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DISCOVER
zbrush Create this cover! How to texture and light a complex character with Daniele Scerra
Artist
Q&A Your CG art problems solved!
New theory & VFX trends
The virtual camera explained Render realism for film VFX Modo MeshFusion reviewed
Chubby link Turn to page 68 for Gerard Dunleavy’s Marvelous Designer tips
Editor’s
welcome
A new-look magazine for a new era of inspirational advice and CG art
Meet the team Rob Redman So many people are intimidated by UVs, but there’s no need. Turn to page 66 to learn how to unwrap your meshes in just a few easy steps. rob.redman@futurenet.com
Regular readers may notice a difference in the magazine this issue… it’s had a facelift and our new mantra is ‘Inspiring CG Artists’. It’s our call to arms every issue to present you with the most amazing new CG art, projects, news and tutorials – a motivational message to learn and improve. Our tutorials are easier to follow and every issue we’ll cover new software – this issue we create leak effects in Substance Designer 4. Plus in the new Develop section we cover the latest R&D and CG theories from academics and professionals in the industry, starting with the quest for reality in CG. Now that’s inspirational.
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Kulsoom Middleton I am generally not a fan of MMOs, but when I saw the Shadowmantle update for Neverwinter, I had to find out more about its CG. Turn to page 88. kulsoom.middleton@futurenet.com
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Ian Dean, editor ian.dean@futurenet.com
Darren Phillps To see loads of inspiring new art, head over to the Showcase section, which opens with my favourite, James Suret’s demon creature on page 11. darren.phillips@futurenet.com
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featured
artists
Meet the CG experts and artists who have contributed to this issue
cover artIst
artIst Daniele Scerra soFtware Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, mental ray
Our cover artist this issue, Daniele Scerra, is an illustrator and 3D artist. He originally studied classical painting techniques, and he has since made the move into the digital art field, working with international publishers and receiving several awards. His work has been featured in prestigious publications including Spectrum, Exposé, and of course 3D World. Over the years he has also worked on films as a technical director in character animations, FX and matte painting. In his tutorial on page 60, Texture and light a complex figure, Daniele shows you how to use Maya and Photoshop to give a ZBrush illustration added impact. We think his android model hits all the right notes – feminine with an edge – and her mix of human and machine characteristics has been beautifully realised. To see more of Daniele’s work, see his website FYI at www.danielescerra.com
Follow the workFlow!
Turn to page 60 for Daniele’s step-by-step guide in this issue’s tutorial section.
spotlIght on our contrIbutors Fred Burdy
Fred wrote and directed the short film Tríd an Stoirm and was lead 3D artist. He also turned his hand to compositing in Nuke, as well as working on the pipeline and fixes. Turn to page 30 to discover the unique workarounds and scripts Fred used on the project. www.tridanstoirm.com
Titouan Olive
Titouan is a freelance lead character artist who specialises in creating mechanical characters in ZBrush for animated films and video games. Turn to page 70 for Titouan’s tutorial on mastering hard surface sculpting skills to create a still life in ZBrush. www.digitalia3d.teria.fr
Jose Rodriguez
Jose is a senior character artist for Gameloft Madrid. He is also a modelling tutor for Animum3D Online School and has worked on feature films and video games. On page 40, Jose channels his influences and experience to create an incredible character. www.jrs3d.com
Dan Crossland
Dan has been sculpting digitally for seven years, and finds it the best way to transfer drawing skills to digital. Dan has worked in the video games industry for 10 years and is a senior character artist at Ninja Theory. His anatomy tutorial series begins on page 78. www.dancrossland.co.uk
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Mao-Lin Liao
Character and look development artist Mao-Lin has been a professional in the VFX and video game industry since 2001, working for Guerrilla Games, Triumph Studios and others. He now owns Khitan Digital. He gives a reader his advice in Q&A on page 44. www.khitandigital.nl
Denis Kozlov
Denis is a CG generalist with 15 years’ experience in the film, TV, advertising, game and education industries. He is currently working in Prague as a VFX supervisor. On page 84, Denis looks at the theories behind correct use of virtual cameras. www.kozlove.net
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editorial edItor Ian Dean technIcal edItor Rob Redman operatIons edItor Kulsoom Middleton art edItor Darren Phillips
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c ontri buto r s Aiman Akhtar, Rose Brandle, Fraser Churchill, Fred Burdy, Dan Crossland, Gerard Dunleavy, Renee Dunlop, Duncan Fraser, Hugues Giboire, Renato Gonzalez, Mike Griggs, Denis Kozlov, Rebecca-Louise Leybourne, Mao-Lin Liao, Beren Neale, Tituoan Olive, Jose Rodriguez, Daniele Scerra, M Scott Spencer, Paul Tysall, Andy Velasquez, Alvin Weetman, Gary Weller, Michael Williams, Nicolas Wirrmann
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Issue 180
Contents Our complete line-up for this month’s 3D World
digital Subscription Buy the latest magazine and back issues for iPad and iPhone today! www.bit.ly/3dworld-app
