3D World UK - Issue 286 2022

From VR to ZBrush CREATURE OF THE FOREST Software ZBrush, Gravity Sketch, 3D-Coat, Blender, Octane Render, Photoshop Year made 2022 3D WORLD 51

Light your C4D scenes with custom HDRIs REAL WORLD LIGHTING Using location captured lighting can help even when rendering against a flat backdrop CINEMA 4D | THETA (FOR IPHONE)| PHOTOSHOP LIGHT YOUR C4D SCENES WITH CUSTOM HDRIs In Part 3 of our tutorial series, Rob Redman demonstrates how to create your own HDRIs ideal for your 3D scenes T hese days most 3D scenario shooting your own gun type setup I think this is the AUTHOR software offers global HDRIs is a much better solution easiest way to light your scenes illumination, and while and doesn’t have to be complex to match your plates. Rob Redman there are plentiful resources for or expensive. There are many Rob has been a CG finding good HDRIs to use, they ways of capturing these images, I won’t be dealing with the artist for over 20 can be a little one-size-fits-all. ranging from the cheap and easy camera matching or tracking years, working across This isn’t always a problem, and if to the preventatively expensive footage in this tutorial, as that is film, TV and print you are lighting a studio setup or and complicated. a more complex beast I will deal projects, and is editor a generic scene you will be fine. with on its own in a future issue. of 3D World and In this walkthrough I’ll show ImagineFX magazines. However, you may be trying you my workflow for creating DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES robredman.co.uk to match lighting at a location to them, using an iPhone app and For all the assets you need go to better match your background a Ricoh Theta camera (other 360 https://bit.ly/3D-world-digitalhumans plates, ensuring that your CG cameras are available of course). elements are lit consistently There are a few issues to deal with the talent and set. In this with, but for a one-man, run-and- 52 3D WORLD

Light your C4D scenes with custom HDRIs 01TAKE THE SHOT 02 EDIT THE EXR Shooting with the Theta is very simple and all you The first option is one done back at the computer. You can open up really need to do is set the bracketing to create the light the captured HDRI and then clone out unwanted areas (me) either manually to dark range. Don't shoot from the same point as the or by drawing a selection and right-clicking, then choosing Content-Aware camera used for the background plate, but from the main Fill. Either option is fine as we will be blurring the shot for lighting purposes area where your CG elements will be in the final shot, for anyway. I prefer to take a broad approach and draw the selection. Photoshop is more accuracy in lighting. You can see here that I'm in the pretty capable at this and the repetition of the filled areas won’t be a problem picture, and we can deal with that in one of two ways. for this particular use case. Judge that on your specific shoot though. 03 STAND ALONE The better alternative is to use a light stand to mount your Theta, then connect to it wirelessly to take the shot. This is a great option if you aren't using your mobile device for other purposes. Just find a nearby object to hide behind as you trigger the shot. There will be times when this isn't viable however, as you may be in a location which means you have to be in airplane mode, or you might be using your phone for something like operating a drone or a gimbal. It may be the case that you don't have level ground to place a stand, either on a slope or maybe over water, in which case use the cloning method. 04 EXPORT THE HDRI 05 SCENE BASICS Once any edits are done it is time to get the image out to your 3D At this point I like to set up a basic scene to get software. There are differing opinions on this, but I'd suggest blurring the things started. This mech is here as a placeholder for image for use as a light source as it can prevent artefacts and is easier for the now, along with a floor and a sky object. The floor has GI to use for good, clean results. Once you are happy export the image and a simple material applied, while the mech has a more be sure to save as a 32bit OpenEXR (which it should already be from your reflective material with some Fresnel for falloff. This is Theta) – a JPG or PNG will not have the values that GI can use to effectively really just to test the material in the most basic way, so I light your 3D scene. can check things are working as I expect. 3D WORLD 53

Light your C4D scenes with custom HDRIs 06 SKY MATERIAL Next up is to get our HDRI onto the sky object. Double-click in the material manager to create a new object, then either double-click the material to open it as a floating window, or work in the attributes editor, depending on your preferred layout and workflow. You can add the HDRI to either the colour or luminance channel. Both work fine but I use luminance, as it feels more logical to me. Deactivate the reflectance channel as we don't need it. Rename the material and then drag it onto the sky object in the objects manager. You can see and place the HDRI by rotating the sky in the scene in a shaded view. 07 RENDER SETTINGS 08 ADD A CAMERA Open up the render settings and change the At this point I generally like to throw a camera in there to see how type to Physical. Next go to effects and add a global things will look, check out depth of field results and make sure there are no illumination effect. Click on it and set the primary type oddities rearing their ugly head. Add a camera to the scene, then target the to irradiance cache and the secondary to QMC, and set mech. Set your aperture to the correct amount and change your focal length, your gamma to 2.2. I also added an ambient occlusion ideally to what you shot your plate with. For me that was an 80mm in full frame effect, just to see how it looks. Now when you render you equivalent at f1.2. Make sure you're looking through the camera, then render will see the results of your sky material. again to make sure you are satisfied with the results. 09 EXPOSURE AND TWEAKS You may be happy with the outcome at this point, but there will be scenes where the exposure doesn't look right. Cinema 4D's physical camera has exposure settings so you can activate them and adjust to taste, but sometimes that will blow out the sky or make it too dark compared to the rendered elements. If this is the case, you can go into the sky material and under the illumination section you can tweak the amount of GI the material produces. You can also adjust the saturation of the GI. I increased this for just a little more colour, but tweak this to suit your needs and tastes. Then all that is left is to do a final render. • 54 3D WORLD

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Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness MAD MOUSE A 3D recreation of a stunning photograph by Lídia Vives, award-winning fashion photographer 56 3D WORLD

Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness ZBRUSH | MAYA | R3DS WRAP | MUDBOX | XGEN | MARVELOUS DESIGNER | V-RAY | PHOTOSHOP | PUREREF TRANSFORM A PHOTOGRAPH INTO A REALISTIC 3D LIKENESS Nayoon Levitin demonstrates how to reimagine a portrait photograph as a detailed, expressive 3D render T his image was inspired 01CROEFLELRECETNCE IMAGES It is important to study the facial AUTHOR by Lidia Vives’ work ‘Mad structure before the setup of a Mouse’. You can check it out, The most challenging part of this base mesh in ZBrush. Line up the Nayoon Levitin along with her many other creative project was capturing the likeness. reference images using guides in With a background photographs, on her website Since the concept has a very strong Photoshop. Draw a few lines to see in computer (lidiavives.com/pop/mad-mouse). expression and the pose is not where the plane changes occur and science, fine art and neutral, it can be hard to accurately where the face features line up. Pay graphic design, I am The main focus of this project maintain the correct anatomy. attention to negative spaces on the currently in my final is to study anatomy and facial profile views. term as a student expression, and be able to sculpt When tackling a project like this, at Think Tank details as realistic as possible. make sure the reference images 02 SBTAASRETMWESITHH A Online. Learning We will cover how to capture are in high resolution (the higher, a new medium is a photograph as a realistic, the better) and in multiple angles. You can start a base mesh from challenging, and I expressive and detailed 3D Consider the lighting (shadows can scratch in ZBrush or purchase one enjoy sharing my likeness, from initial base mesh to be helpful to determine the shape online. However, if you purchase a journey in order to final render. Let’s get started! of certain areas). base mesh, make sure the topology help other artists is clean. Since Mad Mouse has a achieve success. DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES A software like PureRef can be strong expression, it was necessary artstation.com/ For all the assets you need go to useful to collect all images in one to modify the topology. Change nayoon https://bit.ly/3D-world-digitalhumans place. Sort the images by category the topology on the forehead to so it is easier to navigate. Collect support the expression. Import images that are shot with a high the head mesh to Maya and focal length lens. For example, red carpet images are great. 3D WORLD 57

Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness 02 03 & 04 retopologise using the Quad 05a Draw tool. 03 WLINITEHURPEAFEBRAESNECMESESH When setting up a ZBrush scene, make sure the focal length is 85 or higher and sculpt in perspective mode. There are two different methods to line up the base mesh with the reference images. The first method is to use Spotlight in ZBrush. Import the image in texture and turn on Spotlight. Adjust the size of the reference image to match the base mesh. Once the alignment is done, save the camera. To save camera views that are aligned with the reference image, click Draw> Channels>Store camera. Tip: Save as project in order to save the cameras. Saving as ZTool will not save the cameras. However, once alignment is done, no need to save as project. The second method is using the See-through tool in ZBrush. It is located on the top right. Place an image behind ZBrush, scroll See-through between 1 and 100 and line up the base mesh with the image behind. Use this method to do a quick check while sculpting. Save the camera with this method using Store camera if needed. The base mesh should stay at the lowest polycount while lining up. 04 KTHEEEPATLIWGNEAMKEINNTG Be aware that everything looks absolutely terrible for a while and that is perfectly normal. The goal at the beginning stage is to get the shapes and silhouette of the mesh to look like the reference image, so check all the angles. You will be able to tell if the base mesh matches the concept image by zooming out far throughout the alignment process while working on different angles. The base mesh will not line up perfectly so think about the location of the eyes, nose, mouth and ears, and don’t worry about matching them exactly to the image. Nobody’s face is symmetrical. You will eventually break the symmetry to add details. Placing the eyeballs and painting in iris colour using Polypaint in 58 3D WORLD

Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness ZBrush will help to tell if the face is looking the way it is supposed to. 05 URVETMOAPPOPLOINGGISING AND Import an A-pose base mesh to Marvelous Designer as an Avatar. Use a shirt from Modular Configurator as a base shirt and modify to fit the concept blouse. Once the head base mesh is in a good shape in ZBrush, export the head to Maya and retopologise if needed and then UV the head. To UV clothing, you can use a great tutorial on ArtStation by Derrick Sesson (‘Marvelous Designer Retopology Toolkit for Maya’). This tool is helpful with retopologising the clothing imported from Marvelous Designer (artstation. com/artwork/ELRLJ8). 06 WTRRAANPSFAENRDDETAILS R3DS Wrap was used to transfer the skin details and will speed up the process. To get realistic skin, textures were purchased on the 3D Scan Store website. Their textures are scanned from human models so the skin looks realistic. When picking a texture, consider the skin colour and age of the person, so that it will match the look of your concept (bit.ly/3JNTTcO). Mudbox was used to transfer all the maps. Select UVs & Maps> Extract Texture Maps>New Operation Target Model, which is the one that was sculpted in ZBrush; Source model is the one that was wrapped in Wrap3D. After transferring the maps, make corrections on the skin in Mari. Some pore details around the 05b eyes and nose area can get messy. Use the Paint Through tool to make the changes. 07POSE IN ZBRUSH  There are many ways to pose a mesh. However, the simplest and quickest way was to do it in ZBrush. Polygroup the mesh. Up the resolution of the mesh before posing. Mask and move using the Rotate tool and the Move tool. When you are moving body parts, make sure to place a pivot on joints. Think about how the body parts move. Use anatomy references to see where the joints are; it doesn’t 06 3D WORLD 59

Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness 07 have to be accurate, but it will 08 help you to retain the overall shape 09 of the mesh. Don’t worry too much about messing up the mesh. You will have to fix it anyway in Maya and ZBrush, so focus more on matching the pose as much as possible. 08 DUSELETBALMENUDSHSHAPE AND Once the pose is made, export the mesh to Maya and use Blend Shape and Delta Mush tools to fix the volume and shape issues caused from posing. Export the neutral pose and modified mesh to Maya. Select the neutral mesh and then modified mesh. Go to Deform>Blend Shape. Select the modified mesh. In the Channel Box/Layer Editor Blend Shape = 1. Select Deform>Delta Mush. Choose the modified mesh. Use Envelope to change the strength of the Delta Mush influence and smoothing iteration. Fix further in ZBrush any issues caused from posing and continue to sculpt and refine the details. 09SCULPT IN ZBRUSH  There are a few brushes you can use to sculpt an organic mesh: ClayBuildup, Standard, Move, Dam Standard, hPolish, Elastic and Inflate. The Dam Standard brush is great for folds and wrinkles. The most important thing to remember while sculpting a head and hand is that the skin is quite bumpy and uneven. The skin is sitting on top of bones, muscles and fat, so try not to make the surface too smooth. Daniel Boschung has a website that shows close-up skin details of different people. The great thing about his website is that you can zoom in very close and see micro details. It is very helpful to see skin texture in different areas and also the directionality of pores and wrinkles (danielboschung.com). 10 MAKE HAIR IN XGEN Draw lines of the hair flow on the concept image. This will help with where to place the guides in XGen. Once the shape of the head mesh is good, duplicate faces in three sections: head scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes. Separating them will give you more 60 3D WORLD

Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness control over making hair in XGen. Make sure the UV is in 0-1 UV space. Use the guides to generate the first clumping map. Add at least two more Clumping modifiers to refine the hair. Once Clumping is working, add Noise and Cut modifiers to change the texture. Explore other modifiers if necessary for your character. After adding hair on the eyelashes, add mascara crumbs by creating a small geo and use the MASH network in Maya to scatter over the eyelashes. 11RBAENCDKEGRRIONUGNSDEATUNPD A few backgrounds were created during the process. However, these backgrounds didn’t feel right with the concept, so the background from the photograph was used to composite the renders together. Remove the model using Content-Aware Fill under Edit in Photoshop. It doesn’t have to be perfect in the middle since the mesh will cover the area. Create a render camera and set up a resolution that matches the concept photo (width and height) and turn on the Resolution Gate. Insert the background image using Image Plane (View>Image Plane>Import). Line up the mesh to the concept image by moving the camera. After setting up the camera, make sure to lock it (View>Lock Camera) and move the viewport by holding \\ on the keyboard. 10 11 3D WORLD 61

Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness 12 12 LIGHTING  Three different HDRI are used to achieve the look of the photograph. Several V-Ray Rect Lights were also added. Each light was linked to an individual mesh to give more control over brighter and darker areas. Light linking can be found under Windows>Relationship Editors> Light Linking>Object-Centric. 13 SHADERS IN MAYA  Create textures in Mari and use V-Ray Al Surface to add textures for head, hand, teeth, tongue and body. Use V-Ray mtl for the rest. The face is made with three different shaders, layered by lipstick, eye shadow and skin. To achieve a natural look of the skin, VRayAlSurface was used. Make sure to change the SSS mix amount to 1 for light scattering to work. 13 62 3D WORLD

Transform a photograph into a realistic 3D likeness V-Ray was used to render the scene. Since the blouse is see- through, model a bra and use V-Ray two-sided material to make the blouse transparent. 14 ADD EXTRA DETAILS Not having enough details will make the 3D model look CG and not realistic. However, too much detail can overwhelm the viewers and move their eyes away from the area of focus. Remember when adding extra details, they should be subtle and support the hero area/asset without disrupting the focus and storytelling. To make the Mickey ears texture, create a height map using Substance Designer. How to create the map can be found in the tutorial video ‘Creating Velvet Texture in Substance Designer’ by Filip Hodas (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=BHdyCygAUik). Use the height map in Maya as V-Ray displacement. Use the Layered Shader node to add the dust on top of the tie shader. Make sure to lower the intensity of the dust colour so it is subtle on the black tie. 15FINALISE THAT 5%   When the project is close to the end stage, it requires some minor fixes before we’re finally finished. Make sure not to 14 underestimate this final, crucial step. Use the History section A|B in the V-Ray Frame Buffer window to compare the current rendering and the previous ones. Tip: Right-click over the saved image to note the changes you made, so you can go back to the settings that look best. Making a 3D character is not a linear process. Once the rendering starts, you will need to go back and forth between ZBrush and Maya in order to refine details on the face and clothing. ZBrush tends to make the skin details more pronounced. However, subsurface scattering during rendering will lose some of the details if it’s not sculpted enough in ZBrush. From this point on, you have all basic meshes and setup is done. Now, it is all about fixing and adding more details and constantly comparing to the concept and real- world references. • 15 3D WORLD 63

ZBRUSHSculpt a creature in ZBrush for C4D SCULPT A CREATURE IN ZBRUSH FOR C4D Design and craft a creature from a simple sphere with ZBrush’s handy tools AUTHOR Glen Southern Glen runs SouthernGFX, a small Cheshire-based studio specialising in character and creature design. He has been using and training ZBrush in the UK for over 20 years. www.southerngfxcreativecourses.com 64 3D WORLD

Sculpt a creature in ZBrush for C4D T here are so many ways that you Anyone who has dabbled with motion can start a creature design in 3D, graphics will be familiar with C4D – it’s and in recent years we’ve even been around as long as ZBrush and has a had the ability to create using an iPad massive worldwide following. or in VR. The granddaddy of digital sculpting is ZBrush, having started In this tutorial I’m going to look at way back in the late 1990s, and it’s still how to sculpt and paint a creature, and the best option out there if you want we will use this model in later issues to sculpt extremely high-polycount to do things like rigging, lighting and creatures. Quite recently, ZBrush (and rendering in Cinema 4D. Whilst ZBrush is Pixologic, who create the program) were an amazing package, it isn’t a one-stop bought by Maxon who are most famous shop. It can be used for sculpting, some for creating and developing Cinema 4D. low-poly modelling, UVing, texturing and even baking out things like Normal and Displacement maps. In this tutorial we will be mostly focusing on the initial sculpt, how to do a basic unwrap and also how to use Polypainting to get the first pass of the vertex painting into a full texture map. DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES For all the assets you need go to https://bit.ly/3D-world-digitalhumans 3D WORLD 65

Sculpt a creature in ZBrush for C4D Variety is the 01BEGIN WITH ZSPHERES 02 ACTIVATE SYMMETRY spice of life To get started, an especially useful tool for creature With symmetry turned on, you will only need to work is ZSpheres. They are little red spheres that you make one side and ZBrush will flip it over to the opposite I painted a basic string together to make a sort of armature that then side. This is the same with ZSphere. To activate symmetry creature and then becomes the geometry. Find them in the Tool menu and just hit X and the default symmetry is turned on across added in a few drag one out into the main document window, and press the X axis. As you draw out new spheres they will be different paint jobs to T to make it live and active. If you mess up use Ctrl+N to mirrored, unless you are drawing them out directly on the show variety, sexual clear the screen and start again. centre line (the dot will be green if so). dimorphism (male and female differences) and even age. Changing the colours can really radically alter the look of the creature. 03 WORK UP AND DOWN THE SPINE 04 KNOW YOUR ANATOMY  Think of the first sphere as either the hips or  Designing and building creatures is all about knowing anatomy. This the chest. Work both up and down towards the head is a mash-up between a human and a newt-like amphibian, so you have to one way, and towards the tail the other way. I am using choose which characteristics to sculpt in. After you have worked all the way reference and the creature is called a ‘Deep One’ from down the tail, go back and start adding the arms and legs. The anatomy will H.P. Lovecraft mythology. The creature needs four limbs be similar to a human but the back legs need to be more stylised, like a dog and a long, fast tail. Add the spheres in draw mode (Q) with flippers! You need to make sure you have good reference; to make a and to move, rotate and scale change to W, E or R. believable creature, base it on something real. 05 PREVIEW YOUR GEOMETRY 06 ADD ZSPHERE FINGERS AND TOES We are using ZSphere to make out the body plan You can add hands and feet later but it is good practice to add the of this creature, but at some point we will have to convert digits as ZSpheres if you can. It can be a little fiddly to get the smaller digits this ZSphere model to true geometry to sculpt on. Think correct but it is well worth taking the time to learn how to do it. Add ZSpheres of ZSpheres as an armature that you start with and then that represent every bone in the hand and foot. The feet are amphibian-like add clay to. You need to make sure all the limbs are there so they need to be elongated. Add the ZSpheres, move them into place and and that they are the correct length; you will be doing all then add the next one. This way you can slightly pose the fingers as you are the secondary detail later. Hit A to preview the geometry. going with a little bend at every joint. 66 3D WORLD

Sculpt a creature in ZBrush for C4D 07 PREVIEW WILL SHOW YOU POLYGROUPS 08 CONVERT TO GEOMETRY You can use the A key to preview the model you  When you have created the full creature in terms of bones you can are creating, and then if you press Shift+F, you will see convert it to geometry and then begin the initial stages of sculpting. Under that the model is comprised of a range of different the tool menu you will find a panel called Adaptive Skin. Open this up and you colours. These are called Polygroups and are generated will see there are a few parameters that you can change. For now just use the from each ZSphere. You may need this later on and you default settings and the Make Adaptive selection. You will notice that a new could redo it at a later stage, but it is good to know what base model appears at the top of the tool panel, and this is the one that we it is like from this point. will be sculpting on. 09DYNAMESH AND ZREMESH 10 START THE PRIMARY SCULPTING There are lots of ways to approach sculpting but There are hundreds of brushes in ZBrush but you only really need to one thing is for sure, you will be using DynaMesh and use a few to get great results. To begin the sculpting process choose the ZRemesher a lot. DynaMesh averages out the polygons ClayBuildup brush from the Brush menu. You can hit B and see all the available across the surface and stops stretching. ZRemesher brushes and then pick the letter of the type you want, so in this case use C. makes a good underlying mesh that you can more easily This activates the correct brush and you can begin building up the muscle control. Both methods have their advantages but for now layer of the creature. Change the focal shift down to a low number and keep go to ZRemesher and click 5 (for 5,000) and hit remesh. the draw size quite small for now. Start with thread and work backwards. 11SMOOTH WITH SHIFT 12 LEGS AND TAIL Work down the neck and onto the chest area Work along the body, down the tail and the rear legs to the elongated and don’t forget to constantly use reference. Look for toes. Look for big groups of muscles like the thigh area and build them up creatures or people who have the type of anatomy you accordingly. There should be big bands of muscle going down the tail to need. Add good definition and muscle groups, but give it maximum support and help to drive the creature through the water at remember this is just an initial sculpt so we don’t need great speeds. Sometimes it helps to change the material to see the creature any detailing – just the basic forms. After the chest and in a different way. If the model is stretching at all it might be time to turn on deltoids (shoulders) work down each arm to the hands. DynaMesh and even out the geometry. To repeat this just use Ctrl+Tap. 3D WORLD 67

