MavCore 3D Animation Magazine - Issue #3

RAY & CLOVIS Animated series by Theory Studios

HUMSTER3D Q&A

Q&A with one of the largest model creators.

AVENGING ANGEL

3D comic series

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contents April - June 2017

Cover Art Model Used: Betsy by P3Design

Cover Stories 18 | Ray & Clovis

Ray & Clovis, a humorous story of two opposite personalities, is an animated series created by Theory Studios.

46 | Humster3D Q&A

A follow-up Q&A with Humster3D, one of the largest model creators.

50 | Avenging Angel

Esther Carney tells her process of creating a comic book using 3D programs.

18 Resources 30 | Full Rotation

A company that offers a variety of resources to animation artists. Based in the U.K., their services include:

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2D & 3D design Motion design Character & creature animation And more... http://mc3dmag.com

3D Film 12 | Bibo

A story of a lonely robot trying to hold on to the past and what his world once was.

26 | Dust Buddies

A fun short film about the friendship between two dust bunnies.

40 | Wire Cutters

A chance encounter proves fateful for 2 robots mining on a desolate planet.

08 Concept Art Futuristic, 3D vehicle concept art created by Lee Rosario. Concepts in this issue include:

08 | Vultran Tiger 1 20 | Vultran Spectra 32 | Vultran Solair

26 38 | FatCatAlley

A variety web show that encompasses multiple sites and has been operating for over 17 years. Some of the shows include: •

SpaceCat

• Secret Agent Cat: 009 Lives • FatCatAlley Minute

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Model created by Lee Rosario Lee is an industrial design major based out of Orlando, Florida with a passion for concept transportation design in the fields of land and aeronautical vehicles. http://leerosario.com The Vultran Tyger1 is a hybrid powered piloted drone inspired by advanced fighter jet, rotorcraft and drone technologies. The Tyger 1 is powered by a core Vultran TM108 gas powered turbine power plant (for air multiplier propulsion) and four high output brushless electric AC induction motors driving 4 sets of twin stacked propeller blades. This combined with the low weight characteristics of carbon composites, epoxy and metal alloys, the Tyger 1 proposes to usher a new era far beyond current high performance Vertical Landing and Takeoff (VTOL) standards.

It’s technology boasts everything from state of the art safety features, advancements in air multiplication technology (Blade-less fan), unprecedented maneuverability and Artificial Intelligence guidance systems to help reduce pilot workload by up to 40% and increase response time by up to 80%.

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At the heart of the technology is Vultran’s onboard Artificial Intelligence Operating System (AIOS) also known as Alexia. Alexia is able to simultaneously monitor conditions from pilot vitals to outside hazards and threats. From aircraft systems regulation to emergency troubleshooting and intervention, all at instant speeds. The goal is to enhance any given pilot’s effectiveness as well as connecting directly into the machine.

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Aircraft Type: Hybrid VTOL high performance rotor Crew: 2 (1 human and 1 Artificial Intelligence) Flight Suit Technology: Vultran Type1 Artificial Intelligence Flight Suit and HUD Helmet Fuselage Length: 24ft 6in Width: 24ft 6in Height: 7ft 2in Curb Ground Clearance: 12in Rotor Diameter: 5ft 6in Propulsion Systems: 4 x Twin stacked propeller blade propulsion (with an offset of 45 degrees) coupled with four air multiplier nozzle outputs (blade-less fan) Empty Weight: 3000lb Powerplant: Vultran Core TM108 Gas Turbine and 4x AC560 Brushless AC electric http://mc3dmag.com

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indiction motors Fuel Source: Quick charge High performance output Lithium Battery and aviation fuel Endurance: 3hr Service Ceiling: 15,000ft Onboard CPU Processing: 4x 16 Core AMD Opteron CPU Processor (3.5ghz) Operating System Software: Alexia 3.4 (Proprietary) Recharge Methods: Electric recharge station, kinetic belt drive and onboard solar panels with day and night charging capabilities Emergency system implementations: water landing certified, autorotate, AI assisted systems management, weight redistribution system in the event of engine failure and parachute systems (in the even of total failure of 2 or more propellers) Glass Cockpit Digital Liquid Instrument panel Fly-by-Wire digital flight controls

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T1 Artificial Intelligence Suit Alexia controlled core systems Liquid cooled distribution system Fiber Optic neural information network connection (able to upload body data in real time) Augmented Reality/HUD Helmet displays real time data such as systems information, environmental conditions and navigational data Biological Vital real time feedback motoring systems (heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, body temperature, breathing rate, etc).

Built in emergency response system is able to perform a number of essential quick response medical tasks Built in temperature control system Lightweight impact resistant body armor with Natural Flex technology Impact resistant composite armor Autonomous Flight modes

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Bibo

3D Animation Written by: Anton Chistiakov

project

The Idea

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We were very young and did not know much about how to make films.

