SIGGRAPH 2019 THE BIGGEST EVENT IN CG! Sh: [HE STATE INSPIRING CG ARTISTS Dorr Ue erg tools, tips and tale (Ly | CORONA RENDERER | RENDERER Tae Wi im & Pe (hy hy Heh Pits oo tr UL THE SCENESLIGHTFQRGE ACADEMY Your Bridge to the Creative Industries Courses starting Jan 2020; Nuke 2D VFX | Maya 3D VFX | Advanced Maya for 3D Perea a atu unoa id rues Ne ce aE aC ec as) Reet acer ea ene ee aa Coe eee tet oe Oc) Teese Cua) Peni) Tecan aoe eg iDy rT a BOBO ena eIWELCOME EDITOR'S WELCOME ® Els This issue, discover the power of virtual reality ‘SuocRAMA2m9 TEBE EEN TA, a VR has popped up a few times over the years, but the tech hasn't quite been able to satisfy the expectations. That has now changed and the hardware is not only capable but also affordable, so this issue we explore the best VR has to offer. ob Rob Redman, Editor rob.redman@futurenet.com, SPOTLIGHT ON OUR CONTRIBUTORS Donovan Dousas (ten and intustytirer aon ries the second pat ot his ogg couse hiss help oui mat an ter udonoran con Naya eemy ayaa 30 ati cn amar ese the UK She stared er corn 02 making ad P”sinsig racers Out. asemvartion com Weesite FacenooK SDWORLD Ociot atime lan Fales Fatia SNP atti or lan aepdeconibt to ten yes of eparace ekg in Wor ann hiss e pes igh and, val eft on betind te scones tik tcc erp and conspig. soztiniecon cui Pavia ke riggs att ad Ut desig Oi Paa Mia igs is 2 90a isi ots lnaurone ais ie. wth arist ita egtience aos te is qui, fn cara stein inst, tic be hrs on ages 2 ir eal, nour Basics rota. sani arabe com mete om INSTAGRAM TwirTeR votin caAhan 3. youtube.com/user/SdwortdCONTENTS «., Discover the best new digital art from the CG community, starting on page 8 REMUS Exclusive behind- cenes access to the latest CG technology, film VFX and video game art 28 MILK: CREATING. PRO-LEVEL CG ASSETS 18 MASTERS OF [VIRTUAL] REALITY ‘36 MASTER RENDERING: EXPERT COMPOSITING TIPS REVEALED Mi \We explore the many areas in which VR echo: ishaving a huge angela Gara delvershis tn tap tps for achieving top-quality impact, from revolutionary medical work to immersive garing 3D WORLE 4TUTORI: Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills 2 CREATE A PRE-RIGGED ROBOT PART 2 50 TIPS FOR A SMARTER ARCHVIZ WORKFLOW an Douglas 2 shows us haw ta work mone efficiently Locate poygon cece sndasrarn creeped pees strates how to convert CAT Oscar ‘56 ADVANCED LIGHTING AND RENDERING WITH NOTCH Discover the power of Notchs rey racing features for creating a realistic architectural scene wth offthe-shelf materials, meshes and lighting SUCTLE News and views from around the international CG industry ‘84 ENHANCING ADVERTS WITH CG Keith Rogers, snior 3D ast at Smoke & Mirors, eevals the work that goes into creatively enhancing an with CG and post effects, while following a client's brief SDWORLD 5 TUTORIALS ‘ABASICS: ANIMATE 3D FLUIDS Mike Griggs provides a quick guide to creat fui simulations ‘BOOTCAMP: FUSION 360 2 software Discaver this ARTIST O&A ‘76 YOUR CS PROBLEMS SOLVED Pro artists solve your queries INSIGHT 61 sear 29 Ge key sp 88 IN SINC ‘VK supowiso S bouthis cine Sync throughout his career 90 PRO THOUGHTS Jamie Curie at Immersive clscusss the importance of sound design ‘92.VR SOFTWARE GROUP TEST Five VR applications are put tthe test— which one should ‘26SUBSCRIPTIONS ‘TUBACK ISSUES Complete your collection 9BFREE DOWNLOADS Images and videosare NEXT MONTH Rien me clUe ies Mer lune HIS @==| | SEs: cw stsnace Qrrecycle 3D WORLD 6 suoscees room cantCHAOS CLOUD Simple cloud rendering f Cree ew oreSL eS The best digital art from the CG communityCOWBOYS > wes AD 02x Nervous besgnr ender, ec) ‘This cinematic piece allowed ers esr easy ea eee PaaS ett the mood, set narrative and tll the story Discussing the details of his artistic process, he tells 3D World. Peon bred 3D and used Marvelous Designer to ar ae eee eT} ee ee eerste tor eee se is often more efficient and accurate Cea ene ‘World Creator to generate height ea rere Coenen Pe ee ey Initially Saber found learning ae eee ees process. “It can be a challenge to put yourselfin the mindset to dive into ‘different software. Once you get out ‘of your comfort zone and yet used to See ots Pree} ete ereda an ay . oa Ai he ry fe Sey Ja eee Ep peave ed ; Peer f dese Pp ‘Created over three days in six-to eee een te ‘eatching image was created to show Peete coe tee Penn recognised by the people who live hhere, butt shows the truest senery Ce ieee eeeee ete 4 et eresn tren Peer eter ead imported to Marvelous Designer Cet a eee oe ces sketching ideas down before he eT ee coer) ‘concept in my brain and start ‘making it," he says. "It always comes ‘out with a different result fromthe Peete eer peace eter ar a workflow for every project.” Creree ng around with ZBrush in the early Sacre coho) earn Snr ai cs ee ee Per ees Prgeter ene ere eee neg eeea 8K Blackmagicdesign @ a Introducing Fusion Studio 16! Now with accelerated GPU performance for 3D, tools, trackers, masks and more! Fusion has been used to create the visual effects and motion graphics fon thousands of Hollywood blockbuster fms and telvision shows Fuson Stuco 16 sa massive update that brings all ofthe improvements ‘made to Fusion inside DaVinci Resolve tothe stand alone version, ‘of Fusion, As well as dramatically faster performance, theinterface has. been completely updated, New GPU Acceleration DaVinci Resolve 16 with Fusion Free Fusion Studio 16 £239" www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk en© SHOWCASE DRAW YOUR WEAPONS aemist anus Step SOFTWARE Bush, Maye, Sistnce ait, Ca Pataep This dynamic image took fulltime clothing. “Itoole me some ame architectureand design experimentation to figure out student, Manel itompl, 20 hw to approach this problem, hours complete.“Thebiggest _Sitompul explains, “I started thing wanted tonal inhi by creating simple dress project was the emotion,’ he Marvelous Designer, which tells3D World.-Thegilisan allowed meto create realistic reibly ferociouscharacter__ereasesinthe lothing” filled with rage. Those kinds of For Sitompal, presentation emotions arent easy rotranslate crucial tsellinga character into model, but Ttookit ‘Youean spend hundreds of ssachallenge hours ona project" he ays, “but ~~, Sitompulbeganby creating ifyoudon't presentitright, people ablockoutin Ztirush, andthe will sss out For this project hhuman-shaped bobsallowed _earedalotabou the character's him co quickly establish the mation, so I tried to take that character's anatomy andstyle. __intoaeeount when presenting. One ofthe biggest challenges for Adding simple pedestal wouldnt the artist was fguringout _bevery immersive, so Tdecided howto create thegit's _ tocreateasmall animated forest ‘wrinkled environment around the gir” ‘© atstatoncom/ncanyGaga! Pulldownit 4 destruction plugin wwwipulldownhiteon: La ele Cal ae. Olmedo) is an advanced dynamics & fracture fool, by using it you can shatter your 3D models Oe OA RU Ren tLe THINKINETICCrd foneaE) ec er ce oe ey Senior character artist Nikita Khrushch ee ee Cas See ee erent sty ee ee pete een ne ree Khrushch. “There's no unusual techniques, pete ee Cnn i nee oe Pees een eee LT finish creating the base mesh, I willadd some details to make the image more spectacular,” Pee eer eet ees eee ee en eee tea SHOWCASE ® to try new things. “Iknow Tean use new ee ery eee eee ad Panera ea et areas to Khrushch that he moves the project into AD software as quick as possible, only usin; tee ce ee eee Toe eerie teed and materiality of elements,” he ex also upload my image in Photoshop to think about colour combinations. That helps me to re eee! Poe ene eet Prey eyCrd fone ana ~ ALIENS run es Rad brush, Maye, Substance ees ee eee treed Marezak started work on this faithful recreation of the Aliens protagonist, he gathered a bunch of useful references CO Re a og capture the look of Ellen Ripley from Pera s ers “The intention was to ereate alow-poly character with a PER approach.” Poe een ee Ey mixture of software and techniques, Rene ees ar Seay rical when seulpting. “The Ps ec er Sree ee eee td Se eee ed Reece ene ‘Marezak used hair eards in XGen eS ee created several air strands, converted them to tubes and baked appropriate ‘maps inxNormal.In order toa Ee Ree eee ee)Looking for work? Thousands of active global job vacancies feta Erg jobs direct to Sel ane ES MP aei ci) : i 4 ac lovedesignjobs powered by [ijcreativesioa Web Developers Web Design CG Artists pyri |W aa) www.lovedesignjobs.com Looking for Staff? Call James on his bat-phone TODAY on 07973 290 109 or email him on james@lovedesignjobs.comaM aaa aDRS Ora US| UamU UCU IAL LUN STEP INSIDE AND VISUA, MASTERS OF REALITY 3D