Digital-Tutors announce new training title for ZBrush artists

PRESS RELEASE

Oklahoma City, OK | April 21, 2008 | Digital-Tutors, a Pixologic Authorized Training Provider and leader in video-based training, today announced 'Character and Scene Development in ZBrush,‘ the latest release in a growing library of interactive training for emerging digital artists using ZBrush, an award-winning integrated modeling, texturing, and illustration environment used in the film, television, game, and design industries. ‘Character and Scene Development in ZBrush‘ offers nearly six hours of training covering a step-by-step approach to character and scene development and provides artists with time-saving workflows to sculpting, texturing, character interaction, composition, lighting, and rendering using ZBrush and Maya.

“‘Character and Scene Development in ZBrush‘ takes artists from the initial concept sketch to the final rendered scene,“ said Justin Marshall, Lead Modeling Instructor at Digital-Tutors. “We spend a significant amount of time in ZBrush concentrating on the character and its composition and then we go into mental ray to light and render the scene. And, throughout this process we continue to focus on telling a creative and fun story using the interaction between two characters,” added Marshall.

Character and Scene Development in ZBrush

Key topics and popular highlights for ‘Character and Scene Development in ZBrush‘ include: composition and layout; working from sketch; creating ZSphere base; adaptive skins; character posing; re-working topology; quick shaping the model; character interaction; adding multiple pieces with ZSpheres; appending Subtools; adding temporary materials; custom alphas and textures; exaggerating features for appeal; creating UVs in ZBrush; polypainting; converting polypaints to texture maps; exporting displacement maps; exporting normal maps; exporting geometry from ZBrush; importing geometry into Maya; 3-point lighting setup; camera placement; subsurface scattering effects; approximations for high-quality displacement; using final gather with subsurface scattering; adjusting render stats of objects; rendering scenes in multiple passes; outputting color, occlusion, and depth passes; compositing multiple passes with Photoshop; and depth-of-field effects to final render.

Pricing and Availability for Character and Scene Development in ZBrush

For a detailed outline, e-download information, and pricing for ‘Character and Scene Development in ZBrush,‘ visit: www.digitaltutors.com/store/product.php?productid=3623

About Digital-Tutors

Digital-Tutors is an innovator and leader in video-based training for emerging digital artists. The award-winning educational solutions developed by the team of educators and industry professionals at Digital-Tutors are currently being used by students, professionals, universities, and production companies from across the globe. Artists from the world‘s top studios are utilizing Digital-Tutors‘ training solutions and services to assist in the creation of next generation feature films, commercials, video games, visual effects, and emerging media. Digital-Tutors maintains strategic relationships and partnerships with Autodesk, Softimage, Pixar, Next Limit, Side Effects, Pixologic, and Adobe in the development of the software and education materials. Learn more at www.digitaltutors.com.

PRESS RELEASE

HALIFAX, NS, CANADA April 20, 2009 — Dover Studios, Inc. announced the release of Shake Techniques 2nd Edition, their latest visual effects training video.

Shake Techniques 2nd Edition provides compositors with a variety of solutions that can be applied to everyday compositing challenges.

The second edition has been completely updated and features crystal clear 1080p high definition video.

Through a series of in-depth lessons, visual effects artists, Andrew Hazelden & Russell Hazelden, share tips and techniques that will help you create better composites in Shake.

Essential topics include several approaches to stabilizing footage including the Stabilize node that uses motion trackers, and the SmoothCam node that uses optical flow technology. Learn how to use the Defocus node and see how it can be used to simulate a real lens by creating the Bokeh lens effect.

Discover how to pull a key from a bluescreen shot by using the Keylight keyer and learn how to use the Keylight status mode to troubleshoot a key.

Advanced topics include: creating a procedural animation using an audio file and an expression, and building a composite using an external matte with the SwitchMatte node. Demystify the topic of alpha channels by learning what the terms premultiplied and unpremultiplied really mean.

Pricing and Availability

For more information visit www.DoverStudios.com and watch the free preview. Shake Techniques 2nd Edition is available now as a download for $49.95 (US). Single user and multi-user site licensed versions of the video are available.

About Dover Studios

Dover Studios, Inc. was founded in 2000 by Andrew Hazelden & Russell Hazelden to provide professional training for visual effects artists working in the film and television industry. Visual effects artists have relied on Dover Studios training videos for years to help them meet the challenges of learning new skills. Satisfied customers around the world include students, freelancers, visual effects studios, universities and businesses.

Dover Studios visual effects training videos are specifically designed to help artists advance their skills in a way that is flexible, convenient, and affordable. The training videos are available as direct downloads from the Dover Studios website which allows artists to start learning new techniques right away and at their own pace.

PRESS RELEASE

TORONTO: April 20, 2009… eyeon Software Inc. unveiled Generation 1.1 today at NAB. Generation is a new class of software, which fills a gap in post and VFX workflows by offering a platform for artist collaboration and a visual canvas for efficient shot management. The new version of Generation adds new playback and image adjustment features, and extends the collaborative capabilities of the application.

Generation combines shot-tracking with version histories, an editing panel for working with EDLs and playlists, and playback functions for review. Every part of Generation is scriptable so that facilities can integrate their in-house tools rather than having to modify their pipeline to make Generation fit in. Grease pencil annotation and live chat tools simplify communications between artists, supervisors and clients, and preserve a record of all feedback and decisions.

New Features in Generation 1.1 include:

• Support for 3D LUTs.
• Gain, Gamma and Lift controls, as well as brightness and contrast adjustment.
• Red, Green, Blue and Alpha channel views.
• Flip and Flop image mirroring.
• Crop masks for playback enabling artists to view content in different aspect ratios as it will display in different output formats.
• Customizable Context Menu for scripts which helps users organize and access scripts.
• Improved functionality for EDL imports, including reassigning media and timecode offsets.
• XML conversion to retain full timeline and version history.
• JPEG caching to allow more frames to be cached in RAM.

“Generation has been an invaluable addition to our pipeline, because it gives us 100% control of our shots, allows us to collaborate more effectively, and provides a simple way of documenting the whole process,“ said Christian Kaffka, producer at Freiraum FX who recently completed an Audi project with Generation. “It‘s really valuable to be able to access every version of a shot during client reviews so we can do comparisons and show exactly what work has been done on each shot.”

eyeon will be presenting Generation 1.1 all week during NAB at booth SL1915, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, April 20–23, 2009. For more information, visit www.eyeonline.com.