3D World December 2019 Issue 253

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WELCOME
Learn from the experts and create your own short film!
It’s the dream of many 3D artists to create

their own short films, so this issue we talk to
some experts who have done just that, to
get their tips for success.
If it’s a visual effects film you want to make
then you’ll need a camera, and we test the
latest 6K offering from Blackmagic Design.
Rob Redman, Editor

rob.redman@futurenet.com
SPOTLIGHT ON OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Donovan Douglas Antony Ward Ian Failes
This issue, CG veteran and industry Antony has worked for many of today’s Ian is a regular contributor to 3D
trainer Donovan provides the fourth top game and VFX studios, and has World, and in this issue he takes
and final part of his rigging course, written three technical manuals and you behind the scenes with CG
this time focusing on animation. many online tutorials. super studio Milk VFX.
www.donoman.com www.antcgi.co.uk www.beforesandafters.com
Trevor Hogg Gustavo Ahlen Mike Griggs

Freelance journalist Trevor Hogg is a Gustavo Åhlén is a multidisciplinary Mike Griggs is a 3D and visual effects
regular contributor to the mag, and designer, instructor and concept artist with vast experience across the
this issue he gets the lowdown on artist with more than five years of industry, which he shares on pages 70-
the VFX behind Ad Astra. experience in the CG industry. 73 in our Basics and Bootcamp.
bit.ly/2llnqV8 www.gustavoahlen.com www.creativebloke.com
WEBSITE FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM TWITTER

3dworld.creativebloq.com www.facebook.com/3dworldmagazine @3DWorldMag @3DWorldMag
3D WORLD December 2019 3 youtube.com/user/3dworld

CONTENTS ISSUE 253
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SHOWCASE Discover the best new digital art from the CG community, starting on page 8
FEATURES Exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the latest CG technology, film VFX and video game art
34 MILK: BUILDING
ENVIRONMENTS
COVER Our series exploring
FEATURE behind the scenes of Milk

VFX this time focuses on
Page 18 their environment work,
including how the likes of
the Garden of Eden and
Heaven were constructed
for Good Omens
18 BUILD YOUR OWN ANIMATED SHORT 28 AD ASTRA: TO THE STARS

Discover all the essential ingredients for making amazing animated The team behind space adventure Ad Astra discuss a variety of the film’s
shorts, with this masterclass from leading artists and storytellers visual effects, from ferocious drill monkeys to zero-gravity environments

TUTORIALS Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills TUTORIALS
50 CREATE A CINEMATIC
NIGHT SCENE
Produce atmospheric scenes
70 BASICS: IMAGE TYPES

Learn about image formats
72 BOOTCAMP: ORB
Discover this accessible planet
creation tool
ARTIST Q&A
74 YOUR CG PROBLEMS SOLVED
Pro artists solve your queries
56 CREATE A PRE-RIGGED ROBOT: PART 4
In this final part, Donovan Douglas demonstrates
how to add simple animation to our CAT Rig INSIGHT
88 PRO THOUGHTS: BEN GRAVES
What are the pros, cons and
future of Web AR?
92 PRO THOUGHTS:
LORNA BURROWS
Discover the Spark AR tool
REVIEWS
94 CHILLBLAST FUSION RYZEN
We test this 3D workstation
96 BLACKMAGIC POCKET
42 BUILD A LATE-NOON ARCHVIZ ENVIRONMENT 64 SCULPT A CHARACTER IN ZBRUSH AND MAYA CINEMA CAMERA 6K
Oscar Juárez shows us how to build an outdoor Learn how Marco Muñoz created his Evgeny 21-097 Should you get your hands on
scene using 3ds Max and Corona Renderer ‘space egg’ character this 6K camera model?
INSIGHT News and views from around the international CG industry REGULARS
26 SUBSCRIPTIONS
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82 BUILDING THE WORLD OF TOMORROW 90 SADDINGTON BAYNES: THE DRIVING FORCE

Discover how 2004’s Sky Captain And The World Of ECD James Digby-Jones talks the journey so far at
Tomorrow laid the foundation for the VFX industry production studio Saddington Baynes

ISSUE 254
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VOL’JIN ARTIST
Jae Hyun Kim
SOFTWARE
Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Mari,
Ornatrix, Nuke, Arnold Renderer, Photoshop
Student Jae Hyun Kim worked way. Texturing of the body was
on this image for four months completed in Mari, with the rest
alongside his studies. It marked utilising Substance Painter. Once
his first time using Ornatrix to the final render was ready, Kim
plant hair in a model. “It was a added the finishing touches using
great tool,” he adds. “When I first Photoshop and Nuke.
started using it, I had two days of He thanks his mentor
trouble figuring out errors, but I Seungnam Yang, a Korea-based
was so happy when the problem 3D artist, as well as his teacher at
was solved in a simple way.” the SBS Academy for helping him
As a lover of the character, make this work a reality. “Most
Kim enjoyed envisioning the end of the time, I trained my skills
result of his work on Vol’jin. The alone at home,” he explains,
process began with four days of “but it was made possible because
searching for useful references, there were people who led me
and once he had these Kim spent from the sidelines.”
a month sculpting in ZBrush, very
much honing his skills along the kimgonzo.artstation.com
3D WORLD December 2019

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
Marco Rizzotti has a background of almost As a character artist working in the

THE SIKH a decade in traditional sculpting. “I love
to work on my 3D models in a traditional
game industry, Rizzotti is inspired by
classic interpretations of fantasy worlds.
WARRIOR way,” he says. “Even the alphas are applied
one by one and all the folds of the clothes
“Every time I see dwarves, paladins,
dragons or gnomes, then a part of my
ARTIST are hand sculpted, but I do finalise my brain forces me to start modelling
Marco Rizzotti materials in Substance Painter. This allows something,” he continues. “I also spend
SOFTWARE me to easily adjust them procedurally.” time in museums and love Rembrandt,
ZBrush, Substance Painter, Sculpting faces and clothing is where John Singer Sargent, Caravaggio, Bernini
Marmoset Toolbag 3, Rizzotti finds the most enjoyment. “There and many others. For a period of time I
Photoshop, 3DCoat is a lot to think about with their physics even worked as a cake designer sculpting
and how different kinds of fabric react to a characters in sugar.”
torsion or applying pressure to an object,”
he explains. artstation.com/marcorizzotti

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
SARI
ARTIST
Pauline Boiteux
SOFTWARE
Marvelous Designer,
Maya, ZBrush, Substance
Designer, Photoshop
Freelance material artist

Pauline Boiteux challenged
herself to do all the texturing
for this image in Substance
Designer. “I have been asked
‘why?’ a lot,” she admits. “It
probably seems like a lot of
time and effort for something
you could make in ZBrush or
Photoshop just as easily. But
why do easy when you can
do complicated?”
Lighting was Boiteux’s first
love and remains her favourite
part of the process. “Working
on it and tweaking the
roughness map has that oddly
satisfying effect where all the
pieces finally make sense and
tell a story,” she explains.
Boiteux is fascinated by
folklore and traditions from
around the world. “Behind
every final render I put out
there's hours of Wikipedia,
Google Translate and
Pinterest. The tricky part
about it is trying not to twist
reality and simply blend it
with my own idea. I always
try my best to respect and
understand the references
for pieces I create, and add a
bit of me in it.”
jappluz.artstation.com

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
French 3D artist Nicolas Morel undertook import the displacement and visualise it
RETIRED SAILOR this project to utilise Texturing XYZ’s
new multi-channel displacement map.
without applying. Then I can use it as a
visual reference to get the right flow of
ARTIST “I've always been interested in portraits. shapes in ZBrush.” This approach allows
Nicolas Morel Especially old people as I find their faces Morel to have multiple layers while
SOFTWARE much more expressive,” he adds. Morel maintaining a light file.
ZBrush, Maya, Arnold 5.0, has honed his knowledge of anatomy by He adds, “There is no right or wrong
Photoshop, Mari, Marvelous working on animal projects in ZBrush, an workflow, as long as you can achieve
Designer, XGen, Nuke endeavour that landed him a job at MPC. what you want. References are extremely
“In ZBrush my workflow was pretty important at this stage as faces have a very
simple,” he explains. “I did all the primary specific and complex flow of shapes. This
shapes and wrinkles by hand. I applied part is essential for a believable result.”
the displacement in Photoshop, otherwise
I would have lost a ton of details. I can artstation.com/nicolasmorel

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
Team Reptile CEO Tim Remmers says. “To bring our version of him alive
A BIG BALLOON streamed the creation of this image
on Twitch over a period of 24 hours.
was very enjoyable.”
The process typically begins with a
ADVENTURE “Most of the techniques were pretty
straightforward,” he explains. “When
primitive in ZBrush, before pushing and
pulling to get the silhouette right. “When
ARTIST streaming the creation process I do I get the silhouette right I usually go
Tim Remmers want to go all the way through – from 3D super low poly with the ZRemesher tool
SOFTWARE concept in ZBrush all the way to a version and start working my way up. After some
ZBrush, 3ds Max, Substance of the model that I can drop into a game practice I'm getting more comfortable
Painter, Marmoset Toolbag 3 engine and run around with.” with the ZModeler tool in ZBrush – this
Remmers enjoyed working with can be really effective for creating loops
concept artist Max Grecke and breathing and the overall control over your mesh.”
new life into the character. “Tingle is such
a fun and weird Nintendo character,” he twitch.tv/timremmers

BUILD YOUR OWN
3D World gathers
some leading artists
ANIMATED and storytellers for
a masterclass in
making engaging
SHORT animated shorts
FEATURE
Build your own animated short
“THE IDEA FOR VIA

FORMED FROM A
SIMPLE WISH TO MAKE
A SHORT FILM THAT
HIGHLIGHTED MY LOVE
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ART”
Izzy Burton, director, Via
Via’s epic he world of animated Elsewhere, 3D generalist Rok won it told me that around a quarter
landscapes were short films is a Hwang will share insights from of children under 18 in America
inspired by Burton’s
love of nature and
T rich corner of the
3D community,
the process of creating Bruised,
the short film he worked on with
experience child abuse, whether it’s
physical, psychological or verbal.”
the time she spent presenting viewers Samantha Tu. These shocking statistics inspired
in America with short bursts of creativity, Hwang and his thesis partner
while granting the individuals LIGHT-BULB MOMENT Samantha Tu to work on a film
The characters in behind them an opportunity to Every animated short begins about child abuse.
Via were created in experiment with visual styles with an idea that forms the initial “The first thing that came up
Maya and animated and storytelling techniques. Such concept, and it’s from this moment in my mind was, ‘how is this even
at a lower frame is the value of animated shorts of inspiration that the film takes possible in the 21st century?’”
rate to enhance as a medium that London-based shape. For Hwang and his short explains Hwang. “Maybe it means
their hand-drawn studio Blue Zoo Animation has a film Bruised, it began in the winter some of my friends have gone
aesthetic programme that allows its artists to of 2017, at Ringling College of Art through this horrible experience,
direct their own, and bring it to life & Design in Florida. “I watched a and maybe some of them didn’t
with the help of their colleagues. video on YouTube about domestic get proper help. Maybe someone
3D World spoke to three such violence and child abuse by chance around me is still going through
artists to find out how you can and it really caught my attention,” this terrible situation.” Hwang was
create your own animated short. he tells 3D World. “In the video, moved to help change the tragic

FEATURE
WHAT’S MY
MOTIVATION?
ROK WON HWANG HIGHLIGHTS
THE IMPORTANCE OF ACTING
WHEN ANIMATING A SHORT FILM
Besides the more technical

aspects, Rok won Hwang
highlights acting as an essential
skill when creating a character-
focused animated short. “You
don’t even have to be an actor,”
he explains. “You can be a terrible
actor yourself, but it’s good to
think about how the character
would think and imagine how
he or she would react to certain
situations.” Although the process
can essentially be understood
as animating, Hwang stresses
the importance of focusing
on the character’s emotional
development as your story
progresses, rather than just a
smooth walk cycle. “My point
is that it's really important to
have the characters lead the
story and to keep them feeling
alive throughout the film,” he
adds, “because in the end, we’re
watching the film to learn about
the character.”
reality of child abuse and decided Above: Despite the

to make it the focus of his looming stressful process
college thesis. of making Bruised,
Inspiration can also come Hwang is excited to
from a personal place, as was make another short
the case for Izzy Burton, the film in the future
director and artist behind Blue
Zoo Animation’s award-winning Right: Since its
short Via. “The idea for Via formed premiere in 2017, Via
from a simple wish to make a has been longlisted
short film that highlighted my for a BAFTA and won
love for environmental art,” says numerous awards
Burton. “Initially it was going
to be a personal project so I had
limited the animation to one walk
cycle of a man traversing different
environments.”
As Blue Zoo allowed Burton to
utilise more of their team, Via

developed into the human story
Ada’s unique hand-
drawn aesthetic was of three characters. Via shares
its name with a poem by Rachel
“WE TRIED TO MAKE SOMETHING
rendered in real time
using Unreal Engine, Cladingbowl, which narrates the
entire film. “A lot of people think
THAT FELT SKETCHED, WITH MINIMAL
a first for Blue Zoo
Via is formed around the poem,
but actually the poem came much
ENVIRONMENT DETAIL”
The team at Blue later,” explains Burton. “About Dane Winn, director, Ada
Zoo had to develop six months in once the story
techniques and was already developed, it just fit
tools to create perfectly into what I had created.” For Dane Winn, director BEHIND THE SCENES
Ada’s unique visuals Will Cook created Blue Zoo’s of Blue Zoo’s latest short Ada, Once the initial concept is
in-engine darkly comic short, Christmas With history proved to be the ultimate established the real fun of creating
The Moonies, and was inspired by inspiration. “The film was based on your animated short can begin.
a rebellious desire to break away the true story of an Alaskan woman While working on Bruised,
Ada has been from the child-friendly nature of named Ada Blackjack,” Winn Hwang and Tu split the workflow
screened at several his usual output. “I knew I wanted explains. “In 1921, her son had evenly between them. “Unlike
festivals throughout to do something dark and gross become ill, so she joined a daring other schools, Ringling demands
2019 and has because I needed to do something expedition to the arctic to earn the that each student in a team is
received positive different,” he explains. “After a money for his treatment. With no responsible for every part of the
feedback big day of directing Numberblocks wilderness experience, she had to pipeline,” Hwang explains. This
jumping around Numberland teach herself to survive.” meant that he took on at least half
happily, I sat down to write about Even the short’s hand-drawn of each stage in the production,
eating dead reindeer, manslaughter style was inspired by Ada’s from storyboarding to animating,
and festive cheer.” incredible story and the idea that lighting and editing.
Further inspiration came from she, along with her companions, “Everything went pretty well
the likes of Killing Eve and Inside had kept a diary of her time on after we figured out the naming
No. 9, two series that balance the island. “We tried to make and file organising conventions,”
comedy and drama. “It was the something that felt sketched, with admits Hwang. The pair began
soundtrack to Killing Eve that minimal environment detail,” by making a split sheet using
really caught my attention,” Cook says Winn. “Other inspiration Google Sheets for props, character
continues. “The soundtrack often came from the designer, Sukanto modelling, texturing, animation,
juxtaposed the visuals, which Debnath, who provided us with and lighting. “Having a clean
supplemented the storytelling.” some fantastic initial sketches and organised split sheet is very
This influenced the decision to that felt mature and suited this important, even if you’re not
have Christmas music soundtrack idea well, giving us something to working in a team,” he adds. “We
the Moonies’ misadventures. aim for.” marked our progress on the sheet

