Ceiga Issue 11

ISSUE 11 / JULY-AUGUST 2012

Six Artists Ceiga Magazine

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ZBrush Character Sculpting Volume 1

Beginner’s guide to Digital paining in Photoshop

Digital Art Masters Volume 6

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Get 20% off these books 20% discount on this book available to all Ceiga visitors just visit www.3dtotal.com/offer/ceiga20 add the book to your shopping cart and enter the discount code 'ceiga20'.

Happy Reading Ceiga Magazine

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contents JULY-AUGUST 2012

On the front

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Toni Bravtincevic

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Alessandro Baldasseroni Olivier Ponsonnet

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Rafael Grassetti

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Neil Maccormack

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Alexey Kashpersky

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Ceiga Magazine

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“

“

A picture is a poem without words.

- Horace

A

nother two months, another new issue and this time we’re doing something slightly different.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have an issue of Ceiga where each section has images of a similar style, a similar feel and a similar look. If you have, then your in luck because that’s what this issue is pretty much all about.

Each section in this issue contains nine to ten different pieces of art all done by one artist resulting in a total of six artists an over 55 different images. As Ceiga is inspired by art, photography and fashion magazines, this is definitely a step in the right direction for the magazine to go in.

Also another step in the right direction is having this issue available for print. Now a lot of you might be thinking hang on a minute, the magazine has always been available for print through services such as magcloud .com and issuu.com which is true, but those services are far too expensive in my opinion. So I decided to take the matter into my own hands and print this issue myself, which in return is cheaper for you guys.

So if you’re enjoying the print version of this issue you’re a very lucky person, if your enjoying

R.Bray

this online version, your still a very lucky person, just not as cool as the guys who have the print version. Joke. Hope you enjoy this issue either way.

Richard Bray Editor

Ceiga Magazine

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On The

Front ‘Drive’ by Rafael Grassetti (grassettiart.com). Modelled in 3ds Max and sculpted with Zbrush.

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sually at this part of the magazine I would go on and on about how difficult it was to find the right image for the cover of this issue, this definitely was not the case with Rafael Grassetti image based on the film ‘Drive’ staring Ryan Gosling.

This image stood out amongst the rest with it’s incredible attention to detail, facial expression and the mood in this piece is spot on. Not only does actor Ryan Gosling’s the face and eyes look incredibly realistic, but so does the crosshatched half zipped leather jacket, the biker gloves, the hammer and even Gosling’s hair. What makes this image even more impressive is the fact that it has no colour, so not that much focus was placed into materials or SSS (sub surface scattering)or anything of that sort to support the realism of the image.

Once again fantastic work by Rafael Grassetti, this image has actually encouraged me to actually watch the film Drive.

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Toni Bravtincevic Toni Bratincevic is no stranger to the world of 3d. From the city of Split in Croatia, Bravtincevic now lives in California and works as a senior environment modeller for cinematics at Blizzard Entertainment after previously working at Blur Studios.

Bratincevic is truly a 3d generalist specialising in environment modelling, rendering, lighting (even web design) and has won many awards with his works of art, which each seem to tell a unique and intersting story. www.interstation3d.com 3ds max, Zbrush

It Was You 10

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Toni Bravtincevic

Dawn of Balance 12

Last Journey Ceiga Magazine

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Toni Bravtincevic

Experimental Chamber 14

Running Away Ceiga Magazine

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Toni Bravtincevic

Glimpse of the Past 16

Tesla Ceiga Magazine

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Toni Bravtincevic

16 Bit Memories 18

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Let’s see how the

Experts

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am always fascinated and impressed by the level of detail, realism and creativit y in 3D characters whenever I happen to be viewing them on a gallery site. It is almost as if the artist knows some sor t of secret to creating great images and the question, ‘how did they do that’ often pops up in my head. If you’ve been in the same situation, had the same question, and wanted to try creating your own masterpiece, Zbr ush Character Sculpting is definitely the book for you.