For us Bibo was a way to express our feelings and ideas about the world. The idea of film came to Michael during the summer vacation.

We were still students. The whole point of it was that no matter how popular the man was when he was young the time comes and he is left alone and forgotten. Very clear picture stood before the eyes.

Robot who sells ice cream surrounded by children. Popular in the past he carries on in the world where only him is still alive. He creates his illusionary world to experience the emotions of the past when he was needed.

We wanted to tell the story about him.. And when you want something this much you will find time. The desire creates opportunities. Even if you are not a professional, but something presses inside you, presses something to say, then go and do it.

When we started to work on the script we thought it is gonna be an easy job since the synopsis had been formed and clear for us. But http://mc3dmag.com

having practically no experience in the industry at this stage, we learned things the hard way. We had a feeling of what the story should be but had no practice of developing the script.

The story began to expand unexpectedly, we began to add more and more details, more stuff we thought we needed in the story. In a script, as in life, any lie emerges to the surface. Each act, the action of the hero, any event must have logic and meaning.

And one day we found ourselves in a situation where we have a script for around 20-30 minutes film. We obviously didn’t have that amount of resources. As a result, the work on the script and animatic stretched for more than a year.

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly at all) after a year of working on the script, we eventually returned to the very first version, the simplest and cleanest one. The same as the idea itself. But we would never have understood this without going this path.

stands behind these visuals. But we tried. In every detail we tried to go from the idea of beauty and purity.

At some intuitive level we were building the atmosphere of the film. For example, we knew that the second day should start with cockroaches and there should be three of them. Why - we do not know. They were supposed to be there and there should have been three of them.

Sharing

Visuals For the look of Bibo a great role was played by the artist Goro Fujita. Amongst other references his works had the right feelings in them, the right atmosphere that we were aiming to achieve with our film.

One of our friends helped us with the concept art. But only at the modeling stage we came with the final look of Bibo. Since our drawing skill was not good enough (wasn’t good at all), we could not express the final thought at that stage. And that’s the point, when you are a beginner. If you don’t know how to draw - model, do not know how to model - sculpt. You probably have that skill that will replace the lack of another.

Makoto Shinkai’s “5 Centimeters Per Second” was the main source of inspiration for the visuals in the film. However, admiring the visuals, we did not see that profound, masterful level of directing that http://mc3dmag.com

Sharing your work with others on every stage of production is always important. We didn’t do that very often and probably suffered from that.

One of the crucial moments on making Bibo was when we were looking for a composer. At first all we wanted for Bibo was jazz.

So our choice fell on a former Michael’s music teacher and jazz composer Gennady Golstein. We visited him with pretty rough cut of Bibo with a lot of unfinished scenes. This cut was very accurate to our 3D animatic. We liked it, we knew the story, we thought it’s obvious what we want to say with our film.. That was a mess.

Gennady was puzzled and to be honest bored to the end of the film. “I don’t understand it - he said - The robot walks somewhere, that’s all I can see”.

That was a lesson for us. We threw away third of the scenes and recut the whole thing. With some mistakes as we can see now but that was the cut we finished the film with.

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People And sharing is not only crucial when you need a critique from the side. When you are looking for people for your project you need to share with them everything what you’ve got inside about the project and life in general. You should know and feel that your project is cool. Be able to inspire people is what you need. Especially when you don’t have a budget.

We didn’t.

In the end, the most cool memories are memories of working with other people. How they share your idea and how they invest in it.

Working on the final mix at some local radio station till 5 a.m. with a live broadcast behind the wall - where else you will get such experience if you not working on something cool. Making Bibo was fun! Maria Believskaya even won the award for the best sound design at the Los Angeles Movie Awards festival.

It’s almost impossible to make the film alone.

Then we started making Bibo we hadn’t even think that in the end we gonna need a composer, a sound designer, a colorist etc. You need other like-minded people who will believe in your idea, will bring new ideas to the table and influence the project.

As we mentioned before we wanted jazz for Bibo. Needless to say that Gennady Golstein had no intention to participate. So we found a young composer who works in an electronic Zimmer-like style.

Actually, our compositing artist and colorist helped us to find this guy (yes, new creative people help you to find more cool creative people!). And he offered absolutely new music atmosphere for Bibo. The one we didn’t consider before. New people bring new colors!

We were incredibly lucky with Alexandr Ambalov. Anton knows him from university they were studying together. To be honest our render was pretty poor. But Alexandr with his magical skills raised the picture quality to the top. Alexandr was a great and true collaborator for over a year.

Every person working on the project brings new colors. With every stage of production the project changes, the film transforms.

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It’s all worth it!

