3DWorld October 2015 PDF

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October 2015
#199
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Pro training to recreate
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• Game of Thrones
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Vi
Fr
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ee
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A S ge 6
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tS
Editor’s
Welcome
Discover how small-screen VFX
is making a big impression
This issue we gather some of the top talent

working in TV VFX; from The Flash to
Game of Thrones, discover why small-screen
CG is on the rise. Plus, on page 36, Artifex
Studios’ Adam Stern reveals how he created
SubScribe &
SAVe up to 59% this issue’s cover – the Time Marine from hit
Subscribe to 3D World sci-fi show Continuum. The TV VFX theme
and get both the print
and digital editions. flows into this issue’s tutorials too, with
Page 28 for UK. For US
and Canada, page 79! training for matte painting (page 54), the
creation of a man made of fire (page 60) and
advice to simulate a famous VFX shot from
Game of Thrones (page 64). Looking further
ahead, in this issue’s Develop (page 87) we
step into the world of VR and discover what
this new technology has in store for CG
artists, and maybe the future of VFX. ZBrush modelling
How to quickly model
a character and more
advice in Artist Q&A,
turn to page 30
Ian Dean, editor
ian.dean@futurenet.com
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Issue 199
Contents Our complete line-up for this

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8 artist showcase
Discover the best new digital art
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17 community
18 sIggraph anImatIon
Is the best work getting seen?
10 artIst showcase 22 stuDIo profIle: aXIsVfX 24 tomorrow’s worlD
22 studio proFile The best new art from the CG community Creating movie-quality FX on a TV schedule Inside Rodeo FX’s VFX for Tomorrowland
We visit new CG studio AxisVFX
26 short cuts
The making of Taking The Plunge
30 artist Q&a
All your software queries solved by
our panel of professional artists
Feature
36 the cg of contInuum
40 the rIse of tV VfX
53 tutorials
Improve your CG art skills
80 3d maker
Explore 3D print art and trends
87 develop
Theory, research and reviews
regulars
7 neXt month
28 european subscrIptIons
79 us subscrIptIons
98 DIgItal back Issues 36 makIng contInuum’s tIme marIne 40 the rise oF tv vFX
Artifex discusses its VFX for the sci-fi show, plus Adam Stern shares his process How TV’s greatest VFX shows are created

tutorials
54 star wars matte paIntIng
Discover how to create a stunning
Episode VII-inspired image
60 master the art of fIre
How to create a man made of fire in
3ds Max and FumeFX
64 create an epIc VfX shot
Recreate a still in the style of Game
54 create a star wars matte paIntIng 60 master the art of fIre of Thrones’ Battle of Blackwater
Double Negative’s Saby Menyhei walks you through this Star Wars VII-inspired image Expert advice for 3ds Max and FumeFX 70 get starteD In houDInI
Bemused by the procedural tool?
These beginner tips should help
74 DetaIl a character
Prepare an armoured knight
for cinematic production
fre
64 recreate an epIc game of thrones VfX shot 74 DetaIl a character modee!
Simulate the massive explosion from the Battle of Blackwater Prepare a model for cinematic production l
3d maker
80 growth InDustry
Michael Winstone’s organic artworks
82 3D prInt a prosthetIc hanD
Put your printing skills to medical use
80 growth InDustry 82 DIscoVer how 3D prIntIng Is lenDIng a hanD

3D printing’s artistic success story Download a complete prosthetic hand model this issue
develop
88 nuke technIques
Discover how to use performance
timers to speed up your scripts
90 buIlDIng a VIrtual realIty
How Nurulize is creating a new
breed of virtual environments
reviews
96 reVIew: renDa pw-e7f 96 reVIew: renDa pw-e7f
Overclockers enters the workstation market Overclockers’ entry to the workstation
market is a robust machine
97 reVIew: unfolD3D 9
The UV mapping tool gets a strong
update with some great new tools
97 reVIew: photoscan 1.1.6
Agisoft’s photogrammetry package
proves a useful workflow tool
100 my InspIratIon
Saizen Media’s Davice Bianca
90 buIlDIng a new VIrtual realIty 97 reVIew: unfolD3D 9

Discover how Nurulize is creating a new type of virtual environment The UV mapping tool gets a strong update

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dreamCatChers’ HAIR RAISING
The most difficult
tribe
part of the piece was
creating the feathers.
David used Hair Farm
artist David Ferreira to distribute them
software ZBrush, 3ds Max,
V-Ray, Marvelous Designer,
Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop
“I really like the idea of a dimension between

awake and asleep where these creatures exist,
capturing dreams as if they were living entities
themselves,” says David Ferreira of his image
‘Dreamcatchers’ Tribe’. “Seeing that idea gain
form through the characters was great. I didn’t
take it all the way, but I managed to come
up with some interesting concepts, like the
idea that there are good dreamcatchers, who
capture nightmares, and bad dreamcatchers,
who capture sweet dreams that make them fat.”
David worked on the image over a 30-day
period, taking close to 140 hours in total, while
continuing his professional work as a freelance
CG generalist and instructor. “The clothing
of the big blue character was done
with Marvelous Designer,” he says.
“After sculpting the character in the
T-pose, I did a quick rig in 3ds Max
and animated him moving into pose
so I could simulate his clothes. The most
complex detail was the feathers on one of the
characters, which were created using planes
with feather alphas. I distributed them with
[3ds Max plug-in] Hair Farm, using several grey
maps for size and density control.”
You can see more of David’s work at
fyi www.cgmonkeyking.com
3d world view
“I love the way the

look of each character
seems to reflect its
personality. They’re a
winning mix of cute
and scary.”
feliCity barr
Production editor

showcase
WORKING Out
Berto says that taking
part in art workshops
helps to improve his
workflow and creativity.
He also likes to spend
a few hours in ZBrush
sketching out ideas
before embarking on
a new project
masChinen
projeCt
artist
Berto Souza
Mudbox, Marvelous Designer
Berto Souza began experimenting with 3D

five years ago, taking part in courses and
workshops. He now works at TV Globo in Rio
de Janeiro as a character artist, but continues
to attend group sessions: work on the
Maschinen Project began during one of
artist Bruno Câmara’s workshops.
After the workshop ended, Bruno
continued working on the project for a further
three months. “It was really awesome to create
this cyberpunk girl and all her accessories.
They look really heavy for her to carry,” he
says. “I think the strong points of the work are
the metals and the modelling of the face – I
felt I achieved good results with both aspects.”
Using ZBrush and 3ds Max for most of the
work, Bruno took to Mudbox for the textures
and Marvelous Designer for the clothes,
before doing the final composition of the
I think the strong
image in Photoshop.
Citing other artists as one of his sources
points of the work are
of inspiration, Bruno says that it’s important
to stay in touch with people in the industry. the metals and the
“These relationships [provide you with]
knowledge which means better work,” he says. modelling of the face
“I’m always doing workshops to improve my
workflow and exchange experiences.”
You can see more of Berto’s work at
fyi www.bertosouza.blogspot.com.br

showcase
Far Far Away is the first

part in a three-part
‘Imagination’ series
far far away

NEW tOOLS
Peter used Fusion 360,
Autodesk’s cloud-based
artist modelling platform, for
Peter Nowacki the first time during the
software 3ds Max, V-Ray, creation of ‘Far Far Away’.
Marvelous Designer “I know people use it for
professional services, but it
“It’s astonishing that the image took two years allowed me to create a few
to finish,” says Warsaw-based artist Peter extra details,” he says
Nowacki, who produced ‘Far Far Away,' as a
celebration of children’s imaginations. “It’s
the first part of a three-part project. Children
are now focusing on video games instead of
playing outside and I wanted to showcase a
time when their imaginations were all they had.”
Although he used 3ds Max and V-Ray
for the work, Peter also dabbled with other
engines, including OctaneRender and Corona
Renderer. “I personally have more experience
in V-Ray, but they were great,” he says.
For cloth simulations, Peter used Marvelous
Designer. “It’s just perfect: user-friendly and
fast!” he says. “For extra details, I created
V-Ray hair and emitted a few particle systems.” 3d world view
Peter also used Fusion 360, Autodesk’s cloud-
based CAD tool, for the first time during this “This certainly isn’t a
project. “I know that people are using it for setting in which you
professional services, but with my skills it normally expect to
allowed me to create a few extra details.” see a lightsaber. Peter
Peter says it’s the final touches to a project uses it to symbolise
that he relishes the most. “I love adding the ‘antique’
details, tweaking final renders, merging render imagination that our
passes and publishing the image. Feedback is kids are losing.”
the most powerful motivator!”
You can see more of Peter’s work at ian dean
fyi www.pnowacki.com Editor

roCket
and groot I think the key to personal
artist
Antone Magdy
growth is to have some sort
DDO, Photoshop
of plan when practising
Like many other artists, Antone Magdy
embarked on this piece to improve his and creating personal art
professional skills. “I think the key to personal
growth is to have some sort of plan when
practising and creating personal art,” he says.
One of the challenges Antone set himself
was learning a new piece of software: DDO,
Quixel’s texturing tool. “I was eager to learn
about DDO and then take it all the way to be
a real-time model,” he says.
Having previously modelled characters for
animated TV series, Antone currently works
as a 3D character artist at Snappers in Egypt,
where he focuses on facial blendshapes for
in-game and cinematic models on a range of
AAA titles. ‘Rocket and Groot’ is based on
the artwork of Javier Burgos – Magdy says
that he’s always been a fan of Rovio’s lead
artist – and proved a lot of fun to sculpt.
“I’m inspired by seeing the huge amount
of work that artists around the world create,”
Antone enthuses. It’s always a big part
of my day to scroll through art forums. It
always gives me that push to be better – to
challenge myself to try a lot of new things.”
You can see more of Antone’s work at
fyi www.antone_m.artstation.com
3d world view
“Antone takes Javier

Burgos’s cartoony
style, and perfectly
translates it into 3D.
Rocket and Groot
never looked cuter.”
darren phillips
Art editor

CONTENTS
Community News and views from around the

international CG community
20 The bear essenTials

Behind the scenes on Ted 2’s animation
18 are The besT animaTed shorTs geTTing awarded? 22 sTudio profile: axisvfx
This year’s Siggraph nominees and past winners share their thoughts Creating movie-quality VFX for Doctor Who
GET publiShEd
Email yOur CG arT TO

www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199 24 discover The vfx behind Tomorrowland 26 shorT cuTs
Rodeo FX reveals the secrets of its rocket-propelled VFX for Brad Bird’s sci-fi movie The making of student short Taking The Plunge

Communit y
The big issue
The big issue
Do festivals rewarD the right work?

As Siggraph’s Computer Animation Festival hits Los Angeles, Tom May
asks industry insiders their views on the festival selection process
E
very August the industry’s great underdogs who don’t have a massive Michael also feels some festivals put
and good get together for studio and infrastructure behind them, too much emphasis on the technical
Siggraph, the annual gathering of but still manage to produce very strong side. “The work I like to see rewarded
global CG and VFX artists. And all eyes and influential animations,” he adds. are those films that take chances with
are on the work being showcased in Siggraph makes a point of honouring honest intent,” he says. “There’s a lot of
the Computer Animation Festival, from student work of course, such as Jinxy work out there meant to push limits
students and veterans alike. Jenkins and Lucky Lou, made at – but not in the technical aspects.
But who gets selected for such Ringling College of Art and Design,
events – and is the right kind of work
being rewarded? We spoke with some
which won Best Computer Animated
Short. Michael Bidinger, who co-
It’s not a good thing if the judging criteria
of those whose work is being screened
at Siggraph to find out more.
directed the film with Michelle Kwon
and is now interning at Pixar Studios, becomes ‘Most Obvious Three-Act
“I think the majority of the was obviously pleased. “For
work chosen for animation the industry, awards are a big Structure’ or ‘Most Conventions Broken’
festivals are projects that influence in what gets
make anyone in this industry watched and what gets Michael Bidinger, animation intern, Pixar Animation Studios
go ‘wow’,” says Rick Thiele of Red taught,” he says. “They can shape the
Knuckles. That was clearly the case with future of what’s created.” But he feels There’s so much experimental
his studio’s CG short Dark Noir, with a it’s important they’re selected for the animation that goes unrecognised
storyline crowd-sourced by Facebook right reasons. “It’s not a good thing if because it’s not ‘industry standard’, or
fans worldwide. But other, less the judging criteria for Best in Show up to par with feature animation
headline-grabbing work can get awards become ‘Most Obvious aesthetics. But I think everyone
missed. “Personally, I wish more Three-Act Structure’ or ‘Most responds well to stories and films with
student films would be chosen; the Conventions Broken’.” heart, no matter what they look like.”

indusTry insiders
Thoughts & opinions from the experts
Rick Thiele Michael BidingeR alex SándoR RaBB

Creative director, Animation intern, Pixar Managing director and
Red Knuckles Animation Studios producer, Digic Pictures
www.redknuckles.co.uk michaelbidinger.com www.digicpictures.com
“The key to a “By no means did “Winning an award

successful festival we know that our means that we’re
entry is planning film would end up gratified that all
your time well and the way it is. It was the efforts we’ve
meeting initial a pretty crazy ride put into a project
approval deadlines, and by the end of it, are recognised.
although this we had no objective Of course, it also
sometimes requires sense of what serves to attract
a loud voice and condition the film new clients and
thick skin. Story-wise, was in. It’s a miracle helps broaden our
telling, showing or that what we landed existing relationships.
explaining everything on has had such There could be a
you can of the plot a warm reception danger that getting
(Left) Jinxy Jenkins & and characters in with audiences. an award makes
Lucky Lou, winner of detail seems right So our advice to you think you don’t
Siggraph 2015’s Best on paper. But once anyone trying to do have to improve and
Computer Animated it starts being something similar learn new things.
xxxShort.
xxx xxDark
xxx Noir
xxx xx xxx xxx xx xxx xxx xx
(right) translated to the is to ‘let go of the However, you have
xxxfeatures
xxx xx xxx xxx xx xxx xxx xx xxx xxx xx
a crowd- screen, you often cart’ sometimes to constantly push
xxxsourced
xxx xx xxx xxx xx xxx xxx xx
narrative find it’s better to and let things play creative boundaries;
hint and suggest out how they will. in this fast-changing
instead, leaving a lot There were a lot of industry, you’re only
of the story up to the ‘lucky accidents’ as good as your
Not all festivals have the same selection There’s nothing like the buzz of getting viewer’s imagination while making this last work. It doesn’t
criteria either, and there’s certainly no your film screened at an event of your and assumptions.” film. The recognition matter that you’ve
foolproof formula for getting shown. peers, let alone winning a prestigious is immensely won an award in the
“Despite winning Best in award. “Awards represent the comforting and past if you drop the
Show at Siggraph, my film audience,” says Pierre Jury, reassuring.” ball and don’t deliver
‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ didn’t one of four directors of L3.0, a in the present.”
even get invited to a lot of charming film about a lonely
other festivals,” points out German robot made at animation school ISART
animator Felix Deimann. “In my opinion Digital. The short won the team Best
there’s always a little luck involved.” Student Project at Siggraph. “Winning
It’s also worth doing some research one means a lot to us because it shows
to find out what kind of work a that people liked the film,” says Pierre,
particular festival favours. before adding: “This is probably the
“Certain creative categories best award in the world!”
don’t appreciate the kind of While awards can be a nice ‘icing on
work we do, while others, the cake’, though, they shouldn’t be
more technical and visual-oriented mistaken for the cake itself.
ones, love it,” reveals Alex Sándor “It’s always nice to have the
Rabb, MD of Digic Pictures, which work recognised in a formal
created the Assassin’s Creed Unity scheme,” says Pablo Grillo,
trailer, winner of the Best Game award. Framestore’s animation supervisor on
“We know that our work is usually not Paddington, which won Best Live
about a great creative idea but about Effects for a Live-Action Feature Film at
how we visualise and tell a story,” Alex Siggraph. “But while awards can be
adds. “Our intention is to attach seductive they’re to be taken with a
viewers to the characters, and get an pinch of salt.
emotional response.” “So many pieces of work in
If entering festivals sounds like a ‘competition’ deserve merit for
lottery, it can pay huge dividends. “For different reasons and there’s often such
me personally, festivals and awards a diversity of great work that it’s hard
have been a huge help,” says Felix. to single any one piece out. For me the
“I’ve had the opportunity to travel to real reward comes from the experience
great places and meet a lot of great of doing the work and sharing that
people. For young professionals like experience with the crew.”
me it’s a good way to get connected For more details of the Siggraph L3.0 is a genuinely heart-rending short made by students at ISART
with people from the industry.”
fYi Animation Festival, visit bit.ly/1Di5Dek Digital, the video game and 3D animation school in Paris

Communit y To get the other
VFX interview bears to match
Ted, their muzzles
and eyebrows were
replaced using 2D
projection in Nuke
VFX interView
A Rude AwAkening down undeR

Alice Pattillo finds out how the crude talking teddy bear was brought
to life by Australian studio Iloura in the comedy sequel, Ted 2
W
ith a larger than life “I feel Ted is more of a key- more emphasis on 3Delight. We also
personality, it’s quite the Glenn Melenhorst frame show than a mocap completely reworked our cloth pipeline,
challenge to match Seth Glenn is VFX Supervisor show,” says VFX Supervisor, using Marvelous Designer to build as
MacFarlane’s charismatic voice to a at Iloura, an animation Glenn Melenhorst, “the well as simulate our clothing. This gave
relatively unexpressive bear’s face, but and visual effects studio mocap provided our team with a very robust and realistic result.”
Australian VFX and animation studio, located in Australia. fantastic reference, and our animators Early on in Ted the team established
Iloura managed to hit the nail on the www.iloura.com.au were able to add the detail.” ‘the golden rules’ for Ted’s acting.
head with Ted’s second coming. With three years between the These combat Ted’s limited range of
Fortunately, the studio also worked first instalment and it’s sequel, huge facial expressions, “we had to develop
on the original movie, so knew what our own ‘language’ in terms of how
to expect in terms of animation and
pipeline. For initial motion capture
We completely reworked our cloth Seth’s performance applied to Ted’s
face. For example, subtle shifts in
(Seth MacFarlane not only voices, but
acts Ted’s movements) a system called pipeline, using Marvelous Designer to the brows and cheek area were often
critical to giving Ted a ‘real life talking
Moven was used on set – essentially teddy bear‘ feel without making his
a jacket that provided reference for build as well as simulate our clothing face overly animated.”
Seth’s upper body, giving no facial This time around, Ted required a lot
feedback or legs. This meant the software and hardware improvements more complex animation. “Ted wears
team used captured video reference had been made. “In Ted 1 we used more clothes in this movie and interacts
as well, using this as the main point Ted required multiple a hybrid pipeline of ray tracing in more with his environment, items
of comparison as it contained a lot of lighting passes to V-Ray and Reyes in 3Delight,” reveals and food. So we needed to work a lot
subtle detail that sometimes the mocap ensure his grubby Glenn. “This time round we still opted more on simulations and FX, natural
didn’t pick up. fur looked realistic for a hybrid approach but pushed interactions and so on.”
Glenn admits the shots where Ted
fights the goose was probably the most
challenging. “It’s a long shot, we had
a tight turn-around on it and Seth was
actively blocking out ideas through
to the last week. To achieve it in time,
we divided it up between animators
and spliced the acting together, which
helped but it had ramifications on the
pipeline; we had to re-render as new
animation came down the pipe – new
composites. So I’m proud of our team,
they pulled it off on time!”
For more about Iloura and to see their
FYi showreel visit www.iloura.com.au

Communit y
Studio profile
studio profile
AxisVFx: FAst, Furious

And design-led Launched as an offshoot
of Axis Animation, axisVFX
The boutique UK VFX studio tells Tom May how it takes a design-led approach
to its TV and film work
meets the challenging demands of high-end TV work
It’s fast and furious doing

