ISSUE 07 AUGUST 2006
CGArena
Get Attention in Computer Graphics Community
GALLERY
Showcase of latest 3d inspiring art
PHOTOSHOP Aqua Viva
AFTER EFFECTS Bleach Bypass
INTERVIEW Sushant Dholakia
3DSMAX
Ragdoll and Reactor Water
MATCHMOVING
My First Tracking
contents
05 Interview
10 3d Challenge
12 Photoshop
16 Matchmoving
20 After Effects
26 3ds Max
Sushant Dholakia
Aqua Viva
Bleach Bypass
Haunted
My First Tracking
Ragdoll and Reactor Water
30 Gallery
Showcase of latest 3d inspiring art
Magazine Designed, Written & Edited: Ashish Rastogi, India Magazine Cover Image: Piotr Fox Wysocki, Poland Challenge Sponsors: Vertus, Duber Studio, Di-o-matic, ambientLight
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
industry news modo Wins Prestigious Apple Design Award at WWDC 2006 Luxology® LLC, an independent technology company developing next-generation 3D content creation software, announced its flagship product modo™ earned “Best OS X Graphics” accolades at the 11th Annual Apple Design Awards at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) held in San Francisco. The Mac OS X version of modo enables Apple users to create 3D models and images for uses including graphic design, game and film production, education, and design visualization. The modo content creation experience is enhanced by realistic graphics viewports that provide real-time feedback and impressive manipulation speed in a flexible user interface that invites experimentation and artistic expression.
Mudbox - 3d Sculpting software launched new website Mudbox is the first advanced, high resolution brush-based 3D sculpting software that is built from the ground up to address the needs of the professional digital sculptor. Designed by production artists for production artists, Mudbox introduces new ideas and combines familiar concepts in fresh ways to offer a unique solution for high-end commercial modeling and design. With its friendly interface, consistent structure, respect for industry convention, and a “get it done” focus, Mudbox is quick to learn and easy to use, integrating seamlessly with existing pipelines. Digital artists with previous 3D experience are quickly productive in Mudbox with minimal or even no orientation.
Source: www.luxology.com
Source: www.mudbox3d.com
Buzzword of the Month Pyrotechniques - Pyrotechnics are special effects that deal with incendiary devices such as fire or explosives. Great Care must be taken in setting up this type of special effects, which can be quite elaborate.
To create explosions, pyrotechnics experts mix various types of combustible substances. The most common is black powder, which is a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal that can be handmade or purchased commercially in granular or finely powdered form. Gasoline is also frequently used to fuel an explosion. Naphthalene can create a huge blast when ignited: it is the primary ingredient in mothballs. Pyrotechnical experts are skilled at creating whatever type of explosion is needed for a scene, but digital artists have also become experts in pyrotechnics as they try to re-create explosions using computer graphics. But despite advances in computer pyrotechnics, large-scale on-set pyrotechnics are still being used.
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
A 2D Toon Takes A 3D Ride Blur Studio turns SpongeBob SquarePants as an animated 3D character with Morph-O-Matic When you’re one of the best visual effects shops in town, you usually get some big clients knocking at your door. Blur Studios, based in Venice California, has definitely earned its reputation from the quality of its work and the dedication of its artists, and the knock on the door came last year from Paramount Parks and Nickelodeon when they approached Blur with the idea of producing “a stereoscopic, computer-animated ride film based on the wildly popular Nickelodeon cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants” according to Sherry Wallace, Blur’s Producer for the project. The 4 and a half minute ride make its debut at Paramount Parks Theme Parks across North America two years ago and is now projected across globe at many Theme Parks. Of course, on a job this big, there were significant hurdles to overcome. First and foremost, Blur was given the daunting task of taking the original 2D elements and converting them into 3D while not losing the originals’ quality. Add to that the fact that they had 15 unique characters to model and animate, including six who had speaking parts. Blur’s CG Supervisor Paul Taylor recalls, “For the characters who had dialogue, we had to use morph targets for all the facial lip-syncing.” Blur immediately began to look at tools that could help increase their productivity, and Morph-O-Matic soon came to their attention. As Sze Chan, one of Blur’s modelers and character riggers who worked on the project knew, “Without a tool like Morph-O-Matic, we would have had to transfer animation for each channel inside of Track View.” Instead, Blur was able to do things not previously possible with the built-in tools and in far less time. And on