular – and use light to emphasise
them in a way that creates visual hooks
and balances the image.
38
RICHARD YOT
-------------------------------- USE CONTRAST
Illustrator
itchy-animation.com FOR FOCUS
Draw the viewer’s eye to your character’s
face by making sure the area with the
most contrast in the entire image is on
their face, creating a powerful focal point.
CREATE
SUBTLE MOODS
Desaturated and diffused lighting can
help to establish a subtle and low-key
mood. Natural light from a window or
an overcast sky is perfect for creating
this kind of understated look.
CREATE A
DIFFERENT WORLD
Use unnaturally coloured lighting to
suggest a surreal or dreamlike world
for your characters to inhabit. In the
example, the sky is white rather than
blue, which helps to create the
otherworldly atmosphere.
SHADOWS
ADD DRAMA
Using carefully positioned cast shadows,
you can create dramatic lighting that
either reveals or conceals key aspects
of your image and helps to tell your story.
In the example, the shadows reveal what
the character is looking at.
39
TOP TEN SECRETS
START WITH
QUALITY
The key to creating great work is a simple
equation: garbage in = garbage out.
I learned this from sculptor Richard
Macdonald. If you want to create quality
work, start with quality material. In
Richard’s case, instead of using regular
life models, he works with world-class
athletes. I use PureRef a lot.
COMMIT TO THE
DAILY WORK
It’s ugly – until it’s not ugly. Get over it.
Get over the sob story of ‘I should be
better’. Get over the drama of ‘I’m not
good enough’. Commit yourself to doing
the daily work. It will be beautiful in its
own time. Stop rushing your greatness.
Let it be who it is and by ‘it’ I, of course,
mean you!
SUCCESS
IS BUILT
Art is learned. It’s not genetic, or some
magical potion. Some have more talent,
some have less. Success doesn’t come by
accident, nor is it measured in the small
ways you might be thinking about now.
We all have the ability to be successful as
artists but we don’t all build the capacity
to achieve it. Success is built – daily.
40
BLANK PAINTING ADD THE
FACE THE EYES PORES
Start with a base mesh. This gives you In order for the next few stages to work, At this point, we’ve created a basic shape
a blank structure to start with. This gets we need to bring the level of realism up that has some of the specific character
you the essential structure of the cheek, by painting the eyes. Use simple spheres we want, and it’s now time to add in the
orbit of the eye, muzzle of the mouth and in ZBrush and just paint the iris and pupil pores. Make sure that you’ve crawled
horse shoe shape of the jaw, as well as the in using Polypainting. A great alpha to over the surface of the model with the
dome of the cranial area. Remember, the use to help paint the striation in the iris rake brush before doing this. You want
basic structure of a human doesn’t is Alpha 05 and Alpha 34. Then make to have as much detail as you can in there
change much, otherwise you would be sure to assign the Toy Plastic material to before you go into tertiary forms like
sculpting a different species, so start the eye subtool. Also, don’t forget to paint wrinkles. For this sculpt, I used a process
with a generic human structure and you’ll the caruncula lacrimalis! that’s documented on Texturing.xyz’s
make your life much easier. Mine is site under their multi-channel texture
a modified version of one I got from packs. It uses a really cool workflow and
Hossein Diba’s class he taught with me. leverages Photoshop’s Puppet Warp
feature to line up the Albedo and
Displacement maps for fantastic results.
BEFORE RAKE
RAKE BRUSH
THE FINAL
Start with specifics. What does the nose Now it’s time to shift to a different tool: PUSH
look like? Is the nose small or large? Does the Rake brush. I had the good fortune of
it droop down or lift up? Is the chin large putting the Rake brush into ZBrush when Finally, it’s time to push it! You’ve been
and round, or small and pointy? Are the I worked at Pixologic, but I have a new and staring at this thing for days, and that has
eyes small and beady or are they large better one at ZBrushWorkshops.com. In made you too close to it. You’ve got to
and soulful? Is the face tall and thin or this stage your job is to crawl the surface give it that last push and stretch into your
is it short and wide? Is the front of the of your model and work to create more discomfort zone. All your future growth is
face flat or does it project forward like of the specific ‘character’ of the face. there. I looked for more specific lines and
a pyramid? At this point your tools are Instead of focusing on the cheekbone half-tones to establish a deeper, more
Dam_Standard brush, the Standard brush you’ll dive deeper to focus on the authentic sculpt. For example, in the final
and the Clay Buildup brush. The key palpebromalar groove, the malar mound, piece I added what I call the associate
to the Clay Buildup brush is to set the five different fat pads of the face, the jugal groove and broke up the lateral
Brush>Depth>Imbed to 5. You’re goal is eight lines of the face – whatever helps cheek fat more. This final sculpt only had
a soft generalisation that resembles your you create more ‘character’ and dive an hour of extra sculpting, but it looks a
target but isn’t locked down yet. deeper into the specifics of the face. lot better. That’s what happens when you
build the foundations right.
41
TOP TEN SECRETS
WORK WITH
SIMPLE SHAPES
Before you jump into your favourite
software package for digital content
creation, think about the energy in the
shot you want to create and whitebox
with simple shapes. Work with
benevolent composition of primary,
secondary, tertiary shapes and include
resting areas for the viewers’ eyes.
TICKLE THE
DETAILS
Make use of simple shapes and tickle the
details out of it. The walls are subdivided
grids. You can use a Voronoi Fracture
node in Houdini, in combination with
clustered points from a volume as point
input to fracture mosaic-like patterns,
which can be randomly extruded by using
a Poly Extrude node.
