Ceiga Issue 12

ISSUE 12 / SEP-OCT 2012 £3.50 / €4.50

Photo Realistic ceiga.co.uk

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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

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This offer is subject to terms and conditions and can be withdrawn at anytime.

M

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EDITOR Richard Bray

LAYOUT ARTIST Chris Miller

RESEARCHER Ashlee Lenton

WEBSITE EDITOR Richard Bray

VIMEO CHANNEL MODERATOR Vladimir Tomin

ADVERSITING For more details on pricing, contact us on info@ceiga.co.uk

CONTRIBUTE Contactu us if you would like to the next issue info@ceiga.co.uk

SPECIAL THANKS Alex Hockey-Sweeney, Sandy Tsang, Sam Bathe, 125 Creative

sketchfab.com Maison d’artiste by klaasnienhuis (top). Bob

by Zafia (bottom).

ONLINE: CEIGA.CO.UK BACK ISSUES: CEIGA.CO.UK/ALL_ISSUES CEIGA MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY ONLINE AND PRINT FOR LICENSING ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT INFO@CEIGA.CO.UK CONTENT MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM CEIGA MAGAZINE. © CEIGA MAGAZINE 2012

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contents SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2012

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On the front

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Still Life

10

Sun Goes Down

20

Let Me Show You Around

32

The Great Outdoors

44

Animals & Humans

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Building? Art? Or Both?

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61

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38 ceiga.co.uk

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EDITOR’S LETTER

“

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True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.

- Jean Cocteau

I

t’s just another afternoon at the cinema with a big cup of Coke (diet if you’re calorieconscious like me) in one hand, and a large portion of salty popcorn in the other. You engage in mindless chit chat with your companions amiably, making occasional remarks about the adverts on the big screen ahead. The lights in the cinema finally start to dim and the chatter in the cinema fades away.

The film is somewhat engaging; it consists mostly of dialogue and scenes of people and their lives. Then it happens. The big screen lights up with a scene that makes your eyes widens, your jaw drop, and every hair on your body stand on end. What had just happened on screen seemed so impossible, yet there it was - all because of how amazingly realistic the visual effects were. The effects blended so incredibly well into the scene and just gave some serious ‘street cred’ to an otherwise unrealistic storyline. Heck, even if you were fence-sitting between love and hate for the film up until that point, you know now the visual effects have swung your vote favourably. This scene will stay with you, for a long time. Well, that is until you watch the film years later on standard television, with technologies miles ahead then, and discover every flaw with the CG and realise how the magic of the cinema atmosphere made you gullible.

We’ve all been there; impressed, moved and completely bewildered after seeing an incredibly realistic piece of CGI, whether it be in a film or an advert. Sometimes the visual effects are so good, we don’t even realise they are there.

This issue will focus on some incredibly realistic images from some very talented artists. I am sure many of you will find the same sentiments of being impressed, moved, and bewildered by these works on the following pages.

R.Bray

Richard Bray Editor ceiga.co.uk

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On The

Front ‘The Artist himself’ by Piotr Wysocki (fox.cgsociety.org).

Modelled in Maya ,sculpted with Zbrush.

Piotr Wysocki has done a spectacular job with this image. Focusing on just half the face instead of the whole face adds a sense of ambiguit y to the whole image and allows the viewer to focus on the facial features such as the eyes, nose, and lips. The expression on the subjects face and the look in his eyes is almost as if he is contemplating and staring right into the viewer.

We are not one hundred percent sure how Wysocki captured such realism in a 3D render, but the way the light shines through the strands of hair and face is incredibly impressive, and most likely involved some kind of SSS shader on the hair or multiple renders with different lighting setups.

Creating a photo realistic self portrait is a very daunting task; the artist would have to stare at their face for countless hours in front of the mirror (or take many photographs) and make sure every little detail about yourself is accurate, down to the scars, moles and pimples. That is what makes this image even more impressive.

We haven’t seen many realistic 3D models that are portraits of the artist but if they are anything like this, we would love to see a lot more of them.