Zbr ush Character Sculpting: Volume 1 is very different from your t ypical ‘how to do this in Zbr ush’ book. Although it does contain a few step by step tutor ials, the major it y of the book focuses on the fundamentals; workflow, r ules and the methods professional ar tists use to create their images. Before I go on I have to mention the fact that this book isn’t aimed at beginners, creating characters whether realistic or st ylised takes a lot of research, practices, and understanding of the human anatomy (or animal anatomy if you are sculpting an animal). So before consider ing getting this book, I recommend you being comfortable with creating characters and have a fairly good understanding of using Zbr ush. Now with the ser ious stuff over let’s get back to the review.

When it comes to creating characters in Zbr ush almost anything is possible, don’t assume Zbr ush is limited to creating organic characters. M ichael Jensen shows some interesting hard sur face modelling techniques to create a robot-like character from star t to finish. What is really impressive about this section is that everything from modelling to retopologizing to textur ing & render ing was done in Zbr ush without the use of another 3D soft ware package.

Cedr ic Seaut on the other hand goes back and forth in another 3D package (3D Studio Max) to create his character. Star ting off by importing a base mesh for the character and other suppor ting objects, then sculpting in Zbr ush, then back to Max for some refinement, then back to Zbr ush to finalize, which results in a model with an incredible amount of detail and also give the ar tist a good level of control over all the many parts of the scene.

Jose Alves de Silva explains how he created the image ‘Ar mored Rhino’ also without a base mesh but with Zspheres instead. I was impressed by the high level of detail in the model and how it

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sculpt

was posed and manipulated without any sor t of r igging but with the transpose tool. Even though the image is viewed from one angle, de Silva talks about the great amount of research he made to create every object in the image from the ar mour, to the skulls and the chalice. Jose continues to explain the process he took to create the mater ials, the settings for lighting and all the steps taken for the final composition, and all done in Zbr ush.

The classical sculpture section really spiked my interest as it is something that hasn’t been looked into much when it comes to digital ar t. Focusing on ancient Greek & Roman sculptures, ar tist R afael Ghencev talks about how to replicate those ancient techniques in Zbr ush by focusing on the poses, expressions and muscle str ucture to try and give the end product some kind of story for the viewer.

The major it y of the techniques mentioned in this book are used for creating great, finished pieces of work over a long per iod of time. But what if you want to do a quick sketch of a character just to get an idea of what it might look like in 3D, this is where the speed sculpting section of this book comes in handy.

Forget retopologizing, unwrapping and 3-point lighting, R afael Grassetti & Diego Maia explain what they do to flesh out their characters in the shor test amount of time. This usually involves sculpting everything for the base mesh instead of having separate objects, not spending too much time on finer details, and putting together quick mater ials to make the model presentable.

I really wish I could do this book justice without having an essay for a review but this book is literally jam packed with useful infor mation. I haven’t even talked about the gallery section and the tutor ials given by ar tists Feder ico Scarbini, Mar thin Agusta and Chr istopher Moffitt on their amazing ar t work, and there is even more content than that. If you are ser ious about sculpting characters in Zbr ush, then I highly recommend you get this book.

Not only are there many different great techniques on creating characters, but also tips on lighting, textur ing, mater ial creation and composition. This book more than justifies its pr ice tag and is the first book to be given a five star rating on Ceiga. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you 3DTotal for putting together such a useful resource.

ZBrush has quickly become an integral part of the 3D modeling industry. ZBrush Character Sculpting: Volume 1 examines the tools on offer in this ground-breaking software, as well as presenting complete projects and discussing how ZSpheres make a great starting point for modeling.

This book offers a great gallery of work from today’s best artists and an insightful look into the creature and character design process. It provides a helpful breakdown written by various artists, explaining the steps they took to create truly unique and eye-catching designs.

Aaron Sims ISBN – 978-0-9551530-8-2 | Softback / Slipcase – 220mm x 297mm | 240 full color premium paper pages | £29.99 / $49.99

available now from: www.3dtotal.com/shop Get 20% off this book when you enter the promo code: ceiga20

This offer is subject to terms and conditions and can be withdrawn at anytime.

