Innehållsförteckning för May 2023 från 3D World

The Gallery BASED ON CONCEPT BY ALEKSANDR KAYDA (instagram.com/a.kayda) ARTIST Chenq Ye SOFTWARE ZBrush, Substance Painter, Maya, Blender “Personal projects are a combination of love for the concept, and specific technical or artistic challenges you find uncomfortable. What do you struggle with? Do that. Pulling the camera back helps focus on the important things. Ask for advice but don't follow every bit; it's your work! I could have pushed the background further, but it would have been a huge effort. I used ZBrush for the sculpting, Maya for UVs and some basic geo changes, Substance Painter for texturing, then Blender for the scene setup, environment scattering, groom, surfacing, lighting, rendering and comp. I kept mask layers simple, using a number of them, plus anchor points for easier debugging, while the…

The Gallery The Rookies SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine 5 YEAR CREATED 2022 This was a small project I created to learn how to use Unreal Engine and create realistic real-time renders, as it was my first time using it. The asset was sculpted inside ZBrush, retopologised and UVed in Maya, textured using Substance 3D Painter and rendered in Unreal Engine 5. My goal was to make the renders look as realistic as possible inside the engine without any external post-processing. ARTIST Gaurav Gomes LOCATION Canada I'm a 3D modeller who enjoys creating characters and props. I aspire to work in the games industry, as I love making art and playing video games. www.therookies.co/u/gaurav333 The Rookies is a platform to help digital artists get discovered without having to…

The beauty of motion control is that it enables perfectly repeatable camera and model movements, which means we can repeat our shots with different lighting conditions and effects, as well as controlling the servos in our model. It also means that we can shoot at whatever speed we want. We can plot a shot with everything integrated and shoot one frame at a time, just as you would in animation. The main reason for this approach is that it allows us to stop right down on our lens, which gives us a deep depth of field and brings the whole miniature into focus, which makes it look much bigger, hopefully as though it were full scale. And by using a digital stills camera we can shoot long exposures, which not…

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN: DAVINCI RESOLVE The Pipeline Exporting from DaVinci Resolve AUTHOR James Price James has worked professionally on TV and film productions for over 20 years across a number of roles including art department, visual effects supervision and special effects. incamerafx.com For our purposes, our end composite shots were exported through DaVinci Resolve Studio, which gave us ultimate flexibility in delivery format options. For this project, we are simply submitting a highquality master file for the director and production members to review and give notes on, so our file needs to be of a high standard that also holds up well to recompression if uploaded to an online video-sharing platform, yet be manageable in file size for remote upload. We're not needing to supply a file with zero compression or added…

Mike Griggs replies The team at Maxon have been hard at work ensuring that the content available with Cinema 4D is among the best in the industry. With a massive array of 3D models, scenes, materials and imagery to choose from, even for artists who don't have developed 3D skills and mainly use Cinema 4D for animation, the raft of content available is an excellent tool for enhancing the quality of any 3D scene or animation. This content is also precious when 3D printing, as it can be used to create bespoke prints for either FDM or resin printers, which can add production value to the finished print. There is a catch to this, however. Models created for 3D content may require tidying up before being 3D printed. Mike Griggs…

SOFTWARE: BLENDER WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3dworld-incamera Pietro Chiovaro replies Quick Effects! By default, all of these effects work simply by selecting them, although I believe they should be considered as starting points to create more complex particle systems. So let's start with Quick Fur, which I typically use to create grass. Set a simple basic shader in the Material panel and open the Particle settings. Here, I set the Children particles to Simple to create more variations, and also increased the Threshold, Size and Random values. For these there are no specific values, just don't exaggerate too much. You can also change the Clumping options. For the example in my video, I decreased the Clump to -0.260 and increased the Shape to 0.09. Last but not least, I enabled the…

Reviews Arcturus HoloSuite SOFTWARE REVIEW PRICE £3,100/$3,750 annually per user COMPANY Arcturus WEBSITE arcturus.studio AUTHOR PROFILE Rory Mitchell Rory Mitchell is a creative director and producer of AR and VR experiences. His XR narrative work has premiered at Cannes, and he has produced XR for clients such as Disney, Cascadian Farms, Honda, and many others. themercantile.agency PROS Makes volumetric video accessible All-in-one solution for volumetric video Key to future of holographic entertainment CONS Small user base, no community forums Advanced workflows not well documented Occasional bugs in cloud server job processing THE FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT With HoloSuite, the future of 3D holographic entertainment is here via mobile devices. Soon we'll be watching holograms through AR glasses, holographic coffee tables, and all sorts of devices that will fundamentally alter our realities.…

