oct-...m

CGArena

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5, OCT - NOV 09

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

PHOTOSHOP Making of Homage

GALLERY

Latest 3d inspiring art

INTERVIEW Lee Perry - Smith

MAYA

Making of Where’s She Looking

PHOTOSHOP Making of Clara

3DS MAX

Making of Evil Gremlin

VOL

4

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community Issue Contents

Volume 4, Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

05

Interview

Lee Perry - Smith

12

Photoshop

Making of Homage

18

Winners

Accident Challenge

20

3ds Max

Making of Evil Gremlin

26

Maya

Making of Where’s She Looking

36

Photoshop

Making of Clara

43

Gallery

Showcase of latest 3D art

Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi, India Magazine Cover Image: Joseph S. Langmuir, USA Magazine Design: Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan www.cgarena.com

Page 2

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

Industry News

CGArena Digital Domain to open Vancouver visual effects studio Digital Domain, the visual effects company behind Academy Award-winning films Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, will open a 20,000square-foot studio in Vancouver in early 2010.

The company, based in Venice, California, will hire 50-60 digital artists, mostly Canadian, to get the operation running, with plans to staff the studio with 100 employees by the end of 2010. First project slated for work in Vancouver is the locally shot Tron: Legacy, a Disney production.

The studio will come to Vancouver to take advantage of the British Columbia’s tax credits and to tap into the city’s world-renowned labour pool of digital artists.

Training

Book

Source: www.vancouversun.com

Rhino Opens in Los Angeles Rhino (formerly RhinoFX) is pleased to announce the launch of its new Los Angeles-based studio. The recent move expands Rhino’s reach and follows 18 months of integrating the company’s Connecticut, New York and Tel Aviv offices; transforming it into the Rhino-Gravity Group with offices around the globe. The expanded company will closely collaborate internally on various projects, as well as take a two pronged approach; focusing on film and television projects as a VFX vendor and also serving as an outsourcing solution to the larger houses in the area.

The expansion into LA maintains Rhino’s tradition of operating in markets with feature film incentive programs. The opening of the Connecticut studio owes a large part of its success to that state’s favorable tax credits, and Rhino is confident that similar programs in California will help ensure the long-term success.

Advanced Painter Techniques - If you are interested in developing techniques for using Corel’s Painter, Advanced Painter Techniques is full of the author’s compelling digital paintings with instructions on how you too can create similar effects. You will gain an understanding of the method, reasons, techniques and thought processes behind each detailed image and how they can be adapted to suit your own artistic process. If you have been searching for a resource that contains advanced painter techniques and shows you the tools and the theories that drive their use, this book is your ultimate resource. ISBN - 978-0-470-28493-3

Classical Sculpting- Anatomy and Figurative Art for Digital Sculptors - In this lecture the instructor demonstrates the digital sculpting and rendering of a classical style marble sculpture, showing how accurate anatomy and a dynamic pose combine to produce a professional and aesthetically pleasing result.

In this novel approach, the instructor regularly overlays the model with anatomy images as he sculpts, which makes it easy to visualize how the underlying anatomy relates to the sculpted surface of the model.

www.cgarena.com

Page 3

Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

CGArena

Lee Perry-Smith Q. Hi could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in CG and have you taken some training?

Nothing more powerful, beautiful and striking than the skin curves of a women

My name is Lee Perry-Smith aka Infinite. I’m 29 years old, I own and run Infinite-Realities - a character creation studio based in the UK. I have loved computer graphics since an early age, I owned my first computer at 8 Years old, it was a Commodore VIC20, I then progressed on to an Amiga 500, using Deluxe Paint 1,2,3+ with my first taste of 3D graphics using some basic packages. I then moved on to PC’s and started to learn Newtek’s Lighwave 3.5 back in the early 90’s. To progress into my first job I worked in Factories (as a temp worker) and Mowed lawns as a gardener to be able to afford my own equipment to then teach myself Computer Graphics.

I live and breathe CG every day, it’s my life and I think it always will be. You need to be passionate about your chosen career to be successful. It can eventually pay dividends, especially if you want to leave your mark.

Q. You are working as a freelancer from starting or you have worked with some production house too, please tell us till now how’z your experience as a freelancer?

I have worked for various Computer Games and VFX studios in the past, some part time, some full time and others on a contractual basis. I think you need to start in a studio to learn the trade from others, plus you get the chance to work with some wonderfully talented people along the way. I got my first lucky break back in ‘98 at a small games studio called Pukka Games, the guys that ran the studio were an amazing eclectic wise bunch of programmers and skilled artists. I was lucky to land my first job with these guys - I learnt enough to set up me up for my career from that one job alone.

