ISSUE 11 / JULY-AUGUST 2012

Six Artists
Ceiga Magazine

ZBrush Character Sculpting Volume 1

Beginners guide to Digital paining in Photoshop

Digital Art Masters Volume 6

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Ceiga Magazine

contents
JULY-AUGUST 2012

On the front Toni Bravtincevic Alessandro Baldasseroni Olivier Ponsonnet Rafael Grassetti Neil Maccormack Alexey Kashpersky

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Ceiga Magazine

- Horace

nother two months, another new issue and this time were doing something slightly different. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have an issue of Ceiga where each section has images of a similar style, a similar feel and a similar look. If you have, then your in luck because thats what this issue is pretty much all about.

Each section in this issue contains nine to ten different pieces of art all done by one artist resulting in a total of six artists an over 55 different images. As Ceiga is inspired by art, photography and fashion magazines, this is definitely a step in the right direction for the magazine to go in. Also another step in the right direction is having this issue available for print. Now a lot of you might be thinking hang on a minute, the magazine has always been available for print through services such as magcloud .com and issuu.com which is true, but those services are far too expensive in my opinion. So I decided to take the matter into my own hands and print this issue myself, which in return is cheaper for you guys. So if youre enjoying the print version of this issue youre a very lucky person, if your enjoying this online version, your still a very lucky person, just not as cool as the guys who have the print version. Joke. Hope you enjoy this issue either way.

Richard Bray Editor

R.Bray
Ceiga Magazine

A picture is a poem without words.

Front
Drive by Rafael Grassetti (grassettiart.com). Modelled in 3ds Max and sculpted with Zbrush.

On The

sually at this part of the magazine I would go on and on about how difficult it was to find the right image for the cover of this issue, this definitely was not the case with Rafael Grassetti image based on the film Drive staring Ryan Gosling.

This image stood out amongst the rest with its incredible attention to detail, facial expression and the mood in this piece is spot on. Not only does actor Ryan Goslings the face and eyes look incredibly realistic, but so does the crosshatched half zipped leather jacket, the biker gloves, the hammer and even Goslings hair. What makes this image even more impressive is the fact that it has no colour, so not that much focus was placed into materials or SSS (sub surface scattering)or anything of that sort to support the realism of the image. Once again fantastic work by Rafael Grassetti, this image has actually encouraged me to actually watch the film Drive.

Ceiga Magazine

Toni Bravtincevic
Toni Bratincevic is no stranger to the world of 3d. From the city of Split in Croatia, Bravtincevic now lives in California and works as a senior environment modeller for cinematics at Blizzard Entertainment after previously working at Blur Studios. Bratincevic is truly a 3d generalist specialising in environment modelling, rendering, lighting (even web design) and has won many awards with his works of art, which each seem to tell a unique and intersting story. www.interstation3d.com 3ds max, Zbrush

It Was You
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Toni Bravtincevic

Dawn of Balance
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Last Journey
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Toni Bravtincevic

Experimental Chamber
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Running Away
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Toni Bravtincevic

Glimpse of the Past

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Tesla
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Toni Bravtincevic

16 Bit Memories
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Lets see how the

Experts

sculpt

am always fascinated and impressed by the level of detail, realism and creativit y in 3D characters whenever I happen to be viewing them on a gallery site. It is almost as if the artist knows some sor t of secret to creating great images and the question, how did they do that often pops up in my head. If youve been in the same situation, had the same question, and wanted to try creating your own masterpiece, Zbr ush Character Sculpting is definitely the book for you. Zbr ush Character Sculpting: Volume 1 is very different from your t ypical how to do this in Zbr ush book. Although it does contain a few step by step tutor ials, the major it y of the book focuses on the fundamentals; workflow, r ules and the methods professional ar tists use to create their images. Before I go on I have to mention the fact that this book isnt aimed at beginners, creating characters whether realistic or st ylised takes a lot of research, practices, and understanding of the human anatomy (or animal anatomy if you are sculpting an animal). So before consider ing getting this book, I recommend you being comfortable with creating characters and have a fairly good understanding of using Zbr ush. Now with the ser ious stuff over lets get back to the review. When it comes to creating characters in Zbr ush almost anything is possible, dont assume Zbr ush is limited to creating organic characters. M ichael Jensen shows some interesting hard sur face modelling techniques to create a robot-like character from star t to finish. What is really impressive about this section is that everything from modelling to retopologizing to textur ing & render ing was done in Zbr ush without the use of another 3D soft ware package. Cedr ic Seaut on the other hand goes back and forth in another 3D package (3D Studio Max) to create his character. Star ting off by importing a base mesh for the character and other suppor ting objects, then sculpting in Zbr ush, then back to Max for some refinement, then back to Zbr ush to finalize, which results in a model with an incredible amount of detail and also give the ar tist a good level of control over all the many parts of the scene. Jose Alves de Silva explains how he created the image Ar mored Rhino also without a base mesh but with Zspheres instead. I was impressed by the high level of detail in the model and how it

