Innehållsförteckning för July 2023 från 3D World

LightSpeed Studios and Adobe's collaboration has resulted in the design and production of an efficiency-boosting tool called the Procedural Texturing System (PTS) for its game artists using Substance 3D. Of the software’s impact on development and production pipelines, LightSpeed LA general manager Steve Martin says: “[The PTS] grants game artists based in offices worldwide easy and secure access to design assets, and allows for seamless cooperation regardless of geographical barriers.” The system will provide artists with libraries that contain assets and tools customised for each project, saving them from tedious, repetitive work and allowing them to focus on creating game art. Martin also identifies that the PTS will allow for a standardising of assets delivered along the development pipeline. In doing so, it will make the entire workflow smoother and…

For horror fans, the pairing of filmmakers Henry Selick and Jordan Peele is a dream come true as they have both refreshed the genre, which i s evident in the Netflix stop-motion animated feature Wendell & Wild. It’s a supernatural story based on an unpublished book by Clay McLeod Chapman that revolves around a delinquent teenager trying to resurrect her deceased parents, greedy land developers, two mischievous demonic brothers, a nun who happens to be a Hell Maiden, and the ruler of the underworld making an appearance in the land of the living. “I didn’t think anyone would have expected the combination of Henry Selick and Jordan Peele, but that’s the only way that something like this could even get made,” says animation supervisor Jeff Riley. “I remember people thought…

Technique focus Texture and degradation TEXTURE AND DEGRADATION This is a project I made at Artside School during Charles-Antoine Lerein's class in order to go further into the realistic texturing process. Thanks to him for his involvement and the great feedback! I thought the Master Sword could be a real challenge. As a fan of the Zelda series, it's been an honour to add my personal touch to this mythical weapon! It was especially on the blade for more degradation on the blade for more realism, without making it dirtied and damaged. My main reference was the Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The first step was to model the principal shapes in Blender, as well as the UVs. Once my model was on the right track,…

01 ADD MODELS AND MATERIALS Open the Blender file that contains the models and materials you want added to your Asset Browser. The best way to add an object or material is with the Outliner. This enables you to add multiple assets at the same time. To display all of your objects and materials, simply change the Outliner Display Mode to Blender File. Right click on your objects or materials and select 'Mark as Asset'. 02 ORGANISE YOUR LIBRARY With your assets marked and added to your Asset Browser, you're ready to get them organised, which you can do using Catalogs. Think of these as folders that contain your assets. Using the plus sign next to All, create a new Catalog. You can create as many as you like and even nest…

INDUSTRY INSIGHT The Hub Perfecting people in a made-up world The world of 3D is made up of many different sub-genres, if you will, each of which is unique and defined by different characteristics. There’s a lot of overlap when it comes to the creative tools that are utilised in each of these sectors, but the output and target markets are decidedly different. These sectors include, but are not limited to, film, video games, product design, and of course one of the most popular among 3D artists, architectural visualisation, better known as archviz. In archviz, the architectural element of the work is central. If it’s missing, you’re just left with visualisation. This might take the form of a new building or an extension, but it could also involve giving an existing…

PRICE £40/$50 monthly /£440/$550 annually (part of Substance 3D Collection) COMPANY Adobe WEBSITE adobe.ly/42Xkuhw AUTHOR PROFILE Paul Hatton After graduating with a first-class computer science degree, Paul Hatton has spent nearly two decades working within the 3D visualisation industry. + PROS Inuitive system Fits with the Adobe ecosystem Perfect for designers - CONS Expensive for what you get Lack, ton-end functionality USD COMPATIBILITY Stager can import and export using the USD file format. This makes it incredibly compatible because it can be integrated into any other workflow that supports the format. Through USD, creatives can move around these scenes, including geometry, materials, cameras and lighting, in a flexible way. For the most part, Adobe has focused its 3D efforts on material authoring with the release and development of Painter, Sampler and…

THIS IS AN OLD MODEL THAT WAS SAVED ON MY HARD DRIVE FOR ALMOST 10 YEARS ARTIST Jose Lazaro SOFTWARE Maya, ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter “My process was chaotic from the start because I didn’t have anything in mind when creating this character. This is an old model that was saved on my hard drive for almost 10 years! I probably made all of the mistakes when designing it, but I usually really enjoy this part of the process, and I spent a decade slowly cooking the character, testing tools, and repeating over and over again until I was completely happy. I know, I’m my own worst enemy. I started with an anatomy exploration, added some body elements, and then wanted to test some fur tech. Later on I added…