ROUND
EDGES
Hard edges on surfaces usually look
unrealistic. There are multiple solutions to
achieve round edges. The easiest is to use
a renderer that supports the rendering
of round corners, like Arnold or Redshift.
There are also OSL functions that work
on the normals in the shader to achieve
a round-corner look during the rendering.
42
INCLUDE AGEING
EFFECTS
Let the room tell a story by adding ageing
effects on some circuits, which will be
repaired by drones. Decrease the lighting
effects on the aged circuits and add a
volmetric atmosphere. Create a destination
area behind the camera position with just a
few details. Scenes don’t need many words
– the viewer’s imagination tells the story.
43
TOP TEN SECRETS
MYRIAM CATRIN
--------------------------------
Senior texture artist NON-DESTRUCTIVE
at Weta Digital
myriamcatrin.com
ORGANISATION
Organise your work in a non-destructive
manner. Think about compositing. Work
PLANNING with the colour revealed or hidden by a
IS KEY dependant mask (Alpha) and keep filters
live to tweak independently. You can
Always start with a clear idea. Take the re-use Alphas or share them in channels
time to gather your references (art like displacements, speculars, or separated
concepts, photos) to know exactly where additions like dirt, dust or oil traces.
you want to get to. When you know the
look you want to achieve, even if you don’t
have all the details, you’ve done half the
work. I consider this the most important SIMPLICITY
tip for any texture artist. IS BEST
Keep your organisation and your thinking
simple. Choose one reference or art
BUILD A TEXTURE concept and run with it. Have a limited set
LIBRARY of references so you don’t try to mix too
many of them. That doesn’t mean your
Organise your tools: take the time to create textures won’t be complex or rich.
your own tileable pictures (mask and Simplicity is the key to being able to
colour, displacement) and stencils to paint tackle visual complexity in your work.
through or triplanar projection. Take
photos, scan materials. Choose with
purpose; it takes time to build a texture
library, but it will ease your workflow and
help you to make something special.
ADD
DETAILS LAST
Work from broad features and finish with
fine features at the end. Start on your
textures from mid-distance (large) then get
closer and add details (close-ups). Render
your textured asset regularly from far away
to very close to assess correction priorities.
A lot of details with no features will look
busy. It has to look good at every distance.
44
WIKTOR ÖHMAN
----------------------------------
3D artist & art lead at Quixel
artstation.com/disting
MAKING
PROPS
As well as the facades that I made for
the project, I also created a number of
props, for example, I made the barrels,
crates, wheels and so on. These are
also tiling textures applied to primitives,
such as planes, cubes and cylinders.
The crate, in particular, was a rather
fun prop to create.
MOOD
BOARDS
It would be a good idea to have a number
of references or mood boards ready for
the detailing and colouring of the
textures. The base textures in my scene
here are quite saturated, which helps
them stand out in the night-time colour
scheme: bright reds, vibrant oranges and
crispy blues.
QUIXEL
MIXER
The facades and all the other textures
were created in Quixel Mixer, using a
combination of hand-painting and
material blending. I started the textures
by creating Base, Height and Normal
maps, which I then detailed and coloured.
Working with only Height and Normal
made it easier to block out the scene.
45
TOP TEN SECRETS
PATRIC VERSTRAETE
--------------------------------
Creator of high-end 3D
visualisation at Nanopixel
www.vizcon.be
RULE
OF THIRDS USE CREATIVE
CAMERA ANGLES
Thanks to Davey Verpoucke and Ashley Van Iseghem. All images are copyrighted and all rights are reserved to Nanopixel
46
SÉRGIO MERÊCES
--------------------------------
Digital artist and founder
of Merêces Arch-Viz Studio
sergiomereces.com
OPTIMISE
GEOLOGY
The modelling is really important to
optimise all the geometry that will be
made part of our project, because later
this will have an influence in the render
time and will help to avoid render errors
in the end. I recommend using the plugins
from SiNi Software, which are really good
for optimisation.
47
Lego Movie 2 images copyright © 2019 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
50
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME, AGAIN!
Everything is
again!
AWESOME,
MetalBeard, Batman,
Benny, Lucy/Wyldstyle
and Ultrakatty find
themselves in strange new
worlds throughout the film
hen writers and directors Phil Now Lord and Miller are back as the
Animal Logic Lord and Christopher Miller producers and writers of The LEGO Movie 2:
shares the secrets brought The LEGO Movie to the
big screen in 2014, they and
The Second Part, with Mike Mitchell stepping
in as director and Trisha Gum as co-director.
of its design, CG production studio Animal Logic
changed the game in terms of mixing complex
Animal Logic also returns, having continued to
refine its artistry and technology across the
and effects for computer animation with a hand-made LEGO projects. For this latest instalment, the
its latest brick stop-motion feel.
Indeed, the movie closely channelled popular
studio continued to make leaps and bounds in
how it brought bricks to life. 3D Artist spoke to
adventure, The ‘brickfilms’ – fan short films produced with real some of the key Animal Logic artists about the
LEGO bricks. To keep that sense of realism, the newest developments.
LEGO Movie 2: CG animation created by Animal Logic for that
The Second Part first film and subsequent releases maintained GLITTER, GLITTER EVERYWHERE
the same articulation restrictions of the physical The 2014 LEGO film happened largely in the
LEGO characters. Much of the world was made mind of Finn, but this time events unfold in the
only in the scope of what could have been imagination of his younger sister Bianca (whose
crafted with actual bricks, too, despite being DUPLO characters made an appearance at the
entirely digital. end of the first movie). That provided Animal
51
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME, AGAIN!
