3D Artist No. 103

The wheel keeps spinning – the start of a new year brings with it the exciting prospect of a whole 12 months of innovation and excellence in computer graphics for 2017. There’s an awful lot to look forward to, from substantial advances in new fields like VR and AR, to big updates in your favourite tools and a wealth of tantalising new projects in the VFX, games and visualisation worlds. We’ll be working day and night to keep up with all the latest developments. Our 2017 mission starts here in a spectacular issue 103, with an awesome offering that’s sure to get you motivated for the year and help you beat the post-holiday blues. First up is our essential Maya workout – five diverse projects broken down into their component parts…

For over 25 years Fusion has been used to create visual effects on thousands of blockbuster films, TV shows and commercials. Fusion features an easy to use and powerful node based interface, a massive tool set, true 3D workspace and GPU accelerated performance all in a single application! Now with support for Linux, Fusion 8.2 is easier than ever to integrate into your existing VFX pipeline! Hollywood’s Secret Weapon Fusion has been used to create groundbreaking visual effects and motion graphics for Hollywood films such as The Martian, Thor and The Hunger Games, as well as on hit television shows like Orphan Black, Breaking Bad, Grimm and Battlestar Galactica! If you’ve ever gone to the movies or watched television, then you’ve seen Fusion in action! Work Faster with Nodes Fusion uses nodes to represent…

COLTON ORR artstation.com/artist/coltonorr Game art enthusiast Colton has joined us along with four other incredible artists to reveal some essential Maya workflows this month. Check out his tips for better retopology on p29. 3DArtist username n/a HECTIC ELECTRIC EINDHOVEN hecticelectriceindhoven.nl Patrick van Rooijen and Reinier Reynhout join us from Hectic Electric Eindhoven this month to show you how to build pro-standard shaders in 3ds Max. Check out their tutorial on p64. 3DA username PatricvanR / ReinierReynhout JUDE LEONG artstation.com/artist/judemarv RenderMan 21 is out now, and as has become the norm over the last couple of years, Pixar has relesed a completely free non-commercial version of its production renderer. Jude takes it for a spin on p80. 3DArtist username JudeMarv ALEX HINDLE alexanderhindle.artstation.com We came across Alex’s work a few months ago and were immediately enamoured with his unique style. Over on p48 he highlights…

“Downtown Life is the fifth image in my ‘Life’ series. This time I wanted to create a city that felt alive, from the big buildings to the dirty sidewalks, with characters going about their lives – doing mundane things such as going to work, to the dentist, or being a vigilante in a suit Benoit Regimbal, Downtown Life, 2016” Benoit Regimbal www.behance.net/benrc Benoit is co-founder and art director of MilkPresso and makes 3D illustrations Software 3ds Max, mental ray, Photoshop Work in progress… “VKK is a render from the model I sculpted at the 2016 ZBrush Summit sculpt-off. It was modelled in three hours using ZModeler and kitbash parts. I used the model with some changes to render some new images, including this one. It is a tribute to my father, Vahe Khatchadour Kermanikian, VKK Ara…

Maya is one of the most widely used tools across the VFX and games industries and with a wide-reaching range of practical applications, too. You could just model with it, but there’s so much more you could do with just the standalone tool. “I use Maya every day at work,“ says character artist Anneli Larsson. “Right now it’s the 3D package that suits me best since it allows me to use many different disciplines within a single package. For character work I use Maya for things like modelling, shading, blendshapes, rendering and, of course, hair.“ Other features range from effects and motion graphics, to simulations and animations. Add in scripts such as froRetopo for retopology, which creates geometry over a high-poly mesh with just the one tool, and plugins like mental…

Dušan Ković Lead cinematic artist at Eipix Entertainment dusankovic.com A man packs up his life into bags and suitcases into a Beetle, and sets off on a new journey. One day he stumbles upon a beautiful sunset, and he can’t help but capture the moment with his old camera. This is Long Exposure, created by Dušan Ković for the Humster 3D Car Render Challenge 2016. It’s a tranquil scene, with Ković scouting for locations for his scene virtually on Google Earth, as he explains. “I had multiple interesting locations, but then I found Lake Bled, a beautiful lake in the northern part of Slovenia. There is a small island with a church in the middle of the lake, accessible only by boat. When I saw that, I got the basic idea for…