Cgarena Aug-Sep 2010 Ezine

CGArena
VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4, AUG - SEP 10
Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community
Interview
Carlos Ortega Elizalde
Lightwave
Making of Interested
Photoshop
Leaves of Greens
I’m the Godfather
3ds Max
Hippopotamus
Maya
Making of Stewie
Gallery
Latest 3D inspiring art
VOL
Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

Volume 5, Issue 4 Aug - Sep 2010
Issue Contents
05 Interview Carlos Ortega Elizalde

14 Photoshop Making of Greens of Leaves
24 Lightwave Making of Interested
32 3ds Max Making of Hippopotamus
42 Maya Making of Stewie
52 Photoshop Making of I’m the Godfather
58 Gallery Showcase of latest 3D art
Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi, India

Magazine Cover Image: Dilip Suthar, India
Magazine Design: Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan
www.cgarena.com Page 2
Issue 4 Aug - Sep 2010
Industry News
CGArena
Phoenix Fluid Dynamics is Prime Focus Software Releases

Officially Released Deadline 4.1
Phoenix Fluid Dynamics is the latest product re- Prime Focus Software, the R&D arm of Prime Focus,
leased by Chaos Software. The software perfectly announces the release of Deadline 4.1, the latest ver-
combines a grid based simulator with outstanding sion of its popular easy-to-use administration and ren-
rendering capabilities. The product comes with a dering toolkit for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX-based
number of new features like fast physically based render farms. This release features several new fea-
simulation core, background simulation, wind from tures and performance enhancements and will debut
movement, fluid source form pre-simulated sur- alongside the Deadline Mobile iPhone app, available
face, particle based sources, GPU accelerated for a free download on the Apple App Store starting
preview, texture driven simulation, displacement, from August 3rd.
rendering of textures and many others.
New Features in Deadline 4.1 include:
Fluids are substances that continually deform, • Speed improvements • Increased usability • Simpli-
such as liquids, gases, plasma etc. Phoenix FD fied power management configuration • UAC compli-
lets you simulate these fluids in 3ds Max. The sim- ant • New software support: After Effects CS5, Arnold
ulation is stored in a finely subdivided 3D box, or Standalone, Lightwave 10, RVIO, RealFlow 5, and
grid, where each cell contains the fluid’s properties Softimage 2011.
at that location.
The VES Handbook of Visual Effects: Industry Standard VFX Prac-

tices and Procedures - The book covers techniques and solutions all
VFX artists, producers, and supervisors need to know, from preproduc-
Book
tion, to digital character creation. In-depth lessons on stereoscopic mov-

iemaking, color management and digital intermediates are included, as
well as chapters on interactive games and full animation authored by
artists from EA and Dreamworks respectively. Written by 88 top leading
vfx practitioners & covering everything about vfx from pre-production,
production, and post-production. ISBN-13: 978-0240812427
Character Skinning - In this DVD, JP Self takes you through the process
of skinning an animation-ready character from head-to-toe. He goes over
Training
how to fit the biped to the mesh, using the weight tool to adjust the folds
in those tricky areas (such as the hands, shoulders, and pelvis), mirroring
the vertices from one half of the character to the other in order to achieve
that professional outcome, and even resizing the character after the skin-
ning is complete. This DVD will help you get a better understanding of the
methods and the reasoning behind the techniques that professionals use
in production.
Interview with
CGArena
Carlos Ortega Elizalde Really don’t care

that much about
Q. Could you please tell us about yourself a bit and money or fame
what is the reason of choosing Graphic Design and
3D Art as a career?
Since my childhood I wanted to be an archaeologist or a geologist, I have a big passion for science and
paleontology, and I kept that goal for year’s even days before applying for the University. Somebody recom-
mended me to give Graphic Design a try, due to my passion for graphics, arts and drawing. Of course I was
a bit wrong since Graphic Design is not all about drawing. Still, I choose wisely and I fell in love with the ca-
reer. I was introduced to 3D graphics with Rhinoceros -thanks to a deceased old friend we all still miss- then
I moved to Carrara Studio and later to Maya. I spent many nights learning the 3D world by myself since it
wasn´t part of the career at that time. I still cannot picture myself doing anything else. It’s one of those jobs
you want to relax from doing the exact same things in your free time.
Q. Please tell us about your first professional project and how did you get that?
I was working in an advertising agency

doing flash and web stuff, but I also had
my own 3D noob projects running in my
free time. A good friend of mine invited
me to join in an upcoming project at the
University where he was working at that
moment. The project involved a 3D ani-
mated sequence for a paleontological
exhibition, so I didn´t think of it twice to
merge, two of my great passions in my
first big project, 3D and dinosaurs. That
lead later to get a full time job at the Gua-
najuato University, here in Mexico.
Q. Please tell us what you enjoying