FEATURE
so that we could share the status of

each shot. We worked in the same
lab most of the time, so we could
closely communicate and even
flexibly help each other if needed.”
Hwang’s biggest challenge came
in the form of the titular bruise
itself. “Technically it was a bit
challenging to find a way to have a
seamless, flawless moving bruise
on the girl’s body,” he says. In
order to achieve the desired effect,
Hwang spent several weeks honing
his skills with projection nodes
in Maya, with the help of online
tutorials. “Eventually we had to
render the girl without a bruise and
then the moving bruise separately,
before comping it together in
Nuke,” he explains. “It was a time-
consuming and tedious process,
but it was the only way that worked
and I’m happy with the result.”
For Via, Burton was able to apply
her passion for environmental art
to creating layered environments
that were painted in Photoshop,
before being spaced apart in Z
space using After Effects. The team
at Blue Zoo helped to make and
animate the characters in Maya
before they were brought into the
After Effects compositions. This
process lends the film its distinctive
2.5D aesthetic.
“Before painting each
environment, I made groups in
Photoshop with the layer names
so that I could remember to paint
things only in the layer in which
they would exist in the final
thing,” explains Burton. This also
ensured that the Parallax Effect
would work correctly in After
Effects. “All compositing was done
in After Effects,” she continues,
“which I wasn’t very proficient in
at the start of the project, but had
a fairly good knowledge of by the
end. Ultimately I wanted the film
to feel like an illustration or piece
of concept art if you paused it on a
single frame.”
Despite the inevitable technical
challenges of creating an animated
short, Burton maintains that the
biggest challenge was keeping
belief in her idea. “It’s so easy for
artists to doubt themselves and
I had many a moment where I
questioned what the hell I was
doing,” she admits. “About midway
through working on it I had this
secret breakdown moment where
FEATURE
I thought it wasn’t worth making,

but I powered through because I
knew Blue Zoo were backing me
and I didn’t want to let anyone
down. I think if I had been working
alone I may have given up on the
idea at that point. I’m so glad I
didn’t, it taught me a lot of lessons
of resilience. I think it’s best to
remember that you truly believed
the idea was good enough when
you started it, so don’t let midway
doubts make you forget that.”
The logistics of telling your
story over the canvas of a short film
can also come with its fair share of
challenges. “For Ada there was a
very long story that could be told,”
says Winn, who had to devise a
way of presenting Ada Blackjack’s
incredible story in the short
form. “It was important for me to
narrow down on what I found most
compelling about it,” he continues.
“I would suggest figuring out your
ending; finding the moment you
want to leave the audience with
will help strip away parts of the
story that don’t help get there.”
ESSENTIAL ADVICE
As with any creative endeavour,
there is no right or wrong way
to direct your short. There are,
however, some ingredients that 3D
World’s experts consider important
to the success of any project. For other artists, so you don’t have to Blue Zoo the ability to tell it. “I always tell
Hwang, communication proved be super proficient with the whole commissioned people to make what they can with
vital. “It doesn’t matter how big pipeline, storyboarding, character musical comedian the skills they have,” she adds. “I
or small the team is,” he asserts. design, animating, modelling, Ben Champion to didn’t have all the skills to make
“My team was only a team of two, texturing, lighting, rendering and write a Christmas Via when I started, but I didn’t let
yet communication was a key editing, but it’s helpful if you’re at song for their festive that stop me, I told myself I would
in creating a film.” He adds that least familiar with each step.” short, More Stuff learn the things I didn’t know and
the process would have become Unfamiliarity shouldn’t act as a if I got completely stuck I’d find
needlessly painful without good barrier though and as 3D World’s More information on someone who was willing to help.
working relationships. contributors have shown, there are Blue Zoo, their work I treated the whole process as an
When making a 3D short, a good numerous opportunities to learn and in-house shorts opportunity to learn and wasn’t
knowledge of the entire pipeline as you create your short. According programme can be going to let anything scare me away
can also prove beneficial. Hwang to Burton, all you need to make found at blue-zoo. from the opportunity to tell a story
adds: “You can hire or team up with an animated short is a story and co.uk I wanted to tell.”
Burton also stresses the
importance of integrity and
authenticity in your storytelling.
“Everyone will have an opinion
and a critique for you on your
idea or film,” she explains. It’s
important to respect the opinions
of those you ask for advice, but
equally important to stick to
your guns when you feel strongly
about something. “There was a
time in Via where I was given
advice to keep the wife alive at
the end by people whose opinions
FEATURE
UNREAL
ADVANTAGE
WILL COOK REVEALS HOW
UNREAL ENGINE MADE
CHRISTMAS WITH THE
MOONIES POSSIBLE
During the creation of

Christmas With The Moonies,
Will Cook and the team had to
combat the time constraints
of a busy studio like Blue Zoo
Animation. In order to complete
the short, the team needed
tools that would speed up their
traditional workflow. “Using
Unreal Engine to light, render
and comp this project enabled
us to cut out the traditional pain
in the bottleneck of creating a
CG animated short,” explains
Cook. Unreal allowed the team
to rapidly experiment with the
lighting of each scene, which
fed into the storytelling. “The
team were adjusting lighting
and improving shaders right
up until a few minutes before
delivery,” Cook continues. “It
was fantastic to be able to
stand over a lighter’s shoulder,
although I'm sure they hated
Top: Blue Zoo I greatly respect,” she continues. says. “I think that is very true of that, and ask them to try
followed up their “I took the advice and drew it animation. A lot of stories can work different light angles and then
festive short More up into storyboards, but I found in a variety of styles and mediums, be able to see it there and then.
Stuff with No More that my idea was a lot about so I would say decide what you It was brilliant.”
Stuff, a parody of finding strength on your own want to say with the story and start
action movie trailers and being happy with the life experimenting.” Winn and the
you had, it wasn’t about a cutesy, team at Blue Zoo looked at a host
Blue Zoo’s in-house heartwarming moment of a couple of designs and concept art for Ada,
shorts aim to push together. In the knowing that
end I didn’t take they wanted to
creative boundaries,
encourage their advice
because it took
“YOU DON’T HAVE convey something
raw, organic
experimentation
and be truly away from what
my film was
TO BE SUPER and mature.
Each of 3D
collaborative
meant to be, but I
did consider it.”
PROFICIENT World’s experts
took their own
Animated
shorts are also an
WITH THE WHOLE route to creating
an animated
opportunity to
experiment with
PIPELINE” short, but with
their insights,
visual styles, and Rok won Hwang, Bruised your vision and
with Ada’s hand- the means to
drawn aesthetic, Winn has some execute it, you are well equipped to
experience in this area. “I read a chart your own course. “I know so
quote once that said something like, many people who are waiting until
‘you don’t figure out what style you they can do certain things before
want to do, you figure out how you they make anything,” says Burton.
want to communicate an idea’,” he “Don’t do that.”

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TO
STA
THE
ARS
TREVOR HOGG TRAVELS THROUGH THE SOLAR SYSTEM TO NEPTUNE WITH
THE PRODUCTION TEAM RESPONSIBLE FOR AD ASTRA…
or his first venture in outer space, filmmaker James Gray

(The Lost City Of Z) has adopted the Latin phrase ‘Ad Astra’,
F which means ‘to the stars’; he has also reimagined the classic
novella Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad as an odyssey
through the solar system rather than colonial Africa of the
1890s. US Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) journeys to Mars in an effort
to make radio contact with his estranged father Dr. Clifford McBride
(Tommy Lee Jones), who may be responsible for unleashing a destructive
cosmic force upon the Earth from a space station orbiting Neptune.
“
F
rom the beginning, James Gray
and I thought of this movie as
science fact rather than science
fiction,” explains production
designer Kevin Thompson
(Michael Clayton). “We wanted
it to be believable future space
travel, and not big cruise ships and
glamorous futuristic fantasy. Our
main reference was the Apollo
documentary For All Mankind.
Interestingly enough, 50 years
later a lot of the technology and
science as well as the look of
the spacesuits, astronauts and
the claustrophobic nature of the
spacecraft have not changed that
much. Narratively we looked at
2001: A Space Odyssey in terms of
the odyssey and the psychological
aspect of space travel.”
“WE WANTED IT
TO BE BELIEVABLE
SPACE TRAVEL, Far right: A model is to what you might think of using effects producer Allen Maris
NOT GLAMOROUS constructed for the
80,000 feet radio
monofilament, the idea was to
utilise stiff rods; that way you have
(Godzilla) taking on the dual role
of visual effects supervisor. “Going
FUTURISTIC antenna situated
in Ecuador
control of the thing doing whatever
you want it to do, especially having
into the conversations with the
vendors I was like, ‘You need to be
FANTASY” Top: The final shot
that interact with somebody.
There was one shot where I had
prepared for growth.’ We ended up
with 12 as opposed to three.” The
Kevin Thompson, production designer of Roy McBride to fly a small toothpaste tube, and initial vendors were MPC, Method
(Brad Pitt) looking somebody had to grab it out of Studios and BOT VFX, while other
down upon the Earth the air. At the same time, we’re additions included Mr. X, Vitality
Vertical and horizontal versions on a platform that is rotating. VFX, Weta Digital and Lola VFX.
of sets were constructed to create Inset: A portion Thankfully, visual effects helped to Iudica worked closely with
the impression of the cast being of the massive smooth things out.” supervising stunt coordinator
in a zero-gravity environment. radio antenna was Originally, it was thought there Robert Alonzo (Deadpool). “Roy
“I stopped drinking coffee as physically built by were going to be between 300 to McBride has to pull off a piece
everything had to be super still and the art department 500 visual effects shots and that of housing from the spacecraft
floating,” remarks special effects and shot against the vendors would supervise their and uses that as a shield to blast
supervisor Frank Iudica (Fear bluescreen own work; however, the number through the rings of Neptune,”
The Walking Dead). “As opposed increased to 850 leading to visual explains Iudica. “James wanted

THE
BLUE SURGE
AN 80,000 FEET TALL RADIO ANTENNA CONSTRUCTED
IN ECUADOR SEARCHES FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT
LIFE IN DEEP SPACE AND GETS DESTROYED BY A
MYSTERIOUS COSMIC PHENOMENON
“A practical 15 x 10 foot truss section that Roy McBride

climbs was built and shot against bluescreen,” explains
Mr. X VFX supervisor Olaf Wendt. “The most challenging
segment occurs when Roy is falling because that is a
combination of bluescreen and aerial photography,
primarily made up of close-up shots. We had to get our
shots into the rhythm of the edit. The aerial photography
provided us with the anchor points and to those shots we
still had to add a CG antenna in order to bring all of the
environments together.”
The Blue Surge went through a long concepting stage.
“We applied MPC’s concepts to our sequence,” states
Wendt. “Since this show was shot on 35mm film, James
wanted to see the effect that could be produced by
damaging the film stock. FotoKem did some experiments
which led to some interesting results. The entire surge was
done photochemically. I like the simplicity of it.”
Brad to be spinning fast, and Above: Roy McBride IX and Lima Station with the nice irregularities of changes in
work through these beats of him (Brad Pitt) climbs extensive time required for space specular and surface quality were
unpinning and pulling off this a portion of the travel taken into consideration. put into our models and textures
piece of material. I came up with physically built “We wanted the interior of the to get that miniature feel, even
a platform to set the set on so that rocket shot against spacecrafts to inform the exteriors though we were using a computer,”
it could rotate while stunts are bluescreen and had references for how we notes MPC VFX supervisor Chris
hanging Brad on a rotating rig.” wanted each of the ships to be Downs. “We found an online
Another combined effort between The ignition of unique,” remarks Thompson. database of the 30,000 to 40,000
the two departments was for a the rocket and “When you need a part for repair closest stars to Earth and could
less dramatic moment. “The stunt reflecting light in or something to add to a ship, they move around them in Nuke;
department could fly the actors the astronaut sun will be equipped with 3D printers that gave us an accurate frame
around in space but could never get visor are added in to be able to build their own parts. of reference. For shots where a
them through a doorway because the CG Then there was the idea of modular camera was attached to our ship,
of the wires. We had a crane set up systems that were pneumatic and we would add a slight drift or spin
with various belly and back pans constructed from lightweight so you could see a subtle movement
to have the actors breach through materials that were compressed in the starfield in the background.”
doorways or enter a room.” when they are shipped or made.” Interior settings on Mars,
Science drove the design of Miniatures were not utilised the Moon and Earth were kept
the Cepheus, Moon shuttle, Vesta for the spacecrafts. “Some of those as practical as possible. “Early

FEATURE
To the Stars
on we decided that a lot of the

structures would be underground
both on the Moon and Mars,”
states Thompson. “We looked
at underground and mechanical
spaces along with old closed-down
engineering spaces that were
unusual and made of concrete that
looked like it could be dug into the
earth. A lot of visual motifs for the
colonies were formed during the
process of location scouting.”
While travelling to a spaceport
located on the dark side of the
Moon, the military convoy
escorting Roy McBride by land
is attacked by roving pirates.
“Cinematographer Hoyte van
Hoytema [Dunkirk] came up with
an interesting idea to make the
desert look more like the Moon,”
remarks Method Studios VFX
supervisor Jedediah Smith. “Plates
were shot in the Dumont Dunes
for the lunar rover sequence.
They employed a stereo camera rig
that had an ALEXA XT modified to
capture infrared light and Arriflex
435 Advanced shooting side by
side simultaneously. Infrared
photography makes the sky look
blacker and the ground brighter.
You would use the luminescence
from the infrared camera and then
the colour information from the
film camera. We received the two
plates for most of the wide shots
where we would align the film and
infrared footage.”
Recreating the rings of Neptune
was not easy due to the sheer
number of particles that needed
to be simulated. “A simulation was
run for most of the 50-kilometre
ring that we travel through,”
“PLATES WERE SHOT IN THE DUMONT DUNES
remarks Down. “We had four
sizes of particulate layers with the
FOR THE LUNAR ROVER SEQUENCE”
largest being the size of a golf ball Jedediah Smith, VFX supervisor, Method Studios
and then all of the rings relative to
one another. They’re thousands of
kilometres from the innermost ring Top (inset): A plate the atmosphere in a vacuum. explosions. We found a way to split
but only 100 metres tall. Getting shot of Roy McBride The footage provided us with the gas simulation into onion skin
those two scales to play well with approaching a interesting graphic shapes and layers. In order to get the final
each other and make it feel like an hatch represented that’s what we used as our main look, we stripped away some of the
epic ring was a tricky challenge.” by greenscreen reference point. In space you outer layers and set aside some of
A nuclear explosion destroys situated on Mars see the raw effect of a nuclear the inner layers.”
Lima Station as the spacecraft detonation that pulverises the Everything was shot with
orbits Neptune. “There is grainy Top: The hatch and surrounding objects. You also astronaut sun visors on to try to get
60mm footage of some high- Cepheus getting don’t have the immediate effect of realistic reflections in camera. “It’s
altitude nuclear tests that the ready to launch are gravity, which results in something also more art directed because that
US did back in 1950s,” states Mr. added in CG that is roughly spherical in shape. is something the DP is lighting,”
X VFX supervisor Olaf Wendt. The final iteration had a stark remarks MPC VFX supervisor
“They were done at an altitude look to it as James wanted this Guillaume Rocheron. “There was
of 100 miles, which is above to be different from other sci-fi a lot of clean-up that we had to do.

FEATURE
To the Stars
CHILLS & DRILLS

IN ANSWERING THE DISTRESS SIGNAL OF THE VESTA IX, TWO CEPHEUS
CREW MEMBERS ENCOUNTER SOME VERY HUNGRY PRIMATES UPON
BOARDING THE NORWEGIAN RESEARCH FACILITY
“We had to walk a fine line not to make Critical to successfully integrating the
the two drill monkeys zombies, because ferocious CG drill monkeys into the live-
they’re not supernatural creatures but action plates was also having a stand-
feral wild animals that have escaped in actor, which allowed for shots to be
captivity, killed and eaten the scientists, composed, enabled the performance
and have been up there starving for to be directed, and helped to provide
quite a long time by the time our heroes proper lighting and shadow references.
get into the station to explore,” explains “It makes it much more physical and
Weta Digital VFX supervisor Anders real, especially when you want your
Langlands. “They’ve got blood and bits CG character right next to the actor,”
of dead astronaut in their teeth. We made remarks Langlands. “It was shot on
them mangy, so they’ve got patches a vertical set with wires behind the
in their fur and sores on their skin. We performer, which hides the wires most
looked at quite upsetting reference of of the time as well as giving you the
mistreated animals, in particular dogs.” zero-gravity feel.”
Images courtesy of Method Studios, MPC, Mr. X, and Weta Digital © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
But it’s always an element that you
have to take careful consideration
of. Funny enough in the third act,
the reflection of Neptune into the
visor was a good element for us to
create a sense of movement and Above: A stand-in
geography.” Rocheron assisted performer wearing a
with the reshoot footage. “It was mocap suit provides
not only trying to find a look that the necessary framing
was unique, but design shots that and lighting references
were more realistic. We all have a
collective memory of what a rocket Left: The final shot of
taking off looks like and what kind the drill monkey about
of angles you would see. We were to attack Roy McBride
inspired by the NASA footage. It (Brad Pitt)
was not about the excitement of
spacecrafts whipping by camera,
but the beauty, and how dangerous
and lonely space is, which is
something we talked about a lot.”
Find out more at foxmovies.
FYI com/movies/ad-astra

FEATURE
Milk: Building environments
PART 3 / 5
BUILDING
ENVIRONMENTS
Our Milk VFX series moves into a focus on
digital matte painting at the studio
o far in 3D World’s audience where the scene is now

special look at the happening. Sometimes digital
S work of visual effects
studio Milk VFX,
environments can also be utilised
for wider, background shots in
we’ve peeked behind which a live-action set has been
the curtain at how assets are extended, or where a character is
created, and how characters and seen looking out onto a landscape
creatures are animated. There are that could not be filmed for real.
of course many other stages in This is why the tools for
VFX production that take place at generating digital environments,
the studio, and articles in future particularly at Milk VFX, are
issues will dive into FX simulations quite varied. They range all the
and compositing. way from 2D work in Adobe
Amongst all that work is Photoshop to mixing 2D and
environments, an area that 3D geometry in Autodesk Maya
often combines many different and Foundry’s Nuke. In recent
disciplines, including asset times, Milk VFX has also relied
creation and compositing to get to on building environments in
a final image. But environments, Cinema 4D as its ‘hub’ application.
especially at Milk VFX, tend to Then, if particular landscapes are
also be a highly artistic side of the required, the studio uses specific
effects process, since they are often world-building software such as
realised like paintings, and must Planetside’s Terragen or World
closely follow any concept art. Creator, mixing with real-world
Here we explore Milk VFX’s imagery acquired with Agisoft’s
environments work for the PhotoScan or real photography.
television series Good Omens and
Origin, and we also feature a set of A TRIP TO THE FUTURE Top: The base
pro tips from the studio itself for Almost every project Milk VFX panorama for the
building up environments. tackles involves some kind of background to a
digital environment work, and Heaven shot in
MAKING DIGITAL it can range from fantastical Good Omens
ENVIRONMENTS landscapes to modern-day
In visual effects, digital structures, to futuristic locations. Middle: The final
environments might be fully CG Such was the case for YouTube Heaven environment
locations that the characters Premium’s 2018 sci-fi original
walk through or the action takes series Origin. Here, Milk VFX was Right: The Garden of
place in, or they might be more the creator of all 926 visual effects Eden in Good Omens
of the ‘establishing shot’ kind of shots, including a number of digital was a Milk VFX
environments, used to tell the environments. In particular, the digital environment