We had real fun. It was fantastic to go to New York’s Golden Egg Film Festival. Running around Manhattan at 4 a.m. in search for food after winning the award and feel the happiest person in the world with the feeling that you can do everything - it’s priceless.

For us working on Bibo was much more than just 7 minutes for portfolio. One of the characters of Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Wind Rises” said that the artist’s life lasts 10 years. What a person will do in the span of 20 to 30 years, will form his personality, professional quality and determine his future path in life. To a large extent Bibo has given a big boost to our professional career. If you question yourself whether it is worth undertaking the realization of your bold ideas and the work seems impossible, there is only one answer - it’s worth it!

Contact: Anton Chistiakov https://facebook.com/anton.chistyakov.581 https://vimeo.com/antonchistiakov Mikhail Dmitriev https://www.facebook.com/royaltymisha

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Ray & Clovis

A 3D Animated Series

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Written by: Katie Patenaude The premise for Ray & Clovis is a familiar one: a series is about two opposite-personality guys rooming together. One is sophisticated and a little high-strung, the other is larger-than-life and a little immature. Both have dreams and aspirations, and both can’t quite come to grips with how the other sees the world.

What separates Ray & Clovis from other animated fare isn’t that it stars an iguana and a cat (though that certainly makes it stand out).

Instead, the series stands on a solid foundation of two core elements: humor and heart.

The humor comes courtesy of the brilliant mind of writer/ animator/director Evan Detwiler. He is the mastermind behind the quick quips and hilarious twists that comprise each episode. As the voice of Ray, his dry humor sets the scene for the wild, bouncing energy that is Clovis, voiced by Detwiler’s friend and former roommate, Chris Metzger.

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helps showcase Ray & Clovis’ ability to make even the most mundane task an adventure. Choosing a movie for movie night, checking a book out from the library, even doing some spring cleaning are all humorously enhanced, be it by black magic, robots, or a few spot-on celebrity impressions. The viewer may never quite know where Ray & Clovis will take them next, but in Detwiler’s hands, they’re sure to be in for a fantastic trip.

Equally important is the heart that permeates the series, both on-screen and behind it. At its core, Ray & Clovis is a labor of love, brought to you by the talented folks of Theory Studios.

Theory itself began as a hypothesis: what if artists could work together from anywhere in the world?

This was the question on the minds of cofounders David Andrade and Mark Olson. The two had met as students of the online animation school, Animation Mentor. Andrade, an American, and Olson, a Canadian, both shared a mutual admiration for the program’s online classroom approach and access to mentors working in the animation field. This, they agreed, was a great way to teach the art of animation, but once graduation hit, so did reality.

Animators have to move to where the jobs are, and in a global economy, that could mean moving to a country halfway around the world.

Why, Andrade and Olson wondered, must artists be uprooted for a job that might only last a few months? Couldn’t the formula of a virtual classroom be applied to an animation studio?

In 2006, Andrade and Olson began working on the basics of a virtual studio in their spare time.

Using a combination of programming prowess and existing communication technology, a functioning animation pipeline began to emerge. The duo also began reaching out to like-minded artists, inviting them to test the idea of working together under one virtual roof.

One such artist was Detwiler. Mentored by Andrade during his own turn at Animation Mentor, Detwiler had shared his early Ray & Clovis scripts and storyboards as a possible series for the studio.

The story’s potential was obvious , and with a cat/ iguana team practically unheard of, Ray & Clovis was quickly championed as the next step for the studio. Andrade asked Detwiler to join as writer and director of the series’ first short.

The fledgling studio staff was entirely volunteer-based; artists joined the ranks for a chance at creative creation or as a way to hone http://mc3dmag.com

their own film-related skills. Before work, after school, at all hours of the day and night, the group of 18 artists worked however they could to bring Detwiler’s vision to life.

Finally, in July of 2013 Ray & Clovis starred in their first short: Ray & Clovis in Movie Night!

Theory had done it! The studio proved a virtual animation studio could be a viable way of creating entertainment. Thanks to Andrade and Olson’s vision, and Detwiler’s ever-growing imagination, Ray & Clovis served as a launching point for several projects, including VFX work on Silicon Valley and The Man in the High Castle , courses on Lynda.com, and of course, more Ray & Clovis shorts.

Now in their 20th short, Ray & Clovis have brought humor and heart into the lives of their fans all over the world. And with a current studio roster of 49 dedicated artists and counting, they’ll be able to continue doing so; new Ray & Clovis shorts are already in the works.

This cat and iguana team turned a hypothesis into a Theory; who knows what they’ll do next!