We had to pay
special attention
on the detailed look
of glitter and how it
responded to light
Emmanuel Blasset
Animal Logic CG supervisor
DISTRIBUTING DIRT
Not only was there loads of glitter but initially
also a lot of dirt, as seen in Apocalypseburg, the
02 Layout With early models of the
characters, layout artists at Animal
Logic reference the storyboards to take a
04 Lighting Glimpse, Animal Logic’s
proprietary path tracer, is used for
lighting and rendering in the scene. It’s here
post-apocalyptic wasteland that has emerged first pass at how the scene should be staged. that the mood of the shot can be tinkered with.
after the invasion of the DUPLO characters. To Their layout communicates where the Shader overrides can be implemented here,
distribute that dirt, Animal Logic relied on its characters should be in space, and also too, to do things such as make clean bricks
Spawn tool. It enabled artists to weather, age helps with timing and pacing. dirty, or add decals.
and ‘dirtify’ the original landscape in a significant
52
Glitter was a new major
addition to some of the
characters, based on the
fact the film is influenced
by the imagination of
Bianca, Finn’s sister
Animal Logic’s
path tracer
Glimpse went
through
additional
development
on the film in
order to render
more complex
environments
and characters
fabrics in their costumes. In addition, the studio FACING ANIMATION development of Animal Logic’s in-house path
retained a stop-motion look to the fabric, as it The LEGO movies include classic 2D-style trace renderer, Glimpse. Among the
did for the general animation of the characters. animation of the decals on characters’ faces; developments were improvements in shading
A feature of real stop-motion fabric can be the Animal Logic extended its toolset for facial to provide for physically based iridescence
property known as ‘boiling’, where pieces appear animation in this new movie to enable the (including in the character Sweet Mayhem’s
to move as they are bumped in-between frames introduction of these faces across a series hair), more realistic rendered lens flares and
during animation. “I really wanted to capture of multiple bricks. That is because several depth of field (instead of being done more in
that,” notes Theriault. “What I ended up figuring characters, such as the giant DUPLO constructs compositing), and several optimisations of the
out was that, if I created digital hands of a sort and Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi, had faces that renderer to make it work faster. Helping to push
in Houdini and ran a 300-frame sim for every floated around from one brick to another. the Glimpse developments through were
single frame and pinched the fabric, it looked “The queen has a lot of moving bricks that can development lead Michael Balzer and senior
extremely accurate.” be in any position at any time,” notes Rix. “The rendering programmer Luke Emrose.
“Meanwhile,” adds Theriault, “another artist, face has to be on the right bricks at the right
Markus Bruland, put in a ton of work figuring time, and projections have to all be trimmed EXPLOSIONS, BRICK STYLE
out exactly how to get fabric ‘water’. We had appropriately. So it doesn’t look complicated Developments such as Glimpse have helped
fountains of running water, and that’s all made onscreen, but from a mechanical point of view Animal Logic to realise the LEGO movies in
of fabric. We had to work out how we could it was. From an animator’s perspective we made unprecedented detail, while retaining the ability
get fabric to flow like water and also have a it simple for them to do their work.” to keep everything at ‘brick level’. Even when
stop-animation feel. It’s never on ones and it’s required to craft an explosion – which typically
never on twos. It’s on ones, threes, and sixes all GLIMPSE GETS GREATER look ‘fluidy’ or ‘smokey’ in other films – the
at once. Every frame kind of jitters and moves Enabling many of the advancements for studio ensured that bricks were at the centre
and looks very, very real.” the second LEGO movie was the further of everything, and went even further this time.
54
TEXTURING
TECHNIQUES
Animal Logic CG supervisors Emmanuel
Blasset and John Rix discuss the
incredible detail the studio achieved
55
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME, AGAIN!
Lego Movie 2 images © 2019 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
New developments
in lens flares and
depth of field
were built into
Animal Logic’s
Glimpse renderer
for the film
56
Expert advice from industry professionals, taking you from concept to completion
All tutorial files can be downloaded from: filesilo.co.uk/3dartist
58
Make a short film
using Blender EEVEE
Get to grips with Blender
2.8 and the real-time
renderer EEVEE, to
create complex projects
L
ast year I made a short film called Spectral: In this
breakdown, we will analyse the basic steps for making
a short film, from the initial phase up to the post-
production phases. We will focus on using the renderer
EEVEE, which enables us to experiment with and handle
this type of project in a new and innovative way.
59
MAKE A SHORT FILM USING BLENDER EEVEE
01
• Analyse the concept because the overall spaces, as well as the action areas, are
• Plan out the scenes defined here. This step will help to limit the risk of errors in
• Create a cinematic camera the following steps.
• Set up PBR materials for
real-time rendering
• Set up the post-
processing effects The dawn of a new era
• Optimise EEVEE When you create something with few resources and
• Post-produce the little time available, often the phase that suffers most
final rendering
is pre-production. In this sense, Eevee is innovative
Concept because it enables you to test what you have in mind
I’ve always been fascinated in real time and then manipulate it until you reach the
by rendering in real time,
and with the introduction desired result. To begin, you only need a draft, a sketch
of Blender 2.8 and its new and a structure of the concept, and from there you can
real-time renderer, I decided
to experiment with it on a create with the same flexibility that you have when
sci-fi short film. you manipulate a block of clay.
