CGArena

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

VOLUME 6, ISSUE 4, SEP - OCT 11

ew i v r e Int olt
H n i t s Ju at ter g s n i n r o a aM o they St t e S o h P t are The ht . g i s n V a Wh ng of K azons i Mak ng of Am i ylum s A h Mak s ZBruing of Iron Mak

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VOL

Get Attention in the Computer Graphics Community

Issue Contents
Volume 6, Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

05 14 24 38 46 52

Interview Photoshop ZBrush Photoshop Photoshop Gallery

Justin Holt What are they Staring at Making of Iron Asylum Making of Knight Making of Amazons Vs. The Sea Monster Showcase of latest 3D art

Magazine Edited: Ashish Rastogi Magazine Cover Image: Daria Widermanska-Spala Magazine Design: Yousef Ikhreis

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Industry News

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

CGArena AMD Breaks 8GHz Overclock with Upcoming FX Processor, Sets World Record
One of the demos at AMDs HQ consisted of an array of overclocked FX processors, using various cooling methods, including air, water, and phasechange hardware. But the real star of the event was a liquid-nitrogen / liquid-helium setup that allowed AMDs overclocking team to push a pre-release AMD FX-8150 processor to well over 8GHz, setting a world record for modern processor frequency in the process. AMDs goals with the overclocking demo were two-fold; to show that there was good frequency headroom in the chips, even at this relatively early stage of production, and to see if FX processors suffered from any cold-bugs when run at extreme, low temperatures.

Strata Launches Design 3D CX Version 7 for Mac

Strata introduced Strata Design 3D CX v.7 to Mac users everywhere, accompanied by discounted introductory pricing on full and upgrade versions. With a Windows release on the horizon, this announcement also marks the beginning of Stratas Free Upgrade Program for PC owners who want to purchase version 6 today and get a head start on their 3D design skills. The program guarantees a free upgrade to version 7 for Windows when it is released in the months ahead. Strata Design 3D CX modeling and animation software is for creative designers who desire superior results and usability. Design 3D CX delivers end-toend power for the entire 3D workflow, with a simplified learning curve and familiar toolset developed to help 2D designers easily transition into 3D design.

3D for Graphic Designers - The trend in graphic design is towards 3D, with the demand for motion graphics, animation, photorealism, and interactivity rapidly increasing. And with the meteoric rise of iPads, smartphones, and other interactive devices, the design landscape is changing faster than ever.2D digital artists who need a quick and efficient way to join this brave new world will want 3D for Graphic Designers. Readers get hands-on basic training in working in the 3D space, including product design, industrial design and visualization, modeling, animation, lighting, and rendering all the skills necessary in todays competitive environment.

Book Training

Shader Production - In this training, Instructor Luiz Kruel guides you through writing your own shaders, primarily with the CGFX shader language in Maya. Luiz starts off with getting everything set up in Maya and then writes a simple Lambert shader from scratch. From there Luiz builds upon the Lambert to create a Fresnel and Phong shader. Once the Phong shader is defined, Luiz begins to add textures like diffuse, specular, normal, and cubemap. He then demonstrates how to manipulate UVs and even how to do vertex animation. creating a car shader and pulling everything together to create a full character shader with SSS.

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Interview with

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

CGArena

Justin Holt
Q. Hello, Justin. Could you tell us a bit about yourself (age, location, employment etc)? What inspired you to take up a career in the Arts Industry?

A reputation as a good person as well as a good artist will take you much farther than you think

My name is Justin Holt and I am a texture painter working in the feature film visual effects industry. Currently Ive moved up here to Vancouver to work as a lead texture painter at Image Engine. My road to where I am today was a curvy one. I originally was a pre-med student studying at James Madison University in Virginia. However I was never really happy in the discipline and had always wanted to work in films because of my deep passion for the medium. Some big inspirations for me while growing up were films like The Matrix, Ghostbusters, Alien Trilogy, Predator 1 & 2 and Robocop. I have always been fascinated with the entertainment industry and didnt realize I wanted to seriously pursue a career in it until half way through college. Q. How did you take your first artistic steps to reach where you are today? What was your first professional work? Please tell us about your journey from Electronic Arts to Image Engine. The first step I took towards where I am today was deciding I wanted to pursue the things I thought about every day. And that was films. So I dropped out of my pre-med program and enrolled into the Savannah College of Art and Design. One of my brothers was studying there at the time and recommended I transfer there if I wanted to get into visual effects. It took my two years to finish my BFA and graduated in 2006. However in 2005 I was offered a texture artist internship with EA in Orlando FL working on stadiums for NCAA Football. I left school for 3 months to fulfill that opportunity and then came back to SCAD to finish in March of 2006. It took me about 2 months of hitting the pavement and sending out my reel and resume to anybody who would entertain it until I landed an apprenticeship with Rhythm & Hues Studios in LA. After the apprenticeship, R&H offered me a lighting TD position on my first feature film, Happy Feet. I worked on Happy