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Custom model Javier Pintor

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jpintor.cgsociety.org

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3ds Max, Mudbox

STILL LIFE

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Art Model In Lao Wu’s Studio Qisheng Luo

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luoqisheng.cgsociety.org

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Maya, ZBrush

A Middle 70s Corner

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Riccardo Cecchinato

ramonesfan.cgsociety.org

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Maxwell Render Ceiga Magazine 13

Dripping Cake Stand Lance Hitchings

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hitchingsdesign.com

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Maya

Exams are coming...

Riccardo Cecchinato

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keycz.cgsociety.org

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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Memories Crtomir Just

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choerte.cgsociety.org

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3ds max, ZBrush

Ring with Diamond Catalin Obreja

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catalinobreja.cgsociety.org

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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Tentation Still life Accaries Loris & Audrey Janvier

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lorisaccaries.com

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3ds max, ZBrush

Wine Room Sofian Moumene

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moumenesofian.cgsociety.org

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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As The Sun Goes Down

Mystic Lake Jonny Allen

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blog.konng.com

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3ds Max

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Center for Icelandic Studies Sebastian Bajer

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fractal.is

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3ds max

Cube Maksim Ganzha A

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3dmaks.com

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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Heading South Olivier Vernay-Kim

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oli.vernay.free.fr

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3ds max

Mental Ray Aerial shot Jamie Cardoso

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jamiecardoso-mentalray.blogspot.co.uk

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3ds max, AutoCAD ceiga.co.uk

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Minimalist Wassim Alam

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wassimalam.cgsociety.org

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3ds max

Modern House SĂŠrgio MerĂŞces

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sergiomereces.com

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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Neon Nicholas O’Leary

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nicholasoleary.com

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3ds max

Red Pavilion Giovi Lee

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kengis.cgsociety.org

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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5 Questions For Jordi Pages It’s that time again where we interview an artists with just 5 questions. The artist we focus on is Jordi Pages, an extremely talented, extremely creative and extremely humble motion graphic artists. We mainly focus on Jordi’s latest film, ‘Ments’ but I’m sure you’ll pick up some useful tips if you read the whole of this interview.

1) Let us know a bit about yourself, what you do and what inspired you to do 3D work?

I’m from a little town in Costa Brava, where I grew up next to my uncle who has always been really into filming and doing his own edits and all that stuff…I guess part of his passion for it was passed into me so when I had to decide what to study I went to Barcelona to do an Electronic Arts and Digital Design degrees. It was by that time when technology started to develop quite fast and so did the industry of design. Tools like flash, After Effects and 3D Max where more common and didn’t need such powerful machines, so we started to experiment with them. I really enjoyed any thing I was learning in my degree like graphic design, programming, web…but there wasn’t any thing in particular that I wanted to spent all the time doing, until I went to Off and I saw the very first works that Dvein was doing. That really got my attention, it wasn’t animation, filming, commercials or any thing I had seen before, it was a new way to use the tools that where around me, a new for of art, born from the evolution of technology, and I was fascinated by it. Since then, all my passion and energy has been focused to Motion Design.

After that I went to London and I stared to develop my own projects experimenting with C4D and After Effects, Seeper found some of my works through the Behance Network and I started to collaborate with them producing motion graphics for architectural projection mapping.

That was the first time I was paid for doing something that I love.

My time at Seeper is now over and developing myself as a designer / director working as a freelance.

2) What reasons do you have for creating your short ‘Ments’ and is there a story behind it?

There is no particular reason for the creation of ‘Ments’, is a combination of little things that lead me to produce such a piece.

The last two years and a half I’ve been only production projection mapping projects, and almost all of them on an architectural level.

So all the projects where conditioned by the projector’s brightness, the way we used the features from the building, the kind of textures,

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lighting, cameras, the amount of detail… So for quite a long time I felt the urge to develop a project where I could create a whole new world from scratch with lots of detail, gradients, soft shadows and elaborated textures. One of these days I was drawing some sketches and I created these two shapes with warts and really screwed up, at some point I saw a two faces looking at each other and I started to experiment with C4D to recreate that same texture and feeling. While experimenting I started to get some really interesting movements and from there came the idea to make them look as if they where conversing with each other in some sort of unknown language, then I showed the style frames and animatics to David and Tom from Echoic Audio, they got on board and the production for Ments started.

