Cgarena Dec-Jan11 Magazine

CGArena
VOLUME 5, ISSUE 6, DEC - JAN 11
Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community
Photoshop
Corey Loving Hulk
3ds Max
Children Room
Interview
Nate Owens
ZBrush
Speed
Maya
Say Cheese
Gallery Eddy
Latest 3D inspiring art
VOL
Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

Volume 5, Issue 6 Dec - Jan 2011
Issue Contents
05 Interview Nate Owens

14 Photoshop Making of Corey Loving Hulk
20 Maya Making of Eddy
28 3ds Max Making of Children Room
34 ZBrush Making of Speed
46 Maya Making of Say Cheese
56 Gallery Showcase of latest 3D art
Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi, India

Magazine Cover Image: Edward Fleissig, Romania
Magazine Design: Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan
www.cgarena.com Page 2
Issue 6 Dec - Jan 2011
Industry News
CGArena
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from Directors and DPs to highly professional Visual Effects Artists, be-
cause the challenge is the same: to make some really good decisions
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many Visual Effects Artists haven’t explored this aspect.
Interview with
CGArena
Never be satisfied.
Nate Owens Never throw in the
towel. An insa-
Q. Hi could you tell us a bit about yourself and your tiable curiosity is
background in CG and are you self taught or taken good…
some training?
Personal things...
My wife, Carol, our ten dogs and three cats live in beautiful rural South Carolina. I grew up on my grandpar-
ents’ farm and although I’ve lived in large cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta) I’ve always been
a country boy at heart and prefer the serenity to the chaotic metropolis. The advent of computers capable of
illustration and graphics and the Internet makes it possible to serve clients on a global basis from my home
office.
Education...
‘Draw!’ they said

I did. On the backdrop for school plays in grammar school. On t-shirts for classmates. For the school paper.
On the dash of a ’31 Chevy coup, for galleries, magazines, books, newspapers, greeting cards, TV spots,
ads, bus benches...
I’m not convinced that anyone is ‘self-taught’ – teachers, parents, friends and people we admire influence
us all.
In my case, it seems that my teachers saw something that I didn’t. My scribbles were no better than the
other kids’ scribbles, yet they seemed determined to assign me to do drawings and other artistic projects. In
high school I encountered an upper classmate who was doing unbelievable drawings and paintings – stuff
like Frazetta and Wally Wood were doing – it wasn’t until later
that I became familiar with the wonderful early artists of Mad
Magazine fame (Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, and others).
Meeting that kid in high school was like someone pouring gas on
the flame. (He signed his work Cosmo – not sure what became
of him, but he was a major talent).
My first job was doing drafting and from there I moved into the
printing business doing mostly production work (paste-up etc.)
with occasional logos and illustrations. From there I moved into
agency-type situations, working next to some very capable pros,
and eventually graduating into art directing and later specializing
in illustration and graphics. In those days it was doing layouts
with markers, so the drawing skills played a part in producing
comps for clients.
Interview with
CGArena
Nate Owens
Other than a couple of years of art classes in high school, my education was in the work force, fueled by
an immense compulsion to learn and survive.
About Computers & Graphics…
I entered the graphics business in the late 60’s as a production artist well before the arrival of computers that
were capable of anything relating to graphics. Then, illustration was done with conventional media (airbrush,
pen and ink, acrylics, oils, etc.). In the early ‘90s the computer was getting interesting as a tool for both de-
sign and illustration and gaining ground in the industry. I began using them and haven’t looked back since.
Q. Which software program(s) do you use for your CG and why?
The computers and the tools…
I’ve worked on PC and Mac for years and my personal computers have been pc’s due to their affordability
and the lower cost of software and upgrades. Anyway that’s just personal preference.
For doing illustration work, I prefer Photoshop and Painter, and sometimes Adobe Illustrator. I tend to mix
them up based on the project at hand. I’ve done some 3D technical illustration and info graphic work us-
ing Rhino, Hexagon and Carrara (budget programs, but they do the job, and I’m not doing complicated
animation.) Lately I’ve been experimenting with a
little program called Sculptris (recently acquired by
Pixologic) for doing organic digital sculpting.
In some illustration projects, I do preliminary “mod-