Property of Warner Bros. & Sony Imageworks www.cgarena.com Page 5

Interview with

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

CGArena

Justin Holt
Feet for 6 months and then was let go because of lack of work at the studio at the time. Fortunately though it only lasted a month before they offered me a texture painter position on my second film The Kingdom. From there I worked on small texture tasks on a variety of other films before I landed the distinct opportunity to paint the textures for the two title characters in the second installment of The Incredible Hulk. Due to the work I was doing on a couple of digital doubles for the film; my supervisor Greg Steele approached me to paint The Hulk and The Abomination. I will forever be in debt to him for providing me that opportunity. I worked on the two characters for the next 6-8 months and then was offered a role to work on Avatar with WETA Digital in the winter of 2008. Unfortunately due to work visa complications I was unable to make it out there. So I took a role as texture painter with The Moving Picture Company in Vancouver BC for Zack Snyders Watchmen. I was the only fulltime texture painter on the film and was tasked to paint virtually everything on the 250+ shot award we were given. I had a blast painting the OwlShip and other iconic items in the film like The Comedians smiley face pin. From there I worked shortly as a concept artist and lead texture painter on The Surrogates and then accepted a texture role with Industrial Light & Magic to work on their first feature animation called Rango in San Francisco, CA. ILM has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. Having been promoted into the lead texture role within the first 6 months of my tenure there, my supervisors Tim Alexander and Steve Walton really gave me the freedom and opportunity to paint some incredible characters in the film from Rattlesnake Jake to the Spirit of the West to the Mayor to the armadillo named Roadkill. I also was able to build some incredible relationships with some of the best talent in the world. Working closely with Giovanni Nakpil, Kris Costa and Carlos Huante was priceless. I lead textures on the show for almost 18 months and then was hand selected by the the legendary Stephen Rosenbaum over at Digital Domain to be a part of a creature development crew for Bryan Singers Jack the Giant Killer. However I was only at Digital Domain for 10 months before I was given the lead texture role with Image Engine here in Vancouver.

Property of Warner Bros. & Sony Imageworks www.cgarena.com Page 6

Interview with

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

CGArena

Justin Holt
Q. You have an impressive portfolio: youve done a great number of interesting movies. I think it will be interesting to our readers to know what was the project you enjoyed to work on most of all and why? On which projects are you working these days? That is really tough to say. Each project for me holds a special place in my heart. I am adamant on pursing the projects that I want to actually see. I pride myself on working on films I can be proud of and would want my friends and family to see. I had so much fun painting such an iconic character such as the Hulk but also had a blast painting all of the incredibly designed characters on Rango. And my time spent painting hard surface assets like the Owlship resonates differently for me than organic creatures and characters. I cant really pick a favorite because each film has offered me different opportunities. Currently I am actually working on three films right now. I am painting textures on the final installment of the final Twilight Series Breaking Dawn and two other very exciting unannounced projects (one of which I am leading the texture work on).

Property of ILM & Paramount Pictures Q. Can you share a typical texture artist pipeline and what was the common problem you come across in other used pipelines? I cannot specifically divulge any pipeline related details; however, currently I am using Mari and Photoshop in the creation of my textures. Before Mari, the most common problem for me was a twofold issue. The first was not being able to truly paint in context of the asset at hand. I had to resort to a lot of back and forth in Photoshop and previous 3D paint packages in order to make creative decisions regarding details and variation. The second was seams! But Mari eliminates both issues quite nicely.