Sculpt a creature in ZBrush for C4D 13 CHECK ALL AROUND THE MODEL 14 USE SHADOWBOX TO MAKE THE FIN One tip would be to keep rotating the model in all directions so that  To make the fin along the back use a tool called you don’t miss any areas. There are lots of anatomical landmarks on the ShadowBox found in the Tool menu. This basically allows underside of the creature so focus on the abdomen, the groin area and even you to draw a mask with Shift on two or more sides of the inside of the legs. The legs are powerful muscles so make sure you reflect a box, and it projects that mask into geometry. Draw a that in the sculpting. Don’t focus on details yet, rather look for large groups of spiky line that matches where the spine of the creature muscles and build them up. Start using the Move brush, the Inflate brush and would be. To complete it turn ShadowBox off and you if needed the Flatten brush. can now sculpt details into this new subtool. Create 15 ADD SPIKE DETAILS 16 GET READY TO MOVE ONTO DETAILING Normal maps The spikes might be a little soft and need to be It’s time to clean up the mesh a little now. You sculpted a little. Make sure symmetry is on (X) and then can ZRemesh it again to clean the geometry up a little Because we have a use a combination of brushes like ClayBuildup, Dam more, or you can work all around the creature with the UV map done we can Standard to add score lines, Flatten and also Move. Pull Smooth feature (hold Shift). Make sure you have added easily create Normal out each spike a little then smooth it back with Shift to enough muscle definition, because from this point on we maps, which will make it look tighter. Work all the way from the back to will start to think about surface detailing and won’t be be how we add the the front. changing the muscle groups at all. surface detail when we go to programs like Cinema4D later. There is a Normal Map panel and you can use the default settings to create a full Normal map for the body. Make sure you are at the lowest subdivision first. 17 DAM STANDARD TO ADD CREASES 18 A NEW PERSPECTIVE The Dam Standard brush is great for adding score It’s important to make sure that the creature lines or creases into the model. This can be done around looks good from all angles and that you check it with the head and especially around the eyes. Add more lines perspective on and off. Hit P to turn perspective on around the ribs and belly area and anywhere that the and off and you will see the difference it can make. creature might have skin folds, like the groin area. Add Perspective on is how we would see the creature in the marks down the tail and align the back and front of the real world, so rotate all around it and take a look to see if creature’s knee area. it looks odd in any pose. 68 3D WORLD

Sculpt a creature in ZBrush for C4D 19 DETAILING BEGINS 20 POSE IT TO ADD LIFE Best Preview We can start detailing once we are happy that the The one problem with modelling in a symmetrical Render to get model is all good in terms of shape, limb length and way is that the real world generally isn’t symmetrical and more maps overall volume. The shape needs to look good from all creatures are the same way. You can leave the posing to angles, so keep checking before detailing. Use the Dam the very end, but you might like to try moving the arms If you hit BPR on Standard brush to add lots of wrinkles and creases on and legs into a more dynamic pose by using masking to the top right of the the hands and feet. This can be tricky, so use Ctrl+Shift protect other areas as you move parts. We’ll be doing a document window to hide parts of the model if needed. full tutorial on exactly this subject in an upcoming issue. you can render your creature out and even save it if needed. In the render panel you can now take a look and see what maps have been generated to use in programs like Photoshop. The really useful ones are the Alpha maps, the Shadow maps, Ambient Occlusion and even a Floor map if needed. 21ZREMESH AND POLYGROUP 22 UV MASTER TO UNWRAP Duplicate the model. ZRemesh the lower one in In the ZScript menu you can find the UVMaster the Subtool stack. Subdivide it back up to a few million script. Open this up and choose Polygroups and then polygons and then use Project in the Subtool panel to Unwrap, and the model will be unwrapped allowing you project the detail back on. Now delete the one above to create texture maps. If you wish to see it unwrapped as we don’t need it anymore. Use the masking tool (Ctrl) then go to the UV menu and look for Morph UV. Hit this to add polygroups to the main areas of the body which and you will see your model unfold itself. Return it to helps with UV unwrapping. normal if it looks okay. 23 ALPHA BRUSHES FOR SURFACE DETAIL 24 PAINT TO FINISH One thing that really makes a model pop is detailed  Our final step for this walkthrough is to finish up with some added skin textures. To do this use the pre-made ones that colour, really bringing our beast to life. Using some cool alpha brushes and come with ZBrush. Use the Standard brush and add an the colour wheel you can paint your creature to suit the design you are going alpha that looks like scales. Set the stroke mode to ‘Drag for. Make the underside lighter – this is called ‘countershading’ in nature and rectangle’, and now you can pull out large patches of is found on fish, reptiles and some mammals. Pick colours to suit your desired surface detail onto the model. You can also download look but also add in blues, greens and reds as an undercoat, then build up on new alpha brushes form Pixologic. top of them. • 3D WORLD 69

Model a detailed, realistic character LITTLE HMONG HARVESTER Inspiration for this 3D interpretation comes from a photograph taken by Malcolm Fackender 70 3D WORLD

Model a detailed, realistic character MAYA | ZBRUSH | MARVELOUS DESIGNER | XGEN | MARI SUBSTANCE PAINTER | ARNOLD | AFTER EFFECTS | PHOTOSHOP MODEL A DETAILED, REALISTIC CHARACTER Follow character artist Houra Ershad’s step-by-step process for creating this stunning render, with tips for clothing, textures and lighting AUTHOR Houra Ershad I'm a 3D character artist with a background in industrial design. I used to work as a 3D modeller for companies involved with cement factory pipelines, but that wasn't what I wished for. Being introduced to digital sculpting enabled me to pursue a career which brings together something from all I love to do. www.artstation.com/houra T his project was my third 01MHMODOENLGTBHAESKET 01a complete character, and 01b my second in which I For the woven surface of the 01c focused on texture projection for basket, the idea was to use MASH skin and creating realistic eyes. In to distribute a single piece as a the first project, I did all textures base on a plane. First I added a hand painted/sculpted and the Bend modifier to a plane to make it character had closed eyes, so I a closed cylinder. Then I scaled it to didn’t need to learn about how match its diameter and height with to apply skin textures in Mari or the width and height of the basket to create eyes in 3D. My second in the concept photo. After that, I project challenged me in so many re-expanded the scaled plane and ways, learning how to model and applied the MASH distribution. I texture eyes, likeness sculpting made the upper border the same and grooming long, wavy hair. way by repeating a single piece, and the lower border with sweeping For this project, I tried to find two bunches of cylindrical strands solutions to all the errors I had in different directions, and made before and do my best to combined all of these together. not repeat them. My main goal Then I bent the whole combined was to make everything as real as item again to a cylinder shape. I could, and I think what helped to achieve this was constantly Next, I used a Lattice deformer checking and comparing the to deform the cylinder to the model, forms, shapes and colours unique shape of this basket (elliptic in every individual part of the on the top section and rectangular scene with the concept, as well at the bottom). I modelled a simple as closely following reference woven plane for the bottom of the photos that had similar elements. basket. Then I did more precise reference photo comparisons and Over the next few pages I will sculpted variations inside ZBrush. share my process for achieving this final, realistic render. 02 MAKE THE OUTFIT The jacket was made double- DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES sided to match real life. I wanted to For all the assets you need go to get as many wrinkles as possible, https://bit.ly/3D-world-digitalhumans especially at the seam areas, so I tried to play with all the materials that the program provides to 3D WORLD 71

Model a detailed, realistic character 04 02a find the best for my purpose; hand, it gave me kind of blank areas Then I added one other for the setting the particle distance to a and I used them to my advantage strong rim being cast from the Adding wear very small number should help too. to fill them with the exact wrinkles back-right side of the character. Marvelous Designer always gives a that are on the kid’s clothes in the I baked curvature pretty good result when it comes to reference photo. I tried to match the length maps for almost all the simulation of natural wrinkles. of the shadows to what I see in the elements in the But since the size restriction of the The scarf was made of a single the reference, playing with the scene (except the garment in my character’s case piece, and since wrapping a long direction of these two lights. It still character's skin) made the fabric lightweight and piece around the neck would make needed a lot of refinement, but and added as a layer not affected by gravity, no matter a big intersection in the area, I since textures are so dependant on in Mari. I then tried which type of fabric I used, I had decided to make the end part of light, I decided I would tweak this to play with the to sculpt almost 80 per cent of the the garment (on the left shoulder) after texturing. layers mode or add wrinkles manually. On the other just by shaping a subdivided plane adjustment nodes to and then giving it thickness. 05 WSEOCROKNDOANRTYHFEORMS it, to enhance the worn quality of the objects. 03 POSING Here I imported the character’s For the posing, 5 Advanced body to ZBrush and cleaned up the 02b & 03 Skeleton was the simple but very broken forms affected by posing, handy rigging and skinning system then re-sculpted the areas in need 72 3D WORLD that was used (animationstudios. (mostly parts that stayed outside of com.au/advanced-skeleton). It the clothes, also a bit on the form of is free and its auto skinning works the shoulders). well. You may need to do a bit of manual clean-up though, but the The eyes were the only part skeleton system does the main job. of the character with completely hand-sculpted and painted I left the eyes in their neutral textures. I modelled a base mesh positions (looking forward) at this in Maya and sculpted the textures stage, since I needed eyebrows and further in ZBrush. lashes to be done to help me with visualising the expression. I should mention that this wasn’t where the sculpting manipulation 04 PRIMARY LIGHTING of the body (specifically the face) I started with one main light finished. I was constantly changing above the head of the character, some of the shapes after every tilted slightly down to the face to test render to get closer to the achieve the direction of the main reference, and it continued even shadows in the reference photo. after finishing the hair. The direction of the eyes and shape of the eyelids

