2022-11-01 3D World

Remaster a female fantasy character

MAYA | PHOTOSHOP | ZBRUSH | MUDBOX | MARVELOUS DESIGNER | ARNOLD

REMASTER A FEMALE
FANTASY CHARACTER

Arno Schmitz demonstrates how to upgrade an older character
render to a standard worthy of a next-gen video game

S ince my years as a student For the artistic improvements, offline rendering techniques, like AUTHOR
I have had a preference for we focus a lot on material raytracing, can be done in real- Arno Schmitz
the fantasy genre, so my expression. Make sure all the time engines now. So, a character Arno Schmitz is the
early creations were in this style. materials in the costume read like like this would be perfect for a lead character artist at
The cleric was one of my first the intended material; this should short movie made in Unreal or Guerrilla Games where
characters, and I decided that already be obvious on a greyscale Unity, for example. he has worked on titles
she deserved the same high-end rendered sculpt. Texturing such as Horizon Forbidden
game/cinematic treatment as my will enhance the material 01REMEMBER THE INTENT West, Horizon Zero Dawn
other recent works. Therefore, characteristics even further, To start a successful remake and Killzone Shadow Fall.
the goal of this project was to bringing the surfaces closer of your old work, it’s important to www.artstation.com/Arno
remaster this character, to enable to their real-world reference. put yourself in the shoes of the
her to stand side by side with my In order to bring the costume person who created the original 3D WORLD 51
latest creations. of the old model to current piece. Probably their imagination
quality standards, we will rework was much grander, and the final
Follow along the remaster and update it using Marvelous render we see today is the result
journey of this character, in which Designer and ZBrush sculpting
I demonstrate the most relevant techniques. Besides material 01a
artistic and technical points for expression the face will get a lot
taking a creation of your own to of attention, too.
the next level. If you decide to
follow along but use a concept This asset is completely rebuilt
that is not your own, be sure to using modern techniques while
credit the original artist. The still respecting the spirit of the
remastering process itself will original design. The technical
be discussed in detail during specifications for this character
this step-by-step guide, but all are a match to my previously
improvements made can be made fantasy character. This will
boiled down into two main camps: ensure the characters will work
technical and artistic. in harmony if they ever get used
in the same scene. That means
Regarding technical very clean and detailed game
improvements, you need to meshes that still use normal
consider factors such as porting maps. Many 4K textures are used
all textures and materials to work to texture the main elements of
with today’s workflows – such as the character. XGen is chosen
physically based rendering, detail in favour of hair cards since this
textures and layered shaders. You method looks more realistic and is
also need to allow yourself to use consistent with the other work in
higher polygon counts for more my portfolio.
detail fidelity.
The renderer used for this
DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES endeavour was Arnold, which
For all the assets you need go to is Maya’s default renderer.
Since I’ve also used it for other
http://bit.ly/3Dworld-291 projects, I can reuse shaders
and share assets quickly to keep
my workflow efficient. Many

Remaster a female fantasy character

01b of their vision plus the technology Build a visual impact. The idea is to reuse
and artistic abilities the creator had part library parts that still work with today’s
02 at that time. standards to speed up the process.
To speed up your work, That means they will probably be
03 So study those old concepts and try to reuse parts of touched a bit, but not completely
dig out those original reference previous characters, replaced with a new model.
52 3D WORLD boards to see if you can find like eyes and teeth. You
anything that you can lean into to can even reuse shader The main priority is to tackle
improve the model. settings, detail maps areas that have aged badly. This
and XGen presets. can be due to using outdated
02 REVIEW CURRENT STATE techniques or artistic skills that were
OF THE MODEL not as refined yet.

Now it’s time to open the original 04 START WITH PROOF
model. In this case it’s a Maya 2010 OF CONCEPT
file. Opening the file in a modern
version of Maya will affect the look The head was one of the parts that
of the character due to different stood out as the most outdated.
render settings. For example, a Techniques such as PBR or modern
linear workflow and physically hair tools that are commonplace
based materials are now considered
industry standard.

So, a lot of your textures might
be washed out or too dark, and
things like normal maps might
behave strangely because of that.
There is a good chance you also
decide to switch render engines.
For this project we are going from
Mental Ray to Arnold.

03FIND YOUR
HIGH-VALUE TARGETS

After you have assessed both the
current technical and visual state of
the model, it’s time to decide what
changes would have the greatest

04

Remaster a female fantasy character

today were either not used back 05 After that, make sure that all Master your
then or had just started to become these curves have their roots gamma curves
known. Also, from an artistic to reuse the shared topology of touching the scalp.
standpoint, my knowledge of those models as a starting point for Switching to modern
anatomy has come a long way. this face instead of building upon Later, you still need to do plenty techniques requires
the old model. This mindset also of tweaking in XGen to avoid most of the content to be
Tackling this area first requires us allowed me to reuse all my modern intersections of the various hair reauthored to work for a
to figure out the workflow necessary facial props, such as new eyeballs clumps, but at least you have a big linear workflow. So, when
to complete the character, and also where I just needed to change the headstart compared to working things are too bright, try
a good feeling of what the timeline iris colour. from scratch. to correct with a gamma
will be per area before committing of 0.455. If they look
to the entire project. Here, remembering the original 07 EVALUATE YOUR too dark correct with a
intent of the character is the most BENCHMARK gamma of 2.2.
05 GIVE YOUR MODEL important factor. The old reference
A FACELIFT boards helped me to create a new After the new face and hair are done
face that was still true to the spirit of it’s time to make a final presentable
The face has been redone the original. benchmark render.
completely for this character. I
created a series of portraits of my 06 SAME HAIRSTYLE, During this stage, I decided that
family members, and it was easier NEW TECHNIQUE most of the cleric’s costume only
required specific enhancements
The flowing red hair has always depending on the material they are
been a big part of her design and trying to represent.
to do this idea more justice, we’re
going to replace the old hair cards The design looked a bit sparse.
with XGen groom-based hair. So, adding new costume elements
However, the old cards can still be that build upon the story you
used as a guide to draw curves on are trying to tell is also part of a
in Maya. successful remake.

06

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Remaster a female fantasy character

FOLLOW
THE VIDEO

http://bit.ly/3Dworld-291

07

54 3D WORLD

Remaster a female fantasy character

With all these lessons learned
and techniques established, we can
confidently move forward to the
entire character, using the same
logic as before: focusing on the most
visually impactful changes first.

08 SIMULATE IN
MARVELOUS DESIGNER

To get the white habit that runs
over the hair to look more realistic,
the geometry was exported into
Marvelous Designer, where it was
simulated on top of a proxy mesh
representing the hair.

After that, it got taken into ZBrush
for the folds to be refined and
additional folds to be added. The last

08 step was to add thickness in Maya

to all the garments; even if it’s a very
thin material this will help the shading
and create more believable edges.

This established workflow from
the benchmark was applied to all
similar pieces of garments on the
character’s costume.

09 SCULPT FIGURE-
HUGGING CLOTH

The corset and boots are figure-
hugging and required more specific
folds to keep in the spirit of the
original reference boards. So for
these elements, the original pieces
received a sculpting pass in ZBrush.

Re-creating very specific folds
from your reference is easier done in
ZBrush then in Marvelous Designer,
where you are more at the mercy of

09 the simulation.

Back in Maya, the existing low-
poly had to be retopologised to
support these newly added folds.

After the baking, additional
memory folds got overlayed into the
normal to add extra tertiary details
and a sense of photographic realism.

10 ADD ELEMENTS TO
JUSTIFY CONSTRUCTION

Look at the costume design with a
practical worldview. Some questions
that were raised when looking at the
original were, for example, how are
those thigh pads staying on the hips?

There might be some valid
attachment method not visible to
the viewer, but it’s better to clearly
show how things work. By adding
additional belt buckles, using
the same style of buckles found
on the original costume, you can
communicate how the costume is

10

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Remaster a female fantasy character Focus the eye

constructed while still staying in When you don’t want
the style of the original garment. to lose all the detail
you’ve added to
11ADD STORY-TELLING PROPS your character, add
It’s been over a decade since vignettes instead of
the creation of the original model, using depth of field
and since that time viewers have to direct the eye of
become used to seeing more rich the viewer.
and defined costumes in games,
shows and movies. 11

So part of remaking this
character was not just lifting her to a
modern technical standard, but also
an artistic one. This means filling up
some of the more empty areas with
details that are meaningful to the
story of the character. In this case,
that meant adding jewellery with
religious undertones.