the most modeling characters, build-
ings, cars, objects and why? Which
areas do you like the most modeling,
texturing, lighting, rendering or post?
I love to model characters the most. I

know it´s a bit cliche but it is awesome to
create some kind of “life” straight from a
cube or a plane. Once I complete a char-
acter I enjoy modeling anything from ac-
cessories to buildings and environments
Interview with
CGArena

as long as all of it helps to fill the world of the previous created character. As for the area I enjoy the most,
each one has its own fun and magic, but I can say modeling, texturing and lighting are my favorite stages. I
hate modeling toes though.
Q. Which software’s and renderer you use to create your image? Have you any trick for getting a
good quality of realistic or toon image?
I use Maya and mental ray most of the time; recently I had the luck to put my hand on FurryBall which is an
awesome jewel too. Other helpful tools I often use are ZBrush, CrazyBump and Carrara Studio. I love toon
imagery, and one thing I always focus on is the atmosphere and lighting to enhance the attitude of the char-
acter or the mood of the scene. If simple things works well for the project I often go for it. I´m not a big fan of
physically accurate values regarding toon stuff and whenever I have the chance to enhance something in a
post stage I do it. On the other hand, realistic images requires being more sharp-eyed, cause most people can
spot when something is wrong.
I always try to observe the real
life as much as I can and put
special attention to those small
details you can only spot when
they aren´t present. I´m not an
expert at hyper realistic render-
ing though, so my only trick is
researching when looking for
realistic effect (as an example,
I learnt a lot from MasterZap´s
blog) cause even when I´m not
that much into technical stuff,
it’s great to know what the ren-
der engine is doing every time
you hit “Render”.
Q. Have you ever worked for

any big film and what was
your role?
Not yet unfortunately, but I hope

to have the chance in the future
though since I have big admira-
tion and respect all the people
behind that scenes.
Interview with
CGArena

Q. Please tell us in detail about your image 4Girls?
I was requested to generate a few renders for a shoe brand with some cartoony fashion-girls. Since I had
a small schedule to complete the work and other freelance projects running at the same time, I kept things
simple... avoiding to create anything that wasn´t going to be used. So, modeling is pretty simple. I modeled
only one girl with no complex shapes or anatomy, but trying to get a nice silhouette and a charming face. I
used no sketches since the client gave me complete freedom for the character.
The clothes were one of the main things I focused on. The client provided some internet references and
from there I combined a few styles. I modeled folds directly into the mesh since it was only for a few still im-
ages. Textures were taken from some pictures also and other ones just with color variations by hand. The
materials are mostly Blinn and Phong shaders with several ramp nodes. After I generated several assets to
work with, I started to combine them to create specific moods and attitudes
for each girl, so each one could depict a different environment even without
a background. For posing, I created a very simple skeleton and a small set of
blend shapes for the face. Most of the weight painting after the binding was
made on the fly as I was posing the girl. I always find too fun to work with
female characters, you get more freedom posing and still getting a dynamic
and nice aesthetic figure. I generated various poses taking special care of
the silhouette, balance and curve flow. I wanted it to be something friendly,
playful, charming and cute. Lighting consists of a couple of spotlights with
raytraced soft shadows; which was
complemented with a glowing plane
to help with reflections. I rendered
with mental ray using Final Gather
with two secondary bounces. After
the image delivery to the client, I de-
cided to spend a little more time to
create extra renders for portfolio pur-
Interview with
CGArena

poses, mostly because I had a couple of unfinished dresses that weren´t used. The final touch with this
project was adding a pattern background to complement each girl. It was a fun project, with lots of coffee
and energy drink. (Four girls for girls)
Q. Do you do any preliminary drawing about the character before starting the modeling? Which is
your preferred method of modeling- Polygon, subdivision or Nurbs?
Regarding my personal work, I rarely use any image planes other than a messy sketch just to keep propor-
tions since all volumes and details flow out of my head on the fly. In the case of freelance work it’s great to
work with image planes because the client often has a clearer idea than me of what they want. I feel more
comfortable working with polygons and SubDivs most of the time. NURBS curves and surfaces help me
for some tedious tasks though, (lofting, bi-rail, extrusions and tricks like stealing UV´s) but I always end up
converting everything to polys.
Interview with
CGArena