was posed and manipulated without any sor t of r igging but with the transpose tool. Even though the image is viewed from one angle, de Silva talks about the great amount of research he made to create every object in the image from the ar mour, to the skulls and the chalice. Jose continues to explain the process he took to create the mater ials, the settings for lighting and all the steps taken for the final composition, and all done in Zbr ush. The classical sculpture section really spiked my interest as it is something that hasnt been looked into much when it comes to digital ar t. Focusing on ancient Greek & Roman sculptures, ar tist R afael Ghencev talks about how to replicate those ancient techniques in Zbr ush by focusing on the poses, expressions and muscle str ucture to try and give the end product some kind of story for the viewer. The major it y of the techniques mentioned in this book are used for creating great, finished pieces of work over a long per iod of time. But what if you want to do a quick sketch of a character just to get an idea of what it might look like in 3D, this is where the speed sculpting section of this book comes in handy. Forget retopologizing, unwrapping and 3-point lighting, R afael Grassetti & Diego Maia explain what they do to flesh out their characters in the shor test amount of time. This usually involves sculpting everything for the base mesh instead of having separate objects, not spending too much time on finer details, and putting together quick mater ials to make the model presentable. I really wish I could do this book justice without having an essay for a review but this book is literally jam packed with useful infor mation. I havent even talked about the gallery section and the tutor ials given by ar tists Feder ico Scarbini, Mar thin Agusta and Chr istopher Moffitt on their amazing ar t work, and there is even more content than that. If you are ser ious about sculpting characters in Zbr ush, then I highly recommend you get this book. Not only are there many different great techniques on creating characters, but also tips on lighting, textur ing, mater ial creation and composition. This book more than justifies its pr ice tag and is the first book to be given a five star rating on Ceiga. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you 3DTotal for putting together such a useful resource.

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ZBrush has quickly become an integral part of the 3D modeling industry. ZBrush Character Sculpting: Volume 1 examines the tools on offer in this ground-breaking software, as well as presenting complete projects and discussing how ZSpheres make a great starting point for modeling. This book offers a great gallery of work from todays best artists and an insightful look into the creature and character design process. It provides a helpful breakdown written by various artists, explaining the steps they took to create truly unique and eye-catching designs. Aaron Sims
ISBN 978-0-9551530-8-2 | Softback / Slipcase 220mm x 297mm | 240 full color premium paper pages | 29.99 / $49.99

available now from: www.3dtotal.com/shop

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Ceiga Magazine

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Alessandro Baldasseroni
Alessandro Baldasseroni is lead character modeler at Blur Studio which he joined in 2007 and a worldwide popular 3D visual artist. Samples of his character modeling work can be seen in several recent game cinematics and commercials as Warhammer Online, Star Wars the old republic, Star Wars : the force unleashed, Farcry 3, Fable 3, Mass Effect 2 , Halowars, Dantes inferno, NFL on Fox , Goldfish and many more. His artworks have been featured on several international magazines and artbooks (3d artist, 3d world, Expose, Elemental, Dartiste character modeling, Digital art masters , Zbrush : character modeling ) . He also recently published the DVD : Stylized character modeling for production as instructor of Gnomon school of VFX in Los Angeles.

www.eklettica.com 3ds max, Zbrush

Majid Esmaeili

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The Orphan .

majid-smiley.cgsociety.org

Maya, ZBrush

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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Landing
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Halowars
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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Colton Battle
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Dark Knights Revenge

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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Maya
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Hunter (Hellsgate London)

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Alessandro Baldasseroni

Dawn
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Chaos
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5 Questions for