12 CLARIFY MATERIALS
USING DETAIL MAPS

Detail maps are small tiling
textures that affect the normal
and colour of your materials. They

13 12 actually add a visual improvement.
This means all the new geometry
14 are a little swatch of the materials’ is skinned to the original skeleton,
surface, showing all their specific and we can even use transfer
56 3D WORLD imperfections. skinweights in world-space to get
a headstart on the skinweight
This technique was used to painting process.
clarify which particular materials
are on the original design, such That’s why it’s best to keep the
as the white on the corset that original objects in your scene for
didn’t clearly communicate its as long as possible, and just hide
material in the original and is now elements. This way you can always
undoubtedly leather. reuse certain things when you spot
the opportunity.
It also helped to imply a lot of
history to her armour plates, going 14 POSING AND COMPOSITION
from brand new to battle-hardened For both the benchmark
just by the addition of scratches and portrait and the final image it was
dents in the detail map. important to have a new pose. A
fresh composition with a new pose
13 RECYCLE THE EXISTING RIG will more clearly communicate to
The original character is fully the viewer that this is a new piece of
rigged, so instead of re-inventing work. Switching the weight on the
the wheel, it’s best to think of the
project-wide mindset, which is
to only revamp the areas that will

15 Render out Remaster a female fantasy character
an ID pass
16 quality and style of your character
Rendering an ID pass relatively quickly.
legs and the staff orientation clearly will allow you to
changed the look for this iteration. have easy Photoshop 16 WORK ONE LIGHT
selections when doing AT A TIME
That being said, we again tweaks to your render.
go back to the fundamentals of Try not to abuse this For this project I wanted to do a
respecting the intent – trying to technique, since the very striking rim light, so this way of
capture that confident posture and ID masked is usually working allowed me to experiment
amping up the contrapposto that not aliased and might with extreme colours quickly.
was already in the original pose. cause artifacts.
17 COMPOSITE IN 32-BIT
15 SKIP ANY NON- environment can really ground the Working in this mode, your
CHARACTER TASKS character in the world and is a great colours can also go beyond a
opportunity for storytelling. brightness value of one. This gives
It’s important to not present your a much more realistic effect once
character in a vacuum. Having them This doesn’t mean you have to you start blurring or adding some
interact with a pedestal or type of get side-tracked, though. Making extra dark elements to your scene,
an environment to present your like fog or vignettes. Instead of grey
character can take a substantial smudges, it will reveal all the details
part of your project’s time. I in your highlights.
would advise looking at sites like
Megascans where you can get high- 18 FINISHING TOUCHES
end scan data, or shoot something When finishing, take all the
yourself using photogrammetry rendered layers and assemble them.
techniques. This way you can have A good way to create lots of depth
an environment that matches the is by adding atmosphere using your
rendered depth pass as a mask.

Emulate the focal point and
peripheral vision of the human eye
by using lens blur and depth of field
in a subtle way. By blurring out the
back of the staff a bit, it’s clear to
the viewer that it’s further away from
the camera. Fog is also a great way
to add depth to your scene.

Colour correction is the final
touch to achieve the desired mood.
My personal preference for this
stage is using the Camera Raw filter
in Photoshop. •

17 18

3D WORLD 57

REMNANT CITY
An abandoned sci-fi
industrial city, with a
space western vibe

BLENDER | PHOTOSHOP

CREATE SCI-FI
CITY CONCEPT ART

Discover Christos Marmeris’ step-by-step process for
creating an engaging environment concept design

58 3D WORLD

Create sci-fi city concept art

O ften concept artists are given specific AUTHOR DOWNLOAD YOUR RESOURCES
tasks with strict directions; other times, For all the assets you need go to
the ideas behind the desired outcome Christos Marmeris
are much more vague, so the artist’s freedom After successfully transitioning from https://bit.ly/3Dworld-291
and creativity are called to action. In both accounting to concept art, Christos
cases some fundamental ground rules such as has worked as a freelance concept 3D WORLD 59
composition, colour, light, mood and storytelling artist for the industry since 2019.
are absolutely essential, and they have to be www.artstation.com/marmeris
established in the very first steps of concept
creation. In this article I will guide you through
a problem-solving process that I find extremely
effective, and I hope will help you as well.

Create sci-fi city concept art

01START WITH THE
BASIC COMPOSITION

When I started this project, the
main concept was quite vague in
my head. I only knew I wanted to
create an abandoned sci-fi city in
a kind of deserted environment.
So step one was to find some
cool shapes and compositions to
populate my image. Abstraction
was the main key here. I think in
terms of foreground, midground,
background, and also big, medium,
small shapes. I try to keep it graphic,
have variety, and avoid evenness.

02 DEVELOP THE VOLUMES
After having dried out my
ideas, I choose three compositions
I liked the most and began to
develop them just a bit, to give
them some basic, yet still rough
forms. The abstraction slowly starts
to morph into volumes at this stage.
I have to find creative ways to justify
the shapes I made in the previous
stage. Of course I adjust them a bit,
if needed.

01

02

03

60 3D WORLD

Create sci-fi city concept art

03 FLESH OUT THE
CONCEPT

When I have enough information to
judge which image I like the most
and has the most potential, I pick
one of them and try to solve every
problem possible. I try to clearly
define almost every fundamental
aspect. I am still in the sketching
phase, no details yet, but I flesh out
the concept, the light, the mood
and some basic design language as
clear as possible. At the end of this
stage I know exactly which are the
designs I am looking for.

05a ESTABLISH YOUR

04 DESIGN LANGUAGE
Now is the time I am collecting my

references. At this point I know I

want a sandy-rocky terrain with

an industrial/sci-fi look for my

buildings; the colours of my scene

will be warm orange-yellows; the

light will come from the upper-left

to pinpoint my main subject; and

the desired mood is somewhere

between Tatooine, Arrakis and

Blade Runner Las Vegas. Having

those in mind I try to collect few but

2D SKETCH accurate refs to further develop the
design language. I just try to keep

it minimal, otherwise I get lost in

ideation and details, which are not

useful at this stage.

05 BLOCK OUT IN BLENDER
In order to block out the main
composition I either find pre-made

assets online or I create my own. I

usually model and collect my assets

in one file to have them all together

as one collection. Then I import

them to my scene and further

adjust them if needed. I transform,

3D BLOCKOUT combine, scale, reform, modify and

05b even re-texture them a lot, so I will

get the shapes I look for. I try to

match the composition as close as

possible to the 2D sketch, so I bring

the 3D to Photoshop and compare

the shapes one on one.

06 ADD A SIMPLE
CHARACTER

When it came to the character I
knew he would be in the distance
and I didn’t have to spend time on
many details, so I roughly gave him
an Arab-like cloak and a gun, and
that was more than enough for this
case. My usual character creation
process goes through Character

06

3D WORLD 61

Create sci-fi city concept art 07
08
Creator, Marvelous Designer and
Blender, and you can find it on my
step-by-step tutorial at this link:
https://bit.ly/3pEcVdj.

07SET UP THE LIGHTING
At this point I start to better
define my lighting. I had a rough
setup from the block-out stage with
an HDR image and a sun. In this
initial setup they are both coming
from roughly the same angle, but
now I need to set those with more
accuracy and play with a few more
spotlights and sunshades to add
some drama to the scene.

Next I add some volumetrics
to intensify the depth and the
atmosphere, and also achieve the
colour vibe I was aiming for. I also
added one strong key spotlight
directly on my focal point building.

08SHARE YOUR WORK
Asking for some feedback
is always a very important step
in the process; it gives me fresh
eyes and a different perspective!
This way I realised that the most
interesting and impactful shape
in my composition is this sphere
in the centre, so I need to work on
emphasising it. So, I decided to
make it my main object and repeat

09

62 3D WORLD

Create sci-fi city concept art

it to make it important and cohesive
in the scene. I played with the
composition quite a bit, in order to
rearrange all the shapes around the
spheres in a way that supports them.

09FINALISE THE
COMPOSITION
And after a second round of

feedback, I realise that this dark

frame somehow suffocates the

composition, so I decided to break it.

So, I broke the bridge on top and let

some light flow through the shadow

on the ground. This way I created

a better connection between the

foreground and the midground. I

micro-adjust the lights, the volumes

and the sunshades to bring light to

RAW RENDER my needs.

10a

“EVERY LINE, SHAPE

AND LIGHT WORKS

TO BRING THE EYE OF

THE VIEWER BACK

TO THIS CENTRAL,

SPHERICAL SHAPE”

I am always thinking in terms

of big-medium-small shapes,

foreground-midground-background,

and light vs shadow (contrasts). I try

to keep some interesting shapes,

break evenness and symmetry,

separate layers of depth and lead

ENHANCED LIGHTS / DETAILS PAINTED / 3D TEXTURE REMOVED the eye to the main subject of my

composition. Every line, shape and
10b light somehow works to bring the

eye of the viewer back to this central,

spherical shape.

10DETAILS IN PHOTOSHOP
The last step is to bring the
final rendered image from Blender

to Photoshop. I enhance the light,

and try to break the 3D-ness by

photobashing textures and blurring

the details at the areas that are

outside of the main focal point. I

added some bones for enhancing

the storytelling and tried to make

the S-shaped path – that leads the

eye from the foreground to the

background – more prominent.

