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September 2017
#224
43
pages oF training
master hair
using maya
Easily CrEatE
photo-rEal

ZBrush • keyshot • PhotoshoP

intEriors

marvellous
use blender
for metal
materials

monsters
Expert techniques to sculpt, render
and composite amazing creatures
ISSUE 224

Webslinging speed up your

vFX secrets
Discover how key studios
animations
Blue Zoo reveals eight
made Spidey more realistic ways to work smarter
 Editor’s wElcomE
What’s hot this issue

FIvE IssuEs
FOR £5
EDITOR’s When you sign up to
a print subscription

WELCOME
– turn to page 61.

This issue, discover how to make better characters

Engaging characters are at the heart of

almost all projects, so in this issue you’ll
find out how to get the best out of them.
Learn how our cover star was created
step by step, take a look at how Spider-
Man was made, and don’t forget to take
advantage of our free Pluralsight course
on Maya animation.

Rob Redman, Editor

[email protected]

spOTlIghT On OuR cOnTRIbuTORs

Syawish A Rehman Andrew Entwistle Francis-Xavier Martins
Syawish is a visual effects and motion Andrew is a freelance artist with over Francis-Xavier is a character artist and
graphics artist based in Pakistan. ten years’ experience. He gives the CG generalist based in Brighton with
On page 78, he shares how to make verdict on the latest release of Unreal over a decade of experience. Learn how
disintegration effects. Engine on page 100. he sculpts hair in Maya on page 81.
www.goo.gl/4qtzIz www.aentwhistle.com www.polyjunky.com

Dave Throssell Rishikesh Nandlaskar Léa Cousty

Dave has been creating VFX and On page 62, Framestore London’s Léa is a student in 3D animation at
animations for longer than he cares to Rishikesh shows you how to sculpt Supinfocom Valenciennes in France.
remember. He reveals how to create a goblin for one-to-one scale 3D She shares the making of her short film
realistic interiors on page 68. printing, using ZBrush. Sur Ecoute on page 88.
www.fluid-pictures.com www.nandlaskar-rishikesh.com www.vimeo.com/user40254033

EMAiL WEbSiTE FACEbOOk TWiTTER

[email protected] 3dworld.creativebloq.com www.facebook.com/3dworldmagazine @3DWorldMag

3D WorlD September 2017 3 www.youtube.com/3dworld

Contents ISSUE 224
SEPTEMBER 2017 Free
Pluralsight six-hour
video course on
animating in Maya.
See page 96.

ShowcaSe Discover the best new digital art from the CG community, starting on page 8

FeatureS Exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the latest CG technology, film VFX and video game art

28 must-see animation
DreamWorks’ Shelley Page shares
her top animation picks

18 spider-man: homecoming 36 how to speed animate

How multiple players span a web of intricate VFX for the latest Spidey film, which features a destroyed Create characters to strict
Washington, DC, airborne battle sequences and potential disaster on Staten Island Ferry deadlines with tips from Blue Zoo

3D WorlD September 2017 4 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 tutorialS Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills Feature
42 the trailblazers
MPC artists on the creation of
six worlds for the Heineken ad

tutorial
56 create infernos in nuke
Paul Champion shares how
to composite fire effects

artiSt Q&a
74 Your cg problems solved
This month, grow a plant up
a wall, sculpt hair in Maya and
colour grading solutions
48 concept mYsterious creatures 62 sculpt a goblin for 3d printing
Luca Nemolato shares his foolproof pipeline for Use a 2D illustration to create a one-to-one scale
creating mystical characters from the sea 3D printed collectible in ZBrush reviewS
100 unreal engine 4.16.1
How this new release could
transform your VR projects

103 msi ws63 7rk

This new mobile workstation
has plenty to offer 3D artists

regularS
26 subscriptions
Save up to 47% by signing up!

96 free pluralsight course

Discover the fundamentals
of Maya animation

106 free downloads

68 create photo-real interiors in redshift Free video training and hi-res
Dave Throssell of Fluid Pictures reveals how to create a realistic room scene screens to follow our tutorials

inSight News and views from around the international CG industry inSight
94 siggraph preview
What to expect from the
Technical Papers at SIGGRAPH

98 qube! aids vr at psYop

How Qube! has helped Psyop
create VR content

82 wonderful worlds 84 agent 327 88 sur ecoute

How VFX played a supporting yet Blender’s new short shows off the Léa Cousty on how she created
vital role in Wonder Woman best of the open-source software her stunning student short film

3D WorlD September 2017 5 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Issue 225

War for the Planet

of the Apes
Discover how the
VFX of Caesar’s
battle were created

War for the Planet of the Apes ™ and © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox
nexT
MonTH
on sale 9 august
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All contents © 2017 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this
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3D WorlD September 2017 6 www.youtube.com/3dworld

ShowcaSe

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

The best digital art from

the CG community

Deep Hovel
ARTIST
Scott Stadick
SOFTWARE
Maya, ZBrush, Marmoset Toolbag,
AutoCAD, Quixel, Marvelous Designer

“Something about secluded or lonely

dwellings is extremely romantic to me,
so the subject matter tickled my fancy,”
says Scott Stadick, who created Deep
Hovel as part of the recent Artstation
Ancient Civilizations: Lost & Found
challenge. “How awesome would it be
to have a little wrecked ship converted
into a home to live in and explore the
surroundings from day to day, or drink
tea then take a swim?”
Scott drew on his architectural
experience to create the navigational
hologram on the ship in AutoCAD. The
Blizzard Entertainment environment
artist intern says he spent around 120
hours building it. He used ZBrush
and Photoshop to create most of the
scene, with Marvelous Designer for the
curtains. Scott says he referenced the
Blizzard style of straight lines over long
spans and an emphasis on readability.
“Competitions offer a fun reason to
explore new or more efficient ways to
complete something you like,” he says.

www.scott_stadick.artstation.com

3D WorlD September 2017 8 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 ShowcaSe
CG art to inspire

3D WorlD September 2017 9 www.youtube.com/3dworld

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

AmbAssADor
ARTIST
Tristan Schane
SOFTWARE
ZBrush, Maya, Keyshot, Photoshop

For visual artist Tristan Schane,

sculpting Ambassador with ZBrush’s
sculpting and detailing tools was a
little like sculpting with clay – and the
realistic folds of cloth were the most
enjoyable aspects to create. “I like
to challenge my ability to represent
different fabric types the same way I
like to tackle different anatomical or
skin surface concepts,” he says.
“I had a very specific idea in mind
for the surface of the tunic I wanted
for this guy. I was sort of imagining
an alien aesthetic for what a formal
costume might look like. I wanted a
design that was more organic than
high-tech and also a fabric with a
surface that was like an exotic tree
bark or something. I had the striated
surface in my head,” says Tristan. “I
was also interested in playing with an
anatomy that used both skeletal and
invertebrate limbs and body.”
It took Tristan around four days
to create Ambassador from his
imagination, with no references or
preliminary sketches to work from.
He started in ZBrush, using ZSpheres
to block out a basic shape, building it up
and dividing polygons to add more and
more refined surface work. Everything
from the way the creature holds its
limbs to the colour scheme of its
tunic were carefully considered and
constantly tweaked. “I wanted the
colouring of the tunic, the ‘embroidery’,
to look as though it was somehow
organically created by the being who
made it, or possibly formed naturally
on its own,” Tristan explains.

www.tristanartform.com

3D WorlD September 2017 10 www.youtube.com/3dworld

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

eucAlyptus
ARTIST
Sam Nassour
SOFTWARE
ZBrush, 3ds Max, KeyShot

Basing his creation on an illustration

by artist Wiebke Rauers, Sam Nassour
created this cheeky koala in short
chunks of spare time, spending about
three days in total on it. “I wanted to
experiment with ZBrush’s FiberMesh
to see if I could create a convincing-
looking, stylised fur with variable
lengths, density and directions that I
can control,” says Sam. “Getting the
attitude of the koala right was also a
key goal, besides the fur.”
“I started with a rough sculpt using
DynaMesh in ZBrush, exported it for
quick retopology in 3ds Max using the
Graphite Modelling Tools, then went
back into ZBrush for final shaping
and refining,” says Sam, who works in
art direction and visual development,
mainly for TV and film animation.
“I’m always very inspired by nature,
plants and animals. I love the amazing
variety of life forms we have on our
planet. I’m also inspired by history and
different cultures,” says Sam.

www.samnassour.com

3D WorlD September 2017 12 www.youtube.com/3dworld

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SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

3D WorlD September 2017 14 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

HAngAr
ARTIST
Alberto Trujllo
SOFTWARE
3ds Max, Mental Ray, ZBrush

“I created this 3D video for an internet

publicity campaign in Spain for
Hasbro, Transformers and Manifiesto
Publicity Agency,” says senior 3D
environment artist Alberto. “From
start to finish, I only had four weeks
for the project. The campaign is about
the construction of a transformer with
home appliances.”
Inspired by scenes in ’80s cult
movies, the environment had a specific
brief. “It had to look used but not
abandoned. Normally, clients want
clean and 3D artists like that the scene
looks weathered and aged because that
gives soul and meaning to the project -
with this project, we compromised on
used but not abandoned!
“The biggest challenge in this
project was the render time. I had to
finish a 30 second animation in only
one month and the optimisation of the
renders was one of the main priorities.
The balance of time-quality worried
me through the whole process.”

www.artstation.com/artist/atrujo

3D WorlD September 2017 15 www.youtube.com/3dworld

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

Zerit
ARTIST
Yannick Vincent
SOFTWARE
Maya, Mudbox, Yeti, Arnold

Based on a character from

Massimiliano Frezzato’s comic Keepers
of the Masers, Vincent made Zerit in
pockets of spare time totalling about
a week. But he says, “It’s never really
finished! I should like to make the body,
and make an animation. And maybe
other characters from this comic.”
Vincent makes CG characters for
a living and is inspired by comics or
concept art. He starts by blocking in
using Mudbox before sculpting further
and adding UV and texture work in
Maya. He uses Yeti for hair and fur.
“For a character like Zerit, furry parts
are really important, so it’s better to
block in the grooming, even if I have to
change topologies after. There are lots
of ways to transfer your work to a new
model or to new shapes with Yeti.”
Adjusting the eye catches was
his favourite part of creating this
character. “It’s a very important part
when you draw or create a character,
to make him come alive.”

www.artstation.com/artist/yannickv

3D WorlD September 2017 16 www.youtube.com/3dworld

spider-man:
homecoming

director
Jon Watts

main vfx studios

Digital Domain,
Luma Pictures, Method
Studios, Sony Pictures
Imageworks, Trixter

synopsis
Peter Parker returns to
live with his Aunt May
and begins to embrace
his newfound identity
as Spider-Man

Web
www.spiderman
homecoming.com

bringi
n
spider-m g
homea n
 All images © 2017 Marvel, Columbia Pictures Industries Inc & LSC Film Corporation

Trevor Hogg
speaks to th
webslinging e studios be
VFX of Spid hind the
er-Man: Hom
ecoming
FEATURE
Spider-Man: Homecoming

ather than focusing plate. “The camera goes from the

R
on the limitless outside to the inside of Grand
capabilities of an Central Station and lands on a
acrobatic gravity- dialogue scene where Michael
defying superhero Keaton is explaining something
and CG, Spider-Man: Homecoming to one of his co-workers,” says
places emphasis on storytelling Dominik. “The length of the shot
and character. The $175 million was a challenge as we had to have
co-production between Marvel enough frames for the animation
Studios, Columbia Pictures and of the CG background workers and
Pascal Pictures brings together the machinery. Multiple render
film-maker Jon Watts (Cop Car), passes were used to maintain
production VFX supervisor Janek flexibility in comp and also so
Sirrs (The Matrix) and the digital that potential re-renderings could
wizardry of Digital Domain, Luma be restricted to certain elements
Pictures, Method Studios, Sony that might have changed since the
Pictures Imageworks and Trixter. previous iteration.”
“A lot of the Sam Raimi films Luckily, ILM delivered a
were cartoonish and over the top,” big package of assets from The
says Kevin Souls, Luma Pictures Avengers. “It was extremely
VFX supervisor, who has worked helpful. It had full LiDAR scans
on four out of six solo movies and HDRIs of Grand Central
starring the famous wall crawler Station. This was the starting point
Spider-Man. “I feel like Spider- for our work on the sequence.”
Man: Homecoming is somewhat
subdued and tries to hold onto BuILdIng WAShIngton
realism as much as possible within Another tricky sequence was the
the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Washington Monument scene, for
Achieving this realism, however, which Method Studios created a
is no easy feat. full CG environment. “What comes
with that is all of the foliage, trees,
devAStAtIng vFX
At the conclusion of The Avengers,
New York City is devastated by
an alien invasion. The subsequent i feel like spider-man: the gymnastic
massive clean-up effort serves as
the introduction for Spider-Man: homecoming tries to hold abilities of tom
holland enabled him
Homecoming and establishes the
motive for the primary antagonist
Adrian Toomes, otherwise known
onto realism as much as possible to perform backflips
and crazy stunts

as the Vulture (Michael Keaton). Kevin souls, VFX supervisor, Luma pictures
“We examined a lot of
references for how a building like water, crowds, vehicles, and traffic, Washington, DC. We had aerial
Grand Central Station could look because you aren’t allowed to film plates from 12 different positions
destroyed and what would happen in that part of the country,” states to build our background tiles. That
on a big destruction site like this,” Matt Dessero (Argo), who straddled gave us our matte painting but we
states Trixter VFX supervisor both the client and facility worlds still had to build all of the areas
Dominik Zimmerle. “There is by being the associate visual effects around the Washington
a lot going on. Excavators are supervisor, second unit visual Monument digitally.”
moving rubble piles and tearing effects supervisor, and Method A Golaem plug-in was created
down masonry, trucks are driving Studios’ visual effects supervisor. to allow for the creation of crowd
around, and dust is swirling up into “There was a lot of layout and simulations within Maya. “Custom
the air and is being washed down trying to be true to the land. I did code was written as I didn’t want
by workers with hose water jets.” the ground level acquisitions while cars to drive down a road and
The only practical element in Janek went up in the helicopter. follow each other. I wanted them
this scene was the foreground We had five days to cover all of to slow down when they hit a

3D WorlD September 2017 20 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 FeATure
spider-man: homecoming

Suiting up
method studios’ matt dessero explains the lighting
challenges that came with spider-man’s attire

Lighting the high-tech Spider- development portion of Spider-

Man costume designed by Tony Man,” he explains.
Stark was difficult. “The costume “The challenge was getting
department did us a mannequin the highlights on the dots [the
of Tom Holland that we could little bumps on the suit] to have
stretch the costume over, because movement like the back of the
it needed to be completely static costume had. It had to have
so that we could shoot cross- this sheen that we tuned for
polarised photography,” says the extreme close-ups versus
Method Studios’ Matt Dessero. the medium shots.” The dots
“It allowed us to understand consisted of a turquoise green
the diffusion and specular light and the specular quality
components of the suit. From shifted based on the camera
there, we had a bunch of scripts angle. “As the tools get better,
to separate those out back at we get more complex with our
Method. Over three months was approach, and how we dissect
spent on the lighting and look and build suits or characters.”

3D WorlD September 2017 21 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
Spider-Man: Homecoming

traffic light as well to cause traffic

congestion,” Matt explains.

heAdIng to BAttLe
The battle scenes for this movie
posed particular challenges. The
work shared between the LA and
Melbourne facilities of Luma
Pictures involved Spider-Man
running on rooftops in a suburban
neighbourhood chasing a van,
being grabbed by the Vulture, and
dropping into a lake, where he is
rescued by Iron Man.
“The majority of the Suburban
Chase was envisioned as all
plate photography; however, as
the sequence was being edited,
we replaced whole shots with
full CG representations of the
surroundings,” reveals Kevin.
“We had to do day for night to the
drone photography, and augment
it with digital props and trees.
Then there was the sheer diversity
of the lighting. Every shot was a
custom look,” he says.
Just as Spider-Man leaps onto
the roof of the van, he is grabbed by
the Vulture. “The neighbourhood
was built from above so we could
match up the houses and streets.
There were also large matte
paintings so when we were high
up in the air and the camera is
spinning around it felt as if we were
looking down on Queens.”
Spider-Man then lands in
front of a bridge with a big virtual
splash. “It involved complex matte
paintings for the environment and
bridge along with a day for night
colour correction to completely
restore the plate because we
wanted to hold onto the water and
some of the foreground.”
Brendan Seals was the primary
visual effects supervisor on the
ATM Sequence, says Kevin. “There
was a full acquisition of textures
and LiDAR, so we were able to
Spider-Man attempts to prevent build a virtual version of the bank.
a lift from falling using webbing The bad guys are using alien
inspired by polar bear fur weaponry so part of the fun of the
gravity gun was that they could
pick Spider-Man off of the ground

spider-man had to get punched hard and throw him around like a rag
doll. The overriding animation

enough to be sent flying, but it had to direction was for it to be slapstick,

over the top and to make all of the

believable that he Was still alive impacts really hurt.”