such a massive project, time was critical. Fortunately, both Chan and Taylor agreed that the product had “No learning curve”, and that they were up and running in less than a day. That was also especially important for Blur’s Lead Character Animator, Marlon Now. “Morph-O-Matic provided a faster solution with more possibilities, a better interface, and nice floaters with sliders,” he said, “You need smooth playback while animating facial animation and Morph-O-Matic provided it.” And Chan echoed his workmate’s sentiments on the ease of use, “Beyond the number of channels that Morph-OMatic could display at once, the other nice feature was its capability to open multiple floaters for different characters and animate them all at once.” This saved the Blur team lots of unneeded aggravation and let them focus on the task of producing stunning character output for Paramount Parks. Now summed up his experiences with Morph-O-Matic on the SpongeBob SquarePants ride pretty simply, “It’s faster and smoother than any other existing morphing solution for 3ds max.” concludes Marlon Now. Download link Watch a clip from the 4D Spongebob Ride created by Blur Studios: www.blur.com/html_quicktime/spongebob.html Morph-O-Matic, the award winning progressive morphing plugin for 3ds max : www.di-o-matic.com/products/Plugins/MorphOMatic/
interview
AN INTERVIEW WITH Sushant Dholakia Q. Hello Sushant, could you tell us a bit about yourself? Hi there! Everything in nature including animals, the kaleidoscopic forms and wondrous hues around me, the marvel and beauty that life occasions for me, greatly fascinates my impressionable young mind and fires my imagination. It is this love for creativity which led me to pursue my lifelong ambition. CG, I found, was the perfect blend of all that encompassed my creative side along with my love for computers, and animation is what enabled me to put life into those thoughts and ideas I am currently living in Canada, working at SOHO VFX on a live action feature film. I am originally from India and moved to Canada in September 2005 for Digital Character Animation Program at Sheridan College. Before coming here, I was working at Moving Picture Company India Ltd, New Delhi as a CG Artist. I was multi-tasking there on ‘Jungle Tales’, the first animated series from India, broadcast on Cartoon Network, Asia.
Q. You recently completed your Animation Program from Sheridan College, so what’s the reason of choosing Sheridan over others and how do you rate the overall teaching atmosphere?
I chose Sheridan mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, Sheridan is one of the most reputed institutes across the globe. Secondly, my very close friend who did the same course in 2005 spoke highly of its curriculum and the instructors. And now that I’ve graduated, I realize this was one of the wisest decisions I ever took in my life.
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
interview
AN INTERVIEW WITH Sushant Dholakia Q. Your animation film ‘Lolly Poo Lee’ has been selected for the TELETOON Canadian Student Animation Scholarship ‘06 and is going to be screened at the Ottawa Internation Animation Festival in the ‘Most Promising Student Category’. So how do you feel and what’s the future plans? I don’t think there is more joy to life than to see your hard work pay off. Ottawa International Animation Festival is providing me the platform to showcase my film to the CG community. What a great opportunity to share all that work with people! I wanted to send my film to other film festivals too, but my new work is keeping me too busy. Hopefully after September, when I am done with this project, I shall be able to send it to other festivals. Q. From where you get the idea of creating a ‘Lolly Poo Lee’ and how much drawing skills is essential for any 3d artists? Lolly Poo Lee is based on a poem by Bruce Burrow. Many students have benefited from the huge reservoir of his poems. Even though my film is based on his poem, what’s actually happening in the film differs from the actual narration. This was done to add twist and gags to the whole short.
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
interview
AN INTERVIEW WITH Sushant Dholakia
As far as drawing skills are concerned, I think they are a great foundation and are very essential for every 3D artist. Although I regret not to have any formal training in 2D, I also think that its never too late to do something in life that is of vital importance. Q. What software program(s) do you use for your CG and why? I used Maya, Digital Fusion, After Effects, Photoshop and Premier. I was working on 3Ds MAX before I came to Sheridan, but switched to Maya because its in their curriculum. Digital Fusion is a powerful post-production tool and definitely enhanced the look and feel of my film. Q. If you could invent your dream job, where would you work & what would be your job title? Hmm, interesting! Ideal job?...I guess would be to get paid for making your own short films. ;) I would like to do everything from pre to post production, focusing the most on story-telling and animation.