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Property of ILM & Paramount Pictures

Interview with

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

CGArena

Justin Holt
Q. In the past 6-7 years, what are the major advancements you have integrated into your own pipeline as far as mapping techniques or tips and tricks? I dont think there has been any major advancements regarding my technique. Mari has certainly changed the game a bit regarding painting high resolution textures for film quality work. I will say that working with the talented artists that I have been fortunate enough to work with has certainly allowed me to learn far beyond what I knew and thought capable of. There is no experience like it. The only tip or trick I can really say is developing your skill of observation, understanding color and developing a non-destructive workflow, these three attributes will serve to be invaluable when it matters. Q. How much reference do you pull for your textures? Do you collect most of it on your own through photography or create textures in Photoshop? I gather all of my own reference photography either through the internet, scanning physical pieces on a flatbed scanner or shooting it myself. All of my textures are based off of photographic reference but is heavily manipulated and changed in Mari and Photoshop to achieve the desired look with lots and lots of non-destructive layers. Q. When the team worked on the movie Happy Feet won the Academy Award then how you are feeling at that time? Having had the first film Ive ever worked on win the Academy Award, it was pretty cool. I dont think people realize actually how much time, effort and creative energy to takes the massive amount of artists to achieve the work we do. So getting recognition with an Oscar is always a welcome one! Q. Of all of your work, which piece is your personal favorite and why? Well I have taken a lot of pride in the Spirit of the West on Rango. Even though he was in the film for a brief moment, it was a lot of fun to bring him to life through textures. Property of ILM & Paramount Pictures www.cgarena.com Page 9

Interview with

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

CGArena

Justin Holt
Q. We often hear about concept artist, modelers and matte painters who market themselves and achieve star status in the industry. How should a texture artist promote him/herself to stand out? I think it is a difficult discipline to be noticed in. Somewhere along the line texture painting gets clumped in with shader development and never really gets the credit it deserves. I think with the release of Mari, it is one giant leap forward for the discipline in terms of recognition and awareness. For me the best way Ive learned to promote myself is collaboration. Find likeminded artists and work on personal projects that you are passionate about. This is something I am pursuing currently as well. And it would always serve you well to conduct yourself as a good human being in the workplace, outside of being an artist. A reputation as a good person as well as a good artist will take you much farther than you think.

Property of ILM & Paramount Pictures

Property of Marvel & Universal Q. I think it would be interesting for our readers to learn about your work Ogre. Which stage was the most difficult for you? How long did you work on it? What software did you use? I gather all of my own reference photography either through the internet, scanning physical pieces on a flatbed scanner or shooting it myself. All of my textures are based off of photographic reference but is heavily manipulated and changed in Mari and Photoshop to achieve the desired look with lots and lots of nondestructive layers. www.cgarena.com Page 10

Interview with

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

CGArena

Justin Holt
Q. What information would you share with students looking to get work in the industry? What would you look for in their portfolio? If youre looking to get into the industry, I recommend to find 2 disciplines that you love to do and become the best at one of them and great at the second. Specialization is the key in the feature film industry. In terms of portfolio, I want to see artists who understand how to build photo real textures from scratch and have a keen sense of observation when it comes to folding in appropriate details. I want to see high resolution maps with high resolution details and an understanding of color.

Property of Warner Bros. & Sony Imageworks Property of ILM & Paramount Pictures Q. What is the next step for you? The next step for me is to make sure the texture work on the shows coming into Image Engine is top shelf quality. I know where that bar sits and I intent on lifting it higher and higher!

Web: http://www.justinmichaelholt.com

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Please consider the environment before printing this magazine. Save Paper. 100% Environment Respect.

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Markus Lovadina, Germany CGArena Software:

What are they Staring at

Photoshop

2D

What are they staring at has been created to improve my skills at environmental design and ended up as a personal piece I really like. On the far end I decided to add a bit of story into the image and add the glowing eyes to the background. In this Making Of Id like to show my working process and hope this could be some help for others. TOOLS In most of my images I just use one or two main brushes and some customized brushes, but this always depends on their specific need. I really like to combine those brushes with the selection tool - this gives me the opportunity to get crisp edges and to paint just certain areas in my images. WORKFLOW I dont know why - but Im a big fan of layers. I always try to keep my layers until Im happy with the look and feel. After that I reduce the layer to one and start working on a newly created layer. On top of that I really love to work with the selection tool. I use this tool many, many times in my work. It is a simple and easy way to create different shapes, etc. Is the selection drawn, I start to paint in my main color. I always create a new layer for shadow and lights. This will give me the freedom to go forth and back and also to erase certain areas in the actual selection - without affecting the colors below or above. Happy with the result, I merge the layers. BLOCKING IN / FIRST SHAPES I have no typical start such as line drawings or thumbs. Mostly I start blocking in some rough colors and or shapes. For this image I did a bit of research on the web and after a while I had a clear idea in mind. By using the selection tool and my main brush I dump in the basic shapes. Using a perspective grid is really helpull for environments and can be easily drawn using the line tool. I started with a brown and greyish color palette to get a first feeling for the overall mood. www.cgarena.com Page 15