One of the hardest shots was
Tom Holland running into an
dominik Zimmerle, VFX supervisor, Trixter alley and pulling on an oversized

3D WorlD September 2017 22 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 FeATure
spider-man: homecoming

Spider-Man suit that vacuum-

packs down to a formfitting outfit. Michael Keaton portrays Adrian
“The actual cloth suit needed to toomes, who uses salvaged alien
be painted out and replaced with a technology to commit heists
digital version that replicated the as the vulture
big loose-fitting suit for 45 seconds.
It was months of work looking at
simulations and figuring out when
things were popping. Once the
render looked okay then it was
the integration of that with the
photography and making sure that
you got the matting right. It was a
big undertaking.”
Trixter worked on the School
Battle sequence, and the team
found that knowing when to
exercise restraint was particularly
important. “Sometimes we had
to dial back a bit,” says Dominik.
“Spider-Man needed to get
punched hard enough to be
sent flying, but it also had to be
believable that he was still alive.
Depending on the shot and the
action, we either completely
replaced the live-action Spider-
Man with a full CG one, or just
his eyes to give them some slight birD of prey
feeling of emotion.”
To keep some feeling of Tom how digital domain created a second suit for Vulture
Holland in the CG Spider-Man,
Trixter animation supervisor “We did the Mark 1 Vulture suit that gets six feet shorter than his wing span, and
Simone Kraus and her team beat up in our sequence badly enough having an air to ground battle with Spider-
referenced a lot of motion that Adrian Toomes has to make a Man, that’s when you have to figure out
capture material created from second one, which is more advanced,” how is the thing going to move, how are
his performance and blended it explains Lou Pecora, Digital Domain the wings going to flap, and how are the
with classic keyframe animation VFX supervisor. “You have these big turbines are going rotate? The wings are
(see page 24 for more on motion mechanical wings with turbines in them made of interlocking plates of steel and
capture). “A stunt rig was used that look great in concept art, but when those needed to slide into each other.
to pull a table-like construction it comes to him breaking out of the van, They can’t interpenetrate or bend. It was
through the bus, which we replaced flying the length of a car tunnel that is a real rigging challenge.”
with Spider-Man. To integrate him
better, we partially rotoscoped
shards back on top of him and
added additional CG shards to
improve the effect and integration.”
To get an idea of what the scene
would look like, concept art was
created for every shot where the
background would be visible.
“To keep consistency from shot
to shot, we created a 360 degree
matte painting that we projected on
cards, using real set measurements
and the solved cameras. Based
on this, the artists worked the
concepts out on a per shot basis,”
says Dominik. “The Grand Central Michael Keaton and
Station and School Battle are cool Michael Chernus in
sequences. It was great working the workshop of
with Janek Sirrs, Edwin Rivera the vulture
and Diana Giorgiutti. They

3D WorlD September 2017 23 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
Spider-Man: Homecoming

capturing emotion
how motion capture and real life
materials added realism to the moVie

Extensive motion capture was conducted to

understand the movement and behaviour of
Tom Holland, and a character rig allowed for the
muscles and breathing to be controlled.
“Dialogue lines were extracted and fed into
Maya to drive the jaw so we could get as much
expression through that mask as possible,” says
Matt Dessero, VFX supervisor at Method Studios.
It was also important to differentiate this
Spider-Man from that of previous movies. “One
thing unique for this Spider-Man was the directive
from our director Jon Watts that he didn’t want
to see him in any hero traditional poses,” reveals
Matt. “This is a young Spider-Man, who hasn’t
become one with his powers yet.”
A weapons deal on the Staten Island Ferry that
goes horribly wrong serves as a pivotal moment
that results in Spider-Man losing his high-tech
suit and having to redeem himself in the eyes
of his mentor Tony Stark. Digital Domain VFX
Supervisor Lou Pecora and his team put together
the nine-minute-long action sequence featuring
the wall crawler trying to pull the split vessel back
together with his webbing.
Once more, motion capture was integral to
capturing Spider-Man’s emotions. “We motion
captured Tom Holland pulling on ropes, as well
as his facial expressions,” says Lou. “You can tell
even underneath the mask when his mouth is
open or his eyes are getting big. There’s a cool
effect that they did with the suit where the eyes We had spider-man hanging on
worked like the thin metal blades of a camera
aperture that slide up together to open and close,
which gave it a real world mechanical feeling.”
to a plane While being attacked
Getting Spider-Man’s signature webbing right Theo Bialek, VFX supervisor, sony pictures imageworks
posed another challenge, and various materials
were examined in the search for the right material.
“We looked at nylon and spider webs but decided always had a lot of reference and finale was constantly evolving
upon polar bear fur, which consists of a bunch of ideas for us to improve the shots. as story beats get refined late
transparent microtubes,” says Lou. “The tubular Spider-Man: Homecoming was a into post-production. An epic
quality allowed us to refract light through them great collaboration.” fight starts in a warehouse, then
in a more interesting way.” Luma Pictures was also pleased shifts to the top of a cloaked
with its achievements. “Suburban transport plane and carries on
Chase is long and funny,” notes after the aircraft crashes on a
Kevin. “There are call backs to Coney Island beach. This climatic
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Spider- showdown was handled by Sony
Man does everything from Pictures Imageworks.
smashing into a pool, running “The Vulture Warehouse
through fences, getting attacked by sequence was mostly completed
a dog, and waving to people. The using practical plates. However,
ATM Robbery is most akin to a an entire 3D build was necessary
Jackie Chan fight scene where one on the environment for various
motion leads to the next motion to integration reasons and the
this guy going splat on the ground. occasional all-CG shot,” explains
It’s great slapstick.” Sony Pictures Imageworks VFX
supervisor Theo Bialek. “Any
the thIrd ACt action shot of Spider-Man required
Dealing with the third act in a big a CG version of the character. As
blockbuster is never easy. This this was mostly a photographed

3D WorlD September 2017 24 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 FeATure
spider-man: homecoming

sequence with practical effects, the plane is at lower altitudes were City backgrounds,” remarks Theo. tony Stark serves
[such as exploding cement] we able to benefit from plates for The aerial dual high above New as a mentor to Peter
extensive previz and planning were the background. Spider-Man and York City is a personal favourite Parker, who wants
necessary. As a result, many of the the Vulture were always CG, and of Theo’s. “I’m excited to see the to be a member of
actions Spider-Man would need given the predicament and type of Plane Battle,” he says. “There are the Avengers
to perform in CG were known in combat, motion capture was rarely over 100 full CG shots with a lot
advance. This allowed us to rely on of assistance,” he adds. of close-up shots of Spider-Man.
motion capture for some of “We also worked on shots The biggest challenge was to do an Spider-Man
his performances,” says Theo. taking place atop of Avengers animated sequence with the goal of struggles to pull
As the Vulture attempts to Tower, where the VTOL is being it not feeling like that.” the Staten Island
hijack a vertical take-off and loaded. This required digital Spider-Man: Homecoming Ferry together
landing (VTOL) transport doubles of extras and New York
FYi is in cinemas worldwide now
plane owned by Tony Stark, he
encounters aerial resistance from
Spider-Man. “The Plane Battle
was maybe the most difficult, as
we had Spider-Man hanging on to
a large C-17-like plane travelling
between 280-500mph, while
being constantly attacked by the
Vulture,” remarks Theo. “The
cloaked plane was a particular
challenge as we needed to design a
system using feasible and currently
available technology as there
was a mandate from director Jon
Watts and Marvel to keep as much
of the story/tech as relatable as
possible. The vast majority of the
sequence was all CG. Only when

3D WorlD September 2017 25 www.youtube.com/3dworld

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 GeT A sub
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sUBscriBe to
 FEATURE
Must-see animations

Shelley’s top picks

include Garden Party
(above) and the
Japanese-inspired
Gokursoama (below)

3D WorlD September 2017 28 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Feature
Must-see animations

must- see
animations
DreamWorks’ Shelley Page reveals eight of her favourite
animation shorts, and talks to the directors behind them

reamWorks’ head shown at our studios in the USA admits she is is “always curious
author

D
of international but later, as the studio expanded to about the process behind the
outreach and more distant locations, I also took creation of these amazing works.” Shelley Page
international talent these screenings to our animators About to set off for the latest Shelley Page has
consultant, Shelley in Bangalore, India and, more series of graduation juries and been working in the
Page, is so passionate about recently, Shanghai. Some years ago, screenings in the UK, Europe and field of animation
animation that she founded Eye I was invited to make a special Eye further afield, Shelley says she is since 1982. Her
Candy to showcase the genre. Candy presentation at the FMX “excited about the great new films credits include
“The origin of the Eye Candy festival in Germany [now an annual I know I will discover for my next Who Framed Roger
Show was a series of regular part of this event] and since then I Eye Candy selection!” Rabbit? and all
screenings of the latest animation have presented my favourite films From student projects to the DreamWorks’
shorts, graduation films and TV of each year to festival audiences films voiced by Oscar-nominated Animation hits,
commercials, collected during and schools around the world.” actors, Shelley reveals eight of her including Shrek
my travels around the world Shelley talks about the story favourite shorts over the following Madagascar and
to present to my colleagues at of the making of each film before page. She also finds out how they Kung Fu Panda.
DreamWorks Animation,” says screening it, particularly when were made, and shares advice for www.dreamworks
Shelley. “At first these were only addressing student groups, as she budding animators. animation.com
.

3D WorlD September 2017 29 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
Must-see animations

suR sa tRaCe
DiREcToR: Axel De lAFFoReSt
he charming student for this film, the hardest part was shown in festivals like Très Court,

T
film, inspired by managing my time,” he recalls. Tournez Court and soon the
Robin Joseph’s A Axel used 3ds Max to create the Filmets Badalona Film Festival.”
Seagull on Mud 3D characters and 2D background Now working at Mikros
illustration, was a and is refreshingly modest about Animation, he still sees the student
challenge for then student film- the film, despite it being one of project Sur Sa Trace as one of his
maker Axel De Lafforest, and took Shelley’s picks. “I don’t think most satisfying to work on as a
six months to put together. “I had the animation is very good in my director “because I was alone to
created another short film before, film… There’s nothing technically make the decisions, and it was
but this was my first film in 3D so impressive about it,” he says. very clear in my head”. His advice
it was technically very difficult,” However, Axel is proud of his for budding 3D filmmakers? “Be
he says. “I had to create everything work, “I’m very glad my film was daring, then work and work again.”

some tHinG
DiREcToR: elenA WAlF comp LEAD: MAttHiAS BäueRle
ome Thing’s director, determined to help Elena achieve

S
Elena Walf also her vision. “It was very important
wrote, and animated to understand the level of detail
the film, and although Elena wanted to achieve. She was
she didn’t have much very specific about when and
experience making short films, her how a texture should move… We
illustration background helped her used TVPaint as our backbone
with the design. for animation and the colouring
Originally, Elena conceived process. Then we exported the
Some Thing – about a mountain colour mattes and all the outline
with a strange object – as a fairy layers and used Nuke as our
tale-like children’s book. “I guess weapon for applying and animating
that’s why the compositions the textures and final compositing.”
resemble the style of children’s Matthias also offers some tips on
books. It was very important for making your way in the industry.
me that everything looks kind of “Listen carefully to the stories that
hand-drawn,” she says. are growing inside your head. Keep
Matthias Bäuerle, who worked experimenting and check out lots
as comp lead on the film, was of different tools.”

3D WorlD September 2017 30 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Feature
Must-see animations

asteRia
DiREcToRs: AlexAnDRe ARPentinieR // MAtHieu
BlAncHyS // lolA GRAnD // tRiStAn lAMARcA //
tHoMAS leMAille // JeAn-cHARleS luSSeAu
his short film set in space has won over
hearts and minds, not just with the quality
T of animation, but with its sense of humour,
something that was of great relief to one
its directors, Alexandre Arpentinier. “One
of the hardest tasks was to give a good rhythm to the
film, find a good end stop, and make good gags. It’s hard
© Andreas Felix / Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

to know if all the jokes will make the spectators laugh

when you work for several months on it and hear it
dozens of times a day,” he says.
Student projects can often fall victim to unforeseen
problems, but the Asteria team avoided this with
careful planning and teamwork. “We didn’t make any
big mistakes during the production because we always
did tests before we started in the different tasks,” says
Alexandre, who adds that the team worked together to
stay organised and on track.

CitiPati
The team used a variety of tools to create Asteria,
including Maya for modelling, rigging and animation;
ZBrush and Mari for sculpting and texturing; Arnold
for rendering; Nuke and Houdini for compositing
and effects, Premiere for editing, and occasionally
DiREcToR: AnDReAS Felix Photoshop for testing or small alterations. But
Alexandre doesn’t think that one tool is more important
itipati, a tale about rate of 20-25 seconds per week,” than another. “There isn’t a single software or tool that

C
life and death explains Andreas. has helped us a lot during the production, but we think
from a prehistoric Andreas points to Phoenix FD it’s the combination of all the software that allowed us
perspective won the plug-in and 3ds Max’s Particle get good quality in every field,” he explains.
award for outstanding Flow when asked about his most
visual effects in a student project at useful tools. “As the film contains
the VES Awards 2016. over 300 FX simulations, about 85
Director Andreas Felix per cent were evenly split between
considers the film’s most impressive fluid simulations and rigid body
technical achievement to be the dynamics. Especially for doing a
secondary details added into the rig lot of secondary events and details,
of the main character, on top of the Phoenix FD proved to be easy to
base skeleton. “This was built using set up and recycle to create a large
CAT, a crude muscular system that body of sims in a short amount of
was attached based on a custom- time… The procedural toolset of
developed set-up using bones and Particle Flow allowed for easily
springs. As a result, not only did it creating small events like dynamic
facilitate geometric deformations gravel and debris and to add
on the character’s surface, but also detailed interactions with ease,
produced jiggling tissue in real which in turn could be fed into
time, and the ease of access allowed Phoenix FD to add more control
for any oddities to be fixed on a per and detail to the simulations.”
shot basis,” he explains. Andreas is not one to shy away
The creature’s tail movement from unconventional solutions.
was animated procedurally using “If you can offer a different solution
a set of noise controllers and out of the box, you may surprise
springs. “This saved a lot of time your superiors and colleagues for
in animation as well, which was good. It’s never wrong to be a little
crucial, as the schedule dictated bit rebellious, at the right time, of
having all shots animated at a course,” he says.

3D WorlD September 2017 31 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
Must-see animations

PoLes aPaRt
DiREcToR: PAloMA BAezA DFx TEAm: GilliAn
SiMPSon // SHivAni SHAH // ollie BRuMMell
irector Paloma Baeza started out as an

D
actress before moving into writing and
directing. Never one to shy away from a
challenge, for her, creating Poles Apart,
which stars Helena Bonham Carter and
Joseph May, was a new kind of experience. “I wrote,
directed and partly animated. Animating is the hardest
for me as I am very new to it… the biggest transition
was learning about animation in the technical sense -
animatics, the actual hands-on animating, as well as
time-scales and the precision involved,” she explains.
As with any new medium, mistakes happen. “Early
in the shoot we animated a long shot with focus
pulls and puppet rigs, but I foolishly didn’t get clean
background the separate focus pulls. This made good
rig removal and compositing very difficult. In the end,
we had to re-shoot this sequence, but we didn’t make
that mistake again!” says Paloma.
While Paloma prefers to focus on stop-motion, using

La PaRFumeRie
Dragonframe, the digital FX experts on Poles Apart
– Gillian Simpson, Shivani Shah and Ollie Brummell
were deep in other methods. “The CG icebergs were

De monsieuR
achieved using photogrammetry of the props made by
our production designer, which allowed us to replicate
an identical 3D asset that reduced time in modelling and

PomPone
sculpting, but also enabled us to create a range of diffuse
and light baked textures for the motion control shot
in particular,” explains Paloma.

DiREcToRs: cAMille FeRRARi // Axel De lAFFoReSt // FloRiAn RAtte //

yoAnn DeMettRe // tAnGuy WeylAnD
his ambitious short for the editing. Nuke was also vital

T
from co-directors to realise the team’s vision. “We
Axel de Lafforest, wanted the 3D to look like 2D,” says
Florian Ratte, Yoann Camille. “Our main goal was to
Demettre, Camille have a very graphic render with a
Ferrari and Tanguy Weyland lot of patterns on the textures.”
follows the story of a perfume With the film winning awards
manufacturer in Paris and is at both the Panam Anim and the
influenced by the works of Roald Beijing International Film Festival,
Dahl. “We all had a different role to it’s no surprise all the former
play in the creation of the movie,” student directors are now gainfully
says Camille Ferrari. “I was in employed in the industry. As far
charge of most of the storyboard, as wider animation goes, Camille
texturing and editing. We all has some thoughts on the future,
directed it, but Axel was at the “I think 3D animation is the future
heart of the project, so he had of animation. 2D is very nice but
to write the basis for the story. it needs more money and more
Tanguy was our technical director, time for production. I don’t think
Yoann our lead modelling and we could have done a six or seven
Florian our lead animation.” minute 2D animation film in one
The team used 3ds Max mainly year. But I do sometimes work in
for the 3D, Mari for the texturing, 2D. Making a 3D movie doesn’t
Nuke for the compositing, and Avid mean giving up 2D animation.”

3D WorlD September 2017 32 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 FEATURE
Must-see animations

GaRDen PaRtY
DiREcToRs: victoR cAiRe // tHÉoPHile DuFReSne // vincent BAyoux // FloRiAn BABiKiAn // GABRiel GRAPeRRon // lucAS nAvARRo
arden Party’s photo- the realistic look we wanted, we and displacement maps from the

G
real animation of had to build a 3D scanner in our scans before moving into Maya,
amphibians has been garage, based on photogrammetry, where the maps could then be
showcased in many to scan 3D assets. It was a huge plugged in automatically.
festivals, and earned challenge for us,” says one of the Victor thinks the fast pace of the
a Grand Jury Prize at Nashville six directors, Victor Caire. “We industry means that new artists
Film Festival, as well as Shelley’s used the software RealityCapture have to stay focused. “The most
Eye Candy – Film of the Year 2017. to scan the objects, then all the important thing is to have good
The team used a wide range of scans were brought into ZBrush for composition and storytelling. It’s
software in production, but they remeshing,” he adds. not always about the software you
also had to craft a hefty piece of The team also developed a script use, think more about the result.
hardware. “In order to obtain in ZBrush to export colour, normal There’s always a way to do it.”

