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BE INSPIRED BY 3D DIGITAL ART

-Inspiration for 3D digital artists

-Interviews with top artists
-The stories behind the pictures
-Insightful galleries
-Quick tips

Issue 6
December 2010
Premium Edition

Christmas and New Year Mini Galleries

We approached a number of our artists we interviewed in 2010 for an update on their works and
have created a series of mini-galleries in this issue as a result. We asked each artist what inspired
them to create the image in question, what they learned from creating it and asked their favourite aspect of the final render.
As a general question we asked many of the artists what aspect of their craft did they hope to
improve upon as they went into the new year and also invited them to promote any project, image or new direction of work that they would be taking in the near future. Some of the answers
may reflect your own directions as your aspire to improve your digital art craft during 2011.
Were also pleased to have a full interview with Yaroslav, a popular Mojoworld artist from Tokyo,
Japan, one of the moderators of the Mojoworld forum on Renderosity.com.
Weve ended 2010 with two new conduits of promoting artists workone is through a FREE 3D Art
interactive game gallery on our
website. Explore the island of
Praetax here, which includes a number of images from artists interviewed in 2010.

The Stonghold by Yaroslav

(Mojoworld planet by Alex Niko)

Were also now promoting our artists on youtube.com, starting with a video review of artist Peter
Rexsee the promotion of his portfolio here.
Our best wishes for all of you in 2011.

Paul Bussey Editor

Cover art Durins Bane by Juan Rodriguez

mag@3dartdirect.com
The content of this magazine is 2010 3D Art Direct

FEATURE YOUR ARTWORK

ARTICLES

HOW TO SUBMIT

The type of articles we consider for publication are:-

1.

Go to www.3dartdirect.com/blog

1.

About the Artist : featuring what inspires your 3D digital art and a portfolio of your work.

2.

2.

Quick Tips : short tutorial including screenshots and instructions of a tip that has developed your ability as a
3D digital artist.

Click on the button Publish Your

Artwork

3.

Images With a Story : Provide a short narrative (less than 5000 words) with digital art illustrations.

Please email us at mag@3dartdirect.com for rates.

ARTWORK
Since we focus on artwork in the science fiction and fantasy genres, we welcome your artwork in these categories. If you have other types of images you
would like to submit, we will certainly consider them for inclusion.

3D ART DIRECT POSTER STORE

To sell your images in our poster store as an A2, A3+ or A4 print,
it must be rendered with these pixel dimensions:-

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. The term "Artist" denotes the sole author of the digital artwork. "Sole author" includes the artist's rights to use commercially
licensed models or other elements within the uploaded image.
2. The artist must also be the individual uploading the images to 3D Art Direct.

A2

A3+

A4

3. Uploaded art MUST NOT include any elements that are COPYRIGHTED material.

6960 x 4920

4920 x 3480

3480 x 2460

4. Models used in images must be licensed for commercial use.

5. We do not accept art that contains nudity or strong images of violence.
6. The artist will retain the full copyright of their work and retains the right to sell their artwork elsewhere.

The good news is that we will host your images as products for
free (once approved by us) and there is no limit on the amount
of images you can submit. There are certain terms and conditions, one of which is that the image MUST NOT include any elements that are COPYRIGHTED material. For each poster sold we
pay you via PayPal these rates:A2

A3+

A4

2.50

1.50

1.00

7. 3D Art Direct retains the right not to use the artist's work for use as a product if not deemed suitable for sale.
8. Artists will be informed by email within 48 hours of upload if their artwork will be used as a product. Products will be placed
online on the 3D Art Direct store within 72 hours.
9. 3D Art Direct will only use uploaded images of the artist for the express purpose of 1) poster sales on the 3dartdirect.com
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13. The artist must have a PayPal account to receive funds from the sale of their artwork from the 3D Art Direct online store.
14. Payments are sent in the currency of Pounds Stirling via PayPal on the 15th of each calendar month.

CONTENTS

Editorial

Page 2

Feature Your Artwork! Tell us the stories behind your Portfolio!

Page 3

Artur Rosa

Page 5

Alex Niko

Page 8

Warren Turner

Page 11

Danny Gordon

Page 15

Juan Rodriguez

Page 18

Phil Drawbridge

Page 21

Jacob Charles Dietz

Page 24

Peter Rex

Page 27

Melissa Krauss

Page 30

Full Interview with Yaroslav Mojoworld artist shares his inspirations for his catalogue of volumetric worlds

Page 33

ARTUR ROSA

Soltice

AR: In my images you'll often see roads and travellers, quite often through strange and uncharted territories. I love the
feeling of exploration and since I don't do it in real life, I do it in my mind. This is one of those images. The title and specific
place comes from another thing that fascinates me: the midnight sun. So, I imagined a journey through this strange land
during the midnight sun. The tower gives the traveller a sense of purpose, a destination.

3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it? AR: I learned how to get the most from twisted terrains, one of the features in Vue
that, interestingly, I had never seriously used before.
3DAD: What do you like best about the image? AR: The asymmetrical symmetry of the image. I know it sounds strange but that's true. :-)

ARTUR ROSA
The 3rd Route

AR: I made this image for the Vue Environment Competition in 2008. It didn't win but it was among the 12 finalists. I basically wanted to create an image that could show some of the best that Vue has to offer, from terrains to atmospheres
to distributed ecosystems to material handling. This image contains many of the different Vue features and that was my
intention.