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Markus Lovadina, Germany CGArena

What are they Staring at

FIRST DETAILS AN USE OF TEXTURES After a while I started to see how the hall could look like and started to add the first textures on the left wall. A good thing is to create your own library of textures. Just go out and shoot whatever you like or use online libraries. I used some corrugated iron for the window and painted over with my main brushes. I really like the combination of both - real textures and painted brush strokes.

MOOD AND MORE TEXTURES I kept working on the window and duplicated the corrugated metal and set it to soft light. Working with soft light is a easy way to intense the colors and to increase the contrast. I set the duplicated layer to 40% and started to paint over again. Also I erased some areas from the corrugated metal to get a softer look. I used the same textures as a repeating element for the wall in the back and for the left wall as well. Not happy with the brownish / greenish mood, I used the color balance filter to get more in to some cold and blueish color temperature. www.cgarena.com Page 16

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Markus Lovadina, Germany CGArena

What are they Staring at

FLIPPING THE CANVAS AND ADDITIONAL TEXTURES Flipping the canvas from time to time is a really good way to refresh your eyes and to get a new feeling for your image. I created a short cut for this action and use it really often while painting my images. For the floor and the wall I used some concrete textures that I had in my library to get a more decayed look. The texture layer was set to round about 20% in soft light.

DONT BE AFRAID Once I was quiet happy with the look I received from adding the textures into my images, I started to block in some Mech shape. Im not really used to Mechs and this was more of an attempt to get better at it. Absolutely unhappy in what this turned out, I get rid of the Mech and the technical shapes around and worked further on the empty hall. www.cgarena.com Page 17

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Markus Lovadina, Germany CGArena

What are they Staring at

MOOD AND LIGHT DIRECTIONS While working (again) on the empty hall, I used another time the color balance. The blueish hall was more of a night situation but I had some day light situation in my mind. I painted in some rough shadows with a squeezed round brush to get a better feeling from where the light should come later. By using the transformation tool I changed the perspective a bit. MORE DETAILS I duplicated all layers and reduced those to one. Now it was time to add more details to the background and foreground as well. I used some customized brushes for the technical shapes in the background. Also I selected the shape and started to paint some highlights to that area. I used the paint and erase technique (described in workflow). At the point I painted in the shadows I had already the source of light in mind - some holes in the corrugated iron. Those could be bullet holes or what ever.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Markus Lovadina, Germany CGArena

What are they Staring at

LIGHT RAYS For the rays of light I just duplicated the holes and added the motion blur filter to it. You have to play around with the angle and the amount to get a proper result. I erased the overlapping rays (upper right side from the holes) with my main brush which is also my main eraser brush. LIGHT INTENSITY AND BACKGROUND DETAILS I duplicated the rays and set the layer to add. While this was way too bright I adjusted the setting for the opacity. With using my customized cloud brush I painted in some soft fog on the floor (where the light hits the floor) and reduced the opacity to 10 15%. For the rough details on the back wall I used again the selection tool and my paint/erase technique.

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Page 19

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Markus Lovadina, Germany CGArena

