Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från 3D World

COVER ARTIST Allan Macedo bit.ly/3Dp6amD SOFTWARE ZBrush The 3D World team always strives to bring you the deepest insights and behind-the-scenes knowledge from the biggest animation and movie projects, plus expert training to help you boost your skills. But sometimes it’s good to take stock of what our awesome CG community is up to in their work. That’s why this month we bring you a special issue, with a huge extended showcase highlighting the best 3D art out there. We cover everything from architectural and environment projects through to fan art and character design, made using the tools you know and love. Enjoy the issue! rob.redman@futurenet.com…

The Gallery CG art to inspire (artstation.com/soulsurvivor) "I typically create cute, stylised characters for movies and games, but this time I wanted to create something a little more scary. I really liked the concept from Miro Petrov and took it as the basis for my work. The sculpt was made in ZBrush and the retopology with ZRemesher. After that I added the final detailing with alphas and brushes. Next I painted the model using Polypaint, and then sent it to Marmoset Toolbag. There I set up some dramatic lighting and sorted the final colour grading in Photoshop. It was interesting for me to try my hand at this type of work, and I think I’ll return to this kind of subject in the future." •artstation.com/azuryouki ARTIST Anna Lukianenko SOFTWARE ZBrush,…

ARTIST Hao Zhicheng SOFTWARE Blender, Photoshop "The story is based in the world from Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem. It’s set during the Deterrence Era. At this time, humans and Trisolarans had established cultural communication, ushering in a brief period of peace. The acceptance of the Trisolaran civilisation by humanity has grown higher and higher, and the societies of the two planets interact with each other. A large number of novels and movies created by the Trisolarans have emerged one after another. Meanwhile, the Pioneer Army was created by the Trisolaran people, based on Earth’s civilisation during this era. The new renaissance led to the reconstruction of the world, although the timeline has been distorted, with ancient buildings and many new technologies now coexisting. The new story…

ARTIST Cez Ramirez SOFTWARE Plasticity, Blender, Photoshop "This project was born from playing around with Plasticity’s incredible set of modelling tools. They provide the ability to swiftly blockout complex surfaces, which was my inspiration to design a first responder bot that would benefit from having a body composed of spherical shapes, providing it an enhanced impact resistance. I also wanted to demonstrate what these bots would look like in action, which is when the image of a pair of them racing through the corridors of a hospital, urgently transporting a patient, came to my mind. I set out to make this scene in Blender, drawing inspiration from real hospitals and materials used in making parts for medical robots. Other resources that I used for this project were the MB-Lab Blender…

ARTIST Felix Sikora SOFTWARE Maya, Arnold, Blender, Substance 3D Painter, Nuke "I’m really pleased to showcase my first 3D environment, which is based on Aaron Limonick’s awesome concept art. After watching The Last of Us I wanted to replicate the postapocalyptic feeling and tackle the technical aspect of mid and large-scale environments using efficient, productionready workflows. The main challenges that I encountered were the vegetation scattering and scene optimisation. My first time doing large-scale scattering, there were a lot of options from built-in Maya tools. After tests and research I decided to use Bifrost. By adding all this geo and scattering, file optimisation had to be done along the way, and this challenge was also why I wanted to try out an environment. I used several techniques to optimise the…

The Pipeline Convert a cube into a hard-surface model BLENDER I got the idea for this model from watching the Star Wars movies. In my mind I tried to imagine the frame of a bird, but in the shape of a wolf. In the first step, I tried to turn this idea into reality by using a cube in Blender as my starting point. I edited the vertices and faces, and came up with the design that I wanted for the final build. After I had completed the modelling process, I got started on creating the materials to match the concept, which I felt should be a reflective metal. Next up came the lighting stage. I wanted to create interesting reflections from the material, and the combination of the metal…

At the Game Developers Conference in March, KitBash3D revealed that their entire asset library would be coming to Epic Games’ new creator marketplace Fab, through a partnership with the Unreal Engine developers. “As we look to the future of gaming and the development of the metaverse, the democratisation of quality assets plays a critical role in realising that reality,” said KitBash3D co-CEO Banks Boutté. “We couldn’t be happier to collaborate with Epic Games, which shares our commitment to enable and inspire creators of the virtual frontier.” An alpha version of Fab has already launched as a plugin for Epic’s Unreal Editor for Fortnite, for which KitBash3D was building bespoke environments. Maxx Burman, co-CEO alongside Banks, added: “We’re excited to provide millions of Fortnite players the tools and resources they need…