W
hen you think of Doctor Who’s worked on many other British TV shows
special effects you think of Milk including Misfits, Call the Midwife,
– whom we chat to this issue as
part of our big feature on television VFX TV work, but the team Survivors and Wizards vs Aliens, as
well as feature films such as Shaun the
(page 40). But while Milk may be the
lead vendor on the sci-fi show, others here are great to work with Sheep Movie.
The studio was originally launched
get brought in for the odd episode too. in July 2013, when Axis Animation
And when axisVFX got the call, it was and very open to ideas (whom we profiled back in issue 185)
for their dream job: a whole new type teamed up with VFX supervisors Grant
of monster, one that had never been Hewlett and Howard Jones to launch a
seen on the series before. new boutique, high-end visual effects
The episode, ‘Flatline’, contains 66 facility. The ethos behind axisVFX was
VFX shots from the company – which (and remains) a focus on creativity, says
has offices across Bristol and Glasgow its managing director, Richard Scott.
– including a new multi-dimensional “Everyone at axisVFX
villain called The Boneless. RichaRd Scott takes a very design-led
The axisVFX crew not only created As managing director approach, borrowing from
the visual effects for the shots but also of axisVFX, Richard our animation heritage where
conceived, designed and developed is responsible for the references, design and concept work
the look and performance of this new direction and strategy are imperative parts of the process,” he
‘impossible creature’. of the business, explains. “You always get to speak with
“Designing creatures from development of the creative and technical people who
Joe thoRnley another dimension was a new business and are hands-on doing the work.”
heaRd real creative high point relationships, growth, As an artist, Joe Thornley Heard
FX lead at axisVFX, for us,” says FX lead Joe and building the best appreciates the approach. “Working at
Joe previously worked Thornley Heard excitedly. “It’s not possible team. Axis is great,” he says. “Coming from a
at Double Negative, often that such a unique-looking, www.axis-vfx.com film background it’s definitely fast and
Framestore and effects-driven character design comes furious doing TV work, but I’m enjoying
Jim Henson’s up, and bringing it to fruition was having more variety in what I do and
Creature Shop. very rewarding.” having more input on the creative side.
www.axis-vfx.com Although the studio is just two years The team here are great to work with
old, the team that formed axisVFX has and very open to ideas.”

studio
portFolio
oFFice brieFing
Producing high-end CGI and visual
effects for film and TV, axisVFX is owned
and run by craftspeople, whose goal is
to provide greater flexibility, accessibility doctoR Who
and creative control to filmmakers. It Douglas Mackinnon, director of the Doctor Who episode
believes in demystifying the process for ‘Flatline’, asked axisVFX to create a two-dimensional alien race
producers and directors, creating visual called The Boneless. After an intensive design and concept exploration
effects that support the story, whilst stage, the studio used everything from motion capture, 3D scanning,
adding drama and scale to productions. 3D printing, particle simulation and complex image processing to
The axisVFX ethos is one of “creative bring the terrifyingly weird creatures to life.
intelligence, solving VFX production
challenges through clever design that
utilises available budget for maximum
effect”. Between them, the axisVFX
supervisors, artists and production staff
have decades of experience and have
worked on a wide range of productions
including The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince
Caspian, Fred Claus, Hellboy, Doctor Who,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Clash
of the Titans and the Harry Potter series.
The studio works on a Nuke and Houdini pipeline,

predominantly on Linux. “I render in [Houdini’s] Mantra
studio renderer,” says Joe. “Any compositing is done in Nuke.
stAtistics Hardware-wise, I’m running Linux on a 12-core workstation WizaRdS vS alienS
with 64GB of RAM and a Nvidia GeForce [GPU].” axisVFX has worked on all three seasons of this children’s fantasy
For asset management, and to distribute jobs to its small series. For season 3, FX Lead Joe Thornley Heard created a range of
renderfarm, the studio uses a range of off-the-shelf tools. new Houdini tools that could be used quickly and effectively by the
location “We’re transitioning from Shotgun to ftrack currently and FX team in Bristol and Glasgow to manipulate the particle and fluid
Bristol and Glasgow we use Deadline for all of our farm jobs,” explains Joe. simulations for complex magical effects.
“Pretty much everything is glued together with Python in
teaM Size one form or another.”
120 The artists’ workflows vary according to the job in hand.
“When developing a new look for something, it’s like
knoWn foR sketching,” says Joe. “I’m trying new ideas and discarding
Visual effects, them but generally working in a linear fashion towards a
CGI, live action, particular visual goal. When I’m in shot production mode,
compositing it’s all about multitasking and efficiency.”
The company is always looking for talented and
ManaGinG committed artists, says Grant Hewlett – currently,
diRectoR Nuke compositors, Houdini FX artists and pipeline
Richard Scott developers in particular. But it’s not just about software
knowledge per se. “While technical ability and experience
are very important, we value a dedicated and
GRant heWlett passionate approach as highly,” he says.
VFX supervisor at axisVFX, If that sounds like you, Grant urges you to consider
Grant has previously applying. “The people I work with are the thing
worked at Aardman that makes it for me,” he says. “We have really talented eve
Animations, The Senate people on our teams that amaze me on an almost daily basis Eve is a BBC sci-fi drama that follows Eve, a teenage girl who is the
VFX, MPC and Cinesite, and our clients are great people too. I love the collaboration result of an advanced robotics experiment. Among other effects,
among others. and striving to produce the best work possible.” axisVFX finalised Eve’s external control system and how she would
www.axis-vfx.com To learn more about axisVFX and see a range of its work, be able to remove some of her limbs. The team also designed and
FYi visit www.axis-vfx.com animated a robotic spider character.

Communit y
Industry interview
The bathtub escape sequence blends the

miniature footage with a digital environment
New
soFTware
release
Fabric for
RenderMan
FAbricAtion
Fabric Software is
collaborating with
MPC to integrate
Fabric Engine, its
framework for
developing high-
industry interview performance
VFX tools, with
Tomorrow’s world
RenderMan. The Fabric
for RenderMan plug-in
enables technical
artists to access
Pixar’s award-winning
renderer directly
Alice Pattillo speaks to Rodeo FX about the secrets of within Fabric.
Tomorrowland’s rocket-propelled visual effects instAnt results

Users can now
create tools in Fabric
D
espite a disappointing performance at the box office, up to the surface. We had to extend that interact with
Tomorrowland undeniably boasts some stellar visual the camera in CG at the head of the RenderMan’s RIS
effects. Working in collaboration with lead effects shots to create an environment that live renders. “This
vendor Industrial Light & Magic, Rodeo FX produced over 50 didn’t exist. We started with a 2D gives artists near-
VFX shots for Brad Bird’s science-fiction adventure, including concept, elevating the camera and instantaneous [visual
the shot shown at the top of the page, in which young adding a farmhouse and land around feedback] that allows
inventor Frank Walker – played in adult form in the movie by it,” reveals Ara. them to iterate more
George Clooney – learns to fly with a homemade jetpack. The team used Photoshop freely and make better
“Tomorrowland was another great collaboration for the environments, Houdini creative decisions,”
ArA KhAniKiAn with ILM for Rodeo FX,” says VFX supervisor Ara for simulation, Softimage for 3D says MPC global head
Ara is VFX supervisor and Khanikian. “It allowed us to tap into the depth and elements, Flame and Nuke for of VFX operations,
head of 2D at Rodeo FX. breadth of talent at our studio. For example, it’s compositing, and SpeedTree to Damien Fagnou.
He has worked on over neat that we can still build a model, film a practical explosion create trees, blending the digital
50 feature films during in our studio, and then pass the footage on to another effects with practical footage.
the course of his career, department to integrate it into the digital sequence.”
including such high-
profile projects as Now
In the sequence in question, the central characters
narrowly escape their farmhouse before it explodes on
It’s neat that we can still
You See Me and 300.
www.rodeofx.com
a rocket-propelled bathtub. “We were given live plates
showing the escape pod landing in the lake and bobbing film a practical explosion
in our studio to integrate
inFinite PotentiAl
into the digital effects With RenderMan
and Fabric Engine
“To capture the house explosion both free for non-
we built a maquette five feet wide commercial use,
and four feet tall, then loaded it anyone can get up
with gunpowder and naphthalene and running with the
to create a realistic explosion,” says technology. Fabric for
Ara. Two cameras recorded the RenderMan provides
explosion against a greenscreen. full binding to
The biggest challenge, reveals RenderMan’s interface
Ara, “was getting the proper scale and control APIs,
and realism [for] the miniature and giving users access
The live footage of making the explosion look realistic. to these functions in
the pod landing, before We’re really happy with the way it Fabric and enabling
the scene is extended turned out.” efficient workflows for
and CG added Tomorrowland is out now. Visit tasks like lighting and
FYI Rodeo FX at www.rodeofx.com shader authoring.

Communit y
Short Cuts
short cuts
sVa students take the get published
plunge into pixar territory

email your short to
Taking the Plunge offers a sentimental splash of Disney with both its heartfelt
narrative and quirky animation. Elizabeth Ku-Herrero delves into it’s depths…
ElizabEth
For their final year project,
this team of four students 1
Ku-hErrEro at the School of Visual Arts,
From a bi-racial New York City – Thaddaeus
background of Spanish Andreades, Marie Raoult, Nicholas
and Chinese, Elizabeth Manfredi and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero
was heavily influenced – appealed to audiences’ softer
by older brothers who sides; creating an animation that is as
introduced her to Star heartwarming as it is visually impressive.
Wars, Newgrounds, Taking a wide range of inspiration,
and South Park. She from Pedro Conti and Victor Hugo
worked as co-creator, to Danny Williams, the team created
look development and a world where Tangled meets How
the creative director on to Train Your Dragon, complete with
Taking the Plunge. vibrant, lovable sea creatures and a
www.elizabethnku.com good measure of Disney-style terror.
“Story-wise, we found ourself pulling
from a lot of things we grew up with as
kids, such as The Lion King, Lord of the
Rings and The Great Mouse Detective,
says creative director, Elizabeth Ku-
Herrero. “This was especially true for
our chase scenes and to figure out how
to explore a vast environment while still
keeping our audiences engaged with
our characters.”
What did you find was the most

challenging job during production?
We hit some roadblocks. We needed in Photoshop and Mudbox. Rendering and pile up it’s easier to slip into quick
to incorporate entire aspects that we was done in Arnold and compositing in hacks. We had growing pains in the
had absolutely no experience with. This Nuke. The sound was mixed in ProTools, beginning, but it soon became obvious
included creating an ocean and bubbles and we put the edit together in Premier. we needed to work smart in order to
Vital that didn’t just look good, but could be complete the animation.
statistics rendered quickly so as to not bog down What was the most impressive For example, underwater layout
the school’s render farm since we were technical aspect of the project? changes needed to be made within our
already dealing with a nearly seven- We made a ‘fishnado’ (fish tornado) master layout scene. We had plenty of
minute long film. using a particle system that would shots with specific hero rocks, but by
tEaM generate the fish along a chosen path. having them all located within our layout
Thaddaeus Andreades, What 3D software did you use? At the same time the fish had animation scene we could then unhide them for
Nicholas Manfredi, We used predominantly Maya and on them that was carried on and copied specific shots, which made changes
Marie Raoult, ZBrush for the 3D work. Most of the from one single fish! We went through consistent throughout shots.
Elizabeth Ku-Herrero texturing and painting work was done a lot of different methods to figure out We constantly had to remind
what would give us the most control ourselves to be extremely strict with
country
US We made a ‘fishnado’ and be easy to do across multiple shots.
We had over 500 fish!
correct naming conventions and to
reference scenes properly, and so
on. Of course, this meant a lot of
SoftwarE (fish tornado) using a particle Did anything go wrong in production, work had to be redone, but it was all
Maya, ZBrush, Nuke, and what did you learn? worth getting right in the beginning.
Photoshop, Mudbox,
Arnold, ProTools and
system that world generate It was extremely difficult to be prepared Otherwise, had we gotten caught up
for the size of our project. During the in reassigning shaders across 70 shots
Premier the fish along a chosen course of our entire School of Visual
Arts career we had been accustomed
multiple times, our film wouldn’t have
been possible.
production tiME
10 months
path… We had over 500 fish! to producing 30-60 second shorts.
Most of time when things get hectic
Watch the full animation now
Fyi www.vimeo.com/128840555

1 The ocean geometry 2 Land was created 3 The bubbles were 4 Arnold’s skin 5 The fish needed
was created using using matte paintings comprised of stock shader was used on to be animated
Maya’s ocean shader, placed in 3D space footage as well as all our characters separately and we
this was then alembic in Nuke. The ocean our own rendered and eyeballs. It kept used alembic caches
cached. We had to was lightened and geometry to interact our shadows full so that they could
keep the ocean opaque discolored using with the regulator of colour and our populate a path using
due to render times. masks in their UVs. and environment. characters alive. a particle system.
2 3
4 5
6 underwater Love
From a technical standpoint, a big unknown was the underwater
setting and how to make our characters look like they were in a
believable space. We studied a ton of underwater footage. The
key aspects we needed to push were depth and atmosphere, the
way the light pushes through the water and is cast on rocks, and
an abundance of floating particles. We ended up using a lot of
spot lights with volumetrics to build up depth. We made a looping
caustic texture as a gobo filter on a few lights to project caustics
on the rocks and moving volumetric rays. Depth of field was done
in Nuke using a depth pass rendered out of Arnold.
6 The sky was done 7

within 3D nuke by
importing our camera
and a sphere .obj;
we then painted one
matte painting for
noon and sunset.
7 The tear was made

using a combination
of rendered geo
for the drip and
controlling a UV
render pass to grade
the streak in Nuke.

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3D WoRlD October 2015 28 www.3dworld.creativebloq.com

EXPErt PANEL Artist
Q&A
Anita Brown
Anita provides a 3D
visualisation service to
the interior design and
event design industries. She’s also a
Maxwell Render certified expert trainer.
anitabrowndesignstudio.com
Your software queries solved
by our CG experts
Pietro Chiovaro
Pietro is an experienced
Italian 3D artist who
is currently working in
3D image creation and re-creation,
modelling realistic environments.
www.bit.ly/199-Pietro
Kieran McKay
Kieran works in the
games industry as a
professional 3D character
artist. He’s currently based in the UK
working with Sony/Guerrilla Games.
www.kieranmckay.co.uk
Rob Redman
Rob runs a 3D animation
and VFX studio, working
for clients ranging from
governments to rock stars. He’s also
an industry commentator and trainer.
www.pariahstudios.co.uk
Francis-Xavier
Martins
Francis-Xavier is a
freelance character artist
and CG generalist based in Brighton.
He has worked in video games, media
and TV for over a decade.
www.polyjunky.com
Get in touch
EmAiL your quEstioNs to Learn a time-saving
ian.dean@futurenet.com approach to create a
detailed character

Step-by-Step character creation
one create the face and body
The body and face are created from
separate ZSpheres with symmetry. Once
you are happy with them both, DynaMesh
them together to make one seamless
body sculpt. The tools I use for the body
are mostly Move, ClayTubes, Clay, Dam
Standard and Pinch. These are used to
flesh out the shapes, add creases in tight
areas and correct the anatomy.
two make the hair

To make the Hair, start with individual
ZSpheres, and use the Snakehook and
Move tool to position them. When satisfied
with the look, use Dam Standard and
TrimDynamic brushes to sculpt each piece
individually. I also find it handy to use the
polish feature under the Deformation tab
and also ClayPolish to give a nice balance
between smooth and crisp edges.
three addinG weaponry

Next, make the chainsaws. Model them
as straight as possible making use of
symmetry and object-cloning for speed.
Then group the mechanically functioning
parts together so you can pose it easily.
I end up with four groups that I can
individually move around. Spend time
cleaning these and subdividing the objects
in 3ds Max and detailing in ZBrush.
four piecinG it all toGether

I use the Boolean function in ZBrush a lot
zbrush | KEyshot which helps me speed things up further.
The backpack is made in the same way as
the chainsaws. The bull’s head is made in
How can I create a detailed 3ds Max as a low-poly object and brought
into ZBrush for polishing and sharpening
character in ZBrush? of the edges. I put the backpack on the
girl and positioned the chainsaws easily
Daniel Barrett, UK at the very end.
Kieran replies Once I am happy with her pose I add the final parts,
ZBrush is the perfect tool for making character such as the hair and clothes. I use the Mask brush to expert tip
sculpts and is widely used in the film and game mask off areas for the clothes and clone them into Use good reference
industry. With an adapted workflow you can a separate tool. It’s useful to use the inflate modifier When Sculpting and creating
use some speedy techniques to quickly make next to push it outwards ready for sculpting. This is characters in ZBrush, the
a polished piece of artwork. In this training, I will give you a really quick way to start working with a shape that most important thing is to
some structured advice and show you methods I use to already fits around the character’s body. constantly look at reference.
create my latest character. Next I make the chainsaw parts and the backpack Surround yourself with
Before you start working on a character similar to this, in 3ds Max and detail them in ZBrush. The Boolean images related to your
the first thing you should do is plan how you will tackle function in ZBrush enables you to punch crazy shapes work and research things
the creation process. I want to break this character up and holes into your mesh really quickly, and this is like anatomy, form
into two parts; first the character itself and next the how I make most of the tricky parts. I also use the and composition.
mechanical parts/chainsaws. I make them in separate Polish, ClayPolish and TrimDynamic features to
scenes to prevent them from getting too big. smooth everything out in the end.
I start by sculpting the character in a regular T-pose. With this character in particular I end up with millions
The anatomy is a really important part of the model and millions of polys in each of the two scenes that I
overall, so I start sculpting using Symmetry until I set up (the character sculpt and the mechanical parts/
am happy with the proportions. I use the ‘mask and chainsaws). When it comes to merging these two
transpose’ method in ZBrush to get her in the perfect together into one scene I use the Decimation Master in
position. You just mask the area you need to move and ZBrush. I am finally able to get everything together and
then shift it into position with the Transpose tools. This match things up for a final composition. To finish off, I
means you don’t need to rig the character to pose it. export the entire model to KeyShot for rendering.

Artist Q&A expert tip
It’s all in the axis
When you first try this you
might find that your object is
intersecting the surface it’s stuck
to but that’s to be expected. If you
don’t want to use the constraint’s
distance setting you can hold [L]
with the model selected and use
the Move tool to change the
axis point to the bottom.
Fixing details to
a mesh is easy
with constraints
ciNEmA 4D Step-by Step using constraints

How can I make one one collect your Geometry
First things first, you need both the
object stick to another? model(s) you want to stick and the object
you wish to stick them to. I’ve made a
Rowena Boater, Australia simple scene to get you started if you need
it, so open Constraint_start.c4d and you
will find the main body and three small
Rob replies detail pieces you can use to start adding to
Like so many tasks in Cinema 4D (and 3D in it. The axis of each is at the bottom.
general) there are many ways to accomplish
this and each has its own pros and cons. A two character menu
quick and easy method would be to make Let’s start with Bolt A. Right-click it in the
clones of the object you want to be placed on to a Object Manager and go to Character tags/
surface using a mograph cloner. You could use the Constraint. In its attributes you will see a
Transform settings to get the distance right and then number of options. When activating them
use a random effector to add variation, if needed. a new tab will appear, with its individual
This would work well for scenes where you don’t need settings. Choose Clamp and move to the
ultimate control, as it’s fast to set up, but if you need Clamp tab, if it doesn’t take you there
perfect placement there are better ways. automatically.
To show the power of this set up let’s take a look at
a scene where the surface we are sticking things to three clamp SettinGS
isn’t flat. This works for anything, but to see it in action Now you need to tell it what you want
we could choose rocks on a sea bed, trees on a hill it to do, so drag the Body into the Target
or mechanical details. For many mechanical models field and change the To setting to Surface.
you need details, such as nails, bolts, or rivets. From a Seeing as our body object is spherical
distance a bump map might suffice, but if the camera and we want our bolts to face outwards
gets close you will need to use geometry and it can be change the As setting to Normal, followed
a painful, laborious task to place them all by hand, often by changing the Distance slider to 0cm.
needing to manipulate your viewport considerably to The Bolt should now be stuck to the
see what you’re doing. surface of the body.
This is where one of the character tags comes in very
useful. In the step-by-step example I’ll show you how four copy and poSition
to add and set up the character constraint tag to allow Now you have the tag set up you can copy
you to move objects across the surface of another, in it to the other detail objects and start
this case, bolts across the body of a droid. The tool is positioning. You can use both X and Z axis
a versatile one and can be adapted to cater for most handles to position in any view and the
models, but you need to be aware of one thing: once bolts will stick to the body. This is far easier
you’ve placed your geometry, select the duplicates and than trying to align them by hand. If you
delete the tag, otherwise when you reopen the saved want lots of bolts [Ctrl]-click and drag to
scene they will have lost their positions. make duplicates. The Tag will copy over too.