03
YOUR
FREE
DOWNLOADS
from filesilo.co.uk/3dartist
• Tutorial screenshots
• Video tutorial
60
04
By using Eevee, it is possible
to deliver changes in terms of
topology or appearance, and
to instantly evaluate the impact
on the final shot
04 Use the collections To manage a complex work,
it is essential to optimise and order the different
deliverables. Blender 2.8 is an excellent tool as it has now
introduced ‘collection’ – a layer-based system that easily
enables the user to organise scene items. In the creation
of Spectral, this feature has proved to be an essential tool
to continuously keep the scenes tidy and clean.
06 07
07 Modules are the way After the blocking and layout
definition phases, environment and final props
modelling takes place. To reduce the modelling time, the
assets here are designed as repeatable modules. This
approach enables you to create a large number of scenes
quickly by duplicating the module to a satisfying level of
detail. The modelling technique adopted for most of the
models here is the classic box modelling. Procedural-driven
bevels and split edges are used to add further detail to the
models, using the native modifiers that Blender provides.
61
MAKE A SHORT FILM USING BLENDER EEVEE
08
11
62
12 15
63
MAKE A SHORT FILM USING BLENDER EEVEE
16 Ready for post-production After the rendering phase is completed, the whole
sequence can be imported into After Effects to start the finishing phase. The
post-processing effects that come with EEVEE give a final-frame appearance that’s pretty
near to a composited frame, especially when compared to those obtained out of the
beauty pass of classic rendering engines. The ability to insert volumetric and optical
effects and edit them in real time also helps to considerably reduce the look-dev phase. Emiliano Colantoni
Emiliano is an Italian 3D artist and concept
16
designer with over 15 years of experience.
His works range from illustration to digital
sculpture and through to video direction, and
they explore the relationship between man and
machine, nature and technological progress.
17
17 Using external resources To realise Spectral, various external resources have been
used, including PBR textures from Texture Haven and a 3D element from a kitbash
from Jama Jurabaev. In addition, a few sculptures obtained from the Scan the World project
12, 2017
Blender 2.78
have been utilised for the sanctuary shot. Finally, with regard to the plugins in the final In this illustration, I created a futuristic dead pilot.
shot, Graswald has been used to generate a plant and subsequently duplicated.
Neeraj Menon
neerajmenon.com
Neeraj is a freelance artist working
Incredible 3D artists take us behind their artwork in Pune, India. He works as a comic
colourist and concept artist with
POST PRODUCTION This was an experiment to see how much of the clients worldwide.
character design process I could finalise within 3D. I was able to reach Software ZBrush, Marvelous
about 80 per cent of the final look by the render stage. I wanted to get as Designer, KeyShot, Photoshop
close to my initial sketches as possible. The finished model was rendered
using one of the standard indoor HDRi environment lighting setups. Qhel, 2018
65
MAKE HI-RES PROPS IN SUBSTANCE DESIGNER
66
Make hi-res props in
VINCENT
DÉROZIER
Substance Designer
Suji bachi kabuto,
Discover how to create props, like this Japanese helmet, using
2019 displaced materials and sculpt shapes directly in Substance Designer
Bio
T 03
French environment artist, his traning will cover how to build a Japanese Create the nose bridge Create a paraboloid
Vincent, started working helmet in Substance Designer. This prop is going shape and subtract a gradient axial to crop in it.
in the games industry in
2010 and is now a texture to be composed of a simple 3D shape, on which we Directional warp it and mirror it. To smoothen it, create a
environment artist at Ubisoft will apply high-definition materials with displacement. The clamp blur using a blend and a histogram scan as a mask.
Québec, in Canada.
UV unwrap will set up the material structure, which is Improve the overall volume by clamping the height with a
Software going to be broken down into main graphs called Helmet, level, slightly moving the mid value. Then add a transform
Substance Designer, 3ds Mask, Props and Neck, as well as sub-graphs. Those (to move it horizontally) and a mirror to obtain the final
Max, Marmoset Toolbag 3
secondary graphs will contain tools or little height parts, shape of the nose bridge. Use a transform with no tiling to
Learn how to such as knots, and be instantiated in order to save time. place the nose in the middle of the mask that we drew in
• Create atlas materials
All the main graphs will handle Height maps first, from the previous step.
• Sculpt volumes in
Substance Designer general to particular, before creating the Albedo and
02
• Generate HD models Roughness maps to become a full PBR material.
with displacement
Concept
The idea behind this project
was to create an iconic and
01 Set up the project Start by creating the helmet in
3D in simple shapes, and unwrap your UVs. This 3D
model is going to be the base on which we will apply our
challenging art piece, a
Japanese helmet, or kabuto. materials. The different parts of the Japanese helmet will
I wanted to practise volume be in separate graphs for the helmet, mask, neck and
creation in Substance
Designer, using tessellation props. In Substance Designer, create a new project with a
to create a high-resolution separate graph for each part. Each one of these graphs will
model with atlas materials.
need to be created using metallic roughness in 2K and 16
bits at a minimum. In the material edit option of each
graph, activate the tessellation and scale to see your
updates on the graphs as you work.
03
67
MAKE HI-RES PROPS IN SUBSTANCE DESIGNER
04
68
09
10 11
11 Knots In a separate graph called ‘Vertical-Knot’,
create a shape that will be instanced to decorate
the neck. Create a gradient, make it tile vertically, rotate
it 45 degrees with Safe Transform, then multiply a vertical
gradient on it. Blend it in Max mode with a mirror version
of itself, and enhance it with a level. Transform it with
only vertical tiling and a slight blur. This height can be
duplicated, warped and stacked to create different versions
of knots in different graphs.