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
interview
AN INTERVIEW WITH Sushant Dholakia Q. What’s the most useful thing you have learnt in 3d? To be humble. There’s so much to learn and that you can never reach a stage that you can learn no more. Q. What have been your major influences over the years? Colleagues; friends; inspirational stuff online on CG portals etc; animated movies from the likes of PIXAR, Dreamworks, Blue Sky, Sony and others. I get inspired and influenced by almost every piece of art around me. Q. Are you working on any projects currently? If so, what are they? I am currently working on the live action feature film, The Chronicles of Narnia, as a character animator. We are working on the battle sequence for the extended version (Director’s cut) of the film. I can’t really talk in detail about my current project, but will soon share with everyone all the details once I am given the green signal. :) Q. What is one piece of advice you would give to any artist looking to get into 3D? Every form of art is complex, but not so complex that it cannot be achieved. As Marc Chagall aptly puts it - ‘Great art begins where the nature ends’. Give your heart and soul to everything you do and the success will be all yours. Q. What are your hobbies and please describe your free time, and do you get anytime for your girlfriend? Did you say Free time? hehe...what’s that? Lately I have been putting in long working hours for this feature film. Apart from animation, I love to travel, hang out with my friends and watch movies. Unfortunately, I am away from my girlfriend who is in India, so most of the time that I am not animating I am talking to her on the phone. :) She keeps me motivated and determined. Being an animator herself, I get all the valuable comments and critiques I need.
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
interview
AN INTERVIEW WITH Sushant Dholakia Q. Anything you like to add? It is your chance now to state your opinion about anything Don’t get into 3D or 2D because you think it is cool and pays you lot of money. Unless you enjoy doing what you do, you will never be able to achieve greater heights. Make animation your way of life, not just a career. Thanks a lot Sushant for taking out sometime for us from your busy schedule. The pleasure is entirely mine. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to reach out to people.
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
challenge
Already Running
CGArena is proud to present “Haunted” Challenge (3D Challenge), 29 July - 15 Sep 2006, sponsored by Vertus, Di-o-matic, ambientLight and Duber Studio. We want different ideas and approaches in a more creative way.
Your Mission Create an image which shows Haunted look. This Challenge is a Work-In-Progress Challenge -- all contestants are required to post their work-in-progress images for community to critique/comment in order to qualify.
How the Challenge will be Run This challenge will be a WIP (Work in Progress) Challenge. Each challenger is required to submit Work In Progress (WIP) images, from the initial concept sketch to the final render. The purpose is that everyone can learn from each other, offer feedback and critiques. 1. Enter the Challenge by registering yourself on CGArena forum. 2. Submit your work in progress images in forum on a regular basis. 3. Participate in the community by critiquing other challengers works in the respective forums. 4. Submit your final entry till 15th September 2006, midnight 00:00 GMT. 5. There will be 3 winners in this 3D Challenge and CGArena, Sponsers and Judges decision will be final. Note: You are required to submit work in progress images, obtain feedback and give feedback to other challengers.
Final Image Size - Your final image dimensions should be print resolution. Do not send in a low-resolution. - A guideline is 1200 pixels wide and/or 1024 high, JPG, 300 DPI. - Send your final image in zip format with your complete shipping address and telephone number on email address ezine@ cgarena.com
First Prize Di-o-matic Character Pack - $1990USD Vertus Fluid Mask 2.0 - $199USD Duber Studio Training DVD (3DVD’s) - $88USD
Second Prize ambietLight Multibay Texture Bundle - $130USD Duber Studio Training DVD (2DVD’s) - $59USD
Third Prize Duber Studio Training DVD (1 DVD) - $30USD
Consolation Prize (Qualified Entries will receive) Duber Head Rigging Modeling Video Tutorial - $5USD
The entire process needed in order to create a fairly flexible, usable and fast head/face rig, that you can either further enhance or build on, or actually use as is in your character workflow. This one hour, fully narrated, videotutorial covers the head/neck rigging, operational jaw bone rigging and a bit more complex eyes and eye lids rigging.
photoshop
Aqua Viva Everyone knows the cool Macintosh Aqua effect. You can create your own Aqua text effects in a few minutes using Photoshop. Always remember the secret of the Aqua effect is in the highlighting. Now this simple tutorial will guide you through the steps of creating Aqua Text.
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Issue 07 Aug 2006
photoshop Step One Use Type Tool [T] to create text, we will later create aqua effect using layer blending modes. The color of the text doesnt matter, choose any color you want. Step Two Right click on the text layer and select Blending Options. (or go: Layer >> Layer Style >> Blending Options ). Layer Style window will open, click on Gradient Overlay and change the gradient color from dark to light of any color you want. I choose sky blue here. Also change the Angle to -90, so dark color on top and light on bottom.