You can control and
improve the quality
of the reflections in
the Node editor
bLENDEr
How do I create
realistic reflections?
Suzy Hamilton, US
Pietro replies
When I start a new project,
the first task to which I devote
myself is modelling. After this,
I begin to study the elements
that constitute it, in order to create the
materials. At this stage, I observe real
objects with the same characteristics, in
order to understand how to recreate the
material whilst remaining faithful to the expert tip
original. It’s precisely at this time that we References for everything
begin to work with the reflexes. When you’re starting to create
Looking at the render above, you’ll a material, make sure you have
notice that not all the surfaces have references, such as photos
the same reflective capacity; the rims taken from multiple angles or
of the car, as you can see, are more video of this material. This will
reflective than the paint or compared these three shaders when combined with other help you a lot in the creation
to the glass. This derives from the of the material and
fact that each material has a different
setting. In Blender there are three
shaders such as Diffuse or transparent, allow us to to understand its
reflective properties.
shaders in particular that help us to
add reflectivity to a material, these
add a reflection to each material we are creating
are Glossy, Anisotropic and Glass.
These three shaders when combined After that, we have to connect them – the material will be (for example, the
with other shaders such as Diffuse or to do this, simply add the Mix Shader recommended value for a mirror is
Transparent, allow us to add a certain and subsequently connect them to the 0.005). Obviously this is a node basis;
level of reflection to each material we Material Output node. in fact we can combine many shaders
are creating – whether that’s for a wall, a Now we can begin to set the node, and connect the texture to give a more
table, a cup, an egg and so on. changing the values of roughness and the realistic effect to the material.
Putting it into practice, if we want to colour of the Diffuse and Glossy shaders. In the end we can highlight the
create the paintwork of the car, we have It’s important to note that in the Glossy reflective capacities of the materials,
to open the Node Editor panel, and shader, the lower the value of Roughness adding a Glare node in the Node Editor
add two shaders: Diffuse and Glossy. the greater the reflective capacity of panel for compositing.

Artist Q&A
expert tip
Avoid a flat look
Eyes are always tricky to create
in any sculpt so it helps to
insert a couple of spheres into
the mesh early on. This way
zbrush you’ll be able to sculpt around
them and avoid the ‘flat’ look
found sometimes in digital
How can I make a stylised bust in ZBrush? sculpts. Look at the sculpt
from all angles to make
Justin Cumberlatch, UK sure it looks good.
Francis-Xavier replies I jump into ZBrush. I start with a eyelid areas. I use the Inflate brush on
The bust in question is of DynaMesh sphere and block in the a low setting to get areas to overlap
Daenarys Targaryan from the forms and landmarks of the head with and smooth them down if too severe.
TV show Game of Thrones. the Move brush, making sure that I The hair is created by drawing a mask
I saw a sketch online by Jeff work in as low a resolution as possible on the head and extracting, then I use
Stahl and I had to try to recreate it. before subdividing. the Move brush with DynaMesh turned
Now, because I am making a stylised The good thing about working with on to get the desired shape. I use
version of a well-known character DynaMesh is that you don’t have to Claytubes with Lazy Mouse on to draw
worry about topology. As soon as the hair strands. I use Dam Standard
i use the clayBuildup brush to build up you get a bit of stretching [Ctrl]+drag
anywhere on the document and your
to cut into the hair and use Claypolish
to sharpen the cuts. For the braids I
volume and the smooth brush to get rid model will re-mesh with even topology.
Once I’ve got the major forms, I
use an Insert brush, there are loads on
ZBrush central but you have to make
use the ClayBuildup brush to build up sure your model has no subdivisions,
of any irregularities in the mesh volume and the Smooth brush to get so duplicate, delete higher and lower
rid of any irregularities in the mesh. and you’re good to go. Once you’ve
and I am doing it from a single sketch I use ZRemesher to automatically drawn your braids on, you can delete
and not a turnaround, it is important retopologise my model and I’m ready the duplicated mesh and use the
that I get as much reference as to get into details. Subdivide the model Move brush to position the braids
possible. After grabbing as many and use the Dam Standard brush to cut and sculpt the underlying hair mesh
images of ‘Khaleesi’ as I can online, in areas like the nasal labial fold and to conform properly.
It is best to use a sphere as reference to model

the eyes otherwise they can look unnatural

An interior styled
to resemble a
glossy cover shoot
expert tip
Add height!
Position objects in an interior
at varying heights and add
quirky items (in this instance
ANy | mAXwELL rENDEr | PhotoshoP the single chair). This will
help to keep the image
visually stimulating; it will
How can I create an interior scene that assist in guiding the viewer
to areas of interest and will
resembles a glossy magazine cover shoot? prevent the interior from
looking too one
Michael Watcher, UK dimensional.
Anita replies coffee table and the fur throw, thereby is aligned to the back wall and is
Technical skill is paramount adding visual interest. lower than eye level. All vertical and
when creating a photo-real When styling an interior it is useful horizontal lines in the scene have also
interior, but utilising your to break it down into segments and been aligned to the camera. By setting
creativity, understanding style each little area in its own right. up the scene in this way, the overall
what makes a visually captivating scene There are three distinct ‘zones’ in this image is much more harmonious to
and having knowledge of photography interior: the coffee table, sofa and the the eye, the back wall acts as a canvas
techniques is also equally important. accessories placed below the art on and allows the objects in the scene to
This contemporary, industrial the wall. Whilst they all add pockets of take centre stage. What’s more, it also
inspired interior is achieved by using visual appeal, they don’t compete for
a clear colour palette of inky blue,
with orange accents. The injections of
attention or distract from the overall
composition of the image.
By setting the scene like this, the back
copper provides a rich contrast with
the dark backdrop and visually lifts the
Placement of furniture is centred
around a tried and tested photography wall acts as a canvas and allows the
overall design. Texture is incorporated method that is adopted by many
via the old wooden floor, the upcycled interiors publications: the camera objects in the scene to take centre stage
provides more options for cropping the
image at a later date, if desired.
Careful consideration has been given
to lighting. Generally, natural lighting is
the preference for professional interior
photoshoots, however, I want to soften
the overall look of this interior and
showcase the vintage Edison bulbs.
Therefore, all the emitter values in
Maxwell Render are set quite low so
as not to visually compete with the
strong environment lighting. There
are also hidden emitters in the ceiling
area, near the vintage bulbs and dotted
throughout the space to help balance
the lighting in the scene.
Maxwell Render does a good Some finishing post-processing is
job at keeping the lighting in undertaken in Photoshop to enhance
the scene looking natural the sunlight coming from the window
for added drama.

continuum
How Vancouver-based Artifex Studios

creates movie VFX on a TV schedule

More than Marines
Artifex’s work on Continuum
includes creating a 2077
set Vancouver
T
urning present day Vancouver
into a thriving, believable future future vistas
of gleaming skyscrapers and This incredible scene
VITAL rain-soaked Blade Runner vistas was created to a tight
STATISTICS is all in a day’s work for Artifex budget at Artifex
Studios. The Canadian VFX facility
has grown with the success of
Continuum, the SyFy series that
studio regularly plays with time travel,
Artifex Studios ensuring every episode is awash with glorious
visions of the future.
Location Founded in 1997, and now with 25 full-time
Vancouver, British staff, Artifex is a key player in developing
Columbia, Canada quality VFX shots for some well-known TV
series, and whose credits include Falling
eMpLoyees Skies and Almost Human.
25
Future perfect
Website But it’s Continuum that holds a special place
www.artifexstudios.com for the team at Artifex, which was brought
in at the very start of the show’s conception time while pursuing freedom fighters. Stuck
and given free reign to put its own stylistic in the comparatively quaint 2012, she helps
spin on many effects. Artifex worked closely the Vancouver Police Department track
with showrunner Simon Barry to develop down escaped foes using her advanced
the futuristic setting, from envisioning urban technology and knowledge – all while
streets to creating sleek sci-fi vehicles that attempting to get back home to her family.
flit between the skyscrapers of an imagined
Vancouver skyline. “It was an Time travails
adaM stern absolute blast,” says VFX supervisor As the series has grown in scale, so too has
Adam has worked in film Adam Stern with a smile as he the show’s complexity, introducing new
and visual effects since the remembers the early days. elements and enemies that Artifex has been
late 1980s, with credits that In fact, as testified by many of the VFX tasked with bringing to life for the small
include Pan’s Labyrinth, vendors interviewed in this issue, working in screen. At the end of season three, the show
The Mist, The Possession TV ensures studios a certain ownership of the featured futuristic Time Marines, rendered
and The Maze Runner. creative output of a series that working in film entirely in CG by Artifex. (You can see how
www.bit.ly/adam-stern doesn’t provide. the studio created them over the page.)
Continuum stars Rachel Nichols as Kiera Other than creating the new Time
Cameron, a City Protective Services agent Marines, recurring VFX work throughout
from 2077 who is accidentally sent back in the series has included creating impressive

feature
Continuum VFX
the biggest challenge with Continuum

is the schedule … Keeping things
organised is always a benefit
ProCeSS: Modelling the tiMe Marine

Adam Stern shares the process for creating Continuum’s time-travelling troops
W
ith its fourth and final season now in post production,
Continuum has been a tremendous project for everyone
here at Artifex. Continuum tells the story of Kiera
Cameron – a cop from the year 2077, who along with
a group of freedom fighters is transported back in time to 2012. A
stranger in a strange land, Kiera must make allies, track down her
enemies, and fight to get back to her family and the future she left.
artist profiLe Artifex handles all the visual effects for the series, which
Adam Stern encompass everything from future cityscapes, tech and vehicles, to
Adam is Continuum’s Kiera’s ‘supersuit’, HUD, and various gadgets and weaponry. We have
VFX Supervisor and the been involved from the beginning, helping design and create the
owner of Artifex Studios. world of the show. An episode of Continuum can include over 100
Adam started as a VFX shots, making it a challenging, but very rewarding project.
self-taught artist, and is The Time Marines were introduced at the end of season three.
now branching out from These fully-armored warriors are only seen briefly in the last episode,
VFX into writing and but play a big role in the upcoming season. When seen in full armor
directing, with is short the Time Marines are full CG characters. Artifex has taken these
film The Adept. characters from concept through completion, and we’re looking
Making the future www.theadeptfilm.com forward to their season four debut.
Continuum is part of a growing Our VFX pipeline is fairly straightforward: Maya and V-Ray,
trend for film quality VFX on TV ZBrush, Mudbox, Mari, Photoshop, Nuke, ftrack for shot tracking and
management, plus a number of tools and plugins. Here’s a glimpse
into our workflow and construction of these formidable soldiers.

one ConCePT Two BASe MoDeL Three SeT uP uVS
Everything starts with a concept. After reading Artifex uses Maya as our primary 3D tool. This To allow for as high-res textures as possible,
the scripts and discussing the chara cters is where the base model was created. Of course we lay out in multiple grids. Once we see fully
with production, we get to work. The first we always aim to keep geometry as clean rendered versions of the character, we’ll likely
step is to produce a number of quick concepts as possible. In the case of the Time Marines, need to make changes to various aspects, and
in Photoshop, which help us zero in on the they are humans, but encased within a rigid, we want to be able to zero in on only the specific
desired look. The Time Marines come from the powered suit. When rigged and weighted they’ll areas required. This UV workflow allows for
future, but we wanted an almost tribal feel to need to feel like people, not robots… but with up-resing textures as needed, while still being
them – as if they were from different castes rigid/constrained movement. Some interesting able to keep our shader networks clean and
and/or locations. challenges, not immediately apparent. accessible for iterating.
Four DeTAILIng In ZBruSh FIVe MArI SIx DeTAILS

Although most modelling work on this asset All texture look development was done in Detail work continues in Mari, with
was done in Maya, ZBrush enables us to Mari. Mari is a fantastic tool that enables Photoshop entering the picture as well. Here
create a number of additional high resolution our artists to add and mix multiple layers to we have created several variations of the
displacement passes – bumps, dents, and get desired results, including working with Time Marine – different wear maps, as well
scratches to name a few. ZBrush was also previously mentioned scratch/dent/bump as decals, battle damage and colourations.
used during initial look development, as a fast layers. We can dial in spec, dirt maps, and so
previewing tool for high subdivision work. on, all with a high degree of interactivity.
SeVen MAyA/V-rAy eIghT CoMP

V-Ray for Maya is a great tool for The Time Marines are rendered using V-Ray 3.0.
photorealistic rendering. We can get We supply a large number of AOVs in loaded
everything we need out of it, including a huge EXRs, giving our compositors a high degree of
amount of flexibility for compositors (see flexibility when putting together final shots. On
Step 8). We find it especially good for hard TV deadlines, the more that can be done in comp
surface work. Artifex made the initial switch the better… sending shots back for re-rendering
to V-Ray while exploring the best rendering isn’t always an option. Our comp team can dial
options for CG cityscapes on the first season in lighting, change the amount of surface detail,
of Continuum, and we’ve used it ever since. and refine colours on a shot-by-shot basis.

feature
The rise of TV VFX
Author profile
Tom May
Having worked in
magazine journalism
for 22 years, Tom is
currently the content
manager for 3D World
and our website
CreativeBloq.
twitter.com/tom_may

VFx
With movie talent increasingly flocking to TV
land, Tom May examines what effect this
seismic shift is having on the VFX industry
W
hen was the last time you make their money back. Ergo, there is a
went to the cinema? And dumbing down of the sophistication level,
when was the last time or the characterisation.
you stayed in and binge- “So I think what’s attracted actors,
watched a TV drama? If the latter was directors and producers to television is
more recent, you’re not alone… the ability to tell the kind of stories movie
More and more of us are shifting our studios like United Artists were making in
downtime from the multiplex to the the late 1970s. If you want to make stuff
front room, thanks to a combination like that now, the format is television.”
of larger, better quality TV sets, and Nigel Hunt of Glowfrog, a London-
the accessibility of content. Where the based studio creating high-end effects
demand goes, the supply is following: for clients including BBC, Channel 4
top Hollywood actors, directors and and HBO, agrees. “The driving
producers are all flocking from the factor is probably the
movies to television, and the financiers attractiveness of TV for high
have followed in their wake, investing big end feature directors wanting a
money in blockbuster shows. little more control and freedom,” he
Will Cohen of visual effects studio Milk, suggests. “The U.S. cable networks such
the main vendor on Doctor Who and as Showtime and HBO have traditionally
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, believes been the powerhouses of high-end TV,
there’s a good reason for all this. attracting film talent. Now, with the storm
“The movies find it very difficult surge of online networks, Netflix and
in 2015 to tell sophisticated Amazon have emerged as major content
stories,” he argues. “They have producers attracting even more film
to appeal globally in order to talents, and larger production budgets.”

feature
The rise of TV VFX
digitAl doubles
Fully CG characters – like Grodd
here – were once unheard of in
mainstream TV shows. Now they’re
cropping up everywhere…
So how do 3D artists and visual effects studios

get a slice of this action – and should they
even want to? In this article, we assess how
the flash
Encore VFX’s Armen V. Kevorkian shares insights into
television is transforming the 3D industry bringing DC comic’s fastest man alive to the small screen
before our very eyes…
Rising expectations five or more episodes at any given time,”

The first, and perhaps biggest change to
take place in recent years when it comes to
visual effects lies in audience expectations.
F says Armen. “New villains are introduced
weekly so there’s also a high volume of
complex shots being done constantly.
Essentially, in 2015, viewers want their TV Grodd was a special one; he’s one of the
shows to look as good as their movies. most well-known nemeses in The Flash
“As VFX in film advances, it stands to universe. Time is always a challenge in
reason that it will follow in TV,” says TV and, fortunately, we had a pretty
Tanvir Hanif, visual effects supervisor substantial heads-up that Grodd would be
and 3D animator at 3sixtymedia, a making an appearance this season so we
production company serving ITV, BBC and were able to prepare accordingly.”
independent clients throughout the UK. “The Encore VFX use 3ds Max for 3D work
audience is so much more savvy and critical and Nuke for 2D work, as well as ZBrush.
now, so in TV we have to work harder to match Scans for the digital doubles were done at
their expectations. As shows like Game of Light Stage and Gentle Giant Studios. All
Thrones, Vikings and Battlestar Galactica have were essential to create the sense of super
met that challenge, viewers have come to speed seen in every episode.
expect the same on other shows, further “Super speed is iconic to the character
increasing the pressure to raise standards.” and focal to the show, so we spent a lot
There’s just one drawback: film-like effects of time ahead of the pilot researching
need to be achieved without film-like budgets. what would look best. The comic books
Sam Nicholson, CEO of Stargate Studios – the provided a good base, and from there we
VFX facility behind The Walking Dead – puts it played around with movements that were
bluntly: “The only difference grounded in reality,” says Armen, “then
between TV and film these days is we had to cheat it a little bit to make
time and money.” So more needs to it look cool. Once we nailed the right
be done by fewer people in less balance, there was definitely a sweet
time. Improvements in technology help, but it video scope ‘eureka moment’.”
still leaves a lot of pressure on artists. The rise of affordable When conversation turns to the wider
“Working in television is quite different from CG technology means growth in VFX in TV, Armen reflects: “As
working on feature films,” continues Sam. “To the scale of TV VFX both artists and an audience, we’ve set
survive in TV you must be very good but also has grown dramatically the bar high in what we’ve come to expect
very fast. Particularly in series television, you’re from TV VFX. The work being created for
generally prepping two shows, shooting one television (and beyond) is incredible and
and posting two.” quality shows are held to new standards.”
The actual business of creating 3D effects See Encore VFX’s scene breakdown
doesn’t really change. As Sam puts it: “The
FYI here: www.bit.ly/the-flash-vfx

chANgiNg plAces
The man in the green leotard
is none other than Jonathan
Strange, played by Bertie Carvel
Jonathan strange & Mr norrell

Bringing statues to life in fantasy series Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
artists are the same. The software
and the computers are the same.” The
gap, then, is being met by innovative
wasn’t as easy as you’d think, reveals Will Cohen of Milk approaches to organisation, time
management and productivity.
“So now on our big shows like Heroes
Reborn and The Ten Commandments,
I there are multiple simultaneous first units,

multiple directors and split location,” explains
Sam. “We have specifically engineered
Stargate Studios to excel in this challenging
production and post production environment
To survive in TV you must be very good

but also very fast. You’re prepping two
shows, shooting one and posting two
Sam Nicholson, CEO and founder, Stargate Studios
by networking and synchronising our ten

international facilities. Today, amazing visual
effects are possible in a fraction of the time
and a fraction of the cost of previous years,
which truly closes the gap.”
It’s a similar story across the industry.
“In television, studios have tighter
schedules, due to the episodic
nature, and budgets that don’t quite
stretch to reiterating a shot for the 40th or 50th
time,” explains ftrack’s Ben Minall. “These
constraints lead to approaches that have to be
ingenious, as the production doesn’t have the
grunt power or luxury of time behind it.”
Project management tool ftrack aims to help
stressed-out VFX studios meet these required
levels of ingenuity, he says. “ftrack does away
with the need for huge Excel spreadsheets
that need to constantly be shared and reams
of emails cluttering up your inbox. It gives
everyone on the team one centralised location

feature
The rise of TV VFX
Worlds ApArt
The sheer scale of Marco Polo’s
epic environments posed a huge
technical challenge for Pixomondo
where they can see what needs to be done

that day, how it needs to be done, and when it
needs to be done by.”
MarCo Polo
Bringing Marco Polo to the screen was an epic
Other tools are available, such as Shotgun. challenge, Pixomondo’s Christian Hermann explains
But whatever productivity software studios
use, it’s this kind of streamlined approach to
production that’s crucial in the world of TV
VFX, as tough schedules mean there’s scant
room for mistakes or multiple iterations. P
Variety and diversity
But if this all sounds like no fun at all, then
here’s the good news: there are some definite
upsides to working on TV shows too.
First of all, there’s a much greater level of
variety. For instance, working at Milk, says Will
Cohen, “you’ll find yourself animating a snake
in Hercules one minute, for a month, for a
Since budgets are restricted, the

atmosphere becomes more inviting
for collaboration and creative solutions
Niklas Jacobson, VFX supervisor, ILP
handful of shots. And then you’ll be on Doctor

Who animating 20 shots in a handful of weeks.
I think it’s fun for artists to mix it up and have
that diversity. And to be able to move on to
another project very quickly, or to spend time
on really applying the final detail and polish.”
Just as importantly, working on TV shows
can also involve much higher levels of creative
collaboration between directors and the
artists themselves.
“The ambitions on a TV show may
be very high,” says Nicklas Jacobson
of Swedish VFX house ILP, which has
worked on hit shows Crossbones
and Constantine. “But since budgets are still

sNAKes Alive
The CG snakes were sculpted
in ZBrush in great detail, with
modelling and rigging in Maya
CliCk TO PlAY VideO

www.bit.ly/199-marco-polo
it’s been reported that Marco polo restricted and everyone is aware that it’s not a
cost $9 million per episode – was feature film budget, the atmosphere becomes
there a bigger budget for this than more inviting for collaboration and open for
normal at your end? creative solutions. That makes you feel more
A lot of money was spent on the practical like a part of the production where you all work
sets. For Pixomondo the budget was towards the same goals.”
comparable with other TV shows we’ve Milk’s Nicolas Hernandez, CG supervisor
worked on. on the BBC historical fantasy series Jonathan
Strange & Mr Norrell, has had similar
What was the biggest technical experiences. “On Jonathan Strange,
challenge you faced? and on TV generally in fact, you
Scale and population of the environments have direct access to the director,”
proved to be the biggest challenge on he says. “And usually you need to
this show. As with any production of this have a proper partnership with the production
scale, the logistics of handling hundreds company to make it work, because of the
of assets and terabytes of texture data challenge of time and money.” His boss, Will
required the development of custom Maya Cohen, concurs. “On Jonathan Strange we
tools to provide artist-friendly layouts had great collaboration – a creative
that would produce predictable and partnership with the producer, the director
compositor-friendly render passes. and two editors – and that makes it all very
Models and textures were optimised economic. The lines of communication are
to reduce render times and special tools very small.”
were utilised to populate the city layouts If working on TV productions is good for
with vegetation and low-resolution artists, it’s equally good for studios too. For
objects to add visual clutter. We used a some it’s a good way to fill their downtime
crowd simulation plugin for Maya called between movie projects, while others have
Miarmy (www.basefount.com) which chosen to specialise in TV completely. All
was employed in the creation of CG
extras and armies within the cities, and
which enabled quick swapping of walk/
run cycles and accessories to breathe life pAst glories
into wide establishing shots with slow Pixomondo conducted detailed
camera moves. historical research to ensure Marco
Using Nuke’s 3D capabilities the matte Polo’s environments were accurate
painting department was able to set up
a 360-degree landscape template, which
enabled quick swaps of the sky-dome
elements depending on the shot’s needs,
as well as ensuring consistency in the
layout of the background landscape
features across sequences.
For more on Pixomondo, visit its
FYI site at www.pixomondo.com

feature
The rise of TV VFX
hit ANd MYth

Although a fantasy, Games
of Thrones’ look and feel
is grounded in reality
those we spoke to are expecting the demand

for TV VFX to grow in the future.
But while it’s the huge explosions and epic
gaMe of thrones
Lead vendors discuss the challenges of bringing
set-pieces of shows that get the attention, George RR Martin’s fantasy classic to life
that’s only the icing on the cake as far as VFX
work goes. Most of the work available is in
providing ‘invisible effects’ – things that the
viewer would never guess were done digitally
and not actually real.
“Invisible effects are essential to our
I
business model at Stargate,” says Sam
Nicholson. “They’re generally overlooked
by the viewing audience, but producers and
Our work is to support the narrative in

an invisible way. If you haven’t spotted
what we’re doing, we’ve done our job!
Tanvir Hanif, VFX supervisor, 3sixtymedia
directors absolutely realise the essential

nature of these non-spectacular effects to
their shows.”
A good example of this is Stargate Studios’
work on Grey's Anatomy. “For the past nine
years using our Virtual Backlot process, Grey's
Anatomy has not had to travel to Seattle – the
supposed location of the show,” Nicholson
reveals. “In fact, they’ve been able to stay in
Los Angeles and we’ve brought Seattle to Los
Angeles for them. This greatly enhances the
creative possibilities for the writers of the show
while containing the cost for the producers.”
Can’t see the join?