3DAD: What did you

learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
AR: I learned a bit
more how to distribute ecosystems
more precisely and
how to integrate
different Vue terrains. It may not be
obvious at first sight,
but this is in fact a
collection of several
terrains.
3DAD: What do you
like best about the
image?
Undoubtedly, the
winding river and
winding road, side
by side.

ARTUR ROSA
3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create this image?

Unfinished Circles

AR: In this one I wanted to reach that point where real, unreal and surreal meet in harmony. I love clouds and I
wanted to have lots of them. I often think that clouds are to the sky as roses are to a garden. You can have a garden with no roses but it doesn't seem complete. :-)
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it? AR: I learned a bit more on how to better control clouds.
3DAD: What did you like best about this image? AR: The clouds and their reflections.

3DAD: : What aspect of your craft do

you hope to improve upon next as you
go into the new year?
AR: I don't plan anything in what concerns image creation. On purpose, I
don't think about the future, I just go
with the flow. That's the opposite of my
real job, where I have to plan everything, very carefully and thoroughly.
Image creation should remain spontaneous, unplanned, wild and untamed.
The next thing that comes to my mind
is the next thing that I will make. The
visions that appear in my mind will dic-

ALEXANDER NIKO
AN: I was inspired
by the music of John
Serrie. This image
has the same name
as the album that
was released in 1987
"And The Stars Go
With You".
The composer Jonn
Serrie wrote this album for those who
lost their lives in the
space shuttle Challenger disaster. The
1986 Challenger
tragedy deeply affected Serrie, who
went on to write this
body of music as a
way of honouring
the dead and working through his grief.
I think my astronaut
in this image has a
chance to stay
alive!

ALEXANDER NIKO

ALEXANDER NIKO
"Beyond" - This was another chance to explore and return to the Chasma world ... i really love this planet!
"Unknown Sector" - This was another experiment with Volumetrics plug-ins, creating the asteroids, which I

UNKNOWN SECTOR
am still learning. Its a paradox: the more you learn about something, the stronger is your conviction that
on a subject you know very little!
3DAD: What aspect of your craft do you hope to improve upon next as you go into the new year?
Is there a project, image or new direction of work that you would like to promote to the readers?
AN: I have a lot of different ideas .. in the new year I will try to surprise more than anything.
For a long time I have wished to make one project, i wish to create a global battle on the planet Hoth
from the Star Wars.

BEYOND

10

10

WARREN TURNER
3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create this image?
WT: I was just playing around with my Reflecta world looking at differing ways of using sine in nested distorted noises to see what construction looking forms
could be created.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
WT: The sine function does have its limits in Volumetrics and there is a lack of more primitive like forms that can be created. Volumetrics is great for organics
but less supportive for architectural styles or more contrived forms.
3DAD: What do you like
best about the image?
WT: The end result is dark in
mood and the overall image conveys a sense of an
aftershock or similar event
where what could be structures are bounced up in
the air (if that makes
sense).

11

WARREN TURNER
3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create this image?
WT: The Renderosity Mojoworld galleries were all pulling cool renders from Alex Nickolaevs Sandy Rocks 3 planet but they were all distance shots trying to
get as much form in as possible. I just looked closer and found a spot where the form was equally as dramatic and could also try and capture more of the
details.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
WT: When to stop! I was contemplating a character sitting with their knees bent up and tucked into their arms under the right overhang just looking out as if
taking shelterbut I opted
not to. Im still in 2 minds
whether I should have or
notbut I stopped where I
was and focused more on
the terrains form rather
than a character in the
image which would have
distracted. I also considered alien vegetation but
MoJoTree and Volumetrics
just dont mix very well.
3DAD: What do you like
best about the image?
WT: I really like the overall
form, hence its title...but I
also think thats Slavs materials worked really well
with some slight adjustments. The overall sepiaish tones fit well with the
slight colouration to the
multiatmos creating an
overall relaxed look and
sensation.
12

12

WARREN TURNER
3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create this image?
WT: My brother in law wanted some of my work for his living room and wanted a beach/waters edge style scene but non typical. This was something I did
over 1 year ago.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
WT: Like all things Volumetrics needs transparency to really help to convey water correctly and I really struggled to try and fake some waves against the
shoreline which is still something Id like to achieve but its really NOT easy trying to calculate where the terrain is as its a differing surface.
3DAD: What do you
like best about the
image?
WT: Probably the rocks
distribution into the
waters edge. It helps
take the viewers eye
into the overall image.