The team at work inside
Milk VFX’s London studio
FEATURE
A final city scene

from Origin
“WE WENT UP TO LONDON’S mega-structures, and that they had

also dug down into the ground,”
says Milk VFX head of digital
the series and is some 7,000 years
ago,” details Wicker, who oversaw
the creation of what would be a
SKY GARDEN AND SHOT matte painting Simon Wicker. “For
those high-up, looking-down shots
desert landscape along with trees
and plants.
REFERENCE PHOTOS” we would create buildings that
would go up, and then we’d also
The process began with Google
Earth Studio, a browser-based tool
Simon Wicker, head of digital matte painting, Milk VFX cut holes and we’d have them going in which users can trawl through
down to the nether regions or right Google Earth imagery and render
down into the ground.” 3D scenes. Milk used it for previs
studio had to realise futuristic The result became a series of for the Garden of Eden. “Our visual
Tokyo cityscapes, coming up with structures built on top of each effects supervisor, Jean-Claude
its own spin on designs that are other, labelled ‘modular’ buildings Deguara, actually went around the
commonplace in the world of VFX. by Wicker. “We’d just keep adding world and located this interesting
In general terms, Milk VFX details on top of them so that we piece of terrain that he thought
would be augmenting live-action could use all of these to build out would provide a basis for what they
plates by replacing certain the environment.” wanted to do,” says Wicker.
landmarks and generating their This became a background
own, tapping into live-action GOOD OMENS’ GARDEN OF EDEN reference for the desert part of
footage that had been shot of Several major environments in the Garden of Eden, which was
Above (L-R): interestingly shaped buildings the Amazon series Good Omens essentially a two-and-a-half-D
Cinema 4D interface for filmed at ground-level, but instead were crafted by Milk VFX. These matte painting projection of sky
the futuristic cityscape showing the wider vistas. included the Garden of Eden, the and sand split into layers. The
environment of Origin “We decided they wanted to world of Atlantis and Heaven. actual garden area was a 3D asset
/ City wireframe / split the ground so they had to Each had its own challenges. “The made in Cinema 4D. That tool’s
Atmosphere render build upwards into these giant, Garden of Eden environment opens MoGraph module was then used

FEATURE
HOW TO BE A BETTER ENVIRONMENT ARTIST

HEAD OF DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING AT MILK VFX, SIMON WICKER, HAS THESE PIECES
OF PROFESSIONAL ADVICE FOR ASPIRING ENVIRONMENT ARTISTS
1. THE LIBRARY 3. THE KIT OF PARTS might be a recognisable landmark like

For the environment artist, time spent You will be given a brief and will have Westminster Abbey or the Houses of
gathering suitable images to use as a to break down the environment into the Parliament, built in much greater detail
springboard for your ideas is time well components that you need to build your and positioned to draw your eye. The
spent. This is especially true if you are world. It is a bit like playing with Lego: final element of your kit of parts would
working in TV, where time constraints make simple elements that you bolt then be the set dressing used to add
mean visual experimentation is a together to build something bigger and random details at smaller scale – the
precious resource. I would encourage more exciting. Large environments are all boxes, barrels and left-over debris of life
any aspiring digital matte painter to about filling space in a visually interesting scattered around the streets to bring it to
acquire a digital camera of some kind way, but real cities or environments have life and add some ‘casual complexity’.
and begin building a library of personal what I call a ‘casual complexity’ – reality
images. Carry a camera around with is the result of potentially thousands of 6. BUILD TO SCALE
you and snap away whenever you come years of interactions between people I have always found it useful to maintain
across something interesting. and their environment. a sense of scale as you model. This allows
you to freely mix and match elements
2. MAINTAINING THE LIBRARY 4. KIT EXAMPLE – THE GENERIC PARTS from your reference library, and can give
You will be surprised how often a Let’s say you were creating a traditional you a better sense of proportion.
seemingly random image might be view of Victorian London. The generic
used as the basis of one of your matte part would be the small shops and 7. SCALE BUILDING – THE PROCESS
paintings, whether as an actual element houses, often at lower resolution, to I usually model using centimetres as this
or lighting/design guide. Personally fill out the bulk of the city. Treated as gives a ‘fine’ resolution for adding details
I shoot RAW so I can be flexible in a ‘kit of parts’ you might build a set of to larger scale objects like buildings. I
how the images are ‘developed’. Your windows, doors, chimneys, etc that then convert objects to 1/10th scale (or
image library can be used as reference are used in your generic buildings. The decimetres) during the layout process.
for lighting, style, modelling, texture, generic buildings should be designed as Although it is quite unusual I also prefer
atmosphere, perspective and layout. components of the city, bridging gaps, working to a well-defined grid when
I would also recommend building up running off at angles and turning corners modelling in 3D. Cinema 4D makes
a library of useful 3D elements. When so you can build blocks of streets. this very easy, and I find that when
you find spare time, model up things constructing hard-surface models using
that you might need in the future. As you 5. KIT EXAMPLE – HERO ELEMENTS my ‘kit of parts’ technique this allows me
complete jobs, take a moment to archive The hero element or elements form the to very quickly snap elements together
any generic elements you have created. focal point of the shot. For London, that and place things numerically.

FEATURE
to populate the interior section

with trees, plants and shrubbery to
give the garden life and depth.
“That was then re-used over
several shots,” states Wicker.
“Depending on how close we
got to the asset, we would have
to augment that with some
photographic reference for light
rays and light the trees and paths
that we had in there.”
GOING TO HEAVEN
Good Omens deals with the
approaching apocalypse, and there
are several times that the action
takes place in Heaven, depicted as
almost some kind of skyscraper
amongst the clouds. The shots were
a collaboration between the 3D
assets department at Milk VFX and
the environments team.
“It was all set up to mimic the
sky garden in the ‘Walkie-Talkie’
building in London,” says Wicker.
“That was the interior that they
really liked, but obviously they
wanted to make it look slightly
different. So the 3D department
created that interior asset as a 3D
modular and living texture through
our normal pipeline. Then, for the
exterior of it, we just went up to the
sky garden itself and shot reference
photos from there to create a
panorama as much as we could.”
“I managed to get a 180-degree
panorama of photos just by visiting
there as a tourist,” adds Wicker.
“It’s a slightly other-worldly place,
so we took different assets of other
famous buildings like St. Paul’s
Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, the
pyramids, that kind of thing, and
we layered those up as separate Above: An Atlantis material. He also read the script, be useful. I also brought in some
elements so that as we comp’ed the render without the and checked to see what had been children’s reference books from
shots, the artists could then put in sky background, supplied by the client – in this case home that I thought were quite
famous landmarks and move them showing the it was some tonal concept art that interesting, as they featured pen
around to get a nice composition.” buildings, terrain gave an idea of the colour palette and ink studies of Ancient Rome
and water in place and atmosphere the director was and Greece that reduced the
UNDERWATER OUT-OF-WATER aiming for. “For Good Omens we complex building shapes down to
At one point during Good Omens, tried to make the matte paintings much simpler forms.”
the lost city of Atlantis is revealed quite ‘traditional’ visually, For Atlantis, too, the goal was
by a receding ocean. For Milk hoping that viewers would feel a to make sure it was instantly
VFX, it also represented one of the familiarity with what they were recognisable, and that meant
typical challenges that come with seeing,” adds Wicker. going with a slightly stylised look.
digital environments; they tend “Then, for the city of Atlantis, It appears in the show as a city
to be required for short or one- I tried to come up with an on rocky outcrops. “We started
off shots, making it important to archetypal ancient city based on my by using a Lego kind of approach
plan how the environment will be childhood memories of watching where you would build all of the
achieved in the most efficient way. fantasy films like Clash Of The doors, windows, framework,
The first thing Wicker did Titans and Warlords Of Atlantis. I pillars – those little assets – then
when approaching the Atlantis took some screen grabs and made we would create the buildings and
shot was gather together reference a folder of images I thought could attach those to it,” explains Wicker.
FEATURE
“Once that was all brought into

Cinema 4D, we would bring in
hundreds of thousands of years,”
says Wicker. “So we took some “ATLANTIS HAD TO LOOK LIKE
some terrain that we had created
and layer up on top of it. We used
MoGraph to lay out the assets,
little, simple models of coral and
then layered those out on top of all
the buildings, then re-generated
IT HAD BEEN UNDERNEATH
which is one of the most powerful
parts of Cinema 4D, really. It allows
that surface to get that weathered
look to it. Then we finished up with
THE SEA FOR HUNDREDS OF
you to go in and adjust each of the
little sections individually. So if
passing out our geometry to the
effects department, who then did a
THOUSANDS OF YEARS”
there were any buildings we didn’t water simulation for it. So we had Simon Wicker, head of digital matte painting, Milk VFX
like the look of, we could delete to come up with water dripping
them or move them or rotate them down over the mountainsides and
around, or make them look a little that kind of thing, which we then Egg to tap into the comedic nature Top: A hero building
bit more interesting.” brought back in.” of Good Omens. “At the top of each crafted for the
To ensure Atlantis looked old The final result – rendered of the little rock formations, there’s Atlantis environment
and weathered and beaten by the in Arnold – also made use of a tiny little set of palm trees as in Good Omens
sea, Milk VFX also used fracturing photographic reference of rock though it’s that little island where
tools in Cinema 4D to affect the formations Wicker took during the water’s come down.”
buildings. “It had to look like it a holiday he was on in St. Ives, Discover more of Milk VFX’s
had been underneath the sea for Cornwall, and even a final Easter
FYI work at milk-vfx.com

FEATURE
FINDING ATLANTIS
SIMON WICKER, HEAD OF MATTE PAINTING AT MILK VFX,
ON HOW THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS WAS CRAFTED
AS A ‘KIT OF PARTS’ FOR GOOD OMENS
01
1. BACKGROUND SKY a MoGraph cloner set to ‘Render

This is a panorama stitched Instance’. Quite often you will find
together in Photoshop from a that the scattering intersects the
series of photos I took while on clones, but I always find this adds to
holiday in Cornwall. Living in central the randomness of the scene.
London I find views of the sky are
often obscured by large buildings. 5. RUINED BUILDINGS
You can rarely find good spots Using the generic buildings we
for shooting clean views, so I tend made previously, run them through
to go crazy and shoot as many a Voronoi Fracture in Cinema 4D
02 panoramic skies as possible when to generate a broken version.
I am at the beach and can actually You can put in a ground collider
see a horizon. and step slowly through a Rigid
Body simulation until you get a
2. TERRAIN reasonable-looking ruined building.
I used a landscape generator called I’m not trying to do a ‘proper’
World Creator from BiteTheBytes simulation here, simply getting
to build several chunks of terrain: something that looks interesting.
soft and eroded for the foreground,
and taller mountains in the 6. SET DRESSING
background to help frame things I created some generic elements
and supply scale to the scene. such as pots, pans, barrels and
03 These were exported as OBJ and market stalls and used MoGraph to
imported into Cinema 4D. clone them across the landscape.
I could have created a map to
3. WATER control the positioning of the
This is just a cube scaled to fill the clones so that they hugged the
scene and textured with a simple buildings, but in this instance
procedural shader, using native you really can’t tell that they are
Cinema 4D noises in the bump just randomly scattered. In our
channel to add some animated library of 3D elements from Xfrog I
ripples to the surface. The cube is discovered a folder of underwater
raised and lowered to make the assets including various seaweeds
city more or less flooded. The and corals, and grew those over
04 water also helps to hide the seams everything to help break up the
between the chunks of terrain. edges of the buildings.
4. GENERIC BUILDINGS 7. FINAL TOUCHES

A set of very simple cube-shaped I placed some palm trees on the
buildings. You can use these highest point of the mountain in
simple buildings to create larger the background to make a proper
blocks that get scattered around comedy desert island left high and
the background to fill up space. dry. The scene was put together in
The scattering is performed by Cinema 4D and rendered in Arnold.
05
All Good Omens images copyright © 2019 Amazon Studios.
All Origin images copyright © YouTube Premium.
06 07

TH SAV
ED E
AT
E
27 – 28 FEBRUARY 2020
th th
OLYMPIA LONDON
FIND OUT MORE AT

www.vertexconf.com
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
#vertexconf
TUTORIALS
Practical tips and tutorials from
pro artists to improve
your CG skills
USE LIGHT TO CHANGE THE MOOD

The mood of a scene has a huge impact
on the final image, and needs to be
considered carefully
TUTORIALS
Build a late-noon archviz environment
FOLLOW
THE VIDEO
www.bit.ly/3DW-253
3DS MAX | CORONA | PHOTOSHOP
BUILD A LATE-
NOON ARCHVIZ
ENVIRONMENT
Oscar Juárez guides us through the process of
creating an exterior scene using Corona Renderer
Oscar Juárez right after that I made a mental

Oscar Juárez is an architect note to always remember that
who loves creating CG stuff each project has many different
– he has had his own studio moods. Changing the mood of
based in Mexico City, Fibrha our scene comes directly from our
AUTHOR Studio, since 2010. lighting, the colours we are using,
www.fibrha.com and also from the references we
gather. References are the best
way to start playing with our
S
everal years ago I had scene moods; we may think we
finished a piece of work, remember so well the way we
and then the client asked see things, but when we look at
me about the mood of the references we’re likely to notice
renders. I was curious about what that there are a lot of things we’ve
he was saying, and he asked me, missed. That is the importance
‘Why were they all in daylight?’ of references, and keeping a
So I told him daylight was a nice reference images folder.
way to show shadows, creating Nowadays clients set their
volume etc, which is true, but I cameras, but me and the team
was still intrigued. So, I started do several proposals about the
doing different light conditions; mood for each one. Keep in mind
I tried some night shots, some that this is a good way to show our
dawn ones, and all for the same clients that we care about their
image. At the end of the day I projects. So, in this tutorial I will
was shocked, because the project show you how to create a late-
was the same, the model was the noon mood.
same, but the mood had changed
the entire scene. I was still seeing
volumes and shadows, but in a
different way. DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
I was truly in love with this new For all the assets you need go to
discovery (I am talking about www.bit.ly/3DW-253
maybe seven years ago). So

TUTORIALS
01 MODEL BASE
The first step is to gather
references for the mood we want
Use groups
Always keep the whole
model divided into
to achieve in our scene. Once we groups, as this way
have settled on our main idea we can make changes
(in this case, a small street in the by selecting the area
suburbs), the first thing to do is we need instead of
start with a base. I started with a dealing with millions
street road, then I thought it might of polygons.
be good to add some walking roads
for people. At this point we need to
keep everything simple, as we still
do not know if we will be adding
trees, shrubs or any other kind of 3D 01
assets. We do not even know the
type of textures we will use, if they
are going to be with displacement
or without it. We will continue to
add more and more details later.
Now we can start to worry about the
main homes in our scene.
02 HOME 3D MODEL
For this scene I decided
to use a home based on a model
I did some time ago, of a home
designed by architect Yoshihiro
Yamamoto. I thought it would be
nice to have several homes all
over the street. We will talk about 02
creating the materials later. Once I
have the model set it will be time to
add more complexity to it.
03 VEGETATION
We have a base and our
main home model in our scene, so
now it’s time to add more life to it.
I had to select some good models
that could help me achieve the
mood I wanted, so I picked some 03
pennisetums and other shrubs. The
idea is to fill all the green places
with them. With the tools we have
these days it will be easier to cover
our areas; we can use Forest Pack
or we can use the always powerful
and handy Corona Scatter. The one
thing to always consider is where
our axes are placed in the models;
if we have the wrong position in our
pivot it will lead to weird looks, so
remember, always in the centre and
the base.
04 CREATE PROXIES
Every time we add models to
our scenes it’s so important to have
in mind how many of them we will
be needing. Some machines may
not have enough power to deal with
millions of polys, so I have always
had as a rule to use proxies from the
04

TUTORIALS
Scatter beginning. In this case I have several

or proxy? trees, shrubs, cars and people
Sometimes we will too. I have heard so many times, “I
have to consider have all my library for V-Ray. I can’t
whether or not to use use it in Corona,” and that is so
the Corona Scatter; wrong. Corona has a very powerful
there will be places converter capable of converting a
where it’s actually scene in no more than five minutes,
better to add an so do not hesitate. Convert your
instanced proxy by models from V-Ray to Corona and
hand according to then make them proxies.
our cameras. We have to add a scatter and
name it properly for each thing we
want to add, for example shrubs,
trees, people and so on. That is a
good way to keep stuff organised.
05 COMPOSITION
Next it’s time to add the
cameras. I added three cameras
so I could see the scene from three
different angles.
To help with the composition,
we can use a rule of thirds grid. To
make it visible in 3ds Max, go to
Viewport Configuration and in the
Safe Frames tab unlock the Action
Safe. Set 66 for horizontal and 0 for
vertical, and in Title Safe set 0 for
horizontal and 66 for vertical. Click
05 on Action Safe and Title Safe so we
can check it, and it’s done. We now
have our grid visible in our viewport.
I always try to align parts of our
scene to the vertical guidelines of
our grid, and I also like when the line
goes through the horizon, as it gives
us a sense of dynamism. For this
tutorial I set three cams, and after
adding the grid I adjusted each one
so that I could see if there was a new
perspective better than the one I
started with. As you can see in the
video it did not take a lot of time,
and was so handy when selecting a
better composition, or tuning the
06 one we had from the beginning.
06 LOCK RENDER CAMERA

We are almost ready for
lighting tests. But a common
question I have received is, how can
I have a viewport where I can move
all I need, and when pressing render
it renders the cam? The answer is
easy. Once in the viewport we have
to open our render settings (press
f10) and in the render view we have
to press the lock icon on the right.
Now we can have our viewport for
editing in real time and the other
for rendering. Keep in mind you will
have to leave that viewport intact.
07