Final touches are always the colour

grading and adding some noise to

put textures together and make the

PHOTOBASHED TEXTURES / BONES / COLOUR GRADE / NOISE LAYER image look seamless. •

10c

3D WORLD 63

Character likeness study

EL CUCUY
Software Houdini, Karma, ZBrush,
Substance Painter, XYZ Texturing
Year made 2022
64 3D WORLD

Character likeness study

Incredible 3D artists take us behind their artwork

CHARACTER LIKENESS STUDY I started this Milen Piskuliyski
project as a likeness study to improve my facial artstation.com/milenpp
sculpting skills. I chose Tony ‘El Cucuy’ Ferguson
to challenge myself as he has very interesting I am a visual effects
and unique facial features. To add to the supervisor working at
challenge I also chose to put him in a dynamic MISC Studios in film
pose. One mistake that I made is that I posed the and TV. My background
model too early before being happy with the level is in creatures and
of likeness, which made it difficult to tweak the characters with a focus
facial features. I would advise against posing the on texturing, lookdev
model before getting the likeness to a good point. and grooming.

After that I started exploring the Karma
render engine that ships with Houdini and Solaris,
and I thought to test it out. Karma proved to be a
very good and fast render engine. XYZ textures
were vital for achieving a realistic skin look. The
look for the sweat drops and blood were
incredibly challenging to achieve as they required
procedural modelling in Houdini combined with
custom painted maps, and a good understanding
of the transmission component in the shader.

Practical tips and tutorials from
pro artists to improve
your CG skills

Glen Southern SOFTWARE: ZBRUSH
Glen runs SouthernGFX, a
small Cheshire-based studio WHAT’S A SIMPLE WAY TO
specialising in character and creature CREATE EYES IN ZBRUSH?
design. He has been using and training
ZBrush in the UK for over 15 years. Hatana El Jarn, Manchester
youtube.com/c/SouthernGFX/videos
Glen Southern replies
Mike Griggs
Mike Griggs is a digital Eyes are easily the most isn’t going to give you an anatomically
content creator with over important focal point on correct eye with the lens, sclera, pupil hole
two decades of experience creating VFX a character, and they can bring your etc, but rather it will give you a glossy-
and CGI for a wide range of clients. design to life or leave it looking flat and looking eye that’s just enough to bring
www.creativebloke.com dead. There is a phenomenon called the the model to life. The main technique is
‘uncanny valley’ where CG models just using the symmetry function in ZBrush but
Paul Hatton look unnervingly wrong, and it is often adding in a radial setting. This then allows
After graduating with about the eyes. When you are building a you to paint around the centre of the iris
a first-class computer character or creature in ZBrush it is good and pupil in just a few strokes. If you then
science degree, Paul Hatton has spent to put in some eyeballs early on, allowing change the material to give it that glossy
nearly two decades working within the you to model around them. You could look, you have a very effective-looking
3D visualisation industry. also texture and paint them at the same eye. You can even adjust the shape of the
time, to give your character that little bit of eyeball if you like to give it that bulge at
Antony Ward oomph while you are creating it. the font, but I don’t find that much detail is
Be it game development, I will guide you through an easy way needed for simple stylised eyes.
rigging or recording in-depth to do just that, and I’ve been doing it this
courses for his YouTube channel, Antony way in ZBrush for nearly 20 years. This way This technique is just a great way to get
boasts experience in most areas of 3D. started and make the model/sculpting
www.antcgi.com

Pietro Chiovaro
Pietro is a freelance 3D
artist and YouTuber. An
expert in the creation of game assets
and environments, he shares many of
his creations on his channel.
www.pietrochiovaro.com

GET IN TOUCH

EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO

[email protected]

66 3D WORLD

Your CG problems solved

EXPERT TIP
MAKE IT RANDOM

To add the details into the iris, use a small brush size and choose a lighter
colour than the one for the iris. Lower the radial count and paint some
lines from the edge of the pupil out towards the edge of the iris where it
meets the black rim. Now change the radial again and do a different colour. Changing
the radial count means that there is less chance of it looking too CG and symmetrical.

STEP BY STEP MAKE ZBRUSH EYES WITH RADIAL SYMMETRY

01 02

Using randomness improves a model in 03 04
lots of ways. Anything too symmetrical
01IT STARTS WITH A SPHERE 03 PAINTING AND MATERIALS
looks fake, so add in painting details Go to the tool menu and load in a Go to the Material tab and look for
with symmetry turned off Sphere3D. Rotate it to the front and use ToyPlastic. This is a great material to use as
SHIFT+F to see the wireframe. Make it a the eye shader as it is very reflective with
session that little bit better. As you will see PolyMesh3D to allow us to work on it and a specular highlight that moves around
in the four-step tutorial, it is very simple then subdivide it a few times (CTRL+D). according to the lighting. Use the standard
to get an eye made and painted, but the The higher the polycount, the better the brush and paint a red colour all over the
powerful thing is when you take time Polypainting will be and the better the end model. Now change to white and lower
and really paint in some finer details like result will look. the intensity to give a nice gradient effect
striations in the iris or even veins on the from the centre to the edge.
sclera surface. The little details make all 02 TURN ON SYMMETRY
the difference. To activate symmetry go to 04 PAINT A PUPIL
Transform and hit Activate Symmetry. Turn The pupil is actually a hole but in
If you are doing cartoony eyes, you on R for Radial and Y as the direction so our basic model we can just paint a black
can stop using the symmetry function that it does the symmetry down the Y axis centre. I paint it larger than needed and
after you have laid down the basic look as shown. Change the count to something then when I add the colour I leave a little
of the eye. After that, you can paint some higher than 64 and that will give you a nice rim of black around the edge of the iris;
random strokes and lose that perfect spread around the entire eye as you start this can really make an eye pop off the
mirroring, which can really bring a model painting. Keep your brush size small for screen. Choose a darker colour for the iris,
to life. I use this for creature eyes all the now and lower the RGB intensity (‘Space’ because in the tips I’ll be painting a lighter
time and the effect can be grabbed as a and change the settings as needed). colour for the details, striations and flecks.
full texture map for game and AR use.

3D WORLD 67

Your CG problems solved

SOFTWARE: CINEMA 4D | GREYSCALEGORILLA PLUS | INSYDIUM FUSED

HOW DO I EFFECTIVELY MANAGE MY HDRIS?

Harold Messon, Pennsylvania

Mike Griggs replies

Part of being a 3D artist is manager for HDR images. These are used Until now, the critical drawback of
asset management – yet to create realistic lighting environments using HDRI Link Plus was that you could
keeping an up-to-date reference of from a single image that has been only use those HDR images supplied as
which files are where for what material is captured in the field or created in software part of a pack from Greyscalegorilla. This
historically a pain. Cinema 4D users have (such as a render from Greyscalegorilla’s meant that if the artist wanted to use HDR
been helped out recently by updates from HDR Studio Rig Plus, which is another tool imagery from another source, or ones that
Maxon to the Asset Browser, which can in the Plus suite). the artist had created themselves, they
manage a wide range of assets, presets would need to use another solution. This
and other elements. However, many HDRI Link has been a mainstay of meant multiple HDRI workflows being
C4D artists are users of the excellent many artists’ workflows as it allows the required, which is a hassle that most artists
‘Plus’ suite of tools and resources from quick swapping of HDR images from a don’t want, and as good as the HDRIs are
Greyscalegorilla for a wide range of tasks. predefined library of ‘Packs’ supplied that come with HDRI Link Plus, there was
One of the (many) tools that come with as part of the Plus suite. Before Plus was always the feeling that there was a finite
the Plus suite is HDRI Link Plus, which is a available, the packs of HDRI had to be amount of options.
bought individually.

68 3D WORLD

Your CG problems solved

EXPERT TIP
CHECK EXTENSION IS EXR

To use HDRI within the PLUS Library, they must have an .EXR
extension. Sometimes, HDR images can have other extensions such as
.tx. Using a batch renaming programme can quickly change an
extension type, making it available in the Plus Library.

STEP BY STEP UTILISE GREYSCALEGORILLA’S HDRI LIBRARY

01 02

03 04

HDRI Link Plus, a part of 01ACCESS THE PLUS SUITE 03 GET STARTED AND MAKE
the Greyscalegorilla Plus To get Greyscalegorilla Plus, visit USE OF THE HDRI LIBRARY
Cinema 4D plugin suite, greyscalegorilla.com, where the installers
are available. The Plus suite is a paid suite To start using HDRI Link Plus, first choose
can now manage HDRIs of tools, plugins and resources, which the render engine that is required for the
from other sources cover a wide range of uses from rendering scene. In this example, that is Redshift.
and lighting to animation, using plugins Next add a Dome light to the scene
Thankfully though, the team at such as Transform Plus and GorillaCam and then add an HDRI Link Plus tag to
Greyscalegorilla have now added the Plus, which have been mainstay tools of the Dome light. Drag the Texture Path
ability for HDRI Link Plus to accept HDRIs many C4D artists for years. field onto the HDRI Link Tag, and the
from other sources and locations on the Dome light can now use any of the HDRIs
computer, and allow the HDRI to be used 02 INSTALL HDRI LINK PLUS available in the Plus Library.
just as if they had been part of a pre- Follow the instructions from
existing Plus Pack. Greyscalegorilla to install the 04 ADD USER HDRIs
Greyscalegorilla Plus Hub. Installing the It’s also possible to add user HDRIs
This means that resources artists have Hub creates a Greyscalegorilla menu item to HDRI Link Plus. Head over to Edit>
in other plugin bundles, such as the in Cinema 4D, which when signed into the Preferences, access the Greyscalegorilla
excellent 360º Sky imagery that comes as artist’s Greyscalegorilla Account, allows Preference panel, and hit the plus key to
part of the Insydium Fused suite of C4D the Hub to install the resources and tools reveal the Plus Library attributes. Press
plugins, are now available to be used available with Plus, including HDRI Link Add Paths to select a folder which holds
in the simplest way to creatively light in Plus. Make sure the Plus Library is installed HDRIs that you wish to use (there can be
Cinema 4D using HDRI Link Plus. as well, as this is required for working with more than one location). Restart Cinema
HDRI Link Plus. 4D and the HDRIs are available in the User
HDRIs tab of the Plus Library.