13

WARREN TURNER
3DAD: What aspect of your craft do you hope to improve upon next as you go into the new year?
WT: Keep plugging away with Mojo and Volumetrics in the dream that maybe one day its development plan may be rekindled. Im not over anxious if it
does or not TBH now, there are other apps I could turn tobut mojo is fun now despite its shortcomings. Its like a pet dog that although it farts and smells
badly you still love it nonetheless!
3DAD: Is there a project, image or new direction of work that you would like to promote to the readers?
WT: I am grateful to
anyone that visits my
gallery. Im even more
grateful to those that
drop a comment. Its
only via constructive
feedback that we improve via positive and
negative feedback
and I openly welcome
both. So I have many,
many, many old projects tucked away
that one day I will get
to finish and I also
have many that I
want to do but have
yet to start off. All I
can say is keep an
eye on my gallery and
hopefully a new path
will develop out of experimentation and
collaboration through
the Renderosity forums.

14

14

DANNY GORDON
DG: This Planet file, which was created by Firesong, I found in the Mojoworld free section at Renderosity. Immediately after opening this file what caught
my eye was the Alien Desert Type atmosphere that reminded me of the landscapes of the Planet Tatooine in Star Wars. After exploring this planet in its
stock form, I knew I was going to have to make some changes to get the look that I had in my mindmainly the surface.

LHA BHO

After several experiments with materials and .mjw files I ended up tweaking materials from Cangi Cangmo a classic file from Caylxa to get the surface I
needed. There were very minor tweaks to the atmosphere (mainly increased density) and scaled up the Moon to be the focal point of my final Panoramic
View. This is one of my personal favourite renders with Mojoworld.

15

DANNY GORDON
This is a stock Planet created by Doc Mojo and Armands that comes with your purchase of the software. A thread in Renderosity's Mojoworld forum started
by Mojo Veteran Wirepaladin showcasing this file, reworked by Mojo artist Hakujin, immediately sparked my interest. I joined this thread with my tweaks and
started posting
small renders of my
Ways of Fire III
progress, Wirepaladin added several
pointers and guidance to my work
which ended up
being a tutorial of
sorts for me, learning several technics he has learned
over the years. Although I am not
completely done
tweaking this world
I am very pleased
with the foreground textures
achieved by
tweaks to the FG
Blend Node in the
land materials Mojograph (Credit wP)
* This Hakujin rewired version of
Ways of Fire III is
now available in
the Mojoworld
Freestuff at Renderosity
16

16

DANNY GORDON
DG: This is a heavy tweak of Planet Chasma by Hillrunner. After seeing Mojoworld Artist Alex Niko's results with this planet I knew by his many examples this
file had no boundaries. Although the terrain isn't the main focus of the piece its undeniably a great foundation. I treated the terrain with tweaks to stock
materials from Mojoworld's extensive library of textures. The atmosphere was created using a fairly simple mixture of none volumetric stock atmospheric elements and textures. Work flow on the sky progressed in the way Mojoworld is best suited, just experimenting and having fun. Very happy with the out come.

ENTITY

3DAD: What aspect of your craft do you hope to improve upon next as you go into the new year?
DG: Well in regards to Mojoworld,
I would defiantly like to improve
my overall understanding of the
logic in wiring complex worlds via
the Mojograph. With Terragen V
2.2 - One word - NODES
3DAD: Is there a project, image or
new direction of work that you
would like to promote to the
readers?
DG: I Just upgraded my Terragen
vr 9.43 to Terragen vr 2.2, There
has been significant improvements to this program, namely
the interface also thegeneral stability of the program as well as
the support of multicore processors. I have been seeing some
extraordinary images coming
from vr 2.2 and with the devolopment of the Mojoliths clip file by
Richard Street (aka Rich2) I defiantly see my gallery splitting up
again between Mojoworld, Mandelbulb and Terragen 2.2.

17

JUAN RODRIGUEZ
JR: With this title is easy if you are into AD&D and Forgotten Realms to know what inspired me to do this image. The books by R.A. Salvatore about the drow
elf, Drizzt Do'Urden. I like very much this image and how it ended. At first i thought that it was good enough because i focused on the characters rather
than the terrain
(something that not all
users of Vue like), but
what i think i did achieve
is the sense of movement
and violence of the giant
near the "victims". I think
this is what makes this image worthy.

ICEWIND DALE MOUNTAINS

The rest... well I am not

pretty satisfied with the
pose of the victims, but i
think the big guy catches
all your attention.
This is the first image
where i have learnt that
no matter what you describe in your scenes, is
how you describe. Almost
everything is already said
and told in fantasy. Using
poser means that you are
using models that anybody else can use, so you
have to focus on making
it different. Try to catch
the viewers eye. That can
be achieved i think, using
different POV or very dramatic poses
18

18

JUAN RODRIGUEZ
JR: This one took a long time to render and do the postwork. Most of the background is postworked because my system wasn't able to handle the amount
of Poser figures I included in the scene. So i postworked using real photos (God bless Google images) that I placed over the "nude" terrains that came out
of Vue. I also postworked to add the fog where the ghost character is, as well as the magical effects of the cleric and wizard.

DEEP HILL

It was just a little tribute to those adventurers that have partied in AD&D when I was a kid.

19

JUAN RODRIGUEZ
As I have said, POV is one of the most important things within a render, in my opinion. I have tried several times to portrait a dragon but haven't been successful to date. This one is the first one Im pretty satisfied where a dragon is portrayed. And i think what makes this image different is the POV. It makes you
feel the danger the three dwarves are in. I think that the lighting is also a good input adding some realism.