Q. Do you have an aim or dream as an artist? What are your hobbies and how you manage to com-
bine your personal life and work?
I always say 3D is my full time hobby, but I also like to watch movies, listen to music, reading, and spend as
much time as I can with my friends, going out for a beer or coffee, it’s something I enjoy a lot since I usu-
ally spend a lot of time inside the computer. Regarding my full time job and freelance activity, I have the big
fortune to work with some of my best friends... so each day at the office or taking part in a group project is
pure fun. In a short term, I would love to upgrade my rigging skills and taking some professional animation
course. My dream as an artist has always be being able to leave a little part of me to the industry, I really
don’t care that much about money or fame, just be able to take all the stuff that is going on inside my head,
share my imagination with the people and gain a little space among the people I admire most.
Q. What is your source of inspiration and how do

you keep yourself motivated when still after 2 years
of recession artists are getting fired and studios
are closing down?
I personally get inspired by several things; nature, mu-

sic, science, friends, the everyday life, I must say I have
a very hyperactive imagination even when I´m a very
passive guy, so I always have something I want to cre-
ate. Even with studios closing down and world taking
other priorities I see a lot of talented CG artists doing
great things, creating, and expressing their selves, I re-
ally don’t know what is their source of motivation but I
can say they are mine.
Q. For an upcoming artist can you give some word

of inspiration and how they can improve their mod-
eling?
I know it may sound obvious but practice is the one

thing that helped me the most, I learnt a lot from the
flaws also and I still take critique in a humble way cause
there are thousands of guys better than me, this also
keeps me inspired and motivated every time and of
course, thinking things and life in 3D!
Q. Anything you would like to add? It is your chance now to state your opinion about anything.
Just big thanks to the CGArena. I feel honored and it’s great being able to share a little piece of my life in
these lines. Hope somebody can take a positive thing from this,( cause I did :) greetings from Mexico!
Thanks a lot Carlos for taking out sometime for us from your busy schedule
Web: www.zigrafus.com.mx
Email: strogg_tank@hotmail.com
Tutorial by Brooke Gillette, USA
CGArena
Software:
Making of Leaves Photoshop

2D
of Greens
INTRODUCTION
While driving through a scenic road I was in love with all the different shades of greens of the forest nearby
the road. It was spring after all and all I saw was “green”! I went home and decided to paint a fairy painting
using many variations of greens for my color scheme.
BRUSHES
Aside from the default PS brush preset, I also used my own custom brushes. I called them “flat bristle” and
“knife” because they simulate the look of the traditional tools
that I use. I use these two throughout the whole process. I use
the “knife” brush to add branches and twigs to my trees. I use
the small sharp round edge for details and the soft round edge
for blending. And the “bristle” I use for large brush strokes to
block in large shapes.
STEP 1 - I always start my paintings with a sketch, either by pencil scanned into PS or digitally using
the stylus and tablet. I used whichever I can grab at the moment. I never clean up my line work since I just
painted over it. For this painting I sketched digitally, using a small sharp round brush, set on “pen pressure”.
I sketched the figure first, starting with “stick figure”, adding muscles, and finally drapery. After the figure
sketch was finished I started to block in the trees in the background and few small details such as ivy leaves
and drooping vines to develop the composition and also to remind me of what I wanted to add later on.
I used the “lasso” tool to select the general shape of the tree, fill the selection with dark brown. Using
my “knife” brush I added
branches and twigs. Then
I made a new layer, set it
on “Hard Light”. Using the
bristle brush I shaded in the
lighter brown to establish
the light source on the tree.
I also blocked in the dress
to help me have a better
idea of the form of the figure
in the overall layout.
I used a guide to align fa-

cial features, such as eyes,
CGArena
Making of Leaves of Greens

nose, and mouth. I made my guide lines red on a separate layer at 50% opacity. This guide is very important
when I started painting the face in detail; it helps me keep the facial anatomy in check.
STEP 2 - After I was happy with the layout, I started to render. Generally I work “outside in”, rendering
the background first and saving the facial details for last. I started on the big tree, adding some barks and
moss.
Working at 100%, I redefined the facial features and

gave some lighting direction to the figure. To keep the
edges clean, I used the pen tool and saved my selec-
tions as “left arm”, “right arm”, “torso”, etc. These saved
selections are very useful for later stages when I started
blending and adding shadow to the figure. To make se-
lections from the pen tool, close your path, right click
and choose “make selection”, then go to Select > Save
Selection, name your selection and click “Save”.
STEP 3 - Here I started to add texture, such as

moss, ivy, vines, and fallen leaves into the background.
For the moss, I created a hand-painted custom brush.

Using the small sharp round edge brush, I painted in-
dividual little dots and moss. The dots represented the
small tiny daisies from afar. Once I am satisfied with
the shape I select the moss go to Edit > Define Brush
Preset. In Brush Dynamics, set the brush to scattering
and pen pressure.
In this small example I added moss on a rock. Using