Since then I have carved a career as a freelancer and I am now acting as a consultant for VFX studios. Being able to work with prestigious studios on a contractual basis instead of for them is a wonderful experience, I am very lucky to be in that situation now.

www.cgarena.com

Page 5

Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

CGArena

Lee Perry-Smith Q. What inspires you to take the CG as a career and how much potential you see in the future?

Quite simply ‘VR’ in whatever form it may take.

Being able to transport yourself into an alternate virtual reality would be a dream come true. Whether that means taking on an alternate personality, walking straight into your favorite film and becoming the lead character or traveling the depths of space or an Alien landscape. Whatever your dream maybe.

I believe that one day CG will full fill this need safely. The blending of CG, 3D, Film and Computer Games technology is inevitable.

I hope we might need some digital avatars in these alternate ‘realities’ : ) Q. What software program(s) do you use for your CG? I use Lightwave, XSI, ZBrush 3.5 and 3DS Max. I adore Lightwave and always have. Especially FPRIME (a plug-in for Lightwave) Q. Your portfolio includes lot’s of highly realistic images of nude female models, any special reason of creating only females and how you justify the artistic nudity?

Quite simply because I love the female form. There is nothing more powerful, striking and beautiful than the skin curves of a woman.

Also I have never understood this big deal with Nudity, we are all brought into this world born naked, with nothing and we are sure not taking anything with us when we go ; ) Q. What is most difficult to model in females…

I haven’t modeled from scratch for over 5 years, I spent about 2-3 years trying to develop a strong working Universal Mesh to be able to re-use over and over again. It has worked very well for the last 5 years on various 3D projects. The hardest parts I found to model were the head, hands and feet. Mainly because it can be hard to stick to Quad modeling on some areas to keep the topology smooth and consistent. www.cgarena.com

Page 7

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

Tutorial

CGArena

Lee Perry-Smith Q. Please tell us about your website ir-models.com and what’s the objective of that website?

The objective of the website is to share high quality character models and video tutorials to a wide audience.

Unlike other 3D model websites we offer industry standard quality models at much more affordable prices and we also offer membership packages. We have a team of 6 Freelancer artists who are the top of their respective fields. They design and create various character models to sell on the site.

Q. Don’t you think availability of high-end models at very affordable prices will be a threat to other freelance modelers or small companies in such type of work?

No I don’t. The models we sell are last generation models.

Our work and models constantly change and evolve. Too many other 3D model sites (not naming names) have missed the opportunity to sell high quality 3D characters. The models we offer are generally quite specific, there is still a large amount of room for others to maneuver and to compete with us and many others in this field.

I think our prices are reasonable.

Q. What other interests do you have that help influence your work and keep you motivated?

Music, Films, Books and Life. Mainly our World and Universe around us. These things really fascinate me. There is an Infinite amount of inspiration to work with : )

Q. Do you have a dream project that you would like to work on?

A real dream would be to work with certain Directors like James Cameron, Ridley Scott or Robert Zemeckis, on new and innovative 3D Movies.

Another secret passion would be combining CG with Robotics, that would be a real dream, being able to be one of the first to combine realistic Digital Doubles with Robotics - that www.cgarena.com

Page 10

would be very cool indeed. Perhaps using Motion Capture techniques and CG rigging to drive actual physical armatures.

Q. Please give us some tips on creating a high realistic models?

Photo reference is the key, you need as much reference as you can get your hands on and study that material well. Multiple angles and lighting conditions also helps a great deal. Match modeling and lighting is also very helpful. Like Photogrammetry or Videogrammetry but you can’t rely on this as your main point of reference but it can be helpful as a base to work from.

Q. Anything you like to add? It is your chance now to state your opinion about anything Ooh this is dangerous ground! Anything? Well you asked : ) World peace... no seriously. Here’s the secret - To get that, do the following: A pinch of Education - A universal code of ethics - The teachings of Science and the abolishment of all religion (to evolve correctly and safely as a species we need stop this nonsense). We might then be able to ask ‘the last question’ ; )

Website: www.ir-ltd.net www.ir-models.com

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Filipe Laurentino, Brazil CGArena Software:

Making of Homage

Photoshop

2D

This is a homage to Bill Watterson and his creation, Calvin & Hobbes, the best cartoon i’ve ever read. In this making I will share my techniques and will walk you through the steps and settings taken from initial concept to the final rendering of the image.