8 artist showcase
Discover the best digital art from the CG community
21 Community 22 The big issue How valuable are industry awards?
26 ARTIST’s WORKSTATION Mike Griggs shows us his studio
30 SHORT CUTS
30 short cuts
Fred Burdy on Tríd an Stoirm
Fred Burdy tells us about Tríd an Stoirm
36 Studio profile Glowfrog’s rise to the global stage
40 In focus Jose Rodriguez shares his workflow
44 artist Q&A
All your software queries solved by our panel of CG experts
Features 52 the tracking field
59 Tutorials
Improve your CG skills with practical tips and tutorials from our pro artists
8 Artist showcase
Discover some of the outstanding new art from the CG community
83 Develop
Theory, research and reviews, plus industry insights from the experts
Regulars 38 Letters 50 print Subscriptions 65/82 iPad subscRiptions 74 Next Month
40 in focus
44 artist Q&A
Jose Rodriguez reveals his working process 3D World April 2014
Your software queries solved by our experts 6
3dworld.creativebloq.com
52 the tracking field
Rebecca-Louise Leybourne’s mocap pipeline
Tutorials 60 sculpt a complex figure Daniele Scerra shows you how to light and texture ZBrush characters
66 core SKILLS: UV unwrapping Overcome the mental barrier to UV unwrapping with this essential guide
68 reimagine a character Gerard Dunleavy explains how he reinvigorates his creative process
70 hard surface sculpting How to use ZBrush’s hard surface sculpting tools with Titouan Olive
75 key technique: fluid leaks Nicolas Wirrmann creates fluid leaks with Substance Designer 4
76 photoreal modelling Gary Weller reveals how to create photorealistic models and scenes
78 ANATOMY PART 1: the torso Sculpt the torso in the first part of Dan Crossland’s anatomy series
60 texture and light a complex character Follow Daniele Scerra’s tutorial to recreate our cover illustration
Develop 84 theory Denis Kozlov explains the theory behind using a virtual camera
88 Debrief Delving into the development of the MMORPG Neverwinter
90 Realism R&D Renee Dunlop discovers the science of creating realistic VFX
88 Debrief
Reviews
Cryptic’s Andy Velasquez on Neverwinter
94 SUBSTANCE DESIGNER 4 96 Meshfusion for modo 97 the ARCHVIZ TRAINING DVD 97 X-PARTICLES 2.5 98 my inspiration Frazer Churchill reveals the visual effects scene that got him into VFX
90 critical reality
Renee Dunlop talks to top researchers
94 substance designer 4
Allegorithmic shifts the focus of its texture-processing app 3D World April 2014
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showcase
artist
showcase The best digital art from the CG community
The Binding Artist James Suret Software used ZBrush, Photoshop “I enjoyed sculpting the face and skin of the demon the most,” says web designer James Suret. “As soon as I put the eyes and teeth in it really came to life. Looking at the finished image I think I managed to make the demon look quite imposing and fierce.” While his CG art is purely a hobby for now, James is eager to keep learning and make it as a CG artist. He has picked up freelance work on small indie game projects, creating low-poly models, and James is now focused on improving his sculpting. “This image turned out very differently from my initial concept,” says James. “Originally I wanted to create a necromancer-style character with a large demonic pet. However, after sculpting the demon I decided he was too interesting to be the secondary character in the image, so I removed the necromancer character and created a mountain environment for the demon.” You can see more of James’s work online FYI at www.zerojs.cgsociety.org
get published Email your CG ART to ian.dean@futurenet.com
Visit the online Vault to download extra process art for these projects: www.3dworldmag.com/vault
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As soon as I put the eyes and teeth in, it really came to life
3d world view “The scale and atmosphere here is immense, but it’s really held together by James’s engaging demon design” Ian Dean
editor
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Hades, God of the Underworld
showcase