World gathers the creators and innovators that are using virtual reality technology to change the world around them decade, 3D World has gathered explain how they ae training the mn of surgeons. CAX experts and innovatorsin the field, next gen ‘To begin, Vietor Brodin, Discavery also share details of their snager for Unreal revolutionary new platform for Engine,diseusseshow game engine discovering life-saving drugs in VR. twchnology is powering the next For any 3D artists who are looking to make the jamp into eal the virtual world, rundown ofthe e modelling cools, cour World editor Rob Redman,FEATURE oe ni eer fms the prVR sais piste iscurenty val fra, with Esai sing aan uve der innate youaste er, nt isu be ably ‘wiwoctwrh ‘Sus wxidin wapsthathve ree eens ere Engine has long been he most powerful tools ata developer's disposal, and now that power is being utilised onawhole new generation of virtual reality experiences. The engine's highly versatile range of features and capabilities makes ian ideal platform for the! or individuals behind these VR projects. “Its difficult for me to Single out any of Unteal Engine’ ndividual features, s so many have een integral in my five of developing VR experiences,” says Vietor Brodin, community manager st Unreal Engine, There are several waysin which Unreal Engine simplifies the process ofereating in VR, as Brodin explains: “Prom design to implementation, there's alot that an happen when you're creating VR experiences, Through Unreal Engine’ ‘ut of the box’ support for all major XR platforms, as well asits Blueprint visual scripting language, you ean prototype and iterate quickly between user testing, Once you have implemented your design, you can then take advantage of he fact, that the platform-agnostie seripes you've been using will work across several devices, including mobile, PC and console. “Finally, the ability to natvise [hueprints from their binary state into C fs incredibly valuable, ait 20 ‘ean significantly reduce the amount ofengineeringeffort VR technology is evolving incredibly rapid rate and Unreal ‘work tirelessly to stay ahead of the mninggthere are very few limitations to wha can be achieved. “We shipped a major rendering release,” says Hrodin. “The new rendering refractor contains aslew ‘of performance improvement but most notably includes support for real-time ray-traced lighting, shadows and reflections. Doin this in VR is currently not yet supported, but users can expect ‘updates, some arriving as soon as version 4.28 stares in futureee Cas en ee ‘iscitacaesat — uoguatapeaaeaes "TT GIVES A TRULY IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE THAT IS ONLY POSSIBLE ON THE QUEST” Colin Mackie, design director, Vader Immortal orl tin ulyCav Dee Pe eee nt enone Cee Ree oma eaten) ee ena) ea areas pate ete eee estes cre rare ea Rn ey traditional painting app but isin fact full 3D. Artistic ee rE eet rare) Se en ees Peete rere reee eC eear Cea) een eed ec ce that's fair. Gravity Sketch isa full-on VR content Creation app, but it has some really cool and intuitive eee eee ots og ec net ok ar crerctcy cee ne eaten eer or reer Or some interest peer oa ty peer tee! Tae oa ee ean een ee eas ey ee ee i nid eee allow you to create content ina truly et ee ee) recreate arene some time moving to the beat and using a pait of ee ee el Dee enc “FUTURE ENTERTAINMENT WILL PROVIDE AN INCREASING AMOUNT OF AGENCY FOR THE PARTICIPANT... THE LINES BETWEEN REALITY AND FICTION WILL DISSIPATE” Vietor Brodin, community manager, Unreal Engine ick you from th 3 behind you. You reallymaterials that the team were able touse the original Darth Vader helmet as material reference. "The ki iterations,” MacKie continues, “We ghtsaber went through many dlissected the films frame by frame, ‘Ang of course, Skywalker Sound ‘was our audio team so that ensured the sounds would be as authentic as the visuals Many aspects of play are becoming standardised across VR experiences, ue to hundreds of hours ofin-the-field user testing “These are not only familiar to VRusers, bucare very practical solutions." adds MacKie, “Those features that fit the Star Wars theme of our experience, we used, yout lightsaber at the waist it nicely into our fiction. For those that we felt were not in keeping swith the aesthetic or funetional needs of ou story, we spent time creating our own solutions.” A good ‘example ofthis are the user hands that allow the player to grab hold of items inthe virtwal world Despite looking great across ulus? Quest and Rife platforms, ‘making Vader Immortal avirtval reality came with its fair share of challenges. “Vader Immortal started out asa lin that didn’t even have a role for the ar: Ra Wk rege locate ype valchaughset vis ser bulings Urea sie tows Wi aRand mid realy eatasta ree vs big anerates Ue supa vt projets cross plas suchas els it TE ire, PStation VR Feaye Rand mre audience member," recalls Mackie, they were simply a witness to the ‘events like a movie?” ILMxLAB ‘Quickly realised the power that VR has to immerse the audience ina story and its setting “You fel like you are actually there,” MacKie says, "so ifthe characters in the story ignore you, itactually feels like you are being ignored; not an awesome feeling." ILMSLAB took a small team and created a prototype with ‘one question to answer: what if Darth Vader spoke to you? “That prototype beeame the prison cell in Bpisode I,” McKie add. “That was a bg lesson, butone of hundreds we learned on the way VISUALISING THE FUTURE (CAX are busy utilising the latest technology t aid in their mission of project uses VR to pioneer the creation ofa specialised visualiser rch scientists to that allows re view, understand and in drug molecules. “Having n these shapes using the company’s proprietary Conformetrix technology, this 4D molecular data can then be visualised and manipulated to inspire the design of drug molecules in new and 2 FEATURE® ways," explains Craig Fox, C4Xs chief scientific oficer. ‘Work on the project started with a feasibility study in mid-2016 and inital ests took place using Google Cardboard and an Android phone,” recalls Fox. C4X's research into game engines demonstrated synergy between the scientists’ requirements and the gaming technology available. “The team investigated the suitability of Unreal Engine for the real-time rendering oftheir 4D molecular data," he continues. "Pus, ts VR capability offered seientists the opportunity to actually step inside and visualise those druggmolecules. A games developer was employed tobuild che 4Sight system that hhasnow replaced C4Xs existing visualiser Envision” Sight uses VR to realise its goal of discovering drugs that are effective for thet intended purpose, which is no simple feat even with traditional methods, “Ie all starts with the shape and behaviours of molecules,” Fox recalls, He compares the task of pairing the right drag molecules swith their target proteins inthe suman body to thet of finding good dancing partner. “The ‘molecule has tobe the right shape >oe: May ot a’ tayinages arene by inortns or besa that ce toi tteeay > to grab onto its dancing partner, the target protein, and they have to ‘move at the same time inthe same way, atthe same rate” ‘Chemists at CAX are currently using virtual reality technology t0 develop drugs tha teat respiratory ‘conditions and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and dementia. C4X have also partnered with Indivior to target development ‘ofa drug that treats addiction. “Our proprietary database records an unusaly high level ‘ofinformation about exch drwg molecule and the different shapes itadopts, as well as which ones are preferred and which ones are more rate?’ Fox continues, “Chemists tend to be visually oriented people and until now their imaginative work has been limited by not being SDWORLD Octo able to visualise molecules in any ‘great detail. the past, ike other chemists, they'd use plastic ‘ball aand-stiek’ models to represent drug molecules. Using VR was transformative, because al of sudden, they are able to see the molecule rightbefore them, as well asthe range of shapes it might take, land they are ableto manipulate them ifthey re objects that are partof their environment.” 24 user/3dworld capture the complexity of this dance, so that the chemists can ‘understand what choice tomake, and which partner is the best one togowith.