The Gallery The best digital art from the CG community “Elden Frog is a model sculpted in ZBrush, then, instead of making a usual low-poly mesh, the high-poly model was decimated to about two per cent of its resolution. After merging a few meshes together, I did automatic UVs in RizomUV and baked in Substance 3D Painter. Once the texturing, also in Substance Painter, was done, I was able to render in Arnold. This technique helped me avoid the cumbersome steps of retopology and UVing, while being able to get legit textures and render in Arnold. I livestreamed the entirety of this character creation session on Twitch, and uploaded it on the Keos Masons Youtube channel for those keen to see more.” inktr.ee/MarcoPlouffe ARTIST Marco Plouffe SOFTWARE ZBrush, Arnold, Substance…

The Gallery CG art to inspire “This artwork is inspired by the series and films of the Tokusatsu genre of the 80s and by a character design from my concept artist colleague Soanja Connac. She designed a little beetle robot for a project we are working on. Next, I designed a mecha version of her robot and a kaiju based on a mantis crab, before making them battle it out in this keyframe. This was my first time designing an action scene and I loved choosing the poses and camera angle. I'm happy with the result and the energy that you can feel in the punch, without the scene being too violent.” adriencantone.artstation.com ARTIST Adrien Cantone SOFTWARE Blender, Photoshop…

• Feature Shooting VFX In Camera In Camera is a Bristol-based production and effects studio, comprising special effects wiz James ‘JP’ Price and filmmaker brothers Tommy and Pete Martin. InCamera specialises in the kind of practical effects and approaches to production that, having not died out entirely, have certainly been on the losing end of a battle with CG. We are not simply ageing nostalgists, pining for the old ways, however. We know the value of good CG and the benefits of VFX, and it's our belief that the world of practical effects, whether it's the use of miniatures, pyrotechnics or creating natural environmental elements like fire, wind and water, can be enhanced with a digital approach. In these articles we'll be taking you through a project for a real…

Feature Miniatures and movers Filmmaker Tommy Martin set about building an impressive 1/32 scale model kit of the hero Lancaster, complete with motorised propellers and top gunner. Sigma Arts UK completed the paint and weathering effects to a high standard, which all culminated in a detailed shooting miniature. The Lancaster model kit was modified to match its full-size counterpart Just Jane, which is one of three surviving Avro aircraft remaining in the world, and that is currently housed at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. The museum itself is situated on the remains of RAF East Kirkby, a retired WWII bomber airfield where the exterior base location and aircraft interior sequences are to be shot with the principal cast Our miniature is ready, but to make her fly we needed significant…

The Pipeline Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills BLACKMAGIC DESIGN: DAVINCI RESOLVE The Pipefine Grade effects in DaVinci Resolve We shot a lot of fire and smoke elements for our setups, so to isolate the takes that we liked and wanted to use, we first do a colour correction or grade on our element footage. This gives us the opportunity to prepare the elements so they are already suitable for overlaying our miniature shots within Fusion. During this process, we'll set the black level to a custom amount to allow just the areas of fire and smoke to be visible. Likewise, we'll be adding an animated/keyframed mask to isolate the area of interest, as well as remove any unwanted areas of the sides of…

Technique focus 3D portrait sculpting 3D PORTRAIT SCULPTING I love the 3D portraits of professional artists, and I always wonder how they do it. My inspiration for this piece comes from Ilona Veresk's photographs of the model Liza Popova in her Smoke ‘n’ Snow project. I sculpted the base and skin detail in ZBrush, and set up the lighting, shader and render work in progress in Maya to make a start. After that, I sculpted the finer details and Polypainted, then finished the final texturing using Substance Painter. I created the hair with XGen, which was a challenge, especially the flyaways. I had to make a Region map and Clumping modifiers to separate the hair, and add more depth when rendering, as in image 1 above In image 3, I…

Glen Southern replies Most 3D programs have some form of morphing animation. It's named differently in the different packages; they could be Pose Morphs, Morph Targets, Blend Shapes or Layers, to make it really confusing. They all do exactly the same thing, which is to record a change in vertex (point) position in a model, and then allow the artist to change between two different states with a slider. This is useful if you want to test something like a blink, but you don't want to spend time on a complex rig. When you‘re designing a character, it can be helpful to be able to try it with a smile, frown, snarl and so on, all done while you are actually creating the concept. Animation packages use these Blend Shapes…

The Hub News and views from around the international CG community FILM INSIGHT For most people, Guillermo del Toro is viewed as a live-action filmmaker, but this misperception is being corrected with the Netflix release of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. In fact, it was stop-motion that set him on the path to become an acclaimed director responsible for The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth, and Pacific Rim. “The funny thing is that I made the transition from stop-motion to live action,” he reveals. “I started learning [how to be a filmmaker] by making animated shorts and still have the stop-motion camera that I bought in my hometown [of Guadalajara, Mexico]. “I have been producing and co-directing animation for the last 10 years, beginning at DreamWorks with Trollhunters, Puss in Boots,…

https://bit.ly/3dworld-incamera MODELS AND TEXTURES EVERY MONTH Download these models and textures to use in your own projects FREE ASSET DOWNLOADS Download a set of fantastic textures from and build your own asset library with these incredible free design models from in our monthly model and texture giveaway. CAPTURE STRIKING ELEMENTS Learn to mix previs, pyro and post in your VFX movie projects with InCamera. CREATE TRACER EFFECTS Blend the practical with the digital to set up a vibrant tracer effect for your VFX shots. NEXT MONTH Discover the stunning 3D work of masterpiece The Voice in the Hollow ON SALE 18TH APRIL Subscribe today: www.bit.ly/3dworld-subs…

