This Blender image from the latest issue of 3D World is reader art at its best! It’s colourful and full of life!

Artist: Jonathan Ball
Title: Exodus from Delta B-56
Software: Blender, Photoshop

“I spent about three to four weeks working on this image, in-between working on my other projects. It was created with Blender using the Cycles engine, and was composited in Photoshop, where I used the Z-depth map I created in Blender.

“I enjoy the compositing and final adjusting in Photoshop: it can totally transform an otherwise flat render. For the modelling, I used simple geometric shapes that are then blended and adjusted using Z-depth maps. For this particular image, I had to cut the image up a lot to save on render times. I like to make all my images suitable for decent-sized prints, so I need large render sizes.

• Read an in-depth interview with Jonathan from Poked Studios, where he shares his technical secrets and inspirations

“By trade I am a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, and have been lucky enough to see my designs used in many commercial projects. I would love to develop my passion for modelling further by becoming more involved in animation work.

“It’s very difficult for me to specifically describe what inspires me as an artist, but I love the complexity of a big city, the simple graphics of 1980s videogames and the organic delight of exotic plants. In my work I just try to combine all of those aesthetics.”

Get published

If you would like to see your work featured in 3D World, email us, attaching a low-res version of the image

Illustration studio Fescher Neoilustração explains how it created this motley pack of rats for a pest control advert

Download the screenshots to accompany this tutorial here.

Fescher Neoilustração has over 15 years’ experience of presenting visual solutions to clients, combining the varied backgrounds of its studio members.

The chemicals company BASF has developed a new product for pest control, and contacted us through the advertising agency e21. Our challenge was to develop an image that could in no way elicit a sympathetic response for a group of rats, while trying to avoid showing any aggressiveness within the ad. Easy task, right?

Our solution was to show the rats becoming mesmerised by the client’s product. We worked closely with the agency’s input during the development of each individual rat’s personality traits, aiming for the right balance between funny and repulsive. The whole illustration took us almost two months.

Intelligent team co-ordination is vital to keep track of all the parallel workflows we deal with on a daily basis. Any mistake could set us back a few days, and the last thing we want is to compromise our reputation of beating all of our deadlines while maintaining high standards.

01 Image concept

We wanted each rat to have its own personality, including fur and eye colour, to help avoid any kind of image staleness. At the studio we have a cartoon department that was fundamental in developing the gesture and expression of each character. The concept phase shouldn’t be overlooked, since any mishap at this stage will show up in the next ones, just like all the modelling and shading work won’t cover up a weak idea during the early image-planning stage.

02 Texture research and development

Plenty of laborious research was necessary for the effect we were trying to achieve. Besides a complete study of rodent anatomy, we needed a convincing environment. A quick walk around the block with a camera in hand can be surprisingly useful, and creating your own textures can be very rewarding for the complete control it brings to the image-planning stage. An ever-expanding and reliable texture library can never be a bad thing, either.

03 Modelling

The rats and the sewer were modelled in Blender 2.49, with a few touch-ups in ZBrush 4 for the hands and eyelid wrinkles. The bricks that appear where the wall stucco has fallen were made from the photos taken in the previous step. Once we edited the texture, we used it to create the 3D bricks by displacing them from a mapped plane in 3ds Max.

No camera on earth could recreate the forced perspective effect we wanted for the image, so the whole sewer was modelled in straight planes. We then used a Lattice Modifier to distort the whole scenario at once, with the benefit that all mapped textures would be following the same distortion, creating a coherent image.

Despite the hard work that goes into every detail of the illustration, getting the fur just right on the rats was essential to sell the image. So we took special care with it.

In addition to creating a height map texture for the fur that would be generated in 3ds Max, we modelled small planes (which would be converted into splines later) that would dictate the flow and direction of the hairs. It’s important to have a hierarchy of splines in mind: the fur that will be generated later will take into account the order that the splines were created, and the direction of the extrusion from the original vertices. We were also careful to model the rats with an even topology, so that the fur generated from their bodies’ vertices had a uniform spacing.

04 Hair generation from splines

We used the native Hair & Fur for this part. The hair orientation was done after careful placement of geometry (planes) that had their edges extracted and converted into splines. The order of the splines affected the direction of the fur, so care was taken to make it as close as possible to the concept of the image. With some test renders, we were able to correct and adjust the hair orientation and size through the splines. To distinguish one rat from another, we used a different configuration in each fur and some specific body parts, such as head, eyebrows and cheeks in a different geometry to allow better control. Hair Styling was used when a specific adjustment was needed.

05 V-Ray hair rendering

To create the fur, we first tried mental ray, but in the end went for V-Ray because the fur rendered with more information. Every fur instance was rendered separately from the rats to allow a better degree of editing. The fur had different passes, giving special attention to their selection when in Photoshop. We rendered two distinct Light Select passes (to separate the background lights from the ones from below), then Specular, Wire Color and Reflect Glossiness passes (the latter two being the selection passes).