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Alessandro Baldasseroni Alessandro Baldasseroni is lead character modeler at Blur Studio which he joined in 2007 and a worldwide popular 3D visual artist.

Samples of his character modeling work can be seen in several recent game cinematics and commercials as Warhammer Online, Star Wars the old republic, Star Wars : the force unleashed, Farcry 3, Fable 3, Mass Effect 2 , Halowars, Dante’s inferno, NFL on Fox , Goldfish and many more. His artworks have been featured on several international magazines and artbooks (3d artist, 3d world, Expose, Elemental, D’artiste character modeling, Digital art masters , Zbrush : character modeling ) . He also recently published the DVD : Stylized character modeling for production as instructor of Gnomon school of VFX in Los Angeles.

www.eklettica.com 3ds max, Zbrush

The Orphan .

Majid Esmaeili

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majid-smiley.cgsociety.org

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Maya, ZBrush

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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Landing 24

Halowars Ceiga Magazine

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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Colton Battle 26

Dark Knight’s Revenge Ceiga Magazine

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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Maya 28

Hunter (Hellsgate London) Ceiga Magazine

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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Dawn 30

Chaos Ceiga Magazine

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5 Questions for

Eli Guerron

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or this interview I am privileged to interview a highly talented, incredibly creative, and possibly the nicest digital artist out there, Eli Guerron. Eli has worked on adverts for clients such as Audi, bug budget films such as Snow White & The Huntsman and now works at Digital Domain. This interview focuses on a short film Eli put together during his spare time called, ‘It Gets Better’.

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

What is your background and what lead you to create CG videos?

I have been working in the visual effects industry for quite some time doing commercials and, recently, feature films. I’ve had the privilege to work with some of the most talented people in the industry. Being exposed to these people has allowed me to see amazing work on almost an everyday basis, such as beautiful cinematography, razorsharp editing, meticulous directing, timing, animation, lighting, & design (Some of these people also started doing their own shorts and experimental projects, which really inspired me to give it a try). This exposure led me to experiment with my own little creations.

Certainly “It Get’s Better” is my longest creation, and it gave me a greater insight

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on the process of filmmaking. I honestly didn’t think it was going to be this hard, but again, this exposure prepared me with the knowledge & the artistic sensibility to approach a project like this and stay truthful to my vision all the way through.

I love the subtle simplicity of your short, ‘It Gets Better’. How did you come up with this idea?

The idea came from a phrase I read or heard, and it went somewhat like, “Touch someone with a piece of art.” Also, at the time, I was looking for an experimental piece to work on, but I wanted to give it a deeper meaning compared to most of the experimental projects that I had seen out there. During my research phase, I heard a

speech given by Joel Burns where he gives advice to younger troubled teenagers about the adversities & crudeness of life coming up as someone who is “different” from society’s standards. The speech was highly touching, & from what I could see, it hadn’t just touched gay teens, but it also armed them with a promise for a brighter future if they held tight during the most devastating times. His message had a firm and powerful, yet gentle quality in its delivery. A promise to a greater good is something vastly used in storytelling cinema, which led me to think, How would his speech look visually? How do you make a visual that is not only appealing to a certain group of people? How do you keep it simple and yet keep the same quality in the message? Another great factor was Benjamin Zanders’ speech about how classical music is for everybody, so I decided from the get go that I would use a classical piece, and not something electronic or anything that had a modern quality to it. I have always been interested in the subliminal quality of art, and a great help through the making of this short was Rodolf Arnheim’s New Essays on the Psychology of Art, a couple essays from Aesthetic Subjects ,and a publication of the Miho Museum called Encountering Art: Different Facets of the Esthetic Experience.

These books were the master guide behind what I wanted to do. The idea of the whole film being made from spheres came from a book called Elements of Design by Gail Greet Hannah, based on art classes on the structure of visual relationships given by Rowena Reed Kostellow. This book happens to have a white

How long did it take and what software did you use to create the film. Also please let us know how you created the amazing fluid/cloth simulations?

Working in the visual effects industry doesn’t give me a lot of free time.

Lucky for me, when people ask me what I do in my free time, I answer, “I do visual effects.”

