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3D Modeling And Sculpting
With Vitaly Bulgarov
In this lecture, Vitaly Bulgarov shows his process of creating a fully rendered 3D design for production-oriented pipelines. Using the example of an alien bust, Vitaly goes through the main steps of creating a sci-fi character design from scratch. He begins by making a quick bust sketch in ZBrush®. He then creates a detailed suit design in XSI® using the block-out as a guideline for the proportions of the alien bust. By doing this, Vitaly shows the techniques and tools he uses to create complicated surfaces like multi-layered metal plates, rubber pads, tubes, and attachments. Solving design on the fly, without making any preliminary sketches, he builds a fully detailed mesh for the helmet and suit, explaining why certain design decisions are made. Once the model is complete, Vitaly takes it into KeyShot® for raytrace rendering and then brings the renders to Photoshop® to finalize the design, push the overall look and bring more personality to the character by adding final textures and detail enhancements.
Review
"When I came across Vitaly's work for the first time I was really impressed by his notion of design, shapes and form. In addition to Vitaly's mechanical design, which is one of the best that I have ever seen, his creative organic design has an extremely strong style, which make his work very unique. I am very proud to have Vitaly on my team." - Fausto De Martini, 3D Art Director, Blizzard Entertainment
System Requirements
Microsoft® Windows® Vista®
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
DVD-ROM / 148 minutes
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With Jeremy Engleman
This lecture demonstrates a technique that encourages the artist to pursue three-hour figure gesture studies in 3D. These 3D gesture 'paintings' allow the artist to experiment and avoid being consumed with the detail work ordinarily associated with the medium of 3D. While a reference photograph is used for the purposes of the lecture, the techniques have been developed under the time constraints of working in front of a live model. Techniques will be demonstrated for the three phases of creating a quick study; modeling, texturing and lighting using ZBrush, 3D Coat and Modo. Each of the phases will be built from the ground up, and the purpose of each component is demonstrated. This methodology can easily serve as a foundational 'underpaint' for a more polished, realized work. When the underpaint is solid, more finished work is solely a matter of adding additional layers and filling in details.
System Requirements
Microsoft® Windows® Vista®
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
DVD-ROM (Win) / 174 minutes
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With Nate Stephens
In this demonstration, Nate explains and shows the process by which a piece of concept art is interpreted and used to model out a game environment in Maya. In the process, Nate will explain various modeling tools, techniques, and workflows, as well as numerous theories and methods used to create game art. A timelapse video of the entire modeling session is included so that the viewer can see and understand all the techniques being used. Nate will also cover common errors and mistakes to avoid so that the scene will run efficiently in real time and light correctly.
Reviews
"It's not hard to find Nate's 3D levels and scenes in God of War franchise. His massive epic environments that were masterfully modeled and sculpted in Maya has been praised by critics and fans worldwide. I have worked closely with Nate for more than 5 years at Sony. He's truly one of the most experienced and talented 3D environment artists I've met. This DVD will guide you through how Nate will translate my 2D concepts into 3D game assets. I recommend highly for anyone who wants to take a peek at high-end AAA game production. " - Cecil Kim, Lead Concept Artist, Sony Santa Monica Studios
"I had the pleasure of Art Directing Nate on God of War 3. He is a very talented Sr. environment artist that has an excellent understanding of how to make professional artwork for games at a very high creative level that is technically sound. There is a lot to learn from Nate's approach to building environments, I highly recommend this DVD." - Ken Feldman, Art Director - God of War 3
"Nate is an Environment Artist that offers the whole package. He can model, texture, light, and manage a file with the best of them. On top of this he has the a good sense of game design, and how art can augment it. Simply put, Nate rocks. Listen and learn." - Stig Asmusse, Creative Director - Sony Santa Monica Studios
System Requirements
Microsoft® Windows® Vista®
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
DVD-ROM / 229 minutes
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With David Lesperance
