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The world’s best 3D magazine just got even better. Welcome to the New Look 3DWorld magazine...116 pages of creative stimulation, practical training and business ideas to turbo-charge your career in 3D Save up to 42% today on a subscription, by clicking here...

Editor’s Letter

Cover Artist Find out more about Korean games artist Won Gyo-Lee – creator of this issue’s arresting cover image

The world’s best 3D magazine just got even better. Welcome to the new-look 3D World

This issue’s cover artist Won Gyo-Lee, also known online as ‘daytripper’, has worked for many leading games developers such as South Korean giant NCsoft, best known for its Lineage and Guild Wars MMORPGs. As a lead character artist and facial animator, he worked on the studio’s cinematics. He later moved to Webzen, where he worked on the team for Huxley, the studio’s massively multiplayer online first-person shooter. Our cover star, A Tough Guy, took about six weeks to create and was inspired by Namco’s Tekken and Sega’s Virtual Fighter series of games. Gyo-Lee is also influenced by the work of Diablo and World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment. The image was created in 3ds Max and rendered in V-Ray, with additional work in ZBrush. Photoshop was used for texture work, with the steel and leather textures drawn from free online resources. As the character is a low-polygon model, the biggest concern was how to improve the image quality. To add detail to the render, Gyo-Lee applied normal maps, and made extensive use of 3ds Max’s shading features. Extensive rendering tests were required to fine-tune the results – including some extra modifications to the face completed specifically for the 3D World cover. According to Gyo-Lee, the most exciting part of the process was seeing the image develop, as the original rough evolved into the render you see above. The result is a perfect combination of power and subtlety. daytripper3d.com

You can find Won Gyo-Lee’s textured character on the disc this issue for you to experiment with. For a full list of disc contents, turn to page 84

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pring is traditionally a time for house cleaning. As the sap rises and the days lengthen, every young homeowner’s fancy turns to scrubbing, scouring, and removing the accumulated grime of winter. Given a readership spanning both hemispheres and the full 24 time zones, it may currently be snowing where you live, but if you’re reading this copy of the magazine on import, you’ll have to take it on trust that the new blossom was just emerging on the trees in the UK when this column was written – and that what we’ve been doing is, genuinely, spring cleaning. You will already have noticed that 3D World looks different this issue. In addition to our larger format, we have introduced a new design for the internal pages: our first in over four years. We hope that it not only makes the magazine more attractive, but easier to read. As our new masthead proclaims, this is a title for anyone with a serious interest in animation, visual effects, games, illustration or architecture. For years, we have been proud to be the only magazine that genuinely talks about every sector of the 3D industry – and with our new format, we have extended that pledge. Whether you’re an animator, games artist or visualisation professional, each issue will contain material specifically tailored to your needs: both in our news and features, and in our practical content. Speaking of practical content, our training section has been expanded to incorporate a range of new tutorial formats. Over the past four years, video training has become an increasingly important part of 3D education, and our website now hosts more supporting videos for our tutorials than ever before. You can find more details about our downloads on page 57. Experienced artists will also benefit from our hands-on content. In our new Script Doctor section, technical directors explain how their pipeline scripts are created; while our tips provide focused information on key topics – in the case of this issue, building an optimal set of extensions for SketchUp. Each of our tutorials comes with a guarantee of quality. The difference between 3D World and many magazines and websites is that our

Recreate the cover

Editor’s Letter

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tutorials really work. Rather than providing an overview of how an image was created, we commission detailed production guides – then work through them ourselves, to make sure that they are as easy to follow as possible.

What matters to you?

If you already work full-time in 3D, our front and back sections have been expanded to suit your needs, too. Our new Projects gallery showcases the month’s best commercial print and short-form work, while the new studio diaries and project debriefs give you the low-down on what your peers in the industry are really doing. Home users need not feel left out, either: our expanded Community section features the best of your personal artwork and animation, while our new-look disc provides a full range of the software, models and stock assets you need to create even better work. This issue, we’ve secured a full copy of the powerful 3D modelling and animation package Realsoft 3D for you, plus over $700 of essential resources. We think that 3D World has emerged from its spring makeover scrubbed, scoured, and ready to face the next four years – but with your help, we can make it even better. Write in and let us know what you think about our new format: we appreciate all of your feedback, whether positive or negative. As it says at the foot of the page, I do read all of your emails, and try to respond to each one of them personally.

Jim Thacker Editor

Send your feedback

Want to comment on this column? Or on any other part of the magazine? I appreciate all of your emails and try to reply to each one personally jim.thacker@futurenet.com

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COMMUNITY Portfolio

Portfolio COMMUNITY

Portfolio Our pick of the best personal artwork from the 3D community, from interiors to portrait modelling

Artist Mohamed Abuyhia Title The Gift Software 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop, Color Efex Pro “The idea behind this image is that a carpenter wishes to give his son a gift. After making other presents, he hits upon creating a wooden car, which is shown finished on the worktop. “The image took about two months to create. I worked on it on and off as a hobby. As I wanted the workshop to look cluttered, I needed to create a lot of objects. The most difficult thing was incorporating all the different elements into the composition. Fortunately all the objects are fairly simple. “I really enjoyed honing my modelling skills on this image and particularly enjoyed doing the textures.” abuyhia@hotmail.com abuyhia.cgsociety.org

Send us your images

If you would like to see your work featured in 3D World, email us at the address below, attaching a lo-res version of the image and including your contact details. The image should not have been available online for more than four weeks. Note that we can only publish personal artwork to which you own full copyright portfolio@3dworldmag.com

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COMMUNITY Portfolio

Portfolio COMMUNITY

Portfolio Our pick of the best personal artwork from the 3D community, from interiors to portrait modelling

Send us your images

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COMMUNITY Portfolio

Portfolio COMMUNITY

Image of the month Pedro wins an ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator, worth $899. The ATI FirePro products are designed specifically for professional 3D graphics users. ati.amd.com

Artist Pedro Santos Title Photon - Motorbike Concept Software 3ds Max, V-Ray, Photoshop “I completed my degree about eight months ago and I’ll shortly finish my internship at an architectural visualisation studio. The first time I had the opportunity to work professionally in 3D was during my internship. Everything else was self-taught, thanks to a lot of hard work and a passion for 3D. “I finished the image in about three weeks. I worked on it in my free time, after my internship had finished for the day. I think if I had worked on it full-time, it would have taken about a week. “I created all the geometry from scratch, making everything as low-poly I could, then applied a TurboSmooth modifier respecting geometry IDs. I also used displacement for the tyres. “It was the first time I’d ever tried to create such a detailed and realistic mechanical object. My biggest challenges were illumination, reflection and materials. For the materials, I studied and refined details like IOR, BRDF and Fresnel properties. For the illumination, I used three V-Ray lights and a blurred version of the HDRI for the GI. For the reflection, I used a sharpened HDRI. “I really enjoyed the challenge this image set me. I love what I do and think there’s nothing better than learning some new tricks, improving my skills and overcoming some difficulties.” psantosdesign@gmail.com pedrosantos3d.com

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COMMUNITY Portfolio

Portfolio COMMUNITY

Image of the month Pedro wins an ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator, worth $899. The ATI FirePro products are designed specifically for professional 3D graphics users. ati.amd.com

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PRE-VIZ The Filter

The Filter PRE-VIZ SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE

The Filter

Our pick of the past month’s 3D software, hardware and resources, stripped of PR fluff. We post all breaking news online: for more product stories, visit 3dworldmag.com/newsfeed HARDWARE