Eli Guerron
What is your background and what lead you to create CG videos? I have been working in the visual effects industry for quite some time doing commercials and, recently, feature films. Ive had the privilege to work with some of the most talented people in the industry. Being exposed to these people has allowed me to see amazing work on almost an everyday basis, such as beautiful cinematography, razorsharp editing, meticulous directing, timing, animation, lighting, & design (Some of these people also started doing their own shorts and experimental projects, which really inspired me to give it a try). This exposure led me to experiment with my own little creations. Certainly It Gets Better is my longest creation, and it gave me a greater insight

or this interview I am privileged to interview a highly talented, incredibly creative, and possibly the nicest digital artist out there, Eli Guerron. Eli has worked on adverts for clients such as Audi, bug budget films such as Snow White & The Huntsman and now works at Digital Domain. This interview focuses on a short film Eli put together during his spare time called, It Gets Better. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

on the process of filmmaking. I honestly didnt think it was going to be this hard, but again, this exposure prepared me with the knowledge & the artistic sensibility to approach a project like this and stay truthful to my vision all the way through. I love the subtle simplicity of your short, It Gets Better. How did you come up with this idea? The idea came from a phrase I read or heard, and it went somewhat like, Touch someone with a piece of art. Also, at the time, I was looking for an experimental piece to work on, but I wanted to give it a deeper meaning compared to most of the experimental projects that I had seen out there. During my research phase, I heard a

speech given by Joel Burns where he gives advice to younger troubled teenagers about the adversities & crudeness of life coming up as someone who is different from societys standards. The speech was highly touching, & from what I could see, it hadnt just touched gay teens, but it also armed them with a promise for a brighter future if they held tight during the most devastating times. His message had a firm and powerful, yet gentle quality in its delivery. A promise to a greater good is something vastly used in storytelling cinema, which led me to think, How would his speech look visually? How do you make a visual that is not only appealing to a certain group of people? How do you keep it simple and yet keep the same quality in the message? Another great factor was Benjamin Zanders speech about how classical music is for everybody, so I decided from the get go that I would use a classical piece, and not something electronic or anything that had a modern quality to it. I have always been interested in the subliminal quality of art, and a great help through the making of this short was Rodolf Arnheims New Essays on the Psychology of Art, a couple essays from Aesthetic Subjects ,and a publication of the Miho Museum called Encountering Art: Different Facets of the Esthetic Experience. These books were the master guide behind what I wanted to do. The idea of the whole film being made from spheres came from a book called Elements of Design by Gail Greet Hannah, based on art classes on the structure of visual relationships given by Rowena Reed Kostellow. This book happens to have a white

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Front Cover images from Amazon

sphere on its cover, and I decided to go with that, given the amazing knowledge this book shares on how simple shapes can still have a powerful stance. How long did it take and what software did you use to create the film. Also please let us know how you created the amazing fluid/cloth simulations? Working in the visual effects industry doesnt give me a lot of free time. Lucky for me, when people ask me what I do in my free time, I answer, I do visual effects. Yet they still ask, But what do you do in your free time? My answer is still the same. The whole film went into a research phase of four months, working on it some nights & certain weekends. A lot of the research went into figuring out what tools to use for the job, what software would give me the look that I wanted, & which one of these choices would cost less time so I would be able to invest in the finessing of the shots, rather than spending time on simulations & unnecessary, expensive render times. Most of the animatic was worked on Maya because of my level of proficiency with it. Then, after I had blocked out the shots, based on my research, I used the tools that I had decided would do the best job given the circumstances & technical difficulties of each shot. For example, Vray gave me a great result for a nice subsurface scattering effect on a lower amount of spheres, while Renderman was amazing at using their point bleed based global illumination approach to a larger amount of deforming spheres without flickering. SideFX Houdinis Mantra (Academy Award winning software) gave me an amazing result for lowlighting conditions and a softer lighting & global illumination control based on their PBR (physically based render). For the cloth simulations, I originally used fluids inside Maya driving particle based softbodies, which gave a really nice result, but came to be non-art-directable, which was still good for the background spheres. For the hero spheres on the foreground, I stuck to Mayas nCloth with a high geometry count and custom controllers to be able to get a higher amount of detail where needed. These controllers drove tension maps and pressure at any given time for me to get the desired

result & the action that I needed for each shot, because things changed from animatic to the actual shot animation. An example would be the animation not happening during the time given for that shot, or certain simulations looking too slow for the time given for a specific shot. Post production is always a big part of any short film. Could you explain your editing process and the reason for focusing on certain shorts? All the editing was done before I even went into rendering. I wanted all the acting for the shots & the animation to be done before I would go into look development. I wanted the music that I had used, Claire de Lune by Debussy, performed by Laura Sullivan, to link to the subtle nuances & details that added from shot blocking to simulation. The blocking animatic went into a more refined animatic, that later contained the shots that I had left simulating, & after all the shots were completely simulated & I was happy with the performance, I jumped into rendering based on the research I had previously done, which turned into a pretty efficient way of handling the post-production process. Final coloring was done on After Effects. An finally, do you have any future big projects you are working on? I actually have a couple of projects in the works with Digital Domain, which is where I currently work, & the work of the talented people there is amazing. Its like being inspired everyday by fellow artists & directors, which push the boundaries technologically & visually. One of them is a friend & personal inspiration, Aladino Debert, who works there as Director & Creative Director. Debert was a key piece on the making of It Gets Better. I remember a funny story. Halfway through the making, I told him that I felt discouraged about my project & considered dropping it because of how simple it was. But when he looked at it, he gave me the motivation to keep it going & stay truthful to my vision as a director, something that Aladino does magnificently, which led me to finish & put even more effort & details into the final piece.