Model a detailed, realistic character 04a 04b had a very specific look and feel to it, and I wanted to mimic that. 06 TEXTURES (DISPLACEMENT, COLOUR & ROUGHNESS) The displacement for the face and body was a mixture of XYZ maps and some added layers in ZBrush, like tiny wrinkles and moles or scar- shaped marks. I tried to bring down the intensity of it so it could be believable for a 3-4 year old child. The face and body colour included these layers: XYZ texture projection; a layer for the veins around the eyes; four different layers to add four different splashed dots to the burnt areas of the face and body; and some HSV nodes with painted mask added to manipulate the colour tones in the specific areas of the face or body. For example, to add a more green tone to the forehead, or redness to the cheeks. For the ground, I projected the reference photo on it for basic colour and information about the position and placements of the glossy or rough areas. Later I added a luminosity node to this layer and used the exported result mixed with a displacement map to build up the roughness map in Maya. For the jacket, I exported the layers related to sheen colour and layers holding the strains separately in order to give me more control later in Maya, using it in a Layered Shader node. 05 3D WORLD 73

Model a detailed, realistic character 06a 06c 06b 07a 07b The basket colour was a base tileable texture and many layers of painted strains on top, and two layers of different colours for mud. The mud layers were also exported separate from the other layers for greater look-development control. For the face roughness I made an RGB map and put the inner side of the eyelids, lips, and some areas of the face each in one channel, and used this map in combination with XYZ maps coming from Mari. 07 XGEN WORKS There are four XGen collections in the scene: head, scarf, basket and pants. The head collection includes seven descriptions, three for the forehead, one for brows, one for peach fuzz and two others for upper and lower eyelids. Splitting the forehead hair into three descriptions helped me to build more exact forms, existing in the concept without needing to paint maps to separate the regions of the hair. The modifiers for this description were two layers of clumping, one noise to give the hair volume in the middle of the length. One other noise gives the tips a bit of fluff, and a third one to build the flyaway hairs. To make the flyaways I used a very efficient method, developed by Jesus Fernandez (youtube. 74 3D WORLD

Model a detailed, realistic character com/c/JesusFernandez14) to add the saturation and contrast inside Polypaint some sliders for Mask, Frequency Mari by adding HSV nodes to and Magnitude to give greater some of the layers in the texture. With this project I tried control over strays. I then reset all the lights of the to be completely free scene again according to the new and do some of the The scarf included three textures, to achieve the amount steps my way. I used expressions: one for general fuzz; of contrast and saturation in the ZBrush’s Polypainted the second was made up of guides reference photo (especially on the projection of the shaped like knots and placed one face of the character). reference photo a by one; and the third one for the lot in the process of scarf’s end threads. I added an 09 COMPOSITING texturing in Mari. amount of offset and curl to the At this level I already had the first clumping modifier of the last lights and colours of the scene as description, to make the threads close as I could get to my original twist along each strand. concept. So I did very few changes for the compositing, which was 08 FINALISE THE LIGHTS just adding Specular pass to some Performing test renders areas of the face (tip of the nose, at this level resulted in an overly under the eyes and cheeks) for the contrasty and saturated image, still images in Photoshop. I applied and the scene’s lighting made it a Zdepth pass to the final video and difficult to judge. So I set only a all the still images, then to finish I low-contrast HDR, turned the other added the background. • lights off and tried to manipulate 08 BEFORE FINAL CORRECTIONS AFTER FINAL CORRECTIONS 07c 09 3D WORLD 75

Your CG problems solved Practical tips and tutorials from pro artists to improve your CG skills Antony Ward SOFTWARE: CINEMA 4D | INSYDIUM FUSED Be it game development, rigging or recording in-depth HOW CAN I CREATE A BESPOKE courses for his YouTube channel, Antony TREE WITH CINEMA 4D? boasts experience in most areas of 3D. www.antcgi.com Ben Helms, Devon Mike Griggs Mike Griggs replies Mike Griggs is a digital content creator with over Creating natural plant life Taiao enables artists to create natural two decades of experience creating VFX within Cinema 4D has in the networks. This is most obviously seen in and CGI for a wide range of clients. past required the use of a few dedicated plants and trees, which are available as www.creativebloke.com and expensive plugins, or finding the either base templates or pre-existing plant correct textured asset. Many of these setups, fully loaded with all the geometry Glen Southern systems are set by the definition of what and materials required to get an artist up Glen runs SouthernGFX, a a tree or plant ‘should’ be, which makes and running in seconds. small Cheshire-based studio these assets and plugins effectively one- specialising in character and creature hit wonders. As the Taiao toolset has been built design. He has been using and training Insydium, the creators of the Fused set for use only within Cinema 4D, it uses ZBrush in the UK for over 15 years. of plugins for Cinema 4D, have realised a standard set of instruction sets – for youtube.com/c/SouthernGFX/videos that a bespoke plant life system could example ‘Instance/Render Instance/Multi have a wide range of creative benefits for Instance’ for geometry replication – and Pietro Chiovaro the artist, especially when combined with can also work with other tools whether Pietro is a freelance 3D their pre-existing X-Particles, TerraformFX created by Insydium or native to Cinema artist and YouTuber. An and MeshTools plugins, and have realised 4D with the familiar Object Manager - expert in the creation of game assets this with the release of Taiao – a new Parent/Child relationship. and environments, he shares many of toolset for creating procedural plant and his creations on his channel. tree networks. For many artists who just need a www.pietrochiovaro.com quick plant or tree blowing in the wind animation, Taiao will become their go-to GET IN TOUCH EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO [email protected] 76 3D WORLD

Your CG problems solved EXPERT TIP ANIMATE THE TREE USING FORCES The Forces tab of the ‘toPlant’ object allows animation such as wind to be quickly applied. When the ‘Enable’ box is ticked, the default animation sets the tree moving as if in a gentle breeze. Increase the Wind Strength to create hurricanes or storms. STEP BY STEP DESIGN A TREE WITH INSYDIUM’S TAIAO 01 02 Taiao from Insydium 03 04 allows Cinema 4D artists to easily create procedural 01SET UP THE SCENE 03 CREATE LEAVES This tutorial is created in Maxon  When the trunk and branches have plant and tree systems Cinema 4D R25 with Insydium Fused 2022 been created, a leaf layer can be added Q1. To make a plant in Taiao, first access using the ‘Add Part’ dropdown. Leaves in resource. It has a dedicated ‘Forces’ tab it from the Insydium menu, where there Taiao initially look like rectangles. Using that enables an artist to dial in natural is a range of choices. There are three the Leaf Shape options in toPlant>Plant wind-driven motion with a simple tick in a main creation options: ’toPlant’, ’toTree’ Layers>Geometry, a profile can be created checkbox, and these forces can then be and ’toGrass’. For this tutorial select the using a spline curve. The ‘Main’ section modified in order to suit the requirements generic ‘toPlant’ object, which will be of this attribute’s palette has controls for of the shot. added to the scene’s Object Manager. setting different parameters such as leaf Make sure to save the scene to a chosen curl and variation. While the presets of existing plant life file directory. will be really useful for artists, creating 04 ADD MATERIALS a bespoke tree can be managed easily 02 BUILD THE TREE  While there is a range of preset within a Taiao ‘toPlant’ object in the Plant To make the trunk and branches trees and plants that come with Taiao, Layers tab, where trunks, branch layers, of the tree, with the ‘toPlant’ object for this tree the materials were added leaves and flowers can be added and selected in the Object Manager and in from the Cinema 4D asset library, as they modified at an artist’s whim. the ‘Plant Layers’ tab, use the ‘Add Part’ were not explicitly shaped to any specific dropdown to first add a trunk and then geometry. The materials are then added As ever, Insydium make their Fused as many layers of branches as you deem to the respective tree geometry via drag collection a near essential purchase for appropriate; in this example three are and drop in the Plant Layers>Materials any Cinema 4D artist wanting to take their created. There are many options in the tab. The material for the trunk and creative toolset to the next level, with a Main attributes tab to adjust both the branches does need to be applied to each range of powerful, easy-to-use tools and trunk and branches to the required shape. branch layer. plugins available. 3D WORLD 77

Your CG problems solved EXPERT TIP YOU CAN KEEP ADJUSTING AS LONG AS YOU NEED TO, EVEN CHANGING COLOUR! 78 3D WORLD The power in this system is that you can keep adjusting at any time. Mess with settings like length, twist, clump, thickness, and you can even keep on changing the colour using the normal painting tools in ZBrush.

Your CG problems solved SOFTWARE: ZBRUSH HOW DO I GENERATE HAIR AND BEARDS USING ZBRUSH? Emma Lodge, UK Glen Southern replies STEP BY STEP ADD FIBERMESH AS A BEARD TO A HEAD SCULPT Hair, beards and fur have 01 02 always been a hot ticket item for CG artists. Programs like Maya, Cinema 03 04 4D, Blender and 3ds Max have all featured the ability to add hair either natively or via 01ATODDGUAIDMEATSHKE BEARD 03 CBOEAMRBDAANSDNGEREODOEMD THE a plugin for quite some time now. A lot of people seem to forget that ZBrush has a The first step is to decide where the beard At this point you can start to comb and feature called FiberMesh that enables you is going to go. Add a mask in ZBrush by groom the beard to the style that suits to make really realistic hair and therefore holding down CTRL as you draw on the your model. To access all the grooming beards. You can’t do any animation with model with the Standard brush. This will tools hold down B for Brush, the G for the hair once you have made it (at least apply a mask anywhere that you paint. Groom and all the brushes will be isolated not inside ZBrush), but you can export it The beard will only add hair where you from the main pack. Now just try a few to other programs as geometry and then have masked; the mask is where the roots different brushes to see what effect they even convert that geometry to curves to are, so the hair flows from this area. have on the beard. guide hairs. The module for creating hair is found 02 OCHROSOTSAERTAFTREOMMPLSACTREASTTCYHLE 04 BFIPNRARLERNEDSEURLTTO SEE THE in the Geometry panel. The process is quite simple but has lots of parameters to Once you have a mask defined you can go Now hit Accept and the beard will become configure once you have created the hair into the FiberMesh panel that you can find a new Subtool underneath the head sculpt (we will do a beard in this exercise). After under Geometry tab in the Tool panel. that you created it on. You can still mess masking out the relevant areas, FiberMesh Use Lightbox>Fibers to access the pre- with the beard even now and the normal uses that mask as a guide of where to made templates for all types of different manipulation tools like Move will work on it place the roots or hair follicles. You can hair and beards. Choose something that if needed. Now use the BPR render button literally start with nothing and make the hangs down already and is a little wispy. to see how the beard looks rendered. To hair from scratch, but Pixologic were kind When you have chosen the one that works make it more convincing, make sure you enough to give us a whole load of pre- best for you, go to Modifiers and adjust a are using a Skin Shader material or it may made hair and fur types, and they can be few parameters. look odd. accessed from the top of the FiberMesh menu. It helps to use one of these pre- made types and simply adjust the colour, length, twist, thickness, taper and amount of hairs to your liking. Once you have one of the pre-made hair samples selected in Lightbox, you can apply it to the head. You need to remember that what you see from now on is an approximation or preview of the hair you are trying to make. Once you have finished all your tweaks you need to remember to hit ‘Accept’, and that then makes the final version. This is created as a Subtool below the model you did the masking on. After it’s been applied you are able to assess the modifiers in the same panel. This is where the fun begins as there are more settings here than I can describe. Pay particular interest to the ‘coverage’ which gives you the volume, the colour for both root and tip, the length and also the gravity – unless you want fly-away hair that is! 3D WORLD 79