06 Subsurface scattering textures in Photoshop

For the skin, we decided to apply subsurface scattering (SSS) material with two layers of textures – one subdermal, with veins and hints of bones, and a top layer with a lot of dirt and scratches. This was especially important to get the final grimy aspect of the rat skin. It couldn’t feel too plastic or it wouldn’t be icky enough. The textures on the skin areas were tailor-made for each model, so no single dirty pattern would be recognisable elsewhere.

07 Subsurface scattering skin parameters

An essential element while considering SSS is scene units. In our scene, the main rats were approximately six inches tall. We did some skin materials with slightly different settings for the bodies, hands, ears, tongues, tails and noses.

The scatter radius setting was a very important aspect of these materials. For the parts where the SSS effect needed to be more apparent (such as the ears and hands), a bigger radius was chosen (4cm and 3cm, respectively). The bodies had a lower radius (0.5cm), for a more subtle effect. The previous textures were then applied to the diffuse colour and SSS colour slots. In order to have a more realistic effect and to enhance the forms, Trace Reflections was activated. The diffuse amount was tuned and ended in 0.8 in all of the materials, in order to make a good balance between the diffuse and subsurface textures and colours. A procedural bump was created to make the skin more realistic through a Cellular map independent of UVs. We also put it in the specular amount slot on this same map, but with more contrast to further break up the specular lighting.

08 Lighting the scene

The lighting was a bit tricky. We wanted to make a dark, damp environment that contrasted with the brightly lit street outside, while at the same time lighting the rats from below in an ethereal way. We first lit the environment, and then the rats. To do that, we started to place V-Ray lights to simulate the light from the sun and sky, while at the same time trying to make the details in the image easily readable. A small light was placed to simulate the warm rays of the sun and to make the shadows a bit sharper, while the blue sky was achieved through a combination of a dome light from outside and two V-Ray light planes to simulate scatter inside the sewer. We then added the rats and foreground pipes to see how everything was coming together and saw that some parts were too dark. A third V-Ray light plane was then created to better simulate the sky light on the rats and make their silhouettes stand before the background.

A counter light was placed on the ground level and pointed upwards to simulate the light bouncing, and to make some details in the pipes a bit clearer. Two lights were also created to better illuminate the foreground pipes. Every light except the counter light had shadows. For the light coming from below the rats, three small V-Ray light planes were placed to make the three central figures stand equally and have proper specular reflections. To achieve the ethereal feel we wanted, none of the three cast shadows.

09 Scene materials

Next, the background materials were detailed. We wanted to convey a wet, dirty environment. Since it was very dark and we wanted to show some details, each material had a slight reflection, even the concrete and bricks. To have more control over them, they had Fresnel activated in the reflections; most had high IORs. The wet walls had water running down them, so in order to make that effect visible, the materials were very reflective and had a B&W texture applied to the Reflection Glossiness slot. We also rendered some high reflections for the foreground pipes.

10 V-Ray rendering

The final image size was very large (9,000 pixels wide), so we needed a renderer that would be able to capture the amount of details with enough speed. We opted for V-Ray for all the renders. When the lighting was set, we didn’t need indirect lighting, which shortened the process. When setting up the renders, we divided them to make the image as editable as possible, so we did the outside street, the background, the furthest rats, the distant rats, the middleground rats, the main rats (the four biggest ones) and the pipes in the foreground.

11 Making the render passes

An important aspect when choosing render passes is information. Even weird render elements can end up with interesting results. Another important part is time. Every render pass adds to the final render time. We did a lot of tests with low-res renders in order to choose which of them were best suited for editing.

For the environment, we rendered diffuse, different lighting passes, different shadow passes, light select passes (to separate the front blue light from the other lights), varying reflection passes, specular and ZDepth passes.

The rats were rendered with two lighting setups: the background and the lights below. They had the same passes as the environment, plus the SSS and Reflection Filter passes. Both the rats and the environment had two Ambient Occlusion renders, with different radius values.

12 Post-production scene detailing

Small webs between the sewer pipes and the mould on the walls were added using textures extracted from the photos taken in step 2. A The smaller cracks were made using two Curves adjustment layers – one for darkening and the other for lightening the image. B Putting two brush strokes together – one on each layer mask – creates a naturalistic bevel effect.

13 Post-production rat detailing

One of the consequences of living in a sewer is crawling in the mud all day. So the rats would have to lose their fresh-from-render, 3D-clean appearance. A textured brush with low opacity can be used on a Solid Color layer with a Bevel & Emboss setting. Each brush stroke will then create its own bevel effect, and the low opacity will prevent the strokes from blending too fast with each other, creating a richer texture.

Several areas of fur were erased, showing the skin beneath, simulating a piece of skin or fur that could have been lost to scabies or in a fight. These aren’t cuddly cartoon rats, so a few pieces of their ears have been bitten off in post-production as well. Look really close and you’ll find a few ticks and lice, too.

Because the ears, hands and tails were modelled separately from the main bodies, it was necessary to create a transition from these areas to the rendered fur, including the naturally sparse hairs that rats have in these areas. These extra hairs were drawn one by one to create a specially organic feel. The whiskers were drawn in Photoshop as well.