my moss brush I painted the green moss on a sepa-
rate layer. Create a Layer > Clipping mask for the active
layer so that the moss fits cleanly on the rock. Set the
Layer Style to Bevel and Emboss at a very slight depth,
just enough to give the moss its own dimension on top
of the rock. I used this same method for the moss on
the tree.
I’ve also lengthened her hair, giving the character a more romantic look. I sketched in the dragonfly wings
and a few hummingbirds to see if I’d like to add these elements. I decided not to go with these since they
were used before in other paintings… I thought of leaves and thought that they would make a more interest-
ing design for wings. The dragonfly design ended up on her dress :)
STEP 4 - Here I started on the bird feeder… taking a break from the ivy leaves! I used a ref photo that
I took of the bird feeder from a garden. When using refs I use them for two things: lighting and structure.
When sketching out the feeder I’ve sketch a line down the middle first; this is the axis of rotation for this
object. Then I sketched the overall shape and added the flowers last. Once I’ve captured the basic form and
lighting of the feeder, I started to design my own feeder… adding flowers, leaves, ornaments, etc. The key
point was to study how the bird feeder looked realistically and also what components make up this feeder,
CGArena

so that next time I want to paint another feeder I could do it without reference.
STEP 5 - In this step I’ve added the log, and then the few small flowers on top of the log to add more
character to the scene. I also blocked in the snails and rendered them according to the light source of the
painting. I also spent a long time sharpening the ivy leaves, painted and cleaning up the edges stroke by
stroke. The whole purpose of doing this is to avoid “cookie cutter” leaves that will make the painting look
boring and static. Sounds simple, but it took days!!
STEP 6 - I started to render folds of the dress and added leafy wings. The design and colors for the
wings were inspired by the young sprouting leaves that I took a picture of. I am never without my cheap
Lumix camera. It doesn’t yield professional quality photos (and have been dropped many, many times!), but
for what I do it does the job. Beauty is often found in unexpected places, and I don’t want to miss capturing
it!! The folding of the leaves were one of those rare “happy accidents” that happened while I was blocking
CGArena

in the leaves.
For the dress, I used my own ref. Once again I only needed the structure and the lighting of the dress; I didn’t
care that it were pink. I aimed to capture the main folds of the drapery to give my green dress a realistic look,
not every fold visible in the photo. What I was looking for was “how does this fabric drape over the anatomy
underneath?”
Once I’ve achieved realistic folds, I added my own design to the dress. I really enjoyed this part. I added
dragonfly wing as part of the top, and overlapping that I added an ivy-like pattern that echoed the ivy on the
tree. Some flowers and leaves are also added to the head-piece, with ivy leaves to unify the overall design.
STEP 7 - Once again I came back to the vines and leaves! I added small curly vines to give the vines
more character and also achieve a more artistic look. I painted the berries to add variation of the shapes
and some white flowers to give a focus among all those greens. Then I added the birds. I painted each of
the birds on separate layers, moving them around until I was happy with where they were. One particular
bird I wanted him to direct the eyes back into the painting (the one she is looking at), since the viewers will
follow her eyes and look right out of the painting! But he was not enough; I later on added a flower to give
more “weight” to this redirection of the eye-path.
STEP 8 - In this step I will show how I created a textured brush or “stamp” from a photo. I took my photo
of fallen brown leaves into PS, desaturated it, and pumped up the contrast using the Levels sliders.
Remember that when making these “stamps”, the black shapes are the shape of the stamp. Because the
leaves were light on a darker background, they looked white. If I selected this pattern I’ll end up the ground as
CGArena

texture, not the leaves. So I needed to in-
vert this image to get the leaves as black
shapes. Go to Image > Adjustments> In-
vert. This will give a nice dark pattern that
will be the leaves. I selected the portion
that I wanted and “defined brush preset“.
Here you can see the “stamp” in green.
STEP 9 - Adding more details!
I painted the thin webs on the separate

layer. Being lazy I just duplicate the layer
and added the web to other parts of the
painting. I also painted glittering webs
drooping from the flowers and on the lace
of her green dress. I also finally rendered
the foot!! It was too large and I had to re-
size it. Then I added more spider webs on the ground where it touched her dress to show that she dragged
and stretched the webs as she walked across the forest path.
The beads were then added to

the lace. I painted “water drops”
to the end of the beads, making
them look dewy. I also added the
swirly designs to the bottom of
the dress on another layer. This
layer was set in mode “Overlay”,
I used a small round brush 5px
to add details. I also used the
fallen leaves stamp on the bot-
tom of her dress as well to give
it more texture.
Now I sprinkled “glitter” to the

dress and ribbon as well by sim-
ply use the small round edge
brush and stippled in the spar-
kles. Then I painted the ear-
rings and the ivy necklace, just
having fun adding more details
at this point.
CGArena

STEP 10 - Finally I came back
to her face. I modified and added
more flowers and details to her
head-piece. The hardest challenge
about painting the face for me is not
rendering her lashes, but keeping
the eyes aligned with each other
and other parts of the face. The
guide (which I mentioned before)
was really helpful; this way I can
render her soft features and detail-
ing away while keeping the facial
anatomy correct. Flipping the im-
age horizontally also helped to spot
mistakes.
For final detailing of the artwork,

