arena_oct-...mag

CGArena

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 5 OCT - NOV 2008

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

GALLERY

Latest 3d inspiring art

PHOTOSHOP Hang it on the rope

AFTER EFFECTS 3D Objects

INTERVIEW Richard Rosenman

3DSMAX Never Again

ZBRUSH

Making of Matrouk

VOL

3

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community Issue Contents

05

Interview

Richard Rosenman

22

Photoshop

Hang it on the rope

26

After Effects

3D Objects

30

3ds Max

Never Again

38

ZBrush

Making of Matrouk

70

Gallery

Showcase of latest 3D art

Volume 3, Issue 5 Oct-Nov 2008

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

Page 2

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

Industry News

CGArena Adobe releases Creative Suite 4

Autodesk’s Software used in India’s Biggest Magical Adventure

Adobe released details about Creative Suite 4, its first update to more than a dozen design and editing tools since Adobe CS3 some 17 months ago.

Drona, a bollywood film has the latest 3D techniques and visual effects to woo the Indian audience. And yes, Autodesk owns the credit for its magic. Autodesk’s softwares have been used for both 3D and VFX which makes the movie look larger than the canvas.

With CS4, Adobe aimed to unify the interfaces of more than a dozen applications, including Flash and other former properties of Macromedia. You’ll see similar pull down menus for toggling among workspaces that you can customize, as well as Flash-based panels that nicely snap open and shut. Corporate design departments will find plenty of enhancements for their teams to share work more quickly. Options for working with high-definition video and mobile content expand too, with support for the latest formats as well as for making Adobe AIR applications.

Book

According to EyeQube, software such as Autodesk Maya 2008 and C muscles provided the desired flexibility to characters while keeping within the realms of reality.

Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D - Learn all about Blender, the premier open-source 3D software. Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D. You will find stepby-step instructions for using Blender’s complex features and full-color visual examples with detailed descriptions of the processes. If you’re an advanced Blender user, you will appreciate the sophisticated coverage of Blender’s fluid simulation system, a review Blender’s latest features, and a guide to the Bullet physics engine, which handles a variety of physics simulations such as rigid body dynamics and rag doll physics.

Training

source: news.cnet.com

The film has been in post-production since December 2007. The film is said to have around 1300-1500 visual effects shots. David Bush, the visual effects supervisor has worked on a number of European films.

The special effects work for the film was given to six Indian studios namely Eros’s EyeQube, Prana, Future Works, Red Chillies, Tata Elxsi and Prime Focus.

Houdini Technical Rigging - 3D Buzz, Inc. is proud to announce the launch of the Fast Track: Production Fundamentals and Technical Rigging video series for Houdini. These new video courses include a wide range of specialized topics with an emphasis on core concepts and production fundamentals. These new videos are a great addition to the existing Technical Effects and Python: Creating Tools in Houdini videos. The 3D Buzz Houdini lessons are an invaluable resource for anyone aspiring to become a technical director or rig developer. There is no better way to kick start your Houdini career then getting on the FastTrack!

www.cgarena.com

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Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

CGArena

Richard Rosenman Q. Hello Richard how are you, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in CG?

Hired the artists based on their creative skills, never their technical experience...

My name is Richard Rosenman and I’m 34 years old, living in Toronto, Canada. I’ve been involved in the animation industry (both classical and digital) for over 12 years now and to this day, I absolutely love what I do.

Early in my high school years I caught my first glimpse of the budding CG industry and I knew that was what I wanted to do. In researching where to study this new medium, Sheridan College was recommended.

I took the three-year Classical Animation program at Sheridan in order to take the one-year post-graduate computer animation program but decided upon graduating that I wanted to work in the classical industry instead. Throughout the years thereafter, projects involving more and more CG eventually led me back into the CG industry.

Eventually, I decided to work exclusively in the CG industry, first at TOPIX, then at Redrover, and eventually at Hatch which I currently own, along with two other partners.

© Copyright Richard Rosenman Advertising & Design, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

www.cgarena.com

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Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

CGArena

Richard Rosenman Q. Please tell us something about the Hatch Studios, what services offered and on the projects your studio has worked on?

We launched Hatch on June 5, 2006 to continue creating the art that all three of us love so much. I am in charge of all the 3D related productions, Larissa Ulisko is in charge of all the Motion Graphics related productions, and Randi Yaffa is in charge of all Executive Production. We had all worked together in the past and were good friends so it was simply a matter of time before the three of us decided to launch Hatch.

Hatch specializes in 3D and motion graphics commercial production for broadcast, film, web and print. We are always expanding our range of formats and I believe this has been a large part of our success as you have to continually change with the times. Technology is advancing at an exponential rate and we make sure to keep up with the latest creative and technical trends in order to produce cutting-edge work.

In addition to our current realm of production, we also have an in-house short film and we’re also working our way into series production.

Since opening Hatch 2 years ago, we have been lucky to continue receiving amazing work and therefore expanding our creative crew. We are in the process of moving into a space twice the size of our current one and our staff is now at approximately 20-25 people.

Above and beyond anything else, we strive to maintain a healthy, creative and fun environment at Hatch which I believe encourages enthusiasm to produce outstanding work.

© Copyright Hatch Studios Ltd, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

www.cgarena.com

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© Copyright Richard Rosenman Advertising & Design, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

CGArena

Richard Rosenman Q. You have done various commercials in Hatch Studios; please tell us about your role in those commercials and which is your best commercial till date? If possible then please also tell us what problems you have faced in that commercial?

Yes, there have been so many commercials produced since we launched Hatch that I cannot remember them all.

My role is director for all commercials that are 3D related. Likewise, Larissa’s role is director for all commercials that are motion graphics related. We don’t simply direct – we have always enjoyed working hands-on and so I actively participate in the lighting, rendering and compositing of 3D productions. Likewise, Larissa participates in the compositing of her motion graphics work. Occasionally we work together on various projects as well which call for a mix of 3D and graphic design work (Ford “Rollercoaster”).

Unfortunately, as we continue to receive more and more projects, I have less and less time to invest in the lighting and rendering. My role as director is critical so I am at a point where I must unfortunately hand my role as a lighting artist to someone else in order to be able to continue directing. This is the one downside of your company growing, although there are ways in which you can always participate in a production hands-on, even if it’s minimal.

I’m not sure I have a favorite commercial but many come close. The Ford “Rollercoaster” spot is among the top because it’s so unique to anything else we’ve ever done.

Likewise, the Kraft “Geyser” commercial is also one of my favorites because of the wonderful characters and beautiful animation.

Without question, every single commercial we produce always had one big technological hurdle that must be overcome. While this can be very frustrating, it’s also a great learning experience because you learn how to effectively © Copyright Hatch Studios Ltd, 2008. deal with technical issues, troubleshoot them, and resolve them. Whether it’s scenes that are too complex for rendering or HD frames taking too long for global illumination solutions to compute, or fluid dynamics looking blobby – there’s always something.

At the end of the day, these hurdles keep you on your toes and allow you to continue to learn from your experiences and mistakes.

www.cgarena.com

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Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

CGArena

Richard Rosenman Q. Can you give us the overview of how a commercial is made – from clients mind to the broadcast?

What steps, expenses are generally involved?

Generally, the first steps involved in a commercial production, after we have been awarded the job, is to review the agency storyboard and re-work it so that it works for animation. While many agency creative’s have animation experience, some do not and quite often a storyboard can been improved to include shots that would not have been possible with live action filming. Sometimes the boards we receive from the agency are very rough and allow us to have a lot of creative freedom with it, while other times they are quite detailed and it’s only a question of tightening them up. Finally, sometimes we come up with good gags that can make the spot a bit more comedic and when we pitch these ideas to the agency, they often allow us to move ahead with it. The most enjoyable agencies to work with are those that understand that a production is a team effort and that ideas come from all sources. They see this as working together and this often results in the best outcome.