The Gallery CG art to inspire ARTIST Allan Macedo SOFTWARE ZBrush, Blender "I’m a digital artist who started out making games for a small studio in Brazil. We worked on interactive events for the likes of Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon, until I discovered the universe of 3D collectibles. I fell in love with them and it’s where I work today, having become an art director. For the most part I only use ZBrush for creating collectibles, although I’ll also sometimes use Blender for renders." •allanfelipe.artstation.com…

The Rookies is a platform to help digital artists get discovered without having to compete with professionals for attention. You’ll get to the front page of those sites one day, but for now, we’ve got your back and want to help turn your passion for creative media into a successful career. WWW.THEROOKIES.CO SOFTWARE: Maya, Mari, Substance 3D Painter, V-Ray, Photoshop YEAR CREATED 2023 ARTIST Paul Fetterkind LOCATION Canada I’m 23 and a student at Think Tank Training Centre, and would like to become a 3D modeller or texture artist working in VFX. •therookies.co/u/PaulF I created this robot as my final project for my advanced term at Think Tank Training Centre. I focused on modelling and lookdev to create a visually captivating, intricate and detailed design. The lookdev phase was the…

How is the 3D/digital market different post-pandemic? “During the Covid pandemic, having a workflow that allowed for remote, real-time collaboration became more crucial, and that need for creatives to be involved in projects located in a different part of the world still hasn’t gone away. That’s why we introduced Blackmagic Cloud, which allows multiple people to work across the same timeline at the same time, regardless of their physical location.” What impact will AI have in the coming year? How about five years? “Our approach to AI is solely focused on how it can support our users as creatives. The goal is having powerful tools that save creators valuable time. For example, the latest versions of Fusion Studio VFX and DaVinci Resolve Studio now both have a native AIbased Depth…

The Gallery CG art to inspire "I started this project almost two years ago as a demo for my own local class. My inspiration came from The Lord of the Rings movies, especially the famous scene where Gandalf yells, ‘You shall not pass’. I wanted to show the weakness and compassion in his character, and that although he’s a strong hero, he was tired and afraid of the enemy in front of him. Besides, I like his simple design with the long beard, cloak, staff and sword. Initially I thought that by using a simple design, I would be able to focus on Gandalf’s personality, silhouettes, materials and so on, rather than a complex character that could become confusing and unbalanced. However, during the process, I realised I was wrong,…

The Galliery CG art to inspire "During the sculpting process for every character I create, I adhere to a consistent approach. Initially, I’ll immerse myself in studying the concept, carefully examining its silhouette and proportions. I then strive to deconstruct the character into its simplest possible shapes. This preparatory step proves invaluable to me as I delve into the actual sculpting. Once I have a solid understanding of the character’s underlying structure, I can move on to the sculpting phase. Following the same methodology, I start off by creating basic shapes, attentively considering how each of the shapes interacts with the others, while meticulously maintaining proper proportions throughout the process. I try to keep the work clean and simple by using the smallest amount of polygons possible at this stage,…

01 START A ZSPHERE MODEL Go to Tool and look for the red sphere, which is the ZSphere tool. New ZSpheres always start with a single red sphere, and you simply add more spheres to it. Make sure you’re in Edit mode (‘T’ is the keyboard shortcut for that), and hit ‘X’ first to create symmetrically, which is useful for creatures. Next you’ll want to add a sphere at the front and another one at the back. You have the ability to move, rotate, and scale all the ZSpheres and connecting lines. 02 ADD JOINTS FOR THE BODY You can quickly refine the basic anatomy of your creature. Add a sphere everywhere you want a joint such as the shoulder, elbow, knee and so on. Move the end sphere around and don’t…

(bit.ly/3DgTQV8) ARTIST Alejandro Mondragon Martinez SOFTWARE Maya, V-Ray, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Mari, Substance 3D Painter, NukeX, After Effects "This is my final project for Think Tank Online, inspired by a concept by evergreenqveen. From the moment I first saw the original concept, I was captivated by its magic. Under the guidance of my mentor Gianluca Pizzaia, I experimented with various new techniques, including the use of particle emitters to bring bubbles to life, and dynamics to create realistic ropes and fabrics. I explored post-processing with NukeX to enhance the realism of my renders, adding layers like lens distortion and chromatic aberration. I’d highly recommend that everyone acquire Nuke skills as post-processing can work wonders, turning your raw renders into captivating and realistic visuals. During the compositing phase, I added elements…