14 Post-production on the lighting

The volumetric light was simulated in Photoshop, so that we could have a better control of the light sources according to the design of the advert’s layout, and respecting important areas such as the customer logo and slogan. The whole environment was darkened a little to help better define the silhouette of the rats and bring them to the foreground. On the same note, a small glow was added to simulate a rim light around the rats’ edges and to help separate their figures from the background, which we did by creating a selection of the rats, and then expanding and feathering this selection. We also added an atmospheric perspective to the buildings in the street to make them recede further into the background using Curves adjustment layers and lowering the opacity of the sky.

Fescher Neoilustração is a Brazilian illustration studio established in 1995. The philosophy of the studio is to seek out and incorporate new trends and techniques to add to the studio’s diversity of styles

Rob Redman delves into Ben Simonds’ asset creation-focused guide to Blender

PRICE: Book/ebook bundle: $50, Ebook: $40

FEATURES

• 288 pages
• Book includes DVD
• Ebook supplied as EPUB, MOBI and PDF

PUBLISHER: No Starch Press

In an age of ever-increasing numbers of online training guides and videos, sometimes it’s great to just pick up a book. Its publisher describes Blender Master Class as “a hands-on guide to modelling, sculpting, materials and rendering”. It walks you neatly through these areas with decent instruction spread over three practical projects. If you’re new to Blender, or 3D in general, you might possibly be overwhelmed by content such as animation and game engines. The book’s focused approach makes it useful and easy to read.

Each topic is clearly explained, and the projects used to help build practical experience are varied and complement each other well. I particularly like the fact that both hard-surface and organic models are included, alongside natural environments, to give some depth to the training. This gives newcomers to Blender a thorough understanding of the software, starting with a look at the interface.

The pace of the training eases readers into the software gently, and while it does pick up speed, it never overwhelms you, even though a good amount of fundamental understanding is being imparted. The use of three projects in each chapter works well: books split into project-based sections can mean that the less favoured projects stay unread.

Ben Simonds has a strong grasp of his subject, and his relaxed approach makes this one of the better training resources for any new Blender artist.

While it ignores certain aspects of Blender, this book provides exactly what it aims to in a clear and concise manner

RATING 3

Rob Redman is a 3D artist and trainer, and is 3D World’s technical editor

Discover 10 amazing examples of experimental design at our sister site, Creative Bloq.

3D World reader Lucas Falcão presents Violet, which he made using Blender and Photoshop. You’ve seen the wireframes, now see the final image!

Artist: Lucas Falcão
Title: Violet
Software: Blender, Photoshop

▲ “I love modelling and sculpting – this is the part of the process I always enjoy most”, says artist Lucas Falcao

“The name of the character, Violet, was chosen by my friend Larissa Docolas, who made the concept art. I used Blender for the modelling, sculpting and compositing, then rendered with the Blender Internal engine. Photoshop was used to create the textures, including the octopus design on her T-shirt, and to do some adjustments on the brightness and contrast.

“The piece took me about two weeks, working in my free time. I used the particle system to create the hair. Blender has a very nice hair system. You can set the main number of hair strands, which you can comb and stylise. After that you can use child particles, which follow the main strands. This will optimise your render times.

“I’m fascinated by life. This is what inspires me most as an artist and human being. I work in a studio as a CG artist, and I love modelling and sculpting – this is the part of the process I always enjoy most. I’ve been working in 3D since 2008, and have worked in animation, advertising and games, mostly modelling and texturing.”

Add splashing liquids to your scene with Phil Nolan’s in-depth guide to creating realistic fluid simulations

Download the support files plus 17 minutes of video training.

IMPORTANT: Do not open scene files in LightWave 10.0 or earlier. See step 6

Splashing or flowing liquids can add an extra touch of realism to your 3D scenes – even if it’s something subtle such as a character knocking over a glass of water, or an advert for a new candy bar with melted chocolate pouring over nuts and raisins. Recently, I needed a flowing liquid as the focus for one of my LightWave projects. LightWave has some amazing tools that can handle just about every situation. However, in this case, Blender offered a better option, and I was able to get my fluids flowing and splashing just as I needed, then bring them back into LightWave to finish my project. I’m going to show you how to do the same.

01 Prepare in LightWave Modeler

In the files accompanying this tutorial you’ll find some fully textured objects to get you started. There’s a simple tabletop, a glass and an ice cube, as well as the fluid object that will be used as a starting point for your dynamic fluid. The fluid object was made by selecting the polys on the inside of the glass where the fluid will be, and copying them to a new layer, then flipping their normals with the [F] key and closing off the top. If you make your own fluid object like this one, make sure there are no holes anywhere – the object must be watertight, in effect! It may also help to scale the fluid object down a bit so that it’s not quite touching the glass.

02 Set up the scene in Blender

If you don’t know Blender already it can take time to get used to the interface. Luckily, for this project you only need to use a small portion of it. The first thing you’ll need to do is change your view to display the User Preferences with the small icon on the far-left side of the viewport header. This header is along the bottom of the viewport, although I find it makes more sense to right-click it and choose Flip To Top so that the header is along the top of the viewport. On the left-hand side of the AddOns tab in the User Preferences you’ll find the Import-Export category button. Scroll down in the list and you’ll find the option to Import LightWave objects. Check the box and select Save As Default on the lower left-hand side.