3D Environment artists require an extensive set of tools and techniques in their arsenal in order to deal with the complexity of a full 3D environment. Environment artist David Lesperance will guide you through his process for developing 3D environments in Environment Production Workflow - Tips, Tricks and Concepts. Various topics are addressed in this lecture, starting with the composition and layout of the scene, lighting, materials, textures, and sculpting techniques. David begins his lecture on composition and layout, along with some of the techniques he uses to find the best composition for the environment he is designing. This includes finding the right mood and using some quick Adobe® Photoshop® tricks to enhance the lighting in the scene He then moves into Autodesk® 3ds Max® to go over his process for developing materials in V-Ray®, starting with glass and various metal materials, pointing out various options in the V-Ray® material to make it easier to troubleshoot issues when they arise. His lecture then moves into terrain modeling, discussing a series of techniques he uses to design convincing terrains. He first discusses a technique for blending surfaces, starting by sculpting some high resolution rock formations using ZBrush4R4® and combining them in 3ds Max® using some Boolean operations. He then demonstrates how blend materials across the surfaces using vertex paint to control a mask within a Blend Material. Next he moves on to terrain building using World Machine to generate fractal based terrain maps and exporting displacement maps to rapidly create terrain assets. David's next series of lectures focus on the practical layout, composition, texturing, and lighting a digital environment. Here, he focuses on the build process, starting with rough layout, then adding various rubble assets before moving into lighting and texturing the environment. During the texture phase, he discusses texture scale issues and demonstrates how to keep texture scale consistent across multiple assets. His final set of lectures focus primarily on rapid modeling and sculpting techniques he employs in his workflow. Here, David discusses everything from high-resolution sub-D modeling in 3ds Max® to high resolution sculpting techniques in ZBrush®. His primary focus inside ZBrush® is the use of the new Insert Multi Mesh tool and the latest updates to Dynamesh in ZBrush4R4®.
DVD-ROM / 212 minutes
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With David Lesperance
This lecture will provide an in-depth look at the workflow David Lesperance uses to design environments. Starting off, he will cover basic concepts of asset building including kit bashing, grid space modeling, basic UVs and asset cleanliness. Normal and displacement mapping will also be covered. Dave will then move into his lighting setups using V-Ray. He will discuss lighting and rendering in V-Ray, covering HDRI and physical camera setups, along with efficient render settings. Throughout the class David will be sharing many time-saving tips and tricks that he uses in his day-to-day workflow for 3ds Max, ZBrush and Photoshop.
DVD-ROM / 171 minutes
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With Gary Meyer
A solid understanding of Perspective gives the artist the means to draw what they see both accurately and believably. This series on the Fundamentals of Perspective will provide artists with the understanding of not only the concepts but also put them into practice as Illustration master Gary Meyer guides you through each exercise. In this lecture titled Fundamentals of Perspective 1: One-Point Principles and Concepts, the basic concepts of one-point perspective will be covered. This lecture primarily focuses on the fundamental understanding of the principles, terminology, and the concept of scale in perspective. Gary will demonstrate through various exercises, how to not only set up an illustration in perspective, but also how to draw objects to scale using methods to transfer scale from one object to another in correct perspective. The principles and concepts discussed here provide a solid foundation that the following lectures build upon.
DVD / 186 minutes
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With Gary Meyer
A solid understanding of Perspective gives the artist the means to draw what they see both accurately and believably. This series on the Fundamentals of Perspective will provide artists with the understanding of not only the concepts but also put them into practice as Illustration master Gary Meyer takes you through each exercise. In this lecture titled Fundamentals of Perspective 2: Two-Point Principles and Concepts, we continue the discussion with an overview of Two-Point Perspective. Gary discusses methods of measuring and plotting scale correctly in two-point perspective by first discussing ways to transfer scale correctly, then using those techniques, he demonstrates how to correctly draw from plans and elevation diagrams. Gary then demonstrates how to plot various surfaces like ellipses and incline surfaces in perspective. Lastly, he discusses concepts dealing with auxiliary vanishing points, the cone of vision and using both one and two point perspective correctly in a drawing.