3) Could you let us know a bit about how you animated, your inspiration for the use of colours and what lead you to choose the camera angles you did?

As I mentioned before in projection mapping every thing has to be really bright and contrasted to compensate the low brightness of the projector, so I wanted to do something really subtle and soft. With that in mind I started to create the environment and textures for the creatures and they had these look and feel as if they were underwater coating really slowly so I adapted that feeling to the environment, applying some volumetric light and caustics and that bluish tone, that lead to that lighter tone for the skin of the creatures to get that sort of creepy alien feeling.

Then I created a couple of animations and expend some time looking for interesting angles and nice compositions for the different points of the animation and placing a camera on each one of these points. Once the cameras for the animatic where set, I applied a general light set up that created the basic illumination for the scene with the caustics and volumetric lights, then I created a different light rig for each one of the cameras creating hi-lights, speculars and interesting gradients to improve the final look of the image.

4) I love the way the animation reacts with the sound. Could you let us know a bit about the music and the reason it was chosen for the film?

The sound is a genuine creation from David and Tom from Echoic.

This is the first time I’ve collaborated with a sound studio to create custom sound design for the my work and the experience has been amazing. I approached the Echoic with five style frames and a rough animatic and they loved the idea. I showed them some references of ideas I had in mind, but mainly I wanted them to do their own

interpretation of the environment and characters, and they did a great job. We kept updating each other with new animatics and soundtracks as the project was evolving to get that feeling of sound-sync, dramatic and deep atmosphere.

Thanks to Echoic work the finished piece was much more impressive, the visuals on their own are no where near as immersive. I would like to encourage every one who is producing his or her first pieces of motion design, to instead of picking a track or song, do some research and send a few emails, there are lots of sound designers at their early days looking for motion designers on Vimeo or other networks to collaborate with them and create custom sound for their visuals, you just need to look for each other, find a way to collaborate and take your projects to the next level.

5) And finally what pieces of work do you have planned for the future?

I just left my full-time job at Seeper to try the freelance experience so I don’t really know what is going to happen in the near future. What I do know is that our industry is growing really fast and each day there are more talented designers out there, I would love to meet all of them to share and learn our knowledge, so I can keep coming up with new ideas and develop my style as a designer, and maybe I’ll be able to expend the rest of my life doing what I love the most. Thanks a lot to every one for all the support and kind words.

I’m sure you’ll agree Jordi has a very unique art style which is reflected in the short film ‘Ments’. Regardless of what happens to him in the future, I’m sure he will continue to produce fantastic work. If you’d like to find out more information about Jordi visit his website (jordipages.com).

“The last two years and a half I’ve been only production projection mapping projects, and almost all of them on an architectural level”

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Ullstein Arena Nicholas O’Leary

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nicholasoleary.com

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3ds Max

Let me show you around

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A tea for 2 Peter Ang

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petera.deviantart.com

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3ds max, ZBrush

Bar Zar 2 Rakan Jandali

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rakanjandali.cgsociety.org

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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Distraction Sam MacDermot

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sammacdermot.com

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3ds max

English Plot Adam Grania

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behance.net/Eden-3D

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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Living Room Fatemeh Yousefian

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fatemehyousefian.com

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Maya

Reststop Akkarvikodden Giona Andreani

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gionacg.wordpress.com

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3ds max ceiga.co.uk

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WC Juan Siquier

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juansiquier.com

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3ds max

House N, bathroom Javier Pintor

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jpintor.cgsociety.org

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3ds Max, Mudbox ceiga.co.uk

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“It is good to realize tha prevail on earth, and if w to honor nature's gifts, the outdoors will b Jimmy Carter

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at if love and peace can we can teach our children e joys and beauties of the be here forever.�

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The Great Outdoors

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Once upon a time Ottoman Hasan Karaaslan