3D WORLD 69

Your CG problems solved

SOFTWARE: BLENDER

CAN I POST-PRODUCE MY
RENDERS IN BLENDER?

Stephen Chalk, Cornwall

Paul Hatton replies

Compositing, strictly speaking, and edits that are made to a render before outside of Blender. This extends its
is the combining of multiple the result is finally finished. Some of this functionality to act more like a layer-based
images to make a final single image. The will be compositing in the strict sense of system such as Photoshop.
results of compositing can be seen in films the word, and some of it would be better
in which green screens have been utilised. placed under post-production. For the Historically, most compositing and
In this type of workflow, the background is purposes of a Blender workflow, this post-production would be carried out
keyed out in compositing and a backplate is all brought under the ‘Compositing’ using software that is separate to an
inserted into the background. Over the stage of the project. Blender gives you artist’s modeller/renderer, but this may
years this process has become increasingly everything you need to assemble and change with rendering applications
more advanced, enabling directors and edit both rendered images and video. It is increasingly offering powerful
artists to achieve some incredible results also possible for the parameters of these compositing tools. By way of example,
– but the compositing process has also compositing nodes to change over time, V-Ray has been improving its compositing
become increasingly demanding. which means effects can be animated. and post-production tools in recent years.
For 3D artists, compositing Through the ‘Image’ node artists can
encompasses a whole host of corrections also import still images and videos from The likes of Photoshop for image
editing and After Effects for video
editing give artists incredible tools at

70 3D WORLD

Your CG problems solved

EXPERT TIP
COMPOSITE AT ANY STAGE OF THE PROJECT
You don’t have to do all your compositing with your final rendered image. You can carry
out all your node work on a low-resolution, low-quality version of your render before
rendering it at full resolution at the end. All of your compositing will still function
because it’s saved within the node setup.

STEP BY STEP EDIT WITH BLENDER’S COMPOSITING TOOLS

01 02

03 04

This scene by Flavio Della Tommasa 01GET SET UP 03 WORK WITH NODES
(www.malapixel.com) benefits from After rendering your image, head Nodes are at the core of
a variety of steps including denoising over to the Compositing tab and tick the compositing in Blender. They can be
Use Nodes checkbox towards the top added using the main menu or with the
in the Blender compositor left. Create a Viewer node using Shift+A shortcut Shift+A. Nodes can either be
and select Viewer from the list. Connect selected from the list or searched for by
their fingertips, but they do have the the Render Layers Image output to the typing. Once a node has been chosen
general downside of not having direct Image input of the Viewer node you’ve you can position it in the compositor by
links between the render in the rendering just created. left-clicking, and you are able to delete
application and the image that is being selected nodes using ‘X’. Nodes can be
edited separately. This is where the likes of To help with compositing you can connected between outputs and inputs by
Blender have an advantage. see a bigger version of your render by dragging the mouse.
selecting Backdrop in the top right. Finish
Blender compositing is also incredibly by heading to Edit>Preferences>Add 04 COLOUR GRADING
helpful for the creative process throughout ons>Enable Node Wrangler. One of the primary uses for
a project and for making quick edits compositing is colour grading. This
before sending images off to a client. This 02 THE INTERFACE enables artists to change the look and
is much quicker than importing them into Use ‘V’ to zoom out and Alt+V to feel of their images without having to
a separate application. During a project, zoom in. At the top left of the compositor re-render, which is a huge time-saver.
artists might want to experiment with you’ll find menus that enable you to add There are a variety of nodes, but some
colours and feel. This is easily done, non- nodes and edit them. of the more popular colour grading ones
destructively, with built-in Blender tools. are Exposure, RGB Curves and Hue
In the interface, nodes can be moved Saturation. Plus, these nodes each come
around using the mouse. The backdrop with their own parameters for fine-tuning
can be moved by holding down ‘Alt’ and the output.
the middle mouse button, or rescaled
using corner handles.

3D WORLD 71

Your CG problems solved

SOFTWARE: AUTODESK MAYA

HOW DO I USE MAYA’S NEW BOOLEAN TOOLS?

Juston Mousavi, Germany

Antony Ward replies

There are many modelling something I personally never use. You joy with the tool, especially if you’re using
tools we work with daily that see, my history with the Boolean, like a it in anything other than Maya. For me,
we take for granted. A simple bevel, weld lot of people, is a patchy one filled with being primarily a game developer means I
or extrude works as expected, and we broken promises and disappointment. need to be hyper-aware of clean and well-
have come to rely on them being stable. On multiple occasions I’ve put my trust in optimised topology, and this often means
This is how things should be, meaning it, only to be let down as it decides that that a Boolean isn’t always a good choice
that you can work without issue and hit instead of cleanly cutting the model, it when it comes to modelling.
all those deadlines – however, the same would rather throw a tantrum and cause
cannot be said for one other tool, and a crash. On the odd occasions when it’s It may be different for those of you
that’s the Boolean. agreed to cooperate, the topology which who are reading this that work more
A tool seen in every major 3D program, it’s left has been unusable, meaning I have with higher resolution models and have
it’s used to join, subtract or weld one to spend time cleaning it up or building it had no issues with Maya’s offering, but
model to another, saving time and again manually. I’m guessing you have also experienced
allowing for some complex shapes to similar problems over the years.
be created quickly and easily, yet it’s Now this may sound unfair and I’m
sure many of you have enjoyed years of With the latest version of Maya,
Autodesk has finally taken the time to

72 3D WORLD

Your CG problems solved

EXPERT TIP
REPOSITION YOUR MODELS
Because the new tool has been developed to be non-destructive, you can now tweak
the models’ positions and the Boolean will update for you in real time. Unfortunately,
this can take a while, but it’s great to have the option if needed.

STEP BY STEP EXPLORE MAYA’S UPDATED BOOLEAN FEATURES

01 02

Booleans have always been seen 03 04
as unpredictable and unstable,
but does the new update make 01NEW OPERATIONS 03 DRAG AND DROP
them usable again? The first thing you will notice is that One option I like about this update
there are more options when it comes is the ability to now drag new models into
rebuild its Boolean engine, this time to the type of Boolean operation you the stack. Let’s say you need to create a
making it stack-based, more interactive, choose to begin with. Previously you only series of cavities in a cyborg’s face, like in
and completely non-destructive. With had Union, Difference and Intersection the example. Rather than create multiple
this update the Boolean feels more like a but now there are Slice, Hole Punch and Booleans, which can make things a lot
standalone tool than just another node. Cut Out to name just a few. Don’t worry more unstable, you can use just one
It has a new user interface as well as though, the choice isn’t set in stone and add models to it. You then have all
improvements to the viewport, making because you can still interactively change the same options as the first model for
it now easier to know which model is the them in the new UI. maximum flexibility.
primary one.
02 STACK-BASED UI 04 ADJUST THE MODEL ORDER
But does this update make it more After you apply the Boolean things As mentioned, the new Boolean
stable to use? Well, performance is still an start to look very different. The main tool is entirely stack-based now, meaning
issue, but overall it’s a welcome upgrade model will switch to a wireframe display that you can go in and adjust the order
to a once stagnant and unpredictable and a new tab will open in the attribute of the models listed in the Boolean tab.
tool. So, with that in mind, let’s have a look editor. It’s here where you can adjust the This is very handy if you accidentally
at it now and some of the new features. type of Boolean operation you want to selected the models in the wrong order to
use, tweak display properties, and play begin with, which is something I often do.
around with the overall effect. It’s a much Instead of redoing the Boolean you can
cleaner and user-friendly way to work simply move the models around to correct
compared with the previous version. the mistake.

3D WORLD 73

Your CG problems solved

Thanks to the Tile Sample pattern we
can generate the entire composition
starting from a singular tile

WATCH
THE VIDEO

https://bit.ly/3Dworld-291

SOFTWARE: SUBSTANCE DESIGNER

HOW CAN I CREATE A REALISTIC ROOF
TILE USING SUBSTANCE DESIGNER?