els” in 3d software. This allows working out per-
spective and mechanical details much quicker. For
instance, while doing an illustration for a greeting
card I created a sleigh for Santa in Rhino, rotated
and positioned it as needed into my painting as a
reference. I did the same when I needed to draw
a cutaway perspective view of the interior of a din-
ing room and clubhouse, rendering all of the furni-
ture, tables, chairs, etc in 3d software, positioning
all the parts for correct perspective and scale and
finished the illustration in a sketch style resembling
pencil and flat monochromatic color.
The best way to get the idea is to visit my two websites. Pigments of My Imagination is for my paintings at
www.nateowens.com, and the illustration & graphics work is at ArtPixel Studios – www.artpixelstudios.com
Interview with
CGArena
Nate Owens
Q. In last 30 years anything changed for you in terms of painting? Which changes you like or dis-
like?
Things change…
I do my art – the paintings and the illustrations – on the computer. When I think of going back to airbrushes,
friskets, oils, acrylics – the mess, cleanups, and the time involved and the terrifying aspect of the always-
present changes, I cringe.
As for the paintings, I produce my art as giclee prints. In the present economy I like to make the work avail-
able and accessible. Not many people are buying art for investment, and my work has always had its ap-
peal in the subject matter and those interested were not concerned with the chemical composition of paint
smeared on canvas. This has been proven consistently by the popularity of art I’ve done for greeting cards
since 1980.
In a nutshell, I love the computer for it’s flexibility and the freedom it affords to devote time to making the art
rather than mixing paints, mounting canvases, etc. not to mention the mess and the smells. (Dog and cat
hair embedded on the canvas)?
The computer is the perfect venue for commercial work - just about all printing starts with digital images, and
delivery is instantaneous via the Internet.
Q. Do you create any rough sketches on paper before you start creating the digital illustration and
how long on average would you spend on an image?
Sketches and drawings…
Ninety percent of my drawings

and roughs are totally done on
my computer from rough to fi-
nals using Painter, Photoshop
and my Wacom pen tablet.
Sometimes while ignoring TV, I
do doodles on a pad. These are
usually pretty rough sketches
that I scan and redraw on the
computer. I really don’t know
how to estimate averages when
it comes to making an image. For the paintings I don’t normally have a deadline, for the illustration work, I
pace myself to meet the client’s deadlines. Most of the clients do not micro-manage the work, they indicate
Interview with
CGArena
Nate Owens
some preferences and leave the rest to me. Publications and ad art of course can have stringent deadlines
– if I see issues with meeting the deadline, I tell the client up front and offer alternative concepts and ap-
proaches to get it done on time.
Q. What services you offer in ArtPixel Studios and how many artist works in your studio?
ArtPixel Studios…
This is a domain that I acquired to separate the illustration and graphic work from the paintings. This is an
illustration site and includes both illustrations in different styles as well as 3d info graphic work and other
various types of work that I have done for years.
I never lead anyone to believe that there are other artists in the studio. I sort of remain anonymous as a
manager for the benefit of some clients who are uncomfortable with the idea that an artist may work in dif-
ferent styles. Doing so has proven to be an asset for me as opposed to always working in the same style or
medium, and has allowed me to service a wider range of clients. Most clients don’t seem concerned on that
issue, and are more results focused.
Q. How much you enjoy creating an image/illustration for the magazine? Any special thing required
keeping in mind while doing this type of stuff?
The joy of illustration…
Magazines and ads have one thing in common – deadline. That is the most special thing to keep in mind,
if you miss deadline you will probably never hear from them again. As mentioned, if I see a problem hitting
the deadline, I offer alternative concepts or approaches up front for the client’s consideration – much better
and more forgivable than blowing the deadline.
Many of the more complex illustrations or graphics are not necessarily tied to a specific event or publish
date, and you often get leeway to produce these with more focus on detail and accuracy where content is
more important than rushing to press.
If you’ve proven yourself in doing this sort of work the editors will often work with you rather than being dog-
matic about deadline issues.
Q. How Digital Sculpting helps you in your work?
‘Digital sculpting’ - another flavor…
Interview with
CGArena
Nate Owens
When doing many illustrations over a period of time for one publisher for different issues of a publication
they did not really want every illustration to have the same look, they were interested in variety. To achieve
this, sometimes they were done with a painted effect, another an ink and wash effect. At times a sculpted
3D effect was added into the mix.
A business illustration using

3D modeling & sculpting
An experimental digital sculpt

and a caricature Illustration
using 3D sculpting and Pho-
toshop
Interview with
CGArena
Nate Owens
Creating figurines…
I’ve also experimented with the idea of creating figurines produced by a process referred to as 3D printing
or prototyping. This can be used to produce small desktop figurines with the idea of creating some of the
characters that I’ve done as greeting cards as a marketable product.
This image shows some of the steps in the process of producing a desktop figurine – the final step (not
shown here) was having resin (plastic) castings made of the figure. This is one method – others using dif-
ferent materials result in different looks.
Q. What other interests do you have that help influence your work and keep you motivated?
Expanding horizons…
My interests range from illustrating to gallery art and experimenting with making figurines. I like photogra-
phy and, as mentioned, the rural lifestyle. Although there are some forms of art that I don’t care to venture
into, I still look at many with a fresh eye – this provides unlimited inspiration for concepts that I might use in
projects.
Interview with
CGArena
Nate Owens
My paintings and illustrations always have a narrative theme. I read a lot – everything from mysteries to
humor and science fiction novels and historical works – they are rich in character studies. I enjoy many of
the documentaries shown on TV, and the Internet is an endless frontier of ideas. Often a mixture of concepts
and imagery develops into an interesting subject or approach for a project. It’s a matter of keeping your
curiosity alive and expanding your horizons.
Q. How you rate the CGArena Portfolio service?
Pretty amazing…
The site offers just about everything in one place for the CG artist. I’m still exploring all the aspects of the
site, and of course the portfolios are a never-ending source of inspiration.
Q. Are you working on any projects currently? If so, what are they?
Different directions…
I seem to have my fingers in many different pies, so there is al-