Switch back to the 3D view – now that the LightWave object import is enabled, you can load the iced_tea_v002.lwo object from the File menu under Import > LightWave Object. You’ll see each of the objects appear in the 3D view. They are also listed in the Scene Editor. Note that the layer names from Modeler get carried over as object names in Blender. You’ll also find the cube that Blender starts with by default. If you don’t have one you can add one from the menu (Add > Mesh > Cube). This cube can be used as the Domain object for the simulation. So in the Scene Editor panel, double-click the cube’s name and rename it Domain. This is a good time to save your scene in case you need to start again later on.

03 Your first simulation

The Domain object is like a room where all of the fluid simulation takes place, so it has to be large enough to contain any splashing of your fluid. If the fluid hits the borders of the room it will look like it’s hitting an invisible wall, so you have to make sure it’s big enough to contain your splash. However, if it’s too big it will take longer to calculate the simulation. Use the objects you just loaded to estimate the size of the Domain and, if you need to, adjust its scale or position with the manipulator widget found on the horizontal viewport toolbar. You can always make the Domain bigger later on if you need to.

With the Domain object selected, go to the Physics tab on the far right of the Properties panel and click the Fluid button. In the drop-down menu that appears pick Domain. Do the same for each of the other objects – except for the table, glass and ice cube (choose the Obstacle option instead) and the Tea object (choose the Fluid option). If your table is flat, use the bottom of the Domain instead.

The Domain object is where most of the action happens. Select it and take a look at the options that appear on the Physics panel. Now do your first test simulation; press the Bake button and it will quickly calculate the simulation. You’ll see the Domain object shrinks to the shape of the Tea object like shrink-wrap. As you scrub the timeline you’ll see a very rough fluid simulation. It can help if you hide the Tea object at this point by clicking the Eye icon next to its name in the Scene Editor.

04 Refine the simulation

The simulation doesn’t stay in the glass because it doesn’t have enough resolution at this point, so let’s adjust some settings to improve it. First, shorten the timeline to about 60 frames in the End box, because the splash doesn’t take that long to occur – sixty frames is two seconds, so set the end time in the simulation settings to 2.0. Under the Domain World section of the settings you’ll find Viscosity presets. Water is the closest to iced tea, so pick that one. Under Domain Boundary you’ll find a subdivision setting that you might usually increase, but you can leave it at 0 because the subdivision can be added later in LightWave. This saves time during the baking process. Underneath Resolution, set Viewport Display to Final. This will allow you to see how the final fluid will look in the viewport. Try increasing the resolution and doing a test bake. Scrub the timeline to see the result and check the fluid is staying inside the glass. Repeat this until the fluid stays inside without falling through the bottom.

05 Make the splash

Once you’re satisfied with the fluid, go to a frame where it’s settled inside the glass – around frame five or six. Move the ice cube above the glass and set a keyframe. To do this, pick Location from the drop-down box on the right side of the timeline, and click the Key icon next to it. At around frame 10 or 11, drop the ice cube into the glass and set another keyframe to create a decent splash. You can also rotate the ice cube to an odd angle.

Do another test bake to see the results of your splash. If you’re not happy you can change the speed or direction of the ice cube and rebake. Once satisfied, you can increase the resolution further for an improved result – the more you increase it the longer it will take to bake though, and if you increase it too much it can crash Blender. Before doing a final bake, look at the file selector at the bottom of the Fluid settings. Note the default directory where it stores the simulation files or choose your own destination – you’ll need to know that later.

06 Set up LightWave Layout

For Layout I’ve included an environment scene to get you started, so load iced_tea_tut_v001.lws from the tutorial files. This scene was set up with SmartIBL from www.hdrlabs.com. The file was saved from LightWave 11.0.3 and it’s important to avoid loading it into LightWave 10.0 or below as it can damage your LightWave installation. If you’re using LightWave 10.0 install the free update to at least version 10.0.1. Next you can load the objects that were used earlier, such as the glass and table. In order for the textures to render correctly, open the Image Editor in the upper left of the screen and make sure Color Space RGB is set as sRGB for the WoodPlanks.jpg and BasketballCourt_8K.jpg images. The Tea object can once again be hidden by clicking its check box in the Scene Editor and setting the box next to that as Hidden, or just clear it from the scene by right-clicking it in the Scene Editor and selecting Clear.

In the tutorial files you’ll find the tibe3_BFMesh plug-in created by Chris Huf at www.splotchdog.com. Load either the 32-bit or 64-bit version, depending on your system, by going to the Utilities tab and clicking Add Plugins. You didn’t create particles in Blender so you won’t need the BlenderParticles plug-in.

07 Import the fluid

Add a Null object from the Items tab. The plug-in you’ll use replaces this null with a different fluid object for every frame of your animation. With the null object selected hit [P] to open its properties, or right-click it in the Scene Editor and pick Properties. On the Geometry tab look in the Object Replacement drop-down box – pick the tibe3_Blenderfluid item and you’ll see an error saying ‘Object loading failed’. This is fine, it’s only because you haven’t told it what to load yet.