The first thing to do is looking for some reference. In this case I worked with already existent characters, and even if you’re trying to make your own version, it’s good to have some image to work some details, that may be important for the character’s characteristics (or features).

www.cgarena.com

Page 13

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Filipe Laurentino, Brazil CGArena

Making of Homage I made a quick sketch of what I wanted on Photoshop. That was not my first draft; I tried a few times before getting what I wanted. Bear in mind that you will erase some drawings. Do not be afraid of it, it is part of the process. Try it again, and again, and again, until you say “this is what I want”.

I filled the characters with their colors. I always try to work from dark to light, and I started up with colors that are close to the darkest tone.

These are the settings I made for my brushes before starting.

I always work with Opacity and Flow close to 30% and 40%.

www.cgarena.com

Page 14

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Filipe Laurentino, Brazil CGArena

Making of Homage In Shape Dynamics I set the Pen Pressure for Diameter, and I had the minimum diameter increased to 10%.

In Other Dynamics, I had Pen Pressure control for opacity.

I always start a painting or a sketch with these settings for brush, Hardness always close to 50%, and Spacing between 5% and 10%.

After getting the right settings for the brushes, I worked with the darkest tones in order to have volumes. It’s very subtle, but you can start noticing if the shapes work as a volume or not.

And I also defined a light direction. At this point I realized that Calvin’s color was too lightened and not so good, so I thought it was time to find a better color.

www.cgarena.com

Page 15

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Filipe Laurentino, Brazil CGArena

Making of Homage

Next, I worked with some lights. It was the time to define where the shadows would be placed.

After that, I kept working on lights, until I got a nice volume and contrast. Sometimes I have to change some colors, but I usually work this way on my paintings, picking a color and finding which one is the best light color for this tone. In this step, I started working on the details.

www.cgarena.com

Page 16

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Filipe Laurentino, Brazil CGArena

Making of Homage After getting a nice volume, I changed my brushes settings. I put the hardness to 0%, and spacing to 15%.

With these news settings, I could make the painting softer through smoothing the transitions of tones. I also painted Hobbes’ stripes in another layer.

Then, I just worked on some more details to finish the painting.

Web: www.laurentino.com.br Email: filipelaurentino@gmail.com

www.cgarena.com

Page 17

Winners

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

CGArena In Aug - Oct 09, your mission was to create a 3d image on the theme “Accident” and express your creative ideas in a new and interesting way. This challenge is sponsored by Side Effects Software, Pixologic, E-on Software, Eat3D and ambientLight.

First Winner

The careful attention to detail is why this image stood out from the rest.

Great job, especially on the rider’s texture detail!

Christopher Adajar, France topherus@yahoo.com

second Winner Renju Bosco, India renjubosco@gmail.com

The funny and quirky style of this image made it stand out. Storytelling wise is really effective and the complex of framing and composition really works fine. Gesture is good too.

third Winner

Tommaso Sanguigni, Italy tommaso_sanguigni@msn.com

This entry has alot of visual polish with appealing characters as well. This one wins on technical and artistic merit.

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Miguel Angel Flores Moreno, Spain CGArena Software:

Making of Evil Gremlin

3ds Max, ZBrush

3D

INTRO A few years ago I enjoyed watching the movie “The Twilight Zone” and since then, image of the creature from the last of the stories, called “Nightmare at 20.000 ft” stuck in my retina. Recently I had the chance of seeing this movie again and I decided to make my own version of this creature in 3D. MODELING This time I decided to create the base model in ZBrush, using Zspheres. I made a simple geometry model without the fingers or toes, as I would model them later in 3Ds max during retopologizing process. Once defined the general proportions of the figure, I began to add more specific details, defining muscles structure etc. ..

When everything fit globally and in order to add more detail, I had to do the basic retopo using ZBrush itself.

Then I exported the model to 3ds max to add the hands and feet, especially modeled for this occasion.

With the definitive mesh conformed I applied a “Unwrap UVW” modifier to assign texture coordinates and exported it back to ZBrush.

Back in Zbrush - I projected the old mesh over the new imported mesh, to continue adding more details.