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Model created by Lee Rosario Lee is an industrial design major based out of Orlando, Florida with a passion for concept transportation design in the fields of land and aeronautical vehicles. http://leerosario.com The Vultran Spectra is a wide-bodied next generation luxury ultra car concept designed for the highest and ultimate driving enthusiast experience. It derives much of its style, technology, materials and design from commercial and military aviation technology, future automotive technologies, exciting existing tech, as well as inspiration from classic brands like Lamborgini and McLaren.

The idea is to bring drivers a whole new and unprecedented driving experience, making them feel connected to the car as organically as an extension of the drivers themselves. The cockpit features a panoramic windshield design allowing unprecedented views of 180 degrees side to size and 90 degrees top to front with built in auto or manual tinting privacy settings (controlled by zones). An onboard high performance wireless router connects the vehicle and all compatible 22 | MC3D | April - June 2017

devices to the wifi, ensuring you are always connected. If you need to access or start the car, simply touch anywhere on the outer skin of the vehicle or the interior touch screen and the Spectra will instantly recognize any approved fingerprints and recall individual user preferences. No more door hinges or buttons to press as everything is touch activated. Another cool feature (inspired by current existing Shiftwear technology) is the application of a flexible digital display around the outer skin of the car, allowing you to instantly change the style, color and real time motion graphics displayed on you vehicle. The middle windshield section detaches, turning the Spectra into a convertible for those days you want to hit the road and cruise with the sun in your face.

The Spectra does away with the conventional steering wheel and now gives the driver 3 options to choose from such as: •

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Motion Sensing Technology intuitively reads hand gestures and eye movements to dictate the turning movements of the car (with A.I. assistance).

A center mounted joystick (Drive by Wire) allowing both drive and passenger to easily take control of the vehicle (for both left and right handed drivers). Foot pedals on http://mc3dmag.com

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both sides activated from main left driver position (vehicle must be stopped and in park) Fully autonomous driving handled by onboard A.I. and directed through organic “human” intelligent communication between driver and machine.

Spectra R-Spec standard proposed features: • • •

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All glass cockpit eliminates traditional knobs, dials, analog gauges and buttons.

Intelligent A.I. helps reduce driver workload, manage vehicle systems and watch for road hazards.

Car body wrapped in flexible digital display technology allows driver to change the exterior color of the car via smartphone app (inspired by Shiftwear).

Highly efficient embedded solar panel nano wires under the exterior skin allow for day and nighttime charging of lithium battery Three drive modes include : 1) Motion Sensing 2) Drive by Wire joystick 3) Fully Autonomous Intelligent fingerprint scan security and engine start system stores individual driver settings Anti-Glare high output Lazer Tech headlights and taillights Driver controlled cockpit window tinting adapts to sunlight or changes to desired privacy settings Active rearview 5K camera mounted system

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Panoramic cockpit window allows 180 degrees of lateral views and over 90 degree front to top viewing Augmented reality holographic windshield instrument display (driver is able to choose from a variety of styles and dashboard themes) 80% 3D printable lightweight and durable construction Vultran Tech custom LED wheel rims Commercial aviation grade titanium alloy frame Rear Drive high performance racing grade AC indiction brushless motor Lithium battery charged via solar power, standard charging station and kinetic breaking Laser scan technology projects read line behind vehicle during heavy fog conditions to alert other drivers Sonic impulse generators at the base of the front windshield eliminate the need for windshield wipers Hyperrealistic Dolby Digital 6.0 surround sound system Hydrolift vertical opening doors and cockpit window Custom climate controlled leather racing seats and interior Detachable cockpit window for convertible experience

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Dust Buddies 3D animated short

project

Written by: Sam Wade & Beth Tomashek

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The film took about a year and a half to complete from start to finish. We began developing the story during our junior year at Ringling College of Art and Design and spent our senior year making the film come to life. The basic idea for our story came from an old storyboard pitch from Beth about an army of dust bunnies who join together to throw out an evil maid.

Though the general idea remains the same, almost everything about the final story ended up being changed from that original pitch. We strived to find a reason to emotionally connect with the dust bunnies and their fight against the maid, and we also had to be mindful of the scope of our film so that we could be sure to complete it by our deadline. For this reason what once was going to be an army of hundreds of dust bunnies joining together to become one giant bunny turned into only five little guys with a story driven by the friendship between our two leads, who we affectionately named Fuzz and Lint. http://mc3dmag.com

The biggest challenge of the filmmaking process was undoubtedly creating the fur. This was a long problem solving process, and the fur underwent dozens of interesting and sometimes bizarre iterations before we found a look that matched what we were going for. But that was only half the problem - the other half of it came when it was time to render our film.

Between the two of us it was a huge learning process to try to get the fur to render out correctly and within a reasonable amount of time. Certain frames where the fur takes up a large amount of screen space were absurdly inefficient, especially when dozens of other students were trying to get their films rendered out at the same time.