Click OK for the errors and then open the Options with the button next to the drop-down box. Here you can click the Fluid Data button and choose one of the fluidsurface_final_xxxx.bobj.gz object files that were exported from Blender earlier.

Check the boxes below for Flip Coordinates, Flip Normal, As Subpatch and Cache Mesh. Flip Coordinates and Cache Mesh should already be checked. This will correct for some of the problems the fluid files have in LightWave.

08 Surface the fluid

All of the objects included already have surfaces applied but the fluid object is a little different. As the plug-in loads a new fluid object for every frame, you’d have to apply any surface changes to every object. The plug-in can do this automatically if you save your surface changes as a Surface Library file. I’ve included one with an ice tea appearance.

Click the Surf Lib button in the plug-in options, and load the tea_surf. lib file from the tutorial files. When you’re making your own scene, or if you want to make any changes to this surface, you’ll have to create this file yourself. You can do this in the Surface Editor by right-clicking the fluid object name – not the surface name – and choosing Save Library to create the file. You’ll have to save it again every time you make a change to the surface.

09 Fit the tea liquid in the glass

At this point you should be able to see the fluid object in the scene. However, the Blender fluid files don’t store any coordinate information, so your fluid is probably upside down. Change the viewport to look at the glass from the side. With the fluid selected, press [Y] for Rotate and, in the lower left corner, enter 180 for the Pitch and press [Enter] to flip it over. Press [T] for Move and position it into the glass. It might help if you do this at a frame where the fluid has already settled, or even one where some of it has splashed onto the table. If you need to you can also press [Shift]+[H] and drag in the viewport to scale the object.

10 Set up the render

Set your viewport render type to Frontface Wireframe – you can see the empty space in the fluid where the ice cube was. It’s also helpful to set the Display Subpatch Level to 0 on the Geometry tab of the fluid object’s properties, so grab the ice cube object and place it using the Move and Rotate tools. In the Scene Editor, right-click the ice cube and pick Clone to make a copy, which can be positioned in the glass or above as if it’s falling into the drink. Find a frame you like and press [F9] to render. The camera in the included scene is set up to render with anti-aliasing and depth of field to give a nice finished look.

There are a lot of additional tools in Blender to create your fluids, and a lot of settings you can play with to get different results. Try setting objects for inflow and outflow with different obstacles, and experiment.

Phil Nolan is a freelance artist working mostly in television, commercials and corporate videos

Discover the best 3D movies of 2013 at our sister site, Creative Bloq.

▲ Jonathon works predominantly in Blender when creating his 3D illustrations

With a client list that includes MTV, BBC, National Library of Wales, Sony Playstation, Microsoft, Nicklelodean, Penguin Books and Channel 4, we knew Jonathan Ball of Poked Studio in Cardiff must be doing a lot right, so we tracked him down to pick his brain.

3D World: How did you break into the industry?

Jonathan Ball: It was quite gradual really, I just started making 3D art with Blender and managed to get a few pieces showcased in some widely read blogs and websites. Then commissions starting rolling in.

It took a few years before I was able to make a full-time career out of illustration, but the past four to five years have been non-stop work.

3D World: What first inspired you to become a CG artist? 

JB: I don’t think I particularly aimed to get into CG itself, it was just the easiest way I found of creating what I wanted. I tried painting but wasn’t very good at it. With CG I was able to correct mistakes more easily and develop as an artist.

3D World: At what point in your life did you make the decision that that’s what you were going to do?

JB: Quite late really: I was 29 when I decided to study Graphic Design at university and get a degree. While doing that, I realised illustration was what I really loved. After college, I worked in a commercial design studio, and in my spare time I steadily built up a portfolio of illustration work.

When I was made redundant due to the loss of a big banking client, and before I had time to think about what to do next, I started getting lots of illustration commissions, and it hasn’t stopped since.

3D World: Where do you draw your inspiration from?

JB: All over the place… My childhood, city life, everyday objects. It’s really just what grabs my attention at any particular time.

3D World: What is the most enjoyable project you have worked on so far in your career and why?

JB: I have had quite a few ace projects to work on and my favourites are always when I am able to control the output and am given free rein. Working on some packaging design for a diary company in Scandinavia was great as they totally loved my style.

Early on in my freelance career, I gave a price for an illustration for a big company. I wasn’t sure how much to quote but estimated what I thought would be a good rate. The art director got back to me and said it was too cheap and to triple the price! That never happened again!

3D World: What 3D tools and techniques do you use on a day-to-day basis?

JB: I use Blender almost every day. It’s what I started with because as a student I couldn’t afford any of the 3D packages. I do have Cinema 4D but have never found time to learn it properly.

If I am on a project, I need to know I can complete it on time, so I need to use Blender for the fastest results.

3D World: What’s your favourite 3D package?

JB: Having said I use Blender every day, I wouldn’t say I’m 100% happy with it… I would love to get to play with some better render engines like Vray and some ZBrush modelling, but never seem to have time…

3D World: What’s your favourite film?