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photoshop Step Three In the Layer Style window select Inner Shadow checkbox on the left and change the Angle - 90, increase the distance and size values according to your image and text size because all these settings worked according to the size of the image. Reduce the opacity to around 65. Now text looking punched in the surface, because Inner shadow main job is this.
Step Four Now select the Drop Shadow checkbox on the left and change the same settings as in Inner shadow window.
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photoshop Step Five Now check the Outer Glow and change the Mode to black, color to black, reduce the opacity and increase the size little bit. Outer Glow required where the aqua effect sits.
Final Step Now check the Bevel and Emboss checkbox and voila effect is there but need to fix few things like change the Altitude to 75, this decides how much high the light is. Increase the Highlight Mode Opacity to 100 and reduce the Shadow Mode Opacity to 0 because we dont require any more shadows. If you want then also change the Contour and in Pattern Overlay apply the pattern for some transparency in the aqua effect.
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matchmoving
My First Tracking Matchmoving programs are arguably the most important tools in a matchmover’s arsenal. They give the matchmover the ability to take nearly any image sequence and generate a “solution” for the camera’s movement and the positions of features seen in the images. Boujou makes it easier to add 3D objects to live camera footage in your 3D animation package by creating a virtual camera that matches the physical one that took the shot. It does this by automatically identifying features in the scene over the entire length of the shot.
Click on above Image to Play the Video
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matchmoving Step 1: Click on the Import Sequence button in the toolbox. Browse for the image sequence/movie of your choice and click on the filename and then click on the Open button. Step 2: The Import Sequence... properties dialog will now appear. Change the Mode Type to Free Move or Nodal Pan. Set the Start and End Frame of image sequence you want to track and Accept the default values for others and select OK.
Free Move - Shots in which movement is not restricted. With these camera moves, the objects that are closer to the camera move faster than those far away, and that means they’ll exhibit more parallax. You’ll often see these referred to in the various matchmoving programs as Free Move or Free cameras. Nodal Pan - Nodal Pan shots are pure rotation and so they contain no parallex (read june issue). Foreground objects do not appear to move relative to background objects and so there is no way of knowing the positions of these objects in 3d space. Step 3: If you know the correct Camera settings then double click on the camera in the artifact tree view of taskview and enter the correct settings otherwise leave default. Same for the focal length.
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matchmoving Step 4: Click on the Track Features button in the toolbox. Accept the defaults and press Start in the Feature Tracking Properties. Feature tracking progess is shown in the Status bar just below the main image window. Step 5: Now click on the Camera Tracking button in the toolbox and press start with default settings. Camera Tracking progess is also shown in the Status bar just below the main image window
Save the project when tracking is complete. Step 6: You can check the status/location of the prediction points in the 3d view of the boujou by pressing 3d button in the top toolbar.
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matchmoving Red line in the above images is the camera movement in your image sequences. And others are the prediction points in your image sequence. Yellow color predictions are available in whole image sequence and blue color ones not available in full sequence. If you select them then selected one change to green color. Step 7: Now add the Test Objects in the scene for veifying the quality of matchmove. Select some predictions on the ground in front of the house - they will turn green when selected. Click on the Add Test Object shortcut in the Toolbox. In the Test Objects dialog make sure that Ladybird is the selected Type. Select Orient and Move from the Alignment drop-down list. Choose Plane through selected predictions from the Align to box. When you click the OK button the dialog will close and the Ladybird test object will move to the area of ground. Play through the sequence – the Ladybird will appear to be stuck to the ground
Export the camera points by pressing Export Camera button in the toolbox and select the package in which you add 3D. For 3ds Max the file has the extension *.ms. To run the script go to [MAXScripts->Run Script] in 3D Studio Max. In Maya file has the extension *.ma. To run the script go to [File->Import->mayaAscii] in Maya. For now That’s all folks.
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after effects
Bleach Bypass
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after effects Most videographers don’t have the luxury of spending money on film to achieve this look, they usually turn to mimicking the look in post. The bleach bypass process (also called skip bleach) is a process during film processing where silver is not removed from the negative. Essentially you end up with a black and white image superimposed on a color image. The end result is increased contrast and reduced saturation. Step 1: Import and place your footage in your composition. Step 2: Apply Effect > Color Correction > Levels on the footage layer.