ways another front to keep moving on. I am not working with an
agent, so marketing, mailings and other efforts to reach potential
clients and prospects is an on-going necessity – a never-ending
project.
A successful businessman
once told me that he kept
things moving by having a
multi-legged enterprise and
another marketing guru said to
“fish with all of your worms.” I
suppose my method of doing
that is to keep several avenues
open. I’m developing ideas for
cards and imprinted products,
while pursuing illustration and
graphic projects.
I have to consider all of these

as current projects. I’m also
working on tutorials I’ve been
commissioned to do. I don’t approach every job the same way, so that can be somewhat endless in scope.
Interview with
CGArena
Nate Owens
Q. Any tips for the upcoming artists which like to start career as illustrator!
Persistence…
By the time I entered the work force, I had a tenacious bulldog grip on what I wanted to do, and closed doors
didn’t deter me. I did a few things to keep the wheels rolling, but they always were related in some way to
graphics and illustration. Some of the best concepts come to mind when I’m mowing the lawn. Some ideas
are slippery and if chased too hard keep slipping out of your grasp. You have to sneak up on them.
Being persistent not only in seeking your goal, but even more in a relentless pursuit of improving your craft.
Never be satisfied. Never throw in the towel. Complacency is a deadly trap whether you’re just starting out
or have been at it for decades. Approaching your interests in different ways can keep the flame burning. An
insatiable curiosity is good… Like captain Kirk of Star Trek’s Enterprise said when charting his course…
“Out there” .
Thanks a lot for taking out sometime for us from your busy schedule.
Web: www.nateowens.com
www.artpixelstudios.com
Tutorial by Corey Loving, USA
CGArena
Software:
Making of Corey Photoshop

2D
Loving Hulk
First of all I just want to thank CGArena for recog-
nizes us as an artist and giving us a chance/place
to post work and creating an excellent resource for
us to use. I hope you enjoy this walkthrough for one
of Marvel’s most known characters, the incredible
Hulk. My name is Corey Loving; let’s begin.
THE IDEA
First I had an idea. The Hulk gets stronger, the an-

grier and he gets but what’s his limit? In my mind
I had the concept of him keeping the earth from
being destroyed by trying to stop the moon from
colliding with the earth using his strength alone. I
visualized the picture in a vertical comic like fash-
ion. I don’t know why exactly like this but just how
I imagined it.
FINAL PICTURE
In an effort to rid of a mass of enemies from earth

Galactus expands the moon and sends it on a
course to crush the earth in a blaze.
Prayers are heard from the people as they watch

the sky light on fire. Some believe it is Revelations
and embrace each other in their last moments of
life.
But wait…what’s that on top of that building in the

sky? The Hulk... Is he trying to stop the moon! I
know the Hulk is strong but can he truly out strength
an entire planet? Hulk our fates are in your hand…
We believe in you, but Hulk how strong are you?
STEPS
1) So once I had the idea down I sketch it out in

Photoshop using a normal round brush.
Tutorial by Corey Loving, USA
CGArena
Making of Corey Loving Hulk

2) I added gray’s and tones.
3) I gathered a few references from the internet and detailed further.
4) Added light glows and dark glows by painting on a new layer set to Over-
lay.
5)
a. For coloring I created a new Overlay layer, and colored in the basic hues.
b. I also made a Color Dodge layer; choose very saturated red/orange col-
ors and gave the highlights that fire glow like feel.
6.)
a. Created the final touches by creating a new Color Burn layer, picked a
red/orange color and converted most of the white in the picture to orange.
Just something more colorful than pure white is the point.
b. For the final touch I added fire debris from the moon just by creating a new
Color Dodge layer and using a custom brush with Scatter set to 1000%
in the brush properties. Then I just spray dots all over the place to add that
extra detail the picture needs.
The entire picture took 3 days, and using the gray scale method and a little
confidence in your ability you can really crank out artwork fast this way.
Thank you for looking at this tutorial. Thank you again CGArena for the op-
portunity. If anyone has any questions or would just like to talk email me
anytime. Thank you!
Web: www.coreyloving.com
Email: coreyarte@yahoo.com
corey@coreyloving.com
Tutorial by Lai SweeKim, Singapore
CGArena
Software:
Making of Eddy Maya, ZBrush