*The ultimate goal ‘of 4Sight ito optimise the drug design process at C4X by allowing us to get the most design insights from our proprietary data,” admits Fox. “This in turn will help us create new medicines for patients.”Beingat the cutting edge of technological advancement means that C4X are able to quickly implement new features and advancement into their 45 pplication, putting them ina prime position to take advantage of {nyprovements in the development of VR, AR and mixed reality, “VR is important tous now to really sve into the complexities of our AD data, but we see AR becoming more important for usability within a normal working environment says Fox He continues: “Using Oculus Rifeand HTC Vive provides the users with a fully immersive environment. This gives the scientists the same tactile feclingthatis experienced using ‘traditional physical ball-and-stik models, but virtual overlays bring rich information into play. The system has the added advantage ofbbeing able to quickly display graphs and query databases, and its predictive engine automates many ofthe scientists tasks, Currently Sights a data visualisation col that provides design insights when examining molecules that have already been synthesised, Fox adds: “The next stages to build indesign functionality and ultimately incorporate a predictive engine based on what 4D shape future molecules will be.” C4X believe that his technology, when combined with other cutting-edge science, will playa key role in the future of drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry > WORLE 25 FEATURE® corsa visuals tak wiles the same tehndey wea create te ppd videogame tate {3ght lows the scent tO sty tapes and botaiouset doy eee etre combing te1g) SUBSCRIBE TO wary 3D WORLD TODAY Use our exclusive code db65erv at checkout * Swe 0 10SIGGRAPH 2019 THE BOGEST ERR WITHA \ BSS SUBSCRIPTION YOU WILL... * Save money off the cover price Never miss an issue * Receive 13 issues in a year * Have each one delivered to your door or ready to download as soon as they go on-sale! PRINT DIGITAL SAVE O/ : 1% Secor MONTHS —€13.40 £775 1 YEAR £54.52 £2950 MYFAVOURITEMAGAZINES.CO.UK Voucher Code: db65crv (online use only)FEATURE CREATING PRO- LEVEL CG ASSETS The first part of 3D World’s in-depth coverage of Milk VFX’s pipeline, and inside their work on major television shows and films cow do shots get made Inside avisual effects studio? Who works ‘on them? What tools do they use? How do problems get solved? These ae just some ofthe {questions 3D World will be answering in anew multi-part series focusing on the London: based visual effects studio Milk ‘VEX, an outfit that began in 2014 and thathas been part of projects such asthe Oscar-winning Ex ‘Machina, the romantic drama Adrift, and the Amazon/BBC series {Good Omens, which is based on the impending-apocalypse novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaim: amonggmany other television shows and films, This 3D World series begins swith a look at how assets are generated at Milk, and subsequent pieces will dive into animation, ceavironments, FX and compositing Each part, too, includes a special tips and tricks session direct from Milk VEX artists on the tools they use every day. Anything from creatures to Ihard-surface vehicles go through Milk’ assets department, which also gets involved in bidding and visualisation atthe early stages ofa VEX project." They'rea department that wealways come back to asthings develop through the process says senior visual effects producer Jenna Powell, who, with Milks visual effets supervisor Jean-Claude Deguara, oversaw the studio's work on Good Omens We ean always come back tothe asset team to keep developing and keep improving ~it’s the essence ‘ofcollaboration across every other team, they influence every other team inthe process. ‘Mills assets team works predominantly in Autodesk Maya and Arnold, “Mostly we use Maya toget the main base-part geometry done, and then do seulptingin ZBrush, then we make maps in ‘Mudbox, and texture in Mati explains head of modelling Sam Lucas. “We use mainly Maya for rigging, but we've got our own proprietary rigging tools that will be written in Python to create the rigs for us. And then we've been using Ziva VEX for ft, skin and smuseles, and Yet for grooming: Zivaisa relatively new addition tothe Milk toolset, as is Cronobo VEX’s Nexture, a mico-details piece of software used to add minute skin and pore detailsto CG models via artificial neural networks. Milk was able to experiment and deploy these new tools on Good Omens for some ‘ofthe major creatures including Satan and the Hellhound, WORLD 28 Tap The pce station ith maple ngs a tr gi Fig Ascent ‘Asia bik Mik hafta came eran waves lest nd eter Ail ener x the’ pls is att tects mate set loud dig rake tconean) seas psileCig reser GOING MICRO MILK VFX HEAD OF MODELLIN 3 NEW MICRO-DETAIL TEXTURING CRONOBO VFX WAS UHellhound was a tough asset, admits CG supervisor Adrian Williams “Originally we thought wwe were going todo a fully CG Helllound, but then became ‘more ofa head replacement. So that was kindof tricky, the line up, ‘making sure the fur was the same kind of texture, ditection, and just the look overall Ultimately, are as reference ‘or greensereen backing, Mill then tracked the live action and ‘matchmoved a CG head onto the animal for close-up shots, “We ‘were basically replicating a Great Dane's head, and then would make the ears pointy and hollow out the eyes,” describes Lucas, “And then ‘weld make the teeth biggerto get more aggressive looks: dog was filmed sgainst a bluescreen Ri hard on getting the right blend shapes fr the Hellhound’s face “We gave set of blend shapes to ing-wise, the team worked the animators, but we also gave them alot of caneros around the mouth so they could then animate the lips themselves? says head of rigging Neil Roche. “After that we then layered up the extra soft body, including with Ziva,on top to make the jowls really swing around? Inthe final episode of Good Omens, Satan emerges with destructive intentions, Milks assets department were initially tasked with realising the character ‘more in silhouette form, but eventually Satan (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) was in fact shown in much higher detail and even up close. Says Lucas: "We had to go back tnd pretty much re-sealpt him. We had todo blend shapes for him already, but because he was built in acertain way to begin with, itwas allabout trying to undo what we'd done to make him able to talk, We ineer the blend had to reverse-en shapes to give him expressions that would relax his face abit. The clients also wanted us to put some of enedict Cumberbateh's facial 3D WORLC a FEATURE landmarks into Satan as well so fcr ik Sala, the sas ‘uum ampayed va ad Nee that was again another sort of iteration of modelling weak. Nexture and Ziva helped with miero-pore details and sft-body simulations for Satan, respectively tan was a full Ziva build, for instance," says Roche, “We built ‘muscles, fat, skin and bones for Satan, And the Helllound was justthe soft-body work around the mouth, lke the jowls. Usher, another character, was some soft body work, but we did a Ziva cloth sim aeross the skin ust to give him ‘extra wrinkles.” Rendering Satan's red skin ‘would prove another challenge ‘We went through quite afew versions of determining the right red, where we needed more variation, more colour more pigmentation to keep it tore: he ela wasted on est Cine es. 2 enn tte uch set© FEATURE creature-esque but bringin human qualities,” says Williams, “Once we gotthat ri hen we had extra deal ike eracks and dust and bits and obs just to really break hina ‘out and hold him out HE ART OF ANGEL WING Aziraphale and Crowley both sport wings at various points in uunder-wwing with geometry initially Lucas, “we extracted et nd we and put All the feathers ‘had individual controls, so the through the fea well, hich looked realy nce calised we could drive this haders so that was kind of ry had litle marke approach, We looked their back where the wings were ‘meant to come out, but quite often didnt actual itd’ feel lke they shape or right postion, so there was lot of form, you just saw the silhouette, noodling with where the base of elo Mikiidee and so then we could just define the wing would be on the actor: Ywitotlp es ut feathers through the shader. Aziraphale’s white feathers the ange wings iz were also the hardest to lookdev, fo God Gens ACE, DISINTEGRA D GOING OUT TO SEA ia its own unique which kind of Bach feather had BODIE de of white, Boxom: Wns cit all up. We loktevin aye q EACH FEATHER HAD ITS OWN UNIQUE S OF WHITE, WHICH KIND OF BROKE IT ALL UF supervisor, Milk VFX Adrian Williams, 3D WORLD 2building muli-inged space stations, like on Origin, and then on another have tocome up with away ‘disintegrate a woman's body, as they did for Altered