Your CG problems solved WATCH THE VIDEO SOFTWARE: SUBSTANCE DESIGNER https://bit.ly/3D-world-digitalhumans HOW CAN I CREATE A PARQUET FLOOR MATERIAL USING SUBSTANCE DESIGNER? Judith Smith, Toronto Pietro Chiovaro replies I will show you an easy and colour to the substance. A Blend filter is with the second Levels filter. Now we can powerful way to create the key element that will help us to mix the link this Levels filter to the Roughness and a parquet material using Substance two noise generators. Height output of the material. Designer. This material is only composed of a few elements, but the end result can Next we have to link all of these Now we can focus on the parameters, be incredible. For this type of substance, elements together. First of all, we need so starting with the Brick Generator, I set I selected the Physically Based (Metallic/ to mix the Directional Noise with the these values for the Brick size: X 2 and Y Roughness) Graph Template and Brick Generator using the Blend filter. 8. Then I set the Bevel to X 0.08 and Y 0.2, deleted the Metallic output since it is not In particular we have to link the Brick and the Slope to X -0.15, Y 0.09. I also set necessary for this material. Generator to the Foreground input of Variation to 0.08 since in real life nothing Now we can start to add the nodes the Blend filter, and the Levels filter of the is perfect, and lastly I set the Offset to necessary for this material, so from the Directional Noise to the Background and 0.72. Regarding the Levels filter linked Substance Designer library we need: the Opacity input of the Blend filter. Now we to the Directional Noise, I decreased Directional Noise, and the Brick Generator can link the Blend filter to the Gradient the contrast of the noise and made it pattern (these two are the main elements Map, and consequentially we can link this brighter. For the Levels filter linked to the of the texture), the Height to Normal filter to Base Color output. Roughness and Height output, I slightly World Units filter (required for the creation increased the contrast. of the normal map – alternatively you can Then we can link the Blend filter to use the Normal filter), two Levels filters, the Height to Normal values (or just the The last step is to set the Gradient Map and a Gradient Map filter that will give Normal filter) and link it to the Normal colour – for this project I created a shade output, and last but not least we have to of brown a bit brighter at the beginning of repeat this process linking the Blend filter the gradient. The Directional Noise let me add the imperfections in the shape of the parquet, and add the wood vein 80 3D WORLD

Your CG problems solved Buying a portable device is a great investment for a travelling artist, but with so many to choose from, which is better suited for you? SOFTWARE: N/A WHICH IS BETTER FOR AN ARTIST WHEN TRAVELLING, AN IPAD PRO OR A MOBILESTUDIO PRO? David Green, Cork Antony Ward replies You’re a digital artist who paint, sketch or sculpt on the go, then to all your desktop applications, then I not only works with painting I would recommend the iPad Pro. It’s a would look at the MobileStudio Pro. Yes, applications, but you also sculpt from time great device for thrashing out ideas and it’s bulkier and not as easy to work with on to time too. You use a beefed-up desktop you can quite happily sit with it in your lap the go, but you can take your work with which is perfect for this kind of work, while on the sofa, sat on a train or even you and continue in the same operating especially when paired with a graphics by a pool. The downside would be that it system and applications. tablet, but what about those times when uses a unique operating system, so there you want to work away from the desk? would be a bit of work involved in getting Now these are just some general views Well, these days you have a lot of options any work you do back onto your desktop and obviously there are more factors to to help unshackle you from your office, the and into your commonly used apps. consider, but once you nail down the problem is they can be very expensive. So device’s intended use and look at what which device do you invest in? Alternatively, if you’re looking for more best suits your needs, it will make the For me, the more artist-friendly and of a mobile office which gives you access choice a little easier. compact options would be either Apple’s iPad Pro or Wacom’s MobileStudio Pro. EXPERT TIP Now these are two different beasts so we can’t compare them directly, so what you WHAT ABOUT BATTERY LIFE? need to do is decide how you are going to Battery life does play a huge role in these devices and in this respect the iPad Pro use them – this will then help you decide wins out. With the MobileStudio Pro I do find that I keep it plugged in, not just to which is the right option for you. keep the power topped up but to also improve its performance. If you’re looking for something which is light, easy to use and will allow you to 3D WORLD 81

News and views from around the international CG community vfxNova is known for its work A DAY IN THE LIFE OF… on blockbuster movies and acclaimed TV series, as well Victor Wong as creative art installations After launching Hong Kong’s VFX industry, the award-winning director has wowed audiences on Asia’s biggest productions NAME grew up in a family and colleagues, or sometimes ancient Chinese paintings to life Victor Wong from my dreams! Then I answer using a new fluid dynamics system. I that ran a shop email for vfxNova, Tokyo Toys, my JOB TITLE selling traditional company specialising in creating 11:00am Now we check in Visual effects supervisor, papercraft work collectibles from Japan (working with clients to discuss our latest cross-media artist, in Hong Kong with the creations of Osamu progress: overnight tests (usually NFT artist and acquired a DIY skill set. Tezuka is a lifelong dream come these are particle simulations or After obtaining an engineering true!), and for my personal work shots with lots of elements), new STUDIO degree from the University of in fine art with my robotics and AI concept discussions, and shot vfxNova digital Washington in Seattle, I trained painting creation, ‘A.I. Gemini’. reviews. We also have a campus productions Ltd to find solutions by research and in mainland China, so I’ll check in analysis. Then I set up my own 09:30am Off to the studio, where with that team as well to see how LOCATION VFX company in the early 90s I hold a daily brief with project they’re progressing (they work on Hong Kong and began developing a cultural supervisors to review production a lot of wire removal for martial vision to pioneer emerging digital challenges and solutions. We arts films!). I finish with a call to ABOUT creative media and explore new always have to put our brains our partner in Los Angeles, Butcher Victor’s artistic creations artistic potential for film. Today, together to create things that have Bird Studios, to talk about creature include visual effects, I’m known for intertwining never been done before. Maybe we design for a new horror feature. In painting, digital technology and beauty for both need to develop hundreds of CG between meetings, I tend to flowers animation, sculpture and my VFX and my new media art. structures that recreate a portside in our studio’s mini-garden. public installations. city from 1860s China, create a 08:30am I wake up and go out for full-sized hot air balloon to fly 13:00pm I generally take lunch WEB breakfast while reviewing social people virtually over a 360-degree in my private office so I have time www.vfxnova.com media. I’ll also outline ideas from LED view of Hong Kong, or bring to play music and daydream. This late-night discussions with friends 82 3D WORLD

vfxNova worked on visual A day in the life effects for the action movies Rise of the Legend (above) and BE CURIOUS AND BE PREPARED The Bravest (below) Learn the importance of “how things work” “WE’VE DEVELOPED A NEW AI ALGORITHM THAT WILL ADJUST LIGHTING BASED ON How did you get started in CG and VFX? MUSIC PLAYING ALONG A 200M STREET” After graduating from college, I started a computer graphics workshop in Hong Kong exercises a completely different part of which indicates the health of Hong with a Mac II doing photo-retouching. In my brain and helps me work through the Kong’s businesses. I call this ‘FinArt!’ 1991 I purchased a 4D35 Silicon Graphics day’s creative missions. You might hear Computer Workstation installed with me playing a Beatles tune on my upright 15:00pm On-site visits are next. Now SOFTIMAGE 3D and created Hong Kong’s piano or strumming a classic rock song we see if our modelling of lighting for a first 30-second full CGI TV commercial. Since on one of the guitars from my collection. new installation we created with giant then, I’ve created animation, CG or VFX My current favorite is a 1918 Gibson L-1 colourful, translucent butterflies (some work for over 1,000 TV commercials and 120 Archtop Acoustic that sounds amazing the size of a small car!) is correct. It’s feature films! Now I’ve expanded into the art even though it’s a hundred years old! like the Tanis map room scene, where world, but I still apply many of the techniques Indiana Jones holds up the Staff of Ra I honed for VFX, ranging from LED motion 14:00pm Now I get to work hands-on and the sun sends a beam through it. At sculptures to AI-influenced robot painting. with colleagues (we have around 150 night the butterflies will light up with artists at vfxNova) and experiment thousands of LEDs. We’ve developed Your work spans paintings, sculptures, tech- with new art creations. Right now, a new AI algorithm that will adjust art, animation, film and AI. How does this we’re working on a major installation lighting automatically based on music inspire your VFX work? Do you think digital for HKSB that will involve huge playing along the 200 metre-long street. artists should explore all forms of art? LED screens with art created by AI “VFX is art”. I’ve promoted this idea since the algorithms influenced by the ebb 17:30pm It’s time to take happy hour early 90s here in Hong Kong, when we began and flow of financial data. I wanted with colleagues, friends and clients. applying CGI to realise the aesthetics of our something that would combine I love taking the occasion of eating imaginations. However, to create superb Chinese natural philosophy with together to build better relationships. visuals, we do need some artistic ground market progress. The result is the first Then it’s back to the studio for late-night truth, whether from paintings, sculptures, Chinese ink painting directly tied to the inspiration. I try to finish by midnight. new tech effects or historical findings. It is performance of the Hang Seng Index, Or 1am. Or 3am. important for us to understand the reasons behind art’s beauty. For example, the semi-reflective, semi-transparent pigment treatment that da Vinci applied to Mona Lisa’s eyes teaches us how to create a realistic rendering of a CG character’s eyes. What advice would you give to those just starting out? As a VFX artist or CGI animator, you must do more than sit in front of a computer; you must also reach out to the real world. Being curious about “how things work” is the foundation of becoming a great animator or artist. For instance, I love recreating the dynamics of natural lighting in CG, but I’ve also continued to learn about lighting in the physical world, having spent the last two decades photographing objects, people and landscapes with a pinhole camera. What do you enjoy most about your role? Creating or understanding something that I haven’t thought about, encountered, experienced, or imagined before! If you take a walk around vfxNova, you’ll notice that we’re always experimenting with new technologies. A modified 3D printer might be extruding an exotic shape, and then a few feet away you might notice a Chinese ink painting in progress, with an AI creating the brushstrokes. This is also my role: pushing the boundaries of not just our work but our art! 3D WORLD 83