DINO RACERS Software ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter, M odo. Marmoset Toolbag Year made 2023 Weston Reid artstation.com/westonreid I'm a lead character artist with 15 years' experience in the video pie industry. I am currently with Moonshot Games andmost recently worked as a lead at Blizzard on an unannounced project. MODELLING IN ZBRUSH I saw this incredible concept by Nicola Saviori and just had to try and model it myself! For this piece, I wanted to model everything in ZBrush from scratch, as well as pose the entire model, and the project was both relaxing and rewarding to complete. In a lot of my day-to-day work, I need to model for rigging and animation needs. My process was livestreamed, and modelled primarily during live Q&A sessions for my Advanced Stylized Character…

Digitally animated films have arguably become most well-known through the work of Pixar and DreamWorks. At Pixar, short CG pieces like Tin Toy and Luxo Jr. were produced in the 1980s and early 90s as ways of pushing the envelope to gauge what was feasible for computer animation. These led to its first feature film, Toy Story, which saw the studio apply its RenderMan software. Almost 30 years since its release, Toy Story continues to stand as a milestone in cinema. The film built on many conventions that had been long-established in animation, in terms of expressing the inner life of characters through their actions and reactions. By setting the film within a world of toys that come to life when there are no humans in the room, Toy Story…

In the early 2000s, the term ‘digital backlot’ began to settle in the lexicon of visual effects. Fabricated sets and environments have always been a feature of cinema. At that point, digital VFX production began to explore and establish the merits of the digital backlot; an environment created entirely in the computer into which live-action elements and actors were placed. Two movies still stand as keystones in this particular digital effects discipline: Sin City (2005) and 300 (2006). With both films, the digital backlot gave the filmmakers scope to duplicate or approximate the visual style of Frank Miller’s comic books. Actors worked largely in a greenscreen environment, were filmed using digital cameras, and this footage was then composited into the environments later on. In recent years, LED and virtual environments…

The Pipeline Create a procedural stroke HOUDINI Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills Bastian is an art director and digital creative from Germany, driven to create engaging visual content. With a range of interests from motion design and branding to creative coding, he has worked on a wide variety of commercial projects for international clients. He also loves to teach and share his knowledge. www.prdx.de In this beginner-level tutorial, you'll learn how to create the paint stroke elements that make up the hero typography of this issue's cover image. Modelling the base element using scattering and various VDB operations, we'll then deform this base element using Houdini's powerful Path Deform SOP to bring the strokes into the dynamic shapes we need to create our design.…

Artist Q&A SOFTWARE: 3DCONNEXION SOFTWARE | PARSEC | VIRTUALHERE USB Your CG problems solved Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills 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 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 15 years. youtube.com/c/SouthernGFX/videos Paul Hatton After graduating with a first-class computer science degree, Paul Hatton has spent nearly two decades working within the 3D visualisation industry. 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…

01 GOOD TOPOLOGY The first task is to make sure you have a clean, well-made model with good topology. This can be done in almost all 3D programs and then imported, or by using ZRemesher or retopology inside ZBrush. It's important to keep the model fairly low-poly and with good edge flow. This is so we can use a selection tool that adds polygroups to help us break the model down. 02 ZMODELER Pressing 'B', T and 'M' activates ZModeler, and holding over a face and pressing Space brings up the options. Use Polygroup then Polyloop, and add loops around the main areas you want to split off. Think about the head, arms, neck, feet, and so on, and look at all these places. Use Ctrl+Shift+Click to hide the rest of the…

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 free celebration themed models from in our monthly model and texture giveaway. MASTER HOUDINI Follow along with our in-depth guide to procedural motion graphics using Houdini. CHARACTER DESIGN Learn how to combine the skills of a small team to get the best results for your next project. NEXT MONTH Discover the skills and techniques for creating your own stunning animation ON SALE 13TH JUNE Subscribe today: www.bit.ly/3dworld-subs…