During this time we are also concurrently working on pre-production stages such as gathering reference material, drafting concept character design, working on R&D tests, etc.

Once our boards have been approved by the client and agency, the modeling begins. This can take anywhere from 1 week to a month depending on the complexity of the subject. If it’s a character, you must also factor in rigging and skinning which takes up additional time. Without question, characters are by far the most complicated models to create – regardless of whether or not they are stylized or realistic.

When the modeling has been completed, texturing begins. It’s important to complete it at this stage because afterwards the file will be distributed numerous times into various scenes. Therefore, you either texture the subject once before scene distribution or you re-do it numerous times for every scene that there is.

At this point, assuming that the model and texturing has been approved by the client and agency, we can begin animation. Once again, the amount of time allotted to this stage is completely dependent on the subject. A character will require the most amount of time while mechanical animation requires the least amount.

It is not uncommon to allot 4-5 weeks for the animation of a character for 20 to 30 seconds of animation.

Our animators are primarily character animators so they have a strong sense of comedic acting which is important. Like many of the previously-discussed stages of production, weekly work-in-progress reports are shown to the agency for approval.

When the animation has been completed, we can commence lighting and rendering. This is generally something I often take upon myself to complete and it’s also the stage where everything tends to come together.

You have to keep in mind that until now, the client and agency have been seeing wireframe and / or grayscale previews so when they see the jump to full color, they are always pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, this is one of the last stages of 3D so you often have to remind them that it will come in due time.

All my lighting and rendering is produced with global illumination combined with traditional lighting techwww.cgarena.com

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Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

CGArena

Richard Rosenman niques and image-based lighting. These change from production to production (for instance, you will use a very different setup for vehicle rendering than character) but the point of it is to use whatever tools are available to make the image look as best as it can. Understanding color theory, proper use of palettes, color grading and much more is crucial to creating a beautifully-rendered image.

The final stage of commercial production is the online session, a one to two day session where the final composited spot is loaded into a Flame or Inferno and final touches are added, with client and agency present. Once this receives approval, it is dumped to tape and ready to be aired.

© Copyright Redrover Studios Ltd, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Q. What software program(s) do you use for your CG and why?

I have built Hatch’s pipeline around 3dsmax although I never ask any of the artists to use that particular tool.

I hired the artists based on their creative skills, never their technical experience.

I’ve always enjoyed 3dsmax because it has been the one 3D app to provide an extensive list of third party plugins from users around the world. In addition, most of the new render engines were out for 3dsmax first and since I was heavily involved in lighting and rendering, this provided new tools that were only available for 3dsmax at that time. www.cgarena.com

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© Copyright Richard Rosenman Advertising & Design, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

Interview with

CGArena

Richard Rosenman Although we have built our pipeline on 3dsmax, I am personally disappointed with Autodesk and their poor marketing policies.

In addition to 3dsmax, we also use ZBrush for concept modeling, Silo for prop modeling and of course, the Adobe Creative Suite for all texture creation and compositing work.

At the end of the day, software is always secondary to the artist’s creative skills. I have hired animators with absolutely no 3dsmax experience simply because they are good and it takes them very little time to pick up 3dsmax, or any other 3D app. After all, 3D apps provide the same basic tools – it’s simply a matter of finding out where they put the buttons.

Q. What’s the most useful thing you have learnt in 3d?

The importance of every aspect of 3D being the best it can be. In other words, if the modeling, texturing, animation, lighting, rendering or compositing is weak – the whole production has suffered. Everyone at Hatch is specialized in one aspect of 3D and this means they each have to perform at their very best in order to produce outstanding work. Everyone is therefore dependent on everyone else to produce the best possible work.

© Copyright Hatch Studios Ltd, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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Interview with

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

CGArena

Richard Rosenman © Copyright Hatch Studios Ltd, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Q. What do you like the most: Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, Directing or programming and please give 5 tips to the future wannabe animators?

Without question, directing is what I enjoy the most and what I believe I’m best at. Secondary to that would be art direction which includes lighting, rendering and compositing.

Tips for wannabe animators: - Take a course – it’s very difficult to learn the fundamentals of animation on your own and it’s critical for you to understand them in order to produce good work.

- Study reference material – see how Pixar, Dreamworks, Sony, etc, do it. This is the quality you should be striving for.

- Don’t just animate something that could be filmed in live action – produce animation that is fun, exciting, stylized and full of life. If it’s mimicking live action, then you might as well just film it.

- Forget about the technical tools and focus on the creative art of animation – again, knowing software is irrelevant. It’s how you use the tools that matters.

- Learn from your peers. You will never be the best – no one ever is. Egos don’t do well in this industry.

Instead of having a know-it-all attitude, learn from those that you admire and inspire you. This is what I do and it has always helped me. www.cgarena.com

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Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

Interview with

CGArena

Richard Rosenman Q. Are you developing any plug-in, if yes then please tell us something to our readers? Your site has various commercial and freeware plug-ins, how often do you update those?

The plug-ins featured on my site was my attempt in understanding the mathematics involved in CG. For instance, in developing 3D Sphere PRO, I learned how to mathematically shade a 3D sphere according to a pre-defined light source. This learning experience has shed so much light on CG math fundamentals that I now understand what causes certain program glitches and how to correct them.

DOF PRO, our best-selling and award-winning depth of field plug-in, is about to enter v4.0. While I cannot release any information about the new features, I can certainly tell you that the improvements and enhancements are far beyond anything you’ve ever seen in any DOF postprocessing plug-in. Currently, DOF PRO is now being used by hundreds of large-scale production studios world-wide, and thousands of professional artists from around the world.

In addition, another very unique painting plug-in is in early beta stages and although it won’t be released for quite some time, it will certainly be of great interest to digital painters due to its distinctive workflow and characteristics.

Thanks a lot for taking out sometime for us from your busy schedule.

Thank you for taking the time to interview me and share my thoughts / opinions with readers of CGArena Magazine. © Copyright Richard Rosenman Advertising & Design, 2008

www.cgarena.com

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© Copyright Richard Rosenman Advertising & Design, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

The 1st ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition in Asia CONFERENCE 10-13 DECEMBER 2008 EXHIBITION 11-13 DECEMBER 2008

COMING SOON. SIGGRAPH ASIA PREMIERES IN SINGAPORE IN DECEMBER 2008!

Be there and become part of the world’s fastest growing digital-media region.

CONFERENCE Experience the highest quality, multi-sensory computer graphics and interactive techniques presented by leading industry luminaries from around the world in a variety of programmes: Art Gallery Computer Animation Festival Courses Educators Programme

Emerging Technologies Sketches & Posters Technical Papers

EXHIBITION Visit the trade exhibition featuring exhibitors from all over the world. It is an opportunity galore with trade, networking and recruitment activities on the exhibition floor.

Register Early and Save! www.siggraph.org/asia2008 For more information: SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 Koelnmesse Pte Ltd +65.6500.6700 +65.6296.2771 fax asia2008@siggraph.org

For detailed conference programme and exhibiting companies updates, please log on www.siggraph.org/asia2008

HELD IN:

3D Challenge

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

CGArena

CGArena is proud to present “Beautiful” 3D Challenge, 18 Sep 2008 - 21 Nov 2008. Winners will be rewarded with special prizes from Craft Animations, Softimage, Pixologic, cmiVFX, Eat3D, Polyboost and TheBest3D. Express your creative ideas in a new and interesting way.

Your Mission Create a 3D image which justify the theme of Beautiful, this can be any beautiful character, dark side of beauty, beautiful emotion or anything else which artists can think of!. This is not compulsory to include any human form in image to express the idea. You are allowed to show the artistic nudity in the image. This Challenge is a Work-In-Progress Challenge -- all contestants are required to post their work-in-progress images for community to critique/comment in order to qualify.