This was a huge challenge for us and took a lot of problem solving, trial and error, and late nights to get figured out, and to our relief we just barely managed to get everything done in time for the final deadline.

We’re very happy with the final product of our film, made complete by a score composed by Corey Wallace. We loved the process of making this film and figuring out what works and doesnt work, and working with our instructors and other students to get feedback helped make the film even better. We our immensely proud of this student film and all of the things we learned while working on it.

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Written by: David Mattock

resources

Animation & Motion Design to bring your project alive.

Add quality 2D & 3D animation to any project.

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Full Rotation is a small Animation studio with big buzz. They offer a wide range of engaging 2D or 3D Animation and Motion Design to suit any project, from Broadcast, TV series, Commercials to Corporate films, Animated explainer videos, to Creature and Character animation.

Are you a small startup company that needs to explain your product or service in a fun, engaging and easy to understand way?

Are you working on a new TV show and need informative graphics, vfx? documentary style or a new animated childrens series?

Are you producing a new corporate film for a client that with informative graphics and animation could take it to another level?

They can also take your mascot and bring it to life with dynamic character animation Full Rotation creates engaging Animation for Broadcast or Online.

2D, 3D animation & Motion Graphics for TV, Film or Corporate. http://mc3dmag.com

From TV commercials, Corporate films to Character animation & Childrens TV. ● 2D, 3D Animation ● Animated Explainer videos. ● Character and Creature animation ● Motion Graphic Design ● VFX ● Infographics ● Corporate Films Have a look at their showreel here: http:// fullrotation.com/general-animation-showreel/ Perhaps you are just interested in Character animation, see the showreel here: http:// fullrotation.com/creature-character-animationshowreel/ We say with video animation you can engage with your audience and increase sales! Designing your own videos and animation is a daunting process, with a host of issues affecting the endproduct that you’re left with. Often the result lacks the quality finish that you see on TV or at corporate events. Our small team at Full Rotation can help to bring your ideas together in a sleek animated video.

Full Rotation was created by David Mattock an Artist / Animator working freelance at the time for a range of clients but was overloaded as workload increased. Instead of turning down projects with regular clients because he was already booked, he formed close relationships with other artists and partnering with another studio.

Now they offer the same personal service, you will still get one on one contact with David throughout your project, but behind the scenes they now have more creative minds making your project a reality, and no long waiting time to start your project which is good for those tricky deadlines.

We are based in the UK but have clients everywhere and can produce animation for you wherever you are based globally!

See our work at fullrotation.com Or call David on +44 0333 577 8060 info@fullrotation.com

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Model created by Lee Rosario Lee is an industrial design major based out of Orlando, Florida with a passion for concept transportation design in the fields of land and aeronautical vehicles. http://leerosario.com The Vultran Solair is a modular electric automobile concept that incorporates proven current technologies and developing future technologies. It can serve both as a sports convertible and an off road all terrain vehicle. With a carbon composite unibody design and open air architecture (OAA), the Solair proposes to provide a unique experience while cutting down drastically on construction materials, manufacturing time, weight for better battery efficiency and minimalist design for ease of customization and repair. The Solair’s 3 seat configuration is idea for those who enjoy extreme sport and off road driving with a familiar love for convertibles and buggies.

The primary design is inspired by vintage classics such as the 1969 Chevrolet Corvette and the 1973 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C3. The body consists of a single highly flexible and impact resistant 3D printed carbon composite “swappable” photosvac 34 | MC3D -| stock.adobe.com April - June 2017

shell which can be quickly and inexpensively changed out during repairs or updating the primary look of the car as new shells are designed and released to market.

Built into the “skin” of the Solair, lies a network of ultra thin and highly refined “nanoattenas” solar spiral conductors that harness solar radiation during the day as well as residual infrared energy at night, allowing solar charging to occur literally around the clock. This are just a few of the proposed technologies that are already in development and a could set new standards in the future automobiles to come.

Solair features: • • • •

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Sport and Off-road configurations Polyflex reinforced carbon fibre impact cage combined with compact airbag and restraint system Impact and scratch resistant swappable shell can be replaced quickly and inexpensively Artificial Intelligence CPU handles autonomous drive modes, real time communications and augmented reality windshield display Modular “Open Architecture” design allows http://mc3dmag.com

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easy parts replacement and continuous customization without having to buy a new vehicle every few years 2 high performance AC indiction motors drive the front and rear axles independently.

Ultrasonic forcefield replaces the need for windshield wipers and helps redirect air over the body and away from the driver and passengers.

Simplistic yet elegant interior design is also extremely weather resistant for a number of off roading excursions and

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Turbine LED rims help redirect airflow into the wheel to cool breaks and redirect air into the cabin Removable wheel covers transform your car from a sport super car to an off road machine Augmented reality windshield eliminates the need for a standard dashboard displays AR Windshield displays all standard and important information from environmental hazards to vehicle updates

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FatCatAlley A 3D variety show

fatcatalley

Written by: Alan Sheltra

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FatCatAlley is a variety web show that’s been entertaining fans for over 17 years now and has developed quite a following online.