It’s a similar scenario for Tanvir Hanif at
3sixtymedia, where invisible effects form a
large chunk of day-to-day work. “Our work
is often to support the narrative in a more
invisible way,” he says. “If you haven't spotted

groWth spurt
The dragons have got
bigger and more detailed
with each new series
what we’re doing then we've done our job!”

Tanvir’s role is to go on set to advise and
supervise on how to shoot a particular scene
where an additional enhancement in post
production might be needed. It could be
to repair or paint out something that’s not
needed, or a larger scale alteration to help
realise a key story moment in a programme.
“These bigger scenarios are often undertaken
with a lot of pre-planning with resources put in
place to help realise the effect, but sometimes
you have very little to play with and have to
create most of the final image yourself.”
One of their biggest recent productions,
for example, was ITV Studio’s Cilla, following
singer Cilla Black‘s rise to fame in the 1960s.
“One noteworthy sequence was the first
scene of the first episode,” says Tanvir. “This
introduces Cilla, who is queuing outside the
Cavern Club with supposedly hundreds of
people behind her. We used crowd replication
effects to seamlessly give the impression of
hundreds of extras rather than just the 70
we had on the day. We devised various
in-camera effects that we would later use in
ANiMAl MAgic
The interactions between
Daenerys and her dragon
have been particularly tricky

feature
The rise of TV VFX
tAKeover bid
This breathtaking pull-up
shot reveals the scale
of the zombie infestation
post production to create the final effect.”

This emphasis on not making the CG elements
obvious is even the case on a show like Game
the WalKIng DeaD
More and more digital effects are being used on hit zombie shot
of Thrones, says Jörn Großhans, VFX The Walking Dead, reveals Sam Nicholson of Stargate Studios
supervisor at Mackevision. “Our
main goal is always to create
invisible effects. The imagination of Which shot(s) stand out in your mind
the audience should be triggered,
but everything should be reliable in the
respective story world. Visual effects are great
B as the best example of your work?
Over the years, the shots which still
stick out in my mind are the ones we
as long as they support the story.” created on the pilot with Gale Anne Hurd
and Frank Darabont. Specifically, ‘torso
So where are we now? girl’ and the final pull up shot which
For some industry veterans, working in reveals the amazing scope of the zombie
television VFX feels like coming full circle. “Go infestation. Of course the iconic shot of
back to 1999, 2000,” says Will Cohen. “I think Rick riding down the deserted highway
there’s 40 animated shots in Jurassic Park, the which became the poster for Walking
first movie. 90 digital shots in Gladiator… and Dead is a classic. These shots were
that was a big number. beautifully designed and executed which
“Now movies are coming out with 1,500, resulted in the best possible result – they
2,000, 3,000 shots. Maleficent had 3,000 shots; became icons for the show.
every frame is a digital effects shot. So these
big VFX companies have evolved to have a What kind of pipeline do you use?
big machine and a big hierarchy. Decisions Much of our software is off-the-shelf
are made, and they’re passed down through but with lots of custom modifications,
that hierarchy. They’ve created these large transcoding and automation. After
machines capable of the full pipeline solution. Effects, Nuke, Maya and Premiere.
And that works for them… but TV is very, very We’ve developed a proprietary data
management system we call our Virtual
Operating System (VOS). VOS enables
us to seamlessly distribute, process,
render and deliver shots throughout our
international network of VFX studios.
What’s the best thing about working

on the Walking dead?
The overall body of work is amazing.
Maintaining the quality of the original,
loNg WAlK AheAd inspired production year after year is a
This iconic shot became synonymous real challenge, so we’re always looking for
with AMC show The Walking Dead new ways to keep it fresh.
For more on Stargate Studios visit
FYI www.stargatestudios.net

sKY tv
Even TV comedy now has movie-
style CG, like this space station
scene for Last Man on Earth
last Man on earth

Oliver Taylor explains how Ingenuity Studios
different. In fact, it’s a bit like it was ten to
fifteen years ago when you were making 90
digital shots in Gladiator.”
recreated the ISS for a space comedy Having said that, even the lines between
television VFX and film VFX are now blurring.
Will gives an example: “During the making
of the Battle of Waterloo shots for Jonathan
T Strange, we asked the producer permission to

show Lionsgate, who were talking to us about
Now movies are coming out with 1,500,

2,000, 3,000 shots. Maleficent had 3,000;
every frame is a digital effects shot
Will Cohen, CEO & executive producer, Milk
some crowd work in Insurgent. And Lionsgate

didn’t realise it was TV not a film – they asked
‘What movie was that from?’. You won’t be
surprised to hear they then hired us to do the
work on Insurgent.”
To the ordinary consumer, that fine line is
even more invisible. “We talk about film, we
talk about TV,” adds Will, “but for most people
nowadays, it’s just visual media. Whether it’s
reAl deAl
Ingenuity Studios rejected
a matte painted Earth in
favour of the real thing

feature
The rise of TV VFX
Wet ANd Wild

Shoot-outs with cannons
involved a lot of complex
fluid simulation work
CrossBones
Swedish studio ILP explain how it created some astonishing
naval battles for hit pirate adventure Crossbones
mportant Looking Pirates (ILP) simulations. “The pipeline and workflow
I is a visual effects and digital

animation studio located in
central Stockholm. And with
for keeping track of all these different
assets – and how to quickly assemble
shots and cost-effectively turn over lit
a name like that it’s not surprising that it and rendered versions – required some
got to work on a show like Crossbones, creative thinking, planning and pipeline
the hit US adventure series about the life work,” recalls Niklas.
of pirate Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach. A tricky shot he’s particularly proud
“Our main area was creating of is the scene where The Reaver (pirate
on your mobile phone, in your living room or digital ships and water,” ship) sails along side of The Petrel
at the cinema, people don’t really differentiate explains CEO/VFX supervisor (British ship) and they have a shoot out
over the quality. People don’t think: ‘I’ll forgive Niklas Jacobson. “There were with cannons. “We made a full CG shot
that, because it’s only a TV show from the two real ships on set during principal with boats filled with a digital crew that
BBC.’ It’s got to stand up to be successful. photography, but the show required a needed to cut seamlessly between two
“So as the world gets quicker, faster, in multitude of variations of ships as well live action shots. The challenge was
terms of data, in terms of size, you’re working as scenes of fleets of ships. There were capturing the look of the scene but also
on the same camera, on the same resolution also shots of a stormy ocean, burning acting of the crew on board without
– we’re recording shots on Doctor Who in 6K ships and other complex scenes that pulling the audience out of the story.
sometimes – the techniques you learn required extensive visual effects in order “This is not an ‘effects shot’ but
on both TV and movies you try and apply to be realised.” rather a great example of virtual
where possible.” One of the biggest challenges was to cinematography,” he stresses. “It could
And here’s something else that’s changing: efficiently tackle the workflow of handling very well have been shot on set, but
just as the last few years have seen TV become complex scenes containing high numbers it was during editing that production
more like film, movies are now becoming of different ships, full of digital crews, discovered that a shot like this would
more like television. “If you look at Avengers, cloth-simulated sails, banners, and water really tie the sequence nicely together.”
it’s just big TV in content terms,” argues Will. Other challenging shots were those
“It’s basically a giant TV series; you just have with heavy simulation work like water,
to wait a year in between episodes. And for fire and smoke. “They are tricky in
movies, just like TV, schedules are shortening. a more technical way, with complex
Since the last big financial crisis the challenge simulation setups and plenty of elements
of the entire world – whether it’s visual effects to tie together nicely. Those shots are
or any business – has been to deliver more more resource-demanding in terms of
for less. That’s what everyone wants in every ship hAppeNs computing power and time. They also add
business in every industry, and the creative The show required another layer of complexity in artistry to
industries are no different.” the creation of get it looking right.”
Consequently, in the future even VFX multiple CG vessels To see more of ILP’s work visit its
studios specialising in TV will need to up
FYI site at ilpvfx.com

A bug’s life
ILP needed to create
swarms of bugs
in a short period
CliCk TO PlAY VideO
www.bit.ly/199-constantine
ConstantIne
ILP explains how it created a swarm of bugs
for hit horror show Constantine
specifics as well, but I loved the creative
C freedom he trusted us with. I see him as

much as a director as a VFX supervisor.
He made us feel like an important part
of the production.
“One particular challenge that comes
to mind was for the episode A Feast of
Fiends. Our mission was to create swarms
of bugs for approximately 40 shots in
a very short time period. We needed a their game. Despite 15 years in the business,
workflow that was swift and flexible Sam Nicholson recognises that applies to
and allowed great creative control, yet him as much as anyone else.
did not require our FX/simulation artists “To stay competitive in the ever-more-
to layout the shots. Hence we created a crowded field of global VFX, we’ve continually
custom Maya particle rig that allowed re-invented Stargate Studios, opened
our Lighting TDs to easily control shape, new markets and challenged our previous
path, speed and noise of the particles. We assumptions of what’s possible,” he stresses.
would playblast little coloured spheres “We bring the latest technologies, creative
for Kevin, which he would give feedback innovation, cost savings and real-world
on. Once the animation was blocked problem-solving to all our projects, large or
and approved we switched the particles small. Visual effects applied in this way should
to V-Ray proxies containing high-res save a production money, not cost more.”
animation cycles.” Some people working in the industry won’t
To see more of ILP’s work visit its want to hear any of this, of course. “There’s
FYI site at ilpvfx.com still an enormous amount of snobbery from
people who only work in film to the idea of
TV,” says Milk’s Will Cohen. “I think it’s a
generational thing. But look around you; look
at shows like Game of Thrones, what they’ve
done in terms of production values. It’s just
about being economic with your storytelling.
Realising how to make your budget and what’s
iNfest WiselY being asked of you work is the future of our
ILP created a custom industry. And you shouldn’t resist it, you
Maya particle rig to should be excited about it!”
control shape and speed For more VFX case studies and interviews
FYI visit www.creativebloq.com

Vote
voTe now!
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the most amazing art and technology that has been created over the
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The 3D World CG Awards 2015 will feature the following:
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Contents
TuTorials
Practical tips and tutorials from pro
artists to improve your CG skills
54 create a star wars Matte painting 60 Master the art of fire

Double Negative’s Saby Menyhei walks you through this Star Wars VII-inspired image Expert advice for 3ds Max and FumeFX
For more on your
free downloads
& video training
turn to page 6
geT your
resources
You’re three steps away from this
64 how to create an epic VfX shot
Recreate a frame from Game of Thrones’ Battle of Blackwater with our six-page guide
issue’s video training and files…
1. Go to the website
Type this into your browser’s address bar:
2. Find the Files You want

Search the list of free resources to find
the video and files you want.
3. download what You need

Click the Download buttons and your
files will save to your PC or Mac. 70 get starteD in houDini 74 Detail a character
Bemused by this powerful procedural tool? Read Digital-Tutors’ John Moncrief’s starter tips Prepare this knight for cinematic production
3D WorlD October 2015 53 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Star Wars matte painting
watch the
final scene
if you see the Play icon, use the link
ArTisT profile
Saby Menyhei
Saby graduated
from the Hungarian
University of Fine
Arts. He taught fine
arts/art history and
worked as a freelance
concept artist. He
now works in the
film industry as an
environment/concept
artist at Double
Negative. His credits
include Ant-Man,
Exodus and Godzilla.
www.menyhei.com
Topics covered
Composition
Lighting
Texture detail
Photo manipulation
Camera projection

THE FORCE AWAKENS
This iconic image of
the Star Destroyer is a
combination of 3D work
and 2D matte painting
Maya | Mental ray | PhotoshoP | nuke
Create a Star WarS

matte painting
Saby Menyhei shares his process for creating a powerful 3D
matte painting, inspired by Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens
I
n this tutorial we will try and hand painted elements. The work will be digital painting and
recreate that iconic image of the technique is still around as it’s very photo manipulation in Photoshop.
derelict Star Destroyer from the efficient; you can create a large You will need to use different
Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens environment that doesn’t exist or skills, but most importantly,
trailer, seen from another point of would be too expensive to build you will have to use your eyes –
view. It’s a simple, yet powerful, quickly. And it doesn’t have to be sometimes that is more important
establishing shot and in this a still image, if planned carefully, than any shortcuts or tricks.
tutorial I will show you how digital you can take the painted image Unless you want to model your
matte painting can be used to back to the 3D space. own ship, I recommend using the
improve your 3D renders. The final Sometimes, depending on insanely detailed Imperial Star
image will be a combination of 3D the actual shot, matte painting Destroyer 3D model by Ansel
work and 2D matte painting. can replace texturing/look Hsiao (www.fractalsponge.net),
Matte painting is one of the development/lighting and it can who featured in issue 194 of 3D
oldest tricks in the book, and is also improve your render in a very World. I’ve included my set up
still used to this day. While they significant way. files in this issue’s online Vault,
used traditional matte paintings We will start this tutorial with including my .fbx and .obj files for
until the 1990s, nowadays digital setting up the scene in 3D and Nuke and reference photos.
matte paintings are created rendering out a few very simple For all the assets you need go to click to Play Video
using photos, 3D renders and passes in Maya. The rest of the creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199 www.bit.ly/199-star-wars

TuTorials
Once you are happy with

the result, create a
new render camera and 1 SeTTINg THe SCeNe 2 eMBellISHINg THe SCeNe
The scene is very simple; we need a ground plane You can add another wreck, for example a TIe
try to find another and the model of the Destroyer. For the layout, even Fighter in the foreground corresponds to the X-wing
a low resolution mesh will do. To match the position from the original shot. You can create some simple
interesting view of the ship from the trailer, load a snapshot into the sand dunes using the Sculpt geometry tool (don’t
viewport (View>Image Plane/>Import Image). Once forget to uncheck the Show Wireframe option
you are happy with the result, create a new render under the Display options). Keep in mind that the
camera and try to find another interesting view. The landscape eventually will be matte painted so it
other side of the Destroyer is just as iconic as what doesn’t need to be super detailed at this stage.
we’ve seen in the trailer.
ExpErt tip
Reference library
Taking your own reference
photos is great. So do so
whenever you can –
building your own
texture and a matte 3 SeTTINg THe lAYOUT 4 PlAN YOUr lIgHTINg
painting library is a look through your render camera. It might take a few Because of the nature of this scene, instead of using
good idea! tries to find the preferred angle but once you have an IBl, you can get away with using mental ray’s
found the best composition you can lock the position Physical Sun and Sky (you can find these under the
of the camera to ensure it doesn’t move. At this stage Indirect lighting tab). Just click the Create button,
you can still tweak the position of your assets and and rotate the arrows that represent light direction.
when you think it’s done, it’s good to lock the layout Feel free to scale them up, the size of the arrows
as well. While the landscape is more of a placeholder, doesn’t change the intensity. Also, by changing
make sure that it gives you enough information about the Max Sample levels (under Quality) you will
bigger shapes, distance and so forth. get a nicer result.
render resoluTion
The resolution of your
matte painting should
be at least twice as big
as the final composite.
Render your passes at
4k or higher
5 CreATe YOUr UVS 6 CreATe reNDer PASSeS (1)

Most of the textural detail will be matte painted, We need at least four very simple passes for the
but we might need UVs for one of the passes before matte painting: Beauty, ID, Z-Depth and Dirt. For
we start rendering. We will generate some random the Beauty render, basic shaders will do (default
noise that will be used as dirt, but we won’t need Maya/mental ray ones). The Destroyer is quite rusty
perfect UVs for this. So if you don’t have UVs yet, the and dirty so don’t make it too reflective. An ID pass
simplest thing is to use the Create UVs>Automatic creates quick selections. Here, create a Surface
UVs function. It’s going to be far from perfect, but Shader with basic colours (red, green or blue), so you
might be just enough for what we need. You can can turn them to masks in Photoshop quickly.
always use a UV checker map to test the result.

7 CreATe reNDer PASSeS (2) 8 gATHer reFereNCe IMAgeS
A Z-Depth pass is also handy to set the ship’s scale. In a studio there would be hundreds of high-res
You’ll need a new Surface Shader; set the Out Colour images to work from – here we’re making our own.
to White and go to Create/Volume Primitives Cube You can find photos on the internet, but get the best
(your scene should be inside). Select Cube Fog Shader possible (high-res and no compression artefact). For
and set Volume Fog Attributes to Black. render using this matte painting we will need photos of sand dunes
Maya. Finally, a simple Dirt pass will be mixed with and rocky grounds. For the Destroyer, you will have
using
other textures (use 2D Textures/Noise as Colour). Play to be creative and photos of collapsed buildings may mAsks
with contrast and frequency of the patterns. render offer ideas. At this stage it’s ok to prepare some of
out useful passes, like occlusion, for painting later. your elements: grading, keying and so forth.
turn id pAssEs into

mAsks
onE sElEct chAnnEls

Using masks will help you to work
faster. If you want to separate
some parts of the ship, open your
9 CreATe SKY AND SCeNerY 10 DeTAIl THe SKY ID render in Photoshop. Go to
We will start matte painting by working on the sky and A few subtle clouds over the gradient might give us Channels and select one of the
far background. Create a new Photoshop document, enough detail, and while we don’t know too much channels (Red, Green or Blue).
set the resolution (4k or higher) and I would suggest about planet Jakku, maybe we can add a few planets
painting in 16 bit (even though most reference photos in the background – much like the binary suns of
are 8 bit). In this example I boosted the contrast so Tatooine. The sand dunes are partially coming from
you see more clearly what is there, but in the original the reference photos and but some parts are hand
shot the sky is quite milky and blown out. We don’t painted. We don’t have to worry about the middle
want to draw too much attention to the sky but keep part because it will be covered by the ship.
the focus on the sand dunes and the ship.
two Applying sElEction

Now, click the Load Channel
As Selection button. You can
go back to your layers now and
apply the selection to either a
layer or a layer group by hitting
the Add Layer Mask button.
11 COlOUr COrreCT lAYerS 12 MergINg lAYerS

There are many ways to colour correct your layers. Select your modification layer (Curves for example) thrEE copy sElEctions
The easiest is to use the Brightness/Contrast-Color and hit [Alt]+[Ctrl]+[g]. It will be attached to the You can also copy selections
Balance-Hue/Saturation tools. However, I would layer beneath it (clipping mask). Don’t merge your from one document to another in
suggest using the Curves tool. Curves is very layers until you’re 100 per cent sure it’s done (non- Photoshop by using Select>Load
powerful; you have full control over the tones and destructive editing). If you want to paint the highlights Selection. Choose the right
you can colour correct at the same time by selecting or the shadows separately create a new layer on top source document and the
the red, green or Blue channels. each layer can of your main layer, create a clipping mask and go to Selection/Channel.
have its own modification layer without using Blending Options>Underlying layer. Adjust the slider
traditional masks. to apply this layer to either light or darker values.