How the Challenge will be Run This challenge will be a WIP (Work in Progress) Challenge. Each challenger (teams are not allowed) is required to post Work In Progress (WIP) images, from the initial concept sketch to the final render. to the post production on regular intervals in the CGArena forum. The purpose is that everyone can learn from each other, offer feedback and critiques.

1. Enter the Challenge by registering yourself on CGArena forum. “Your Real Name: Country” 2. Submit your work in progress images in forum on a regular basis. From the date of registration at least 1 WIP image in 2 weeks is necessary to post in the forum. Concept sketch need to post within a week from the date of registration.

3. Participate in the community by critiquing other challenger’s works in the respective threads. Only constructive critiques/feedbacks are allowed to post, please avoid postings like “Good image”, “Wonderful Go www.cgarena.com

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ing”, “Nice Image” and so on... Don’t try to insult any artist, artistic skill, concept or country. Otherwise you can be disqualified from the challenge.

4. You are allowed to use any 3d software for the creation of artwork. Premade models or preset based softwares/plug-ins which allows creation of human models are not allowed to use. Sculpting softwares are allowed to use.

5. Once concept sketch is posted in the forum, you are not allowed to change the concept. If two similar concepts are posted then second similar concept participant is allowed to change the concept in the next 48hrs.

6. Registration for the challenge will close on 28th Oct 2008, midnight 00:00 GMT. 7. Submit your final entry till 21st Nov 2008, midnight 00:00 GMT. 8. You are allowed to use any type of post- production in the final image to make artwork better and richer.

Please avoid to add the elements in post-production which are 100% made in the 2D program or photographs.

9. There will be 3 winners, Judges, sponsors, CGArena decision will be final.

10. Winners will be announced on 28th Nov 2008. All prizes will be available in the download form except Books.

Terms and Conditions 1.) Entrants agree to give permission to the sponsor to use all or any part of the artwork entered in this contest, (hereinafter, the ‘Work’) in the Company’s demonstration tapes (reels), promotional materials (ads, PR, etc.), booth graphics and presentations for the promotional purposes.

2.) Entrants will retain all rights to the Work. In addition, the Company will not sell for profit any materials or demo reels containing images or animations submitted by the Entrant.

3.) The Company, in exchange for this release, will provide a credit for the Work within the material in which the Work is used.

Final Image Size - Your final image dimensions should be print resolution (300 DPI). Do not send in a low-resolution.

- A guideline is minimum 1680 pixels wide and/or 1050 high, JPG, 300 DPI. - Send your final image in zip or rar format with your name, complete shipping address, email, telephone number in a text file on email address beautiful3d@cgarena.com with subject “Beautiful Idea”.

www.cgarena.com

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First Prize - $14451 worth of prizes Craft Master Bundle worth $10000 approx. - Craft Director Tools a set of plug-ins for 3ds max and Maya will give you professional looking animations in minutes. No more scripts. No more wasted time. Speed Animation for Animators, Architects, Broadcasting, PreViz, VFX etc. This package includes 25+ 3d animation plug-ins.

Softimage XSI 7 Essentials worth $2995 approx. - XSI Essentials comes complete with all the tools artists need for a full scale 3D production - 3D modeling, animation, texturing, rendering, hair, cloth, dynamics and more. XSI 7 Essentials comes with all new features including ICE. Pixologic ZBrush 3.1 + 2 ZBrush Books worth $653 approx. - ZBrush 3.1 gives you access to unparalleled power and control previously unknown in digital art creation software. Controls enable sculptors to create with a stylus and a tablet as intuitively as if they were using their hands on a block of clay. ZBrush further extends the creation experience, harnessing technology and providing artists with a multitude of creation-enhancing tools. cmiVFX.com 1 year subscription worth $499 - Unlimited 24 hour access to every and all cmiVFX training videos in the custom Training Video On Demand player system. The subscriber will get access to all videos currently in the cmiLibrary and any additional videos created by cmiVFX and its partners within the limits of the subscription. A subscription lasts for a 1 year period and can be renewed annually.

Polyboost 4 worth $154 - PolyBoost is an extensive set of easy to use, but advanced tools for 3d artists working in 3ds max. The focus of the PolyBoost tools is at speeding up and streamlining workflow for the artist. PolyBoost offers a wide range of tools for creating various types of subobject selections as well as a set of modeling tools which will make many tasks in everyday modeling a lot easier.

Eat3d Training DVD’s (3) worth $150 approx. - Our focus is to have the highest of quality training videos geared toward 3D Artists. We put an obsessive amount of time and effort into our work, and we are very proud of the results. So sit back, grab yourself a pint, and join us for a refreshing course in high quality next gen art. Winner can choose to download any 3 training DVD’s.

Second Winner - $7764 worth of prizes Craft Animations 10 plug-ins upto $7510 approx. - Craft Animations™ AB develops and markets Craft Director Tools, a series of plug-ins for Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Maya. Craft Director Tools help users create process-driven animation, popularly referred to as ‘desktop mocap’. You are allowed to choose any 10 plugins Polyboost 4 worth $154 - PolyBoost is an extensive set of easy to use, but advanced tools for 3d artists working in 3ds max. The focus of the PolyBoost tools is at speeding up and streamlining workflow for the artist. PolyBoost offers a wide range of tools for creating various types of subobject selections as well as a set of modeling tools which will make many tasks in everyday modeling a lot easier.

www.cgarena.com

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Eat3d Training DVD’s (2) worth $100 approx. - Our focus is to have the highest of quality training videos geared toward 3D Artists. We put an obsessive amount of time and effort into our work, and we are very proud of the results. So sit back, grab yourself a pint, and join us for a refreshing course in high quality next gen art. Winner can choose to download any 2 training DVD’s.

Third Winner - $4664 worth of prizes Craft Animations 5 plug-ins upto $4515 approx. - Craft Animations™ AB develops and markets Craft Director Tools, a series of plug-ins for Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Maya. Craft Director Tools help users create process-driven animation, popularly referred to as ‘desktop mocap’. You are allowed to choose any 5 plugins.

Eat3d Training DVD worth $50 approx. - Our focus is to have the highest of quality training videos geared toward 3D Artists. We put an obsessive amount of time and effort into our work, and we are very proud of the results. So sit back, grab yourself a pint, and join us for a refreshing course in high quality next gen art.

Winner can choose to download any 1 training DVD. TheBest3D.com PD Pro 3.5 worth $99 - Project Dogwaffle Professional, aka PD Pro 3.5, is a digital painting and animation program focused on what you can do with advanced brushes, including animated custom imagesequence based brushes and particle based brushes to name a few. PD Pro is also a great tool to composite video with 3D rendering and paint video on video, to apply post-work special FX on your 3D image sequences.

Respected Jury Matthieu Roussel - Matt Roussel is illustrator since 1991. He live in the south of France and he work for magazines, advertising, packaging and edition. His 3D unique style is recognizable among the world 3d CG production. You can have a look on his web site www. mattroussel.com Tom Krieger - 42 years old german based and international operating illustrator, image composer, photo illustrator. Working as a professional since 1992. He studied visual communications, but at that time he decided to switch to the handmade illustration, which is real handcraft. I am an autodidact in all painting techniques. You can have a look on his web site www.fotoillustration.de Alessandro Cangelosi - Alessandro Cangelosi was born in Rome, began studying traditional art since teenager, even when it comes in contact with the first personal computers in the’80s. Studies of computing led him to develop a technical approach to programming in the years in which the transition from 2D to 3D starts. You can have a look on his web site www.alessandrocangelosi.com

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Andy Halls, USA CGArena Software:

Hang it on the Rope

Photoshop

2D

‘A picture speaks a thousand words.’ We have all heard this saying, more than once, I would imagine. That’s why I am showing you above image which shows the mirror of the cruel society which hangs such a Fantabolous word on the rope. Might you think that I lost my marbles but actually not, I am trying to create an impression of good tutorial in your mind because I heard some lines before starting the tutorial really helps and if they can bring some smile on the reader face then half work is done. So, without wasting more time let’s jump to hold the rope.