Andrea Rodriguez, Colombia

Pietro Chiovaro replies filter to the second one in the background EXPERT TIP
input, and mix it with the Fractal Sum Base
I will show you my working noise that will be linked in the foreground FRACTAL SUM BASE
process for creating a simple input of the second Blend. The Substance Designer noise Fractal
and realistic roof tile material using Sum Base generates a fractal noise,
Substance Designer. For this type of Next we can link the output of the similar to Clouds or BnW Spots, but
material, I selected the Physically Based second Blend filter to the input of the Tile with less contrast, more uniform, and
(Metallic/Roughness) Graph Template and Sampler, which will help us to duplicate with less well-defined patterns in most
removed the Metallic output since it isn’t the tile to define the base of the texture. cases, which is perfect to add a light
necessary for this type of substance. At this point, we can link the Tile Sampler stone texture to the tiles of the roof.
Now we can start to add the nodes to the first Levels filter, and consequently
useful for this material, so from the link it to the Gradient map, Normal ( or Regarding the Blend filter, we need to
Substance Designer library we need: the Height to Normal world units) and Height set the Blending mode of the first filter to
Gradient Linear 1 and Gradient Linear output of the substance. The Normal filter Subtract and to Copy for the second filter.
2 patterns, the Fractal Sum Base noise and Gradient Map can be linked to their
and the Tile Sampler (these are the base substance output, respectively Normal Concerning the Tile Sample, I set the
elements of this material). Then we need Output and Base Color Output. X Amount to 7, Y Amount to 5, increased
the Height to Normal World Units Filter (or the Scale to 1.03 and randomised the
just Normal), two Levels filters, two Blend Regarding the roughness material, we position a bit, setting the Offset to 0.03.
filters, and a Gradient Map filter that I will have to link the first Levels filter to the For the Gradient Map, pick the colour
use to give colour to the material. second Levels filter. After that we can link you prefer – in this case, I created an
Now it’s time to link all of these it to the Roughness Output. orange gradient. Last but not least I set
elements together. First of all, we need the second Levels filter; I inverted the
to mix together the two Gradient Linear Now we can dive into the parameter Levels Histogram in order to decrease the
1 and Gradient Linear 2 patterns. To do setup of the substance, which is quite roughness of the tiles.
so we can use the first Blend filter, linking important for this material. Right now you
the Linear 1 in the foreground input and may notice that the material doesn’t look
the Linear 2 in the background input of like tiles, the reason for which is that the
the filter. Now we have to link this Blend Gradient Linear 1 need to be rotated by
90 degrees in order to have a tile shape.

74 3D WORLD

GRDEAISTCBOOVOERKAOZUIRNES
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News and views from around the
international CG community

Bubble

PROJECT INSIGHT

Hope bubbles
to the surface

Trevor Hogg bursts the Bubble of the Netflix
anime feature by Tetsurō Araki

Images courtesy of Netflix xploring the darkness of feel the difference between the scale of the
universe and ordinary humans. I included
E human nature has been spirals because I wanted the audience
common theme for filmmaker to feel Uta’s statement of meeting again
Tetsuro Araki who has decades from now.”
directed episodes of Black
Lagoon, Death Note, Highschool of the A delicate balance had to be maintained
Dead and Attack on Titan. However, the with the animation style. “I prefer works
anime feature Bubble for Netflix offers that are neither too realistic nor too
the same sort of kinetic action sequences cartoony,” remarks Araki. “While I think
with a more optimistic outlook, despite we could have been slightly more cartoony,
being set in post-apocalyptic Tokyo that it probably wouldn’t have matched the
is partially submerged and separated backgrounds.” The approach informed
from the rest of world by mysterious the character designs by Takeshi Obata. “I
gravity-defying bubbles. “For more than asked Takeshi Obata to look at the story,
ten years, I’d been making nothing but and we discussed how this project felt
dark films, and to be honest, I was getting more like a realistic comic book [more like
a little burnt out,” states Araki. “As such, I Bakuman than Death Note] and to what
wanted to make something cheerful, fresh extent we should make it comic book-like.
and fabulous. Around the time we were I left the actual designs up to Obata. For
working on season two of Attack on Titan the love story aspect, the most significant
in 2017, I told producer Genki Kawamura thing we introduced during the story
that I wanted to bring our work to a broader creation process was the idea of something
audience and asked if he’d be interested that would collapse when you touched it. It
in making a movie with me. That kicked would have been difficult to make it into a
everything off, and after about six months
of planning, we finally decided on a concept. WALK OF LIFE
The project was ultimately born from the
concept of ‘a little mermaid standing among Araki was creatively influenced by
the ruins of a post-apocalyptic future’.” the coronavirus pandemic
Parkour added a twist to The Little
Mermaid fairy tale. “It was an exciting The flowers, ducks, herons and other
experience creating an action film that was birds in Bubble were all inspired by
simultaneously a love story,” notes Araki. “It walks Tetsuro Araki took during the
was a new challenge for us.” The attraction state of emergency in Japan. “I'm
to dystopian post-apocalyptic world almost certain I'm the only one who
building is the shock of seeing the familiar notices it, but it's like those walks
in ruins. “I often told the staff not to portray have been freeze-framed in my
the world as a dystopian one. From the main mind,” reflects Araki. “Those plants,
characters’ perspective, it’s a utopia.” flowers and animals ended up being
Water, bubbles and spirals are prominent connected to important scenes in
visual motifs. “For a love story, main the story. I knew that a picturesque
characters Uta and Hibiki share a sad and moving miracle had to happen
farewell. I put a lot of thought into the spiral in the film, but how I depicted the
motif and how I could make the scene less animals included in the film's first
sad. Uta says at the end that she won’t be half laid a foundation for us. It felt
lonely because they will meet again in a few like the result of coincidence or
decades or a few hundred million years, but unexplainable power.”
Hibiki is both amazed and astonished at the
scale of her statement. At that moment, you

3D WORLD 77

Bubble

film without this element. This idea was
suggested by Ms. Kawaguchi, a member of
Wit Studio, and I am very grateful to her for
this. There was a big difference with and
without this concept in place.”

Bubble took five years to make. “During
production, Japan was under a state
of emergency, so I stayed at home and
storyboarded by myself,” recalls Araki.
“The only time I went out was to walk my
dog at Shakujii Park. What I saw on my
walks left a strong impression and was
naturally reflected in the film.” Animatics
were created using Storyboard Pro. “The
advantage of the program is that you can
simulate the viewing experience for your
team and change the storyboards based on
hard-to-follow sections and feedback. This
wasn’t possible with conventional flipbook
storyboards, and it was difficult to get
proper feedback from everyone.”

Drones took shots of Akihabara and
Hakozaki Junction as well as photos
looking down from buildings. “The art
team used them to faithfully recreate the
city. In fact, if the art team said they didn’t
have photos from the top of a particular
building, the production team would go
out of their way to get one,” states Araki.
“For lenses, I’m the type to follow my gut,
so I’m not that precise about anything.
There is a difference in impression between
wide-angle and telephoto lenses, though,
so I do pay attention to that. I like a vivid
look, so whether it be the lighting or the
layout, I tried to incorporate the traditional
vivid look of Japanese anime while also
incorporating realistic layouts.”

Clouds, bubbles and debris had to be
present in the frame. “I wanted to increase
the amount of information on-screen but
not have it be distracting,” remarks Araki.

TOKYO REVIVAL Right: Serving as the
main adversaries in the
A prominent theme is the circle of competition known as
life, which conveys a sense of hope Tokyo Battlekour are
the Undertakers who
“The final revival and the idea of cheat using technology
the death and rebirth cycle resulted
from planning how the viewer would One of the reasons Wit
feel after watching the film,” explains Studio was chosen
Araki. “As it is not a happy-ever- is the ability of their
after ending, we wanted some way animators to handle
to reduce the melancholy. To have action sequences
audiences walk away feeling at least
somewhat positive, we included the
Tokyo revival scene. We also added
a scene of Uta wandering the streets
at the end to leave the viewer feeling
more positive. We wanted a happier
ending for people.”

78 3D WORLD

Bubble

Left: Clouds, bubbles and “If something felt obtrusive, I would
debris populate the frame remove it. I inserted things, moved them
but were art directed to around, reshot them, and repeated where
prevent them from being necessary.” 2D and 3D animation were
too distracting utilised. “I believe this film showcases
and builds on everything we have done in
Below: Tetsuro Araki creating the hybrid 3DCG and 2D animation
wanted to explore the that we specialised in during the production
beauty of dilapidation in a of Attack on Titan.” Reflections and
post-apocalyptic Tokyo fractions were created to make believable
interactions between the environments
Colour scripting was and bubbles. “If this were a fully 3DCG
essential in making sure film, we would have needed to calculate the
that the lighting and correct lighting, which would have been
colours combined to very difficult. But for 2D animation, since
make beautiful imagery they are drawings, you can place the light
wherever you’d like, so it wasn’t that big of
an issue. It was just a matter of whether or
not we thought it looked beautiful. For this
film, we used a process for colouring and
lighting called colour scripting. We had
Mizutamari Higashi do the colour scripts
for important scenes so we could ensure
they turned out beautiful.”