69
MAKE HI-RES PROPS IN SUBSTANCE DESIGNER
14
To achieve a good
thickness, create a positive
bevel then a negative one
2D image as a guide
Substance Designer enables you to use transparent
2D images as a guide. It really comes in handy when
you want to achieve a specific shape. In order to
do this, go into the 2D view and click on the top
left button called Background Image. Upload your
reference or concept, and you can even play with
an opacity cursor to see more or less clearly. It will
help you to fit with your design, follow a shape, curve
with accuracy and iterate faster.
70
71
MAKE HI-RES PROPS IN SUBSTANCE DESIGNER
18 Main cord and hanging parts Create a vertical gradient and squeeze it with a
non-tillable transform. Using a tile sampler, or by hand with Transform, create a
tiling horizontal gradient that tiles six times. Use it in a Directional Warp to deform the
vertical gradient you created earlier. Now blend this deform gradient with a mirrored and
slightly offset version of itself. Enhance the volume with a Level and blend it with the knots.
Using the same technique, create hanging decorative parts and place those under the Vincent Dérozier
knots. Then create some simple shapes to use as a metallic ring to finish the knot. Vincent is a French environment artist. He started
working in the games industry in 2010 and is now
18
a texture environment artist in Canada. His most
recent role was as an environment material artist
on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
19
19 Albedo and roughness maps For the albedo and roughness maps, simply create
solid colour and grey values, slightly darkening the valleys and lightening the peaks.
Then, using the Dirt and Dust generator, create a simple mask that will drive the patina of Assassin’s Creed procedural sculpts, 2018
Marmoset Toolbag, Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop
your surfaces. Be sure to add your opacity mask in the basecolor alpha channel using an A material sculpt completed during the production
RGBA Merge if you plan to export your maps to Marmoset. Pay attention to your normal of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where I was responsible
and height synchronisation to avoid tessellation artifacts when using it. Height values that for the architectural materials.
are too intense or noisy will result in weird deformations.
Create stylised
ARTEM GANSIOR
artstation.com/gansior
Bio
Character artist and
rope for production
generalist, creating
characters and props
for cinematics and games.
Z
Brush modelling is hugely popular in the CG
industry, but sometimes artists need to get back
to basics, fix something and not simply redo
03 Finalise the shape To get the shape that you
want, you’ll need to add one more Ripple modifier.
To do this, you can simply copy the first ripple and paste it
everything all over again. In this tutorial, we will make into the Modifier Stack – but be sure that you don’t make
a rope using 3ds Max and fix the shape without damaging an instance copy. The previous ripple will mix with the next
the silhouette and form. This approach is great for one, and it will give you a nice result. Check that the values
production and animation, as well as for game models. decreased by half in the second Ripple modifier. It should
look like this: Wave Length 50, Amplitude 1-10 and
DOWNLOADS
FREE 02 Proper waves Assign the Ripple modifier and
set Wave Length 100, Amplitude 1 -20, Amplitude
2-20. It will give you nice waves. Then move the Ripple
everything (right-click and Collapse all). It is important to
delete all history from your object – use Reset XForm to help
you with this. Now you are able to attach pieces. Copy them
from filesilo.co.uk/3dartist
modifier to the centre of the scene (bottom of the spline) and then weld the endpoint. Don’t forget to delete caps from
• Tutorial screenshots
and rotate at 90 degrees around the z-axis. the ends.
74
SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Turn to page 22 to learn more
01 02
03
75
TECHNIQUES
05
Alternative methods
There are a few other ways to create the same rope,
for example, create IMM brush for ZBrush, and use
ZSpheres instead of splines.
76
09 12
10
Braided hair
There is a nice free script available that will help you to
avoid the modelling stage. ‘Braided hair’ by Reza Asaie
helps to create nice pigtails with controls.
BLENDER
Create photorealistic
JONATAN
MERCADO
artstation.com/jonimercado
Bio
arch viz with Blender
T
Self-taught CG artist born here are some secrets to producing photorealistic a realistic result, making light pass through the fabric
and raised in Argentina. renders of architecture with Blender that we will and project the shadows of the patterns of the curtain.
Jonatan is a Blender
enthusiast who is developing explain in this training. We’ll delve into some No object or texture in the world is safe from
himself as a freelancer. concepts and will see how to make materials in Blender’s imperfections; objects are in contact with other objects
Node Editor, rendering them based on their physics. and with us. That’s why we will also learn to add scratches,
No texture in the real world is composed of a single spots, dust and particles to our textures so that we have
material – all texture is an imperfect mixture of different reusable nodes for other projects. To be able to reuse all
components – so we will start working with masks and these nodes, we will learn how to generate groups of
textures in greyscale that will enable intelligent mixing editable and completely customisable nodes.
and full control of shaders. I’ll also explain the lack of 90-degree angles in the real
Once we have our assembled textures we can world, and we will solve this either with a destructive bevel
understand how to use nodes such as the Color Ramp or by using the Bevel Modifier. We will also add lamps in
node to control the contrast and the weight of each value the portal’s format to help the Cycles rendering engine
that’s mixed. This will help with precise control over what to calculate the direction of the light.
we want to show in the final render. When making a photorealistic render, it’s important to
In previous versions of Blender, we used the Geometry remember that what we have to imitate is how reality looks
YOUR node and its ‘pointiness’ option to work on the edges of through the lens of a camera and not how our eye sees
78
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Industry experts put the latest workstations,
software & 3D printers through their paces
N
vidia’s Turing-based Quadro RTX series since Chillblast has once again picked a
has finally arrived with the Quadro RTX Fractal Design Define R6 case. That’s no bad
4000, 5000 and 6000 looking set to thing – these cases are quiet, spacious and
dent the wallet of 3D animators everywhere. unobtrusive. On the inside, Chillblast has
Mainstream and mobile Quadros are bound done an impeccable job installing the water
to follow but for now, Chillblast has been quick cooling and managing the cable mess for an
off the mark in sending us a next-generation incredibly clean and professional build.
workstation packed with high-end hardware, When you’re going with a £2,000 graphics
including a Quadro RTX 5000, to showcase card, 64GB of memory is about right and
what these cards can do. a CPU that hovers around the £1,000 mark.