Step 3: Increase the Input Black setting and Decrease the Input White setting for higher contrast and brightness. You can also achieve the same effect by apply Brightness and Contrast Filter and increasing the values.
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after effects Step 4: Duplicate the footage layer and delete the effects from this layer. Change the mode of the duplicate layer to Color and voila... you achieve the effect that we are looking.
If you want you can achieve same effect in one layer too. Just Apply Effect > Channel > CC Composite and change the composite original to Color.
In Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan, the bleach bypass method of treating film gives a very unique look to a project.
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www.cgarena.com CGArena brings you latest news and happenings 24 hours a day. Plus, join in our interactive forums to showcase your work, and get attention in the computer graphics community
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your mission In June, your mission was to create a image on “Love” theme and sponsored by Realviz,Vertus, Corel, Duber Studio and Daz3D. These are the winning images...
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3ds max
Ragdoll and Reactor Water In this tutorial will teach you how to use Ragdoll and Reactor Water for floating above water effect. Step 1: Create a water object from the reactor toolbar in the top viewport and make the subdivisions to 50 x 50. Increase the Min ripple and Max ripple values to higher number, I choose 30 and 500 respectively. Turning on depth is not necessary for this tutorial but if you creating a wakes from a moving boat then its good that you enable the depth.
Now if you render water then you can’t see anything in the render because this is a space warp and space warp can’t render. So create a plane in the top viewport, increase the number of width and length segments and bind with the reactor water.
Step 2: Create a ragdoll. In the utilities panel, click the maxscript button and then click Run script button. Now search for the ragdoll script (rctRagdollScript) in the 3dsmax/scripts folder and click open.
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3ds max Step 3: Now Ragdoll dialog box will open. Click the Create Humanoid button and a piped shaped character will create in the viewport. Now click the Constrain Humanoid button in the dialog box and this will create constraints between the parts of the character.
Step 4: Now click the reactor button in the utilities panel and increase the number of end frame to around 200 and done same for the timeline. Now press Preview in Window button and play the animation in the reactor window. If you like then you can give a different mass to the parts of the body. For fun remove the RagdollCsolver and play the animation in the reactor window. Now parts of the ragdoll are not connected so some of them will go down in the water and some starting to float like boxes.
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3ds max
Step 5: That’s all. Click on Create Animation in the reactor toolbar or button in the utilities panel.
Reactor will ponder your animation for awhile. Sometimes the only problem is, the ripples are barely visible. Select the WSM Binding, and increase the Scale Strength until you get the effect you’re looking for.
For fun, you can add a Displace modifier and use the Waves procedural map. Make some materials, and voíla!
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3D Objects, Textures, E-books, Free digital Art Magazines, you will always find a way to be inspired in the : IT’S ART STORE
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gallery
The Last Elf Piotr Fox Wysocki, Poland piotrwysocki@op.pl Maya, Zbrush, Photoshop Page 30
Issue 07 Aug 2006
gallery
The Last Knight Carsten Holtmann, Germany choltmann@gmx.de 3ds Max 6, Photoshop, Zbrush Page 31
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gallery
Thinker Christopher G, Poland manowarek@gmail.com 3ds Max, Photoshop Page 32
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gallery
The Guardian Avinash Hegde, India avinash3ds@yahoo.com 3ds Max, Zbrush, Photoshop Page 33
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gallery
The Unknown Michal Konwicki, Poland cha1ek@poczta.onet.pl 3ds Max 8, Vray, Photoshop
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Living Space Roland Cruz, UAE rolandmcruz@yahoo.com 3ds Max
Issue 07 Aug 2006
gallery
Alone 7thAve, Hungry 7thAve@fpn.hu 3ds Max 8, Photoshop
Living Room Chien, China caixiaoliu1057@yahoo.co.cn 3ds Max, Vray Page 35
Issue 07 Aug 2006
gallery
Street Blues The Psicosonic Team - Manuel Gascó, Spain info@psicosonic.net 3ds Max, Vray, Photoshop Page 36
Issue 07 Aug 2006
gallery
White Teeth Jonathan Simard capitaine_star@hotmail.com 3ds Max, Photoshop Page 37
Issue 07 Aug 2006
submission
How to send in your images... We showcase the cream of reader images in E-Zine and on website - here’s how to get yours noticed
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