Carbon, Then there were the at-sea moments in Adrift requiring many different digital assets ‘The disintegrating body for Altered Carbon began with aplate ‘of woman splashing into a body ‘of water as reference, withthe final character effect achieved in CG We built the character completely inside-out, so we had skeleton, muscles, nerves and veins, and then fat layer” says Lucas. “There wasi'ta lot of movement when she was in the water” adds Roche, “so we ust posed the rig up sculpted i further, then did another rig in that position so we could have lite bitof movement ‘onthe arms and legs. We also nad to do fabric in the wacer as partof the decay, Then itwent ro FX and they did the rest with the similations of the disintegration.” For Adrift, Baltasar Kormikur’s film about ewo lovers who suffer ‘catastrophic pitch pole’ while sailing, Milk VFX ereated several ey moments. This included stormy ‘waves (more about those in a future part ofthis series) and the moment the pair's boat is tossed around in ‘one seamless camera move. That shot involved close collaboration with several departments, since it ‘would combine live action, digital boat pieces digi-doubles of the actors, water sims and significant compositing and massaging “There were four ot five separate camera setups that we hnad to stiteh together across three different environments,” explains Lucas, “We had the boat shot on the gimbal, where the acrors were behind the wheel. Another shot ‘wasin front of them. And then the actress descends inta the inside of the cabin - parts of which were sothat was the third setup. And then there wasastunt double who ‘was inside another set that was on another spinning gimbal for when sherralls and falls over “ SDWORLD October 2019 37 youtube.con sFEATURE review wee ogot tom carted Ato sigh: Ae upecanse some Ingres apple sheet cetea reels nk Theinage bo shonsthe dteene eter an abit evap Normal esti Perum est lifelike camera features from macro to ulra wide, al th ‘way up to equirectangular for afull 360-degree experience, Adding an appropriate depth of field would also help to achieve realism. Overall,even just a small knowledge of photography will help «3D artist immensely One of the artist's worst nightmares during the compositing aving to go back to the 3D, software and re-render the scene or partofit, heeause somethi went wrongin the renderin stage. Ithappens to all of there are some very effective ways to avoid doing that. Render passes (sometimes called AOVS) are definitely a compositor's best friend, By using different passes sve ean change the depth of feld in four scene, we can relight, and we can get rid of unwanted shadows or fully recolour certain elements, Tn tancra tie} J A beauty’ pass (sometimes alled a diffase or colour pass) is the main, full-colour rendering of your subject, including diffuse iMlumination, colour and colour raps. This pass does not normally include reflections, highlights and shadows. Highlight passes isolate the specular highlights from you! objects. You can render highlight passes by turning offany ambie light and making the object's diffuse shading and colour ‘mapping pure black. The result will bea rendering ofall the specular highlights in the scene, over a black background, without any other types of shading, A reflection pass includes reflections of other objects or the surrounding environment, and can either replace or complement the highlight pass. To isolate reflections, usually all we need to dois turn off ambient, diffuse and specular shading from a surface, so that only reflections app 38 - A shadow pass is arendering that shows the locations of shadows in a scene, A shadow pass often appears asa white shadow region against black background. A depth map (also called Z-Depth or adepth pass) is a pass that stores depth information at ‘each point in your scene, Tip 08, il eeach us how to use it An ID pass allows you to treat ny objectin the scene as iivis ‘cutout, This way we can tweak colours, shadows or highlights on ‘one specific element of our scene Nothing in real life is perfect. Perfectly smooth surfaces and completely clean objects donot exist, which is why we imperfections to our materials Ife are following PBR (Physically Based Rendering) method to texture our scene, we should male the most out ofthe roughness map to add litle specksFEATURE ® li edi OTT ecu Coat cites Final result with lem ae iy 05 ‘of dust, seratches or other kinds gap, we should consider adding a your 3D element overthe footage Ame: Ealeat fofimperfections we ike. Another _foreground blurted object. This and ie works really wellin Adobe sforegand bet very important thing to bear in technique is. also really effective After Effects. IFwearegiven a3D canst the ‘mind in the modelling stage isto when weare tryingtofakeastider asset thathasa different colour gal ede always add bevel toour objects or jb animation or tocreate a2.5D __fromeourbackplateor footage, we sindatedeyth parallax effec. sometimes have to spend a lot of ASIMPLE WAY TO ADD timegradingand tryingtocolour Slow: Wwe DUST TO YOUR SCENE CHECK SHARPNESS match our background. Let's try ‘emia an cur four scene requires abiglayer ‘When we are combining these three simple steps instead: achat een ofdustthroughoutweshould try _—«3D elements witheamera footage 1. Add anadjustment layerbetween niu te elo Using this ery simple trick. Once (@r any other backplate) we should the footage and 3D element and rata brine wwe have rendered ourfinal image, always check how sharp our addastrong blureg. FastBox Blur, screanémathit lets follow these simple steps footage actually is, Even 4K (or 2.Next,addaTinteffecttoyour > inex OSasset 1.Savescene witha differentname, bigger) video footage is, most of 2. Create anew material wherethe the time, more blurred than we diffuse map isa seamless B&W think. A great way to composite dust texture ‘our 3D elements over our footage is 3. Apply the texture tall objects. to zoom as much as weean in the inthe scene and render it ut. software window and match the 4.Usea Screen (or Add) blending _level ofblurriness of our 3D asset mode to composite your new dust —__ close wp. Adding noise ean also layer on the final image and adjust _helpalotat this stage. the opacity accordingly COLOUR-MATCHING TRICK 8 ADD.A BLURRED OBJECT THAT WORKS EVERY TIME TO CREATE DEPTH ‘This small secret Tam giving away Ifwe fel that our seene is missing _ has helped me for the last 1$ years Cee okt something or we need to fila Its the easiest way to colour march SDWORLD October 2019 39 youtube.con s@ FEATURE > sD asset ayer and pick arather dark and a rather light colour for the Map Black and the Map ‘White sertings 3. Hide your adjustment layer and set the Amount to tint t your liking. 1° pure magie and works USE DEPTH PASS FOR FIRE, SMOKE & PARTICLES. ‘This sa quick overview on how tweffectively use the depth pass tocomposite ire, smoke and particles (or other elements) in ‘our scene. This techniques often called deep compositing. 1. ln After Effects let's import our {Z-Depth ayer pass and apply an EXtroctok effect. 2. Choose our depth pass layer (often called Z, ¥ or Depth depending on the render engine you are using) by clickingany of the R, Gor Blevters, 3. From the drop-down menu ‘choose Z as our Layer and for the three RG Bletters. Leave the Alpha setting unchanged, “4. Move the black sider until the depth map is revealed and adjust the white value slider as needed. 5, Everything shown as black will be blurred and everything in whi willbe in focus. ‘In your diffuse/beauty layer apply Camera Lens Blur effect. 7. Choose our depth layer inthe Blur Map layer and select Effect ‘and Masks, ‘8. Hide the Z Depth layer. cere Fire, smoke and particlesin ‘your seene. 1. First, add our smoke layer, which can be both astil image or ‘an animation. 