Robert Anderberg INDUSTRY INTERVIEW dot big bang: democratising game development We sat down with the CEO of ControlZee, Robert Anderberg, to discuss the multiplayer project that is rewriting what it means to be a game developer ot big bang is an online d multiplayer gaming platform looking to take game development by storm. Created by California-based company ControlZee, the project is striving to open up game development to anyone that has access to a browser and an internet connection, for free – effectively democratising the development of video games. It started in 2016 as a hobby project that veteran gamedev Robert Anderberg and artist Jon Stockwell worked on in their spare time. Now, just six years later, the company has 19 employees, has been through several successful rounds of funding, and has 1.1M plays on the Hub World welcome area, which launched in October 2021. Robert Anderberg, CEO of ControlZee, answers our questions. What does “the democratisation of game development” mean? And why is it important? In short, democratising game development means creating game development tools that anyone can use, and making those tools available everywhere, for anyone! Right now, game development feels out of reach for most people. It feels like something you need a lot of coding knowledge to know how to do. It’s better 84 3D WORLD

Robert Anderberg than it used to be, of course – tools have always believe that unless you’re creating a new game engine from scratch that’s come up over the last few years that make it AAA games or doing low-level console perfectly matched to the capabilities of the easier to develop a game. But we wanted to optimisation, then you aren’t a ‘real’ browser. That way anyone can build games go a step further, and create tools that could developer. But honestly, none of that is true. that run at 60fps, and feel really solid with be used by anyone, on any system. We’ve seen some incredible titles over the no lag or issues – just fun. last decade that boast simple graphics and Accessibility in game development is amazing gameplay (like Minecraft) that Why is it important that we provide always going to be vitally important. The have been super successful. gamers with the opportunity to try more people we can empower to create game development themselves? games, the more diverse and inclusive the Additionally, web browsers have become Allowing players to also create games industry becomes. extremely capable over the last few years, gives them an opportunity to learn and and we’re now in a position where you can understand the development process. Game How does dot big bang make game create very impressive, solid games in a development is also a fantastic place to learn development more accessible? browser. Which, ten years ago, would have a variety of skills, from allowing people to dot big bang runs in a web browser, so it’s sounded impossible. express their creative ideas, to storytelling, accessible in places and on systems that programming, 3D modelling and working other game development tools aren’t. In What are the challenges of browser- in teams. addition to Windows, Mac and Linux, the based development? whole platform will run on Chromebooks, Browsers do, of course, have limitations. What do you foresee the results being shared computers, phones and tablets, with Mainly in the amount of access you get no install required to get started. to the capabilities of the device they’re from widespread game development? running on, and in performance, compared How is browser-based development seen to a native application. The game development industry is in the industry? For the most part, it’s seen positively. If you tried to take the same approach currently only accessible to people who But I’d be lying if I said it was entirely as you would developing a native game on positive. There is disdain for browser- console or PC with a browser, you’d likely have the right equipment, skills, funds and based development. Some developers will make something that feels slow and glitchy. So we took a different approach. We built backing to create games. We hope that by Left: The full release providing excellent tools that run on a huge is set to also include easy-to-sculpt terrain range of devices, many more people will be building, in full 3D able to create games, and the industry will Below: Users can build their own game worlds, become more inclusive and diverse. and with multiplayer editing friends can join It won’t be as easy as just providing the to collaborate on these worlds together tools. We’ll also need to provide guidance for those who’d love to take the plunge into development, but don’t know where to start. That’s where education comes in. We’ve actually started developing a formal syllabus for schools, and currently have over 500 educators signed up to our programme. It’ll use dot big bang as a classroom tool to teach children game development! FYI You can try dot big bang’s public alpha at dotbigbang.com. Head to dotbigbang.com/education to sign up for info on the education programme. 3D WORLD 85



PROJECT INSIGHT Photorealism under the surface Photorealism Opposite: This challenging under the surface project resulted in the small team of four delivering around Norwegian post-production agency Rebel Unit talk collaborating 100 full CGI shots for the film on Scandinavia’s heaviest VFX feature in history orwegian natural disaster The main challenge for Theo and his industry-standard formats like openEXR team involved creating photorealistic CGI and Alembic.” N movie Nordsjøen (‘The North for six minutes of film with such a small Sea’) has been acclaimed crew. “One of the ways Fusion helped us out As a small team, Rebel Unit prefer to for its visual effects. With a was with the atmospherics and particles,” keep their workflow toolset as lean as says Theo. “It meant we didn’t have to run possible, yet capable of the level of output ¤6.5million budget, the film a full simulation, export and render the demanded from feature film productions. pipeline. It’s sort of a hybrid thing, semi “We are big fans of free and open-source is Scandinavia’s heaviest VFX feature in real-time and game-engine like, but also 2D software,” says Theo. “Our main VFX and comp wise.” pipeline consists of Linux workstations, history, and while digitally composed, the a cluster of nodes running Proxmox and With a small VFX team, strong rendernodes as LXC containers. We also themes portrayed in the movie tell a story teamwork was required to ensure the use Afanasy/CGRU for distributing Fusion, of a reality that is far from virtual. Directed by John Andreas Andersen (The Quake, King of Devil’s Island) and with cinematography by Pål Ulvik Rokseth, the film was produced by Fantefilm Fiksjon “WE WERE A SMALL CREW OF FOUR WORKING ON THE PROJECT FROM START TO and distributed by Nordisk Film Norge. FINISH. IT WAS A CHALLENGE” The film opens on Christmas Eve Theo Flo-Groeneboom, founder and VFX supervisor, Rebel Unit 1969, as the government announces the discovery of the world’s largest offshore oil platform. The thriller explores the all-too- real consequences of 50 years of offshore drilling, and the results are disastrous. Theo Flo-Groeneboom, founder and VFX supervisor at Bergen-based Rebel Unit, led a project to create all of the CGI underwater scenes, from the sinking lifeboat to the robot searching through the wreckage for delivery looked both flawless and realistic. Nuke, Blender and Houdini outputs. Not to “This definitely marked a new high in survivors. Theo and his team utilised Fusion terms of the amount of output we pushed forget DaVinci Resolve for editorial work ourselves to deliver,” says Theo. “We were Studio to create the larger-than-life 3D a small crew of four working on the project and finishing. We prefer to keep the amount from start to finish. It was a challenge.” effects featured in the film. Lasting eight of tools we use quite limited, as we focus To ensure that their output and months, the team at Rebel Unit delivered workflow were seamless, the team at Rebel on having a tight integration and workflow Unit adopted a firm quality control process. around 100 shots of full CGI, equating to six This included regularly updating edits between them.” with temporary shots all the way through minutes of footage. A project with this level to using contact sheets to check for visual When it came to creative inspiration, consistency and technical issues. of ambition wasn’t without its challenges. Theo and his team worked closely with the Rebel Unit composited 2D elements in “One of the biggest we faced was Nuke, while Fusion remained pivotal for film’s director John Andreas Andersen and all 3D effects. “I’ve been using Fusion since ensuring consistency in quality and output. 2003 and continued to incorporate it into DoP Pål Ulvik Rokseth, in addition to the the workflow when I founded the studio in Fusion’s standalone nodal approach meant 2016,” explains Theo. “It was instrumental production and editorial teams. “We would in creating the soft, dreamy underwater we could duplicate the same content across aesthetic. Especially any aspects relating to bounce ideas back and forth to see what 3D, particle effects and atmospherics. multiple shots,” reveals Theo. “It’s easy to would work in the cut before starting full “Furthermore, we were able to get most set something up and tweak the variables on of our crew up to speed in Fusion thanks to production,” explains Theo. “Early on we its intuitive toolset, and because it adopts a shot-by-shot basis using a ‘master’ list. had some creative talks about the overall “For example, we used a master template vision and looked to classic masterpieces composition for all of the atmospheric like The Abyss, Leviathan, Deep Rising and effects, from depth fog particles to floating Sphere. But we also had access to hours and small interactive particulates. of deep water robotic footage taken from “Once the master shot was locked down, the North Sea itself. It was a good mix of we populated all of the other shots with the creative choices and hard realism.” exact same setup, only changing the camera FYI Released in Norway on 29 October 2021, as of 11th January 2022 Nordsjøen is and the geometry for the scene. It made it very easy to tweak effects across many shots now widely accessible across Apple TV, at the same time.” Google Play and ViaPlay. 3D WORLD 87

Kuban Altan Right: A node graph in Zero Density’s real-time compositing software, Reality Engine Below: Real-time compositing can make a huge difference to the look of a live television show PRO THOUGHTS Welcome to the golden age of real-time compositing Kuban Altan, VP of R&D at Zero Density, reveals how real-time compositing will change the future of how we make entertainment ack in 2016, Zero Density “WE WILL SEE THE END OF MASSES OF EQUIPMENT BEING USED TO CREATE LIVE B was a tight-knit team with BROADCASTS OF PRODUCTIONS” a very big idea. There were less than ten people working Kuban Altan, VP of R&D, Zero Density on the company’s NAB booth that year, but they wanted to demo start-up was a huge undertaking, but before will the future bring as more companies something that had never been done long, the Zero Density team began to see enter into virtual production’s golden era? before. Their aim was to show that node- the results of their labour: their NAB demo Kuban Altan reveals his predictions. based compositing could work in real was surrounded by curious onlookers. time, all with just two things: software POST WILL ALWAYS HAVE ITS PLACE and a computer. “People would ask us where we kept the “It’s important to understand that at racks of other equipment needed to run the Real-time compositing has many benefits. It the time, game engines were starting to means directors can see and edit photoreal render more photorealistic graphics than comp and green screen keying!” 3D graphics directly on set, so if they want broadcast engines, which were all based Altan continues. “Together, to change the colour of a backdrop or on code built back in the ‘90s and early our team had shown that make rain that lasts all day – it can be done ‘00s,” reveals VP of R&D at real-time compositing interactively even during the shoot. This Zero Density, Kuban Altan. was possible without makes for a far more collaborative workflow “Everyone in the industry high-tech processing as everyone can make key decisions fast, was asking the same power, and it was one and get instant feedback on what the final question: how could of the most memorable result will look like. my $50,000 broadcast moments of my career.” render engine provide Of course, a lot has That said, I don’t believe real-time worse graphics and happened since Zero compositing will eliminate post-production photorealism than a Density’s 2016 NAB demo. anytime soon. This is particularly true $500 PlayStation?” Today, almost everyone has when it comes to the film industry, where According to Kuban, heard of virtual production, workflows and budgets favour long post- that seemed like a production work. The most important thing question Zero Density’s and many artists have worked on a to remember is that even if you’re shooting team could help answer. virtual studio set. The idea of compositing in real time, final adjustments can always They decided to code something real and photoreal virtual worlds together be done in post, and real time means artists new by downloading Unreal Engine’s in real time is no longer so radical. But what source code and modifying it for real-time, node-based compositing. Doing this all as a 88 3D WORLD