TUTORIALS
08
09 10
If we work in the same viewport we Keep adjusting so we can see how the lighting careful because this way we can
have locked, it will keep moving as Always remember that creates shadows in the render. It lose contrast.
we edit it. placing our Corona also renders so much faster than
07 CORONA SUN
Now we are ready to add our
Sun and applying the
override material will
only give us a preview
the one with all the materials. I
create a simple Corona Material,
no reflection, no refraction, no
10 BASIC MATERIALS
Creating materials is one of
the most fun parts of archviz. What
Corona Sun. We need to consider of how lighting affects modification at all. Click on Mtl I’ve noticed in certain files I have
an angle about 45° to the left and our model. Once with Override and then apply the simple received is the amount of overdone
to the right. I set a 45° angle to models things may material we created. Now press materials some people use. I know
the right so it could give shadows change and we may render and see how the lighting is
from the side of the homes, leaving have to tweak the final behaving in our scene.
a dark front. I set the light in that position of our sun.
position because I wanted to have
shadows of the trees, and even the
small shrubs in the foreground floor
09 CORONA VFB
As you can see, the light gives
pretty nice and neat shadows, but it
where people would be walking. looks so burned out. Here is a tool
Keep testing different places for to be considered as one of the most
the look you are trying to achieve. useful at our disposal, the Corona
Do not forget to press Corona Sky VFB (Corona Virtual Frame Buffer)
Environment so we can have it – I would call it a mini Photoshop.
applied to the whole environment of We can use it for a lot of tweaks,
the scene. but for this image I only lowered the
exposure and set the white balance
08 LIGHTING TEST
Usually when it comes to
lighting tests I prefer doing an
to 7,800, so it could look more warm
and we can have a more late-noon
look. In some cases we can change
override image, which is when we the highlight compression so we
set a material to the whole scene can get rid of burned areas, but be
11

TUTORIALS
in some cases that’s what is needed, human scales placed in the model Start basic worry about saving alphas cause
but here is what I do in most of my provides a helpful size reference. When creating TARGA comes with its alpha
images. Once I have the model materials, go from embedded. A long time ago I was
ready for textures I add only the
maps as follows: Diffuse Color,
Refl. Color, Refl. Gloss, Bump and
12 ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS
We now have a pretty solid
image, so it’s time to add some
the most basic and
as you advance add
complexity. There
saving only in PNG because it came
with the empty background, but
once you try the TARGA file things
Displacement in some, then I apply artificial lights. In this case I added will be times when get easier and faster when you are
it where it’s meant to be. Most a Corona Light, selected the shape you need complex editing in Photoshop.
of the time that’s all the material of a disk and then activated the materials, but most of
needs. We might adjust reflection
and glossiness, but that’s all.
targeted option so it could work like
an IES file. Later I activated the IES
option so I could add an IES file. I
the time you won’t so
save render time by
only picking the right
14 BLEND MODES AND
ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
We now proceed to Photoshop. For
11 3D PEOPLE SCALES
I use both 2D and 3D people,
because it’s the way that works
selected one from the library, and
once rendering, a small light will
show up in the lights models I set at
ones to be complex. this step I added the main image
and applied a curves adjustment
layer so I could get a little more
best for me. I use them mostly in the top corners of the facade. If we contrast. Then I added the Indirect
the midground and background change the lighting of this scene to layer, set it to Soft Light and a value
and rarely in the foreground like a night one, those lights would be of 6%, then the Reflect layer in Soft
this image. Why? Because adding very visible, and we could even do a Light with a value of 5%, and finally
in the midground and background small flickering animation. the Texmap, which was set with a
lets me focus in the foreground. A blend mode of Multiply.
well-placed cutout person in the
foreground takes all the attention of
the eye and makes a greater impact,
13 RENDER OUTPUT
It’s time for the final render.
When it comes to render output 15 REMOVE THE SKY
Open the image in Photoshop.
and that is why in the final image I save the elements in TARGA, The go to channels, press Ctrl and
a 2D scale was added. Having 3D because this way I do not have to left-click in the alpha 1 channel.
12 13
14

TUTORIALS
Then go to the layers tab and in our Colour mismatch try several blend modes, and one added the Z-Depth one; for a
image apply a mask. Always render When adding 2D important thing: you can add a better result, invert the layer, set
with the background in black. human scales always curves adjustment layer to each sky the blend mode to Screen and
check the colour image so we can get sharper details then change the values. I set mine
16 ADD A SKY
Now it’s time to add a nice
balance of the scene
so it can be matched.
from them. to 16%, and added a mask so I
could delete the sky part of the
background. The first thing I did was
add a base background image, so I
can add more layers on top and get
Sometimes we focus
on levels, saturation
etc and at the end
17 EXTRA DETAIL IN TREES
We can make our trees pop a
little more by adding a kind of glow
layer. I did this because I did not
want to affect the look of my sky,
then added a Color Balance layer
better results. Right after adding we have a mismatch light to the parts of our trees where and tweaked it a little so it could
the base image I added another between the 2D we can see the light touches them. look more warm. Finally I added a
layer on top with several clouds, scale and the whole Add a new empty layer and set it black and white adjustment layer,
then set it to Screen just because rendered scene. to Overlay. Next is adjusting our set it to Darken, then Soft Light with
I liked the way it looked. You can brush; I am using a Wacom tablet, 23% so we could gain a better and
but it can be done with a mouse sharper contrast.
too. Draw in a white or blueish tone
where we see the light touches the
trees. It can also be applied to the
windows of the home – it’s up to
19 HUMAN SCALES
IN PHOTOSHOP
The final step will be adding people.
you, but remember it’s best used in I decided to add 3D people in
places where light is affecting the the render, so that I could have
render. Finally set the blend mode a reference for the sizes, and
to Overlay and we are done. then in Photoshop I added more
2D people. In the video you can
18 Z-DEPTH AND
COLOR BALANCE
The background sky is on and next I
see how I worked each scale in
Photoshop, but mainly I adjusted
Levels, Hue/Saturation, Color
added a few more layers. First of all I Balance and some masks. •
15
18
16 17 19

TUTORIALS
Create a cinematic night scene

TUTORIALS
NIGHT-TIME
This tutorial is focused on
enhancing cinematic scenes by
learning how to use visual language,
work with basic shapes, and create
a complete scene in 3ds Max
3DS MAX | V-RAY | PHOTOSHOP
CREATE A
CINEMATIC
NIGHT SCENE
Produce a cinematic outdoor night-time scene
and discover some techniques for enhancing
an image’s atmosphere
T
his tutorial is focused on instead of having high intensities.
learning how to create About the atmosphere, focus on
cinematic scenes that the parameters of fog distance
communicate a particular feeling and fog height. These parameters
to the viewer, via the use of visual are fundamental for achieving
AUTHOR
language. We can effectively use awesome cinematic atmospheres,
colours, atmosphere, lighting, because we can control the falloff Gustavo Åhlén
camera angles, subjects, details, of the lighting. By adjusting these Gustavo Åhlén is a
and so on to achieve a desired parameters, we can master any multidisciplinary
effect – these are what we know night scene. There are no rules designer, instructor
as visual language, enabling us to for this, just trial and error. Here and concept artist
communicate an idea, a feeling, a we go! with more than five
concept – and by mastering these years of experience
you can improve any scene. in the CG industry.
In this tutorial we choose www.gustavoahlen.com
different techniques to focus on, DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
such as basic shapes, composition For all the assets you need go to
and the rule of thirds, focusing www.bit.ly/3DW-253
on the theory of cinematic work.
By understanding these basic
methods, you can further improve
your skills.
We will focus on the lighting
and atmosphere, where we can
control the feeling of illumination
over the scene. The intensity
of light should be as low as
possible, because we should try
to recreate a night scene, and
the illumination should be subtle

TUTORIALS
01 02
03 04
01 GATHER CINEMATIC
REFERENCES
References are fundamental to
Irregularities
One of the most
important methods to
which movies, images, and so on
communicate with the viewer.
This method uses shots or shot
spaces to get a visual balance. For
this process, try to experiment
in Photoshop, adding a black
understanding how cinematic create irregular edges sequences where we try to background where you will position
scenes work, and before starting is the use of ‘Chamfer’; communicate an idea in the same the main and secondary subjects
any project it is really important to with this tool, we way that scripts use letters, words over it. The main subject in the
focus on movies, cinematography can achieve a more and sentences. The techniques and scene – in this case, the house – can
images, photographs, etc to get a realistic finish. Another styles of cinematic language can be done by adding a square block,
good starting point to develop the good option to increase only be limited by the imagination and the secondaries with simple
scene. First, set a point of interest realism is adding small of the director, and a good way triangles. Using gradients, you can
and try to pay attention to the main details like rocks, to enhance your scenes would also add some subtle lighting.
subject in the scene, apply the rule broken edges, grass, be to answer the next question:
of thirds to any static image, and
there you will get a better idea of
the final composition for your scene.
dirty areas, etc. For the
atmosphere, try to add
volumetric lighting,
How would a scene capture your
attention? Focus on it. 04 SET UNIT SCALE
During the modelling stage
we must set the unit scale to get
02 IDENTIFY A VISUAL
LANGUAGE
because this will wash
the colours, again
helping to increase the
03 WORK WITH
BASIC SHAPES
The process of using basic shapes
accurate results. So, go to Unit
Setup and change the metrics to
centimetres. We choose this scale
Once you’ve taken a look at the image’s realism. to develop your scene is a good and because we can get better control
references, it would be easier to useful technique, enabling you to over the size of the objects in the
identify a visual language. The play with different colours, shapes, scene. This is great for working
visual language is a method by lighting, gradients, and empty using real scales.

TUTORIALS
05 06
07 08
05 MODEL THE HOUSE

Add a simple box with a size
of 800 (width) x 1,000 (length) x
The power
of framing
How we frame
technique of connecting the edges,
then Inset and Extrude. Once you
have created the door, this will be a
the shape of a street as well as car
ramps, and using Extrude we can
create a low relief. For the kerbs,
300cm (height) to get a real house our scene is a part of the object of the house, so select the edges holding Shift, and
size. Convert it to editable poly, very important we need to detach this into a single use Chamfer to achieve a more
and there select Edge. Select the consideration. For object. Then, select the ‘polygons’ realistic look.
edges and connect them using any CGI work, before of the door, click on Detach, and
Connect. This will create divisions
over the faces to create the doors,
windows, etc, and using Extrude
we choose the final
frame, try to play
around in the viewport,
this will extract the door into a
separated object. Mirror this door
into a copy. Merge both objects
08 SET MATERIALS
A good method to set
materials into different polygons
you can generate the width of the panning and tilting into a single one using Attach. of the same object is by selecting
walls. For the windows, divide a around your scene. Now select the border, and click on an area, such as the street as you
face into four parts, connecting the This simple test will Bridge to close any hole. can see in the current image of
edges with Connect. Next, select all help us to build a reference. Once you have selected
the created faces, and using Inset
you can create the frames, so apply
Extrude over the new polygons to
consistent scene
where the main
subject will be the
07 BUILD THE FLOOR
The floor has been made
using a simple plane with a size
these polygons, define the material
in the Slate Material Editor, adding a
material such as VRayMtl. And there,
give a real width. focus, resulting in a around 8,000 x 8,000cm. Give a try to decrease or increase the
better final look. high subdivision level increasing specularity according to the type
06 CREATE THE DOORS

For the garage door, we
created it using the previous
the values of Length and Width
Segs and convert to editable poly.
Now, select the polygons following
of material. Another method is to
detach the street into a new object,
and assign the material to this one.

TUTORIALS
09 V-RAY LIGHTING
In this process we must add
lighting to focus on highlighted
lighting. For this work we tested
fog distance between 5,000 to
10,000cm, and fog height between
Colour theory
Learning colour
theory is fundamental
12 ADD FINAL DETAILS
For this step we can use
Forest Pack to add foliage in the
areas, and for this we can start with 254 to 1,000cm. before starting any scene, or another good alternative
a VRayLight plane as we added post-processing such is MultiScatter.
into the garage, and try to play
with different parameters of
Intensity to control the light in the
11 ADD MATERIALS
Once you’ve tested all the
lighting, we can finish our work
as colour grading. It’s
important to learn
which colour palette
For the roof, walls and so on
we can add any extra details using
ATiles from Aviz Studio. If you do
scene. Don’t use high Multiplier by adding the final materials to should be used to use this, don’t forget to activate
values for the VRayLight dome, the scene. Sometimes we can express different the 3D snap, right-click over it and
otherwise the scene will look like set the materials in the scene moods and feelings, then check Vertex. The roof will
daylight, so we should just try during the first steps, but this will such as heavy, warm, snap to these vertices, snapping it
to use subtle parameters. If your increase the render time, so a cool, conventional, to the mesh.
scene is too dark, you can add a good method to test the lighting old-fashioned, loud,
VRayLight dome to compensate
the global illumination.
and the atmosphere will be using
the Override Mtl option. So,
once you have achieved a correct
calm, etc. You can take
a look at the Adobe
Color CC website as a
13 COMPOSITING, AND THE
RULE OF THIRDS
The process of compositing is
10 V-RAY ATMOSPHERE
By going to Environment we
can add a VRayAtmosphere. Try
illumination, it would be a good
time to add all the materials to the
scene. For this work we focused on
good starting point. where you must set the camera
angle, get a visual balance
using empty spaces, and set a
to play with different parameters lighting in order to effectively focus focus distance and focus point,
until you get good volumetric on the concept. controlling the depth of field. Or
09 10
11 12

TUTORIALS
13
just use a smaller aperture for the
camera, instead of a large aperture
which increases the depth of field.
During this step, try to set a point of
interest in your scene using the rule
of thirds.
14 RENDER THE SCENE

For rendering the scene
there is nothing special, just try to
follow the current settings from the
attached image. There are several
ways to render, but try to play with
the parameters of atmosphere
in Render Setup>Environment,
Background & Atmosphere.
In the Atmosphere slot you
can experiment with different
parameters, changing the material.
Try to save the final render using
14 EXR to keep a good resolution.
Saving it using TIF is also okay.
15 POST-PRODUCTION
For the final process we added
curves to increase the contrast, and
this is also a good stage to overlap
fog textures over the final render.
Another good option is adding a
LUT, so for this select Color Lookup,
and there select a look according
your personal tastes and the style
you are aiming for. •
15

TUTORIALS
Create a pre-rigged robot: Part 4
GET ANIMATING
Doing animation exercises
with the CAT Rig in 3ds
Max is fun and easy

TUTORIALS
FOLLOW
THE VIDEO
www.bit.ly/3DW-253
AUTODESK 3DS MAX
CREATE A PRE-
RIGGED ROBOT
Add simple animation to your CAT Rig robot
using both traditional and procedural techniques
Donovan B. Douglas, MFA

Donovan teaches modelling and animation classes at Longwood PART
University in Farmville, Virginia. He has worked in 3D since 2002.
3ds Max, ZBrush, Mudbox and Maya are his favourite 3D programs. 4/4
AUTHOR www.donoman.com
W
elcome to Part 4 in use of a unique parenting trick to
our series on creating make sure the box always stays
a unique fully rigged in the hands of the robot without
robot using only a CAT Rig in slipping around. We will add
3ds Max. In this final part we will some procedural animation using
be applying a combination of a CATMotion Layer so that the
different animation techniques to robot will walk forward on his own.
our robot model. Our robot will Lastly, we will add some dynamic
bend down and pick up a box. effects animation using MassFX
As he walks forward the box will to the contents of the box and to
open unexpectedly at the bottom the feet of the robot so he can
and a number of spheres will spill interact with the spheres. All of
out naturally onto the floor. The these animation options are all
robot will be oblivious to what is available within 3ds Max and can
happening and will absentmindedly be easily used together.
kick the spheres around as he walks
through them.
In order to accomplish this,
we will use traditional animation DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
keyframing for basic bending For all the assets you need go to
movements of the robot and the www.bit.ly/3DW-253
box he is carrying. We will make

TUTORIALS
01 WHICH MODE?
There are two basic modes
that the CAT Rig can be in. The
first is Setup mode where all the
positioning of the bones happens.
The second is Animation mode
where only animation can be
applied to the rig. The problem
some animators have is forgetting
that they are in Setup mode as they
move parts all around and then
wonder why they cannot apply any
keyframes. Keep track of which
mode you are in.
02 OPEN PART 3 FILE

This tutorial presumes that
the reader is familiar with basic
02 03
animation techniques and tools.