JB: I don’t really have a favourite film, but there are many that changed the way I look at things. I almost totally hate anything from Hollywood and with big-name actors in. Using blue screen instead of real locations is something I really don’t like… C’mon, guys, we can always tell!

I like films that make you think, and where you can’t predict the outcome…

Having said all that about hating blockbusters, I’ve recently enjoyed Inception and Prometheus!

3D World: What’s your favourite animation?

JB: Akira without a doubt although I love Pixar’s CG work. A lot of CG animation, while I’m astounded at the technical accomplishments, looks very bland right now. We need some new styles to break through.

3D World: What’s your favourite video game?

JB: It would have to be something from the 1980s. I was totally addicted as a child. At one point I had Sega Master Systems, Mega Drives, a PC engine (anyone remember that?), a Nintendo and Atari Lynx in my bedroom.

Down our local taxi rank we had Bubble Bobble and Rygar. How I miss the days where every chip shop had an arcade game.

I’m going to say R-Type for my favourite game, though.

3D World: What advice can you give for aspiring 3D artists looking to break into the industry?

JB: Develop you own look. And get skilled. None of those involve going to uni, but uni may help you organise projects and set learning goals.

If you are not obsessed to some degree you are unlikely to get far, you should be waking up at night in hot sweats thinking of things to create….

3D World: Please could you share a technical ‘secret’ or top tip with us on how you work?

JB: Over the years I’ve developed quite a few working practices and shortcuts to good results…

I often get a basic render, take it into Photoshop, create multiple copies and change the colour of each version, stack them on top of each other and start blending them by using the mask tool to rub out areas.

This can create some coloured shadows, textures and lighting effects that would take an age to set up with UV maps and lighting in a 3D package.

3D World: If you have any comments on how the industry has changed since you first started, that would be great.

JB: I haven’t been in the industry that long to see major change. Computer power is getting cheaper and people are getting more creative with CG. The improvements to software from just a few years ago are staggering. What will the next 10 years bring? There will probably be render farms on mobiles! (And yes, I’m taking the credit for that idea!)

The artist

Jonathan Ball, born Cardiff UK 1974. Owns and runs Poked Studio, loves making stuff and poking things.

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Download the complete version of iClone4 Pro for Windows, courtesy of Reallusion! iClone enables you to easily create CG movies for pre-viz or online distribution. Use the built-in content library to set up your scene, then customise your assets to create a unique movie! (Offer ends 30 April 2013.)

Download a complete ZBrush training video, courtesy of Digital-Tutors! Explore the potential of portraying narrative in a scene as you sculpt your models, with nearly three hours of in-depth tuition.

IN THE MAGAZINE

The Hobbit

▲ Renee Dunlop talks to Weta’s digital wizards about the long-anticipated 48-frames-per-second epic

Studios to watch in 2013

▲ From Cloud Imperium Games Corporation to Mr X, these are the studios doing big things this year

TRAINING | PRACTICAL TUTORIALS TO BOOST YOUR 3D SKILLS

Create a cartoon genie

▲ Antony Ward’s cartoon character illustration workflow for Serena the genie, from sketch to render

The Green Ruby Pumpkin

▲ Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma on how they created their Wizard of Oz-inspired short film in Maya

Simulate fluids in Blender

▲ Add splashing liquids Phil Nolan’s in-depth guide to creating realistic fluid simulations

Developing an image

▲ Rafael Vallaperde shares the work behind his illustration of an octopus

Scene creation in ZBrush

▲ Digital-Tutors shows how to give your model a memorable showcase

Create an iClone 4 movie

▲ Alan Marques reveals how to make a 3D movie in just a few hours

Questions & Answers

▲ Our experts respond to queries on material subdivisions, using UV tools and realistic scene lighting

On test

Unity4 Pro: Has version 4 has enhanced its appeal?
Substance Designer 3.1: A new kind of texturing application
TouchAnimator: An innovative 3D animation iPad app
Precision Workstation T7600 Advanced: Dell’s industrial-strength workstation
Evermotion Archmodels 106 / Massive Black Volume 2: Content and book reviews

Also in this issue

Projects: Includes Aardman’s synthetic creatures for FedEx, and Dentsu’s Panasonic spot
Inspirational reader artwork: ArchViz, creature art and more
Short Cuts: The team behind slapstick short Dum Spiro
Debrief: How the immersive SpacePark360 fulldome show was created
Freeze Frame: How to build a 3D facility for hit TV show Merlin

▲ Be inspired by our collection of CG artworks created by 3D World readers from around the globe

Downloads

This issue’s downloads deliver 9 hours of video tips including: videos on character design in Maya, animating a scene in iClone and simulating fluids on Blender, plus videos and files for the Cinema 4D and Silo Q&As.

The idea that Michael Bay’s next outing of Transformers could be done using open-source software Blender may not be a reality – but the new Blender short Tears of Steel, with its massive robots, plasma guns and tongue-in-cheek lines like “I just want to be awesome in space”, goes some way to prove that the day may not be far off.

When the team of visual effects artists were asked to produce a science-fiction story set in Amsterdam to improve and test an open-source VFX pipeline, little did they know the difficulties they would face. Pretty much every shot in Tears of Steel has CG elements in it, and the team had to work with tools that were still being developed.