1Create a new document with black background and write the text you like in the bigger font size. I choose the Arial font and size is 100.

2Create a new layer above this text layer and using the Gradient Tool fill the work area. The gradient should move from top to bottom - Top being the most opaque.

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Andy Halls, USA CGArena

Hang it on the Rope 3Press CTRL and click on the text layer thumbnail to make the selection. Now, go to gradient layer and press Ctrl+J to create a copy of the gradient in the shape of the text.

4Now you can delete the text and gradient layer, Using Rectangular Marquee Tool select and cut every letter to the separate layer but only type one letter per layer.

5Now create a new layer above every letter you created in last step.

Create a selection of your first letter and fill in that selection with your selected color on the new layer. Set this layers Blending Mode to Screen.

Repeat this process for the remaining letters using different colors for each letter.

6Merge all of your white gradient letters and merge all of your colors into one layer. You should now have two layers one with the plain gradient letters, the other with the colors for the letters. Duplicate both the layers and apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with Radius 4 pixels.

www.cgarena.com

Page 23

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Andy Halls, USA CGArena

Hang it on the Rope 7Merge all of text layers into one layer and using Rectangular Marquee Tool select and cut every letter to the separate layer but only type one letter per layer again.

8Using the Pen Tool create a path, make the selection and give the stroke around 3 pixels for creating the rope. For Rope color you can choose anything as per the environment.

9Now it’s time to hang the letters on the rope. Use Edit > Free Transform or CTRL + T and move the letters like hanging on the rope.

10Now you need to make aperture into the letters to make real effect hanging in the air. Make the rope selection and erase the parts of the letters. Later select the eraser tool and make the holes in letter from where rope is going through. That’s it and you are done. Now you can add any environment in background as per your liking.

If you have any doubts, queries then don’t hesitate to email me and I tried my best to answer you soon.

Email: andyhalls123@yahoo.com www.cgarena.com

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TheBest3D.com presents: Speed Painting & Modeling From 2D to 3D (and back) in mere seconds with Project Dogwaffle, Archipelis Designer & Carrara.

Draw, Sketch, animate & Paint like a Pro!

From 2D into 3D in seconds!

Project Dogwaffle is a fast, very affordable and powerful digital painting program for PC which offers numerous brushes and effects for simulating realistic natural media such as water color, oil and tempera. It also includes amazing particle brushes for very cool foliage effects, and supports animation.

Use Archipelis Designer to quickly load an image which you just painted in Project Dogwaffle, or a digital photo. Trace a few contours and see them turn into 3D shapes, completely textured with the underlying image’s pixels. Save to many 3D formats including SL and of course OBJ, DXF, etc...

copyright (c) Frank Bonacquisti Family of Eagles

Woodcut print: Beyond digital painting!

The saved 3D models and texture can immediately be used for further 3D compositions or many other uses.

For example, Carrara was used to assemble several instances of the saved eagle model into this family reunion. See TheBest3D.com for great deals on Carrara 3D Elements, 3D Express, Standard and Pro!

Back to PD Pro, you can apply numerous special effects and great filters for such things as oil painting looks & wet paint, or as seen here, the Woodcut filter.

Connect with Project Dogwaffle: LUA scripted filters can be edited and used in GIMP, ArtWeaver or Twistedbrush.

Philip Staiger, TheBest3D.com

Philip Staiger, TheBest3D.com

Special Offer for CGArena Readers #1 (Best value!): Bundle offer, Buy Archipelis 2 from www.thebest3d.com/archipelis then contact admin at thebest3d.com for your discount coupon to save 40% off PD Pro 3 or 4. Offer expires Feb. 28 2009 #2: Buy PD Pro 3 or 4 and save 20% with this discount coupon: BIHM0006J . Offer expires Feb. 28 2009 - Order at www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/sales from the BMT store.

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Suzane Smith, Canada CGArena Software:

3D Objects

After Effects

3D

‘Creating a 3d object inside After Effects is always a big task but now various plug-ins are available which make the work easier or you can import from the 3D. But if we want to create some logos, text into 3d then what’s the use of wasting time and money on other applications when we have already something inside After Effects. Answer is Shutter plug-in which we generally use to break up the things or dancing the parts but we can also use that plug-in for create 3D objects.

1Create a new Composition of your size and time choice inside AE, import the image artwork. Remember artwork image must have transparency to work in this effect. In my case I searched the Google for good looking logo and find out high resolution logo which I cleaned (removed the not required parts including background) inside the Photoshop and save as PSD. 2Import the logo inside AE and drag it on the timeline of new composition which created in previous step, scale it if required and hide the visibility of the logo layer by clicking on the eye in the left side.

3Create a New solid layer above the logo layer and apply an Effect > Generate > Ramp (applying a Ramp is not necessary, I am just playing to see how the other color options work with the upcoming 3d logo). You can later adjust the color, according to the original layer color. www.cgarena.com

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Suzane Smith, Canada CGArena

3D Objects 4-

Now apply an Effect > Simulation > Shatter effect on the solid layer. Change the following settings…

View: Rendered Shape: Pattern: Custom Custom Shatter Map: “your logo layer which you hide before” Extrusion Depth: This will give extrusion to your logo, so set this according to the depth you are looking in the logo.

Force1: Strength: 0 (This is necessary to set otherwise your logo will not be static on the screen) Physics: Gravity: 0 (Otherwise when you play in the timeline, your logo will fall on the ground) 5Create a camera in the scene with default settings so you can rotate, fly through your camera around your 3d logo. Good practice is too create a null object and attach that to the camera so you can handle the settings like position, orientation of camera more easily.

That’s it, this is all necessary to do for getting a 3D logo but you can make little more changes to customize according to your requirement.

Under Textures, you can give color to the front mode, side mode and back mode or choose to stay with the layer logo color. Also adjust lighting settings in shatter plug-in or create a separate light for more control and playing/casting the shadows.

So, we completed this tutorial without using any extra plug-in and you can use this technique in created 3d text, logos, and objects. Thanks a lot to all of you for reading this and hope you have learned something from this small but useful tutorial.

Email: suz.smith@hotmail.com www.cgarena.com

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To find out more about nPower CAD Translators for Maya Visit us at www.nPowerSoftware.com

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Alejandro Ruano – DraKeXXI, Spain CGArena Software:

Never Again

3ds Max, Vray, Fusion

3D

Hello everybody. It’s a pleasure to be here again with this Making Of, in which I’m trying to explain the creation process of my latest image “Never Again”. As usual, I used 3dsmax with VRay renderer, Adobe Photoshop to create & manipulate textures and Fusion for the final post-production. Previously I have written a tutorial “Making of Dungeon” which was very appreciated by all. You can read that tutorial on CGArena here.

INSPIRATION - REFERENCES As I always said, I used my personal projects as an experiment to learn new methods, techniques I still don’t fully understand, or to improve my skills. In this case, the goal was to recreate a photograph I took 5 years ago, with a 1-megapixel digital camera (not much quality, as you guess). Such place had “something” that inspired me and the photograph had a lighting that I really liked. Unfortunately, the project spent some years in my “work in progress” folder. But some weeks ago, I finally decided to do it.

As a reference, I had only one photograph. When I took it, I didn’t know I was going to recreate it in 3D (if I had known, I would have taken 200 photographs, to have everything in detail). And moreover, with that forced perspective it was rather difficult to guess the sizes, distances and so.

MODELING There’s really not much to say about modeling, because everything was extremely easy. Most parts of the scene are beveled and modified boxes, cylinders and other easy objects. So the main difficulty on modeling was several details, such as small cracks on walls.

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Page 31

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Alejandro Ruano – DraKeXXI, Spain CGArena

Never Again Some other details I put emphasis on the outside dry leaves, blown by the wind and piled up next to the glass. As you can see, there are 2 types of leaves. I started using the strange-shaped yellow one, which is from a commercial library. But I was not happy enough with the result, so I decided to model my own leaves, and use both of them. To do this, I modeled just one leaf, and once it was textured, I used a free script, called “Advanced Painter”.