The hair, teeth and eyes were all modeled in max. In the particular case of hair, I decided to use the plug-in included in 3ds max, “Hair & Fur,” which allowed me to create quite quickly the cut and style for creature’s hair. Once satisfied with those parameters, I converted the Hair & Fur splines into an editable object for finer adjustments.

www.cgarena.com

Page 21

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Miguel Angel Flores Moreno, Spain CGArena

Making of Evil Gremlin The pedestal was modeled in MAX and details given in ZBrush. For this I used some images which I had in my harddisk (trees and ground) properly edited with Photoshop adjusting levels and saturation values. Then use the same images, I created the alphas to be used later to sculpt in ZBrush.

Once happy with the results of the model, I began the posing process and for this, once again, I used ZBrush, using Transpose Master.

The next step was to get everything ready for exporting to Max and render the final image, so I generated the displacement and detail maps (bump map) for Max and Vray.

The character texture was created by 90% in ZBrush with “polypainting” using a pair of alphas and brushes and mixing colors. In the case of the base, I used the same textures for alphas modified to conform the needs of the scene.

www.cgarena.com

Page 22

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Miguel Angel Flores Moreno, Spain CGArena

Making of Evil Gremlin At first I considered making a SSS material (sub-surface scattering) but I was getting good results with standard materials; and to obtain lower render times I choose a basic max shader. Setting it to Multi-layer mode and I managed to get the wet look of the skin in a more realistic way. I added the bitmaps for each (diffuse, specular and bump for the detail in addition to the displacement map).

The lighting is quite simple. I used two standard omni lights; a highly attenuated omni for the main illumination and a fill light to accent the contour of the figure giving it a more sinister look. Finally I used an HDR image as an environment and for the reflection to help balancing the whole scene.

www.cgarena.com

Page 23

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Miguel Angel Flores Moreno, Spain CGArena

Making of Evil Gremlin RENDERING AND POST-PRODUCTION I choose VRay render because of the good results it gives in the shortest amount of time and with fewer “crashes” (at least in this scene). I set up the global illumination parameters for a more or less “economic” values, but getting the highest quality possible, taking into account that a small change in these values can affect the render times dramatically.

I configured things like the quality of the aliasing or the skylight source (the above mentioned HDR image). The raw rendered image usually looks too clean and artificial (despite the rendering engine), So this was the time to correct these “defects” and enhance the image in post-production. For a still image like this, there was no problem in using Photoshop. My goal was to achieve an image quality similar to that which could be obtained through a conventional camera, so I had to resort to the use of effects such as depth of field, vignetting, chromatic aberration or noise; effects easily achieved with Photoshop.

The background image, was created directly in photoshop using the difference-clouds filter mixed with a gradient overlay. For the depth of field effect I obtained separately the Z-Depth Channel during the rendering process and then in Photoshop I used a third party plugin called DOF Pro (very useful for this task). To bring balance to the whole image, I applied a color correction layer and done.

Hope you like my image and explanation given, if you have any query then don’t hesítate to ask.

Web: www.miguelfloresdesign.com Email: contacto@miguelfloresdesign.com

www.cgarena.com

Page 24

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena Software:

Maya, Poser, Mental Ray Making of Where’s she looking

3D

WORKFLOW As a quick summary of the project, my work flow consists seven programs/plug-ins; Maya, Mental Ray, Poser, Photoshop, Bodypaint and Shave and Haircut. My base mesh was created in Poser and exported into Maya as an .obj for additional sculpting changes. Photoshop was my primary program for textures, with the use of Bodypaint for additional detailing and painting out seams and stretch marks.

The Shave and a Haircut plug-in was used for creating the hair and Mental Ray was used for the shading, lighting and rendering. The multi-pass images were then composited in After Effects, and lastly Photoshop was used for a final touch-up.

For a more detailed description, I’ll pick up from the Maya stage.

SCENE LAYOUT One effect that I am looking was depth of field in a reflection. I wanted to accomplish this without raytracing for the reflection, because with raytracing I couldn’t figure out how to get an accurate z-depth pass. So I faked it by creating a hole in the wall and placing the would-be reflection on the opposite side. This is not physically accurate, but with the use of a high focal length and some compositing adjustments I am able to make it believable. The scene was then broken up into three render layers: Reflection, Mid-ground and Foreground.

www.cgarena.com

Page 27

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena

Making of Where’s she looking LIGHTING Each render layer had its own lighting rig. An HDRI was used with Final gather for most of the diffuse lighting. I didn’t use Final Gather for the hair, so it had its own independent light rig.

Foreground

Mid-ground www.cgarena.com

Page 28

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena

Making of Where’s she looking SKIN SHADING There are tons of different approaches for skin, and I like to use the misss_fast_skin_maya. The first thing I done, set the radius of the different layers individually (setting the weight of the other layers to 0) with a single light pointed in the direction of scatter effect (back scatter would be a light from the back of the object).