CG GUNS AND ANIMATED ROBOTS

The most spectacular scene, where four of the scientists working in the re-enactment dome have to fight against the robots that are breaking through the walls of the church, was the most demanding. As 3D artist and matchmover Sebastian Koenig explains: “There’s a moving camera, a rather unevenly lit greenscreen, four people waving around object-tracking devices that later have to be replaced with CG guns, six animated robots and a huge full-CG environment.”

▲ In the most demanding VFX shot, the scientists shoot at Quadbots who have just broken into the church

While the camera track in the shoot-out scene was simple enough – just a smooth dolly shot – getting the correct movements of four independently and rapidly moving objects, sometimes with lots of occluded tracking markers, was difficult. “It took a week to finish the tracks so that they could be passed on to layout and animation,” says Koenig.

▲ The actors playing the scientists had object-tracking devices, which were replaced later with CG guns

The keying and masking also proved to be challenging: “The greenscreen was unevenly lit, there were some objects in the foreground that required manual masking, [and] even some cables needed to be manually rotoscoped,” Koenig says.

RENDERING WITH CYCLES

But the real test of Koenig’s mettle was rendering the environment with six robots in it. “The render engine Cycles is great for photorealistic rendering, but especially interior rendering can take hours for a finished frame,” says Koenig. “It took endless tests and tweaks until we were able to produce more or less noise-free images in a reasonable amount of time.”

All the CG assets were linked into this file. The foreground elements, the church environment, the robots and even the animation were referenced from other blend files. This allowed 3D artist Kjartan Tysdal to start lighting and compositing the scene while modeller Rob Tuytel was still working on models and textures of the church environment, and 3D animator and rigger Jeremy Davidson was still animating the six different robots.

INTRODUCING BLENDER INTERNAL

“The scientist guns are shooting a kind of blue plasma that was created by using Blender’s particle and smoke systems,” says Koenig. “However, the pathtracing render engine Cycles is not yet capable of rendering volumetrics, so we had to use Blender’s other render engine, Blender Internal, to render that. A separate scene was created to render the particle and smoke effects on top of Cycle’s render layers.”

▲ Animating and rendering the Quadbots for the spectacular shoot-out scene was particularly challenging as there are six of them in the church environment

By linking the two scenes into one compositing node tree, using Cycles for the environment and Blender Internal for the volumetrics, the team could automatically render with two different render engines at the same time and combine them via the compositor without having to pre-render or export anything.

If you would like to find out more about Tears of Steel, buy the latest issue of 3D World, where we have a full feature on the short, including how the team enhanced the visuals and created the final ambitious shot.

If you liked this you may also like to check out the other open source movies from the Blender Institute

The making of Sintel

Issue 103 of 3D World contained a four-page tutorial on simulating explosions without particles in Blender, plus a four-page story on the making of Big Buck Bunny. You can grab a digital edition of 3D World here

Buy the magazine

On sale now at My Favourite Magazines
On sale in UK newsagents: 4 December 2012
On sale US newsstands: From 7 January 2013

Buy the digital edition
On sale 4 December 2012 via the 3D World Magazine app (iOS)
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IN THE MAGAZINE

ILM joins Disney

▲ Disney’s main reason for wanting to buy Lucasfilm may be Star Wars, but the world’s best-known VFX house comes with it. We explore the impact of the deal on ILM

Looper

▲ Renee Dunlop finds that sometimes creating a movie is a blast, and sometimes the task is creating the blast, as she talks to ScanlineVFX about its work on the film Looper

TRAINING | PRACTICAL TUTORIALS TO BOOST YOUR 3D SKILLS

Stunning sci-fi scenes

▲ How Dylan Cole blended 2D and 3D to create the otherwordly images for his children's storybook

Bonus tutorial: Dylan Cole shows you how to create another futuristic scene from his book

Make a real-time demo

▲ Wes McDermott offers a behind-the-scenes look at how to turn a short film into a real-time demo

• Watch a 3-minute excerpt from this tutorial here

Motion graphics tips

▲ Michaeljohn Day of Art & Graft has advice for readers on how to improve your motion graphics workflow

Game environments

▲ Alex Telford shows you how to build and texture a cityscape for a racing videogame in Blender

• Watch a 42-minute excerpt from this tutorial here

Particle simulations

▲ Discover techniques for creating fuzzy phenomena with particle simulations. Mike Griggs explains

Character sculpting

▲ Scott Spencer explains how to create an image using ZBrush's new topology and Mesh insert brushes

• Watch a 10-minute excerpt from this tutorial here

Questions & Answers

▲ Composite V-Ray render elements using Photoshop; make an object glow in Maya; create believable scale on spaceships; and more

On test

iClone5.3 Pro: The real-time 3D movie-making app from Reallusion receives an update
HDR Light Studio: This accessible HDRI creator will be a handy addition to your toolset
Trapcode Mir: Red Giant’s 3D shape generator has huge potential for mograph artists
Nvidia Quadro K5000: The new Kepler-generation card
CrazyTalk 7: An easy-to-use facial animation tool
Environment Sculpting: In-depth CG training by Gnomon
Cinema 4D Everything Volume 2: Expert insight from trainer cmiVFX