“I always decide on lighting and the
direction of light on my own during the
storyboarding process,” states Araki. “I
like backlighting, and when in doubt,

“I OFTEN TOLD THE
STAFF NOT TO PORTRAY

THE WORLD AS A
DYSTOPIAN ONE”

Tetsuro Araki, director, Bubble

I’ll backlight things and show the light
source. I don’t think I have a good eye for
colour, so I really relied on Mizutamari
Higashi’s colour scripts.” Developing the
story took the longest period of time. “It
was challenging to find the right balance
between the plot created by Mr. Urobuchi
and the screenplay for a 100-minute movie.
It took a lot of work, a lot of people, and
many retakes to create the right story for
the film. It took quite some time, but I think
that also added to the polish of the film.” A
particular romantic moment is a personal
favourite. “The action scene where Hibiki
and Uta’s hearts are bound, or rather the
love parkour scene, was a highlight for me.
When I drew it, I knew it was the scene I
had to create for this project. I really love
it. Especially when they leap together as if
they’re dancing among the floating islands
in the middle of the scene. Just being able
to draw this part alone makes me feel like
creating the film was all worth it.”

3D WORLD 79

PROJECT INSIGHT

Horrors of the deep

Blur Studio and Chaos reveal lighting tricks behind
David Fincher’s Love, Death + Robots debut

rom Fight Club to Mank, The Love, Death + Robots episode “David Fincher read the original short
marks Fincher’s first completely computer- story that inspired Bad Travelling 15 years
F David Fincher is a master animated film. It’s also the first time ago, and I guess the idea never really
at using low-key lighting he’s directly contributed to the Netflix left his mind,” said co-CG supervisor
and dark palettes to explore anthology he executive produces alongside at Blur Studio, Jean-Baptiste Cambier.
the pitfalls of human Tim Miller. To create the nautical world of “Even though Bad Travelling was his first
morality. Now, the director has taken his Bad Travelling, Fincher worked with the animation project, we quickly understood
characteristic aesthetic to Bad Travelling, team at Miller’s VFX firm, Blur Studio, who that Fincher was naturally curious, always
a thriller about a dishonest crew sailing used V-Ray for 3ds Max’s lighting tools to looking to find new ways to explore his
alien seas – and a monster who strikes a help Fincher embrace the darkness. craft. However, there were definitely new
murderous deal with the ship’s captain.

80 3D WORLD

Images courtesy of Blur Studios, © Netflix Above: Different
versions of a still
frame featuring the
crew were made
under a range of
lighting scenarios and
colours, and shown
to Fincher to help
develop the look of
the episode

Left: Lighting was
critical to effectively
portray the dark,
bleak atmosphere on
the ship

3D WORLD 81

things for him to learn about working “TORRIN’S 50/50 LIGHTING STYLE MIRRORS THE
with animation as a medium. Unlike live CHARACTER’S MORALLY GREY BEHAVIOUR”
action, animation does not often leave
much room for on-set happy accidents Nitant Ashok Karnik, compositing supervisor, Blur Studio
or instinctive decisions – everything is
thought about, planned, and calculated.” hues reminiscent of Se7en. Meanwhile, behaviour was. You can see this transition
the ship where the film takes place had from the beginning of the short, where the
To counteract this, the Blur team to feel disgusting, with a dark cargo hold light wraps across Torrin’s face, to the end
leveraged V-Ray’s Light Selects and below deck that would feel hellish and where he’s murdered his entire crew and his
Physical Camera Exposure controls to dank – exactly the kind of place the story’s face is half-lit.”
bridge the gap between live action and crustacean monster would be found.
CG. By rendering sequences this way at SWAYING THE SEA
an early stage, they were able to achieve “We worked hard to make these
more intuitive results with shots that didn’t characters feel like they were in a horrible, Being able to create a realistic, horrifying
look overworked. The team also built a wretched place, and to make the audience seascape was also key to ensuring the final
proprietary tool for Nuke called Light Rig, feel as uncomfortable as the characters animation felt immersive. To do this, the
which allowed them to treat V-Ray’s Light looked,” said Karnik. “We also played with Blur Studio team used V-Ray’s infinite
Selects as a cinematographer would on set. lighting on the characters. For the antihero, VRayPlane to define the horizon lines
The exposure of each individual light could Torrin, our art director had the idea of using throughout each sequence.
be controlled interactively, without re- a 50/50 lighting style, where only half his
rendering, ensuring that the environment, face was lit. Conceptually, we thought this “Everything in Bad Travelling happens
characters and fluid sims could be lit on the lighting mirrored how morally grey his on a boat at sea,” said Cambier. “This
fly, in real time. represents a relatively contained space, so

LIGHTING LIKE FINCHER

Work on lighting began early in Blur’s
lookdev process, which involved refining
the aesthetic of each sequence before
assets were made. “Fincher is keenly aware
of the practicality of different textures,
surfaces and materials, and the physics of
how they react to light in the real world,”
said compositing supervisor at Blur, Nitant
Ashok Karnik. “His eye for colour is
insanely precise. When establishing lighting
for the ship’s cargo hold, Fincher specified
that he only wanted oil lanterns and
moonlight – specifically 1,800K and 4,000K
respectively. And of course, they were all
spot-on in look and feel.”

Fincher was also very intentional
about how the audience should feel during
key scenes. The sunset in the story, for
instance, had to look ugly with greenish

82 3D WORLD

Horrors of the deep

we knew that our representation of parallax “Using the VRayPlane was essential for this photorealistic ray tracing was used in a
and scale was key to making the final render too. It allowed us to do some simple coding
look realistic.” to include and snap that infinite ocean in all commercial project,” said Cambier.
our renders, from animation to lighting all
Once the horizon lines were defined, the the way to the final comp.” “Each new version of V-Ray has a shorter
team had to create the illusion of constant
swaying from the ocean’s waves, which DELIVERING IN RECORD TIME render time, which is really a game-changer.
had to be checked in animation previews.
There were two ways to do this: sway the Despite having just six months to deliver We can either decide to render our shows
whole boat and all the characters on it, as 386 shots, the Blur Studio team was able
well as the cloth and hair; or simply move to complete Bad Travelling on schedule by faster, allowing us to move faster between
everything around the boat to give the optimising their workflow. “Chaos have
illusion of swaying. been our partners in crime for a very long projects, or we can decide to push our
time. Even David Fincher’s relationship
“The choice was quickly made to sway with V-Ray goes way back: his video for quality, by turning on features like shutter
all that is around the boat, as it would have ‘Only’ by Nine Inch Nails (created with
been a nightmare to animate everything Digital Domain) was the first time V-Ray’s imperfections, caustics, or textures in fog.
happening on the deck,” said Cambier.
Either way, we have more power to keep a

show within its original scope and schedule,

giving artists time to find a healthy work/

life balance, without making any sacrifices

on the quality of our final render.”

FYI Read an in-depth interview with the
Blur Studio team at bit.ly/3pGQgwQ

3D WORLD 83

Doddz

Using light estimation,
Doddz’s app is able to
understand the natural

environment around
the user, and can then
cast similar shadows

onto the clothing to
give the most realistic

view possible

PRO THOUGHTS

AR garments are the solution
to the fast-fashion problem

Artist and public speaker Doddz discusses the problem of overproduction in
the fashion industry and how AR garments can help reduce waste

sing Augmented Reality the user to try garments on virtually whilst website. Using complex body scanning
browsing your website on your phone. algorithms with accurate sizing and
U technologies as a tool to dimensions, the app can recommend the
support the digitalisation of Virtual try-on or try-in experiences perfect size for the user’s body, eradicating
fashion, my aim is to disrupt have been widely implemented by a range the need to buy an item in different sizes
of retailers recently. We’ve seen brands or in bulk and helping keep tonnes of
fashion retail management including Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren unwanted garments out of landfills.
use AR through Snapchat for returns.
with an AR mobile app. However, one of the key ways for more The advanced technology works on any
consumers to be aware of the advantages given product page on which there will be
As a game-changer in the world of of AR is by integrating it into everyday life. a try-on AR button that instantly launches
Your mobile phone is the answer to this. the AR app, through which the mobile
augmented reality spanning fashion, filters camera can then track 32 data points on the
The main purpose behind my new AR user’s body. It then combines with mesh
and the art world, I began my journey as app is to allow the user to try garments on detection technology to create a 3D invisible
virtually whilst browsing a mobile-friendly avatar, which has the exact same size and
one of the first viral street artists which shape of the user. It downloads your 3D
garment from a cloud-based solution and
has led me to being currently managed places the rigged model onto the user’s body
all in under three seconds!
by Banksy’s team. In the span of a few
We’ve seen how Gen Z consumers
years I now count Drake, Doja Cat, Adidas, are interacting with AR and how they
are willing to spend more time in their
Amazon, Facebook, Coachella, Dior and customer journey when shopping as it gives
them more avenues of expression. More
more as clients. than ever, they are conscious about their
impact on the environment and so fashion
My passion towards reducing the waste retail brands can no longer turn a blind eye.

problem in the fashion industry takes it on According to Shopify, having 3D models
of your products has already proven to more
from a retail perspective. 17 billion clothes than double online sales and reduce returns
by 40%. Something like this has simply
are returned to brands every single year never been done before. Welcome to the
Sustainable Future of E-commerce. Don’t
as online sales continue to increase. By get left behind.