DVD / 201 minutes
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With Gary Meyer
A solid understanding of Perspective gives the artist the means to draw what they see both accurately and believably. This series on the Fundamentals of Perspective will provide artists with the understanding of not only the concepts but also puts them into practice as Illustration master Gary Meyer guides you through each exercise. In this lecture titled Fundamentals of Perspective 3: Three-Point Principles and Concepts, we begin by discussing three-point perspective. Here, Gary breaks down three-point perspective and illustrates the terminology and concepts to consider when using three-point perspective. We then move on to a variety of topics, starting with methods for plotting shadows in perspective using both natural and artificial light scenarios. The series ends with Gary discussing how to correctly plot reflections in both one and two-point perspective and ends by demonstrating how to plot and transfer scale in reflections.
DVD / 132 minutes
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With Eric Keller
In this DVD Eric Keller demonstrates his process for designing, modeling, and rendering an original photo realistic insect using ZBrush 4 R4, Photshop, Maya, and V-Ray. Eric talks about how he relies on insect physiology and evolutionary biology as guidelines for his original concept and how to bring photo reference directly into ZBrush using Spotlight. Eric takes the design from basic blockout using dynamesh all the way to completed model. Eric demonstrates the new topology tools of ZBrush 4 R 4 as well as how to generate UV texture coordinates. The model is brought into Maya and prepared for rendering. Eric discusses displacement and bump map set up in VRay, how to create custom materials, and how to set up the VRay Physical camera to create the look of macro photography.
DVD-ROM / 420 minutes
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With Scott Spencer
Over the last decade, Zbrush has become the industry standard application for digital sculpting and has been used in nearly every blockbuster film and video game produced during that time. Introduction to Zbrush 4 with Scott Spencer provides the most comprehensive set of instructional videos ever created for Zbrush users, covering everything from the absolute basics, to more advanced sculpting and detailing topics. With nearly 14 hours of instructional video, Scott is able to provide a detailed understanding of each tool and process from a practical approach. He also demonstrates his sculpting workflow and speaks about specific production issues that arise in production pipelines. The lessons start with a brief overview of the UI for the beginning learner, along with a few "Quickstart" lessons on sculpting. Scott then moves into the individual feature sets, including all of the new features and plugins for Zbrush 4, while showing how many of the features and tools work together. Lessons on working with Zbrush in conjunction with other 3D applications, in this case Maya, is also covered in many chapters of this DVD.
Reviews
"Scott Spencer exemplifies mastery - he is a rare combination of primitive impulses and complex skills. "I admire Scott Spencer. He makes monsters that only a child could imagine but only a grownup could create."
- Marshall Vandruff, Illustrator
"Scott always amazes me with the depth of his knowledge, whether it's the inner workings of the software or his understanding and application of artistic theory, he sees the necessity of both. I guess you could say he knows too muchˇK" - Scott Patton, Legacy Effects
"Scott Spencer established himself early on as one of the original Zbrush masters. In this DVD he combine his in-depth knowledge of this amazing digital sculpting software with his extensive experience and talent as a traditional sculptor. The result is one of the best series Gnomon has produced so far. I'm personally very excited to dive in and learn from one of my favorite Zbrush artists." - Eric Keller, Zbrush artist and author of "Introducing Zbrush"
System Requirements
Microsoft® Windows® Vista®
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
DVD-ROM / 882 minutes
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With Alessandro Baldasseroni
In this DVD Alessandro shows his workflow to model a stylized character for production, based on a given concept. The essential steps are covered, starting with the presentation of the initial 2D concept and associated reference materials. Alessandro then demonstrates blocking out the character with ZSpheres in ZBrush using the concept as reference for proportions. This becomes his base in 3ds Max to block out all the main components through polymodeling. Next, he details the character with a combination of polymodeling techniques in 3ds Max and ZBrush sculpting. Particular attention is paid to keeping the topology of the various parts consistent for an animation environment, showing in particular how to efficiently retopologize parts in 3ds Max to achieve a better geometry distribution. After modeling an addition to the character not present in the initial concept, Allesandro renders and presents the final model in ZBrush in the form of a character sheet and a turntable.