2. Duplicate your depth passby clicking Crri/Cmd. 3. Place the new Depth layer above ‘our smoke layer and choose Luma Inverted Map in the TrkMat drop: down menu, 4. Adjust the depth map to move your smoke closer or further from thecamera, USE A NORMAL MAP PASS TO ADD REFLECTIONS Next we are going to earn how to use the normal map layer pass to ‘dd light details to our final render. In After Effects place our normal 08 SDWORLD October 2019 49 _youtube.com/user/SdworldSDWORLD “1 FEATURE, _map render passin the timetine, Apply the Shift Channels effect and choose either R, G oF Bin all ofthe options, but leave the Alpha unchanged Apply a Hue/Saturation effect and reduce the saturation downto 0. Apply a Levels effect and adjust accordingly to reveal the highlights. Switeh the blending mode to Screen (or Add) and adjust the opacity to our liking. If we know thatthe 3D asset we are compositing is going to bein shot that lasts two seconds and will feature alot of motion bls, maybe ‘we should consider not spending 00 much time on the details, such as using passes ora full PBR shading workflow In the example on the left ‘we are asked to composite a bullet onto our footage. The final sequence will be around two seconds long. Always consider Teaving two extra seconds as handles’ atthe beginning and atthe end of the clip you are ‘outputting, to give the editor some room in the editing stage. To better sell the idea of speed we are asked to add motion blu, smoke and a muzzle flash. Once we have ‘modelled the basic shape of our bullet we can just apply a simple ‘metal material and proceed with the render, only usingan HDR as ur light source. Tn our compositing software of choice we ean overlay the bullet animation, add motion blur, our smoke asset and the muzzle flash ‘As we ean see inthe final result the bullet didn’t require imperfections, details or extra passes to achieve a {quick and simple lookTUTORIALS Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve TTA Bem ACSelcome to Part 2in ur fourppart series on eating a unique fully only a CAT Rig reedom to mode! anything you lie, the possbilities are endless. Intricate geometry created in ZBrush of Mudbox can easily be applied back: the CAT Rig model using these techniques, Even just within 3ds Max there is great freedom in the ‘modelling process through the use ofa variety of modifiers that ‘can be appli object. You will be using Edit Poly, ‘Symmetry and TurboSmooth, just to name a few, This technique even he base bone allows you to bypass traditional 3D WORLD 43 TUTORIALS: CREATE A PRE- RIGGED ROBOT Convert CAT Rig bones to editable polygon objects in order to model any type of robot skinning t or ifdesived incorporate skinning on only hniques ifyou choose allows you to ificparts as needed, V 1 ability to snap newly created bones to pivot poi existing rg, rotatn new robot becomes an easy task Adding hose objects allows for leven more flexibiltyn the joints The CAT Rig system is extremely powerful and versatile You ate limited as t create only by your imagination Let's find out what it an do,TUTORIALS Firstly, working with the CAT Rig can be a delicate process at times. erash may occur for no reason, 30 save iterations often. 1 save every five minutes. Secondly there is particular anomaly that ‘occurs sometimes when you right click over CAT bone pick Convert to Editable some eases, your bone wil fip 90 cr 18 click the Baek Arrow once to undo this action, Right-click Convert t Editable Poly again and the bone should not fip again This tutorial presumes th the reader i farmiiae with basic 3ds Max modelling techniques ‘and tools. Open your robot fie from Part 1. (fyou want to start Pert Vi provided for your convenience with the tutorial assets} In this tutorial you will modify CAT bone objects using traditional 2D polygonal modelling techniques. There are two techniques used in this tutorial for creating joints. The frst one ng mes, the second uses 3 from thispoint fle e technique. Drag out a sphere on the ‘ground plane in the perspective window. In the Modify panel change the default number o segments from 32 108, Change the size to 90cm, Use the Align tool to-snap the sphere tothe top Thigh bone object. Inthe dialog (ps up, make sure that °YZ positions are all checked ly Pivot Point ie selected box that the and Orientation (Local) make sure that the XYZ Axis boxes ae all checked The sphere will snap tothe pivot Lacal Orientation does ign the spheres manuelly. This 90cm sphere willbe the all joint atthe top of the leg, Duplicate this sph times to craate the all joints for the LCalf bone, LAnkle bone and the LToe bone. Change the size of the LCalf bone to 20em, the LAnkle sphere to 5.0em and the LToe sphere to 40cm, and align each one down the bone its connec hange the sizes using only the Parameters option in the Modify panel (do not use the Seale toolh ach ofthe four spheres inside the left leg will equire a sockat forthe bal joint to fit into, 44 To create a socket for each bal joint, rightclick and ereate & Clone Copy of each sphere, Change the size ofthe copy in the Parameters ppanel for the LThigh ram Sm t cr; the LCalf sphere from 70m ta 80cm; the LAnkle sphare from 510em te 60cm; and the Tae sphere 30cm to 40cm. The pivots should aleeady be in the correct locations, Change th ‘outer spheres to avoid conf Go into Wireframe mode to see the internal geometry. Selec the smaller sphere atthe top of the LThigh and hold down the Cirl key to aleo select the larger sphere 2 top ofthe LCalf. With these two selected go into lola mode, Align only the orientation ‘of the bottam sphere with the top. sphere. Convert the sphere on thigh to an Eaitable Poly. Use the Attach button to select the sphere ‘onthe top of he caf. Uncheck the Attach buttan to avoid accidentallyattaching other objects together Repeat this forthe other spheres, For each pair of spheres that you at h together, nd solect the Polygon mode ‘ight bottom triangular polygons that face the other sphere and delete them, Go into Border mode fs In the Modifier panel click on the Bridge button option b appropriate settings. This action will reate geometry between the ledges on the new geometry that land select the two les. x. Use the o sphares, There are numerous need to b9 reinforced. This can bbe done using the Connect tool Be creative with the geometry but alvays keep in mind the. functionality ofthe object The CAT Rig bone objects willbe swapped out for the Palygonal bone:shaped objects lust created. Select the LThigh boone objact. In the Modifier List ‘add an Ecit Poly Modifier Attach the bone-shaped geometry to the Thigh bone object. Unselect the ‘Attach buttan to avoid attaching other objects. Go into the Element Sub-Object mode and selact the LThigh abject and t delete, which will got id ofthe original box shaped bone, Ext Sub- Object ‘mode and repeat this process down the rest ofthe | limb geometry should nat interpenetrate. Use traditional techniques to ad limbs. Clean up geometry and remove polygons o shape the socket portion of ach joint This will reveal the ball joint hidden inside and will expose he empty interior. Polygons are invisible from behind so this would ppraduce unsatisfactory results when rendered. Thickness wil be added later For each bone add a Shell Moles, This will add thickness going outward by default Zero fut the Outer Amount andl change TUTORIALS: the Inner Amount to 1.0em, Add 2 TurbeSmoath on top of the Shell 10 each bone inthe leg. The will ‘veal what areas of he leg need tobe supported with additional ledges. Test the model by selecting the foot platform (KTarget) and moving it up and forword to see vat parts ofthe leg interse Delete al the TurboSmooths and adjust the model accordingly. B ‘Aerow the leg mo io anautral positio The largest phere created in the leg wil replace one half ofthe curtont Pelvis Object completely (Once you have fished modelling ‘one half oft th Modifer. The Ribeage object and the head will be treated the same ing parts ofthe | that do not cross the centre polis, miroritte other side using the Symmetry Al ofthe real of the body wil fist be modelled coniyon the left side of the body and then copied to the other side. Drag out a new sphere fort atm bal joint. ln the Modify panel‘e TUTORIALS > change the segments to 8 and the size to Sem, Align the sphere to the upper arm bone using pivot to pivot for the align position, Change the Reference Coordinate System forrotation to Local Rotate the sphere sat the arm. Repeat this pr the LFotearm and LPalm objects Change the si sto dem and em respectively, You should now have ured spheres three differently located inthe shoulder are, the elbow and the writ 133 Monet aku sockers Create the socket joints by of making a Clone Copy ofe the sphores exa arger than the curent one. Make each new sphere a different colour than the original. The largest sphere at the shoulder ig a socket portion that the rit willbe connected Soe Aftar oro spheres to Editable Poy. Orient zing conver all ar the spheres as needed. Attach and bridge each ofthe smaller spheres atthe top to below it, 0 this in he a ger sphere mode ta see the inner spheres 1 ATTACH MESH TO BONES When the modelled geometryis complete it needs to be attached to the bone objects Pick the LUpperatm object and add an Edit Poly Modifier tach he model you created to the coreesponding CAT Rig bone. Unselect the Attach button, In Element mode delete the