3D
PREPARATION
I started off with a collection of hi-res photographs of the person I am going to model. This is important as I
will be using camera projection method on this project. By having a good front, side, quarter and other views
in raw format would be a great start. First of all, the raw format photographs would provide focal length info
which will be useful for matching up the model with various camera views. Also, we could rely on the extra
info on the raw images to remove shadow and highlight on the photographs for hi res texture projections. I
would explain in details at the later stage on how I do this. So, it would be good if you happen to have these
hi res photographs ready.
The entire process will use Maya for Modeling and Hair. Photoshop and Bodypaint for Texturing, ZBrush for
sculpting and Renderman for Maya for final render. One little part that is different from my other projects is
that, I wanted to achieve the final look without depending on comping the different render passes together.
I must admit I did do a bit of color grading and adding a bit of film noise to better blend with the actual back-
ground image, but no render passes were used in the final image.
MODELING
To begin, I imported a generic head model into Maya. I have five photos of the person I am going to model
in left, quarter left, front, quarter right and right views. Create five cameras and attached these photos as
camera background images. It would be a good idea to make these photos in square size to avoid any ac-
cidental scaling. You will have to reshape the model, at the same time adjusting the cameras to match the
head model. This process usually ended up with lots of frustration as you will most likely not being able
to get perfect alignment. Well, one of the reasons is the actual human model might move or changes his
expression slightly from one photo to another. So, you will have to decide from an artistic point of view to
choose which will be the master view to follow. For me, I had a pretty good matching up on front and quarter
views. Having bit of a trouble getting the ears right.
We will reuse the camera setup in Maya

for texture projection inside Bodypaint.
Before you begin adjusting cameras,
please read my other tutorial on how to
do camera setup in Maya so that it is
transferable to Bodypaint. The link of the
tutorial is at: http://www.sweekim.com/
Tut_MatchingCamera1.html
Once you have got matching up done,

the next step would be the actual model-
ing works. It really depends on the qual-
CGArena
Making of Eddy
ity of the generic head model you have. You could reuse some of the area but for me, I prefer to start from
scratch, using the generic head model only as a guide. I started off with modeling the eyes, nose, mouth
and ears as separate pieces. I wanted to not worry so much of how I am going to join them together, but
focusing more onto the flow of the facial muscle, getting the topology right. Once you are satisfied, you can
begin joining the pieces together, at the same time carefully optimizing the model. As I will be having a rather
close up on the final image. Be very faithful to the actual photograph references and you will notice human
face is never symmetrical.
I used UVLayout pro for UV creation. The UV tool in Maya could also do the job rather easily especially us-
ing the later version of Maya. If you look at the way I layout my UV, I had nose and lips cut off as separate
UV pieces. The reason for that is most of the time you won’t get enough space for details in this area, es-
pecially at the tip of the nose when you have to compromise yourself when trying to squeeze in everything
into one UV piece.
TEXTURING
This step requires cleaning up of the photographs you will be projecting onto the head model. Basically, its
a process of removing shadow and highlight. There are many ways you can achieve that. My practice would
be using Adobe Bridge Camera Raw editor to quickly flatten the shadow and highlight as much as possible.
Make a preset of the settings and apply that to the rest of the photographs. Load the photograph into Pho-
toshop for further manual flattening. Remember, there wouldn’t be a way to flatten all area. You will need to
regionally removing the shadow and highlight as much as you can.
Color Map Specular Map
CGArena
Making of Eddy
Once you have finish cleaning up the photographs, you can begin loading the cameras into Bodypaint and
start projection. I have written a tutorial on how projection works inside Bodypaint at: http://www.sweekim.
com/Tut_ProjectionTexturingPg1.html
Well, if you have followed closely till this step you will notice that I am relying heavily on the photographs to
provide me modeling and texturing information. By the way, I am using 4k resolution on all my textures as
any higher resolution might be pushing my system too far and slowing me down.
Next, I will begin sculpting inside ZBrush using the color texture created as a base for using it as alpha for
creating the skin displacement. It is always a good idea to add layers inside ZBrush for various part of sculpt-
ing, such as wrinkle layer, skin displacement layer and etc. I choose 16 bit TIF for my displacement map
format. You can of course choose 32 bit TIF but that would mean more constraint in editing the image inside
Photoshop. I wouldn’t go too much into details on how I did the sculpting inside ZBrush as I guess it wouldn’t
be any different than most of the tutorials out there.
HAIR
I received few emails on how I made those hairs. To be honest, not a lot of works or efforts were put into
creating the hair. Maya Hair by itself did a pretty good job. Since I won’t be doing any dynamic simulation on
CGArena
Making of Eddy
the hair, it made the process half easier. So, with that in mind, I set the Simulation Method to be Static. Also,
I have adjusted Clump settings and other settings to create as much randomness as I can. One little useful
setting would be Start Curve At-
tract. I normally set it to 1 so that
it will fully follow the underlying
curve. The rest of the job would be
tweaking the shape of the key hair
curves. Usually the default curve
would have lots of CV points mak-
ing it impossible to tweak. I would
select all the key curve and apply
Rebuild Curve and set the Num-
ber of spans to 2. Reducing the
number of CV while retaining the
shape as much as I can. Finally,
you could either manually edit the
CVs, shaping the curve to the way
you want, or you could look at this
little script I made to use joints for
shaping the curve:
http://www.sweekim.com/Mel_
zinJointCurve.html
I should have mentioned this ear-