What are they Staring at

ATMOSPHERE AND WARM/COLD CONTRAST I added a new layer for the atmosphere. The fog is painted with a customized cloud brush set to a big size (up to 1000 pixels). By using the same brush for erasing certain areas on the cloud youll get a better cloudy / foggy result. The sparks/ dust particles are painted in with a small round brush (modified setting for spacing, jitter, and transparency). I really like a big warm and cold contrast in my images. I added again a new layer and applied a soft radial gradient in blue - set to soft light. This layer was duplicated and flipped. I changed the color by using the color/ saturation filter and adjusted the transparency. On top of it I added some rough foreground elements and changed the camera angle to a more dynamic perspective. FINAL DETAILS AND TEXTURES I took a short break from painting on that image. This is, by the way, another good approach to get a fresh view on your image. Back with fresh eyes I added more textures to the columns and ceiling. The orange stripes are painted in with a customized brush and erased on the side to get a more dimensional feeling. To get a small story into that image I added some dark areas on the back wall and painted in some red glowing eyes - just pretty rough (it keeps the imagination flow). This is a good way to lead the attention through the entire image. Im a really big fan of a more cinematographic format - like 21:9. To get this I simply added some black bars on the top and on the bottom on the canvas. My final step for this image was that I used the burn/dodge tool to increase the contrast and the brightness of the light rays by using a soft round brush.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Markus Lovadina, Germany CGArena

What are they Staring at

I hope this tutorial will give you a small insight how I work on most of my images. I still believe that the technique should always depend on the image you like to paint. But I really think that a good understanding of light and shadow and color theory is the key to create good art. Also I hope this tutorial will be helpful and useful. If you have any more detailed questions - dont hesitate to drop me a mail.

Blog: http://malosart.blogspot.com Portfolio: http://malo.cgarena.com Email: malo74@gmx.de

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Buy this Ebook Now

Its a WIN WIN INVESTMENT

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena Software:

Making of Iron Asylum

MODELING

ZBrush, 3ds Max

3D

Hello everyone, this is a little making of character Iron Asylum. Work is based on Jerry Beck concept. His character was comic style and I wanted to make it more realistic but still keeping it a bit of stylized.

I started in ZBrush with basic SuperAverageMan model and shaped it to something like this: Most part of the work was done in ZBrush. Only cable grips, eyes and teeth with tongue were modeled in 3dsamx and then detailed in ZBrush. I already made a video time-lapse with modeling teeth and rendering them in 3dsmax and vray http://vimeo. com/25719450 . You can also download whole model with materials and textures here: http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/ezine/files/teeth.zip

Here is the progress of the model. Basically it started with quite normal human proportions and with time gets more and more stylized. So here is how its been progressing.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena

Making of Iron Asylum

Now more work on hands and feet. It didnt look to good at the beginning.

Selected masking and exported pants:

Now more details on arms and overall muscle shape, adding veins. Adding cable handles and transposing hands.

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Page 26

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena

Making of Iron Asylum

I decided not to use any photo textures for skin and only use ZBrush polypainting. I used spray brush with some dotted alpha. More details regarding face model.

And again model with more details like veins.

Now I moved to pants:

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Page 27

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena

Making of Iron Asylum

Stiches detail - I created custom alphas for ZBrush to ease the process of modeling those. I want to share those, so here they are (remember to set alpha mid value in ZBrush to 50 and lazy mouse settings to your liking). All jeans denim stiches: (You can download the Denim stitches from HERE)

And again come back to main model...

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Some more details on face, wrinkles and pores:

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena

Making of Iron Asylum

So far I was working in symmetry mode but now I decided to create final pose so I used transpose master to do it. After this I realized that the face doesnt look right to me the space between eyes and mouth is too big so I changed it and here it is:

And again added more detail and also fixed the hands and detailed them.

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Almost Final Model. Hair I planned to do in 3dsmax with Hair and fur but just did quick ZBrush model for preview purposes

At this point I was quite happy with model and moved to creating UVs in ZBrush UV Master. I decided also to detach legs form the model because there were pants so there was no need for them. I only left feet. I also used density option in UV Master to be able to have more detail in UV map on face and hands. Heres how UVs looked like: And heres how I split density over the model.

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Page 31

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena

Making of Iron Asylum

The skin texture was polypainted so only pants left to be textured. I also use UV Master to create UVs and took pictures of my own jeans for texturing.

www.cgarena.com

Page 32

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena

Making of Iron Asylum

Now regarding laying out the photo over the uv layout I found some nice trick especially regarding stiches. There is tool called puppet warp that is very helpful in this cases:

You select object than want to transform and set points (joints). And just bend it or move it like you want.

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Page 33

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Lukasz Szeflinski, Poland CGArena

Making of Iron Asylum

After creating displacement map in ZBrush for all model parts I moved to 3dsmax. Heres how scene looked like. The lights were vray plane lights. Three at the back were bluish rim lights. Two small ones at the front were for brightening up eyes and mouth.