I painted the finger nails and the
wrinkling of the knuckles to achieve
a more realistic look. Finally, I add-
ed freckles by painting random
brown dots on a separate layer that
is set to “Overlay” at 25% opacity.
In the final image, after I’ve saved my painting as a new file (file 27 at this point), I flattened the whole im-
age. I checked the consistency of the light source, making sure that everything was lit from left to right. For
the ivy leaves on the tree, the light doesn’t spread uniformly among each leaf, but shone on the clump as
a whole, with areas of lights and dark. To achieve this look I added a new overlay layer, added “light” to the
ivy leaves in the middle of the tree, added some darks were the wings were casting a diffused shadow, and
added light to the snails to direct the eyes to notice this detail.
For the very last step I flattened the image again, duplicate it, and set the duplicate layer on “Soft light” to sharpen
the painting. But doing this would increase the saturation of my artwork, so I go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/
Saturation and slide the Saturation slider to -60 (negative 60) to keep my colors consistent. I flattened the
image for the last time and saved file. All done!
Thank you for reading this walk-through. I hope it gave you an insight of my work process and that you found
it useful.
Website: http://shadowbrooke.yolasite.com
Email: shadowbrookestudio@gmail.com
Tutorial by Khalid Al Muharraqi, Kingdom of Bahrain
CGArena
Software:
Making of Lightwave, Modo, ZBrush

3D
Interested
INTRODUCTION
I was working on a project that requires me to recreate an environment from the middle east, this environ-
ment will have animals from our outback like horses, camels dears etc. One of the animals that I enjoyed
working on was the camel, and from there I have created several pieces just from that, like ‘Interested, ‘After
the Rain’, and ‘Black’.
CONCEPT AND REFERENCES
I start every project with research, this allows me to understand more what I want to do, and make a plan on
how to do it. After looking at many photos that related to the topic of camels, I wanted to have an adult and
a baby, and to have the camera at a low angle. In this image, it seems like the adult is an older male, that
was curious to approach the baby and the baby was overwhelmed with the size of the adult so... I called it
‘interested’.
CGArena
MODELING AND SCULPTING
I usually like to start with modeling, then test out the mesh in my sculpting application, this is a process that
will take place between Lightwave, to Modo, then go to ZBrush.
I usually have my image references ready, in this case, I know how a camel looks by heart since I have seen
them all my life.
I will start with a box then extrude geometry from it, this process will take a bit of time as I would want it to be
usable for other purposes such as animation and posing, Once I complete my base mesh using Lightwave
& Modo, then I will start sending it into ZBrush to create all the details for normal maps and displacements.
It took me about three days to get it to where I was satisfied.
UV’S & TEXTURED
After I have completed all the models and sculpts, I would then start to think about how textures would go
on my subject. Creating UV’s will help me in getting better results on the images with more control. I used
to work hard on Lightwave to create UV maps, then things got really easy with Modo, then things totally
changed-!! I used an amazing plug-in for ZBrush called UVmaster, it really took me about 10 minutes to get
it right. Life is so easy these days!!
Now the UV’s are done, I can export all my normal Maps, displacement maps, and what I usually do, I link
it to the object on Modo, then use Modo s sculpting tools to tweak it further, using Modo’s sculpting tool will
help me to get even better control on the results.
Painting textures something that I like to start off on ZBrush, once I get the general look of my canvas, I
CGArena
would then send it over to modo and get all the textures right like I want it.
CGArena
HAIR & FUR
For hair I used Fiber FX in Lightwave, hair design is not an easy process, it usually takes a lot to get it right.
Here I had to create black and white maps in Modo, and then test it out on Lightwave to see how well it
looks, the cool thing is that Modo uses Lightwave files like native files, so I play in Modo, save them, update
it in Lightwave and see the results immediately on the hair!! For the colors I use the same image maps that
are used for the skin.
RIGGI
For
CGArena
RIGGING & POSING
I like the rigging process, the only thing is, it does

take time to get things to move the way you want or
the way it should, but in the end, I can get amazing
results that can help me in posing the character in
the right way that I want to give for the setup that
I’ve created.
LIGHTING & RENDERING
Finally I light the camels in a scene using two dis-
tant lights and using Global Illumination from the colors

of the sky, I just wanted to capture that moment in time.
CGArena
POST PRODUCTION
Well in post, I usually fix any tiny bugs on the model, add all the moody feeling like the lens flares, the overall
colors.
Finally big thanks to CGArena and to all the readers, I hope that you enjoyed this basic and fast explanation
on how I think.
Web: www.muharraqi-studios.com
Email: khalid@muharraqi-studios.com
After the Rain
Black
Tutorial by Pedro Conti, Brazil
CGArena
Software:
Making of 3ds Max, Photoshop