GoKuRsoama
DiREcToRs: clÉMentine FRÈRe // RoMAin SAlvini // AuRoRe GAl //
yuKiKo MeiGnien // AnnA MeRtz // RoBin MiGlioRelli
his Studio Ghibli- and rendering; Maya for rigging

T
inspired short film and animation and Mari was
follows the story of an used to paint the textures on
old woman and her the characters. Working in Mari
assistant just before was particularly useful. “I think
a mall opens. “We really enjoy the Mari was probably the most vital
contemplative quality you can find software to production because
in many Japanese animation films we were able to quickly and
like those of Studio Ghibli,” says easily update the textures of each
one of the directors, Clémentine character, even during the rigging
Frère. “However, stylistically we process,” says Romain Salvini.
wanted to stay away from being Romain believes that an
too anime-like… it was mostly a inquisitive mind is vital for success.
job of giving the environment that “You must be curious about new
abundant feel (of a mall) while still software and ways to make things.
keeping the characters silhouettes And keep watching movies,
stand out using colour blocking.” reading, looking for nice pictures,
The project used 3ds Max because these things can become
(V-Ray) for modelling, lighting an idea or reference for a project.”

3D WorlD September 2017 33 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
Speed animation tips
 Feature
Speed animation tips

HOW TO
SPEED
ANIMATE
Blue Zoo animation director Bader Badruddin
shares eight tips for producing characterful
work under severe deadline pressure

nimated kids’ TV they are not proud of, while they

A
shows are often dream of working elsewhere.
associated with That’s no way to spend most of
cheap, low-quality the waking hours of your day: life
animation. With is short, so it’s better to embrace
budgets often 100 times smaller what there is than to focus on
than feature films and crazy what there isn’t.
deadlines, it’s understandable why What does that mean?
this happens. When working in TV Well, by drilling down and
animation, it would be simple to understanding the underlying
assume that it’s just impossible to basics and principles of
try and compete, and a futile effort animation, you can bypass a
to try and create animations that lot of the time spent tweaking
you’re proud of; so you might as the perfect animation, trying
well just get on with it as quickly to retrospectively fix animation
as possible without looking back. that’s fundamentally wrong
Most aspiring animators also from the start. We believe that
spend years and big sums of by using the right structure and
money training, with the aim of methodological approach, you can
eventually going to work in feature make fast turn-around animation
film animation. In reality, most of look great. It’s all about working
the jobs in the industry are in TV smarter, not harder; and getting Author
animation. So this results in a lot more out of the early first stage,
of people spending most of their rather than delaying the inevitable Bader Badruddin
career churning out animation and trying to fix things later. Bader is a series
animation director
at Blue Zoo, with

IT’s all aBouT workINg smarTer, over 10 years’

experience in

NoT HarDer, aND geTTINg more character animation

for kids’ TV. He has

ouT of THe early fIrsT sTage worked on projects

for Disney and
Nickelodeon.
Bader Badruddin, series animation director, Blue Zoo blue-zoo.co.uk

3D WorlD September 2017 37 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
Speed animation tips

01

Build breaks into So here are eight tips on reliably

your routine and producing great animation to very
you’ll end up being tight deadlines.
more productive over
the course of a day 01 Develop the right
attituDe anD mentality
stick with iK mode We all get lazy and can waste some
unless the story time here and there – but there
beat calls for a more really should be no reason why
complicated action there is a struggle in finishing off
the shots we have in time.
Just to put things in perspective 02
for you: say I’ve worked on five
shots today and I’m just about to and maintaining a clean work case someone needs to open your
start my sixth, which I hope to get method is key. shot in the future.
done before the end of the day, I In addition to that, I try to
won’t stay late into the night trying work in blasts of energy. I work 03 Focus on one thing
to finish up the sixth, because I hard for a good 45 minutes to an Noting down every flawed
will come in exhausted tomorrow hour non-stop, with full focus. I frame in your animation is great
and not be bothered to do any end up finishing more animation for really polishing a shot, but
work. If I feel I can go on for a little that way – then I shut down for 10 doesn’t actually help you improve
bit longer and finish the sixth shot minutes, and come back at it when much as an animator. A better
off quickly, I’ll do that; if not, I’ll I’m good to go again. approach is to identify (or have
call it a day and come in with a someone else identify) a common
fresh set of eyes the next day. (Of 02 Keep things simple trend in your work.
course, this guideline only applies Make it easy for yourself and You might notice that you
if I’m on schedule.) make your motions simpler. Avoid tend not to have very strong
I’m not doing anything special space-switching (world vs local) anticipations, for example. Once
by doing this: all I’m doing is not and IK/FK blending if possible. you’ve made a note of this, you
making things complicated for Try to figure out what is the best can go into your next sequence
myself. Using some of the tips here set-up for your shot and keep it that focusing on correcting that one
way. I usually work in IK mode trend. After a while, it will work
for most of my shots; and unless its way into your animation muscle

aN easy Trap To fall INTo the character needs to push off of

something, they are normally in
memory, and you can look back
over your work and find a new

Is THINkINg THaT you NeeD local space.

Animate smart by hiding or
trend to work on.

04 aim For one pose

a New pose for eVery un-referencing what you’re not
working with. Focus and don’t give per emotion
acceNT IN THe DIalogue yourself excuses.
And when you’re working,
keep things clean for when you
An easy trap to fall into is thinking
that you need a new pose for
every accent in the dialogue,
Bader Badruddin, series animation director, Blue Zoo might need to make changes, or in then ending up with a shot that

3D WorlD September 2017 38 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Feature
Speed animation tips

03

05

04

is over-animated and messy. The

way I tackle this is by listening
for changes in emotion and only
having one pose per emotion. For
example, if the character is happy,
put them in a happy pose and keep
them there until they become sad
or angry or whatever.
To take this further, you can
listen for more subtle changes in
emotion. For example, there might
be moments when the character 06
goes from happy to really happy. In
this case, you might just switch to so easily. Put keys and breakdowns structure. Most of the time people addicted to
a more pushed or extreme version in the face just as you would the watching your animation will stare playblasts? try
of your existing pose. Use these ups body. I usually animate the entire at the face, so put the effort there. mapping out your
and downs within a single emotion body, including the face and lip timings with an old-
to keep the character alive if you sync, in one go. The energy you 06 use a timing template school dopesheet
need to, and then only create a new get and the consistency of the pose During my experience over
pose if the emotion changes into looks so much better if you treat the past 12 years animating and
something new. the face as just as important (if not teaching on the side, I’ve had to
more) than the body while you are explain and teach things I’m sure
05 it’s all in the eyes laying out your poses. many animators just ‘do’ without
anD the Face So if I’m on frame one, and I am putting them into words. This has
A lot of animators animate the adding a pose, I will also add the forced me to analyse my methods
body brilliantly, but then you come pose that mouth shape is in, and of animating, and to come up
to the face and it’s all very robotic the facial expression with it. Lip with ways to explain them simply
and basic. I never understand how sync and facial animation shouldn’t enough for others to make use of.
the most important part of the be a pass you add on top, but a key On one of the shows I worked
performance can be brushed over foundational part of the main shot on, our client was providing us

3D WorlD September 2017 39 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
Speed animation tips

07

adding a simple arc

into your tweening
pose is a simple
way to make the
overall action more
compelling

study how people

stand and move to
build up your own
acting library you
can call upon

08

with detailed dopesheets (those Every shot is different, but down. Using an arc in the motion,
old classic animation sheets of this is a simple way of timing a take the hips down (or up) in a nice
paper that have notes and numbers standard dialogue shot that I found arc and watch how the motion is
scribbled all over the place, not works most of the time. My advice now more interesting.
some fancy part of a 3D package is to go grab a dopesheet and try
that shifts keys around). I decided and work with it and see how 08 have an acting liBrary
to animate one of my shots exactly things were done before computers One thing that’s always
as the dopesheet detailed. and playblasts came in. being told to animation students is
To my surprise, the scene to act it out and use video reference
worked pretty well! I only had 07 in BreaKDowns, go – but the truth is that TV schedules
to do some minor tweaks to it to somewhere else don’t really allow time to shoot
smooth things out, but overall the Often I would get asked in the reference material. So how can
timing was solid. studio to help out an animator with you get good acting?
I experimented with dopesheets a breakdown. This is what I would Well, I listen to the shot’s audio
for the duration of my stay on always tell them: don’t waste time a number of times, then pull out a
that project, and slowly over the trying to work out a complicated pose from my acting library. This
course of a few months, I began breakdown that may not work. isn’t a physical one or a premade
to anticipate some of the timings If you’re tight for time, take pose library on my computer
written down on the dopesheet. your two poses and get one pose (although these don’t hurt): it’s
What I found during this period smack in the middle that is a linear actually in my head. I spend time
was a pattern of timing that tweened pose. By flipping between outside of work studying people
worked as a guide and template, the three poses, you focus on the and films, learning more from
and has helped me speed up my main thing (usually the hips). If that than my own video reference
animation process so much that Pose A is leaning left, and pose B or an animation class. Learn to
I stopped relying on playblasts is leaning right, the breakdown observe and collect information
or real-time playback to see if my between those two has only two in your head so it’s accessible to
timings were working. options of where to go, either up or you when you need it.

3D WorlD September 2017 40 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
The Trailblazers

3D WorlD September 2017 42 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Feature
The Trailblazers

wORLDS APART
Artists from MPC explain how they brought six worlds to life for a
spectacular Heineken ad. Tom May reports

PROJECT he beer industry project that the artists were keen three weeks on previz. “On the

T
TITLE has long sought to to get stuck into.” ship sequence, we had a very, very
Heineken: wow us with epic rough ocean in Houdini to make it
The Trailblazers commercials, from Spreading the load look a little bit more flashy, to add
the ‘surfing horses’ The amount of work meant it some waves going up and down,”
STUDIO film for Guinness in 1998 to the couldn’t be handled by one office, says Carsten. “But that was the only
MPC Advertising 2006 ad where a cast of thousands though, explains Carsten Keller, time that Houdini was used: 90 per
formed the shape of a Carling head of 3D at MPC Advertising. cent happened in Maya.”
SOfTwarE Draught drinker. But it’s unlikely “Along with London, three other Director Matthijs came over
Maya, Houdini, anyone will ever top Heineken’s facilities got involved,” he says. from Holland to get involved too.
Arnold, ZBrush, latest global ad, The Trailblazers, “Modelling, assets and texturing “We’d show him different options
internal tools for sheer scale and ambition. in Bangalore, compositing in for each shot and he’d choose the
Directed by Matthijs van Amsterdam, and other tasks were ones he liked,” explains Carsten.
DEvELOpmEnT Heijningen for Publicis Italy, it’s taken on by Los Angeles.” Each With the director having clear
LEngTh part of Heineken’s ongoing Cities morning, he would hold sessions views on what he did and didn’t
3 months campaign, which encourages men with each of the studios in turn like, progress was fast and smooth.
around the world to get the most in which they’d review the work “We found all the different camera
wEb out of their city by stepping out of each artist in real time, using angles and timings, all of the shots
www.bit.ly/ of their comfort zone. Taking the MPC’s bespoke internal software. very quickly; there wasn’t a lot of
mpcheineken concept to its logical extreme, the “So our modellers in Bangalore back and forth,” says Carsten.
one-and-a-half-minute commercial would show us their assets on With previz settled, it was time
transports four men on a night screen, and we’d point to a specific to move on to crafting the full CG
out in New York to a series of part of the image and be able scenes. And of all the shots in the
fantastical scenarios.
Working with footage shot in
Prague and Sofia, 70 MPC artists ThErE waSn’T a LOT Of back
worked for 90 days to create the
ad’s six worlds. 137 million polys
were used to create the space
anD fOrTh In prEvIz
station and 78.5 million for The Carsten Keller, head of 3D, MPC Advertising
Flying Dutchman ship, while 100
extras in the Roman scene had to to discuss it straight away,” he 90-second ad, the most challenging
be digitally transformed into an explains. “It was like we were all was an epic space battle.
army of 10,000. huddled together in a room.”
But despite the workload, when This kind of instant critique is Scaling up outer Space
the artists at MPC first heard a great way of reviewing work, The scene begins with the four
about it, they couldn’t believe their Carsten says, especially because partygoers thrust into a space
luck, remembers CG supervisor you can filter by, for example, station under heavy bombardment.
Christian Bohm. “It’s always a different disciplines. “You can say: “Eighty per cent of that shot was
good sign when you read the script ‘Today we only review animations, captured in camera, but we had to
and get excited as a team,” he or lighting and rendering.’... It’s a add the visors in CG,” says Carsten.
says. “A great concept and creative really powerful tool.” “And then we had to reflect these
idea make your work as an artist lighting effects in the visor, so it
much easier. So even though it Smooth previz became quite complicated.”
was obviously challenging, we had The project kicked off with three Next, the action moves to outer
a clear vision and it’s the kind of MPC artists spending around space itself, and MPC’s artists

3D WorlD September 2017 43 www.youtube.com/3dworld

FEATURE
The Trailblazers

needed to convey the majesty The director also wanted a red

and beauty of cosmos in just a nebula in the shot, Jessie adds.
few seconds. Among the main “So we had to try to find a way to
challenges was lighting. “Normally balance that fantasy element with
you only have one light source the realistic expectations of sharp
in space, which is obviously the ‘space lighting’. I worked with our
sun,” says Carsten. “So we tried digital matte painting lead, Lino
to find other ways to make it a bit Khay, to create an environment
more interesting, by bouncing a that hit the director’s notes and
little light from a nebula that you flattered our ship model.”
never see, and to find that look was
quite a journey. It was very helpful Wet and Wild
to have a really good concept Another major scene in The
designer on the job, because he Trailblazers is the sequence
could constantly provide us with showing two ships caught in a
different options. Eventually he terrifying storm. This meant
told us, ‘Actually that looks good - it creating a CG stormy ocean, plus
might not be 100 per cent physically simulated sails, ropes and water
correct, but it’s stylish enough.’” flowing out of the damaged hull.
The artists also designed a space “We began with a base model
pod, hurtling towards a massive of a healthy ship, then we had to
space station, in the midst of a basically wear it down, break it
meteor shower – all in CG. “Our down and damage it,” explains

IT’S ImpOrTanT nOT TO bE TOO

prEcIOUS wITh yOUr wOrk
Jessie Amadio, lighting TD, MPC

main challenge was to give the Carsten. “On top of that, we had to above: the finished tricky tranSitionS
space station an epic sense of scale,” weather it with seaweed, coral and cityscape scene, One of the unique challenges the
says lighting TD Jessie Amadio. additional little damage effects on which was done with script posed was how to transition
“There was actually nothing in it; that was done in Houdini.” matte painting the characters from one world to
that shot to provide the audience But the biggest challenge, he another without it looking jerky or
with reference or scale,” she notes. says, was the moment the ship opposite right: the unnatural. One part of the solution
“So everything from the speed bursts through the water. “You city scene in new was to use natural elements to help
and size of the meteors to the focal have splashes, waves, water, rain, york was created transition between the scenes.
length of the camera needed to mist, fog, all of that reacting with after actors were So the characters travel through
be carefully created to maximize these moving parts on the ship. filmed against smoke in New York to smoke on the
the ship’s size. We experimented Water coming out of the hull of green screen Roman battlefield; from gusts of
with countless iterations until we the boat as well, because it’s kind wind and sea spray on the ship to a
found a combination that made the of hollow. We modelled barrels, blizzard on Everest.
ship look massive, but still nicely cannons and all of these things; The latter transition was
framed. We had a lot of flexibility inside the boat as well, so there was probably the most challenging, says
with the camera and layout, and proper interaction. You don’t even Carsten. “At the end of the ship
that had a huge impact on the see it in the ad but all these things scene, you had these waves, mist
perceived size of the ship.” have to be considered. It was very and gusts of wind coming from the
The artists also tried to ‘sell’ the complex from that point of view.” right, and we had to marry that up
scale of the ship by constructing it Christian worked with VFX with the Everest ridge,” he recalls.
with a high level of detail, she adds. supervisor Andreu Lucio Archs on “We’d shot the people walking on
“Plus we created a lot of little lights the ship sequence. “Although it was that ridge using a drone, so we were
to give the impression that a city no easy feat, the sheer volume of quite locked in to the movement
of people was living on board. We creative elements we had to create of the camera. This meant we had
ended up using a simple creative was really helpful to the success to marry up the ship sequence in a
‘trick’ to achieve this: we tiled of the final scene,” he says. “Every way that made sense, so it wouldn’t
an emissive image of apartment layer – from the water, foam and look like a jump cut. That took a lot
windows at night across the ship, rain to multiple layers of fog – adds of work: we went through about
to give the impression of a complex to the realism. The director was 10 continuity tests and it was only
cityscape. When you’re creating very open to different approaches signed off at the very last moment.”
such a large commercial, a simple and suggestions, so creatively it was Once the Everest sequence
solution is usually the best!” very fulfilling to work on.” begins, everything that you see