DURINS BANE

I also think that the Dwarvez by Sixus1 are incredibly good figures that add that special
touch to the image.

SIXUS1

20

20

PHIL DRAWBRIDGE
WRECK 2
3DAD: What
prompted or inspired you to create this image?
PD: I was still into
my underwater
period and was
playing more and
more with the different caustic settings and came
across a very nice
effect on the
ocean floor.
The results were
more a test, but
worked well
enough to share.
3DAD: What did
you learn new as
a digital artist
when creating it?
PD: I came to
terms with a few
of Carrara's more
indepth (no pun
intended!) caustic
features.

21

PHIL DRAWBRIDGE
3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create this image?

Through The Clouds

PD: This was in a series of images created with

Carrara clouds. Clouds are a little processor
heavy so I've never really played with them
much before. I created a nice cloud nebula
and wondered what they would look like with
a realistic atmosphere and sun. With a few
backlights they turned out pretty well. I added
a ship that was breaking through the clouds to
give some depth to the otherwise flat cloud
image. The lens flare is actually from a backlight and the sun is higher and more to the left
to give the sky a better colour.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
PD: Clouds in Carrara are hit and miss. but I did
learn a lot about how to light them better. Also
the various settings for thickness, silver lining
etc. The combinations are endless and there's
a lot more to learn.
3DAD: What do you like best about the image?
I really like this image. This is one of my most
recent models and I'm very happy to use it
when I can. I'm very happy with the
clouds. They rendered very realistically. The
lens flare is way over the top, but you gotta
love lens flares. I also rendered this with skylight
on, which again adds time to the render but
lights the model better.

22

22

PHIL DRAWBRIDGE
FULL NEBULA

3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create this image?

PD: I have two monitors and I've been creating some pretty boring wallpapers for them and wanted to do something a bit more arty. I had "borrowed" a
nebula from another artist that was created in Apophysis, which is a really cool fractal generator. This worked well, but I wanted to try to create a more 3d
nebula. So I added some clouds and a few lights and was pretty amazed how well it worked. So I added two ships, one in the clouds and the smaller ship
for scale and created my wallpaper. Then I felt like sharing, so uploaded it.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
PD: This was the first cloudy picture I created, so there was a learning curve with the cloud settings.
3DAD: What do you like best about the image?
PD: The colours and depth are pretty cool. Makes a great two screen wallpaper.

23

JACOB CHARLES DIETZ

PROMENADE

3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create this image?

JCD: This was actually from a multi-part commission that was never completed after collecting a kill fee and left to languish on my
hard drive. I was inspired to pick it back up by my cat, Tabitha, who was going through renal failure at the time. Despite her being in
her last days of life, she still had the 'and who the hell are you' attitude about her that I'd come to know over the fifteen years we
shared together and I tried to put that into the image.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
JCD: The original image was created a
couple of years prior to my opening it up
again, so one thing I learned is that in the
time since my material and lighting setups
have improved considerably. Thinking the
core scene was a done deal, after looking
at it with fresh eyes, it was clear that it was
not, so I did a lot of tweaks and rerendered the whole thing. Not really something I learned here, but I was quickly reminded how much longer interior lighting
setups take to render, especially when
there are reflections picking up the lights.
3DAD: What do you like best about the
image?
JCD: Honestly, it's the interaction with the
two actors - the gynoid and the cat. Each
is doing their own thing, but taking exception to the other with just the right amount
of attitude. As many cat people know, that
is pretty much expected from a cat, but
seeing a female android have a 'catty' reaction is something you really don't see
much of.
24

24

JACOB CHARLES DIETZ

GATEKEEPER
3DAD: What prompted or inspired you
to create this image?
JCD: I had actually created this for a
promotional contest called 'Envision the
Executioner' when the latest installment
of the Resident Evil franchise was coming out. The only real rule was that you
had to show the Executioner character
from the franchise, though most people
were taking the route of uber violent
fight scenes which I thought was a little
too obvious. Instead I tried to create
some pre-dust up tension with a total
David vs. Goliath type of composition. I
think it worked as you can almost see
the two players start to flinch if you stare
at the image long enough.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a
digital artist when creating it?
JCD: This was a first for me as I utilized a real world object within a 3D scene. Since I didn't have a 3D model of the Gatekeeper character and the contest
was nearing deadline, I purchased an action figure and photographed him against a chroma key background and proceeded to composite him into my
rendered scene file. From there I went to work Photoshopping out all of his joints and over-painting him with more detailed textures to shake the plasticy action figure look and even adding some extra blood and hanging chains. The final step was to paint some stronger lighting and highlights onto the figure to
really make him come alive in the scene. All told it was a pretty interesting exercise and one I may have to try again.
3DAD: What do you like best about the image?
JCD: It's got to be the caustics in the light shafts. Aside from the obvious conflict that makes up the core subject of this one, the gritty lighting and dusty air is
what takes the environment from cool to freakin' awesome in my opinion. The visible light shafts were in the original render, though I pumped them up in
post and really made them shine with splintered beams, heavy particulates and some very soft falloff.