SOFTWARE

Softimage Mod Tool 7.5

Vue 7 Pioneer

Unity 2.5

DEVELOPER Autodesk RELEASE DATE End of April WHAT IS IT? Free version of Softimage 7.5, aimed at games modders. After Autodesk’s acquisition of Softimage last year, forum users questioned the Mod Tool’s future. It has survived unscathed WHAT’S NEW? • Softimage’s Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) visual programming platform • Real-time shading API • Support for Windows Vista • New learning materials from Noesis Interactive THEY SAY... “With this professional 3D toolset, modders can produce characters and props” WE SAY... Good news for home users, who get a Mod Tool in line with its parent application once more – and some reassurance as to its future PRICE Free MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/c6snva

DEVELOPER e-on software RELEASE DATE 24 March WHAT IS IT? An entry-level edition of e-on software’s 3D environment-creation product line. Previously in open beta, Pioneer remains free WHAT’S NEW? • Full release status • The (continued lack of) price THEY SAY... “Vue 7 Pioneer is the perfect introduction to the world of 3D. It is derived from the research e-on software does for Vue Infinite and xStream, its products for the professional CG market” WE SAY... That Pioneer remains free is welcome, if not entirely surprising, news. New packs of stock content themed for fantasy and sci-fi art take e-on into DAZ Productions territory: an interesting development for a product line previously focused on high-end work PRICE Free MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/dbcgec

DEVELOPER Unity Technologies RELEASE DATE 18 March WHAT IS IT? A real-time 3D games development platform, with publishing capabilities for the web, iPhone and Nintendo Wii. This is the first time it has been available for Windows WHAT’S NEW? • Windows edition • Drag-and-drop support for 3ds Max THEY SAY... “Windows users can finally get their hands on our baby. Unity is used by thousands of developers on the Mac, and we have huge expectations of how far our community can go.” WE SAY Looks destined for big things – but what took Unity so long? Surely Windows and 3ds Max support were always a natural fit for a games-development platform PRICE $199 (Indie), $1,499 (Pro) MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/dbggq8

HARDWARE

SOFTWARE

With a strong background in VFX training, Allan McKay has focused on the more experienced FumeFX users

Training product of the month SpacePilot PRO

mental mill Standard Edition

New Quadro FX graphics cards

ATI FirePro V7750

Director 11.5

DEVELOPER 3Dconnexion RELEASE DATE 16 April WHAT IS IT? An updated, premium-priced version of 3Dconnexion’s flagship SpacePilot 3D mouse. Most sales come from the CAD market, but many DCC apps are supported, including 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya and Softimage WHAT’S NEW? • New colour LCD workflow assistant • Improved one-touch navigation of CAD software • New sculpted wrist rest THEY SAY... “The SpacePilot PRO enables increased performance that ultimately results in better designs, created in less time” WE SAY... It’s great to see that the SpacePilot is still evolving as a product and that 3Dconnexion is actively adding new features and functionality PRICE £399 / $499 MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/dklhce

DEVELOPER mental images RELEASE DATE 29 April WHAT IS IT? New commercial edition of the leading shader-authoring tool, previously available in a free Artist Edition – itself now bundled with 3ds Max WHAT’S NEW? • Write and edit shader code • Visual code-debugging tools • Mental Ray preview plug-in THEY SAY... “The Standard Edition is a complete visual development environment that includes powerful debugging capabilities, shader-authoring features, and exporters to DCC and CAD software” WE SAY... Expect the power of previous mental images tools – but definitely a product for technical artists. For others, Lumonix’s Shader FX, reviewed on page 100, may prove a more accessible alternative PRICE TBA MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/cdcpob

DEVELOPER Nvidia RELEASE DATE 30 March WHAT IS IT? The tenth generation of Nvidia’s Quadro GPUs for professionals, from entry-level to standalone visual computing systems WHAT’S NEW? • Six Quadro cards: FX 5800, FX 4800, FX 3800, FX 1800, FX 580 and FX 380 • Nvidia SLI Multi-OS, enabling 3D workstation virtualisation on the Quadro GPU THEY SAY... “The most powerful and advanced top-to-bottom line of Quadro professional GPU solutions in the company’s history” WE SAY... Extremely powerful – but, as our reviews of the FX 4800 and FX 5800 in issue 114 showed, power comes at a price, particularly for the 5800. Most will stick with the cheaper cards in the range PRICE £99 - £2,599 MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/d8hwah

DEVELOPER AMD RELEASE DATE 26 March WHAT IS IT? A new 3D graphics accelerator aimed at high-end work in digital content creation WHAT’S NEW? • New generation GPU with 320 unified stream processing units • 1GB of frame-buffer memory • 30-bit display pipeline THEY SAY... “The ATI FirePro V7750 enables rendering of more accurate colour reproduction and superior visual quality of complex and large data sets” WE SAY... The best thing about ATI’s cards recently has been the performance they provide for the money. The FirePro V7750 won’t knock Nvidia off its top slot, but it’s keenly priced for the abilities it has on offer PRICE $899 MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/cy8327

DEVELOPER Adobe RELEASE DATE 24 March WHAT IS IT? Half-point update to Adobe’s newly revitalised multimedia and real-time authoring software, further boosting its 3D toolset WHAT’S NEW? •N ew SketchUp importer •N ew audio engine •S upport for HD video THEY SAY... “Director 11.5 provides a rich and flexible platform to create applications for both online and desktop worlds” WE SAY... No showstopping new features, but the wealth of freely available SketchUp content makes the importer a sensible addition to Director, and may help increase its appeal for indie games development. Still priced higher in the UK than the US, though PRICE £795 / $899 MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/czrfbe

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FumeFX Advanced training DVD PUBLISHER Catastrophic FX WHAT IS IT? VFX expert and – in the interests of fair disclosure – 3D World contributor Allan McKay has released an advanced follow-up to his earlier FumeFX Essentials. Published by McKay’s own VFX studio, Catastrophic FX, the new DVD contains over 24 hours of video training for the 3ds Max fluid dynamics plug-in, including some impressive production examples and McKay’s Siggraph 2008 digital pyrotechnics masterclass. The material is due for a physical release through TurboSquid in May and is currently available for direct download PRICE $89.95 MORE ONLINE tinyurl.com/dbgpfh

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PRE-VIZ The Filter

The Filter PRE-VIZ SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE

The Filter

Our pick of the past month’s 3D software, hardware and resources, stripped of PR fluff. We post all breaking news online: for more product stories, visit 3dworldmag.com/newsfeed HARDWARE

SOFTWARE

Softimage Mod Tool 7.5

Vue 7 Pioneer

Unity 2.5

HARDWARE

SOFTWARE

With a strong background in VFX training, Allan McKay has focused on the more experienced FumeFX users

Training product of the month SpacePilot PRO

mental mill Standard Edition

New Quadro FX graphics cards

ATI FirePro V7750

Director 11.5

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PRE-VIZ Show report Among talk of recessionary pressure, GDC09 saw plenty of activity, including high demand for Sony’s stereo 3D presentations

GDC’s popular sessions were as packed as ever, frequently spilling into standing-roomonly territory You’d think that the economy would have made the Careers Pavilion a sombre affair, but Activision still tried to recruit them in style

There were still far too many parties to feasibly attend all of them. Some enthusiasms will never be dampened

Money talks at this year’s GDC As the recession looms over the games industry, there’s a clear target in sight: the cost of current-gen art production. Ed Fear, deputy editor of Develop, reports from this year’s Game Developers Conference rior to March’s Game Developers Conference, the question on the industry’s lips wasn’t about what revelations Nintendo might make in its keynote (answer: none), or even how the many homeless people that grace downtown San Francisco would trump their comic slogans from last year (answer: by almost all of them being, inexplicably, in mobility scooters). Instead, the big talking point had been the effect that the economy would have on what is unquestionably the development sector’s premier event. Extended early-bird rates and further discounts betrayed problems in selling passes, and the pre-show buzz among many of the companies going there to sell was that the opportunities would be thinner on the ground, with their existing customers sending either a smaller party or no one at all. For those at the event, things were, ostensibly, just as busy as ever. Official statistics place attendance as being down by 1,000 from last year but talks remained as packed as ever.