2024 retail experts have predicted that the

amount of returns is going to cost brands a

trillion dollars a year and the environmental

damage involved is staggering. The process

totals up to 4.7 million metric tonnes of CO2

emitted yearly. It takes just one ton of CO2

to melt three square metres of Arctic ice!

So how can you be a sustainable brand

and reduce the amount of returns without

reducing customer satisfaction? I have spent

the last one year working with some of the

biggest brands in the world, creating an AR

app to solve this very complex problem. The

main purpose of this new AR app is to allow

84 3D WORLD

“WELCOME TO THE
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE OF
E-COMMERCE. DON’T

GET LEFT BEHIND”

Doddz, Augmented Reality artist

A day in the life

Goodbye Kansas Stockholm’s
body scanner, designed
with 200 Nikon cameras in
a dome configuration – for
capturing the full body from
360 degrees

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A…

Head of Capture

NAME We caught up with Chris Jestico, who talked us through his typical
Chris Jestico day working for visual effect powerhouse Goodbye Kansas Studios
at their office in Stockholm

JOB TITLE have had the on films such as The Midnight Sky that may need some love and
Head of Capture and The Batman. Now part of the attention. My days are normally
I opportunity to work central operations team at Goodbye quite packed with meetings with
STUDIO at a number of the Kansas Studios Stockholm, I work prod and artist teams as I manage
Goodbye Kansas Studios major VFX vendors as the Head of Capture. the likes of motion capture,
over the past 12 scanning, layout, motion edit and
LOCATION years in London, Singapore and 09:00 First thing Monday the facial departments.
Stockholm, Sweden now in Stockholm contributing morning the whole company
to over 50+ feature films. I jumps on a quick video call, and I 11:00 Hopefully by this point I’m
ABOUT have also worked directly on contribute by presenting any info working through my inbox on less
Chris spearheads the studio side of production, on upcoming shoots and exciting urgent matters or liaising with the
the Capture division most notably alongside Steven project news related to Capture. Executive Producer team to aid the
of Goodbye Kansas, Spielberg in managing the virtual I then head over to the Motion bidding process on new projects.
managing motion capture, cinematography process on- Capture studio and touch base with Focusing some time at my desk is
scanning and virtual set for Ready Player One. My the team on preparations for the important; headphones on listening
production for the studio. most recent work history centres week ahead! to Lorn or Radiohead helps!
around managing motion capture
WEB studios and facial capture services, 10:00 As part of the central 12:00 I’ll try to grab lunch with
goodbyekansas championing virtual production operations team we regularly colleagues and get out of the office
studios.com projects ranging from VR scouting gather to talk strategy or to tend to for a bit; Stockholm is so lovely and
on Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker any fires occurring in production it’s nice to be by the water. When
86 3D WORLD to real-time LED volume shoots



A day in the life

“BEING AWARE OF THE TALENT EVERYONE SUCCEEDING AS A
BRINGS TO THE TABLE IS FUNDAMENTAL PRODUCTION MANAGER
TO SOLVING ANY PROBLEM”
Chris Jestico reveals the most important skills
I’m working from home I take the especially with overseas teams. and traits needed for a role in this field
time to hang out with my family and Scoping out new business and gauging
am typically on baby duty! availability for the capture crews, I’ll Can you tell us how your career in
help support conversations around VFX production got started?
13:00 Now I’m back into meetings Virtual Production services and I sent my CV to every company even remotely
covering a multitude of topics digital human requirements. related to film production in London using
from global resource planning Google Maps as my guide to find their contact
and talent acquisition to Pipeline 18:00 If I leave now I get home in details. MPC was one of the first to get back to
research and development roadmap. time to put my kids to bed and keep me with a production assistant role, and I was
Communication is key, and here my partner happy! Or I get caught fortunate enough that through the interview
clear and concise action points will in a conversation and will catch up process they felt I would be more suitable as a
be drawn up from consultation with on admin for the day to try and get a production coordinator.
various stakeholders. headstart on tomorrow. If it’s Friday,
please someone coax me into an after- What advice would you give to those looking
15:00 Breathe. Time for hot work beer! to get started with virtual production?
chocolate and some cashews, no I studied film production and music technology at
coffee for me despite the whole of As for what a typical day out university which was a good base of knowledge,
Sweden thinking otherwise… shooting looks like, from 07:00 to but I’ve found that practical experience is
19:00 I will be working really hard generally preferred. Internships are a great
17:00 A lot of client calls tend to to AD the production and manage way to gain some industry exposure and film
happen near the end of the day, talent/clients for a smooth capture production runner roles on set are a great way
day! Lots of fun! to pick up valuable skills and contacts! Virtual
88 3D WORLD production technology is much more accessible
than ever before and the Unreal Fellowship
program is a great starting point for new and
more seasoned artists.

What qualities, skills and abilities are essential
to a production management position?
Listen. Learn. Laugh. Understanding people
and effective communication are crucial to any
management position. Being aware of everyone
else in a room and the talent they bring to the
table is fundamental to solving any problem and
encouraging the best performance from them.
Study the technology and workflows of the area
you work in and be confident in your ability to
contribute to a solution. Approach everything
with a smile and sense of humour and you will
not regret it.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
Goodbye Kansas has such a healthy work
culture, the teams are a joy to work with and
we have a real sense of joint ownership over
the work. I’m captivated by the various virtual
production methodologies leading the modern
landscape of VFX and animation by placing
creative tools back in the filmmakers’ hands.
The blending of traditional art forms with
technology is starting to balance out to produce
some of the finest work the industry has ever
seen, and I'm excited to be a part of that!

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AUTHOR PROFILE Images © Chaos SOFTWARE REVIEW
Paul Hatton
After graduating with V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max
a first-class computer
science degree, Paul PRICE Solo: £29.90 /mo, £358.80 /yr Premium: £44.90 /mo, £538.80 /yr | COMPANY Chaos Group | WEBSITE www.chaos.com
Hatton has spent
nearly two decades T he Chaos ecosystem V-Ray is stronger than primary product to feel the
working within the 3D is well and truly alive. ever because of its Chaos full benefit of the rest of the
visualisation industry. With every passing connections. This is evidenced product range.
year, Chaos products not by the inclusion of Chaos
PROS only get better but the Scatter, Chaos Cloud Chaos Scatter, as the
connections between them Collaboration and even the name suggests, scatters
Scattering now get stronger. I can envisage introduction of procedural things. This is a key tool in a
possible in V-Ray a day when artists will be clouds which was only made lot of workflows, especially
able to handle the majority possible by Chaos’ merger the more sizeable projects.
Enmesh modifier of visualisation tasks using with Enscape. One of the biggest players
will bring greater Chaos products. That day in the scattering market to
detail to scenes isn’t here yet, but it’s a little The first, and maybe most date has been Forest Pack,
bit closer with the release significant of these, is Chaos made by iToo Software. This
CONS of V-Ray 6 – the first of what Scatter. We saw this added to heavyweight is well developed,
will be a whole generation Corona in its last update, so trusted right across the 3D
Procedural clouds of updates before version 7 it’s no surprise that we see it industry and has in no way
need more work comes along. added here as well. Chaos is been superseded by Scatter.
making a habit of wanting each Forest Pack outperforms
Chaos Scatter not as
good as Forest Pack

VFB PANORAMA
VIEWER

Now you can preview
your spherical panorama
renders while rendering,

right from your V-Ray
Frame Buffer. This means

that artists now don’t
have to rely on a third-
party application to view

their panoramas.

90 3D WORLD

V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max

“THE ENMESH MODIFIER COVERS
THE SURFACE OF AN OBJECT
WITH REPEATING GEOMETRY”

Left: Use the Finite Top: Decal displacement Above: Manage your system
Dome light feature for makes it easy to add resources with proxies
image-based lighting details to models

Scatter in its feature set, Further evidence of Chaos its way into V-Ray 6. This news the results are great. Judging
but that’s to be expected as trying to keep you in its bodes well for future releases by Chaos’ forum, there are
Scatter is a relative newcomer ecosystem is with Chaos Cloud as we’re likely to see more plans to further improve the
in comparison. One such Collaboration. This lets artists Enscape features working their capabilities of this feature.
example is that with Forest upload renders from its frame way into V-Ray.
Pack artists can take advantage buffer to enable sharing of One last feature that is
of clumping capabilities. This is work with any stakeholders. For this particular feature, worth mentioning is the
particularly useful in relation to I can see this feature being procedural clouds are made Enmesh modifier. It covers
something like weeds, because useful for working with clients: available through VRaySky. the surface of an object with
they don’t scatter evenly but having a standardised way for When I first saw the name I repeating geometry, much
instead clump together in an artist or studio to deliver got really excited, dreaming like you’d see with a repeating
certain areas. This was raised in work, as well as a consistent of clouds that could really texture. This was possible
Chaos’ forum and seems to be means for clients to give take centre stage, but in this before but more convoluted
on the list for a future update. feedback, is essential to an first iteration it turns out that and time-consuming than
efficient workflow. you can’t render them from using this new modifier. The
And reading through inside or above. This is a big upside to this approach
the forums, I’ve so far been Aside from these two Chaos little disappointing as I can is that the geometry is not
impressed by Chaos’ approach products, I’m excited to see think of many times, over the instanced, meaning no extra
to Scatter. The developers the first fruits of Chaos’ merger years, where I’ve worked on memory is required. I can think
recognise that it’s not yet the with Enscape. In Enscape projects in which you want of numerous uses for this from
industry leader, but they don’t users can make use of a whole to see through the clouds to architecture to furniture design
try to hide that. Instead, they host of different atmospheric the scene below. That being and I’m sure it will become a
take on board feedback from controls to set the right mood, said, as a cloudy sky that commonplace modifier in most
artists and promise to improve and it seems that the cloud forms part of a bigger scene, artists’ arsenals.
future releases. functionality of this has found
THE VERDICT

9.0 V-RAY 6 FOR 3DS MAX
I really like this new release. It packs a punch with some
OUT OF 10 substantial improvements, from Chaos Scatter, to the
Enmesh modifier that will bring greater detail into scenes
without compromising memory usage, and procedural clouds.