25

LAST GAS

JACOB CHARLES DIETZ

3DAD: What prompted

or inspired you to create this image?
JCD: I was lucky
enough to have done
quite a few commissions in 2009 and wanted to thank the great
people who were actually paying me to make
stuff that I loved. While I
could have sent a
cheese of the month
club or a hokey card, I
opted for a custom,
limited edition holiday print instead. Printed on Hahnemhle Fine Art Pearl stock, each print was hand signed and numbered in the margin and rolled into a
little tube with my custom labels on them. It seemed to go over well and I got more work from the recipients, so I guess I've started a tradition ;)
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
JCD: Since relocating to Arizona from Washington State, I had come to know and love the Sonoran Desert and the magical atmospherics that can be
found throughout this amazing part of the world. I really wanted to create the look of the winter sunsets as scene in the more rural areas of the state and
after running several test renders, I just wasn't getting it. So I hit the road and watched a lot of sunsets in different areas - the one I had pictured was found
in an area called Bloody Basin, which sounds very sinister, but is a rather gorgeous valley filled with wild sheep and mountain goats. Nonetheless, after seeing my target environment, I was able to push the software to make my own digital version of it.
3DAD: What do you like best about the image?
JCD: I drove heavy-haul dump trucks for years as I was going to school and trying to transition to working as an illustrator and stopping for fuel was both the
best and the worst part of your shift. On the one hand, it's nice as you can stand around and do nothing for a few minutes, though on the other hand it's
one more thing that is in the way of being done for the day. Seeing Santa Claus smoking a Lucky Strike as he fuels up reduces him to just another working
stiff pulling a long shift which I think is pretty relatable to anyone. I was also happy with how hurried he appears as he looks down the road toward his next
stop, but hey, it is his busy season.

26

26

THE PASSAGE

PETER REX
3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to
create this image?
PR: I have always
been a great fan of
Peter S. Beagle's "The
last unicorn", a great
book, written in a
way that you have to
re-read it every now
and than.
The unicorn is the being that represents for
me the magic that
disappears when we
grow up, but even at
nearly 50 years, there
are sometimes passages that open up
suddenly and bring
back for a short moment this magic.

3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
PR: That I still have a lot to learn, especially how to paint convincing hair.
3DAD: What do you like best about the image?
PR: I think the lightning worked out quite good, setting up the mood I was aiming at.

27

THE CURSE

PETER REX

3DAD: What prompted or inspired you

to create this image?
PR: Firstly it was just before Halloween
and I had caught as well the
"Halloween render flu", secondly, as
some may have noticed, I don't like the
idea of the "absolute evil" and "You are
how you look". The (DAZ)Troll is not evil,
he just looks like a brute, he loves children and cats and has a gentle and
tender heart.
A werewolf is afflicted by a terrible
curse, it has to follow its instincts, always
trying to fight against them. A tortured
soul in the body of a deadly hunter.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist when creating it?
PR: Even after years of rendering, it is still
very difficult to get a convincing volumetric lightning, I think I have done
about 30 test renders before settling
with that light set-up.
3DAD: What do you like best about the
image?
PR: That some people could see what I
was seeing, not the hunter with a trophy
of his last kill in his hands, but a tortured
soul, holding the souvenir of a happier
time.

28

28

FLYING WHALES

PETER REX

3DAD: What prompted or inspired you to create

this image?
PR: When I started with this one, I wanted to create the image of a large whale, carrying a small
island on its back. As soon as I started, the words
of the little text that comes with the image lit up in
my head. From there on, it was more the image
that used my hands to be created. The whole
creation took less than 40 minutes.
3DAD: What did you learn new as a digital artist
when creating it?
PR: That sometimes the creation uses the creator
to be "materialized".
3DAD: What do you like best about the image?
PR: Everything! One of the rare images where I
don't feel the need to re-do the lightning, the colours, the poses or the camera position when I look
at it two days, a week or a month later. The only
other image that gives me that same feeling is
the "Sad troll".
3DAD: Finally as a general question: What aspect
of your craft do you hope to improve upon next
as you go into the new year?
PR: Materials, I still need to get better with the
materials. Especially since I started using the Reality plug-in for DAZ Studio to export a scene to the Lux renderer (an unbiase render engine, that can create
some great images (see my last two pictures at RDNA)).
And modelling of course, as every year I tell myself: Get moving man, learn how to model! But I use every day such great models that I always feel bad
about my small (and bad) modelling attempts.

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THE JUSTICAR

MELISSA KRAUSS

MK: This was an experiment in creating a

paladin, something I never really made in
the past. Thought I'd try something a little
different for a change.
With this image, I did some experimenting
with metal shaders in Vue. I blended them
in layers, something else I feel I need practice with, as well as worked with modifying
Poser materials for Vue.
What I liked most about the image was the
overall feel to it. I wanted her armour to
have an almost otherworldly sheen to it.

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THE ARCHER

MELISSA KRAUSS

MK: This image was all about the posing and the lighting, plus I do not have many archers in my collection. I wanted to focus on the lighting in particular,
though the pose was slightly off to my eyes. I learned even more about modifying textures from Poser for Vue, and I was really thrilled with the lighting in this
one.