will be able to make many more iterations without waiting to see the results. MORE ARTISTS WILL LEARN UNREAL ENGINE With UE5 around the corner and the promise of better rendering, we’re seeing more 3D artists than ever before starting to use Unreal Engine. This comes with huge benefits, like the numerous tools creators can benefit from – including our real-time compositing software Reality Engine, which uses Unreal Engine as its renderer. For anyone curious to learn about real- time compositing, I would recommend downloading the free community edition of Reality Engine and heading to our YouTube channel for some quickstart videos to begin experimenting with. WE’LL SEE THE END OF RACKS OF HARDWARE Finally, while I don’t believe we’ll see the end of post-production, we will see the end of masses of equipment being used to create live broadcasts of productions like sports or live events. Soon, more manufacturers will develop their IP into GPU code rather than develop physical boards or boxes. That means as an industry, we’ll be focusing on software rather than on hardware; connecting nodes in the compositor rather than cables in the rack. FYI Find out more at zerodensity.tv and youtube.com/c/zerodensitytv 3D WORLD 89

Mac Studio We explore the latest software and hardware tools to see if they are worth your time or money AUTHOR PROFILE HARDWARE REVIEW Matt Hanson Matt has been a Mac Studio technology journalist PRICE From £1,999 / $1,999 | COMPANY Apple | WEBSITE apple.com for well over a decade, writing for publications T he Mac Studio With an M1 Ultra installed, the Those claims are certainly such as T3, MacFormat is Apple’s latest Mac Studio is one of the most impressive, but not only is the and Creative Bloq. workstation aimed powerful machines Apple has M1 Ultra incredibly powerful, He’s a senior editor of at creative professionals. ever built, coming close to but it’s also incredibly efficient. TechRadar, where he Looking a bit like a Mac mini rivalling the most expensive Again, according to Apple, can be found writing that’s hit the gym, the Mac Mac Pro configuration, all the M1 Ultra offers 90% higher about and reviewing Studio is an impressively while keeping the overall size multi-thread performance laptops, computers, compact PC that comes of the machine small enough compared to a 16-core PC chip monitors and more. with a huge amount of to fit on a desk. But is Apple’s whilst using the same amount creativebloq.com/ power. Remember the latest machine really a viable of energy. author/matt-hanson hugely powerful M1 Max that purchase for most creative powered the MacBook Pro 14- professionals? We tested it to It can also offer faster GPU PROS inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch? find out… performance than the highest- Well, the Mac Studio comes end PC GPU, while using Very powerful with one as well, offering you FEATURES 200W less. What this means in the kind of performance that’ll practice is that running costs Compact design make light work of even the The biggest feature of the are lower (especially important most intense projects. Mac Studio is the raw power it in these times of rising energy Plenty of ports provides, especially with the bills), and the M1 Ultra also Still not enough power? M1 Ultra. According to Apple, runs cooler. This means it’s Silent in use Well, the Mac Studio can also the Mac Studio with the M1 nearly silent in use, without be configured to come with Ultra offers 3.8 times faster the need for fans to spin up CONS the brand-new M1 Ultra chip. CPU performance compared to keep it cool, and it’s also This is essentially two M1 Max to the most expensive 27-inch allowed Apple to make the Expensive chips connected together via iMac. Additionally, it also offers Mac Studio so compact. a low latency, high bandwidth 90% faster CPU performance Non-upgradable connector, turning them than the Mac Pro with a 16- PERFORMANCE into one large M1 Ultra chip, core Intel Xeon processor, Overkill for many people which offers double the cores, and up to 60% faster CPU We ran several creative apps memory and bandwidth of the performance than a Mac Pro on the Mac Studio, and they all 90 3D WORLD already uber-powerful M1 Max. with a 28-core processor. performed exceptionally well. In Photoshop, for example,

Mac Studio “IT’S ONE OF THE NICEST LOOKING WORKSTATION PCs AROUND, AND ITS COMPACT SIZE REALLY IS REMARKABLE” Above: If you go for the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra chip, with a 20-core CPU, 48-core GPU, we loaded up high-resolution there’s another two USB-C 64GB unified memory and 1TB SSD, the asking price jumps to a huge $3,999 / £3,999. While the photos in a few seconds, and ports, and an SD card slot, new M1 Ultra may be tempting, it offers a level of performance that not everyone will need applying effects and filters was making this a great choice for instantaneous. The ‘Neural photographers. Having the SD Engine’ cores of the M1 Max card slot and USB-C ports at and M1 Ultra also allow the the front means they are easy Mac Studio to make use of to access on a desk, though the artificial intelligence (AI) the power button being at the and machine learning tools of back is a bit fiddly. There’s also Photoshop. These tools can Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 for help make what were once wireless connections. tedious and time-consuming tasks quick and simple, and It’s one of the nicest looking Photoshop is a great showcase workstation PCs around, for what AI and machine and its compact size really is learning can bring to creative remarkable, considering what workflows. So, the fact that the the Mac Studio is capable of. Mac Studio can utilise these (and do them well), is a big SHOULD YOU BUY IT? selling point. There’s a lot to love about The Mac Studio also the Mac Studio, particularly coped well with us editing a its excellent performance complex video project in Final and compact design. If you’re Cut Pro, with certain scenes after a powerful and petite incorporating multiple 8K workstation for doing your sources. All while remaining creative work on, you’re not basically silent in use, and it going to find a better machine. also rendered our 3D footage in Houdini incredibly quickly. But is it a product we’d unanimously recommend to DESIGN people? The answer is no. This is a niche device aimed at The Mac Studio’s chassis is a quite a specific audience. If you single aluminium design, with do heavy creative work and a square footprint of 7.7 inches want a small workstation, this and a height of 3.7 inches. is absolutely the right product It can easily be picked up in for you. a single hand, and the size means it won’t take up much However, if you don’t need room on a desk. the kind of performance on offer here – and many people Apple has also adorned simply won’t – then you’d be the Mac Studio with a very better off buying something good selection of ports: four more affordable, such as the Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10GB Mac mini. If you’re looking for Ethernet port, two USB-A something to work on while ports, an HDMI port and audio you travel, a laptop, such as the jack on the back. On the front, 14-inch MacBook Pro, may also be a better bet. THE VERDICT 9.0 APPLE MAC STUDIO The Mac Studio is one of the best creative workstations you OUT OF 10 can buy right now, especially if you’re after high performance in a small form factor. Saying that, it’s overkill for most people and is certainly not cheap. 3D WORLD 91

Studio Display AUTHOR PROFILE HARDWARE REVIEW Matt Hanson Matt has been a Studio Display technology journalist for well over a decade, PRICE From £1,499 / $1,599 | COMPANY Apple | WEBSITE apple.com writing for publications such as T3, MacFormat A pple’s Studio Display for a monitor, the Studio surround sound setup, it offers and Creative Bloq. was launched Display comes with a built-in an impressive level of sound He’s a senior editor of alongside the new webcam and studio-quality that you wouldn’t expect from TechRadar, where he Mac Studio, with both mic array. These days we’re built-in monitor speakers. can be found writing products aimed at creative increasingly relying on video about and reviewing professionals. While the calls, so having a high-quality PERFORMANCE laptops, computers, Mac Studio handles the webcam and microphone monitors and more. computing side of things, the is extremely important, The Studio Display offers a creativebloq.com/ Studio Display, as the name especially for people who are decent level of performance author/matt-hanson suggests, is the screen. working remotely. with bright and vivid image quality, and viewing angles PROS A good monitor is an The webcam is boosted by were particularly good. If you essential tool for creative the inclusion of the A13 Bionic want a monitor to show off Nice design professionals, especially those chip, offering a feature known your work to lots of people Can charge your devices working in visual mediums, and as ‘Center Stage’, which uses at once, this is useful, though there’s some stiff competition artificial intelligence to keep the glossy finish of the Good image quality out there. So is the Studio you centred when using the screen meant that distracting Display worth it? webcam – even if you move reflections were an issue. CONS around. The A13 Bionic also FEATURES works with the built-in speakers But the performance of the Need to spend extra for of the Mac Studio to offer Studio Display didn’t wow us, height adjustment As the price hints at, this isn’t special audio via Dolby Atmos. which is a shame considering No HDR your standard monitor, as While this doesn’t compete the steep asking price. The Limited to 60Hz Apple has packed it with some with a physical Dolby Atmos lack of HDR support is baffling, Webcam issues interesting features. Unusually to be honest, with cheaper 92 3D WORLD