The radius will be depend on your scene scale, so it is trial and error until the scatter effect is as “deep” as you’d like. Once the radius is set, then I start to add texture maps.

I usually leave the overall color channel mostly white and paint veins, moles, scars, etc. etc. in this channel.

The Diffuse layer is a bluish tint, similar to what you’d see on a dead body once all the blood is drained.

The Epidermal layer is a bluish tint as well, but slightly warmer than the diffuse layer.

The Subdermal layer is a redish tint.

Since there was not a lot of back light, I did not texture map the back scatter layer, and I left it a well saturated red.

For mapping various weight channels, I plugged my specular map into a combination of contrast, set range, and RGB to luminance nodes. This allowed me to adjust the contrast of the map, increase or decrease the values, and then convert that information into luminance.

These are things I could have done in Photoshop, but using these nodes helped relieve the memory usage during render time.

www.cgarena.com

Page 29

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena

Making of Where’s she looking ENVIRONMENT SHADING The rest of the scene mainly uses the mia architectural shader. The most complicated shading network was for the metal framing of the mirror. I used the mix8layer shader, which acts like the Maya Layered Shader, but integrates better with Mental Ray. FYI, the mix8layer does not ship with Maya 2009, so I had to download and install the shader (google search it).

HAIR I used Joe Alter’s Shave and a Haircut for the hair rendering. I find that this system is faster and more intuitive than the Maya fur system. To keep render time manageable, I disabled raytrace shadows and irradiance. By cutting down the render time here, it allowed me to increase the Hair Count, Segments and Passes, which gave me a nice result. I only used one texture map, which was input into the Density. I wanted to spend some time working on the hair line, so the final render did not look like a wig.

RENDER SETTINGS I used Final Gather and raytrace shadows for all. Mostly settings were pretty modest.

www.cgarena.com

Page 30

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena

Making of Where’s she looking

POST EFFECTS The two major things that were done in After Effects were the depth of field effect and an overall noise to help the continuity between different layers. I also think that adding noise is especially effective to the areas that are out of focus.

For the depth of field, a Z-Depth pass from Mental Ray was used with the Lens Blur effect in After Effects.

www.cgarena.com

Page 31

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena

Making of Where’s she looking

After all the layers are assembled, the Add Grain effect was added.

www.cgarena.com

Page 32

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena

Making of Where’s she looking Finally, Photoshop was used to add dirt and grime to the “mirror,” enhancing the illusion.

I did some simple Photoshop color correction that can quickly jazz up your photo and wow the every-day person.

- Create a duplicate layer and use the blend mode Overlay or Soft Light - Desaturate about -50

the

duplicate

- Apply a Gaussian blur to the duplicate layer to make it glow (I used a setting of 25) www.cgarena.com

Page 33

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Joseph S. Langmuir, USA CGArena

Making of Where’s she looking I like the effect artistically, but originally my primary goal was for realism and not glamour.

There are plenty of areas that I didn’t go into full detail with, so email me if you have any questions. I can also refer you to my research material and tutorials. Thanks for looking, hope you like the description and techniques used for creation of this image!

Website: www.jlangmuir.com Email: joelangmuir@yahoo.com

www.cgarena.com

Page 34

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Simon Perrson, Sweden CGArena Software:

Making of Clara

Photoshop

2D

Hello all people, my name is Simon and I’m quite new in this area. I have been doing digital graphics since I bought my first tablet which is for two years now. At the moment I’m studying digital graphics for game development in Malmö, Sweden at The Game Assembly.

This is an explanation of the making of Clara and how I like to draw my pictures. That mean that it’s not necessarily the best or the most correct way to paint. What works for me don’t need to work for you. I will not dive too deep into explanation of the different stages, consider this as a summary and feel free to use what you think is handy.

BACKGROUND It all started as a project for practicing skin values and how to paint hair. It was also a gift for a friend of mine.

I had some photos given to me and I choose what I considered to be the most expressive one. My idea was to paint realistic but painterly like an oil painting and also add some changes from the reference photo.

THE PROCESS I first started to block out the most elementary shapes.

I think it’s of great importance to already in the sketchy stage trying to get the proportions right. That will save time since you don’t need to edit the basic shapes later on when you’re in a higher level of details.