Open your robot file from Part 3. (If
you want to start from this point a
file from Part 2 that is lacking UVs is
provided for your convenience with
the tutorial assets.) In this tutorial
you will animate some simple
movements on the CAT Rig to lift
a box and use some procedural
movements found within the
CATMotion Editor.
03 CREATE BOX PARTS

Create a box primitive that is
50cm x 50cm x 0.5cm. This will be
one side of the final box. Convert 04 05
the box to an Editable Poly.
Duplicate this flat box six times. Understanding animation begins. The character’s mode. When it is green you are in
Turn on the Angle Snap Toggle to 3D parenting hands will be parented to the Animation mode. Turn the button
accurately rotate the sides. Change Imagine a parent box. If the box is not moved then to green.
two of the boxes to 50cm x 25cm walking with a child this will not be obvious. Once
x 0.5cm to be the bottom flaps of
the box. Set the pivot points of the
two flaps at the box edges so they
into a grocery store.
When the parent
walks, the child walks
the character steps forward and
the hands touch the box, we can
continue by animating the box
07 SELECTION SETS
Select all of the spline
control objects on the robot and
rotate correctly when animated. also. When the parent only and having the hands follow create a Selection Set. Call it All
stops, the child is free the motion but stay perfectly Controls and hit Enter. This will give
04 FINISH THE BOX

Set the Align tool to snap
to vertex. Use the Align tool to
to run around. When
the parent moves
again the child moves
connected to the box. At the
bottom of the interface is the Time
Configuration button. Make sure
you a dropdown that shows what
Selection Sets you have created.
Make other Selection Sets for
snap all the corners of the boxes right along. that you are either animating at multiple items that you need to
together to make one larger box. 25fps (PAL) in the UK or at 30fps select quickly and repeatedly. This
In Object mode hover over the (NTSC) in the US. includes polygons and points on
outside corner vertex of each box, polygonal objects, but you do have
and snap all of the outside corners
together with the two smaller
boxes on the bottom to act as
06 ANIMATION MODE
Select the root bone and go
to the Motion panel. In the Layer
to be in that particular sub-object
mode to see the Selection Set you
created previously.
flaps. Parent all six of the boxes to Manager add an Abs (Absolute)
the top. The reason for building
such a convoluted box is to make
the animation using MassFX a
Animation Layer by clicking and
holding and selecting the Abs
Layer option. A new Animation
08 AUTO KEY
Turn on Auto Key. A red
band will appear along the top of
little simpler. Layer will appear with an arbitrarily the timeline and the entire window
coloured box associated with it. view will have a thin red line around
05 SET TIME CONFIGURATION

Make sure the box is exactly
where you want it to be before the
The Setup/Animation mode toggle
will be red until it is turned on.
When it is red you are still in Setup
it. This is to ensure that you always
know when you are in Auto Key
or Set Key. This is independent of
01

TUTORIALS
06 07 08
the Animation mode for the CAT set keyframes for everything at Use reference grabbing the sides of the box. Start
Rig. For this animation have both frame 0. Move the time scrubber Always use reference with approximately two seconds.
Auto Key and the green Animation down to frame 10. Set keyframes video or images when Move your slider down the timeline
button turned on. Set a key for for everything there also. This will animating to ensure 50 to 60 frames and set some keys
the position of the box in front of ensure that your rig does not move accuracy. Don’t hesitate for the new position on all of your
the robot. The box should almost between frames 0 and 10. Move to to film yourself doing control objects. Make some test
touch the toe bones. frame 20. Move all control objects an action. Getting the animation renders by going to
to their starting positions with the timing correct is one Tools>Preview – Grab Viewport>
09 IK CONCERNS
The temptation when
working with IK in the hands or feet
robot standing in front of the box.
Start the animation after frame 20.
of the more critical
elements of animating.
Create Preview Animation to
determine if you need to speed up
or slow down the animation.
is to pull the IK handle out of the
body. You know this is happening
when the arm or leg becomes
11 QUICK OVERVIEW
For this animation the robot is
going to reach down, pick up the 13 ANIMATE THE BOX
Once the hands are placed
hyperextended as if some unseen box and walk forward. Items will correctly you will animate the box
magnetic force is pulling on them. spill out from the bottom and fall to as the lift continues upward to
Instead of just moving controls the ground. Focus on the centre of affect the arms. Do not place any
from and to extreme positions, try mass of the character so it appears
moving and rotating various body to always be balanced. Once the
parts together to act in unison hands are placed correctly on the
and be mindful of the IK positions. box it is the box that will drive the
Pulling the IK handle back until the rest of the lift. The box flaps will
elbow or knee just starts to bend be animated manually. The items
usually takes care of the problem. falling to the ground will all be
animated using MassFX. Move the
10 KEYFRAMES
With the green Animation
button still on, select all of your
pivot on the box to about a third
of the way down to approximately
where the hands will be placed.
control objects using the Selection
Set. At frame 0 use the large Set
Keys button that looks like a plus
sign with a little key next to it to
12 ANIMATION TIMING
Time yourself from a standing
position to a bent over position 11
09 10 12

TUTORIALS
keys on the IK handles of the arm Timing

if the box is moving, unless you are In an ideal situation
showing a shifting or sliding of the the timing in your
hand on the box surface. Keep in animation would be
mind the IK handles on the palm perfect. However, if
are a child of the box. You need to you have to choose,
animate the parent first and then it is better for the
the child. animation to appear
a little too fast than
14 REFINE THE TIMING

Continue to refine the timing
of your work. Do not have the
too slow.
robot stand up immediately. Take

another two seconds or so just to
make sure the hand placements
are correct. Look at the body in the
Left View. If the robot is off balance
make the proper adjustments
before going on. Watch for
interpenetrating geometry as the
hands reach for the box. Getting
into a bent over position might
cause the knees to go into the box, 13
for example.
15 TWEAK THE MOTION

Go to the place on the
timeline where you want the robot
to be holding the box in its final
position before starting the walk.
Move the box in concert with all
of the other controls on the body
until the robot is standing upright
again. Scrub this action numerous
times to see what might be wrong
with the motion. Correct any
abnormalities.
14 15
16 CATMOTION LAYER
Go to the Motion panel and
add a CATMotion Layer. This type
of animation layer adds procedural
animation to the rig. Your robot
will immediately go into a walk
pose. If you play the animation
the character will walk awkwardly
in place. You will also notice that
it appears you have lost all of the
animation that was previously
applied. The layer system in the
Motion panel is the opposite of
the layer system in a program
like Photoshop. The layer on the Dynamics
bottom obscures the layer above it. Using Dynamics
usually requires
17 CATMOTION SETTINGS
Set the Global Weight for the
CATMotion Layer to zero at the
you to bake down
the animation to
keyframes. It is still
point where the box is lifted. Go to possible to affect your
the first frame of the animation and objects after this by
also set the value to zero. Go 5-10 deleting keyframes
frames past the point of the lift and and setting new ones
then set the value to 100 per cent. using Auto Key.
16

TUTORIALS
What you should see is the robot

lift the box and then let go of the
box and walk in place.
18 WALK CYCLE
ADJUSTMENTS
There are some adjustments to
make to the walk cycle. Click on the
green CAT Paw button. This will
bring up the CATMotion Editor. In
the Globals section pick Walk on
Line. When you play the animation,
the character takes off immediately.
In the CATMotion Range change
the start frame to where you have
the robot lifting the box and ready
to start walking. Unfortunately, the
robot walks right through the box
and leaves it behind as it floats
strangely in the air.
17
19 SET LOCAL WEIGHTS
In the Layer Manager make
sure the CATMotion Layer is
selected. Select the left upper
arm bone on the robot. Under
Local Weight take the value to
zero. You should see the original
animation return to the left arm.
Only the arm animation is being
zeroed out for the CATMotion
Layer. Repeat this for the right
arm. The robot should be holding
the box correctly now. The only
problem is the box gets left behind
as the robot walks forward.
20 BOX ANIMATION
Select the box. As the robot
moves forward animate the box
moving along in front of it with a
natural bouncing up and down
motion every 5 to 10 frames. As you
attempt to keep the elbows in a
18 natural position the motion should
end up being very subtle yet
pleasing. After taking two or three
steps, animate the flaps opening
up at the bottom of the box.
21 CATMOTION PRESETS
The walk cycle currently
looks awkward with the default
values. Open the CATMotion
Editor. Exit Auto Key. (You want
to avoid automatically animating
all the changes that you make
in the Editor.) Go to CATMotion
Presets>GameCharWalk. In the
dialog box that pops up load it
onto the existing layer to override
our current walk. This should
automatically fix a number of the
19 20

TUTORIALS
problems. Continue to tweak

settings and phases as needed.
22 USE MASSFX
Continue to leave the Auto
Key unselected. Go to Animation>
MassFX>Utilities>Show MassFX
tools. This will bring up the tool
panel used when simulating
dynamic animations. Create a
geosphere that measures 7cm.
With the geosphere selected
go to Animation>MassFX>Rigid
Bodies>Set Selected as Dynamic
Rigid Body. Select all the box parts.
Go to Animation>MassFX>Rigid
Bodies>Set Selected as Kinematic 21
Rigid Body. Fill the box with sphere
copies (not instances) stacked 3 x
3 x 3. Ensure they are not touching
each other or the sides of the box.
23 DEFAULT SETTINGS
The spheres have been given
a default preset setting, but that
can easily be changed. There are
a number of values that can be
changed on each of the dynamic
objects. The density, mass, static
friction, dynamic friction and
bouncing can all be adjusted.
Forces such as gravity and wind can
also be used to affect the dynamics
of the scene. 22
24 TEST THE SIMULATION

You can test the simulation
by using the MassFX Tool panel.
Do not use the play button on the
timeline. Under Simulation Tools
use the playback buttons. If the
spheres keep falling out of the box
you will need to increase the Rigid
Body>Substeps to a much higher
number. In my sample I’m using
25. Once you’re happy with the
animation and the simulation it can 23 24
be baked out to keyframes.
25 LOOKING FORWARD
In this series we only touched
the surface on what can actually
be done with the CAT Rig. I would
encourage you to experiment and
explore. Along with animating
by hand and using procedural
animation, motion capture data
can also be applied. Select the
triangular root bone and go to the
Motion tab. Under Clip Manager
find the button with a folder and a
green dot on it entitled Browse for
CAT or motion capture clip. •
25

EVGENY 21-097
The first space egg, inspired
by the concept of Nivanh
Chanthara and the first
Russians to conquer space
TUTORIALS
Sculpt a character in ZBrush and Maya
ZBRUSH | MAYA | MARI | ARNOLD
SCULPT A
CHARACTER
IN ZBRUSH
AND MAYA
Find out how Marco Muñoz created
this ‘space egg’, inspired by the first
Russians to conquer space
Marco Muñoz
Marco has been a modeller, texture artist and look
development artist for several productions. He teaches
online courses and currently works in one of the most
important production companies in Latin America.
AUTHOR www.artstation.com/desktruktor
M
y first encounter with rendering techniques. I always
space was when I was like to experience different
about eight years old: at characteristics of the characters
that time I collected some stamps that I am modelling; I try not to be
about the space conquest, the too conventional in my projects
arrival on the moon and the ferries and look for new challenges in
that had flown in space in the each of my pieces.
60s and 70s. I always believed This project was created in
that the United States was the approximately four weeks, in
first to reach space, but history my free time. Evgeny has meant
told me otherwise, as in Russia a lot to me, not only because it
there was already experience in reflects a part of what I discovered
the construction of satellites to in those stamps, but it’s a part
orbit Earth and preparing the first of my personal brand and also
human being to arrive in space reflects much of my taste for
(Yuri Gagarin). creating different projects. It
This piece was commissioned visually describes who I am, with
by the Mexican production studio the combination of accessories of
Huevocartoon Producciones. organic modelling and geometry
It was based on a concept by of rigid surfaces.
Nivanh Chanthara, and my
main inspiration came from
these stamps collected in my
childhood. Another important DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
aspect in the realisation of this For all the assets you need go to
project was the learning of www.bit.ly/3DW-253
new modelling, texturing and
December 2019 65 youtube.com/user/3dworld

01 INITIAL BLOCKING
First experiment with some
interesting forms and sketches in
Thorough
research
Before starting any
ZBrush or any other software. Then 3D project always do
add other elements in the form of a thorough search
blocking and find harmony in the for references. Never
silhouette. The most important start something if you
thing in the silhouette is to break only have a couple
the positive and negative spaces of of images; research,
your character. document and try to
know everything that
02 START DETAILING
Start subdividing the
DynaMesh step by step and
is possible to support
your project.
establish some details so you can

see how the piece is working. 01a
Just add details that will give
structure to your character, do
not try to detail to the maximum
from the beginning because that
can distract you from the other
important details.
All the props in this character
were created in Maya; the workflow
and the speed to build them are
incredible. It is much faster to
build these props in low poly but
with attention to the shapes and
primary structures.
03 EXPORT
Export your character to Maya
with Decimation Master and save
01b
that file with another name. Make a

separate folder so that from there
you can have a repository of all your
OBJs of both Maya and ZBrush.
02a
03 02b

04 TOPOLOGY
Make the topology and
add the props you created
convention for each of the objects
that already have UVs. Your
workflow should always have an
previously. It is very important to order, as it is very easy to get lost
maintain a good topology so that in the process among many names
the elements that make up the and many folders.
Displacement map work perfectly.
Pay attention to the flow of the
details in your high-poly mesh. 06 EXPORT TO ZBRUSH
Export all your elements in
OBJ format to ZBrush. Now you
05 UVS
To make your UVs use the
tools offered by the UV Toolkit in
have good UVs and good topology
to add high-quality details,
save your file with your naming
Maya. A good tip is to work with UV convention and with different
Shells to make the process more stages of work.
04a agile; the advantage of these is
that you select pieces of geometry
and you can make them unfold in a
more dynamic way.
07 APPLY ALPHAS
Make your own alphas from
a flat geometry in ZBrush and
Do not forget that we must work extract the information with the
with UDIMS to be able to export MRGBZGrabber tool. It is better to
it to ZBrush and our texturing have your own alphas because that
program, in this case Mari. Both way they do not resemble those of
software support this workflow another artist. Apply your alphas
and are able to adapt perfectly to with the TransposeSmart tool and
industry standards. activate DragRect – with that you
At this time and until the end have more control, and all you have
of your project, make a naming to do is press Ctrl and drag the
04b
05a 05b
06

brush over the geometry. That Keep working
generates an inverted mask, and on it
with the Move brush you can take Never leave a 3D
out or add the details. model unfinished. In
my experience, it is
08 APPLY DETAILS
The details in the uniform
were applied with a Surface Noise
always much better to
finish each process of
the project; if on the
and with the figure of a hexagon. way you start to leave
When finished just press the things unfinished, in
‘Convert BPR To Geo’ button in the the end you will realise
Geometry settings. that it is more difficult
to finish everything
09 EXPORT
DISPLACEMENT MAP
Now export the displacement map
in one go than if you
are completing it part
by part.
using the Multi Map Exporter from
the ZBrush plugins menu. With 07
this plugin you can export several
texture channels, and for several
subtools; it is super powerful.
10 TEXTURES
To start with the textures only
work with three channels (Diffuse,
Bump, Specular), and maybe some
mask maps will help you in the
process of adding details to your
base textures. One tip I can give is
to work with nodes in Mari, as the
nodal workflow is super fun and
you are able to experiment in many
different ways.
08
09

10a
13a
10b
13b
Start with a base colour and Kicker Light, Left and Right Rim
then add detail to the texture. A Light, Bounce Light and finally
11 tip: always work under the mask Environment Light. Set the Max
system – so you will only paint with Bounces values of the lights to 2,
black and white colours, but what except the Key Light – set that to
you will reveal will be the total 999, as with this you can speed up
spectrum of colours that you used the render time.
to make your texture.
11 EXPORT TEXTURES
We are going to export the
13 FINISH UP
We can now bring the
textures to Maya from ZBrush
textures with the ‘Export Current (Displacement maps) and from
Channel Flattened’ button. Export Mari (Diffuse, Bump and Specular).
channel by channel in a folder of Subdivide the geometry into two
textures, respecting your naming levels in the Mesh Shape and the
12a convention system. Arnold tab with activated catclark.
Work only with the
12 LIGHTING
Back in Maya we will create
a light rig to control the lighting
aiStandardSurface shader and
there connect all the textures.
Add an aiColorCorrect node
values in our character. I would between your texture and the
recommend creating one light aiStandardSurface to adjust the
at a time and avoiding having a tonal values of your texture. In the
Luminance over a value of 1, so render settings use the necessary
that you don’t burn the image values so that your image does
with light load. not present any kind of noise. And
Lights I always use in my we’re done, you can now send your
projects are: Key Light, Fill Light, own character to orbit space. •
12b

3D BASICS
IMAGE TYPES
For the next instalment of our Basics series, we look at image formats
I
f you are new to CGI, there are mesh of a lower-resolution object. transparency and as they are a
far too many tools to choose One thing is true: images play an ‘lossy’ format, details can be lost
from in a dizzying array of essential part in creation. which can cause inconsistencies,
software. This series aims to break Images are also the key for especially if used for animations.
everything in CGI down to the successful sharing with clients, At the other end of the image
very basics, so that every artist friends or as part of a team with format spectrum are EXRs – this AUTHOR
can be armed with the knowledge compositors who will blend the format can handle a massive Mike Griggs
of which tool is best. This month model into a live-action scene. amount of information. EXRs can Mike Griggs is a 3D and
we look at image formats. Alternatively images can be used hold colour, transparency and even visual effects artist
While the core of creation to store features in compositing in some cases true depth all in one with vast experience
in 3D is naturally in creating applications to combine a wide (admittedly large) file, but at the across the industry, as
models, images are in many ways range of 3D models into a scene expense of a less straightforward both a creator and a
as important as polygons and that would otherwise be difficult workflow for new artists. technical writer.
edges when creating a 3D model to render in one go. In between are a myriad of www.creativebloke.com
– whether it is a crucial image So, understanding image options such as PNG, PSD, TIF and
being used to give a colour to a formats is critical to making the DPX among others. When working
model, or a secondary image that most of the variety of image types with other artists understanding
is utilised to create differences in available to an artist. Certain what each of these files can and
reflections or relief on a model. In image types such as JPEG are cannot do can make the difference
some cases, an image can even quick to create, quick to use and when creating successful artwork.
be used to define the shape of small in size, but they do not hold Let’s take a look at some of the
a high-resolution model on the a range of information such as key considerations.