Heres how skin material settings looked. Basically I started with VRay Fast SSS2. After rendering I did postproduction in After Effects. I used grate Red Giant Colorista II plugin for color adjustments and Trapcode Particular for dust particles (small, medium, big) with out of focus filter on top of it.

www.cgarena.com

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Thank you all for reading and I hope you found something useful for your works. If you have any questions or work for me, feel free to email me.

Web: http://www.lukx.com Email: lukx@lukx.com

CG Store Corner
CGArena

Shader Production - In this training, Instructor Luiz Kruel guides you through writing your own shaders, primarily with the CGFX shader language in Maya. Luiz starts off with getting everything set up in Maya and then writes a simple Lambert shader from scratch. From there Luiz builds upon the Lambert to create a Fresnel and Phong shader. Once the Phong shader is defined, Luiz begins to add textures like diffuse, specular, normal, and cubemap. He then demonstrates how to manipulate UVs and even how to do vertex animation. Original Price - $ 55 | CGArena Price - $ 50

BUY NOW

Realistic Max and Vray Scene with Tutorial - This is a FULL & COMPLETE VRAY AND 3DS MAX SCENE, this scene have 24+ realistic 3d models, more than 35 textures maps, the package comes with 6 video tutorials about, modeling, lighting, rendering, and post-production with adobe photoshop, render presets just load and click, and photoshop actions for change the look of any render just with a click. (if you look over internet just the eames chair can cost you US $35 and we are giving this FULL PACKAGE just for US $36.00). Original Price - $ 40 | CGArena Price - $ 36

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UDK3 - iOS Mobile Game Production - In this training Sjoerd Hourences De Jong continues his series and goes through the entire production of creating an iOS game using UDK. Sjoerd starts with a blank scene and immediately begins placing custom meshes and then goes into mobile materials, particles, sounds, and fog. Sjoerd then demonstrates setting up the plane, creating a joystick to control the plane, adding speed/fire buttons, creating destroyable ground targets using prefabs, adding a scoring system and time limits and compiling the final. Original Price - $ 65 | CGArena Price - $ 59

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Advanced Interior Lighting with Vray- This is a complete traning for creating realistic interiors with vray and 3ds max. This training include the complete scene so you can check every material setup, lighting, camera settings, render setup and learn how to implement that in your our renders with the help of the video tutorials. Remember this training include the complete full scene files, you can use the 3d models from the scene for any type of projects and you can test materials with the scene, also you can study the scene for better results. Original Price - $ 60 | CGArena Price - $ 54

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CG Store Corner
CGArena

psd Manager 3.0 - psd-manager 3.0 is the first and most advanced PSD file exporter for 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design available on the market. Now, for the first time you can readjust nearly everything in the rendering with Adobe Photoshop or any another application that supports PSD files. psd-manager is the tool to help you save time and money by integrating the tools you best know and like. Saving the rendered image as a layer in a PSD file is an easy task; psd-manger can do this and much more. Original Price - $ 189 | CGArena Price - $ 179

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Key to 3D Success 2.0 - Start making good profits from 3D Renders. Well, actually talking about 3Ds Max & VRay as a JOB. As a GREAT way of growing YOUR name in this industry. Well we ALL know that it actually leads to making enough PROFIT$ to do what ever YOU WANT! Doing the best JOB in the WORLD by creating PHOTO-REALISTIC 3D Images LIKE A PRO! Have YOU ever had these Challenges? When you just DID NOT KNOW how to make it BETTER? Original Price - $ 169 | CGArena Price - $ 79

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The Pariah - The Pariah is a workflow project for 3ds Max, including optional elements using ZBrush and/or Mudbox to create a biomechanical hybrid monster with two legs, two mechanical arms, two organic arms, 4 tentacles and two massive weapons. All limbs are rigged up and animated as are the tentacles using HI AND HD Inverse Kinematics. Using the set you will learn the entire workflow with no cuts, no timelapses and everything fully narrated in traditional 3d-palace patios. Original Price - $ 40 | CGArena Price - $ 36