Yet they still ask, “But what do you do in your free time?” My answer is still the same. The whole film went into a research phase of four months, working on it some nights & certain weekends. A lot of the research went into figuring out what tools to use for the job, what software would give me the look that I wanted, & which one of these choices would cost less time so I would be able to invest in the finessing of the shots, rather than spending time on simulations & unnecessary, expensive render times. Most of the animatic was worked on Maya because of my level of proficiency with it. Then, after I had blocked out the shots, based on my research, I used the tools that I had decided would do the best job given the circumstances & technical difficulties of each shot. For example, Vray gave me a great result for a nice subsurface scattering effect on a lower amount of spheres, while Renderman was amazing at using their point bleed based global illumination approach to a larger amount of deforming spheres without flickering. SideFX Houdini’s Mantra (Academy Award winning software) gave me an amazing result for lowlighting conditions and a softer lighting & global illumination control based on their PBR (physically based render). For the cloth simulations, I originally used fluids inside Maya driving particle based softbodies, which gave a really nice result, but came to be non-art-directable, which was still good for the background spheres. For the hero spheres on the foreground, I stuck to Maya’s nCloth with a high geometry count and custom controllers to be able to get a higher amount of detail where needed. These controllers drove tension maps and pressure at any given time for me to get the desired

Front Cover images from Amazon

sphere on its cover, and I decided to go with that, given the amazing knowledge this book shares on how simple shapes can still have a powerful stance.

result & the action that I needed for each shot, because things changed from animatic to the actual shot animation. An example would be the animation not happening during the time given for that shot, or certain simulations looking too slow for the time given for a specific shot.

Post production is always a big part of any short film. Could you explain your editing process and the reason for focusing on certain shorts?

All the editing was done before I even went into rendering. I wanted all the acting for the shots & the animation to be done before I would go into look development. I wanted the music that I had used, Claire de Lune

by Debussy, performed by Laura Sullivan, to link to the subtle nuances & details that added from shot blocking to simulation. The blocking animatic went into a more refined animatic, that later contained the shots that I had left simulating, & after all the shots were completely simulated & I was happy with the performance, I jumped into rendering based on the research I had previously done, which turned into a pretty efficient way of handling the post-production process. Final coloring was done on After Effects.

An finally, do you have any future big projects you are working on?

I actually have a couple of projects in the works with Digital Domain, which is where I currently work, & the work of the talented people there is amazing. It’s like being inspired everyday by fellow artists & directors, which push the boundaries technologically & visually. One of them is a friend & personal inspiration, Aladino Debert, who works there as Director & Creative Director. Debert was a key piece on the making of “It Gets Better.” I remember a funny story. Halfway through the making, I told him that I felt discouraged about my project & considered dropping it because of how simple it was. But when he looked at it, he gave me the motivation to keep it going & stay truthful to my vision as a director, something that Aladino does magnificently, which led me to finish & put even more effort & details into the final piece.

My thanks goes to Eli Guerron for taking the time to complete this interview to his best ability even with a bad hand, hope you hand surgery went well buddy. Don’t forget to check out his website (osito.tv) to see more of his amazing work. And also don’t forget to watch his short film, ‘It Gets Better’ on Vimeo.

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olivier ponsonnet Olivier is an artist from Bordeaux in France, he is currently a level builder, lead character designer and art director at Asobo studio and has had the pleasure of working on games such as Kinect Rush, Fuel, Toy Story 3 and much more.

Olivier started off as a programmer during his time as a student, but later became fond of 3d art and was hired at Asobo as a level builder.

This section shows some of Olivier’s personal character art which is somewhat dark and grim but captures the human face differently from traditional pieces of art.

re1v.free.fr 3ds max, Zbrush

Mermaid 34

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Olivier Ponsonnet

Cold Blue 36

Opal Child Ceiga Magazine

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Olivier Ponsonnet

Shade 38

Mr Bone Ceiga Magazine

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Olivier Ponsonnet

Necromancer 40

Whispers Ceiga Magazine

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Olivier Ponsonnet

Moon Key 42

Vlad Ceiga Magazine

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Rafael Grassetti 44

I started my career working as a freelance artist for advertising companies, in the past I worked as lead modeller for almost 3 years in Brazil.