TUTORIALS
Image types
01 LOSSY FORMATS
Many artists new to CG are not aware that when an image
is saved, dependant on the image type chosen, data can be lost.
02 IMAGE BIT DEPTH
Consider how much data an image can store. Basic colour
data is stored in 8-bit images such as JPEGs. Some video-specific
The reason for this is that the complex saving algorithms of an files such as DPX and Cineon can store 10-bit images, which
image format can estimate the data in an image and replicate it include extra colour information. However, these formats work
without having to store the data on a pixel-by-pixel basis, both within a specific ‘colour range’, which is defined by the bit depth
saving disk space and allowing quicker access. Lossy formats are and can ‘clip’ to white or black when exposure is adjusted. So,
great for non-critical images in a pipeline and various finished always make sure when working with these formats that the colour
formats. JPEG is probably the most popular lossy image format. range is in a visually desired range.
COLOUR TYPES
When working with print and vector illustrations, sometimes
image files can come in different colour formats. These can
be CMYK, which is a four-colour process used for print, and
occasionally greyscale, which is an image that does not have
any colour data. Many 3D applications will not work with
these formats even if the image format is saved as a JPEG,
PNG or EXR. That is because 3D applications prefer to work
with images that are RGB (for the screen-based three-colour
process of Red, Green and Blue).
03 24 BITS AND PNG

One of the most popular image formats in CGI creation is
PNG; it combines the benefits of JPEG, such as relatively small size
04 32 BITS
While 10-bit files are useful for maximising recording
formats on some cameras, others can store ‘RAW’ data, which
and wide compatibility, coupled with the ability to save extra data effectively means that the file contains ‘everything’. This is the
in its full 24-bit capability. PNGs can store 8 bits of transparency same with 3D applications. Some file types such as EXR can store
data alongside 16 bits of colour data. This makes PNG files flexible up to 32 bits of data, which includes a vast colour range. EXRs can
for a wide range of uses, especially with texture files which, if the also include transparency information and extra useful info, such
3D application allows it, can absorb the PNG transparency data to as the new ‘Cryptomatte’ format which can create mattes on the
mitigate the need for a separate alpha channel image. fly from a single colour layer. •

FOLLOW
THE VIDEO
www.bit.ly/3DW-253
3D BOOTCAMP
ORB
Thanks to ORB, a free plugin from Video Copilot for Adobe After Effects,
creating a 3D planet has never been more accessible
Y
ou might think that creating 3D plugin. Orb is focused on of clouds and atmosphere, too.
planets is an easy task in creating realistic planets and offers Advanced features such as edge
3D – create a sphere, apply a range of unique tools to make feathering can create roll-off on a
textures, done! However, getting planetary creation easily. planet’s edge.
a world to ‘look’ right can be a When textures are added While Orb won’t work for
trickier task than imagined. For (Video Copilot provides a free set every planetary shot, it will work AUTHOR
example, if making a model of a of 6K Earth textures to get an artist for 90 per cent of them and is an Mike Griggs
populated planet, how can the line started), Orb can switch between invaluable tool for previz. This Mike Griggs is a 3D and
between nighttime and daytime diffuse and illumination textures. is especially so when combined visual effects artist
be adjusted to ensure cities can be The illumination textures are used with other After Effects plugins, with vast experience
seen at night and not in the day? to represent areas of the planet or mixed with a 3D camera from across the industry, as
Rather than try and figure this in shadow, based on the light a 3D application, which can be both a creator and a
out in 3D, there is an excellent free direction. Orb can also work with imported into After Effects along technical writer.
plugin for Adobe After Effects bump and normal maps to create with foreground plates for objects www.creativebloke.com
from Video Copilot called ‘Orb,’ relief on layers, which allow areas such as spaceships.
which takes a lot of the hassle out such as mountain ranges to stand As Orb is completely free for
of creating planets. proud on the planet surface. Windows and Mac, it deserves
Orb uses a similar 3D engine to Using the Orb plugin on to be the default first stop for
Video Copilot’s excellent Element multiple layers allows the addition planetary creation.

TUTORIALS
Orb
01 ACCESS ORB
Once Orb has been installed from videocopilot.net/orb, it is
applied to an After Effects solid layer. A white sphere then appears
02 ADD TEXTURES
Orb can work with a range of texture types, from Diffuse,
Glossiness, Illumination (for nighttime) and Bump or Normal for
in the centre of the composition window. To get started, add an relief details. To add a texture, add it to the Orb composition, hide
After Effects Parallel Light to closely mimic a sun and an After Effects it, and then in the Orb Effects settings go to Maps and select the
camera to create the core elements needed for an Orb scene. Parent corresponding Texture layer for the texture. If the colour has been
the light to an After Effects 3D null, which will allow the light to be adjusted in the Orb plugin, set it back to white if it is not needed to
easily rotated. tint the texture.
03 WORK WITH THE TEXTURES

For the base of a planet model, a Diffuse, Bump, Illumination
(if it is populated) and Glossiness texture would be required. Once
04 CREATE A CLOUD LAYER
To add a layer of clouds to the planet, first create a new
solid layer and apply a new Orb plugin to it. Make the radius
these are applied to the model, Orb allows a wide range of finessing of the new Orb a fraction larger than the Orb for the actual
to ensure that the planet is starting to look how the artist would like planet. Use a transparent cloud texture (which could be animated)
it to. The Illumination controls will also allow the Shadow/Light and simply apply it to the Diffuse, Glossiness and Bump map
Bias and contract to be adjusted in order to prevent a ‘hard-line’ channels in Orb. This will allow a convincing representation of
at the terminator. clouds to be created.
05 ADD AN ATMOSPHERE
To add an atmosphere, create a third Orb layer and make it
the same radius as the Cloud layer. Instead of adding textures to this
06 USE DIFFERENT TEXTURES WITH ORB
While Video Copilot provides an excellent set of Earth textures
for Orb, this may not be enough. Nasa provides a range of textures
layer, just use colour and Orb’s powerful Fresnel tools to allow a subtle that can be downloaded and used for free at nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov.
atmosphere that works on both the illuminated and shadow side of This is an excellent resource for 3D models as well, which could be
the planet. To enhance the planet even more, you can try and create used as a foreground element in a space shot. Alternatively, sculpting
another layer of clouds which will work as a shadow on the surface of applications like ZBrush are a great way to create texture maps that
the planet. could be applied as a surface of an alien planet. •

ARTIST Q&A
Practical tips and tutorials from
pro artists to improve
your CG skills
Pat Imrie
Pat is a 3D/VFX artist
specialising in modelling and
digital sculpture. He has over ten years’
experience working in TV, concept & look
development, professional training, pre-
visualisation and high-end VFX.
www.patimrie.com
Antony Ward
Since the early 90s Antony
has worked for many of
today’s top game and VFX studios, and
has written three technical manuals and
many online tutorials.
www.antcgi.com
Pietro Chiovaro
Pietro is an Italian 3D artist
who creates 3D assets and
environments, and is currently working SOFTWARE: MAYA (OR SIMILAR) | ZBRUSH
on an open-source game.
pietrochiovaro.artstation.com
UVs WENT MISSING IN ZBRUSH!
HOW DO I GET THEM BACK?
Rose Dodson, London
Pat Imrie replies
UVs – we’ve covered them it to ZBrush to sculpt it further, with your

before, and we will continue caringly crafted UVs all present and
to cover them no matter how much most correct. When you import it into ZBrush,
people hate them. While they can be you start working away, and then when you
frustrating, I have always found the process begin to create and export your maps, all
cathartic as it requires you to slow down of a sudden your UVs are gone.
and ensure they are accurate, which is This is a common problem to encounter
important due to how essential they are to and it can sometimes happen seemingly
a successful project. at random. However, it’s important to note
After working so diligently on a set of that some of ZBrush’s features require UVs
perfectly crafted UVs there is nothing more to be removed, which is why for as long as
annoying than when they disappear, either I can remember, ZBrush has given users
through a bug, a crash or the specific the option to transfer those UVs back using
workflow of a software package. In this very few steps.
GET IN TOUCH instance we will be looking at ZBrush. This involves exporting out the
For example, say you have just offending piece of geometry/subtool to an
EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO completed your character in your host 3D OBJ file that we can open in Maya, where
rob.redman@futurenet.com application and you are ready to export we will then have to recreate our UVs. You

ARTIST Q&A
Your CG problems solved
EXPERT TIP
FIX YOUR MESH POSITION
You may get small errors from time to time and this is normally caused by a change
in position. In order to alleviate this you can ensure your mesh in ZBrush is zeroed by
going to the Tool palette>Geometry>Position and adjusting as needed.
STEP BY STEP RECOVER YOUR UVS IN ZBRUSH
02 EXPORT TO MAYA
AND CREATE UVS
Once in Maya we can now start to recreate
our UVs. I prefer to recreate them to
01 STEP DOWN YOUR SUBTOOL

The first step in this process is to
take our high-resolution mesh and step
eliminate any possible issues with vertex
order if I were to use a more automated
approach such as Transfer Attributes.
down the subdivision level to its lowest There are ways to adjust our vertex order
point. This is important as if we export and if you have time I would always
anything higher, it will cause a vertex encourage experimenting, but if you are
If your UVs appear to have disappeared count mismatch and ZBrush will be unable facing a deadline I use a method that I
at random, do not worry – we can to transfer the UVs correctly. You can do know will get the results I expect.
recover them in a few simple steps this quickly by using Zplugin>Subtool
Master to quickly set your subtools to their
lowest iteration.
can accomplish this any way you wish,

either through recreating them manually,
or you could use transfer attributes to
copy the UVs from a previous mesh –
personally I prefer to just recreate them as
it is sometimes faster than troubleshooting
04 CHECK YOUR UVS
AND SUBDIVISIONS
Even though this process is fairly
possible vertex match issues.
Once the UVs have been recreated
we can then jump back to ZBrush and
03 IMPORT INTO
ZBRUSH TO REPROJECT
Before importing your mesh with the new
straightforward and errors are rare, it
always pays to ensure that everything is as
you expect it to be. Once the process is
re-import our mesh over our original in UVs, ensure that your subtool is still at its complete, again at the lowest subdivision
order to transfer the UVs. ZBrush will then lowest point and importantly is the active level, go to the Tool palette>UV Map>
automatically re-adjust our mesh so that subtool. Import your OBJ, and as long as Morph UV. This handy feature will unwrap
(if all has gone well) our subdivisions and the original mesh and the mesh with the your mesh in front of you and showcase
detail will all still be present, allowing us to new UVs have no differences (other than any overlapping or errors that may have
continue with the creation and export of one having UVs), ZBrush will simply replace occurred. All being well you will be left
our various maps. the lowest subdivision and keep any detail with a fresh set of UVs on your mesh, ready
Let’s take a look at how to save your UVs up in the chain intact. for map creation.
in a few steps!

ARTIST Q&A
SOFTWARE: MAYA
HOW DO I COMBINE MULTIPLE NURBS CURVES

TO MAKE ONE, EASILY SELECTABLE CONTROL?
Mark White, Paris
Antony Ward replies
Rigs can be complicated For the most part, a simple NURBS shapes, which are all separate curves. The
things. On the surface all the circle will be able to serve you well. In its problem comes when you want to connect
animator should see are a series of icons base form it will fit around a limb or torso, these, so that they form a single icon and
that they can select and manipulate to and if you give it a bright colour, it will be not six individual ones.
make the character move and emote. easily selectable. You can even edit its Parenting the toes to the foot is fine,
These icons can be any colour or shape, control vertices in order to make the shape but the animator can still select them.
but visually they must represent the area more interesting. Even if you lock the attributes on the toes,
they influence. There are those of us though who like they are still separate selectable entities.
When it comes to building these to put a bit more effort into our control This may seem like just a small thing, but
controls, there’s nothing more versatile icons. For example, if it’s to control the over time selecting the wrong curve can
than Maya’s NURBS curves. Yes, you can foot I like to create a shoe or footprint become tedious and annoying.
use locators or selection handles, but once shape – again, it just makes things easier Using Maya’s own Attach Curve tool to
you have 20 of these it becomes difficult to for the animator. So, in this case you combine the curves doesn’t help either,
tell what control you’re choosing. would need to create a foot and five toe as it’s so unpredictable. In my experience,

ARTIST Q&A
EXPERT TIP
STOP CURVES MOVING
If you find that the curves move when you run the MEL script, this could be because
they have translate values on them. Try freezing the Transforms on the curves transform
nodes first to bake the position and stop unwanted movement.
STEP BY STEP CREATE A SINGLE CONTROL ICON
01 SHOW THE SHAPES

Let’s use the foot control as an
example. Before you can combine your
foot and toe NURBS curves you need to
find their actual shape nodes.
Right-click in the Outliner and then
02 SELECT THE RIGHT NODES
You need to see the shape nodes
because it’s these you will be working
select Shapes from the menu. A small with. Ideally you need all the shape nodes
cross will appear next to each transform under one transform node, so in this case,
node, and if you click on it the shape node they all need to be under the l_foot node.
will be revealed (you can tell it’s a shape Select the l_big_Shape node, then
Improve your control icon node because it will have Shape at the hold Ctrl and add the l_foot node to
creation and make them end of the name). the selection.
more interesting with the
help of a little MEL
most of the time the curves just disappear,

or you end up deforming the originals.
So how do you get around this? Instead
of focusing on the transform nodes, which
are the top-level nodes, you should instead
03 MEL TO THE RESCUE
Rather than using the parent
command or any other tools, all you
04 TIDY UP
Repeat this for the other toes so
that they are all sat under the l_foot node.
be using the shape nodes hidden beneath. need to do is run a small piece of MEL You no longer need the empty transforms,
However, editing these directly still won’t script; and don’t worry if you have never which were left over from the toes. These
give you the results you need. used MEL before, this is dead easy. can be deleted. You also don’t need to
Well, rather than searching Maya’s Simply open up the script editor see the shape node, so right-click in the
extensive menus for help you should and type ‘parent -s -r’, and then press Outliner and disable Shapes.
instead be looking to the script editor, Enter to run the code. The l_big_Shape What you have now is a single control
because a simple bit of MEL script can node will now move under the l_foot icon that is more interesting to look at, and
actually be the answer to your prayers. transform node. fun for the animator to use.
Let’s find out how.

ARTIST Q&A
FOLLOW
THE VIDEO
www.bit.ly/3DW-253
You can export the final textures in many

different formats; one of the most-used
is PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
SOFTWARE: SUBSTANCE DESIGNER

HOW CAN I CREATE A MEDIEVAL CONCRETE
MATERIAL USING SUBSTANCE DESIGNER?
Jack Callister, Los Angeles
Pietro Chiovaro replies
I will show you an easy way to input of the filter. Now we have to link Gradient Map, I created a shade of yellow.
create a medieval concrete the Blend filter to the Gradient Map, and For the Height to Normal World Units filter
material using Substance Designer. Even consequentially we have to link this filter to I set these two values: Surface Size (248cm)
though this material is composed by a the Base Color output. and Height Depth (1.45cm).
few elements, the final result that can be Selecting the previous Blend filter, we About the normal format, you have to
achieved is really impressive. For this type have to link this filter to the first Levels select the one that is ‘supported’ by the
of material, I selected the Physically Based filter – this one will be linked to the Height software you will use to apply the material
(Metallic/Roughness) Graph Template and output and to the second Levels filter. This after you have exported all the textures –
deleted the Metallic output since it is not filter can now be linked to the Roughness for a game engine like Unreal Engine 4 the
necessary for this substance. output. Last but not least we have to link format is DirectX.
At this point, we can start to add the the Blend filter to the Height to Normal
nodes useful for this material, so from the World Units, and this one can be linked to
Substance Designer library we need: the the Normal output. EXPERT TIP
Clouds 3 and the Grunge Map 011 noises Concerning the parameters that I
(these two are the base elements of this used for this substance, for the scale of PARAMETERS TIP
material’s texture), the Height to Normal the Clouds 3 noise we have to set a value
World Units filter, two Levels filters, a Blend between 1 and 4; for this material I set it
Sometimes in order to achieve a
filter and the Gradient Map filter, which to 3 while for the Disorder I left the default specific result we need to type in values
will give colour to the substance. At this parameter (0). You can experiment with
point we have to link all of these elements this though, changing all the previous
larger than the default. In this case we
together. First of all, we need to link the values of this node in order to achieve need to double-click the numeric value
Clouds 3 noise to the second and third different effects.
input of the Blend filter, then we have to For the Blend filter I decreased the
to set higher values and the parameter
link the Grunge Map 011 noise to the first opacity value to 20%. Concerning the will be executed by the software.
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News and views from around the
international CG community
The Elstree sound stage set of the P-40