TuTorials
ExpErt tip 13 CreATe THe BASe TeXTUre 14 USINg reFereNCe PHOTOS

Check levels Now we can start breathing life into the greyscale You can now start using your reference photo library.
Check your matte painting under render. The Destroyer has been there for 30 years Apply textures as if you were texturing a 3D asset;
different exposure settings. after the events of return of the Jedi, when it try using different blending modes such as Overlay,
Increasing and decreasing gamma crashed into the desert after a big battle. You Multiply and so forth or extract detail from other
might give you more information. have to tell the story by painting the textures. images (use Select>Color range and then copy and
Alternatively, you can save out Blend the rendered dirt pass with other metal/rust paste). Be careful with the scale of the texture, as
an .exr and open it in Nuke. textures. The generic dirt texture can be revealed it’s easy to make your model look tiny if the details
You may get more information through a mask. are too big. You can also create a group mask to
on your values, especially break up the edges.
if working in 16bit.
15 DeSTrOYINg THe SHIP 16 ADDINg MOre DAMAge

We will need to go heavier on the damage. We Be creative and find the right places where you think
already started breaking up the edges, so let’s break it needs to be damaged. Don’t be afraid to change
them up even more! Applying a base texture was the model! When you combine photos and digital
only the start. It’s a huge ship and it was severely painting, pay attention to black values and the level
damaged during the battle. Some parts of the of detail. The new elements and the rest of the
Destroyer exploded – you can paint craters from ship have to blend seamlessly. Working up the
scratch but you can also use photos of destroyed underside of the ship might be easier because it’s
buildings. You have to convey the idea that we can more diffuse, while on the top you have to be careful
see inside the Destroyer. with light direction.
creATe ATmosphere 17 ADD DePTH TO THe SCeNe

It might appear that you The Destroyer almost fills the frame but it’s actually
are losing detail when pretty far from the camera. To sell the idea that
you’re reducing the it’s a distant object we have to add some aerial
contrast, however perspective. It means you have to lift the blacks
it will improve your (Curves is perfect for this) and make sure colours
matte painting shift towards blue. You can use your Z-Depth Pass
here. You can also turn this into a group mask – all the
colour correction layers should be within this group.
Tweak your values until you match the original shot.

18 MATTe PAINT SAND DUNeS 19 ADD THe TIe FIgHTer Adding scAle
I would suggest starting with a quick collage using The TIe fighter in the foreground has to be matte To add life to the image
photo references. Since you don’t have to paint from painted in a similar way as the crashed Destroyer. and set the scale, place
scratch, you can try out different options. Once you The 3D model is quite basic and has no textures. a character, for example
have found the right elements, you have to meld Use your TIe fighter reference photos to add detail. a stormtrooper, close
them. After some colour correction and digital You also have to destruct the ship and make it rusty/ to the wreck
painting it will be unnoticeable that you have used dirty. The foreground around the ship needs to be
bits from different sources. Don’t forget that the worked up too (to show the impact make a crater
layout is more of a guide, so you don’t have to stick and add debris around the ship). Blend it with with
to it 100 per cent. Pay attention to light direction. the rest of landscape as much as possible.
20 APPlYINg THe FIlM lOOK 21 ADDINg MOre NOISe

There are a few little tricks that will help you to go to Filter>Distort>lens Correction. You can add
achieve a more photorealistic look. Cg tends to be lens distortion by setting the remove Distortion to
a little too sharp and clean, so once you’re done negative values. Play with the Chromatic aberration
texturing, a little light wrap will soften the sharp values too – this is where there is a failure of a lens
edges. Unfortunately, there is no automatic light to focus all colours to the same convergence point Quick projEction
wrap function in Photoshop, so just create a copy of
the background layers, then merge and blur them.
(Filter>Distort>lens Correction). You might also
want to add a little film grain (Filter/Noise/Add
Precomp your layers
Manually apply it slightly around the edges. You can Noise). If you plan 3D projection, skip this step – you Alternatively you can set up a
also blur your layers from the midground a tiny bit. will have to recreate these effects in Nuke. separate projection for each
layer and you can precomp them
before you create the final shot.
The advantage is that the final
render will be quicker and you can
tweak your layers further in Nuke.
Please note that I didn’t plan
to add a moving camera when
I started to work on the matte
painting, therefore the camera
movement was quite limited. For
more freedom you might need to
extend your digital matte painting
in Photoshop. Taking projections
from Nuke to Mari might be
another option.
22 CreATINg A PrOJeCTION 23 lOAD INTO NUKe

To see your matte painting rendered through a load the images using the read node in Nuke,
moving camera, use Nuke. export your geometry as premult them and then add a Project3D node.
.obj files and the camera you rendered your passes Now plug in the .fbx camera (your old render
from as .fbx. You‘ll need to save out the main layers camera will become projection camera in Nuke).
of your matte painting (sky, sand dunes, Destroyer, The Project3D node goes into your .obj. Create a
foreground, TIe) as .exr or .tif files with an alpha Scene node and then a Scanline render (your new
channel. To create an alpha in Photoshop [Ctrl]+click moving camera will go into this). You can render
the icon of the layer, to create a selection. Hit Save your shot using a Write node.
Selection As Channel under the Channels tab.

TuTorials
Fire and smoke effects
Follow
The video
3ds Max | FuMeFx
Master the art

of fire and sMoke
Vikrant J Dalal reveals how to create a man of fire
using 3ds Max and the FumeFX plug-in
I
n this tutorial we are going to here I can’t teach you each and only fire. You should prepare for
create a human character who every parameter of this software the work by asking yourself the
appears to be made of fire – a and plug-in, as this is very vast following questions: How big will
Fire-Man, as seen in super-hero and would need a lot of time to go the fire be? What colour will the
films, supernatural films and through; but after completing this fire be? Will fire emit from the
ArTisT profile game cinematics. tutorial, you will learn all you need whole body or from only certain
Vikrant J Dalal There are a number of plug- to know to be able to produce a parts of the body? Once you have
Vikrant has eight ins in 3ds Max that can create realistic Fire-Man character. your character description you can
years’ experience in awesome fire and smoke effects: There are different techniques then start working on your shot.
the VFX industry and such as FumeFX, Afterburn, to make this effect in FumeFX, for Another extremely important
has started his own Phoenix FD, to name just a few. example you could use Object thing to do prior to starting
VFX studio called Many leading VFX and animation Source or Particle Source: we are working on your shot is to watch
Project01 Design studios use FumeFX software in going to use Object Source. some references so you can
Studio, which provides their pipeline, as this software Before you start working on this better understand the properties
VFX, graphic design gives good output, is trustworthy kind of effect, you should have of fire and smoke; their look and
and tutorial services. and user friendly. a good knowledge of real-world behaviour. Don’t be afraid to use
project01studio. In this training, I’ll show you scale. Also you must know what your creativity and tools; you will
blogspot.in how to create this Fire-Man effect kind of fire and smoke effect you soon find very good effects.
using 3ds Max and the FumeFX want to create for your character. For all the assets you need go to
plug-in. In the space provided Also, consider whether you want creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199
ExpErt tip
Change the fire and
smoke colour settings
Play with the colour
setting and curve editor. It
will definitely improve
the look of Fire-Man
and make the shot
more dynamic.
CliCk To PlaY video

www.bit.ly/199-fire-tutorial
1 Scene SeTuP 2 creATe THe OBjecT SOurce

To create Fire-Man, we need to choose a character: To create Fire-Man, we will need two things: FumeFX
while you could use a static character, an animated Object Source and FumeFX container. With the
character will certainly improve the shot as the fire help of FumeFX Object Source, we will generate and
and smoke will be subjected to dynamic motion, control the fire and smoke. To create FFX Object
Topics covered and we will be able to see the interaction between Source, go to create Panel>Helpers and then click
FumeFX Object Source the fire, smoke and the character. I would suggest on the drop-down menu and select FumeFX. click
FumeFX Container that you make this character walk, at the very least. on the Object Src button and generate it in the
Setting FumeFX parameters Please refer to my video that is available to download viewport by left-clicking.
Creating Noise Maps via this issue’s online Vault.

fire sTArTer
Master FumeFX for 3ds
Max to create a realistic
man made of fire
NoisE maps
Export a Noise Map
as an Image
Make sure you unwrap the
character before applying the
noise map, doing this mean that
you can export the noise map
as an image, and then this map
will stick on to the character –
otherwise the map will stay in the
same position and the character
will move ahead, resulting in a
weird fire and smoke simulation.
To export the noise map as an
image, create the noise map, then
right-click on it and select Render
CliCk To PlaY video Map. Now set the Dimension and
www.bit.ly/199-fire-intro Output path, and hit the Render
button. Doing this changes the
noise map into an image that
you can add to the FumeFX
Object Source.
Using noise mAps

As I want to generate fire
from a certain part of the
body, and smoke from the
whole body, I have created
3 creATe A nOISe MAP 4 creATe THe cOnTAIner a Noise Map. This means the
As we want to generate fire and smoke from certain Go to create Panel>Geometry tab, click the drop- fire will emit from the white
areas, we need to create a noise map. Select FumeFX down menu and select FumeFX. Generate the colour areas only; not from
Object Source and go to the Modify panel, then container in the viewport by left-clicking and dragging. the black ones
select the Fuel option and click on the Disable button, Modify its parameter. In General Parameters, set Size
and then select Source from Intensity, now you can 100x230x125, Spacing 0.275. Set output and playback
see the none button is highlighted. next, drag the range from 0 to 100. Go to Output Path and make a
noise map onto this button. use the same procedure new Folder on your storage drive. Save your cache file.
to control the Temperature, but don’t do this with If happy with the general parameters, go to Obj/Src
Smoke, as we want it to emit from the whole body. adding FFX Object Source into the Object tab.

5 SIMulATIOn PArAMeTerS 6 renDerInG PArAMeTerS
In the Simulation section of the FumeFX uI, set In the Fire tab, create a gradient colour in color. (To
Quality to 10 and Iteration to 150. In the System match my gradient colour, please refer to the ‘color
section, change Gravity to 0.5, Vorticity to 0.8, Velocity gradient code’ in my 3ds Max file, downloaded via the
Damping to 0.01, and Turbulence to 0.05. In the Vault). Then go to Smoke color and set the Ambient
Turbulence noise section, set Scale to 7.5, Frame to r:0 G:0 B:0. In Smoke color create a gradient
to 2.5 and Details to 5.0. X, Y should be set to none colour: make the left-side colour r:45 G:45 B:45 and
in Blocking Sides, but set Z to -Z. now go to Fuel the right-side colour r:122 G:122 B:122. The Opacity
Parameters. Make the Ignition Temperature 50.0, Burn should be set to 0.75, and both cast Shadows and
rate 10.0, increase expansion to 1.2. Press Simulation. receive Shadows boxes should be checked.
UsE rEal FootagE

Experiment with footage
We’ve created our Fire-Man
character on a solid background,
but you can enhance the scene by
shooting a live scene using a handy
cam, for example, and then try to
use your animated character in
that footage. Better still, you could
shoot footage of a real actor, then
model and animate to apply the
effects to this model. If you do this,
you will get a better idea of real 7 PlAcInG THe lIGHTS 8 FuMeFX IlluMInATIOn
lighting, compositing and what’s next, we need to place some lights. We are going to After setting up the lights, select the FumeFX
more, you will have accomplished use Target Spot light. For Target Spot, set the light container and go to the Illumination tab. Add your
a complete VFX shot: that shows position to X:-285, Y:-300 and Z:400; and the Target lights into the lights tab by clicking on the Pick
your skills of shooting, camera position to X:0, Y: -20 and Z:60. Turn on the Shadows lights button. Then make the following changes
tracking, FX and compositing. Also and go to the Shadow Parameters tab to turn on the in Multiple Scattering, because we want some fire
remember to add extra elements Atmosphere Shadows, with Multiplier set to 1.0 and illumination on the smoke. Turn on the Multiple
to merge the fire and smoke into color set to White. Keep everything else default. Scattering, then increase the Maximum depth
the real footage. to 7, keep the fire and smoke Strength default
and increase the Falloff to 11.0.
9 renDerInG 10 POST PrOceSS

For the final rendering of fire and smoke, use the We can now composite our fire and smoke element.
Default Scanline renderer. To render the fire and So open After effects and load these layers into the
smoke elements separately, press [F10] and go to Timeline and assign some effects to it. Add some
render element Section, and then add FumeFX Fire color Balance, some Sharpen and Glow effects to
and FumeFX Smoke elements into this tab. Then set the fire until you’re happy with the result. now select
the Frame range and Output resolution as per your the smoke layer and add some effects on it, like
requirement. now save the render Output Path and Brightness and contrast, some Sharpen and so on,
hit the render button; after some time, you’ll see until you’re happy that your Fire-Man effect looks
your fire and smoke element. just right.

TuTorials
Recreate a battle scene
ArTisT profile
Alex Farrell
Alex is a 3D artist at
The Neighbourhood,
working predominantly in
architectural visualisation.
He also produces many
of the scripts the studio
uses, and is heavily
involved in R&D.
www.thinkinimages.co.uk
3ds Max | Particle Flow | FuMeFx | PhotoshoP
how to create
an epic vfx shot Follow
the video
Alex Farrell demonstrates how to recreate one of the if you see the Play icon, use the link
most memorable battles from Game of Thrones
T
here’s no shortage of on the influence of various forces turbulence, and the shaders used
inspiring VFX shots in Game before performing any simulations. for the fire and smoke. Remember
of Thrones, and one of As well as walking you through that directors and VFX studios use
the most iconic is the enormous the creation of the main ‘body’ of ‘smoke and mirrors’ to progress
wildfire explosion at the Battle of the explosion, I will also show you the evolution of an explosion – the
Blackwater. Recreating it might how to produce the flying debris camera will change position and
seem a little ambitious, but we’re thrown into the air. focus mid-effect.
going to employ a workflow that I will cover how to effectively During the Battle of Blackwater,
breaks down the original explosion manage the array of cache files there’s an establishing shot to
to individual elements, and tackle this shot will produce, and how a show the scale of the explosion,
each one separately. limited number of simulations can but the camera cuts to show the
We will be using Particle Flow provide a huge variety of assets. reactions of the characters and
(PFlow) and FumeFX to create our FumeFX can be overwhelming close-ups of the destruction.
Topics covered pyrotechnic elements. The main for new users; changing certain We’ll recreate the explosion as
Previz advantage of PFlow is that we can parameters can often have large it continues to grow and sets the
Simulation use it to quickly create realistic, (and unexpected) effects on fleet of ships at the harbour ablaze.
Pipeline organic shapes for our explosions. our simulations. We’ll cover the For all the assets you need go to
Post-production We can also get realtime feedback key areas, namely resolution, creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199

No shoT Too big
Large-scale VFX shots
don’t need to be
intimidating, especially
when approached in a
modular, efficient way
ExpErt tip
Gradually add resolution
Avoid progressing immediately
from low-res drafts to high-res
final simulations – the result can
differ immensely. Instead,
add resolution gradually,
tweaking major controls
such as Turbulence
along the way.
click to PlaY video
www.bit.ly/199-gameofthrones
1 Scene DecOnSTRucTIOn 2 eXPlOSIVe ReFeRence

If we analyse the famous wildfire explosion in Game Both YouTube and Vimeo are excellent resources for
Of Thrones, then we see it can be broken down controlled explosions, with some videos specifically
into several key elements. There is a central plume being labelled as a resource for FX artists. Getty
which rises highest of all. Several smaller explosions Images also has a huge array of explosions filmed
sit below this plume, destroying the fleet. An array in studio environments on high frame rate cameras.
of ablaze debris scatters from the centre of the even though our explosion lives solely on the realm
explosion, leaving a smoke trail behind. Various of fantasy, it is important to refer to how explosions
ships are being destroyed, both by natural fire evolve in real-life, as it will give our final effect that
and green wildfire. element of believability.

TuTorials
3 VISuAlISInG ScAle 4 SeT uP unITS

Following on from the deconstruction in step one, Go to customize>units Step>System units Setup,
we should create bounding volumes using simple and set the System unit Scale to Metres. Modelling
primitives to block out our explosion. Apply the See- small details can be easier in centimetres, but that’s
post
production Through mode by pressing [Alt]+[X], so it is clear not appropriate here. Most measurements within
that we are using these for scale. It may be hard to FumeFX will remain the same across the different
visualise the actual size of the reference footage, so unit setups, but bear in mind certain values such as
import or create height markers. A cylinder with a Turbulence noise for your simulation and Radius
FumEFx masking height of 1.7m and radius of 0.2m can be used as a values for your PFlow systems will differ. Throughout
makE EFFEctivE masks quick reference guide for the human scale. this tutorial my Display unit Scale will be set to Metres.
onE sEt alpha contribution

Right-click the object that sits
behind the FumeFX grid and
select VRay Properties. In the
Matte properties set the Alpha
Contribution value to -1.
5 PARTIcle SOuRce GeOMeTRY 6 PARTIcle FlOW cReATIOn

create a circle with a radius of 100m and add both Go to Graph editors>Particle Flow. Right-click in the
an edit Poly and uVW Map Modifier. Add a noise Graph area and select new>Particle System>empty
Map to the Diffuse slot of a standard material, and Flow. Right-click the graph again and select
set Source to explicit Map channel. Set the Size to new>Birth event>Birth and connect these nodes
0.05, and the High and low Thresholds to 0.7 and 0.3 together. Set the Birth Start and Stop values to 1,
respectively. Add a Gradient Ramp to the color #2 and Amount to 2500. Right-click event 001 and
slot and set the Gradient Ramp to Radial. Apply Append a Position Object, Speed By Surface, and
two add multi mattE ElEmEnt this material to the circle. Delete Operator. Set the Delete type to Particle Age,
Add a MultiMatteElement to life Span: 10, Variation: 5.
your Render Passes and check
isMATID. On the material of
the object we excluded from
the alpha, set the Material ID
Channel to 1.
thrEE usE masks in post

Once rendered, the alpha will
provide a quick way to isolate
our FumeFX object in post- 7 SeT THe PFlOW PARTIcleS 8 SeT PARTIcle lIFeSPAnS
production. And we still have a In the Position Object Operator add the circle we copy and paste ‘event 001’ and hook it up to the PF
mask for the object we excluded. created earlier to the list of emitter Objects, then Source node. Set its Birth Start and end to 40. In the
do the same for the Speed by Surface Operator. Speed by Surface Operator reduce the Speed to
Also in the Speed by Surface Operator check the 35m, and raise the life Span in the Delete Operator
Speed by Material option, set Speed to 45m and to 15. This will create an additional quantity of fuel
Variation to 5m. Particles will emit from the full that ensures the fire continues to rage once the initial
surface of the circle, but particles spawning from shape has been defined.
the centre will move slightly quicker, making our
explosion more spherical.