Reviews
"Alessandro's approach to character creation is technically advanced and intuitive. He has been in production for game cinematic for several years and has incorporated numerous effective workflows from Modeling, texturing, UV layout, shaders/material setup in 3D studio Max to Zbrush sculpting, polypainting and rigging." - Sze Jones, Freelance Character Artist
"It's rare to find someone like Ale who is well versed at both the artistic and technical spectrum of character modeling. These skills allow him to define the key aesthetics of a character through both texture and sculpt while allowing for dynamic movement and energy which is key in any animation production pipeline." - Dan Rice, Art Director, Blur Studios
System Requirements
Microsoft® Windows® Vista®
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
DVD-ROM / 294 minutes
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With Charles Hu
In this first lecture of a series focusing on human anatomy as it relates to figurative art, figure painter and instructor Charles Hu discusses key skeletal and muscular landmarks along with methods for maintaining the correct proportional relationships between the various structures of the human body. Throughout the lecture, Charles refers to skeletal reference to illustrate how skeletal elements not only connect, but more importantly, how these structures move in relation to one another, providing a clear roadmap for maintaining correct proportional relationships in your figure drawings. Charles begins with an initial "mechanical" representation of the human form from the front view. He first discusses the basic proportions and structures of the human head. As the human head is often used as the base unit of measurement in figure drawing, the important landmarks and relationships between the brow region, eye sockets, cheek bones, nose, mouth and chin will be explored in great detail. After blocking in the head, the neck and shoulder area is discussed before moving down to the chest, stomach and pelvis regions. Again, key structural landmarks are discussed in order to understand the anatomical, structural, and proportional importance of each. Charles then moves on to discuss arms and legs, along with correct proportional guides for laying in key elements like elbows, wrists, knees and ankles. Once completed with the anatomical sketch from the front view, he moves onto the drawings from both the back and side views, providing a clear and comprehensive study of the base human form. Suitable for all artists developing their understanding of the figure and its complex anatomical relationships, this lecture and demonstration is an immersive and critical foundation.
DVD-ROM / 115 minutes
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With Charles Hu
In this lecture, the second title in a series on human anatomy as it relates to figurative art, figure painter and instructor Charles Hu expands on the structure and proportion principals discussed in his first lecture, translating them into a live figure drawing studio environment. Charles begins this lecture by discussing the principals of shading and light to describe three dimensional forms, as he will be demonstrating shading techniques later in the lecture. Here, Charles discusses topics like the difference between core shadow and cast shadow, direct light versus bounced light, and how to find the 'true' color or value of a form under complex lighting conditions. He then moves on to drawing the figure from a live model in a studio environment. He begins by laying in the figure, employing the principals covered in his first lecture, identifying the key structural landmarks on the live model, then demonstrating some new techniques to help maintain correct proportions under real world drawing conditions. He proceeds to do 'lay-ins' for the figure in a standing position from the front, a seated figure, and lastly the standing figure from the back to illustrate how to draw the same figure from various angles and different poses. The final phase is to shade and refine one of the drawings to take it to a more finished state. Charles begins by blocking in the cast shadows and then the core shadows on the figure, then refines the shading to include bounced light and highlights by pulling those areas back out with an eraser. The finishing stage involves adding more detail back into the shadows, and pulling out some final areas of bounce light. Suitable for all artists interested in developing their understanding of the figure, Charles Hu masterfully explores this complex subject while providing a clear and methodical workflow.
DVD-ROM / 138 minutes
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With Stephen DeLalla
This tutorial will provide you with a strong foundation in learning V-Ray for Maya. With this DVD, Stephen has put together a series of lectures beginning with rendering basics and ending with production tips and techniques. Starting with an introduction to Linear Workflow, Stephen then breaks down the Render Settings, including the Adaptive DMC. He then moves onto Lights and Materials, including the Blend Material, Sub-Surface Scattering, and Displacement. Next, he discusses the new V-Ray RT and the GPU accelerated rendering features before moving to Global Illumination and the various ways to achieve high quality GI renders quickly using advanced baking of GI maps. Lastly, Stephen discusses the production integration aspects of V-Ray which includes how to work with Render Elements, Layers, SOPs, along with the Light Select render element. This title is essential for those looking to not only learn the basics of V-Ray, but also to leverage the power of V-Ray in a real production environment.
DVD-ROM / 330 minutes
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