Studio Display Left: The Studio Display has a ‘boxy’ yet stylish look Above: Some may find the ports a bit lacking “IF YOU WANT TO ADJUST THE HEIGHT You can also configure the YOU’LL NEED TO PAY AN EXTRA £400, A Studio Display to come with PRETTY SUBSTANTIAL EXTRA COST” a nano-texture glass, which helps eliminate glare and reflections, but it will cost an additional £250. monitors supporting it. The especially when it’s off, you hidden costs that usually come SHOULD YOU BUY IT? Studio Display also has a max can see just how reflective the included in the price in rival refresh rate of 60Hz, and while display is. Along the top of the products, and that’s true with The Studio Display is an this is pretty standard, there screen are vents for keeping the Studio Display. While the interesting product from are a growing number of the Studio Display cool, and Studio Display does come with Apple, but one we feel is a monitors that support higher, on the back are the ports. This a stand, it only allows you to little bit of a misfire. The lack such as 120Hz and above. is where the Studio Display’s adjust the display by tilting it. of HDR and high refresh rate minimalist design arguably You can also choose to swap support is a blow, and the The webcam quality has goes too far, as rather than a the stand for a VESA mount, limited port selection means also come under scrutiny. range of inputs we’d usually which is useful if you want to this is a monitor that won’t be While we found that it was fine see in a monitor, such as HDMI attach it to a wall or already appealing to many people. in brightly lit situations, many and DisplayPort, there’s just have a stand, but many other people have noticed that the four USB-C ports, and only one monitors come with both Image quality is decent, quality can be quite poor. of them is actually the input. options, which makes Apple’s but for the full effect you’re Apple has stated that this is forced choice between the two going to want to invest in a software issue and a fix is If you’re planning on feel a little tight. the nano-texture screen. The underway. While it’s not a deal plugging in a MacBook or a added AI features are nice, but breaker, it’s still disappointing. Mac, this won’t be an issue, If you want to adjust the inessential, and they only work and a nice feature is that the height of the monitor – and with modern Apple devices. DESIGN Studio Display will also charge why wouldn’t you? – then you’ll your device while it’s plugged need to pay an extra £400, a If you’re a content creator The design is reminiscent of in. The other USB-C ports pretty substantial extra cost that is fully invested in the the 24-inch iMac from last allow you to plug peripherals for something that, once Apple ecosystem, then we can year, but without the choice in, essentially turning the again, comes with most other imagine the Studio Display of colours. As you’d expect, Studio Display into a USB-C monitors for free. being a decent investment – as it’s stylish and minimalist, with hub which is handy. long as you have the cash. For straight edges, and it does other people, though, there’s make us think how nice it But if you have a device that better alternatives out there. would have been to see a 27- uses HDMI for its video output, inch iMac in this design. then you’re going to need an THE VERDICT adaptor, which isn’t included. We had the standard screen 6.0 APPLE STUDIO DISPLAY without nano-texture, and PRICE OUT OF 10 The Studio Display is an interesting screen for creatives, and its image quality is decent, but it doesn’t live up to its One of the biggest criticisms potential. Lack of HDR, limited ports and an underwhelming people have with Apple is the webcam means the asking price will be too high for many. fact that there are sometimes 3D WORLD 93

Chaos Cosmos AUTHOR PROFILE Images © Chaos Paul Hatton After graduating with SOFTWARE ADD-ON REVIEW a first-class computer science degree, Paul Chaos Cosmos Hatton has spent nearly two decades PRICE Free | COMPANY Chaos | WEBSITE cosmos.chaos.com working within the 3D visualisation industry. In recent years there has in conjunction with V-Ray, so The Cosmos library is really been an increasing trend you won’t be able to make use simple to use – the standard PROS in the 3D industry to utilise of this content collection if process of downloading assets and take full advantage of you use a different rendering and then importing them into Easy to use off-the-shelf assets, with package. In that regard, this is your scenes has been replaced developers providing new a way for Chaos Group to tie by a custom-built browser Excellent quality tools that make it easier than you in even further to the which works directly inside ever to download and insert V-Ray ecosystem. your 3D software. This greatly Free assets into your scenes. One speeds up the process of of those examples is the That being said, Cosmos populating your scenes. CONS Chaos Cosmos asset library. integrates seamlessly into a variety of software packages The browser is simple, too. Greater range needed In essence, Cosmos is including 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, As you’d expect, it includes an easy-to-use collection of SketchUp, Maya, Rhino, Revit a search feature that lets you Only limited customisation smart content that spans a and Vantage. This is one of the drill down and return only the of models available variety of categories including major benefits of Chaos; no assets you’re interested in. You models, materials and HDRI matter what software you use can further refine the results V-Ray is required skies. It’s worth noting that all you’ll likely be able to utilise with filter settings. If you just of these assets will only work Cosmos with it. want to browse the assets then IMPORTING HDRIs Cosmos includes a collection of HDRIs that you can use in your scene. When you download the asset and then import it, you’ll find it appear as a light in your scene. By selecting the light and going to its parameters you can make all the normal light adjustments that you would expect. If you want that same HDRI to appear in the background of your scene, then you’ll need to add it in using the ‘Environment and Effects’ dialog box (3ds Max). 94 3D WORLD

Chaos Cosmos Below: Cosmos makes populating a vast Left: Even close-up Cosmos scene an absolute breeze with a wide models and materials stand variety of drag-and-drop models up to scrutiny “IF YOU’RE AN EXISTING V-RAY USER THEN MAKING USE OF COSMOS IS A BIT OF A NO-BRAINER” you can do that by selecting the various rendering options If you’re not a V-Ray don’t come in as 3D models specific categories. These V-Ray provides. When inserting user you’ll need to find an but as references to proxy files. assets seem largely made up and navigating through your alternative content browser This means you can’t directly of third-party content, so you viewport you’ll experience a solution. On the other hand, if edit them. Thankfully, Cosmos may be familiar with some of lower level of detail, ensuring you’re an existing V-Ray user does enable you to ‘Merge’ them already. that your scenes don’t get then making use of Cosmos these proxies into your scene bogged down. But as soon is a bit of a no-brainer; the through the Asset Editor and One of the areas that as you hit render, all of that assets are completely free then fine-tune some of the Cosmos really shines is in its beautiful high-definition after all. Give it a whirl and see settings there, such as the smart capabilities, which is detail will come back and be if it fits into your workflow. As model’s materials. something that we’re coming displayed in your final images the models are V-Ray Proxies to increasingly expect; we want and videos. you’ll need to make sure you’re In the future, as new assets the software we interact with familiar with how they work, are added to this handy library, to work no matter what device All models are render-ready otherwise things might get a Cosmos will no doubt become we’re using it on. An example and render consistently across little confusing. The models a one-stop shop for many of that would be with music, all V-Ray rendering options, V-Ray users. where we want to be able to whether that be on the CPU, play our favourite music on GPU or even in Vision or THE VERDICT our phones, computers and Vantage. This is particularly smart speakers. helpful if you’re presenting 8.0 CHAOS COSMOS your work in multiple different OUT OF 10 Cosmos is a great first step in the right direction for Chaos Cosmos is smart in the mediums. You can be sure that Group. It represents a shift in the industry that has been sense of delivering the same your assets will look the same if gaining ground in recent years – making the creation process content across applications, you’re creating high-end static as quick and straightforward as possible. but tailoring that content to visuals or delivering something suit the exact output. This is more interactive. played out in the viewport and 3D WORLD 95

BISASCUKES Missing an issue of 3D World? Fill the gaps in your collection today! ISSUE 285 MAY 2022 UNREAL LIGHTING  ● Craft dynamic characters with Unreal Engine 5 ● Explore an exciting, open-world Matrix experience ● Model a mech Part 2 – how to rig a multi-jointed robot leg ● Expert guide to building a fantasy world ● VFX supervisor Kevin Baillie talks working with Robert Zemeckis ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! ISSUE 284 APRIL 2022 ISSUE 283 MARCH 2022 ISSUE 282 FEBRUARY 2022 ISSUE 281 JANUARY 2022 CREATE A RENDER IN LOW-POLY NEW YEAR, NEW SKILLS HOW TO BECOME A MOBILE MONSTER BLADE RUNNER MEETS CG ANIME ● Transform a 2D sketch into a ● Grow your CG toolset with our ● Learn how to sculpt incredible ● Delve into the stunning CG low-poly 3D render software guide creatures with Nomad Sculpt animation of Black Lotus ● Beginner’s guide to kitbashing, ● We explore the gorgeous 3DCG ● Veterans of the Harry Potter ● We interview female artists with advice from the experts visuals of anime film Belle movies take a look back at the working at top studios, including ● Behind the scenes on Pixar’s ● Learn how to speed up your game-changing franchise’s huge Aardman and Framestore, about Automaton short workflow for personal projects impact on London’s VFX industry their experiences ● Model a mech in Part 1 of a new ● How to optimise game assets for ● We explore the exciting new ● Behind the scenes of No Time tutorial series Unreal Engine tech that is changing how we work To Die’s action-packed VFX ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! textures, files and more! textures, files and more! textures, files and more! CATCH UP TODAY! Visit Apple Newsstand, Pocketmags and Zinio stores to download a back issue of 3D World to your tablet or computer. 96 3D WORLD

ISSUE 280 CHRISTMAS 2021 ISSUE 279 DECEMBER 2021 ISSUE 278 NOVEMBER 2021 ISSUE 277 OCTOBER 2021 CREATE STUNNING FAN ART THE VFX OF FOUNDATION STYLISED SCENES LUCA ● This month’s cover artist breaks ● Get the lowdown on the Apple ● Work with toon shaders to ● We explore the gorgeous down his workflow process TV+ sci-fi series Foundation produce an amazing stylised scene underwater visuals of Pixar’s Luca ● We explore Unreal Engine with ● Inside Blue Zoo: Part 5, exploring ● Inside Blue Zoo: Part 4, delving ● Inside Blue Zoo: Part 3, how advice and tutorials from the pros the exciting future of real-time tech into lighting and comp workflows to overcome the challenges of ● Discover the incredible VFX of sci-fi ● Stage and compose a shot with ● The secrets behind the VFX of storytelling on a budget blockbuster Dune Pixar’s layout artist Those Who Wish Me Dead ● Go behind the scenes of sci-fi ● Digital Domain talk creating ● Get started in VR: how to utilise ● We test, rate and review a range of drama Intergalactic cinematic-quality TV series this immersive creative medium quality ultra-wide monitors ● How to sculpt fan art in Blender ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! textures, files and more! textures, files and more! textures, files and more! ISSUE 276 SEPTEMBER 2021 ISSUE 275 AUGUST 2021 ISSUE 274 JULY 2021 ISSUE 273 JUNE 2021 LOOK DEV LESSONS: NAIL YOUR STYLE MASTER YOUR CONCEPT ART ZBRUSH SCULPTING HEROES DUKES OF NUKE ● Inside Blue Zoo: Part 2, a special ● Use Gravity Sketch to create ● Experts from the world of toy and ● Discover how Nuke is used by behind-the-scenes look at the incredible sci-fi concept art figure creation reveal their tips and pros working on blockbuster films company’s unique animated projects ● Inside Blue Zoo: Part 1, our new tricks for succeeding in the industry and AAA games to take their work ● Take a deep dive into the world of series exploring the workings of the ● VFX powerhouse Absolute deliver to the next level indie film production renowned animation company a character modelling tutorial ● Behind the scenes of the beautiful ● Discover how the fantasy universe ● Behind the scenes of horror ● Explore the action-packed VFX of VR experience Baba Yaga of videogame Unbound: Worlds drama Lovecraft Country Godzilla vs. Kong ● How to build an animated in- Apart is brought to life ● Model photorealistic humans ● Create amazing scenes in Unreal game asset from scratch ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and ● Downloads Free models and textures, files and more! textures, files and more! textures, files and more! textures, files and more! APPLE NEWSSTAND bit.ly/3dworld-app POCKETMAGS bit.ly/pocket3D ZINIO bit.ly/3dw_zinio 3D WORLD 97

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