The Gallery “I wanted to create a fairy tale-styled world that would make the viewer feel like they'd want to live there. Judging from the feedback messages that I received, I succeeded! The project took me more than five months to complete, with all the buildings built from modular components such as roofs, walls, and columns in blueprints. Most of the maps were done in Substance 3D Designer, which is a great way to improve resource reuse and performance optimisation. My favourite part of this project is the level design. This village can be wandered, and I needed to maintain that feel throughout to keep a sense of beauty. However, I also needed to focus on the reactions of the audience, such as the use of uphill stretches when entering…

A studio location, particularly one that is blacked out and which essentially cannot be penetrated by natural light, ensures that our lighting setup remains consistent throughout the entirety of the shoot. This is particularly crucial for motion-capture projects such as this, when we are creating multiple passes and working with high-definition images in a sequence rather than video. Even a slight change in lighting can spoil a pass, wasting time and indeed money. Cost is obviously the big negative with a studio location. Unless you happens yo have access to a studio as we do, the cost of hire can put many projects, particularly if they aren't professionally funded, out of reach for most. In this situation we simply need to make do with what we have. Rooms can be…

As part of the proof of concept shoot for A Memory Owed, a specific sequence in the script showing a Lancaster being hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire was posed by the director. The engine and wing section was required to be seen exploding and quickly turn to a large, turbulent fire trail. After some consideration, it was deemed a practical proposition to build a scale section of the aircraft's wing as a bigature, and to use it for filming fire and smoke elements. Those elements would then be composited and match-moved onto previously shot footage of the Lancaster miniature. We knew from past experience that the strength in shooting practical elements can really come into their own when needing to depict natural phenomena such as fire, explosions and smoke. SIMPLE…

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN: DAVINCI RESOLVE | FUSION The Pipeline In the preceding shots of our Lancaster taking damage to its engine and wing, we see incoming enemy fire in the form of tracer bullets from an unseen fighter. This creates a visually arresting effect, but faithful to the weapons and ammunition that would have been used at the time. Tracer rounds are projectiles, or bullets, that have a small pyrotechnic charge in their base. When fired, the charge burns extremely brightly and can be seen by the naked eye, even in daylight. At night or low light, the tracer looks incredibly vibrant. A number of films have featured tracer ammunition being used. The Brad Pitt movie Fury, which follows a tank crew during the Second World War, has a number of scenes…

Paul Hatton replies Realistic skies can be hard to achieve. There are just so many different factors that contribute to the overall look and quality. In my early days as a 3D artist, I remember applying images to planes that would sit at the back of my scene. This produced okay results, but it could be a challenge to get the orientation and exposure of the sky correct. At other times, I also utilised the alpha channel, enabling me to insert sky images in postproduction. This came with the downside of the extra time required to set these skies up and integrate them realistically into the rendered part of the image. I then discovered sky models in Mental Ray. These models introduced a whole new level of realism into my…

The Hub Pro thoughts Fortune Business Insights says the global metaverse market is going to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2029. Major brands are getting their feet wet with virtual experiences, and Apple hasn't even started releasing headsets yet. So what do we do with that? PREPARE While mainstream-grade metaverses are likely 10 years out, none of this is going to get done without 3D artists. This isn't a 2D endeavour, it's a 3D wonderland likely bankrolled by businesses that have some to little experience with 3D. That's a huge opportunity, but it could also be a major headache if we don't start thinking about how we'd approach a massive content rush. Some of this will come down to process. Do you have the right skills/tools in place 90 3D WORLD…

HARDWARE REVIEW PRICE £480/$575 / Pro from £620/$740 COMPANY Boulies WEBSITE boulies.co.uk PROS Easy to set up for comfort Different colour options Stable but adjustable Excellent materials CONS N/A The benefits of a good chair can't be underestimated, especially for those of us who spend extended periods sitting at our desks. Boulies has a couple of new ranges and here I'm looking at the Fit series that comes in Regular and Pro options, which adds an upper head support. These chairs have already gained notoriety and won a number of awards, but what makes them worthy? Delivered in a large box, the chairs need just a little simple construction, most of which is done by pushing fitting parts and takes just a few minutes. The process gives some insight into…