The Gallery CG art to inspire ARTIST Ric Pastor SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, Substance 3D Painter, XGen, Arnold, Photoshop "This is my re-creation of the iconic Ichabod Crane from the Disney movie The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which was one of my childhood favourites. For this project, I wanted to focus on the illumination as the most important factor. I used ZBrush to create the high-poly sculpture, Maya for the retopology and the UVs, Substance 3D Painter for the textures, XGen to design the groom, and Arnold for the render. For the bake in Substance 3D Painter, meanwhile, I opened the mouth model and separated all the pieces, both low and high-poly, in order to avoid shadows affecting the surfaces. The part of the process I enjoyed the most…

ARTIST Alina Temyrova SOFTWARE Unreal Engine 5, ZBrush, Blender, Marmoset Toolbag, Substance 3D Painter, SpeedTree "I’m excited to share my project, which was inspired by the architecture and culture of Asia. A lot of work was done with attention to detail. The environment is based on concept art by Ivan Ilko, while the torii gate was inspired by a concept from the Chinese art group Night Owls Come into the House. My cinematic shrine environment was created with Unreal Engine 5, utilising both Lumen and Nanite. The project used a mixture of my own assets and some from Quixel Megascans in UE5, including the huge stones, grass, lilies, candles and the bamboo texture. The torii gate was a high-poly sculpt created with ZBrush, retopologised and then unwrapped in Blender, baked…

How has the pandemic affected Blender’s development and market growth? “Blender has actually been growing a lot, thanks to people working from home.” Now that we’re mostly post-pandemic, what direction is the industry headed? “The way we’re going is blurring the boundary between real-time and offline 3D storytelling. I’ve been saying that for 25 years.” What impact will AI have on the industry? “I sincerely hope that AI tools will be serving artists, but I foresee abuse here as well. Blender will work to remain AI free, open and ethical.” If you could gift the industry something it needs, but doesn’t have, what would it be? “Blender’s mission, to bring the best 3D technology into the hands of artists through open-source, is still the greatest gift that you can share.”…

ARTIST Fatih Şahin SOFTWARE Blender, Substance 3D Painter, Photoshop "The idea for this environment came to me from music. I really enjoy metal, and one day while walking outside I was listening to Iron Maiden’s Empire of the Clouds. During the song, I started imagining a city built in the sky, like the flying islands in Avatar. But instead of the islands, I imagined a city built right on top of the clouds. The idea kept coming back to me, and when I got the chance to work on it, I started digging online and discovered references for different kinds of ancient temples and ruins. I began creating the scene a few days later. It took me roughly 10 hours to finish, which I managed in just one sitting as…

The Galllery CG art to inspire ARTIST Ander Esparza Gómez SOFTWARE ZBrush, Maya, Substance 3D Painter, Unreal Engine "The Tiger Jones project was based on my first character. That’s why this artwork held great significance for me, as it allowed me to create something that was both distinctive and personally meaningful. I firmly believe that art should convey a message, and pieces that come from an authentic and personal space always tend to resonate more deeply with viewers. The character’s design was my original idea. While I drew inspiration from various online references, the composition and the overall design were created through trial and error, with sketches made in Photoshop and ZBrush. One of the biggest challenges for the model was creating the hair. Achieving hair that appeared soft enough…

01 ADD A BACKDROP NODE This tutorial was created in Nuke 14 and is aimed at new users. For this guide, a multi-part EXR Read node has been connected to multiple Shuffle nodes, each renamed to denote which respective pass they access. To insert a Backdrop node into your project, press the Tab key in the Node Graph and type “Backdrop” in the dialogue box. It’s also available in the box icon in the toolbar. 02 USING THE BACKDROP NODE When the Backdrop node is added, click on one of its corner arrows to resize it around the nodes; in this case, the Read node and its child Shuffle nodes. The Backdrop node can both be renamed, the same as any Node, or have a label within it that can be…

“My favourite project so far is the Dare To Roam launch campaign,” says JM Blay. “Dare To Roam is a new clothing company specialising in antimicrobial technology, created by Harper + Scott, and Ciara Princess Harris. They contacted the studio as they saw the work we did for the international campaign for Reebok, and they wanted something similar. “They had the idea to show the product on a molecular level to highlight the antimicrobial feature in the fabric of their products and wanted 16 seconds of animation. The team at Harper + Scott trusted us entirely from the beginning and gave us the creative freedom to develop our ideas, and the whole process was challenging and fun. “The project was highly successful, receiving coverage in clothing and accessories media upon…