3D WorlD September 2017 44 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Feature
The Trailblazers

creating an epic sense of

scale for the space ship was
particularly important

the team worked learning from

hard to strike a the pros at mpc
balance between the
fantasy element of finding a solution is just
the space scene and about asking at mpc
realistic lighting
“I always try to involve lots of senior
people from different departments:
compositing supervisors, technical
supervisors, even modelling
supervisors, because there’s so much
apart from the men is full CG. “It “That’s a complete matte painting,” knowledge in MPC Film,” says Carsten
took quite a while to create all notes Carsten. “There was no CG: Keller, head of 3D at MPC Advertising.
that,” Carsten says. “We modelled all the ‘living lights’, all the “There are people who’ve worked
the ridge in ZBrush then added flickering and bubbling was all on movies like Independence Day,
additional effects using Houdini in comp and matte painting.” Guardians of the Galaxy and Alien, so
and then Maya. We rendered it in The project meant that the there’s a huge amount of knowledge.”
Maya, all the effects were done in artists went through a steep This came in handy on The
Houdini, rendering in Arnold and learning curve. “In terms of Trailblazers, for example, when it came
modelling in ZBrush as well. The technical learnings, I really had to modelling the space station. “You
backgrounds were matte painted.” to get to grips with Houdini, and don’t do a lot of space stations in a
The weather on the mountain, it made me rethink 3D on so many commercial,” Carsten points out. “So
was a source of intense debate, he levels,” says Christian. “It’s opened we just modelled and modelled and
adds. “There was a constant back a door to a new world of endless tried to impress everyone with the
and forth about how much mist possibilities and has become my level of detail. But it didn’t look right.
and what kind of effects could go-to tool,” he enthuses. We asked for help from MPC Film,
actually happen up there. So it “The biggest lesson I learned and they told us: ‘Don’t cover it with
actually proved a good idea to shoot was that it’s important to be too much visual noise. Just make it
clean passes and then do all of flexible,” says Jessie. “Because we believable like an aircraft carrier, say,
that weather in comp. We used 2D had control over every aspect of the where there’s small detail on a large
plates from our elements libraries, shot, we took the opportunity to try empty surface.’ We followed their
from all the different shoots round out a ton of ideas. Between the advice and that helped us achieve the
the world, but we also did a lot of layout, lighting, and matte painting right kind of balance and contrast.”
CG, wind and snow and particles – artists, we worked up a huge It was the same for creating the
so it was a mixture of 2D and 3D.” assortment of style frames until we ocean scenes, he adds. “We’ve got
Even the scenes of ‘everyday life’ found the perfect look. It’s people at MPC who’ve worked on the
in the ad demanded a lot of work. important not to be too precious Pirates of the Caribbean films, so we
For example, when the characters with your work because you’ll miss learned a lot there as well; like how to
return to New York in the closing out on the opportunity to stretch make these photorealistic splashes
scenes, the actors were filmed your creative muscles and reach the and waves. It was a big journey for us,
against green screen, so the artists best possible result.” and all the people who worked on The
had to create a full panorama of the Find out more about MPC at Trailblazers could use their knowledge
FYI
city as seen from a hotel balcony. www.moving-picture.com straight away on their next projects.”

3D WorlD September 2017 45 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Practical tips and tutorials from
pro artists to improve Follow
the viDeo
your CG skills www.bit.ly/vault-224-character

ZBrush | Marvelous Designer | Keyshot | PhotoshoP

concept
mystical
monsters
Luca Nemolato shares his techniques
for creating impactful creature designs
for films, games and TV shows

Luca Nemolato she was: a pale, sad, dark-eyed

Luca Nemolato is a concept creature swimming deep in
artist whose recent projects dangerous waters; a golden
include Guardians of the crown of hair floating around
Galaxy 2, American Gods her, a long coiling tail, a multitude
Author and Westworld. of arms hiding her beauty while
www.lucanemolato.com one hand invited me to join her,
to forget the monster she was
and to drown. I swam away.”

t
his tutorial show you some Having set the features of
of my latest techniques for this creature with the written
creating realistic creature description, I started the
designs using the combination process by sketching on paper
of ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, and decided the best design
KeyShot and Photoshop. I use direction. With a stronger idea of
this pipeline in my everyday work what to do – I jumped into ZBrush
for movies, TV shows and video to flesh out the design in 3D.
games – and it never disappoints.
The inspiration for this creature
came from actual events that
happened in my life, so every DowNLoAD your resources
element of this design has an For all the assets you need go to
important meaning to me. I gave www.bit.ly/vault-224-character
myself a little fun brief: “Beautiful
 TuTorials
Concept mystical monsters

creAture oF the DeeP

Luca Nemolato’s concept piece
combines cG renders, found
photography and 2D painting

3D WorLD September 2017 49 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Concept mystical monsters

sketch first
Drawing is a
fundamental skill that
any artist must have,
CG artists in particular.

01BAse mesh iN ZBrush

I start the model using one of the female base
meshes I created a while back. This really cuts down the
02 scuLPtiNG the FAce
One of the main focuses early on in my sculpting is
the face. I really want something that looks a bit creature-
working time – I suggest you create your own library of like, not wholly human, but is still beautiful. I decide that
base meshes that you can use on every project. For all pushing the proportions and the features of a human
the other elements that I need to create from scratch, face is the way to go: spreading the eyes out further
I use ZSpheres. The objective at this stage is to get than usual, enlarging the mouth, flattening the nose and
a strong sense of gesture in the base mesh. pushing the bone structure in general. For the final image
I want a strong eye contact with the viewer. To sculpt I
use just a few brushes: Clay Tubes, Clay, Dam_Standard,
Move and Standard.

03 DetAiLiNG
the BoDy
Now it’s time for the body,
I start to sculpt in more
details and to really finalise
the entire design. It’s
important to always model
with anatomy references in
front of you: that’s how you
make sure everything looks
realistic and anatomically
correct. At this stage I use
the Clay brush instead of the
Clay Tubes brush to build up
some of the forms, so that
my strokes are more delicate
and controlled.

3D WorLD September 2017 50 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 TuTorials
Concept mystical monsters

04 PosiNG the moDeL

With the main sculpting
done, it’s now time to pose
my model. The tail is pretty
much in the right pose
already, since I modelled it
directly with Symmetry turned
off; so now I am able to focus
on the upper body.
Using the Transpose
function, I can move the
lowest subdivision levels
around; and with minimum re-
sculpting of some areas, like
the neck and the shoulders,
I can achieve the desired pose
pretty easily this way.

05 creAtiNG
seAweeD hAir
Marvelous Designer is
typically used for clothing,
but I thought of using it in a
more creative way, using its
simulation power to create
seaweed hair. I simply create
strings of cloths, attach one
end of each string to the
head of my creature and
create a medium-strength
wind system. Once you let it
simulate, the strings of cloth
will interact and intersect; to
get the underwater effect just
quickly let go of the wind and
freeze the result right away.

3D WorLD September 2017 51 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Concept mystical monsters

06 DetAiLiNG the
seAweeD hAir
After creating different
patches of simulated
seaweed hair, I go back to
ZBrush, where I can start
the detailing process. With
the Pinch brush, I make the
end of each string pointy
and finish the detailing
with the Standard brush.
With the Move brush,
I make sure every patch of
seaweed hair is interacting
perfectly with the rest, and
that each part is attached
correctly to the head.

07 PoLyPAiNtiNG the moDeL

Before rendering I do a quick
colour pass to help me out with the
final compositing. I use the Standard
brush set to RGB and in Color Spray
mode with Alpha_08: this way I can
select two colours in the palette that
I want to mix with a bit of pattern,
following the principle of darker colour
on the back and lighter colour on the
front. With the help of some custom
Alphas, I detail the first colour pass.

use nature
Look at nature for
inspiration, it’s the
best source you will
08 reNDeriNG iN Keyshot
With the ZBrush To KeyShot Bridge, I can
transfer my model into KeyShot to render with one
ever find for creating button. In KeyShot I create a new camera angle
realistic artwork, for my renders and, with minimum adjustments to
and was particularly my pose in ZBrush based on the new camera, I’m
important for my sea- ready to go. Holding [Ctrl] on my keyboard while
dwelling creature. dragging the skin material on my model, I keep my
textures from ZBrush intact. For my main lighting,
I use the Factory HDRI preset in KeyShot and a
simple top panel I place in ZBrush.

3D WorLD September 2017 52 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 TuTorials
Concept mystical monsters

09 reNDer PAsses
iN Keyshot
My render passes consist of a
Shadow Pass, Spec Pass, Beauty
Pass, Rim Light Pass, SSS Pass,
Texture Passes, Thin Film Pass
and Alphas. The most important
is the Shadow Pass, realised with
a grey material on the model and
a top panel with a light material
in KeyShot; and the Beauty Pass,
realised with a skin material,
original textures from ZBrush and
the Factory HDRI preset for the
lighting.

10 comPositiNG iN PhotoshoP
Using Photoshop, I can merge all my
renders into one image, trying to find the
right balance between the different passes.
I place the Shadow Pass at the bottom
then apply the other passes on top,
lowering their Opacity and playing with the
brightness and contrast to blend them all
together. The Spec Pass should always be
on top of all the other passes, applied with
the Screen blend mode to just have the
light areas coming through.

3D WorLD September 2017 53 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Concept mystical monsters

11Photo-BAshiNG
To take the concept to the next level, I start the
process of photo-bashing, which is basically the process
12 DetAiLiNG the Photo-BAshiNG
I continue my photo-bashing process by blending a photo of an actress
over the face of my creature, using the Liquify filter (Filter>Liquify) to match
of blending photos with my 3D renders. I use photos of the position of the photo’s eyes and mouth to the face in my ZBrush sculpt.
people and animals to get realistic details, always making This way I’m able to obtain some subtle details that I didn’t have before, and
sure that the photos I use have lighting that follows what also to get better translucency in the skin. I also use the same photo-bashing
I established in 3D. The best way to blend the photos technique for the background: I blend together some underwater photos that
is to lower their opacity, then enhance the contrast and I then blur with a Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur).
erase what you don’t need.

13 PAiNtiNG
To perfectly blend
the photos and my 3D work
together, I start painting on
top of my photo-bashing:
this way I’m able to add more
details and fix artifacts. To
blend everything even better,
I can paint shadows with a
dark colour and light areas
with a light colour on a Soft
Light layer. The last pass here
is to paint in some foreground
details to frame my creature,
and some atmospheric effects
using a large soft brush.

3D WorLD September 2017 54 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 TuTorials
Concept mystical monsters

software woes?

14 ADD eFFects
To make the painting
feel less ‘3D’, I use some
Which software you
choose use is not
important, think of
dust and bubbles photos. software as a tool to
You can easily find photos help you achieve your
with this kind of effect final result.
online: you need them to
be on a black background
so that you can blend them
using a Screen layer, which
eliminates the background
and leaves you just with the
details you want.

15 FiNALisiNG
the imAGe
The image is basically completed, so
I flatten down all the layers. The last
steps now are to use Unsharp Mask
(Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask) to
make the image sharper; before I
apply a Radial Blur (Filter>Blur>Radial
Blur), which I focus on the centre
of the image. This helps to focus
the attention of the viewer on the
creature, and also to make the image
more dynamic. You can also play with
applying a Gradient Map to
the image to lend more colour
to your shadows.

3D WorLD September 2017 55 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Composite large-scale explosions

follow
The Video
www.bit.ly/vault-224-character

V-Ray foR Nuke | NukeX

Composite
large-sCale
explosions
Paul Champion shares his pipeline for making
explosions using V-Ray for Nuke and NukeX

3D WorlD September 2017 56 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 TuTorials
Composite large-scale explosions

imProveD PiPeline
Paul Champion For the tutorial, Steven v-ray for nuke enables compositors
Based in Dorset, UK, Paul Knipping of Applied Houdini has to work with volumetric data,
is a VFX/3D instructor and provided 72 .vdbs for the Vault. minimising send backs
freelance artist, writer and Each .vdb contains (density)
technical editor, who enjoys containing smoke, (velocity),
Author collecting film posters and (heat) where the fire is, and
urban art in his free time. (temperature) how hot it is.
www.bit.ly/paulcha The grids are 300 voxels max
in the Y direction to bring down
the voxel count and file size, while

C
reating and compositing still providing decent resolution.
explosions is usually a task The provided .hipnc file shows
for two different artists a preview of the .vdb colouring
or studio departments. In this in Houdini and the .mov file is
tutorial, I will blur that line by using a quick and dirty Quicktime
V-Ray for Nuke plug-in. Instead of movie preview of a playblast
working with rendered explosions of the aforementioned .hipnc.
from a VFX application, I’ll instead Steven’s ‘Volume V - Combustion
show you how to use .vbd files Simulation’ video tutorial on his
exported from Houdini. website covers how to make this:
The advantage of this workflow www.bit.ly/stevenknipping.
is it allows compositors to work The Vault also includes a high-
with the explosion’s volumetric res mortar explosion simulation
data with tools to change the as a Houdini file worth $200 and
look and orientation of the asset, an exported .vdb sequence –
without having to send back to provided by Maik Donath, owner
the VFX artist or department for of Insect Digital Alchemy
changes. As a workflow note, to (www.digital-alchemist.com).
introduce Nodes into the Node
Graph, place the mouse cursor
in the Node Graph workspace,
press [Tab] and type the Node’s DownloAD your resourCes
name then hit [Return]. To open a For all the assets you need go to
Node’s Properties Pane, double- www.bit.ly/vault-224-character
click the node in the Node Graph.

3D WorlD September 2017 57 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Composite large-scale explosions

01imPort the exPlosion

Add a VRayVolumeGrid Node in the Node Graph.
In Properties, Input, click the folder icon next to Input
02 set uP v-rAy network
Add a TransformGeo Node to VRayVolumeGrid1’s output. This is
useful if you want to rotate or reposition the volume, set rotate y to 180.
Cache File and ensure Sequences is enabled to import Add a VrayRenderer Node, pipe its obj/scn input to TransformGeo1. Add
all 72 frames. Go to the Stadium folder and select a VrayCamera Node, in its Properties, Axis tab, set translate z to 100 then
explosion.appliedhoudini.1.vdb, then click Open. With pipe it to VrayRenderer1 cam input. Add a Constant Node and pipe it to
VRayVolumeGrid1 selected, press [1] to view it. Scrub VrayRenderer1 bg input. In Constant1’s Properties, set color to 0.5.
through the Timeline to see the imported .vdb explosion. Then select VRayRender1 and view it.

03renDering
ProPerties
With the cursor over the
Viewer Pane, press [Tab] to
switch from 3D view to 2D.
Scrub through the Timeline
to see the explosion smoke
plume. In VRayVolumeGrid1’s
Properties, switch to the
Rendering tab. The options
in this tab control how the
VRayVolumeGrid effect is
rendered. Set Render preset
to Fire/Smoke.vdb from
Houdini. This will introduce
fire. In Smoke, set Simple
smoke factor to 0.6 to adjust
the Smoke Opacity.

region of
interest
Nuke’s Region of
Interest Tool is a
valuable timesaver.
It renders a specified
area in the viewport.
This is especially
useful for quick
feedback such as
working on look-dev
for your explosion.

04 Fire set-uP
Go to the Fire tab, which controls the emissive
colour (fire) of the volumetric shader and the light
05 Fire Fine-tuning.
Fire Color and Opacity/Intensity in the Fire tab has
a gradient for controlling colour and a curve for setting
emitted by VRayVolumeGrid. The Physically based intensity or opacity. Click Expand (bottom right) to get
parameter can produce either an artistic look (value 0) a larger window. From the left, leave slider 1 as is. Select
or realistic physically based intensity (value 1). A higher slider 2 and put it at 10. Right-click the slider>Change
value means strong brightness for the hot parts of the Selection Color and choose an Orange shade. Put slider
fire. Set Physically based to 0.8. Set fire multiplier to 1. 3 at 15, with its Hue at 39. Put slider 4 at 25. Hit Play.

3D WorlD September 2017 58 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 TuTorials
Composite large-scale explosions

06renDer the
exPlosion
To make the Nuke
network lighter, render
the explosion as a .tiff
sequence. Pipe a Write Node
to VRayRenderer1. In its
Parameters, set channels to
rgba. Click the folder next to
the file and choose a folder
to render to. Append the file
path with Explosion.###.tiff
(filename/frame padding/
file format) and click Save.
Set compression to none and
click render. In the pop-up
Render dialogue, change the
Frame range to 1-72; click OK.

Fire tab
lights section
These settings control
how fire casts light
on other objects in
the scene, as well as
on VRayVolumeGrid’s
smoke. For example,
Light Power on Self
affects the illumination
on the smoke.

07 lighten the network

Select File>Clear to clean the Nuke Node Graph.
Add a Read Node, go to the Stadium folder and select
08 ComP the exPlosion
Add a Premult Node and pipe to the explosion
Read Node to multiply the explosion sequence’s RGB
backplate Stadium.jpg, then Open. With the backplate channels by its Alpha. Then Add a Merge Node and pipe
selected, press 1 to create a Viewer and view it. Select its A input to Premult1 and its B input to the backplate
Edit>Project Settings and change full size format to Read Node. Select frame 41, view Merge1 and you’ll see
6000x4000 to match the backplate resolution. Set frame the explosion is composited over the backplate. Add
range to 1 and 72. Add another Read Node and use it to a Transform Node and a Crop Node to the network as
bring in the rendered explosion .tiff image sequence. shown in image 08. With Crop1 selected, press 1 to view.

09Position
exPlosion
the
In the Crop1 parameters, set
r to 1920 and t to 1080, and
enable reformat. Open the
Transform1 Node’s Properties
and either reposition the
backplate manually with
the Transform Handle or set
translate x to -1110; translate y
to -560; scale to 0.6; center x
to 1500; center y to 1000. Add
a Transform after Premult1
and view Merge1. Reposition
manually with the Transform2
Handle or set translate x to
315; translate y to -568; center
x to 1044; center y to 928.