lier. When creating the Hair system, set the Output to Paint Effects and NURBS curves. The Paint Effects
would be where you set the color and get render out. The eye brows were done by Maya Hair too.
I am hoping to write a more in depth step by step tutorial on how to create CG hair in near future.
LOOKDEV AND SUR-

FACING
This is the first time I use Ren-

derman to do lookdev and I am
not entirely sure if I did it right in
the Renderman SSS settings.
The main reason I choose to use
Renderman over Mental Ray is
the speed. The final render takes
only 8 minutes comparing to 15
to 20 minutes on a similar render
using Mental Ray. I guess this
CGArena
Making of Eddy
will kick start another heated debate over which is the better renderer but this is just my little opinion. Also, I
am hoping to hear feedback on the mistake that I may have made in SSS settings from the more experience
Renderman for Maya users.
So, let’s start with creating a basic blinn material and add Subsurface Scattering to it. For the scattering
strength, I set it to 10. Under Scattering Albedo, which basically is where you could attach a map to decide
the area you want to have
more or less scattering,
i.e. white refers to have
full scattering and black to
have none. I painted a 50%
gray map, cutting down the
scattering strength to half.
Then I painted near white
onto the area I want more
scattering, such as ears,
lips and tip of the nose.
Also, painted near black
onto the where you want
less SSS effects. As for
the Scattering Entry and
Exit Tint. I attached a same
color map to further control
the scattering color, such
as a more saturated red
onto the ears area. Setting
a value of 5 for Scattering
Free Path, a value for how
far the scattering will travel
and finally a value of 10
for Scattering Filter value,
which will be used to blur
the scattering map? I have
also added a map to con-
trol Translucence value
on the blinn material. It’s a
map to control where you
needed more translucency. I have also added facing ratio node to give a little difference in color on the
surface facing away from camera. Just wanna to give more color variations to the final render. Finally, you
might want to reduce the Diffuse value to something like 0.35 to allow more scattering to show up onto the
final render.
CGArena
Making of Eddy
LIGHTING AND RENDERING
I created a Renderman Environment Light sphere and assigned a HDRI map as an ambient light setup also
serving a reflection environment for the eyes. Instead of using the default occlusion for Shadowing, I chose
Color Bleeding which I find the result seems to be much softer for human skin. Next, I did a bit of search onto
portrait photography and found one with the lighting that I like and started placing lights to follow the reference
image. For the final rendering quality, I set 0.5 for Shading Rate and a high value of 12 to Pixel Samples as
there would be camera depth of field in the final render. I have tested all filters and decided Blackman-Harris
seemed to work best for my render. Also, remember to turn on Sigma Hiding to have good result on hair ren-
dering. Usually you will be
tweaking both the lookdev
and lighting at the same time
to achieve the look. Render-
man does allow you to cache
the SSS, Render Radios-
ity (EnvLight) and shadows
separately. Also, you could
set the cache mode to Per
Job, so that it can reuse
the same cache for the en-
tire turntable renders. I had
the first frame rendered at 8
minutes and subsequent at
4 minutes reusing the cache
done earlier.
Hope that you find this tuto-

rial useful and there is still
so much for me to continue
learning. Please email me if
you have anything to share
with me or you need further
explanation. Please visit my
website for my other works
and tutorials.
Web: www.sweekim.com
Email: sweekimlai@yahoo.com
Tutorial by Alex Sand, Italy
CGArena
Software:
Making of 3ds Max, Vray

