3D World August 2019 Issue 249

EDITOR’S WELCOME
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WELCOME
This issue, go collect your Pokémon!
In celebration of a certain Pokémon-

come-detective we decided to get in
on the collection action and give you an
assortment of awesome Pokémon covers.
Choose your favourite or collect them
all, then delve inside to discover some
behind-the-scene tips from the makers!
Rob Redman, Editor

rob.redman@futurenet.com
SPOTLIGHT ON OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Martin Nebelong Trevor Hogg Ian Failes
Martin is a freelance artist living in This issue, Trevor dives into the world Ian is a regular contributor to 3D
Denmark, and is the artistic director of Pokémon in our cover feature on World, and in this issue he explores
of MasterpieceVR. On page 54 he page 18, and gets the lowdown on the the cutting-edge visual effects of
explores rigging a character in VR. VFX behind American Gods on page 38. short-form TV projects on page 24.
www.artstation.com/martinity linkedin.com/in/trevor-hogg-77a78024 www.beforesandafters.com
Maya Jermy Adam Dewhirst Mike Griggs

Maya is a 3D artist and animator Adam Dewhirst is a build supervisor for Mike Griggs is a 3D and visual effects
based in the UK. She started her Double Negative London. He has over artist with vast experience across the
career in 2012 remaking and 15 years of experience in VFX spanning industry, which he shares on pages 66-
animating characters for Oddworld. games, film, TV and commercials. 69 in our Basics and Bootcamp.
mayajermy.artstation.com www.instagram.com/dewhirstadam www.creativebloke.com
EMAIL WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER

rob.redman@futurenet.com 3dworld.creativebloq.com www.facebook.com/3dworldmagazine @3DWorldMag
3D WORLD August 2019 3 youtube.com/user/3dworld

CONTENTS ISSUE 249
AUGUST 2019
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
32 SNAP DECISIONS
Industrial Light &
COVER Magic give us the
FEATURE lowdown on their

exciting character
Page 18 and environment
work for the dramatic
final instalment of the
Avengers franchise,
Endgame
18 POKÉMON GO TO THE MOVIES 38 BACKSTAGE PASS: AMERICAN GODS

Uncover the secrets behind bringing the iconic electric pocket We go behind the scenes of fantasy drama series American Gods to find
monster to the big screen for Detective Pikachu out more about its supernatural visual effects

TUTORIALS Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills FEATURES
24 SCI-FI AND CGI
ON THE SMALL SCREEN
Explore some top visual effects
in sci-fi television shows
TUTORIALS
66 3D ANIMATION BASICS 05
We talk soft dynamic animation
68 V-RAY NEXT
Discover the latest release
ARTIST Q&A
46 KITBASH ON THE GO
Create usable kitbash assets on an iPad Pro with 70 YOUR CG PROBLEMS SOLVED
Shapr3D; Adam Dewhirst shows you how! Pro artists solve your queries
INSIGHT
82 GHOST VFX’S R&D DINO
A realistic dinosaur simulation
86 V1 INTERACTIVE
An insight into the studio
88 PRO THOUGHTS
Which standalone VR headset
should you consider?
REVIEWS
54 RIG AND POSE A CHARACTER IN VR 60 MODEL AN ORIGINAL CHARACTER
Martin Nebelong shows us how to intuitively sculpt Maya Jermy takes us through the process of creating 90 4K MONITOR GROUP TEST
and rig a warrior character in virtual reality a CG character without an initial concept sketch Five options get put to the test
INSIGHT News and views from around the international CG industry REGULARS
30 SUBSCRIPTIONS
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78 MPC MAKES A YOUNG ELTON JOHN

Discover how a younger version of renowned musician Elton John was brought to life by MPC for John Lewis’
2018 Christmas commercial

ISSUE 250
NEXT MONTH
Issue 250 special: Level up your CG work with our massive 250 expert tips feature
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SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
GOD PAN
ARTIST
Baolong Zhang
SOFTWARE
Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop,
Unreal Engine 4
The biggest challenge that

professional 3D artist Baolong
Zhang faced on this project
was creating the character’s
photorealistic hair. “He’s got
very curly hair that required
a lot of attention,” explains
Zhang. “I used ZBrush
FiberMesh to create the main
volume of hair, then the smaller
hairs were hand-placed. The
shorter facial furs were created
with XGen in Maya.”
Throughout the project
Zhang was inspired by the
photography of Cristian Baitg
Schreiweis, and he particularly
enjoyed searching for further
references. “I started searching
for more references like Greek
statues and paintings,” he says.
“It’s fun to put these together
in 3D, especially with Unreal
Engine 4.” Elsewhere he finds
inspiration in nature and
classic art.
Finding an interesting
subject is crucial to getting
a good start on a project,
according to Zhang: “I try to
have a good idea of what it’s
going to look like. As I’m not
a concept artist, I don’t really
have a final concept, but I have
a lot of reference to follow.”
artstation.com/baolong

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
POKÉMON
TRAINER RED
ARTIST
Spenser Morgan
SOFTWARE
ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Arnold
Spenser Morgan is an Arkansas-based

artist currently looking for his first job in
the animation and video game industries.
This angsty interpretation of Pokémon’s
Trainer Red took him 12 weeks to complete,
using XGen to create the impressive hair. “I
started by dividing the scalp up into sections
and placed a few guides to each,” explains
Morgan. “I then shaped the guides until I
was able to get a clean silhouette similar to
how his hair appears in the game.”
The image presented Morgan with
an opportunity to reinterpret a popular
character. “What inspires me as an artist
is being able to create new and different
characters, as well as redesigning others but
staying true to the character themselves.”
Morgan often begins projects by going
out and gathering as many references as
possible. “I’ll gather clothing reference,
material swatches, different hairstyles,
anatomy reference, etc. Once I have that I’ll
start thumbnailing some ideas, maybe logos
or clothing designs. Once I have my roadmap
I start in ZBrush.” Once everything is
blocked in, Morgan will move the model
into Maya for refining and retopologising.
Finally it’s moved into Substance Painter to
bake and texture.
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SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
REDESIGN ALITA
ARTIST
Gabriel Soares
SOFTWARE
ZBrush, Maya, V-Ray, Photoshop
“I could have done an illustration in

which Alita is in battle,” says Gabriel
Soares, “however I saw several of those
on the internet, so I opted to explore
the innocent side of the character,
specifically using the scene in which
Alita discovers the taste of chocolate.”
2D and 3D techniques are used
in tandem throughout Soares’ work:
“Generally I apply only simple materials
using Maya, before doing post-
production in Photoshop. This way I
can mix 3D and 2D digital painting.”
Many of Soares’ ideas come from his
consumption of pop culture, films and
comic books. “I usually write down my
ideas on a notepad app on my phone,” he
explains. “I always try to execute them
on the same day, I never leave it for
later: not producing my ideas makes me
anxious as I risk losing my inspiration.”
instagram.com/gabriel.soareszz

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
This project from art director and motion a bit of perspective using a 150mm focal
GAME BUILDINGS designer Gustavo Henrique is a simple yet
effective 3D design. “All constructions were
length. I also increase the aperture of the
lens to achieve a blur and give it the feel
ARTIST modelled in a very simple way,” Henrique of a miniature.”
Gustavo Henrique explains. “Most of my designs are simple Henrique gets inspiration from the
SOFTWARE but full of details,” he continues. “I always feedback he receives from fellow artists:
Cinema 4D, Photoshop, try to work with geometric shapes and “What inspires me most is to see people
Octane Renderer most of my models are made from a cube. I say that they are inspired by my projects.
use the Bevel tool to leave the edges of the The feeling is incredible and the desire
objects rounded and create the feeling that to keep on inspiring other people only
it’s something fluffy.” After modelling the increases. I believe recognition is very
scene, Henrique gets to work on the render valuable to artists.”
settings using Octane Render. “The first
step is to work on the camera settings. I get behance.net/guutv

SHOWCASE
CG art to inspire
WAVEN:
THE CRA SNIPER
ARTIST
Thomas Choux
SOFTWARE
ZBrush, Photoshop
This figure by Ankama’s lead 3D artist

Thomas Choux is based on a concept by
Xavier Houssin. “I enjoy working with
Xavier a lot,” says Choux, “doing my best
to convert his 2D style into the 3D world.
I’m often asked the question, how do you
do that? And my answer is always the
same: working with an amazing concept
artist helps a lot, I just try to pay tribute
to their talent.”
Choux highlights rendering as one
of his weaker points: “Coming from a
video game background I don’t like to
wait a ton of time to see a final result. My
technique is more based on compositing
than complex rendering. I make lots of
very simple render passes and I do a lot
of compositing in Photoshop, using flat
colour and the render pass as a mask.”
He also makes frequent use of the screen
normal map. “The red channel is very
useful for making some rim light and the
green channel is always my go-to for a
nice top light.”
Simple gradients are also a key part
of Choux’s work. “For example, to make
the top of the character lighter than the
bottom I will also use the depth map,”
he explains.
artstation.com/veritaslemalin

FEATURE
Pokémon GO to the Movies
TO THE MOVIES
pocket monsters to the big screen in Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

FEATURE
hen preproduction for
W
Pokémon: Detective
Pikachu started in
January 2017, the
original plan was
that principal photography would
commence in August 2017, but
that was later shifted to January
2018. “There is no version of us
making this movie without that
full year of prep, as Pikachu alone
took us six months [to develop],”
states production visual effects
supervisor Erik Nordby, who
previously collaborated with
filmmaker Rob Letterman on
Goosebumps. “Doing 60 characters
in any movie is an absolute
massive outlay of time, energy
and resources, and add to that the
necessary rounds of approval with
The Pokémon Company. We spent
four to five hours almost nightly for
about four to five months calling
Tokyo and also made trips there.
You can’t force the trust that allows
for compromises.”
HUMAN OR ANIMALISTIC
A decision needed to be made as
to whether human or animalistic
behaviours would be adopted
for characters such as Pikachu.
“We rooted our tests into those
two different worlds,” explains
Nordby. “Frustratingly, there are
actually very few animals of that
size. The wombat was the one that
came the closest, but there are a Above right: suit. We would take aspects of both, but Charizard was Framestore
lot of animals slightly smaller that Concept art by merge them into this hybrid and and both were shared. We would
moved quite quickly and had this Arnaud Vallett of present it to Rob and The Pokémon get to a point where the asset was
frenetic, jerky movements to them Morelull, a small Company. Once we had created a fully rigged, designed, textured
that felt animalistic. We would white Pokémon syngenetic version of the two sides and realised, and then we would
do full CG tests based on those that resembles a of the coin and put everything that package it up and ship it off to the
types of activity. We could find mushroom worked into one character, it was second vendor. Framestore couldn’t
something that you could point at definitely broken, but looked like it get the groom of Pikachu to look
and say, ‘That feels real because it’s Above left: Comic could accomplish everything that as realistic as MPC had done so
animalistic, but wouldn’t feel cute mime Trygve the character needed to accomplish they went back to the drawing
or believable that it could talk’, for Wakenshaw serves in the movie.” board, came up with something
instance. Then you would go the as a stand-in for Mr. that felt slightly more adaptive to
other way and end up with a short Mime, who is being SHARING ASSETS the environment, and that went
human walking around in a yellow interrogated MPC and Framestore divided the back to MPC. We would meet on
Pokémon character designs and set and talk it through. It ended up
assets, Image Engine served as being quite fortunate and was made
the third main visual effects, and possible because we had the time.”
“AS SOON AS YOU in total 1,534 visual effects shots
were produced. “We decided, PIKACHU DILEMMA
ALTER THE SILHOUETTE, like you typically do on movies of
this scale, to share assets but to
“Pikachu basically has a pancake
for a face,” notes Nordby. “The
YOU’VE TURNED YOUR BACK do it as infrequently as possible,”
states Nordby. “Even if it was in
big struggle early was how do we
get this character to emote? The
ON THE POKÉMON ITSELF” title only, we would have a lead
design or asset build house for
facial rig we kept building prior
to Ryan Reynold’s casting. It was
Erik Nordby, production visual effects supervisor each Pokémon. Pikachu was MPC a frustrating process because we

FEATURE
STEPS TOWARD APPROVAL

THE PATH TO THE FINAL POKÉMON
CHARACTER DESIGNS WAS LITTERED
WITH FAILURE AFTER FAILURE
“It was extremely dispiriting and there were

many moments where we asked, ‘How are we
going to crack this?’” reveals production VFX
supervisor Erik Nordby. “We kept pushing,
specifically with Pikachu until we started to
see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
Then we found small successes, leveraged
those successes to figure out other Pokémon,
and then came up with this methodology that
we needed to adopt.”
There were four basic phases. “The first one
being a chunk of great-looking 2D concept
art that felt photoreal further than what we
would typically do with creature art,” remarks
Nordby. “The second would be this super
simple 3D incarnation of that 2D concept
art. We would rig it and do a quick turntable.
That would be approved not only by Rob
Letterman and myself but also by Tokyo.”
The most impactful was the third phase,
which involved animation-based designs.
“We hired this team of senior animators in
prep; that was new to me and hard for us to
convince Legendary to pay for, but paid off
because we needed to show these things
moving prior to us shooting the movie,
particularly Pikachu and all of the main
Pokémon,” explains Nordby. “Via all of those
animation tests we would discover so many
things about the design of the character that
if discovered too late we wouldn’t had time to
would get something that not only 3D. We broadened the shoulders, change. We would alter the skeleton, the rig,
could emote, but was finessed narrowed the cheeks and waist, and a lot of the limbs, torso, and head ratios.”
enough that it wasn’t over the and made the eyes smaller. Last was the fourth phase, which resulted
top and didn’t break Pikachu’s Mewtwo is seven feet tall but in the final product. “The time suck of
silhouette – but then the groom became even larger and slightly pushing everything through those phases
would mute the facial rig to a more foreboding. We got to a of approval was massive, but the payoff was
level where you couldn’t read it point where he looked cool, sent that you don’t typically do that in prep,” notes
anymore. We grabbed a whole it through, and it was a flat ‘no’ Nordby. “You’re either doing that alongside
series of Ryan’s clips while he was from The Pokémon Company. We production, or even worse, you’re doing it in
wrapping Deadpool 2 and quickly flew out there and by working post. But because we could do it in prep, we
roto animated a lot of his vocal it through, we realised that we had a lot of stuff ready to go while we were
performances. His level of sarcasm had broken that silhouette. The shooting the movie.”
is very dry and as soon as you superhero vibe we were assuming
overact on top of that, the comedy that needed to be in this character
dies. Once Ryan became available, had to be pulled back. Mewtwo
he was shot with a headcam. became slightly younger. We
We realised that so much of his needed to allow the shoulders to
performance was understated pull back and the look of the skin
and would almost go even more was too complex. We had all of this
understated with Pikachu.” veining to put into it. It was a hard
character to put into the film.”
MEWTWO
“Mewtwo is wacky looking and GHOSTLY TRAILS & GENGAR
has got a bizarre long tail,” notes Certain aspects had never been
Nordby. “The balance of the seen before in the Pokémon
character is strange to render in universe, such as the ghostly

FEATURE
trail left behind by Gengar. looking at the way the cameras the puppeteers and the puppets. Right (top): Five
“Designing Gengar was different moved. We ended up meeting with The bulk of what we would do is blocks of London
than any character, only because the game creators. We built up the shoot a puppet pass and work out where shot for live-
you’re designing it in effects as sets based on a 2/3 scale version the blocking with the puppeteers. action plates
opposed to as a hard surface,” of a roundhouse in London and It would be stringent and adhere
explains Nordby. “We had all of hung a cable cam. Rob doesn’t like to a certain weight and speed of Right (bottom): A
these leftover layers that we had impossible cameras that move too all of the characters they would greyscale model of
built for the film and handed about quickly. We would go 10 per cent puppeteer. If we couldn’t shoot it Pikachu with Ryme
30 of them over to Framestore, beyond what a Technocrane could because the camera couldn’t move City situated in the
and they shot a lot of tests moving do with some of these moves, and fast enough or too quickly, we background. An
smoke through different forces. craft and choreograph the battle would go and reshoot it again; that electricity effect is
Not stuff we haven’t done before that was probably five minutes long, worked 80 per cent of the time.” added to Pikachu
but specific to the colour of that and found little moments that felt
character, which is purple. We the most cohesive to us and those INTERACTIVE LIGHT Below: Justice
didn’t do it any favours because were what ended up in the movie.” Cinematographer John Mathieson Smith, who portrays
we ended up sticking it in this (Logan) came up with a unique Tim Goodman,
extraordinary rock and roll scene POKÉMON PUPPETS way to achieve interactive lighting performs alongside
where there was a level of chaos in Three storyboard artists worked for all of the storefront signage a stuffie of Pikachu
the lighting rig. The breakthrough during the entire production found in Ryme City. “We ended
for that character was to allow it to of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu; up going to a street in London and Bottom: Bluescreen
constantly reveal itself through its however, previs was kept to a shooting a day of tests with 300 was utilised for
own smoke.” minimum. “Rob wants to shoot the extras,” recalls Nordby. “John the Torterra Forest
bulk of his films on location, which took it so seriously and hired these sequence by
PIKACHU VERSUS CHARIZARD means you often discover stuff on companies that have these boxes MPC, which was a
The big challenge going into the day,” remarks Nordby. “We had that get dropped off, and out of the technical challenge
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu was the boards, previs, and then we had box a massive robot screen pops to execute
tradition of Pokémon constantly
battling each other. “That’s the
world that has existed for 20 years,
and then this niche game came
along called Detective Pikachu
which our film is based on,” states
Nordby. “It doesn’t have any
battling. But we knew that there
would be this fan wish fulfillment
to see a battle. We have this great
moment in our movie where there
is a battle underground between
Pikachu and Charizard. We spent
a lot of time playing the game and
“WE SPENT A LOT

OF TIME PLAYING THE
GAME AND LOOKING AT THE
WAY THE CAMERAS MOVED”
Erik Nordby, production visual effects supervisor
FEATURE
NOT SO HEROIC
THE NATURAL TENDENCY FOR CREATING HEROIC
POSES NEEDED TO BE CURTAILED WHEN DESIGNING
THE POKÉMON CHARACTERS
“We would often from the Western point of view

swing the pendulum too far,” explains the film’s
production VFX supervisor Erik Nordby. “Charizard
is a good example. It would be subtle things. We
would push Charizard into something that felt too
heroic, and that’s a temptation with a lot of the visual
effects houses as well. The idea of making these
things feel real is that they would take it and alter
the silhouette.”
“Early on we learned that as soon as you alter the
silhouette, you’ve turned your back on the Pokémon
itself,” reveals Nordby. “That was made clear in a lot
of the time we spent with the original creators.” The
conversations needed to be translated; however, a
universal language proved to be extremely useful.
“We would watch them draw these characters as a
proof of a point. You would see that their drawings
were so simplistic. They’re essentially silhouettes.”
“Everything clicked for us about four months
in, that if we paid enormous respect to those base
silhouettes and added all of the reality that we
wanted to add on top of them, then we would be 90
per cent of the way there,” remarks Nordby. “That
was something that proved itself over and over again
as we pushed our way through the design process.”
© 2019 Legendary and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 Pokémon
up with these over-the-top bright amount of work,” states Nordby.
LEDs for sporting events. John “You can’t get to that place until
would then program those with you have at least half of your
different content and flash that characters built. We had a lot
light all over the reflective surfaces of concepts that felt a little too
of London streets. John also did anemic and kept on saying that
massive wet downs so he would get we need hundreds of Pokémon.
a lot of that texture, colour and vibe But there’s no version of us being
in the reflections or on people’s able to pull that off in the time we
faces. Then we would reverse had. We ended up embracing the
engineer what that material was photography and utilising lots of
because John made sure he kept it long lenses. We had this 1970s feel
all. We would figure out what that to the world. A lot of out-of-focus
material was and would re-project background plates where you
that stuff onto our CG.” had a shallow depth of field. The
photography felt slightly cinéma
RYME CITY verité and voyeuristic, almost like
Populating Ryme City involved we had shown up with a skeleton
some retro filmmaking techniques. crew shooting Tim Goodman
“It was one of the last things that [Justice Smith] walking through
we ended up doing and world this world. Shooting on film was
building is such an enormous another big part of it.”