After that I got back to work as a Freelance Character Artist for Cinematic, Advertising productions and Toy industry for abroad companies.

I’m currently living in Montreal (Canada) working as a senior character artist at Bioware on the Mass Effect series.

I’ve already worked in more than 70 projects for more than 15 companies in many titles, including Cinematic Production, Game Art, TV Projects, Printed Advertisement, Statue collection design and Toy design.

I have experience with sculpting, modelling, rigging, animation and rendering. grassettiart.com 3ds max, Zbrush

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Rafael Grassetti

Necromancer 46

Predator Ceiga Magazine

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Rafael Grassetti

Sauron 48

Hoshi Ceiga Magazine

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Rafael Grassetti

Dwarf 50

Guardian Ceiga Magazine

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Rafael Grassetti

Hunter 52

Mecha Girl Ceiga Magazine

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Rafael Grassetti

Sea Creature 54

DeadEye Ceiga Magazine

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Neil Maccormack is a freelance 3d artist based in Geneva, Switzerland. Maccormack specialises in 3d, design, concept art and artwork for posters/print.

Maccormack’s main weapon of choice is Lightwave 3d which is different from the usual group of 3ds Max and Zbrush artists. Nevertheless he still creates amazing pieces of artwork which have a very sci-fi and concept art feel.

www.bearfootfilms.com Lightwave 3D

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Neil Maccormack Ceiga Magazine

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Neil Maccormack

Trans 58

Explorer Ceiga Magazine

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Neil Maccormack

Osaki 60

Guarded Ceiga Magazine

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Neil Maccormack

Lab 62

Finlake Ceiga Magazine

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Neil Maccormack

Lab 64

Realm Ceiga Magazine

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Alexey Kashpersky

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Born in 1986, Poltava (Ukraine), Alexey graduated the National Technical University in his native town and got degree as Master of Visual and Decorative and Applied Arts with honors.

He has since done a series of CG artworks for the Fantasy field and great volume of 3D models for TV and 3d printing studios, having worked with customers all around the world.

Alexey is owner of virtually every major awards in the field of 3D graphics, including double CGSociety 3D Award, published in books Exotique, Digital Art Masters, Secrets of Zbrush ect.

Currently Alexey juggles his time between working as 3D artist - and taking care of ARQUTE LLC, Ukrainian CG company that he is founder of. kashpersky.com 3D Studio Max, ZBrush

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Alexey Kashpersky

Golconda Uranium 68

Lion Ceiga Magazine

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Alexey Kashpersky

Zodiac 70

The Guards Ceiga Magazine

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Alexey Kashpersky

Dreadful Light...

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The Snailmaker Ceiga Magazine

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Alexey Kashpersky

Furian Legend...

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Dream...

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Alexey Kashpersky

Atlantis Herald 76

On the precipice of universe Ceiga Magazine

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Aardman www.aardman.com

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STUDIO LIST

(UK only)