That also applies to the Intel Skylake-X Core There’s plenty of storage, and you can
i9-9920X processor, which launched in late customise the specification however you
2018. It’s a 4.5GHz 12-core, 24 thread chip, please when ordering.
and another component that makes a suitable Despite the new ray tracing hardware, we
companion for an expensive Quadro in a suspect that for now, most animators and
typical high-end workstation configuration. artists will use a Quadro RTX for 3D in the
We covered the basics of Turing last issue usual way. So we’re closely examining the
with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 gaming degree of performance improvement the new
card. With the professional-grade Quadro Quadro RTX offers over 2016’s Pascal cards.
RTX 5000, along with an increase in Cuda In some tests, we saw a 100 per cent
core count over the P5000, from 2,560 to performance improvement over the Quadro
3,072, which promises better everyday 3D P5000. LuxMark OpenCL scores have
performance, the memory has been upgraded doubled, placing Nvidia ahead in an area that
to GDDR6, with bandwidth seeing a massive is traditionally dominated by AMD. The same
increase from 288GB/sec to 448GB/sec. is true of Cuda performance in ArionBench.
The card has 8GB of GDDR6 memory, with Comparing SPECviewperf 13 scores, the
four DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, each capable of Quadro RTX 5000 doubles the scores of the
4K at 120Hz, or 8K at 60Hz. There’s also a P3200 in Lenovo’s P52, and achieves about
single USB-C port, a possible bet on USB-C 50 per cent better scores than in AMD’s
monitors becoming a thing in the future. Radeon WX8200.
Most interestingly, there’s also new custom CPU results are equally impressive, but
ray tracing hardware that earns the Quadro’s compared with alternative chips, offer
RTX name, with 48 of these ‘RT’ cores, along relatively slim improvements.
with hardware for AI processing, called If your current rig is getting a bit long in the
‘Tensor’ cores. tooth, now is definitely the time to upgrade,
It’s uncertain whether Nvidia’s approach with a new level of performance possible with
to ray casting and shading will become an the Quadro RTX cards and new workstations
industry standard. To take advantage of the such as the Chillblast Fusion. But it’s less clear
hardware currently, you need an Nvidia card if your system is more up-to-date.
with RT cores, and an up-to-date version of Like most things in life it’s a question
V-Ray. Code support is through Nvidia OptiX, of budget and necessity. If you’ve recently
Vulkan, or DirectX. shelled out on a new system, you may not
But as with two other Nvidia proprietary need to worry about upgrading just yet.
technologies – Cuda and G-SYNC – being The ray tracing hardware, improved
locked into one manufacturer’s hardware is performance and new features are all
restrictive, and remains a niche feature until tempting prospects, but this is not the
the audience reaches a critical size. same leap forward over the previous
Going to the rest of the workstation, it generation that we saw two years ago.
needs little explanation. It may look familiar, Orestis Bastounis
84
E SS E N T I A L
If your current
rig is getting a bit
long in the tooth,
now is the time
to upgrade
Essential info
Price £4999.99 (inc VAT)
Website chillblast.com
Graphics card Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000
Memory 64GB
OS Windows 10
Processor Intel Core i9-9920X
Summary
Features
Performance
Design
Value for money
Verdict
With a powerful processor and graphics capability,
Chillblast’s new Fusion workstation cuts render times
85
The inside guide to industry news,
VFX studios, expert opinions
and the 3D community
FMX brings
together the left and
right brain of the
industry in just the
right way
Jan Pinkava,
Creative Director of Google
Spotlight Stories
096 Opinion
Don Parker
Shotgun Software founder discusses
88 the importance of collaboration
To advertise in The Hub please contact George Lucas on 01225 687311 or george.lucas@futurenet.com 87
COMMUNITY NEWS
F
MX has announced a host of industry stalwarts reveal how opportunities with startups and established
for its 2019 edition, which will return to Stuttgart, studios are combining the expertise of animation
Germany from 30 April to 3 May. The confirmed professionals from different continents to find new
speakers at the conference include Jan Pinkava, creative ways of bringing animated stories to a global audience.
director of Google Spotlight Stories, Shelley Page Discussing the track, Page says, “Groundbreaking
of DreamWorks Animation, and Rob Bredow, head animation and VFX production has now migrated from
of Industrial Light & Magic. traditional bases in Hollywood and Europe to all corners
Pinkava will give a keynote in line with this year’s of the globe. The N.E.W.S. track at FMX will focus on new
theme of ‘Bridging the Gap’, discussing his work at the projects and new studios recently established in locations
interface between art and technology. After working on A from Asia to Europe, and South America to Russia.”
Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille for Rob Bredow will take the stage to talk about the visual
Pixar, Pinkava is now at Google Spotlight Stories, and physical effects in Solo: A Star Wars Story (on which
exploring immersive and he served as visual effects supervisor
interactive storytelling across Pinkava will give and co-producer) as well as the
mobile and VR. Having previously business side of the VFX industry.
earned a PhD in Theoretical
a keynote in line with As executive creative director and
Robotics and an Oscar for his this year’s theme head of Industrial Light & Magic, he’s
work on Pixar’s short film Geri’s responsible for the creative strategy
Game, he is perfectly placed to of ‘Bridging the Gap’, and global operations of the company.
discuss this timely topic.