sngular-shaped bone object. Exit Element made, Right-click over the bone objact and pick Convert to Editable Poy. This 2c rot actually convert the bone to an table Poly, but will convert back to. regularbone object and allow you to copy this edited bone to the opposite side when necessary 1 START PALM opsect Before attaching the palm ine tothe small =p sure the sphere aligned to the box to en: ‘modeling process the edges will line up correety. Pick the LPalm that during the ‘bone abject and add an Edit Poly Modifier. Under Edit Geometry pick the Attach button and sele the smallersphere object at the the At For the LPslm object wrist. Unselec into Element made and delete anything, Simply combine the LLPalm bone object with the sphere shape using traditional polygonal modeling techniques > WORLE 46 Usean evisting model fies ijt cate ‘neta ee 1 ‘START FINGERS Before beginning this process, chenge the angle postions of each of the fi joints from their unnatural default sate. There are two options for finishing off the hand and the fingers. The first met creating spheres as in the leg and attaching them together to create a boll joint setup. The other metho ‘sto ceate separate finger joints that are not connected except by multiple hose objects, Here the ball joint method will be used TT GREATEINGER BALL JOINTS Create multiple spheres form the basis for each joint in each inger. Change the Segments 108 foreach sphere. Make them increasingly emer a¢ yo down esch finger. Start wi h the fvst knuckle on the index finger at 1.Oem, the second knuckle at 08 nd the last joint at 04cm, For the thumb create spheres 1m, 1.2em and 10cm, Us ch sphere to its corresponding pivot point ine finger joint. Manually align the pole of each sphere s0 it points down the bone using the rotate tool in Local Coordinate System,a7 TUTORIALS @ 18 caEATE Amer BALL SOCKETS To create a socket right-click ‘vera sphere and make a Clone This ‘ontop of he old one, ‘see: but while it ofthe lly and make ‘Clone Copy that is0.2em bigger han the one it was created from, Do not use the scale tool while ding down Shift in order te ke a copy. This would produce ‘geometry that needs tobe corrected before being animated 19 ATTACH SPHERES Select all the sphere ick and convert them al to table Palys atthe same time. ineach finger select the smaller nd connect itto the larger thor down each finger. the smaller sphere inside he top knuckle and attach it the larger sphere in the middle knuckle. When attaching multiple separate items, you will ned 20) BRDsE FINGERS Ifyou did not elign the pole down the bone you may need to make adjustments now, Bridge the phe of the inside spheresin the land middle knuckles toa different colour than the cutside sphere simply slr polygons ‘extrude them out to make the tend of each fingertip. ball and socket joint attach them to the CAT Rig bones inthe same fashion thatthe lege land arms were 7 Ens PALM BONE Pick the LPalm bone abject and add an Edit Poly Modifier traditional modeling techniques o attach the different socket spheres to the outer edge. Use the to he boxy peal abject. Use the appropriate > Relax‘e TUTORIALS > coordinate system when moving, y before thay can be duplicated tothe right side Z COPY AND PASTE ime right-click the Edit Poly Modifier and copy it. Paste it onto each ofthe finger ‘8 you work on the hand. Delete polygons around: create the more fnished-looking knuckles to ball and socket joint that bends without intersacting, Fence in areas that need to hold their shape when 1. With the inside ofthe nell Modifier he other finger he arm he largest sphere ir ge. Add an ibcage and tach the sphere. Deselect ‘Attach button. Connect the ‘empty space bots objects using modelling techniques. Delete polygons and cut J28 on the sphere in order modelling one half ofthe « NGON tty Mocifo ly Mocier is added so more the Ngon on the i eat eacel thane ya the 3 Snaps te the Snaps button to bring up the options. lincheckOn the pelvis, beage and head find four polygons where vertices can be moved in ordarto ate an sight sided shape and align the Ngon to the surface. In Vertex mode forthe pelvis object snap the polygonal vertices to the spline vortices, When finished snapping uncheck the Snep tool or rit the Skoy, Pick the very centr vertex and hit the Relax button six times to move it equidistant from the others. This wil produce erfecteight-sided polygonal shape that will Become circular when smoothed. Repeat this, process for the ather areas Using the exact same Ngon Do not permanently add any ‘TurboSmooth Modifiers until after Uys are laid out inthe next tutorial ‘a number of bones that are not needed, but you will nt delete tham. Select the spine lade bones, nd the neck bones Right-click and pick Hid Selection or place them ‘an be hidden, ‘The four polygons wil create a sealed hole that wal ‘odate a Hose object Select the four polygons and textrude them inward, Ad fencing tothe edges to ensure they hold their shape. Create four small spheres. Align the spheres inside each ofthe holes with approximately half ofthe phere exposed. Create 2 Hote abject and pick Bound to Object Pivots, Select the Pick Top (Object button and select the sphere atthe bottom of the bject. Selec ribcage Bottom Object button and select the sphere at the 1 ofthe pelvis object. The Hose should snap to the two spheres. One or both ofthe spheres need to be rotated, Select the Hose and set potht05, The Hose: Tension fo lustments tothe ct in the Modify panel to removed by rotating one of your spheres 180 degrees. Use the and Link tool to parent one phere tothe pelvis and the oth sphere tothe ribcage. The Hose ‘object will now move along with both bone objects, Add other Hoses where needed. 9 TUTORIALS: ‘Add an Eait Poly Modifier tothe head) head and jaw of your robot. Focus on only one half ofthe he When finished, add a Symmetry Modifier tothe head te duplies. ject. Model the the mod back down to a bone object you led half Alter collapsing added by mistake by the modi Delete these by adding another Poly Modif, selectin offending vertex and hit + backspace, Make sure there is 2 sealed hole in the base ofthe head .ccammodate the Hose object, which will ubst ute for the neck, create a sphere and place it in the eye socket area ofthe head ‘and model 2 cordingly. Leave the sphere atthe dafaul of pointing Use the sama tachnique with an gon object to produce a perfectly shaped eye Repeat the process of ere undit segments with th ut the front ofthe face. ocket if need of the ribcage to the bottom of the head, An Eye Conti wil be added inthe next tutorial, Save a final teation of this flje TUTORIALS ty) ey THE VIDEO SSS LS TOP TIPS FOR A SMARTER ARCHVIZ WORKFLOW Oscar Juarez provides his top advice for archviz projects, for a smoother and more efficient way of working Oscar Joter ecu eis eit Mo es creaingin CO he hashat is ud in Mec Cy, Fecha Stu, sine 01 fis om reating archvizhas so many shades, and that isthe fun of it. We can do homes, parks, large projects, smaller ones, even futuristic em with their own purposes and needs ‘As a result, there are many lfferent ways that ne can tackle ‘an archviz project. Through all the years Ihave been a CG creator Ihave come toa big realisation: \we all have our own workfaw, our ‘vn methods of organising our work, medelling, texturing and post-production, and we all have ur own ways of tackling a project may face along the way. There are ma can encounter while working; for ‘example, while modeling we may receive someone else's file and se that the whole model is not grouped or layered, meaning that the person who will take the model will have to spend 2 large amount oftime on the ‘organisation. The tis | will discuss here willbe centred on using 3ds Max and Corons Renderer, and will focus on howto avoid some cof the common problems we may face such as long rendering times due to displacements, weird SDWORLD Ociober 2019 $0 ‘modelling issues caused by wrong coordinates, and many time: killing processes we can avoid to improve our workflow. | il also talk about a seript or two that highly recommend. Hopefully you can add some of these guidelines to your own workflow What wil talk about is ‘of course not the only way to work or even the best way this is the way werk, and how [have been able to overcome some of the problems | have encountered over he years. Let's get to it > Ee‘e TUTORIALS 0 ‘SET MAX UNITS: Everytime Istart a new fle, Ualways check the units setting, I workin metricimotres. I's important to set your units of scale s0 that you don't encounter any facts or issues with abject compatibility, Thi might only sound