FEATURE
Sci-fi and CGI on the small screen

FEATURE
SCI-FI AND CGI

ON THE SMALL SCREEN
We take a look at some impressive CG in big science-fiction and
comic-book series on television and in streaming shows
t’s probably not that THE ORVILLE’S OUT-OF-THIS- Phong Tran, “we always want to
I
surprising that just WORLD ENVIRONMENTS come up with a backstory as to
about every sci-fi or Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville why they are travelling to a certain
superhero show today follows the crew of the titular space location, and for the location itself.
utilises CG and visual vessel as they carry out missions It helps add a visual narrative as
effects. Indeed, some characters in space and on far-flung planets. part of the complexity of the shots.”
in these types of shows are often That premise immediately calls “Also,” says Tran, “the show is
entirely digital, while the locations for extensive digital environment obviously a homage to Star Trek. So
and environments in these series are work, and much of that is provided we also always need to respect and
regularly synthetic, or a mix of real by visual effects studio Pixomondo. honour, not necessarily the style,
locations and manufactured places. For the episode ‘Identity Part I’, but the charm of that show. So, that
3D World looks at The Orville, the Orville travels to the Kaylon adds to the overall design aspect of
Weird City, Doom Patrol and The homeworld, which proved to be a our environments – how we make
Flash, and talks to the visual effects complex mix of futuristic buildings it so that it still fits the humour and
studios involved (Pixomondo, and abundant alien life. the narrative of the show.” Below: The blue
FuseFX, Artifex Studios, Encore) “When we’re making an In the arrival to the Kaylon city, rivers of data that
about how their VFX brought these environment,” observes Pixomondo the Orville ship passes through a cross through the
sci-fi and comic-book stories to life. visual effects supervisor Nhat cloud layer and into an expansive expansive city
BATTLE TECH
THE TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
BEHIND A LENGTHY BATTLE SEQUENCE IN A
RECENT EPISODE OF THE ORVILLE
1. From previs to final action: FuseFX used

specialised tools to bring in ready-made previs
of the ship animation, and then used their own
asset, explosion and debris libraries to start
building scenes.
2. Lasers: Larger lasers were tackled in Houdini,

while smaller lasers were done with a particle
system that was developed at FuseFX in NUKE.
A gizmo was made that allowed for lasers to be
procedurally generated.
3. Explosions: Houdini was relied upon here,

with libraries of explosions developed for
backgrounds, and other larger foreground
blasts made up of chain-reaction events and
bespoke simulations.

FEATURE
world. “For the arrival into 1

Kaylon 1,” states Tran, “we knew it
used to be a city where the artificial
life forms and their creators co-
existed, until the Kaylon took over.
So we needed to see some sort of
evidence that there used to be an
older city that was not built by the
Kaylon themselves. It creatively
limited the way in which materials
and surface attributes [were used]
for the shading.”
That resulted in an ‘Old Town’
that utilised concrete and brick,
while the newer artificial life form
area was much more precise. Says
Tran: “We figured they are going
8
to be very intelligent about what
materials they use, so all those
superstructures that you see, that
we added on top of the city, those
structures use a different material
palette. Instead of using concrete
and brick, we used mainly metal.
But even then when you look
at different types of metal, we
didn’t just want to use straight-up
aluminium or titanium, which all
have different reflection attributes
– instead we were looking into how
different metal alloys react. So we
created a base palette of what we
called the ‘Kaylon metal’.”
In addition, the artificial
life form’s use of data to share
information was reflected in the
environment as flowing lines
through the towers and the planet.
“That’s why we introduced those
blue highway-looking lines,”
explains Tran. “Those resemble
data that is travelling back and
forth through the city.”
“A BACKSTORY HELPS ADD A VISUAL NARRATIVE AS
In lighting the city, Pixomondo
opted to take advantage of the
PART OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THE SHOTS”
overarching cloud layers, which Nhat Phong Tran, visual effects supervisor, Pixomondo
brought in a very hazy atmosphere.
“And, again,” states Tran, “this is
an artificial life form, so we wanted follows inhabitants of this strange Encore VFX fairly normal, if a bit drab, version
to stay away from any colours that future world. Visual effects studio previsualised the of a city. The Below The Line urban
resemble life or emotions. That’s Artifex delivered environments, Gorilla Grodd vs. density was highest near the Line,
why we stayed away from red. We graphics, creatures and odd forms King Shark fight, but fell off into suburban sprawl
kept it more on the blues, and the of technology for the show. then established away from the Line.”
only thing that has a warmer colour For the city itself, Artifex had final angles by “We began our city build by
temperature in those environments to devise Above The Line and tweaking virtual firing up Google Earth, and getting
is basically the sunlight.” Below The Line segments. “It was cameras a feel for how large cities look from
never really about opulence versus the air,” continues Geddes. “We
THE WEIRDNESS OF WEIRD CITY devastation,” outlines visual effects were trying to find an existing
A city of a different kind plays supervisor Rob Geddes. “Above example of a city being bisected
out in Weird City, the sci-fi series The Line needed to be this slightly by a major highway, to give us a
that recently aired on YouTube exaggerated ‘wacky near future’, sense of what would happen at the
Premium. Set in the location of where the satirical writing could Line. What we settled on was a mix
Weird, which has been divided up feel at home. Below The Line would of several cities, though I believe
based on economic class, the show contrast this, mainly by being a the street layout of what we see in

2 3
A LAYERED
APPROACH
THE MANY LAYERS THAT
MAKE UP JUST ONE SHOT
FROM THE CW TV SERIES
THE FLASH, WHERE GORILLA
GRODD AND KING SHARK
4 5 FIGHT ON A ROOFTOP
1. Wireframe: Encore VFX

was behind the visual effects
for this rooftop fight, which
needed to incorporate CG
characters into a rainy setting.
2. Rooftop elements:
Weathered rooftop props
were modelled and positioned
for the fight to happen nearby.
3. Background city: The city

was also a digital creation,
6 7 based off of plates filmed in
Vancouver. It allowed for
the camera to be moved in
any direction.
4. Animation pass: Gorilla

Grodd was handled as a
giant ape, while King Shark
was animated to be like a
massive wrestler.
5. Grodd’s fur: Encore VFX

has had to deliver Grodd in
our big opening shot was mostly lands, and the like. Above The Line Grodd’s fur had to previous episodes, so had
inspired by a portion of Tokyo.” buildings were fleshed out in Maya, progressively be developed an accomplished
For the actual build, the two with matte painting assisting made wetter and groom for the character’s fur.
halves of the city were crafted for most of the ground cover and wetter as the fight
by two artists, each working on a various points of interest.” – set in the rain – 6. Creature FX: Muscle sims
separate half. They were supported Artifex’s work extended also continues and skin stretching helped
by a matte painter and concept to some unusual worm creatures to show the ferocity of the
artist. Below The Line grew that swarm over a woman (Rosario King Shark had to fight, while also giving the
procedurally in Houdini, with the Dawson) in a tank. “On-set incorporate a shiny characters more weight.
building distribution being driven photography of Rosario gave us shader for rendering
by painted textures. This gave a starting point to build out a on his otherwise 7. Water FX: A decision to
artists control over the randomised rough model for matchmoving,” leathery skin have the fight take place in
building heights and density says Geddes. “Once her model surface the rain meant extra water
distribution, while still respecting was in place, our FX artist began simulations were necessary
the highways and smaller streets. in Houdini with distributing a for the final shots.
“Above The Line was more ‘static layer’ of worms that could
hand-crafted,” says Geddes. cling to her surface. They weren’t 8. Final shot: The final
“We started with our take on a completely static in all cases, there composited shot ensured that
downtown core, between the two was some amount of wriggling and the night-time setting and city
major Line crossings. Building out bulging in certain places, but this lights reflected appropriately
from this centre, we tossed around would serve as our initial dense in the fur of Grodd and the
the ideas of various districts and layer of worms to sell the shot.” skin of King Shark.
eventually built out a large urban “Once the wriggling static layer
lake, flanked by concert halls, park was in place and working, we

FEATURE
could simulate additional passes certain things with CG or matte- Above: Worms, VFX was tasked with generating
of moving worms that would help painted elements as required. simulated in Houdini, a wide mix of characters and
sell the overall movement and The drinking sequence though envelop a character character augmentations.
intelligence of the worm swarm. was literally a guy with a green during one of Weird One character, Mr. Nobody,
There were further additions along glove pouring whiskey into the City’s oddball episodes is described as a ‘living shadow’.
the way of some hero worms that sink. We painted out the gloved “From the beginning, production
would tumble off the pile, and some hand, recreating the glass bottle Below: The Smart wanted to follow what was done
clumps of wriggling worms along behind. For the sink hose we did Home gets drunk in the comics for Mr. Nobody,
the soil animated to match the a complete CG replacement, and on whiskey. Here, how he’s broken into pieces,” says
behaviour of the practical worms looped our rigged hose around the Artifex painted out Encore VFX creative director and
used earlier in the episode.” bottle where the hand had been. certain elements and visual effects supervisor Armen
Then there were gags that the We let the practical bottle lead the augmented others Kevorkian. “It was important that
visual effects studio aided with animation. And then the vomiting
completing for inside a ‘Smart sink was a mixture of stock
House’, where the artificial elements and simulation, with the
intelligence gets out of control. surrounding sink matchmodelled
One moment sees the house even to catch some FX spray droplets to
get ‘drunk’ on whiskey as a bottle help tie everything together.”
seems to magically pour down a
sink. “Most of the Smart Home BRINGING THE DOOM
gags were achieved practically TO DOOM PATROL
with filament wires tugging on Perhaps equally as weird and
things,” notes Geddes. wacky is Doom Patrol, a series
“We would based on the DC Comics superhero
paint out wires, team, which streams on DC
and augment Universe. For this show, Encore

we maintained the performance had to emit electrical energy.
by Alan Tudyk, because it was so
great. We focused on breaking up
“Translating Negative Spirit from
the comics to live action was a
“WE FOCUSED ON BREAKING
his body in a way that felt visually
akin to the comics but wasn’t
bit of a creative challenge, so we
added the electricity effect to
UP HIS BODY IN A WAY THAT
necessarily one to one. Alan’s facial
performance is very true to how
communicate that he had energy
within,” says Kevorkian. “We
FELT AKIN TO THE COMICS”
it was captured and we mimicked did some R&D to figure out Armen Kevorkian, creative director, Encore VFX
what he did on set in CG.” exactly what that should look
On set, Tudyk wore a motion- like, and to achieve it, we first
capture suit. Scenes were filmed animated his form and then facial drooping, was all visual Top: A view
with him donning the suit, and simulated the electricity so it was effects work. of the city of
then as clean plates. “We’d send mostly random.” Indeed, Encore had more than Weird at night
that footage to our animators and Elasti-Woman is a superhero in a raft of complex and unusual CG
they’d use his performance as the the show who can stretch, shrink characters to produce, as Kevorkian Above: Elasti-
guide for his facial expressions or grow – powers she developed recounts. “We’ve created a lot of Woman in one of
and hand gestures,” explains after being exposed to a toxic crazy CG characters like a talking her particularly
Kevorkian. “When I was doing liquid. She is played by actress cockroach, performance-driven bulbous forms
reviews, I’d refer to the original April Bowlby and was designed to scenes with a rat, sentient butt
footage to make sure we were feature bulbous, intestinal looking creatures and a yeti-type creature
matching Alan’s performance as body parts that are as disgusting called the Manticore. We’ve done
much as possible.” as possible. She ranges in size, too, things like a NASCAR race crash,
A faithful translation from sometimes appearing as a giant sequences with an X-15 aircraft
comic to the screen was important blob that can knock over cars. and a massive blob rolling down a
with other characters, too. For Interestingly, anything that had city block, knocking cars around. It
example, the Negative Spirit being to do with her blob look, including definitely keeps us entertained.”

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FEATURE
Snap decisions

3D World speaks with ILM’s Dan Snape and Michael Lum
about the studio’s environment and character creation
for the landmark movie, Avengers: Endgame
very few years, showcases the work of a studio
E
a film seems that is synonymous with science
to come along fiction and fantasy movies:
that galvanises Industrial Light and Magic.
audiences and, ILM’s work for Endgame was
in doing so, proves a useful hubbed at their studio in San
reminder of the visual power Francisco, with ILM’s other
and emotional impact that a studio sites also aiding on the
film spectacle first experienced project. Environment, lighting,
on the big screen can have. In animation, texturing and
spring 2019, Avengers: Endgame compositing all synthesised to
satisfied this tradition and, create the worlds, characters and
appropriately enough, the movie drama of the movie.

Right:
1) Layout of
modelled work
for Rocket
Raccoon, without
hair, against live-
action plate
2) Increasing 1
detail of digital
costume and fur
modelling for
Rocket Raccoon
3) Final shot of
fully rendered
and lit Rocket
Raccoon,
composited
with live-action 3 2
background plate
Above: The more Considering the fundamental we wanted to take it in terms of would capture markers – fidelity
cerebral Hulk challenges for ILM in their work this cerebral Hulk. We had to get was very good but needed a big,
represented a for Endgame, Dan Snape (one of that perfect blend.” Certainly, that dedicated face team to hammer
major challenge two visual effects supervisors on perfect blend is evidenced by the away [at the mesh]. On this project,
for ILM the movie) explains, “For ILM, very first appearance of Hulk in the we wanted to have more control for
the big challenge was going to be movie – we see him situated in the animation and so we worked with
Hulk; especially knowing what most familiar of places: a café. a new toolset. We took the solve
[the reaction to] Thanos had been Discussing this combination and compared that solve with the
in Infinity War. Hulk was where of vividly realised visual effects proprietary Medusa capture [which
and animation in the context of provides hi-res 3D facial capture]
an utterly recognisable location, of [Mark] Ruffalo. This meant we
Michael Lum (one of two animation could retain the structure and
“TO CAPTURE THE TRUE supervisors on the film) notes
that, “The café shot was very
integrity of the model. Because
we wanted intact modelling, we
MEANING OF RUFFALO’S unforgiving: it was a static camera.”
Of the production process for
developed the Ransack tool that
enabled the retarget to be faithful
SMILE TOOK REAL STUDY” ILM, Michael explains, “We had
to develop a new pipeline: what we
to the character. Rather than it just
being a point cache, the animator
Michael Lum, animation supervisor, ILM had previously was a solver that would get the shapes with the

FEATURE
Snap decisions
animation curve already on them. a key issue with this work was For Dan and his team, to have Above: ILM’s
An artist would spend a day or reconciling the real-world, on-set all of the digital characters lit layout for a
two to ingest the face-cap data. actor sizes and proportions with by the same sunlight source was Spider-Man
Sometimes we’d apply data and the digital clothing. Of Iron Man’s more manageable and resulted close-up amid
you’d get the motion but it wouldn’t time suit, for example, Dan recalls in a particularly believable sense the ravages of
look like Hulk, so we’d redo his team often returning to the of place and action. Dan explains the Endgame as
animation of the face-cap solve to problem of “where his head and that rendering was done using Thanos’s hordes
make this work. Also, new tools arm movements are different to Katana: “We needed to build close in
came in to beef up the mesh cache.” their final appearance, you have an environment that was going
Michael Lum adds, “To capture to work out where you pin the through an environment team
the true meaning of Ruffalo’s smile tracking to with digital suits.” rather than through a generalist
took some real study. We had to team,” Dan explains. “This time
pay attention to how much a smile BATTLING A VISION / we needed an environment team
tapered, for example.” RENDERGAME to render as one and so there was
In addition to ILM’s strikingly For Endgame, Dan says, “We knew much more front-end work. The big
nuanced work on Hulk was their that the end battle would be heavy challenge of the battle meant that
realisation of the time suits for on crowd interaction so we needed our environment team was making
characters’ journeys into the to try and get all of the lighting and these quick 3D mockups to get the
quantum realm. Dan notes that rendering happening together.” mood and feel; not only to inform

FEATURE
Snap decisions
the overall look but to inform

approaches to the build.”
Texturing was undertaken
using Maya as single-frame, lo-res
rendering on plates. This approach
allowed for quick client response
to the multiple elements. “We then
had a recipe of the kind of dressing
[for light and shadow],” Dan notes,
before considering the process
of creating the final battle: “The
first thing was modelling the huge
crater as one big environment.”
Michael describes the creative
modus operandi for the work
as being all about ensuring that
“things were in the right 3D space.”
Dan picks up the thread, relating “WE DIDN’T HAVE A SENSE
that, “We took each [story] beat
in specific areas of the crater OF SCALE SO WE STARTED
[location of the battleground]
and at that point it was still about BRINGING IN BROKEN CARS,
asking questions like, ‘How far
are we from the river? How big PIECES OF THE HELICARRIER”
is the ship ?’ Again, we worked Dan Snape, visual effects supervisor, ILM
to a quick turnaround and lo-res,
and then the model could go into
look-dev and texturing and then
the environment team would start
building the set dressing.”
Dan adds, “But we didn’t have
a sense of scale so we started
bringing in broken cars, pieces
of the helicarrier. If nothing else
it’s good to have a focal point. We
built a huge library of assets using
procedural textures (and colours)
– we’d dress in and decide when to
up-res particular assets to hero and
move them to hero stage for full
texture pass.”
In terms of further enhancing
the believability of the immense Above: “We were lucky because we went in the visual effects and animation
showdown between Thanos and On the live- and restored the [2012] assets and artists at the studio described
the Avengers, Dan recalls, “We action set of had the exact assets from that film. their work for that movie as being
then developed a procedural dirt Thor’s hideaway We had Hulk as he historically was, akin to completing their graduate
pass, but the final passes made on New Asgard, and so you’re able to be a bit rough thesis: it pulled together everything
everything too brown (the dirt was a mocap-suited with him: it’s all about the intensity understood and learnt up to that
coming up too high), and so we performer of his performance, but with Hulk/ point since the studio began in
limited the height. We could then portrays Thor’s Banner we knew that we’d need a 1975. So it doesn’t seem too much
blanket-cover everything.” After friend, Korg new face solve.” of a leap of imagination to say that
gathering and responding to client As a closing comment about this Avengers: Endgame has something
feedback that assured Dan and Above right: core aspect of the film, Michael of the same sense of apotheosis
his team that they were making Final shot shows concludes, “There were so many about it for the legendary visual
the appropriate creative choices, animation characters that we had to bring effects studio.
“We moved in effects and the final and costume back to life but we had those assets Michael brings the wide-
images in a combination of crowd work for Korg – we still had to do work on them as ranging conversation to an
and lighting work.” composited with 2019 look-dev.” appropriate conclusion, observing
As the dilemmas intensified live-action plate that throughout ILM’s work on
for our heroes, the Avengers of CREATIVE OBSESSION Endgame he and his colleagues
2019 revisited their past selves. Of Way back in 1983, when Star Wars: kept returning to a key aesthetic:
the animation and effects work Return Of The Jedi was released, “So many small things enhance
required for these time-travelling showcasing ILM’s most intense and the realism. We had to obsess
close encounters, Michael notes, expansive work up to that point, over everything!”