ExpErt tip
Re-using simulations
FumeFX grids are
extremely versatile; they
can be moved, rotated
and scaled. Even after
simulating, you can alter
the Fire colour to change
the look and feel of
the explosion.
9 SeTTInG uP FuMeFX 10 cAcHe PARAMeTeRS

create a FumeFX grid that covers the bounding In Max’s Time configuration settings set the end
volume defined in Step 3. Set the Width and length Time to 150. echo this update in the General tab
to 250m, the Height to 100m, and the Spacing to in FumeFX; both under the Output and Playback
0.6m. In the Obj/Src tab, create a Particle Source settings. In the FumeFX Preferences check the Auto
from the create From list button, then inside the Synchronize Paths setting. Back in the General tab
Parameters for this Particle Source add our PFlow set the Default Path to a directory where you have
set-up using the Pick Object button. Set the at least 120Gb of hard drive space. If you don’t
Radius value to 2.5m. have this much space available ignore the Wavelet
Turbulence setting in the next step.
11 SIMulATIOn SeTTInGS 12 FIRe GRADIenT

In the Simulation tab set Gravity to 0.65 and the In the Fire settings of the Render tab, set color to 0.6
Turbulence to 0.02m. In the Turbulence noise and Opacity to 0.4. click the colour swatch to alter
settings set the Scale to 75m and Detail to 5. In the gradient of the shader. If it is set to a solid colour
the Fuel settings set Burn Rate to 1, expansion to mode, right-click the swatch and select Key Mode.
1.4, check Fire creates Smoke, and set the Smoke create a gradient with a sharp drop-off from bright
Density to 1. The lower the value of the Burn Rate, green to black. The Gradient file I used in my scene
the longer it will take for the fire to extinguish. Set can be found in the downloadable content that
the extra Detail Mode to Wavelet Turbulence. accompanies this tutorial. optimising thE
simulation
Saving time and memory
Keep track of how much memory
3ds Max is using by right-clicking
the taskbar and clicking Start Task
Manager. The memory used will
be listed beside 3dsmax.exe in the
Processes tab. When rendering
with V-Ray it may look like your
render has stalled after loading
all the objects and caches. This
is due to the dialog box showing
the progress of the Illumination
Map calculation not always being
shown – a step that can take
several minutes. Save this time
between renders by checking
13 RenDeRInG THe SMOKe 14 FuMeFX AnD lIGHTInG Read/Write to Desk under the
In the Smoke Render settings, click the colour swatch create a Target Spot light that points to the centre of Illumination tab in FumeFX. Also
for the Ambient color and set the RGB values to your explosion and alter the Hotshot/Beam value to save RAM and disk space when
11,11,11. use the same values for the colour swatch ensure that it is being fully illuminated. Position the exporting the post-processed
and set the Opacity to 2.0. check both the cast light so that it is pointing side-on to the explosion cache by excluding unnecessary
Shadows and Receive Shadows checkboxes at the from the camera’s view. In the General Parameters channels. Check Minimize Grid in
bottom of the panel. The Fire shader in particular rollout, set Shadows to VRayShadow, and under the Wavelet Turbulence Post (WTP)
can greatly alter the look of the explosion, however Shadow Parameters turn Atmosphere Shadows on. tab in FumeFX to optimise your
we will be rendering additional passes so that it can In the Illumination tab of FumeFX use the Pick light export and reduce the file size.
be altered easily in post-production. function to add the light to the list.

TuTorials
15 SIMulATInG AnD SAVInG 16 FlYInG DeBRIS

click Start Default Simulation at the top of the In a new scene, create a circle in the Front viewport
FumeFX dialogue to begin processing the explosion, and set the radius to 100m, set the Z transform to 0,
which can take several hours. If you feel it is taking or level with your ground plane. In the Top viewport
too long you can raise the Spacing value to reduce create a Plane and position it at the right-most side
the resolution of the grid. Once complete go to of the circle. Back in the Front viewport, rotate the
Preview>Make Preview to render a quick preview Plane -20 degrees in the Y axis. Add a Gravity Force
from your chosen viewport. If you had Wavelet and a Wind Force. create a FumeFX grid that covers
Turbulence turned on, select Sim. Mode>Wavelet the top half of the circle.
and repeat the process.
thrEE-point lighting
Create a fake Normals pass
Being particle based, FumeFX
doesn’t contribute to the Normals
pass in V-Ray, but we can set up
our own. Add three Spot Lights
like those created in Step 15;
change the colours of these to
red, green and blue. Arrange
them around the explosion; red
from left, green from behind,
blue from the top. Render this in
addition to your regular smoke
pass and bring it into Photoshop.
As with a regular Normals pass,
this can be used to re-light
our explosion. 17 DeBRIS PFlOW SeT uP 18 SeTTInG uP SPAWn nODeS
create a new empty Flow and Birth event in PFlow, Append a Spawn node from the Test menu, set
hooking the two together. Set the Birth Start, end, Spawn Rate to By Travel Distance, and the Step
and emit values to 1. Right-click and append a Size to 1m. Set Spawnable to 50, and Variation to
Position Object, Speed by Surface, and Force node. 25. Set Inherited, Variation, and Divergence to 50.
On the Position Object, add the Plane to the list of create a new Spawn Test event and Append a
emitters. Do the same with the Speed by Surface Delete node, set life Span to 1 and Variation to 2.
node and set the speed to 125m. In the Forces In the new Spawn node set Offspring to 3, Variation
node, add both of the Forces. to 15, and Divergence to 80. Then connect the
Spawn nodes together.
ExpErt tip
Adding 2D fire
Pyrotechnic VFX elements
are usually shot against
black backgrounds.
To remove this, set the
Blending Mode of these
elements to Screen.
19 SMOKe TRAIlS SeT uP 20 cReATe BlAcKWATeR BAY

Adjust the Strength values of the Wind and Gravity create a Plane that will represent the ocean in
Forces until the particles follow the circle. I used your scene. create a new VRayMaterial with a
a Gravity Strength of 0.03 and a Wind strength black Diffuse colour, and set the Reflect colour
of 0.01. As with the explosion, add the PFlow to RGB 144,144,144 with a Reflection Glossiness
system to the list of Sources within FumeFX. In the value of .95. Add a noise map to the Bump slot
Simulation tab set the Gravity to 0.1, the Turbulence and change the Y Tiling to 0.4. In the noise
to 0.01, and the Turbulence noise scale to 0.5. Parameters set the Size to 3.5, and the High and
Increase the Smoke Opacity to 10 to make the low values to .945 and .07 respectively. Apply
smoke appear thicker. this material to the ocean Plane.

photoshop
tips
illuminatE thE
smokE trails
21 RenDeRInG FuMeFX 22 RenDeR PASSeS

Merge the FumeFX grid into your scene and use navigate to the elements tab and add
the Output Preview window as a visual guide when VRayWirecolor, FumeFX Fire, FumeFX Smoke, and
moving and rotating your explosion into position. FusionWorks Z Depth to the list of Render elements.
Having a long sequence of cache files means we The latter works in the same way as the VRayZDepth
have lots of options and variations when it comes pass does; simply use a Tape Helper to measure the
to rendering multiple explosions. Open the Render closest and furthest points of the FumeFX grid. Also
Setup window by pressing [F10] and uncheck enable add the VRayRawReflection element to boost the onE mask thE dEbris
GI. Set the desired render size and hide everything strength of the explosion’s reflection in the water. Move the render into a new group,
except the FumeFX grid, Spot light and Ocean. click Render once all passes have been added. use the alpha channel to mask
both the group and the render.
Right-click the mask for the render
and select Apply Layer Mask.
two incrEasE brightnEss

Create a solid black layer beneath
the group to improve visibility.
Add a Levels Adjustment to the
group, and move the midpoint
23 FOReGROunD eleMenTS 24 ASSeMBle THe BAcKPlATe to the left.
To frame the shot I constructed a simple castle wall, create a new Photoshop document, adding the
complete with torches and a wooden walkway. The foreground, ocean, and explosion elements. When
characters were made with Fuse by Mixamo. As the comping in scenery from photography add a Black
wall uses a high-resolution displacement texture, and White Adjustment to the top of the layer stack.
I rendered the entire foreground separately to the Add a levels Adjustment as a clipping mask (press
rest of the scene. A VRay Plane light is used to create [Alt]+left-click) to the photography, and adjust the
green highlights on the wall and the characters – this values until the greyscale levels match. When the
helps convey the size and intensity of the explosion. Black and White layer is switched off the brightness
levels of the photography closer match your render.
thrEE add thE gradiEnt
Select the Gradient tool by
hitting [G]. Select the mask of
the Levels and click-drag from
the end point of the smoke trail
to the start.
ExpErt tip
Changing perspectives
Create a flattened copy of your
.psd by pressing [Ctrl]+[A],
[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[C], [Ctrl+[V],
and select Edit>Transform>
Flip Horizontal. A change of
25 FInAlISInG THe cOMP 26 THe FInAl GRADe perspective can highlight
create a new layer, fill it with black (press [D]+[Alt] create a curves adjustment layer then hit [ctrl]+[I] to errors previously unseen.
+backspace) and set it as a clipping mask to the invert the mask. Replicate the pictured curve profile to
photography. change the Blending Mode from raise the mid-tones and the Brush to paint a blown-
normal to color Dodge and select the Brush tool by out effect into the central areas of the explosion.
pressing [B]. Set opacity to 10 per cent by pressing copy Merge by pressing [ctrl]+[Shift]+[c], and Paste
[1] on the number pad. Sample the colours from the ([ctrl]+[V]), and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set
brightest areas of the explosion ([Alt]+left-click) and Radius to 5.0, click OK, and set the Blending Mode
paint coloured highlights into the photography. use to Screen. create a layer mask, invert by pressing
the [ and ] keys to alter the brush size on the fly. [ctrl]+[I] and paint a glowing effect into your scene.

tutorials
Master Houdini
ArTisT profile
John Moncrief
John is the resident
Houdini and dynamics
tutor at Digital-Tutors.
His deep passion for
putting beautiful,
explosive effects on
screen is only matched
by his strong desire
to share his skills.
www.bit.ly/198-john
Houdini 14
GettinG Started
in Houdini Follow
THe video
John Moncrief explains how to overcome the pitfalls if you see the Play icon, use the link
of starting out in a new software package
L
earning a new 3D package panes, and while hovering over moving on to see what the next
can be a daunting task. the name of a parameter press F1 parameter does. That way you
There always seems to be to get specific help relating to are isolating the results of your
a never-ending black hole of that parameter. changes to just the parameter
sliders, checkboxes, and rollouts. When you’re tinkering, adjust you’re currently adjusting. Once
Plus, each company wants you values aggressively. Set the you get a good grip on what
to call their geometry something parameter’s values high and low each parameter does, then you
different (is it cube or box, sphere can start blending them together
or ball, grid or plane?)… But try to
remember the goal is the same;
Almost every node, pane to get really creative.
A folder containing .hip files
to design a visually interesting
image or develop a tool that helps and parameter in to be opened in Houdini is
included in this issue’s online
CliCk To PlAY video

another artist to do so.
The best way to learn Houdini is Houdini has an easily Vault. Use these to follow along
in the interface of Houdini.
www.bit.ly/199-houdini-1 to tinker about with it. Remember These files contain several more
you can save your work at any time accessible help file tips and tricks that are clearly
CliCk To PlAY video and delete the file later if you want noted within the interface of
www.bit.ly/199-houdini-2 to, so get exploring and break to see what it’s capable of doing, Houdini using the built in Sticky
things. When they break try and what it controls, and what it can Notes tool.
Topics covered figure out what has happened. be used for artistically. There are several folders which
Getting started Almost every node, pane, and However, it’s important when are empty, but are required for
Houdini desktop parameter in Houdini has an exploring like this to always Houdini to work properly.
Contexts accessible help file. Look for the bring a parameter’s value back For all the assets you need go to
Orbolt ‘?’ icon in the top right corner of to something reasonable before creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199

Let’s break something!
one set up geometry
Create a sphere by
holding [Ctrl] and clicking
the sphere icon on the left
shelf. In the Parameters
pane set the Y translation
of the sphere to 5. Next,
click the Rigid Bodies
set up your project tab on the right shelf
Houdini 14 now uses a project- and click on RBD Object.
based system that automatically Select the sphere in the
constructs a set of folders for viewport and press Enter.
every project you work on. To
set up a new project, go to two make breakabLe
File>New Project, choose a Still in the Rigid Bodies tab,
directory to house your project click Make Breakable. Select
folders and click Accept. If you’re the sphere from the viewport
working on multiple projects, go and press Enter. Click on the
to File>Set Project to pick an Ground Plane icon, which
existing project folder. It’s a good will give the sphere
idea to have a default project something to collide with.
you can use just for tinkering, Hold down the spacebar
then use a separate project for and press [A] to frame all
actual production work. the objects in the viewport.
three simuLate
Set the timeline to playback
in real time by clicking the
second button from the
end of the timeline called
Real Time Toggle. Click
Play on the timeline and
watch your first Houdini
simulation! Remember to
dig around inside the nodes
that were created by the
using sheLf tooLs shelf tools to learn more.
Houdini’s shelf tools are very robust. With a few
clicks you can have a strong base for most types
of simulations. You might feel like everything
you do needs to be built from scratch, and while
there’s probably not too many final shots created
with the click of one shelf button, it’s worth
noting that even in large studios many scene
setups begin with the shelf tools.
use the right desktop

Spheres, fluids, dynamics and particles are data. Each
area of the interface (pane) visualises or manipulates
this data. One pane might be the network view, one
the Material Palette. The pane arrangement is a
Houdini Desktop. If working in dynamics use
Technical desktop; for general tasks Build desktop.
Customise the Houdini UI and save as desktops.

tutorials
Master Houdini
the tab key is your friend

When searching for tools in Houdini you only need
a part of the tool’s name. Instead of having to go
to Tool Menu>Nurbs>Refine, all you have to do is
hit Tab then press [R] and you’ll see all the nodes
starting with R that are relevant to the context you
are currently in. So no matter where the tool is
located in any menu, you can easily find it with just
a couple of quick keystrokes.
understanding contexts
Houdini has different ‘contexts’ that handle
different operations and each one has custom
tools. The SHOP context for example handles
Shading Operations; the DOP context handles
Dynamic Operations. The tools within these
contexts are called nodes. Houdini is very
context sensitive, which means that you only get
access to the nodes you can use in that context.
This is great because it prevents you from
creating a node in the wrong context.
Learn from orboLt

Example files are a great way to learn.
Use the Asset Browser pane to find
a link to the Orbolt online resource
(www.orbolt.com). Assets are available
including character rigs, dynamic effects,
shaders, and models. Once you choose
an asset it’s automatically added to the
Asset Browser in Houdini’s interface.
find training and heLp onLine

one start here… two training three od[force]
Go to the Start Here Visit Digital-Tutors www.forums.
link in the Help menu www.digitaltutors. odforce.net built a
(www.bit.ly/198- com/software/ family of artists and
starthere). The videos Houdini-tutorials-all technicians. Users share
bring you up to speed to watch a variety of insights and tips with
on everything from video-based training newbies and veterans.
viewport basics to for all levels of Houdini There are also example
building a digital asset. software users. files available.

expLore the preferences
Go to Edit>Preferences and start exploring. Here
are a few things to adjust when you’re first getting
started: in General User Interface, enable Color
Pane Headers and Show Images for Image Files.
Under Network Editor, Nodes and Trees, enable
Show Full Input and Output Names on VOP Nodes.
In Save Options change the Auto Save interval to
10 minutes or greater. It can be quite annoying if
the file is trying to save while you’re simulating.
turn on auto save drag equaLs controL

By default, the auto When setting up
save feature in Houdini particle or fluid
is turned on. But don’t simulations, always
be fooled: this setting add a Drag Force node
is session-dependent, to your simulations.
so you’ll have to do Drag mimics the loss
it manually at the beginning of of energy over time
each Houdini session. The option by applying force and
is found under Edit>Auto Save. torque to objects,
It’s a good idea to have this on helping them resist
while you’re building a scene, but their current direction
before you get ready to run a big of motion. Drag will
render or a complicated simulation, help you to control
turning this feature off can save your simulations while
some system resources and help maintaining a natural
speed up your workflow. looking motion.

TuTorials
Create a knight character
Follow
the video
Maya | arnold | PhotoshoP | ndo | Mudbox | Zbrush
detail a character for

cinematic production
Carlos Cruz demonstrates different techniques to
achieve a realistic knight character
I
n this tutorial, I will show you the In the second stage, I create a Normal Maps, and with Mudbox
process of making a character kitbash: so I start making a library I start painting the texture to
for a cinematic production. The of smaller details and pieces finalise in Photoshop. Then
first thing to do is to get all the that will be used in the model using Arnold for Maya, I set up
reference that we might need many times. the Shaders. Next I move to
ArTisT profile for the character ready. For this In the third stage, I create ZBrush, again to make the pose
Carlos Cruz character, I’ve chosen to take ornaments in the armour using with the Transpose Master and
Carlos started as a concept art from a Korean artist Alphas and the plug-in Projection create the hair with FiberMesh.
3D generalist and named Gpzang (Young june Choi) Master, and create the skin details At this stage I visualise the
compositor in the and turn it into a highly detailed with Maps from the Surface Mimic final composition of the piece.
advertising industry CG character. You can see his website www.surfacemimic.com I finish off by setting up the
in Chile, then he original artwork here: inside ZBrush. Then I move to the render in AOV passes in Arnold.
moved to Finland www.gpzang.deviantart.com. UV mapping. It is really important I then export as .exr files and
and is now working I start by blocking out my here to have a good display in import into Photoshop for the
as a freelance 3D character in Maya: it is really theUV layout to get the major final composition. To help, I’ve
character artist. important here to use basic information of pixels in the UV tile. included my textures and meshes
calicg.artstation.com shapes in order to achieve the For the texture stage, I use to download from the Vault.
proportion in the fastest and nDo2 that helps me to get the For all the assets you need go to
cleanest way possible. Ambient Occlusion from the creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199
ExpErt tip
Check the overall
character
From time to time take a
break to check the whole
model. Bring a screenshot
of the model into Photoshop
and start to change it very
roughly to see what can be
improved. Then take it back
to model further in your CliCk to Play video
3D package. www.bit.ly/199-knight
1 BlOCKING The MODel 2 ReFINING The MODel

Inside Maya, use a base female model to set the Refine the primary shapes to complete the model.
basic proportion and then model each part of Take your time here and pay attention to the details.
the armour with basic shapes; this enables you At this stage I often create a kitbash. So in the same
Topics covered to change the proportion in an efficient way. It’s scene, next to the character, I start building basic
Modelling important to use basic shapes because you will shapes that I will use often like belts, bolts, and
Texturing need to make many corrections at this stage to other parts of the armour that will be duplicated
Shading adjust the model so that it matches the concept art many times. It is important to achieve a clean hard
Hair chosen. You also have to think about how all the surface model using the orthographic views; use
Post-production parts will fit together. symmetry to help you.

A knighT in Armour
Carlos manages to create
a 3D character with great
colours, lighting, texture,
armour design and
dramatic pose

TuTorials
ExpErt tip
Saving time
Time is very important,
especially when you’re in
production. By using base
meshes, textures, and 3 MODel The ORNAMeNTS
certain techniques you Now search for the alphas to make the ornaments.
can save yourself First, bring the alpha into Photoshop to eliminate the
hours of work. pixelation; you can do this by adding a blur effect in
a very low value. Then bring the alpha into ZBrush
where you can use the Morph Target to store the
geometry, and then use the Projection Master to
place the Alpha in the correct position and scale to
project it. You can control how deep the details will
be projected using the Morph Target.
OrganisatiOn 4 DeTAIlING The FACe

Working with names & layers To model the details of the face you’ll need to bring
in a female skin displacement scan. I used one from
It is important to be very www.surfacemimic.com. Project the scans onto the
organised when character model (I used Mudbox) as a greyscale file (the face
modelling as there are so many must be with its UV map), then export the greyscale
parts to think about and you have file from Mudbox as .tga or .tiff and then import this
to jump from Maya to ZBrush, and into ZBrush. In the Displacement tab, use the Morph
then to Mudbox and Photoshop. Target to store the geometry and then apply the
You will end up with gigas of displacement into the model.
files, that include ZProject, Maya
scenes, .obj files and so on. So
you need to organise each file
with a proper name and add
a letter or a number to define
the version. Sometimes things
happen that mean your .obj files
have an incorrect vertex order,
but if you are organised, you will
easily detect the error and will
be able search for a solution. For
texturing, working with layers and
adjustment layers in Photoshop
is really important for the shader
development, because textures
tend not to work the first time;
I usually tweak a texture until
version eight or 10 to achieve the 5 UV MAPPING
shader that I want. Working in To make the UV maps I mainly use Maya or in
this way means that if you want some cases UVlayout. In Maya 2015, the Unfold3D
to make a change in the texture, plug-in was added to the core software and now
you can just go to the specific it’s cleaner, easier and more accurate to make UV
layer and edit only the adjustment maps in Maya. I only use UVlayout when I have to
layer, or add a mask to make the replicate a model many times, so I can transfer UVs
changes, while the main image very easily, and also if I modelled a belt with the UV
remains untouched. layout, I would have an option to expand the UV
map in a perfect square.

tips fOr
phOtOshOp
6 TexTURING ARMOUR hOw tO COntrOl

For the armour, use the Normal maps extracted from
ZBrush, then inside nDo2 convert to generate an
thE diffErEnt Maps
Ambient Occlusion. Now you have a base map you
can import into Photoshop to start texturing. The
Ambient Occlusion map is a great guide as you have
all the ornaments in the 2D space. Paint the Base
diffuse map with textures from www.cgtextures.com,
for instance. Keep everything in layers as we’re going
to create the different maps by tweaking these.
OnE sEt up thE Canvas

In Photoshop, I import the
Ambient Occlusion that was made
in nDo2. I tend to work in 4K for
the maps. I bring in basic textures
to make the diffuse map.
7 TexTURING The lACe 8 SeTTING The ShADeRS

To make the lace effect in some parts of the model I tend to do the shading and texturing tasks in
use alpha images. I search the Internet for different parallel, because sometimes you have to go back to
images of lace and take them into Photoshop to modifying the texture to achieve the shading that
build the alpha – luckily most of the lace images are you want. The most important thing to start shading
photographed on a black background, so all I have is setting up the render. In Arnold I work using a
to do is use the Curve tool in Photoshop to give the linear workflow, so first we set the Display drive
images greater contrast. Then make a tile of the gamma to 1.0 and in Color Manager, in the Image
image in the UV map section of the lace model. Color Profile, change it to linear sRGB. So now the twO adding layErs
render will look physically correct. Little by little, I start adding
layers of dirt, scratches and all
the textures that are needed to
achieve the diffuse map. The
diffuse map doesn’t have any
specular or shadow information.
9 CReATe DIFFeReNT MAPS

Back in Photoshop, take each texture map and thrEE CrEatE OthEr Maps
create Glossiness, Specular and Bump maps. The Creating the specular map
reason why I keep everything in layers is because depends on the material you’re
with the diffuse map, I make a group in Photoshop using; think where the highlights
and then duplicate it; I call this new group Specular are going to be and put in a
Map, for example. Then I always use Adjustment whiter colour in those areas.
layers to make changes in a non-destructive way in
the layer, so if I need to go back to a previous stage
it will be easy to do so.