fighter interior, where scenes showing Sky
Captain and Polly flying together were shot
INDUSTRY
Building the World of Tomorrow
INDUSTRY INSIGHT
Building the
World of Tomorrow
How striking visuals and an impossible deadline created a dieselpunk
cult classic, and laid the foundation for the modern VFX industry
ow far back can we trace included one of the first completely digital life, with stylistic nods to early Disney and
current trends in Hollywood? characters in Jar Jar Binks. German expressionism.
H Digital filmmaking in the
late 1990s? Talkies in 1927?
But in an age where Marvel superheroes
leap between planets to battle intergalactic
Early tests convinced producer Jon
Avnet to come on board, initial financing
Celluloid, Georges Méliès and despots while cities crumble around them, came from producer Aurelio De Laurentiis,
the Lumiere brothers in the 19th century? with almost every background and much of and Avnet and Conran recruited Jude Law,
How about an inexpensive action the action shots made or augmented by CGI, whose passion for the concept was critical in
adventure yarn from 2004 that did okay Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow attracting other cast and crew. The Conrans
with critics and so-so at the box office? Read might be their unsung progenitor. established a CGI facility in the LA Valley
on and learn how the way movies use VFX Written and directed by Kerry Conran, neighbourhood of Van Nuys, which would
was cemented – possibly generated – with it was shot on sound stages at Elstree create the backgrounds and action plates
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. Studios using minimal sets and props, while Conran shot live action in England.
These days only a tiny portion of a real set every backdrop being the work of VFX With principal photography in the
is built in any self-respecting blockbuster (a artists across the world. A retro futurist can, Conran returned to Van Nuys to
single room, a rocky outcrop, a city street), adventure, it’s about the titular flying ace establish the VFX workflow. He and his
with almost everything else in the frame to hero Joe (Jude Law), his feisty reporter team worked up about 70 per cent of the
be animated later in the render farms the love interest Polly (Gwyneth Paltrow) and movie, including around half an hour of
world over. In fact, it’s now gone beyond a grand conspiracy by a fascist despot with finished footage ready to show to a studio.
actors emoting to stage hands holding tennis terrifying warfighting technology. There’s a The one that offered Avnet and Laurentiis
balls. Disney’s remake of The Lion King soft focus, a Hollywood Golden Era sheen, a deal (Paramount) imposed a punishing
harks back to the 1994 original in that it’s the energy and aesthetic of World War II release date, so after working steadily and
completely animated – not a producing scenes, Conran
single real landscape, sky or and his team suddenly
animal was photographed. found themselves assigned
Once upon a time
filmmakers used what are
“ACTORS INTERACTING WITH THE with additional VFX
producers and supervisors,
called travelling mattes,
where black draping would
VIRTUAL SETS AND PROPS WAS A with scenes they had no
chance of finishing in time
allow for double exposing
a print during processing,
REVELATION FOR THEM” being parcelled out to
external vendors.
letting the director expose a Kerry Conran, director
background and foreground Deploying tech
together on new celluloid. “Accessible compositing
Blue screens were first used in the newsreels, and it was something audiences programs like Adobe After Effects were only
1930s for wipes and transitions between had never seen before. just arriving,” Conran remembers now, “so
scenes, with the first true on-screen blue Originally a short film made by Conran I thought there might be a way of applying
screen effect appearing in 1940’s The and his production designer brother Kevin the techniques of animation to live action.
Thief Of Bagdad. As for why green screens (youtube.com/watch?v=KqRvdm8jHz4), The first couple of tests were simple stuff,
were finally adopted instead, there’s a Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow just taking old photographs and putting
(perhaps-apocryphal) story that TV weather came together using technologies and people into them. These beautiful vintage
presenters tended to wear blue suits, harder production methodologies that have become photographs had a real hue and sense of
to isolate against a blue chroma key and the default standard today. scope and scale I couldn’t possibly achieve
prompting a move to a less common colour. [from scratch]. That’s when I first thought it
Why CGI? could work.”
Digital-era green screen Conran attended CalArts, an animation- Conran says nobody set out to reinvent
By the late 90s blue and green screen heavy school famous as the breeding ground the wheel, that live action against
technology was pretty widespread. The for Pixar, and didn’t see Sky Captain as completely animated backdrops was just a
visuals in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels the future. He was actually planning on means to an end to get his ideas on screen
were a quantum leap forward, which animation bringing his adventure tale to with the tools available. The original plan

INDUSTRY
Above: Storyboard
art of crusading
reporter Polly
Perkins with Sky
Captain’s P-40
fighter
Below: Storyboard
art of Joe (Sky
Captain) and Polly
in the cockpit of his
P-40 fighter

INDUSTRY
Minimal props and no

backgrounds were used or
filmed on the sound stage,
only those instruments
or tools the actors had to
touch and interact with
present on set
ANATOMY OF A SHOT
How shooting in the UK and VFX
in the US were matched up for
seamless compositing
First was the application of a grid

system on the sound stage, a little
like a giant game of Battleship and a
precursor to the way James Cameron
would shoot Avatar and Steven
Spielberg would shoot Ready Player
One years later.
A matching virtual representation
of the sound stage at Elstree was
built virtually in the computers back
was to make Sky Captain black and white because you’re always working with finished at the VFX headquarters at Van Nuys.
with only photographs as the backgrounds, quality. “That to me feels like the way things That meant the virtual and real sets
but when Paramount’s release date landed are headed. You can have something that’s were one to one with a perfectly
with a deafening thud he says all that went real time on a desktop, manage the entire matching reference, so when the team
out the window, the whole production shot and it’s always locked tight, so you’re did previz such as a camera move or
pivoting to CG. effectively editing the film as you’re creating interaction with a prop, they could
Among the innovations that emerged it. You can suddenly stop and reach into the measure the allowances needed in the
from Sky Captain’s process was something frame to move a building or change the sun, virtual, as-yet unbuilt sets, for example
that’s very much standard today – Conran hit play and be back live.” where an actor enters through a door.
had to previz the whole film so they knew The camera crew were given a
what every shot would look like in advance. Building the future printed-out shot list every day, and
What’s more, final shots were actually built The compressed schedule meant late nights when the time came they'd know that
out from the previz models. “It was like an for everyone, but was there any sense either a particular shot began, for example,
animatic, but it was more than that,” Conran in Elstree or Van Nuys that they were laying at G7 and ended at F12 and that the
says. “Previz today is mostly thrown away down the bedrock of the methods the camera tilted 'x' degrees, knowing
and effects shops rebuild it all from scratch industry would later make routine? every mark to hit as they set up. It
with higher-res models. We kept everything, “I think so,” says Anderson. “Peter resulted in the real and CG camera
working on top of the previz for the entire Jackson and George Lucas had toyed with moves matching perfectly, ready to be
movie once the animation was blocked in.” it in smaller sections of larger projects, composited together later and giving
If he made Sky Captain today Conran but Kerry jumped in wholeheartedly. Sky the actors room to improvise within
says he’d go further, building everything Captain was the first to bet the whole project the guidelines.
in a game engine, never really in previz on it.”

INDUSTRY
“It inspired a lot of people to get really back then, and where Conran says some
wild and create a world nobody had seen, so vendors like ILM and Rising Sun shined,
[the film] was definitely part of what pushed others didn’t. What’s more, the style of shots
the industry this way,” adds Joyce Cox, was so specific his team had to provide them
the senior VFX producer assigned to the with a few select frames in a given sequence
production alongside Anderson. as a reference, with Yamamoto adding the
Conran and his team originally intended software presets in a kind of ‘shot kit’, not
to do all the compositing work at their Van unlike a how-to tutorial.
Nuys home base, but the bond company From there, co-ordinating what everyone
that appointed Cox, Anderson and others to was working on was gargantuan – the task
oversee production insisted work be sent out Cox, Anderson and veteran VFX producer
to make the date. That means another of the Brooke Breton were bought on to wrangle. “I
practices Sky Captain established – sending spent an ungodly number of hours in a small
sequence assignments all over the world room looking at footage and shots coming
– is now de rigueur, with vendors from in,” Anderson says. “The logistics of juggling
South Australia, California and Quebec all the creatives, the budgets and the work was
weighing in. amazing – not to mention the databases and
Conran says nobody in England knew shot tracking that had to be built for it.”
what to think about actors performing It was so intensive Anderson couldn’t
opposite nothing at all, but the first shot even leave the building for long stretches,
put together by digital effects supervisor which made review of footage over the
Steve Yamamoto (part of the original crew) internet a must. It was his first time using
“completely transformed” opinions. “It was CineSync, Rising Sun’s proprietary share
unfinished and crude, but it was amazing,” and review system to view and discuss
he says. “Actors interacting with the virtual shots online in real time. “It really is how
sets and props was a revelation for them.” everything’s done today, but back then
A VFX coordinator at Adelaide’s people thought we were crazy.”
Rising Sun Pictures at the time (now VFX So one of the biggest questions is,
producer), Ian Cope thinks that although would anyone in 2004 have recognised the
the industry was heading in this direction methods we have if they’d had a crystal
anyway, Sky Captain was the extreme – and ball? To Anderson things are the same –
bold – expression of such methods. just much better. “We struggled trying to
“When I saw it at one of the early bring prosumer tools to feature level,” he
screenings it was unlike anything I’d ever remembers. “After Effects was relatively
seen,” he says. “It allowed us to see what a unproven on that scope and scale, the HD
kind of giant balloon of visual effects around cameras had very limited dynamic range approach it in a similar way and better tools
storytelling looked like. We took that tool and resolution. It really was the technical make it look better, but the shots get bigger
to the nth degree, which made us realise it equivalent of balsa wood and duct tape to and they want them quicker, so it never
needed to be part of the stock standard tools create this giant world!” actually gets any easier.”
we use to make movies just like costuming, Having said that, Ian Cope says expanded Conran’s intention for Sky Captain was
special effects and even acting.” toolsets means expanded possibilities, actually for it to be a ‘handmade’ film, an
resulting in an arms race between what ethos that was on track when they had
Down the pipe we can do and what directors want. “It’s enough time to finish the film their way.
Sending scenes and shots to companies easier today but now we’re looking at 4K, But Paramount’s release date made an
around the world was an unproven method which brings another set of challenges. We artisanal approach impossible. Even though
Right: On-set
principal photography/
animation/animatics
versus finished
frames: the robot
attack on New York
Far right: When a

fleet of Flying Wings
attack the Flying
Legion Base, Sky
Captain and Polly
have to follow them,
staying in range
so base tech Dex
(Giovanni Ribisi)
can lock onto
their signal

INDUSTRY
Angelina Jolie plays Franky, a Royal Navy

officer, captain of the Flying Fortress
BACK TO THE FUTURE
airborne aircraft carrier and a former
colleague of Sky Captain's
While actors today are used to
performing against blank walls or
spots on sticks, there's actually a
precedent only actors understand. Sky
Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
writer/director Kerry Conran says
stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and
Giovanni Ribisi took to it with aplomb.
"They were really incredible," he
says. "The nearest comparison we
made at the time was kind of like
theatre – on-stage actors aren't used
to having every [prop], they pretend
they're in an environment that may not
be represented."
Ribisi was actually so taken with
the process he later enrolled in Maya
classes, but the production only had
Angelina Jolie (who plays no-nonsense
hovering aircraft carrier captain
Franky) for two days, so Conran says
she didn't have as much time to
internalise how it was going to work.
"At one point she was more
comfortable entering the scene from
a different direction than we'd set up,
and it was difficult to explain that if
she came in from that side there was
going to be a wall there."
he was seeing (and creating) the future of

wrangling multiple suppliers, it was tough
giving up the chance to shape so much of it
“WE KEPT EVERYTHING, WORKING ON TOP OF
directly. “It became a rush, and it usually
is, it’s just that when you’re talking about a
THE PREVIZ FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE ONCE THE
Marvel movie they have the resources and
money to throw at it, so the quality they get
ANIMATION WAS BLOCKED IN”
is obviously the best,” he says. “We weren’t
Kerry Conran, director
as lucky, a lot of the stuff we were getting
back or doing ourselves was so rushed failure. Why didn’t it catch on? Might it bleeding edge creatively but you need the
towards the end it was difficult to maintain simply have been ahead of its time like the story to grab people,” he says. “The look
the style and the quality. Some stuff is Apple Newton, LaserDisc or LiveJournal? might have made the audience think it was a
painful to look at now because it was crude Conran set out to make what he calls a gimmick; maybe the pitch should have been
even by our standards back then.” US$3m art film made in an unconventional more about the story and let the look be part
Today, when handing work off is the way, imagining a story about how a protégé of the tale.”
norm, Conran says extensive previz and of Frank Capra’s snuck off during shooting But we might never know what impact
solid production design are what guarantees the Why We Fight movies of World War II to Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
a good result. In fact, today he thinks make this film but never finished it. really had. It’s tempting to imagine it
directors expect to get footage back that’s Unfortunately, as history shows, it was showcasing VFX to Hollywood like never
better than they imagined, because many turned into something that was meant to before, but maybe it simply cemented the
VFX artists are actually better filmmakers compete with a Mission: Impossible and an idea among artists and creators that they
than the people making the films – he calls X-Men film, a modern milieu his original could really do anything.
them ‘co-directors’. aesthetic might not have ultimately suited. “The best indication of [the film’s] power
“I don’t think kids back then or today know was from a writer friend,” says Anderson,
Impact or care what serials are,” he says. “That “who said ‘I used to self sensor what I wrote
But after all’s said and done, the only real sensibility is quite stilted for them.” based on what I thought was possible, but
measure of success is how many behinds are Scott Anderson wonders if the concept after seeing Sky Captain, I’m going to write
in seats, and history remembers Sky Captain being so ahead of its time got a bit too much anything I want and let you guys figure out
And The World Of Tomorrow as a box office of the attention. “We were definitely at the how to make it’.”

INDUSTRY
Ben Graves
PRO THOUGHTS
Web AR:
is it worth it?
Ben Graves, senior developer at Immersive Studios, takes a look at
the benefits, limitations, and possibilities of Web AR
ince augmented reality (AR) framework that looks similar to HTML. web page can only have access to certain
became a big thing, the best A-Frame and other applications are parts of the device you’re using, whereas
S experiences have been app-
based. Think Pokémon GO,
supported by 8th Wall, which is currently
the leading SLAM tracking SDK for Web AR
a native app can access all of a device’s
capabilities. Because of these things, an
or any of those handy AR on the market. AR experience through a web browser will
features that have been added to brand apps, be more basic than that through an app –
from ASOS to IKEA. But while this type of WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS? meaning if you want the convenience of Web
AR offers advanced technical capabilities, As already mentioned, the overwhelming AR, you need to be thinking of simple but
trying to get people to download an app can benefit to Web AR is the fact you don’t have effective experiences instead.
be tricky. That’s why people have started to download an app directly to your device.
looking seriously into Web AR. Ben Graves, With an app, the size, data allowance for WHAT WILL WEB AR BE
senior developer at Immersive Studios, download and device type etc can all prove LIKE IN THE FUTURE?
takes a look. a bar to getting people to use AR, but Web At the moment, it’s hard to say. As
AR makes it more immediately accessible mentioned, Web AR is currently limited
WHAT IS WEB AR? and doesn’t eat up people’s data through mostly by the browser – so how much the
Web AR refers to augmented reality chunky downloads – in turn helping AR technology will develop rather depends on
experiences that are accessed through a web campaigns and experiences to be more what the big players like Google and Apple
browser rather than an app. This means all relevant and useful. What’s more, Web AR develop. What seems certain is that Apple
you need is your smartphone or tablet and can run to a certain extent on most browsers is very much betting on AR, so it would be
an internet connection, without having to – so you don’t necessarily have to have a both beneficial and make sense for them to
download an app directly onto your phone. certain specification of device in order to build their own AR capabilities straight into
At the moment Web AR offers a limited support AR, again increasing the reach of a their operating system – and a web browser
selection of the main features possible using particular experience. is the simplest option. In any case, Web AR
app AR, including simple animations, video is proving the case for quick and convenient
and a certain degree of interactivity. Web WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS? AR experiences that, although simple, can
AR can also support image target detection It’s still early days for Web AR, so there have a real impact – so it’s likely we’ll only be
to trigger experiences. are limits. Performance is simply better seeing more of this capability in the future.
on an app, where there’s capacity for more
HOW DO YOU BUILD IT? memory and therefore better visuals, better Immersive Studios is an award-winning production studio and
Because this is a web application, there animations and better interactivity. One one of the pioneers of innovative VR, AR and 360-degree video
are platforms that support the creation of of Web AR’s challenges is the limit of your experiences. Our strength lies in our creative ideas and the
Web AR that are similar to normal web operating system’s web browser – there’s pioneering use of technology behind them. We’ve built up an
development platforms. We’ve been using only so much memory a web page can have, expert team that includes 3D modellers, filmmakers, storytellers,
A-Frame, which enables the creation of which has a knock-on effect on the visual illustrators, artists, developers and creative technologists.
3D assets and environments using a web and performance quality. What’s more, a Find out more at weareimmersive.co.uk

Saddington Baynes created a
series of online films for Honda’s
Real View Test Drive campaign,
designed to engage viewers on a
subconscious emotional level

INDUSTRY
The driving force
INDUSTRY INSIGHT
The driving force

Executive creative director and co-owner, James Digby-Jones,
discusses 20 years of Saddington Baynes
n his role as executive creative retoucher, Chris Christodoulou. Climbing What are the biggest advancements
director, James Digby- through the ranks, I eventually became you’ve seen in the industry?
I Jones has been the driving
force behind production at
head of the entire retouching team. At this
point, I specialised in complex, multi-part
Saddington Baynes was at the forefront
of the digital retouching revolution, so we
Saddington Baynes for over composites of disparate elements and final know first-hand how the slightest alterations
20 years. Jones’ work revolves around colour grades. can completely change the tone of a
creating stills and animations for brand As we grew, bringing CGI and post- project. We’ve also seen the rise of digital
clients, bringing the latest technology and production into the pipeline, my role photography and the decline of traditional
an extra bit of magic into a brief. Recently, expanded to sit across all production as film processing. Later, we pioneered CGI for
he sat down with 3D World to discuss the head of crayons. As the founders hung up the automotive industry, solving logistical
journey so far. their spurs along the way, I took the reigns challenges and creating imagery for vehicles
with Chris. We’ve been on a crash course in that hadn’t even been made yet.
Can you take us back to when you business and people management ever since. In the past five years, we’ve introduced
joined Saddington Baynes in 1998? Best of all, I got to work with many of the 3D scanning, real-time engines and more
When I first joined Saddington Baynes, it world’s greatest photographers, artists and to the pipeline. In a recent project for the
was a team of just five people. Today, we agencies along the way. luxury brand Gaggenau, we captured and
employ over 50 staff and can have more converted an entire house into a fully virtual
than 20 freelancers at any given time. The After more than two decades, what environment, reusable and ready to be
company now works with iconic brands like still excites you the most about rendered for future campaigns.
Honda, Jo Malone London, Panerai and Saddington Baynes?
more. Recently we helped deliver Honda’s What’s great about Saddington Baynes What do you predict for the next 20
largest European content campaign to date, is that we’re now creating memorable years of the CG industry?
Real View Test Drive. For this we created 20 experiences on a deeper level, combining Emotional metrics driving image
CGI films across four vehicles – fusing video, animation with live-action content, and production. We’re emotional beings, with
CGI and motion graphics in 17 languages for experimental technology. 95 per cent of our purchase decision-
22 markets. In total, we delivered over 300 Out of all the innovation we do in- making taking place in the nonconscious
shots and 900 outputs. That’s how much our house, I’m most proud of Engagement mind. Projects with an emotional hook
capabilities have grown. Insights. You see, even the most subtle outperform those based on logical thinking.
adjustments to colour palette, camera Neuroscience opens up a whole new world, a
How did you work your way up angles, lighting and textures within an better understanding of subjective responses
to executive creative director of image can have huge consequences on its to creativity, enabling us to create more
Saddington Baynes? level of engagement and visual impact. engaging images, video and experiences.
I joined as a junior retoucher, with a box of Using Engagement Insights, we can uncover This is especially true when combined with
Photoshop tools and a big dream. I started previously hidden nonconscious emotions to the fast turnaround of a real-time engine,
training on the Barco Creator retouching achieve predictive analytics on how viewers which can allow artists to render multiple
system with our current CEO and original feel about the imagery we create. versions of a shot with almost no delay.