FEATURE
Snap decisions
RENDERING
THE GAUNTLET
MICHAEL AND DAN FOCUS ON
THE DRAMATICALLY POWERFUL
SCENE IN WHICH HULK PUTS
ON THE GAUNTLET TO BEGIN
THE MISSION OF CONFRONTING
THANOS ONE MORE TIME
“Hulk starts the sequence as

very softly spoken, and it begins
with a subtle tone, just the
expression on his face. We have
an unforgiving shot where he’s
walking towards the camera. The
performance of Ruffalo needed
to translate to the mocap and
animation,” Michael recalls.
Of the gauntlet-building
sequence, Dan describes how
there was a “huge amount
of development in terms of
burning of Hulk’s veins, and in
Infinity War there was the hint
of damage to arm and gauntlet.
In this one, we needed to hint
that Hulk might die. We were
just given the [brief of] ‘rainbow
energy’ of Thanos but we were
given freedom about more
power.” Michael adds that, “The
skin damage was so convincing.”
Dan continues, “We explored
how this energy would work with
the Stark tech in the gauntlet.
We were asked to move away
from the golden energy [of
Thanos] and instead we went
for arcing light [on Hulk]. They
were open to that and so we
developed a system where we
took a semi-accurate anatomical
vein model and then we used
that as a growth pattern on
the first pass. The energy is
not moving up his arm and we
wanted to previs that it is a pass
for timing (pace of energy), and
once we had that we knew that
our FX artists could take veins
and drive a sim of the burning
suit and then used that to drive
smoke and FX passes. The
very first time we showed the
client that we used the veins
so that the light was leaking
out of them, the client gave us
Images © Marvel
a fantastic response. They had

such faith and trust in us.”

Trevor Hogg gets taken behind the scenes of American
Gods by executive producer/director Christopher Byrne,
Mr. X, Tendril and Production Design International
road trip through visual effects shots and then

various roadside toning it down when the visual
attractions takes effects shots get dropped in,
on mythological you don’t notice them as much.
proportions with The scene where Mad Sweeney
American Gods, which airs on [Pablo Schreiber] and Laura
Starz and Amazon Prime Video. Moon [Emily Browning] are
Much like the conflict between changing the tyre on the car
ancient and upstart deities looks like a comic-book frame
featured in the novel authored come to life. But when you look
by Neil Gaiman, the adaptation at it against Hall of the Gods
has experienced turmoil with the there is a similarity, even though
departure of original creators they’re vastly different genres
Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and of filmmaking. [Technicolor
Michael Green (Logan). A senior colourist] Mark Kueper
constant presence throughout and I were diligent about making
season one and two has been sure that we were keeping a
Christopher Byrne (12 Monkeys), homogenous look.”
who went from being a second Driving the creative process
unit director to the executive was extensive research
producer/director on the show. conducted by Byrne. “For a lot of
“When you see visual effects things you can see a straight line
in other shows it has a different between what I decided to put
look,” notes Byrne. “What we on the concept website to share
discovered is that by applying with the team. But along the way
a level of sharpening in non- there are modifications and
“THE ONLY TYPE OF VISUAL EFFECTS WE DIDN’T

HAVE ON THE SHOW WAS A NORMAL EXPLOSION,
BUT WE DID EXPLODE A CAROUSEL IN SPACE”
Chris MacLean, VFX supervisor, Mr. X
FEATURE
Backstage Pass
Right: Howard
Ungerleider had to
create a precise
sniper laser sight
beam from a quarter
mile away that
needed to go through
a bullet hole in a
glass window
least to get it done, while we were Then there were a few smaller wire
“SEASON TWO WAS VERY working between eight and ten,”
reveals MacLean. “It was fast,
paint outs that Technicolor did.”
Delivering the show in 4K
MUCH ABOUT SHOWING THE hard and exciting because the
only type of visual effects that
meant that the DI could not be
relied on to get rid of matte lines.
GODS IN THEIR TRUE FORM” we didn’t have on the show was
a normal explosion, but we did
“On Highwaymen we were 4K
HDR and built a gauntlet system
Christopher Byrne, executive producer/director explode a carousel in space. We had where we check the blue channel,
blood, muzzle flashes, CG creature expose up and down two stops, and
integration, full CG environments, examine each corner of the frame
Above: For the that’s the value of having [Mr. X crowds, and spear replacements.” to make sure that it’s perfect,”
forest battle scene VFX supervisor] Chris MacLean, In total there are about 1,200 shots. remarks MacLean. “All of that
with Mad Sweeney [Tendril founder and director] “Of the bespoke stuff there was takes time and with the speed
(Pablo Schreiber), Chris Bahry, and [Production 626. There were a whole bunch of we were going it was definitely a
the Phantom camera Design International owner/ eye fixes and flies that got added challenge to get it all done.” A trio
was utilised for slow- partner] Howard Ungerleider on for Laura Moon [the deceased of renderers were employed by
motion shots while a your team as you embrace what wife of Shadow Moon] and for Ian Mr. X. “We had Redshift, Mantra
lot of blood and spear they’re bringing to the party.” McShane because he didn’t wear and RenderMan and modified
augmentation was “For an episode you would want any eye contacts, so every shot that some of the submission scripts to
provided by Mr. X something like 12 to 15 weeks at we saw Ian was a visual effect shot. help us with managing the image

FEATURE
Backstage Pass
Right: Unlike the slow and elegant

approach adopted for Quantum Boy to show
that he is in control, the process was sped
up for New Media to reflect the fact that
she is being influenced by quantum energy
EMBODYING SOCIAL MEDIA

NEW MEDIA, PORTRAYED BY KAHYUN KIM, DOES A
HOLOGRAM DANCE WITH ASSISTANCE FROM MR. X
“That was done with a three-camera setup with

enough parallax that I could throw that into Agisoft
and do a point cloud to export,” states Mr. X VFX
sizes. It was basically out-of-the- “I’m a huge advocate for practical supervisor Chris MacLean. “Those exports get
box software and some old-school effects, so if the special effects team taken into Houdini as a sequence and we generated
techniques aside from the custom has smoke ready then I’m going the points, particles and lines. We reprojected the
tools that Tendril built for Sapphire to turn it on,” states MacLean. three images onto a cylinder to add some parallax.
and Nuke; they also created an “Of course, I’ll shoot a clean pass We were trying to do it messier and feel like she’s
echo plasma/fire effect in Houdini but it’s a lot easier to match into learning how to use that power.”
which we incorporated into the a real-world reference. You see The holograms are constructed out of
whole season.” A huge fireball fire and smoke so often in TV worshippers. “There are hundreds of images of
needed to be produced for the shows and films that you can say, people that are all buried in that,” reveals American
carousel explosion, which was ‘That’s Houdini smoke.’ Shooting Gods executive producer/director Christopher
inspired by an enormous tourist a practical version of those effects Byrne. “We had a couple hundred extras being
attraction located in Spring Green, keeps the effects artists honest.” worshippers, then we had a two-day guerilla shoot
Wisconsin. “It’s crazy what they Various camera formats were with Kahyun where we had a double decker bus, a
have in there. Mannequins dressed utilised. “The only thing that we wardrobe team, and our archivist Ted Parks would
as angels or Valkyries, massive didn’t have was an ALEXA 65. We drive around the city.
drums, and a giant demon bunny. I had RED, ARRI, Phantom, iPhone “We would park in front of a shopping centre,
spent three nights on the carousel footage, and every kind of lens that shoot Kahyun with an Osmo [like an iPhone on a
scanning every single animal.” you could imagine as well. We had gimbal], get back on the bus, and drive to a beach
Capturing as much in-camera as anamorphic, spherical, probe, and shoot with her in a different wardrobe in order to
possible was the primary objective. macro. All of that led to shooting create this social media profile quickly.”

FEATURE
Backstage Pass
Above: Original
photography of Argus
(Christian Lloyd) and
New Media (Kahyun Kim)
Right: Final composite

with Argus and New
Media with CG eyes,
tentacles and emojis
“YOU TREAT EVERY FRAME AS A

PAINTING, AND THAT’S WHAT WE
TRIED TO ACCOMPLISH”
Chris MacLean, VFX supervisor, Mr. X
lens grids for everything. We had things that populate the map. If you
to be ready for anything that could look at old Wisconsin postcards
HYBRID ENTITY become a visual effect. On the or greetings from Washington
research side of it, we had a great postcards it’s always about the
THE GREEK DEITY OF SURVEILLANCE KNOWN visual language setup with Bryan biggest ball of twine in America
AS ARGUS (CHRISTIAN LLOYD) GETS A MODERN- Fuller in the first season, which we or that funky weird thing like
DAY UPDATE FOR AMERICAN GODS latched onto and carried forward.” the House on the Rock.” The CG
In order to provide the viewer a animation needed to be seamlessly
A high-resolution digital double was made of sense of where the action is taking married to the live-action
Christian Lloyd as Argus. “Christian was sitting in place, a CG topographical map was photography. “As the camera dives
the chair, and that was important because to get animated by Tendril along with down from the clouds it accelerates,
proper performance and interaction with actors you a miniature toy car version of the and that helps us as the crane shot
have to give them something to react to, otherwise, Betty (1966 Cadillac Fleetwood rotates into position. The map for
it will feel phoney,” notes Mr. X VFX supervisor Chris 60 Special Brougham) driven by episode 201 was completely created
MacLean. “We maintained a lot of prosthetic and Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) with inside of Maya, and a lot of Nuke to
then added all of these eyes all over him.” his employer Mr. Wednesday (Ian composite and blend the layers.”
While CG tentacles were planned for, the McShane) in the backseat. “The A miniature town was
additional eyes were a late request by the task was how can we come up with constructed by the art department
production. The eyes came after we hummed and a style that makes the map feel led by production designer Rory
hawed over what we could do to make this character practical and of the world of the Cheyne (The Colony). “There’s a
look crazy and add production value to the show, which is full of Americana?” big speech by Mr. World [Crispin
sequence,” states MacLean. “The blend points were remarks Bahry. “The frame that Glover] at the beginning of 208
important especially with all of the deforming and everyone loved had the cigarette where he walks through an Ed
bouncing around he was doing. It all boiled down butt, stains, and painted lacquered Wood-style miniature set. One of
to the prep, lighting and look development. They wood. From there it was, ‘What’s the invisible visual effects we did
wanted six weeks to do that, we said nine and ended the story?’ The story comes from was there was an awning that got
up doing them in 11.” all of the little Easter egg-type knocked off and we had to put it

FEATURE
Backstage Pass
QUANTUM TRANSFORMATION
IN THE SEASON TWO FINALE PRACTICAL LASER
EFFECTS TRANSFORM TECHNICAL BOY INTO
QUANTUM BOY
“When Technical Boy [Bruce Langley] refresh rate on the laser, reverse those two
is standing inside of the tunnel, we’re and keep going down incrementally until
offsetting the cycles of the laser with we discovered what people would normally
different degrees in the lens of the camera,” call a flaw in what was going on,” remarks
explains Production Design International American Gods executive producer/director
owner/partner Howard Ungerleider. “It Christopher Byrne. “As we approached
takes a solid laser effect and creates this parity with the numbers this flicker
banding. We did a scan effect into a huge became a beautiful arcing ribbon of light
mirror overtop with a three-dimensional encircling him.”
scan coming down, so when the camera “For the most part he was kept practical
shoots it it looks like he’s standing inside of a aside from some of the piping on his outfit
transporter on Star Trek.” where we added quantum strobe lights
To the naked eye it looked like Technical to zip up and down,” states Mr. X VFX
Boy was standing in a traditional laser supervisor Chris MacLean. “That was kept
cone. “We kept playing with the math on subtle because we didn’t want to take away
the camera, lower the shutter, raise the from the character and his performance.”
back to where it was. It was one of

those things where we could show
them fully CG creatures who are
crazy, but they always responded
to, ‘How did you fix that?’ It’s a
little bit of projection work and
tracking the camera. It was a lot of
fun because it was supposed to look
like a 1950s film once Mr. World
stepped off of the miniature.”
Laser effects were produced
by industry pioneer Howard
Ungerleider, who has done concert
lighting for Def Leppard, Rod
Steward and Van Halen. “Chris and
Rory know exactly what they want
to see and ask, ‘How do we achieve
this?’ I’ll say, ‘The best way to do
it is by using that equipment and
doing this.’ Then we set up a series
of tests, send them little video
clips of what we’re doing, and by
the time we get on location we’re
already programmed and just have
to do the alignment.”
The most important elements to
keep in mind were the placement
of the cameras and what they were
going to see. “The sniper scene
was challenging. We had to use
particular systems that would fit
in certain areas, like being on top
of a truck aiming towards a diner
and going through a window where
they were filming a bullet going
through the glass. The laser had
to come from a quarter of a mile

FEATURE
Backstage Pass
away and make it into that hole

Top left: Mr. Nancy
(Orlando Jones) in the window as the bullet goes
through. We did this at night and
“WE BUILT TOOLS IN HOUDINI THAT
seated upon the
surreal carousel they had a drone fly along the laser
beam, which was wild.”
ALLOWED US TO QUICKLY APPLY VARIOUS
situated at the
House on the Rock Given the surreal nature of the
material it was important not to
SETUPS TO A WHOLE RANGE OF SHOTS”
Top right: The distract from the storytelling and Chris Bahry, Tendril founder and director
carousel at the House to direct the eyes of the viewer.
on the Rock was “You treat every frame as a
scanned to create the painting, and that’s what we tried built tools in Houdini that allowed team,” states Byrne. “Now the
exploding CG version to accomplish,” notes MacLean. us to quickly apply various setups rest of the book going forward is
“We were playing with focus, to a whole range of shots. Our about Shadow struggling with the
Above: Christopher vignetting, contrast, and depth compositing scripts were built out notion, ‘If Odin is my father, am I
Byrne on the cueing in terms of falloff.” The of custom prebuilt modular gizmos a god too? What does that mean?’”
miniature town set in-house pipeline for Tendril was and live groups inside of Nuke.” Ungerleider lists the production
with Crispin Glover tweaked to accomplish what was With a third season renewal, the as amongst his most enjoyable
for a sequence that needed. “We use NIM to manage visual effects will evolve along experiences. “I look forward to
was inspired by Ed and track shots, and wrote custom with the storylines. “Season two the opportunity of doing another
Wood’s Plan 9 From code to enhance our ability to pull was very much about showing the season of American Gods with these
Outer Space dailies and automate processes gods in their true form, and we’ve guys, because we all have the same
into that,” explains Bahry. “We done that spectacularly with the end goal in mind.”

FEATURE
Backstage Pass
Below (top): To avoid

the impression of
overlaying footage
of the actresses, the
edges of the three
Zorya sisters were
blurred together
Below (middle):
Bilquis, otherwise
known as the Queen
of Sheba, has a
crown placed upon
her head
HALL OF THE GODS

A PIVOTAL SCENE IN EPISODE 201 IS WHEN THE VIEWER IS
TAKEN BACKSTAGE TO SEE THE GODS IN THEIR TRUE FORM…
“It was a unique project in that there was you’re seeing is from Shadow’s point of
a live-action sequence that was shot but view. It’s like an acid trip. He’s walked into a
needed to be transformed into something parallel dimension and doesn’t know what is
totally surreal,” states Tendril founder and going on.”
director Chris Bahry. “Calling it rotomation A series of shots were selected from the
is almost funny because what we ended up Hall of the Gods sequence. “We tried to
doing was so much more than that. It’s all grab a close-up and a wide of each of the
carefully tracked object geometry, camera characters, and did our art on top of those
match moves, and sophisticated Houdini and established a look,” explains Bahry. “The
particle effects and composites that ended idea was to get a global overall feel but then
up resulting in the final look.” Mr. X built the give each of the characters an individual
Hall of the Gods background interior as a style. We transcoded all of the ALEXA raw
model. “They rendered a panoramic series footage to EXR DWAA files so they would
that we were able to load up in Nuke and be lighter weight. It’s ten minutes long and
build a camera aligned panorama of the everything was finished 4K, so it was a huge
interior from. We would position and rotate amount of footage.”
that background in-between the live-action All of the silhouettes of the characters
foreground that had some prop elements were rotoed out of the background of
and columns, and the far background which every shot, as well as their eyes. “In the © Images courtesy of Starz, Amazon Studios, Fremantle, Christopher Byrne, Mr. X and Tendril.
is a cosmic aura skyscape.” case of Mr. Nancy [Orlando Jones], we

The primary Maya pipeline was mixed rotoed his dreadlocks in order to composite
with ZBrush for sculpts, Substance for spider legs into them,” remarks Bahry. “We
textures, Houdini for particle effects and needed to be able to emit particles off of
Redshift for rendering. “We created this their moving bodies, so we had not only to
effect called the God Wind; it’s like a fiery simply object track and camera solve but
aura around the characters that is entirely rotomate our rigged proxy models of the
CG,” states Bahry. characters to what was in the footage.” The
“There is also another layer of particles particle effects were dialed according to the
known as the God Mane that has more emotional intensity of a scene. “We did a
volume and feels like it’s made of matter.” lot of visual research on each of the gods as
The air warps as a character speaks. “It was each of them is based on a real mythological
a challenge trying to find a nice balance figure.” A blurring of the edges, referred
between making sure we were enhancing to as the optical flow, gives the God Wind
the performances as well as to some degree depth so that it doesn’t feel like an overlay
disorienting the viewer, because what on top of the footage.

TUTORIALS
Practical tips and tutorials from
pro artists to improve
your CG skills
SHAPR3D | APPLE PENCIL | IPAD PRO
KITBASH
ON THE GO
Adam Dewhirst demonstrates how to
kitbash on the iPad Pro using Shapr3D
Adam Dewhirst
Adam Dewhirst is a build supervisor for
Double Negative London. He has over 15 years
of experience in VFX spanning games, film,
PART
AUTHOR
TV, commercials and children’s television.
www.instagram.com/dewhirstadam
1/2
A
t Vertex 2019, I gave a I use Shapr3D on my commute
demo on how to create on the train. I doodle on the sofa, I
a city in a day using new jot down quick ideas in meetings.
and innovative techniques. A Anywhere I can take my iPad, I can
large part of that talk was about be producing 3D geometry – in
the resourcefulness of using that sense it’s much more useful
kitbashing. Kitbashing is nothing to me than Maya could ever be,
new, but making perfectly usable, because it’s incredibly portable.
pipeline-friendly kitbash pieces This tutorial is the first in a two-
on an iPad is! In this tutorial I am part series recapping the core
going to show you how to make elements of my talk at this year’s
three kitbash pieces in Shapr3D Vertex festival – this part will cover
on the iPad Pro. the creation of kitbash pieces on
Shapr3D is fast becoming the iPad, and the second section
one of my favourite tools to bash will show how I use those pieces
out ideas and produce useful to create vast skyscrapers and
pieces of kit. It’s fast, clean and cityscapes in a matter of hours.
its interface is very intuitive; this
is definitely the direction I see
KITBASH ON AN IPAD
the 3D industry moving to – not
A free version of
larger, more powerful machines, DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
Shapr3D is available,
but more accessible, more usable For all the assets you need go to
while the Pro version
software, available in VR and AR, www.bit.ly/3DW-249 costs $20/month
and on mobile and tablet devices.