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Thinking Particles : Part 2 - In this DVD Hristo Velev takes up from Part 1 in this series, to go deeper into the intermediate concepts of Thinking Particles. Everything from Raycasting, Referencing, Motion Inheritance, Generation, Driving Scene Objects, Shape Collision, Fragmentation, Caching, Joints, PhysX Dynamics, Deformation, Displacement, Map-Based Interaction, Particle Interaction, Custom Data Streams, FumeFX Interaction, and more are fully explored in this DVD. Original Price - $ 60 | CGArena Price - $ 54

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Youichi Shimazaki, Japan CGArena Software:

Making of Knight

Photoshop

2D

Hello everyone! My name is Youichi Shimazaki and Im a Japanese Digital Artist. First of all, Im most honoured to have opportunity to introduce this tutorial. Thanks, CGArena.com !! I have enjoyed painting with Adobe Photoshop since 2008. I use Photoshop CS3 and a Wacom Intuos4 tablet and learn by trial and error. My goal is to become an active 2DArtist and Concept artist, not only known in Japan but also worldwide. BRUSH TOOL I always use the various brushes properly. This time I decided to use mainly three Custom brushes 1,2,3 and an Airbrush. CONCEPT This piece was inspired by the fantastic novels of J.R.R.Tolkien. When painting my illustrations, I utilize novels, movies and comics as the source of idea. This time I wanted to paint the scene that knights ride the horses in the battlefield. SKETCHING Now I work on the rough sketch based on the concept in Photoshop and use a Custom brush 1. I dont start with colour. COLOR SCHEME Before starting the painting, I always do carefully planning. Here I chose a reddish brown for the base of the background, with some red and dark brown for all characters. Warm colours can create many different moods: battlefield, danger, passion, wrath etc. I wanted all of those moods together. www.cgarena.com Page 39

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Youichi Shimazaki, Japan CGArena

Making of Knight
LIGHT AND SHADOW Lighting is one of the most important tools when it comes to setting a dramatic scene. So here I painted a highlight on the main characters head which is key point. And I added an ambient light from the ground to add more contrast. Then, to exaggerate the presence of the main character, I decided to add the shadow between him and his horse. PAINTING Painting Methods--Concerning the Painting, I use two painting methods properly: Method 1- Drawing a monochrome sketch and then Coloring it by using different Layer Blending Options like Soft Light and Multiply on the layer which was draw the sketch. Method 2- Drawing a monochrome sketch, and then Referring to it for painting a picture. Step 1: The Background The background should be expressing the mood of the blazing battlefield. Then using a large speckled Airbrush and a Custom brush 3, I painted the blaze, fog and dust. Step 2: The Armor In order to add a rough texture to the knights armour (like rust, dusty etc.), I used a Custom brush 2 and 3 strokes.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Youichi Shimazaki, Japan CGArena

Making of Knight
Then, I wanted to add chain mail texture in part of the main characters armour, so I used a special Custom brush. The most important and difficult detail is this part! This brush helps me paint the chain mail detail!

Finally, I wanted to use a symbol to tell the viewer a bit more about the main characters position in the knighthood. So, I painted his armour helmet decoration and the others with the rough touches.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Youichi Shimazaki, Japan CGArena

Making of Knight
Step 3: The Horses I wanted horses to show off some muscle, with simple brush stroke. So I used a Custom brush 2, which will leave a nice texture on the skins surface. The back horse was painted of low saturation.

Step 4: The Dust At this step, adding atmospheric effect Dust. Dust is very useful effect for having impact and dynamism! So I painted in some dust with a Custom brush 3 and an Airbrush. To be careful at this step, Dust should be rendered in the front or back. In the front of main character, I use a Linear Dodge layer and a Custom brush 3 to add this effect. In the back of one, I use a normal layer and lower the saturation.

Step 5: Final Step The first thing is adding highlights; I used a Linear Dodge layer and an Airbrush. Next step, Using the Adjustment Layers, I adjust the Light, Shadow, Hue, Saturation, Brightness and Contrast in the image. So, I used the Curves Adjustment layer plus Layer Mask to more stressing and tense. (TIP: The Curves tool is effective in adding shadow too!) www.cgarena.com Page 43

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Youichi Shimazaki, Japan CGArena

Making of Knight
To finish the image, after I created a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer, altering Saturation (+20).