3D
Children Room
CONCEPT
This project, reproducing a scene of a Pixar movie, is inspired by “Monster & Co”; in particular, I tried to cre-
ate the child’s room.
I watched the movie some time ago and I was very fascinated by the atmosphere of that scene. I thought
that it would have been very hard to recreate lighting and colours, but I armed myself with patience and I
decided to try.
MODELING
Modeling the objects was very simple; I built all of them by polygonal modeling and almost all models have
been accurately unwrapped, a necessary step for
a right application of the textures.
Analyzing in detail the modeling, I can say that I

used two techniques: the box modeling and poly
modeling. I used one rather than other on the ba-
sis of need and I applied the modifier subdivision
(mesh smooth) for almost all geometries that I in-
cluded in the scene.
CGArena
Making of Children Room
LIGHTING
I made many experiments before finding the best

light (it’s my opinion!) for the scene. I used an HDRI
(changing saturation) to get a light similar to a full
blue, a direct light applied on a projector, with a gradi-
ent between rose and white and finally, I used a vray
light with a colour similar to cyan blue for area near
the window. Thanks to the balance of colours I set for
the scene, but I knew that I would have changed its
chromaticism during post-production.
CGArena

TEXTURING
Texturing has taken much longer than the others steps. I had to make some special maps of reflection and
glossiness for some shaders; moreover, I used maps of displace, in particular for the wood, getting a more
realistic effect. As in every project, unwrap step was quite boring, for this reason I built good geometries and
I tried to used the edge loops in the best way, so I could make some useful selections to prepare the UV of
the objects.
CGArena

RENDERING AND POST - PRODUCTION
After rendering, I tried to embellish the image, so I composited all passes by Photoshop, setting highlight/
lowkey/saturation and I added the personal effects. I used 3D Studio Max for modeling, lighting/texturing,
Vray for rendering and Photoshop for compositing and post-production
Hope you will like the final image, please send me your comments and suggestions.
Web: www.inprospettivablog.com
Email: info@inprospettiva.it
Tutorial by Edward Fleissig, Romania
CGArena
Software:
Making of Speed ZBrush

3D
I’ve created this work for a local CG contest that had “Speed” as theme. I’ve started the project directly in
ZBrush 4, without having a very clear vision about how the subject will look like and without making any
sketches.
The only thing I had in mind when I started the modeling was that I’ve wanted to create a very elongated
vehicle that should have a very small distance between ground and motorcycle and the pilot should be
connected with the machine through many cables and

devices. The first sketch of the project was this one.
For the pilot I used a base mesh from ZBrush that I’ve
placed on the motorbike, making a rough modeling of
it; as for the motorcycle, I’ve modeled it from scratch,
using zsketches.
In this phase of the modeling, I didn’t intend to create

well defined shapes; my main purpose was to find so-
lutions regarding the conceptual aspect. In the follow-
ing sketch I make some concept tests.
CGArena
Making of Speed
For the modeling, I mainly used the following brushes: clay tubes, move tool, smooth, smooth stronger,
hPolish.
After these phases in which I worked mainly at the concept part for clarifying the direction that I want to fol-
low, I started to focus more on the technical part and the next step was to correct the modeling imperfections
(and adding also new elements).
After I corrected the modeling I begun also some coloring and texturing tests, to visualize better the direction
I want to follow regarding the texturing.
At this point, after all the tests I’ve made, I finally had a clear image about the way the final work will look
like. As for the texturing, after the coloring tests, I realized that the motorcycle would look great if it would be
composed from different color and texture variations. For making this thing possible, I decided to create for
each color part a subtool. The idea was to create a mask map that would help me in Photoshop to control all
the render passes. The final modeling stage of the motorcycle was on next page.
Page 38
CGArena
Making of Speed
All these subtools were created using the extract mesh function; you draw a mask above the surface you
choose and you extract a surface with a variable thickness. The mask map I obtained by coloring in ZBrush
each subtool with different colors, using a flat material, for composing later in the rendering phase, different
parts of the model with different colors and textures.
After I created the mask layer, I could go further on preparing the render passes for rendering part. For this,
I rendered in ZBrush more images with the motorcycle using different materials. I also used the new ZBrush
4 function, the BRP render, and I created through with a single click mask layer, ambient occlusion pass,
shadow pass. These are the render passes that I make:
Different Materials
CGArena
Making of Speed
The rendering process was a non-

linear one, because there were
many changes and modifications
during the working process. I con-
sider that the rendering process
is a very creative one, similar with
the modeling, and the entire con-
cept can be drastically changed
in this phase. I begun with red
color render pass and then, step
by step, I added new materials
taken from other passes.
After this phase I began to add

the final details for the motorcycle
and the pilot such as: tattoos, in-
scriptions, decorations. All these
were made in Photoshop by add-
ing those using different textures,
with blend modes.
CGArena
Making of Speed
This is the final render of the motorcycle:
After I finalized the motorcycle rendering, I started to compose the final image. I wanted to create a view
that would suggest speed and dynamism, and the best way to suggest that was to think of a motorcycle
competition. I decided to add two more rivals in background that I ‘ve created using two different renderings
with other materials, colors, inscriptions, and other pilots. The background was created by applying a motion
blur effect on an organic texture.
For the lower part of the composition I use a texture which I modified it in such a way that should suggest a
dynamism feeling, like the background.
After I composed the final image, I’ve added some special effects that were meant to increase the dyna-
mism: sparks, flames and smoke. I used for these elements some photos that I’ve added to the image, us-
ing screen blend mode in Photoshop. The last adjustments were general settings for the color, brightness
and contrast, and adding the sharpen filter. That’s all. I hope the information you found in this tutorial was
helpful. Thanks for reading!
Email: fleissigmosaic@yahoo.com
Please consider the environment before printing this magazine.
Save Paper. 100% Environment Respect.
Tutorial by James Schauf, USA
CGArena
Software:
Making of Maya, ZBrush