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PRAYER FOR THE FALLEN

MELISSA KRAUSS

MK: This is one of my older images, and one of my first battle angels. The inspiration for this one comes from thoughts of the brave men and women, both
past and present, who have fallen in the line of duty. I loved the lighting in this
one. I also loved the overall feel to it, and it remains one of my favourites from
my older works.
3DAD: What aspect of your craft do you hope to improve upon next as you
go into the new year?
MK: This upcoming year will find me focusing more on Vue, picking up new
techniques with it, and expanding my knowledge of it in general. I also intend
to focus on creating some more complex images.
3DAD: - Is there a project, image or new direction of work that you would like
to promote to the readers?
MK: Among the numerous projects I have for the new year, I'm planning to
work on a new series of images, as I did with my battle angel series. These will
be a series of images with dragon in the name, though they won't actually be
about dragons. The first one is "The Black Dragon." I will also be adding "The
Red Dragon", "The Gold Dragon", "The Silver Dragon", and "The Bronze Dragon". Since a unique environment has to be created for each one; it'll take
about a year to finish them all.

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YAROSLAV
Yaroslav hails from Tokyo, Japan and
is a popular Mojoworld artist, who has
used it from its first version, although
he started using CG applications at
an earlier point since 1997. Here we
look at his portfolio and delve into
some of the inspirations for his work.
3DAD: Have you had a long term interest in digital art? Was
Mojoworld your first 3D graphics application?
YAROSLAV: I`m a big Sci-Fi and Fantasy fan from my childhood
years and so I was interested in digital art for quite some time.
As for doing it myself, well, I started using CG applications
somewhere around 1997. First I was mostly interested in modeling spaceships and stuff. My first CG application was Infini-D,
very nice little application. Then I tried Bryce, for making sci-fi
landscapes. I also used Shade R4 (japanese spline-based
modeler) at that time, still modeling spaceships.
Finally in 2000 I met MojoWorld 1.0. Downloaded the demo
and the first couple of renders just totally astonished me. And
so I was hooked. I ditched modeling for some years, but 3-4
years ago I relearning it using Modo (the best modeler available for Mac, in my opinion)
3DAD: Youve mentioned your main area of interest is digital
landscapes. With the introduction of technologies like CityEngine, used with E-ons Vue creating procedural cities with a few clicks do you think your interests may expand to more urban images?

LANDMARKS

YAROSLAV: The CityEngine technology indeed looks very interesting and promising. I never tried Vue, but yes, maybe I will. Just for the sake of making urban
stuff . I would love MojoWorld to have the same capabilities in making cityscapes, though. I think the images made with MojoWorld`s renderer (old as it is)
still have a more realistic look then the ones made with Vue.

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: You also enjoy creating models. What software are
you currently using for this and are you pleased with what
youve been able to achieve with this tool (or these tools) so
far?

The Old Bone Ridge

YAROSLAV: As I said above, presently I use Modo for modeling. Its a superb tool, evolving and getting better with each
new version`s release. I used it from the first version (Modo
101) when it was just a modeler. Now it has has a cool renderer, very nice texturing capabilities, UV mapping is probably the best available, etc. It`s just unfortunate that I have
very little time for my CG now. Everyday`s work takes most of
it and I like to spend some time with my family too. Also my
Mac G5 is quite old, which prevents me from trying some
cool new features in Modo (like sculpting). I`m planing to buy
a new machine this summer and then....(first I`ll play Diablo 3,
though:)
3DAD: Do you vend your models or do you use them exclusively for your own artwork?
YAROSLAV: I only use them in my own images.
3DAD: You have a strong interest in the sci-fi genre, where
have you your main inspirations come from for your art?
YAROSLAV: Heh, see the above. Yes, I love to read Sci-Fi and
Fantasy, or watch these kind of movies. The Star Wars were
one of the main inspirations for me. I love the works of Tolkien,
I have almost all of his books. Right now I`m finishing reading
the "Malazan Empire" series by S.Erikson and I.Esslemont. I also
got a lot lot of inspiration from the Japanese animation by
Hayao Miyazaki("Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind", "Princess
Mononoke", Laputa: Castle in the Sky") and CG animation
like Ghost in the Shell, Innocence, Apple Seed, etc.

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: Youve been in the Renderosity community since 2001. What have you
liked about the community and website and what have been its best developments over the years?
YAROSLAV: I think Rendo is a very nice place for non-hardcore cg professionals, for the CG beginners, or just those who do CG just for fun ( and those who
want to sell a lot of Poser stuff, maybe:). There is a great variety of forums and
galleries - from the Poser to Maya and Lightwave, so the person who begins his
way can find and learn the different styles in one place. Lods of the tutorials
and free stuff, a great bunch of nice people,
3DAD: Youve provided a nice portfolio of Mojo. Planets and other items in the
free stuff area in Renderosity. Do you have a personal favourite creation that
youve provided here? Whats proven to be the most popular item from this
collection and why do you think this is the case?
YAROSLAV: My own favorites are the Chouro and the Kodai. Chouro was probably the first Mojo planet that I was confident in building. It has a nicely varied
terrain and the materials are overall are OK. I think the sky/clouds are not bad
too.
Kodai was my last "native Mojo-stuff" planet (I moved on to making volumetric
planets with the Volumetric plug-in by D.Lavrov since then). I think the terrain
on that world is the best I ever made. Unfortunately it`s very complex and very,
very slow to render. That and probably the period of it`s release (not the best
times for MojoWorld) made it mostly unknown in the Mojo community.
As for the popularity, I think the Chouro and the Hitokuro are the top ones. Hitokuro is actually the only MojoWorld planet that has the procedural rainbow.
The terrain there was kind of a simple, but it has a nice set of the materials especially for closeup renders.