TUTORIALS
Kitbash on the go

TUTORIALS
Kitbash on the go
KITBASH PIECE 1: GIRDER Mirror the detail

All the detail we
01 Create a new project by

selecting the Start Designing
option in the top right. You can
have added until this
point has been on
one side. To replicate
navigate with your finger to rotate this to the back side,
the 3D view, but let’s start by all you need to do is
switching to a top-down view. select Mirror from the
Select the view cube in the top transform tools. You
right-hand corner, then choose highlight your mesh
Top. From this angle, I want to draw and then select the
out a plan for the silhouette of our face you wish to mirror
shape. Here I’m going to make a from (in this case, 01
basic girder. At this stage I’m not the underside). It will
concerned with scale. flip the mesh to the
base, to create top and
02 Using the sketch tool, slice

lines through the shape, then
select Trim from the tools button,
bottom detail. You will
need to unify these
two shapes, using the
and select all the offcut edges to Union function in the
delete them. Then select Offset tools menu.
from the tools section. Now with
your pencil drag it away from
the edge of each of your divided
sections; in this example, I’m going
to drag it -0.7mm (I’m making a 02
note of this measurement as I want
all my offsets to be the same).
03 Using the pencil, select the

outer ring of each section.
I’m also going to select the inner
polygon of my final section, so
it will extrude at the same time
(you’ll see why in a minute) when
we drag this into a 3D shape. Using
your finger rotate the viewport to a
perspective angle. You should now
see a white arrow on the surface. 03
Drag it up to create a 3D relief.
04 I’m now going to take that

one section I didn't extrude
above my geo, I'm going to select
this shape, and pull it in towards
my mesh to create a subtraction.
06 I would like to create a lip
to my girder, so I'm going
to have to create a new shape to
from the base, and using the In Shapr3D, when you extrude a subtract from my main mesh. Using
transform tools, I'm going to sealed shape outwards, it creates the Offset tool, I can drag away
select my sealed shape drawing, 3D geo, but if you extrude into an from the edge of the main surface
and translate it above my 3D existing 3D shape, it will subtract and create a shape that is 0.2mm
extrusion using the Move/Rotate/ that form. away from my edge. This will be
Scale function. Then from a ¾ view highlighted blue/green. When I
05 Now that we have our base

shape, I'm going to bevel all
the outer edges. One by one select
select this shape, I can push into
my mesh, subtracting an area from
the centre of my geo, which will
the edges you want to bevel – as then create the lip along an edge
you do so the little white arrow will of my shape.
appear again. Pushing the arrow
into the shape makes it produce
a chamfer, pulling it out causes
a bevel. In this case I'm going to
07 Before we wrap this shape up,
I want to make some screw
holes. On the top surface of the
bevel all the edges 0.6mm. I'm also geo, I draw a circle. In this example
going to select the edges on the my circle is .25mm. I'm going to
inside of my mesh 0.3mm – these duplicate my circle shape using
inner edges are closer, so I have to the transform tools. Select Move/
reduce my bevel amount. Rotate/Scale and then highlight the
04

TUTORIALS
Kitbash on the go
circle. In the top left-hand corner,

turn the Copy option on – any time
you move the shape, it will now
create a duplicate. You’ll need to
be careful not to leave Copy on
though, as any movement at all will
create a duplicate.
08 To complete this shape, I’m

going to subtract the circle
shape to create an indent. I will
then select all the edges of my
05 06 indents, and push into the shape
to create a chamfer. This gives the
nice look of a screw hole, and adds
a level of detail that my model was
previously missing.
KITBASH PIECE 2: PISTON
09 The second piece of kitbash

I’m making is a piston. Start
by going to the top view and
drawing a circle; I’m going to set
mine to 10mm. I want this shape
07 08 to be hollowed out, and you can
do that by selecting Shell from the
tools menu. Simply select the tool,
and then highlight the face you
wish to hollow the shape out from
(the top face). You will need to set
a thickness, since our diameter
is 10mm. Here I’m setting the
thickness to 2mm.
10 Create a second circle at 8mm

diameter, and extrude it out
30mm. Double-click this geo to
highlight it, and using the transform
tools (Move/Rotate/Scale) move it
into the newly hollowed shell of the
09 10 original cylinder. Note: I have Snap
Autocompletion To Grid turned on in the bottom
When drawing right-hand side of the screen.
circles, Shapr3D
autocompletes, so
you don't need to be
able to draw a perfect
11 Using the Copy, Move and
Mirror tools we used earlier,
I'm going to duplicate and flip
circle to produce one. these pieces to make the central
You don't even need to shape of our piston. To clarify which
draw an entire circle, pieces are going to move, I will use
as the app works the Colour tool (it's in the tools
out that you’re trying menu, but only available in the Pro
to draw something version) to highlight the moving
circular in nature and components with a dark grey.
autocompletes the
curve for you – even
a half or ¾ circle,
making it super easy
12 To make our spring, go to
the front view and draw a
small circle (in this case 1.5mm).
to draw any circular I also want to add a construction
shape you want. axis to the centre of my object. I
do this by selecting Add and then
Construction Axis. I'm going to
11 12a

TUTORIALS
Kitbash on the go
use the ‘through a cylinder or also need to increase my rotation Quick object. I'm also going to set the
cone’ type – this is very easy, simply angle, as it no longer completes adjustments diameter to a nice round number
select this type in the settings, and just one 360, but many; I'm If you select the centre (4mm). Selecting this circle shape
then highlight your cylinder. It will entering an angle of 3,000 degrees. dot of your closed I can push it through the object,
pop blue and you should see a shape, you can snap it subtracting the middle.
white dotted line running through
it – this is your construction axis. 14 Next I want to add some
loops at the end to attach our
piston to whatever mechanism it
anywhere on the grid
without having to use
the transform tools. 16 I chamfer the edges of
my looped end cap, then
13 We are going to use the

Revolve tool to make the
spring. Select Revolve from the
ends up being a part of. Using the
Sketch tool I'm going to draw two
lines down the end cap. Then I'll
This saves a huge
amount of time when
drawing out shapes,
duplicate it to the other side. I’m
also going to rotate one end 90
degrees to create some variation. I
tools menu, now select the circle pull the centre polygon out about as you don't need could easily make a series of these
and lastly select the dotted line 20mm. I'm now going to bevel a to open up the tools pistons by duplicating the end
of the construction axis (note, number of edges, the edges of menu every time – you sections and shortening them, or
you can hide geo if you’re having the newly extracted shape, and can simply draw the rotating; once you have the core
trouble selecting it). Immediately the edges where it meets the shape and adjust it pieces, it’s easy to create variations.
this should create a tubular ring original cap. This will round off on the fly. You can
around your geo. What we want to our shape nicely. also adjust things like KITBASH PIECE 3:
do is offset this so it will create a length and diameter BALL JOINT
spring. You can do this by changing
the height value in the upper-
left corner (before you complete
15 Now I'm going to draw a circle
in the centre of this newly
extracted tab – I have Snap To
in the same way by
selecting edges.
17 The last piece I want to make
appears to be the most
the operation) – in this case I'm Grid on, so it should be possible complex, but it’s not. The easiest
entering a height of 60mm. I will to place this in the centre of my way to make a ball joint is to start
14a
12b 13 14b
15 16

TUTORIALS
Kitbash on the go
with a cylinder, so I'm making a intersect with my original sphere.

10mm diameter cylinder with a Now I’m going to use the Subtract
height of 20mm. tool, in the tools menu. First select
the object to subtract from (the
18 Selecting the edge of each

end, I’m going to pull away
from the cylinder, to bevel – I’m
rectangle) then select the object to
remove (the sphere) and hit done.
This should create a shape recess
going to do this to the absolute in my rectangle. The final step here
maximum, it should create a is to move the duplicate sphere
perfect sphere. I’m going to leave back on top.
this here, and start work on another
piece now. Draw out a 20mm by
20mm square, then extrude it by
about 40mm. I’m going to double-
20 Okay, let’s tidy up, and make
this a more interesting shape.
I'm going to bevel all four edges
click this and select Transform> of my rectangle about 80 per cent,
Move/Rotate/Scale and move this to give it a really smooth look. I'm
into position under my sphere. also adding a small chamfer to the
top surface of the rectangle, where
19 Now I want to duplicate my

sphere and move it away from
this construction. I’m going to need
it meets the sphere. Lastly I'm
going to bevel the lower edge, to
differentiate it from the top.
a duplicate to subtract from my
17
cubic mesh. Once this is done, I
want to move my rectangle up to 21 Let’s add some vents! In one
of the side views, draw out
18 19 20
21a 21b 21c

TUTORIALS
Kitbash on the go
a thin rectangle, and extrude it.

Then using the Copy function in
the Move/Rotate/Scale tool, repeat
at regular intervals vertically. Use
the Move tool to move all these
rectangles into the centre of your
object. I'm going to copy this whole
group and move it into position
at each corner of my object. You
could also use the Mirror function
to achieve this.
22 Using the Subtract tool,

we can select the object
to remove, then select our vent
22a
shapes, and remove them from

the main structure. Now I want to
add more detail. Using the same
techniques we have already gone
over, I'm going to add bolt holds
and detail across the surface of
this object, before I repeat it to the
other side.
23 When duplicating my end

piece, I centre my pivot on
the sphere’s centre – then I can 22b 23
really see how this piece will work.
From here I can rotate the other
end to any angle to see how it
looks. By default I’ll keep it at a
straight 180-degree flip.
24 That's three pieces made

in minutes, and each one is
easily adaptable to make more
pieces. Shapr3D is a really easy-to-
use program and very adaptable,
and for this technique it lends itself
very well.
Here you can see some
examples of more pieces that could
be made using this app; you should
be able to see some repetitions as
I adapted existing parts to make 24
new ones.
25 The final step is exporting. To

use these pieces in a proper
pipeline (and for the following
tutorial next month about turning
these into city building pieces),
you'll need to export them. The Pro
version of Shapr3D supports six
formats – XT, STEP, IGES, OBJ, STL
and native SHAPR. The free version
only supports low-res STL.
I export all my objects as
OBJ to bring them into Maya
as triangulated meshes. From
here I can use them as kitbash
components to make larger, more
complex structures. s
25

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TUTORIALS
Rig and pose a character in VR
FOLLOW
THE VIDEO
www.bit.ly/3DW-249
MASTERPIECEVR | OCULUS MEDIUM | MASTERPIECE MOTION
RIG AND POSE

A CHARACTER
IN MASTERPIECE
Follow along as Martin Nebelong
sculpts and rigs a warrior in VR
Martin Nebelong
Martin is a freelance artist living in Denmark, and has made it one
of his trademarks to explore new frontiers in artmaking. He does
this daily as the artistic director of MasterpieceVR.
AUTHOR www.artstation.com/martinity
S
ince I started exploring VR had quite some time to get
3D creation, I dreamt of acquainted with the software. In
the day where I would be this tutorial I’ll briefly go over the
able to do all steps of the creation creation of a character in VR using
process in VR. To me, it’s a more a combination of MasterpieceVR,
intuitive and fun process than its Medium and a bit of Quill. I’ll also
‘old-school’ counterpart. And talk a bit about UV unwrapping
as VR as a platform is starting to and texturing.
mature, so are the tools. I’ll then cover the process
You’re now able to not only of rigging and skinning that
sculpt and draw in VR with tools character in Motion, and later
such as Oculus Medium, Gravity I’ll pose the character. Finally I
Sketch, Quill and MasterpieceVR, will talk a bit about the export
but you can also animate with workflow and setting up the scene
Tvori, Quill and AnimVR. The in Blender.
latest new software is the recently
released Masterpiece Motion,
which enables you to rig/skin
and pose most characters with DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
minimal effort. For all the assets you need go to
I work part-time for www.bit.ly/3DW-249
MasterpieceVR and have

TUTORIALS
01 CONCEPT
I start out with a loose
concept for the character. To
3D reference
As is true with all
artistic work, you
challenge myself a bit in the rigging shouldn’t shy away
phase, I make sure to have more from using reference.
than just a basic humanoid, with In Masterpiece and
challenges in the form of a cape, Medium you can load
flowing cloth, a weapon and armour in 2D or 3D references.
parts that I’ll need to add extra You can find lots of free
rigging for. 3D-scanned humans
For the character I chose to do on sites like Sketchfab,
a female medieval-style warrior. or you can buy higher-
Having just watched the latest quality models and
episode of Game Of Thrones, import them. 02
that seemed like a fitting theme.
I decided not to go for an overly
advanced hairdo; I plan on
exploring the hair tools in Blender
at a later point. So much to learn!
02 BASIC BLOCKOUT
The first stage of sculpting is
done in MasterpieceVR, but could
have been done in Medium, ZBrush
or in your tool of choice. In this case
I use MasterpieceVR since I’m most
comfortable with the tools. 03
Using the basic clay tools in
MasterpieceVR, I rough out the elements. There’s no layer system two layers. I also adjust the overall
form based on my concept sketch. I in MasterpieceVR (yet) – it’s being shape of the character.
make sure to focus on large shapes worked on, as it’s an important When you import meshes to
first, and then smaller shapes element in more complex scenes. Medium, you convert them to ‘clay’.
and indents later in the process. Clay to mesh is a way to I might have set the detail level a bit
I have mirror on and use mostly circumvent that limitation. low, and I lost some definition in the
the round clay tool and the square character’s face. I probably would
tool when I need more definition
and clean cuts. Make sure to
set your resolution as high
04 MEDIUM
TOUCHUPS
Once I’m satisfied with
have amped up the detail level to
maximum with that in mind.
as your machine can handle in

MasterpieceVR.
the base sculpt, I bring it
into Medium to tweak it with the
Move tool (in my opinion, Medium’s
05 OPTIMISATION
After finishing your model in
VR there’s a few things you should
03 REFINE
Once I’ve blocked out the
shape, I start smoothing out the
biggest strength). I use the Move
tool for clothing details like folds, by
duplicating the cloth layer, moving
consider in terms of optimisation.
First, the models will be quite high
res, and using decimation and/
rough edges. As I go along, I areas of the duplicate around and or a high-poly/low-poly workflow
convert clay to mesh to separate then merging and smoothing the is recommended. I decimate
01 the model from around 1 million
polygons to around 120.000.
For a model like the one we
have here, it’s a good idea to
separate hard-surface elements
from organic elements, and to
separate overlapping objects since
they’ll be difficult to separate in the
weight painting phase. I did this
‘housekeeping’ in ZBrush, but it
could be done in Blender or most
other 3D packages.
06 UNWRAPPING
To be honest, manually
unwrapping a model has never
been my cup of tea. I know some
04 05

TUTORIALS
06 07 08
09 10 11
people enjoy it, and I wish I was I use a tool called Substance Topology sure some of you out there will be
among them. A nice manual Painter Live Link, which completely In this tutorial thinking, “What is Martin doing?”
unwrap is still by far the best you automates the task of getting a I decimated my I think it’s one of the strengths of
can get. Recently though, I found model and textures from Substance high-poly model. If creating in VR, that almost anyone,
a new automatic unwrapper, called to Blender, Maya, 3ds Max and you need smoother with no prior training or experience
Ministry of Flat. You load in an OBJ, others. For models with even deformations, you in the matter, could go in and do
and push a button. After just 21.08 more texture sets than in this case, should probably look things that would previously have
seconds, I got the unwrap result you this is a life-saver! I can’t wait for into doing a proper taken years to master.
see in the screenshot, from a pretty automation like this to be built into retopologising of You can switch between adding
complex mesh of around 120.000 the programs. your mesh. If time or removing bones through the tool
polygons. RizomUV is a good is of the essence, or palette in your left hand.
choice for more manual control, and
Blender should work well too. 09 IMPORT THE
MODEL TO MOTION
For easy importing to Motion,
if you only need one
pose like here, an
automatic solution 11 HANDS
I’ve tried rigging hands and
07 TEXTURING
Texturing was done in
Substance Painter, on one object.
you can import the model directly
through Masterpiece Studio, or
place the model in your import
like decimation or
ZRemesher in ZBrush
works just fine.
fingers manually on a few occasions
before, and it’s usually accompanied
by what feels like a marathon of
Usually you would want to have at folder which is usually located mouse-moving. In VR though, it’s
least a few different objects for a in your documents/masterpiece possible to place bones correctly on
model like this, but for simplicity’s motion/directory. From within the first try, due to the real sense of
sake I kept everything together. Motion, you’re greeted by a depth you get in the headset. You
I won’t go into detail about the welcome screen from where you can also have the option of mirroring
texturing in this tutorial, as the focus import models or open projects. bones in Motion, so that you don’t
is on rigging/skinning/posing. By the way, you can import FBX have to do double the work.
As you can tell by looking at or OBJs with textures, but I find that
the UV layout from Ministry of Flat,
you can see that the unwrapper
prioritises keeping the UV islands at
it’s a bit easier to see what you’re
doing with just a grey material. 12 RIGGING ACCESSORIES
I knew from the get-go that I
should include at least a few items
straight angles. This is very useful
in making sure the flow of your
textures is correct.
10 DRAW IN THE
MAIN BONES
I usually start drawing bones from
that any automatic humanoid rigger,
like Mixamo or the like, would
struggle with. The shoulder pads,
the pelvis and upwards first, and cape, cloth pieces, weapon and
08 EXPORT WITH TEXTURES

To easily get the textures
from Substance Painter to Blender,
then from the pelvis and down
afterwards. Since I don’t have much
prior experience with rigging, I’m
loose armour parts are all elements
no automatic solution would be
able to deal with… at least to

TUTORIALS
12 13 14
my knowledge. Meshes that are Unskinned areas where the auto-skinning has no way Go to the Skinning Tools category
posed prior to rigging are also Under the skinning of knowing how to treat a shoulder and select the Add brush.
difficult to handle automatically. settings in Motion, pad versus a more organic shape. In my sculpt there’s several areas
For each of these items, I draw you have a toggle to I broke up my model before that need tweaking. The arms need
in bones, beginning from the ‘highlight unskinned importing it. So, shoulder pads are to have a sharper deformation area
parent bone that would have the areas’. This is useful one group, soft cloth another etc. around the joints. The auto-skinning
most influence over them. So, for and ensures that you To select a group to skin, hit the has applied a smoother weight
shoulder pads, the shoulder bone, don’t end up further ‘A’ button on your right hand while map across the arm, which makes it
for the cape, the upper back bone down the line and hovering over the group. If you have appear a bit rubbery. I set the Add
and so on. realise you have to go many groups, you might need to try brush to a fitting strength of around
back a few steps. a few times to select the right one. 30 or so and set the brush falloff to
13 AUTO-SKINNING
Once you’re satisfied with
the layout of bones, jump into the
After selecting the right mesh, do
the same with the bone you want to
influence that element.
around 0.30. This will ensure that the
transitions I paint in don’t have any
jarring edges.
Skinning tab and hit the Auto-Skin
button. Per default, the program
uses a simple and fast approach,
but you can also control more
15 POSE TO DEFORM
To spot errors in the weight
map, you can pose the model while
17 SMOOTH WEIGHT MAP
Using the Smooth tool you
can make a more seamless blend
advanced parameters if you’re not you work. This allows you to better between elements. You can achieve
happy with the automatic result. see, for example, if too much of the same effect by tweaking brush
In cases where the auto-skinning the upper body is connected to strength and falloff and then
doesn’t work well for you, you can the upper arm, if the neck bone manually painting in transitions
use a voxel-based approach with deforms the character’s head and between bones, but smoothing
low or high detail depending on so on. Note that when the model is works just as well and takes less
your setting in the Auto-Skin tab. posed, it can be difficult to select time in most cases. An area where
individual parts of the model. If you this is especially useful is for the
14 SELECT BONE
AND GROUP
When the auto-skinning is done,
find that this is the case, use the
‘reset to bind pose’ button.
cape, where the effect of the bones
I placed in it shouldn’t be too strong
but blend more together.
usually you’ll need to go in and
tweak the weight map for individual
bones and elements – especially for
16 REFINE WEIGHT PAINT
As you pose your model,
areas that need manual weight 18 FINAL POSES
In the Posing tab of Motion,
more complex models like this one, painting should become apparent. you can save several poses that
15 16 17