INDUSTRY
Lorna Burrows
PRO THOUGHTS
Spark AR:
the Facebook platform
bringing AR to the masses
Lorna Burrows, Head of Content at Immersive Studios, discusses the
many benefits of this studio tool for creating and sharing AR effects
he idea of augmenting reality WHAT CAN IT DO? popularity, with advertisers reporting four
(AR) has been around for Spark AR enables you to create your own times as much engagement on Instagram
T decades, but it’s only recently
that it’s become an increasingly
AR effects for mobile using a suite of tools
– from patching to animation. What’s more,
as Facebook. Spark AR enables brands to
be both more creative and more engaging,
mainstream technology you don’t have to be a technical genius to be while taking advantage of detailed metrics,
with tangible uses, from entertainment able to use it. It allows you to: including total impressions, captures and
to marketing. The tools for building AR • Create your own AR effects, with or shares – giving insights into how their
experiences are constantly developing – and without a technical background audience responds to AR.
now platforms such as Spark AR Studio are • Import your own 3D files and sounds We’ve been creating AR experiences for
bringing easy-to-create AR to the social • Build with or without code clients for over four years now and tools
media generation. Here, Lorna Burrows, like Spark are both significant and exciting
Head of Content at Immersive Studios, takes With a host of features and learning in that they are bringing AR quickly and
a look at how Spark AR is changing the face guides, it’s a good tool for professional easily to the mass market. It shows how
of augmented reality. creators (such as studios like ours), as well the technology is evolving – both in terms
as personal users. For example, Spark AR of ease and capability, as well as audience
WHAT IS SPARK AR? enables you to insert your own 3D objects and user demographic – meaning AR is
Spark AR is a studio tool from Facebook into a project, change their properties and naturally becoming more widespread. Spark
that allows users to create their own AR add interactivity, logic and animation. AR is an efficient and versatile way to create
effects for mobile. First launched in 2017, However, if you don’t have your own 3D AR experiences and it widens the playing
Facebook continues to add capabilities to the models, Spark AR provides a vast range of field – allowing anyone with an interest
platform – most recently, adding in analytics ready-made 3D objects in the AR library. in AR to access essential functions. For us
for Instagram and Facebook campaigns. as a business, it gives us more tools for our
Compatible for Mac and Windows, the WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? arsenal. For those interested in visual effects
AR platform is comparable to tools such Platforms like Spark AR demonstrate how and 3D experiences, it gives you a platform
as Sketch or Photoshop – only this is for mixed-reality technology is becoming to explore for yourself. •
augmented reality. Prior to this summer, more mainstream – more accessible, useful
anyone could use Spark AR Studio to create and fun. Spark AR enables you to create Immersive Studios is an award-winning production studio and
custom AR effects, but if you wanted them anything from a face filter to interactive one of the pioneers of innovative VR, AR and 360-degree video
to go live on platforms such as Instagram, AR games, and social media gives it a experiences. Our strength lies in our creative ideas and the
you had to belong to the beta programme. wide-ranging audience. Meanwhile, the pioneering use of technology behind them. We’ve built up an
However, now everyone can have a go importance of marketing via social media expert team that includes 3D modellers, filmmakers, storytellers,
at creating their own AR effects and goes without saying. Instagram has over 500 illustrators, artists, developers and creative technologists.
publishing them online. million daily users and is ever-growing in Find out more at weareimmersive.co.uk

REVIEWS
We explore the latest software and
hardware tools, to see if they are
worth your time or money
AUTHOR PROFILE
Orestis Bastounis
A veteran journalist
and reviewer for the CG
industry, Orestis returns
to the pages of 3D World
this issue to check out
this editing workstation.
HARDWARE REVIEW
www.twitter.com/
mrbastounis
Chillblast Fusion Ryzen

FEATURES
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

(12 cores, 3.8GHz clock
Render RTX 4000
PRICE £3,000 | COMPANY Chillblast | WEBSITE chillblast.com
speed, 4.6GHz turbo)
32GB DDR4 3200MHz MD’s Ryzen brand has not only overtaken Intel in storage, which has double
memory (2x 16GB)
NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000

A completely rebooted
the company’s fortunes,
ending a 13-year run where
single-threaded performance,
the range now offers a
mainstream 12-core processor,
the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0.
The 1TB Corsair Force MP600
NVMe SSD is capable of
8GB graphics card Intel’s processor technology the Ryzen 9 3900X. This has taking advantage of this extra
completely dominated the a core clock frequency of headroom, with some record-
1TB Corsair Force MP600 market. Aggressive pricing 3.8GHz, a turbo frequency breaking transfer speeds.
M.2 PCIe Gen 4 Solid State from AMD has made it of 4.6GHz, and retails for Its overall cost is just shy of
Drive with Heatsink considerably more affordable approximately half the price of £3,000 inc VAT. While that’s
to purchase a workstation with a 12-core Intel processor. no small chunk of change, it’s
Seagate 4TB BarraCuda six, eight or more processor So we’re incredibly excited considerably less than you’d
Pro 7200RPM hard disk cores, which dramatically to be testing a workstation pay for an equivalent rig with
improves performance in multi- that features this chip in the 3D a 12-core Intel processor and
threaded 3D software. World labs this month. Thanks X299 motherboard, and much
With the first and second- to the team at Chillblast, we’ve of the budget is taken up by
generation versions of Ryzen, been sent a workstation with the graphics card, high-end
the caveat was that in single- an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, Asus SSD and premium Seagate
threaded tasks Intel processors Prime X470-PRO motherboard hard disk. If you opted for a
could generally outperform with an AM4 socket, Nvidia Ryzen 9 3900X with slightly less
Ryzen, to varying degrees Quadro RTX 4000 and 32GB of extravagant components, that
depending on the situation. DDR4 memory. cost comes down a fair bit.
But with the third Ryzen There’s yet more new The budget-busting Quadro
generation, the tables have technology in this workstation. RTX 5000 graphics cards
truly turned. Due to the new AMD’s platform gives us our and above will be a better
Zen 2 architecture, AMD has first look at PCIe 4.0 SSD match for pricier, more high-

REVIEWS
Chillblast Fusion Ryzen Render RTX 4000
Not long ago, you’d have needed very deep Nvidia’s Quadro RTX 4000 is the best The Noctua NH-U14S
pockets to afford a workstation with more value professional RTX graphics card may be an old-fashioned
than eight processor cores, but AMD’s it currently sells, and doesn’t take air cooler, but it works
Ryzen 3 processor has bucked that trend up much space inside a PC case very well here
end processors. AMD has a and a bigger, premium range

16-core Ryzen 3 and 24-core hard disk.
Threadripper processor set
“GIVEN THE FASTER STORAGE, ADDITIONAL CORES Considering the two
to launch soon, which will AND COMPETENT ALL-ROUND PERFORMANCE, platforms side by side, we
certainly be clawing at that can’t help but feel impressed
end of the market. FOR A MID-RANGE 3D PLATFORM WE WOULD by what AMD has achieved
Having tested multiple PICK AMD OVER INTEL RIGHT NOW” with Ryzen 3. Given the faster
Quadro RTX 4000 systems storage, additional cores
recently, we can directly and competent all-round
compare the single-threaded, we tested in a Scan 3XS expected when directly testing performance, for a mid-
multi-threaded and overall workstation a few months identical graphics hardware in range 3D platform we’d pick
performance of this AMD ago, with a result of over two systems. AMD over Intel right now.
Ryzen 3 system from Chillblast 3,000 points, a 50% boost, Chillblast’s overall build Of course, this could change
against a range of Intel-based completely in line with the quality is no less than you’d with the 10th-generation Intel
platforms. The results show 50% increase in core count. expect from a professional processors right around the
that in some tests, Ryzen 3 is Likewise, the Blender BMW workstation retailer, clean corner, but as mentioned, AMD
the first time in over a decade CPU benchmark completed and tidy. Noise levels remain will be dropping its own faster
that AMD truly has the upper 50% faster. whisper quiet, even when processors soon as well.
hand over Intel, although in However, the Core i9- Ryzen’s temperatures averaged We consumers are
others, Intel just has the edge. 9900K has a faster 5GHz turbo around 70 degrees when all 12 benefitting from the hot
The Corsair MP600 frequency, which pushes its cores blasted away at encoding competition between the
managed 4,280 MB/sec read 3D performance slightly ahead 1080p video. This is testament world’s two largest processor
and 3,178 MB/sec write speeds of Ryzen 3. Blender’s GPU to the efficiency of the Noctua manufacturers, and an
in CrystalDiskMark. Faster test and every SPECViewPerf NH-U14S CPU cooler. affordable 12-core system with
NVMe drives will no doubt result was just slightly ahead on Continuing the comparison super fast storage is the end
follow, but for now this eclipses Intel’s platform – although it’s with Scan’s system, there’s result. If this trend continues,
any PCIe 3.0 drive that we’ve pretty close. a £500 premium attached there’ll be no reason not
yet seen. Meanwhile, the ArionBench to Chillblast’s Ryzen 3 to consider a workstation
The Cinebench results Cuda and Luxmark OpenCL workstation, but to be fair, that upgrade in the near future.
see the CPU storming ahead results were just about is getting you a faster SSD that
of Intel’s Core i9-9900K that identical, which is to be has twice the storage capacity VERDICT

REVIEWS
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K
AUTHOR PROFILE
Rob Redman
Rob is a 3D artist
and creative director,
working across TV, film
and print. When not in
the studio he is often
found presenting at
various events, or editing
this magazine!
www.pariahstudios.co.uk
FEATURES
6K resolution
The EF mount BMPCC6K
BRAW recording codec allows users to choose from
a wide selection of glass
DaVinci Resolve comes
included in the box
HARDWARE REVIEW
Excellent touchscreen
menu system
Programmable custom
function buttons Blackmagic Pocket
FEATURES Cinema Camera 6K
PRICE £2,099 | COMPANY Blackmagic Design | WEBSITE blackmagicdesign.com
The EF vs MFT mount
argument rages on but
really it comes down to lackmagic Design (BMD) users who shoot on Canon so don’t get too caught up in
one thing. Do you already
own Canon glass? If
so then the 6K might
B have had a tough time
bringing cameras to
market in a timely fashion once
DSLR systems who want to
boost their movie output
without investing in new glass.
the numbers.
BMD’s strength in cameras
has always been its colour
be a no-brainer. If not they announce them. Until That alone would have made science and pure image quality.
then MFT can be a more now. The previous release, the this a worthy product, but BMD We can spout specifications
versatile option, with a Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, haven’t stopped there. The all day long, but that kind of
huge range of glass and took months to get into the chip in this release is bigger, misses the point. The Pocket
adapters to choose from, hands of all who wanted one at similar specs to Super 35, Cinema Cameras have always
the downside being less and, although it’s a hugely allowing for 6K images to be enthused shooters and this
latitude for reframing a popular camera, people still captured. 6K might feel like is no different, capturing
shot in post. bemoaned the delays. This an odd choice of resolution, in gorgeous images.
6K model appeared out of these days of impending 8K, Partner this with the
nowhere, being announced as but in reality it’s a good figure. included DaVinci Resolve and
it was available, a move that Copping in to reframe for a 4K you have a full-on VFX movie
shocked and pleased people (or, shocker, HD) timeline now studio in a box. Resolve ships
and for good reason. offers even more leeway, and with the compositor, motion
An EF mount makes this many 4K Blu-ray releases are graphics and VFX tool built
model more attractive to some still based on a 2K or 2.7K print, in, so you don’t even need to

REVIEWS
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K
“BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAVE

COME UP WITH A PRETTY HANDY
BATTERY PACK TO EXTEND
SHOOTING LIFE”
round-trip your shots any more. It’s a cinema camera and that Back to the screen then. Returning briefly to audio,
If you are considering this as a implies that it fits part of a It may not move (there is an the BMPCC6K has built-in mics
purchase to boost your abilities bigger setup, of cage, power HDMI out, for field monitors) for scratch audio, a 3.5mm
as a VFX indie studio, then supply, focus pulling etc. The but it is glorious to use. It’s line in and a mini XLR, which
there isn’t much, if anything, fact that it has a nice grip bright and clear as well as has switchable phantom
that competes for this price. and commonly found internal touch sensitive, for controlling power, another nod to this
The body is solidly built, battery slot just makes it more BMD’s famed UI, which only camera being rigged up for
with rubber bungs protecting versatile. Yes, the battery will takes just a quick look to full production, while retaining
dual card slots (SD and CF2 only last about 40 minutes and master. It’s an intuitive setup, tools for run and gun.
cards) although you’ll more the screen doesn’t articulate, easily manipulated by a simple All in all the Pocket range
likely want to use SSD storage however that is all just fine. As press of a finger, with each from BMD are fantastic
via the USB-C port, allowing you can see from the images panel logically laid out for cameras. The only real choice
you to plug the footage direct here, BMD have a pretty specific tasks, like audio setup is which flavour to get. The 4K,
to your editing machine, a joy handy battery pack to extend and monitoring. with its MFT lens mount and
in its own right! shooting life and you could Shortcut keys can be set huge array of glass, or this 6K,
Much has been said about always use a V-mount setup how you like, from applying with increased chip size and
the overall form factor of these attached to your cage, as most a LUT to viewing peaking, resolution and an EF mount.
cameras, but to criticise it for cinema camera users expect to accessing any number
this is kind of missing the point. to do. of functions. VERDICT

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EDITOR’S WELCOME

What’s hot this issue

It’s the dream of many 3D artists to create

Rob Redman, Editor

SPOTLIGHT ON OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Trevor Hogg Gustavo Ahlen Mike Griggs

WEBSITE FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM TWITTER

3D WORLD December 2019 3 youtube.com/user/3dworld

FEATURE behind the scenes of Milk

18 BUILD YOUR OWN ANIMATED SHORT 28 AD ASTRA: TO THE STARS

3D WORLD December 2019 4 youtube.com/user/3dworld

70 BASICS: IMAGE TYPES

On your annual subscription

82 BUILDING THE WORLD OF TOMORROW 90 SADDINGTON BAYNES: THE DRIVING FORCE

3D WORLD December 2019 5 youtube.com/user/3dworld

NEXT MONTH Master your cel shading

ON SALE 6TH NOVEMBER

3D WORLD December 2019 6 youtube.com/user/3dworld

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K features controls for

3D WORLD December 2019

3D WORLD December 2019 9 youtube.com/user/3dworld

Marco Rizzotti has a background of almost As a character artist working in the

3D WORLD December 2019 10 youtube.com/user/3dworld

Freelance material artist

3D WORLD December 2019 12 youtube.com/user/3dworld

3D WORLD December 2019 14 youtube.com/user/3dworld

3D WORLD December 2019 15 youtube.com/user/3dworld

3D WORLD December 2019 16 youtube.com/user/3dworld

“THE IDEA FOR VIA

3D WORLD December 2019 20 youtube.com/user/3dworld

Besides the more technical

reality of child abuse and decided Above: Despite the

3D WORLD December 2019 21 youtube.com/user/3dworld

3D WORLD December 2019 22 youtube.com/user/3dworld

so that we could share the status of

I thought it wasn’t worth making,

During the creation of

3D WORLD December 2019 25 youtube.com/user/3dworld

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• Have each one delivered to

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or his ﬁrst venture in outer space, ﬁlmmaker James Gray

3D WORLD December 2019 30 youtube.com/user/3dworld

“A practical 15 x 10 foot truss section that Roy McBride

3D WORLD December 2019 31 youtube.com/user/3dworld

on we decided that a lot of the

3D WORLD December 2019 32 youtube.com/user/3dworld

CHILLS & DRILLS

3D WORLD December 2019 33 youtube.com/user/3dworld

o far in 3D World’s audience where the scene is now

3D WORLD December 2019 34 youtube.com/user/3dworld

A final city scene

“WE WENT UP TO LONDON’S mega-structures, and that they had

3D WORLD December 2019 36 youtube.com/user/3dworld

HOW TO BE A BETTER ENVIRONMENT ARTIST

1. THE LIBRARY 3. THE KIT OF PARTS might be a recognisable landmark like

3D WORLD December 2019 37 youtube.com/user/3dworld

to populate the interior section

“Once that was all brought into

3D WORLD December 2019 39 youtube.com/user/3dworld