I prefer to start paint the face. In this case it’s the most important part of the painting because you want the viewers’ attention to this area. There are lots of ways to choose a color palette but I like to use what I call “the color picking technique”. It’s exactly what the name tells. You pick the color from an already existing photo, drawing, etc. I prefer to use photos as you naturally in nature have a very good balance of colors that I consider makes a really good palette to play with. In this case I color picked from the reference photo. At this stage don’t worry about the color scheme you can always tweak it to your liking during the process and you will probably do that before finishing the painting.

www.cgarena.com

Page 37

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Simon Perrson, Sweden CGArena

Making of Clara

To paint skin I use two brushes. Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow and Airbrush Soft Round. I start to paint with Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow, 100% opacity and flow with a middle tone color. After that I paint the darker and lighter areas with darker and brighter colors. To blend the colors I use the Airbrush Soft Round brush with opacity 30- 40% and flow 100%. I color pick colors from the photograph and simply keep on doing this over and over till I have a good blended spectrum of colors for my skin. I never use total black or white for shadings and highlights, in real life you almost never have these colors. Keep in mind to maintain some brushstrokes; it will give more life to the painting.

For the hair I used one color to start with. As Clara is black-haired it was good to start with nearly total black for the base. I created a new layer on top of the skin layer and with a big brush I blocked out the shape of the hair. With the eraser I removed the areas that were wrong. I started here to paint the garland of flowers and as before I basically blocked out the silhouette of the garland. I used very strong colors to start with but later when I defined the flowers I also made them more transparent and blurry to get rid of the feeling that they are too solid. www.cgarena.com

Page 38

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2009

by Simon Perrson, Sweden CGArena

Making of Clara

www.cgarena.com

Page 39

Tutorial

Issue 5 2 Oct Apr - Nov May 2009

by Simon Perrson, Sweden CGArena

Making of Clara Now it was time to go back to the hair again to define it even more. I started to pick lighter colors and with a custom brush give the hair more texture. To get a realistic feeling I painted the hair not as single hair shafts but hair shafts putted together. I also varied the direction how the hairs are falling. Lastly I took the Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow brush with 100% opacity and flow and pixel size set to 2-4 to draw some single hairs.

At this stage the most fun part of the painting starts, to paint details and add shadows and highlights. For saving time I try to always keep the painting in the same level of details under the process. It will not only give you a better overview but also prevent you from painting too much on one place so the picture not ending up unbalanced. I try to consider the painting as a whole piece not as small pieces I have to put together.

I wanted the face to be the focal point of the portrait therefore I painted the highest level of details in this area and I also made it the brightest. I used Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow brush with 100% opacity and flow set to 6-8 pixels to paint most of the details. To direct the viewers’ attention to the face I blurred the areas around it.

When the picture was done I played around with different color balances to see what I liked most. I added the color balance as an adjustment layer on top of everything which made it really easy to try different variations.

www.cgarena.com

Page 40

So, finally, this is the whole process. I hope you found something useful and if you have any questions feel free to ask, just send me a mail and I’ll try to reply.

Web: paddflask.cgsociety.org Email: kines_simme@hotmail.com

Jelle Van de Weghe, Belgium jellevandeweghe@gmail.com Maya, ZBrush

Massimo Righi, Italy info@massimorighi.com Maya, Mudbox, Photoshop

Ricardo Jost Resende, Brazil jost.ricardo@gmail.com XSI, 3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop

Antonio Bonora, Italy principe_antonio@hotmail.it 3ds Max, ZBrush

Jonathan Clark, USA bladeflush@hotmail.com 3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop

Thomas Schreiter, Germany thomasschreiter@hotmail.com Lightwave 3D, ZBrush

Hugo Silva, Portugal hugodesign@hotmail.com 3ds max, ZBrush, Photoshop

Ke Weilin, China keweilintuke@sina.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Luiz Alves de Carvalho Neto, Rio de Janeiro luizalves3d@hotmail.com ZBrush, Photoshop

Gibor Miklas, Hungary pi3c3@hotmail.com 3ds max, Vray, Photoshop

Dejan Kober, Croatia dejan.kober@gmail.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Pierre Fabre, France p2@gkaster.com Cinema4D, Photoshop

Raphael Baldini, Brasil rbaldini@gmail.com 3ds Max, Vray, Photoshop

How to send in your images...

We showcase the cream of reader images in magazine and on website gallery.

Here’s how to get yours noticed

Upload Images through Website Follow this link http://www.cgarena.com/submit.php This is by far the quickest and easiest way to send your images to us.

To Advertise: contact@cgarena.com