3D WorlD September 2017 59 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Composite large-scale explosions

10 roto the rooF

With Transform2 selected, add a Merge Node. This
will automatically pipe using the A input. Open Merge2’s
11mAtCh Colour
Pipe a Grade Node between the explosion Read Node and the Premult1
Node. We will use this to adjust the explosion to better integrate the blackest
parameters and set operation to out. Deselect Merge2, and whitest points with the backplate. Click the colour swatch alongside lift,
add a Roto Node. View Crop1, select the Roto’s Bezier hold [Ctrl] and pick the darkest pixel on the black plate. Repeat for Gain but
Tool. Click to place points along the ridge of the roof pick the brightest pixel. Using the gamma slider in the Viewer helps identify
and at the bottom of the backplate to form the shape the darkest and lightest pixels. For fine-tuning, experiment with both the
pictured. Pipe Roto to Merge2’s B input, View Merge1. multiply and gamma values in the Grade Node.

12 outPut the renDer

Usually the blackpoint and whitepoint don’t need to be
adjusted. You can add a Saturation Node after Merge1 and
constrain RGBA between 0 and 1. Select the Crop1 and press
[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[X] to extract from the network and pipe it after the
Clamp. Pipe a Write node to the Crop1 and refer back to Step 06
set saturation to 0, then fine-tune these values before deleting for the process of rendering out the sequence as a .tiff sequence.
the Saturation Node. Add a Clamp node after Merge1 to Your explosion should now be ready!

3D WorlD September 2017 60 www.youtube.com/3dworld

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mushroom goblin
This 3D printed collectible was created
in ZBrush and rendered using V-Ray, with
final compositing done in Photoshop
 TuTorials
Sculpt collectibles

Zbrush | Maya | v-ray | PhotoshoP

Sculpt a
goblin for
3D printing
Framestore’s rishikesh Nandlaskar
shares how to make a 3D collectible
mushroom goblin in ZBrush

rishikesh mohan To make my project, I used

nandlaskar ZBrush to create a 3D sculpt,
Rishikesh is passionate Polypaint for quick texturing and
about sculpting. He loves V-Ray for rendering. I will share my
transforming and giving life entire process with you, explaining
Author to scribbles and concept art. how I took a 2D concept and
He works as a senior turned it into a 3D illustration.
character modeller at I will be covering sculpting in
Framestore London. ZBrush, retopology, unwrapping,
nandlaskar-rishikesh.com Polypainting, posing with
Transpose, quick rendering
with V-Ray in Maya and finally,

t
he concept for my project, compositing in Photoshop to
Mushroom Goblin, comes get the final render.
from a drawing by my
friend Adrian Smith. I have been
working on making this concept
into a 3D printed collectible for DownloAD your resources
the site Industria Mechanika, For all the assets you need go to
which you can find online at www.bit.ly/vault-224-character
www.bit.ly/goblin224.

3D WorlD September 2017 63 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Sculpt collectibles

Concept copyright: Adrian Smith

01a

01stuDy the DrAwing

Before diving into any project,
it’s important to do what I call a
‘warm up’ to get the hang of the
character. This warm up could be
drawing the character from different
angles or messing around with clay
for some basic forms, for example.
Warming up first means that the
digital sculpting process becomes
more free-flowing. 01b
I also try to draw roughs of the
character in T-pose if not provided use the concept an old-school method. But for this It’s important not to hesitate when
in the concept so that I can get a Keeping the essence project, I use ZSpheres to make the changing proportions and forms
good sense of the proportions. of the concept is very base mesh. Zspheres mean I can in the process. Keep visualising
Always try to nail the proportions important because a quickly extrude body volumes and the form, check how it reads in the
of a concept because they are what concept looks good create an armature in minutes. This concept art and try to fill in the third
make the character look cool in for a reason. It usually armature acts as my base mesh. You dimension. A good understanding
the concept art. You can modify depends on factors can choose whichever method you of anatomy is essential while
the original later if required, but such as proportions, like to get your basic mesh. sculpting a character. So if you don’t
it’s a good idea to stick to original forms, shapes, gesture know much about anatomy then at
proportions at least at first. and pose. So don’t
stray too far from the 03bAsic sculpting
I start sculpting basic forms
least refer to reference.

02 bAse mesh creAtion

I usually make base mesh
in Maya and get it ready to be
concept if possible. on the base mesh, but only add
secondary forms after I feel it’s time
to unwrap and pose. The rest of the
04retopology
Retoplogy of the basic
sculpting can be done directly in
sculpted in ZBrush, which is kind of detailed sculpting can follow later. ZBrush. I used to prefer TopoGun

02 03

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 TuTorials
Sculpt collectibles

04 05

but I now I tend to use Maya’s

latest Quad Draw Tool, which
is really handy and quick. Try to
check anatomy
Anatomy study is
both important and
zoomed in a bit, the secondary
shapes should just complement
rather than supersede.
07 posing using
trAnspose mAster
After unwrapping the model, I
capture mid-level details while necessary for keeping start to pose the character using
retopologising to get better results
after subdivisions. This is also useful
when projecting details later.
the shape and form
true to the artwork.
Scott Eaton’s anatomy
06 unwrAp your moDel
There are various ways to
unwrap your model. I use Maya
Transpose Master – a simple
masking method – and the
tool. It’s not always 100 per cent
lessons helped me. for basic unwrapping and then UV accurate, but is a quick way to get

05 sculpt
DetAils
seconDAry
Secondary forms help to add details
Master in ZBrush. I define the seams
of the UVs where necessary in Maya,
and then in ZBrush press Unwrap,
a pose for illustrative purposes.
Posing will help you realise if you
need to make any further changes
to the existing primary forms by keeping the existing UVs, and it’s to the proportions – do so now if
giving it a more finished look. done. ZBrush does the relaxing of necessary. After posing there will
So when you zoom out, the primary UVs quite effectively, especially if be areas to clean up. Next, you can
forms should read neatly, and when the seams are defined properly. move onto adding more details.

06 07

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TuTorials
Sculpt collectibles

08ADD DetAiling
where neeDeD
For detailing, again it’s important
to retain the secondary shapes and
any detailing should complement
the forms instead of just using of
random alphas. I use the DragRect
stroke with alphas created by Kris
costa, Rick Baker and some I made.
You can Google search to get
alphas from these amazing artists.

09polypAint in zbrush
Polypaint inside ZBrush is an
amazing tool that helps to quickly 08
paint over your model in layers. I
use the Spray stroke and Alpha 07
in ZBrush to paint the basic colours
to get the overall character covered.
Then I keep adding layers of colours
and strokes until I feel that it’s close
enough to the concept artwork.

10 extrAct mAps
Multi Map Exporter in ZBrush
helps to extract different maps as
required. I usually extract some
basic maps such as diffuse, specular,
SSS, displacement and normal
maps. These maps can be then be zbrush material
used to plug into the various render Many ZBrush artists 09
engines. I use V-Ray for this. use MatCap Shaders
while sculpting in standing up and in this case, the camera angle. That way, you will

11 set-up in mAyA
Using a real-world scale
for your models helps you to get
ZBrush. This is fine but
it’s a good idea to keep
shifting to ZBrush’s
lighting, exposure, and other factors
need to be adjusted accordingly.
I don’t recommend using
get quicker results. However, if your
machine is powerful enough, then
you should go for displacement
accurate results when rendering. default material. This displacement maps if your machine maps. For this project, I have varied
But sometimes you have to deal helps to play with the is not super-powerful. Instead, it’s subdivision levels from subtool
with scaled-down models for light around the model better to export a decent high-res to subtool exported as per the
specific needs. My goblin character to read the form better model from ZBrush and use normal distance from the camera, which
is around two feet tall when than with MatCaps. maps, especially if it’s for a fixed is fixed in Maya.

10a & b 11

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 TuTorials
Sculpt collectibles

12 renDering with V-rAy

I use VRayLightRect and
VRayLightSphere lights to light the
scene. Now it’s time to test lots
of rendering before finalising the
lighting set-up. You can see in the
screenshot, I have placed a few area
lights from the top. Their intensity
and angles vary. Not all of the lights
actually light the character. There
are a few that are exempt from
lighting different parts and a few are
included to light the hidden areas.
This is not a traditional three-point
lighting set-up, but it works for the
look I am aiming for.
You might see a few sphere
lights hovering around. Some of
them are meant to light just the ears
and some are for the mushroom.
For the grass, I used VRayFur,
which is super-fast and gives decent 12a & b
results with few tweaks. In image
12a, you can see the settings I used achieve a specific look. I’m always
to create the grass. experimenting and the compositing
process is constantly evolving for

13 compositing
I do various render passes in
Maya with V-Ray. Image 13 shows
me. This way of working often leads
to happy accidental results that I try
and embrace if I can.
some passes rendered out for
this illustration: Diffuse, Specular,
SSS, ZDepth, fur pass and it’s
good to have a selection pass,
14FinAl renDer
Once I am happy with the final
look of my piece, I usually export
which is helpful to select regions a high-res .tiff file as the master file.
in Photoshop. Play around with the Then, with all the Layers merged,
Layers in Photoshop and try to go I try to colour correct a bit more to
through and check all the filters enhance the overall look. Usually
(I use Dissolve, Multiply and Overlay this means playing around with
between different Layers) to get the colour balance settings in
the desired output. It’s fun. For Photoshop until I’m totally happy
me, there is no specific method to with my project.

13 14

3D WorlD September 2017 67 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Create photo-real interiors

follow
the video
www.bit.ly/vault-224-character

Redshift

Create photo-
real interiors
in redshift
Dave Throssell of Fluid Pictures
shares how to create a realistic
room scene using Redshift

Dave Throssell This tutorial aims to take you

Dave has been creating VFX through the process of creating
and animations for longer a realistic architectural fly-through.
than he cares to remember. We assume that you know how to
He is CEO of Fluid Pictures. model and texture, and although
AuThor www.fluid-pictures.com we use XSI as a front end, the steps
should be fairly software agnostic.
More detail is given on setting
up global illumination in Redshift,

h
ere at Fluid Pictures, we so most of this will be applicable
have generated literally to a Maya front end too, but the
thousands of animated main focus is on how you should
sequences over the years. In this approach any project like this from
tutorial, I hope to give you some a creative standpoint, and where
pointers as to how to bring your in the pipeline you should be
project to a successful conclusion. maximising your efforts.
The project I have chosen to share
was a test piece for a client –
we wanted to create something
that was a realistic render of a DownloAD your resources
room, but was more European For all the assets you need go to
than the usual Californian www.bit.ly/vault-224-character
modernist environments.

3D WorlD September 2017 68 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 TuTorials
Create photo-real interiors

inDoor ArT
Building realistic interiors is all
about knowing where to focus your
attention and add detail

3D WorlD September 2017 69 www.youtube.com/3dworld

TuTorials
Create photo-real interiors

01 Know whAT you’re AiMinG For

The first questions we ask any client is who the
project is for. You need to have a really good idea of who
the audience is so you can be clear about how you want
it to look. In this case, the project is to be shown to a TV
executive and played off a laptop, and the idea is that it
looks like it could have been shot on a smartphone. Since
this is for an internal project, we don’t need to go through
the usual hoops of getting each stage signed off by the
02 FinD reFerences
Once you have a concept in mind, go forth to the internet and find
as many images as you can as reference. It is so much easier if you have
client before we can move on. For a change, we can something to hand to provide you with ideas, or to show you exactly what
power through and put our effort into the detail. something looks like in indoor lighting.

03 MoDel siMPle
GeoMeTry
Get a primitive cube and start
to model the base geometry
of the architecture. In this
case, it is a traditional two
room ground floor North
London house. Decide where
the windows should be and
make sure you’ve got all the
major bits of architecture in
place. If you’re having internal
lighting (I’m not), then get
stand ins for those, too.

resist texture
temptation
Don’t be tempted
to use 3D textures.
They are too obvious,
especially to your
fellow professionals.

04 sTArT liGhTinG
Add a white diffuse material to your walls and set
up your lighting. My scene doesn’t have any additional
05GloBAl illuMinATion seT-uP
You’re not going to get anywhere without being
able to the bounce light in the room. In the past, you
interior lighting as it is supposed to look ‘off your phone’ either had to simulate each area of light falling into the
real and not ‘shot like a movie’ real. I start with a HDR room, or turn on global illumination and sit back for a
sky dome and a small area light for the sun to achieve long wait. Now you can switch on Redshift Brute-Force GI
sharp sun shadows. Engine and get good results in a fraction of the time.

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 TuTorials
Create photo-real interiors

06 MoDel FurniTure
You need some
furniture, so head to your
web-based CG model shop,
or make them by hand. Just
create the major components
that you know you’re going
to need. Don’t go mad with
detail and texturing just yet,
but if you do build anything
properly, make sure there
are no problem polygons
flickering away.

Tweak first
An hour spent
tweaking GI settings
will save you ten
hours rendering. But
you’ll still have render
multiple times till
you’re happy.

07 seT uP cAMerA MoVes

I want to be walking round the room, so set up
a simple camera pan and fly-through at head height 08 ADD DeTAil To The ArchiTecTure
Once you’re happy with the way your camera is
with a bit of automatic camera shake. Once again, get moving, you can start adding detail and textures to the
references; I walk about the room with a phone camera architecture where you’re going to see it. Use those
to get an idea of what a hand-held camera looks like. references to tell you where to add those unexpected bits
Don’t guess if you don’t have to. of detail that make it real.

09 eVeryThinG
ADD DeTAil To
Kiss your weekend goodbye
and keep adding detail. Use
your reference to see what
should be lying under the
table. Texture the spine of
every book, add rounded
edges to everything. You
might not see it, but you’ll
know the detail is there. Keep
going till you run out of time,
money or willpower. 10checK reFerences AnD reliGhT
So all is looking good. Check your
reference again and make sure the colour
balance looks convincing. Think about
exposure. If you are shooting on a phone, it will
vary the exposure as it looks into the light. Do
you want to simulate that here, or in the grade
afterwards? Render some low-res tests.

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TuTorials
Create photo-real interiors

Keep focus
Don’t always add
blur and grain. Not
everything needs to
look like it was shot on
8mm film stock, and
modern cameras do a
great job of keeping
things in focus.

11BruTe Force GloBAl

illuMinATion seT-uP
Redshift’s default GI is a brute force method
that (fortunately) only has a couple of main
parameters. If your render is noisy, as it likely
will be – crank up the number of samples until it
becomes smooth. However, this can take a very
12issues wiTh BruTe Force GloBAl illuMinATion
The other GI option is number of GI bounces. You may be
tempted to think that ‘more is better’, but be warned that a lot of
long time if you have big smooth white walls. GI bounces can flatten out your image and lose contrast as energy
Your best bet to avoid waiting ages is to invest in is bounced through the scene. My advice is to make yourself
a noise reduction plug-in such as Neat Video. comfortable and keep testing.

13 seT uP irrADiAnce PoinT clouDs

The other main GI method is Irradiance point clouds and caching. Switch
14issues wiTh irrADiAnce PoinT clouDs
The issue with irradiance point clouds is potential
blotches in your render and you can sometimes see
your primary and secondary GI to this, and the results will look a lot smoother artefacts on fast-moving camera shots. And yes, you’ll
with no grain. This method is great for large smooth areas of colour – a lot of have to render it out to realise you have issues, and then
the calculations are pre-processed so it can be faster for grain-free results. slink back to Brute Force and its longer render times.

15coMPosiTinG
The aim of this project is to see what could be
achieved in a single pass. But with Redshift, you are able
16ADjusT GrADinG
Your final render should be a thing of beautiful reality, and the last thing
to do is adjust the grade and add any effects. You should have thought long
to split up the render into its various components, so and hard about your digital cinematography so changes should be minor,
you can render out passes and then composite, adding but this is where you can push that big filmic grade, or in our case start to
subtle grades and effects as you do so, although at the desaturate and get a low-tech look. I don’t feel the need to add grain, video
moment, you can’t create custom AOVs. streaks or the appearance of a rolling shutter as I am replicating a phone
camera. Just a few tweaks on the levels and you’re done.

3D WorlD September 2017 72 www.youtube.com/3dworld

ARTIST Q&A
Artist q&A
Your CG problems solved

Practical tips and tutorials from

pro artists to improve
your CG skills

Rob Redman
Rob is a 3D artist, creative
director working across TV,
film and print. He is also the new editor
of this very magazine.
www.pariahstudios.com

Paul Hatton
Paul leads a studio of
visualisers based in the UK.
He delivers a host of projects including
video and interactive environments.
www.cadesignservices.co.uk

Francis-Xavier Martins
Francis-Xavier is a character
artist and CG generalist
based in Brighton, with over a decade of
experience in video games, media and TV.
www.polyjunky.com
realistic-looking plants that grow up
the side of buildings are simple
Pietro Chiovaro to create using x-particles
Pietro is an Italian 3D artist.
He creates 3D assets and
environments, and is currently working
on an open-source game.
sOFTWarE: x-parTIClEs | CINEma 4d
www.bit.ly/PietroChiovaro
HoW Do you groW
Syawish A Rehman
A motion graphics and VFX
a plant up a Wall?
artist from Pakistan with nine Marta Black, New Zealand
years’ experience, Syawish loves motion
graphics and making video tutorials. Rob Redman replies
www.bit.ly/syawish
Modelling a static plant that best tool for the job is X-Particles, which
has the appearance of having has a huge number of useful tools and
grown in situ isn’t too hard, but creating a options for you to play with.
rig that will animate that growth is a little I will use a single particle system, but
more complicated. Of course, the system you could go in deeper, adding branches
that I’ll show you here can be used and or spawning emitters to add complexity
frozen to generate static plants too, and and realism. A single emitter, based on
there is something to be said for using geometry selections for ‘roots’ is a good
this method. As it’s procedural, it means place to start, with some modifiers added
GET IN TOUCH you can adapt and iterate, using settings
to create endless variations, rather than
to control growth direction and patterns.
To start with, you need a scene to work
having to manually adjust vertices. in. I’m reusing a section from an old scene
EmaIl yOUr qUEsTIONs TO So how can it be done? You could use but you can use almost anything – as
[email protected] any number of tools, but in my opinion, the long as you have something to emit your

3D WorlD September 2017 74 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Artist q&A
Your CG problems solved

EXPERt tiP
MiX uP youR woRkFlow
Don’t get bogged down in specific workflows. Mix and match to stay fresh and grow
your skill set. Most tools in Cinema 4D work very well together, including third party
options, so don’t be afraid to investigate and expand your toolset.