Advanced Painter -> http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/advanced-painter 64 Bit Version -> http://3dcenter.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=82821 One of the functions of this script is to make instances of an object and scatter it all over the place just like you were “painting” with the mouse on top of it (that’s why this script is called like that, I guess).

That’s how I instanced two hundreds of leaves or so. After that, I used another script to give some randomness, changing the size and rotation of every individual leaf, so they didn’t look exactly the same.

That script is “RandomTransform” and it comes with Blur Beta Tools free pack. I used an old version, but it has been recently updated (now for XSI, too).

And finally another detail would be the ivy, you can see in the background on the top of the wall. On another previous project, I had used Ivy Generator by Thomas Luft, which is an standalone application.

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Page 32

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Alejandro Ruano – DraKeXXI, Spain CGArena

Never Again You had to export your scene to *.obj, Open it inside Ivy Generator and generate the ivy, save it as *.obj and then import it into your choice of program. But this time I wanted to test an alternative (and faster) way. A 3ds max plug-in based on the Ivy Generator, called: GW::Ivy -> http://www.guruware.at After the few clicks and some tests; I managed to grow this ivy. It was not exactly what I was looking for, but considering it was the first time I used the plug-in, I ended quite satisfied with the result.

TEXTURING If modeling was quite easy then texturing was not much harder. I used the VRay materials for an every object in the scene with bumps and specular and in most cases, I used the free plug-in Color Correct (http:// www.cuneytozdas.com/software/3dsmax), to alter some properties of a texture (brightness, contrast, saturation, gamma, RGB levels… etc), WITHOUT externally modifying the bitmap itself.

I looked for several types of concrete to be used in the lowest part of the image (you can freely download them from Arroway.de with an acceptable resolution). Some of them like the wall with roughness and another ones like the floor with a polished finish but with some imperfections. In other objects like the columns, I used the standard 3ds max displacement, to give that aspect of rough edges.

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Page 33

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Alejandro Ruano – DraKeXXI, Spain CGArena

Never Again I had to Unwrap just a couple of objects in the scene, the horizontal concrete plaques on top of the columns, and the exterior wall in order to paint the humidity stains. Quite easy objects to unwrap, aren’t they? The rest of the objects have the standard mapping coordinates (box or cylindrical).

LIGHTING-RENDER It was in the lighting where I had to put all my efforts to get a similar result to the original photograph and even more using VRay renderer, instead of an unbiased one like Maxwell or Fry. I wanted to achieve that result by hand and not just giving some coordinates, date and hour to the renderer. I must say I didn’t get a 100% exact copy of the photograph but I was close enough and consider this finished.

I used VRaySun, VRaySky and a VRayPhysical Camera. I hadn’t used this method on an interior scene so; I had to do a lot of tests to achieve the right intensity of light and the right atmosphere.

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Page 34

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Alejandro Ruano – DraKeXXI, Spain CGArena

Never Again I also moved the sun in order to get the shadows exactly where I am looking.

Apart from the VRaySun, I also used some VRayLight as portals on the right. Using a light as a portal, you can’t manually control the intensity and color of the light. In fact, it’s not a normal light any more. It gets the intensity and color of the environment (VRaySky in this case) and “pushes” it inside our scene.

And as always I used a VRayPhysical Camera.

We must know that all the lights multipliers shown below depend on the settings of our camera.

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Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

Tutorial

by Alejandro Ruano – DraKeXXI, Spain CGArena

Never Again In this occasion I rendered several channels: ZDepth (which I finally didn’t use), some volumetrics of the main light, and an Ambient Occlusion pass (AO).

Ambient Occlusion

ZDepth

Volumetrics

POST-PRODUCTION I used Eyeon Fusion for post production. After adding the AO pass, playing with the opacity, I used some masks to do a couple of color corrections. Then I added very subtle volumetrics and some brightness & contrast, just a touch of glow and chromatic aberration and vignetting.

And that’s all. I want to thank everybody that has somehow helped me throughout the process (specially #3DInfografica channel on IRC Hispano, and its forum http://www.3dinfografica.net).

And of course, thank to all of you for reading this Making Of. I hope you’ve enjoyed and found it helpful. www.cgarena.com

Website: www.3dx-design.com Email: drakexxi@gmail.com Page 36

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena Software:

Making of Matrouk

XSI, ZBrush, Photoshop

3D

Hi everybody, my name is Yousef Ikhreis from Jordan. 30 years old, self-taught artist, I am working as Art Director since 2003. Also I am doing a lot of freelance work. In this massive tutorial I will share my knowledge and experience trying to represent in depth tutorial about the character logic of Matrouk. Hoping to get your pleasure and satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION Matrouk is an Arabic word that means the abandoned, he was created to be one of the main characters for my short movie (Vacancies for Creatures/beginning of 2009) which is a trailer for my other short (FANCY PLANET/2010).

Creating Matrouk process is based on my own work pipeline for my short movies, so I will try to concentrate my demonstration of this making of for creating Matrouk as 3D static image. And what is related to him.

PIPELINE My pipeline work is divided to three main parts, • Preproduction.

• Production.

• Postproduction.

FIRST: PREPRODUCTION Ideas and Questions: We can’t create something without knowing what the THING…without something is its nothing and we can’t create NO THING, so what can we do? In this case we act naturally by asking QUESTIONS. QUESTIONS is superior tool for our minds, it’s pushing our minds to inspire, search, find out the answers and bring the knowledge and information’s, it’s the most creative tool in the human brain, the more you ask, the more you think and the more your intelligence, this is why the intelligence levels in the human brain is the highest for the Children’s… and they don’t stop asking…

Concepts and Story: Concept starts from the Story, the idea is the story core, and this is why the idea is the value that every story based on. Once the story is selected and approved for productions, it will be translated to Screenplay and Storyboard.

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Page 39

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk The Storyboard: Storyboard plays important role in the Preproduction structure, because it supports and represents the story image for the visual eye, also it separates the story to the sound part (dialogue, music, sound effects…) from the visual part ( characters, environments, backgrounds …).And makes the productions easy to deal with.

Matrouk is our character that we need to create his conceptual image, it belong to the visual part which is the character designer responsibility.

Character Design: -

Gathering information and data

Before the character designer start designing he had a lot of questions that need to be answered to start storming the design ideas in his brain, this why he receive a document called Character Profile which contains a brief discretion for the main character. Off course he will do his researches. And he could ask more questions, where most of the answers will be found in the story.

-

Character Profile (Matrouk)

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Page 40

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk As we can see that the Profile of Matrouk has provide us with good knowledge in Tow extensions, The Physical extension and The Psychological extension. So the character designer has got an important answer for his questions. By connecting this data he can start extracting and concluding new information and answers, so the character image will be clear to him.

-

The Physical Extension

248 cm means that he is a giant man, strong and sharp muscle because he likes climbing. He should have a big strong fest, forearms, calves, and shaped abs. He is hairless with shaped body this will make us consider that he have a glittering and thin skin, and when we said:” thin skin” we should remember his veins. His body has different scratches, means that he has been through lots of dangerous circumstances in his life, and he is a very good fighter. He hates the darkness, means that he has no activities at night, so he won’t go to utilize the darkness for hunting and killing like evil creatures and monsters… etc.

-

The Psychological extension:

His name is Matrouk which means in Arabic the abandoned, Tragedy, means that if he would talk about something it could be a tragedy case, accident and lots of old sad stories. Assured that he is passionate, when we said passionate means that he could probably cry at any case. This is the way he is faithful, So he spend his time in good purposes like feeding birds, climbing heights, means that he try to discover his life by realizing where he is living every day, it’s like watching his life from outside himself to get better view, maybe he could find why he is abandoned when he was a baby, he hates loneliness means that he is a social character and friendly… etc.