TuTorials
ExpErt tip
Lighting is key
A good lighting set-up
can change the mood of
your artwork, so try to
have some reference of
illumination and always 10 POSING The ChARACTeR 11 COMBING The hAIR
pay attention to how For posing, bring all the parts of the model into For the hair use FiberMesh. Create a scalp by
shadows and reflection ZBrush, then use the Transpose Master plug-in to duplicating the geometry of the face model, then
work on the model. make the whole model one subtool. In order to the hair can then be created on top of this. In this
create a believable pose it is really important to have instance, I created the hair after the pose because I
references. Before you start modifying the topology, want to model and comb it according to the pose. In
try to move each part separately, and roughly pose the scalp model, make a couple of polygroups. Then
the character, then move the pieces until you’re happy create the FiberMesh and start combing by isolating
with the overall shape, after that you can start to bend the polygroups, this gives you a lot of control to
and model the geometry to adjust the proportion. achieve the haircut you want.
12 lIGhTING AND ReNDeR 13 PhOTOShOP AND COMP

For the final image, use the IPR option in Arnold. Once happy with the render preview, set up a high
This enables you to create a real-time render of the sampling, high-res image for the final output. For
model so you can see how the light works. I set up more control in post, set up the AOV layers in Arnold;
Ai Skydome shader to illuminate the scene with a this will enable you to have each different pass in
hDR. At the beginning, use low sampling so that you a different image, like diffuse, specular and so on.
can see the result faster, and then start rotating and When the render is done, take it into Photoshop. To
thE COnCEpt is kEy moving the hDR until you feel that the character has start compositing, import all passes and layers you
Learn how to become a a good composition. At this stage, I often use many have on Screen mode, then start adding adjustment
hDRs to try different lighting setups. layers to fine tune the final image.
great storyteller
In every 3D picture we end up
telling a story, whether it’s a
character or an environment;
for that reason we need to be
able to bring more realism to a
3D image and always have to
be mindful of the concept. For
this project, I’ve tried to create
a knight that has the elegance
and grace of a beautiful woman,
and for that reason I put a lot
of attention into the pose and
her attitude, hoping to convey
that idea. Making realistic metal
armour, or rendering a fabric, is
a technical process – one where
we have to use good reference 14 POST-PRODUCTION
and study reality – but to achieve Sometimes weird objects may appear to cut through
an appealing character, we need the different surfaces: if it is only a small detail
to think how the character will consisting of a few pixels, don’t be afraid to make
interact in the scene that we are corrections using a clone stamp. To break up the
creating. What is beauty and what clean look of the 3D, I often add filters to improve
is grace are important questions the quality of the image, such as sharpen or a small
that I ask myself whenever I try to achromatic aberration (to distort the image slightly),
make this type of character. and lastly I add a little noise to break any banding
that may occur.

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3D WoRlD October 2015 79 www.3dworld.creativebloq.com

3d printing
3d maker
Exploring the best 3D print art,
technology and trends
get published
email your Cg art to
I can still remember seeing my
first 3D print. I just stood
there in awe

Each of Michael’s
sculptures is based
on a specific tree,
and named after the
GPS coordinates of the
place where it grew
interview
growth industry
Currently on display at 3D Printshow, Michael Winstone’s
organic forms, based on real trees, are a wonder to behold
T
o many artists, 3D printing Each sculpture is based on a specific aim, apart from [the final step of
is a relatively new medium. tree, with the title being the GPS creating a] bronze casting was to
But not to Michael Winstone: coordinates of the place where that achieve a complete digital process.
he’s been using it to create art for tree grew or is growing. “I modelled the sculpture in
an astonishing two decades. Michael uses images of the tree’s LightWave, textured and displaced
“It was the mid-1990s bark to texture and displace the it using ZBrush, then exported it
Michael when I started to produce surface of the 3D model, so older as an .stl file. The sculpture was
Winstone my first 3D prints,” models preserve the striations and milled in Styrofoam with a 5-axis
Michael Winstone’s he recalls. “I can still growth forms of trees that no longer CNC machine, then cast in bronze.
work embraces a wide remember seeing my first print on exist, as well as current trees that Finally it was placed at the site using
range of digital media, a home-made kit. I just stood there may be lost in the future. AutoCAD [to plan the installation].”
including, 2D, 3D, 4D, in awe. It was very basic compared “The elements within the work “As with other forms of art, there
time-based installation to today’s standards, but it was a grow in the same way human, is something pure and profound
and interactive video revelation to me.” animal, and plant tissues regenerate: when the process is the same from
animation. He has used After that, Michael began to as substrates that are informed conception to completion,” he adds.
various 3D volume use Z Corporation machines, then and infused with environmental “I try to keep my work completely
rendering programs later on, Stratasys systems. “When forces which then grow to form digital wherever possible.”
for mathematical I started, I mainly used LightWave their various functions within the Currently exhibiting his work at
visualisation of fractal [for 3D modelling], as at the time natural world,” he explains. “They 3D Printshow California, Michael is
forms which can both software and hardware were are transformed into complex also looking forward to 3D Printshow
be translated into extremely expensive,” he adds. intertwined sculptural structures.” Dubai this November.
volumetric art. “When prices fell, my palette of Describing the process by which “I have not exhibited in the Middle
www.michaelwinstone.com software expanded.” he created his eight-metre-high East before so the work will be seen
Today Michael is famed for sculpture for Spain’s Expo Zaragoza, by a new audience,” he explains.
his sculptures, which examine shown at the top right of the page, “Hopefully architects and planners
our own bodies within the context Michael comments: “First I recorded will be able to see first-hand the
of the human family structure and bark data from a white willow potential for 3D printing sculpture
its relationship with nature: in tree growing by the river Ebro in in exterior urban landscapes.”
particular, trees, and their own Zaragoza to form the foundation Find more of the 3D Print Show,
external anatomy.
Fyi visit www.3dprintshow.com
of the sculpture. With this work, my

3d maker
Making a prosthetic hand
DownloaD
the moDel
This issue, we have a

3D model of a hand
to download, so that
you can have a go at
making your very own
3D prosthetic hand

Is
F o m a t o r Se
s
ue
n e 0 0, o
ll n’s ia pte
ai t tu sale 9
2
ow
x n
l mbe
r
3D print column
3D print a prosthetic hanD

Aiman Akhtar explains how you can use 3D printing
to help those in need of a prosthetic limb
T
he news is full of stories about 3D printed California where the on campus 3D printing
prosthesis helping people regain their club was helping print hands for children in
independence. So this month I decided Haiti and Central America. Having volunteered
to take a departure from being the 3D print at a homeless shelter in Los Angeles and
designer, and instead be part of a 3D print seeing a need, Michael decided to bring the
support crew for a good cause. project home to his local community.
I knew I wanted to help but was honestly Michael met with his first candidate and Artist profile
terrified. Being an entertainment artist and chose the Cyborg Beast prosthetic arm, one Aiman Akhtar
having no engineering background, I had no of the most popular designs available on Character artist
idea where to begin articulating something www.enablingthefuture.org. Jorge Zuniga Aiman enjoys creating
as complex as a human hand. It’s also a personal, digital
big responsibility to take on; what if I did
something wrong and the hand didn’t work.
Having no engineering background, I had no artworks and continues
to work on various
Far worse than my embarrassment is to give
someone else false hope. idea where to begin articulating something freelance projects.
He’s also a beta tester
Passionate volunteers have come together for Adobe’s 3D print
to help each other in this cause all around as complex as a human hand tools and continues
the world, such e-NABLE, a Google Plus to experiment with
community which grew to become the and the team at Creighton University released the technology.
largest open source collection of 3D printed the Cyborg Beast model open source to the www.aiman3d.com
prosthetics online. I answered a call for world, licensed under the Creative Commons
assistance on 3D Hubs forum for printing a Attribution Non-Commercial license and have
prosthetic hand and met up with Michael improved it steadily over the past two years
Repajic, a surgical attendant who is building with feedback from the e-NABLE community.
a non-profit, Humanus, Hands United Inc, Michael worked with a local 3D printing
to supply 3D printed prosthetic hands to service provider, Lyle Thompson, owner of
the homeless population of Los Angeles. www.lylelabs.net, who volunteered to set up
He learned about 3D printing for prosthesis the proper configuration/scale for the hand
while taking classes at University of Southern and printed out all the parts. Michael then
ways to get involveD

Improve and customise the designs and then upload them for everyone to share
Many of us early adopters of 3D movement by designing, fabricating limbitless solutions on the production of several of the
printing technology are entertainment and distributing open-source www.limbitless-solutions.org/ Limbitless prosthetic arms and are
artists, yet if we own a 3D printer, 3D-printed prosthetics for people Founded by Alberto Manero, now in development on bionic legs.
that’s a good enough reason to get who need them, and giving them Limbitless Solutions is a company In fact, the majority of the team is
involved. Here are a couple of online away for free online. Jon describes based out of Orlando, Florida made up of University of Central
communities to check out making the volunteers as a diverse bunch, that uses 3D printing to create Florida students and recent graduates.
real strides with 3D printed prosthesis. made up of tinkerers, engineers, personalised bionic limbs for children As they grow, Limbitless is actively
3D print enthusiasts, occupational with disabilities. They partner with recruiting at other universities across
enAbling the future therapists, university professors, local companies, communities the US and welcomes volunteers,
www.enablingthefuture.org designers, parents, families, artists, and corporations to sponsor each support and artist submissions for
Jon Schull is a Research Scientist at students, teachers and people who prosthetic, believing that no family prosthesis and sleeve designs on
the Rochester Institute of Technology just want to make a difference. An should have to pay for their child to their website.
and founding member of the e-NABLE interesting trend he has noticed in 3D receive an arm. What distinguishes Several more prosthetic hands are
community. He helped setup the printed prosthetics is that US children Limbitless is their push for bionic available online at model sharing sites
Enable Community Foundation, a love Superhero Hands, girls like pink prosthesis of myoelectric design such as Thingiverse and the NIH 3D
non-profit which supports the global and purple, while in the developing which can be controlled through Print exchange and many individuals
community of volunteers using world, more organic-looking hands muscle sensors, servos and an have even crowd funded their own
emerging technologies to develop are desirable. Visit the website and Arduino microchip. Evan Kuester, prosthesis such as in the case of the
innovative solutions for underserved explore their forums to get involved lead modeller/designer and Jackson Cyborg Beast, www.cyborgbeast.org
populations. The e-NABLE and matched with someone in need DiMaria of the research and and the Open Hand Project, at
community is pioneering this of a hand near you. development team have worked www.openhandproject.org

3d maker
Making a prosthetic hand
The 3D printed hand

was tested: a small
crowd gathered to
experience this little
marvel of engineering
and technology
cleaned up the print and added the strings

and straps to prepare for a fitting.
The Midnight Mission homeless shelter
board of directors and staff generously lent
us a conference room to test fit the 3D printed
hand and analyse its effectiveness. A small
crowd gathered to experience this little marvel
of engineering and technology. The point of
using 3D printing for prosthesis was obvious
to everyone. Traditional prosthetics can cost
several thousand dollars while mechanical 3D
printed hands, such as the Cyborg Beast, start
around $50.
It’s hard to put a price on restoring people’s
independence yet lowering the cost increases
the accessibility for far more people. The first
fitting went surprisingly well, and Michael
left with several ideas on how to improve the
design for the recipient’s individual needs.
Quicker iterations allow for better

customisation to each individual’s
needs and improved functionality
Cost is usually the big selling point for using
3D printing technology for prosthesis, yet
through my first-hand experience, the biggest
advantage is that it allows regular people such
as ourselves to get more involved in our local
communities. Quicker iterations also allow
for better customisation to each individual’s
needs and therefore improved functionality.
The technology is also self-sustainable as
seen in the example of project Daniel by Not
Impossible Labs, where the team was able to
set up a 3D printing lab in war-torn Sudan and
within a month, the locals were able to print a
hand per week! Whether making a difference
in far off lands or in our own communities,
the ultimate goal of technology is to bring
us closer together and what’s better than
figuratively and literally lending a hand?
For assets and 3D print-ready models go to
FYi www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199

Design project: create a 3D printeD prosthetic hanD
The model files can be downloaded from www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199
one FinD a canDiDate two print the hanD three aDD FunctionalitY
We met our candidate at the Midnight Mission Before you begin to print, remember to Attach all screws/bolts on the fingers and
homeless shelter in LA where Michael Repajic carefully choose the correct arm assembly; the connect the various parts. Detailed instructions
volunteered frequently. Finding a candidate right or left hand models vary and are both on this step are available on the Enabling the
is not hard as many people are eager to try, included in the assembly file. Print the scaled Future website and the accompanying pdf in the
however you must assess his/her individual .stl files on a quality printer with choice of Cyborg Beast zip file. After parts are articulated
needs. This is not a one size fits all project as filament (ABS, Flex series, etc). Our hand was it is time to add functionality by inserting
people’s injuries and limbs come in all shapes printed by Lyle on a Makerbot as the cost is flexible string and creating knots in order to
and sizes. The Cyborg Beast is customisable to far cheaper with a FDM type printer and the hold the flaccid fingers in an upright position;
fit people who have lost their fingers or most of generated plastic parts are more durable than these strings act similarly to human tendons. Dip
their hand but still retain some wrist movement. nylon or resin. Once printed, sand down any the fingers in plasti-dip or dip ‘n’ grip material
Our candidate had a remaining wrist range of sharp points and drill into the holes to clear to increase gripping ability of fingers. There’s no
about 1.5inches. Measure the knuckle area and the parts of any burr and make sure everything sense in having perfectly smooth fingers as they
scale all .stl files to fit accordingly. connects smoothly. will be put to daily use for all sorts of tasks.
Four prep For Fitting Five aDjust tension six Fit the hanD to the recipient
Attach medical grade foam to the printed The printed hand needs to be wrapped tightly The first fitting went surprisingly well as the
palm and gauntlet using super glue. The foam to the candidate’s arm for it to function at recipient tested out his range of motion and
prevents irritation from rubbing and chafing of maximum efficiency. Even so, the default tension took charge in describing what was working
the skin and provides support and comfort. The of the tendon strings may not be enough to and where he was having trouble. There’s not
Cyborg Beast has built in connectors on the side, fully contract the fingers. The Cyborg Beast has always an ‘Aha’ moment and our hand required
through which Velcro straps can be looped in a tensioner bricks which can be tightened by additional customisation to fit the needs of our
order to make the hand secure and wearable. rotating the screw causing the string to become candidate. Fitting a 3D printed hand is relatively
The .pdf recommends using multiple Velcro tighter and allowing for less movement to quick, yet optimising it for efficient daily use
straps on each side of the print, but we found create a smooth and firm finger contraction/ requires testing and iterating. The most exciting
that looping a single, longer Velcro strap grip. In addition, our candidate had not used aspect of this technology is that new prosthetic
through both connectors enables the user to the necessary wrist muscles in over 30 years hand designs and innovations are being made
put it on without help and strap it tightly to the so additional physical therapy was required to every day and shared amongst the worldwide
arm with ease. master the device. community and we can all join in.

AN EVOLUTION
IS COMING
the
ne w- look
sfx
ON SAle
19 aUgUsT 2015
© istock.com
bit.ly/buySFXmag
Contents
our
awarDs Develop
Theory, research and reviews plus
industry insights from today’s experts
Best in class
Awarded to products that
excel in their class.
highly commended
Awarded to great products that
achieve a high standard.
88 nuke techniques 90 Building a new virtual reality

Speed up scripts with performance timers VR isn’t just for gamers. Meet Nurulize, creators of a new breed of virtual environments
97 review: photoscan
A robust, affordable photogrammetry tool
Get published
email your CG art to

www.creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199 96 review: renda pw-e7f 97 review: unfold3d 9 100 my inspiration
Overclockers enters the workstation market The UV mapping tool gets a strong update This issue: Saizen Media’s Davide Bianca
3D WorlD October 2015 87 twitter.com/3DWorldMag

develop
Nuke techniques
nuke Techniques
Performance timers in Nuke

In the second of his guides to core Nuke techniques, Josh Parks explains
how to create a custom node to find bottlenecks in your scripts
L
ast month, we went over under each node the time it took An alternative would be to add
some simple tricks for to calculate. This information is it to your toolbar, but this would
optimising your workflow incredibly useful when running mean editing Nuke’s menu.py or
in Nuke. This month, we’re going large scripts as it enables you to init.py file, which companies can
Author profile to be covering a more advanced intelligently turn off nodes that sometimes get funny about.
Josh Parks technique, so because of this, take longer to cache, then turn For that reason, I’ve found
Josh is a compositor I’m dedicating a whole tutorial them back on before you render, a button within a node the
at MPC, as well as to the subject. most useful way to implement
a part-time lecturer
at the University Of
As your scripts become more
complex, you will sometimes
Performance timers enable you performance timers. You can
simply store the code in a Google
Hertfordshire
www.joshparks.co.uk
find that they start to run more
slowly. By using the knowledge to intelligently turn off nodes Doc, allowing you to access it at
any time, then copy and paste the
you gained in the last tutorial and node into the script you want to
by searching through postings that take longer to cache evaluate, and delete it when done.
on technical forums, you can It also gives you the option to set it
generally guess what’s making meaning that you aren’t slowed as a tool for easier use.
them lag, but you still won’t have down when hardware resources In the walkthrough on the
proof. Often the only solution is to are limited. right, I’m going to show you how
go through your script line by line This mode can be activated to create your own node with the
disabling nodes until it becomes by calling a Python function. button in place. I’ve only tested
more responsive. However, I’m going to show you the script in Nuke 7 and 8, so I
The solution is to use Nuke’s how to turn the command into a can’t guarantee it works in older
performance timers. When active, button within a node. This will versions of the software.
these turn the most intensive enable you to turn the mode on For all the assets you need go to
nodes in the graph red, and state and off in a more efficient way.
FYI creativebloq.com/vault/3dw199
Warning colours
Make custom nodes colourful!
I personally go for a bright colour

when creating a custom node so
that it’s obvious if I’ve left the
node in a script. It’s important to
cover yourself in case someone
else has to jump into the script
and work out what is going
on. Making the node a bright
colour will make it immediately
noticeable, avoiding an artist
stumbling across a node that isn’t
connected to anything else.
Nuke’s performance
timers show the nodes
that take longest to
calculate in red

Is
F o h ’ s t o r 9 Se
j o k e t n sa
s
n u 0 0,
ue
ll ne Ia pte
s u le
2
o w x t l mb
o
steP-bY-steP
er
Process: ImPlement PerFormance tImers
Create a custom node with a button to analyse your script
one make a noop node and name It two add a PYthon button
The first thing to do is create a NoOp node. This is To create a button that will run a custom Python
going to be our starting point for creating the button. script, bring up the NoOp’s properties by double-
A NoOp node is exactly what its name suggests: a node clicking it. Right-click anywhere in the Properties
that performs no operations, providing a blank canvas panel (not in the Label panel) and select Manage
on which to create your own custom node. To bring a User Knobs. This panel allows you to add predefined
NoOp into your script, hit [Shift] and type NoOp, then types of knobs to your node. Select Add Knob, then click To PlaY Video
hit [Enter]. Enter a name and colour for the node. Python Script Button. www.bit.ly/199-nuke
Script: Import nuke
##Defining our definition

def performanceTimers():
## If nuke is using performance timers then stop them
if nuke.usingPerformanceTimers():
nuke.stopPerformanceTimers()
## if nuke is not running performance timers turn them on
else:
nuke.startPerformanceTimers()
return
## now run our function
performanceTimers()
three Paste In the PYthon scrIPt