StEP by StEP GRow A PlAnT UP A wAll

01CREAtE An EMittER
With an XP system added to your
scene, create an Emitter, set to Object,
02 Add ModiFiERS
Add a FollowSurface modifier from
the Modifiers list and drop the object in
with the geometry you want the plant the field that you want the stems to grow
growing from added to the field and the along, adjusting the settings to suit your
selection added to the Selection field. You needs. Follow with a Turbulence modifier
also need to set the Emit From setting to to get some controlled movement in the
Points. In the Emission tab, set the Mode growth. Once you’re happy, add a Trails
to Shot. Change the Speed to a suitable Generator and drop the Emitter into it, so
setting and add a little Variation so they it knows what to trace. Now you can tweak
don’t all grow at the same speed. with more of an idea of the finished look.

particles from and something for them

to grow along you are fine.
As a note, if you don’t have access to
X-Particles, you can do something similar
with Cinema 4D’s Standard Particles and
MoGraph tracer, with a Sweep object. It’s
not as elegant a solution and meshing is
trickier, but it will get you a fair way. If you
do have X-Particles, then load up your
scene and let’s get started. You should
also gather the files you need. If you want
to grow leaves, then you’ll need a material
with the textures, including alphas, which is
ready to apply to the sprites.
03 twEAk tHE look oF StEMS 04 Add lEAvES
Add a new SplineMesher generator
object and drop the xpTrail into it. This step
There are many ways to add the
leaves, but the simplest is to add them
To give a quick overview of the process, is all about defining the look of the stems as clones. To do this, add a Plane to the
you need to define a growth start point, – a good starting point is to taper them scene, with your leaf material applied to
then set up the surface the plant will stick off at the end and add a little twist. To do it. Make this a Child of a Cloner, set to
to. Next, you need to use modifiers to this, unfold the Size and Twist sections, to Object Mode. Drag the xpSplineMesher
control the growth itself. The final step is open the graph views. You can adjust these object into the Cloner’s Object field with
to add the geometry and leaves if needed. graphs, which represent the start to end the Distribution set to Surface. Then
This might sound simple, and the good of the trails, making it easy to control the adjust the number of clones using Count
news is that it actually is! So let’s crack on thickness along the length. and apply any effectors as you see fit.
with creating our plant.

3D WorlD September 2017 75 www.youtube.com/3dworld

Artist q&A
Your CG problems solved

sOFTWarE: davINCI rEsOlvE

WHicH softWare can i use FOllOW

THE vIdEO
for colour graDing? www.bit.ly/vault-224-character

Kelvin White, USA

Paul Hatton replies

This question has one very Second, it is not just great for colour Finally, it’s a node based system. Most
obvious answer for me: DaVinci grading, but is also brilliant as an editor. software within the 3D field has adopted
Resolve. There’s no doubt about it, it just I now use DaVinci Resolve as my go-to this type of system in some shape or form.
has to be DaVinci! Let me tell you why I editor for pretty much every project This gives you the ability to apply a whole
think it’s so great for colour grading. (unless it needs VFX and then of course host of colour corrections and grades
First, it’s completely free. And I’m I’ll use After Effects and only export to within each node, enabling you to stack up
talking totally free – there are no adverts, DaVinci for the colour grading part of the as many adjustments as you like. You can
no subscription fee and no one-off cost. workflow). The editing tools are extensive, also adjust how these nodes blend and
You just download it and you’re good to and intuitive. Being able to not only edit respond to each other.
go. Before I get carried away, I should my projects but then colour grade and I would definitely recommend
recognise that there are a few limitations export them is a big plus for me. downloading DaVinci Resolve and having
to the software. However, these can be Third, it’s an incredible colour grading a play. Best of all, it’s available on both PCs
removed by purchasing the software and tool. It really is. I really hope they keep and Macs, which helps to keep everyone
in reality, I think there will only be a very it free because it’s so brilliant. The tools happy! See my video for some more
small subset of users that will need the are so unbelievably powerful that I can’t information on the basics of using DaVinci
advanced features anyway. believe they don’t put a price tag on it. Resolve for editing and colour grading.

3D WorlD September 2017 76 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Artist q&A
Your CG problems solved

Create vibrant scenes such as this

one by editing and colour grading your
footage in davinci resolve

EXPERt tiP
EXPoRting youR FilES
When exporting your files under the
Deliver tab, you will need to make
sure that your timeline work area is
set to exactly what you want to export,
otherwise you might end up with
unwanted footage in your media file.
This work area is located right at the davinci resolve has four main areas: media,
where you import files; Edit, where you can
top of the timeline and you can easily edit your footage; Color, where you colour
drag this area to adjust it. grade; and deliver, where you export your files

3D WorlD September 2017 77 www.youtube.com/3dworld

ARTIST Q&A
Your CG problems solved

FOllOW
THE vIdEO
www.bit.ly/vault-224-character

sOFTWarE: maya

HoW can i create a

Disintegration effect?
Nick Luckson, UK
Syawish A Rehman replies

There are two methods to Before you do that, however, you might which way you do it, since you can always
make a disintegration effect. need to redo the UV mapping – I find that invert the settings from inside the 3D
You can use an nCloth simulation – which, camera projection works best to do so but application you’re using (I’m using Maya).
as you might imagine, is resource-heavy that’s not always an option, especially on Once you have the map of how the
– or you can use particles and opacity a complex mesh. A better solution to this mesh will disappear, you also need a
maps. The second method is very easy problem is to take your mesh into a texture map to generate particles. In Maya, you
to simulate and doesn’t require too many painting tool such as Substance Painter can use a monochrome map to generate
resources from your machine. Although and outline the parts of your mesh that you particles: white for where the highest
the particles generated do require some want to disintegrate first. This helps you number of particles will be generated
resources, it’s nothing compared to the understand how the map will react to your and black for where no particles will be
nCloth simulation’s required power. mesh and then you can take it into After generated. As your mesh is disintegrating,
For the second method, in short, you Effects or similar and animate the map. You you need to make sure that some particles
need to prepare a monochrome map of have to take it from all black to all white or are generating at the points that are
how you want your mesh to disappear. the other way around – it doesn’t matter disintegrating. You can use the map that

3D WorlD September 2017 78 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Artist q&A
Your CG problems solved

EXPERt tiP
nAME tHE iMAgE SEquEnCE CoRRECtly
I’d recommend using an image sequence instead of videos for the opacity and
particle maps. Maya’s strict about that, so try and name it in the following fashion:
[ImageName].[Number].[Format]. Also bear in mind that if you can’t do this with your
animation software, you can use Photoshop.

StEP by StEP SImUlATe A GAme-qUAlITY DISInTeGRATIon eFFeCT

01diSintEgRAtion
CREAtE A
MAP
You need two different maps to control
02 CREAtE A PARtiClES MAP
The second map you need is
what I call a particle map. It’s basically
the disintegration. First, you need just the portion that’s disappearing, not
an opacity map to make the object the portion that has disappeared or the
disappear. I’m using a book for my object. portion that is yet to disappear. Take two
Animate this map using software such as copies of the opacity map, put one on top
After Effects to go from total white to total of the other, paint the top one black and
black. If you’re using After Effects, use start it a few frames after the bottom map.
Turbulent Displace to add more realism You should have a pretty cool map.
to the burning marks.

a disintegrating object can be a useful asset

to add visual and narrative interest to a game

you already have and simply apply a plug-

in such as Find Edges in After Effects, or
you can generate a map yourself, it’s not
03 diSintEgRAtE
tHE MESH
Add the opacity map to
04 gEnERAtE PARtiClES
Once your mesh is disappearing,
you have to amount for the material that’s
that difficult. You just have to whiten the the opacity colour texture disintegrating. You can do so by emitting
parts that are being disintegrated and in the mesh’s material particles from the Object. Select the
blacken the rest. Make sure that once swatch. You might have to check the mesh, go to the nParticles menu and click
you’ve disintegrated a part, you make it Image Sequence button while adding the Emit from Object. In the Emitter setting,
black again. Usually, a line going through texture to import a sequence. Maya has change the Emitter Type to Surface and at
the mesh works well. a bit of a specific naming convention for the bottom of that tab, you’ll find Texture
Once you have both animating maps, sequences (see Expert Tip above). You Rate, import the particle map and enable.
export them in a preferable image can also use a blend material to add some
sequence. Now they’re ready to be used in light to the particle map’s opacity
Maya and to apply to the mesh. We’ll talk to simulate burning.
more about this in the following steps.

3D WorlD September 2017 79 www.youtube.com/3dworld

Artist q&A
Your CG problems solved

EXPERt tiP
MAkE it diFFEREnt
If you want a more homogeneous effect, you can delete
the image texture and set a Roughness value between
0.000 and 0.500 in the Glossy Shader.

In the Node Editor panel, you can set

the parameters of the material

sOFTWarE: BlENdEr
HoW can i create a FOllOW
Metal painteD Material? THE vIdEO
www.bit.ly/vault-224-character
Edward Green, USA
Pietro Chiovaro replies

I created this material for a the Mix Shader. Next, link the Texture fix all the different values. In the image
short movie that I’m making, I Coordinate with the Musgrave Texture texture, import an image that gives some
used it for a gate and other environment (linked in Vector) and this one with the more imperfections to the material,
objects, so I think it is the perfect material first colour Gamma. Then you can link the something that will be overlaid onto the
for answering your question. First, create a Texture Coordinate to the Image Texture material (in this case I use a Smudge
new material slot in the Node Editor panel (in UV if you have mapped the object), and texture). In Mix Shader, set a value of
in Blender, and start adding these nodes: then link this one to the, Glossy BSDF in 0.300, while in the two colour Gamma, set
a shader Glossy BSDF, a shader Diffuse Roughness and the second colour Gamma. a value between 0.100 and 0.300. In the
BSDF, the converter Math, the input Next, link the two colour Gamma using converter Math, change the operation
Texture Coordinate, the internal texture the Math Converter. The second to last in Multiply and in the Musgrave Texture,
Musgrave Texture, a Mix Shader, two connection that you have to do is between fix these values: Scale: 50.000, Detail:
colour Gamma and the Material Output. the Math Converter and the Displacement 15.000, Dimension: 0.000, Lacunarity:
After you’ve added these elements, you of the Material Output. Lastly, connect the 0.000, Offset: -87.500 and Gain: 0.000
can start creating the final material. Mix Shader to the Material Output. and change the Type to Multifractal. Then
First of all, mix the shader Glossy Once you have finished linking every you can start the rendering phase and
BSDF with the shader Diffuse BSDF using element of the material, you can start to eventually see the final result.

3D WorlD September 2017 80 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Artist q&A
Your CG problems solved

EXPERt tiP
don’t bE too tRAnSPAREnt
Unless you have a very powerful
machine, avoid playing with the
transparency option on the shader,
it’s very expensive and can be faked
by having fewer hairs and a smaller
radius towards the tip of the hair. Good
lighting will also help emphasise the
transparent look you are going for.

sOFTWarE: zBrUsH | maya

HoW can i Make a Hair

style More realistic? There is more than one way to generate hair in maya, so you
Alexander Hansen, Norway have a choice of options for converting your dynamic hair sculpt

Francis-Xavier Martins replies

If you have sculpted your long this was done, I ZRemeshed each piece Shave and a Haircut. For the former,
flowing hair in ZBrush, a topic I and made sure they were all cylindrical no select the edge loops that run down
covered in issue 215, and you want to get it matter what size they were. I deleted the the hair pieces and convert them into
into another program such as Maya or 3ds caps of the cylinders and made sure the curves using the Modify>Convert>Poly
Max to render as real hair, here are a few roots were well embedded into the scalp. Edges to Curve command, then go to
steps you can follow. I’ll be using my Loish I then exported a very low -res Curves>Rebuild>Rebuild Curves Options
model as an example. I recently updated version of the scalp, this was created by box and change the span number to make
her and this is how I did it. ZRemeshing the original and deleting the curves uniform. Then use those curves
First I got all the pieces and strands the faces I didn’t want hair generated on. to generate a new XGen description.
flowing uniformly from the scalp to the When this was done, I exported each hair Alternatively, you could use the Hair
shoulders. All the straps created with piece into Maya and named them, for from Mesh option in Ornatrix, select each
the Curve brush were fine, but the larger example, front section, strands, and so on. cylinder or combine a group of them and
pieces I broke up using the Slice Curve In Maya, there are several options then use the modifiers to determine the
brush and DynaMeshing with the group for hair generation. You could use radius, curl and length variation of each
option on. This way, I was able to control XGen, the old nHair system, or third group. Add a shader and do some test
the direction and flow of the hair. Once party plug-ins such as Ornatrix or renders, then modify until you’re happy.

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 insight
news and views from around the
international cg community

indsustry insight

WONDerFuL WOrLDS
Trevor Hogg discovers how VFX play a supporting yet vital role in blockbuster Wonder Woman

ith the second film featuring production designer,” explains Bill. “She could augment, and add waterfalls and

w Wonder Woman, filmmaker

Patty Jenkins (Monster)
sought to explore the character
had created several things, but we pushed
that further once we had the actual plates
to work with. Double Negative did a lot
a mountain range,” he adds.
MPC handled the visual effects for the
Beach Fight between the Amazons and the
arc of the central character: of concept work for Themyscira and the German soldiers in pursuit of American
the princess of the Amazons who discovers details of how it’s laid out. It’s a combination spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), which was
her superhero powers and learns about of some areas in southwestern Italy that shot at Happy Village located in the Natural
the cruelty of both mankind and the Gods. have these beautiful white cliffs, and Asian Park of Veio (also in Italy). “We tried to get
“It’s more grounded than where she’s going mountainscapes,” he says. as much as we could out of a location,” says
to get to in Justice League [an upcoming
superhero film featuring Wonder Woman],”
explains Wonder Woman’s VFX supervisor what i’m proud about on wonder woman is that the visual
Bill Westenhofer, who is best known for his
Oscar-winning work on Life of Pi. “It’s an
effects have a supporting role in the film
Bill Westenhofer, VFX supervisor, Wonder Woman
emotional journey from her perspective.”
Diana, or Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot),
comes from a secluded mythical island, “The city that they’re in is based on Bill. “In these shots, 50 percent is real. Patty
Themyscira, which has been home to Matera, Italy, where people have been living wanted Themyscira to feel like a place that
the Amazons for thousands of years. for eight thousand years,” explains Bill. the Amazons lived in. They embrace nature,
“Themyscira was extensively concepted, so “The city itself has buildings going back to so their buildings are integrated into the
we worked closely with Aline Bonetto, the the 1300s. It gave us the foreground that we environment,” he explains.

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 industry
Wonder Woman

Opposite: From left to

right: Lisa Loven Kongsli
as Menalippe; gal gadot
as diana; Connie nielsen
as diana’s mother Queen
hippolyta; and robin Wright
as Antiope

Left: the eight-thousand-

year-old city of Matera,
italy, served as the basis for
the home of the Amazons
All images Clay Enos/ tM & © dC Comics

Above left: A vibrating shield

In the film, Diana heads to London with was created to simulate the
Steve Trevor in an effort to bring World impression of deflecting
War I to an end. “There is a lot of great machine gun rounds
photographic reference of London especially
during the World War I period,” states Bill. Above right: gal gadot and
“They have a lot of archive photographs of Connie nielsen portray diana
all of the Thames area with Tower Bridge. and her mother hippolyta
We did all of that digitally. There’s
a complete digital aerial view of London
that used shots taken from blimps at the
time of World War I. Aviation had just
started coming into play. Fortunately
for us, there’s quite a bit of London that supporting role in the film,” says Bill. “It’s Above: A wealth of archive
is still period. You can go into London not all about having a fantastic exhibition photographs were used
streets where, once you move the signage, of explosions, buildings falling down and to recreate London during
things look real. So that gave us a lot of skyscrapers being ripped apart. We’re World War i
photographic reference for elements to providing the stage and world that allows
extend in our cityscapes. We were able to the character journey to happen, without
add period elements in the background.” making her powers the primary focus.”
“What I’m proud about on Wonder Wonder Woman is in cinemas now. Visit
Woman is that the visual effects have a
FYI www.wonderwomanfilm.com

3D WorlD September 2017 83 www.youtube.com/3dworld

InsIght
Agent 327: Operation Barbershop

industry insight

OperATIOn BLenDer
Steve Jarratt investigates how the latest Blender short, Agent 327: Operation Barbershop,
works as a test bed for the open-source software

ack in 2014, the Blender “With this movie, we wanted to make a the Cycles render engine, it was optimised to

B
Institute developed Blender statement about the quality that the studio give render times acceptable for a short film
Cloud – a subscription service wants to work on,” says producer Francesco production,” Francesco comments. In fact,
that provides users with Siddi, “and give a glimpse of the characters Cycles now renders scenes with hair and
collaborative tools and acts as that populate this long-established universe.” motion blur ten times faster.
a repository for training and open-source Operation Barbershop is also a test In addition to the improvements to
assets, which subscribers have direct access bed, both for the existing technology in Cycles, a large amount of development time
to. As a paid-for service, Blender Cloud is Blender and as way of determining what also went into the Depsgraph dependency
instrumental in generating the funding for new technology needs to be added. “Blender graph project. “The character rigs reached
the Institute’s short films, replacing the sale has been the rock solid foundation of our a high level of complexity, making it
of DVDs, which are now almost obsolete. pipeline for years,” says Francesco, “and challenging for new animators to quickly
The latest Blender short, Agent 327: in this project it was no different. The become productive,” says Francesco.
Operation Barbershop, is a significant fact that Blender enables us to work from “Depsgraph is the new core of the animation
milestone for both the app and for Blender storyboarding all the way to final render is system, which provides dramatically
Animation Studio, the production arm of the a real productivity boost,” he explains. improved performance of animations with
Blender Institute. The three-minute film is One of the key developments during complex rigs. Finally, cloth simulation tools
proof of concept, and is being used to seek production was to implement high-quality also got an important upgrade. This allowed
funding for a full-length feature film starring hair rendering with motion blur – work us to introduce believable cloth behaviour
the aforementioned spy – a character who which was started during the making of the on top of several animations.” Both the new
is based on the cult comic books by Dutch previous Blender short, Cosmos Laundromat. dependency graph and cloth tools will be
artist, Martin Lodewijk. “While this feature was already available in rolled into the anticipated Blender 2.8.