Shelley Page will curate a new
discussing his work Furthermore, Bredow has been
announced as the first speaker for
track called ‘N.E.W.S’., which will at the interface the ‘Studio Insights’ track, which is
explore the workflows of
animation professionals across the
between art being curated by Dave Gougé, head
of marketing and publicity at Weta
globe. This series of talks will and technology Digital. This track will focus on topics
88
FMX provides a platform for
professionals and students
to network and share insights
on art and technology
89
INDUSTRY NEWS
ArtFX wins
at the 17th
VES Awards
School takes Outstanding
VFX in a Student Project
award for graduation film,
Terra Nova
French VFX school, ArtFX, won the
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student
Project category at this year’s VES
Awards. The title was bestowed on
the 2018 graduation film, Terra Nova.
The VES Awards
recognise the ArtFX was the only French school
outstanding visual nominated and it was the only school
effects work
of each year and without professional experience as an
the artists who admissions prerequisite – meaning
created them
among the four films nominated in the
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student
Project category, Terra Nova was the only
HAVE YOU HEARD? Allegorithmic has announced 20 new sportswear fabrics for Substance Source: allegorithmic.com/blog
90
Outpost offers Outpost delivered
approximately 1,800 VFX
Software shorts Bringing you the lowdown on product updates and launches
Pixotope Clarisse iFX 4.0 Forest Pack 6.1.5
Norwegian technology and The latest update to the 3D The latest version of iToo
creative services company, The and VFX creation tool introduces Software’s scattering plugin for
Future Group, has unveiled a new the Transform Manipulator, 3ds Max enables users to see and
software suite, Pixotope. It enables users to designed to speed up set dressing and layout edit Forest objects live during IPR renders. The
create virtual sets and AR experiences with work. Users can also now constrain scene items effect of a randomisation can now be previewed
cinema-quality, real-time graphics, working with to any animated geometry with deformation without triggering a re-render. A free Lite version
single- or multi-camera productions. Pixotope is on. Isotropix has also announced a range of of Forest Pack is available, or alternatively the
available now as a subscription service, for more new pricing options, which can be found at full version can be purchased for 220 Euros.
information visit futureuniverse.com. isotropix.com/products/clarisse/whatsnew. For more information, visit itoosoft.com.
DID YOU KNOW? Unity has released 300 free automotive and transportation materials. Visit https://bit.ly/2N1jFxG
91
INDUSTRY INSIDER
David
Cunningham
The CG supervisor discusses
Method’s work on Aquaman
Job title CG supervisor
Location Vancouver
D
avid Cunningham started out as a CG generalist ten
Website
david-cunningham.net years ago and got his first big gig working on Happy
Biography David is an Feet Two as an FX technical director. He’s held roles
Australian CG supervisor and such as FX lead, FX supervisor and, for the last few years,
technical director working in
Vancouver. He’s been CG supervisor at Method Studios. He recently oversaw
working in animation, VFX Method’s work on Aquaman, the superhero smash hit
and post production for
around a decade, with the last from director James Wan. “Method VFX supervisor Craig
eight years being focused on Wentworth and I had worked together on a previous
feature film visual effects
and animation. project and had a good relationship,” Cunningham
Portfolio highlights explains. “I set up a number of workflows on that show,
• Ant-Man and the Wasp and Craig was happy to let me design how we were going
(2018) to attack our sequence on Aquaman.”
• Thor: Ragnarok (2017) The sequence in question is known as ‘the well of souls’,
• Guardians of the Galaxy
Vol. 2 (2017)
an underwater set piece that included Aquaman himself
• King Arthur: Legend of the (played by Jason Momoa) and a gigantic sea creature.
Sword (2017) Water is notoriously tricky for VFX artists, and the
• Avengers: Age of Ultron prospect of creating an entirely submerged sequence
(2015)
required plenty of planning on Method’s part. “We would 01
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
put together layouts of our entirely CG environment in
• Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Maya, and playblast with depth fog turned on, along with
• Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
• Happy Feet Two (2011)
a blueish tint,” recalls Cunningham. “The result gave us
a pretty good insight into how the lighting in general should
behave in our underwater environment. ”
Everything needed for the sequence was modelled in
Maya before being textured in Substance and Mari. Look
development was then completed in Houdini and Mantra.
“Most of the decayed, mossy, grimy look was created
procedurally in Houdini and Mantra by our skilful look dev
artists Jin Ji and Yuri Serizawa,” says Cunningham. “Our
model and layout teams worked in sync to bring the assets
together in one major layout, with our layout artists (led
by Jon Bragado) making bespoke adjustments.”
Cunningham also explains how they achieved the
underwater environment’s unique look and feel: “Lighting 03
lead Sergio Pinto and senior artist Dan Rankin developed
beautiful moody light rigs in Houdini, and a number of
artists contributed to the distinct look across different THE QUICKENING
shots. Volumes were rendered in key areas of brighter light
to assist in giving a sense of light falloff and depth. This was
Cunningham and his team were tasked
then utilised by our compositing team, who took all our
with creating a psychedelic, 700-frame
render layers and made them look even better.”
shot called ‘the quickening’
Aquaman’s hair posed another challenge. The incredible ‘The quickening’ shows a journey through Aquaman’s
effect seen in the film was created by Method’s creature mind’s eye. “Effects artist Thomas Cant whipped
FX team. “The crew, led by Mayur Samant, did an up the fibres of the iris and the volumetric clouds
awesome job of responding to notes from the client and we traverse through in a matter of days,” says
creating a natural, flowing look to the hair,” Cunningham Cunningham. “Over a few weeks, Thomas and
states. “Our groomer, Jordan Soler, made multiple XGen talented generalist Chris Herrick pulled all of the CG
grooms until we decided on the perfect one, then Mayur elements into place. Chris look-developed all of the
and his team took that and simulated it in Maya’s nHair.” creatures, animated the camera and laid out the shot.