3D WORLD 91

Houdini 19.5

AUTHOR PROFILE SOFTWARE REVIEW
Paul Hatton
After graduating with Houdini 19.5
a first-class computer
science degree, Paul PRICE Apprentice: Free Indie: £225 Core: £1,660 Houdini FX: £3,820 | COMPANY SideFX | WEBSITE www.sidefx.com
Hatton has spent
nearly two decades T he latest release of more control. Including the Karma XPU
working within the 3D Houdini, the long- ability to only render a region is good to go
visualisation industry. established VFX and inside the viewport allows as a production
motion graphics software artists to focus in on specific renderer in almost
PROS from SideFX, has been areas for fine-tuning lighting every way. With the
described by the developers and materials. This will be a introduction of sub-surface
Incredibly powerful as a “quality of life” release. big time saver due to the fact scattering capabilities we are
feature set There are times in the that hardware resources can seeing the feature set as close
lifecycle of any piece of be targeted into specific areas, as ever to its CPU counterpart.
Tools spanning the software where they just and the result is updated in
whole animation and need to pause from making real time. Character tools see
major architecture changes significant developments,
VFX workflow and focus on firming up In recent releases we’ve especially in the area of hair
and streamlining the beast seen Karma taking centre and fur. This is particularly
An increasingly they’ve made. stage as the renderer of notable with the grooming
powerful XPU renderer choice for Houdini artists. tools which are not only
I have to be honest though, Version 19.5 cements this improved, but they perform at
CONS describing a release like this into reality with further impressive interactive speeds.
didn’t fill me with a huge substantial developments. Artists will find that it’s their
Steep learning curve amount of excitement and One significant example of this creative abilities that slow
I wonder if that will be the is with Karma XPU entering them down rather than the
Expensive case, on face value, for a lot beta development. We are tools or the hardware.
of users. But even though the starting to see an increase in
HOUDINI’S CROWDS developers are particularly the rendering market of these There’s no escaping the
downplaying the release, there hybrid renderers, where both fact that the full package of
This is a brilliant little are still an impressive set of CPUs and GPUs are utilised to Houdini is expensive. It is after
feature. Based on defined updates that will make it more take advantage of the benefits all catered largely to studios
rules, agents in crowds enjoyable to use. A closer of each. Houdini is putting a with huge budgets. There
can be set to dynamically examination of this version stake in the ground, desiring is however a free Houdini
shows great improvement for XPU to be the option of Apprentice package which
switch who they are in every area of the package choice in years to come. This artists can use for non-
looking at. This automated including Solaris, Karma, CFX, will no doubt take a few years commercial projects. As this
FLIP Fluids and Pyro FX. as GPUs still have the huge gives you access to virtually
option removes a lot of limitation of their RAM not all the features, you can
manual processing and Solaris sees improvements being able to handle massively really take the software for a
results in beautifully in a few areas including light complex scenes. Don’t let the good spin before potentially
filters and render region beta label fool you though. deciding which of the
natural motion, all capabilities. The added node packages are for you.
achieved without much options for lights takes them to
another level, enabling artists THE VERDICT
hassle at all. to put gels and masks over
the top of lights. This could 9.0 HOUDINI 19.5
92 3D WORLD previously be achieved by This is a really impressive release with Houdini firming up
placing geometry or masked OUT OF 10 its foundations to ensure that it continues as a force to be
textures in front of lights, reckoned with in the years to come. I’m sure it’ll continue to
but now this can be carried be the trusted go-to for the biggest, most ambitious projects.
out much more simply and
intuitively with significantly

Houdini 19.5

Main: You can Above: Utilise
take your liquids Houdini’s node
to a new level system to drive your
with Houdini 19.5 simulations

Below-left:
Houdini’s grooming
tools are taken up
a notch with this
latest release.
Image by Andriy
Bilichenko

3D WORLD 93

Redshift 3.5

AUTHOR PROFILE Artwork courtesy of Marc Zimmermann SOFTWARE REVIEW
Paul Hatton
After graduating with Redshift 3.5
a first-class computer
science degree, Paul PRICE £19.30 /mo (£231.60 /annually) | COMPANY Maxon | WEBSITE www.maxon.net/en/redshift
Hatton has spent
nearly two decades Many people will know it though the more this move pigeon hole itself into just one
working within the 3D Redshift as being makes sense. Both CPU and part of that massive market?
visualisation industry. a GPU renderer. GPU rendering approaches
Since its inception this has have their advantages and I think there’s also another
PROS been its boast and one of disadvantages. CPUs are reason Redshift may have
its defining characteristics. slower at rendering but can decided to put its eggs in
Now offers a CPU The first thing you see if you handle a lot of data, whereas more than just the GPU basket,
version open up its website is this GPUs are quicker at rendering and I believe it may have
claim: “The world’s first fully but can’t handle as much data. something to do with the state
Standard PBR GPU-accelerated, biased Time has not deemed one of the market. GPUs are not
material offered renderer.” It will probably camp the winner, and the war only really expensive, pricing
come as a surprise to many looks like it’ll never be decided out many artists, but because
Can handle massive to learn that Redshift now precisely because of the nature of the global chip shortage
scenes also has CPU capabilities. of those pros and cons. And they are also really hard to
because both CPU and GPU come by. At least in the short
CONS What? Did anyone see that rendering are here to stay, why term, people adopting GPU
coming? I certainly didn’t. would any renderer want to rendering for the first time is
Needs more fine-tuning The more I’ve thought about likely to be greatly reduced,
compared to unbiased

alternatives

IMPROVED
VOLUMETRIC
MOTION BLUR

Redshift has taken this
opportunity to make
changes to the way
it calculates motion
blur on volumetrics.
Considering volumetrics
tend to be moving
over time and often at
quite a pace, it’s really
important for the motion
blur to look right.
These improvements
help to get much more

realistic results.

94 3D WORLD

V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max

“PROJECTS THAT WOULD
HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE
TO RENDER ON A GPU

CAN NOW BE RENDERED
WITH REDSHIFT CPU”

that is unless they own a great One of the downsides is amongst artists. I can see this material which followed the
GPU already. that CPUs are unlikely to ever being particularly true for shader, of the same name,
compete with GPU on speed, larger studios who are working found in Arnold. This new
Whether through planning but this is largely mitigated by on bigger projects. Redshift Redshift material adopts a
or luck, it seems that entry the fact that this CPU version wouldn’t have been viable for layered approach and will be
into the CPU market couldn’t can now utilise CPU render many of them previously, but perfect for artists who are
therefore have come at a farms. Using these services now the door is open. wanting to adopt a Physically
better time for Redshift. The obviously comes at a price, but Based Rendering workflow. It
provision of a CPU alternative it does mean that large and In this latest version the will make sense for many artists
has a ton of upsides. For a complex scenes can still be Redshift team have taken to adopt this material workflow
start, artists have no need for rendered quickly, if needs be. the opportunity to launch a moving forward, as this is
special graphics hardware. new material called Redshift where Redshift is focusing its
Artists can make use of their Interestingly, Redshift has Standard Surface. For those material development. Utilising
existing hardware and still also produced something acquainted with Autodesk, a standard shader will also help
start using Redshift. If at a called Redshift XPU; the it might bring to mind the artists moving between tools.
later date they get a better option to render with the CPU Autodesk Standard Surface
GPU and want to render on and GPU simultaneously. On
that, then they don’t have to some scenes this will prove THE VERDICT
learn a whole new rendering beneficial, but if a scene can
engine. Secondly, CPUs are be handled solely on a GPU 8.0 REDSHIFT 3.5
great at handling big scenes then that is likely to render OUT OF 10 This release communicates Redshift’s intent to not just be a
that require a lot of memory. more quickly. GPU renderer but to be all things to all artists. Through the
Projects that would have been provision of a CPU version and the introduction of a standard
impossible to render on a GPU It’s hard to underestimate shader, Redshift is positioning itself very well for the future.
can now be rendered with what a big shift this is for
Redshift CPU. Redshift, but I imagine it
will increase its popularity

3D WORLD 95

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