3D
Hippopotamus
REFERENCES AND CONCEPT ART
Here are some references and the amazing concept done by

Lucas Leibholz. This is really important step of the work; you
can find details that will define the quality of the final work.
MODELING
I started using poly-by-poly modeling. Look-

ing at many references of hippopotamus my
main goal was to find the basic shapes and
to define the edge loops. The most impor-
tant of all is to pay attention to the camera
and see how the shapes and silhouettes are
working.
To fix the shapes, I also used the Paint De-

form SHIFT TOOL (3ds Max 2010). It’s a
powerful tool and really helpful in deforming
the mesh.
CGArena
Making of Hippopotamus
SCULPTING
I had a lot of fun doing the sculpting. With Standard brushes and alphas, I was able to quickly detail the
model.
For the Hair production I used a cone base mesh, than I used multiple FFD Boxes and bend modifiers to
deform the mesh. The annoying stage is to set the position of the hair manually. This is the best to control
and to give a natural aspect to the hairs. Here u can see the high-poly model with the hair.
CGArena
TEXTURING
The UV map is quite easy. I imported the model into UV LAYOUT and sepa-
rated the model in 3 parts: TOP, BOTTON and EARS.
I poly painted the mesh in 2 colors in ZBrush to determine the basic color map.
This is the best and faster way to preview the map on the High-poly model.
With this base I detailed the texture in Photoshop using brushes I reproduced
the color variation of the hippopotamus skin. I also used normal maps and
displacement maps to complete my texture. Selecting the green channel of
NORMAL MAP in object space you can have a nice “ambient occlusion effect”.
This is really helpful.
CGArena
I used a 7k texture because the final image needed a resolution 60 centimeters (300 DPI). The bump map is
a mix of 4 maps. The composite shader is amazing for this, it works perfect like a Photoshop layer manager
and you can have all control in the mix process.
LIGHTING
I used mental ray with Final Gather to render and used 8

Lights to simulate an oven light. In some lights I turned
on the “show icon on renderer” and used Inverse decay.
This option allows the Area light visible on render and in
this case acted as a light bulb effect. I also created a Self
illuminated white plane (invisible to Final gather) to create
a nice window reflection on the character. Final Gather in
low preset and 1 diffuse bounce was perfect.
For the shaders I used Mental ray Arch&Design and SSS

Skin + (mi). This is a modified version of default SSS Skin
but contains the perfect A&D reflections and Ambient Oc-
clusion.
You can download this shader from http://mentalraytips.

blogspot.com/search?q=sss , Thanks to MasterZap to
share.
I divided the render in 2 stages: Main render and Additional passes (additional reflection, falloff effect, furs,
z-depth, etc). The main render (7K) was completed in 29 hours in a Quad Core, 4GB of Ram. This is really
slowly but I was using the models (320.000 polys) and textures in high res.
CGArena
POST WORK
In the Photoshop I had control of color and mood. It is much easier to control the entire composition using
separated passes. I separated the parts (head, eyes, apple, hair & fur) in folders and I worked individually
in each one.
For the droplets, Adriano Zagottis took photography of sprayed water on a Gray ball, and it was applied by
hand in Photoshop.
Well, this is a complete Bras-

temp Hippopotamus making
off. If you have something to
say, anything at all, feels free
to mail me.
CREDITS:
3D Artist: Pedro Conti
Composition: Pedro Conti

and Adriano Zagottis
Art Direction: Rodrigo Bom-

bana
DM9 DDB - TECHNO IMAGE

Client: Brastemp
Blog: contipedro.blogspot.com
Email: pedro_conti@hotmail.com
Please consider the environment before printing this magazine.
Save Paper. 100% Environment Respect.
Tutorial by Dilip Suthar, India
CGArena
Software:
Making of Stewie Maya, 3ds Max

3D
“Hello to all the 3D artists . . . being a professional, amateur and learner . . . may be of a different age, dif-
ferent experience of work, different taste or ambitions while working with such a fantastic world of 3D. I am
absolutely glad and happy to share with you my experience of making a 3D model of a cartoon character
named ‘Stewie’. It is my absolute pleasure to share my knowledge that I did learn while making this model
up to the final output. Thank you so much.”
“Before making this model, I took a reference image of ‘Stewie’ from which I could at least imagine how he
would look with my work. Here is the reference image of the character.”
MODELING
Model of Stewie in Maya - “All Right. So here we are. As we all know, any 3D artist can easily make a simple
base model of a character in Maya with a proper understanding of loops and angles. The same basic rules
have been used by me here to make a simple mesh model of ‘Stewie’. It’s been really so flexible for me to
make it as I did go step by step method while going ahead. You can see it in the step by step images of the
model in process.”
CGArena
Making of Stewie
I took a Box and gave it smooth Then I made it spherical accord- A bit details
ing to the shape of the model
Oral Details Complete Mesh Model
TEXTURING
“General unwrapping of UVWs is needed for any organic kind of a model. So with the unwrapping tech-
niques, I opened its UVWs by usual methodology. I guess there is no need to say ‘How I made it’ isn’t
it? . . .lolz.”
“To give a proper feel of clothes, here I have used some textures which helped a lot to make it feel like
CGArena
Making of Stewie
a real cloth.
Here the texture is going to be used A bit detail (just simple tiling) more accuracy
for Stewie’s pants.
Red Overlay Shadows n shallows to make a Some highlights to make a feel of

definition a real clothing
“Here, by this image you’ll understand the difference between