lie a minor mistake, but t's 2lot of time lost spent repairing the errorifhe values of your fle ‘are wrong, So, make sure to check the units a the very beginning of the process 0 IMPORT CAD FILEINTO MAX Ithen proceed to impor CAD He Fest we nport> Merge File, Right after picking the CCAD file let the unite to metres (the common unit clients send) Once tha twveak are ‘Auta-smooth othe unite get, the other ‘adjacent facas Smooth-angle” and ‘Curve Steps, both of which | s2t10.90. curves and well defined CAD lines, making things easier to see when m modeling 0 ‘GROUP CAD BASE Thistip isa useful one l use alot. am nota layer user in 3ds Max pre he groups as think ‘makes things simpler. Some time ‘ago used to start modeling right in 3s several hours working afterimporting the CAD Max. Af keep the necessary layers ‘Si ti is tia iter lola sist ist can alunos a: et ated ea pte int ins ne leat w the background, but my that the CAD base w independent lines. So fl wanted to turn ll the base of, | hac to 1as the need to hide th select all of them, And withou using Ctel+, which selects similar geometry (as this was not working cither) it was an almost epic task So, dua ta this situation started following a i after importing th Max, Iselacted the whole thing sidering the fle is empty and allwe have isthe CAD data), made ia roup and named it CAD BASE With this am able to turn the bate aff a5 needed. leo ng Shifts turns off al ines. Now we can have only the model 0 PROXIES FOLDER We've all been there: we re almost ready to hit the render button, 3ds Max crashes, nd file agein, ol the proxies we have added are just not the modelwe wanted. A fev when we open days ago | was finishing a mode! 82 but to my surprise all the trees inthe mode! were replaced with cars tried tore-link the correct |, with no luck. The eror had se some of the ‘occurred becat lors were renamed, and that, reated a total chaos. So what |was creating was a proxi file. Where! keep the 3D model | create a folder only forthe proxies to use, and so far this has b 0 USE PROXIES Along time ago, models wore such a RAM killer. I's many of us, when ing models to the fie and inna time at all we have S nilion polygons... only by adding three trees! Using this example, happened Ihave seen files where the trees ‘ate not proxies, and v have problems in the viewport. For creating amazing archvie a powerful PC would sure be useful, but i we use the size and settings wisely we can achieve great results, So keep. in mind every time when adding ‘high paly count model, try tomake ita proxy, as said b vn folder: it wil le freely and with no problems, A file full of polygons... I'd say, avoid it fore, in fou work Scattering tools enable us to caver ‘surface quickly For example, in ne whereit would be great to see hero'tree ina forest, maybe the scatter could give us a great tree that matches with the scene. However, thisis rsh andin fa Unlikely). The second problem here is that scattering adapts tothe ‘underlying mesh and any changes to this might break the location of the here tee, So, creating a copy atthis location is» good ides, bbut make sure that you make any sees, to reduce mer copiesina ‘overheade and speed up rendering times for your scene SDWORLD A frend once asked me, How can I do @ quick test render? Some materials maka the ender take longer, s0 limmeciately thought, he is not using override material This kind of material allows sto do tats for our rendere with the advantage cf not consuming resources as a normal render would. Keep in mind that t's only for test urpores, a most ofthe time swe will end up changing the final lighting once we have all our final material set, but it wil til help us tohave a geod idea of how our model is behaving, Touse the override material Just create a simple Corona Mt, press 10 sa we.can see the settings, check the override material ‘and then apply the material we just did to where wo can soe "NONE! This way we will have applied our material And here isa plus: f you select some ports of the model ond press the + next to any exclided ‘objects willbecome visible with 53 : TUTORIALS: ts final materials applied (or the default polygon colour), Personally find cresting ‘material to be one of the most fun parts of my work What 've noticed in certain files | getis the amount of ‘overdone materials some people use know in some cates that's what's needed, but heres what do inallmy images. Once |have the model ready fo textures | add only the maps as follows: Diffuse Color, Ref. Color, Ref. Goss, then | apply it where i's meant to be. Most ofthe time that’s all the raterial needs. We might achust the reflection and glozsiness, ut that's all. Alwaye keep in mind the way our materials grow Let's say we can see ‘ conerete area in the back of our image. So we dothe concrete as s8id bolore and perform out Aad ifit’s okay, we are ready. There is no need to add more complexity he material. We can thenTUTORIALS Use that RAM in other areas or big pala Jn, ith gr ac ment, and we ne S3DWORLD 54TUTORIALS: displacementin a much smaller roa than having the whole displacement ‘of the park. | would eal this a smart use of displacement When we ha workstation and continue our work a frequent issue that can occur Missing maps. | work ‘most ofthe time in my portable par drive, so when change from ‘one workstation to another | gat so many missing map inks, ancl that is because changing the workstation changes the drive later Relinking Id be such atime in another, there 1 sa what do Ido? use a script called Relink Bitraps, which "ve attached tothe Ctrl shortcut. Right after | open the file and get the missing links window, | hit OK, vate the relink mops end select the drives where Ihave my info. then press Relink and it il relink al the missing maps. I's a great script to work with ‘Awhile ago! posted aspeed lapse of one of the projects was doing, and someone asked me, How did you remove a the backgrour The answer is simple, | save the clements in TARGA this way don't have to worry about saving alphas, bs ARGA comes with its alpha embedded. How to apply it? Simple, Just open the image in Photoshop, then go to fast and £28)? press Ctrl and left-clck in the alpha 1 channel, Goto the Layers tab and in ourimage apply a mask. Oh, and | always render with the background inblack We al love realism, thats the goal, and an important factor in achieving tis using hursan scales 1 high-qualty models. Personally re are several companies selling have found them to be very useful but most ofthe time Inever place hem in the foreground, | use therm 55 in the midground and background, Why? Because a8 we know there are several styles inthe archi world Some love to adc all in 3D, D, but yours truly uses both because isthe way that works better rmilground 2 me focus on the foreground. A wall plac: takes all the attention ofthe eye and adde a me. Adding in the ackground lets stout in the foregroun eater impact ‘Adding 2D cutouts to our riders is always afun part. A tricky one, yes, butt that great faaling when seeing a valliplaced 2D cutout. However, have seen lot of people struggling more than needed when adding cutouts, And the thing here is simple, always look where the light comes from in the render ands git. Try to make of ight match the render that way integration willbe fasterADVANCED LIGHTING AND RENDERING WITH NOTCH Create a scene with off-the-shelf materials, meshes and lighting creative ideas lines using the sport and import 1 to push the material palette of the scene, centre process. Notchis a real- time graphics workhorse that ‘most powerful additions in the provides artists witha powerful current 0922 build, with more Wasmith what you see is what you gat releases scheduled for later this shelf Substance SBSAR materials, | VillSnzhise workflow, which enab year. Realtime ray tracing allows ——_- meshes and lighting produ spect at creatives to iterate concepts for even higher-quality rendering, Neth Portis, ina much quicker fashion. featuring realistic ight, shadows & Vil nds ont In this tutorial | will show you reflections, both in real-time a Stud ead howto builda highly realistic and video export use. c potralisie architectural scene in Notch Using 2 combination of these seit 1 by-step guide will ray-tracing features, the tutorial gre, ‘explain how to build a simple will look at the naw integrated wn oe S3DWORLD "9 56 bo.con 4jORLD 87 TUTORIALS @ 0 GET GOOD-QUALITY REFERENCE this scene, we referenced both modem and contemporary buildings to help inspire the artwork Reference is one of the ‘most important parts of any design process. Ithelps define scale