TUTORIALS
18 19 20
21 22 23
you can then switch between to tiles and surrounding grassy hills. Importing great overall. I still use an NVIDIA
see how the mesh looks in various Quill is free when you buy an Oculus armatures card too, for when I use Octane or
deformations. If you want to pose Rift headset, and it should work Most 3D programs other CUDA dependent systems.
your mesh with lights, shadow and for Vive too through a program have their own default The new system has made me
an environment, I recommend called Revive. An alternative to way of handling the more positive towards Cycles,
you check out Tvori which is an Quill is AnimVR. importing of models which I initially found to be too slow
animation software for VR. You can I keep this rather simple, as I and armatures. In compared to real-time viewers like
even export directly from Motion to know that I’ll be toning down the Blender, you should EEVEE and Marmoset Toolbag.
Tvori if you like. environment through shadow and turn on ‘ignore leaf Going from a quad core setup to 24
You could also do the pose in camera blur. bones’ and ‘automatic cores has made a big difference in
another program, like Blender or bone orientation’ Cycles, which can utilise both CPUs
other common 3D programs, as you
export both armature and mesh 21 IMPORT THE POSED
CHARACTER
to ensure that the
armature translates
and GPUs.
from Motion. Back in Blender, I open the scene I

saved in the ‘substance to Blender’
correctly.
23 PHOTOSHOP AND FINISH
Since my model from the start
19 EXPORT
Once the setup of the
character is finished, it’s time to
step. This scene contains the
materials for the model.
I load in the exported FBX from
was a bit rough around the edges,
Photoshop comes to my rescue. For
a project like this, where I ultimately
export the mesh. If you pose a Motion and replace the T-posed only need one good pose, there’s
mesh and export it while it’s posed, character from Substance with this no need to spend too much time on
the character will retain that pose, new one. I can then easily apply the details in 3D.
which is useful for cases where you Substance Painter texture to the I paint over some of the most
just want to quickly skin and pose a posed model and voila, the scene is obvious shortcomings and adjust
character and then use that pose in now ready for the finishing touches. light and effects until I arrive at
a still image. All exports by default a final result that I’m happy with.
end up in the Motion export folder.
If you reset to the bind pose and
export, you can do your posing in
22 RENDER WITH CYCLES
I recently got a new rig,
through a partnership with AMD
The face gets a makeover, as it was
initially a bit too low res for what I
wanted to achieve.
your 3D tool of choice. – an AMD Ryzen Threadripper If I knew I’d be reusing the
2970WX with 24 cores (48 virtual) character, I would probably have
20 SCENERY IN QUILL
For the environment around
the character, I use Quill to quickly
with a Radeon VII GPU. Part of the
deal is that I should express my
honest opinion about the products,
spent more time in the initial work
with the model, and have worked
on both a high-res and a low-res
mock up an area with some big floor and so far my experience has been version of the model. s

TUTORIALS
Model an original character

TUTORIALS
QUIRKY SPHYNX CATS

Sculpting without a sketch is fun,
but can pose a challenge too
ZBRUSH | KEYSHOT
MODEL AN
ORIGINAL
CHARACTER
Maya Jermy takes us through the ups and downs
of working on projects with no base reference
W
hen modelling a out plan can be very relaxing. You
character, it won’t learn to decide when your piece
always be based off a is finished, and believe me, that
sketch or a full design. Sometimes is the hard part. It is easy to fall
you just get an idea and want to into a trap of polishing it off for
AUTHOR
start modelling as soon as you months. You can ask any artist,
have a spare moment. Working in and they will all tell you about that Maya Jermy
the film or games industry usually particular project in their portfolio Maya is a 3D artist
means there is a sketch, an idea they are not happy with or could and animator
ready to be explored, but there never even finish because “it based in the UK.
might be times when you have to needed improving.” That can be She started her
make your own. Starting off with linked to not having had a proper career five years
your own initial sketch or drawing design in the first place. ago remaking and
can prove very helpful along Now, let’s focus on actually animating characters
the way, as it keeps you from creating a little piece without any for Oddworld: Abe’s
deviating from your goal. design whatsoever, and see what Oddysee – New
One of the problems I face as trouble lies ahead. I start off with ‘n’ Tasty.
an artist is the urge to implement a general idea that popped into artstation.com/
a lot of changes. Once I change my head when I was preparing mayajermy
one thing, I find another that dinner. Completely out of
could be improved or replaced, nowhere I thought, “Hey, I haven’t
and so on. In the end, my final modelled a cat before”. So, here
product does not really resemble I am making a stylised/cartoon
the original idea at all. That could Sphynx. I do not want to sketch
be fatal for the project. If we it out, because my drawing skills
cannot stick to the initial design are a bit limited. I will however use
and follow it through, we might reference material if necessary,
end up being fed up with the because my character is based on
progress and never finish it. an existing animal. Sounds like a
Saying that, I do not mean we plan, so let’s get started.
should always only work with a
design and never try changing it.
I actually encourage it. This free-
flowing stream of ideas can lead DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
to some fantastic pieces of art, For all the assets you need go to
and it can benefit creativity. Not www.bit.ly/3DW-249
being tied up to a fully thought-

TUTORIALS
01 PRIMITIVES
I remember when I was first
learning how to design a character,
my tutor talked about breaking
down the silhouette to the most
basic shapes. This is how you can
easily block out the character. Of
course you can use ZSpheres to
do it quickly, or pull shapes with
Sculptris mode, but you can still just 01 02
use the basic primitives you Append
or Initiate and start with that.
02 BASIC BLOCKOUT
Primitives are a very simple
way to tell if your proportions are
good, and if things need adjusting
before the next step. Never skip the
first blockouts, because you cannot
create nice detail when the basic
shapes are not there. Bring all the
tools to as low polycount as you
wish to work with. At this stage you
do not need much density.
03 ADD THE TAIL

The next thing I like to do
is push and pull shapes out of the
base to give it a bit more structure. 03
With the subtools still separate,
start accenting the curves and
thickness of the legs and back. Build
a tail with the CurveTube brush.
04 MERGE VISIBLE
This is a good moment to
merge the tools into one. Simply
press Merge Visible and DynaMesh
the model. From this point we get 04 05
to apply another layer for the big
shapes, so activate the Sculptris Plan ahead centre of the face into focus. When build something based off an
Pro mode and turn that blob into a Even if you do not thinning out the ears, make sure the existing reference and tweak it to
curvier and smoother sculpt. use any sketches Backface button is on, as you do not our liking. If you notice, my cat does
or designs for your want to be pulling on the outer side not have the fifth toes, or thumbs. It
05 BIG SHAPES
Gradually start adding
more volume to the model, block
work, try to plan
the workflow itself,
and make a list
of the ears when building definition
for the inner ear.
does not need them. As a creator,
you get to choose which features
deserve the attention.
out secondary shapes and keep
checking proportions. I like to use
this stage to sculpt the face, again
of attributes or
milestones. Think
about the purpose
07 SHAPE THE EARS
Make the ears oversized as
a stand-out feature, to add some 09 PREPARE FOR
RETOPOLOGY
starting with the big shapes and of the model and quirkiness to the cat. You do not Retopology is a very individual
slowly making my way through to how you are going to want to be making big changes case per artist; everyone has their
the details. Do not focus on little achieve your intended once the topology is established, preferred method and software. I
wrinkles and skin texture yet. goal, so you do not get as it could lead to unfortunate am going to stick with ZBrush 2018
lost on the way. geometry stretching later on. and show you how very few tools
06 EXAGGERATED FEATURES
Don’t be afraid to be bold
and exaggerate the features.
You can, however, ZRemesh or
DynaMesh the model at various
stages, to even out tessellation.
and a bit of time and patience
can achieve the results I am after.
Nothing beats auto retopology
Cartoon characters often stand tools that do the job for you. But if
out with specific features that
capture their personality or nature.
Make those cheekbones pop and
08 PAWS AND TOES
Define the paws and toes.
Making a cartoon character allows
you want to do it yourself to have a
better understanding and control
over the process, this is one of the
reduce the jawline to push out the a lot of creative freedom. We can ways you can do it in ZBrush.

TUTORIALS
06 07 08
12
10 11 13
10 DYNAMESH
Duplicate the mesh and
DynaMesh it so we have an even-
Topology by
stencil?
Depending on the
an A-pose, or in this case, make it
symmetrical. Notice that the cat’s
tail is non-symmetrical and curled
13 ZMODELER
When you are mostly happy
with the way ZRemesher handled
ish tessellation. DynaMesh will model, the project up a bit, which is not the end of the the new topology, you can activate
most likely undo a lot of detail, so and its purpose, your world, but ZRemesher will try to the ZModeler. I work a lot with
you can take this step to reproject topology can vary mirror it. What should you do when just five simple actions: (polygon)
it back on to make sure ZRemesher significantly. There you realise it too late? The best delete, (edge) collapse, (edge)
follows the curves better. might be times when option would be to redo the tail. insert, (edge) bridge and (point)
your fully finished Option two could be ZRemeshing stitch. They are very easy to use, but
11 ZREMESHER
ZRemeshing your model
can take a few attempts. You
model will have to be
retopologised again
because it does not
it without symmetry (personally,
would not recommend that).
Option three involves masking
you can find your own combination
that suits your workflow.
can choose how dense you want

the new topology to be, make it
follow the polygroups or paint
deform well when
animated. It is often a
case of back-and-
out and deleting the unwanted side.
Since it is a sample project and it is
not intended for full animation, I can
14 COLLAPSE, DELETE
AND BRIDGE
Begin collapsing some of the edge
the density areas on. ZBrush forth communication choose the last one and not suffer loops to remove them. There are a
will create quads for cleaner with the other team any consequences. It is not that big lot of polygons used for the body
subdivision and deformation. members. Do not get of a deal considering we are about that we really do not need. We can
too precious about it. to completely redesign the polygon rearrange the flow of the polygons
12 TWO TAILS TROUBLE

One of the negative sides of
working without a concept design
flow of the model anyway. If you
intend to rig your character, make
your life easier by planning the rig
and add loops around the arms and
upper legs for better deformation.
Continue working through the
is forgetting to keep your model in pose ahead. mesh, removing unnecessary

TUTORIALS
polygons. I always leave more other subdivision levels (you can Cat eyes but they can be easily added to the
density on the face and bendy parts skip some if there are many), until Having a bunch of main mesh if need be.
of the model, so the stretching is you get to the final level. useful models ready in
not that obvious when animated.
16 SKIN FOLDS
your personal library
makes things a lot 18 SIMPLE SKIN DETAIL
Let’s say this is the model
15 PROJECT DETAIL
When retopo is done, you
might notice that the shape is not as
Skin folds can seem tricky, but
there are so many ways of sculpting
them. I used the Standard brush
easier. I chose one of
the cat eyes from my
library and imported
we are happy with. It doesn’t need
much else other than small details
for the mini wrinkles. We are not
defined as before, that the cat looks with gentle help from DamStandard it into the scene making a realistic animal, so the
thinner in places. That is absolutely for deeper creases. Create the folds to replace ZBrush amount of detail we add should not
fine, because the next stage will around the areas where skin is most placeholders. It saved outshine the style.
help us regain the silhouette. Bring loose: neck, arm and leg bends, me a lot of time.
up the hidden original mesh and
bring its subdivision to the lowest
level. Now we start the projecting
paws, stomach. Add a little gravity
to it, but just a little because we are
not trying to create fat folds.
19 POLYPAINT
Pick a base colour like a light,
pink-ish salmon shade, and RGB Fill
game. It is useful to project details Object. You can paint on a bit of
from the lowest subdivision so the
model does not get too distorted,
resulting in messy stretching. Use
17 TONGUE, CLAWS
AND TEETH
We can now define more detail
natural skin shadows and highlights,
and put the accent on the areas we
want to stand out. Or, use Mask By
the Move, Inflate and Smooth and add parts like claws, teeth and Cavity for quicker results.
brushes to bring the new mesh as tongue. Use primitive shapes to
closely in shape as possible to the
original sculpt, then hit Project.
Continue projecting details from
create them. Tiny objects do not
require much polygon density. I like
to keep them as separate subtools
20 UVS
Open ZPlugin>UV Master
and click Work On Clone to
14
15 19
16 17 18

TUTORIALS
Know when preserve your model. UVs are a little

to say STOP hard to control in ZBrush, but there
Working without a are ways you can get it to work. You
design opens you up to can either use polygroups or paint
last-minute changes. to define the seam. When you have
A new idea pops into the seams in correct places, press
your head and you start Flatten to see the UV map. You can
pursuing it without move the pieces about to maximise
even realising. It can the use of space. When finished,
be very refreshing copy the UVs back onto the original
if you procrastinate mesh. With the UV map ready,
the project, or it can create the Texture and Normal
completely throw maps. Save them out for later.
it off the rails and
extend the time spent
on it. My last-minute
brilliant idea was to
21 RIG AND POSE
You have the option to rig
the character within ZBrush using
create two poses of the ZSphere Rig. It is particularly handy
feline, and effectively when the character has a lot of
20 putting two cats in the joints, or we want to create a lot
scene. I had to stop of poses. Another option is to use
myself right there as simple masking and polygroups.
more ideas started
flooding in.
22 THE TOY MOUSE
Make the mouse shape with
a basic sphere and Sculptris Pro.
Pull out the tail and ears, and shape
the head. Complete the process
by ZRemeshing and UVing it. To
21 22 add fur, mask out the area you want
covered by fibres, activate Fiber
Mesh and choose the style from
Lightbox. Edit the amount of fibres,
length, thickness and distribution.
You can brush the fur with one of
the hair brush tools. To create the
string, use the CurveTube brush and
draw it out like we did with the tail.
23 PREPARE THE SCENE

It is time to place everything
within the scene in preparation for
export and render. You can append
the models in one file, arrange their
position and decide where your
camera would be. Export the scene
23 to the render application of your
choice. For me it is KeyShot.
24 ENVIRONMENT,
LIGHTS AND RENDER
ZBrush automatically transfers the
Polypaint information into KeyShot,
but we want to apply a skin material
to the cats, which will erase all the
Polypaint information. Reapply the
textures with the maps saved out
earlier. Choose the background
colour, place the camera and lock it.
KeyShot provides a variety of HDRI
environments you can use to help
light your scenes. Save and render
your scene. s
24

3D BASICS
3D ANIMATION BASICS 05
For the next instalment of our Basics series,
we look at soft dynamic animation
I
f you’re new to CGI, you may the flapping skin of a gargoyle Soft-body dynamics can also
feel that there are far too to its hair. Hair systems are seen be a bit more confusing for the
many tools to choose from in as separate from soft-body uninitiated versus rigid-body
a dizzying array of software. This dynamics, but the underlying dynamics, as understanding the
series aims to break everything processes are the same, which constraining items (the holders
in CGI down to the very basics, is the creation by digital content for a flag for example) and how AUTHOR
so that every artist can be armed creation software of effectively a to apply them is not always a Mike Griggs
with the knowledge of which tool set of ‘springs’ that control the flex straightforward process. Mike Griggs is a 3D and
is best. This month we look at soft of a mesh. This system of springs Clothing simulation software visual effects artist
dynamic animation. also works with splines, hence why is a recent example of software with vast experience
In last month’s Basics we dynamic hair is also controlled by that depends upon soft-body across the industry, as
explored rigid-body dynamic soft-body dynamics. dynamics – the soft-body both a creator and a
animations, which are great for As is always the case, there is dynamics are used to hang the technical writer.
when hard surfaces are needed not one standard way of creating clothing items on the subject and www.creativebloke.com
to be destroyed or worked soft-body dynamics or hair are then moved via a walking cycle
with. Of course, this hits a brick across all digital content creation or similar. Another key element of
wall (excuse the pun) when applications. As with rigid-body soft-body simulations is if and
‘soft’ objects are needed to dynamics, much of the underlying how an object should tear. When
be manipulated. science is the same though, understood by an artist, soft-body
Soft-body simulations are much and once the tools have been dynamics can lead to convincing
more useful for organic objects understood, consistent results can animations and a great skill set for
– controlling everything from be maintained. any 3D artist to possess.

TUTORIALS
3D Animation Basics 05
01 MAKE A SOFT-BODY OBJECT

Similarly to rigid-body dynamics, soft-body dynamics are
applied to an object, rather than it being an inherent part of its
02 SPRINGINESS
One of the key elements of soft-body dynamics is
understanding how much springiness an object needs. Two soft-
creation. Most digital content creation applications that support body sphere meshes can have very different characteristics due
soft bodies work in this way. Once a mesh has had a soft body to their springiness settings. An object with weak springiness will
applied, and it just needs to drape onto a base object, hit the play be like a fabric sheet, whereas an object with more springiness will
button to initialise the simulation and see what the results are. be like a deflated bouncing ball. Adjusting these settings, which
Usually this will result in the object deforming as if it were made of come in various methods across DCC applications, can be the
light cloth. quickest method of achieving a successful simulation.
CLOTHING SIMULATORS
Creating clothing is a complex task for many artists. It has
become easier in the past couple of years thanks to dedicated
clothing creation applications and processes that work in terms
of clothing patterns, which then enables soft dynamic systems
to automatically hang onto a chosen model. This has led to
the development of more complex clothing and soft-bodied
objects, as this technology enables artists in ways that were not
possible before without a huge investment of time. One of the
key products in this sector is Marvellous Designer.
03 USE CONSTRAINTS TO PIN SOFT DYNAMICS

Seams and edges are very important when working with
cloth, and also with soft-body dynamics. Flags are a simple
04 DYNAMIC HAIR
A key use for soft-body dynamics is for hair. Hair objects
tend to be special systems that take guide splines and then
example of how constraint objects or selections can be used to multiply that across multiple hair strands at render time. Hair
create ‘glue’, which affixes the edge of a soft-body object either solutions can be useful for the obvious hair on a character, but
in 3D space or to another object. Again each software handles they can also be a great way of creating dynamic cabling and
these ‘constraints’ differently, but constraint sections can enable similar cylindrical devices. If soft-body dynamics with splines
the creation of everything from the flag shown to much more are not creating the result that is required, look at dynamic hair
complex clothing. systems as a possible solution. s

© Mark Cushley, Creative Director, The Post House
3D BOOTCAMP
V-RAY NEXT
V-Ray has been a mainstay of computer rendering for over a decade, and its
latest release, V-Ray Next, puts it at the forefront of rendering technology
F
or over two decades, Chaos reliable, having produced imagery improvements, bucket rendering
Group, the team behind from archviz and car advertising for GPUs, GPU volume rendering,
V-Ray, have worked to make through to feature film work, a new adaptive dome light, and
sure that their product is one of including Thanos in Avengers: full PBR material support.
the most well regarded in the Infinity War by Digital Domain. Another piece of great news
industry, by developing options for All of this work meant that Chaos is that the Cinema 4D version AUTHOR
V-Ray to work with a wide range of Group received a Sci-Tech plaque of V-Ray is now owned by the Mike Griggs
digital content creation software, in the 2017 Academy Awards. Chaos Group, which means it Mike Griggs is a 3D and
both in the media and design field. After reaching such a pinnacle, should soon see parity with other visual effects artist
V-Ray works with CAD software many would have taken the easy versions of V-Ray. Chaos Group with vast experience
such as Rhino, SketchUp and route, but instead the team has have introduced first-party cloud across the industry, as
Revit, as well as packages such as been busier than ever with the rendering with Chaos Cloud, which both a creator and a
Autodesk Maya, Houdini, 3ds Max release of V-Ray Next, the latest comes with 20 free credits to get technical writer.
and Blender. V-Ray also works with iteration of V-Ray. an artist started. The ecosystem www.creativebloke.com
finishing products such as Nuke V-Ray Next offers vastly that V-Ray offers is unparalleled by
for film and animation work and improved render times, no any other 3D rendering software,
Unreal for real time. matter which creation software and with the improvements that
V-Ray also has a reputation is used. Featured highlights with V-Ray Next provides for artists, the
for being robust, efficient and V-Ray Next include IPR preview future is as bright as the past.