‘Now and Then’.”
A simple Vray shaders making settings for Stewie’s T-Shirt and pants.
Just a bit imagination, some software settings and a correct thought process of ‘colors’ and you’ll get the
best results from yourself. OK, now we go ahead.
Page 46
CGArena
Making of Stewie
RENDERING
This is a part where the ‘ambience’ comes into the scene. Without ambience, anybody won’t understand
the imagination of an artist without any explanation by anybody. So here, to make a ‘Cute Ambience’, I have
used the ‘Global Ambience Maker’ i.e. ‘Vray Plugin’. It really helped me to do justice with my model and
made it a presentable one. Just check the Vray Properties that I used here while rendering my Stewie with
some basic spot light.
This is what I got.
CGArena
Making of Stewie
I also rendered Diffuse Filter for

my post work
SKIN TEXTURE
Though the whole scene is rendered in Vray renderer, there was an excep-
tion i.e. ‘Skin Rendering’. Because, for skin I have used a ‘SSS’ shader in
Mental Ray and then I composed it in Photoshop to show it more realistic.
Here are the SSS settings.
CGArena
Making of Stewie
LIGHTING
Lighting this scene was not a big deal. Because I haven’t

used much complicated light settings for this scene. The
main reason behind lights for this scene is to make my
Stewie look better. That’s it. Because there is no Hardcore
background or anything fantasizing stuff except the organic
model. So I did use 3 lights.
Those are
1 Key Light (intensity 0.5)
1 Fill Light (intensity 0.3) and
1 Back Light (intensity 0.5)
You can see it in this following image showing the Light

Placement in the scene.
POST - PRODUCTION
So we finally came to our last stage of ‘Mission Stewie’. Basically I love post production because I love mak-
ing my models more and more realistic and comprehensively detailed one. For that, all I needed to have is
a true imagination of Stewie in my own mind to do its post production. And after that it was DONE.
So Ladies and Gentlemen, after 16 hrs of work on my ‘Mission Stewie’, on next page you can see the Final
Render Output of this character. I hope you liked it. That’s all folks!!! Thank you so much. Keep doing the
good work in 3D. Njoy!!!!!.
Portfolio: dilipcan.cgarena.com
Email: dilipcan@gmail.com
Tutorial by Alexander Skachkov, Bulgaria
CGArena
Software:
Making of I’m the Photoshop

2D
Godfather
Hi, my name is Alexander Skachkov. I will try to explain the steps that lead to the creation of “I’m the godfa-
ther”, which I made using Photoshop CS5 and Wacom Intuos 4 tablet. The brushes which I used are:
STEP 1: SKETCH - I started with the sketch directly in Photoshop

CS5, mainly to test the new brushes included in the software. The idea was
just to draw some character. I decided that the rabbit will be the boss of the
forest – the Godfather.
CGArena
Making of I’m the Godfather

STEP 2: DIRECTION OF THE LIGHT AND POSITIONING THE LIGHT
SOURCE
In this stage I defined the direction of the light and

the placing of the light source. I continued with lay-
ing the cast shadows and the drop shadows. Then
I put some more elements in the surrounding area
and more texture which I achieved using rough
Round Bristle Brush.
STEP 3: TEXTURING
I continued with texturing the cortex, the clothes

and the fur of the rabbit and I was using mainly
standard brushes, but I made few custom ones
which were also used, after this I added few more
details. I spent more time working on the lights
and the dark spots in order to give depth and vol-
ume to the painting. For darkening I mainly used
dark tone in layer of Color Mode Multiply, situated above

the main one. For the light places – layer of Layer Mode
Screen or Overlay and I draw with a bright tone.
CGArena

STEP 4: ENVIRONMENT
I started with dividing the different grounds

of the painting (foreground, mid-ground
and background). Simple brush with hard
edges, Hard Mechanical Brush with turned
on Opacity Jitter – Pen Pressure, I started
painting grass in the foreground. For the
mid and background I used besides the pre-
vious brush also Round Point Low Bristle.
While the whole process I flipped the paint-
ing often – this help finding mistakes and in-
correct spots, which in the previous position
could not be found.
STEP 5: COLORING
I started coloring in a new layer in Layer