Brandt Animation www.brandtanim.co.uk

Eurocom www.eurocom.co.uk

Absolute Post www.absolutepost.com

Bravo Games bravogames.com

Fluid Pictures www.fluid-pictures.com

Absolutely Cuckoo www.absolutelycuckoo.com

BreakThru Films www.breakthrufilms.co.uk

Foundation CGI www.foundationcgi.com

Air CGI www.air-cgi.com

Burrows Nvisage www.burrows.info

Framestore www.framestore.com

AKQA www.akqa.com

Busty Kelp www.bustykelp.com

Full Moon Studios fullmoongamestudios.com

Animatic Media animaticmedia.com

Cinesite www.cinesite.com

Gameloft www.gameloft.co.uk

Annix Studios www.annix.com

Climax Group www.climaxgroup.com

Glassworks www.glassworks.co.uk

Artillery www.artillery.tv

Codemasters www.facebook.com/codemasters

Glowfrog Studios glowfrog.com

Atticus Digital www.atticusdigital.com

Colonel Blimp www.colonelblimp.com

Golden Square www.goldensq.com

Atticus Finch www.atticusfinch.tv

Criterion Games blog.criteriongames.com

Hot Knife Digital Media www.hotknife.co.uk

Axis Animation www.axisanimation.com

Darkhorse VFX www.darkhorsefx.com

ICube www.icube3d.co.uk

Barefoot VFX barefootvfx.com

Darkside Animation www.dsanim.com

Ignition Entertainment www.utvignition.com

Base Black baseblack.com

Dinamo Productions www.dinamo.co.uk

I love Dust www.ilovedust.com

BE Animation beanimation.com

Distant Future Animation Studios www.distantfuture.co.uk

Image Metrics www.image-metrics.com

Black Rock Studios www.disney.co.uk

Double G Studios www.doublegstudios.com

Infinite Realitites www.ir-ltd.net

Blink Productions www.blinkprods.com

Double Negative www.dneg.com

Ink Digital www.inkdigital.co.uk

Blitz Game Studios www.blitzgamesstudios.com

Drive CGI www.drivecgi.co.uk

Jagex www.jagex.com

Blue Bolt www.blue-bolt.com

Eggbox Studios www.eggboxstudios.co.uk

Jellyfish Pictures www.jellyfishpictures.co.uk

Blue Zoo www.blue-zoo.co.uk

Envy www.envypost.co.uk

Jump Design www.jumpdesign.co.uk

Kazoo Creative www.kazoo-creative.com

Neon www.neon.tv

Rumble Studios www.rumblestudios.com

Kettle Studios www.kettlestudio.co.uk

Neoscape www.neoscape.com

Rushes www.rushes.co.uk

Keframe Studios keyframestudios.co.uk

Nexus Productions www.nexusproductions.com

Saddington Baynes www.saddingtonbaynes.com

Kuro Dragon www.kurodragon.com

Ninja Theory www.ninjatheory.com

Slide slidelondon.com

Lab 10 Studios www.lab10.com

Not to Scale www.nottoscale.tv

Smoke & Mirrors www.smoke-mirrors.com

Lionhead Studios lionhead.com

NSC Creative www.nsccreative.com

Speed Shape www.speedshape.com/

LipSync Post www.lipsyncpost.co.uk

Nvisible nvizible.com

Studio AKA www.studioaka.co.uk

Locomotion locomotionpost.wordpress.com

OG International www.og-international.net

Sumo Digital www.sumo-digital.com

Lola www.lola-post.co.uk

Passion Pictures www.passion-pictures.com

Superglue www.wearesuperglue.com

Loose Moose www.loosemoose.net

Peanut FX www.peanutfx.com

Taylor James www.taylorjames.com

Mainframe www.mainframe.co.uk

Peerless www.peerless.co.uk

Ten 24 www.ten24.info

Man Vs Machine www.manvsmachine.co.uk

Pitbull Studio www.pitbullstudio.co.uk

Territory Studio www.territorystudio.com

Masquerade Digital www.masquerade-digital.com

Plowman Craven www.plowmancraven.co.uk

The Creative Assembly creative-assembly.com

Matinai www.matinai.com

Prime Focus www.primefocusworld.com

The Foundry www.thefoundry.co.uk

MDI Digital www.mdi-digital.com

Quay Studios www.quaystudios.com

The Mill www.themill.com

Method Studios www.methodstudios.com

Qurios www.qurios.com

The Senate www.senatevfx.com

Molinare www.molinare.co.uk

Realtime UK www.realtimeuk.com

The Works www.worksltd.co.uk

Motion Imaging wearemi.com

Realise www.realisestudio.com

Tigrex www.tigerx.co.uk

Monumental Games www.monumentalgames.com

Relentless Software www.relentless.co.uk

TT Games www.ttgames.com

MPC www.moving-picture.com

Rockstar North www.rockstarnorth.com

We Are Seventeen www.weareseventeen.com

Munky www.munky.uk.com

Realtime Technology www.realtime-technology.com

Zoo zoovfx.com

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