Artist Elena Bespalova Software used Maya, ZBrush, Keyshot While working on this piece, concept artist Elena Bespalova concentrated on the design and clarity of forms. “You can say I did all the parts almost in an old-school way; from base shapes in Maya to sculpting volumes and details in ZBrush,” explains Elena. Once the sketching process was done, Elena began to model the head. “I usually like to complete the face of the character first,” says the artist. The next step was to make the base shapes and place them into the scene. “I had to pose the Cerberus base in the right place around the Hades character, before I could start sculpting the dog and the drapery. Since the man’s hand should be lying on Cerberus’s shoulder, it was a necessary task,” says Elena. “I found the work creating Hades really refreshing. The project gave me a huge boost as it gave me the opportunity to practise techniques and media that I was not familiar with,” reveals Elena. You can see more of Elena’s portfolio work FYI at www.hellstern.cghub.com
WORKING WITH SYMMETRY
“Work on Cerberus took the most time. To sculpt it without Symmetry was a bit of a challenge, but in the end it turned out well. I used photo reference of different dogs to study the anatomy and to catch an overall feeling of the animal,” says Elena
3d world view “The still and stoic form of Hades mixed with the dynamic movement of the creature’s tail is just fantastic” Kulsoom Middleton
operations editor
The project gave me a huge boost as it gave me the opportunity to practise techniques and media that I was not familiar with 3D World April 2014
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Deathstroke’s Revenge Artist Alessandro Baldasseroni Software used 3ds Max, ZBrush, Mudbox, V-Ray, Photoshop Alessandro Baldasseroni is a lead character artist at Blur Studios, where he has worked for seven years. His latest project was influenced by work done for the Batman Arkham Origins cinematics. Deathstroke’s Revenge is based on the model used for the cinematic, but influenced by the artist’s own Revenge series of illustrations. “I tend to privilege form, mood and colours over details,” says Alessandro as he reflects on his influences. This filters into his CG illustration, which focuses on gesture and narrative elements when posing the early model. “My favourite tool is Transpose Master in ZBrush for posing the main character,” says the artist. When work begins on lighting, Alessandro looks for references “of specific moods and colour schemes, and my sources are mostly digital paintings, traditional artworks and photographs. Based on the mood and environment, I choose to paint or do a photo collage of the background elements,” adds Alessandro. See more of Alessandro’s personal FYI work at www.eklettica.com
3d world view “The lighting and texture ensures this take on Deathstroke feels unlike any other. I can’t wait to see more in the series” rob redman
technical editor
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Valhalla
showcase
Artist Rudolf Herczog Software Cinema 4D, Maxwell Render, Photoshop “Believe it or not, I work in construction and normally nowhere near computers and computer graphics,” says Rudolf Herczog who creates CG art such as Valhalla, a scene inspired by ruins of a church, in his spare time. “The trickiest part in the scene was to create decent terrain objects,” says Rudolf, who uses Cinema 4D Prime, which lacks sculpting tools. So he used an old version of Bryce “and its highly useful terrain editor” to make the terrain objects to import into C4D. “Once I was happy with the look of the foreground, I made copies of some of the parts, scaled them up quite a lot and used them for the background with additional models and ornaments.” Rudolf used a simple Maxwell sun to light the scene on two layers, one background and one foreground. “I wanted the scene to have a slightly monochromatic look to it, but still having a little bit of colour here and there,” says Rudolf, adding: “I played around with a few textures and different filters, and also used a few dirt maps for walls, columns and arches.” Discover more of Rudolf’s personal work and FYI his freelance projects at www.rochr.com
3d world view “The atmosphere created by the simple lighting helps to convey the scale and gives the church a fantasy feel”
I wanted the scene to have a slightly monochromatic look, but still have a little bit of colour here and there
Ian Dean
editor
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