3D Artist No. 112
3D Artist magazine is a luxury title for fans of 3D software and the phenomenal images that can be created. Each issue is packed with advice and inspiration for 3D devotees, all written by first-class artists. The tutorials give readers valuable insight into the techniques used by 3D professionals, while interviews and features focus on the latest projects being created by commercial studios and freelancers. 3D Artist looks at the entire 3D world, from TV and architecture design, through to film work, concept art and character development. The unique 'Workspace' mini-mag is for people training for a 3D career and shines the spotlight on 3D university and college courses, in addition to specific career advice from experts in the field, interviews with 3D studios and recruitment agencies, plus tips for anyone starting out as a freelancer. Please note: Digital versions of the magazines do not include the covermount items or supplements that you would find on printed editions.
in this issue
welcome
With such a diverse range of texturing tools out there, it can be difficult choosing just one to cover in the magazine – let alone choosing one to learn if you are just starting out. For some of the beginners or more seasoned texture artists out there, you may want to learn something new. Perhaps you may want to find out how to achieve stunning materials or painting. Well, we’re covering tips and tricks from six of the most popular software this issue, so that you don’t miss out on a single technique! Fresh off of the release of Destiny 2, why not learn how to create materials with Bungie’s lead environment artist Daniel Thiger for example? Don’t miss it, it’s over on page 24. We also take a look at…
the expert panel
TANYA COMBRINCK N/A Tanya takes a look at the major players in texturing to discover expert, triple-A techniques in creating materials, painting textures and much more. Don’t miss her six-software guide on page 24. 3DArtist username N/A NEIL MCKNIGHT artstation.com/neilmcknight Neil is lead 3D artist working on Star Wars: Battlefront II. Check out his incredible tutorial on current-gen techniques for a sci-fi environment in 3ds Max and UE4 on page 44. 3DArtist username Neyull GABRIEL D’ORAZIO gabrieldorazio.com Gabriel is a 3D shading/lighting specialist. He’s shown us how to literally paint like a painter with his winning image ‘Vincent’ in Substance Painter this issue over on page 52. 3DArtist username gabrieldorazio ANG LU anglu.artstation.com Lighting artist Ang has imagined a beautifully detailed portrait of a Chinese empress, using ZBrush, Maya, Mari and more. Find out how he achieved it on page 58. 3DArtist username N/A WAWI ABDEL…
the gallery
“This is a personal project created with 3ds Max, Photoshop and FStormRender. I made this image when I saw a reference photo and I had some ideas for a visualisation piece”Deny Maulana Mallik, Living for Apartment, 2016 Deny Maulana Mallik behance.net/interiorB Deny is from Indonesia and is a 3D visualisation architect with four years of experience Software 3ds Max, Photoshop FStormRender Work in progress… “A character I created for the short movie based on the touching comics Hearts for Sale by Miyuli. Client: Prime Media Studios”Nazar Noschenko, The Gentleman, 2017 Nazar Noschenko primemedia-studios.be At a very early age, Nazar found his passion: character creation. He discovered that his favourite style is stylised realism Software Blender, Photoshop Work in progress… “This was a fairly quick project over around two days and part of a series where I wanted to try and improve my…
texturing the ultimate guide
No matter what you’re working on, how you apply textures to your model will make the difference between a final project that’s outstanding or just mediocre. There’s no point putting hours into producing a fantastic sculpt only to let it down with some subpar texturing, so we’ve collected advice from eight top artists on advancing your technique to help you produce realistic, compelling texturing effects. Staying organised is a big part of good texturing – keeping your graphs readable will stand you in good stead when working with others, and saving every happy accident that occurs or new technique you discover into a well-kept folder will improve your overall texturing arsenal. Making sure you have a process that performs tasks in the right order is also important, as it will help…
metal texturing in quixel
PARKERISED STEEL MATERIAL I started this material by adding a clean, solid colour layer with nothing but the specular value of steel as the base for the material. To create the parkerisation, I began by adding the dusty steel material, decreased its specular value to the dielectric range and removed the colour as well as brightened the albedo. This specific material comes with a very nice texture pattern in both the roughness and albedo that suited this application nicely, and is great for emulating shallow surface damage not digging all the way through the finish. BAKELITE GRIPS The material for the bakelite grips started off with one of the standard plastics included with the program. After tweaking the base parameters to my liking, I mixed in the surface roughness details of a rubber…
create a lava texture in substance designer
01 Initial shape To create this lava substance, I started with Perlin Noise 1 to define the mass and density of the material. This noise has a good mix of dark and bright values without too much detail. I then used directional warps and blur nodes to define the direction of the lava flow. 02 Refined shape To make the shapes read as thick lava flows, I needed to reduce the dark values of the noise. The method I chose was slope blur. By setting it to ‘blur’ and using positive values, I inflated the shapes. Warping was then applied to break them up and add imperfections. 03 Detailed shape The reference used for this project featured lots of banded layers running perpendicular to the flow. By using tiled gradient maps that…