Notice how easy was to find a lot of the connections and new logical results from few words. This is how the character designer should think to produce the best illustration for the character.

Characterization: After gathering required information we are going to study and discuss how we can characterize, translating all the adjectives and attributes which we concluded from the physical level and the psychological level as visual image. How we can make the audience feels that Matrouk is a strong character. How we can show him huge, sad and faithful. How we can reflect his feeling and emotions through his face or body.

Characterization is the nature of this character. What is the Structure of the Characterization?

In my opinion, this Structure is based on one or more of these three levels: 1- Model Level: It shows how much this character can tell through his body expressions, how much we can understand and observe its nature. (This level includes the material). I can use classical drawing or any 2D or 3D still images as example. www.cgarena.com

Page 41

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 2- Animation Level: It symbolizes the character acts, feelings, moods, reaction, the way he is thinking, and his confidence… I can use the old Hollywood movies and the old cartoon animations, which was without sound narration or dialogue as an example. Also it could be stop motion, 2D or 3D animation.

3- Sound Level: It’s the character sound, the way he speaks, laughs, curse, cry, scream… All of these sound expressions will give us the assumption about the character nature; it could be also music or sound effects that accompany this character presence.

Through my characterization at the model level I divide it to seven stages, starting from the biggest parts to the smallest parts, the stages are: Model level: 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7-

Formal (Silhouette) Stage.

Muscles Stage.

Fats Stage.

Skin and wrinkles Stage.

Veins Stage.

Scratches and Cuts Stage.

Marks of Identification Stage.

When I start the characterizing Matrouk at the model level, it was liner process. This is mean that I can’t start the skin stage before the muscle stage or adding my identification marks before skin stage, so it should be liner process from 1-7.

1-

Formal (Silhouette) Stage

I consider this is the main base for the characterization at all levels and stages. By looking at this finished stage the audience could guess and tell the most important description, these are (male, female, monster, freak, alien, dragon, animal, bird, lizard…).

For the formal stage I separated it for two parts, Body Part and Face part.

THE BODY For Matrouk I have concluded that he is strong giant human, who lives alone. Also I assumed that he has the same human body structure, with some exaggerations to show him as giant. Let’s take a look at the reference which I create for “The Standard Human Body Forms” and named it THAOX, for easy to remember.

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Page 42

By matching Matrouk profile (physically and psychologically) we discover that suitable form is to match the two forms (T form, X form), with more emphasizing to the T form and with a few modifications and enhancements it will look great.

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk To make him look more tall and giant, there are my modifications:

•

When we are working at the body we can emphasize more at the Physical extension.

THE FACE Characterizing the face requires a very good knowledge in reading the face proportions and their meaning, this is very important skill to make your character face reflects its nature, so when we saw character face, we can judge about this character, by saying that it looks brave, villainous, stupid, coward, educated, fair, loyal,… with the face we can emphasize and reflect more at the Psychological extension.

Let’s take a look how I had characterized Matrouk, how I tried to give the impressions directly at his face, and how I try to employ every description at his face, also notice the great integrations between Matrouk body and his face to come up with the final image for him at the formal Stage.

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Page 44

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk SECOND: PRODUCTION The production process start after finishing the whole visual concept image (Storyboard, concept designs, sculptures, character Profiles, environments, color style, lighting, image compositions, resources and references…). And rebuild all those concepts that based on the storyboard sequence to come up with new better output quality that matches all the technical production standard aspects and technology.

Modeling There are three different classes for modeling: - Low poly modeling: it shows the formal stage (the Silhouette).

- Medium poly modeling: it shows the formal stage, the muscle stage and the fat stage.

- High poly modeling: it shows all stages.

Low poly modeling For modeling Matrouk I used Softimage XSI and ZBrush. I started with XSI by creating body-man Template for saving time, and then create Biped_Rig to rig and pose the character as I want, after finishing the pose, I freeze the model and delete the rig, then I start manipulating by adding more edges and polygons, scaling and resizing the proportions based on the Silhouette stage which we created before.

When I was satisfied with the result, I start to fix the edge looping to come up with reasonable model base, and then I select all right side polygon and delete it, and fixed the outside edges by reset its pivot point and duplicate symmetry.

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Page 46

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk UV Mapping XSI Texture Editor (UV Map Editor) is great but I prefer to use the Pelting Map in 3DsMax its fast and powerful, I exported my model as .obj, imported it to 3DsMax, converted it to Editable Poly and applied the Unwrap UVW to Pelt map the UVs. After wrapping the UVs, I applied the checker material to examine and fix the UV parts proportion.

Tips for UV Mapping • Start to distribute the UV parts from the biggest.

• Try to use every pixel on the UV space.

• Keep your UV parts readable, like: this is the head, this is right leg, this is the left hand…

• Complete your UV parts.

• Big number of UV parts is not good, also one UV part for Matrouk model is not good, because this will distort the UVs. • Fix any Overlaping edges.

• Align your UV parts horizontally or vertically, this will make it easier for painting in Photoshop.

• You may discover some modeling problems like Triangles, N-gons (more than four edges), and this is a chance to fix it.

• After finishing the UV work Freeze (Convert to editable poly in 3DsMax) your model, this will save or bake your UVs Checking the Model I can’t consider my model finished until it passes through the checking list, it’s a guarantee that the model is ready for the next processes, displacement painting, enveloping, Animation and Rendering.There are the main points in my check list: 1) Checking the Edge loops 2) Checking the Normal’s 3) Checking and fixing any extra vertices or N-gons 4) Checking any over laping edges in UVs 5) Checking that all UV parts are inside the UV area 6) Checking model scale (this is important for Mental Ray rendering issues like, GI, FG) 7) Checking and resetting the pivot point to the right place COG (Center of the Gravity) www.cgarena.com

Page 47

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 8) Freezing all model modifiers 9) Freezing all Transformation 10) Saving the model in a new version, with suitable name.

High poly modeling As we mentioned before the high poly modeling process will cover all Modeling level that will reflect the Matrouk characterization, and here we will cover this stages.

2-

Muscles Stage

Before we start sculpting with ZBrush, let’s talk about the relation between characterizing and sculpturing.

Sculpturing is deformation or manipulation for raw (dead) shape to be converted to a knowledgeable shape or symbol or character, if we take a deep look at the description then we will find it similar to the characterization identification. And we can consider the sculpting as strong tool for characterization process in the Modeling level. It’s important to deal with sculpting as tool to describe more about process or technique, if we understand and implement this concept we will notice excellent enhancement at our sculpting quality output. Before we sculpt Matrouk we will need: Character description: character profile and concept design Raw material: our low poly model (represent the Silhouette) Ideal construction standards: Anatomy (Structure System) for organics We have created our character profile and the low poly model. Now we will talk about the Human Muscles Anatomy.

Matrouk Anatomy: Tips to understand better the Human Muscles Anatomy: • Good Knowledge of the Human skeleton is basic required for:

- Creating balanced proportions for the body.

- Clear understanding for joints dynamics and types.

- Knowledge of muscles stretches mechanism.

• Understanding the Muscles rolls and implementation.

• Every muscle is shaped to employ the best dynamic results.

• Dealing with the body as a group, will make understanding and remembrance easer such as: Triceps group (three muscles), Shoulders group (three muscles), quadriceps (thighs) group (four muscles).

• Try to study the biggest groups, starting from the group that you like.

• At the beginning, don’t involve in muscles naming, these names are sophisticated and hard to rewww.cgarena.com

Page 48

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk member. They could slow your ambition dawn.

• Try to sketch, trace and color the anatomy illustration many times.

• Every human being has the same muscles. Differences are between their scales and proportions.

• Refer in your search to bodybuilding magazines where you will be inspired quickly.

Remember: being professional at the Human Anatomy will help you very much to invent and produce more reasonable character designs for aliens, creatures, freaks, Monsters….