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima provided an entertaining keynote, poking fun at his own ‘overuse’ of in-game cinematic sequences

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And the expo floor – although slightly smaller – saw footfall to easily rival earlier years. Those numbers were saved from being much more miserable, one popular game engine developer told us, when the organiser allegedly offered hundreds of free tickets to students after EA pulled out of its regular deal to send a wodge of its employees. But the necessity for frugality permeated many corners of GDC09 beyond attendance. While middleware and tool demonstrations in previous years would have highlighted unique or distinguishing features, citing the efficiency benefits of products was the order of the day here. It was all about bringing costs down. One of the companies pushing this message wasn’t a vendor but a platform holder. Microsoft used the event to put forth its plan for Xbox developers in 2009, which is all about the cost of art assets. “We’re at an interesting point in the games industry where the cost of making a game has been rising tremendously,” said XNA program manager Boyd Multerer. “A lot of the money is being spent on creating increasingly more detailed art assets, and it’s reducing the cost of the content side that Microsoft is focusing on. We’re releasing a new Xbox 360 development kit with double the memory, which will be used by some forthcoming debugging tools – including art-related ones.” Yet the other prong of attack was that, although costs need to go down, quality can’t be seen to suffer. That may seem like two conflicting priorities, but the logic was that pinpointing and soothing inefficiencies would enable both to be achieved. And, again, it’s art assets that are in the firing line – or, more specifically, the route from Max, modo, Mudbox and MotionBuilder to engine. It’s not a frustration that’ll be alien to game artists: either you spend precious time with programmers sorting out exactly how your animations play, or you just leave it. Alternatively, you turn to the rapidly increasing number of tools aimed at bridging the creator-engine divide.

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“A lot of artists have been led to believe that their ability to visualise stuff stops at the boundaries of Max and Maya, and that there’s this gap between that and what magically appears in the game,” said Dave Gargan, principal engineer at physics and behaviour company Havok. “But there’s quite a bit that happens between that, and the artists don’t know why their animations end up looking wrong. “Tools like ours now exist so that artists and programmers can have a common ground, where they can both see why certain things are happening. I don’t think this conversation really happened before. At certain really highprofile places, it was common to say, ‘Don’t

“For far too long, there’s been a major focus on technology, as opposed to design or art” Dave Gargan, principal engineer, Havok tell the artists, but we’ve thrown away this animation because it didn’t quite look right.’ ” Havok is just one of the companies that’s making its software – in this case Havok Behavior – more artist-friendly. “There’s a whole shift going on at the moment,” comments Gargan. “For far too long, there’s been this major focus on technology, as opposed to design or art. Now we’ve completely shifted the other way. People realise now that the only way to get any sort of style in a game is to empower the artist to have control over the asset the whole way through the process.”

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In brief Key trends from GDC09, distilled into web pages Attendance dropped by 1,000 from last year But 17,000 professionals turned up to learn, make deals and party tinyurl.com/gdc-17000 Autodesk focused on middleware The company went big exhibiting its HumanIK and Kynapse solutions tinyurl.com/gdc-auto Everyone was ‘artist-friendly’ Many companies demonstrated how their products worked visually to empower artists tinyurl.com/gdc-artist NaturalMotion teamed up with Autodesk The HumanIK/morpheme 2.0 partnership raised eyebrows given the euphoria tech overlap tinyurl.com/gdc-teamup Unity learned to love Windows Expect another toolchain to learn: formerly Mac-only engine Unity went multiplatform tinyurl.com/gdc-unity

To buy this issue Click Here

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To buy this issue visit www.myfavouritemagazines. co.uk/store/displayitem. asp?sid=418&id=8991

Projects SHOWCASE

Projects Our round-up of the best commercial print and short-form 3D work spans the globe from the US to the UAE, in the shape of Vyonyx’s striking visuals for this Dubai marina complex

V-Ray or mental ray? Although only recently released to the public, the visualisation was one of Vyonyx’s first commercial jobs. While V-Ray was used for the rendering work on this project, the studio has subsequently switched to an entirely mental ray-based workflow

Hybrid style The image forms a seamless mosaic of 2D and 3D work. “A great deal of the texturing - for example, the window interiors was completed in Photoshop, where you have more flexibility playing with opacity,“ says Vyonyx director Vladin Petrov

Project Marina + Beach Village Studio Vyonyx This issue’s lead project comes from youthful UK-based studio Vyonyx. Over just 18 months, the company has built an impressive portfolio, including this visualisation of a marina and beach village in Dubai for Oppenheim Architecture. The complex consists of six high-rise, three low-rise and three pavilion buildings, townhouses and beachfront plots over a 3,230,000ft2 area. The studio was supplied with a Maya file to work from, which was then imported into 3ds Max. After sorting out some triangulation issues, Max was used for further 3D work and V-Ray for rendering. Photoshop compositing was completed in parallel with the 3D. “We’re trying to follow a nonlinear workflow,“ comments director Vladin Petrov. “Just using a photo or a hard round brush in Photoshop rather than having to model things in 3D can save a lot of time, and the results often come out better.“ vyonyx.com

Painterly effects Photoshop was used to smooth transitions between 2D and 3D elements. Many of the reflections in the water were brushed in loosely by hand, contributing to Vyonyx’s signature painterly style

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Submit a project

If you would like to see your studio’s work featured in these pages, email us at the address below, including brief technical details and at least three print-resolution stills. Please note that we can only feature commercial projects released to the public no more than four weeks previously enquiries@3dworldmag.com

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Projects SHOWCASE

Projects Our round-up of the best commercial print and short-form 3D work spans the globe from the US to the UAE, in the shape of Vyonyx’s striking visuals for this Dubai marina complex

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SHOWCASE Projects

Projects SHOWCASE

Project Citroën ’Ghostbusters Reloaded’ Studio The Embassy Visual Effects Creating a giant entity based on the Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man required a change in workflow for The Embassy: the new ad for the Citroën C3 Picasso was its first large project using Softimage as its main 3D application. Dynamics formed a particular challenge: “The character was composed of 3,500 objects, and all had to have secondary motion as he moved,“ says VFX supervisor Winston Helgason. LightWave 3D was used to add particles, and the shot was composited in Shake. theembassyvfx.com

Project Nike Women ’Jump Rope’ Studios Curious Pictures/Zoink Animation Curious Pictures handled live action and post for this psychedelic spot, shown on websites throughout Asia. Director Rohitash Rao also oversaw the animated portions of the ad, created in 3ds Max by Sweden’s Zoink Animation. Working to a tight three-week schedule, Zoink used Max’s scanline renderer for speed. “Ambient occlusion and textures were baked into one shader,“ says creative director Klaus Lyngeled. “We had to camera map most of the objects so we could quickly paint the textures [in ZBrush and Photoshop] and not worry too much about complicated UV mapping.“ curiouspictures.com

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Project Resident Evil 5 cinematics Studio yU+co yU+co has produced 60 minutes of 3D cinematics for the latest game in Capcom’s survival horror franchise. “The goal was to transcend the genre and create a feature film wrapped inside a videogame experience,“ says creative director Garson Yu. Director Jim Sonzero carried out a 28-day motion-capture shoot using 54 Vicon cameras, replaying the action via the virtual camera in order to shoot new handheld shots. “It blew me away,“ says Sonzero. “The actors were gone. It was just the camera in the scene interacting with the data.“ yuco.com