3D
Say Cheese
PROJECT
“Say Cheese” is the first of five projects that I created for my final term at the Gnomon School of Visual Ef-
fects. The class was Creature Construction, taught by Alex Alvarez. We were given two weeks to go from
finding a concept to presenting a work as close to production quality as possible. The first week was dedi-
cated to modeling/sculpting, and the second week was for texturing, lighting and rendering. This was in
addition to the rest of my classes and working. Needless to say it was intense, but worth every minute. As
they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
CONCEPT
My search for a concept lead me to the very talented artist

Kai Spannuth’s website . As soon as I saw the concept,
I knew that was the one. It reminded me of a mix of Star
Wars and the Last Star Fighter, both being favorite movies
of my childhood.
PREPARATION
My objective was to make the final product look believable

and, most importantly, a very strong likeness to the con-
cept. First off, I found it easy to rotate the image, so it was
more of a straight on camera shot. I then selected the per-
spective camera and imported the concept in as an image
plane. After a very basic blocking out of the character’s
head, I started concentrating matching the Maya camera
to the point of view in the concept. I feel this is the founda-
tion of the project. I liked using the
X-ray display to do this, which you’ll
see me using quite a bit. Upon get-
ting the camera in position, I chose
to set a key frame. Doing this would
always give me a very quick way
of getting back to that set camera
view. Another option is to lock the
attributes of the camera, so that you
don’t accidently tumble the camera.
If you do choose this method, you’ll
just have to create a new camera as
your working camera.
CGArena
Making of Say Cheese

BLOCKING
I found out that the easiest way of blocking out the anatomy was to start with the eyes and building from
there. Especially being that since this is a humanoid type creature, I felt the structure of the anatomy was
going to be fairly easy. I wanted
to concentrate on the major edge
loops that you would when model-
ing any character, loops around the
eyes and mouth. I knew I was go-
ing be using Zbrush, but I always
like having a very solid Basemesh
before moving forward with sculpt-
ing. However, I knew Retopology
was going to be unavoidable, so I
kept the ears very simple.
I knew from the start that the outfit
would be primarily done in Maya,
with some minor sculpting in
Zbrush. All these parts were very
straight forward. The challenge
here was to put them in correct 3D
space. In doing this, it also helped
me solidify the overall thickness
and form of the torso section.
SCULPTING
Now, to do the basic set up as I did

in Maya, using an image plane and
matching the camera angle. I think
this is something to make note of.
Here is a quick run through. By the way, this works in Zbrush 3.5 and not the workflow for Zbrush 4.
Go to Texture/Image Plane/ Load Image. This will bring your image into the background.
Load Tool into scene and try to match view of model to the concept. To make this amazingly easier, you need
to be able to see through your model.
Texture/ Image Plane/ Model Opacity/ decrease to your liking.
Now to be able to lock the camera.
CGArena
Document/ ZAppLink Properties/ Cust1. This will

save that camera view, so that you can snap back
to the exact camera view. This was a huge help!
I liked sculpting with perspective on, which seems

to be a great discussion topic for us creative nerds.
After getting a sculpt that I felt was good enough

for the time that was allowed, it was time for Re-
topology. I chose to do retoping in Zbrush, not
much more to say about that. Then it was time
for the final detailing and adding things such as
wrinkles and skin texture.
UV MAPPING
My program of choice is UVLayout, it is very quick and easy. Cut seams where you want them, relax, pack
UVs and you’re finished.
LIGHTING
Once again I had to study the concept. Being that it is an artist concept the lighting can be something
CGArena

that is very difficult to match. Something that I focused on
when trying to replicate the lighting was the specular hit on
the eyes (this should be a dead giveaway where the key
lights are located). The remainder of the lights I chose to
focus on was the blue colored lights coming from the bot-
tom. In the end, I used 2 spotlights and 3 directional lights.
To match the lighting of the concept, I used Decay on most
of the lights. This gave the ability to concentrate the light-
ing where I wanted it. This portion of the project required a
lot of attention, tweaking, and numerous test renders. Last
note on lighting, I was adjusting the lighting throughout the
rest of the project, even up to the final render.
TEXTURING
I first apply a material to all the pieces that make up the

finished model. Then it is time for research, this is the part
I really enjoy.
I chose to break it down to four categories: 1) Anatomy 2)