Hitokuroprocedural rainbow

35

YAROSLAV
3DAD: For those who have just come across Mojoworld, could you give two tips for those just starting out using this package?
1. Be patient. MojoWorld is a difficult application to learn. But it will become very addictive as more as you learn it.
2. Try to actually learn it. Try to understand the work of the functions and settings. MojoWorld is about making worlds, WORLDS!!! and not just the pretty pictures.
3DAD: What were some of your earlier breakthrough images that started to
gain you much more attention in the Rendo. Community?
YAROSLAV:
"In the ravine..." , "Hitokuro Final" and "Unscaled Path. I think most of the people in
Mojo community know me for my Volumetric renders, though.

In The Ravine

Hitokuro Final

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: Dragon Hills, Bite you and Landmarks. In all of these images youve discovered some great characters or notable features embedded in the
landscape. Its where digital art landscape packages can be used to tease out such features. Is this the factor what drew you to experimenting with digital
art landscapes in the first place?
YAROSLAV: That may be one of the factors. But the main one, I think, is a desire to get as close as possible to the real life landscape. Be it an ordinary one or
the bizarre one - Mother Earth has plenty of those. I love to spend the time in the mountains or doing hiking and the things in the natural landscape never
stop to amaze me.

Dragon Hills

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: Twister Tryout and Look Mom a Twist Without a Twister. These are good examples of
where Mojo can be taken in new directions in this example using a Twister node. How was
this Twister cloud effect achieved?
YAROSLAV: "Twister Tryout" was made using Twister node. One has to specify the local point on
the Mojo planet (using a marker flag, or just dropping a primitive somewhere) and then spin
the volumetric cloud around it.
"Look Mom...." doesn`t use the Twister. The cloud shape is made using the Sine noise. Sine noise
shape is a round blobs placed in the grid. If you distort the sine blob it will start spinning in it`s
grid cell. So it nay produce the twisting shapes the applied to the surface or the cloud.

Bite You

Twister Tryout
Look Mom a Twist Without a Twister

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: Lost Bay from Alex Nikos Sandy Rocks. Youve mentioned that you use a Mac with Mojoworld are there particular aspects of Mojo that the
Mac tends to crash whilst trying to render? (in this case it was a transparent water material).
YAROSLAV: Mojo on Macs is just much slower and less powerful then on Windows. Much, much slower. And my Mac is quite an old and slow one (first generation G5) . The water in Mojo is one of the most render intensive things, so Mac Mojo doesn`t really like it.
Lost Bay

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: Gokuhoku is one of your older volumetric worlds. Did it take a while to get what you wanted to achieve with this world an approximation of the
icy world of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back?
YAROSLAV: The textures were not very difficult to make, although the isosurface terrain and the clouds took sometime to make. I spent some time adjusting
the clipping of the iso-terrain ( in the early versions the mountains had the weird cutout tops). I`m not sure I was able to get rid of it completely. I also tried a
couple sets of the atmosphere/clouds there.

Gokuhoku

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: The Door and Where do you want to go now? are from a nice volumetrics world that includes lots of rock archways perhaps one of the earlier
holy grails that artists using Mojoworld were trying to create with volumetrics. This type of landscape feature is quite an interesting element for many (eg
think of Arches National Park in Utah with over 2000 natural arch formations). Were you pleased with the tweak that brought out all these archways? Youve
done other worlds with archways is it a fond landscape feature of yours?
YAROSLAV: Yes, I love archways:) Archways, overhangs, caves is the stuff you can`t do with native Mojo (you have to use the Volumetrics - isosurfaces).
Well,OK, you can do a bit of the overhangs with Mojo displacements. I think the surface used in those images is good for making archway images, although
it`s form variety is not that great.

The Door

Where Do You Want To Go To Now?

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: ICamel2 following on from the last question these arch rock formation shapes have real charm and uniqueness. Was that camel easy to find!?
Or did it take a few random camera stops to find it?
YAROSLAV: Yes, I think it took a quite a few random cam stops. It was a very lucky find.

ICamel2

Where Do You Want To Go To Now?