Mode Color, situated above all. Hard Me-
chanical Brush with soft edges, Opacity Jit-
ter – Pen Pressure, Opacity 10-20% were
the things which I was using. Al-
ways do your work in different lay-
ers, so you can change anything
anytime without wasting the time
and work already did.
STEP 6: FINALIZING
I formatted the painting in propor-

tions, which were looking in the
best way when the unnecessary
parts were removed by me. With
New Adjustment Layer – Hue &
Saturation I managed to increase
the saturation of the whole paint-
ing. In the layer above it I started
painting plants, grass, additional
elements, tones on the clothes
and the fur of the rabbit, texture
on the cortex of the stalk of the
mushroom and on its hat, also
CGArena

put some more work in the background. With the help of a
layer in mode Overlay I added more expression on the paint-
ing achieving that while working more on shadows and lights.
Hope you have learned something from the explanation giv-

en, if you have any doubts or questions then don’t hesitate to
email me.
Web: www.skachkov.eu
Email: alexander@skachkov.eu
Have you created your
CG Por tfolio?
www.cgarena.com/por tfolio
Antonio Peres Filho, Brazil
juniorperes2005@hotmail.com
3ds Max, Photoshop
Artur Owsnicki, Poland
a.owsnicki@gmail.com
3ds Max, ZBrush, Mental Ray
mahmmoud SALAH ali, Egypt
power_3d@hotmail.com
3ds Max, ZBrush
Kenichi Nishida, Japan
kenichi.nishida@gmail.com
Maya, Mudbox, Mental Ray
Emre Dagtekin, Turkey
emre-dagtekin@hotmail.com
3ds Max, Final Render
Dani Garcia Fornés, Spain
woody@woodys3d.com
3ds Max, ZBrush
Brunet Nicolas, France
dilandaudark@hotmail.com
3ds Max, Mental Ray
Jose Alves da Silva, Portugal
jose.zeoyn@gmail.com
3ds Max, ZBrush
Daniil V. Alikov, Russia
info@alikov.net
Maya, Mental Ray
Rodrigo Banzato, Brazil
banzato@tonka3d.com
3ds Max, Photoshop
How to send in your images...
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Here’s how to get yours noticed
Upload Images through Website

Follow this link http://www.cgarena.com/submit.php
This is by far the quickest and easiest way to send your images to us.
To Advertise: contact@cgarena.com

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CGArena

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4, AUG - SEP 10

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

05 Interview Carlos Ortega Elizalde

Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi, India

Phoenix Fluid Dynamics is Prime Focus Software Releases

The VES Handbook of Visual Effects: Industry Standard VFX Prac-

tion, to digital character creation. In-depth lessons on stereoscopic mov-

Carlos Ortega Elizalde Really don’t care

I was working in an advertising agency

Q. Please tell us what you enjoying

I love to model characters the most. I

Carlos Ortega Elizalde

Q. Have you ever worked for

Not yet unfortunately, but I hope

Carlos Ortega Elizalde

Carlos Ortega Elizalde

Carlos Ortega Elizalde

Q. What is your source of inspiration and how do

I personally get inspired by several things; nature, mu-

Q. For an upcoming artist can you give some word

I know it may sound obvious but practice is the one

Making of Leaves Photoshop

I used a guide to align fa-

Making of Leaves of Greens

Working at 100%, I redefined the facial features and

STEP 3 - Here I started to add texture, such as

For the moss, I created a hand-painted custom brush.

In this small example I added moss on a rock. Using

Making of Leaves of Greens

Making of Leaves of Greens

Making of Leaves of Greens

STEP 9 - Adding more details!

I painted the thin webs on the separate

The beads were then added to

Now I sprinkled “glitter” to the

Making of Leaves of Greens

For final detailing of the artwork,

Making of Lightwave, Modo, ZBrush

CONCEPT AND REFERENCES

UV’S & TEXTURED

I like the rigging process, the only thing is, it does

LIGHTING & RENDERING

Finally I light the camels in a scene using two dis-

tant lights and using Global Illumination from the colors

Making of 3ds Max, Photoshop

Here are some references and the amazing concept done by

I started using poly-by-poly modeling. Look-

To fix the shapes, I also used the Paint De-

I used mental ray with Final Gather to render and used 8

For the shaders I used Mental ray Arch&Design and SSS

You can download this shader from http://mentalraytips.

Well, this is a complete Bras-

3D Artist: Pedro Conti

Composition: Pedro Conti

Art Direction: Rodrigo Bom-

DM9 DDB - TECHNO IMAGE

Making of Stewie Maya, 3ds Max

Oral Details Complete Mesh Model

Red Overlay Shadows n shallows to make a Some highlights to make a feel of

“Here, by this image you’ll understand the difference between