Matrouk muscle sculpting - Subdivision Levels (1 - 7)

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Page 50

Killing the Symmetry Symmetry is typical word in the dictionary, in real world there is no symmetry. And this is one of the reasons that make things look in harmony, things are being and arranged as curved lines which makes simplicity and relaxation.

When we asked to distinguish the natural shape from the industrial, our eyes will start unconsciously looking and searching at the symmetry. Killing the symmetry gives your model it’s live.

The nice thing in this process is that there are no rolls. And you can move, rotate, bulge, skew… as you like where ever you like. And keep in mind the most believable models which have different slight manipulations.

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Page 51

Tips for killing the symmetry process • Beware to consider the weight and balance of the model if you exaggerate in the killing symmetry.

• This process is applied at the final stages (skins, vines, scratches and cuts)

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 3-

Fats Stage

In general, every organic body that contains muscles contains Fats. This is a vital source for Muscles and the brain performance…. And here are the main points for fat value (from the character designer point view): - - - -

The body uses fats as rescores for extra energy.

Fats are placed to store water.

The body uses fats as shield in deferent areas to cover its organs.

Fats used as temperature isolator.

Based on the character nature and external environments for every kind of these characters, it could have a different type of its fat system; wither its birds or mammals or fishes…

For example; the fat system for the penguin is different from the pear fat system. For human being we can apply the roll of THAOX, by using ideal body form or by mixing different two forms or more, and concluding where fats accumulations could be.

For Matrouk body, I tried to show him -based on his profile- with his strong shredded muscles and without fats, the only area which I considered for his body was behind his neck, because it helps to make him look like giant.

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Page 53

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 4-

Skins and wrinkles stage

Before adding and stamping the alpha brushes on muscles, I start observing and splitting the body to different parts based on the body part nature. And I can’t stamp the whole body using the same alpha brush, or intensity this is important to produce believable results. Here are some of the body parts that we should consider

For skin: - On The Joints - around the joints - the hidden areas such as the armpit - sole of the foot - palm of the hand - Watercourse contains thin wax layer (underneath eyes, mouth, and nose.)

- The contact areas - The Fatty areas - Choosing the suitable stamp shape with appropriate area.

For wrinkles: - The wrinkle lines are walking together with muscles curves.

- The wrinkle thickness depends on the fatty layer underneath the skin.

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Page 54

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 5-

Veins stage

Sculpting Veins is marvelous touch that awards and reflects the seriousness of the model look. Most of the visible veins are in the front inner side of the character; this is for the protection of these veins from side effect contacts. (Thanks god).

Tips for using veins: • Using the veins design could help to expose different characters such as the masculinity, savagery, insanity, madness…

• Don’t sculpt the veins over the fatty organs.

• Use the veins only for male mammals, not for human female or bird or fishes…

• Sculpt and design the veins based on the body nature.

• Don’t exaggerate the veins number and thickness. Unless you want the savagery, insanity, madness looks. www.cgarena.com

Page 55

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 6-

Scratches and Cuts Stage

The main concept for using the Scratches and Cuts at the character model is to tell the martial history or the injuries history (wither it was serious injury or simple scratch). This will give the audiences strong impression about the character past and we can judge easily when we watch characters fights in games or movies.

For Matrouk I made different scratches at his body because it will help to represent his heartbreaking past.

He was abandoned and lonely since his early age, he has to sacrifice his life to secure the food and stay alive, and also he is living in abandon old village that turned to forest filled with creatures and predators that he was fighting for self-defense or for food.

Tips for using Scratches and cuts: • Choose reasonable places for your scratches like the places that could be reached easily through the direct contacts of fighting or accident.

• Avoid sculpting the scratches at the hidden areas.

• Aware that when you sculpt big scratches at the part to make a little bulge around it to make it more believable. Also this bulge could affect on the Silhouette.

• If the scratches are in conjunctions with the muscle line direction, it should be stretched and flat.

• The scratch color could tell wither it old, new, deep, and thin injuries.

7-

Identification Marks Stage

I like this stage of sculpting; it’s easy, fast, and efficient. It leaves a positive impression for reality of the model. The difference between this stage and killing symmetry process is that the killing symmetry process is concentrating on the overall body to make you believe.This stage is certain believable, motivate your eyes to look more and check better. It helps us to distinguish, guess the right side from the left in different poses or shots. Catching the audience eyes to this marks and pushed him to look better and examine more is sign for the success creation. www.cgarena.com

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk

•

Kindly, take a look at the head.

Model Study: After finishing the sculpture of Matrouk, I start studying; checking and testing the model to find out if there are any required extra minor modifications. Checking the model techniques is based on discovering the exaggerated parts, surface topography, scratches…. By one or more of these techniques:

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Page 57

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 1-

Changing the light setting.

-

This is accurate techniques that will help to view the model and study the surface topography.

2-

Applying different materials.

-

This is accurate techniques that will help to view the model and study the surface topography.

3- Printing lots of screenshots in different scales, poses and angels.

- By passing all screenshots in Photoshop and start flipping indifferent directions, scaling, rotating, and distorting….

This technique will help to study the model proportion and to find any exaggeration easily. This technique is widely used by the concept artist.

ZBrush Output: When I finished my modifications at Matrouk sculpture, I start extracting the required models and maps which was sculpted or painted in ZBrush.

Here are the main outputs that we use ZBrush for: 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7-

The Polygon base (for Matrouk animation I use the subdivision level two-7828 polygon).

The Displacement Map (2-4k.32 pit).

The Normal Map. The Cavity Map. The Baked Map. The Color Map. The Specular Map.

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk Back to XSI: - Importing and checking: I imported the polygon base for Matrouk into XSI and start checking polygons, UVs and testing all ZBrush outputs to make sure everything is correct.

- Creating the rig: I create Biped-Guide, fixed it to fit it to my character and create my rig from the BipedGuide, added the jaw bone, parented it to the head effectors, enveloped it and started the weigh painting on the left side, then I created my symmetry map to mirror the weight on the right side.

- Testing the weights: by creating major movements for bones, joint and start capturing the animations from different views and studying the weights.

- Killing the weighting symmetry: I start killing the symmetry for weights, to let the body move in organic way.

- Creating new model: after finishing the envelop step, I make sure that everything is correct. Create new model and name it (matrouk_mdl), then export it for the posing and animation.

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk Posing: This is a magnificent step for our characterization. Posing is the dominance spirit who steels our passion unconsciously, it’s the body language that tells what feeling is inside the character, tongue can tell a lies but the body cant.

How can we choose the perfect poses for our character? The answer could be little confusing because we have different roles that we should consider. Here are the main points: Study your character Study the Physiology, psychology, past, nature, mood...of your character.

Choose the right pose Sometimes there could be more than one pose as an option, which you can choose. Try to choose the closer pose, for example there are lots of different poses which could show the anger feeling, but which one you choose?

Choose complete poses Select the perfect time when your character is in a complete stance (pick your time) Body part integration Posing is not limited to the body, it’s for everything related to the character. His face expression with body stance, the upper part with lower part…

Timing Sometimes the body language speaks before, or within, or after the tongue.

Some poses should be completed within the character dialogue. Others should be completed before or after the dialogue. It www.cgarena.com

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk depends on the character nature, pose, dialogue and the story.

Directions Study the different body part directions, where the right knee is directed, left knee, foot heels, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrests, fingers, forehead, eyes…? This is very important.

Reincarnation Try to reincarnate the character role in the story. This will help you more to react and observe the acting roles better. Also it will make you part of the story.

Balloon water (anticipation) When we pushed our finger into the balloon water, we will notice that its shape has changed and other parts were moved spontaneously to keep the balance. This is similar to the human body, because Most of the human body is contains from water (more then 75%).

When the character will move his right leg, other parts like shoulders, waist, left hand… will move spontaneously. Animators call that anticipation.

