Innehållsförteckning för February 2022 från 3D World

COVER ARTIST Glen Southern SOFTWARE Nomad Sculpt* *wireframe created with ZBrush We are currently experiencing a quiet revolution in the world of 3D, with a shift to mobile working. There’s no longer the need to be restricted to working only from your desk, with a monstrous workstation powering your software. While there is still definitely a place for that, there are increasingly powerful methods of working on the move, whether that means on a train, or just for a change of scenery, modelling on the couch. We’ve looked at iPad apps for 3D before but now we take you a step further, showing you how to create cover-worthy 3D art on the iPad Pro, with Glen Southern’s fantastic tutorial on page 42. Enjoy! rob.redman@futurenet.com…

ARTIST Cedric Seaut  SOFTWARE ZBrush, RizomUV, Substance Painter, 3ds Max, Corona Renderer, Photoshop Cedric Seaut is the co-founder of Keos Masons, a character outsourcing company that provides character concepts and modelling for various notable game projects. Seaut spent a week creating this extraordinary creature. The complex design belies the relatively simple workflow behind its creation. “The sculpt was done in ZBrush from scratch,” Seaut tells 3D World, “only the front was sculpted, to focus on the illustration aspect of the picture.” Having decimated the different object into something less dense and usable in other software, Seaut used automatic UVs generated inside Rizom. “It’s the best package so far to handle such a task like that, it’s pretty fast,” he adds, “it’s also a bit messy but it doesn't matter at…

Glen Southern Glen runs SouthernGFX, a small Cheshire-based studio specialising in character and creature design. He has been using and training ZBrush in the UK for over 20 years. youtube.com/c/SouthernGFX/videos Mike Griggs Mike Griggs is a digital content creator with over two decades of experience creating VFX and CGI for a wide range of clients. www.creativebloke.com Antony Ward Be it game development, rigging or recording in-depth courses for his YouTube channel, Antony boasts experience in most areas of 3D. www.antcgi.com Pietro Chiovaro Pietro is a freelance 3D artist and YouTuber. An expert in the creation of game assets and environments, he shares many of his creations on his channel. www.pietrochiovaro.com GET IN TOUCH EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO rob.redman@futurenet.com Glen Southern replies UV unwrapping is one of those things that you…

Pietro Chiovaro replies Here I will show you my creative process for a simple ceramic material using Substance Designer. For this type of material, I selected the Physically Based (Metallic/Roughness) Graph Template and deleted the Metallic output since it is not necessary for this substance. From the Substance Designer library we need: the Clouds 1 and Cells 3 noises (these are the base elements of this material), the Height to Normal World Units filter (you can also use the Normal filter, since it has the same effect), three Levels filters, a Warp filter, and the Gradient Map filter that will give colour to the ceramic. Now it’s time to link all of these elements together. First of all, we need to link the Clouds 1 noise to the first Levels…

Not so long ago, working in VFX would often require travelling to wherever your reel would take you. Working remotely was rare: security concerns with IP stopped many studios from fully exploring the idea. For artists today, of course, things are very different. Remote working is no longer an experiment – it’s a new business model. The industry is facing an unprecedented level of decentralisation, which means artists can now carve out a successful career with their dream studio, no matter where they are in the world. “I honestly believe this is the start of a new future for our industry,” says Andrew Sinagra. As co-founder of VFX software company NIM Labs, he’s seen first-hand how studios around the world have managed the move to remote. Here he provides his advice…

AUTHOR PROFILE Rob Redman 3D World’s editor Rob has a background in VFX, animation and filmmaking. When not at his desk, he can usually be found in the woods with his dog, Biscuit. pariahstudios.co.uk + PROS L-shaped curing arm for maximum coverage Powerful wash motor for rinsing resin from models Compact form - CONS Can vibrate small, light desks Yellow case wont fit all tastes ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL Most people use isopropyl alcohol to wash their resin models and tools. It is perfect for the task but can dry and irritate skin and could damage nearby items, so covering a desk and wearing gloves is wise. The Wash & Cure keeps this neat and safe and the wash container has a latched lid, preventing wastage. PRICE $249 | COMPANY Anycubic |…

ARTIST Shane Deptula SOFTWARE Maya, Substance Painter, Photoshop, Marmoset Toolbag “I GATHERED SHOTS OF DIFFERENT STATES OF WEAR AND TEAR ON MANY GAME BOY VARIATIONS” It took 3D artist Shane Deptula approximately three nights to model this nostalgic Game Boy Advance SP tribute. A further two nights were needed to create and finalise the texture maps in Substance Painter, whilst rendering and post-processing took three hours. Gathering references is often taken for granted in any 3D modelling or texturing process, but Deptula has an unusual approach to this. “I like to start using a search engine, like Google, to find good photos to use as a starting point,” he explains, “but as I get into more fine details on the model I start needing more detailed photos.” This led Deptula…

“Better software now means more chances to change, adjust and ‘rerender’. Back then, production leant on us as compositors to take what we had and push it all together, rather than re-render again.” Manz recalls how artists would paint one frame and then line up all of the geometry and project that over 24 frames. He describes it as a process of “tweaking and rotating that became a workflow and a normal thing.” He adds, “Because Flame was always a 3D compositing package, we ended up doing a lot of paint work in Flame and passing it back to people in Shake to composite.” Remembering the miniature model work required, Manz explains, “We were compositing model passes of Hogwarts, and I think on every film that model got added to…

Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills Over the last ten years there has been a slow growth of mobile sculpting programs on platforms like the iPad. It all started with the Forger app, and that reigned supreme until 2020 when Nomad Sculpt was released and gave Forger some heavy competition. In late 2020, Maxon, developers of Cinema 4D, purchased Forger and has been working on a new release version which hopefully we will see before the end of 2021. Nomad is currently leading the way with the addition of post-processing features that include real-time rendering, depth of field, ambient occlusion, curvature settings and even colour grading. In this tutorial we will take a quick look at how to make a creature from primitives and…