TUTORIALS
V-Ray Next
© Chaos Group
© Chaos Group
01 V-RAY SCENE INTELLIGENCE
V-Ray Next introduces V-Ray Scene Intelligence, which can
automatically analyse the scene to optimise rendering. The new
02 FAST IPR WITH AI DENOISING
In V-Ray Next, IPR has been completely redesigned to provide
faster feedback and continuous updates. A new NVIDIA AI Denoiser
Adaptive Dome Light uses Scene Intelligence to speed up the instantly removes noise while updating lights and materials, providing
rendering of image-based environment lighting (which can be up even faster look development. Plus, the new Debug Shading tools
to seven times faster in some cases). Plus, the sampling is more allow artists to quickly isolate and fine-tune any selected material,
accurate and also removes the need for portal lights to illuminate texture or object. Viewport IPR also adds support for Playblasts,
interior scenes. making it easier to create high-quality previs and animation tests.
© Chaos Group
© Chaos Group
03 GPU PRODUCTION RENDERING

A new GPU rendering architecture is introduced in V-Ray Next
that speeds up GPU production rendering by 2x. It also supports
04 PBR MATERIALS WITH METALNESS
Now that PBR material workflows are popular for game
engines and texture tools such as Allegorithmic’s Substance suite,
more high-end features, minimising the gap between the GPU the standard V-Ray Material adds direct support for PBR shaders with
and CPU V-Ray render engines. These features include support for new Metalness reflection controls. PBR materials will be a massive
volumetric effects like smoke, fire and fog. It also adds a bucket boon for artists who want to keep their materials consistent across all
rendering mode that speeds up final rendering and offers better render solutions, and also makes it easier switching between V-Ray
multi-GPU support and Cryptomatte render elements. versions in different software.
© Kristian Turner
© Chaos Group
05 V-RAY PHYSICAL HAIR MATERIAL

The new V-Ray Physical Hair material makes it easier to render
natural and realistic-looking hair with accurate highlights. The material
06 TOON SHADER
While best known for its photorealism, V-Ray Next adds a
new toon shader to make it much easier to create non-photorealistic
includes melanin and dye controls for colour, as well as glint and cartoon, anime and cel-shaded renders. The toon shader comes with
glitter settings to fine-tune highlights. Chaos Group also make sure artist-friendly features such as advanced line control. This shader is
that the V-Ray hair system works with a wide variety of third-party hair another example of V-Ray Next creating and maintaining feature sets
solutions. This support varies dependant on the host software used, that are requested by its user base and artists at large, keeping V-Ray
so always check beforehand. at the cutting edge of render technology. s

ARTIST Q&A
Practical tips and tutorials from
pro artists to improve
your CG skills
Simon Edwards
Simon works freelance at
3DArtvision. He has worked
professionally both as an architectural
visualiser and 3D artist for 20 years in
Holland and the UK.
www.3dartvision.co.uk
Paul Hatton
Paul Hatton has spent
the last 15 years studying
and working in the 3D visualisation
field, focusing primarily on still and
moving images.
Oscar Juárez
Oscar is a 3D generalist
based in Mexico City. He has
been running Fibrha Studio since 2010
and specialises in archviz rendering,
animations and Unreal Engine. SOFTWARE: MARVELOUS DESIGNER
www.facebook.com/FibrhaStudio
Pietro Chiovaro
HOW CAN I CREATE A
Pietro is an Italian 3D artist
who creates 3D assets and
REALISTIC CANVAS SACK?
environments, and is currently working Bradley Wilkins, Dublin
on an open-source game.
pietrochiovaro.artstation.com
Simon Edwards replies
Being a 3ds Max user I have objects around in real time. And with their
previously created fabric new version 8 release, there has been
objects using the 3ds Max Garment Maker an extra tool added where you can add
with a cloth modifier attached to it, adding further detail by sculpting creases and
additional detail with ZBrush if necessary. folds manually by pulling, pinching and
Garment Maker is a quick and relatively smoothing indentations into the meshed
easy method to build with and cloth is object following the simulation, in much
perfectly acceptable for simple draped the same way as might be done in ZBrush.
cloth objects. But when simulating cloth This example shows a simple
around an object, such as a figure where rectangular shape being folded and
the cloth is sewn back onto itself along a sewn back onto itself to form a canvas
seam, the subsequent cloth objects have sack. In order to make it look like there is
a limited ease of manipulation or constrain something inside the sack I have created a
when being formed and shaped during the simple elongated sphere object to act as a
GET IN TOUCH simulation process. mass inside. The object must be exported
Now though I pretty much build all as an OBJ to later import back into
EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO fabric objects using Marvelous Designer, Marvelous Designer. It will be imported as
rob.redman@futurenet.com which allows you to pull and move fabric an ‘avatar’ – avatar objects in Marvelous

ARTIST Q&A
Your CG problems solved
EXPERT TIP
IMPORT INTO CENTRE
When importing an OBJ avatar you can click on ‘Align Bottom to Ground’. This will
ensure your object will be imported into the centre of the base plain.
STEP BY STEP BUILD A SIMPLE SACK WITH MARVELOUS DESIGNER
01 CREATE THE FABRIC PATTERN

In the 2D Pattern window click on
the rectangle icon and drag a rectangular
02 SEW UP THE SEAMS
In the 2D Pattern window click on
Free Sewing and trace a line along the top
shape into the viewport. Click on the edge to the centre of the rectangle from
Internal Polygon/Line icon and draw two left to right, then do the same from the
lines to divide the rectangle into three opposite side from right to left. Sewing
segments. Inside the 3D window move threads will appear in the 3D view. Click
and rotate the rectangular shape so that on the Pin (Box) button in the 3D menu
Let’s find out how to create a it sits underneath the mass avatar. Click and drag a small rectangle, one at a time,
simple weighted canvas sack on the Fold Arrangement button and fold over both sides of the top edge of the
the rectangle around the split lines. Adjust folded rectangle in the 3D view. In the 2D
the length of the rectangle in the 2D Pattern window delete the two internal
Pattern window. polygon lines as these are not needed.
Designer remain static and collide with

fabrics, allowing fabrics to flow over and
around them. I have then imported an
extra OBJ avatar (a simple ‘torus’ disc
object) with ‘import(Add)’. This behaves as
the rope tied around the neck of the sack.
In this example the two avatars have
03 SIMULATE AND ADJUST
Press the Simulate button and then,
while individually grabbing pin boxes,
04 ADD GRAPHICS
In the object browser with the
Fabric tab selected (default position) click
already been imported. Once in the carefully pull the top of the sack through on the active fabric in the list (FABRIC
scene each avatar is individually moved the torus. As you pull it through pause 1). In the Property Editor>Texture>
to correctly place it relative to the ground the simulation, create another two pin Basic Parameters, select an image file.
plain and each other. Move the sack mass boxes around the leading edge, switch Click on Edit Texture (2D) in the Pattern
up above the base plain and the torus up the simulation back on and slowly pull the window, and with the rectangle selected
above the top of the mass. whole top of the sack through. Stop the manipulate the texture over the shape
A similar resulting sack can be seen simulation, click the Tack on Avatar button with the scale and rotation icon in the
rendered with V-Ray in the title image, and tack the fabric to the ring in a few top right-hand corner. The texture will be
which is part of a much larger image. Here places around the whole disc. Delete the adjusted on the 3D model in real time as
I had to build a number of varied sacks for pin boxes and start the simulation again. you work.
a reconstruction of a corn mill.

ARTIST Q&A
SOFTWARE: BLENDER
HOW CAN I GET DIRT INTO THE

CREVICES OF MY MODELS?
Stuart Lawrence, Perth, Scotland
Paul Hatton replies
Your first thought might be, Even though adding this type of effect might get there by creating everything
“Why would I want to get dirt might be ‘faking’ it, I think we need physically accurately in our 3D software,
into the crevices of my models?”. It may to remember that what we’re actually with accurate values for materials and
seem a bit odd. Maybe you’re thinking concerned about most of the time is lights. We might then take the render out
that you want your model to be as clean as really the perception of the viewer. We of the software and leave it at that. And I
possible. Or maybe you just want to rely on want them to look at our work and think, suppose if you’re getting incredible results
the lights in your scene rather than faking “Is that real?” or “You didn’t create that like that then great, but I think we would
it. These are interesting considerations, did you?”. These would be some of help ourselves out by using a few tricks
but I would argue that if you are aiming for the highest forms of praise that we as here and there to get a quick win. One of
realism then you need to consider not only visualisers could receive. those quick wins is using a dirt map, which
the difficulty of light to get into crevices, In my opinion, I don’t think it really simulates shadow and dirt when two faces
but also the dirt that can build up in them. matters how we get to that point. We of objects are sufficiently close together.

ARTIST Q&A
EXPERT TIP
MAKE EXTENSIVE USE OF DIRT MAPS
The more you look at objects, the more you’ll see that where objects join together,
there is dirt! This can be in the form of shadows, but it is also these crevices that
really attract dirt and grime. By adding in these fine details your models will take on
an extra level of depth and realism.
STEP BY STEP ENHANCE REALISM WITH A DIRT MAP
01 CALCULATE THE DIRT MAP

The first step is to calculate the dirt
map for your object. This is really simple.
02 TWEAK BLUR STRENGTH
If you then hit ‘T’ you should see
the properties for the Dirty Vertex Colors
First, set the object interaction mode to appear on the left. The Blur Strength in
Vertex Paint using the drop-down options. essence determines how strong the dirt
You can also enter this mode by simply effect is in the crevices of your model, and
pressing ‘V’. Then under the Paint menu the number chosen is the strength per
select Dirty Vertex Colors. Blender will iteration. The lower the number, the closer
proceed to calculate the dirt map for you, into the crevices the dirt will appear. The
which is a fancy way of saying that it’s higher the number, the further the dirt will
working out which parts of your model move out of the crevices and potentially
need to be dark and which don’t. blend into other dirt from nearby crevices.
By adding dirt into the objects in

your scene, you’ll find your renders
take on a whole new depth
In these steps we’re going to explore

how we can achieve this effect in Blender.
03 ADJUST HIGHLIGHT ANGLE
There are four properties for the
Dirty Vertex Colors in total, but the only
04 APPLY THE DIRT MAP
The final thing you will want to do
is apply your dirt map to the material of
Thankfully Blender gives us a really simple other property that you’ll probably want your object. Go to the object data tab
workflow that we can utilise to add this to particularly concern yourself with is and scroll down to Vertex Colors. Rename
type of dirt into our renders. That being the Highlight Angle property. This the entry. Then in your node editor create
said, even though it’s really simple, it does property will act as a type of threshold a new material and insert an Attribute
provide a lot of potential once we plug the for the dirt effect. It’s worth knowing that node from the Input section followed by a
map into our materials. We don’t cover it in anything less than 90 limits the angle MixRGB node from the Color section. Link
the steps here, but once you have the map used in the tonal range. You’ll want to these together by the Fac connection and
you can get creative with how you use it experiment with the property based on then link your mixer Color connector into
in order to further customise the look and your particular model. your Diffuse node.
feel of your dirt.

FOLLOW
THE VIDEO
www.bit.ly/3DW-249
It’s always handy to

know how to achieve
the same result in
different ways
ARTIST Q&A
SOFTWARE: 3DS MAX | CORONA RENDERER

HOW CAN I ADD REALISM TO
MY LIGHTS WITH NO POST?
Edward Ridley, London
Oscar Juárez replies
Adding realism to our scenes to renders in post, or if it’s better to have has a different set of requirements. So, it
can be achievable using several them 3D within the renders. For sure I can doesn’t hurt to know how to do the same
different methods, and over the years I say that my answer would be that whatever work in different ways, with alternative
have seen a lot of topics talking about suits you the most is the right choice, and methods. Here I will demonstrate how to
whether or not it’s better to add effects we have to remember that each project do it in Corona Renderer.
STEP BY STEP ADD REALISTIC LIGHTING IN CORONA
01 ADD AND PLACE LAMP MODELS

I will start with the basics so you can
apply this method to all kind of projects you
the lamp, and applied a CoronaLightMtl. I
set the intensity to 500 (the higher the value,
the easier it will be to see the effect we will
like many render engines) has several tools we
often do not use, not because we do not want
to, but because we don’t even know they are
deal with. So, the first thing to consider is our activate at the end). We can now hit render there (at least that’s what happened to me).
lamp models, and in this case I use two, each and see the bulb switched on. That’s it for the Corona already has a lot of powerful tools,
with different conditions. One is a downlight suspended lamp, now time for the downlight. such as tone mapping, LUT, bloom and glare,
and the other is suspended. Each one will sharpening/blurring and denoising. This time
have a way to achieve the desired final effect.
Always keep in mind that the way to add
blooms and glares will depend on the way we
03 THE DOWNLIGHT
Once we have placed our lamp
models, we have to make a disc and move
our champ will be bloom and glare. For fast
and visible results activate the interactive
render. Once it has a pretty decent image
add lights to our lamp models. it in position within the downlight – the size activate the bloom and glare option and
So, once we have placed them in our depends of the size of the model. Once the voila! There is the bloom and glare, and it’s
model it’s time to set them in their correct disc is done and placed we have to apply the very visible because of the value of 500 we
places; in this case there will be two same CoronaLightMtl on it. A very important set at the beginning. Remember, each scene
suspended models over the bar and three thing to consider (even with the sphere one) has different factors, and with this we also
downlights in the back, but first we will add is having the normals aligned in the right got a nice effect on the stool. The values I set
only one of each. direction, if not we can check ‘Emit on both were: bloom intensity 1 and glare intensity 4.
sides’ in the Light Emission panel. Those are Experiment with these effects in your scenes.
02 CORONA LIGHT AND LIGHT BULB

FOR SUSPENDED LAMP
We have placed our lamp models, so now
the two methods we can use, but personally
I leave ‘Emit on both sides’ unchecked and
make sure the faces are looking the right EXPERT TIP
it’s time to add the Corona lights so we can way. Now we can press render again and
achieve more detail. First I added a sphere see how it looks.
SAVE BOTH VERSIONS
Corona light placed near the suspended lamp Once the image has rendered, save two
we added, then I set it as targeted so I can
control where the light goes; keep in mind
the position might not give us proper results,
04 FINAL SETTINGS
So, we have added our lamp models,
the suspended and downlights, and we have
versions: one with the glow and one
with no glow, it is so easy in Corona. In
so sometimes we will have to move it a little added the lights and extra elements in order
for the look we’re after. In this case I left it to make them bright and more visible, so now
case you do not want the effect in some
as it is and added a sphere into the bulb of it’s just time for the final touches. Corona (just places, you can remove it easily.
01 02 03 04

ARTIST Q&A
SOFTWARE: SUBSTANCE DESIGNER

HOW CAN I CREATE SIMPLE CLOTH
MATERIAL USING SUBSTANCE DESIGNER?
Angelina Wilson, Liverpool
Pietro Chiovaro replies
Here I will show you my working filter. Now we have to link the Blend filter terms of the parameters, for this material
process for the creation of a to the input of the Gradient Map, to the we have to set a value between 2 and 4
simple and realistic cloth material using Height output and the second and third for the Height Depth of the Height to
Substance Designer. For this type of Levels filters. The second Levels filter is Normal World Units filter and a Surface
material, I selected the Physically Based related to the Roughness output and the Size of 1,000 for the other parameters. I
(Metallic/Roughness) Graph Template and third to the Height output of the material. suggest that you experiment changing
deleted the Metallic output since it isn’t Another connection that we have to do the Scale, Opacity and Disorder values of
necessary for this type of substance. using the Blend filter is with the Height to the Levels filter.
At this point we can start to add the Normal World Units, and this one can be For the Crystal noise I used these
nodes useful for this material, so from the linked to the Normal output. Lastly we parameters: Scale 2 and Disorder 0.59. For
Substance Designer library we need: the can link the Gradient Map to the Base the Weave 2 generator I set the Scale up
Crystal 2 generator noises and the Weave Color output. to 64 and 0.05 for the Disorder parameter.
2 pattern (these are the base elements of The last connection that we need to Concerning the Gradient Map, you can
this material), the Height to Normal World set up concerns the Base Color output. In select the colour you prefer.
Units filter, three Levels filters, one Blend
filter, and a Gradient Map filter that I will
use to give colour to the material.
Now it’s time to link all of these
EXPERT TIP
elements together. First of all, we need
to link the Weave 2 noise to the Opacity
POST-PROCESS CHANGES
of the Blend filter. Then we have to link After you have exported the textures from Substance Designer, you can change the
the second Crystal 2 noise filter to the
first Levels filter and link this filter to the
base colour in the shade editor of the software you are going to use. In Unreal Engine
Background input of the previous Blend 4 you just have to modify the Hue value of the texture.
FOLLOW
THE VIDEO
www.bit.ly/3DW-249
When you're starting to

create a material, make sure
you have some references,
such as a video or photos
taken from multiple angles

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EXCLUSIVE REPORT
MPC MAKES A
YOUNG ELTON JOHN
We go behind the scenes at MPC for their John Lewis Christmas ad featuring the life of singer Elton John
f you need to show a younger major music moments in his life. Scenes Edwards and the make-up and prosthetic
I
version of an actor or a of Sir Elton made use of a stand-in actor, teams decide on which stand-in actors
character in a particular but were then completed with a computer- might be a good match to Elton. As much
project, there are several generated model of the musician to provide a as possible, in-camera approaches were
ways that can be done: you final photoreal replica. tried first. “Hair, props, make-up, anything
can simply hire a different actor to play the 3D World asked MPC visual effects that could be done for real was the anchor
role; you could use archival footage; or, as is supervisor Kamen Markov and head of 3D that would help us sell anything we created
becoming increasingly more common, you Anthony Bloor, who worked with agency digitally,” notes Markov.
can use computer graphics and compositing adam&eve/DDB on ‘The Boy and the Piano’ “Initially we were then planning to do
techniques to generate a completely commercial, about what it took to bring as much as possible with digital make-up,
synthetic version. Elton and the ad to life. tweaking proportions in comp and only
That’s what visual effects studio MPC adding small details in CGI. As the project
did for the Christmas 2018 John Lewis & PREP AND SHOOT evolved we realised that while this was a
Partners commercial, which follows the MPC’s role in the John Lewis Christmas good and proven approach, it was going to
journey of Sir Elton John from the point he advert began early, even being involved in be limiting. We wanted to maximise the
received his first piano and through various the casting stage by helping director Seb use of existing technology to achieve the

INDUSTRY
MPC makes a young Elton John
Left: A young Elton John plays during the commercial Below: Having crafted digital actors Bottom: The commercial follows the
– MPC utilised a 3D model and various compositing previously, MPC was in the box seat musician’s career from the day he
techniques to deliver the synthetic musician for crafting a realistic Elton John receives his first piano
the musician from his younger days. “From