Emotions The lowest emotional levels, when the body parts are close together such as: thinking, reading, writing, crying. On the contrary, the highest emotional levels, when the body parts are directing away from the center of geometry such as: screaming, fighting, running…

Weight and Balance This is what makes us believe in the character as a life. Without weight and balance we cannot reflect a real emotions or logic in the characterization. www.cgarena.com

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Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk Tips: - How to define the balance line?

Weight is depends on the gravity strength for the body mass. Every body mass has a center of the geometry (center of the weight). If we draw visual line intersect columnar center of the geometry with ground line, the balance line will be defined. It will divide the body for two pieces.

- You should consider balancing from views, front and side.

Motion Curves

If you want your character poses full of life and movements, you should take care of the motion curves. Take a look at the below demonstration images and you shall be able to define your own curves.

Tip: Cartoon animations (the most dynamic animations) use this technique most widely with more exaggeration.

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Page 62

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk Silhouette The main purpose of using the silhouette is to separate the layers by increasing contrast between these layers. Another purpose is to facilitate describing objects and characters by posing and viewing the best angel that could give better understanding for its nature.

After finishing the posing woks for Matrouk at different key frames in XSI, I exported these poses as a several obj files. * Because Matrouk is one of my characters that I am working on for my upcoming short movie which is in the animation stage, also my lighting rigs and HDR setup was not created yet. I will go back to render with to ZBrush and composite in Photoshop.

Back to ZBrush I imported one of the obj poses into ZBrush, applied the alpha map as displacement map and start to modify the joints areas and few muscles depending on the postures.

Tips: Appling the alpha map as a displacement map 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6-

Import the obj pose (it should be the number of polygons an UVs) Divide the model to the same subdivision level in the sculpting process.

Import the Alpha map(from the Alpha tab) Flip the Alpha map vertically Enter the Alpha depth factor number in the intensity Apply the displacement alpha button

CAMERA Choosing the right view To choose the right view for Matrouk, I asked myself; What I want to say about Matrouk? What is the most remarkable property in his character? I looked back to his story and find it, the answer was easy …it’s his pride and honor. www.cgarena.com

Page 63

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk His life was miserable and hard, despite of that he still a good man, and nobody teaches him what is the pride or honor. But he senses a deep feeling in pride, honor and integrity.

My friend Matrouk was born with pride.

How can I show his pride clearly for all people? Let us leave Matrouk to take the pose that he likes.

Analyzing the pose and camera view - He shows us his front upper body. If you want to show someone your pride, don’t show your back or the lower part.

- He curved his body to create a very nice “emotional” motion curve. This shows his confidence and pride.

- He reveals his wide chest, abdominals, and shoulders… this is an open pose and it reflects his confidence, it’s like saying that I have nothing to be afraid of, I am strong.

- His body is relaxed and in spite of this, muscles are showing their beauty and strength.

- The light are focused at his right chest and shoulder, it’s like showing his shield - His wrests and legs are hidden in the dark, it’s like he is expanding from all sides.

- The face is directed to the sky, like he is watching his dreams from the heaven window.

- His eyes and face are mixed with sad feelings. We can see the past in the face but we can’t see the future.

- His private parts should be hidden.

- The bronze color is great for this pose.

The scene type for this shoot was mixed between the full shot and the medium shot, which gives us the ability to show his statues and to look close to the audients for better relations.

The Rule of thirds Before rendering our image we should consider the rule of thirds for the camera.

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Page 64

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk The leading eye I called it the eye tracking. It’s important to study the audience eye about the parts that will pay the eye attention including the priority of these parts. This tracking is very vital for me to tell and arrange my ideas for the story.

Tips: The negative image will help to finds and discovers the lighted areas.

Light is not the only the dominion element in the art works, there are different standard elements for the dominion rolls.

RENDERING IN ZBRUSH The rendering is simple and easy wok in ZBrush. After repairing the view that I was happy with, I rendered my image at the default setting and choose the best from the rendering tab without changing any sitting. Then I printed my screenshot and paste it in Photoshop. Also I applied other material (Flat Color) to the model from ZBrush and griped my screen shot to use it at Photoshop as alpha mask (I will call it alpha screenshot).

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Page 65

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk THIRD: POSTPRODUCTION Because our making of is based on producing a static image, there is no need to talk about all the post production process, we can shortly compose it.

Compositing in Photoshop Attentions Priority When I wanted to create the background, I was interested to make it simple without any strong details or motions in texture that could steal the eye directly. Also I wanted it to be dark to concentrate directly to the shining light at the right shoulder.

Compositing First: The Background 1- Creating new files at Photoshop with high resolution.

2- Appling the cloud filter and noise filter.

3- Cropping the convenient area.

4- Placing the background behind Matrouk screenshot.

5- Changing the background color to the brownish.

Second: The Character 1- Placing the alpha screenshot over the colored screenshot.

2- Filling the eyes and mouth with white color for alpha screenshot.

3- Applying blur filter to smooth the edges at alpha screenshots.

4- With magic wand tool I select the white color. And invert the selection. www.cgarena.com

Page 66

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk 5- Hiding the alpha layer. Select the color layer and delete the selected area.

6- Saving the selection.

7- Starting to fix and modify the pose, using the liquefy filter.

8- Duplicating the layer.

9- Starting to make different steps of color correction, increasing the contrast, different masks, blend moods…etc.

Third: Light and Mood These are the most important features for compositor work. To present any intelligent work result, you have to study your lighting very well. Also keep in your mind that the compositing light is the only feature that will tie your layers to be presented as one perfect layer.

My technique at this stage is smaller to the previous stage; the difference is that, I look to the previous stage as pure technical (layers, lots of blends, gradient blends, masks…).

In this stage as one image, light, mood impression, story…

Tips: • Lighting is the first purport means that concluded before any action in the scene • Lighting is a strong tool that supports the story telling. It should reflect all story or action meanings.

• Lighting should reveal the scene mood, happiness, pessimism, boredom, horror…

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Page 67

Tutorial

Issue 5 Oct - Nov 2008

by Yousef Ikhreis, Jordan CGArena

Making of Matrouk Fourth: Retouches After checking the light, I find that I need to add little enhancements and touches like: 1- 2- 3- 4-

Adding the glossiness to the eyes makes it look right.

Hiding his hands and legs with darkness.

Covering his private area.

Adding another foreground as simple effect in front of his left leg to add more depth to the image.

FINAL JUDGEMENT Once the work has published, we start to prey hoping to get the audience attention and interest. It is the big harvest. As artists and directors we are always trying to implement every aspect, logic and science that could enforce the output to be better, faster and easier to the audience.

Every artwork has a message, philosophy, and story, to cultivate or to entertain. We should not forget that we are working to produce our artworks for the entertainment industry.

Summary In this making of I talked briefly about a lot of things that we can’t find in other tutorials, where my concentration was about how to think? How to define? How to connect? I hope you’ve enjoyed and found it helpful.

Thanks CGArena team for your great fulfillments on the Digital Arts community in the world. Thanks to Ms. Maha Esweh for supporting and checking the language. Thank you all and good luck.

Website: www.yousefart.com Email: info@yousefart.com

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gallery

Marcin Solarz, Poland marcin@skylight.com.pl 3ds max, ZBrush

Biser Ventsislavov Parashkevov, Bulgaria biser_p@abv.bg 3ds Max, ZBrush

Won Gyo Lee, Korea daytripper35@naver.com 3ds max, Vray, Photoshop

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

Jimmy Chow, Hong Kong cgriders@gmail.com Maya, Zbrush, Photoshop, Nuke

Fabio Bautista, Colombia fabiobautista@hotmail.com 3ds max, ZBrush

Volkan Kacar, Turkey blur_maxx@yahoo.com.tr 3ds max, Photoshop

Ruben D. Karamanites, Panama rubens_modeler@hotmail.com 3ds max, ZBrush, Photoshop

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