While “cat videos” are common on the internet, we offer something that is a little more off-the-wall and different, yet entertaining, every couple of months on our sites. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA., Alan started at age 16, as the writer and head puppeteer for one of the biggest children’s theatrical shows in Hollywood, which ran for over 3 years. He later discovered a love for animation and studied the craft with a determination. He now had a new way to tell my stories.

He studied the traditional way of animating with pencil, ink and paint in Hollywood and in 1973 formed my own company, AniMajik Productions. In the last 17 years, though, he moved to digital 3D animation.

Alan writes, “It’s more rewarding for me to be able to tell my stories in 1/50th of the time it used to take to do it the traditional way. Not that I don’t have a love for the old ways, the new medium allows me to get my stories out in a more timely fashion without a http://mc3dmag.com

huge staff.”

I run several episodic shows on 4 different websites. “TheSpaceLeague.com”, which is dedicated to “SpaceCat”. SpaceCat is the adventures of Commander Buck and his partner, Lt. Pizmo. Their mission is to protect the Space League and its citizens from evildoers and catastrophe. Set in a Universe and time apart from our own, the Space League is the glue that binds the peace in the SpaceCat universe, with a coalition of planets and alien cultures all very different from each other.

“009Lives.com” which is dedicated to “Secret Agent Cat: 009 Lives”, who works for “The Agency” which is a secret international intelligence agency who’s purpose is fight crime and terrorism on a global scale. 009 Lives, is the top agent working for The Agency and battles with the agents of R.A.T.S. (Radical Assassins and Terrorists Syndicate) to keep the piece.

A fairly new site, “FatCatAlley Minute” (because humans have short attention spans) runs every 2 months. A talk show run by host “Boonchee” and his sidekick, “Mr. Meowgi”. Started early 2016 with a huge following, it runs on its official site, “fatcatalleyminute.com” and on it’s own Facebook Fan page.

Finally, the oldest of the 4 is “FatCatAlley.net”, which is a combination of all of the above. It was started over 17years ago.

As a one-man production crew, a typical, “Space-Cat” or “Secret Agent Cat” takes anywhere from 30-40 days to complete, which starts with the writing, voice recording, animating, compositing and final editing and sound design. Voices are by myself and the very talented Austrailian actor, Bryan Pike. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very gratifying and a lot of fun. “Will I continue this for the foreseeable future?”

Oh yeah! My real cats would never forgive me if I didn’t.” http://mc3dmag.com

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Wire Cutters A 3D short

By: Jack Anderson Wire Cutters short film: A chance encounter proves fateful for 2 robots mining on a desolate planet.

project

About Jack Anderson:

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I’ve always been a live action person over an animation person.

What I started college at Chapman University in 2010, I really wanted to do live action movies with lots of VFX. That I changed when I wanted a clip about Steven Spielberg’s admiration of animators. It convinced me to switch over to animation. So I did!

The clip can be seen at https://youtu.be/eHOmqglvShw Wire Cutters was my senior thesis, so it was a compilation of all my training over 4 years at Chapman.

The short ended up getting me a job as a director at an amazing company called Psyop. Being at Psyop feels like grad school to me because there’s still so much I’m learning. Every project unlocks skills that I use on the next projects. It’s really the best.

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I really wanted to make a short film that felt like an old fable you’ve read as a kid, so I started by looking into my past to find a universal moral that people can connect with.

Like anyone, I’ve had fallen outs with friends over the years. Being someone who attempts to be a decent human, I’ve always tried to retroactively dissect why a relationship has gone sour. What I came to learn is that its usually the little things that end up boiling out of control in a regrettable way.

Originally I had imagined telling this story like an old western, with 2 cowboys who get into a fateful argument while gold mining. But I was VERY new to animation and knew I couldn’t actually animate 2 human characters. So I switched them to robots, but still tried to make the mood feel like and old western.

Using Help: I had a lot of amazing classmates help in all areas of making the short. They really helped keep it on track. However, when making a low budget student or passion project where you’re not paying your crew, its easy to get too reliant on extra help.

I know a lot of people who relied too much on outside talent and ended up falling behind schedule. I recommend if you’re making a passion project, its best to design everything so that you can do it by yourself if you REALLY have to. That way, getting extra help can elevate the project and elevate the schedule, but you won’t be screwed if people flake.

The Process: The smartest thing I did, which I implore anyone to do that wants to make a short is to keep your ideas constrained. I’ve seen way too many student animated films get too big and then they just get impossible to finish.