Method’s work on Aquaman stands out as a technical The two of them made sure their work coalesced so
achievement in a film that’s packed with CG wizardry. we had perfect light integration between emissive
Cunningham asserts it was a team effort from beginning to threads, volumes and creatures. It was a mammoth
end: “We had an outstanding crew, and their hard work is task, and all of the CG was owned by those two.”
what brought our sequence to life on the big screen.”
92
Water is notoriously
tricky for VFX artists, and
the prospect of creating
an entirely submerged
sequence required plenty
of planning
02
04
06 Information on Method’s
projects can be found at
bit.ly/2UR4XMn
93
TEXTURING
Tsubasa Nakai
artstation.com/tsubasan
Tsubasa is a director and
Incredible 3D artists take us behind their artwork CG supervisor working
in Japan.
TEXTURING
In order to create this beautiful CG woman, I tried using Multi-channel Faces texture from Texturing.xyz. Software Maya, ZBrush,
Photoshop, Mari,
The technical goal of this project was to express the fine details. Texturing.xyz and XGen really helped me Substance Painter
to achieve this. I projected a Multi-channel Faces texture to the model, with a Photoshop UV workflow. You
can see how to do this here: bit.ly/2WGHDCZ Anemone,2019
94
OPINION
B
shotgunsoftware.com uilding 3D content, whether for animation, expansion of the cloud has dramatically reduced the
games, VFX or immersive, rarely happens in barrier to entry for working in this way.
a vacuum. You might be working on the next A solid pipeline can help a team of one do the work
mega-blockbuster or building a student short film, of 20, a team of 20 do the work of 60 or a team of
but the chances are there is someone else providing 200 do the work of 600, and so on. When we started
feedback, and probably a team of others working on thinking about solving collaboration problems for
the project with you. artists over 15 years ago, the idea of productising
Bringing stories to life in 3D takes a team. Teams pipeline and production management seemed
can move as quickly and nimbly as a school of fish, or unimaginable. Every studio had its own way of doing
can get caught up in bottlenecks and traffic jams that things and protected these methods as closely
get in the way of making good art. In a team of any guarded trade secrets. Over the years we have
size, artists might end up investing valuable creative worked with the most creative minds in CG
time doing non-creative task management work, animation, games and visual effects, to identify
which can cause friction when a project is under the patterns and best practices and build community
gun. The best creative team runs in a way across artists of all stripes interested in
that enables artists to remain 100 per moving the industry forward more
cent focused on being creative, efficiently. Working with hundreds
always with an eye on the of studios around the world
bigger picture rather than has enabled us to codify
siloed in one individual best practices, making it
task. Having a pipeline more possible than ever
in place from the start before to offer
enables any team out-of-the-box
member anywhere pipeline tools without
in the world, on any dedicated R&D
device, to spin up resources.
and stay creative. When you talk
Connecting on that about pipeline to a
level builds fluidity room of artists, eyes
into the way that may start to glaze
people collaborate and over. When you tell an
truly helps to unlock artist that they can spend
creative potential, keeping Teams connecting their whole day in their
better enables far more
artists in flow. efficient production creative tool of choice,
While pipelines help artists without having to go into a
connect to each other, it’s of equal spreadsheet, search through email,
importance that they connect to dig into a file system or migrate out of
supervisors and the entire production team as Maya or Nuke to get their job done, their eyes
well. When everyone on the production team is light up. My personal vision has always been to make
connected, they can pivot quickly and chase new working in production more joyful and take the grind
Images courtesy of Shotgun Software customer Arx Anima, Vienna
ideas as a story evolves. In production, there is out of it. Thanks to the cloud and so many other new
always a drive to work faster and iterate with more enabling technologies, the future is looking very
frequency. This is especially true for online content or bright indeed.
games, where worlds and story can be adapted to
incorporate or build on anything, from culturally
relevant news events to the latest viral sensations. The best creative team
Creative agility is essential for making that happen,
and while having the right tools is part of the
runs in a way that enables
equation, you need to be connected as a team artists to remain 100 per
working towards a shared creative goal.
Ensuring that both the tools and teams are cent focused on being
integrated and in sync helps to eliminate the blind
spots that prevent people from working together
creative, always with an eye
in this creatively agile state. The introduction and on the bigger picture
96
98
Yulia Sokolova
artstation.com/yuzach
Yulia’s a Russian freelance
Incredible 3D artists take us behind their artwork artist and tutorial
instructor based in Spain.
MODELLING
Software ZBrush,
When working on a personal piece in ZBrush, I prefer to start from a DynaMesh sphere instead of using Maya, Substance
a ready-made base mesh. Apart from being good anatomy practice, it helps me to push the shapes to the Painter, Marmoset
extreme and play with the proportions without any boundaries. Don’t be afraid to exaggerate some parts
of your character, but remember to maintain a good balance between large, medium and small shapes. Samurai, 2019
MODELLING
9000 9001