lighting, material, buldin layout and atmosphere. Our pla viasto design a simple space with minimal features 02 jos (OUTSIDE OF NOTCH) There are a lt of great applications cout there to build 3D assets, Myself, ma ha kind oF guy who lies carving Using C40, May: Whatever your p application will be wing to achiove, Wel also sing Substance Designer for ofthe materials and will then these directly into Notch, The reality is that it doesn't matter which tools you use, what ‘matters is that you follow the same workflow each time 0 BUILD THE 3D ARTWORK Any 30 application will work for Notch as it accopts a range of formats, O8, FBX, Alem ‘ete, The main considerations when choosing a 3D program to produce 2D artwork with is: ed format? + Can you create decent UV sets? Can you set up material ID? hing groups? ying to achieve, i's the workflow is eritcal for real time in Notch: the Uv, the low poly meshes O4vmes Al|3D mashes require a decent UV map for materials, ighting and reflections Your base UVs set should citherbe atlased, ifs a detailed ss sucha Uv scale of around one ort depending on the texture scale > glass and metals, Your ‘ould be tled ata hurmanTUTORIALS Ifyou want to bake lightmape in your scene, your madel shou! have a unigue set of Ue where all the polygans on the mesh have thei own UV space on the lightmap. texture, Overlap 4 palygons will cause lighting artefacts when tl ighting is baked onto the mesh, Exporting 30 meshes is fairly strsightforward and the Notch import pipeline makesita simple task. Meshes can be exported as single meshes or even as scenes. ‘This means that during import, allthe hierarchy and mesh data ispreserved Noteh also supports 3 wide range of file types including (084, FBX, Alembic, Lightwave and C40 fies, You can import single 3D objects through the browser via the File>import Resource menu option, When importing 2D objects 2 dialog box will pop up. Inthis box you can change many of the original 3D mesh parameters on import ‘Once asters have loaded into the resource browser, they can be dragged diroctly into the node graph, Here they are hooked up to the root node, Substa tegrated with Notch. They can be dragged and crapped straight into the node graph. The materials ccan then be modified dire NNoteh like any normal material You ean change the resolution, or any barameter ofthe material exposed, allin eal time. You can also use procedural materials directly from Substance Designer. ‘You can create your material from scratch with Substan Desi fr by using one of their material templates, or you can utilise one of the many materals directly of their Substance Source website, S3DWORLD "9 58 be.con Fer this tutorial we ate using @ ‘ree HOR ims com, You can either import it ‘rom hdihaven, through the Resources window ‘0 drag tin, Connect the HORI up to.an environment map node then connect that node up tothe ‘enviconment map input on the sky ight nod The environment map can alse bbe hooked up to other nodes such {5 the Skybox, RT Mirror Reflaction ‘9s well as other reflection nodes. Once you have cet up the cenviconment map, your scene vill 70% be it reflecting fuly ray traced HDR! lighting, Enabling ray tracing is straightforvard, First, enable it on the root node along with all other parameters that you need forthe ighting to work propery, The skylight wil also need ray tracing ‘enabled once it has been added tothe nede graph, You can thenstart to add ray traced nodes the scene For this scene we used both the new RT Path Tracer and Refinement nodes, Once ray tracing hes been enabled o working im cone these nodes wil start ediately Once ray tracing is set up fon your scene, you ull notice lighting and shadows are noisy. This noise is the actual lighting, shadowing and ting in the acene aeit's being calculated, Most of the ray-traced vodes have their own denoise ‘and refinement parameters; in this scene refinement node that will refine the scene for you To see the ray-traced lighting shadows and reflections refined, you can use the Refine Render button in the GUL. Once activated, this ill refine al ofthe lighting, shadowing and reflections in (Once the scene is completed and you are happy with the lighting and layout, there's a powerful suite of Post FX nodes for grading and The Post-FX nodes balance ighting as well asthe overall look, for example the tone map node TUTORIALS: changes the light adaptation for the scene. You can also use LUTs (colour lookup tables). They can be di and hooked up to the root nade fo ped straight ita the scene instant flmlooking results. With nany more Post-FX and stylised nodes, induding blurring and ant ising, there are many ways to get the final look you want,SUBSCRIBE TO THE 3D WORLD NEWSLETTER Get practical inspiration direct to your inbox fix Ly eT A a — ‘a Xu j Sy oi me EVERY FRIDAY Maram anaes SUBSCRIBE NOW! http://bit.ly/3dworldnews\) dal: le SIGGRAPH2019 LOS ANGELES © 28 JULY - 1 AUGUST Taner aeTE TOR FRICK: DESIGN WITHOUT LIMITS Modo's flexible modelling tools and AMD's powerful hardware help the leading games artist meet the punishing production schedule at his start-up studio, Neon Giant hroughout more than a decade of T ‘AAA game development, Modo has been a constant in Tor Frick’s Ife, Regarded as one of the leading artists in the industry, Frick has used Foundry’s creative 3D modeling software since the very start ofhis career. Today, Modo forms the heart of the art pipeline at Neon Giant, the studio that Frick co-founded in 2018, where the improved modelling tools and Radeon" ProRender GPU render engine in the new Modo 13 Series backed up by AMD's powerful Radzon™ Pro Dua graphics cards and massively multi-core Ryzen™ “Threadripper CPUs-help him meet the ‘often brutal development schedule for the company's debut game: an as-yet unannounced cyberpunk tile "We're doing pretty much all our modelling in Modo, from weapons and characters to [entire] environments,” says Frick. "Modo is well suited to game art because it’s so easy to swap between different types of modelling, like subdivision surfaces and low. work. I's all searniess” Frick, who describes his long-term {goal as “to blur the line between concept artand production art” also uses Modo inhis wider role as Neon Giant's art director, using the software's procedural ‘modelling tools and non-UI Preview in order to see the latest update 0 MODIFY A SPLINE AND EXTRUDE The comers ofa spline are easily modified using the Fillet to! When happy with the shape ofthe line, it con be easily extruded Using the Extrude function toa set dimension, When the extrude is complete, another spline can then be created —for example, acrcle that can be used as acuting object when itis exuded into the initial extruded shape. This technique allows the creation of complex ebjacisin seconds 0 EXPORT TO A 3D APPLICATION “To.enable the export options available in Fusion 360, the model needs tobe saved to the Autodesk cloud. From here, @ wide range of file types ave available for export. FBXis an excellent format that can be used in a wide range of 3D packages, wile also retaining alot of ‘the detail tis best to experime with a variety of efferent formats, ‘8 Fusion 360 makes subtle changes to the geometry dependant on the format used. 3DWORLD Octo 78 TUTORIALS @ 0 MODEL IN FUSION 360 ‘Autodesk Fusion 360 allows the creation ofa variety of shapes, but for bespoke elements, itis often best to start witha spline Splines can be precisely drawn out in an elevation view. Fusion 360 provides lve feedback while drawing, which shows dimension and langles, ensuring that the spline is crested toa sat size that can be ‘modified later. There are a range of spline drawing tocks available, from freehand to standlard shapes 0. USE HISTORY TIMELINE ‘The history timeline i 2 caries of icons at the bottom left of the seen showing each ereation stage of the modeling process. The timeline can be moved backin time to allow you to modify your design. Inthe example shown, the original spline has had an offset ‘applied tot to allow the hollowing out ofthe initial shape via an ‘extrude. The history timeline sa grest way to both ensure changes fare 228) to manage and new designs are easily branched of. 0 ‘WHAT CAN BE ACHIEVED IN FUSION 360 ‘Actists such 98 Boy Sichterman (artstation.com/ boysichterman) use Fusion 360 to creat impressive model, such {as this gun. As can be seen from the screenshot, lt of detail canbe created aectly within Fusion 360, which allows an artist, to,understand their model full. And as Fusion 360 enables the ‘modification of a modal via the history timeline its easy to adapt at the design develops. « youtube dno