My thanks goes to Eli Guerron for taking the time to complete this interview to his best ability even with a bad hand, hope you hand surgery went well buddy. Dont forget to check out his website (osito.tv) to see more of his amazing work. And also dont forget to watch his short film, It Gets Better on Vimeo.

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olivier ponsonnet
Olivier is an artist from Bordeaux in France, he is currently a level builder, lead character designer and art director at Asobo studio and has had the pleasure of working on games such as Kinect Rush, Fuel, Toy Story 3 and much more. Olivier started off as a programmer during his time as a student, but later became fond of 3d art and was hired at Asobo as a level builder. This section shows some of Oliviers personal character art which is somewhat dark and grim but captures the human face differently from traditional pieces of art.

re1v.free.fr 3ds max, Zbrush

Mermaid
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Olivier Ponsonnet

Cold Blue
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Opal Child
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Olivier Ponsonnet

Shade
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Mr Bone
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Olivier Ponsonnet

Necromancer
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Whispers
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Olivier Ponsonnet

Moon Key
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Vlad
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Rafael Grassetti
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I started my career working as a freelance artist for advertising companies, in the past I worked as lead modeller for almost 3 years in Brazil. After that I got back to work as a Freelance Character Artist for Cinematic, Advertising productions and Toy industry for abroad companies. Im currently living in Montreal (Canada) working as a senior character artist at Bioware on the Mass Effect series. Ive already worked in more than 70 projects for more than 15 companies in many titles, including Cinematic Production, Game Art, TV Projects, Printed Advertisement, Statue collection design and Toy design. I have experience with sculpting, modelling, rigging, animation and rendering. grassettiart.com 3ds max, Zbrush

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Rafael Grassetti

Necromancer
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Predator
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Rafael Grassetti

Sauron
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Hoshi
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Rafael Grassetti

Dwarf
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Guardian
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Rafael Grassetti

Hunter
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Mecha Girl
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Rafael Grassetti

Sea Creature
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DeadEye
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Neil Maccormack is a freelance 3d artist based in Geneva, Switzerland. Maccormack specialises in 3d, design, concept art and artwork for posters/print. Maccormacks main weapon of choice is Lightwave 3d which is different from the usual group of 3ds Max and Zbrush artists. Nevertheless he still creates amazing pieces of artwork which have a very sci-fi and concept art feel.

www.bearfootfilms.com Lightwave 3D

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Neil Maccormack
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Neil Maccormack

Trans
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Explorer
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Neil Maccormack

Osaki
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Guarded
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Neil Maccormack

Lab
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Finlake
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Neil Maccormack

Lab
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Realm
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Alexey Kashpersky

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Born in 1986, Poltava (Ukraine), Alexey graduated the National Technical University in his native town and got degree as Master of Visual and Decorative and Applied Arts with honors. He has since done a series of CG artworks for the Fantasy field and great volume of 3D models for TV and 3d printing studios, having worked with customers all around the world. Alexey is owner of virtually every major awards in the field of 3D graphics, including double CGSociety 3D Award, published in books Exotique, Digital Art Masters, Secrets of Zbrush ect. Currently Alexey juggles his time between working as 3D artist - and taking care of ARQUTE LLC, Ukrainian CG company that he is founder of. kashpersky.com 3D Studio Max, ZBrush

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Alexey Kashpersky

Golconda Uranium
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Lion
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Alexey Kashpersky

Zodiac
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The Guards
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Alexey Kashpersky

Dreadful Light...
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The Snailmaker
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Alexey Kashpersky

Furian Legend...
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Dream...
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Alexey Kashpersky

Atlantis Herald
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On the precipice of universe

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Aardman www.aardman.com Absolute Post www.absolutepost.com