Leathers 3) Metals 4) Plastics
CGArena
Here are a couple references

I pulled from the web that I felt
were similar to the materials I
wanted to create for the final ren-
der.
I wanted to use subsurface scat-

tering for the skin, which can end
up looking waxy. I personally
found this challenging, but fun.
CGArena

COMPOSITING
After rendering out the above renders, it was time to make the magic happen and combine them into pleas-
ing final image.
For the background, I wanted to recreate the same painterly backdrop; however, I did want to add a bit more
punch of color. I then analyzed the concept and felt it was necessary to do some minor touch ups in Photo-
shop. This resulted in the completed image.
CGArena

CLOSING
I went over most of my process rather quickly, mainly, concentrating on what I felt where key points. Some
of these are very basic and others, I hope, are new ideas for you. I would have liked to go more in depth, be-
ing that I’ve touched on blocking, sculpting, UV mapping, lighting, and texturing I didn’t want to bore anyone
with too much reading. If you do have specific question or would like me to expand on anything, please fill
free to contact me.
Before I close, I would like to thank God for blessing me
with this talent. I would also like to thank my wife for being
supportive and understanding about the countless hours of
sitting in front of my computer. Last, but not least, I would
like to thank all of those who have passed their knowledge
on to me, which is my goal to continue passing it on.
Keep learning, creating, and sharing!
Email: jamesschauf@sbcglobal.net
Have you created your
CG Por tfolio?
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Titouan OLIVE, France
digitalia3d@gmail.com
Maya, ZBrush
Denis Tolkishevsky, Russia
mail@to3d.ru
3ds Max, Mudbox, Vray
Antonio Peres Filho, Brazil
juniorperes2005@hotmail.com
3ds Max, ZBrush
Tomas Kral, Czech Republic
info@tomaskral.cz
3ds Max, ZBrush
Andrzej Kuziola, UK
kuziola@gmail.com
ZBrush
Roberto De Rose, Italy
roberto@stateofartstudio.com
3ds Max, Photoshop
Vladimir Kostuychek, Russia
Sacred111@mail.ru
3ds Max, Vray
Benoit Patterlini, France
noart_1999@yahoo.fr
3ds Max, Vray
Aleksandr Kuskov, Ukraine
natikks@gmail.com
Maya, Mental Ray
Michal Kotek, Czech Republic
michalkotek3d@gmail.com
3ds Max, Photoshop
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CGArena

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 6, DEC - JAN 11

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

05 Interview Nate Owens

Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi, India

OptiTrack Insight VCS Virtual E-on Software and Procedural To-

Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and

Visual Effects for Directors - The course is completely unique, in that

budget ends up in front of the camera instead of being wasted on fixing

‘Draw!’ they said

About Computers & Graphics…

Q. Which software program(s) do you use for your CG and why?

The computers and the tools…

In some illustration projects, I do preliminary “mod-

Sketches and drawings…

Ninety percent of my drawings

The joy of illustration…

Q. How Digital Sculpting helps you in your work?

‘Digital sculpting’ - another flavor…

A business illustration using

An experimental digital sculpt

Q. How you rate the CGArena Portfolio service?

I seem to have my fingers in many different pies, so there is al-

I have to consider all of these

Making of Corey Photoshop

First I had an idea. The Hulk gets stronger, the an-

In an effort to rid of a mass of enemies from earth

Prayers are heard from the people as they watch

But wait…what’s that on top of that building in the

1) So once I had the idea down I sketch it out in

Making of Corey Loving Hulk

3) I gathered a few references from the internet and detailed further.

Making of Eddy Maya, ZBrush

We will reuse the camera setup in Maya

Once you have got matching up done,

Color Map Specular Map

I should have mentioned this ear-

LOOKDEV AND SUR-

This is the first time I use Ren-

Hope that you find this tuto-

Making of 3ds Max, Vray

Analyzing in detail the modeling, I can say that I

Making of Children Room

I made many experiments before finding the best

Making of Children Room

Making of Children Room

Making of Speed ZBrush

connected with the machine through many cables and

In this phase of the modeling, I didn’t intend to create

The rendering process was a non-

After this phase I began to add

Making of Maya, ZBrush

My search for a concept lead me to the very talented artist

My objective was to make the final product look believable

Making of Say Cheese

Now, to do the basic set up as I did

Texture/ Image Plane/ Model Opacity/ decrease to your liking.

Now to be able to lock the camera.

Making of Say Cheese

Document/ ZAppLink Properties/ Cust1. This will

I liked sculpting with perspective on, which seems

After getting a sculpt that I felt was good enough