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SHOWCASE Projects

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TRAINING Animate the Hollywood way

Video Guide Maya Animation

Tutorial credits •C haracters donated and rigged by The Animation Workshop, Denmark animwork.dk •C haracters modelled by Digital Banana Studio digitalbananastudio.com •O pening image by Fab, Sel and Alto annelaureto.com •T echnical support by Kustaa Vuori kustaa.com •W ith the voice talents of Karin Kempf and Robert Bennett zimbella.it

FOR Maya 8.5+ TIME TAKEN 13 hours TOPICS COVERED • Blocking the shot • Posing • Overlap • Eye animation

ON THE DISC •F ull-sized screenshots • Rigged characters •F ull project files •S ample Playblasts

VIDEO DOWNLOADS Download 13 hours of screen-capture video for this tutorial 3dworldmag.com/117

Learn to animate the Hollywood way Breathe life into a complex multi-character shot with this two-part video masterclass, recorded specially for 3D World by Toy Story 2 directing animator Kyle Balda he highest goal of any animator is to create a feeling of empathy with the characters on the screen. If the audience is able to forget they are watching 3D models and become involved with what is happening to the characters as people, you will have given life to something that was otherwise static and inanimate. This is what studios like Pixar are so good at – and what you will be seeking to do in the course of this two-part tutorial. Over the next two issues, I will be demonstrating a means of approaching a relatively complex piece of acting: a two-character shot, animated to a short dialogue clip. Having more than one character has the advantage that each performance can bounce off the other; the disadvantage is that each must also work in harmony without competing for the viewer’s attention. Looking for ways to lead the eye from one character to another will be an important task when blocking out the shot, as will ensuring that the character not speaking still feels alive.

About the author Kyle Balda has been working in character animation for 16 years, most notably with Pixar, ILM and Weta. He is currently an animation director and consultant, conducting masterclasses in animation methodology kylebalda.com

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Animate the Hollywood way TRAINING

There are probably as many animation workflows as there are animators. The one I outline here is based on using the physical form and basic movements of each character to find the pose and performance, rather than starting with individual poses and filling in the blanks with transitions later on. It would be impossible to explain such a complex process in a step-by-step walkthrough. For that reason, we have screen-captured the entire process for you. Full instructions for downloading the videos from our website and playing them in VLC, our recommended media player, can be found overleaf. On the disc, you can find the characters themseves, rigged and ready to animate, plus sequential scene files corresponding to the start of key videos. This instalment covers blocking out the shot and layering on body movements. Next issue, we will show you how to refine and lip-sync the animation. This is an advanced tutorial, so you will need a good working knowledge of Maya to get the most out of it.

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TRAINING Animate the Hollywood way

Video Guide Maya Animation

FOR Maya 8.5+ TIME TAKEN 13 hours TOPICS COVERED • Blocking the shot • Posing • Overlap • Eye animation

ON THE DISC •F ull-sized screenshots • Rigged characters •F ull project files •S ample Playblasts

VIDEO DOWNLOADS Download 13 hours of screen-capture video for this tutorial 3dworldmag.com/117

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Animate the Hollywood way TRAINING

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TRAINING Animate the Hollywood way

Animate the Hollywood way TRAINING

Video 1 00:01:23 The first stage of the process is to block out the shot from the root. Using the reference footage provided at the start of Video 1 as a guide, block out the fundamental body movements, working from the root (hips) of each character

Video 2 00:40:40 Roughly posing the arms early on during the blocking process gives a broad ‘feel’ for each gesture, helping to communicate your overall intention for each character’s performance

Expert Experttip tip xxx Add first, then xxxxx subtract. Block out the xxxxxx shot, then layer on the xxxxx movements for the xxxxxx limbs, head and face, xxxxxxx before starting to edit the animation down

How to use this tutorial First, download the screen-capture videos from our website at 3dworldmag.com/117 We recommend that you use VLC media player (free from videolan.org) to play them. Pressing [Ctrl]+[T] enables you to skip to the timecodes listed in the text. (In Mac OS X, press [Cmd]+[J] and enter the timecode with colons, as shown in the text.) Skip to a timecode, read the overview of the next section of the video, then play the footage. Please note that these screen-capture videos do not have narration.

Video 1 Blocking out the shot from the root The first stage is to block out the major movements in the animation, working from the root (hips) of each character. Before you do so, familiarise yourself with the dialogue you will be animating to. The sample WAV file used here is on the disc. Understanding what each character is thinking and feeling is paramount – especially when they are not talking. In the sample clip, a man describes how he learned to dance with his wife. “And we were really just trying to do... what’s it called?” he says. He seems interested in the story. The woman snaps out of her own thoughts and responds: “The mambo!” As the man continues, “And it’s really just a step forward, feet together, step back, feet together...” the pace of his speech increases. The woman also becomes more animated, beginning to dance and laugh, before finally bursting in to agree: “Yeah,

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yeah, yeah!” Remembering his initial clumsiness, the man continues: “We were like three left feet, all of us stumbling everywhere; couldn’t get it.” His wife apparently doesn’t appreciate being included in the ‘we’, because she responds in her native Italian, “Sei tu che hai fatto questo, non io!” (“It was you who did that, not me!”). Recognising that she has called him out on his mistake, the man becomes deflated, closing with a final vocalisation of “Uhm...”

00:00:00

Act out the dialogue Play the dialogue aloud repeatedly until you know it by heart. Lip-sync to it as if you were singing along. Let each character’s dialogue get inside you and see what sort of performance comes out. This requires a certain level of comfort and privacy: the mime artist and acting teacher Robert Bennett advises using a blindfold to eliminate self-consciousness. At the start of the video, you will see some of my own takes for each character. Choose the one you like best (or the best parts from several) and put them together as a QuickTime movie for reference during animation.

00:01:23

Block out the root As a kid, everyone had a doll or action figure they were able to ‘animate’ simply by holding it by the hips, moving it around and giving it a voice. Blocking out the shot from the root is essentially the same process. Do a full pass for both characters, trying to capture as much of the performances as possible: if you can show what each character is thinking and feeling at this stage, the result can only get better as you layer on other face and body movements. While the video reference may be useful in terms of documenting each individual performance, it’s also important to see how those performances work

together. The basic rule here is that your eye can only be in one place at a time, so don’t let the characters compete for attention. Adjust their movements so that they harmonise, not conflict with each other.

Video 2

enough on the movement. Using the timing of the root as a guide, do a thorough pass on the arm movements. Leave any passive movements like follow-through to later passes. For now, just concentrate on making the blocking feel solid.

00:59:43

Blocking out the spine and arms In the first video, you were working with basic, full-body movements. Building on that foundation, you can now start work on the spine and arms of each character, roughly sculpting poses that correspond to the movements of the root. Use the video as reference, but don’t hesitate to incorporate new ideas that weren’t originally present.

00:00:00

Bring the spine into action Moving up the spine, loosen up the body and develop the beginnings of each pose. It will be necessary to remove some of the range of movement in the root: this will feel exaggerated once the spine starts to multiply the effect. One convenient thing about having made a full pass on the root is that the timing for the shot is established: spine and arm keyframes can be placed on the same frames as the root.

00:40:40

Rough out the gestures I try not to worry too much about getting the poses for the arms looking perfect when I’m blocking. Trust that by ‘surfing’ on the movement of the character, the pose will eventually take shape. For now, just think of the acting in broad strokes. This is why stepped curves never work for me: I find there is too much focus on the pose, and not

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Remove anything distracting Wow, the male character has huge hands. Resist the temptation to work more with them at this stage, because they feel like two clumsy paddles. Putting them into a relaxed position will help a little, but the arm poses will have to be refined to draw attention away from the long fingers. In general, putting a character’s fingers into a relaxed pose early on will help with the looseness of the animation before all the different finger poses are worked out.