What are your main responsibilities as the company’s co-founder? My primary responsibility is the direction and focus of the product. I speak with clients regularly to get their input on new feature requests and improvements and use this feedback to help guide the roadmap. That being said, I like to wear a lot of hats. On the front end, I handle client interactions including new sales, account management, and jump into support tickets when I can. On the back end, I still do some development on the product, but not as much these days. What do you enjoy most about your role? What I enjoy most about not just my role, but the VFX industry as a whole is the collaborative process. Whether I was a creative director working with…

ARTIST Frédéric Arsenault SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, Marmoset Toolbag, Substance Painter, Photoshop Character artist at Improbable Canada, Frédéric Arsenault, spent two or three hours every other day for six and a half weeks creating this ferocious character; in this time he went through the entire pipeline for a game character. Arsenault wouldn’t deem his workflow particularly technical, instead he focuses on the artistic, visual nature of projects. “The technical aspects of my work are mostly focused on efficiency and organisation to help with the quality and speed of my output,” he explains. “I’ve spent years figuring out the best way to achieve certain tasks while simultaneously getting the best visual result I can given my time investment. I set up a ton of hotkeys for my main programs to try and…

Escape Studios helps the industry react to waves of innovation by providing bespoke training to its VFX studio clients as well as preparing students for their careers in VFX. Clients are currently requesting training around new workflows for production staff as juniors are being given greater responsibilities due to the high work volume, and around Unreal Engine for artists as the use of real-time techniques increases. “As Unreal is a games engine, we believe it needs to be taught in a different way for filmmakers who understand light and composition differently,” says Saint John Walker. “We speak the language of VFX and film and get to interpret Unreal and make it useful to artists and filmmakers.” In the summer of 2020 their bootcamp trained 150 artists over four weeks; this…

The move from animatronic to digital is something that Kind cites as a significant moment: “That was great fun. Trying to build techniques in 3D for feathers; we started to build entire systems from scratch. It was the start of systems that we use today. It was always very useful to have these characters built (as animatronic). Even if they performed less in front of camera. The effort that went into building it and seeing it in the round helped everybody: for lighting, texture, it was something to aim for. As our tools get better and faster, the turnaround time means you can make quicker creative decisions and find solutions faster.”…

HALLOWEEN MEDUSA 3D modelled by Seung Yon Lee, 2021. Inspired by Jessica Madorran’s art In this step-by-step I will demonstrate how to make a stylised character in 3D, sculpting in ZBrush, retopologizing in Maya and texturing in Substance Painter. Starting from a Tpose in ZBrush, you will learn how to create a 3D character, highlighting the character’s facial expressions and silhouette as much as possible, then render it with Arnold Renderer in Maya. A good understanding of anatomy is vital for characters. Even more caricatured models like this need that foundation, as the stylised nature will still refer to a more natural proportion. ZBrush is great for this because you could start with a normal model and add the style later. You don’t need to worry about the topology at…

My background is in story, comedy and VFX, so hopefully I can shed some light on the dark art of comedic timing and VFX. Normally, comedy happens in three parts, script, shoot, and edit or sound. VFX changes that structure and draws it out to four parts, which is a challenge because if you don’t know what or how VFX is going to help land the joke, then it’s impossible to judge or laugh. What we always try to do is cut with the VFX. It could be temp playblasts, basic roto mattes or even a quick bit of stock FX to get the timings right. This happens from pre-production, on set and is finalised in the edit. Once the edit is locked, you want to be in a place…

THE REMOTE SHIFT How rough was the advent of the pandemic on the VFX industry? According to a report copublished by Escape Technology and HP, some 48 per cent of surveyed studios did have any kind of work-from-home plan or the technology in place to facilitate such demands. While many studios were already outsourcing work or using hybrid models, the report shows just how rapid a transition it’s been for much of the industry. The VFX industry is a very different place than it was just 18 months ago. While some forward-thinking studios have already explored the possibilities of remote collaboration, many were not prepared to face the incredible challenge of their teams suddenly being forced apart from each other, away from a central office. In essence, the pandemic forced a…

AUTHOR PROFILE Mike Griggs Mike Griggs is a digital content creator with over two decades of experience creating VFX and CGI for a wide range of clients creativebloke.com + PROS New UI Asset management improvements Native Adobe Illustrator import - CONS Nodal Scene system not ready for full production Redshift not available through Team Render MAXON ONE SUBSCRIPTION One cost-effective way to get Cinema 4D is via a Maxon One subscription. Used with post tools such as Adobe After Effects, this provides an artist with a practically complete VFX suite. PRICE From £55.10/mo | COMPANY Maxon | WEBSITE maxon.net With the release of Cinema 4D R25, Maxon has implemented one of the biggest changes in this venerable content creation app’s history. How can this be without any significant new headline features to…

ISSUE 281 JANUARY 2022 BLADE RUNNER MEETS CG ANIME Delve into the stunning CG animation of We interview female artists working at top studios, including Aardman and Framestore, about their experiences Explore the rise and impact of 3D printing Behind the scenes of sincredible VFX Freemodelsandtextures files and more! ISSUE 280 CHRISTMAS 2021 CREATE STUNNING FAN ART ● This month’s cover artist breaks down his workflow process ● We explore Unreal Engine with advice and tutorials from the pros ● Discover the incredible VFX of sci-fi blockbuster Dune ● Digital Domain talk creating cinematic-quality TV series ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 279 DECEMBER 2021 THE VFX OF FOUNDATION ● Get the lowdown on the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Foundation ● Inside Blue Zoo: Part…