Here’s the Python script you need to copy into the Python Script Button. It can
be found in the downloadable content for this tutorial on the online Vault.
First, label the button: in the Label field, type Activate/Deactivate
performance timers. In the Name field, type timersButton. This is the
name that is called when referring to the button in a TCL expression. Type the
Python script into the Script field. Finally, enter the tooltip text you want to
appear when you hover the cursor over the button in the Tooltip field.
FolloW
The Video
Four toolset the node FIve Push thInGs Further

In order to quickly bring your new node back into If you want to push this idea one step further, you can
Nuke, you can use Nuke’s toolsets. This will enable add the node into your own toolbar within Nuke. The
you to search for it when you hit [Tab], which will Foundry has a great tutorial on its YouTube Channel
save you from having to create the node from (www.bit.ly/nuke-menu-items). This covers
scratch every time. To do this, select the node and everything on you need to know to make your own
click the spanner icon on the left-hand toolbar, toolbar. Creating your own toolbar is a more efficient
then select Create. way of integrating your own tools within Nuke.

develop
Industry interview
Industry IntervIew
Building a new
virtual reality
VR isn’t just for gamers. Kerrie Hughes meets Nurulize,
creators of a new breed of virtual environments
Author profile
Kerrie Hughes
Kerrie is content
manager at 3D World’s
leading industry
website Creative Bloq.
She is a former staff
writer for 3D World
and writes regularly for
ImagineFX magazine.
creativebloq.com
A concept illustration for

Desert Home, Nurulize’s VR
environment. The rendered
version is fully photorealistic,
as you can see overleaf

V
irtual reality is not a and for all but a select few, VR originally developed – is obvious.
new concept. The idea remained the stuff of dreams. But how will virtual reality affect
of creating immersive Now, more than a quarter of a other parts of the CG industry?
computer-generated environments century on, things are changing. To find out, we spoke to two
for users to explore and, in many With the arrival of a new wave people with a keen awareness of
cases, interact with, first came of high-quality, low-cost virtual VR’s capabilities: Scott Metzger
to the public’s attention in the reality devices like the Oculus and Philip Lunn, the industry
late 1980s. However, at the time, Rift, it seems that the promise of veterans behind new software
the expectation far exceeded VR will finally be realised. developer Nurulize, which aims
the experience. Despite the huge The potential for this new to bring virtual reality to fields as
popular interest, the technology technology to transform gaming – diverse as product visualisation
of the time was unable to deliver, the market for which the Rift was and visual effects.

develop
Industry interview
The NuReality Desert

Home: a VR environment
Nurulize describes as a
virtual ‘vacation space’
One way in which virtual reality “It’s a completely different way “Phil and I decided that the best
differs from traditional forms of of thinking about 3D space,” says way to do environment capture
CG is the ability of the viewer to Scott. “You almost have to create more quickly is to throw out the
interact fully with the image. [a VR environment] in a way time-consuming parts of the
“When they have the ability to that you build real spaces. If you process,” Scott explains. “The
look anywhere, people build a room, you’re not going to current pipeline is immense
SCott Metzger tend to look very closely leave a portion of it unfinished, – you have to take all the scan
Scott is a VFX industry at things,” says Scott because you know someone is data and convert it to polygons,
veteran, with a CV Metzger. “They also going to want to put something then resurface it and line up the
that includes both want to look behind things. They there. Because the user has the
Digital Domain and
Method Studios. He is
want to look in areas that, in a
video game, they never get the
freedom to explore any element
up close, you have to finish every
VR is a new way of thinking about 3D.
now Nurulize’s CCO.
www.nurulize.com
opportunity to see.”
Unfortunately, the things
detail. When you start losing the
resolution, or losing the detail, you You almost have to work in the same
that interest the viewer in a VR lose the immersive effect”
scene may not be the ones that way that you build real spaces
its creators expect. “You may be Points, not polygons
building this beautifully animated To enable artists to create cameras, and it’s just a big hassle.
character, but when you put the detail necessary for VR We thought, ‘Why don’t we just deal
someone in virtual reality, they environments, Nurulize has begun directly with scan data as points?’”
[may] choose to look at something developing new tools to help As Scott points out, working in
else in the corner,” says Scott. automate the process. this way does not just save time:
This means that artists working One of these is Atom View, it also preserves the detail of
in VR need to invest the same a new real-time engine for the original scan data. “There’s
amount of effort in every part of a visualising point cloud data from so much beauty to a raw point
scene, not just the key areas. 3D scans of real environments. cloud scan that gets lost when

Nurulize plans to allow users
to customise the Desert
Home by installing their own
downloadable content
InsIde the nureALIty desert hOMe

How Nurulize’s photorealistic environment points to the future of product visualisation
converting to polygons,” he says.

“Polygons destroy small details.”
Of course, the reason that artists
traditionally convert point data to
polygons is that the raw data looks
noisy when rendered: an issue that
Scott is well aware of.
“What makes Atom View so When Nurulize founders Philip Lunn that has gone into the house,” one thing you can’t get from looking
different from any other point and Scott Metzger started working says Scott Metzger “The beauty of at a 2D image is proper depth, right?
cloud software is that it’s going on their NuReality Desert Home this capture [process] is that every That’s one of the big advantages of
to look really, really good – to the project, they set out to deliver the photograph has five exposures, so the house: it gives you that sense
point where you don’t have to go future of virtual reality, handcrafting it’s 30 stops of light information. All of depth. You have this sandbox
and do the whole [manual clean- a living space that would redefine that information is really important for experiences in a comfortable
up] workflow,” he says. the way people work, play and for realism, particularly reflections.” [setting] that isn’t just an empty
“We’ve also been working with connect with others. Designed as a zen-like space space without any soul.”
Chaos Group to get V-Ray renders A photorealistic recreation of that users can personalise with Scott believes that this is a key
into Atom View. If you want to nearly six acres of the real world, downloadable content, Nurulize plans advantage of VR over augmented
quickly get content into VR [by Desert Home was reconstructed to allow manufacturers to use Desert reality, in which viewers are shown
reusing] assets, you can bake out using lidar scan data and HDR Home to preview new products. 3D representations of objects within
your renders as object space points imagery captured using 36.3 “One big [market] we can the real world. “When showing
and integrate them very quickly.” megapixel Nikon D810 cameras. use this technology for is product commercial projects inside VR, you
“I think the Desert Home is a visualisation,” says Scott. “We want get to control the environment,”
real-time realism great contribution to the thinking to create something that you can he points out. “We get to dictate
Atom View is not the only project surrounding VR, in [terms of] the visualise products from. Say you what you see, [so] with VR, it’s
that Nurulize has been working amount of detail and craftsmanship want to check out a new laptop: the complete immersion.”
on. Drawing on Scott’s production

develop
Industry interview
OPenInG the MArket

How Oculus kickstarted the VR revolution
Until recently, VR was a technology that only a select

few were able to use. That changed in 2013, when
Oculus VR began shipping the first dev kits for the Rift,
its pioneering low-cost, gamer-friendly VR headset.
“Oculus did something amazing in the beginning,
which [was to allow] anyone to acquire a development
kit and start experimenting,” says Scott Metzger.
“Most technology is held onto in secret for a very
a long time, allowing only select developers have
access. Oculus was pretty much handing out gold to
anyone with enough faith in VR.”
The schematics for the original device have since
been made open source, and a consumer version is
due early in 2016. The success of the Rift has also
prompted electronics giants like Sony, Samsung and
HTC to begin developing their own hardware. Nurulize believes that VR
“VR isn’t new,” points out Scott. “But with great is poised to transform the
design and amazing passion, Oculus inspired multiple way we experience the
industries to get excited over computer graphics again world, from movies to
and to start dreaming of different possibilities.” product marketing
experience, the duo have also really important thing,” says Scott. go to [stereoscopic] 3D movies
been developing NuReality Desert “You need to create something and get excited any more,” he
Home: a VR experience that compelling enough that [the says. “When you compare 3D to
replicates a real, mid-century viewers] want to stay inside it.” VR, the difference in immersion
modern home in the desert with an With Desert Home, Nurulize is laughable. If you want my
unprecedented level of real-time believes that it has done just that. ticket money, it won’t come from
realism. “Ultimately, it’s a [showing] 3D movies on a 2D
“The plan with the house is philip lunn vacation home where screen in a theater.”
really to make a piece of software Philip founded you can go and hang Other growth sectors
that we enjoy and use ourselves rendering software out,” says Philip Lunn. may include teaching and
every day,” Scott says. “We were developer Bunkspeed, “It’s a nice place to get away [to] telecommunications. Scott
talking about successful VR apps acquired by Dassault and spend time socialising, and believes that VR will usher in
and how we consider it a success Systemes in 2013. He making music, and playing.” “a new era of entertainment,
if you can stay inside the app for a is now Nurulize’s CEO. But as well as making Desert communication and education”.
long period of time. www.nurulize.com Home a place to play, Nurulize
That isn’t as simple as it might aims to make it a place to work. Going mainstream
sound. The experience of doing You can read about how the duo Phillip also believes we are set
something in virtual reality that plans to use the space as a platform to spend much more of our lives
doesn’t correspond to the real for product visualisation in the inside VR. “A good percentage of
world – for example, running boxout on the previous page. people who do creative work on a
through a room in VR while computer will put on their headset
remaining sat down in reality the next big thing? and then just be in there eight
– sends mixed messages to the Aside from product marketing, hours a day,” he says.
viewer’s brain that can rapidly what does the future hold for For that to happen, the
induce nausea. virtual reality? Scott believes experience of working in virtual
“Being able to get through that that mainstream entertainment reality will have to be a pleasant
and properly spend time in VR is a is a key target market. “I can’t one. Hardware like Oculus’s new

Details matter in VR. Unlike
a game or movie, viewers
are free to go anywhere,
inspecting models up close
Rift headset has a key role to play things on their head,” Phillip says. Morpheus, will bring virtual
here. “It’s very lightweight, it’s “I went out on a camping trip with reality to gamers worldwide. vr At the cIneMA
high-resolution, and it feels very five other guys recently, and none But for Phillip, the technology that The next big thing for movies?
comfortable on your head,” says of them had really heard about VR. will finally bring VR to the masses
Phillip. “You could have it on for They sort of knew that Facebook is the mobile phone. Rather than
quite a while. When you come out bought something in that area producing headsets with built-in Virtual reality holds exciting
into the real world you may find [Facebook acquired Rift developer screens, companies like Google possibilities for the world of
that you actually liked it better in Oculus VR in 2014] but had no and Samsung are developing film. “This is just the infancy
VR and want to go back in.” idea what VR was. So I pulled out low-cost mounts into which you of VR,” says Scott Metzger.
can slot your existing smartphone “I think in the next few years
Portable devices like Google Cardboard are what’s and use it as a virtual reality
viewing device.
you’re going to see really great
things.” One possibility is that
going to spread VR. They’re going to be the gateway “I think the portable versions,
whether it’s Google Cardboard,
VR will become a standard part
of the cinema experience, in the
or the Samsung Gear VR, or the same way that stereoscopic 3D
drug into full-immersion virtual reality Zeiss VR One, are what’s going to is now. “To get a really amazing
spread virtual reality,” says Phillip. experience with a movie, [you’re]
Another important thing about this little portable headset and “They’re going to get people going to need huge amounts of
the next version of the Rift is that they tried it, and I watched their saying, ‘OK, this is what VR is. data,” says Scott, pointing out
it will be a proper commercial reactions. Everyone was blown Now I want the real experience.’ that this will be easier to deliver
product: not just an early-access away. And that’s it – you have to Then they’ll try it on a PC and directly than via the internet.
development kit available to a experience it to understand it.” actually [be able to] look at things “In future, I think theaters will
small number of hardcore fans. up close. I look at the portable have huge servers to stream
“Unfortunately, most of the Mobile: the gateway drug versions as the gateway drug into that data locally. You just bring
world still hasn’t experienced VR Devices like the Rift, or its full-immersion virtual reality.” your headset and plug it in. That
– there are very, very few people upcoming competitors like For more on Nurulize’s work, would be pretty phenomenal.”
who have actually put one of these Sony’s as-yet-unnamed Project
FYI go to www.nurulize.com

develop
hardware review
HARDwARe Review
RENDA PW-E7F
Price £3,384.11 plus VAT | comPany Overclockers | website www.overclockers.co.uk/LP/renda.php
O
verclockers is a PC cores by Intel Hyper-Threading. of 4K-supporting DisplayPort
manufacturing brand with a The Core i7 is partnered with connections, should you want a
solid reputation in high-end 32GB of 2,133MHz DDR4 memory huge video panel array. Main
gaming systems. The company is arranged as four modules, so full Storage is predictably solid state Features
author Profile now transferring its skills to the advantage is taken of the processor’s disk and regular hard disk. The
James Morris professional market and launched quad-channel architecture, leaving former is a 256GB Samsung 850
James Morris has a new workstation range called four slots for upgrade. Pro and the latter a 2TB Seagate 3GHz Intel Core i7-
been writing about RENDA. We’ve looked at the PW- Overclockers has taken the Barracuda 7200.14 – a reasonable 5960X at 4.2GHz
technology for two E7F, and it shows potential. unusual decision to equip the PW- configuration. However, the
decades, focusing The main component choices E7F with AMD FirePro graphics, RENDA doesn’t include an optical 32GB 2,133MHz
on content creation won’t raise eyebrows. The CPU is despite Nvidia’s Quadros having drive or multi-format memory card DDR4 SDRAM
hardware and an Intel Core i7, which as we have around 80 per cent of the market. reader. You wouldn’t use these
software. He was come to expect has been ‘frequency This is relatively wise because every day, but it’s useful to have AMD FirePro
the editor of PC enhanced’. The Core i7-5960X the W8100 is the pick of AMD’s them. We also might have expected W8100 with 8GB
Pro magazine is rated at a nominal 3GHz, but bunch. It’s a little more expensive a PCI Express-based M.2 solid state GDDR5 memory
for five years. Overclockers have permanently set than a Quadro K4200, but comes disk, since the Asus X99-E WS
www.tzero.co.uk it to 4.2GHz, kept under control by a with twice the GDDR5 frame motherboard supports this. 256GB Samsung
meaty water-based cooling system, buffer – 8GB instead of 4GB – and 850 Pro solid
although the CPU will still drop a healthy 2,560 Stream Processors, Strong all-rounder state disk
down when not in heavy use. It’s with around twice the bandwidth The PW-E7F proved a capable all- 2TB Seagate
an Extreme processor, with eight at 320GB/sec thanks to a 512-bit rounder. The Maxon Cinebench Barracuda 7200.14
physical cores, doubled to 16 virtual interface. It also offers a quartet R15 rendering result of 1,717 is very SATA 7,200rpm
commendable, and the OpenGL hard disk
result of 183.21 is excellent. The
SPECviewperf 12.02 tests were Warranty: 5 years,
very good too. The result of 70.84 3 years’ collect
in Maya-04 shows it’ll be a great and return, 2
system for modelling with Maya, years’ labour
and the sw-03 score of 87.7 implies
good capabilities with SolidWorks.
Other highlights are 3.7 in
energy-01, 55.83 in showcase-01,
27.28 in medical-01 and 79.12 in
Overclockers has taken

the unusual decision to
equip the PW-E7F with
AMD FirePro graphics
snx-02. Overall, the W8100 provides
RENDA is the abilities about equal or better than a
new professional Nvidia Quadro K4200, so great for
workstation brand any kind of modelling or design.
from Overclockers, With very good rendering
and it shows and modelling performance, the
promise with very RENDA PW-E7F is strong in every
good rendering area. It’s not particularly cheap but
and modelling an impressive debut. We can’t say
performance yet how good Overclockers will
be at supporting the professional
3D content creation market, but
Watching the clock
the hardware shows promise and
Overclocking may seem shady but with appropriate cooling and settings they’re easily able to run exemplary build quality.
for extended periods above official ratings, with no concerns over stability. Hence manufacturers
are willing to provide at least three years of warranty for their frequency enhanced settings. Verdict
3d World October 2015 96 twitter.com/3DWorldMag

Software review
Unfold3D Generation 9
Price 299 (Freelance licence) | comPany Polygonal Design | website www.polygonal-design.fr
T
hings have been quiet on
the UV mapping front lately. Generation 9 is a
Main Hopefully, other developers significant update
Features are doing what Polygonal Design to Unfold3D
has been doing: rethinking their author Profile
entire UV mapping applications. Cirstyn
Can select by In Unfold3D 9, that rethink shows. Bech-Yagher
group, material or Even though commands and Cirstyn is a freelance
smoothing group workflow remain the same, bar CG artist and educator,
some key remaps, the new UI is with over a decade’s
Engine overhaul – significantly easier to work with, experience in 3D,
it unwraps faster down to touches like redesigning focusing on modelling
most of the lower program bar and texturing.
New brush tools so you can customise your UV northern-studios.com
mapping parameters even more,
New island tools and adding new tools, like the
option to prevent overlaps. with accompanying, customisable Overall, Unfold3D 9 is a very
Overhauled, However, the new version’s brushes. Island selection has also good overhaul, and worth looking
easier UI main strengths are its speed and been made easier, as you can now into if you need something that
changes that improve workflow, finally select assets by group, unwraps fast, with no muss or fuss
like the updated unwrapping tools. material or smoothing group. – especially if you’re a student, as
Unfold3D has done away with the Support for Lua scripting has been you get a 50 per cent discount.
Relax function, and has replaced it added, and the previously strict
with Pinch, Drag or Spread, along mesh import regime relaxed. Verdict
Software review
PhotoScan 1.1.6
Price $179 (Standard: version reviewed) $3,499 (Professional) | comPany Agisoft | website www.agisoft.com
B
uilding stuff in 3D can be
laborious, even if you have PhotoScan quickly
Main good reference material to creates usable
Features work from. PhotoScan, Agisoft’s meshes and
photogrammetry software, has textures from author Profile
been designed to do a lot of the photographs Mike Griggs
Advanced heavy lifting for you, using a set Mike Griggs has been
photogrammetry of reference photos of an object polishing pixels since
toolset to generate a working textured 1995. He has worked in
mesh that you can take into many sectors of digital
Creates meshes your 3D application of choice content creation, from
and textures in to retopologise. website design to 3D
standard formats and VFX for film and TV.
automated workflow www.creativebloke.com
Most processes The workflow is relatively
automated straightforward. You take photos of
the object you want to model from needs a lot of steady, sharp PhotoScan does give you a good
Professional various angles, import them into photographs to get a really good way of getting accurate models into
version available PhotoScan, align the images, and model, and that the mask tools are your computer, but it shouldn’t be
let the software create the mesh. fairly basic. You will also need a regarded as a quick fix: it takes time
Most of the process is computer with a decent GPU – the to get the images right in order to
automated, although masking the software is OpenCL-accelerated – achieve decent results.
photos manually can help, but in otherwise mesh creation can take
practice we found that PhotoScan some time. Verdict

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develop
My inspiration
My inspiration
Davide Bianca
The CEO of Saizen Media explains how a love of stories and comics
developed into a successful global CG art studio
M
y love for visual but I was always too much of an now provide VFX, key art and
storytelling dates artist to be satisfied with creating concept art services to the very Cover art for
back as far as I can something without a proper same gaming and film studios 3D World issue
remember. My first encounter visual output. that inspired us while growing 183: part of Saizen
ARTIST pRofIle with a pencil was love at first By this time, the internet was up, but the mission remains Media’s Slavers
Davide Bianca sight, and ever since then that evolving, and browser games unaltered: telling great stories CG comic
Davide is founder, love has only grown. Doodling and web experiences started through powerful visuals. With
CEO and executive became drawing, drawing appearing, but everything was
director of Saizen
Media, an award-
become writing stories and
inking comic book pages, and
very dull, basic and sterile. I
set out to start Saizen Media, a Once I understood the potential lying
illustrating became animating. storytelling-centric web agency
within the marriage between creativity
winning full service
digital creative agency Meanwhile, my passion for determined to blur the line
with offices in Los robots led me to wonder what it between web, gaming and film
Angeles and Milan. is that makes a computer work. by focusing on experience and and technology, I was hooked
www.saizenmedia.com Once I understood the inherent relying on the same techniques
potential lying within the used by the film and game the availability and accessibility
marriage between creativity and industries: heavy use of CG, of great software and technology
technology, I was hooked. digital matte painting, immersive today there is not a single reason
Computer science gave me a sound design, and so on. that justifies not doing what you
solid understanding of software, Over a decade later, our truly love for a living.
the nuts and bolts that make websites have evolved into See more of Saizen Media’s
things work under the hood, apps or VR experiences, and we
FYI work at www.saizenmedia.com

9000

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Contents Our complete line-up for this

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80 growth InDustry 82 DIscoVer how 3D prIntIng Is lenDIng a hanD

90 buIlDIng a new VIrtual realIty 97 reVIew: unfolD3D 9

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