01:17:16

Amplify movements for clarity

Desmond Morris, the renowned expert on human behaviour, the majority of our information about what a person is trying to communicate comes from their eyes and brows. (Just think about how much of a person’s identity is hidden when a black bar is put over this part of their face in news footage.) The audience will be focusing most of its attention on this part of the face, so if there is one stage of the process to keep coming back to, it is this one. If the eyes look dead, it won’t matter how good the rest of the animation is – the result will not allow the viewer to suspend their disbelief in the character. This is one of the main reasons that motion-captured animation can look so cold: there is nothing going on in the characters’ eyes.

the process as possible. As soon as you see the first glimpse of life in your characters, it will start to feel as though the performance is coming through them. Then you can just go with the flow, following the performance as it unfolds, almost letting the character direct the way in which it wants to act.

00:38:32

Lead the body movements with the eyes

Once you get a pass with the eye movements in place, the characters should really start to feel like they are coming to life. Try to do this as early on in

This first pass of the eye animation is just about getting basic positions correct. First, determine the key places in the scene at which each eye position will change, and position the eye target on the rig accordingly. It’s then easy to copy and paste the poses as the eyes dart between the various positions. In this case, the man has three basic eye positions: he looks at the camera, at the woman, and – when he is thinking – off into the distance. Try to make the eyes move relatively quickly, and to lead the animation on head turns: the eyes should move before the head itself does. Positions will change »

Video 3 00:02:06 Move the position of the eyes to give the characters focus. This is the point at which the animation starts to come alive

Video 3 00:48:59 Eye animation isn’t just about the direction in which they point. Sculpt eyebrow poses that reflect the characters’ thoughts

00:02:06

Give the eyes focus

The moment where the woman is dancing is mostly going to be fluid, overlapping animation, and will be explored in its own pass. For now, just try to get the head nods in there. Amplify the movement you already have in the hips by compounding it in the spine and head. Next, reduce everything in amplitude: the closer to the root, the greater the reduction. Try to make the head feel as if it is nodding, but ground the action all the way down the spine. The result only needs to be rough at this stage: it will be refined later.

Video 3 Blocking out the eyes The eyes and eyebrows are incredibly important to the performances of the characters. According to

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TRAINING Animate the Hollywood way

Animate the Hollywood way TRAINING

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00:00:00

00:01:23

Video 2

00:59:43

00:00:00

00:40:40

3dworldmag.com

01:17:16

Amplify movements for clarity

00:38:32

Lead the body movements with the eyes

Once you get a pass with the eye movements in place, the characters should really start to feel like they are coming to life. Try to do this as early on in

Video 3 00:02:06 Move the position of the eyes to give the characters focus. This is the point at which the animation starts to come alive

Video 3 00:48:59 Eye animation isn’t just about the direction in which they point. Sculpt eyebrow poses that reflect the characters’ thoughts

00:02:06

Give the eyes focus

Video 3 Blocking out the eyes The eyes and eyebrows are incredibly important to the performances of the characters. According to

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ON THE DISC Disc Contents

Disc Contents ON THE DISC

Need help getting started with the software? Turn to page 68 for a step-by-step tutorial in using Realsoft 3D to recreate the image above

On the disc Full software, resources and video training for 3D artists About this disc

This Future Publishing CD-ROM has been scanned and tested at all stages of production but, as with any new software, we recommend that you run a virus checker before use. We also recommend that you have an up-to-date back-up of your hard disk(s) before using this disc. Future Publishing cannot accept responsibility for any disruption, damage and/or loss to your data or computer system that may occur while using this disc, or the programs and data on it. Please consult your network administrator before installing software on a networked PC.

Commercial use

Most of the software and resources on the CD can be used in commercial work: where this is not the case, it will be stated on the interface, or in the accompanying Readme file. Some content may not be available in all territories. Values quoted are the original prices for which software or resources were sold, including packaging and manuals. Some content may require registration online.

Disc Contents Your free disc this issue includes full 3D software, models, textures, sound FX clips and video training worth over $1,400 in total. Find full details below Software

Resources

Video training

Tutorials

• Realsoft 3D 5 Windows: full version for commercial use • Realsoft 3D 6 Windows: demo Mac: full version for personal use only

• 3 Bluebrain Multimedia cars • 2 Vanishing Point cars • 5 WireCASE models • 3d02.com helicopter • 4 Poser World clothing sets • 14 Texture World tiling texture sets • 10 SoundScalpel sound FX clips

• The Gnomon Workshop matchmoving tutorial 18-minute excerpt from Matchmoving: Essential Production Techniques – Camera Tracking Techniques with Tim Dobbert

•F ull-sized screenshots and project files for all of this issue’s tutorials For more details, turn to page 57

FULL PRODUCT Realsoft 3D

Powerful 3D modelling and animation software, for Windows and Mac Our lead product this issue is the 3D modelling, rendering and animation package Realsoft 3D. Windows users can find the full, commercial version of Realsoft 3D 5 on the disc, plus a demo version of Realsoft 3D 6. Mac users receive a full version of Realsoft 3D 6 licensed for personal use only. Widely used in the advertising, architectural visualisation, product design and educational markets, Realsoft 3D offers a powerful set of features at a competitive price. The software includes a full set of modelling tools; a 3D paint system; a unique Visual Shading Language; a comprehensive animation system; and a true 3D compositing system. Version 6 of the software is even more powerful, offering rendering speeds up to twice as high as its predecessor; support for 64-bit operating systems; an interactive fractal plant system; advanced file instancing; new soft selection and parametric modelling tools; and a range of other new features.

EXPLORE YOUR NEW-LOOK DISC

Having problems?

If you have problems using the disc interface, visit our support website at futurenet.co.uk/support. On this regularly updated site, you will find solutions to many commonly reported problems. If you are still experiencing problems, email our support team at support@futurenet.co.uk. If you have a broken or faulty disc, return it to the address on the back of the disc wallet.

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Worth $750

Value applies to Windows version of Realsoft 3D 5

We have redesigned our disc interface, making it easier to find the files you need. Consult the interface for registration codes, details of reader offers and further information about the products featured here.

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If you’re new to the application, turn to page 68, where Andy Jones explains how to create a complete illustration in Realsoft 3D, modelling the elements in Realsoft 3D 5, before using Realsoft 3D 6’s new instancing feature to complete the image. Registered users of Realsoft 3D receive automatic news alerts and special discounts on other Realsoft products. You can find instructions for registering your copy on the disc interface. Use the exclusive reader offer on the right of the page to upgrade your copy to the full, commercial version of Realsoft 3D 6.

System requirements •W indows Windows 2000 / XP / Vista, Intel processor, 256MB RAM • Mac Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, PowerPC or Intel processor, 256MB RAM

Upgrade and save

Once you’ve tried out the copy of Realsoft 3D on the disc, take advantage of our exclusive reader offer and upgrade to the full, commercial version of Realsoft 3D 6. Windows Save 54% Pay just ¤275 (£258/$376) Mac Save 66% Pay just ¤100 (£94/$137) To claim the discount, visit realsoft.com and click the ‘Order’ link. Enter the web shop and purchase the product ‘Upgrade from cover disk’. When filling in the order form, enter the licence number S140561308876 into the ‘Upgrade from License’ field. Please note that these prices exclude VAT and shipping. This offer is valid until 31 August 2009. For more information, email info@realsoft.com

June 2009 | 3D World |

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ON THE DISC Disc Contents

Disc Contents ON THE DISC

Need help getting started with the software? Turn to page 68 for a step-by-step tutorial in using Realsoft 3D to recreate the image above

On the disc Full software, resources and video training for 3D artists About this disc

Commercial use

Disc Contents Your free disc this issue includes full 3D software, models, textures, sound FX clips and video training worth over $1,400 in total. Find full details below Software

Resources

Video training

Tutorials

• Realsoft 3D 5 Windows: full version for commercial use • Realsoft 3D 6 Windows: demo Mac: full version for personal use only

• The Gnomon Workshop matchmoving tutorial 18-minute excerpt from Matchmoving: Essential Production Techniques – Camera Tracking Techniques with Tim Dobbert

•F ull-sized screenshots and project files for all of this issue’s tutorials For more details, turn to page 57

FULL PRODUCT Realsoft 3D

EXPLORE YOUR NEW-LOOK DISC

Having problems?