“THE INSIDE OF THE MOUTH PARTS, THE NOSE, CHEEK BONE OR these references,” says Markov, “it was
FOREHEAD AS WELL AS THE EYES BELONG TO THE ACTOR, AND THE important to find the right performance that
would enable us to create the correct facial
REST IS CG. THIS COMBINATION MADE IT DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE FOR expressions – the micro detail that creates a
THE VIEWER TO KNOW WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS FULLY DIGITAL” convincing Elton John.”
Kamen Markov, visual effects supervisor, MPC MPC’s digital model of Elton John’s face
took advantage of techniques the studio had
developed for films such as Blade Runner
absolute best level of post-production. From “The model itself however was built 2049 and Terminator: Genisys, where they
that moment on, CGI was the star of the entirely by hand using reference images, had had to craft digital actors. For the
show. However, we found some very cool including those of the real Elton on set John Lewis commercial, artists actually
and innovative ways to blend and mix the for size and measurements. HDR of the combined 3D techniques with 2D ones.
CGI with what we had in-camera to have stages, camera information and light setups “Once we had a good CG model that
make-up, prosthetics and CGI as one unique were taken for the CGI team. The camera matched with our references,” explains
and well-executed blend.” moves and the planning of them, so that Markov, “we aligned that over the actor’s
For the shoot, the stand-in actor we could create the seamless transition face and then warped and animated the face
performed scenes wearing prosthetics. later on, required plenty of attention to match with the CG itself. This provided
Scans of each actor with the prosthetic were and collaboration between the camera us with real-life footage with correct
made and later compared and subtracted department, editing team and the VFX proportions and enabled us to blend or fully
from the CGI build of the face. “This supervisors on set.” take parts of the actor and combine this
provided us with valuable information with the CG render. For example, the inside
regarding which parts of the real actors BUILDING ELTON of the mouth parts, the nose, cheek bone or
could be used back in the mix and what had The team at MPC had access to large forehead as well as the eyes belong to the
to be replaced with CGI,” describes Markov. amounts of photo and video reference of actor, and the rest is CG. This combination

INDUSTRY
created a good blend and made it difficult

or impossible for the viewer to know what is
“THE MAIN CHALLENGE BECOMES NOT TECHNICAL, BUT
real and what is fully digital.” OBSERVATIONAL; THE TRICK WAS TO REPEATEDLY WORK
One of the main challenges in creating
a person’s face is that viewers have been
ON TINY, NEARLY IMPERCEPTIBLE IMPROVEMENTS”
Anthony Bloor, head of 3D, MPC
observing other people all their lives,
and are aware of all the subtle changes in
expressions. “This means anything that is “There wasn’t ever a moment we stopped extensions for concert scenes and elaborate
even slightly wrong becomes disturbing; improving anything,” adds Bloor. “Days of transformations within the ad itself. “As
this uncanny valley effect is especially work went into sub-millimetre changes to ambitious as the set build and the shoot was,
frustrating as we aren’t always very good lip edges and the skin pore-level details there were some instances where shooting
at being able to explain what is wrong,” were adjusted to scatter the light for as long all practical was simply not ideal,” describes
says Anthony Bloor. “The main challenge as we could.” Markov. “A good example of that is the
becomes not technical, but observational; And although MPC had had that stadium scene and the red piano scene at the
the trick was to repeatedly work on tiny, previous experience with a digital Rachael beginning of the ad.”
nearly imperceptible improvements, and for Blade Runner 2049 and a digital Arnold The transitions, meanwhile, fit into
it was a group effort to then establish each Schwarzenegger on Terminator: Genisys, the editorial and storytelling style of the
time if it was successful.” the advertising group does work slightly commercial. “As we were not going to use
differently to the film group. “For example,” any archive footage, we had to make sure all
says Bloor, “we are using Arnold, not iconic sets and special moments of his life
RenderMan, so it’s not as if we can copy were either captured in-camera or shot in
shaders. Instead, the knowledge was the a way we could create or extend in post-
biggest crossover: our colleagues in film production,” says Markov. “On top of this,
helped by letting us know all the pitfalls the camera was not always in motion – it
that they went through and also what really was a deliberate, carefully choreographed
doesn’t matter in some cases. We didn’t, for camera movement designed to create a
example, bother trying to simulate blood constant impression of travelling back in
Hand- flow because in the limited time we could time, with each scene having its own energy.
animated focus on far more important things.” And if that wasn’t enough, we had to make
face rig with sure the lip sync was going to work as well.”
over 70 shapes ELTON’S WORLD A motion control rig was not employed as
and expressions In additional to the digital Elton John, it might usually have been, partly to remain
MPC were also tasked with several set flexible and fast during shooting. Instead,

INDUSTRY
Left: Original plate for a concert Below: Digital set extensions made up a significant Bottom: MPC’s CG A HISTORY OF DIGITAL
shot, and the final environment part of the commercial’s concert scenes Elton John model HUMANS AT MPC
MPC HAS BECOME ONE OF THE
GO-TO STUDIOS FOR CRAFTING CG
ACTORS. HERE’S A LOOK AT SOME
OF THEIR LANDMARK PROJECTS
1. Terminator: Genisys
The 2015 film included a scene of
Arnold Schwarzenegger as the
Terminator battling a younger version
of himself. MPC took old prosthetics
and extensive reference to build their
digital version.
each scene was shot in a separate set with I wanted to think about the transition 2. Blade Runner 2049
none of the time jumps possible in-camera. between the locations as the unsung hero, MPC resurrected the replicant Rachael
Says Markov: “I have done similar projects doing the heavy lifting without taking away as if she were the character played by
before, and having the editor on set is the from the big star of the show. For that reason Sean Young in the 1982 Blade Runner.
single best investment I can think of to receiving compliments about that part of our A stand-in, digital scans, extensive
help achieve a successful film with this work feels particularly satisfying.” reference and meticulous VFX artistry
type of story-telling approach. We shot all played a part.
the storyboard sequentially as much as we AWARD WINNER
could and every take was instantly added Markov and Bloor, along with Philip
to the edit and roughly tested for timing, Whalley and Andy Steele, recently received
lip sync and camera position. Key elements a VES Award for Outstanding Visual Effects
from one set were measured and matched in a Commercial for the John Lewis ad,
with tracking markers to the next scene to recognising the significant work that went
provide spatial continuity.” into making it. Markov reflects that it was
In post-production, a smoothness to the an incredibly highly scrutinised commercial
transitions was one of the key requirements. too, partly because of it being part of the
The plates were stabilised and aligned to Christmas series of spots, and because of the
each other and, when necessary, a set, light, involvement of Elton John.
or shadow extension was applied. “After “I believe I speak for the whole team at
that, a refined original camera move was MPC when I say that we couldn’t be more 3. The Boy and the Piano
re-applied in order to preserve the original excited and thrilled to have worked on this A CG model of a younger Elton John,
speed and energy as intended from the DOP project,” he says. “To receive the kind of in addition to extensive compositing
and the director,” notes Markov. “We were positive reaction and more amazingly, have techniques, enabled this John Lewis
very clear that this was an essential part of the public not notice our work in such a post- Christmas commercial to be made,
the story-telling, but it should not under any production heavy commercial, is one of the following the renowned musician
circumstances feel obtrusive or distracting. best compliments we could ever ask for.” throughout his career.

INDUSTRY
Ghost VFX’s R&D dino
INDUSTRY INSIGHT
GHOST VFX’S R&D DINO

How an experiment with Ziva VFX taught the studio new ways to simulate a realistic, VFX-ready creature
The entire dino was simulated from

scratch, showcasing the team’s
unrestricted creature capabilities
uilding lifelike CG including Sony Imageworks, Pixomondo, enough to hit film and episodic deadlines.
B
characters can be a Mr. X and more – visual effects teams are “Previously, we were using cloth solvers on
painstaking process filled flexing their creative muscles to see what top of rigged muscles to drive our creatures,
with time-consuming can be achieved. For Danish studio Ghost but it was very difficult to get realistic skin
corrective shapes, tricky VFX, they chose to test the limits of Ziva by sliding and muscle excitation that way. The
guesswork and costly throwaway results. building a dinosaur from scratch. skin always looked rigid straight out of
But, as the entertainment industry continues With contributions to numerous feature simulation, and running a fat pass over the
to push the envelope, the demand for films and TV shows, from Rogue One to muscles was a challenge,” says creature TD
plausible creatures is at its highest. Ziva Black Panther, Ghost VFX prides themselves Madhav Shyam.
VFX, created by Sci-Tech Oscar winner on being champions of innovation. With And according to Shyam, even the
James Jacobs and Vancouver-based Ziva audiences expecting more realism every day, best-looking models can come up short
Dynamics, has quickly become an industry Ghost VFX saw the incorporation of muscle- if their deformation and motion aren’t
standard for making more realistic CG driven characters as an essential strategy correct, especially in small details like how
characters in less time by combining the to expand (and test) their technical abilities a creature’s movement causes the skin to
effects of real-world physics with the rapid – leading them to Ziva VFX and the creation fold and slide, or how its weight causes the
creation of soft-tissue materials. of their very own dinosaur. fat and muscles to bounce and jiggle – all of
By mirroring the properties of nature, which are crucial to selling the realism of a
the Ziva method helps artists produce CG A NEW APPROACH CG character.
characters that move, flex and jiggle just as In general, the Ghost VFX team were Once Ghost VFX discovered the Ziva
they would in real life, removing the most looking to build a creature/character method, they were excited to test its
challenging steps from the rigging process. pipeline that would hit two goals: produce capabilities. “It was especially important
And as Ziva technology continues to spread the high-quality, ultra-realistic results they for us to showcase visible muscle-driven
into studio pipelines around the globe – needed and let them preview and iterate fast deformations and skin sliding,” says

INDUSTRY
Ghost VFX’s R&D dino
animation director and VFX supervisor Since Ziva VFX is designed for both full blocking out the skeleton as a model in
Claus Kogsbøll. “The dino R&D project and augmented adoption, the Ghost VFX Maya and built simple muscle shapes on
was the perfect opportunity to simulate a team were able to integrate the tool into top. Parallel to the muscle setup, they began
character asset that had all the fine details their existing pipeline with no changes. to sculpt the dinosaur’s skin in ZBrush.
we wanted.” Instead, they focused on devising a more They brought the sculpt into Maya and
collaborative and iterative approach to wrap-deformed it to the muscles using
SETUP AND MODELLING characters. “We were Ziva VFX’s built-in
From the start, the team knew they wanted already using Alembic toolset, then brought
to create a creature without fur, so the exports, so it was all it back into ZBrush for
deforming skin details would read as clearly quite straightforward,”
“ZIVA MAKES IT EASIER further sculpting. This
as possible. They decided on a dinosaur says creature TD Andzej FOR US TO REPLICATE back-and-forth process,
– but then had to choose which species Zmitrovic. “The only which included both
would best fit their needs. “A raptor was too change we made to
NATURAL-LOOKING MUSCLE, the skin layer as well
small, and a Tyrannosaurus rex just felt like our workflow was to FAT AND SKIN” as the fat and fascia
something you’ve seen before,” says Shyam. accommodate more time Madhav Shyam, creature TD meshes, continued while
Eventually they decided on the Allosaurus, for the back and forth they started rigging
which is closer to the size of a T. rex but with between modelling and the model and doing
the longer forearms of a raptor, and began rigging to get the best simulation deformation tests. From that point on, part
collecting skeletal and muscular references. output possible.” of the team focused on refining the Ziva
They also studied up on present-day animals setup and animation, while others fine-
with similar anatomical structures, like the MUSCLES, SKIN, FAT AND FASCIA tuned the detailing of the model and
ostrich, which bears some resemblance to a After their physiological research for the worked on creating textures and shaders
dinosaur’s legs and feet. dino was complete, the Ghost team started for rendering.

The impressive Allosaurus, with
realistic muscle simulations
“WE’RE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH THE RESULT. THERE’S EVEN SUBTLE

BREATHING ANIMATION COMING THROUGH IN THE AREAS AROUND DINO DESIGN
Tips for using Ziva VFX for realistic
THE SHOULDER BLADE AND CHEST” creature simulations
Claus Kogsbøll, animation director and VFX supervisor
Ghost VFX began their simulation create realistic muscle excitation. The skin TIP 1: QUALITY MODELS
testing using Ziva VFX 1.2, which meant solver would then need to be run on top of ”Build the model and Ziva setup to
they were required to simulate a fascia the deformation setup to create movement replicate actual anatomical movement
pass. Once they switched to Ziva VFX and jiggle with the help of the cloth solver. as accurately as possible. Setting
1.4 (released in June 2018), this step was “With Ziva, we can do all of that under time aside at the beginning to make a
omitted, allowing the fat zTissue node to the zTissue node,” says Shyam. “Ziva is quality model is really going to reduce
create internal pressure without the need designed to mimic real-world tissue physics, the number of fixes you might have to
for an individual fascia layer. “The fat pass which makes it easier for us to replicate make when transferring Ziva setups to
helps preserve and transfer volume through natural-looking muscle, fat and skin without multiple animation sets,” says Lasse
the creature much more easily than with our having to build multiple deformation setups Hansen, creature modeller.
previous method,” says Shyam. For research and correctives. With Ziva, you get a lot of
and development purposes, the team secondary animation for free which saves TIP 2: MUSCLE EXCITATIONS
iterated each individual pass approximately artists a huge amount of time.” “Start the muscle simulation with a
eight times. slight excitation on all the muscles,”
The entire learning and simulating phase A DINO IS BORN explains Madhav Shyam, creature TD.
for the muscle pass took three-and-a-half In spring 2018, two months after setting This makes it easier for the zTissue
weeks for the Ghost VFX team to complete. up their initial Ziva VFX licence, Ghost to simulate the muscles realistically.
Their artists were able to master the tool VFX completed their Dino R&D project. Make sure to build a setup to counter
within that time frame, and found the According to the team, the results of this the excitation on muscles like the
Line-of-Action Node, Mesh Analysis and experiment are their most notable and triceps, which are often contracted in
Check Intersections tools to be particularly remarkable character work sample thus far, their default pose.”
useful. They were also able to develop in- and the Allosaurus is a main feature in the
house tools, using Ziva Python Scripts, to opening scene of their 2018 studio reel. TIP 3: VOLUME VARIATION
support and transfer Ziva muscle setups “We’re extremely happy with the result,” “When simulating the fat geometry,
between multiple characters and iterations says Kogsbøll, “especially with the fat use significant volume variation
– a capability that proved particularly compression and sliding on the stomach, legs between the different parts of the
advantageous during R&D. and neck of the dinosaur. There’s even subtle body,” says Shyam. “This helped us
breathing animation coming through in the preserve volume in certain areas, like
THE ZIVA METHOD areas around the shoulder blade and chest.” where the thigh meets the stomach
Before Ziva VFX, says the Ghost team, Following the completion of their dino, and the tail. The combination of the
using traditional cloth solvers for a muscle/ Ghost VFX incorporated the Ziva method muscle and fat simulation will help
skin simulation required multiple setups across their entire character pipeline, you accomplish different simulation
and corrective blends to achieve realistic continuing to use the tool for a variety of full effects in different areas, like jiggle
skin sliding and muscle deformation; it also and partial simulation projects, including on the calf muscle and the sagging or
required muscle geometry to be rigged and the creation of anatomical limbs for wrinkling of the neck tissue.”
blends to be attached to that rig in order to Syfy’s Krypton television series.

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INDUSTRY
Quality over quantity
EXCLUSIVE REPORT
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

V1 Interactive’s president and creative director Marcus Lehto discusses how technology
has made it possible for a small studio to compete in game development
eadquartered in the Seattle making something fun. With the reveal of with me and build a prototype, we pitched
H
metro, an area that is home to its first title due in early 2019, we spoke to V1 it around and landed a great publishing
some of the oldest and most Interactive’s founder and creative director relationship with Private Division, part of
famous game development Marcus Lehto about assembling a team, Take Two Interactive. After we landed the
studios in the world, V1 using technology like motion capture in publishing deal, the studio quickly took off
Interactive is relatively small by comparison. order to balance the scales, and getting back and grew rapidly.”
With a staff count of around 30, it’s a to his roots. Cutting-edge technology proved crucial
fraction of the size of some of its peers, and it “After developing games for over two to creating the studio, as Lehto explains: “As
will soon be stepping into a very competitive decades and helping build major franchises a small studio our efficiency as developers
field dominated by big budgets and long- like Myth, co-creating the Halo universe, is key, so finding tech that got the job done
running franchises. which is now over a 5 billion dollar industry, right was very important to us.”
But what V1 Interactive lacks in size, and kicking off Destiny, I decided that I “With only two animators and one tech
it makes up for in experience. Each team wanted to get back to the root of what makes artist for the animation team, we needed to
member was specifically recruited for their creating games so rewarding. A small team find ways to achieve large volumes of high-
job and comes with years, and in some cases of dedicated professionals, all of whom are quality animation that suits the animation
decades, of experience. Each step in the hands-on making something fun together,” direction of our project quickly,” says Lehto,
process has been finely honed using cutting- explains Lehto. explaining why they chose mocap over
edge technology in the hands of people “It all started with a core idea I had,” traditional animation methods. “There is
that know exactly how to use it, and at the he continues. “With the help of a few still a lot of hand-keying that goes into our
heart, the developers have a shared goal of dedicated students willing to take a leap animation, but utilising a mocap system like

INDUSTRY
Quality over quantity
V1 Interactive live and work by the The small team is comprised of industry More information
mantra:“if we’re not having fun, veterans such as Lehto and Mike Gutmann and can be found at
then we’re doing something wrong” promising upstarts like Joe Arroyo and Julia Li v1interactive.com
Vicon’s helps us get 60-70 per cent of the

way there. Motion capture is a great tool in
“WITH EVERY SUCCESSIVE GAME, MOCAP BECAME A CORE
the animator’s tool belt.” COMPONENT OF ANIMATION TECHNOLOGY”
Lehto and his team didn’t anticipate Marcus Lehto, president and creative director, V1 Interactive
just how useful mocap would prove as a
pre-visualisation tool on their cinematics.
He continues: “The high-fidelity mocap we At Bungie, Lehto and his team started
get from the Vicon Vero cameras allows us utilising motion capture during the
to implement rough performances quickly production of Halo 2, and from then on
for iteration. Our cinematic lead can then they used it in every game they developed.
easily shoot around these performances “With every successive game, mocap
using UE4’s sequencer tools. Because the became a core component of animation
set-up process to capture is very easy, we technology,” he adds. “As a small studio
can experiment with acting choices without with a limited budget, we shopped around
pressure, and have video reference to boot for several options and were very excited
using the Vue’s video overlay. Being able when we found that Vicon had a newer,
to have that flexibility for changes and affordable solution aimed specifically at
experimentation is key to us.” studios like us. The other solutions we had
Motion capture has also expedited been looking into were similar in price, but
the creation of assets for gameplay and didn’t offer the rich features we get with
cinematics. “It offloads some of the more such an industry standard as Vicon, so it
tedious, but much needed animation assets was an easy choice for us.”
for a character, so we can spend more time V1 Interactive’s current setup includes information about this year,” says Marcus
on assets that require fine-tuned hand- 12 Vero 2.2 cameras, one Vue camera and Lehto on what’s next for the game studio.
keying,” says Lehto. “It also helps set up the Vicon’s Shogun software suite (Live and “Our hope is that we can continue
framework for cinematics and allows us to Post). “We’re hard at work developing and building upon this new franchise we are
work back and forth with cinematics in an anxiously awaiting the release of our first creating while keeping our studio size
organic fashion.” game, which we’re excited to share a lot of reasonably small.”