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the-azrail.cgsociety.org 3ds Max ceiga.co.uk 45

Breaking Bad RV Eugenio GarcĂ­a Villarreal

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flickr.com/photos/artecnl/sets/72157603945789713

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Lightwave 3D

Flowers in full bloom Chengbin Du

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chengbindu.cgsociety.org

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Maya, ZBrush ceiga.co.uk

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Forest Path A.Alvarez

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thegnomonworkshop.com

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Maya, ZBrush

Lavoir Tim Jones

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seraph3d.com

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3ds Max ceiga.co.uk

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Hideaway Alberto Trujillo

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alberto-trujillo.com

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3ds Max, ZBrush

It’s going to rain Lebedev Denis

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lebedev.cgsociety.org

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3ds Max ceiga.co.uk

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Memories Karim Elramly

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bazooka67.cgsociety.org

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3ds Max

The dog is out there Christopher Malheiros

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flickr.com/photos/29805818@N08

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CINEMA 4D ceiga.co.uk

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Ingrid Bergman Max Wahyudi

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student.vfs.com

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Maya, XSI, ZBrush

HG

People & Animals

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Chimpanzee Jacques Defontaine

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tkio.net

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Modo, Mudbox

Johnny Depp Jelmer Boskma

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krop.com

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Maya, XSI, ZBrush ceiga.co.uk

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The Blue Project Dan Roarty

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danroarty.com

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Maya, Mudbox

King of Sea Andrey Kobushenko

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ak.cgsociety.org

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3ds Max ceiga.co.uk

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The last move Jose Lazaro

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josemlazaro.com

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3ds Max, ZBrush

Stan “The Man�

Andrew Hakim Lie

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andrewhakimlie.carbonmade.com

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3ds Max, ZBrush ceiga.co.uk

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Pirates Come!- Tangzhiheng ZhiHeng Tang

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tzwart.com

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Lightwave 3D, ZBrush

Bumblebee 02 Johan Rimer

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johanrimer.com

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Maya ceiga.co.uk

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“Architecture, of a one which acts t but the most sur Ernest Dimnet

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all the arts, is the the most slowly, rely, on the soul.�

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OTG Foothills Bryan Versteeg

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bryanversteeg.com

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3ds Max

Buildings, Art, Or both?

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FAUP: Bloco H Jacinto Monteiro

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metrocubicodigital.com

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3ds Max

Good life Jacinto Monteiro

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metrocubicodigital.com

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3ds Max ceiga.co.uk

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Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House Alessandro Prodan

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insiderender.it

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Maya

Villa Gateway David Horbach

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3devotion.com

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CINEMA 4D ceiga.co.uk

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Visit on a rainy day Charles Guerton

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nebucadnezar.cgsociety.org

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3ds Max

Winter house Rafael Reis

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rafaarquitetura.blogspot.co.uk

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3ds Max ceiga.co.uk

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Orszรกghรกz Rudolf Herczog

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rochr.com

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CINEMA 4D

Footbridge Michal Konwicki

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michalkonwicki.cgsociety.org

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3ds Max ceiga.co.uk

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Aardman www.aardman.com Absolute Post www.absolutepost.com Absolutely Cuckoo www.absolutelycuckoo.com Air CGI www.air-cgi.com AKQA www.akqa.com Animatic Media animaticmedia.com Annix Studios www.annix.com Artillery www.artillery.tv Atticus Digital www.atticusdigital.com Atticus Finch www.atticusfinch.tv Axis Animation www.axisanimation.com Barefoot VFX barefootvfx.com Base Black baseblack.com BE Animation beanimation.com Blink Productions www.blinkprods.com Blitz Game Studios www.blitzgamesstudios.com Blue Bolt www.blue-bolt.com Blue Zoo www.blue-zoo.co.uk Brandt Animation www.brandtanim.co.uk Bravo Games bravogames.com BreakThru Films