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| 3D World | June 2009

Worth $750

Value applies to Windows version of Realsoft 3D 5

3dworldmag.com

System requirements •W indows Windows 2000 / XP / Vista, Intel processor, 256MB RAM • Mac Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, PowerPC or Intel processor, 256MB RAM

Upgrade and save

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10 animated shorts to see before you die

Studio aka’s Marc Craste on the strange appeal of Deadsy

“When I first saw David Anderson’s Deadsy, I was a fan of very traditional, big-feature animation, and the shorts I’d seen that played with different techniques hadn’t impressed me. Deadsy included lots of things I didn’t like – treated live action, what looked like scribbled-over Photostats – but presented in such an atmospheric and startling way that the result was hugely seductive. “The film is about the Grim Reaper changing sex and becoming Miss Universe, all the better to seduce the war-mongering men of the world. These are themes far removed from what I’d been accustomed to in animation: Deadsy was unlike anything else I’d seen, and one of those rare films that you can’t imagine being done as successfully any other way. “The surreal soundtrack and the mixed-media visuals combine to create a hallucinatory, dreamlike effect. Yet the effect doesn’t feel forced, as it so often does when so many things are thrown together: it’s a very cohesive vision. It’s also a film with quite literally lots of texture, one of the things CGI sometimes struggles with. “Of course, Deadsy is not necessarily good simply because it’s unique, but distinctive voices in animation are rare, so originality merits watching. It’s a good short to watch if you’re stuck in a rut and everything you do is starting to look identical. It certainly opened up some horizons for me.” Marc Craste is a senior animation director at London’s Studio aka. He has directed both award-winning commercials and shorts such as the BAFTA-winning Jojo in the Stars

Read our contributors’ long lists of animations on the 3D World website, along with the magazine team’s own choices tinyurl.com/10shorts

www.3Dworldmagazine.co.uk 3Dworldmag.com 3dworldmag.com

TITLE Deadsy RELEASED 1989 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR David Anderson SEE IT AT... davidandersonfilms.com

KEY FACTS TITLE Father and Daughter RELEASED 2000 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR Michael Dudok de Wit SEE IT AT... tinyurl.com/yvglqf

Think that animation history begins with Luxo Jr? Think again. We asked ten leading animators, from Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s Richard Williams to Ren and Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi, to name the shorts that every 3D artist should see at least once in their lifetime | 3D World | June 2009

KEY FACTS

More online

Ten animated shorts to see before you die 022

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Ratatouille co-director Jan Pinkava on the poignant Father and Daughter

“When I first saw Father and Daughter, I cried. It wasn’t the last time. And I’m not the only one. Not nearly. If you want to find out if your boyfriend or wife or parent really is heartless, show them Father and Daughter and watch their reaction. To this day – and I have seen it many times – I am deeply moved by the final movement of this near-perfect evocation of longing and nostalgia. “What I know to be just drawings with timing, sounds and music, reaches inside me and touches my heart. Every time. Just like a beautiful poem. And like a poem that retains its lyrical power through the years, Father and Daughter does not diminish with repeated viewing. I am not Dutch but, in watching this film, Michael’s longing for the homeland of his childhood becomes my longing.

10 animated shorts to see before you die

“Perhaps half of it is the music. For this short film, Normand Roger has (with his collaborator) composed one of the gems of his prolific and distinguished career. Music and image are beautifully sympathetic and I can’t imagine them any other way. “To be sure, the film is only near-perfect. But that is as good as it gets. Those inevitable imperfections help us see the hand of the artist and to wonder all the more at the accomplishment. Who cares whether this is the result of genius or accident or a lot of very hard work? If this isn’t high achievement in animation craft then I’m a Dutchman!” Jan Pinkava is the writer/director of Pixar’s Oscar-winning 1997 short film Geri’s Game, and the co-director of Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2007 film Ratatouille

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10 animated shorts to see before you die

Studio aka’s Marc Craste on the strange appeal of Deadsy

Read our contributors’ long lists of animations on the 3D World website, along with the magazine team’s own choices tinyurl.com/10shorts

www.3Dworldmagazine.co.uk 3Dworldmag.com 3dworldmag.com

TITLE Deadsy RELEASED 1989 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR David Anderson SEE IT AT... davidandersonfilms.com

KEY FACTS TITLE Father and Daughter RELEASED 2000 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR Michael Dudok de Wit SEE IT AT... tinyurl.com/yvglqf

KEY FACTS

More online

Ten animated shorts to see before you die 022

3dworldmag.com

Ratatouille co-director Jan Pinkava on the poignant Father and Daughter

10 animated shorts to see before you die

February June 2009 2008 | 3D World |

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“I love The Great Piggy Bank Robbery on many levels. First, it’s really funny. It has more energy than just about any other cartoon I’ve ever seen. Everything you imagine a cartoon to be, there it is, tenfold: surrealism, exaggeration, crazy gags, unexpected twists and turns. It’s like an ultra caricature of a cartoon. And it’s executed with almost superhuman skill by the animators and [voice artist] Mel Blanc under Bob Clampett’s larger-than-life direction. “Daffy Duck’s acting is unbelievable – or maybe I should say all too believable. Clampett makes us feel Daffy’s every emotion. He takes us through his ordeals with huge enthusiasm and sincerity. “I also identify with Daffy as he goes through this incredible tension waiting for his beloved Dick Tracy comic to come in the mail, then has conniptions reading it. This is exactly what I did reading Marvel comics as a kid – and the magic of this kind of exaggerated style of storytelling. We identify with the caricature because the details are so magnified. “Ultimately, this is a cartoon about cartoon fans, so if you like cartoons you’ll probably love The Great Piggy Bank Robbery.”

KEY FACTS

John Kricfalusi is the award-winning creator of the highly exaggerated and influential animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show. He writes one of the best animation blogs online

KEY FACTS

TITLE Harvie Krumpet RELEASED 2003 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR Adam Elliot SEE IT AT... tinyurl.com/6la2lu

6 TITLE Mickey’s Trailer RELEASED 1938 DIRECTOR Ben Sharpsteen BUY IT AT... tinyurl.com/cr9cfa

Oscar nominee Barry Purves on the tragicomic Harvie Krumpet

KEY FACTS TITLE Rejected RELEASED 2000 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR Don Hertzfeldt BUY IT AT... bitterfilms.com

“Harvie Krumpet is a fantastic example of the concept that less is more, and should be an inspiration to more excessively kinetic CG animators. We’ve all been guilty of our passion for moving things, but Harvie Krumpet demonstrates that stillness is a vital element of movement, just as silence is to music. “Everything about the film is economical, from the lack of camera moves, through the joyously simple animation, to the basic figures. Yet it packs in more emotion, warmth, incident, truth and invention than many an overproduced, more literal film. Harvie’s comically tragic life is so full of disaster and big issues that the film should be depressing, but its lightness of touch, its naïve imagery, and Geoffrey Rush’s poignant narration makes for a film that lifts you joyously without diluting its message at all. “Every action, every design decision, every well-timed blink is perfectly controlled to tell the same story. All this with glorious bursts of Verdi and Respighi, defiant nudity, wonderfully timed gags, interesting ‘fakts’, the beautiful Ruby – and the heartbreakingly stoic Harvie himself and his poetically lonely testicle. Little wonder, then, that this moving film won the Oscar for best animated short.” Barry Purves’ six films have won over 60 major international awards, and gained him an Oscar nomination. He also wrote the book Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance

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Double Negative’s Paul Franklin on the bravura Mickey’s Trailer

“I came to love Mickey’s Trailer through regular screenings on TV in the 1970s and via the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer, an ingenious toy that allowed real film strips to be hand-cranked back and forth, thus revealing animation’s secret of living drawings to an entranced six-year-old me. “Running a mere seven and a half minutes, the film packs in more ideas than many full-length features: every frame counts. After a short introduction, the trailer is on its way through an ever-changing landscape that rolls past in a bravura display of hand-rendered 3D perspective effects. The trailer’s state-of-the-art (for 1938) fixtures and fittings reveal invention piled upon invention in a stunning ballet of physical comedy. As often as not, what’s

Ren and Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi on The Great Piggy Bank Robbery

10 animated shorts to see before you die

hidden is as funny as that which is actually seen; consider the scene where Mickey milks a passing cow, all played from inside the trailer with Mickey’s wiggling bottom providing the laughs. The animators get the max from everything in shot – even Goofy’s car becomes a character, clambering over the increasingly hazardous terrain in stutteringly comic fashion. Despite everything being in constant motion, you always know how it all fits together. Mickey’s Trailer is the perfect combination of storytelling built upon techniques that were cutting-edge for their day.” Paul Franklin is VFX supervisor at London effects studio Double Negative. He was recently nominated for an Oscar for his work on The Dark Knight

Sony’s Christopher Miller and Phil Lord on Rejected

“Rejected is a great example of the power of being dumb. It presents a collection of fictitious adverts for the fictitious Family Learning Channel. Of course, these proposed adverts hit completely the wrong notes for the FLC, and that’s what lends Rejected its humour. “3D artists could learn a lot from a minimalistic, hand-drawn film like this. The visuals teach the lesson that Simpler is Better; for all the complexity possible in CG characters, the simpler the design and the clearer the movement, the more expressive, visceral and funny the result. The complicated lumpy detailed Muppets were never as appealing as the much simpler Muppets like Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo. And to think their eyes couldn’t even move! “You can get so much expression out of a limited palette. Rejected really takes advantage of that. Don Hertzfeldt’s bug-eyed stick figures convey character and emotion better than the most complicated, true-to-life motion-capture rig in the world: sometimes all that realism just gets in the way of the truth. Most of all, we love this film because it takes an intelligent look at the relationship between art and commerce – and kicks them both in the groin.”

TITLE The Great Piggy Bank Robbery RELEASED 1946 DIRECTOR Robert Clampett SEE IT AT... tinyurl.com/c5tynx

KEY FACTS

10 animated shorts to see before you die

Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are the co-directors of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming full-length CG animated feature

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KEY FACTS

John Kricfalusi is the award-winning creator of the highly exaggerated and influential animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show. He writes one of the best animation blogs online

KEY FACTS

TITLE Harvie Krumpet RELEASED 2003 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR Adam Elliot SEE IT AT... tinyurl.com/6la2lu

6 TITLE Mickey’s Trailer RELEASED 1938 DIRECTOR Ben Sharpsteen BUY IT AT... tinyurl.com/cr9cfa

Oscar nominee Barry Purves on the tragicomic Harvie Krumpet

KEY FACTS TITLE Rejected RELEASED 2000 ANIMATOR/DIRECTOR Don Hertzfeldt BUY IT AT... bitterfilms.com

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Double Negative’s Paul Franklin on the bravura Mickey’s Trailer

Ren and Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi on The Great Piggy Bank Robbery

10 animated shorts to see before you die

Sony’s Christopher Miller and Phil Lord on Rejected

TITLE The Great Piggy Bank Robbery RELEASED 1946 DIRECTOR Robert Clampett SEE IT AT... tinyurl.com/c5tynx

KEY FACTS

10 animated shorts to see before you die

Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are the co-directors of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming full-length CG animated feature

3dworldmag.com

June 2009 | 3D World |

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REVIEWS 3ds Max Design 2010

3ds Max Design 2010 REVIEWS The new Multi-Map Shader for mental ray enables you to assign specific colour variations to a set of objects that share the same material. This capability could be used to randomise the colour of trees, leaves and crowds, for example

With over 350 new features, 3ds Max 2010 packs a far bigger punch than Autodesk’s recent annual upgrades

Software All-purpose 3D application

Price • £ 3,050 / $3,495 / ¤3,900 Platform Windows Main Features •O ver 100 new modelling tools • I ncreased functionality in UI and viewports • I nteractive mesh analysis system •m ental ray enhancements • I nclusion of mental mill Developer Autodesk Website autodesk.com

3ds Max Design 2010

With around 350 new features, Autodesk’s latest release has all sectors of its user base covered, argues Spine3D’s Chris Dunable or the second consecutive year, Autodesk has released two editions of 3ds Max, with the Design edition again aimed at the visualisation industry. At the core, 3ds Max Design and 3ds Max are the same 3D package, and share a single binary, but there are a few distinctions between the two products. First, and trivially, the Design edition comes with tutorials geared towards architects and designers. Second, it has no SDK. Third, it comes with the Exposure lighting analysis system, which enables architects, engineers and designers to test for adherence to industry-standard lighting requirements. This toolset, carried over from Design 2009, remains the most significant difference between the two editions. Therefore, while this review evaluates the software specifically from the point of visualisation workflows, most of the comments apply equally to games or VFX.

About the author Chris Dunable is a 3D production artist at leading architectural visualisation studio Spine3D. He has been using 3ds Max for four years for various types of production, and has worked as a freelancer, college professor and civil engineer spine3d.com

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extensively improved The addition of over 350 new features to both versions of 2010 creates a tangible – and overdue – sense of evolution from 3ds Max 2009.

The UI changes are most apparent and bear an increasing likeness to other Autodesk apps such as Revit, Inventor and AutoCAD. The new button icons are somewhat familiar, but since buttons no longer appear visibly depressed, it is hard to tell whether they are on or off. The old UI can be restored with a preset, however. Docked horizontally under the main toolbar is the new Ribbon Interface, which contains tabs for the new Graphite Modelling tools, freeform modelling tools, and selection tools. The Graphite Modelling toolset is an exciting addition to 2010, as it is essentially an upgraded version of the popular PolyBoost plug-in. This adaptation feels intrusive at first, due to the extra set of menus jutting further into the viewport area. However, once you get to grips with the Ribbon, you’ll find it a great improvement on the previous UI, offering you the ability to tear off different sections and drag them around the viewport or dock them to one other. Furthermore, the Ribbon is optional, so if you really don’t like it, you can hide it. In addition, the command panel remains virtually

unchanged from previous versions of Max, so there’s no need to learn a new modelling interface. For the novice, detailed tooltips, complete with graphic examples, are displayed when hovering over the modelling functions. While the new modelling tools introduce enhanced capabilities for organic poly modelling, they are also invaluable for hard-surface work and can be adopted legitimately into surface-generation or surface-editing workflows used in visualisation. Overall, the Graphite Modelling tools are a welcome and long overdue addition to 3ds Max 2010.