From day 1, Wire Cutters was always designed to have just 2 characters, 2 props, and a simple flat location. That way I could take the time to make them look they best I possibly could.

The biggest obstacle was time. I had roughly 6 months to make the short before I graduated. The film is long for a short...about 9 minutes, so that’s a LOT to animate. I ended up doing that math that if I animated 3 seconds a day, every day, I would finish in time for graduation.

I had to learn a lot about time management and organization, and I ended up becoming VERY strict about this schedule. I never let a day go by where I’d animate less than 3 seconds because I knew if I skipped just once, it would create a bad habit.

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Humster3D Q&A #1 model maker

Information from http://hum3d.com In the January-March issue, we gave information on Humster3D, one of the largest 3D model makers. Since 2005 Hum3D has helped 3D artists from more than 80 countries save their time and create stunning works in the field of cinema, video games and visualization.

Hum3D studio successfully works with leaders in advertising, cinema, and gaming markets.

We caught with them again for a short Q&A on their business and what they see in the future for the company and the artists who rely on their work. http://mc3dmag.com

MC3D - I’ve been going over your site, https:// hum3d.com, and I can see that you have a massive 3D collection in numerous categories. How many 3D models do you have now?

biggest project. We invest in our project all resources that we have. It is so interesting to learn new things, new technologies, to understand how our customers use our products. We live with it :)

H3D - Now we have more than 11k models in our store and each month we add hundreds of models to our collection.

MC3D - As you move forward and grow, what do you hope to achieve in the future?

MC3D - Are these models created in-house?

H3D - Yes, we make all models in-house. In this case we guarantee quality, full support, conversion, modification etc. that our customers often ask. We know this is an expensive solution. All marketplaces provide cheaper solution to expand their collection. But quality of our service is higher than this.

MC3D - How many artists are involved in creating your content?

H3D - Now in our company work 50+ specialists and we are always looking for new artists, new directions.

MC3D - Small beginnings can be tough, as any start-up company knows. How did Humster3D start out?

H3D - In the beginning we were making 3D models only in free time, when we didn’t have projects to do. But we always thought that having our own product is better than taking projects from other companies.

MC3D - What was the greatest milestone you had to overcome?

H3D - At this moment we have the biggest car collection in the world. Only on our website you can find models that you will never find on the internet. Also we have the biggest collections of electronics and weapons. Now we are looking forward to becoming #1 in other categories.

MC3D - As with any journey, there are events, people, and projects that stand out along the way. Is there a particular project that might be considered special, or one that stands out from the rest?

H3D - As I mentioned before we are holding the lead in 3 categories of models. Our next goal is to double this number and become #1 in 3 more categories. The world is very big and has a lot of things to model!

MC3D - Is there a way for artists and animation producers to offer their thoughts on what they would like to see in the way of 3D content?

H3D - We always try to understand what customers need. We often have custom orders from other companies and it allows us to understand what 3D people need.

MC3D - In order to grow such a huge collection, the question must be asked: What inspires you the most to do what you do?

H3D - We want to be #1 Service Provider. The main word is not 3D Model, but Service. Most marketplaces only sell 3D models of independent artists. But after purchasing customers are often left with only a 3D model, without any support (except file conversion). The biggest thing they can do is to “make refund”. I’m not sure that customers pay only for the possibility to get a refund. Our goal is that our customers get what he/she planned to get before deciding to make a payment for the product.

MC3D - Are you looking for artists to create 3D products at this time?

H3D - Yes, we are always looking for talents.

MC3D - I thank you for your time and for offering us a glimpse into your company. What is the best way for someone to contact you?

H3D - Please send email to info@hum3d.com or write to us using contact form on our site.

H3D - Honestly, Hum3D – is our main and http://mc3dmag.com

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Creating 3D Comics Written by: Esther Carney Making a comic using 3D computer graphic art I’ve been working on my avenging angel comic for several years. It’s at http://pacefiction.com and is a long way from finished. I created the story because at the time there was a real lack of action stories featuring tough female leads.

Although you would think the use of 3D would be quite speedy instead of drawing each panel by hand, it isn’t quite as straightforward as you might think. Well the advantage is that if you are not happy with a render you can just change the camera angle or light and do it quickly again, whereas with 2D art you have to pretty much redraw everything.

It’s just that positioning everything in the scene, and posing your characters, is usually very time consuming. Crowd scenes are particularly time consuming and heavy on your CPU as well.

And of course collecting a library of 3D objects that can be used in your scene to create your story is expensive. If you try and texture and model them yourself you will be dead from old age before your comic is even 4 episodes. Speed of making your comic is one of the most important things. Any shortcut is a good shortcut.

For me I chose to buy my 3D models. My addiction to 3D models is a reasonably harmless vice, compared with other things such as smoking.