INDUSTRY
Jamie Currie
PRO THOUGHTS
THE SEARCH FOR A STAND-OUT

STANDALONE VR HEADSET
Jamie Currie, lead developer at Immersive Studios, compares three of
the main players: Oculus Go, VIVE Focus and Pico Neo
raditionally, the best-quality hand controller. It’s easy to develop for, but a firm favourite at Immersive. For starters
T
VR experiences have been there are a few clumsy aspects; for example, it’s well designed, both to look at and wear.
limited to PC-driven tethered any apps that are side-loaded directly onto It’s comfortable, quite light, and it’s also
headsets such as the HTC the device are hidden away in the very un- easy to use: you just put it on and away you
VIVE or the Oculus Rift. But user-friendly ‘Unknown Sources’ section of go, without having to rely on external apps
now, standalone headsets are launching the device library. It’s also surprising, given or even the hand controller – there’s an
thick and fast. Let’s dive in and compare the the similar design to the Rift, that the Go option to control the headset through gaze
pros and cons of three of the main players. doesn’t have 6DOF capabilities. activation and a button on the headset.
The screen quality is great – crystal-clear
THE OCULUS GO THE VIVE FOCUS visuals with good colours, and the tracking
At around £200 all in, this headset is much The standalone version of the HTC VIVE is is impressively accurate. The only drawback
more affordable than others. The screen is striking, but it’s divided the team here. Some is the battery, which doesn’t last as long as
also good quality, it’s roomy and comfortable like it, some think it looks like some kind of you’d like. But other than that, this headset
to wear, and it doesn’t overheat in the same alien. It’s also not universally comfortable more than keeps up with the VIVE. Now we
way a phone-powered headset does, which and I wasn’t the only one who actually just need more content.
is a definite advantage. Battery life is good found it hard to get the screen to focus! But
too. The hand controller makes it easy to like all VR headsets, this will come down to THE VERDICT
point and click to operate once the headset personal comfort/preference. As it stands, all the headsets have similar
is set up – and all of these things mean it’s Once it’s on, the headset is well balanced capabilities and demonstrate the progress
great for consumer use at home. and it’s quick and easy to access great the VR industry is making in terms of
However, for something sold as content – the undeniable advantage of its creating standalone experiences that
standalone, it’s disappointing that you have VR brand heritage. The in-built speakers measure up to PC-powered ones. The
to download the Oculus app to your own are very good, and the controllers are simple Oculus Go is the cheapest and accordingly
smartphone to set up the headset. This to use. That said, I can’t find a way to use it offers more limited functionality, while
doesn’t help the user experience – and without the controller, which is irritating. both the VIVE and the Neo are more or less
neither does the fact that the headset is so Like all things VIVE, the visual quality is on a par in terms of high-quality visuals
completely excellent and the tracking accurate. It’s got and tracking. The VIVE has more readily
tied to a load of exciting content that’s immediately available content, but the Neo scores highest
the available and will please its fanbase. At over in terms of physical design and comfort.
£500, it’s pricier than the Go, but I can see it The headset you prefer will ultimately
having a strong future as a gaming console. come down to personal preference –
essentially which headset you’re happiest
THE PICO NEO to wear for any length of time. For the team
The Pico Neo was the first all-in-one at Immersive, the consensus is the Pico
headset to offer high-end 6DOF Neo. Let’s see what the next generation of
capabilities without any wires, and it’s standalone headsets bring.

WHERE ART
AND TECHNOLOGY
Register today at s2019.siggraph.org/register

While general-purpose
4K displays are now
really affordable, high
colour accuracy adds to
the cost considerably
HARDWARE REVIEW
4K MONITOR
GROUP TEST
t’s 2019, and it’s now safe high-end displays with 144Hz recommendations that all
I to say that we’re at a point

where 4K resolution is a
mainstream choice. The price
(or faster) refresh rates and
adaptive sync technology
are leading to more fluid 3D
offer superb image quality, at
a range of price points. You
might have to pay quite a bit
for a general-purpose 4K animation and better gaming more for the most accurate
screen has dropped to the experiences. For professional colour, but you won’t need
same point a 1080p screen was creative work, it’s colour advanced testing equipment to
at a few years ago. Mid-range accuracy that matters most, immediately see the benefits of
workstations are more than especially when it’s mission- 10-bit panels, HDR screens, full
powerful enough to render at critical to ensure the imagery colour coverage and deliciously
4K, and there’s plenty of 4K that appears on your display bright, vivid images.
entertainment content to enjoy. will look right on a different Hopefully this will give you
The factor that now display, or when published in a some ideas for how your visual
differentiates displays is no different medium. experience can benefit not just
longer resolution but features. In this group test we’ve from 4K resolution but great
On the gaming side, the most picked out five 4K display colour reproduction as well.

REVIEWS
4K monitor group test
FEATURES
4K resolution
(3,840 x 2,160)
2x Thunderbolt 3
ports
5ms response time
Adaptive Sync
support (via
DisplayPort /
Thunderbolt)
Asus ProArt PA32UC

PRICE £2,039.99 | DEVELOPER Asus | WEBSITE asus.com
hen Asus launched similar and give you a very it a doddle to glide through cursor on a black background,
W the excellent ProArt

series of high-end
displays a few years ago, it
good overall idea of just how
impressive the top-end Asus
ProArt screens are.
menus in the OSD.
A sensible array of ports
at the back include a single
which is resolved by changing
the dimming setting to ‘Off’.
However, this adjustment then
was a firm nod towards the Visual quality is right up DisplayPort connector, a dropped the contrast level to
growing demand for accurate there with EIZO’s ColorEdge generous four HDMI 2.0 (4K 750:1, annoyingly reducing the
image reproduction in creative monitors. Although the ProArt capable) ports and a useful image quality.
professions, from 3D design uses a 14-bit LUT rather than addition of dual USB-C ports That doesn’t affect our
to video editing. Fully HDR the 24-bit in the CG319X, it still that support Thunderbolt 3. overall impression of the
certified, the PA32UC is the seriously excels in the areas of Brightness levels of just PA32U, however, which
greatest in the range, a 32- colour accuracy, brightness, under 400 nits topped otherwise scores highly in every
inch 4K screen with a long list contrast and screen uniformity, every other display, and the other department.
of impressive specifications with the same ultra-popping accuracy tests came out with This ultra-high-end
that includes full Adobe RGB colour fidelity offered by the an impressive Delta E under 1. screen blew us away in every
coverage as well as high-end EIZO, with especially vivid reds The contrast result of 1500:1 department, with an asking
figures of 95% DCI-P3 and and greens. is also on a par with EIZO’s price that, while significant,
85% Rec.2020. It’s superbly built too. The ColorEdge CG319X, as well as isn’t quite as hefty as the EIZO
Unfortunately we just stand feels exceptionally solid – giving a promising brightness ColorEdge CG319X. Purchase
missed out on being sent a this is a large display that won’t uniformity result that showed one and you’ll never want to
sample of the newer PA32UC-K slide around your desk. Buttons around 2% deviation. go back to using a standard
revision, so we’re basing our are located behind the screen, We picked up a minor issue monitor again.
coverage on the slightly older with a clever four-way joystick during testing – where a white
non-K model. But the two are placed at the top that makes halo surrounded the mouse VERDICT

REVIEWS
FEATURES
4K resolution
(3,840 x 2,160)
5ms response time
Inputs:
2 x DisplayPort,
1 x HDMI
BenQ SW271
PRICE £979 | DEVELOPER BenQ | WEBSITE benq.com
The wire remote sits in the base
and lets you flick through settings
without reaching for the screen
lthough BenQ may once out at the front so you won’t white points from 5000K to did we actually get the stated
A have not been a name

traditionally associated
with high-end displays, it is
accidentally select the wrong
setting. And best of all, with
the SW271 BenQ has included
9300K and a gamma range
from 1.6 to 2.6.
Our testing at default
99% result.
Despite these lower results,
the BenQ SW271 delivered a
something that is deservedly its proprietary wired remote, factory calibration showed fantastic image that was great
changing in the 4K generation. giving ultra-quick access to image results that were slightly on both the desktop and in
Its current range of gaming, settings and shortcuts, perhaps lacking, with just over 300 nit all design software. You will
ultra-wide and colour-accurate not be disappointed by the
screens absolutely scream SW271’s picture quality, with
with performance, slick design “THERE’S A MASSIVE RANGE OF SETTINGS TO TWEAK fidelity and extra-vivid colours
and brilliant image quality that rivalling the more expensive
positions BenQ as a smart THE COLOUR, INCLUDING A SELECTION OF THREE EIZO and Asus screens.
choice for a quality display. WHITE POINTS FROM 5000K TO 9300K” Sitting at a halfway price
And the 27-inch, 10-bit HDR point between the ultra-high-
SW271 is another top-quality end colour-accurate screens
BenQ product that can be the easiest possible way to brightness and 660:1 measured and general-purpose displays,
added to the list. change settings on any display. contrast, which is lower than BenQ has delivered the goods
The design is a good Colour presets include a other displays on test. here, with a colour-accurate
place to start. It’s all the small Rec.709 mode in addition to And in initial testing, the monitor that is worth the
touches, such as big and bold Adobe RGB, sRGB and DCI-P3. default Adobe RGB preset additional expenditure over a
on-screen menus that are dead There’s a massive range of weirdly couldn’t meet the claim standard display.
simple to navigate, and big settings to tweak the colour, of full coverage. Only when
physical buttons that are laid including a selection of three switching that preset to HDR VERDICT

REVIEWS
FEATURES
DCI-4K resolution
EIZO ColorEdge CG319X
PRICE £3,999 | DEVELOPER EIZO | WEBSITE eizo.com
(4,096 x 2,160)
9ms response time IZO is perhaps the most 99% sRGB, 99% Adobe RGB brightness isn’t much higher
24-bit colour
lookup table (LUT)
E premium display brand in
the world, and its screens
are a common sight in top-end
and 98% DCI-P3 are as good
as it gets for display accuracy.
As with other EIZO 4K displays,
than competitors. But that said,
the subjective image quality
is dreamy, whether using the
video, photography and 3D the CG319X offers a slightly default REC.2020 colour space
Built-in hardware studios where it has earned a stretched 4,096 x 2,168 DCI-4K or the comparatively more
calibrator reputation for consistent high resolution, in line with video washed-out look of sRGB.
quality in image reproduction. standards. Unlike competitors, The only quibble is caused
Inputs: The ColorEdge CG319X is its EIZO has ignored the trend by the CG319X’s Digital
2 x DisplayPort, flagship product, a 31.1-inch, towards bezel-free, lightweight Uniformity Equalizer (DUE)
2 x HDMI 10-bit HDR 4K monster that hardware, with a good inch setting, which is buried in an
offers exceptional colour of plastic surrounding the administration menu. When
accuracy at an exceptionally screen and a decidedly chunky enabled, the brightness
high price. feel to the display that serves uniformity across the panel
The high price is justified by to remind that it’s a serious shows brightness variance
a select few features that round product. With a 9ms response well under 2%, which is about
off an incredibly solid display. time, gaming performance isn’t as good as it gets, but the
It has a 24-bit colour lookup even a remote consideration. contrast is then reduced to
table (LUT), which is on another A great deal of thought has 800:1 and the brightness drops
level compared with the 12-bit gone into every aspect of the a bit. It seems you can’t have
or 14-bit LUT in competing CG319X. Its built-in hardware both at the same time.
colour-accurate displays, calibration tool that pops down We were highly impressed
making it capable of unrivalled from the top of the bezel is by the CG319X, and its
visual accuracy. Or it is if you’re programmed to require a 30- technology is clearly a cut
willing to spend a bit of time minute warm-up period before above any standard IPS
tweaking the numerous colour kicking in for the best accuracy. screen, but it’s not obvious
settings that are neatly laid out Navigation through the menus that it’s really worth such
in the CG319X’s menu system. is straightforward. There large expenditure over other
are only a handful of clearly colour-accurate screens.
labelled colour presets, in both The Asus ProArt PA32 is just
HDR and non-HDR versions, one alternative that is just
with three more slots for stored as brilliant for 3D work, and
user configuration. although it too is not cheap, it
1500:1 (measured) contrast still costs significantly less than
is excellent, but the 350 cd/m2 the EIZO.
Expertly designed in
almost every way, as
you’d expect from a
premium display
VERDICT

REVIEWS
FEATURES Philips Brilliance

4K resolution
(3,840 x 2,160)
5ms response time

272P7VPTKEB
PRICE £399 | DEVELOPER Phillips | WEBSITE phillips.com
Inputs:
2 x HDMI,
he Philips Brilliance the back, which is completely as much as 16%, the Delta E
T
1 x DisplayPort,
1 x Mini DisplayPort, 272P7VPTKEB is more of redundant these days. But accuracy result of 1.89 isn’t
1 x VGA a general-purpose PC with four digital connectors as especially good and the 269-nit
display than the other colour- well, you won’t go short when brightness is the lowest result.
accurate monitors we’ve picked connecting multiple devices. But we can forget all that.
in this lineups, which are Image quality is what These are just numbers from
specifically aimed at designers matters, and thanks to the a colorimeter test, and when
and creatives. And for that general advantages of IPS working with this screen, you
reason, it’s also considerably technology, the Phillips does do have to look hard to see
less expensive. not disappoint. We measured anywhere it really falls down.
It has a standard, almost full sRGB coverage and 78% Not everyone wants to
corporate design, although Adobe RGB coverage – not pay the high premium for the
the built-in pop-up spectacular results but nothing exceptional colour accuracy
webcam is a neat that would cause issues. that the other displays offer.
addition. Instead of As an example of a more If you don’t need that level of
the various colour spaces entry-level IPS 4K display, the accuracy, an affordable 4K IPS
provided on colour-accurate 272P7VPTKEB is still completely screen like the 272P7VPTKEB
screens, the list of preset suitable for all kinds of 3D work, will not hold you back, and
colour modes here are generic even though it doesn’t achieve it may make better sense to
names like ‘movie’. the great colour accuracy our plough the savings into a
Although the build quality is testing demonstrated with different workstation upgrade.
generally top notch, we found the other screens. Brightness
it amusing to see a VGA port at deviation across the panel is VERDICT
REVIEWS
FEATURES OVERALL
4K resolution
(3,840 x 2,160)
VERDICT
Colour-accurate displays are
5ms response time just one niche in today’s wider
monitor market, alongside
Built-in KVM switch other very specific display
types, such as ultra-wide
Inputs: and gaming panels. You
1 x DisplayPort, pay a real premium to get
1x Mini DisplayPort, the best possible colours,
2 x HDMI and although this is not
something everyone needs for
3D, it is certainly something
that should be considered
desirable. You’ll be able to
instantly see the difference
with a high-end display, and
The VP2785-4K it makes it easier to apply
presents a beautifully subtle adjustments to RGB
bright, crisp image levels or getting brightness
absolutely right.
The most high-end
screens, such as the EIZO
CG319X and Asus PA32UC,
cost as much as an entire
ViewSonic VP2785-4K
PRICE £959 | DEVELOPER ViewSonic | WEBSITE viewsonic.com
workstation and could be
justified as a long-term
investment in accurate colour.
Spend a bit less at
the mid-range price point
occupied by the BenQ SW271
and ViewSonic VP2785-4K,
iewSonic’s previous can not only switch the on- clear picture, the colours look and you get a smaller screen,
V efforts at colour-accurate
panels have sometimes
missed the mark in some areas
screen image from your laptop
to a desktop workstation but
also use the same peripherals
good and it generally ticks the
right boxes. The OSD is well
laid out and easy to navigate,
with image quality that isn’t
quite as vivid as the high-end
displays but still packed
compared with rivals, but to control it. and we got some good results with features. This is a good
the VP2785-4K is by far the Although the physical from our testing. compromise to get a display
company’s best monitor yet, design looks good, ViewSonic In particular we measured that won’t decimate your
offering full sRGB and (stated) has made some questionable superb screen uniformity, wallet but still gives you
99% Adobe RGB and 95% design decisions that detract well under 1%, and great a whole ton of features to
DCI-P3 coverage. The result from the VP2785-4K. Instead of accuracy, with a Delta E under adjust image quality.
is a great all-round image that the simple click-in procedure 1. Likewise, brightness of 374 Arguably, the real winner
absolutely ticks the boxes for attaching the stand to the nits and contrast of 750:1 of this group test is the
for 3D work at a relatively screen, as used on nearly every are excellent, although the general advantages of IPS
reasonable price point. other PC display, here you’ll Spyder 5 colorimeter tests technology, as demonstrated
Contrasting with some of need a Philips screwdriver. demonstrated the Adobe by the Phillips Brilliance
the larger 31-inch panels, the Power is delivered by an RGB coverage came in slightly 272P7VPTKEB.
VP2785-4K is a very lightweight external brick rather than under ViewSonic’s claims, with Given that general-
27-inch screen, almost bezel a standard kettle lead, and Adobe RGB coverage of 84%. purpose 4K IPS displays
free, with only a small lip at the possibly due to the thin and We’re a little ambivalent look absolutely great, even if
bottom that accommodates light build, the overall plastic about the VP2785-4K. While your budget can’t stretch to
touch-sensitive OSD controls construction just doesn’t feel it costs just a bit less than a high-end colour-accurate
and a power button. particularly solid, with a screen BenQ’s SW271, and beats it monitor, an upgrade from any
The built-in KVM switch is that wobbles fairly easily. in terms of brightness and older 720p or 1080p non-IPS
also a marvellous idea. USB Once you’re past the initial contrast, we preferred both the screen to 4K is an absolute
peripherals connected directly setup process, though, the image quality and build quality no-brainer, especially when
to the VP2785-4K can be used VP2785-4K delivers in most offered by the BenQ. they can now be had for
to control multiple devices areas. The image quality is around £399.
connected via USB-C, so you really good, with a bright and VERDICT

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EDITOR’S WELCOME

What’s hot this issue

In celebration of a certain Pokémon-

Rob Redman, Editor

SPOTLIGHT ON OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Maya Jermy Adam Dewhirst Mike Griggs

EMAIL WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER

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

FEATURE lowdown on their

18 POKÉMON GO TO THE MOVIES 38 BACKSTAGE PASS: AMERICAN GODS

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

on your bundle subscription

78 MPC MAKES A YOUNG ELTON JOHN

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

ON SALE 17TH JULY

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

The biggest challenge that

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

Spenser Morgan is an Arkansas-based

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K features controls for

“I could have done an illustration in

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

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

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

This ﬁgure by Ankama’s lead 3D artist

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

3D WORLD August 2019 19 youtube.com/user/3dworld

hen preproduction for

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

STEPS TOWARD APPROVAL

“It was extremely dispiriting and there were

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

“WE SPENT A LOT

“We would often from the Western point of view

3D WORLD August 2019 23 youtube.com/user/3dworld

3D WORLD August 2019 24 youtube.com/user/3dworld

SCI-FI AND CGI

1. From previs to ﬁnal action: FuseFX used

2. Lasers: Larger lasers were tackled in Houdini,

3. Explosions: Houdini was relied upon here,

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

world. “For the arrival into 1

3D WORLD August 2019 26 youtube.com/user/3dworld

1. Wireframe: Encore VFX

3. Background city: The city

4. Animation pass: Gorilla

5. Grodd’s fur: Encore VFX

3D WORLD August 2019 27 youtube.com/user/3dworld

3D WORLD August 2019 28 youtube.com/user/3dworld

3D WORLD August 2019 29 youtube.com/user/3dworld

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

s .EVER MISS AN ISSUE

s 2ECEIVE  ISSUES IN A YEAR

s (AVE EACH ONE DELIVERED TO

PRINT DIGITAL PRINT & DIGITAL

3 MONTHS £13.40 £7.75 £13.18

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

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very few years, showcases the work of a studio

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

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

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the overall look but to inform

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

s 2ECEIVE ISSUES IN A YEAR