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STUDIO LIST www.breakthrufilms.co.uk Burrows Nvisage www.burrows.info Busty Kelp www.bustykelp.com Cinesite www.cinesite.com Climax Group www.climaxgroup.com Codemasters www.facebook.com/codemasters Colonel Blimp www.colonelblimp.com Criterion Games blog.criteriongames.com Darkhorse VFX www.darkhorsefx.com Darkside Animation www.dsanim.com Dinamo Productions www.dinamo.co.uk Distant Future Animation Studios www.distantfuture.co.uk Double G Studios www.doublegstudios.com Double Negative www.dneg.com Drive CGI www.drivecgi.co.uk Eggbox Studios www.eggboxstudios.co.uk Envy www.envypost.co.uk Eurocom www.eurocom.co.uk Fluid Pictures www.fluid-pictures.com Foundation CGI www.foundationcgi.com Framestore www.framestore.com

(UK only)

Full Moon Studios fullmoongamestudios.com Gameloft www.gameloft.co.uk Glassworks www.glassworks.co.uk Glowfrog Studios glowfrog.com Golden Square www.goldensq.com Hot Knife Digital Media www.hotknife.co.uk ICube www.icube3d.co.uk Ignition Entertainment www.utvignition.com I love Dust www.ilovedust.com Image Metrics www.image-metrics.com Infinite Realitites www.ir-ltd.net Ink Digital www.inkdigital.co.uk Jagex www.jagex.com Jellyfish Pictures www.jellyfishpictures.co.uk Jump Design www.jumpdesign.co.uk Kazoo Creative www.kazoo-creative.com Kettle Studios www.kettlestudio.co.uk Keframe Studios keyframestudios.co.uk Kuro Dragon www.kurodragon.com Lab 10 Studios www.lab10.com

Lionhead Studios lionhead.com

Nvisible nvizible.com

Sumo Digital www.sumo-digital.com

LipSync Post www.lipsyncpost.co.uk

OG International www.og-international.net

Superglue www.wearesuperglue.com

Locomotion locomotionpost.wordpress.com

Passion Pictures www.passion-pictures.com

Taylor James www.taylorjames.com

Lola www.lola-post.co.uk

Peanut FX www.peanutfx.com

Ten 24 www.ten24.info

Loose Moose www.loosemoose.net

Peerless www.peerless.co.uk

Territory Studio www.territorystudio.com

Mainframe www.mainframe.co.uk

Pitbull Studio www.pitbullstudio.co.uk

The Creative Assembly creative-assembly.com

Man Vs Machine www.manvsmachine.co.uk

Plowman Craven www.plowmancraven.co.uk

The Foundry www.thefoundry.co.uk

Masquerade Digital www.masquerade-digital.com

Prime Focus www.primefocusworld.com

The Mill www.themill.com

Matinai www.matinai.com

Quay Studios www.quaystudios.com

The Senate www.senatevfx.com

MDI Digital www.mdi-digital.com

Qurios www.qurios.com

The Works www.worksltd.co.uk

Method Studios www.methodstudios.com

Realtime UK www.realtimeuk.com

Tigrex www.tigerx.co.uk

Molinare www.molinare.co.uk

Realise www.realisestudio.com

TT Games www.ttgames.com

Motion Imaging wearemi.com

Relentless Software www.relentless.co.uk

We Are Seventeen www.weareseventeen.com

Monumental Games www.monumentalgames.com

Rockstar North www.rockstarnorth.com

Zoo zoovfx.com

MPC www.moving-picture.com

Realtime Technology www.realtime-technology.com Rumble Studios www.rumblestudios.com

Munky www.munky.uk.com Neon www.neon.tv

Rushes www.rushes.co.uk

Neoscape www.neoscape.com

Saddington Baynes www.saddingtonbaynes.com

Nexus Productions www.nexusproductions.com

Slide slidelondon.com

Ninja Theory www.ninjatheory.com

Smoke & Mirrors www.smoke-mirrors.com

Not to Scale www.nottoscale.tv

Speed Shape www.speedshape.com/

NSC Creative www.nsccreative.com

Studio AKA www.studioaka.co.uk ceiga.co.uk

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