It’s probably cheaper than smoking too, and even allowing for the sitting for hours a day, undoubtedly healthier.

Many 3D things can be re-used over and over, the models you have bought and scenes you have set up, and even renders.

I used to draw a lot at school when I was young, and always had dreams of making a comic, but I was never really good enough at drawing. Then one day I bought my first version of poser. And that is when I decided to make my comic.

The first big decision you need to make is whether to go realistic or make some kind of attempt at tooning the images. I have seen some comics done with photos, but I really didn’t like http://mc3dmag.com

that look. I prefer looking at toony type drawings or renders.

Since a lot of the props I use in my comic are not super realistic, and I really don’t think the people look totally realistic either with their skin tight clothes etc, I felt the best approach was to toon my images. I do this by using a combination of tooning in poser and tooning with a photoshop action used on the render which I overlay on the original render and just turn the opacity down a little so the original poser render shows through.

I’ll show pages of the next episode of my comic which is not even up on my website yet. But it is actually the first part of the beginning of the story.

That’s right, I started my comic somewhere in the middle, leaving a good deal of mystery surrounding my protagonist. Where is she from?

Where did she gain her skills in weaponry, flying

and close combat, at such a young age? Why is she hunted? What is the guilt she is carrying? etc.

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she divulges bits and pieces of her past in the comic as the episodes go along. I have included it because I feel it is probably even more important to understand the motivations of her enemy than it is to understand her.

Villains are never villains in their own minds.

They always have reasons why they do the things they do. Anyway, even though it is the beginning it is my newest episode, and it features my latest techniques for making the art, so it is an ideal episode to show you folks.

By the way, I use comic life by plasq.com to make the panels and speech bubbles. It’s very quick and easy to use and there is zero learning curve for the comic life software.

Then i just apply a toon filter I bought from renderosity and turn it down a bit because my figures are already toned.

Now the next panel below was rendered in vue.

The Process: Lets stop here for a moment and look at how I have done the following panel.

I use the liquefy tool in photoshop to adjust the clothes and person to make them look more realistic:- See the man in blue left shoulder, and the man in beige right upper arm - I just make up for some of the model’s inadequacies with postwork.

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This is why Angie doesn’t look as tooned. I’ve used a bit of a photoshop toon overlying the render but probably not quite enough to match http://mc3dmag.com

in with the previous panels. However because it is a new scene anyway, perhaps the difference in technique is not as jarring as it might have been.

The next picture for this episode uses poser’s depth of field. The problem with this is it is hard to have the forground focused and the background unfocused. Poser seems to just want to focus on one thing eg the girl’s face if you set it that way, and everything else was blurry.

Here we have a vue render in the background with the people rendered in poser.

In this one just above, I broke the show not tell rule by putting in all this text. However it sure saved me a lot of time! http://mc3dmag.com

Actually my first problem with this episode was the mercenary base itself. I tried doing it in vue – the jungle trees and mountainous scenery would have been perfect. However the scene was too heavy and moving the camera around in my scene became impossible.

I thought about doing it in poser, but the scenery needed was too complex.

Then I discovered unity. I bought a military base scene. The next thing I tried was importing my poser figure into unity. I am very new to unity, and probably did not know what I was doing. Anyway to cut a long story short, I failed.

I then tried to export the unity scene to poser.

This didn’t work well either, probably because again, I didn’t really know what I was doing. So in the end I decided to composite. I rendered the characters and some props in poser, and used the unity scene as a background. Sometimes placing April - June 2017 | MC3D | 53

the background in poser itself, and sometimes in photoshop after rendering a png with transparency.

Sadly, the method I mainly use for tooning in poser is no longer available. I use Olivier’s art materials from rdna (now defunct), in combo with Semidieu’s toon shaderworks script which makes toon lines and a cell shaded look. So if you don’t own these already you won’t be able to make your comic in exactly the same way (well you probably wouldn’t want to anyway). If I didn’t have these softwares though, I would probably just use the comic book colour method in Poser 11. Comic book colour is quick and easy, but getting the lighting right can be a fiddle, and it has a tendency to make the renders look dark at times unless you know what you are doing. I do sometimes use comic book colour when I’m feeling particularly lazy.

Here are some comic book colour renders. As you can see the method is quite good enough for making a comic without needing Olivier’s and Semidieu’s products that I use.

These renders are not from my comic and they feature Pauline by Smith Micro, but just to show you that all is not lost if you haven’t got the software that I use for my comic.

This one uses the same technique but is combined with photoshop actions on a duplicate layer overlying the original render, with the top layer opacity turned down a bit.

Anyway, I’ll come back another time and show you how I do the liquefy tool and wrinkles and folds in the clothes.

Hope you found this helpful.

Visit http://pacefiction.com

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