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: On the Move. This is an interesting piece, inspired by one of your favourite movies "Naussica and the Valley of the Winds". Tell me about this piece
and its development.
YAROSLAV: "Naussica..." is my favorite movie by H.Miyazaki. One of the main themes of the movie is that "the nature will someday punish us the way we punish it everyday". The "Omu" - giant bug-like creature which you can see in the image is the main nature`s weapon. It sweeps any remnant of the human civilization which does even the slightest hurt to the nature. Burn a tree, kill a little animal and they will go after you and all around you. The Omu-bug is great
character - huge, enormous raw power, speed, you name it. I wanted to model it for a long time. So it became one of my early projects with Modo. I think
the general shape of the creature came out good (helped me a lot in understanding a bit the organic modeling), although it still left unfinished, because I
want to sculpt on the small details and need
a more powerful machine to do this.
"Hillrunner"`s planet Flojoa was first that
came to my mind when I decided to bring
the bugs into the Mojo world. It perfectly
gives the feel of the half dead planet described in the Miyazaki`s movie. I had problems with importing creature into Mojo first,
the OBJ files produced by Modo got messed
up after importing into Mojo. So I had to import the Modo OBJ file in the Blender, and
then export it again as Blender OBJ file. This
one worked nicely in MojoWorld. However
the mesh had no proper UV map and textures, I was (still am:) challenged with making UV maps at that time. Putting the mojo
materials on the meshes haven`t produced
any good results, so there was no close up
on the bugs in the final render.

ICamel2

43

YAROSLAV
3DAD: Mandelo
Skyline. I believe
the starfields are
under used in Mojoworld, so it was
good to see this
particular creation
in the Free Stuff area in Renderosity.
Do you think more
could be made of
the Mojoworld Starfields?

YAROSLAV: More
could be made of
the any part of the
Mojo universe.
There are loads of
the untried stuff in
everything, including the Starfields. I
think some great
results could be
produced using the
Volumetrics to
make nebulas and
stuff. Alex_NIKO
had some great
results doing that.

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: Cybercities the Drone Patrol. This includes some hexagon style boulders
which you created tell me about these and the render you created here.
YAROSLAV: I made that image as kind of promotion for the our short-lived GraphMonkey e-zine (devoted to discussing different mojo techniques).
The "Hexagon" made by Dmitry Lavrov is a very fun plugin. I`m not a math-head and
don`t really understand the logic behind the hexagon function. But just playing with
different settings of the plugin or blending hexagon driven textures produced a great
variety of interesting mecha-looking shapes. I put the hexagon texture on the boulders because MojoWorld boulders use the same style of the surface displacement as
mojo land material, and that`s different to the standard mojo displacements in the
diffuse materials - they have some buffer against the render artifacts. So my guess
was that even the extreme hexagonal displacements would work better with the
boulders rather then with standard sphere primitives. The colour texture for the boulders was also made using the Hexagon plugin. So this is the story behind the hexabolders` creation.
The ones in the image reminded me of some war drone from the Star Wars. The Cybercities` surface materials which have a feel of the sci-fi ship`s hull plating worked
well as an environment for those boulders.

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: The images Flight of Thorondor, includes a quote from the J.R.R. Tolkien, Silmarillion and also The next stop...." both from the planet Tenjiko
another ice bound world. Is Tolkien another source of inspiration for some of your artwork?

Manwe said, "only the trees of Aule

will be tall enough. In the mountains
the Eagles shall house, and hear the
voices of those who call upon us..."
(J.R.R. Tolkien, Silmarillion)

YAROSLAV: Yes. I re-read the LOTR, Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales every year. Tolkien`s world is a great source for the inspiration.

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: Hoth is a popular planet to reproduce by digital artists with myself, Alex Niko and others all having a go. Have you tried to recreate other Star
Wars planets?
YAROSLAV: Yes, I did a few tries for the Tatooine. One you can see in my image "The Morning run"

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: On Patrol is your most viewed
image in your Renderosity portfolio
which includes your own models made
in Shade. I love the land material here
it looks like the texture of ice cream, with
spooned out crater shapes. Is this image
one of your older favourites?
YAROSLAV: To tell you the truth I paid
very little attention to the background
when making that image. My main purpose was to show off the gunships there.
I just wanted a kind of desert world
background from the fast rendering
world. Robbr`s planet worked well as a
starting point. I just did a couple of the
small tweaks and fired up the renderer!
3DAD: What are you working on at the
moment? Do you have any goals for
next year for your portfolio?
I have a bunch of the unreleased volumetric worlds or just the isosurfaces,
each one is kind of a big test table, with
different setups for the shapes saved in
it. So I rarely start anything new this days,
just go through these worlds or surfaces,
and tweak them. I hope to try a couple
new shapes for the volumetric clouds this
year. But as a said above I hope to buy
myself a new Mac this year and spend
more time on re-learning the modeling
then just landscape making.

On Patrol

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YAROSLAV
3DAD: What three tips would you give to those who are just starting out with digital art?
YAROSLAV: As I said above - be patient and that goes not just for MojoWorld. Ask yourself what kind of the digital art you really want to do. Try to find the tool (application)
that suites you best. Experiment a lot, sometimes even the slightest tweaking can give
you insights on the workings of the different settings and produce great results at the
same time.
If you really want to learn the CG, put some heart into it, read the manuals and the tutorials.
And of course have fun. Don`t forget the your real life. There`s no point in spending all
your time before the PC screen. Do that and all the inspiration and vigor you once had
would be gone really soon.

Into the Crust

Unscaled Path

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