BETTER Viewport options 3ds Max 2010 comes with enhanced viewport display options. Replacing the old non-customisable viewport menu is a new customisable menu divided into three parts, where each title displays your current viewport shading method, as well as ‘HW’ for hardware mode. The new xView mesh analyser identifies certain aspects of the selected geometry being displayed in the current Max viewport. By cycling through the xView viewport options you can choose to reveal and/or select mesh trouble spots such as flipped normals, multiple edges and missing UVs. Graphical subobject selection with a text readout makes this invaluable for quickly assessing geometries. It is especially useful for checking assets supplied by clients. Workflows have been further enhanced with the addition of Containers. This welcome new feature

3dworldmag.com

makes working with heavy scenes in the Max viewport more intuitive and faster. Now you can select dense, viewport-crippling objects, put them into a Container and unload it from the viewport to free some RAM; assign permissions to the Container; then reload it again when you need it. Review 3, the third generation of Review, Autodesk’s real-time display technology, comes with an updated viewport menu, and now includes ambient occlusion (viewable at various levels of quality and intensity), soft shadows, and a photographic exposure control. Although these work well together, in our tests, when every option was enabled, the frame rate dropped noticeably, even on the high-end machine described below. Working with heavy models containing millions of polygons

Users who work with heavy polygon models will appreciate the faster framerate while moving around in the Design 2010 viewport rate of just under 30fps while moving around in the viewport. More attention has been given to correcting linear gamma workflows, including correct loading and reproduction of gamma settings, as

“While the bulk of the spoils go to games artists, 3ds Max Design 2010 spreads its wealth to everyone” is usually a chore, but the speed improvement in 3ds Max Design 2010 makes work more comfortable. We ran a model of a Porsche in Max 2009 on a dual quad-core 3.2GHz machine with 8GB of RAM and a Quadro FX 3500 GPU. The frame rate ranged from 3 to 8fps while moving around in the viewport, averaging 5.3fps. The same scene running on the same system in Max 2010 had an average frame

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well as some helpful visual information on rendering scenes in mental ray. Thanks to the inclusion of mental images’ mental mill Artist Edition, users can now create complex node-based shaders without learning any shader programming language. This is a powerful option and the workflow feels good, but third-party renderers won’t be able to take full advantage of this feature just yet.

This latest release also includes the ProOptimizer mesh-optimisation modifier and the PFlowAdvanced particle toolset, first covered in our review of the 3ds Max Creativity Extension last year. These are further augmented by a new Material Explorer with the ability to actually sort materials by object and view relationships between materials. Biped now has an improved set-up for hands, mental ray has a Multi-Map Shader that varies colours of objects with the same material, while Final Gather has progressive feedback. With the integration of the Graphite Modelling tools, xView geometry analyser, more UVW unwrapping tools and the mental mill node-based shader creator, the bulk of the spoils in 3ds Max 2010 fall to games artists. However, taken cumulatively, the new features in 2010 translate into two solid releases that spread the wealth to Max users in every market sector.

Global quality knobs have been added to the mental ray toolset, enabling users simply to dial up or down quality settings for shadows, refractions or reflections

Verdict PROS • Revamped modelling interface • Improved asset interoperability • Artist-friendly shader creation through mental mill CONS • Still no true fluid simulation • Few animation updates

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REVIEWS 3ds Max Design 2010

With over 350 new features, 3ds Max 2010 packs a far bigger punch than Autodesk’s recent annual upgrades

Software All-purpose 3D application

3ds Max Design 2010

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extensively improved The addition of over 350 new features to both versions of 2010 creates a tangible – and overdue – sense of evolution from 3ds Max 2009.

3dworldmag.com

Global quality knobs have been added to the mental ray toolset, enabling users simply to dial up or down quality settings for shadows, refractions or reflections

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POST-PRODUCTION Debrief

Debrief POST-PRODUCTION

Images from Dorling Kindersley’s The Human Body book. Start-up studio Medi-Mation was charged with the task of bringing the original painted artwork into 3D

Debrief

Studios look back on the highs and lows of recent commercial jobs

The body in question

The Human Body Book posed two major problems for Medi-Mation’s Rajeev Doshi. First, to turn all the images from the popular reference book into 3D – and then to found his own studio to do the work hen I took on the project, I wasn’t even sure it was possible. I’d worked on a number of biological illustrations for Dorling Kindersley, but when art editor Maxine Lea contacted me to say that the publisher was looking to update the Human Body Book, it was clearly a job of an entirely different scale. The 256-page visual guide to human anatomy was still a huge seller for the publisher – but, at 10 years old, the original illustrations were looking dated. My job would be to bring them into 3D. To make matters more complicated, I was working full-time for another company at the time. The Human Body Book was the catalyst I needed to fulfil my dream of setting up my own medical visualisation studio. When, a few months later, DK let me know that we (me!) were the chosen vendors for creating

About the author Rajeev Doshi gained a PhD in cancer gene therapy before retraining as a 3D animator. He is now owner and creative director of UK-based studio Medi-Mation medi-mation.com

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all the new 3D artwork – and later, the accompanying DVD-ROM and animations on it – there began a journey down two roads: the birth of a new studio and the creation of a landmark illustrated book.

What we did right

1. One person did all the finishing Since the ‘studio’ was new, there wasn’t time (or money) to set-up a conventional office environment. The entire team – myself, plus some of my colleagues from my former company – worked remotely, using email, MSN Messenger and the good old phone. While we didn’t adopt a formal procedure for this, for the most part, it worked smoothly: a very pleasant surprise. Even having one of the team working from the US turned out to be an advantage, since I could look at his materials late in the day, spreading out the critique process. To ensure consistency, 95 per cent of the illustrations went through me for final texturing, lighting and compositing. To this day, I’m still heavily involved in the final composite and in setting up style guides for all our projects. 2. We set up a good file-structuring system It soon became apparent that most of the elements in the artwork would be reused across many different illustrations, so they needed to be consistent in terms of models, textures and lighting. As a result, we asked for the double-page spreads that opened each section of the book to be briefed first. In this way, we were able to build a master file that had the skin, skeleton, muscles, organs, blood vessels, nerves and lymphatic system layered using 3dworldmag.com

3ds Max’s Layer Sets, and subdivided by body system. From here, it was relatively easy to set up master files for each specific artwork. It’s all too easy to rush into projects without a good file structure. Given the frequency with which assets had to be reused and the consistency of look required, this would have been fatal. You try coming back to a file you last worked on a year earlier without good structuring! 3. We used Backburner’s Strip Rendering Though we were very familiar with Backburner, 3ds Max’s network rendering system, for animations, this was the first time we had cause to use it for still

“A good file structure is essential. It’s all too easy to dive into projects like this without one”

Vital statistics Format Illustrated book and DVD-ROM Client Dorling Kindersley Studio Medi-Mation Time taken Pre-production: 2 months Production: 8 months Team size 2 full time, scaling up to 5 Software used 3ds Max, Brazil r/s, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Combustion, Director MX Release date June 2007

imagery. But to render at 3,000 x 7,000-pixel resolution, using million-poly-plus datasets (this was pre-64-bit), there was no other option available. Fortunately, Backburner’s Strip Rendering option worked brilliantly, making it very easy to produce the four to five passes » 3dworldmag.com

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POST-PRODUCTION Debrief

Debrief POST-PRODUCTION

Images from Dorling Kindersley’s The Human Body book. Start-up studio Medi-Mation was charged with the task of bringing the original painted artwork into 3D

Debrief

Studios look back on the highs and lows of recent commercial jobs

The body in question

About the author Rajeev Doshi gained a PhD in cancer gene therapy before retraining as a 3D animator. He is now owner and creative director of UK-based studio Medi-Mation medi-mation.com

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What we did right

“A good file structure is essential. It’s all too easy to dive into projects like this without one”

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