One of the most vital visual effects evolutions as the early 2000s progressed was performance capture. At Weta, the adaptations of The Lord of the Rings saw the company combine performance capture and animation for the creation of Gollum. That made quantum leaps for the application of performance capture, and it ran somewhat in parallel with filmmaker Robert Zemeckis’ projects The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007) and A Christmas Carol (2009). Also of note is the character work for the facial performance of Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006). For this, a portable performance-capture facial rig was able to record the acting work of Bill Nighy on location as the character. In turn, performance capture has embedded itself as an established tool for any number…

In recent years, filmmaking has more fully embraced what can be offered by game engine technology to create environments and characters. Two notable feature films that showcased the methodology and storytelling opportunity were The Jungle Book and The Lion King. MPC in London were key to both projects, and in a conversation with 3D World at the time of The Lion King’s release, VFX supervisor Elliot Newman commented: “The camera and focus-pulling, all of those moves were recorded from the virtual camera. We built master scenes; we’d stage this, Jon [Favreau, director] would put VR goggles on and they animated master scenes, then working out the shots would be done from pre-animation in Maya and exported into Unity.” Jumping ahead to 2023, game engine applications have become increasingly applicable to…

Annibale Siconolfi, also known as Inward, is an artist and architect based in Italy, characterised by a unique and complex 3D modelling of futuristic cities and landscapes. He has experimented and studied different 3D techniques with the aim of giving life to his visions, defined by endless urban scenarios, and the coexistence of nature and technology. An architectural education and a love for 3D has coalesced in a beautiful blend of talent that gives birth to out-of-this-world ideas. Despite the sci-fi leanings, his work is sensitive to many present issues such as global warming, human overpopulation and pollution. If you've never come across Inward's work, you're in for both a visual treat and an uncovering of influence and workflows. Annibale 'Inward' Siconolfi Annibale is an artist and architect whose work…

The Pipeline Lead a team in character design MAYA | ZBRUSH | CLO | SUBSTANCE 3D PAINTER | XGEN | ARNOLD | NUKE | PHOTOSHOP AlzahraVFX artist Pejman has worked professionally in texturing, lighting and took devetopment for several years. Pejmanrajabi.com When I first saw the concept art for this character, I simply fell in love with it and decided to develop it from a 2D design into 3D artwork, so that artists from the CG community could see her too. The original concept is from Lera Kiryakova, a professional concept artist, and I'd like to thank her for creating it. I knew that if we built this model, a lot of people would be interested in the character, so I came up with a name and backstory for the…

01 CHECK PARSEC SETTINGS Make sure that Parsec is optimised for working on the two machines: the host (the remote machine that you'll be controlling) and the client (the machine being physically used by the artist). Ensure that features such as Virtual Tablet for the host are set up, which will ensure drawing tablets can be passed through from client to host machines, as this requires additional driver download within Parsec. 02 INSTALL VIRTUALHERE ON BOTH MACHINES VirtualHere consists of two separate software components: a server and a client software, not to be confused with our client computer. The server needs to be installed on the client computer (the one being used by the artist and into which the SpaceMouse is connected). Meanwhile, the VirtualHere USB Sharing Client, is installed on…

SOFTWARE: BLENDER Artist Q&A Your CG problems solved Paul Hatton replies Finding ways to create Blender scenes as quickly and efficiently as possible is a great endeavour. Artists waste so much time trying to find models from other scenes that it significantly hinders productivity and creativity. Thankfully there's a better way to store and organise your favourite assets inside Blender: the Asset Browser. This feature was added in version 3.0, so make sure you're as up to date with Blender as possible before trying this out. The Asset Browser is very much in its infancy, with the promise of improvements in upcoming releases. It already supports objects, materials, poses and worlds, again with support for further asset types being promised. The Asset Browser is an editor inside Blender. This means it…

The Hub STUDIO INSIGHT FutureWorks News and views from around the international CG community seeing the opportunity in a shifting industry landscape, Gaurav Gupta founded FutureWorks in 2007 from a room in his father’s office. When discussing the move towards digitisation and increasing demand for long-form content at the time, CEO Gupta begins by reminiscing. “Platforms like Netflix started to take off, and a digital-first approach was becoming the standard for the industry,” he says. “It was clear that digitally distributed content and the platforms facilitating that would represent a new area for growth for VFX and post-production, since the market back then was already at capacity.” With the Indian VFX scene still in its infancy, Gupta built FutureWorks with the clear goal of becoming the trusted partner for productions in…