Also in this issue

• Tears of Steel: The latest movie from the Blender Institute blends CG special effects with live action. We explore its making and reveal how it affects the VFX toolset in Blender
• The month’s best new commercial projects
• Short Cuts: A group of students from Ringling College of Art and Design have made a Western with a difference
• Inspirational reader artwork
• Debrief: Lon Molnar and Geoff Scott reveal how Intelligent Creatures created a battle between viruses and human cells for a full-CG documentary
• Freeze Frame: Double Negative discusses how it built two brave new worlds for an ambitious remake of Total Recall

Downloads

This issue’s downloads deliver 15 hours of video tips including: 11 hours of video in our Blender game tutorial; two hours of video plus scene files from our ZBrush tutorial; and a game based of Wes Ball’s Ruin movies including nine videos

Fluid simulations used to be purely scientific, but 3D artists can now use them too. Mike Griggs explores how

Fluid dynamics aren’t just about making things wet. They’re also about making things dusty, cloudy, smoky, fiery and very, very bloody. The major difference between fluid simulations and rigid and soft body dynamics is that instead of applying a simulation to a mesh, you’re applying it to a range of particles. These are then meshed in the case of liquid or can have 2D or volumetric sprites attached to them in the case of gases and clouds to allow your 3D software to render them.

The first thing to bear in mind when using fluid dynamics, especially with liquids, is that your simulations will probably not be 100 per cent physically accurate. The amount of processing power required to create a true simulation of a moving ocean that depicts both its surface and movement underneath the water is still in true supercomputer territory. In fact, most of the software that’s now used to create fluid sims was derived from early work in computation fluid dynamics after the Second World War in scientific institutions throughout the world.

Secondly, remember that for the majority of your shots you’re going to be asked to create simulations that have nothing to do with the real world. Whether it’s the fire emanating from a dragon’s mouth or animated dancers made out of water, you’re going to be creating simulations that have to be art directed – and therefore the need to be truly accurate becomes less important.

Both of these factors mean that you really need to break down your shots. There are various methods of solving simulations for fluids in various pieces of software, which range in price from free to the cost of a small car. Dependant on your core 3D application, find out if there are plug-ins that create fluids to save you having to round-trip to another app, because time is something your computer will tend to need to solve more complex simulations.

Some of these software solutions work well for small-scale simulations such as a product shot of some wine being poured, but this simulation method wouldn’t work as well for ocean waves crashing against rocks. Experiment with as many tools as you can; some of the more advanced software tools have a range of fluid solvers to help you find the best method for your shot.

Discover fluid dynamics

01 How sticky is the liquid?

Not all liquids behave like water, and some solids can become liquids – wax, for example. Be aware of this when art directing your animation: the viscosity of your liquid material can give it all kinds of characteristics, especially when being applied when moving or interacting with other meshes. If you need to mix liquids, be sure your fluid solution can accommodate mixing different liquid materials.

02 Software options

Some fluid dynamics solutions are bundled directly within the 3D application, as in Softimage and Maya. Plug-ins that handle fluids are available for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D, while Houdini has a range of fluid systems along with its full dynamics setup. RealFlow and Naiad are standalone fluid applications that produce amazing results. Don’t dismiss Blender, though – it has for the money (free) an excellent fluid system that created the geometry for the main image in this tutorial.

03 Lighting and materials for simulations

Lighting is incredibly important for fluid simulations, especially clear liquids. HDR lighting solutions that can only be seen in reflections can be useful for bringing out the shape of a clear liquid. Also make sure that you’re using the correct refraction settings for your liquid because this shapes the light through the liquid to create realistic results. For gases, lighting is just as important – hiding lights in gas clouds is great for giving volume to your render.

04 Gases are fluids too

Fluid simulations aren’t just for liquid – they can also be used for flames and moving gases, either using standalone dynamics software or plug-ins such as Turbulence 4D, used to create this image in Cinema 4D. Both gases and liquids run off the same sets of equations, though to create liquids another stage of meshing the geometry created by the particles or creating the geometry to be moved in the fluid simulation needs to take place.

05 Model liquids for stills

Fluid simulations are an excellent way of creating natural forms for stills, but their computation time can be expensive. To minimise the time spent, simpler simulations can be run and the resulting meshes can be smoothed in sculpting software such as ZBrush. Alternatively, modelled liquid solutions such as the Splash Kit for modo come with modelled elements and lighting setups to enable you to create your liquid solutions as quickly as possible.

Create a simple fluid simulation

01 Create a world

Start by creating a cube and applying a modifier to act as a boundary for how far you wish your fluid simulation to extend.

02 Make the objects

Create simple geometry to act as obstacles as a receptacle and pourer, and create two spheres to be the fluid substance.

03 Run the simulation

Now, run the simulation. Some of the liquid misses the receptacle and splashes onto the edge of the cube boundary that was created at the start.

Mike Griggs is a freelance concept 3D, VFX and motion graphics artist working across TV, exhibition and digital design

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