STUDIO LIST
Brandt Animation www.brandtanim.co.uk Bravo Games bravogames.com BreakThru Films www.breakthrufilms.co.uk Burrows Nvisage www.burrows.info Busty Kelp www.bustykelp.com Cinesite www.cinesite.com Climax Group www.climaxgroup.com Codemasters www.facebook.com/codemasters Colonel Blimp www.colonelblimp.com Criterion Games blog.criteriongames.com Darkhorse VFX www.darkhorsefx.com Darkside Animation www.dsanim.com Dinamo Productions www.dinamo.co.uk Distant Future Animation Studios www.distantfuture.co.uk Double G Studios www.doublegstudios.com Double Negative www.dneg.com Drive CGI www.drivecgi.co.uk Eggbox Studios www.eggboxstudios.co.uk Envy www.envypost.co.uk

(UK only)

Eurocom www.eurocom.co.uk Fluid Pictures www.fluid-pictures.com Foundation CGI www.foundationcgi.com Framestore www.framestore.com Full Moon Studios fullmoongamestudios.com Gameloft www.gameloft.co.uk Glassworks www.glassworks.co.uk Glowfrog Studios glowfrog.com Golden Square www.goldensq.com Hot Knife Digital Media www.hotknife.co.uk ICube www.icube3d.co.uk Ignition Entertainment www.utvignition.com I love Dust www.ilovedust.com Image Metrics www.image-metrics.com Infinite Realitites www.ir-ltd.net Ink Digital www.inkdigital.co.uk Jagex www.jagex.com Jellyfish Pictures www.jellyfishpictures.co.uk Jump Design www.jumpdesign.co.uk

Absolutely Cuckoo www.absolutelycuckoo.com Air CGI www.air-cgi.com AKQA www.akqa.com Animatic Media animaticmedia.com Annix Studios www.annix.com Artillery www.artillery.tv Atticus Digital www.atticusdigital.com Atticus Finch www.atticusfinch.tv Axis Animation www.axisanimation.com Barefoot VFX barefootvfx.com Base Black baseblack.com BE Animation beanimation.com Black Rock Studios www.disney.co.uk Blink Productions www.blinkprods.com Blitz Game Studios www.blitzgamesstudios.com Blue Bolt www.blue-bolt.com Blue Zoo www.blue-zoo.co.uk

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Kazoo Creative www.kazoo-creative.com Kettle Studios www.kettlestudio.co.uk Keframe Studios keyframestudios.co.uk Kuro Dragon www.kurodragon.com Lab 10 Studios www.lab10.com Lionhead Studios lionhead.com LipSync Post www.lipsyncpost.co.uk Locomotion locomotionpost.wordpress.com Lola www.lola-post.co.uk Loose Moose www.loosemoose.net Mainframe www.mainframe.co.uk Man Vs Machine www.manvsmachine.co.uk Masquerade Digital www.masquerade-digital.com Matinai www.matinai.com MDI Digital www.mdi-digital.com Method Studios www.methodstudios.com Molinare www.molinare.co.uk Motion Imaging wearemi.com Monumental Games www.monumentalgames.com MPC www.moving-picture.com Munky www.munky.uk.com

Neon www.neon.tv Neoscape www.neoscape.com Nexus Productions www.nexusproductions.com Ninja Theory www.ninjatheory.com Not to Scale www.nottoscale.tv NSC Creative www.nsccreative.com Nvisible nvizible.com OG International www.og-international.net Passion Pictures www.passion-pictures.com Peanut FX www.peanutfx.com Peerless www.peerless.co.uk Pitbull Studio www.pitbullstudio.co.uk Plowman Craven www.plowmancraven.co.uk Prime Focus www.primefocusworld.com Quay Studios www.quaystudios.com Qurios www.qurios.com Realtime UK www.realtimeuk.com Realise www.realisestudio.com Relentless Software www.relentless.co.uk Rockstar North www.rockstarnorth.com Realtime Technology www.realtime-technology.com

Rumble Studios www.rumblestudios.com Rushes www.rushes.co.uk Saddington Baynes www.saddingtonbaynes.com Slide slidelondon.com Smoke & Mirrors www.smoke-mirrors.com Speed Shape www.speedshape.com/ Studio AKA www.studioaka.co.uk Sumo Digital www.sumo-digital.com Superglue www.wearesuperglue.com Taylor James www.taylorjames.com Ten 24 www.ten24.info Territory Studio www.territorystudio.com The Creative Assembly creative-assembly.com The Foundry www.thefoundry.co.uk The Mill www.themill.com The Senate www.senatevfx.com The Works www.worksltd.co.uk Tigrex www.tigerx.co.uk TT Games www.ttgames.com We Are Seventeen www.weareseventeen.com Zoo zoovfx.com

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