Category Archives: masters of cg
When I first heard about THU I was not only a freelance 3D artist but also an editor at 3D World magazine. Part of the job meant jetting off to to a wide variety of industry events, from closed door press releases to large exhibitions and conferences. I spent a reasonable amount of time in the air and was lucky enough to go to SIggraph, FMX, Klik, and many others and I thouroughly enjoyed them all. When I was invited to THU I looked forward to another in the long list of events with the added bonus of a little…
In this brief quick tip video I show you how to use the constraint tag form the character tags menu,to stick one object to another. I show one use of the tag in the video but if you experiment with the other options you will discover lots that you can do and it goes to show that you should look in all the menus to see what you can come up with.This tip would work for plants and grass on a landscape, details on a space ship and so much more.
Like many tech magazines and blogs T3 magazine likes to invetsigate what the future might hold for us and in the latest issue they have done just that. This time they have looked at what might be coming in the autumn ofr iPhone 7 and they asked me to produce some renders based on their thoughts. You can see the pages here but for full res, detailed, images check out T3 either in print or on the ipad. The model was built in Cinema 4D, where the scene was set up, materials added, then lighting set up and fiunally…
I was recently asked how I would go about modeling things like seams and piping on furniture so thought it might be interesting for you all to see. This very simple technique works for lots of thing, not just soft furniture. You can use it for some really good looking weld too.
Read More
Hi all, I’m giving away this droid model and recorded a little video to show how it works and offer some thoughts on how you might improve it. It’s a really simple little rig but works well. You can roll him around Z and X axis and he will roll automatically, based on the technique I posted in a video a few days ago. His head is rigged so you can get him to look at things and it will slide over the surface of the body too. Just two nulls. Nothing more. If you do anything fun with…
This short tutorial video came about form a question from a student. He wanted to know if you could move a sphere through a scene and have it rotate correctly. The answer is yes and it’s pretty easy too. So, if you are looking to build yourself a BB-8 then this is a great way to start.
Since leaving 3D World magazine as a full time editor I’ve kept up my relationship with the magazine by writing regularly, specially my Core Skills column and monthly Q&As. Issue 196 which is out now sees the publication of three of my pieces. First up is my latest Core Skills for beginners, this time taking a good hard look at rendering interiors. Obviously if I was to cover everything in the article here it would have been pointless me writing it but I do look at things like scale, shadow and light and physical rendering, all within Cinema 4D. …
While most attendees at FMX are there to learn about computer based animation there were a good number who were equally pleased at the coverage given to more traditional effects solutions. The use of miniatures in film has been seen since film became a medium and although the height’s of miniature usage may appear to have passed, with CG taking the limelight, this is a massive misconception. Many films made today still rely on miniatures, or practical models to sell a shot and some director’s will take that route when given purely for the realism of the lighting interactions and…
FMX, like almost all trade shows of any kind, is home to a large number of booths, where developers and resellers show off their latest and greatest. This is great and allows people to investigate possible options and talk to the people involved in their creation, before committing to investing any cold hard cash. What has been great to see though is a different approach to this kind of strategy from certain areas. Following on from last year at FMX the collaboration between HP, Cut & Paste, Intel and Wacom has continued and I think it’s the future. Rather than…