I hope you enjoy this tutorial. If you have any question and comments, please feel free to contact me via Email or my website. Thanks for reading!!! Web: http://shima99.ninpou.jp Email: y.shim.99@gmail.com

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Have you created your CG Por tfolio?

www.cgarena.com/por tfolio

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Alexi Chabane, Canada CGArena Software:

Photoshop Making of 2D Amazons Vs. The Sea Monster

This painting started out as a quick sketch I did on a scrap of paper at work. I liked the composition and continued to refine the sketch into a cleaner drawing. I tried to work out the placement and poses of the Amazon characters so they told a story and fit with the overall movement of the sea monster. I wanted the image to have a fun and cartoony feel, so I kept the characters anatomy simple and stylized. Once I decided that the women would be Amazon warriors I started collecting reference images of ancient Greek armor, weapons and ships and incorporated details from these images in my designs. At this point I enlarged the cleaned up drawing and drew a much more finished version of the image. It seemed that the sea monsters head did not fit with the style of the human characters so I did a few more designs until I found one that worked. All my drawings where scanned and put together in Photoshop to make up the final outline. Before starting on the painting I did a color design for the Amazons outfits and a quick color sketch of the finished drawing. I quickly blocked in the color sketch to roughly work out the lighting direction and the overall color tones of the image. For the design of the sea monster I looked at the colors and patterns of various types of eels and sea snakes. I tried to choose colors that worked with the blue/grey background and did not clash with the red, black and gold I had chosen for the characters.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Alexi Chabane, Canada CGArena

Amazons Vs. The Sea Monster

When starting the actual painting I did some quick gradient and color fills so I would not be looking at a white canvas. I kept a copy of pencil drawing that I multiplied over top of the color layer to keep my outlines visible. I also painted out selection sets for the three major areas of the painting; the foreground characters, the mid-ground ship and cliffs and the background sky. I used a basic round brush with hard edges for almost the entire image, set to about thirty percent opacity. I like the visible brush strokes and imperfect look this method produces, and I think it works well with the style I was going for.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Alexi Chabane, Canada CGArena

Amazons Vs. The Sea Monster

Using the selection layers I could easily make adjustments to large areas of the painting and quickly try out new color and lighting ideas. Eventually I decided on a back lit lighting scheme, with the foreground characters in shadow, illuminated by a soft rim light. I used gradients to block in some colored shadow and keep a uniform sense of tone. By erasing these shadow areas the original colors could come through and define the light areas.

Once the lighting was established I began painting on a new layer, adding in more details and covering up most of the pencil outlines. At this point I added volume to the forms by painting highlights and shadow effects. I try to bring the elements together by imagining a bounce light (similar to ray tracing in 3d) that spills color from one object to another. I also tried to define the different materials by giving them varying amounts of texture and secular highlights. At certain points during the painting process I flattened the image to keep the overall number of layers low and manageable.

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Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Alexi Chabane, Canada CGArena

Amazons Vs. The Sea Monster

To achieve a wet look I added strong highlights and a dripping water effect on top of the characters, painting with white on an overlay layer. In a similar manner I added shafts of light breaking through the clouds in the background. Just when I thought I was finished I began to feel that the image was not properly balanced, and that a thinner, more vertical composition would better suit the scene. I cropped the image by about twenty percent horizontally and adjusted the size and placement of the ship and shoreline. www.cgarena.com Page 50

Tutorial

Issue 4 Sep - Oct 2011

by Alexi Chabane, Canada CGArena

Amazons Vs. The Sea Monster

Thats it hope you enjoy this project overview and learn some tricks from here.

Blog: http://alexichabane.blogspot.com Portfolio: http://alexichabane.cgarena.com Email: alexichabane@hotmail.com

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Lee Griggs, UK leegriggs464@hotmail.com Maya

Jose Alves da Silva, Portugal jose.zeoyn@gmail.com ZBrush, Photoshop

Alex Sales, Portugal al3xsales@hotmail.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Nikita Veprikov, Ukraine veprikov.n@gmail.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Veronique Comeau, Canada vero_comeau@hotmail.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Bruno Melo, Brazil bmmsouza@gmail.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Victoria Passariello & Eduardo Balestrini, Venezuela info@vitrux3d.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Mohamed Abdelfatah, Egypt mohamedmabdelfatah@gmail.com ZBrush, 3ds Max

Wesclei Barbosa, Brazil wesclei@hotmail.com 3ds Max, ZBrush

Vladimir Kostyuchek, Russia Sacred111@mail.ru 3ds Max, Vray

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