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 InsIght
Agent 327: Operation Barbershop

the action takes A secret elevator sends

Operation Barbershop place in a beautifully Agent 327 down to the
stars Agent 327, an modelled and bad guys’ lair, where
operative with the lit barbershop he stumbles upon some
poorly funded dutch nefarious activities
secret service

the lead baddie is Wu

Manchu, the female
gang leader from Martin
Lodewijk’s 1983 comic,
the Eyes of Wu Manchu

A shot of the Wu Manchu

character rig and a preview
render in Cycles

3D WorlD September 2017 85 www.youtube.com/3dworld

InsIght
Agent 327: Operation Barbershop

One of Wu Manchu’s thugs

gets the drop on Agent 327

the character rigs, such as

this one for Wu Manchu,
are incredibly complex with
dozens of control points

with this mOvie, we wAnted tO mAke A stAtement ABOut Attract, the production tracking software
the quAlity thAt the studiO wAnts tO wOrk On was developed by Francesco during the
2012 production of Tears of Steel. Attract
Francesco Siddi, producer, Agent 327: Operation Barbershop
enables the team to know the status of the
production process at all times. “It manages
However, after a decade of such sequences, shots, tasks and their deadlines
productions (Agent 327 is the studio’s ninth and assignees. Attract is integrated with
short) Francesco states that it’s no longer Blender, and it keeps the edit at the centre
a matter of new features, but of maturity. of the process. This way, when there
“In a production scenario, we look into are changes to the film – shots added,
collaboration, flexible workflows, and so removed, cut, reviewed – they get reflected
on. even if it looks like some development automatically in Attract. Attract will become
happens for a production corner case, that’s available as a service on Blender Cloud very
not necessarily true. So much effort is being soon,” explains Francesco.
placed in designing solutions that benefit It is clear that the aim of the Agent 327:
the largest use cases possible, and it could Blender’s developers have continued to refine and optimise Operation Barbershop short was to focus on
be argued that with the open channels that the app’s dependency graph, speeding up the whole process asset management and pipeline integration,
Blender has with its huge community, this with the aim of scaling up the animation
has never been an issue.” render manager Flamenco and Attract: process for feature-length production.
For future projects, Francesco explains a production tracking system. “Managing the growing complexity of
that the Blender team will need more “Like all the tools we make at the studio, the project in terms of assets, as well as
advanced asset management tools to Flamenco is free and open-source software, keeping the render times under control, was
handle the ever growing complexity of with an open and extensible architecture, very important for this project,” explains
characters and environments. These tools allowing any software to be used with it. Francesco. “This allowed us to reach the
will also need to integrate with production Flamenco can be used to manage computing style we were after, and that’s something
management and render tools. This means clusters of hundreds of machines and it’s we are really proud of.”
that development work has also focused on available as standalone software, as well as View Blender’s Agent 327: Operation
the Blender Institute’s pipeline tools: on the Blender Cloud,” says Francesco.
FYI Barbershop at www.agent327.com

3D WorlD September 2017 86 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 industry
Sur Ecoute

industry Project

wHALE oF A TIME
Léa Cousty shares her pipeline for creating her stunning one-minute animated film Sur Ecoute,
including how she successfully mixed 2D and 3D techniques

éa Cousty is a 21-year-old The main technical challenge was to the representation of the 2D line disappears

L
student in 3D animation create something that looked 2D without because we only use volume. As a huge fan of
at Supinfocom Rubika, in using toon shaders or self-shadowing and this graphic style, I wanted to make a movie
Valenciennes. integrate the 2D background. The schedule keeping this code from the 2D design to the
In her fourth year, she was of the production was also a big challenge. final look dev. It creates a contrast between
tasked with directing a one-minute film on “In the first version of the storyboard, I was the flatness of the sea, the 3D and the white
her own, and the short Sur Ecoute, which supposed to do a shot with the mouth of the lines I’ve drawn on characters, the clouds
uses a split screen to show the story of a whale completely open, jumping into the and waves in the sea,” she says.
whale and a fisherman, is the result. “It’s camera,” says Léa. “I didn’t have time to Léa was inspired to use what she calls
been very tough but I’ve learned a lot doing create a whale’s mouth just for one shot. I “flat staging” by several films, and French
everything by myself,” says Léa. had to reconsider the staging of the movie to comics. Her inspiration includes Song of the
Léa used Photoshop for the initial shorten the modelling and the rigging step.” Sea by Tomm Moore, The Peanuts Movie,
design, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro for Equaeur - The Lava by Kadavre Exquis and
storyboarding and Maya for modelling, 01 Pre-production Juste de l’eau by Carlos De Carvalho.
animation, shading, lighting and rendering. Léa knew that she wanted to Although integral to Léa’s film, the
For texturing, she used Substance Painter concentrate on lines in the design of the splitscreen element was one of the
and Photoshop, Nuke was used for the film. “I already knew that I wanted to play most challenging aspects. “I started my
compositing and Avid Media Composer with the line of horizon, the line of the storyboard and discovered how hard it was
for the editing. The film also has a fitting whale’s belly, the line of the fisherman’s to stage a splitscreen. First, you have to
soundtrack, and Léa used Reaper for beard and the line of the splitscreen during make sure that the audience is able to see
the sound design. the writing,” she says. “In a 3D production, the action in both screens. Due to this

01a

Above: Léa’s initial 3d research on

the fisherman’s boat

Far left: Props design for the film,

including colour palette and initial
line sketches and the final result

Left: the character designs

include the fisherman’s different
expressions and poses

01b 01c

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industry
Sur Ecoute

right: turnaround of the

fisherman and the whale

02

Above and left: the final film,

showing a beefy fisherman on
his boat and the whale

Far left: the textured fisherman

was adjusted by Léa’s teacher
03

constraint, my shortest shot runs for 2.5 had them on my 2D animatic thanks to my month. “I had never used this software
seconds, which is pretty long for dynamic storyboard,” she explains. before, but it took me two days to learn how
staging. The second important thing to to handle it,” explains Léa, who adds that
know about splitscreen is that it doubles 02 Modelling Substance Painter is well suited to this type
your work in animation, layout, lighting and Léa says that the fact that you never of short production as it makes it quick to get
compositing for shots using splitscreen. It’s see the fisherman’s legs during the film to your desired results and “there’s a lot of
something you have to keep in mind when meant that “the modelling part was pretty things done in a procedural way”. Substance
you choose that cinematographic process. easy”. However, the modelling challenge also helped her to maintain better control of
Consider that my short film is composed of lay in fitting the 3D models with the 2D the placement of lines on her characters and
15 shots, but if you count splitscreen too, I reference and making good topology of the make them very straight, she says.
had 23 shots to produce.” fisherman’s beard in order to stretch and once Léa had finished texturing, she
Léa did her storyboarding using Toon squash it during the animation step. “I didn’t decided to render the film using V-Ray.
Boom Storyboard Pro “because it’s the use any bump, displacement or normal “I plugged the diffuse and reflection map
best software I’ve ever known to make maps,” says Léa. “Everything was done in exported from Substance Painter into a basic
a storyboard”. She found that having a Maya.” This part of process took two weeks. V-Ray material,” she explains. However, she
storyboard helped her to develop the action didn’t go crazy with the reflection map.
and made animation easier. “I know good 03 texturing “I only used reflection on the fisherman’s
animators in my class who lost so much time Texturing took place mostly in suit and on the eyes of characters to give
trying to find their key poses when I already Substance Painter and took roughly a them life,” she explains.

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 industry
Sur Ecoute

Left and below: splitscreen Above:the ‘halo’ effect

is used effectively to show surrounding the 3d
what is happening both animations helped Léa
above and below the water to integrate the film’s
2d backgrounds

04 Knowing your mind keep in mind that whatever happens, or whatever your
one of the most important issues that
Léa learned to deal with during the making
teachers say, it’s really up to you, even if you are young
of this film was when to take her teacher’s Léa Cousty, director, Sur Ecoute
advice. when she began her film, it became
obvious that the art direction and staging directing their very first film is to keep in she also reinforced the rim light because she
of the film were influenced by cartoons. mind that whatever happens, or whatever knew she wanted realistic sunset lighting.
“Naturally, teachers and students started your teacher says, it’s really up to you, even She coloured the light in orange and the
slowly to give me the ‘cartoon’ label,” says if you are young, inexperienced and might shadows in blue directly in Maya.
Léa. “That’s the reason why teachers never make some bad choices along the way.” “I’ve heard some people prefer to render
stopped telling me to use Toon Shader or more passes and be able to tweak shadows
self-shadowing during the production, 05 Lighting and light colours in the compositing step,”
even when I had been saying that I wanted For lighting, Léa started with a three- says Léa. “They are probably right, but to
realistic lighting since the beginning!” point light rig, tweaking them one after the me, compositing also means being in a rush.”
Léa is quick to note that she’s not blaming other. She advises against creating them all Léa explains that seeing as she’d already
her teacher for this. “we were 50 students at the same time. “I reinforced the backlight done the colourboard in pre-production,
with 50 different short films and it’s hard because I wanted a sort of halo surrounding tweaking the colours at the compositing
to follow everyone’s work. Léa continues: the 3D – it helped me to integrate the 2D stage would have meant postponing the
“The best advice I could give to a student backgrounds,” she says. Léa explains that work she was able to do at this point.

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industry
Sur Ecoute

Below: the 2d and 3d right: the colourboard of the

animatics of one shot film, which is very similar to
the colours used in the final
short (below right)

06a

06b 06c

06 Layout
For Léa, the layout step was one of
the most challenging parts of the project.
“The 2D look of the film comes from camera
settings,” she says. For shots under the
cabin, her focal length was at 50. For shots
outside, she was near to 200. “I needed to
kill the perspective created by the 3D if I
wanted to have the flat look of 2D. The cabin
is also very little and it’s hard to shoot under
a little space,” she explains.

07 Animation
Léa had prepared her key poses
during the storyboard process. “I recorded a
lot of video references during the summer to
find expressive and funny key poses. During 07
the animation step, I also remembered my
classmates looking at me like I was crazy remember that the average render time for an animated
because I needed to act out the movement
I was trying to recreate in animation. I
sequence must not exceed five minutes per frame
Léa Cousty, director, Sur Ecoute
worked on 2 shots every day.” It took Léa
one month to complete the animation step.
“I started by creating key poses and stayed without being afraid of render times. of both techniques is to paint a quick sketch
in the step mode until I had a key every two I always keep in mind that the average of the future background you use as a proxy
frames. This helped me avoid spending too render time for an animated sequence must for the lighting step. It will help you to
much time cleaning my curves and helped not exceed five minutes per frame. Sticking check if your work in 3D still fits with the
me in the polishing stage of my animations.” to this rule helped avoid interminable render background you’ve chosen to use. when the
once Léa switched keys in spline mode, her times,” Léa explains. time comes to paint my final background,
animation was practically over, and it was I just had to follow my previous sketch as a
time for rendering in V-Ray. 08 compositing base to recreate something more polished,
“Most of the time, I didn’t have a The most challenging part of the sensitive and shaded.” The watercolour look
background to render because everything compositing step was integrating the 2D comes from Léa’s Photoshop brushes, which
was in 2D,” says Léa. “This enabled me to backgrounds with the 3D characters and are Kyle T webster’s and can be bought
push the look dev of my 3D character further props. “The best way to help the integration online at www.kyletwebster.com.

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 industry
Sur Ecoute

08a

08b
“once I was in Nuke, I used the Lightwrap
node and the Glow node to blend
everything,” says Léa. “It can give a kitsch
effect to the final look dev but it fitted pretty
well with my artistic direction. The hardest
shot to compose was the first because I had
to track the 3D camera to recreate the same
movement on my 2D background.”

09 Adding effects
“I don’t have any experience in 2D
animation, but I wanted effects that seemed
2D,” says Léa. “I drew a line with a Kyle T
webster’s brush in Photoshop, saved it as a
.png and plugged it in the colour of a simple
V-Ray material assigned to a basic plane in
Maya. I rigged the plane and added a bend
deformer. I based the amplitude on a wave.
Léa then did the same thing for the 09a
lighting dots, painting them in Photoshop,
plugging them on the colour of a plane, top: one shot before and
duplicating them and constraining each after compositing
plane to the line with a follow. After that,
she moved each dot a little bit from the line. Middle: the difference
She then rendered her png sequence with between the rendering and
Maya in 1080p 25 because it gave her bigger compositing phases
flexibility to adjust the size of the 2D effects
according to the shot she was compositing. Above and left: sur ecoute
“I added effects in Nuke and integrated it has been selected for the
with a Lightwrap and a Glow node.” Acharya tulsi short Film
You can watch Léa’s short film at: Festival 2017
FYI www.bit.ly/leasurecoute 09b

3D WorlD September 2017 93 www.youtube.com/3dworld

industry
SIGGRAPH preview

siggrAph preview

DISCoVeR THe
SCIeNCe beHIND
THe PIXeLS
Mike Griggs reveals the talks not to miss as part of this year’s
exciting SIGGRAPH Technical Papers Program

he eyes of everyone in the also excited about the design of novel

T
CGI and digital content devices that capture micro-motion or are
creation industry will be able to capture 3D fluid flows [Imaginative
turned towards Los Angeles imaging session] and a printing technique
this summer, when the 44th that uses embedded magnetic flakes to
Conference on Computer Graphics and create printed pictures that change with
Interactive Techniques – otherwise known the lighting [Fabricating look and feel
as SIGGRAPH 2017 – takes place. session]. Then there’s fabrication being
As one of the biggest shows in the extended to composite objects such as
industry, with exhibition stands and wires plus fabric and to moving objects
representatives showing the latest [Fabricating curves, surfaces and volumes
announcements from Autodesk, Maxon, The and Dynamic fabrication sessions] and the for the perceived quality.” For more
Foundry, AMD, and NVIDIA amongst many use of immersion into water to capture a insight into this area, see the Deep image
others, SIGGRAPH is a must for CG artists. 3D shape [Reconstructing 3D surfaces from processing, Speech and facial animation,
points, lines, images and water session]. Learning and analysis for geometry and
44 years of excellence The work on sound also expands, with Learning to move sessions.
The reason that SIGGRAPH has garnered sound spatialisation and the simultaneous
the respect of the CGI community over its synthesis of motion plus sound for complex Advances from the community
44 years, is that it focuses on the science and objects. This year, one of the papers is not When looking back over the past 44 years
collaboration that is so vital to the industry. about images at all, but is all about audio of SIGGRAPH, Marie-Paule mentions the
SIGGRAPH is packed with many areas to narration editing, which is an excellent satisfying problem-solving that has been
experiment with the latest technologies, complement to the other papers in the addressed by the community. “Looking
see presentations on how some of the Speech and facial animation session.” back, synthetic images have reached a level
most cutting-edge VFX and animations of realism that was difficult to expect some
were created and also discover, through Cutting edge techniques explained decades ago. The most satisfying, for me are
Technical Papers presentations, the science Machine Learning is one of the hot topics the advances in geometric modelling and
behind the pixels. These papers have earned in every branch of computer science at in animation/simulation methods, such as
SIGGRAPH the deserved reputation as one
of the most esteemed and influential forums
for research in the world. I was surprIsed, and excIted, to see the extensIon of
This year, from 439 submissions, the
SIGGRAPH 2017 Technical Papers Program
cInematography technIques to Vr VIdeos
Marie-Paule Cani, chair of the SIGGRAPH Technical Papers Program
has accepted 127 papers to be showcased.
The chair of the Technical Papers Program,
Marie-Paule Cani has noticed new areas the moment, and computer imaging is no modelling developable surfaces (used for
of research which excite her, even with a exception in unleashing this transformative garments or architecture), and animating
maturing and broadening of the scope of technology. Marie-Paule has noticed a trend very soft materials, such as hair, sand or
the papers. She explains: “In addition to in this area: “The most noticeable trend this liquids. The most impressive advance is
the continuation of research in geometric year is the use of deep learning to generate probably the fact that the introduction
modelling and animation, rendering and new content from images, videos and speech of expressive modelling and animation
imaging, I was surprised, and excited, to see to shapes or motion. Deep neural networks techniques have progressively widened
the extension of cinematography techniques are trained to generate the final content the access to visual content creation and
to VR videos [People power session]. I’m presented to the users, and are responsible editing to more diverse sets of users, while

3D WorlD September 2017 94 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 industry
SIGGRAPH preview

Another paper reveals

how a new multispecies
model can simulate the
interaction between
water and porous sand

The Technical papers

include how Clensch
maps can be used
for visualisation
and processing

their combination with novel fabrication The papers at SIGGRAPH offer Above: One Below: how ‘dip
methods are reviving – and fully revisiting – an incredibly wide range of topics, presentation is on transform’ can aid
the area of computer aided design.” meaning that attendees can gain some how users can guide reconstruction of
really valuable insights into areas which colourisation 3D shapes is one
First time at siggrAph? they may not otherwise discover. “Don’t of images paper’s topic
For those who are new to SIGGRAPH and expect to get all the technical details
want to see as many presentations as they of a paper during a presentation, and
can, the sheer amount of papers on offer can look for inspiration from a diverse set
be overwhelming. Marie-Paule offers some of presentations,” advises Marie-Paule.
advice: “My tips are to look at the Technical “Attending sessions from a different
Papers video trailer [which is available at: sub-domain may be a good idea, since our
www.bit.ly/siggraphtrailer] to get an field is often advancing thanks to cross-
initial idea of this year’s content, and to fertilisation, for example, editing or transfer
attend the Technical Papers Fast Forwards techniques first introduced in imaging later
session on Sunday, July 30, from 6 to 8pm, inspiring those who developed in shape
in South Hall K. Finding what to see among modelling,” she adds.
more than 160 papers, often presented SIGGRAPH 2017 runs from 30 July to
within three sessions in parallel is not easy.”
FYI 3 August. Visit s2017.siggraph.org

3D WorlD September 2017 95 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Free pluralsight course
kick start your maya animations
A free video course covering animation fundamentals

aniMating keYs
learn how to set up character
animations in Maya

author

Mark Masters
mark has long been
interested in animation.
His passion meant that
he made an impact on
the industry quickly,
working for Pluralsight

T
his issue, we’ve joined forces with useable insights into how to best approach as an animation and
Pluralsight (formerly known as Digital- their character animations. rigging instructor. He
Tutors) to offer you a comprehensive Character animation can be a daunting currently works at
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3D WorlD Setpember 2017 96 www.youtube.com/3dworld

industry
PipelineFX’s Qube!

indsustry insight

Qube! AIds
PsYOP’s VR Push
Geraint Evans discovers how the flexibility of PipelineFX’s Qube! helps create VR content
he award-winning creative efficient manager was needed. This is where “Its extensive Python API gives us

t
agency, Psyop, which has PipelineFX’s Qube! comes in. practically unlimited flexibility when it
offices in New York and LA, The render farm manager allows Psyop comes to integrating software with the
has drawn over 600 million to efficiently use its resources as it produces render farm,” he explains.
views for its Clash of Clans
ads. In part, this is down to its new VR and
360-degree content, with PipelineFX’s qube!’s extensive python api gives us almost unlimited flexibility
render farm manager Qube! proving crucial.
“One of our big challenges lately has been
when it comes to integrating software with the render farm
Alon Gibli, head of pipeline, Psyop
rendering 360-degree and VR content,”
says Andy Jones, Psyop’s head of VFX. “The
number of assets that need to be loaded VR experiences alongside traditional That flexibility is crucial, as the
is often much larger than for a typical animated and live-action projects. “What company tries to marry the diverse needs
shot.” With such a strain on Psyop’s render drew us to Qube! was its open architecture,” of the various software it works with. “We
farm, which can scale up to 500 nodes, an says Alon Gibli, head of pipeline at Psyop. have developed tools that rely on Qube!

3D WorlD September 2017 98 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 industry
PipelineFX’s Qube!

Far left: Qube!’s render

management was crucial in
creating the popular Clash
of Clans ads

Left: the commercial hog Below: For the viewer needs Below: Creating Vr content
rider 360° was released in to see in all directions, an usually means processing
november 2016 and has over enormous number of pixels three times more data than
51 million views on youtube are required traditional animation

to perform a variety of essential pipeline application gives us a lot of control over “Render management is a crucial task,”
tasks,” says Alon. “using the configuration how data moves through the pipeline, and says Jean-François Panisset, Psyop’s CTO.
options provided, our artists can easily helps us avoid file server bottlenecks,” says “We’re very happy for Qube! to take care
open their rendered images in a pipeline- Alan, before praising Qube! on its unique of it for us, so that we can dedicate our
aware RV session directly from Qube!’s suitability. “Although most render managers resources to solving new technical problems
WranglerView,” he explains. can handle these jobs to varying degrees, for which solutions can’t be purchased off
As well as its open architecture, Psyop Qube! is one of the few that tracks software the shelf.” With Qube! providing the muscle,
has found Qube! to be particularly good at instances and agenda items independently.” the emmy-winning team at Psyop are free to
managing workflow, as the team tend to This power and flexibility makes Qube! focus on more VR and 360-degree creative
rely heavily on in-batch rendering rather the ideal solution for Psyop as it looks to content in the future.
than generating standalone archives. “The scale its rendering pipeline to meet the Find out more about Qube! by visiting
ability to use scripted logic from inside the demands of VR and 360-degree video.
FYI www.pipelinefx.com

3D WorlD September 2017 99 www.youtube.com/3dworld

Reviews
Unreal Engine 4.16.1

softwarE rEVIEw

unreal Engine
4.16.1
AuthoR PRoFIlE
Andrew Entwistle
Andrew Entwistle is a
freelance artist with over
10 years’ experience.
He is currently
collaborating with PRIcE Free, with royalty fees | coMPAny Epic Games | wEbsItE www.epicgames.com
Paul Gerrard to create
bespoke concepts..
www.aentwistle-art.com

fEaturEs

Free to download premium

game engine

In VR editor tools

Excellent online resources

Multi-platform support

Photo-real character
rendering

t
the latest version of Unreal creating cut scenes, animatics documentation to breakdown
Engine has the addition of or even presentations. Until the processes and techniques
some notable key features, 4.16, Matinee felt like a buggy used to create photo-real
EPIC softwarE which were highlighted as part external plug-in, but it now captivating characters.
of the GDC 2017 presentation. feels part of the software. The
unreal Engine has grown This makes for a very solid way camera sequences and virtual eDitor
from strength to strength update with something in there cuts can be laid out visually is For VR users, the in-VR editor
and updated numerous for all types of artists. reminiscent of an editing suite, has become one of the main
features after listening to Since version 4.11, the user which makes for a far more features of the release. Anyone
its user base. For many experience has become a lot enjoyable user experience. working in this environment
studios it has become the smoother, and this current knows that when building in
go-to game engine. release builds upon this. One photo-real characters VR, it is essential you remain
updating software can of the most obvious changes is For the artist or curious gamer in VR for as long as possible
be a pain but rest assured, that the experimental features that has always wondered for testing. By being able to
this is one of the most in previous versions have how to create photorealisic access your Content Browser
comprehensive ugrades become key components in characters for games, this menu and even make edits to
to date so is certainly their own right. release can answer a lot of Landscape, you can remain in
worth it. The Sequencer cinematic those questions. Epic Games VR to make changes. This saves
feature has come on in leaps has kindly released a photo-real a lot of time and hassle.
and bounds since earlier character model using the UE4 The inclusion of subdivision
revisions, and can be used for Skin Shader, along with online surfaces is fantastic and the way

3D WorlD September 2017 100 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Reviews
Unreal Engine 4.16.1

opposite: the new release of unreal Engine 4

has plenty to offer all types of artists

above: the photorealistic character scene is

just one of many free resources available to
download and scrutinise

Left: the image sequencer makes cutting

sequences an absolute breeze

the user can manipulate in VR programmer-written bespoke cannot see why anyone would
to make big, bold changes and in-house engines. not want to give Unreal Engine’s
set dressing is a benefit to the With so many features and latest release a try.
artist. However, whether these support for outputting to every
tools can offer the dexterity
and precise nature required still
platform, it becomes obvious
why development studios have
onE of tHE most obvioUs cHAnGEs is tHAt wHAt
remains to be seen. adopted it as their preferred wErE PrEvioUsly ExPErimEntAl fEAtUrEs HAvE
However, from a level design
standpoint, there are key
game engine. Furthermore
it is now creeping into film
now bEcomE kEy comPonEnts
benefits of blocking out initial studio pipelines, since it can
layouts to get a true feel for the be additionally customised via All in all, whether you’re
worlds you want to create, all open-source C++. a seasoned professional or
whilst immersed in VR. With such a large thriving an avid enthusiast looking
online community, an enormous to learn new skills, this is a
free tutorials amount of learning resources very comprehensive update
This is serious professional with countless free tutorials with plenty of supporting
grade software that in the and samples at your disposal, marketplace material.
past was only accessible in coupled with the fact you can
development studios via download it completely free, I VERdIct

3D WorlD September 2017 101 www.youtube.com/3dworld

 Reviews
MSI WS63 7RK

HarDWare reVIeW

AuTHoR PRofIle
MSI WS63 7RK
James Morris PRICe £1,982.74 plus VAT | CoMPANy MSI | WeBSITe www.msi.com
James has been writing
about technology for

T
two decades, focusing he relentless development
on content creation of processing power
hardware and software. means that portables now
He was editor of PC Pro boast very credible workstation
magazine for five years. abilities, and a great example
www.tzero.co.uk is MSI’s new WS63 7RK.
The WS63 7RK is a 15-inch
laptop, yet it’s less than 2cm
thick and weights just 1.8kg.
Inside is a high-end Intel Core
i7-7700HQ processor. This is
a quad-core CPU with Hyper-
Features Threading, so provides eight
threads, although it’s not the
2.8GHz Intel Core i7- fastest in the latest Intel
7700HQ Kaby Lake mobile
range. It runs at
16GB 2,400MHz DDR4 2.8GHz with
SDRAM a top 3.8GHz
Turbo mode and
NVIDIA Quadro P3000 all four cores are able to
graphics with 6GB GDDR5 operate at 3.4GHz.
memory The Core i7-7700HQ is
partnered by a healthy 16GB
256GB Toshiba M.2 NVMe of 2,400MHz DDR4 SDRAM,
solid state disk although the system supports
up to 32GB. Another powerful SATA hard disk, which is about ago. However, the OpenGL
inclusion is the NVIDIA Quadro 20 times slower than the score of 105.02 is ahead, and
P3000 graphics (see left), which SSD, but is decent for mobile SPECviewperf 12.1 scores
can deliver desktop levels of mechanical storage. are in a different league. The
professional 3D acceleration. The keyboard is a WS63 7RK managed 94.33 in
gpu joy This works through an excellent comfortable chiclet-style 3dsmax-05, 95.95 in catia-04,
IPS screen with a 1,920x1,080 unit, and the large single- 65.3 in maya-04, and 103.1
NVIDIA QuADRo P3000 Full HD resolution, although piece touchpad sits sensibly in sw-03 – all scores that are
a UHD 3,840 x2,160 option is beneath the spacebar, slightly two or three times faster
The NVIDIA Quadro P3000 also available. The colour to the left, reducing the than the Dell laptop.
is exclusively for laptops. fidelity and viewing angles are chance you’ll accidentally Overall, the WS63 7RK is very
This capable GPu sports also commendable. brush it when typing. There’s impressive. It only managed
1,280 CuDA cores, making a comprehensive range of a little over two hours in the
it almost as capable as sensible Design ports, including three USB 3.0, Create test of PCMark 8, and
the previous-generation Storage is very impressive for USB 3.1 Type C, HDMI and you’ll get a similar amount of
desktop K4200. Its such a slim notebook. The Mini DisplayPort. So there are time when creating 3D content,
memory allocation is even operating system and main options for attaching external but the WS63 7RK should
better, with 6GB of GDDR5 applications are stored on a storage and extra monitors. manage three to four hours of
on a 192-bit bus providing 256GB Toshiba M.2 NVMe solid Although the Intel CPU more modest usage. With its
168GB/sec of bandwidth. state disk, which can achieve is very capable, it doesn’t supreme portability, but lots
So the P3000 will be able an extremely rapid read rate represent a leap forward in raw of power when you need it,
to handle large textures of over 2,300MB/sec for fast processing power. The Maxon this is a potent laptop for 3D
and complex models boot and software loading Cinebench R15 rendering professionals on the move. It’s
with ease. times. Mass 3D asset storage score of 614 is similar to the not enormously pricey either.
is supplied by 1TB HGST Dell Precision M5510, which
Travelstar Z5K1000 5,400rpm we reviewed almost a year VeRDICT

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Back
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Issue 223 august 2017

discover a virtual future
● How VR is shaping all aspects of the CG industry
● We go behind the scenes on Transformers: The Last Knight
● Learn how to make a bang with Michael Bay-like explosions
● Improve your textures with tips for creating tiles and cloth
● Downloads Free video training, files and morel

Issue 222 july 2017 Issue 221 june 2017 Issue 220 may 2017 Issue 219 aprIl 2017
Become a pro games artist Become a vfx king explore sci-fi in zBrush improve your vr game models
● Pro game artists reveal how to ● How ILM battled hair and water ● Discover the VFX secrets behind ● How Epic Games’ VR games artists
break into the industry to make the latest Kong Ghost in the Shell created Robo Recall
● Exclusive look at Star Citizen’s new ● Learn how to enhance your ● Upgrade your futuristic ZBrush ● Pro advice for getting more
characters, our cover stars environments in Unreal Engine 4 characters with pro advice from Substance Designer
● UE4: Make your mark in dynamic ● Create a bubble with rainbow ● Embellish your models with our ● Learn how to texture realistic
and responsive environments effects in Houdini 16 texturing pipeline for Quixel skin using our tips for Mari
● Tricks to sculpt killer characters ● Blender tips: build creative ● Sculpt an ibex in just one hour with ● Master Cinema 4D’s new
faster in ZBrush characters faster our speedy sculpting tips Voronoi fracturing tool
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Issue 218 march 2017 Issue 217 February 2017 Issue 216 january 2017 Issue 215 chrIstmas 2016
the magic of houdini start in vr today! recreate the star wars look make a splash with your renders
● An exclusive look at the new tools ● We reveal why your next art job ● Discover the secrets behind the ● Disney’s animation team reveal
and features of Houdini 16 will be in virtual reality new Star Wars film how they created Moana
● Master a pro workflow for creating ● Meet the developers and artists ● We reveal how to model a Star ● Ubisoft’s Pascal Blanché explains
an atmospheric cinematic scene behind Oculus Medium Destroyer in 3ds Max his character design process
● Get more from Redshift with tips ● Learn to animate a complex scene ● Learn how to texture a weathered ● Improve your creature concepts
and tricks from our expert for 360 degree video droid in Substance Painter with Quixel and Substance
● Learn to texture a stunning sci-fi ● Animators discuss how VR will ● Model photoreal foliage for video ● Master Clarisse 3.0 to create a
model for games impact the CG industry games using Unreal Engine rocky, watery environment
● Downloads Free video training, ● Downloads Free video training, ● Downloads Free video training, ● Downloads Free video training
files and morel models, files and morel set-up files and more! and set-up files

Issue 214 December 2016 Issue 213 nOVember 2016 Issue 212 OctOber 2016 Issue 211 september 2016
the Blizzard vfx pipeline real-time cinematics game art skills animation special
● Blizzard shares its Houdini pipeline ● Unity share the making of their ● Eidos Montreal’s modeller shares ● Discover Laika’s innovative stop
for making CG foliage animated short, Adam her 3ds Max knowledge motion and CG hybrid technique
● Master the ultimate ZBrush ●Ninja Theory and Epic Games ● Learn the pro tips to master ● Learn animator Keith Lango’s secrets
character sculpting workflow reveal real-time cinematography Substance Designer for a better, faster workflow
● Learn to use photogrammetry ● Finesse your ZBrush modelling ● Follow Naughty Dog’s VFX ● Master the art of facial rigging
techniques in your projects workflow workflow for Unreal Engine in Maya
● Discover the VFX behind Marvel’s ● Render a windy beach house in ● Get started in Amazon’s new game ● Set up perfect displacement maps
Doctor Strange 3ds Max and V-Ray engine, Lumberyard in Modo and ZBrush
● Downloads Free videos and ● Downloads Free videos and ● Downloads Free videos and ● Downloads Free models, videos,
resource files set-up files set-up files material textures and set-up files

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 In the vault

free
Video & Free Download a complete
Pluralsight video

resources
course to learn the
Files fundamentals of
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Follow the link to download your free files

www.bit.ly/vault-224-character

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resources
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from this issue’s video
training and files…

1. Go to the Website
Type the following into
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2. FinD the Files You

Want From the list
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and files you want

3. DoWnloaD the vIdeo + step Images + vdb fIles

Files You neeD
Click the Download buttons create an inferno in nuke
and your files will save to Follow the videos and download the step images to make an explosion in Nuke. Also included are several
your PC or Mac .vdb files, so you’ll have everything you need to add some spark to your scenes

Plus
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ViDeo: Get the video

tutorials for a selection
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vIdeo + Images vIdeo + step Images
Files: Download the
high-resolution tutorial colour grading using davinci resolve concept a creature
assets for all of our training Paul Hatton takes you through the basics of using DaVinci Resolve for Watch the video and follow the
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9000
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